Chapter 205

Information was so easy to gather when you had the people who were expected to carry it. Conveniently enough, the guards were from the same place. She flapped her wings from on high, and then, faster than any of them could understand what was happening, she descended with her bardiche, swung, and the heads of the humans toppled with soft thuds to the empty road. They rolled in the dust, the minds within the skulls looked around in utter dismay. The knights in their helmets, she couldn't see their faces, but their eyes were visibly wide, the messenger, a young boy, seemed more uncomprehending.

It was as if he was wondering, 'Just what is this? Why am I in the dirt? Why is my body falling? Did I have an accident? Am I alright? Is this a dream?' Albedo landed beside the horse and stopped it with a hand before it could panic. The body of the messenger boy slumped and fell into the dust near the head.

"It's easier for you. Be grateful." Albedo said to the head of the boy, who watched in horror and confusion as he was picked up at the ears by a faceless figure that had only three holes where mouth and eyes should have been.

He then saw his own face appear in front of him. 'Is that what I really look like…?' He had the strangely calm thought while he listened to the blood drip down to the dust and stared at his crumpled corpse a few feet behind where the doppelganger stood.

The woman, radiant beyond measure, seemed to be in charge. "Mimic the rest of them, this is your assignment until the collapse. When the demihumans hit the wall, make sure they succeed." He understood the horrifying implication of her words, and he tried to scream, his lips moved, but with no lungs, no air, nothing happened, and his eyes began to close just as he saw more of these faceless creatures come into view.

Albedo picked up the message with the white seal, 'Their methods are so crude… it'll be easy to replicate this… even my human and elf pet could do it if I give them the proper tools.'

She rolled her eyes, cracked the white, and read it.

The bodies she opened a gate for and threw them in, they would land in Solution's room, she was always hungry and wasting the corpses was pointless. Then the armored doppelgangers and the messenger rode on, and all was as it should be save for the blood in the dirt that would wash away with the next rain or blow away when it dried into the dust.

Then, Albedo was gone.

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To'Raven and his band were more at ease on their carts than they had been. The detention at the fort was less time than he expected it to be, and he breathed a sigh of relief when the wall was at his back. He glanced over his shoulder.

"Something wrong, orc?" The human asked.

"Yuh, thought I'd die there. Glad I live." To'Raven replied.

"Then why'd you come, if you were worried about that?" The human on the horse beside the cart asked and cocked his head.

"You hide your face, we cannot speak." To'Raven said and huffed, focusing instead on the road ahead.

The human's armor clinked when he shrugged his shoulders and he raised his face plate.

"There, now?" The human knight had a lance in one hand, and a long straight sword at his side, his horse was big enough to steamroll anything less than a champion grade fighter, and To'Raven had his doubts that he could have easily stopped the beast at full speed.

"Frost Queen say come, I come. She gave life to me, life to mate and children. My sister, is mother because of Huntress' gift. Spared many of my tribe. Orc life debts… powerful." He grunted the answer as if it were self explanatory.

"You're a chief?" The human asked.

"One of many." To'Raven replied, "Orcs, many tribes. Now Frost Queen makes all to one tribe. Chiefs now warleaders and sage speakers. One Queen. One true chief." To'Raven replied, the human rocked back and forth on his horse, seemingly at ease, but the orc felt he'd struck a nerve as the human's hand tightened on the reins of his big brown warhorse.

"We kill your kind, orc, you'd be wise to go home, back to your family, and never come again." The human said without looking directly at the orc he was escorting.

To'Raven was quiet for a bit, there was only the clip clop of hooves over dirt, but he felt his fellow volunteers looking at his back, if he said to go back, they'd follow him. The human's advice was the safest choice.

"No." He said at last and let out a thick orcish snort. "I know danger. Fear. Frost Queen will care for family. Kill me, we be avenged. Peace is her want. Someone go first, we," he turned at the hips and smacked his big green fist over his big green chest, "brave enough to try. You? We see."

The human was quiet for the rest of the day after that.

Hours brought nightfall and the humans set up a camp with speed and orderliness which… noticeably kept the orcs confined to one tent in one spot in the middle of their escorts.

The days and nights were the same, the travel periods were short, the orcs were confined to roads that kept them away from human settlements, and that became obvious fairly quickly. But eventually he found the high walls of another human city. "Where are we?" He asked his escort.

"Kalinsha, you'll draw some uncomfortable looks… but make no sudden movements and you should be fine. We're going to take you to the woman currently in charge of you, she should have gotten word of your coming." The escort said and began to tense a little.

"Is that bad?" The orc asked, "Is it not better if humans know orcs come?" He asked.

"Normally, but… the former head of the paladin order is prickly, her name is Remedios Custodio, and she's currently in charge of… certain things, dealing with your kind would be one of those things." He answered, "Just… word of advice… orc… you really want to succeed, go home to your family, see your brats grow up… don't piss this one off."

"Thanks for advice, human. I hear. I try to follow. I want to see home alive." To'Raven said and tensed his grip on the reins a little more as the noise of the iron gates rising in front of him reminded him all too much of a dragon's maw accepting prey that offered itself for devouring.

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Remedios tapped her fingers on the desk. She glared at the paper in front of her. 'I'd forgotten how much I relied on Gustav…' She thought with reluctance, her unofficial demotion was entirely technical, her loss of strength after dying, the fact that he was doing a good job in her place… and the Queen's both relief and displeasure at once… it made things confusing.

'A kingdom where nobody will cry… that's the dream isn't it…? That's what I worked for, why is she mad at me for doing what I did…? Okay, so technically that was a human, but justice belongs to the wronged, not to the traitors and criminals and demihumans and…' She shook her head, it felt like something was amiss, like something was wrong, like there was a shadow just out of sight or an item just out of reach.

Everything felt off, like an itch that couldn't be scratched… she continued her anxious tapping, willing the paperwork to disappear while it remained defiantly under her eyes and waited for her to actually do it.

That anxious stalemate between her work obligations and her stubborn resistance to things she should have only had to take credit for, left her grateful when there was a knock at the door.

The heavy thud gave her the excuse she needed to tear her eyes from the hated paper and focus on something else, "Yes, what?!" She snapped.

The door opened. A young boy poked his head in, a page, "Vice Commander… an… orc is here… the escort needs permission to take them to the capital… to… to meet with the Queen…"

"What?! An orc within reach of Her Majesty?!" Remedios's blood ran cold at the very idea, letting that happen would be the same kind of collaboration that bitch had been guilty of. She thrust her finger toward the boy, his face went white before she could even speak.

"Order them all executed at once!" She hissed. "Then send me their escort to explain themselves and how they dare bring a band of orcs into our Holy Kingdom!"

The boy slammed the door so fast he almost hit his own head as he pulled it out of the way of her verbal tongue lashing, and rushed to deliver the orders of Remedios Custodio.