Chapter 217

Intermission

Being a high priest in Hoburns used to be… simple. The youthful priest felt very much the old man just then, stooped and weary, he still chuckled a little. 'Day after day I'd hear confessions, little sins, the trivial things people felt comfortable revealing when their conscience bothered them… always though, I could smile a little, sympathize, knowing that their big sins were never as big as people thought.'

It seemed so naive then. So… 'innocent'. The word was only reluctantly thought of while he sat down to eat a hearty meal of thick stew and fresh baked bread with a hunk of cheese. He was alone in his office as had become his habit. The warning the young woman gave to him around a year earlier proved to be more accurate than he ever imagined. 'The lying, the adultery, the corruption and destruction…' He hung his head over his food and prayed to the gods for mercy to be had on his Kingdom.

So much went so wrong, and the only relief became his rituals.

He flung himself into his duties in the temples with the fervency of his passionate youth, daily preaching on the steps as well as before the altar to the gods. 'We must renew ourselves!'

He thought, and shouted it in a moment of inspiration, his body tingled as if the words themselves had come from some divine agent. "We must renew ourselves!"

That had distant and absent ears turned to him, arms open to embrace them as a grandfather would his children and grandchildren, "We must become new, let the old ways pass and renew our Kingdom in the midst of strife, as a mother births her child in pain, so our Kingdom is in pain and we must bear it to birth something new…"

'The gods spoke through me… I wonder… if it were not for that woman, would I have been mindful of so much going so very wrong?… Could she have been one of the gods? It is said that their agents sometimes walk the world to test mortals, did she choose me?' He ate his food in silence, and contemplated what to say to yet another building crowd that waited for his message. 'No, not the gods' message. A goddess, one of our goddesses, gave me a warning for my message of love, I was tested, and found worthy… I have to work hard, and help my Kingdom be worthy too.'

Queen Renner sat beside her consort on the throne, a letter in hand which she was hard pressed not to smile over. "Lord Momon and Lady Evileye are making a shockingly effective team, wouldn't you agree, my dear Climb?"

She handed him the letter and he accepted it with the same reverence he always did, as if it were coming from a goddess. He did, however, refrain from pointless praise for her choice of words, and simply read it for himself first. She wasn't wrong. "That entire area is completely clear of monsters now… your father… he'd have been so pleased." He bowed his blonde head in memory of the old man.

"Yes… he would have." Renner remarked and lightly caressed the knife. It was only pure chance that she hadn't had to kill her father herself, but Climb didn't need to know that. 'If he'd lived and stood in the way of Climb and I…' She clenched her perfect jaw and disguised it with a smile that lit up the room. The throne room was empty for the moment, the first to rise every day, the Queen and her consort built a reputation for hard work that spread favorable views of them to the entire population. 'The Queen works hard for us.' A frequent refrain heard in a number of street corners and taverns.

The final destruction of Eight Fingers and Six Arms between Re-Estize and Baharuth left little but a scattering of thugs that were themselves running scared and had nowhere to call a safe haven but in the isolated wilderness.

"My love… didn't you want to settle the orphans there?" Climb asked.

Renner nodded and pointed to the map she had painted on the wall. "That's right. Every person who adopts a child orphaned in the last ten years of wars will get a plot of land. Every adventurer who achieves the rank of Mithril or higher will be entitled to a minor lordship over the new villages and towns, and the stronger the adventurer, the more land they get to rule… that should completely change the character of our country."

"For the better, my love, for the better." Climb grinned as he pictured talented adventurers flocking to Re-Estize for a chance at the nobility. 'It should give us at least some further status with the Kingdom of Nazarick… gods know we need it.' He thought, and reached out to hold the hand of his beloved for the last few quiet minutes alone before the throne room filled with people again.

The Wolf Queen eased her body down over the shaft of her Wolf King. He never blushed anymore when making love to her, in part because of her vigor, in part, Enri thought, because he could never forget how close they came to dying once when sharing their embrace.

Nfirea was never going to be a warrior, but his body was stronger than she'd ever known it, and as she slammed her body down against him, he met her thrusts with urgency of his own, and his hands held her naked hips with such ferocity she was sure he would leave marks. Not that she minded.

Not before.

Not during.

And not after, when, at last sated and warm, they got up and threw on their robes.

The 'castle' for the Wolf King and Wolf Queen was barely worthy of the name, really being little more than a motte and bailey for now, but with the rapidly rising population of people being resettled from the Draconic Kingdom, the growing demihuman population, including Enri's goblin army, ambitions were high and even still, they seemed in reach.

The robes they wore were silk, rare, yes, but a gift from the Allfather of the Kingdom of Nazarick and emblazoned with their chosen crest and colors.

They should have, or could have, summoned servants, but both still enjoyed doing things for themselves. And so they walked the hall of their inner sanctum with confident contentment, sweaty hand in sweaty hand, down to the dining hall where, to their surprise, the former 'Swords of Darkness' sat drinking.

Lukrut raised his mug from where he sat leaning back with his feet on the table, it was overflowing with frothing beer, "Hail the Wolf Queen and Wolf King, may they howl every night… as they did just a little while ago!" He gave a bawdy grin that would have made Enri and Nfirea blush a year or more ago.

Tuare however, still blushed from where she sat near him. She smacked his thigh, "Lukrut! Manners!"

He managed to blush a little himself. "Sorry, love." He said.

"Sorry, my butt." Ninya muttered from behind her own frothing mug.

"Now, now… the Queen and King are here, we should at least show we have some manners around the people we're supposed to guard." Peter muttered, where Dyne simply looked as innocent as he could, and at Enri's guess, hiding a knowing grin behind his big, cherubic face.

"For people who are supposed to be guarding the place… you are all conspicuously not doing that." Nfirea said, unable to be really bothered by their absence.

"The goblins got it tonight." Lukrut explained, "To Brita!" He said, and Enri immediately understood.

"To Brita!" The rest of the Swords of Darkness raised their mugs and drank. Tuare sat quietly while Lurkut and his companions finished their mugs, and when they did, Tuare got up and curtseyed to the Queen.

"My Lady, you must be hungry, or thirsty, can I get you something… you should have called for me…" She said with a little flush to her soft face. She'd filled out a great deal since she'd come to serve the newly established Kingdom, and was now quite the beauty, though one glance showed that she seemed to prefer the company of Lukrut above all others, she still had her hand on him, though now at the shoulder, and was very, very close to where he sat, almost rubbing against him.

Enri shook her head, "Maybe we'll get used to servants doing things eventually, but it's just not me yet, or my Enfi. Just point me to the beer and the biscuits and we'll join you for the next round. At least for one." She said, and Peter cocked his head.

"Just one?" He asked after the unusually low number.

Dyne, Lukrut, and Tuare each pointed to the mugs and the open barrel in the corner, along with the basket of biscuits, and while going to them, Enri answered.

"The Council of Elders wants to discuss the next big project. Thanks to His Majesty's magic we can do much more than we ever dreamed, and thanks to the influx of people from the Draconic Kingdom, we have the people to do it all. It's just a matter of building what we need first, and there's some disputes that need us to resolve them."

"Oh, that's not fun." Lukrut said with a shiver.

"No, but it's honest work and we're glad to do it." Enri said and passed a full mug to her husband before getting another one and dunking it into the barrel for herself.

Nobody was going to argue with that.