Chapter 184

Night fell over the damaged fortress, cloaking the whole damn thing in an inky black, shadows from the lost sun were made darker by the obscuring walls and towers. Many places therefore were rendered darker than dark, like walking through caves despite being outdoors. Skana however, wasn't the least bit disturbed by this. She kept the wooden sword at her side, her dancing with the false blade to entice men of vigor to lie with her also helped her to beat off those who might think they could get the goods without paying. Beat one into a whimpering mess, a good kick to the face so they know they lost, and by then, the ones who might win preferred easier prey.

That did not make the peasant woman less wary. Unwariness was how far too many women, whore or common peasant, ended up with a child on her hip one day with no idea who the father was, and only a bitter memory to recall him by.

But seeing Gustav Montagne sitting on a yet to be cleared away stone and staring at the judge's podium was strange enough that the peasant girl set aside her caution and approached the minor noble. "Is something wrong, Commander?"

He glanced up over his shoulder to see a peasant woman standing at his back. "Everything, nothing, what does it matter now?"

"It probably doesn't, but you sitting here is really strange." Skana remarked.

It wasn't lost on Gustav that even being curious and approaching of her own accord, that the attractive peasant with the wooden sword still stayed at his back and out of arm's reach, whether in spite of, or because of his status as a Paladin, he couldn't guess and didn't really want to know.

"I suppose, but I made a really bad decision, for all the wrong reasons. Now a good soldier, a hero by some accounts, is gone. My Commander is dead, and so are a whole lot of others." It was the night that made him talkative, the night and his heavy burden, and the alcohol she could have smelled on his breath if she came around to face him.

"That's a shame, but you got a promotion out of it, isn't that what you wanted?" Skana asked, and though he'd turned his face away from her again, when she said that, he yanked his head over his shoulder and stared at her with fury.

Skana took a step back.

His anger flared, then faded. "You really think we're all that corrupt? Is that how all peasants see us?"

Skana laughed at him, "Why shouldn't we? Do you know what taxes are on peasant farms?"

"No." He answered.

"They take a specific part, nine out of every ten stalks go to the lord, and that's no matter how good our harvest is. That's why I got started whoring, one bad harvest, a lot of pretty ones have stories like mine. We won't have enough to eat, so we take some of our own part 'to sell' in town, then sell ourselves for a few nights to make the rest up to the lord in coins. I'm lucky, I'm pretty and relaxed, I never put much into that nonsense about special firsts and never wanted a husband. Lot of peasants go home weeping when they find out how much that spot of blood sells for." She laughed at him again and shook her head.

"Paladins, common soldiers, lords, wealthy merchants, it's all the same to us, as far as we're concerned, you're corrupt until proven otherwise. We're a whole lot safer when we think that way." Skana shot out at him.

It hit like an arrow to his heart. "That is sad." He said with a hangdog expression out of her view.

"Yeah, well try living it. At least I'm free in spirit, and I can have a great spot of fun on the way. So… Commander, you actually feel bad about doing something bad… hey at least you're evil with a conscience." Skana drew her wooden sword and tapped it against the judge's podium, or what was left of it. The battered structure which had many fragments broken away by fallen stone, toppled with a crash into the dust.

"What if I don't want to be evil at all?" He asked her without rebuke, his eyes drifted to the fallen podium.

Skana just kicked the thing once in the side, a part of it broke off and slid away. "What am I, a priestess or something? Join the side that isn't, I guess, or make one if it isn't there. But whatever you do, don't just sit there, any other woman with sense will think you're waiting for prey or something, they might wander off into darker places to avoid you, and then?" Skana shrugged, "One more mouth to feed next year for her. G'night." She said, and backed away from the newly minted impromptu Commander and went back toward her intended destination, sheathing her joke of a sword as she did so.

She patted the wooden toy of a weapon when she reached the tent of her new employer. Her whore clothing was gone, she wore instead a simple black and green shirt and pants set with some comfortable work boots. Her auburn hair was long and bound into a single braid down the center of her back, and it danced with the vigor of her steps when she unceremoniously opened the flap to the merchant woman's tent.

"I'm here, Albedo." Skana said with a playful smile on her face and a polite nod to the elf woman who was scratching a quill over paper by candle light, using a crate for an improvised table.

Illyana looked up, "Hi." She said with gentle courtesy toward the brash human peasant.

"Yeah, hi, uh, where's Albedo." Skana asked, "I'm ready to go, I split the profits with my partner, we're parting company, I even sold her the wagon and everything."

"Nobody to say goodbye to, you won't miss home?" Illyana asked with a skeptical look wreathed in shadows cast by the tall white candle.

"My mother." Skana said, "But she'll be fine, I've made a lot of money with my games and she never once approved of it. But she never minded spending what I gave her either. I left her with enough to get by without me, and I don't want another fight about how," she took on a sneering look and mimicked an angry old woman's voice, "nobody ever loves a whore, what'll you do when you want to get married and have children!" Skana rolled her eyes at that.

"I don't need goodbyes, and I don't need the nagging." Skana quipped, "Now… Lady Albedo is where?"

"Here." Albedo said and stepped close behind Skana's back, she covered Skana's mouth with a hand harder than steel, put another arm around her waist and began to squeeze.

Skana flailed, reached for her weapon, and began to swing it backwards over her head, only to hear it crack, then shatter against Albedo's skull, and yet the grip didn't lessen. The peasant whore tried to call for help, and as she felt the flesh of the woman's hand go into her mouth, Skana bit down as hard as she could. The flesh gave, but only a tiny bit, and there was no evidence of any pain inflicted by the attempt.

Illyana, to Skana's dismay, did nothing, she only continued working without pause as if nothing untoward were happening at all.

"You actually have good instincts." Albedo remarked in a casual kind of praise, "Using your sword, striking at the head, biting my hand, not all your tumbling with the boys has been of the sexy sort." She laughed while the peasant woman's struggles continued, if anything, they increased. "Your stamina isn't half bad either, for a human."

The praise did nothing to slow down the captive whore's resistance. 'I wonder how long it would take before she wears herself out?' It was almost amusing to think about, and yet Albedo felt the instinctive supervisorial loathing for wasted time.

"Listen to me carefully, Skana. I've taken you this way to avoid any trouble, I am going to release you. My servant there will hold up a mirror, and when you are calm, I will let you go." Albedo lifted the woman up and whispered into Skana's ear, "Do you understand me?"

Skana nodded and ended her struggle, though she wasn't what Albedo would have called 'relaxed' by any means.

Illyana picked up a small oval mirror and held it aloft in both hands, Skana's eyes widened.

The merchant woman had wings springing from her back, horns from her head, and vertically slit bright golden eyes.

"Demon." Skana said. It was muffled, but Albedo recognized that she had been correctly identified.

"You're calm, good, now to be precise, I am a variety of demon called a Succubus." Albedo said, and sensing that Skana had no intent to scream, quite the opposite, the woman relaxed completely, Albedo removed her hand and set the peasant down.

Skana turned around and looked Albedo up and down, she shrugged, "A demon of lust is probably the best thing in the world for me to serve, so I'd say I struck gold with you."

"This doesn't bother you? Not at all?" Albedo asked while her mood went from pleased to baffled by the reaction.

Skana shook her head and looked up at the demoness. "No, I know, I know, the six gods and all that garbage, what have they done for me in all my life? Or for centuries? I've never met them, and for all I know men just made them up. Besides, demon, human, orc…" She glanced at Illyana, "or elf. There's power and those without it, money and those without it, love and those without it, what's it matter what you are as long as you've got what you want or the way to get it?"

"Are you sure you're a peasant?" Albedo asked, and Skana with her vibrant green eyes met the yellow of her Lady and said, "I'm a peasant as sure as you're a virgin. We're a pretty practical lot, long as we get by, what else is there but the fun we have along the way? Not much worth dying over out there."

Albedo barely restrained her blush at the blunt assessment of her inexperience, but the quick and practical mind, not to mention her indifference to anything that might have set others running or calling for the guards, made her useful.

"Good, then if you have nothing else to do, help Illyana pack up, you will sleep when the work is done and then be gone in the morning." Albedo instructed, and Skana without another word, walked over to the elf, bent over a box, and got to work.