Chapter 354

They were halfway back to the town when Brain asked, "Suppose we get there, find out it's not what we expected and take her back, we still have the same problem that made us leave her there in the first place."

Zesshi thought that one over, she scratched her head and swept her air back before looking in his direction and saying, "I kind of have one idea."

"Wait, really?" He asked and blinked several times in the darkness.

Her lips formed a somewhat chastised pout, "You don't have to say that like it's impossible… and if you laugh I'll slap you."

"I wouldn't dream of it." He said while suppressing a chuckle, "Not after knowing the way you kick." He rubbed his ribs and made an exaggerated wince.

"Right… sorry, I just- no… no excuses. I judged you after you've helped look after us. As strong as I am, I have no idea how to live on my own." Zesshi's face was blank when she said it, but of all the things he knew about her, she wasn't prone to saying things she didn't mean.

"Thank you… again. But it's fine, I've largely healed, I heal quickly, I'm lucky that way." Brain said to her, and then after clearing his throat he pressed, "Your idea?"

"Oh… right. So the Slane Theocracy is a very 'formal' kind of country. Raymond used to complain about it, so did Dominic… it was the one thing they both agreed on. They treated representatives and rulers very differently from individuals. Burning and destroying a village was one thing, but it's a longstanding rule to not target diplomats. Heads of state… maybe, but that's a rough one, especially if it will hurt them." She saw his mouth form a wide 'O' shape and the trace of a smile formed on her face as she saw his understanding dawn.

"So… actually try to win the tournament and… take the throne?" Brain's mind began to spin as Zesshi explained.

"Sure, if I'm the Empress of the Baharuth Empire, they probably wouldn't dare to strike at me unless they had no other choice. Targeting Layali would also be out of the question, she's nothing to them, they have a snowball's chance in hell of working out her origins or that she'd have a lifelong grudge against them. And they can't afford to be the cause of the Empire's complete collapse. So… all I have to do is win, and who in the world can hope to defeat me?" Zesshi asked with a smug upturn of her jaw.

"That… could work, it might actually be a good idea." Brain thought it over and began to rub the faint blue scraggle of a beard that was starting to form on his face.

"Was it necessary to put it that way?" She asked him with a pointed stare that robbed her face of its smugness.

"Maybe not. But hey, maybe it's the first of many?" He winked, shrugged, and she coaxed her horse close to him, then bopped her shoulder against his, sending him tumbling to the ground.

He rolled immediately to his feet and she added, "Having sex with you was 'also' my idea… although… I guess it was only a pretty good idea." She taunted and cantered her horse ahead.

Brain's laughter followed behind her as he remounted his horse and quickly caught up with her again. "I suppose I had that one coming. I can practically hear the women of the world saying, 'Yes, you did.' and who am I to argue?"

"The person who maybe wants a repeat performance?" She asked him.

"I assumed that was a one time thing." He replied and for a moment she was quiet about it.

"You were my first." Zesshi said, and all the mirth was gone. "I always assumed the first time I did it would be with someone stronger than me… I always assumed… gods… how fucked up am I?"

"Zesshi?" He asked and leaned a little closer.

"My mother was humanity's trump card, before me. The strongest of the strong, but my father still took her and forced her to have me. I used to look at myself and see the parts of my father… and how I hated him. I dreamed of the day I could kill him. But I suppose I just always assumed that I'd have my mother's life… right down to its worst part, having me. That someone would defeat me, and I'd have a child, just like she was defeated, and had a child. I never realized how… screwed up everything is. My handlers over the years, except for Raymond and my mother, always encouraged me to 'have strong children'. The handful of Godkin we have, they're encouraged to sleep with lots of women… Cenna has cut a wide swath in particular."

She tightened her hands on the reins of her horse, "I just assumed it'd be… but then that night when we-" She inhaled heavily and then let it out. "I never thought it would be something I enjoyed. It never occurred to me that I'd- I'd like that person."

"Your country failed you bad." Brain said with a glare in the direction of the Theocracy.

"Maybe so. Maybe so." Zesshi answered him, turning her eyes in the same direction as himself, and they rode on in silence until the town came into view.

Brain however, had his mind on other things. 'Empress Zesshi Zetsumei… it does have a nice ring to it.' He turned his thoughts to that, and then pictured Layali in the clothing of a princess. 'She'll be safe there, she'll have a good life, she'll have everything a girl could want… Zesshi is unbeatable.'

The more he thought, the better it sounded, 'I'll miss her though… her and Layali… once they're Empress and Princess, there's no way I can stay. I was wrong before, this is what will be for the best.'

Layali took one look at her 'bed' and immediately missed Brain's cloak and the grass. The wooden frame was more like termites hugging one another to hold it together, cracked and full of holes, she had to wonder, 'Will this even hold me up?' A look around the room where thirty other 'beds' sat around suggested that, no, it might very well not. Some of the beds were collapsed at either the head or the feet, tilting them down one way or the other.

The blanket was worn thin and clearly cut from a larger horse blanket, it had rips and holes aplenty, and was badly frayed along the edges. Worse, it was thin, offering no real security against any chill if and when that hit.

As to her 'mattress' there was none. The flat frame just had straw heaped on it, and a bundled set of straw served as a pillow. 'Home sweet home. Even my f- no… Brain is papa now… even the man who made me, gave us better than this.'

'At least they had the sense to split us up between girls and boys, old and young…' She thought as she bent over the bed and began rustling the old, dry, golden straw around to make it into something comfortable to sleep on. Recalling her life on her creator's estate, there'd been no real privacy to speak of and it wasn't uncommon to hear moans in the darkness as two tried to find some pleasure amidst their bleak existence. So life's most basic mysteries were long resolved in her mind and she had to acknowledge that Lady Grel, if she was indeed in charge, had at least some sense.

Again the thought came to her to run. 'But where?' She asked as the noise of the lock outside clicked shut. The door was in good shape, and the one window was very small.

If there was a way out, it wasn't apparent. 'Zesshi would just slap the door apart with the back of her hand and boom, that would be that! Brain would… I don't know, cut it in half with his sword… probably.' That made her smile sadly, and she got into her bed of straw. She curled up on her side, rested her head on what passed for a pillow and pulled the rough, scratchy rag of a blanket over her body. Her curled form became tight as a ball and her eyes squeezed shut to hide the enclosed room. The noise of the others was dying down and snoring quickly followed.

'Come get me… please come get me… I don't wanna be here…' Layali said in prayers to a god she couldn't name, and repeated it until she finally fell into a deep, exhausted sleep.