Chapter 250 – Marquess’s New Threads

Aki - Day 62 - 56 Days Remain Until the End of the Mourning Period on Mavigan

Lilyth dragged herself into our room and fell face first onto the couch.

‘I gather your date with Ere went well,’ Caei laughed. ‘Made Phoebe a sibling, eh?’

Lilyth only whimpered in response.

Was the little demon this much of a handful today?

Don’t get me wrong, I loved Phoebe with all my heart, but, by the gods, let’s just say she gave me some much-needed perspective on children and made me use the [Contraception] spell religiously.

As Lilyth once said, babies are the best contraceptive.

After a few more moments of silence, I began to notice that something was very wrong. Lilyth wasn’t wearing her cool new outfit, but rather a torn and dirty tunic, pants and a wraparound cloak. What was worse, her body was covered in dozens of half-healed wounds, including a nasty cut on her cheek and another on her side.

And are those claw marks across her back?

Yes. It looked as if Lilyth was gored by some animal.

‘Caei,’ I shouted and ran to our furball’s side. ‘She needs healing!’

Lilyth - Earlier that Day

I was getting ready for my day trip to the realm of Air when someone knocked at the door to our chamber. I was just finishing putting on my “god ensemble. I took a quick look at myself in the mirror.

The basics weren’t much. Just a pair of jeans and an oversized black V-cut shirt with my purple rabbit-and-fox crest in the middle. Now, I accessorised the pants with a black leather belt with a silver belt buckle depicting a crow, which was, in turn, complemented by blue bird-skull crystal earrings.

Now, the official reason I have included corvids in my iconography was due to the relationship they had with death in our mythology and me being the Marquess of Hell and all.

The unofficial reason was my enjoyment of a certain Chilean painter in a video game I liked playing while back home. Caw caw.

The “centrepiece” of my outfit was the funky black coat with red lining I had designed purely for the cool factor. Its sleeves split from the elbows down, showing off my forearms, and it had a stand-up collar and silver-and-purple epaulettes.

My outfit also had a secret feature. I could go into a “fake” full-power mode, where the clothes would become all torn and ragged, and the edges would start glowing with fire. I may or may not have stolen that from a different video game.

I wanted to show it off to my wives; right then, they were eating a late breakfast in the dining room, before I left for the realm of Air, but I guessed it would have to wait.

‘Enter,’ I sighed, after smoothing out everything.

It was Izartiel. She was wearing the page uniform and looked extremely sheepish.

No free spots in the city guard, eh? Or did Asha see the bit about Iza being a bounty hunter and decide that wasn’t the job experience she wanted to see?

‘H-hello, m-my lady,’ I could see she was putting in a valiant, if futile, effort to control her voice.

‘If you come in and close the door, you will be able to drop the formal act,’ I said.

‘Thank you,’ she said after following my instructions. ‘I was worried…’

‘That I was somehow mad at you or some crazy power-hungry maniac high on my own farts?’ I chuckled. ‘Hardly.’

‘You did retitle yourself from a Viscount to a Witch Queen.’

‘If I have to do a job I don’t want, I might as well have a nice title to go along with it,’ I shrugged. ‘Also, I am not a Dwynveian. Why the fuck should I care about noble titles from an Empire that died half a millennium ago?’

Iza scratched her chin and said:

‘Some people still view them as the only way the world can function.’

‘Those people were already told to go fuck themselves. At least some of them. Anyway, what brings you here, Izartiel of the Endless Forest?’

‘Lady Ireela sent me to inform you that there is a Church delegation here, and they are demanding to see you.’

Not those idiots again.

‘Well, lead on,’ I tried my best to control my voice.

‘My lady?’ Iza was confused.

‘Time to show you what the Bitch Queen of Ror-Bhyk is actually like.’

Ren

‘You are not Bishop Warnyq,’ Lilyth remarked when the party from the Church of Light entered the throne room.

My mom shot Izartiel a venomous look.

Ooof. Someone forgot to pass on this part of the message.

The new bishop was a relatively stocky bald dwarf with a bushy ginger beard and cold blue eyes. There was a nasty scar running from his chin, across his right cheek, over his eye; it was a miracle he didn’t lose it, and it ended just above his eyebrow. The man must have been very proud of it, as he trimmed his beard in a way that ensured the old wound was always visible.

He was accompanied by four Temple Dragoons - two humans, a harpy and an elf.

‘No, Your Majesty,’ the new bishop bowed his head. ‘I am Bernhaim Den Rartsig.’

‘Well met, Bishop Den Rartsig. May I inquire what happened to your predecessor?’

‘He has been… recalled,’ the new bishop said. ‘His approach to this area has been deemed too soft. The Church leadership believes that a firmer hand is necessary to handle the unique challenges Ror-Bhyk presents.’

‘I see…’ Lilyth’s eyes narrowed. ‘Allow me to set some ground rules, then. You and your organisation have no authority in Ror-Bhyk. The only ways you can apply your “firm” hand are to give handshakes and to jerk off. Actually try anything, and every single member of your organisation will be expelled.’

The bishop grew red-faced.

‘The Church might not take the persecution of their faithful lightly.’

‘It is not the faithful I will be persecuting, just the priesthood. You see, while I am a strong believer in religious freedom, I maintain an equally strong belief in the three-strikes rule, and the Church already used two of them. First, when Inquisitor Vanek murdered Elder Baial and the second when you fuckos tried to incite hatred against the Children of the Elements.’

The bishop pursed his lips but said nothing.

‘I am glad we understand each other,’ Lilyth said, giving him a cold smile. ‘Now if there is nothing else, get the f…’

‘Actually, your “Majesty,”’ the dwarf interrupted her, ‘we haven’t gotten to the reason for my visit yet.’

‘Which is?’

‘We demand that Her Holiness Ymiral be released into the Church’s hands.’

Who?

‘Who?’ Lilyth echoed my thoughts.

‘Please don’t play dumb, Your “Majesty”. We know she is being held in the keep.’

‘Duchess Ireela, is there something I don’t know?’

‘I am as confused as you are, Your Majesty,’ my mom replied.

‘I-I think they might mean the Angel,’ Izartiel suggested in an apologetic tone. ‘Ummm… my Ladies.’

‘Oh, the Angel,’ Lilyth muttered. ‘I completely forgot about her. Thanks, Iza.’

Me too.

‘Yes,’ the Bishop spat. ‘You are holding one of my Lord's most Holy creations here. I demand…’

‘Request denied,’ Lilyth… no… the Witch Queen responded, her eyes flashing cold blue for a moment.

Oh… oh no.

If it got to the point of Lilyth actually using her [Sin-o-Meter] despite her previous reservations, she must have been getting serious about forcing a confrontation with the Church. I didn’t blame her one bit.

While I would have perhaps been more diplomatic, I would have been very wary about releasing the An… Ymiral into the care of the new bishop without a background check.

‘May I inquire as to why?’ the Bishop said.

‘Your Angel is well taken care of. I know the Church cannot provide a similar standard of healthcare in your temple. Once she recovers, this Ymiral will be free to rejoin you.’

Judging by the deep crimson shade of his face, Bishop Den Rartsig didn’t find this perfectly reasonable idea acceptable.

‘Do you seriously think I will let some fae defi…’ he began to shout, but he stopped when the throne room grew cold.

Very cold.

I looked at Lilyth. Her face was shockingly tranquil.

Then… she suddenly began sinking into the throne and emerging behind the bishop, her left arm once again just bones and her clothes on fire. The Marquess of Hell wrapped her arms around the dwarf and began to caress his face with the skeletal fingers of her artificial hand.

‘Allow me to repeat myself, little man,’ she hissed into his ear. ‘You have no authority in Ror-Bhyk. You have no right to demand anything of me. The Angel is our honoured guest, and no harm will come to her. She is getting some of the best medical care…’

One of the Dragoons, the elf, regained his wits and made an attempt to rush to the bishop’s aid, but a large tentacle emerged out of his shadow and wrapped itself around him.

‘…on the continent,’ Lilyth continued without losing a beat, ‘something you cannot provide. The only place I would permit her to be relocated is the hospital of the Children’s of the Elements, and I would never turn somebody in to any religious organisation, particularly a chapter run by a former Inquisitor and one of the more infamous torturers to boot.’

‘H-how…’ the now-white-faced dwarf began to try to say.

‘I have my ways. What can I say? Ror-Bhyk belongs to the Ol… True Gods of Dwynveia now, and the fae are considered our brothers and sisters. Start anything, and I do mean anything that would be targeted at them, and the end of your life will be drawn out and painful. Do we understand each other?’

‘Y-yes.’

‘Good. Now take your toadies and get the fuck out of my keep.’

Aki - Now

‘I missed you guys so much,’ Lilyth said softly after we managed to heal, bathe and clothe her.

Those were the first words she had said since her return. Up till then she had been mostly catatonic.

We were sitting on the very same couch Lilyth collapsed on half an hour earlier or so. She was sitting between us, wrapped in a blanket and drinking a cup of cocoa Nyxie provided. She and Sav were reclining on armchairs in our room, very curious as to what had just happened. We had to get them, well… at least Sav, involved as we discovered that our foxy cutie had signs of severe frostbite on her shoulder and back near the claw marks where Caei did not feel competent enough.

Since Nyx was with her, she tagged along, and I could tell she was very concerned about her adoptive daughter. We all shared in that. Seeing someone who managed to scare the living shit out of an Inquisitor just a few hours before reduced to a mostly unresponsive state was insanely anxiety-inducing.

‘You were just gone for a few hours,’ Ren muttered, not understanding.

Lilyth checked something on her interface.

‘Yeah, I guess for you it had been just a few hours,’ she conceded. ‘Down there… I don’t know how much time has passed. Days. A few weeks maybe.’

‘I don’t…’ I began, but then I understood. ‘You were in Hell, weren’t you?’

‘Courtesy of Princess Zaevi.’

‘She ended up in Hell?’ It was Nyx’s time to be confused. ‘Wait, you don’t have to answer that if you can’t.’

Oh, right. The geas.

‘It’s fine. Ere told me I can tell you about my misadventures. Just not… well… not any handshake club knowledge.’

‘I still think it is weird she let you return in such a sorry state,’ Nyx, apparently reminded the whole thing was Ereshkigal's doing, pointed out in a “do I need to have a talk with her” tone.

‘That’s on me,’ Lilyth sighed. ‘I believe the phrase I used after my return from the assignment was “I just want to go home.”’

‘And the assignment was?’

‘To rescue a dumbfuck Princess. You see…’