Nua said nothing when they left the palace, nothing when they left the city, nothing when they descended the lift, and nothing as the coracle bobbed peacefully in the waters as they made their way back. She barely moved beyond the slow pace of her feet and shifted her eyes around to take in everything beneath the blue sky.

She took long, slow, deep breaths and despite not being unhappy as near as Sado or Kaiji could tell, they had a distinct sense that they should say nothing.

They simply remained a step back and followed closely until they disembarked the coracle.

Nua stepped onto the wooden dock first, then politely extended a hand to her servants, helping Sado, then Kaiji to rise from the rocking little round boat.

When they were alone after the coracle departed, Nua finally spoke. “That went better than expected.”

She wasn’t the least bit surprised when Kaiji clenched her fists like a spurned lover, shaking with frustration and fear. The demon-elf pressed her head into Nua’s chest. “I’m not going to let you go there! You will not go to the Tlalmok Empire… you’re going to have to execute me… I won’t let you, I won’t…” She squeezed her eyes shut and her slender fists pounded on Nua’s chest. “They’ll kill you… you’re not invulnerable, you'd need one of the greatest armies in the world to protect you.”

Sado put a hand on his sword hilt, “Mistress,” the gold collared human said with conviction, “She isn’t speaking just for herself. I will be dead before I let you offer yourself up like that. Don’t think I’ve reached the pinnacle of my strength. I will stop you by force if I have to, when it comes to that. If you plan on walking into that place, you’ll have to have me killed, because if I am not dead, I will chase you down and drag you back.”

Nua touched the cheek of the distraught demon-elf, then wrapped that arm around Kaiji’s waist. “The loyalty of you both is touching, but while I mean everything I say… what I say doesn’t always mean what it seems.”

“I will go to the Tlalmok as I promised… and if a few armies want to go with me?” Nua shrugged her arms out at her side, shook her head, and laughed, “By the bones of god, how can I argue with loyalty like that? What’s an empress to do, but give in? I can’t very well enslave you all twice now, can I?” The laughter trailed off and she let Kaiji go, “Come along, let’s get our horses and go back, if we’re not there before long, I have no doubt Onimeus will start making plans to lay siege to Da’nak.”

“As you wish, my lady.” Sado said as a hint of his mistress’s vision unfolded further in his own mind. ‘The Pain Children… they’ll be adults by that time, they’ll be of killing age far sooner.’ He turned that over and over in his head, the countless thrusts of little wooden knives, the throws, the grips, the ‘stalking’ in the darkness, Solution’s constant repetitions. ‘They’ll do anything for their mistress… and Shi… Shi already thinks nothing of slaughter. They’ll be terrors that no one ever dreamed possible. Rather like their mistress that way.’

Sado considered the various possible applications for a corps of assassins raised from their early years to do nothing but end the lives they’re told to end. It was almost too horrific to contemplate, and yet at the same moment, he could see it. The vision passed through his mind of Nua on her throne, the Pain Children, young, unassuming, and loyal on their knees, a raised white hand and a name… a knife in the dark, and a threat removed.

He was still thinking about all of that when they made camp for the night and he took watch while they slept.

The glorious vision of war and conquest, victory open and honest, was ripped apart as the epiphany hit him like a bolt of lightning striking him out of a clear day. ‘It’s not a saga or a legend… it’s raw, she’ll stop at nothing, there’s nothing too underhanded, nothing too base or disgusting, nothing she won’t do to win… and that is why we’re safe. How could I have ever been such a damn fool?!’

He covered his face with one hand, curling the fingers over it as if to claw the flesh away. ‘If I’d seen it as she does… I could have easily just had one or two key people killed and thrown them into chaos before the war began. I could have prepared by austerity measures and then hired mercenaries enough to stop Pas’en’s cavalry…’ His fingers clawed at the flesh of his face until he shook with pain, one eye seeing the fire clearly rising in the night, crackling as if to speak to him.

‘That’s how it is, that’s how it all is, I was so stupid… no more. No more. Forget not being beaten again… I was still thinking of strength alone. I need more than that. So much more… and then… then I can set her on the throne of an empire. Maybe I can’t be her husband. But I can be her sword as Solution is her knife and Onimeus her shield and Kaiji her mind and the Pain Children her tools…’ As he contemplated it all, everything began to fit together, everyone had a use to which they were being applied that was in some way comparable to an object.

He covered his mouth to stifle a laugh at the obvious that had never occurred to him, but failed to stifle it enough, and Kaiji awoke. She lay on her side and asked, “Is everything alright?”

“Yes, better than alright, I’m sorry to wake you, Kaiji, go back to sleep, your shift isn’t for another two hours at least.” Sado bowed his head in apology.

“No, it’s fine, what is it?” She put her hands on the ground and pushed up, the bedroll sliding off her shoulders as she raised herself up halfway.

“I was just thinking about what an idiot I’ve been. Back when I was a Prince, I gave orders, and people did them, I never really thought twice about who or how, as long as things were done, my interest ended when the orders left my lips.” Sado gave a sardonic laugh, “It seems foolish, doesn’t it. But with you around, I never really had to worry about the trivial details. Now here I am ‘part’ of those trivial details for someone else, and I can’t stop thinking about them.”

“You were a Prince… it’s not unusual to not worry about those things.” Kaiji said with a forgiving look that was followed by a yawn that she covered with her right hand.

“Maybe that is true but… now that I know how it works more obviously, everything makes so much more sense… everything looks differently as I reflect back on it from now. Maybe because I got to watch her build her infrastructure, her command team, her staff, rather than just being born into one ready made for her, as one was for me.” Sado gave a frustrated sigh, “It makes my time as Prince look all the more absurd and pathetic… but… I am still alive, and that means I can still do things right.” He gave Kaiji a confident look, and she winked at him before yawning again.

“That’s my boy… I knew you’d make me proud… I didn’t expect it to be in these conditions but… I always knew you would. One day soon, you’ll be a proper Prince, even without the crown.” She yawned again and laid back down, she was asleep and snoring again in minutes, her final words leaving Sado even warmer than the flames.

“Kill the enemies of our god, the enemies of our lady, for the treasured peace of all things. We grant rest to the restless, justice to the unjust, and mercy to the merciless.” The four voices intoned from on their knees, facing Lady Solution.

“And what is the mercy you grant?” Solution demanded with an arrogant raised chin, looking down at them from where she stood.

“Death. Inescapable death.” The four answered.

The monster clapped her lovely hands and gave them radiant smiles, before approaching and patting their heads one by one with supreme gentleness. The warmth of life and their silky strands of well cared for hair, engulfed the fingers of the monster briefly before she put herself front and center again. “Very good, now we begin every lesson from here on out, with that oath. In time, there will be more to join you, but you four are lucky, so very lucky to be the first. You will set the standard by which all others will measure themselves. Now….”

Solution drew her other hand from behind her back and began to drop black hoods in front of them all. They fell in crumpled heaps, and the girls looked up at her in anticipation. “You’ve practiced killing a sleeping target in the dark, now you’re going to hunt a moving target, but you’ll have no eyes to do it. My student would be upset if I simply ‘removed’ your eyes… so these hoods are the next best thing.”

The four children tittered at the joke that ‘wasn’t’. “The candles will go out, and you will put these on. Take up your practice blades, and ‘hunt’ one another in the darkness of this room. You have only sound and smell to go by, I’ve made sure of that with these. Get ready, you have three seconds to put distance between each other.”

They snatched up their hoods and scattered before the first candle went out. ‘They’re going to be a wonderful sight when they’re old enough, and the last sight, if even that, for many, many more.’ Solution thought contentedly before shouting, “Hoods on!” She hovered her hand over the last candle, and brought her palm down. Then the last bit of light in the room, died under her hand, covering them all in darkness.

Roui was content. He walked with a spring in his step that almost bounced him off the stone street while he made his way to the tavern. He was wearing a bright green tunic that he’d just bought, and even got the fancy white wheel collar he’d had his eye on. His shoes were only two weeks old and had actual brass buckles. A smile was so well fixed on his face that it might as well have been painted there.

In the sack hanging across his body and resting against his side, jingled the reason. Copper coins mixed with actual silver. Enough for a well priced whore and plenty to drink besides. ‘Who knew gossip could be so damn profitable?!’ He asked himself, and answered just as quickly, ‘Nobody, that’s who! Nobody!’ He laughed at his own pathetic joke when a very pretty face caught his eye. He stopped dead and stared at her for a moment. A pair of elf ears twitched in the teasing way they often did, and a pale arm came up and her hand opened, then curled one finger toward herself. She wore nice clothing, but clearly the sort of ‘nice clothing’ an ‘independent’ whore would. Green short skirt that bared her calves, and a bright blue shirt that ended below the breasts, cupping them, and was held up over the shoulders with thin blue straps. She wore green arm length gloves, and with her long golden hair, and shapely hourglass form, he couldn’t resist.

He abandoned his plans and made his way over to her in the alley. “Hey there… handsome.” She said in a throaty voice and put a finger beneath his chin, “I’ve got some time to kill before I get some rest after a long, long night, how about you. Do you have a minute… or two?” She winked a green eye at him, and Roui nodded dumbly.

“Uh huh…” he said, “Then back this way…” She said and led him toward an alcove.

He followed, entranced, watching the way her hips rolled, and his eyes followed every step until he rounded the corner and a solid fist connected with his face.

He staggered back, not understanding what happened even when the same meaty fist grabbed his shirt and yanked him into the alcove.

A heavy blow fell to his gut and he collapsed on his knees. His sandy hair was yanked up and a solid knee broke his nose, he tasted his teeth as they were knocked out of their places and ran over his tongue and down his throat. Others scattered about the dirty ground.

Roui groaned as the heavy fist hit his jaw and a kick to his sternum knocked him onto his back. His vision blurred and the beautiful elf woman was standing bored a few feet away. He reached out with one hand as if he still thought to have fun with her, only for a foot to come down, and shatter the hand against the stone ground.

He shrieked and yanked the hand into his chest, rolling left and right in the muck, several more blows followed one after the other before he was yanked up to his feet and slammed against the stone building, a hairy arm was on his throat and held him up high, so that he was barely scraping the ground with his toes and hooked by his chin on the arm.

“Listen’re boy. You’ve made a real bad mistake, real bad. The wrong people, they’re right mad ‘bout it, you get me?” The beefy, deep voiced man asked.

Roui shook his head wildly and took a knee to the crotch.

“How’d you get those coins, boy? On your knees in alleys like this… I know you used your mouth to get’em, and that wasn’t it, was it?” The savage voice asked, with his vision blurry, Roui could make out nothing but the powerful, broad body, and the pain he felt.

But that hit home. His stillness was answer enough.

“You’re going to leave the city, you get me? You’re banned from Pas’en. You’re going to leave by morning. Pack your things, and get out. We see you again, you open your mouth where we’ve got ears, and the next beating won’t stop within a hair of your life.”

The big man growled, and Roui nodded furtively.

“Mhuhn muhuhan” Roui tried to say yes, but it came out as mere groaned acknowledgement that his nods had to cover.

“Good.” The arm released him, and Roui fell coughing to his knees, the impact of the stone hurt terribly, but with the rest of him in pain, it was just more bad on top of worse.

He heard the drawing of a knife, and for a moment he panicked, “Goh…” Roui gasped out, and yelped as his hair was yanked again. The world spun in his vision, panic and fear that kept him awake, were slowly receding into the darkness.

The knife came to his scalp, and began to scrape over the flesh, shaving away some of his long sandy strands. “So you can be found if we ever need to have a talk with you again… boy.” The man explained and shoved the hair into a pouch at his side.

Roui whimpered, and a backhand knocked him on his side. He was fading from consciousness when he heard the sound of a belt being unbuckled, and the woman asked, “Really, is that necessary?” The steaming acrid fluid hit him in the face, and he had no idea what the brute’s answer was before he was entirely unconscious.

Had he been awake, he would have seen the Komestran warrior walking away beside the beautiful Starling, and heard him reply to her question by saying, “Necessary? No. But Duchessa bought back my mother from a mine and my daughter from a brothel. Anyone who says anything bad about her… well, I’d sooner kill ‘em. Not that there’s nothin wrong with what you do, miss. But damn it, I got my family back, nobody gonna say a damn thing about my mistress.”

“Fine, you’re certainly taken with her, and Diana says she’s special but… I’ll believe it when I see it.” The sylvan Starling shrugged as they disappeared down the opposite street, leaving Roui to wake up sore and stinking, or to not wake up at all, neither one caring one way or the other.

Prince Rasgen sat around the table with some of his newest ministers. “So the bank of Pas’en has been calling in a lot of debts lately, it’s hurt some people, badly. Or so I’m told. Amondera says everything is fine, it’s just business as usual, financial instability as a result of the platinum influx, but now that we’re introducing a modified platinum coin and are trading some way for reserves of gold and silver from other cities, that should solve most of the problem. But it does present a problem I wanted your advice on.” Rasgen said, and around the table the young noblemen and women listened with eager ears.

“I want to start protecting people from this kind of thing. With that in mind, I want to establish some ‘borrowers rights’. Maybe if people had no fear that borrowing money could lead to instant slavery when the bank calls it in, more people would borrow, build, and we could expand accordingly.”

The nobles around the table looked enthusiastic. “You mean like fixed terms, so that the bank couldn’t just change the interest charges?”

“Or… fixed repayment plans, so that loans can only be called in if someone stops paying?”

“Or term rejection, so that people can just refuse bank offers of modifications, after all, it’s not the borrower’s fault if the bank is in trouble?”

The ideas came fast and hard, and it was like a breath of fresh air after swimming too long beneath the waters. ‘I never realized how much I was being hidebound by the old men who were just used to things being as they were…’ Rasgen contemplated and reveled in their sea of ideas once the problem was presented to them.

Excited babble swept the table, and Rasgen could not help but think, ‘I should have made the old ones retire years ago.’ He then sat back and basked in the moment as they revolutionized his city’s banking industry.