Chapter 389

Captain Cenna Tachoni walked with his hands spread out as if to embrace his old friends, his fingers scraped along the soft dirt walls and sending granules tumbling down to the hard packed earth which crunched underfoot.

"I'm here, I'm here and I am me." Cenna said when saw the oversized shield of his comrade. He kept his arms out and finger wiggling a little against the walls of the grave, tumbling little bits of dirt, all the way to the point where he was just out of reach of the Divine Chain. "See? Cast whatever spells you need to to confirm I'm not controlled. Then ask your questions. But make it quick, they won't wait forever."

The tingling feeling of magic, and its faint blue and golden glows as the spellcasters of the Theocracy's finest scripture inspected him in every way they knew, washed over him. And Cenna only stood firm and patient, his reproving face fairly daring them to doubt him further.

"It could be some higher magic that I don't know…" The Divine Chant said, only for Cenna to rebuke her with the words he prepared for this exact moment.

"Then why bother checking at all? You can always say that!" Cenna snapped back at them. That closed a few mouths before he said, "I'll make it quick, I've been friends with the Queen of Frost for years. All my vacations where you all thought I was out hunting near Ikari? Since I was thirteen years old I was visiting here. I befriended the Queen by chance not long after her takeover of the region and ever since then I've been her honored guest. After Necran gave his order… things happened and now I'm going to marry her. This is my country now."

"Then the humans seen in your company?" One Man Army shot the question out.

"Other than the Queen's parents? Mostly friends of mine I've made over the course of my visit. There are around fifteen thousand humans and even more elves just living here. Like I said, I've been coming here for a while." He laughed, "Funny story, for the first few years of my visits, Neia didn't even believe I was who I said I was. She just labeled me 'the ass'." Cenna's laughter was hard enough that he had to wipe away a tear, "I'm telling you, I'm fine."

"You… you betrayed the Theocracy? Humanity?!" One Man Army gasped and his hand reflexively went for his stilettos. Quaiesse Hazia Quintia had flashbacks to his sister's treason, his heart raced and he stared in shocked disbelief, only the hand of Alain on his shoulder kept him from drawing his weapons.

"No." Cenna said with a shake of his head, "If anything I'm hoping to save both. I can defeat the Frost Queen, and Necran believes that means they'd fall apart. But I'm telling you, I've traveled here, I've spent months here, I know the demihuman tribal leaders, and they're all prepared to swear allegiance to their greatest General if anything happened to her. They've felt the strength of unity and they will not let it go again. All I'd accomplish is giving the military to the greatest commander they've had in centuries… and I know he would simply turn his Kingdom into a province of the Allfather's domain after a brutal punitive campaign. Imagine a hundred thousand demihumans rampaging over the Slane Theocracy."

A collective of grim swallows went up. "Our cities-" Cedran was about to protest, but Cenna did not give him the chance.

"Wouldn't last a week. The elven slaves would happily open the gates for them, leave the fields of their masters… they don't even have to fight us. Just march around our country picking up slaves and harvesting our own crops. Neia laid out the plan to me the night of my proposal. If anything happened to her, Demalbion would hold us responsible… rightly as it turned out, seize our fields and our workforce, and then just starve our cities into submission, and if we did manage a fight, the next King was going to turn the country over to the Allfather on the condition of two hundred years of sanctions against us. Surrounded on all sides, no food… no workforce… forget two hundred years. We would be selling ourselves into slavery for food in six months."

"But that- that's diabolical…" Divine Chain shivered while Tenjho clutched the side of his head as the vision of the nightmare unfolded behind his eyes. City turning on city for food, entire populations selling themselves or their land to neighbor states just to feed themselves. 'Even with all of us, even without the Allfather's help we couldn't fight everybody.'

"And it's never going to happen." Cenna promised and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I love her. I'm going to marry her. I'm going to become the King here, and my wedding present from my wife is you. Or rather, your lives. You are guaranteed life and liberty… within this Kingdom at least, until the Theocracy sees reason."

"Wait… what?" Cedran rubbed his forehead, "We're-"

"No, not slaves, before you say it. Prisoners yes… but she's willing to parole you around the Kingdom, as long as you understand that your good behavior decides whether or not she invades the Slane Theocracy. You will be more like guests. Instead of assassins and invaders. Unharmed, alive, even keeping your weapons and… hopefully… attending my wedding. And when the Theocracy knuckles under, if you want to go home then you're free to do so." Cenna promised, then held out his hands with palms toward the ground and urged them with a gentle downward wave. "Now lower your weapons and come out peacefully. I promise, I won't let anything happen to you."

There was quiet amidst the trapped Scripture… then the shouting erupted all at once.

"Cenna! What will it be?! I hear shouting! Are you alright?!" Neia's shout of alarm reached his ears and he stepped back to shout in return at her…

"They're talking it over! It's fine… Nei-Nei!" Cenna shouted back.

"I do not consent to that nickname and you will never speak it again!" Neia shouted back, he could feel her face burning bright red even if it couldn't properly do so anymore, but out of the corner of his eye, he watched the effect it had on the shouting Scripture members, a few even ceased their arguing to stare dumbly at him over the use of the absurd nickname of the Queen of Frost… and her response to it.

"We have to be rational!" Alain shouted despite the distraction, "The Theocracy is on the line here!"

Through so much piled earth, they never heard the spell.

[Mass Hold Species] Shalltear said, directing her spell down at those below.

And the Black Scripture of the Theocracy, the cream of humanity's crop, the strongest of the strong and the greatest champions they could field… froze, toppled over, and landed in a heap having not even the ability to close their mouths to keep the dirt off their lolling, limp tongues.

"That was taking too long." Shalltear muttered from atop the hill and waved to the dragonid Queen, "Okay, go get them, nobody is moving. The spell will wear off between a few hours and a few days depending on how strong they are, can I do anything else for the Allfather's ally?" She gave a sweet smile down at the dragonid, who mutely shook her head before managing.

"No… no, that's plenty… thank you." Neia said, and waved her hand forward toward the entrance to the ancient grave. "Go get them, but… be gentle." She said, and her demihumans moved forward to obey.