Chapter 248

It was a long, long night for Kelart. She felt trapped in the chair, watching Neia Baraja read through everything that implicated the Slane Theocracy in trying to instigate a civil war, and even used Remedios Custodio in order to start a fight between the three sides. When Neia set the last paper slowly back down into the box and sealed it up again, she sat staring at Kelart like the brown haired caster had grown a second head.

"Even if all this is true, Remedios Custodio is still the one who made the choice." Neia pointed out. "Nobody compelled her to do anything."

"Yes, but my sister is an idiot." Kelart pointed out, "I love her, but she's a narcissistic, self important, quick tempered, brutish thug of an idiot."

Neia cocked her head and reached behind her back to scratch the itch around her tailbone again, "That has got to be the strangest defense for anyone that I have ever heard in all my life." She snorted, "I don't doubt that it is true, mind you. But nonetheless, it is strange. Perhaps you're right, but still, it was her who did it."

"But with this information-" Kelart began to speak, but Neia raised a scaled hand to stop her, holding her palm up, she shook her head.

"We may have a common cause, but the fact of Remedios' actions cannot be overlooked. I am sorry, but she must pay for what she has done."

"What if she faces a different punishment? The Allfather of Nazarick promises one that he says will satisfy you, while also sparing both my Queen and I the heartache of losing her." Kelart proposed, and that gave Neia pause.

"You really believe he can make an offer like that? I've heard some things about him, some very interesting things. If you want the truth, I like what I've heard, but even if you say that, how can I know he will meet that standard?" Neia asked the question as if she were asking the time of day, Kelart, despite her circumstances, began to feel more at ease.

At ease.

And bold.

"You can't, not unless you're willing to talk peace… you've won a great victory, Your Majesty. But I promise you if the Allfather turns his magic your way, all that you've accomplished will be erased." Kelart said with calm certainty, and it was enough to make Neia consider her words.

"You will not see your sister leave here today… but I will… hear from this 'Allfather' myself. I will meet with your Queen, the Allfather, and Astraka to negotiate an end to all this… but if it fails… do not forget we have many more prisoners of your side than you do of ours." Neia said with a long, deathly stare that drilled into Kelart's soul.

"As a… gesture of good will then, can you at least heal my sister…? Her wounds, they must hurt." Kelart urged, her hands coming together, folding like a prayer.

"So did mine, and she laughed when she shoved the third sword into my belly." Neia said with an icy hiss.

"You've won your victory here, taken my family, the only family I've got, please… you're a Queen… show your mercy. If you won't spare her life, then let me have her wounds instead. Let her time be without pain." Kelart pleaded, and Neia gave a deep sigh of exasperation.

"There's no need for that, by the dead gods if anyone hears this they'll think I've gone soft. I will have your sister healed, you've got the proof she's been captured, that's all we really needed. And I will tell her that her wounds are healed out of respect for her sister's courage. Now unless there is more? Get out of my city, we'll settle on an exact location and meet in two weeks time, until then, I promise on my name that we have a truce."

Kelart rose to her feet, bowed, and left the way she came, a little more hopeful than when her day began.

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It was two days later when, prisoners in tow, and to the cheers of the population, that the Queen, King, and General Montagnés entered the city with their thousands upon thousands of Southern Holy Kingdom prisoners.

Kelart, for her part, waited patiently in the throne room, a smile on her face and already down on one knee in front of the throne to await the chance to personally welcome them back.

The fanfare was at least audible from where she waited, and in her mind's eye she could see the people cheering her on, restoring to the heart of the Queen something of what she had lost when first forced to flee her own capital.

The purging of the corrupt, the disposal of the old nobles, standing in between her city and an army coming to take it, these things made all the cheers as far as Kelart could tell, genuine and warm.

And so despite her less than completely successful meeting with the Queen of Frost, those small successes and the cheers she now heard, restored her as well.

When the Queen finally entered the throne room, it was like seeing her again for the first time. Calca's face was radiant, a joyful smile on her face, her arms open as if to embrace each and every noble and servant present like they were long missed family.

"Rise, rise Kelart! We won! We won stupendously! Marvelously! It wasn't even a battle!" She went on and on, rushing ahead of Ainz to go and embrace her closest confidant, the two clasped biceps and kissed one another's cheeks in welcome, each one's hands squeezing a little more tightly than might have been proper, but which each person politely ignored, at least in public.

"I knew you would, Your Majesties, but I have news, please, may we speak privately?" Kelart asked, her bright toothy smile faded away to show the gravity of the matter, and with Kelart's fading smile, Calca's faded as well.

"Private council chamber, now." Calca commanded, and without running, but still at a swift pace, her seemingly tireless feet went straight toward the way out of the public eye.

Ainz pursed his lips and followed the two, Kelart held the door to the council chamber open a moment later, waiting for Ainz to enter before closing and locking it against intrusion.

"Now… what happened..?" Calca asked, and then her face went pale as she learned of the Frost Queen's destruction of the vast majority of the eastern army, the fall of Kalinsha, and the capture of Remedios Custodio.

But when Kelart described her actually going to Kalinsha, Calca shot to her feet, whirled on the woman, and slapped her hard across the face.

Kelart held the site where her Queen struck, her eyes wide up at Calca who shouted, "How could you risk yourself like that?! Are you insane?! Did you lose all reason?!"

"She is my sister!" Kelart cried out, rubbing the reddening cheek and almost wilting under her Queen's angry eyes.

"And you're-" Calca stifled what she was about to shout and replaced it with, "and I could have lost both of you! What if she had chosen to kill you both! What if she had chosen to hold you both hostage?!"

"But she didn't!" Kelart exclaimed at the furious and focused Queen whose bright eyes were like steel digging into the younger Custudio's heart.

"I've given up enough over the years without doing anything about it! I couldn't just let her stay there… wounded… bleeding… missing her fingers and who knows what else, and just do nothing! So I took a chance! I know, Your Majesty… I shouldn't have… I know you would have forbidden it… but she's my only sister… despite everything… I couldn't leave her like she was…"

Calca's heart broke under the wilting face of her advisor, her hand came out again, and gently moved aside the one that rubbed her cheek, "My Kelart… I'm sorry… I just… what demi-humans have done to humans… and if they had both of you? I'd never get over it, I know it's selfish, and I'm sorry for my reaction. But you can't risk yourself like that… so many have already died, and what you did was nearly suicide!" Calca said and gently stroked the place where her palm print now showed.

"My Queen… My-" She looked over to Ainz, as did Calca, and when he gave a quiet subtle nod and looked away, Kelart stood and leaned close to whisper, "My Calca… you'd have done it for me, I had to do it for her…"

Ainz cleared his throat a few moments later, ignoring what went on in the semblance of privacy, and waited until he heard them reclaim their seats.

"So now she hasn't moved her armies and offers peace talks. Obviously she doesn't know that Astraka is a prisoner, but that will be a helpful surprise." Ainz pointed out, and neither one opposed what he said.

"Does anyone oppose negotiations?" Ainz asked the question more or less rhetorically, and true to his expectations, they both answered…

"No."

"Then we make arrangements, and settle this once and for all." Ainz replied at once.

"Agreed…" Calca said and slumped in her chair, her ease with them was open and her sigh both heavy and relieved at once. "I just want this to be over… to get back to a time of peace again."

"I believe we all share that desire. And perhaps one figure's presence might help that process along..." Ainz asserted but met their questioning looks only with enigmatic silence.

"Alright, keep your secrets." The two women said at once.

"Again." Calca added, and let out a little silvery laugh that sparked a smile on Ainz' previously even expression.