Chapter 377 / Darkest Before Dawn

"It's good to see you again, Nua." Raymond said when they were alone after the fifth such visit in as many years. Her ears wiggled when he spoke, giving away her happiness despite the neutral face she tried to hold.

The neutral mask broke into a little smile, "I can't pretend with you, can I?" She asked him and looked up the long, winding stairs that went up to the tower. "They won't overhear?" She asked.

He shook his head, "Magic noise suppression."

"Good." Nua said and put a hand on his chest. "Do you still… about me, us?" She asked.

"I'm loyal to my country." Raymond said and covered her hand with his, "But that means something else to me than it used to. I don't want to see it destroyed."

Nua looked down at his feet, "How many?" She asked.

"I got three more out this week. That brings me up to a hundred since I came back from my last trip. Not many but… but it makes a difference to them." Raymond said to her, and she pursed her lips.

"That fits. Then I'll tell you something that you don't know yet. Two somethings, actually. You're saving my people, so I'll try to save some of yours." Nua replied to him, and Raymond cocked his head.

"What is it?" He asked, his intense eyes almost melting her heart even to feel locked on her.

"Your Black Scripture Captain, he disappeared, am I right? Or am I wrong?" She asked him, and his deep eyes widened at the question.

"Yes, you're right, he was sent somewhere by the Pontifex Maximus." Raymond answered as they drew close to the door at the base of the steps.

"He is about to become the King of Demalbion. I'm going to be attending his coronation soon." Nua said, and went still while she waited for the news to sink in.

"So he was sent there to-" His teeth clicked as his jaw snapped shut.

"The Queen tells us they've been friends for years. When he got the order to kill her, he went off and seduced her instead. She's making him the King, you've lost the most powerful members of the Black Scripture. You've got Zesshi to the north, and Demalbion and its territorial ambitions to the west."

"Territory?" Raymond felt ice grip his heart.

"The mountains, get your people away from those, you're going to lose them. Even I don't know much, but start moving that population away from there as much as possible, open up new farmland and offer it freely to Feron residents, do something, or you'll have a massacre on your hands. That's all I can tell you." Nua said, and then leaned forward and kissed him hard on the lips, he returned it, reaching up, he stroked her ears and felt her shiver at his touch.

But just as she was the aggressor, she also cut it off, pulling back before things could go farther. "I need to go. You be careful, I don't want to lose you." Nua said and Raymond answered with the same conviction-

"The same to you. Even coming here as an ambassador is dangerous." He pointed it out, and she shrugged.

"At least this way I can leave, before, I couldn't. Till next we meet, Cardinal Raymond Zarg Lauransan." Nua said and patted his cheek with one calloused hand before she opened the oaken door and strode out into the light of day. He watched her until she got into the waiting carriage of green and gold, but followed it with his eyes until it was well out of sight, and only then did he close the door, turn around, and head back the way he came.

Aalon ascended the mountain pass with ease, his vampiric limbs carried him without even the slightest hint of exhaustion all the way back to his mountain hideaway. The elves atop the wall who guarded the pass, drew their bows and aimed at him. He did a little flip, landed on his feet, and bowed with one arm out and one folded in front of his waist as if he were a performer.

He could hear the strings and yews relax when he was recognized by the means he used to entertain some of the liberated elven children and set them at ease after their radical change of scenery.

"Father!" The elves shouted to him as he came closer, and he waved with a contented smile on his face until he reached the broad wooden gate. "Did you have any luck?"

He knew what they were asking about, "Still nothing." Aalon admitted as he walked under the shadow of the gate and back into his home. 'Perhaps Nua died a long, long time ago.' It wasn't the first time he'd had that thought in the last hundred and fifty odd years, but even so… 'I can't stop looking for her. I just can't. Even if she never forgives me, I just can't stop.'

A young raven haired woman dove into his arms, she bared her fangs to him when she smiled up at his face, "Father, welcome home." She said, her delicate hands traced around his back, squeezed, and then drew away after her embrace was briefly returned.

"Thank you. I managed to get a few more, they can be picked up in Feron this week, but it's starting to cost more." Aalon added and put a hand on top of her head the way he had when she was young, "Be a lamb and negotiate twice as hard when it comes to iron sales."

She tittered a little and rose up on her tiptoes into the pat upon her head, "Father, you're so silly, you really need to pay more attention to what's going on out there. There's an iron shortage now, we can demand a premium for ingots without any effort whatsoever." She answered him and went back down on to the balls of her feet, "Just relax, everything will be fine, the elves will keep any iron poachers out the way they always have, and when you're ready, and they're not?" Her red eyes pulsed with bloodlust.

"That's my girl. Now what about the Demalbion representative? Did we get what we wanted?" Aalon pressed, and she snapped her fingers and gave him a sharp, decisive nod.

"In spades. When we're ready, we'll just tell Feron that the mines ran dry, I doubt the Theocracy will be able to do much more than station some soldiers along the mountain base when the 'invasion' of the mountains begins." She answered, and again there was a warm glow of satisfaction in Aalon's gut.

'I've got myself a lioness who can both think and fight, when all is said and done, I know who I can leave in charge.' He thought with confidence, and then followed her into the only mountain elf village in the world, his earlier disappointment comforted by the promise of progress, and an end to the Slane Theocracy.

Neia extended her hand to her mate. Cenna took it and allowed her to pull him up from the bed. "How long do you think it will be before they assume I'm dead?" He asked of the dragonid Queen.

Neia shrugged, "I'm not from the Theocracy but, that depends, do you just get things done and go home or are you the sort to spend a lot of time planning it all out?"

He cocked his head and stared at her silently.

"Right. Dumb question." Neia rolled her eyes at herself, "Anything that gets between you and your rest and relaxation is to be discarded or destroyed. So it won't be long."

"No, not long at all. Just remember one thing." Cenna said and as he rose to his feet he put a hand on her shoulder, "I will help you but I want my comrades taken alive. From Time Turner to One Man Army."

Neia's fearsome gaze wasn't able to soften much, but he felt it in her expression regardless. "If I can, for you, I will. I won't ask my people to die for them, but if your friends can be ensnared safely? I'll do it. Their lives will be my wedding gift to you." She put a hand up to his cheek, her tail swayed low behind her, Neia's eyes welled up, "You chose me. Nobody… absolutely nobody in my entire life has ever chosen me over anything or anyone. So of course, for you, I'll try to accomplish the impossible. I even reached out to the Allfather to ask for help. It will be our first joint forces operation. Our scouts, mages, and of course, 'I' will be the bait, and several of his elite teams. When it succeeds, and we wed, he will perform the ceremony, and then I will bend my knee to him." She laughed at him when he stared at her.

"You wanted your friends at your wedding, now they will be, though they might not be dressed for the occasion." Neia teased him and wiped her eyes, "Chosen over a whole country, you know how to make a woman feel appreciated, that's for damn sure." Neia added and rose on her tiptoes to embrace him. He returned it, and let her topple him back down into the bed one more time.

'We can start the day a little late… royalty has its privileges.' He thought, and stopped using the head he no longer needed to focus instead on the one he did.