Chapter 191

Remedios opened her eyes to find Calca at her side, but the Paladin found herself unable to move. Calca's eyes however, were wet with tears and her fingers trembled when she stretched out her hands to surround the fingers and palms of Remedios. The Queen's soft royal fingers, untarnished by manual labor, caressed every callous with loving affection. 'Her hands are so hard… so strong…' Calca marveled at the strength that lay there, and the hours upon endless hours that strength represented. 'All done in my service.' The Holy Queen reminded herself, which made Kelart's revelation all the harder to bear.

"You're alive." Queen Calca finally pushed the words out of her mouth and Remedios thought that over for several long seconds.

"I-I died?" She asked.

"You did. A dragon killed you and ate the one you were executing." Calca explained and Remedios turned her head to look straight up at the stone gray ceiling.

"Yes… yes I remember, I had just put a third sword in that bitch to make sure she couldn't 'walk off' and then… there was chaos, noise, her parents were trying to get to her… what happened to them?" Remedios asked.

"They were arrested and put into a dungeon." Queen Calca replied and looked away, "I was thinking of pardoning them… they may have been wrong, but they only wanted to save their child. Who wouldn't have done what they did?"

"I wouldn't." Remedios answered instantly. "Demihuman lovers, allies of non-humans, traitors… they're in the way of your vision. They're a problem that only death can solve. If even my own sister did what the traitor did, I would put the rusty sword into her belly myself."

Calca closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When Kelart had informed her of what happened before, the truth was in her heart of hearts, Calca didn't believe it. Remedios, bribing a jury? Threatening people to force their hands, corrupting justice in pursuit of it seemed so absurd.

But now, hearing her say she could have executed her own sister so callously? Queen Calca's faith was shaken. "Is it true, then? What your sister says?"

"About what, Majesty?" Remedios asked, looking at her beloved Queen again.

"Did you bribe the jury? Threaten them, to make sure you got a guilty verdict?" Queen Calca asked, and for a moment, she had a flash of doubt. The innocent, confused, even baffled look on Remedios' face, with her wide and guileless brown eyes, it seemed so utterly impossible.

"Some." Remedios admitted. "I bribed the nobles and threatened the soldiers."

Calca's heart almost broke.

"Why?! I thought you were dedicated to me, to my ideals…?" Queen Calca's hand tightened on that of Remedios, but the overwhelming strength difference between the two made it impossible for anything but a gentle pressure to be felt by the one she held.

Remedios's dull eyes held those of her bright eyed Queen. "Of course, your Majesty… that is the point. Now I know the noble families to be purged, as well as the soldiers never to promote, and we get rid of a traitor who made herself a threat to the Holy Kingdom, all in one go."

"You can't… you can't ever do that again… I… I'm lost here, utterly lost." The Holy Queen brought Remedios's hand up and cradled it between her breasts, "I put so much trust in you, and in your sister… and now I learn that both of you, the pillars of my rule, my sword and shield, were corrupt too? What am I to do now?"

"How am I to fix this?" Calca asked with desperate urgency, and Remedios, lost, asked the only thing she could.

"How long have I been dead?"

"About three months, it took a long time to find enough pieces of you to be confident of resurrecting you." Calca said, relieved at least for the moment to have some small distraction.

Remedios tried to sit up, Calca released her hold on Remedios' hand, and put her palm on her beloved Paladin's chest just above the slope of her bosom and pressed her down. "No, you need rest. The caster said you'd need weeks of bedrest and you would have lost a lot of strength. You'll need to restore yourself. I understand, you want to work, but you can't now. That is an order from your Queen." Calca gave the command in her royal voice, and Remedios relaxed with a small half grunted noise.

Calca's hand came away from Remedios and rested on her lap, she gripped the fabric of her white and blue royal garb and said, "A lot has happened since the incident at the wall. Gustav Montagne is now the acting Paladin Commander, both he and your sister are in the Southern Holy Kingdom. A rebellion has begun under the elven slaves that used to reside in Wenmark, they've captured several small cities along the western half, and have taken many hostages. The Southern nobles have refused to pay their taxes, but have accepted the aid for the Wenmark survivors. Here in the North, the tax shortfall has forced us to cut many services, and…"

The Queen shot to her feet, turned around, and spread her thumb and forefinger across her forehead, she let out a sigh while putting her other hand on her hip. "We have riots. My official investigators fined a few, prosecuted them, and sometimes juries are bribed, or threatened… and only about half of the guilty are convicted."

Remedios slowly, with great difficulty, turned her head to the side to look at the back of her Queen and answered her, "Evil has to be destroyed, of course. The greater the evil, the faster it must be destroyed. The greatest evils, non-humans, have to be killed outright. Before they can kill us. The second greatest evils, their allies and human collaborators, come next. Then after that, human evils, the corrupt, the criminal, the murders and worse. They all have to die. If we just kill all the right ones, your kingdom without tears will become reality."

Remedios' lips formed a smile, a tiny, small little smile, it was sluggish, it was like fighting her way up stream in a raging river, but she managed it.

"When I'm on my feet again, when I'm strong again-" Remedios began.

"Who else?" Calca demanded without turning around.

"I'm sorry, Majesty?" Remedios asked with a sudden loss of her smile.

"I asked, who else? You couldn't have done this on your own, not you. Who else was involved in your… crusade?" The Queen demanded.

"Oh, a great many paladins, ones I know I can trust, oh and your brother." Remedios replied as if she were talking about the weather. "I guess we didn't go far enough though, but don't worry, we'll fix everything for you, Your Highness, and then the Holy Roble Kingdom will be made great again." Remedios turned her head toward the ceiling again and sighed with contentment.

Queen Calca didn't turn around still, instead she simply said, "Rest, for now, Remedios. I'll send someone to look after you, everything will be alright."

And with that, the Queen left the room.