Chapter 276

The Queens of three countries set out together the following day, the dragonid Queen of Frost Neia Baraja, the Holy Queen Calca Bessarez with her firstborn son in her arms, and the first ruling Queen of Re-Estize Renner Vaiself the First. While all three carriages went together, the monarchs themselves chose to ride in the same one at the center to avoid boredom.

As they rode and chatted idly, one thought was not lost on Queen Renner, 'A concentration of political power like this hasn't been seen in all six hundred years of our history… before that, who knows, but even in legend, I don't know of any instance of a gaggle of Queens traveling together for anything.'

She gave voice to her thoughts after seeing the quizzical looks on the faces of her colleagues when she fell silent, and after she said it, Neia's tail twitched a little. "After the dust settled," Neia said, "and I had time for other things, I started gathering stories about the past in the Abelion Hills, their history as it turns out, goes back quite a bit further than six hundred years. However, most of it isn't written down, instead, they have detailed oral histories scattered about the various tribes."

"How is that different from just 'legends'?" Calca asked with a curious glance down at the twitching tail. 'I wonder what it's like to have one of those. 'That story about the slutty lizardwoman maid who had tails put to all kinds of uses…'

She forced the thought aside and focused on what the dragonid had to say.

"You'd think that, but no, there is a difference. The obsession with power isn't just about survival, but about being remembered." Neia explained, "All the demihuman tribes I've brought into the fold had a class within the population who were untouchable, I don't mean that in a bad way, I mean they were sacred, they're called Rememberers, like a combination of storyteller and historian. And these figures would remember the greatest champions of the tribes. After I united them all, I had all these 'Rememberers' brought together at the capital, had them compare notes, and I found something interesting."

"Interesting?" Renner prodded, she leaned forward without thinking about it, the genius of Re-Estize and her hunger for useful knowledge couldn't resist the temptation the dragonid Queen of Frost freely offered.

"Yes, all their stories more or less 'lined up', something that should only be possible if they preserved their tales accurately. You'd expect stories to change over time, I've seen that happen a lot. Hell, that happened to me. I was never as powerful or dangerous as I seemed, but people told stories about me that grew with time. But these? These were consistent, and there were a lot of demihuman tribes with a comprehensive history that goes back over eighteen hundred years. Well beyond the recorded time with the rise of the Six Great Gods."

"And just… nobody knew this?" Calca became a little bit skeptical, her doubtful look and raised eyebrow vanishing only to caress her son's cheek when he cooed a little.

"As far as I can tell, no. Even in the Abelion Hills themselves, the tribes were generally not talking to each other much, except for their handful of merchants, and nobody bothered with a timeline. I managed to cobble one together from references to the positions of various stars. It's a great deal of work, but I've been having the various Rememberers put together a more detailed history than anything I think any Human Kingdom currently has." Neia's sharp toothed smile would have been fearsome if she hadn't appeared so self satisfied, holding her taloned hands folded over one another in her lap with one leg crossed over the other.

"I'd be interested in seeing this when it's finished." Calca and Renner said at the same moment.

Neia inclined her head toward each of them in turn, "It's easier to have more copies made than to write the first one. I'm having one made to present to the Allfather as a gift at the conclusion of the battle for the Empire. If he's intent on ruling demihumans and humans alike, he should understand the forces that shaped us all."

"I see… is there… or, no, are there any references to advents in those stories?" Renner asked, and at that Neia shivered.

"Multiples. The Six Great Gods were not the first as we previously believed. Some happened among the demihumans, and some happened far, far to the east. It makes me wonder if these things happen all over the world. Some of them, like the Demon Gods, are disastrous, some of the others…?" Neia crinkled her nose a little, "There was one who was notorious just for having as much sex as possible, supposedly and I can't confirm this, he traveled from the east over the Long River and screwed his way to the other side of the ocean. Part of the folklore is that the white gleam on the water when the sun strikes it is ah… leftover from his… never mind." The dragonid shuddered, "Anyway, there were some among the demihumans and there were others much farther away than we ever knew, every hundred to one hundred and fifty years before the Six Great Gods, but that's only an estimate. The ones a lot farther away, who can say?"

"I see… that is interesting." Renner thought that over, her mind racing like mad, 'He did come out of nowhere, perhaps the Allfather is one such occurrence?'

Reaching the mountains took less time than even Keno anticipated, with Lupu's sense of smell proving even more effective than the twins' tracking or Keno's hearing. Night after night the little party encamped, and again and again the vampire princess was left alone with the heroic knight. 'Every single time I want to tell him, I hesitate!' Keno clutched the sides of her head in her hands and shook it back and forth in denial. 'Nerve wracked idiot! You're not some helpless girl out of a fairy tale! You're Evileye! Woman of legend! A hero among heroes! You're acting like some love struck puppy!'

That was the most frustrating part about it. Shadows danced all around her as the fire reached for the distant stars, the trees were behind them now, it was the open plains before the base of the mountain, in the morning she knew they would reach the Dwarf Kingdom, where they planned to stay for two days of sightseeing and relaxing before moving on, but for now, they had the stars as their blankets and the soft grass for their beds. The swishing noise of wind over grass provided a comforting steady noise to sleep by, all was perfect… 'Perfect to just tell him… just tell him and be done with it!'

But it wasn't that simple, and she knew it. While rumors reached her that the Allfather was slowly introducing undead labor to reduce the burden on the living who did the most dangerous work such as mining, or the most back breaking work like farming, it was still only rumors. And while those same rumors said that vampires could live openly as long as they abided by a social contract. 'What would I have to sign on to for that… and would I, could I even?' Keno wondered about that, 'I've lived behind this mask for so long, nobody has seen my actual face for over two hundred years.'

And that ache was a familiar one, hiding her history, her name, everything she was from those she loved best, 'Now here I am, maybe this would be easier if I had never been a villain. Maybe it would be easier if my teammates knew the truth, then at least I'd have some practice coming out from behind the mask…' Vampires could not shed tears of salty water, if they wept at all, their tears were red, a few drops of blood to streak their cheeks… and in hundreds of years of life, Keno recalled doing so only once.

Now, every time she was near that magnificent hero and felt herself on the verge of confession, she felt the urge to weep all over again. 'I want him! I love him!' The thought came to her each time she lay down beside her friends and pretended to sleep.

She watched his chest rise and fall when he took off his armor, revealing that magnificent physique and his rugged face which was mooned over by many a young besotted dreamy eyed girl once they saw it.

He seemed to sleep so peacefully, and this occasion was no different, he grunted and groaned like any normal man at the end of a long day's travel and stretched out in his bedroll with his armor close by, Keno as was her custom, took first watch, and though her ears sought out danger, her eyes were only on Lord Momon.

Lupu was sleeping next to Gagaran, and in the strangest way possible. For whatever reason, Lupu's favorite sleep position was curled up and surrounded by people. 'Such a strange woman…' Evileye thought and turned an eye in that direction, Gagaran's snoring should have driven the red haired beauty mad, but if anything, Lupu seemed to enjoy the noise almost as much as she enjoyed taunting the barbarian-like mountain of a woman.

Lupu's brutal tendencies weren't lost on Keno, who could smell the blood on the woman from a bowshot away or more, and it was not lost on her that no amount of violence ever seemed to trouble the cleric. 'A dark soul beneath a beautiful face.' Evileye's sense of justice as a defender of humanity was nowhere near that of Lakyus, but even so, such casual bloodshed from a cleric was unusual. Unusual enough that she kept one eye on Momon's partner at every turn.

'If she's with him… and of course they do work marvelously together…' Keno's troubled mind turned it all around in her head and it never failed to bring confusion, and always at the center of her thoughts was her one fixation.

'Lord Momon…' She thought again, and inched her way along the flat stone on which she sat, drawing closer to where he lay. He was always a little bit apart from the others, not much, but it felt like the distance between a performer and his audience, just enough that each could observe and share space with the other, without getting too close. 'What created that distance, has he been hurt before…? Is he just afraid of injuring those who are so much weaker than he?' That too was a possibility, the strongest of the strong sometimes had to struggle to keep from injuring ordinary folk, and that just made him all the more noble.

She leaned over to look at his sleeping face from another angle, the squared jaw and the faint beginnings of a dark beard that usually began when men ventured out into the field too long and shaved infrequently, the heavy lids that fluttered a little with his dreams, 'I could disappear inside those arms…' She thought to herself.

"Whatcha thinkin about?" Lupu said and stuck her head beside Evileye's ear to whisper in a dusky, bedroom voice.

It was only battle discipline that kept the vampire from screaming in shock and leaping into a combat posture to face the smug, radiant faced cleric.