Chapter 180

Neia lay on her bed of straw until she fell asleep, she was lying on her bed of straw after she awoke and the sun began to rise. She remained lying on her bed of straw as the minutes passed and became hours. Still nobody returned for her, nobody gave her food, nobody gave her water. Her parents didn't come for her, and that was somewhat unfortunate at least.

'I would have liked to see them again, but we said everything that should have been said, slitting my throat to spare me pain will be the last act of kindness they can give.' Neia lay back and covered her eyes with her forearm, blocking out all light from the already dim cell that got too little light.

Outside, she could hear a great deal of noise and shouting, but she couldn't say what it was, not really, the noise buried itself under more noise, and it was hours more at least before she saw a dusty Remedios Custodio return.

"It's time, traitor." The brown haired woman said with a look of the utmost contempt, her head tilted back, her eyes cast down, her steady gaze offering no hint of human warmth or empathy.

Neia rolled over on her side and stood up while Remedios fumbled with a set of iron keys. "So, now I know what evil looks like, I won't forget it when I move on to the next world." She folded her hands behind her back and stood with her feet shoulder width apart.

"Evil? No. I'm 'good'. You let the enemies of humanity live. How can you be anything but evil yourself?" Remedios asked with icy hate.

Neia's steady, unbroken gaze didn't waver, and for the first time in all her life, the young archer put every fiber of her vindictive anger into that stare, and savored the moment the Paladin Commander shuddered.

The door slid open with so much force that it ripped away from its moorings and cracked against the stone wall before falling to the floor with a clatter.

"At least you can't garnish my wages for this, bitch." Neia laughed at the red faced and flustered Remedios and began walking toward the door.

The ditzy idiot kept her sword at Neia's back, but it was unnecessary. The squire of the Paladin Order walked as if she were out for a stroll after services at the temples, the open areas were populated, and the heavily armored Paladin Order guards fell in around her the same as before.

She watched the world around her with great indifference, instead each step seemed to be a trip back through time itself, from her first steps and the embrace of a mother and father that she now knew loved her beyond any doubt, up to the final moments.

Each moment of her life seemed to be relived, the good and bad alike. The drums of the soldiers that picked up to mark her steps until the securing of her wrists at the stand as had been done before, only added to the moment.

Vice Commander Gustav Montagne pounded his gavel, and glanced down at the little squire. "Before you hear the verdict, do you have any words for the court of this nation?"

"I have words… if I may, though they're not for the court." Neia made the request as a polite statement, and Gustav inclined his head toward her.

"Proceed." He replied.

"Mom. Dad. Maybe you weren't perfect parents, but you raised me to do my best, and that's all I tried to do. I did what was right as I knew it. I protected the weak, no matter what they were. I put my life down for the first friend I ever made, and what a friend he was, that's what it means to love the ones you love. So I'm not sorry for what I did, I never will be, for what little time that means for me now. But I am sorry to leave you this way." Neia said, and watched the court writer copy down her final words.

The Vice Commander looked at her as if she'd gone mad. "Did someone tell you the verdict?"

Neia laughed in his face, she looked up at him, threw back her head, and laughed like a barking mad fool who made a fart joke. "This is the Roble Holy Kingdom! Guilt was a foregone conclusion!" Neia spat in the dust.

It rankled and a few rumbles went up where she could be heard, and she was heard as far away as there were ears to hear her.

"Ah… the verdict?" Gustav flushed red in competition with Remedios, but whatever retort he had in mind, he buried while the noble in charge of the jury stood up.

"On the charge of treason, we find the defendant, Neia Baraja, guilty. On the charges of collaboration, we find the defendant guilty." The noble sat down to silence.

The Vice Commander looked at them as if they'd gone mad, his eyes swept every juror. 'No evidence that she took money or treasure from anyone, or offered any information or took anything for her aid, was ever presented. How did they find her guilty of collaboration…?!' He stiffened while the smug looking lot of nobles and soldiers played with the contents of their pockets or purses, little nervous gestures as if they expected him to question their verdict openly.

A dreadful suspicion came over him. He felt the eyes of the squire questioningly looking up at him. It was as if she were saying, 'See, what did I tell you?'

It was a punch to the gut, and with the knowing smile of his commander staring back at him from behind the defendant, a leap of intuition that one day earlier would have been broader than a great wide canyon shrunk to the distance of a single step. 'You didn't.' He thought with horror.

The gavel in his hand took on the weight of a castle, his fingers around the wooden handle felt as if they were on fire, his soul commanded of him to drop it, let go. 'Call this into question… call for an investigation… but who will the Queen set to investigate…? The one behind it.'

It was raw frustration and bitterness that gave him the strength to just carry on, but the pity he saw for him in the evil eyes of the woman whose life hung in his hands, he knew without a doubt, 'That will haunt me to the day I die.' He raised his gavel up and slammed it down. "The defendant is sentenced to the penalty of the stake and the blades, to be carried out at sunset in one hour on the wall!"

'Poor fool.' Neia thought with a generosity of spirit that caught even herself by surprise, 'I was condemned the moment people took a look at me, I was twice as condemned when I explained myself, and three times as condemned when I had the misfortune to have Remedios Custodio as a superior. But my suffering will end soon, his though? His is just beginning.'

The crowd was sullen, no cheers, no cries of triumph, no vindictive calls, just sullenness and silent acceptance.

The stake was erected while Neia watched from far down below, the view would let her see far out over into the lands of the demihumans. 'I wonder what it's like out there? It must be a difficult place to get by, all of them constantly at odds with one another, the survivors I spoke with always talked of vicious wars. I wonder…' Neia barely noticed when she was unlocked and made to walk under the eyes of the Fortress toward the stairs, 'Are any of the ones I spared, still alive?'

'Did I make any difference to anyone at all?' That answer's absence left her wanting, but she was oddly comforted by knowing it would not be a mystery for long, the bell tolled to call any absent to come and watch the traitor's death.

The stake was twice Neia's height, and thicker around than her waist with space to spare. Remedios's sword at her back threatened evisceration, and while walking along the wall Neia saw a young boy far down below running with a series of rusty old blades bundled under his arm. Even from where she was, Neia could see the red stains on the old and uncared for metal.

Behind Remedios came six heavily armored paladins, their halberds at her throat, their faces hidden by their heavy helmets, their metal covered bodies gleaming in the slow declining light of the sun. They would have been more impressive if they didn't flinch whenever she looked at them.

Her wrist manacles were undone, Remedios's sword tip pressed tighter to her body, from somewhere down below, wails reached her ears.

'Mom, dad… I told you that you shouldn't come watch this.' Neia felt a welling of sorrow in her breast as her arms were yanked sharply back and secured again at the wrists behind the wooden post.

She glanced up at Remedios, "Can I ask something from you?" Neia said with gentle calm.

The Commander of the Paladin Order stood in front of her and looked down at Neia with suspicion in her idiotic eyes. "What, traitor?"

"When you run the rusty swords into me, make it quick, pin me by the heart." Neia asked, the wails were growing louder, closer.

"Are you afraid?" Remedios sneered.

Neia shook her head, "No. My parents are down there, I don't want them to hear."

Remedios was briefly taken aback by this. Even taking a step away from her and looking at her with fresh eyes before she shook her head again. "You're afraid of pain. But it won't do you any good, you're going to scream."

"Oh I'm sure I will scream. Everybody screams when you stab them in the guts. But I won't be afraid. I just don't want them to suffer because of my choices. Please. I'll be dead either way, just give me this for my years of service." Neia pled.

Remedios seemed to think it over until a young page boy huffed and puffed his way over to her and held out the first rusty blade.

The wails of her parents became shouts of anger, from down below, Neia could hear the sound of fighting.

She held the sword aloft, a single sabre, a sharp tip still in place, but the rest… ugly, almost ruined, and gave a wordless answer to Neia's plea.

She drew it back and then thrust it forward into Neia's guts.

Neia let loose a blood curdling scream that echoed out over the demihuman lands. In the distance she could see a dot appear. The demihuman lands were beautiful, stark and with many hills that seemed to stretch far beyond the horizon. The sword in her guts pinned her to the stake.

Her vision blurred, but she saw Remedios take another blade from the page, a young boy whose face became white as a sheet while he watched the Commander work.

This one was a short sword, thick, vicious, and rusty as could be. Remedios thrust it home close to the other, and Neia's howls of agony threatened to cross the world.

"Let her go, you bastards!" Neia heard her father bellow, his violent eyes, the harbinger of her own, was enough to put fear into those who barred his way, and she heard the sound of her mother's sword coming out.

Neia's screams could not be formed into words. 'Go back! Get away! You can't help me now!' She wanted to scream, but her screams became burbles of blood that ran down her face and dripped over the pathetic excuse for clothing to drip down to her bare feet and pool around her toes on the gray stone of the wall.

She tried to look back, she tried to focus, she tried to struggle, but only felt the edges of the blades tear into her organs further. She recalled having heard that before, of people using their impalement to open up new wounds to die faster and end their suffering.

However, all she wanted to do was warn her parents to stop.

All, that was, until the distant dot became obvious. Neia began to do the unexpected then.

She straightened up as best she could, and began to laugh. "Olasird'arc, you sonofabitch…" She garbled out through the blood of her wounds as he loomed larger and larger.

Others began to see, she felt the change in the air, a dragon in flight was graceful, beautiful, and terrifying. His lashing blue tail, his leather wings, his massive maw and imposing body. A roar split the air and stilled all thoughts of violence.

Whatever Remedios might have been, Neia never once thought the woman a coward, but the page boy ran immediately, the soldiers guarding her ran next, dropping their halberds and sprinting for the steps, several falling off the edge and dropping down screaming to their deaths.

But Remedios did not run, she snarled, drew her holy sword, and as the dragon came close, she let out a battle cry. "For the Holy Queen and for our Kingdom!" She bellowed out, the swiping of the dragon's claws as he slammed home left her no further time to scream her defiance or even strike as she was sent flying far, far away. For a moment Neia had a brief memory come to mind of the night she saw Olasird'arc come crashing down to the ground.

She saw his mouth coming down, the stones of the wall smashed like grains of sand struck by a towering ocean wave, and his terrible maw closed around her. 'Eaten instead? I didn't see that coming… his breath… it's very cool…' She thought as she unwittingly offered her blood to his tongue.

She lost sight of all else then, and all she could do was wait for whatever would come next.