Chapter 240

Gustav grimaced all through the rain, he grimaced while watching his soldiers tramp through the muck, through watching them hug their cloaks more tightly to their bodies, and worse than that, he grimaced while dividing up his forces. 'Five thousand men here to keep up the illusion for any Yananian scouts that we're still in our position, the more of us they think there are, the longer they will wait to reinforce Astraka.'

It took most of the day, and soldiers were forced to sleep in the mud or share the few intact tents that night, but in the morning they were able to go.

'If I were him, I would go for some place with abundant supplies, and that means a city, it has to. And the nearest city with ample supplies is Prart. It's a guess, but as good a one as any.' He considered the gamble he was taking, and his shoulders boughed forward, heavy with the weight of his decision, his brow furrowed and his hair, once vibrant and bright, felt and looked whiter in his eyes with every passing hour.

'Is it better or worse if I'm right…?' Gustav wondered that too, the grimace on his face held fast as he conducted the forced march, his soldiers ate while they walked, paused to relieve themselves, and marched again. "March till your feet drown, then march some more!" A commander yelled somewhere at the far end of the line.

Camp was grim that night, no tents, only bedrolls, and in that, Gustav joined his men.

He lay on his back, covering his face with one thick blanket to protect himself from the rain, but all it did was press soaked cloth over his face after a few minutes. His bones were soaked, his boots were little pools, his clothing was drenched beyond reason, his body shivered and he could not keep his cough or sneeze at bay, not even in his sleep.

Only the fact that he endured with his soldiers, kept them willing to suffer it in turn. Thus, the forced march went, covering twice the normal distance in a day and never once hearing from a scout, Gustav finally found out the answer to his question from days before.

'Worse… definitely worse…' He realized when he saw the banner of the House of Astraka, a steel sword over a steel shield on a red banner, fluttering above the city's battlements. His officers gasped or cried out in alarm when they saw the same as himself.

Thunder still rolled overhead, but at least, damp as everybody was, weary as they were, and horrified as they were, gallows humor was not gone from the old General. "Well," Gustav said with a nonchalant shrug that concealed his mute horror, "At least we won't fight in the rain."

Half hearted laughter from the men who considered themselves half dead, went up among the ranks before the great bells tolled within the city of Prart as they realized that Gustav Montagnés' army had caught up.

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Illyana knelt on the floor in Nazarick next to the body, she hadn't left that spot in the throne room in days. Her arms held the corpse of Skana as tightly as if it were a baby needing to be cuddled. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry." The elf wept over the corpse, her hands caressed the limp hair, even the magic used to prevent decay could not make the body seem alive. Illyana's hands shook as if she were caught in a freezing winter, the limp limbs of Skana could not embrace her in return, but it didn't stop Illyana from her fumbling attempts to wrap them around herself.

"You shouldn't have done that, you shouldn't have… stupid Skana… why would you do that… why?" She kissed the forehead, the cheeks and the dead lips as softly as she would a sleeping lover she didn't wish to awaken from her dreams. Her hands were stained with dried blood from the wound she touched again and again, trying to will it away. "Humans don't do this for elves… it's not… I hid, I let you go out there and I hid and I'm sorry…"

The days of her ceaseless mourning made it almost routine, she knelt there, indifferent to her own filth as her Mistress left her to attend to other matters. The throne room was little visited by anyone in the absence of their Allfather, and so she remained undisturbed for the duration as her belly growled and shrank, her tongue dried and her lips cracked and bled.

Undisturbed in the tomb that was, until Albedo completed her affairs and returned to find the elf still clinging to the body of the young woman. "Have you remained with her all this time?" Albedo asked with a downward glance at the pair.

"I-I can't- I… is there nothing we can do… Mistress? Isn't our Lord a God… can't he do something for her… anything…?" Illyana asked with a catch, tears flowed down her cheeks to land on the corpse and roll over clammy, lifeless flesh or wet the dried blood that still remained on the once fine shirt.

Albedo thought it over, her Lord's credo came to her, 'Evil for evil, good for good. And she was useful… perhaps she will be useful again?'

"I will permit you to beg for her life, when my Lord returns. If he chooses it, something might be done with her, though just what, even I can't say." Albedo answered, and Illyana gave a tiny pathetic nod.

"I-I understand… I will do anything my Lord wills…" Her lower lip trembled, and she clung a little more tightly to the corpse, and kissed the cold forehead, "Just wait… just wait a little while… one way or another… things will work out." She promised the corpse, and held still.

Albedo let the elf linger there and rolled her yellow eyes, she reached into her pocket dimension and pulled out a ring, she tossed it to the elf, "Put that on at least, you can't beg for her if you die of hunger or thirst!"

Illyana caught the ring in one hand, her ears went down as she opened her palm and looked at the little silver thing with the bright blue crystal pulsing with light on the surface. "Mistress?" She asked, her voice cracked, she cleared her throat and asked again, "My Lady? What is it?"

"It's something I'm lending you to wear while you wait. You're useless to me until this is resolved, I'm sure. Wear it and stay alive until you can beg for her life, I won't be needing you for some time yet regardless." Albedo said with crisp abruptness, and Illyana hastened to slip the ring on.

"Understood, M-My Lady." She stammered out, no sooner than it was on, than her pangs of hunger and thirst, her physical exhaustion, all were gone.

"I'll wait here for as long as you command. Even if it is another thousand years." Illyana vowed, her voice a little stronger than before, she tried to give a fragile, hopeful smile up to her Lady, but Albedo was already gone about some other mysterious business, leaving the corpse and the woman alone again at the base of the Throne of Kings.