Chapter 249

A week and a half of negotiations back and forth led to a final decision on a precise destination. An open field between Hoburns and Kalinsha, exactly halfway there, with each side providing seating enough for the other as a trivial act of good faith.

"Is it really a good idea to bring her parents? She might not react well." Calca asked of her husband-to-be.

"If she falls apart over their presence, this won't work anyway." Ainz suggested, and then added with a raised finger, "And it shows that they were well treated, we will be acting in good faith to show that for fact, letting her see and speak with them."

"Maybe so." Calca paced the bedroom a bit, "I never liked holding them hostage anyway, it felt so… criminal. Degrading. Underhanded even."

"I suppose, but that is how politics works, I've had to tell myself that many times since I ascended the throne, and," he chortled a little, "I'm glad I still don't like it."

Calca put her arm around his waist and stilled her pacing. "Me too. But really, dragonback?"

"Trust me." Ainz said again with an enigmatic smile down at the slender Queen.

"Al-Alright. I've never flown before…" She reminded him.

"The tricky part is not falling." He pointed out, and she laughed while shaking her head.

'At least people can laugh at my jokes… nobody laughed when I was undead!' He thought with relief, and they made their way outside.

The carriage holding most of their delegation had gone out days before, taking their time while Ainz waited on his chosen conveyance, and now it was here, and it was time to go.

They made their way outside to find a fit, robust young frost dragon. "I'm ready to go, My Lord!" Hejinmal said while practically pawing at the ground.

Thanks to Aura's help, he was now in much better shape than before, and even enjoyed flying as a dragon should have. Ainz put his hands around Calca's waist and lifted her to sit just behind his neck, her hands darting over his for a moment, but not offering resistance before he got behind her himself.

"Warn a lady next time." She said, but then grabbed his wrists to hold on for dear life, tensing as she was about to fly.

"My apologies, it was just clear that you needed help." Ainz replied and bowed his head behind her, bopping the top of hers just a tiny bit with the base of his chin.

"Hejinmal, let's go." Ainz commanded before she could retort, and the wings sprang out, beat, and the dragon began to ascend.

Calca was glad she chose her warskirt for the journey, given how she straddled the neck of the dragon, her breath caught in her lungs as she watched the ground grow larger and the people grow smaller down below.

The appearance of the small dragon caused consternation amidst people when it first arrived, even forewarned, the gasps, ooohs, and ahhhs… and the occasional scream of alarm as it swept in low toward the city, were just a further testament to the power of the monarch they were now joined to, and anticipation for the marital date between the two grew ever greater.

Calca began to squeal like an excited child receiving a long awaited gift as the dragon began to accelerate, her hair lifted and flew behind her, and she let go of Ainz' hands to grab on to the ridges along Hejinmal's neck and lowered herself as if to pilot him.

"This is the best thing ever!" She shouted as the dragon began to speed up, she shrieked with happiness as she watched the world race beneath her, moving past with the speed of a crossbow bolt, over a day of riding even with enchanted beasts was accomplished in not even a quarter of the time. The carriage Ainz dispatched previously was spotted on the long road below, and up ahead they saw the meeting place, and ahead… in the air, a distant, very large dot, a dot that began to descend almost at the same time Hejinmal did.

"We're nearly there, My Lord, My Lady!" Hejinmal shouted over his shoulder, and his speed began to slow.

"Take your time, we should arrive when they do, and I believe we're a little ahead." Ainz said and patted the hard blue scales.

"At your command, My Lord." Hejinmal answered, and obeyed.

True to his expectation, the two began to descend on the agreed upon place almost in the same minute.

Both however, focused so much on landing properly that neither looked up until they had.

It was Olasird'arc that did first.

"H-Hejinmal?!" He shouted, his neck bending up as the Queen of Frost dismounted from his body.

"You know this one?" Neia asked, putting her hand on his neck while Ainz and Calca dismounted as well.

"Father?!" Hejinmal shouted back, his neck arched the same as his father's did as he realized who spoke with him.

"Father?! I thought your family was dead?!" Neia exclaimed.

"Dead?" Hejinmal asked.

"I thought they were… how could anyone have survived Jaldabaoth…?" Olasird'arc stammered the question, and Hejinmal's tense body relaxed.

"Through this one's power." Hejinmal said and pointed a claw at Ainz.

Neia looked at Ainz with narrow, doubtful eyes, but without asking any questions, Hejinmal began to answer them, he told his father everything, from start to finish, up to and including the final battle at the Great Rift.

In turn, Olasird'arc spoke of what happened after his crash landing in the Holy Kingdom, the human who tended him, her near death, his rescue and how he saved her life, and pointed out Neia beside him.

"So you… actually made 'friends' with a human?" Hejinmal asked.

"I think of her as more like a… pesky little sister." Olasird'arc said with a wry, deep chuckle that made Neia cross her harms and huff.

"I didn't expect to be part of a family reunion today." Neia said with a roll of her eyes, "Still," she looked up at the dragon, "I'm glad for my 'big brother' here. Thank you for saving his family, Allfather Ainz Ooal Gown." Neia said and gave him a bow of her head.

"It seems that it goes both ways, you saved the patriarch of my servant's family… at great risk to yourself." Ainz offered out his praise freely, but Neia gave it a hand wave aside.

"First I helped him because he was in a state of weakness, he needed it, and helping the weak is just good sense. Then… it was because he was my friend, just like with To'Raven, when you love your friends, you lay down your life for them, that is the highest devotion of all. It's the same reason I made myself Queen. They're my friends, or my friends' children, and making things safe for them is what a ruler is supposed to do. Or am I wrong?" Neia asked, her face briefly wistful when she rubbed the neck of the dragon beside her.

Ainz' eyes widened as she thoughtlessly quoted his guild, himself, and one of his oldest friends as if they were known to her, despite her face, his 'affection meter' began to max out. "No, no you are not wrong… Queen of Frost Neia Baraja." He said from across the open space between them.

"I'm glad we agree… Allfather Ainz Ooal Gown. But please, my title is a long one… since we're supposed to make peace, why don't you just call me 'Neia' until we decide whether or not we're enemies?"

"Then… you should also call me Ainz." He said, "And this," he gestured to the Holy Queen, "I'm sure you know, is Calca Bessarez."

"Your Majesty." Neia inclined her head with a polite bow.

"Given the situation… call me 'Calca' also… and for what it is worth, I say again, I am sorry."

Neia shrugged off the apology. "Your reputation is that you wanted to be a good Queen. There are worse ambitions."

"I know about you, more, I mean, from your records, sent to die, an outcast, we checked with your old comrades… and they didn't see you as one… my country, your country, wasn't kind to you, and I am sorry for that too." The Queen said with a bitter frown on her face.

"A village embraces a child, or the child burns it down to feel its warmth." Neia replied and continued to idly stroke the neck of Olasird'arc. "Maybe that is what we have here, I had nowhere else to go and now… here we are? But I also know the rest of it, the Slane Theocracy, their conspiracies and attempts to use us both." Neia fell silent as the noise of carriages approached.

Servants disembarked from both sides, rushing over with a half table each, and chairs enough for them all.

As they worked, Neia said, "I hate to ask, but I sent word to Astraka already, and have not heard back, still he should have gotten my message by now, if necessary, could we wait a day or two?"

"He is here… He was defeated at the Battle of Western Hoburns, and is now a captive." Ainz said, and Calca pointed to the carriage where Kelart emerged, holding a chain that secured three people at the wrists. Astraka, and Neia's parents.

Her eyes narrowed, "You beat him… fine… that changes very little… but you also bring out my parents… to what, torment me?" She hissed.

Calca answered by walking over to Kelart, and holding out a hand after a few whispered words, accepting a key. The Holy Queen went to the two paladins, and unlocked their manacles. "Go." She said, "Go to your daughter." The golden haired Holy Queen waited while they stared at her and rubbed their wrists, "What are you waiting for, I said 'go'." Calca said again and pointed over to Neia.

Neia looked at them both, her wings out, she touched her horns as they came closer, small steps, hesitant at first…

"Mother… father… I know I look different," Neia said and ran her fingers along the horns and over her almost imperceptibly scaled face, "but it's me… it really is, it's Neia…"

Her eyes welled up.

"Is it… I heard but…" Her father whispered, but Neia began to speak.

"You came to me in the prison, two years ago, you flung your arms through the bars and I held you through them, you told me you loved me, and it was the first time you ever said it. It was the happiest day of my life… and when I was being executed, while I was screaming and Remedios Custodio was shoving the swords into my body, you fought to get to me, to try to save me…"

"It is you…" Her mother whispered, and like that the dam burst and they rushed across the space between, her father and mother embraced her, wings and all. "Whatever you are… you're ours first…" Her mother kissed her daughter's cool scaled cheeks, and her father the top of her head.

Neia squeezed them both until she felt them wince. "I wasn't sure what you'd say… I'm an animal now in this country's eyes, or a monster to be put down… I wasn't sure how you'd answer… I'm so glad…" She buried her head in between them, and they kindly ignored the light poking of her horns when she did.

"The laws are changing." Calca said while that went on. "Part of my marriage to the Allfather. By his laws, all nonhumans are considered lawful citizens, equal in the eyes of the crown. Our nations will be one. We will be his people, and his people will be mine."

Neia stepped back from her parents and looked at both the Holy Queen and the Allfather with new respect. She touched her parents' shoulders and said, "Please, step aside, I have to work now, but… if you want to stay with me, I will make sure you live comfortably in my new homeland."

They nodded quietly and moved aside, letting lingering touches fall on her body and trail away till they could move to her side of the circle.

"That is heartening." Neia wiped her eyes, her fangs did nothing to make her appear friendlier, "But there is more… As you know, I have captured Remedios Custodio, and I intend to behead her for her crime and put her head on the wall where she tried to kill me. But Kelart," Neia gestured to the woman who stood aside, holding Astraka's chain while the sullen Duke looked on, a spectator who thought not that long ago believed he would be participating, "says you can do better."

Neia sat at the small round table in the middle of the open space, using a chair provided by the Holy Kingdom, while Calca sat at a chair provided by Demalbion.

Ainz did not sit, instead he crossed from one side to the other, "The condition is that she lives, and not be tortured, however…" Ainz came closer, and Neia tensed, "May I?" He asked.

She nodded with some reticence, and he leaned in to whisper. As he did, she kept bobbing her head in agreement, and when he finished, her face was completely neutral, but she said at once…

"His Majesty… Ainz' solution is agreeable. I will turn her over to the Allfather, assuming we can agree to all else." Neia agreed, and when Ainz went to Calca and sat beside her, she looked up at him with curious eyes.

"It's only as bad as she makes it for herself." He said, and left it at that.

"Now, my… ally. Duke Astraka, what do you plan to do with him?" Neia asked.

"The normal penalty for treason is death on the wall." Calca replied.

"You don't have a wall." Neia pointed out.

"You don't intend to give it back?" Calca replied.

"After killing Remedios on it, I planned to dismantle it, as she is going with the Allfather, I will jump straight to that. I will utterly destroy the border wall, down to the last brick, it's good building material, I could use that." Neia said with a pragmatic, confident smile on her face that made her wings shiver with Calca's consternation.

"We have many prisoners," Neia said matter of factly, "Including many nobles, exile Astraka to my country as a penalty, along with his family, assuming your brother is unharmed, and I will return those nobles in a fortnight."

Calca pursed her lips, "He takes nothing with him. Not even the family crest, they will be erased here."

"Only essential travel items and personal effects, nothing significant to their house or history, no weapons, insignias, or banners. He and his family come to me as poor travelers, refugees." Neia offered.

"Agreed." Calca said at once. "But what about the many other prisoners you've taken?"

"If you are willing to feed them on the return trip, I will let all of those who want to go, come home. Take your time about it, months if needed." Neia suggested, then began tapping a talon on the wooden table, "But don't be surprised if some of them refuse. I have a lot of open land, and even with the elves, I still haven't got enough for it all. Some of the humans might want to remain to farm or work, I've had them treated as well as I could under the circumstances. I can't say how many people that will matter to."

Calca's mouth shut tight for a moment and she looked up to her future husband.

"And the matter of the Theocracy?" She asked, "Since you know everything?"

"They're going to be a problem for me, I am willing to engage in an alliance against them if necessary, on one condition." Neia insisted, "Free trade and free movement across borders, and that we have suitable reparations for the harm your servant did by causing this war. The care of your captured population was costly, even if we had a use for them, and your war set me back years."

"You pillaged our dead, did you not?" Calca remarked with frosty blue eyes. "Surely the weapons and armor they carried was enough."

Neia thought that over… "Fine, deduct that from the cost of feeding our captives, and…" She sighed, "Fine, exclusive rights beside the crown to buy from the old Wenmark mines, I understand those were profitable, and we will pay fair market price, we need minerals while we get our own mines going in earnest, and that should be enough."

Calca thought that over, and then answered, "Agreed, we'll have prisoners enough to do that labor for some time, we'll sell you whatever we don't need, on the condition that no demihuman under arms comes over our border, and that we get the right to try them if any crimes are committed."

"As long as we get the same consideration regarding humans." Neia answered instantly.

"Agreed." Calca answered.

The negotiations went on for some time beyond that, and more than once, Ainz was frankly bored, but when the sun finally was starting to set, three copies of an elaborate treaty were written, read over, and provided to each country in their own written language, and signed by all three nations.

"Will you have a hard time settling things in the South, Calca?" Neia asked.

"No, Astraka was the driving force, with our war with you over, we have paladins, and you know better than anyone here that no other force in the nation can stand up to those. Their household troops and militia are no match for us. I should have the whole matter settled in a few weeks, chances are they will surrender outright when I bring fifty thousand veteran paladins to the gates of Yanana, and then one brief appearance per city… there may be some fighting, but with that marvelous runecraft equipment, we can't lose." Calca had a healthy smile on her face, but the Queen of frost looked at her cockeyed.

"Runecraft?" She asked.

Ainz snapped to attention when the opportunity presented itself. "A marvelous cost free form of enchantment, all it takes is time."

Neia looked at him with renewed interest, "Is that so… and it works with any weapon?" She asked, and he saw the hint of greed in her eyes that he'd seen on many clients who smelled opportunity.

"Yes, I understand you were an archer, but… I don't see a bow?" Ainz pointed out with a half rhetorical question.

Neia let out a regretful sigh, "It was broken at the Second Battle of Kalinsha, another thing I owe Remedios for."

"I see…" Ainz said, "Then… as a token of friendship, let me offer you something to mark the new peace between us all, and the profitable trade relations I'm sure will come between us all."

He reached into empty space, and before all sets of wide staring eyes, he pulled out a marvelous bow, bones of some once majestic beast, inlaid with gold and runes that though barely visible to the naked eye, coursed with power. "This is called 'The Ultimate Shooting Star Super. A gift from my Kingdom, to yours."

Neia stretched out her trembling hand, the bow pulsed with, she almost thought 'power' but it was more. 'Destiny.' She thought. Every inch of her longed to shoot it, 'This is the most beautiful thing I've seen in my life…' She gasped, "I can feel it… it calls to me… like I was meant to bear this bow…" She looked at Ainz with focused, certain eyes, the terror she normally projected, was turned to a detailed study of the towering human King.

"You are no ordinary man. Don't ask me how I know, maybe we knew each other in another life, maybe many, but somehow, I know there is far more to you than even what I am seeing here… come to my country when my capital is built. Let me call you 'guest', let me call you 'friend', and let me repay you for this wonderful gift."

Ainz was briefly taken aback by her intensity, and he held down the sigh of relief that he was sitting.

"I would be pleased to do so… I admit… this is all beyond my expectations. Had we not fallen to fighting, perhaps we could have been friendly from the start." Ainz pointed out.

Neia and Calca gave dissatisfied grunts. "We have the Slane Theocracy to thank for that." They said at once, and eyes popped open to stare at one another briefly across the table.

"We will show our thanks to them one day." The Queen of Frost replied, and stood from the table as the last of the daytime sun died on the horizon, bathing them in the last of its orange glow.

The Allfather and the Holy Queen rose in turn with her, and each holding their copies of the treaty in hand, they crossed to the middle, and shook hands.

"I think I speak for both of us," Ainz said as Calca and Neia broke their handshake, "when I say that we will be watching your rule with great interest, Neia."

"I look forward to showing you what we can do and… thank you for returning my parents… I feared what you might demand for them." Neia added.

"We got what we wanted already, an end to the fighting, and your friendship." Ainz replied, and Neia chuckled at him.

"I had to lose my humanity to find comrades and friends, and now the two humans I fought against, I find I'm friends with, this is the strangest of worlds, but I wish you both well in it." She looked over to Astraka, her ally, and inclined her head. "A good life awaits you when you return to me, Neia Baraja repays her debts."

Olasird'arc looked down at the Queen of Frost and said, "I'd like to remain here, to catch up with my son."

Neia answered promptly, "Of course, I'm sorry you ended up on opposite sides, even without knowing it. I can fly back to Kalinsha and arrange things on my own, just bring my parents with you when you come back."

"We're going to ride a dragon…" Pabel stammered.

"Only once. As a favor to her." Olasird'arc pointed out, but neither one was about to complain.

Neia turned once more to the pair, "Ainz, Calca, we'll meet again, and without any hostility next time."

"There is a saying from a vanished people in a vanished world," Ainz added, and when both women looked to him he said, "after the war, make alliances. The war is over, I have given you a weapon, that token should mark the end of the old ways, and the beginning of something new."

"I don't know what lies ahead, but at least we have some of the same hopes. Peace and safety for my friends and my people, on her side of the wall when I lived there, on the other side when I went over there, and now both. Good luck, all of you, next time we meet… may more beer than blood, flow."

The trio waved and traded the promise, and Neia's wings popped wide, beat, and took her off into the air again, back the way she'd come.

"That went better than I expected." Calca replied, "I didn't think I'd like her, she seemed so familiar somehow… and I'm glad we met her, even if I didn't care for the situation."

Ainz put a hand on her shoulder, "It is funny that way, but as am I. We should return to Hoburns soon, the carriage should hold us all."

"Sire?" Hejinmal asked.

"Speak with your father if you wish, then return home to Nazarick. You can arrange a larger reunion later." Ainz gave the order, and Hejinmal bowed his head down to the ground.

"Thank you, My Lord." The young frost dragon replied, and with that Ainz, Calca, Kelart, and Astraka returned to the carriage again, and turned it around for the journey back again.