Chapter 412

"Are we really doing this? Really?" Alain asked, as they crouched within the forest.

"It's her majesty's orders." Tenjho Tenge answered as he went down to a crouch.

"Still. It feels wrong." Alain answered, "She'll be cross with us."

"Not when she sees what we saw." Beaumarchais remarked and lovingly caressed his chains. "This isn't for the Queen of Frost. Or even the Theocracy. This is for her sake. In that other world, she died surrounded by her enemies. She died a pointless death on the losing side of a preventable war. We won't let that fate befall her. Maybe she'll be cross at first, but I'd rather the old ways die with a whimper, than die screaming in the fire…"

It was a fair point.

'What if she doesn't show? What if she's late and we're discovered? What if this was all a trap and the Queen of Frost is just trying to get rid of us?' Alain felt the worries swirl in his mind, and though he knew they were pointless, they were nonetheless present.

Arguably the worst outcome was likely to just be delays, between their natural skills and the magic items they wore, detecting them would be impossible even for her. But there was always the possibility that they'd have to kill some of their own side.

'They're not 'our side' anymore.' That thought too, was in his head as they waited for the inevitable. Kidnapping a member of the Black Scripture hadn't been done since Zesshi's mother, and even that likely only succeeded because nobody imagined it could be done.

'Now it's the Black taking the Black. Who could have imagined this even a year ago?' Alain's ponderings came to a halt when he saw the Divine Chain palm his weapon in a silent signal to be ready.

Thousand Mile Astrologer was fond of walks outside the city, fond of the woods and high trees where she couldn't see the sky, and she went into them unguarded, a secret only a handful of people knew… It was her 'alone time' where she no longer had to worry about scrying the world for the sake of a leadership she was no more fond of than the rest of her unit.

And now? 'We're turning that intimate knowledge against her… I can only hope she'll forgive us when she knows why.' Alain rose to his feet, put up his hood, and together he and his similarly disguised companions made themselves ready with all the martial arts they knew.

Without a doubt, even if she recognized them… she would fight.

Thousand Mile Astrologer focused her attention on the walls of Kami Miyako behind her, though that is not to say she turned her head, she didn't. For this member of the Black Scripture, there was no need. Even without focusing her power, the world immediately around her was ever present, even inescapable.

There was no true peace to be had behind stone walls.

It was why she now walked toward the woods. There she could lie down on the soft earth on a bed of moss beneath the shade of a tree older than the great city that served as a bastion of human strength for ages…

There? She could finally simply relax. Not for the first time, she cast a grateful thought toward the Captain of the Black Scripture, not that Cenna knew he was the reason she indulged this habit of hers, or even the reason it existed. Despite herself, she smiled a little when she thought of him, spying on her friends was far from her most noble habit.

But it was hard not to, not when it was so easy. 'How long it took to find him the first time, 'Hunting outside of Ikari' hmpf, I should have known better. Although I can't blame him for lying when he was actually napping under a sweetbark tree in the Abelion Hills region… that wouldn't have gone over well.' She salivated a little bit at the thought of some sweetbark and then wiped her mouth with the back of her sleeve.

That rare indulgence was something she knew every single member of the Black Scripture secretly loved. And yet they all hid that fact from one another given that it was considered 'childish'.

'Are they really traitors… or brainwashed? Mind controlled, maybe?' She wondered again. That wondering was part of why she felt the need to rest within the forest, without anybody around, no noises but birds and crawling insects, no busy thoughts of busy people, just the tranquil peace of existence without obligation…

'Just a little while…' She told herself with a hint of sadness as she crossed beneath the boughs of ancient trees that swayed as if calling her within their depths.

The shadows of branches moved up and down over her body as she followed what was now a well worn path of hers and hers alone, nobody ever came out here. It was a preserved place of the gods alone, where they were said to have first descended, where nobody was meant to go…

Which was why her guard was down.

Which was why she did her utmost to suppress her power and leaned against the tree's soft birch bark.

Which was why she felt at peace, with a slow beating heart and easy breaths as she eased herself to the ground.

Which was why the Thousand Mile Astrologer, she who could see the world from her desk… did not see the trio until they emerged.

"Come quietly, and we won't have to fight." Alain said, "Don't force us to be rough, we don't want to fight our own." He promised and held up a hand with palm facing out to confirm his peaceful intent.

Thousand Mile Astrologer sprang to her feet and assumed a combat stance.

"If you believed that, you wouldn't have come with help. And you wouldn't have come armed." She said as her back leg bent.

"You know this only ends one way." The Divine Chain said and began to twirl a foot of it in one hand. "With you coming with us, believe me, we don't want this to go rough."

"Snap out of it!" She barked, "You're being controlled! That traitor to humanity did this to you! You're in her power!" If they were mind controlled, it was a futile effort to tell them that, but it didn't stop her from trying to reach them.

Tenjho shook his head. "No, we're not. Mind controlled people don't express themselves like this, and you know better than to say that. Our eyes are open, that's all. We've seen the future, or, no… a possible future. A nightmare world where our country burns, almost everyone is dead. You. Me. Most of the scripture, even most of the cardinals… everything goes to hell!" He shivered as that same fear he felt before ran through his body again as he remembered living out his own demise when he joined the wrong side and Time Turbulance's sword ran through his guts.

'I may never live that life… but I will always be ashamed of that choice anyway…' He thought, the hurt face of Zesshi as she called them traitors, and his own inability to choose, drove him to this moment, and he pled with Thousand Mile Astrologer passionately, holding out both trembling hands…

"I beg you… you can trust us! We fought together, traveled to the farthest places of the Theocracy, I'm making the right choice. Come with us, let us show you what we saw, and help us stop it before it happens all over again!" Tenjho's knees quaked with the same cowardice he felt on his very first day of training as a raw recruit.

"We don't want to fight." Alain promised, "And if we do fight, there are three of us. You know how it will go."

"Maybe so… but you know that's also how it has to go." She said, and activated all of her martial arts in rapid succession. She finished the last one just as the chain came close to her face, and the battle was joined.

Queen Neia Tachoni caressed her lover's back, her wings wrapped around his body, giving him almost a cocoon-like privacy as they lay together. He had a bloody lip from one of her little love bites, and a little red drop stained her lip in return. "I could have asked the Allfather for help, you know. You didn't have to send your friends to fight one of their own."

Cenna sighed, the Queen of Frost's grip on him was tight, and she was practically insatiable, but she was always prone to worry and distraction, particularly for him, and for how he might feel. Having released the greater part of their shared tension earlier, now it was slower, easier, and they could speak intimately, while intimately entwined.

"I know. But that wouldn't reflect well on the Allfather at a time when he's about to embrace his universal godhood. Any hint of bias could impede that, where as if it is us, or you by extension? Those issues won't exist. Besides," he paused to gasp as her legs tightened around him, "let them prove their loyalty, they'll be better for it."

Her sharp claws dug into his back as she shivered beneath him. "Such a good King you will be… and I think in a year, you will make an excellent… father." She stopped him from saying anything to that by pressing her lips to Cenna's in an impassioned kiss that returned his blood to where it came from, and set both their thoughts off in a whole other direction.

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Albedo's general disdain for humans had never been much challenged over the time since their coming to the new world, but… it did have a few exceptions now. Humans who elevated themselves through displays of loyalty, or worship toward her King that was his due. Or in the case of one human priest, a level of understanding of her passionate love for her Lord that no one else could possibly grasp.

The priest did not even properly know her name, and did not know that she knew his face, but even so out of all those 'lower life forms' that crawled along the surface and lived their pointless lives in service to things unworthy of living, let alone obedience, occasionally one showed worth.

This priest was one such human, and whether she cared for his species or not, his advice had eventually brought her into the bed of her beloved. And it was because of that wisdom that she'd returned to the priest commonly referred to as 'The Purifier' for his work in ending the corruption of the temples that had paralyzed and nearly destroyed the Holy Kingdom.

He didn't know it, but Albedo and her agents had a hand in that effort of his as well.

She sat down within the booth and closed the door. "Good morning. Have you come to unburden yourself?"

"I've come for advice." She said and sat prim and proud in the now familiar seat.

"Ahhh, the former maiden, welcome back." He said in his cheerful manner. "Things are working well for you and your paramour?" He asked and brought his hands together audibly, he rubbed them with vigor as if eager to get down to business, then leaned in close to the screen that separated the two.

"Very well. We have a child now, a powerful youth that will only grow more so with time." She said it proudly and laid her hands to rest on her belly as she pondered, 'When will the next one come along?'

"Wonderful." The priest remarked with genuine enthusiasm.

"It is. There are only three concerns for me now. The first, my lord has so much work. I long for his touch, his love, his company. To be away from him for so long is difficult to bear." Albedo's touch to her belly became an embrace as she hugged herself. "I don't know how to tell him this though! I don't want to be seen as a burden!"

The priest's heart went out to the woman, so loving a wife was truly a blessing, and he could only think, 'I hope he knows how lucky he is…'

He took a long breath and said, "Child of the divine, your desire isn't a burden, it is a sign of your desire to be a blessing to your house. Moreover, to bring it greater happiness. But if you do not speak for yourself, you deny yourself, and also he who you wish to share that happiness with. Wouldn't it be sinful to be less happy, when only a few words may make you both far moreso?"

Albedo sat silently and took that in, his palm was pressed to the lattice screen when he said, "Only tell him that family life requires family in company. I know of a merchant, one of the greatest merchants in the country, he is often without his wife for long stretches. But when he is present, he is fully present with her. They eat, picnic, enjoy their time with each other and make the most of it all between journeys. So, when he goes, if you can go with him, do so. If not, then make his homecoming a celebration and the warmth of your household even greater than it normally is. Make the most of the time you have together, and it will sustain you when apart."

Albedo filed that wisdom away and said, "Thank you, priest of the old gods. My second concern is, my lord had a child with another woman before me, I could never resent my lord for this, after all, it was 'before me'. However I am concerned that a rivalry may grow up between that woman's child and my own. I know the history of these lands and the bitterness between siblings has harmed many a house. What should I do?"

"There is no true solution here," the priest said, "save that if you rear the children to see each other warmly, and visibly show warmth between each other, not only you and your mate, but between you and the mother of his firstborn, that will do much to ease tensions. Also, treat none with greater favor over the other one. Do not punish one more harshly than the other, do not leave one in want while the other is in plenty. Treat them as peers and let them grow up complementing each other's virtues and compensating for each other's weaknesses. Then they will be allies, then they can be comfortable as a family."

It was as good a piece of advice as any Albedo could have hoped for.

And so she said at last, "My beloved's work is sometimes something that carries him into dangers, he was nearly killed once before, nearly lost everything… I worry for him, and the danger he puts himself into. How do I express these fears…?"

"Are these dangers avoidable?" The priest asked, his heart skipped a beat as he recalled the mourning wails of husbands and wives during the civil war, the war against the demihumans, the wrath of the Queen of Frost… 'So many families torn apart by deaths…'

"No. He has to face these things." Albedo answered, the knowledge of his mortal body still haunted her, there were ways to keep him young, but a mortal body was still so vulnerable…

"Then you must help him to crush your enemies. When you speak to him, speak of strength. Crush the enemies of your house, drive them before you, show no mercy to protect what you love, and if any god should ever descend and call you wrong… say it was to defend your house, and it will surely be forgiven.

What is done to protect what we love best, if it is necessary, is no sin. If danger is unavoidable, then all you can do is make yourselves unassailable." The priest's fist pounded on the armrest in his little space, and for a moment Albedo was caught by surprise. The priest sounded less human and more demonic than he ever had before. 'Did the conflict change him? Or fighting the corruption of this place…?'

Whatever the cause, it bore considerable thought, but one thing she knew immediately. 'I agree with his thinking.'

"Priest, have you heard the proclamation of the Allfather as a god? May I know your thoughts?" She asked, rather than simply commanding them, in the guise of Astarte, she adopted a vastly different persona, and it was in that spirit that she questioned him.

"Child of the divine, I don't wish to upset you with my own private thoughts… but it is my belief that he is a true god. His power, his wisdom, his embracing of character and ideals over the fleshly body wrapped around them… we are in the midst of a new Advent, a god has come to us that all should know and worship. I can only hope a temple is founded to him as is his due, so that I can go there and serve him properly."

"Priest… if you had the funding for such a temple, would you build it yourself?" Albedo asked.

"I would." He said without hesitation.

"Then be here tomorrow, and you will build your temple to the one god worth worshiping." Albedo said, then rose to her feet, and left the priest confused and quiet in her wake.