Chapter XLI

Milo and Sarahi had arrived at Aius a full day before Hadar returned, and shortly after Hadar was back Grigori returned as well. They kept up appearances publicly, with Hadar and Sarahi embracing and giving each other loving kisses in front of the people, but they met in private as soon as they could to discuss all that had happened.

“Why don't you go first,” Hadar said to Sarahi and Milo.

“Why us?” Sarahi asked. “You're the one who's been fighting the war!”

“Yes, but I've been concerned about you both that entire time, been wondering what happened while you were gone.”

“And you somehow think we weren't concerned about you?” Milo asked.

“Good point, but still...”

Indulging their friend's curiosity Milo and Sarahi told Hadar about everything that happened since they left the capital over a month ago, at great length. They told a few details about their honeymoon, though they kept the more intimate details to themselves, and they told him all about everything that happened with Estelle and Nerissa. Finally, Sarahi made sure to tell Hadar that she was with child. His heir, conceived of Milo's seed, was growing in her womb.

“That's great!” Hadar said, excitedly grasping both of Sarahi's hands. Milo tried to silently warn Hadar that gushing over this was a tad insensitive, considering how scared Sarahi was about the whole thing. He waved his hands and shook his head, but Hadar didn't notice and kept going. “I mean, not just that there's an heir to the throne, but that you two will have a baby! You understand what that means? You took a little bit of him and a little bit of you and you created a new life! One conceived in true love! Oh what a marvel woman is! A man cannot create life on his own, and even when he creates life with a woman he loses power over whether or not that life continues the moment the woman takes his seed! You understand, Sarahi? You've become like God, in a sense! Creating new life!”

Sarahi hadn't really thought about it that way, but it wasn't truly a comfort when all was said and done. Sure, in some ways it made her feel a little better, the idea that she was involved in something that one could consider miraculous, the beginning of a new life. Comparing her to God gave her some pride in the matter, but at the same time made it scarier. When God created life he could watch over it, protect it, keep it from harm, because he was far more powerful than any mere mortal could ever hope to be. The Agalmites didn't believe their God was totally omnipotent, hence his never-ending conflict with the demons of the Void, but he still had the power to protect, create, preserve, and destroy life with the mere force of his will. Sarahi had no such power. She was expected to do something that God did all the time, but with far less power. She loved the idea that the child growing inside of her was a little piece of both her and Milo joined together into one new person, but she feared the responsibility of watching over that person, and for that matter the possibility that said child might not survive until birth. She'd heard enough terrible stories about mothers giving birth to stillborn babies, little children just dead before they'd even gotten to live, nothing sounded more horrible than that. And then, compounded on all of these fears, as if these were not enough, was the fear that should her child not survive the kingdom would fall apart. The fate of all of Arx was in her womb, and she had no power over what happened there. Obviously, there were precautions she could take, but nature had its own power that humanity could barely combat at times. No priest or paladin had ever successfully saved a miscarried child, even with their sacred healing magic.

“It is exciting,” Sarahi said with a forced a smile.

Hadar had known her long enough to recognize a forced smile from her when he saw it, and he realized that he'd said too much. He could have spent time asking her about it. Maybe said he was sorry for adding weight to her burdens, but he knew that with her it was better just to move on, and so he told them of the battle at Dead-River Pass. He told them of the many casualties they'd suffered, how he'd never seen so much death, and how the Grand Duke turned the battle around in their favor.

“But then a legion of demons appeared,” Hadar said. “So many that their shadows made it as dark as night around the pass. It was more demons than I've ever seen anywhere. We were overwhelmed! Until that armored carriage was carried off and the demons suddenly disappeared.”

“How is that even possible?” Milo asked. “Even summoning just one demon is physically draining for warlocks, from what I've read! A few at a time is exhausting. How can one warlock or even a few warlocks summon entire legions of them? It shouldn't be possible!”

“Something's special about this one,” Hadar said. “I intend to get some answers, but...” Hadar turned to Grigori. “I'll need your help.”

“What do you need my help for?” Grigori asked.

“I need you to do what I forbade you to do back when you first came here,” Hadar said. “I'm sick of being soft on my enemies. My people are dying and it's time to act. We've captured several Nihilite soldiers who survived the battle at Dead-River Pass. I need you to question them, get some answers about that warlock and the demonic legions he summoned.”

“I'm not an inquisitor anymore!” Grigori protested. “Please! You can't ask me to torture and interrogate more people!”

“You still have the skills the inquisitors taught you, you can put them to better use.”

“I want no part of what the Inquisition has taught me! Not anymore!”

“Then how did you recognize that the archer you killed was a traitor?” Hadar asked.

“What?”

“The Grand Duke's soldiers chased after you because they saw you kill one of the other archers, just after I was shot in the chest with an arrow. How did you know he was a traitor? Did you actually see him shoot me?”

“...No...”

“Then you picked up on subtle clues? You figured out what he was really up to because of his body language and such, yes?”

“...Yes...”

“Then you used the skills that the Inquisition taught you in my defense. Not everything they teach is bad, it's impossible for anyone to gain followers if everything they teach is totally wrong all the time.”

“But torture is wrong!” Grigori said.

“Consider how many lives you'll save,” Milo interjected. “If we discover what's really going on with the demonic legions, maybe manage to stop that warlock before he conjures more demons, then we may save thousands of lives, maybe the whole world. Doesn't that much good outweigh the bad?” Torture wasn't expressly forbidden in the Law, so paladins had no need to avoid it, but Arxian culture commonly held it as barbaric.

Grigori sighed and shook his head. “I guess you're right...I'll interrogate the prisoners, but I want this to be the last time I ever have to torture or question anyone, understood?”

“Very well,” Hadar agreed. “After this I'll never ask you to torture anyone ever again.”

“And I want you three there with me,” Grigori said. “None of you get to turn a blind eye to what I'm doing, the blood on my hands will be yours as well.”

“Agreed,” Hadar said.

“Don't speak for me!” Sarahi protested.

“Dear, think of the people we'll save,” Milo said. “We have to stand by him in this!”

“I didn't say I wouldn't do it,” Sarahi said. “I just didn't want anyone to make that decision for me.”

“Then you are agreed?” Grigori asked.

“I'd do anything to save this kingdom,” Sarahi said.

“Alright, then, let's get to work.”

Grigori had to set up a special apparatus for the torture he had in mind. Normally the Inquisition had all sorts of special torture devices; such as racks, pears of agony, iron maidens, and so on, but since torture had been banned in Arx for so long they had no such devices. Grigori designed a device that included a large tank of water and a chair attached to a lever.

The prisoner of war was chosen, and Grigori, Hadar, Milo, and Sarahi went down to the dungeons for the interrogation. Since Milo was the strongest of the four he was the one chosen to operate the lever. Guards tied the Nihilite soldier to the chair, and Grigori double-checked the knots to make sure that they wouldn't come undone. He was confident that once wet the ropes would, in fact, swell, making escape utterly impossible. Grigori and Milo worked out a few signals ahead of time. Grigori wanted the prisoner raised instantly if he was about to pass out or drown and didn't want words to possibly delay the process. A second too long could cause the prisoner to black out, or even die, and then they'd never get the information.

The four of them stood before the prisoner, with Milo's hands on the lever. Grigori spoke, his tone was friendly and almost sweet. “Now, listen, this doesn't have to be unpleasant. We just want to know how it is that one of your warlocks can summon entire legions of demons at once. You tell us and you can go back to your cell. No torture. Maybe you'll even be released some day. That sound fair?” The prisoner said nothing, so Grigori gave Milo the signal to lower him into the water. Milo lifted the lever and the chair lowered, submerging the prisoner in the tank of water. Grigori counted twenty seconds and then gave Milo the signal to raise the prisoner again. Milo did so, and the prisoner gasped for air as he returned to the surface. “Alright, then, you see we're not joking around,” Grigori said. “Now do you wish to cooperate?”

“You shcyte!” the prisoner said.

“You want to be that way about it? Fine!” Grigori gave Milo the signal to lower the prisoner. Milo lowered him under the water again. Grigori counted thirty seconds this time, and then gave Milo the signal to lift him. Once the prisoner had been returned to the surface again and had finished coughing and gasping Grigori said, “You know, it takes no effort for us to do this over and over again. We can do this all day if we need to, it doesn't bother us. You want to do this for say...twelve hours straight? We've cleared our schedules. Or you could just answer the question and we'd all be done for the day.”

“Damn you!” the prisoner coughed out.

“What's that? You want to try to breathe in water again? Maybe you'll turn into a fish? Sure.” Grigori gave Milo the signal to dunk him again. Milo lowered the prisoner into the water. Grigori waited forty seconds and then gave Milo the signal to raise him.

Between the coughs and sputtering the prisoner managed to shout, “Cory! his name is Cory! He's tall, with red hair and freckles! And he's an arrogant moron!”

“Ah, now we're getting somewhere,” Grigori said. “So, tell me more.”

“he used to be a beggar...then he was chosen...he's the savior of Nihilus! He's obsessed with making himself known as the greatest hero of all time!”

“You say he was chosen? Chosen how? By who?”

“he found an ancient ring, the ring of Sulaiman. It can summon the legions of the Arch-Daemon Malkira, and even Malkira himself. Malkira told him he'd been chosen for the ring!”

“This ring is how he can summon so many demons at a time?”

“Yes! It was forged using ancient secrets of the Void! It's indestructible!”

“I doubt that,” Grigori said. “But thank you for your cooperation. We'll send you back to your cell now.” After the prisoner had been dragged off to his cell Grigori said to the other three, “So there you have it, a beggar who's risen to become the greatest threat to this world...well, since the days of King Sulaiman.”

“I've never heard that name before,” Hadar said.

“he wasn't mentioned by name in your version of the Sacred Scriptures, I don't believe...but the Inquisition's scriptures do have a passage about him and all the destruction he caused with that damnable ring. He had the largest mortal army the world had ever seen, and his mortal army was still nothing compared to the demons he could call upon. Part of me wonders why the Nihilites bothered sending a full human army, just send this 'Cory' with a few bodyguards...”

“If they sent a full army with him he can't be completely invincible,” Milo said. “he may have a fancy ring, but he's still just a man, nothing more.”

“Then we have to make sure we do everything we can to kill him,” Hadar said. “But you have to admit, the description is rather vague...”

“Bound to be a lot of people who look like that,” Sarahi said. “Especially from Nihilus.”

“He'll give himself away,” Grigori said. “With how that prisoner called him the 'Savior of Nihilus' and 'an arrogant moron' he's going to want to make a show of his victory.”

. . . .

The very man of whom they spoke, at that very moment, was caught in the twisted wreck of his armored carriage in the woods south of Dead-River Pass. His head was spinning, likely because it was also bleeding, and as he stumbled out of the mangled wreck he felt a stinging pain in his side. “Ugh...”

“Looks like you survived.” The words were spoken in a calm, monotone, woman's voice. Cory looked over to see a group of people nearby. Among them was the source of the voice, a woman wearing a helmet with the antlers of a deer on top and bandages over her eyes. Atrocity was her name, she was one of the Savages. Others nearby Cory recognized as a handful of soldiers from both his and Lorna's armies and a few hundred of the laborers they'd brought along.

“Where did Lorna go?” Cory asked.

“North. After that we don't know,” one of the Nihilite soldiers said. “If we had to venture a guess? She's probably heading back to Nihilus, to return to King Therion in shame. We failed to take Dead-River Pass. The war is over.”

“No! We still have a chance for victory! Did none of you see the legions upon legions of daemons I summoned at the end of the battle? There were thousands...no, thousands of thousands of them! All we really need to do to win this war...to finish what we started, is to get me into the capital city! I'll tear it apart from the inside out, break their stone Law, and kill their King and Queen!”

“And just how do you intend to get into the capital?” Atrocity asked. “We have nowhere near the force we'd need to lay siege to it. We have a handful of soldiers, a couple of warlocks, and a few hundred laborers.”

“Then we have an army, we just need to be smart about getting in,” Cory said. “We don't break down the gates, or smash the walls with catapult fire. We calmly walk in the front, disguised as Arxian soldiers or refugees. With all that's been happening I can't imagine they'd close the doors to their own people. The warlocks will make as many Blackstar Talismans as they can, and the laborers shall carry them in. Once we're all inside we'll let daemons into the city. All of you? You'll stand around me, protect me, as I bring forth a daemonic army the likes of which the world has never seen!”

“You really think that if we can do that we have a chance?”

“My legions of daemons would have killed them all at Dead-River had my stupid horses not run away!”

“Well I, for one,” Atrocity said, “Would love to try. Honestly? Sounds like fun, and many of my comrades died in that last battle. I'd be remiss if I didn't take vengeance on the Arxians for them. Oh, Vaali would be so disappointed.” She almost cracked a smile, thinking of How Eliseo had gone on and on about Vaali, the god of vengeance, and all that he expected of them. She hated Eliseo in many ways, his constant preaching was annoying, but now that he was gone she missed him. He was like an annoying brother to her, all of the Savages were like that.

“What about the rest of you?” Cory asked. “Will you follow me into a glorious victory? Or go back to Nihilus, your tails between your legs, telling everyone about how you abandoned your savior in Arx? If I win without you how humiliating do you think that will really be? If you achieve victory with me how well do you think you'll be rewarded?”