Chapter 10: The Third Fall of Prart 1
"I never thought I'd see those walls again." Neia said softly as the high walls of Prart loomed before her in the distance, growing steadily larger as she grew steadily closer. The last time she'd seen that city, it was a ruin, first as a result of the demihuman alliance taking it, then as a result of taking it back, then as a result of defending it against a massive onslaught of demihuman forces.
The Capitol was now...well...mostly rebuilt, noble estates, fountains, a few public buildings, a few temples, and a small percentage of the overall residential areas were all that remained to be restored. She wondered how she'd find Prart when she got within its walls. When they arrived near the main gate, they stopped, and Neia approached the guardhouse with Tinamoc and waited while he presented his letter of legitimacy from the King. The guard responded to this by saying, "Very good there, m'lord, but we'll have to inspect the caravan for contraband and all that."
Tinamoc rolled his eyes and replied, "No, you don't, the letter I just showed you expressly authorizes immediate entry for the establishment of trading purposes. If you try to inspect this whole caravan of goods, it'll take all day, not to mention I'll have to do inventory all over again to make sure nobody got sticky fingers. I can't do any trading until that's done because a precise inventory is required for entry..." He trailed off as the guard coughed and opened his palm. "Well, I could do a 'quick inspection' for a few coins, you know."
"How quick?" Tinamoc asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.
"Could be over right now, you know, fast as the coin goes in my pocket." The guard said with a sly look.
Neia couldn't take it. She removed her visor and looked the guard dead in the eyes. "I am Neia Baraja, squire of the Sorcerer King, who provides all of the building materials for reconstruction, and you WILL let this man pass with his letter alone, or I will have your heart on a plate." The sudden smell of ammonia filled the air.
"Get out of my sight, and go change your pants, you corrupt disgrace, and I WILL be reporting your actions to your superior." Neia said in a tone of voice that told the guard he was speaking to the angel of death. He stumbled out of the way and let them move the caravan forward.
Neia's voice carried more than she had intended, and heads were poking out to look at her. She didn't bother about that, but what she did notice was that the city didn't look that much different from when she left. Prart was a wreck. True there were people seemingly everywhere, far more than it was meant to hold, but even considering that, the city stank, there was little work being done, she saw laborers who were supposed to be building things, standing around talking and drinking rather than working, not that they could have anyway, because though they had tools that helped her identify their profession, there were no building supplies to work with, she saw children scrabbling through garbage, and as they moved deeper into the city, the only people she noticed actually working, were the prostitutes.
"What the hell happened here? Or rather...why didn't anything happen here?" Neia asked Tinamoc, aghast at the poor condition of the city. "Have we passed a single intact house that wasn't used for prostitution or alcohol storage?
"Well, do you count that?" Tinamoc said, and pointed to a looming home that clearly belonged to a nobleman. "At a guess," he said, "the nobles have been using the supplies you've sent here to rebuild the noble estates and the few public buildings they need, but have been embezzling and selling the rest of the supplies, which the black market and criminal gangs have been buying up to use for their establishments, and probably their own homes. Just a working guess, though." He said in a voice that suggested he didn't think he was guessing at all.
A stray slime crossed their path. Clearly, the sewage system was not being maintained.
"To whom were the supplies going?" Tinamoc asked.
"I'm not exactly sure." Neia said, the crown put me in charge of the Capitol and appointed other figures for the other cities. Once I pulled our portion, the others would requisition what they needed and send it to their respective contacts here. The one sending materials here was...shit." She said.
"The one who was sending materials here was shit? Well, I can clearly see that, but what was his name?" Tinamoc asked.
Neia shook her head, "No, I mean, I just remembered, it was Count Handor, it was his man that was caught pilfering supplies in the Capitol. He also had one of my men killed, we took down all those who were directly involved in the killing..., but before he could publicly implicate Count Handor, he was killed in prison while under guard. I don't know who his contact was here, but if I had to guess, he's dealing directly with one other noble, or he's dealing with the temples, I'll know which it is, soon enough." She said.
"How will you know?" Tinamoc asked. "They'll tell me." She said, pointing to the buildings. Understanding dawned on Tinamoc's face.
"Ahhhh," he said, "so basically anyone with an intact house or business must be in some way connected with the trafficking in stolen goods, so if the temples have been restored..."
He paused as Neia interrupted. "...then the temples are in on it." She said with a snarl. Go ahead and get yourself established in the market district, but I suggest not setting up more wares than we can effectively guard. Rent a warehouse we can easily protect, and only take out what you think will sell that day. It may extend our time here for several days, but frankly, I think that will work out for the best." Neia said.
Tinamoc stroked his chin thoughtfully, "Yes, I think that will work out. Plus, it will be nice to be in one place for a few days, now where will you be while I finish going on my way?" He asked.
"First, I'm going to check out the nearest temple, then if it is in bad shape, I'm going to talk to the priest, if it is in good shape, then I'm going to the local governor to introduce myself." She said.
"Introduce yourself gently?" He asked.
"That depends on them. But I'd prefer that if possible. If it's not though, well then sobeit." She shrugged off the implied concern and gave him a wolfish grin.
It wasn't hard to find a temple, and it didn't take long to get there on horseback, and she was somehow unsurprised by the intact building that she found there. It was surrounded by hovels that hadn't been repaired since they had first been captured by the demihumans, and the people around the temple looked shabby and unkempt. She didn't bother to go in, she had somewhere else to be. The regional governor's manor/office was big, and that made it easy to find, and the fact that he'd taken care of his own residence and work area first made it easy to identify. When she arrived, there were two guards at the gate. Neia dismounted and approached, her having ridden a warhorse and been well dressed and clearly well armed, made an immediate impression on them, as did her confident walk up to them.
"I'm Neia Baraja, and I am here with the royally commissioned merchant Tinamoc, and I wish to see the regional governor. Is he here?" She asked.
"Yes, Lady Neia," a guard said, I will send word of your arrival. Could you wait here?" He asked with some timidity.
"No," Neia said, "I can announce myself, and I don't need company." She said with steel in her voice, she walked past the guard without another word, before he could sputter a protest. She sniffed in contempt. The guard there was in somewhat better shape, but the ones she'd glanced at on the road carried more beer in their bellies than muscle on them. Her impression of Prart was growing worse by the minute, and walking into the manor made things no better, it was opulent, filled with rich goods, clean carpet, art upon the walls...Neia felt disgusted.
"Bah, it's one thing for the Sorcerer King to have better than this, he gives to his people. This man...he is clearly only stealing from them. I wonder how many homes these were taken out of." She pondered as she walked down the hall, she knew exactly where to go from here time here before, and it did not take her long to get there, she pushed the doors open, their groaning as she did so, echoed down the empty hall, and inside the office, was the regional governor sitting at his desk with a glass of wine. A noise was coming from under his desk, and it took a moment for Neia to identify what it was.
The governor looked at her in surprise, then anger, and it transformed to fear when Neia's voice snapped out, "Get her out of here!" There was the sound of a thud, like a head striking wood, and from under the desk came a frail-looking woman with a black eye. She snatched something off the floor near his desk and through it over herself as she darted out of the room with her eyes downcast. The regional governor blushed cherry red as he hastily pulled up his pants.
"Who are you to..." he began, but Neia did not let him finish.
"I am Neia Baraja, the one who is providing the supplies you're using, which I receive from the Sorcerer King, and I am here with the royal merchant Tinamoc as his personal escort."
Fear stayed on his face as he looked her over. He saw her eyes moving up and down, taking him in. He was rather...large, but not in the strong way, his jowls flapped as he spoke, his skin was pale, not much for the outdoors, his clothes were very fine, as were his jewels. Neia's immediate impression: He was worthless.
"I'd like you to explain the state of Prart." Neia said.
"The Capitol is much larger, even with your population increase. I know what supplies have gone out, and we haven't been shorting you, but somehow only the noble houses, temples, and government buildings seem to be intact, well, that and the brothels I passed by. Speaking of which, why are there so many brothels? I passed THREE just on the way here from the city gate?" Neia asked.
The governor wrung his hands fretfully, "Well... It's an easy way to make coin, and, well, what else is there for them to do? And as to the city, well, it was heavily damaged, we have been working, but it's just...taking a little while." He said.
"And...why haven't you FOUND other work for them to do? I saw that the woman had a black eye. Exactly how did she, or any of these others, end up in the flesh trade?" Neia asked. Her face turned dark, and she removed her visor, staring daggers at him said further, "I also saw workers with no materials to work with. I know a shipment of materials we sent to you just recently. Where are they? Show me your records." She snapped.
"Lady Neia," he began nervously, "I can give you our distribution records, but I don't have them myself, they're at the warehouse in the main office, why don't you settle in first, you're a hero to the people of this city, I'm sure they'd be ecstatic to know you're here, and you'll have a chance to speak before the crowds again...I can gather the relevant officials, and we can have a meeting tomorrow to go over all the details of the reconstruction." He said, ingratiatingly.
Neia would have refused on the spot and pressed the matter...but he hit upon her weakness, her desire to promote the Sorcerer King and his ideals of strength as justice. She put her visor back on and nodded silently.
"Very well, tomorrow at noon I will return here, and I expect to see the relevant officials and the paperwork for distribution and your reconstruction plan for the next few months. I had better be satisfied." She said.
"All will be as it should be." The nobleman said.
And Neia walked out, leaving the nobleman grinding his teeth behind her. She decided to walk the city streets for a while and found herself in the main square, where people were coming and going, and she found she could not resist the opportunity this presented. She walked to the great fountain...it was dry. It was dirty. It was filled with refuse. It was a microcosm of the city itself. It would do. She hopped up from the ground, to the circle, to the top of the statue at the center, and announced herself.
"I am Neia Baraja, here on a trade mission from the Capitol! People of Prart, I would know how you live!" She shouted.
The buzzing of the crowd began to still, the weight of her name drew eyes and ears, and one man close by shouted simply, "Poorly!"
"My home is still destroyed, our shops are ruins, the palaces and temples are rebuilt, but what of us? I show up every day at the same construction site, and have only enough materials to work for a few hours or less, and then nothing. I've only rebuilt three homes in two months, and those were homes nobody owned, which the governor then began to rent out as it was 'city property'!"
"The price of grain is outrageous, and it is worse with any other foodstuffs. I'm eating barely more than when the Sorcerer King freed me from a prison camp!" Another person shouted.
Neia listened as the complaints rang out. The crowd was getting agitated as they vented their frustrations. Neia began to get a clear picture of just what was happening in Prart.
The 'disturbance' Neia caused had apparently gotten someone's attention, because a group of guards began to push their way through the crowd to the front, Neia counted eight of them, two archers two men with swords, and four more with speers, no equipment better than half plate iron armor covering their torsos, shin guards, and leather boots...and of course iron weapons...unless they had concealed items, which she doubted. Still, it was good enough for people to get out of the way as they made their way to the front.
"Ay, you lot, go back to your lives, and you up there, get down, no public gatherings without official permission!" One of the men, apparently the leader, said. He was a grizzled-looking man missing a few teeth, but otherwise unremarkable to look at.
"I have permission," Neia said. "I'm on a trade mission escorting the official royal merchant, so the security and well-being of this town IS my business, and I'm speaking to the people who live here, now, unless you wish to take an issue with that, BEGONE!" she snapped.
It sent a spark through the crowd, which was clearly not used to seeing the guards dismissed by anyone, and it agitated the guards, who were used to getting their way.
"Prart is ours, missy" the guard said, "we'll say how secure and well it does, not this rabble!"
He opened his mouth to say more, but Neia seized on it. "You DARE!" She let her voice carry far and wide, "You DARE to call THEM RABBLE?! They are the PEOPLE of this city, the citizens of the Holy Kingdom, they survived Jaldabaoth even at their weakest, they endured, they carry the seed of strength in all of them. The King of another country, the very GOD of Justice, Ains Ooal Gown, personally saw worth enough in them to see to the preservation of their lives! How DARE you refer to them as rabble! How DARE you dismiss their concerns! I will have satisfaction from you for insulting them!" Neia shouted, ensuring every word of what she said hit every ear.
"My people, I ask that you make room. I will have to teach these men a lesson about their place in this city!" She shouted, and the crowd began to push itself back to the edges, opening up room in the square. The guards were caught...off guard. This was not how things were supposed to work, this was not how things were supposed to go.
"Who do you want'n to fight, eh?" The grizzled leader asked with a nasty grin.
"Do you all share his opinion?" Neia asked the other guards. Coarse laughter greeted her, which was answer enough.
"Then all of you. Here. Now. Or are you just cowards in armor?" She said with a contemptible smile on her face as she jumped down from the fountain and walked to the center of the square with her hands folded behind her head, and turned to face them.
They were almost too shocked to move, except they moved their faces to expressions of anger and fanned out.
Neia looked at them with a bored expression on her face to meet their gazes.
"Apologize to the people of this town now, or do it from the ground when I'm done beating respect for them into you." She said.
That was too much for one of them, he broke from his friends with a spear lowered, charging full tilt at Neia. She reflected briefly that he must not have had much training if this was his method, and she simply stepped aside, grabbed the spear behind the point, broke it with her free hand, and then beat him about the head with the wood she'd taken, until he collapsed.
"You two, bind that one!" She said, pointing to two people in the crowd. They hesitated, but that was enough to drive the remaining seven to act, the archers went for their bows, but Neia had hers out and fired two shots before they could even load, her arrows went into their bows where their hands held the grip, severing fingers and causing them to drop the remains of their primary weapon, and drop to their knees in pain. She then stored her bow and drew her sword, her sudden action had given the remaining five pause, but she gestured with her free hand for them to come at her, turning her palm up and drawing her fingers toward her repeatedly.
The guards glanced at each other for reassurance and fanned out around her, closing the distance gradually, something Neia wasn't going to allow to happen, contrary to what they expected, she rushed the spearman on her left, grabbed his spear with her free hand, pulled him forward as she twisted her body, and gave him an elbow to the face with such force that he crumpled then and there. "That's four." She said, and turned to the next nearest man, she took up the spear of the fallen, and threw it left-handed, butt first, into his throat. As he spasmed, she closed the distance, pulled him off balance, then hit him in the back of the head with the hilt of her sword. "That's five." She said again, and by this time, the now desperate remaining three responded by simply charging her.
She leaped to one side, rolled, and activated a martial art that sped her up considerably, by the time they had turned, half way around, she had grabbed one man by the throat and was pushing him in to the others, the power in her legs propelling him forward, the remaining three were tangled up, and they crumpled in a heap. Neia responded to this by kicking them in their faces as they struggled to get up. "That's six," she said as one fell unconscious, "that's seven," she said as the next one went out like a candle being blown out, "and you make eight." She said as the leader managed to free himself from the tangle of now limp limbs and tried to rise, only to rise directly into Neia's fist, she grabbed his helmet, yanked it off, and beat him about the jaw with it, before throwing it aside to grab his hair, and throw him towards the fountain, and as he was bent over it, Neia considered the best lesson she could offer. Fear and intimidation were the way of authority here, that much was clear, and Neia knew quite well that there were only two ways to deal with that, and while killing was easy, there was a better option.
As he tried to push himself up, Neia walked behind him, grabbed him by the back of the neck, and held him in place. And then, before the entire public, she took out her sword, turned it vertically to the ground, and she began to spank the fellow on his ass with the flat of her blade. "Don't...ever...insult...the people...you...are supposed...to protect!" She shouted, "Now APOLOGIZE TO THEM THIS INSTANT!" The man flailed and struggled, but all for nothing, "Apologize NOW! To ALL of them!" Her voice carried, and laughter began to ring out, at first small, but the more he cried out in frustration against her, the worse it got, until laughter had so filled the square the others showing up, without even knowing what happened, were laughing at the grizzled guard being spanked like a child, until he could bear no more and he shouted, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
"What are you sorry for?" Neia snapped.
"I'm sorry I insulted the people of Prart!" He shouted.
"Again." She said.
"I'm sorry I insulted the people of Prart!" He shouted.
"Again." She said.
"I'm sorry I insulted the people of Prart!" He shouted, his voice cracked.
"Good enough." She said and yanked him up and threw him back, causing him to stumble and land on the ass she'd just beaten red.
"Do not move an inch." Neia said as she sat down and crossed her legs in front of her. She looked to the side, and there hadn't been any more hesitation, the remaining guards had all been bound.
"Now. You are going to stay where you are, and not move even an inch, and you are going to listen as the people tell me their grievances, and when your men wake up, they'll get the same treatment you did, THEN and only then do you have my permission to go." Neia said in a voice of steel, and the guard could only stay sprawled out and red-faced and nod numbly, hardly able to believe how badly his day was going.
One by one the people spoke up, and the crowd grew larger as word spread, the roads in to the square began to back up, and Neia heard dozens of complaints before the first man woke up, his arrogant demands to be untied went quiet when he saw the person who had beaten him was still there, and when she dragged him bodily behind her by his hair, he cried out in pain, but that was better as far as he was concerned, than what she did next, just like his boss, he was thrown over the fountain and had his ass spanked like a wayward child, though with the flat of a sword instead of a belt, until he apologized the same way his boss had, and just like that one, he was flung backwards onto his ass and told to sit and not move.
The cycle repeated itself for the better part of an hour until the last guard had apologized to the sound of laughter raining down on them. Neia got back atop the fountain, and she began her sermon.
"People of Prart, I have heard what you have said, and I am distressed at how low this city has fallen. Many of you were saved by the Sorcerer King, the god of justice, and yet, is this what you were saved for? To live like this? To live lives of weakness and fear and poverty, exploited by people who insult you and degrade you and take advantage of you? Is THIS how you want to live?!" She shouted, and a chorus of "NO!" answered her.
"The god of justice has said that strength is justice, not because might makes right, but because only might can enforce justice. The sin of weakness has infected this place, these guards are weak, the morals of the authorities are weak, the economy is weak, and when weakness pervades, INJUSTICE REIGNS!"
"I am but a shadow compared to the might of my god, yet I had the power to impose justice on those who degrade you. You ALSO have that power, if you claim your dignity and demand that right be done, you in a mass cannot be crushed by something so weak and petty as a bully in a tin suit! Demand justice, support one another in the pursuit of justice, support one another in the pursuit of strength, follow me to the justice of the one who saved our nation, follow me in the ways of the Sorcerer King, the god of Black Justice, and you WILL NEVER BE BEATEN AGAIN!"
Her speech sent a wave of excitement through the crowd, it electrified them, and they cheered, up and down the streets as far as her powerful voice could carry. "Return to your lives for now, I will see to these tin-covered cowards, find me in the marketplace if you have need!" She said, and she jumped down and approached the prone men.
"Get the fuck out of that armor." She said with contempt. They looked up at her, stunned. "You cannot hold the people in contempt and remain fit to wear it. Your armor is not for you, your armor is so you can protect them, and you used it to abuse them. So you can't have it anymore. Get...the fuck...out of it. Here, now." She said with the voice of death itself.
Their spirits were broken. They did not resist.
They slowly stood and began taking it off, eyes downcast.
"You are the product of the corruption here, you are not the cause of it. You will tell me now, everything you know. Then you will go back to your residences, gather your things, and get out of Prart and never come back, consider yourselves banished from here." The leader managed to find his voice and said, "I-I don't rightly know everything, I'm an enforcer, nothing more, but I know that some of the ones running things came from Re-Estize, got here after the liberation, they set up shop, maybe bribed the regional governor, maybe blackmailed, wouldn't know that, but he's in their pocket too one way or the other. They got the brothels, the pubs, the gambling houses, they decide what gets built and what doesn't." He said in a cracked and broken voice.
"The warehouses too?" She asked.
"I've guarded some of those, the renters pay protection money or we..." He trailed off.
"What?" Her voice commanded an answer.
"Look the other way while it's robbed or burned." He finished.
"Or do the robbing or burning yourselves?" She guessed.
He gave several small, rapid nods.
"How do the temples play into this?" She asked.
His eyes jumped to hers in surprise.
"Don't be surprised, I saw a temple, it was completely rebuilt, and I'm not about to believe it is because of some devotion to the gods." She said contemptuously.
"I don't know everything, but...well, the priests help keep the people in line, they are the mouthpieces of the governor, and when people get uppity, charges of heresy or blasphemy are hard to fight, and you don't even have to plant fake evidence, just have someone make the accusation and a few people back it up." He said, he began to tremble under her gaze.
"Where do they end up?" She asked.
"Prison mostly, a few of the more talented get 'work release' where they work for free on what the bosses want." He said.
"Anything else?" Neia asked. "What about the brothels?"
"Who cares about them 'ores?" He said, and found a sword at his throat.
"Oh...eh..." He stammered.
"Anything less than the truth, and I'll cut you in ways that'll let you enter their line of work." Neia said between clenched teeth.
A lot of them paled at her words, but the pathetic and humiliated guard didn't have the fight left to argue, "They borrow money for things, can't pay it off, so they work the brothels to pay it off." He spilled out the words almost too fast for her to understand, but it all clicked into place for Neia, and she stepped back and sheathed her sword.
"OK, now you get the fuck out of my sight, and get the fuck out of this city. If my eyes ever catch you again so much as taking a sweetroll from a child, my face will be the last one you ever see." She said and stepped aside. "Now RUN!" she barked, and they ran like rabbits.
She mentally ticked off what she'd gathered from the little bird she'd just made sing for her, all was going well, but she had to inform Tinamoc of what she'd learned, as well as the rest of her company of fighters. The next move in her mind was fairly predictable. When you humiliate evil authority that way, it has to respond, and there are only two ways to do that. Against the public to remind people they're still in charge...or against the singular party in opposition...which even if they did the first thing, they'd still have to do the second, and because she'd acted in public, they'd want to act against her in public, by any means necessary.
A wolfish grin appeared on her face. The regional governor would have to act quickly, she was going to look over what were no doubt phony books tomorrow, and he wouldn't want that. Quick decisions are seldom safe decisions. He was cowardly, he was weak, and he thought he held all the cards. Within a few hours, if not sooner, the humiliation of several guards and their dismissal from the city would reach his ears. If she wanted this to work, she had to act quickly.
She cast a silent thought of gratitude to her divine god of justice, and after a brief stop to inform some of her people that she needed them to shadow her, she went to the next public place, and again began to speak on the subject of the god of justice, the war for liberation, she began to praise the crowd as survivors who carried within them the seed of strength, that all they needed to do was nurture it by following Black Justice and the way of the Sorcerer King. Prart was full of camp survivors and liberators, which meant it was packed with people who favored the Sorcerer King, which meant there was a ready audience for her message, and more than that, her message of hope and her praise for their potential was a welcome relief from the grind to which they had been subjected.
"When thugs come to demand coin so that your shop does not burn, stand against them, when you see your neighbors harassed by thugs, join with your neighbors, when you see the neighbors of your neighbors threatened and extorted, join with those neighbors, they cannot still from even ONE of you, if ALL of you refuse to tolerate being stolen FROM!"
Her speeches ignited the crowds, and she went from one square to another, with some of those from one, inevitably following her to the next speaking point. And after hours of this, where she praised the Sorcerer King as the god of justice and the only one worth following, she got the expected result. From her position atop another ruined public fountain, she saw them coming, a priest, who looked...rather lumpy to put it plainly, backed by several men in shining armor, they could only be paladins, and about two dozen or so soldiers. The governor was clearly not taking chances after having humiliated the unprepared guards, these were more fit and more professional-looking. Her bottom lip curled as she nodded, "Not bad." She thought to herself. "Not good enough...but not bad." She resumed her speech after the thought, having pretended not to notice them as they forced their way through.