I Want to Go Home - 26

Secrets and Truths

We kept out over the water, avoiding the armies surrounding the city. Approaching, we saw that the city had taken quite a bit of damage, but the walls seemed to have held.

And what walls they were. Even from the air I could tell they were impressively tall, white marble capped in gold. There had to be magic behind the way they were still standing, glistening and seemingly undamaged.

The city within, judging from the portions that were still standing, had been a wealthy trading port for the Holy Kingdom. The few remaining buildings were magnificent, as intricately decorated as the temple we’d travelled from and built on a scale akin to Guuji, which had to be grander than almost any ancient monuments on Earth. Clearly magic had benefits for builders over medieval engineers back home.

We lowered our altitude, approaching via the docks. There were great chains spread across the entrance to the harbour, though it wasn’t an issue for us.

A small ship sailed out towards us, moving despite the lack of any wind. Aboard it was a fully Elven crew, though they spread across a range of skin tones (including colours I didn’t realise could be skin tones). They also seemed to vary in heights from roughly the size of dwarves to easily a head taller than myself.

A woman who looked like she was the captain waved to us, directing us towards a long pier. We complied, landing on the tip of it shortly before the ship caught back up to us. The captain hopped down with impressive grace while the others worked to steady the ship. She had a sea green complexion, with darker green hair framing her pale face.

“And who might you all be?” she asked.

“This,” Aara said, gesturing to myself, “Is Emily, the new Vazehr.”

“The new…” she trailed off, clearly taking a moment to place the name before turning to look at me. “Well, you look like you could be a goddess, but looks can be deceiving. Charms and transformation potions… I hope you’ll forgive us for not having doubts. We don’t have much optimism left here.”

“I am the Vazehr, but I’m not sure how I’d go about proving it… I also don’t know how much I can promise to turn the tides of battle,” I replied.

The captain gave a small nod. “Well, if you’re who you say you are, this is a matter for higher ranks than myself… HEY! JAZEK!!”

An elven man scrambled forward on the deck of the ship. His outfit reminded me a bit of the old priest’s, but simpler. “Yes captain?”

“Does she read like a goddess to you?” the captain asked.

Jazek got some help from other crew members to scramble down a rope, and then hurried over to give me a quick inspection. He then turned to the others, before seeming to notice the spiritual strings connecting us. He gave one a quick pluck before nodding.

“Either we’re dealing with an illusionist powerful enough to convince us the sun rises in the North or she’s the real deal,” the young Elven priest replied.

The captain didn’t seem to appreciate the alternative given, but accepted the assessment. “Alright. Then let’s go. The generals will probably be happy to hear about this.”

She led us down the pier, her pace swift enough to ensure no conversation. As we moved towards the land, I noticed the priest was hurrying behind us. I also realised that Ne’avo had continued to keep her laurel crown hidden away, clearly still a little self conscious about it. I couldn’t judge her for that, though. It probably felt as awkward as being treated like a goddess felt to me.

Approaching the city, it became clear that even the more intact buildings had seen better days. With the walls having held, I wondered how there were scars of damage here as well, until the land seemed to decide to answer me, beginning to tremble.

“Damned geomancers,” the captain hissed under her breath, pausing her forward progress as we stood safely in the large square at the base of the pier.

The shaking slowly grew, moving from just noticeable up to what must have constituted a proper earthquake. However, just as it hit that point, it stopped.

“Good. The priests caught it,” the captain said, mostly to herself as best as I could guess.

She set off again immediately, with barely a gesture to tell us to follow once more. We followed a large boulevard, lined with now dead trees and decaying flowers. The few soldiers we saw milling about seemed to mostly be the wounded or half starved. I hoped those on the walls were in better shape, while also noticing that there at least didn’t seem to be any civilians here.

Or, at least, none out in the open.

We encountered a checkpoint after a few blocks, and it took the arrival of a second priest (this one a Moon Elf, though he was smaller than Ne’avo) to confirm we were who we said we were. Or, at least, I was who I said I was. They seemed generally less interested in the rest of the party.

One of the better dressed men from the checkpoint took over leading us at that point, though he proved to be in just as much hurry as the captain. We followed him up a monumentally sized staircase, leading up to what must have once been a temple or a palace. Most of that building was shattered rubble now, however. A number of tents sat in the open space in front of it, improvised fortifications turning the hill into something of a citadel. It likely wouldn’t hold if the city walls fell, but it would at least ensure they took out as many ghouls as possible in any final stand.

We were led towards one of the larger tents, the officer opening the flap slightly.

“Ah, sirs, we have someone rather important to see you,” the man announced into the tent.

“Someone important?” a gruff voice called out, preceding the voice of a middle aged Moon Elf sticking his head out. “Unless they’ve found the Sword of Loj or Prince Ne’avin I don’t really ca—”

His words died in his throat as the solidly built elf took my appearance in. “A Celestine? No… no… a deity?”

“Vazehr, specifically,” I replied.

Something approaching a smile spread onto his face. “Vazehr? We… Galan, I think this is the real deal.”

He’d called the last bit into the tent, causing a second general (another elf, this one with purplish brown skin) emerged, followed by officers who seemed to cover the range of possible Elven complexions.

“The goddess of justice?” General Galan asked, blinking and giving me a once over.

“There might actually be sanity to our having kept fighting,” the first general replied.

“Also, though,” I said, as I remembered. “We’ve got the Sword of Loj, right Ne’avo… Ne’av—”

I paused, staring at her while trying to work out what to do with the question trying to force its way from my brain to my tongue. She seemed to notice the realisation in the air, as others started to look at her, and managed to blush visibly, even with her dark Moon Elf complexion.

“I—yeah. It’s, uh… it’s Princess Ne’avo now,” she said, slowly drifting into a barely audible mumble by the end.

“You were a princess this whole time and you didn’t tell us?” I asked, hands spreading in confusion. “And, wait… you’re also trans?”

“Uh… well,” she started, seeming self conscious about everyone looking at her. “I… don’t know? I—the potion master insisted that I take the potion of womanhood because he said I was staring at it too much… he wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

The Moon Elf general walked up to her, giving her a short inspection. “I think it’s the muscles more than the womanhood that makes you nearly unrecognisable Ne’avi—Ne’avo. But I can see it now. It is you… I’d half figured you’d died in the wilds.”

Ne’avo managed to look offended at the implication. Until a wave of acceptance spread across her face. “Fair…”

“I think we’re going to need an account from the top of what’s going on,” General Galan said, opening the flap to the tent and gesturing for us to enter.

-

Now, my own story has already been relayed here, so there is little reason to discuss the briefing I gave. Aara and Sukura had relatively little to add, either. The former could say that she’d heard rumours of Nemza’s forces raiding further south than the soldiers had hoped, but everything else she knew was tied to our shared journey.

Uké’el was able to give some information about the battles in Chuu-la. That the force which attacked Guuji had been an army built for speed, gaining victories through outmaneuvering the enemies. It was believed to have transformed into something of a disperse force of bandits last she’d heard, though. Chuu-la’s agricultural heartland was untouched, as far as we knew.

Ne’avo’s story, though…

“Well, as you generals know, my dad generally tried to avoid getting tied up with politics,” she said. “And I mostly just stuck to my books. So I didn’t have any more idea than anyone else that Nemza was going totally evil in the shadows of the palace. Like, I saw her getting pale and lurking in the library too, but I figured she just wasn’t getting enough sun… anyway, when everything went sideways, I was mostly just focused on trying to get out alive. Since I’d never done well in self defence lessons.”

“Or magic lessons,” General Zan (the Moon Elf general) muttered to himself.

Ne’avo’s mouth tightened briefly, but she nodded. “Alright. I wasn’t great as a student of any sort. Getting back on topic… I got a bit lost while trying to escape the demons Nemza summoned. Then I saw the Sword of Loj sitting on display, a few lower ranking demonic things seeming ready to steal it. One of them grabbed it, only for there to be a blast of, like, holy energy… I realised someone was going to have to get it to safety, and I was the closest one. So I ran past the demons, yoinked it, and then kept running in the hopes they’d be too confused to chase me. I was wrong there, but being armed with the Sword of Loj meant even someone like me could fend off minor discordants.

“The city was burning once I got out of the palace,” she explained, shivering a little. “I kept running, trying to avoid the main streets. I’d read an old book about a heroic ancestor of mine who overthrew another rather more corrupt one, and how he’d snuck into the city via a storm drain. I tried to see if the drain still existed and lucked out when it did. Running into the woods… well, I’d read enough books about adventurers living off the land that I only ate bad berries and got sick once or twice. Eventually, I found my way to a town, where there was the potion master.

She took a small breath before continuing. “I had realised, out in the woods, that I might be the only survivor of the royal family, and that I needed to follow the path of past heroes. Which meant I needed a strength potion. And, when I bought it, the shopkeeper gave me the womanhood potion too. Since I kept staring at it, thinking how nice—well , uh… I reluctantly admitted I could probably use the disguise when he insisted I take it. It turned out the few gold I had on me easily paid for all of that, and a coach to a nearby city. Once I was there I bought some magical armour and the charm of untraceability… which then meant I got very lost, since I might have slightly skimmed the instructions.”

“You skimmed the instructions?” General Galan asked.

“I am not surprised in the least,” General Zan replied.

“They were long and I was nervous,” Ne’avo muttered. “But, um… while I was wandering, I did realise how much I liked being a woman. And at some point I kind of forgot I wasn’t supposed to be, and I didn’t want anyone to know otherwise, so I thought I should try to earn respect as a travelling adventurer. I wanted to prove myself, instead of just being born into fame…”

General Zan buried his face in his hands. “We could have used the morale boost of knowing there was a living carrier of holy royal blood.”

“Oh… I guess that does make sense,” Ne’avo mumbled, face falling in defeate.

“Well, hey, she ran into me and now she’s all charged up as a divine champion?” I offered.

“Still could have told us she was a princess who actually knew Lady Nemza…” Aara said.

“I didn’t really know her. I’d met her, but she kind of hated me,” Ne’avo muttered.

“Well, either way… now you’re here, princess,” General Galan said. “As is Lady Vazehr. And an assortment of Divine Champions. Which means we can try to break the siege.”