Remnant II

by Randi Darren

  Though… I do worry about what Nikki will think of all this. She didn’t seem too pleased previously.

  She didn’t say she was upset, though. I’m not exactly a mind reader.

  Geneva slapped a note against the breastplate of the messenger.

  “Take my messages and deliver them,” she said in a voice heavy with anger. “Run along now.”

  Immediately, the messenger backed away from Geneva and then began to sprint away. Heading straight back to Faraday.

  “Queen, huh?” Steve asked.

  “The audacity,” Geneva said, shaking her head. “The gall. The nerve. What foolishness. She’ll have doomed her entire family with this, and her city if they don’t see reason.”

  “It’s not that bad,” Steve said.

  “Not that bad?” Geneva asked, looking at Steve. “Filch is secure, yes. Bexis no longer exists. Faraday is under revolt. That leaves Hilast and Rennis. If they’re in as poor shape as Bexis and Faraday, I’ll have precious little under my domain.”

  Steve waved a hand at that.

  “This entire part of Lamals was strangled by the Creep,” he said. “It’s a wonder Faraday even stands. It really isn’t that bad.”

  Turning in his seat, Steve looked over at Jaina.

  “Jaina!” he called.

  Looking over at him, Jaina closed her hand to crush the chest of a woman.

  “Keep one item, clear her of everything else,” Jaina said absently to the woman who’d been collared last. “Quick, quick, before she ruins her pants.”

  Leaving the purple death cube, Jaina came over to him.

  “Yes, husband?” she asked.

  “I want that city surrounded in one of your cubes, and then to begin converting everyone to be collared,” Steve said. “Can you do that?”

  Jaina raised her eyebrows at that.

  She looked toward the distant city and seemed to be considering it.

  “Too big. Much, much too big,” she said, grinning at him. He briefly had a memory of the last time she’d told him such a thing. “I can handle part of it at a time, but that means the other parts can act.”

  “Could you hold the barracks?” Geneva asked.

  “Of that I have no doubt,” Jaina said. “Easy, easy.”

  “There we are then,” Geneva crooned, grinning and spreading her hands apart. “My soldiers block the exits, the Creep Witch locks down the barracks, and we begin our bloody harvest.”

  Steve shrugged at that, then leaned back in his chair.

  “I’d rather you didn’t, Geneva,” Steve said. “Just keep them from leaving. I want them all if possible.”

  “You… you what?” Geneva asked.

  “I want them all,” Steve repeated. “Consider it your wedding present to me. I told you I wanted them all.”

  “I… I don’t think—”

  Geneva stopped speaking, matching Steve’s gaze. Then she sighed and shook her head.

  “Fine. As my wedding present to you,” Geneva said.

  “Don’t spoil him,” Lucia said, sounding slightly cross. “He deserves much, but we can’t let him be spoiled.”

  Turning in her chair, Lucia stared hard at him.

  “You can have the barracks, and half the citizenry,” she said. “Geneva needs to make an example of some of them.”

  “Fine, fine, got it,” Steve said, relenting. “Sorry, Geneva. Thank you for giving in to me. I appreciate it.”

  He had a hard time not doing what Lucia told him. She had a firm grasp on his heart and didn’t seem to be letting go.

  Geneva nodded her head to him, then turned and nodded it to Lucia.

  Makes sense, I guess.

  This is an open rebellion.

  Need to have examples made, or no one will believe there’s any teeth to Geneva’s bite.

  I think I’d rather be at home with Nikki.

  Building a cabin.

  ***

  “Man, look at all those camps,” Steve said, gazing at all the bandit camps that’d moved to the other side of Faraday. Away from Steve and Jaina’s purple square of captivity. “After we take Faraday, they’ll all take off running.”

  Geneva gave him an odd look, her brows drawing together.

  “And why do you want them so badly?” Geneva asked. She was dressed out in her full suit of armor. Her weapons ready and hanging at her sides.

  “He’s building an army to fight the citadel commander, remember?” Lucia said, as if it were nothing out of the ordinary. “And to that aim, the more prisoners he captures, the better off he is. He can either recruit them to fight for him or execute them for coin.

  “Speaking of, we really should send you off to go collect all that. It’s starting to get rather high, if I don’t miss my guess.”

  “You really are, then? Going for the citadel commander?” Geneva asked.

  “Yes,” Steve said. “I see no reason to leave her alive. I think she’ll be a problem one way or another.”

  “You’re a very convenient, if lovely and intelligent, chess piece that fell into our hands, Geneva,” Lucia said. “Your timing was quite fortuitous.”

  “I never had a choice, did I?” Geneva asked, her tone becoming curious. He’d partly expected her to be annoyed. “One way or another, I was going to end up yours or… dead.”

  “Probably,” Steve said. “I would have hit you in the head with my axe. Would have been quick and painless.”

  Geneva’s helmeted head turned back toward the city out in front of them.

  “Hmm,” she said, sounding far more receptive to it all. “Better than what my family had planned for me, I suppose. Far better.”

  “And what was that?” Jaina asked, building a small purple sphere between her hands. “Your family, that is. What they had planned.”

  “Oh, I had the distinct impression they were going to give me to my sister’s husband as a concubine,” Geneva said. “He’s been asking for more women for a while, but he’s at the legal limit of wives. So they’ve been collecting consorts and concubines for him. I managed to avoid that fate by joining the officer corps, which doesn’t require the same oaths as the army. Which meant I was free to marry later on. Most of my girls are officer corps or noble family soldiers as well.

  “Then I just acted like an idiotic armor polishing fool with no sense in her head. I was sent out this way more as a disposable token of force to quiet the nobles who collect taxes from out this way. But now that I’m here… I plan on taking this whole area as mine.”

  “I think you and I will just… continue to get along famously, Geneva,” Lucia said with a soft laugh. “My sweet Steve over there is a giant hammer just waiting to drop. He’s going to change the world. Change everything.

  “I bet the pig-pen soldiers will cease to exist, men will be given equal rights, and no longer will they be shipped off to the front like useless cargo after breeding.”

  “Huh,” Geneva grunted. “There are several groups that would like to see that happen. Quite a few nobles support equal rights for men and allowing them to decline service.

  “Their argument being that if children are so precious, men shouldn’t be allowed to leave the home. They should stay home, tend the children, and keep the home in order.”

  “I’d like that,” Steve said, putting his hands on the top of his head. “I bet I’d be a great dad. Probably a better cook than Ina, too.”

  “You already are one, my beloved consort,” Lucia countered. “Nia sees you as her father. And I think anyone can cook better than Ina, poor thing. She’s one of my closest friends, but even I can say that she’s a truly awful cook.”

  Jaina laughed at that and nodded.

  “Awful, awful,” Jaina said. “I’m not much better. Kassandra and husband did the cooking for us when we were raiding farms because of that.”

  Everyone fell quiet at that. Alone with their thoughts.

  When I get back, I’m going to apologize to Nikki. She just… worries. It’s fair to say that she prob
ably wouldn’t know what to do with herself if I died.

  “That’s full sunrise,” Geneva said with a sigh.

  “Goodie,” Steve said. “I formally title every fool in that city who remained after Geneva’s generous timeline as a traitor and condemned criminal. Or at least, those who didn’t renounce the mayor but would have fled if they could have. No sense in condemning innocents.

  “Secondly, I name the mayor as a usurper, bandit, traitor, and criminal.”

  “So be it,” Geneva said.

  Jaina made a laughing, hissing noise and then flicked out her right hand.

  A purple sphere zipped out from her hand and zoomed away toward the city.

  “You’re sure you’ll hit the barracks?” Steve asked.

  In situations like this, Ina would have gotten in close to see the layout and plan. As far as he knew, Jaina had done no such thing. She simply looked at a few maps, asked questions, and said she could do it.

  “Barracks, yes, and whatever else is nearby, too,” Jaina said with a chuckle. “Barracks is at that gate, so we take the gate. No sense being perfect about it.”

  With a muted thump, a purple dome rose up from where the sphere struck the wall.

  Then a massive section of the wall, the gate, and towers began to shift around in a strange, almost comical way.

  Everything began to fall in every direction, stonework and bricks shattering and crashing.

  Reaching up with one hand, Jaina idly scratched at her throat with her fingertips.

  “See, see? All done,” she said. “Barracks is all caught up in my spell.”

  “I… ah… and the walls?” Steve asked.

  “The spell cut them loose. No foundation or connections. All loose,” Jaina said. “No loss. I can just rebuild with witch-stone. I’m getting very good at it.

  “Very, very good.”

  “Speaking of, I’ve been meaning to thank you, Jaina,” Lucia said, looking at the Kobold. “The witch-stone arrow heads you gave me work wonderfully. They have just the right weight and size to them.”

  “Course, course,” Jaina said with another chuckle. “Happy to help. I’m very good with this kind of work. Ina is more suited towards the building. I do better with… all of this.”

  “She’s a siege weapon,” Geneva said. “And a weapon that could win almost any fight.”

  Turning completely toward Jaina, the larger Lionan pulled off her helmet.

  “Jaina, if you were to collapse that dome, what would happen?” Geneva asked.

  “They’d be squished,” Jaina said with a shrug. “The spell doesn’t allow anything out, unless I pull them out. They’d be crushed up to one another and die. Splat, squish.”

  Oh.

  Oh!

  She’s right. That’s quite a weapon, actually.

  You could repeat the spell over and over and just… pulp… your enemy to nothing.

  If I could get all the other Creep Witches to do the same, no one could stand up to me. I could crush Linne like little better than a tin can.

  Wait… a what?

  Never mind. Never mind!

  More Creep Witches.

  Frowning, Steve turned to Nancy who was at his side.

  She was near him as ever. Waiting for orders and doing what she felt best for him.

  “After this is all said and done,” Steve said in a whisper, leaning into Nancy. “We’re taking volunteers and heading to the wall. I want to make more Creep Witches. We’ll need to figure out a way to find out who’d be willing to take on such a burden for a sentence reduction. It’d involve them dying and coming back to life, after all.”

  “I understand, Steve. I’ll make sure of it,” Nancy said, moving in close and pressing her face into his neck. “Can we go back to the tent now?”

  “Sure,” Steve said. Then he slid his arm around Nancy and began walking her back. They didn’t need him here.

  Nineteen

  Groaning, Steve pushed down on Jaina’s hips as he angled himself up against her. He tried to grind himself against her clit as he continued to finish inside of her.

  Jaina moaned and held tight to him, her fingers digging into his back as she pulled at him.

  Letting out a slow breath, Steve laid his head down on Jaina’s shoulder.

  “Ooooh. Yes, yes,” Jaina growled as she nuzzled and pulled at him. “That was really good. Pups or not, sex is amazing with you, husband.”

  Always great for the ego. I never feel lacking in any way with Jaina.

  “Still too big. Much, much too big. But I like it, too. It’s a good ache now that I’m used to it,” Jaina said, then started to bite down along his neck and to his shoulder.

  She continued to bite at him, in a way he knew had to do with her species and falling deeply in love with him.

  Sliding to the side, Steve let out a breath.

  One day soon, we’ll need to let her get that pregnancy she wants.

  Jaina moved with him, then pushed him onto his back, sliding atop him and then cuddling into him.

  It was midday after they’d taken the entire barracks of Faraday. Jaina had spent the entirety of the day systematically working through all the soldiers who’d been there.

  Today they were recovering and figuring out their next course of action. They hadn’t managed to capture every soldier with the attack on the barracks.

  In truth, they’d only caught maybe ten percent. After that, the mayor of Faraday had done everything she could to keep her soldiers spread out. Preventing them from repeating the same attack.

  Instead, Steve had taken to rewarding Jaina heavily today. This was at least the third time he’d coupled with her today, by her request. Today was about taking care of Jaina’s needs.

  She’d done too well for him not to make sure he did all he could to make her happy.

  Other than her pups.

  He really didn’t like the idea of having too many pregnancies at the same time.

  Truth be told, he’d still rather not have children at all, but that didn’t seem to be an option available to him.

  “Ooooh, so nice. Nice, nice,” Jaina said with a partially muffled voice. She was still gnawing at his shoulder very gently.

  “I’d hope so,” Steve said. “It takes a little more work, but it’s worth trying to make sure you get off too.”

  “Yes, yes,” Jaina said, biting harder for a second before licking at his skin.

  “Steve?” Geneva asked from outside his tent. “Someone’s coming this way with a white flag. As my betrothed, I’d like you there.

  “As an unmarried noblewoman in command, I can sometimes be viewed as… well, depending on the local culture, I might not be viewed as a woman, but a young girl.”

  Looking at Jaina, Steve asked her permission without asking. Today was her day.

  If she told him to stay, he’d stay.

  Jaina grunted softly, her arms and legs tightening on Steve. Her teeth sank in a bit deeper. Her eyes locked on his.

  Then she sighed and roughly pushed her face up under his jaw against his neck.

  “He’s coming,” Jaina said, looking like she wanted to bite and hold on to him again.

  Kinda like it. Easy to understand.

  “Much appreciated, Jaina,” Geneva said without moving away. Her shadow was quite visible just outside the tent flap.

  Then again, Lucia’s become very direct and easy to understand as well.

  Steve got up out of the bedroll and into his clothes. In perhaps a minute, he was exiting the tent, leaving a sweaty and well-tousled Kobold behind.

  As he stepped outside, he found himself practically staring into Geneva’s face from a foot away.

  He couldn’t look at her without feeling a strange pang for Chessa. Which was odd, given that he hadn’t felt anything for her loss during the initial stages.

  That or he’d simply blocked all of it out and hadn’t wanted to deal with it.

  If that’s true, did I care more than I realized?

  Si
ghing, Steve imagined he could misplace his lost feelings for his Tigan with the Lionan.

  Emotions were hard for him. He didn’t understand them, they didn’t make sense, and quite a few things he thought he should probably feel, he didn’t at all.

  Then again, does it even matter?

  “Is… there a problem?” Geneva asked, looking at him strangely. Her eyes were partially lidded as well.

  In a way that was far too similar to Chessa.

  “No,” Steve said. He didn’t want to talk about it or deal with it.

  I’ll run it by Nikki.

  As soon as he thought about the Faun, he remembered that she’d more or less dismissed him.

  She’d not wanted to see him off.

  Talk to Lucia about it tonight.

  “Ah… will you accompany me?” Geneva asked.

  “Yes,” Steve said, not moving. He stood there, staring at the Lionan.

  “I… uhm… alright… then,” Geneva said, staring back at him.

  Suddenly she broke eye contact, looking down and to the side, and the tail behind her slid down to position itself between her legs. Pointing to the ground.

  Then she slowly hunched her shoulders and seemed to lower her posture.

  Inexplicably, she partly turned her back toward him.

  Reaching out, Steve laid a hand on Geneva’s shoulder and grabbed her. Then he began marching forward, holding her out in front of him. Heading for her command pavilion.

  The hell was that?

  Probably some type of response to me and that I’d been mating with Jaina.

  Maybe Chessa’s wild behavior wasn’t abnormal to her, just something most people work to control?

  Geneva slowly seemed to come back out of whatever had gone on inside her head. Her shoulders squared back up, her head lifted, and her tail moved back to its upright position.

  She became General Geneva once more, the military governor of the area.

  “I’m sorry,” Geneva said as they got closer to her tent. “It’s… it’s very hard to completely submerge it.”

  “Submerge what?” Steve asked. He assumed she was talking about what had just happened, but he still wasn’t quite sure what that’d been.

  “My… instincts? Heritage?” Geneva asked. “Just as your Kobold can’t seem to stop biting you, I have my own… heritage.”