Chapter 197

Gustav and Kelart listened with alarm.

"What do you mean that Hoburns has fallen?! Hoburns can't fall?!" Kelart shouted as she shot to her feet.

Gustav's hand reflexively went to his sword, but he held his fist tightly clenched around the hilt, the leather squeaking in the tense grip of his slowly twisting hand. 'It's us that let this happen, we did this, our corruption, our attempt to do good by way of evil… they lost their faith in us, and what is a Kingdom if not the faith of the people in it?!' He cursed himself while sweat formed on his brow, his heart pounded and ached, his eyes squeezed tight shut as he heard the woman scream in pain as she was murdered atop the wall.

It was no longer an execution in his mind. 'It was murder, I had her murdered, I knew it was wrong, I knew Remedios had done something, the peasant knew, everybody knew, and while looking into the eyes of my Commander, I pronounced the sentence… maybe she would have been found guilty anyway, but maybe not? Nobody can know now…' He was lost in his guilt and dismay while Kelart continued to shout at the page boy who knelt and relayed the message.

"Forget the taxes, we have to get back to Hoburns now!" Kelart exclaimed and put a hand on Gustav's shoulder to bring him back to reality.

He nodded numbly. "Is… the Holy Queen, is she alive?"

"What about my sister?" Kelart asked, then a half a second later, "And the Prince?" She added belatedly without a glance at Gustav, her eyes riveted on the kneeling, trembling boy in the blue and white uniform with the royal crest on the center.

"A-All alive when word was passed to me, f-fled to Kalinsha, I I-left while they were on the r-road, the Queen commands that the Royal Army return to the capital city and take it back f-from the m-mob, My Lady." The boy stammered a lot, his youthful face a deep red flush of uncertainty at their reactions.

"Right… right of course, thanks be to the gods." Kelart sighed and rested a hand over her heart. "Then we need to go, we can't waste an hour, Gustav, how quickly can you get the army ready?"

"Within the hour, but… we shouldn't ignore the funds, the damage to Hoburns will be enormous, we can't forget that. If we do, we'll just invite the same riots again when the army leaves. And I can promise the Southern Holy Kingdom will find an excuse not to pay while Hoburns is damaged." Gustav pointed out.

Kelart frowned and rubbed her temple, forcing herself to calm down, "Fine… fine, we'll leave a sixth of the army to collect what we can while we take the main force back. Nobody will want to spark an outright rebellion over this."

"You're probably right." Gustav noted, "Not with the ongoing elf problem."

With that said and done, they got moving. "See you at the head of the army in an hour then, this is going to be a long road back." Kelart said with dread.

A dread Gustav shared.

Albedo listened to the doppelganger with glee in her heart. The Royal Army was relatively undermanned, being composed only of the garrisons of Kalinsha and other fortifications in the immediate area. She shivered, her wings trembling with excitement, her yellow eyes bright at the faceless doppelganger that explained what was sighted from the walls.

"Can the mob fend them off?" Albedo demanded, cutting to the heart of the matter.

"Yes, My Lady, but it is likely that they will draw on other garrisons, and they may have powerful heroes whom the peasants cannot fend off without our help. What should we do?" The doppelganger asked, cocking his head to one side, even from down on one knee he could not resist a dramatic gesture or tone of voice, exaggerating the question greatly and spreading his arms out as if to embrace the Guardian Overseer.

Albedo was now used to their over the top performances, 'Perhaps Pandora's Actor behaves as he does because of his race rather than by design?' Albedo wondered but had no certainty behind her thoughts, at least being used to it now, she no longer rolled her eyes. "It's time for the city to fall, we need the tipping point. How far away is the Royal Army headed by Gustav and Kelart?"

"Three weeks." The doppel answered.

"Help the defenses hold until then, after that, cause their collapse, but in the days before that… make the Royal Army angry. Make them angry and frightened, and make sure word of what is done because the Queen lost the capital, is carried south."

The doppelganger exclaimed his devotion with an elaborate act of rising to his feet to make a deep, sweeping bow, "Of course, My Lady!"

When the doppelganger was gone, Skana and Illyana approached, "So ah, My Lady?" Skana prompted and when the pair knelt, Albedo nodded her acknowledgement.

"Yes?" Albedo asked, resting the side of her head in her palm while her arm was propped up at the elbow on the table.

"What's going to happen up on the wall?" Skana asked with a brief, wary glance out the window to the distant stones where the mob still patrolled.

"Some mild atrocities, this city is going to fall, and be reminded that this is a Kingdom, they don't get a choice of ruler. The few surviving government officials and soldiers will be slaughtered in front of their comrades, painfully, to provoke an attack and retribution. With that," Albedo snapped her fingers, "the corruption of this Kingdom will be thrown into the flames and extinguished. The Southern Holy Kingdom will rise in rebellion out of fear of the Queen as she will become, and a new world for this land will be born in blood and pain."

"Humans die, lots of them… right, Lady Albedo?" Illyana asked, licking her lips and still darting nervous glances outside.

"It may not be 'lots', but by the end of it, let us just say that the humans will regret their mistreatment of you and your kind, Illyana." Albedo chuckled with malice and the elf prostitute cast herself at Albedo's feet with her arms outstretched and her forehead to the floor.

"I never dreamed that I would live to see my race avenged, not even in all the years of my lifetime… but in barely half a year I have seen… or will see, all of that and more… I'm yours, for your bed, for your sustenance, for your service, for all the years of my life, no matter how old I live to be!" Illyana cried out with sobs of joy that wet the floor. Her golden hair lay scattered about, and Albedo glanced from the elf to the human.

"Aren't you going to rededicate yourself to me?" The demoness asked with a bit of bemusement at the quiet prostitute, and Skana turned her eyes from the window and back to her Lady.

"My Lady, I'm a peasant." Skana reminded her mistress, she smirked up at the demon, "I don't say a lot less somebody wants me to, but what I do say, I mean. I can say it twice, but it won't mean more on account of I meant every word the first time. I'm your woman, course… if you do want the bed, you'd be the prettiest girl I've ever slept with, demon or not." She winked and gave her Lady a lascivious lick of the lips, and at this Albedo could only draw a hand down her face and groan.

"I am not very fond of humans… but of all your traits, never knowing what you will say next at least keeps you from being absolutely dull." The demoness giggled a bit. "For now though, we wait, and we watch."