Chapter 81. Liberator

Three months later

… "I did have every intention of waiting," Everly said to her guest as she reached across the table and helped herself to another serving of shrimp. "I swear it on my life. But I'm what you'd call mercurial. It suddenly occurred to me that I didn't really have to wait for anything. I don't need a reason to do anything. I'm a kite caught in the breeze, your grace. I let the wind take me wherever it wants."

"You can't possibly expect there to be no reprisals," Duke Primus Godwell said in a cold, angry voice. "However confident you may feel in your abilities, the Godwells have reigned over this nation for millennia."

Duke Primus was a dignified-looking man seemingly in his middle years with short cropped auburn hair touched with silver at his temples and throughout his beard. The only indication that he wasn't human was his eyes, which were coal black with fury, as the ancient vampire fumed at his current captivity.

His foul mood was understandable. When Everly sent her invitation for him to join her for lunch, she'd had Grail deliver it. Refusal to attend wasn't an included option. How lucky for everyone that vampires healed quickly.

"I can and I do," Everly said lightly. She then held up a large prawn by its tail and gently lowered it to her lips and bit into it, making a pleased sound as she chewed in appreciation of its delicious flavor. "Good lord, Carter has outdone himself again! I need more seafood in my life. Seafood is now my everything."

"Enough about the food," Primus said in an attempt to redirect the conversation. "Do you realize what you've done by dragging me here? Your destruction is all but assured, child."

"Nooo, I can't focus on the boring parts right now, the food is too good," Everly said before licking her fingers and reaching for another piece to swallow. "I burn so many calories in a day that it's ridiculous. For me to stay high functioning, especially while conversing with dullards like you, I have to keep chomping away."

"Child, are you going out of your way to offend me?" Primus asked her.

"Are you just now noticing?" replied Everly.

"I find this infantile display pathetic, that's all," Primus replied with a voice heavy with contempt. "Is kidnapping me an attempt at vengeance? You began this war by attacking my family. You've stolen the lives of my great-grandchildren and my daughter. Then you violated the eternal rest of my ancestors! How much more disrespect do you think I'll take?"

"I'm sorry, but did you call this a war?" Everly suddenly asked him.

"What else could this possibly be?" Primus asked her.

"For me? Playtime. Experimentation. Practice. All three at once," Everly smirked. "But not war, Primus. War would imply that I took you seriously. That I considered you a threat. That you were worthy of crossing blades with me. How could that possibly be true, you ridiculous old fossil? You spent most of your immortal life hiding behind your children and your followers. When was the last time you settled anything with your own two hands? Are you even capable of fighting your own battles?"

"That is the last time you will ever mock me, Everly Skolder," Duke Primus said before moving from his chair with a burst of inhuman speed to slash at her exposed throat with his clawed fingers, only for Everly to lazily catch his hand at the wrist, mid-swipe.

"Are we taking bets on that?" Everly asked him with a curious expression on her face. "If we are, I don't think I like your odds."

"What is this? How are you…"

"How am I still conscious? Why isn't that nasty blood magic you've been saturating the air with affecting me?" Everly said, finishing his question for him. "Sorry, old man. Anne caught me off guard with that once before and gave my bell a ring. Since then, I've made some adjustments to my physiology to make sure that would never happen again. Mission accomplished, it would seem!"

Then she began to squeeze his wrist, causing the proud old monster to howl in pain as he slowly sank to his knees before her.

"I like you like this Primus," she said to him softly. "I like taking your pride away. You were so puffed up with it! I found it so adorable! I don't dislike arrogance in men, you see. But yours was comical in its excess. An invisible shield of insufferable self-regard. I knew I had to pop it as soon as I could!"

"I'll…I'll kill you for this," he gasped. "I'll make you suffer like no one ever has before—ARGH!" he screamed when Everly pushed her foot against his chest and gave his arm a firm tug, ripping it free of his torso.

"No, I don't believe you will, Primus," she said to him before tossing his arm to the sentry who guarded the door to the room, who immediately began devouring it. She then rose from her seat and this time placed her foot on the duke's head. "A new wind is blowing throughout the kingdom of Winstead. A beautiful breeze of freedom carrying upon it the name of Everly the liberator, who single-handedly ended the ancient conspiracy of the Godwells and overthrew the unworthy royal family. That's pretty sweet, right? For me, anyway."

"What else could you possibly do to my family?" Primus rasped beneath her heel. "What else could you do to us!" he suddenly screamed.

"Kill them to the last man and toss their souls into the rat room," Everly replied at once. "Oh, you don't know about the rat room yet, do you? Forget I said that; it's a surprise. You're going to love it, though."

"Everly…Everly, we can make a deal. You and I can make a deal!" Primus begged her. "Running a nation is no small feat, I can be of use to you! The Godwells can serve you well."

Before she responded, Everly leaned forward and increased the pressure on his skull.

"Primus…you just don't get it, you silly thing. I don't care about running the country. I don't care if it falls into ruin and the people starve or die from disease. None of that matters to me. I just want to be in charge because I'm better than everyone else and I want to wallow in the shallow enjoyment of being the one who rules. There's nothing more important to me than that."

"Why?" he asked her. "Why?"

"Because I'm surface level, silly!" Everly giggled. "God, no matter the world, every fucking idiot thinks that proper villainy needs complex reasoning for its existence. It doesn't! Humans aren't complex creatures, Primus. I'm certainly not! I'm self-aware enough to realize that my behavior can't be justified and I'm okay with that. I don't believe I'm the hero of my own story and I love that about myself. I just want to kick over the sandcastle and watch everyone else choke on the granules. What's wrong with that? Isn't that reason enough to exist?"

"That's utterly insane," Primus said before Everly finished pressing down with her foot and crushed his head into a horrid red smear on the once pristine floor.

"You think?" Everly said with a roll of her eyes.

She then examined the dead vampire's body for a few moments as she considered what to say next, before deciding on: "Well, I suppose it's Godwell that ends well."

"Awful. Awful," Grail said with a disappointed look on his face as he stepped into the room and lifted the corpse over his shoulder.

"You don't mean that," Everly pouted. "You thought it was great."

"I said what I said," Grail replied as he walked towards a glowing gateway with the duke's body.

"Ugh, that old man's turning into such a damn critic," Everly fretted to herself before noticing that there was still plenty of leftover shrimp and prawns. It was delicious…

"Well, it's not like Primus is going to finish his share," she said before helping herself to the entire tray.

Outside the tower, her endless ocean of ravagers began their march through the gateways in all four cardinal directions to spread the good news to the people of Winstead. They were all now under new management.

It wasn't an easy decision to make. Everly had genuinely wanted to check off her list of minor achievements before openly declaring herself the ruler of the world, but her near death at Anne's hands had awakened her to the possibility of defeat. Nothing was really set in stone, was it? What was that old saying? Man makes plans and God laughs. Well, after her close call, that was something that Everly now concurred with. Why put off until tomorrow what you could accomplish today?

With that having been decided, Everly decided to remove the last of her true obstacles. Duke Primus would have known all about her thanks to his daughter. He'd controlled Winstead from the shadows for who knew how long. With him dead, Winstead had only its unstable king and the idiotic nobility to defend itself. That of course would prove to be no defense at all against four ravening armies of immortal super-cannibals.

By the end of the week, Everly would be the empress of Winstead in truth as well as fantasy. It was now time for her to step into the spotlight and claim her due.

Unsurprisingly, Fenn wasn't pleased to learn of Everly's decision. Especially the one regarding her place in the new regime.

"You can't be serious," she said when Everly stopped by her quarters later in the day to inform her of what was going to happen. "Everly, I don't even want to be the head of the Godwells! That's not something I've ever wanted for myself!"

"Fenn, relax," Everly said to her with a careless wave of her hand. "It's just a symbolic position. The Godwells are finished in every meaningful way. You'll just be there to nod your pretty head whenever I say something and give the good people of the kingdom a sense of continuity and stability. They'll appreciate you just like I appreciate you."

"That's not even it! I want nothing to do with my family," Fenn said stubbornly. "They were monsters! No, worse than monsters! I'm changing my name and forgetting I was ever one of them. That's the end of it!"

Everly sighed to herself, disappointed by Fenn's reaction. What a stubborn girl! Here Everly was, graciously appointing her to a position of authority that frankly she didn't deserve. And how did she react to such generous cronyism? By rejecting it out of hand! Why was Fenn so incapable of learning a basic lesson about how the real world worked? When someone offered you power, you took it!

Why was she unable to understand such an obvious thing?

"Fenn. Fenn. Listen, I understand that you're having trouble processing the events of the last few weeks. You thought you were one of the good guys. You thought your family had a noble purpose guiding their behavior. Who cares if you were wrong on both accounts? At least now you finally know the truth. And now you can take advantage of it and profit!"

Everly stepped closer to the other girl and began tracing her finger lightly up her shoulder and her neck until it rested beneath her chin. Then she tilted Fenn's head back and leaned into a warm kiss.

"Just think about it! You and me and all the fun we'll have running this country. We'll do whatever we want, whenever we want, and if anyone says otherwise, we'll just have to gently correct them. It's going to be great. Think of it as my apology gift for, you know, murdering you. Mistakes happen! I felt bad about it! I'm sorry."

"Everly, I have never once said I wanted anything to do with your crazy fantasies," said Fenn.

"The only fantasies I have right now involve you and me, babe," Everly replied. "And you're right, they're making me crazy." She leaned in for another kiss and was surprised when Fenn resisted her and pushed her away. "Hey, what's the deal? What did I do now?"

"The same thing you always do!" Fenn said angrily. "You're making decisions that will hurt other people. You're ignoring anything you don't want to hear. You're even denying my autonomy. Blondie, despite your arrogant self-regard, you're not all that!"

"That has to be a lie," opined Everly.

"It isn't!" Fenn insisted. "I'm not going to do what you say and I'm not going to be your kept girl. Everly, I'm leaving."

"Oh my god, Fenn, really? Is this really your big moment of character development? Walking away from the winning team to go back to being an unwanted loser?" Everly stared at the ceiling in a dramatic display of exasperation before turning back to face her. "Just do as I say, stupid! That's all you need to do, and you'll finally be happy! Obey! To capitulate is to love!"

"Why would I ever love someone like you?" Fenn asked her in a quiet tone of voice.

Everly stared at her in surprise for several moments before saying, "Okay. Now you're just trying to hurt me."

"I'm the one who's been hurt. Always because of you," Fenn replied. "First I'm your toy, then I'm an inconvenience to be disposed of, and now I'm back to being your toy. You don't care about me at all, you just care about how I make you feel."

"And what's wrong with that?" Everly asked her in a hollow voice that was suddenly devoid of emotion. "What's wrong with being something I enjoy having around? I'll treat you well. I'll keep you safe. I'll give you anything you want. So just stop…resisting. Just be what I want you to be. It's the best possible decision you can make."

"You called me something you enjoy having around," Fenn said.

"I swear that you are," Everly promised her.

"I'm a someone, not a something, you crazy bitch," Fenn said flatly. "Get out of my way, I'm leaving."

At that moment, Everly smiled at her. It was a strange, brittle-looking thing, unlike any expression she'd ever worn before. Then she shook her head violently like a stubborn child and said, "No. No, no, no. You're making a bad decision, so no. I'm exercising my veto."

"Everly, I said get out of my WAY—" Fenn began to say.

"NO!" Everly shouted furiously. As she did this, a wave of invisible energy erupted from her body and slammed Fenneth against the wall of her room, stunning her.

When she came to her senses, she realized her head was resting on Everly's lap, with the other girl stroking her hair gently.

"Fenn, you're confused," Everly said to her. "You just don't get it, and that's why you're always getting hurt. You have to stop being so willful, okay? You need to get used to how things are now. So, you're going to stay here until you truly understand. What I say…goes. It's for the best. You'll see that I'm right. I'm always right."

Having said that, Everly kissed Fenn on the cheek. Then she rose to her feet and began walking towards the exit.

"No," Fenn mumbled before clumsily pulling herself up. "Everly, no."

She stumbled after the other girl, desperately trying to follow her outside when suddenly the door vanished from sight, leaving her surrounded by nothing but smooth stone.

"Everly? NO. EVERLY!" she screamed in frustration. "EVERLY!"

Outside the room-turned-cell, Everly stood there listening to her name being called and smiled to herself. She held her hands up to her cheeks and blushed happily at the desperation she heard in Fenn's voice.

Fenn needed her. She really did. She just didn't realize it yet. But once she did, and once she realized who was in charge, they could finally be together. It would just take a few adjustments and a little patience.

Something told Everly that Fenn was worth it.

Later that evening, Grail joined her in her quarters, where once more, she leaned over the balcony to gaze into the abyss.

"You're not planning on jumping again, are you?" he asked her warily.

"Nah. I've got too much going on right now to even consider it," Everly smiled. "How's it going outside?"

"The kingdom's collapse is inevitable, my empress," Grail said. "All efforts to resist so far have been easily smashed. As far as lop-sided victories are concerned, this has been a staggering success."

"That easily, huh?" Everly asked him. "And no one incredible has appeared to thwart our progress? No gallant hero to raise the flag of defiance?"

"Not so far," Grail said mildly. "Give it time, though. Perhaps your challenger hasn't discovered their destiny yet."

"It'd be nice if they'd hurry up," Everly said. "Oh, well. Have you got your list of reforms prepared?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," Grail said with a smile now quirking at the corner of his mouth. "Just a few dozen necessary beheadings and changes in staff. We'll also have to redistribute the wealth of a few undeserving old families, and I'd really like you to consider abolishing the national temple."

"Grail! Religion makes it easier to manipulate people, not harder. Why would you want to take away such a convenient means of control?"

"Because I hate the temple and I want to see it collapse into ruinous decline?" he said simply.

"Meh, sounds good enough to me," Everly said after giving it a moment's thought. "Leave the local churches particular to individual towns and villages alone though."

"Why?" Grail asked curiously.

"Small churches always accuse big churches of being corrupt. Sparing them while destroying the major branches will feel like vindication to them. It'll bring more division than unity."

Grail laughed and nodded. "Wonderful."

"Gosh, Grail. Could it be that you're finally learning to enjoy being evil?"

"It's difficult to put into words, Everly. I've been waiting for this day for so long and now that it's here…it's even better than I thought it would be. The only thing that could make it perfect would be killing your father as the capstone."

Now it was Everly's turn to laugh. "Holy shit, old man! That was almost too honest."

"I feel what I feel," Grail said unapologetically.

"Well, until Daddy crosses a line—"

"Which he will," Grail cut in.

"But until he does, he gets to keep his neck. Don't make any of this about him, Grail. This is my moment. Our moment. We're conquerors. Liberators! The screams of fear filling this night will soon be replaced with shouts of joy. We are the heroes."

"But not actually the heroes?" he smirked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, no, not in the slightest," Everly quickly agreed. Then she raised her arm which Grail quickly accepted. "Now, my dear red knight, escort your empress to Titania's story reading. I'm told that this shall be an epic evening of thrills and adventure."

"It should be amusing," Grail said. "Lady Titania has discovered the works of Robert Howard and watched all three Conan films. She said she found them utterly inspirational."

"Oh my god," Everly said in dismay. "Wait, where's Beverly? Can I make Beverly go in my place?"

"She's already there."

"Damn it!" Everly swore. "If only there were more of me…wait, no. No. Not doing that again. Oh, well. Maybe it'll turn out better than it sounds."

"It probably won't," Grail said with a shrug.

"Ugh. Heavy is the head that wears the crown," Everly said despondently as they made their way to the performance.