Sister

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Some events are so ingrained in the memory that they don't fade even centuries later. For her, the meeting with Celesta was such a milestone.

It would seem that by then she had endured much - the death of the world, the death of loved ones, filth, stinking rapists, hunger, death, rebirth, and a maddening, gut-wrenching thirst. All was forgotten, fused into a bleak gray background, sometimes surfacing in nightmarish dreams. Then she was left with meaningless, insane hope and nothing more. Strangely, the stupid feeling didn't let her down.

What made her trust the little ragamuffin risen? She doesn't know. Some kind of gut feeling. In the gods, Medea sincerely believed, and at times it seemed to her that Morvan, also called the Lord of the Second Chance, had whispered in her ear. In any case, Celesta was a central part of her frame of reference, and she trusted her even more than she trusted herself.

It seems that her daughters adopted this secret awe from her. Along with impulsiveness, selfishness, curiosity, and the desire to always be in the center of things!

"Why didn't you tell me Mistress is here!"

Medea thought for the umpteenth time that she should spank. But she couldn't get her hands on it and in vain.

"Mistress does not leave Taleya, Fetista. Messena Celia of Klakansa, in Lanaka, is a guest in my house, don't you dare call her otherwise."

"I'm not stupid, I understand!"

The chick pouted expressively, looking so cute that Medea couldn't stand it, and came over and embraced the wretch. She did not break away, even demonstratively - she missed her. In her thoughts, complaining to herself that she would finally spoil the child, with a sigh Medea pulled her in the direction of the couch.

"Sit. Tell me how are you."

"I missed you," her daughter whimpered, laying her head on her lap. "Egard has tortured me. He wants me to learn the names of every village in the country that has at least one temple!"

"He's so cruel!" Medea laughed softly.

"That's the way it is! He likes inflicting pain and suffering, that's not why he gave himself to the service of the Dark God!" half-jokingly, Fetista agreed. "You're not leaving, are you?"

"I don't think so. I have a lot to do in Zonna, especially now."

"It's because of Elder Zervan, isn't it?" turned the child's head. "Egard said he betrayed us. Why?"

"He decided he was smarter than everyone. And that the strongest of all, the laws are not for him," a deafening heavy irritation rose in her chest against her will. Sensing the change in her parent's mood, the chick froze. "Wanted freedom, fool. What freedom? To do what you want, to kill whom you want? I remember that freedom. Sleeping in the sewers, rat's blood for dinner, and rags for a dress. Lucky bastard - he'd be dying a long time in my hands!"

It took an effort to suppress the outburst of anger.

"Well, it's all over now, isn't it?" the chick asked cautiously. "He's dead, isn't he?"

"I wish!" Medea shook her head. "Before he fled, Zervan gave the mortals a lot of valuable information. About our servants, our bank accounts, our secret hideouts, and communication channels. You have no idea yet how much damage he has done, just trust me. More than fifty vampires have died because of him, add to that those who succumbed to his speeches, followed him, and were killed by the guardsmen. We have not suffered such losses in four hundred years! And we still have to cut the tainted connections and hide the fugitives, creating new identities for them, finding them homes, and helping them to settle in their new places. Celesta contacts the servants every night and corrects their actions."

"You said she couldn't leave Taleya."

"She couldn't before, but now the Curse has weakened."

Fetista shuddered slightly. She'd been to Taleya once, visited the ruined Academy with her parent, and wandered through the catacombs, examining and memorizing the heart of the dead world. The world of the undead. The girl remembered the feeling of a bottomless pit beneath her feet, the Abyss, from the fall into which the thinnest partition woven from the strength and will of a single being kept her from falling.

"I was so surprised when I saw her."

"Oh, yes," the laughter rang through the room with tinkling bells, bringing the darkness to life. "You burst into the living room, almost kicking the door open! You know how to make an impression, honey!"

The younger vampiress covered her face with her hands: "I thought you were alone!"

"And you didn't even stop before you went in! Messen Latham was shocked - he takes etiquette very seriously."

"Stop it, don't remind me!"

Watching her daughter's embarrassment was very amusing; Medea could not deny herself the pleasure. It is so pleasant to sit next to a loved one by the fire, feeling the sincere emotions coming from the connection, the pure love, devoid of additional shades. Fetista is in the simplest and happiest period of her life, and she doesn't understand it yet, but her master, with whom the chick generously shares her feelings, does.

It was a shame that she couldn't relax completely. Thoughts kept slipping back to the conversation she'd had recently.

Celesta was seldom wrong, and never globally wrong. Her crazy ideas, on closer inspection, turned out to be deliberate and risk-proof, and fit within the framework of a single strategy. Slow growth, the next step always builds on the results of the previous one. Before you take a bite, think about how you will swallow. Guaranteed superiority in strength. Medea smiled mentally, remembering how once upon a time a friend ran after her with an aspen stick, shouting: "You can't sacrifice strategy for tactics! Never! At all!" What kind of adventure was she proposing to get into then? It had completely slipped her mind.

Her sister was probably right about that. The former singer had an average grasp of large-scale warfare and long-range campaigning. She was an excellent dueling swordswoman, of which few people knew; she was skilled with a woman's glaive and throwing knives; from numerous lovers and acquaintances she had picked up various knowledge of the army, without going into detail, however. Thanks to the same sources, she understood something about commerce - not at the level of buying things you liked in a shop, but on the scale of the economy of a large region. But what she was justifiably good at was politics and court intrigue.

Personal experience told Medea that an alliance considered impossible yesterday might be perceived as commonplace tomorrow.

It turns out that there are no fundamental objections to the very concept of the Holy Crusade. Although making a poisonous bunch of vipers, skilfully pretending to be the conductors of the divine will, to work together to achieve one goal is a tremendously difficult task. Here, indeed, without an external will, preferably the monarch's, can not do. You can't help but wish that someone like the fool Irrhan were on the throne. Someone like that just needs to hint that there's a Dark Powers enclave somewhere, and he can do the rest on his own, regardless of the cost or the objections of the ministers. Pity, pity there aren't more of them. The dynasty has concluded from the schism, too religious heirs are quickly stripped of their status. Some take monastic vows, some fall from a horse, one, I remember, drowned in a river...

An idea that is great in theory, when put into practice, runs the risk of encountering a lot of pitfalls. The details must be carefully thought out. Which temples will be happy to participate, and which ones will have to be persuaded, to choose arguments in advance, including force arguments. How many troops are needed, and how much money. However, the people and financing will be handled by others, she will have to persuade the crowd of court hypocrites not to prevent the Taleyans from recruiting fanatics. Nor has anyone relieved her of the task of subduing the risens of the sultanate and securing a safe road to Birat.

Wonder if it's possible to combine the two?

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