The Queen's Pillars, Chapter 4

It was a week since the Pillars learned of the incident at the Duke’s farmland, and the apparent return of the Black Dogs.  As Hisako had learned, they were originally a ‘small group of badass-wannabe, pissant teenagers,’ as Beliel had described them.  They weren’t worth the trouble of dealing with, since the townsfolk usually ended up doing just that, anyway.  Then, someone smart came in, cleaned them up, and organized them.  Within a month, they were successfully knocking over any traders cart that thought to not use the main roads.  Within three, they were attacking any cart that looked expensive on any road outside of the city.

The most important thing about them, though, was that they lacked any defining features.  No standards, no specific clothing, no colors, or anything else of the sort.  What they did have, was a specific phrase that they all knew.  Of course, none of the Pillars knew it, so it would be difficult for them to find one of the Dogs.

Which is exactly why the Pillars didn’t find one.  Two of the guard did.

Two men, one in heavy looking armor with a large crossbow, the other in significantly less bulky armor and carrying a lighter, but no less capable looking crossbow, were leading a scowling, chained teen of perhaps nineteen with an arrow in his shoulder to the throne room, where the Pillars flanked her.

“I see you have brought someone for me,” Alexi said.  “I shall assume that he is a member of the Black Dogs?”

“Yep,” said the large one, sounding very casual.  “We were patrolling the lower wards, and this idiot here was apparently looking for other Dogs, ‘cause we heard him whisper their call sign to a couple passersby in an alley.  Real quiet, too; we weren’t sure we even heard it right.  So, Rook made sure it was him he heard, and shot him then and there.”  At ‘there,’ he flicked the arrow in the Dog’s arm, making him wince.

“That didn’t put him down, though, the tough son of a bitch,” Rook said.  “So Cody tackled him.  Broke some of his ribs, I can assume.”

“He did, the fat prick,” the captive said, before coughing up some blood.

Alexi smiled.  “It’s good to see my soldiers aren’t just going to sit back and let my Pillars show them up.”

“Damn straight,” Rook and Cody said simultaneously.

This brought a chuckle out of her.  “Well, if you wish, you two can leave.  I’m sure you two have patrolling you must return to.  Keep up the good work, my loyal soldiers.  You’re setting good examples for all of the new recruits.”

The two placed their right hand on their left breast, then brought it out to their side level with their head, in the standard salute.  Then, they departed, though not before Cody gave another flick to the arrow.

“So,” Alexi began, her voice not changing tone at all, “you seem like you’re pretty cocky, doing this in the middle of the day, and so close to guards, too.  I mean, I would have thought that you would be smart, what with how the Black Dogs operate now.  Instead, you made a very stupid move, and got caught.  Really, I’d be more disappointed, if this wasn’t entirely to my benefit.

“So, I’ll make a deal with you.  If you just tell me and my Pillars where we can find your base, I’ll just put you in the dungeon for… let’s say, six months.  Maybe more, maybe less, depending on how good you are while there, and whether you volunteer to work in the mines.  Do you accept, or will you prove what Rook said and choose foolishly?”

The teen stared at Alexi the entire time, his scowl never once leaving his face.  At the end of her speech, as if he had already decided before he heard her, he spat on the ground in front of her.  “As if I’d betray my brothers!  I’ll never tell you where they are, even if you threaten to throw me in the dungeon for life!  I have a sense of loyalty stronger than even your damned soldiers!”

When his tirade finished, he smirked at the six monsters.  He knew already what they would have attempted to get him to speak, but his will would not broken by these monsters.  He had not become a Black Dog because he was weak.  Cocky, perhaps, but he deserved it, after three years as a Dog with no incidents.

Hisako looked over to Alexi.  “My queen.  Permission to act?”

“Granted.”

With that, Hisako began to walk to him.  Each step was accented with the jostling of her armor, which became louder. and in turn, more unnerving for him as she got closer.  “So, the threat of a slow, admittedly painless death in chains doesn’t scare you.  Hmm.”  Then she booted him in the forehead.  He cried out in pain, not at all expecting that.  “How do you feel about a slow, painful one?”

“W-What?” he said, confused.  He had his knee stomped on in response.

“I said, how about a slow, painful one,” Hisako repeated as he screamed.  “Rather than wait and see how long you last in chains, why don’t we just see how long you last from a beating?  I’ve always wondered if it was possible to kill someone with just pain, but every time I’ve tried, they would bleed out before then.  Tell me, would you like to help in my experiment?”

Throughout, Hisako’s expression stayed the same, never breaking from her cold stare.  He felt himself shaking under that gaze, as if her eyes was breaking down every inch of his willpower.

Still, he tried to be strong.  “Y-You’re bluffing!  Monsters don’t kill men, they need humans to survive!”

“That may be.”  Hisako then grabbed his legs, making sure to jostle the knee she just broke, and spread them out.  She then lifted her right leg, and shot it forward, right into his crotch.  His mouth opened wide, but only a weak, strangled noise came out.  It didn’t get any louder as Hisako pulled his legs towards her, only helping to pull his crotch into her armored foot harder.

“Tell me, which do you think will happen first?” Hisako calmly continued.  “Will your testicles burst under the pressure, forever ruining any chances of having children, or will your legs be torn off, leaving you unable to walk for the rest of your life?  I think the first will happen, but then, your legs might be much more fragile than I first thought.  It’s a tossup at this point, and the outcomes are head I win, tails you lose.”

“Hisako, release,” Alexi said, and immediately, his aggressor let go of both of his legs, letting them fall painfully to the ground.  She foot stayed put, however, keeping light, but noticeable pressure on his groin.  Then, Alexi began to address him.  “Now, I can let her continue if you don’t cooperate, but really, neither of us want that, and I know she has better things to do than torture a boy like you.  So… what will you do?”

“Just so you know,” Hisako piped in, “if you tell us a lie, when we do find their real base, I will use your severed head to beat every one of your ‘brothers’ to death.  Or perhaps, I can force you into an alp, cut your vocal cords, and let you be stress relief for any of your brothers that we imprison when we do find them.  Then you could be closer than ever before.  Wouldn’t you like that?”

He wasn’t sure if there was a bluff to call.  Even if there was, he wasn’t going to try and test her on it.  “A-a mansion, thirty miles south of Valus.  The only one there.  It has a blue top.  Hard to miss.”

“Thank you,” Alexi said, honestly.  “We will make sure that healers attend to you as soon as possible.  Though, you are going into the dungeons.”

“I… I don’t care,” he said, frantic.  “Just, g-get me away from her.”

Within a minute, a guard was taking the battered teen to his cell, with a mage healing his wounds, and a janitor cleaning up the mess that he had left behind.  When he was finally gone, Vapula looked over to Hisako.  “Were you serious about what you said you would do to him if he’s lying, or were you simply bluffing?”

Hisako gave a single note chuckle.  “I will say this. I don’t know how to force an alp transformation.  Not yet, at least.”

“Oh.”

Suddenly, everyone around her felt that much more uneasy simply being around their newest addition.

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A quiet twelve hour trip later, and it was nighttime near Valus.  The Pillars had slept for much of the trip, not so much out of necessity, but to keep from the awkwardness of the long silence.  Now, they stood outside the mansion, and, though they had already known from Hisako herself going there, saw that her fear tactics had gotten the truth, or at least a truth out of the Dog.  There were no guards patrolling the perimeter, which made some sense given how far away from civilization this place was.  It was still foolish, however.

Aquilina sighed, then began.  “First off: Hisako, no killing.  I shouldn’t have to say that to a monster, but still.”  She made it a point to never see Hisako work seriously from now on.  “Second: we need to leave one of them conscious so he can tell us where to find what they stole.”

“Why should we show kindness to bandits?” Hisako asked.  “They would not show the same to us, and they will just continue terrorizing once we leave.  Even prison, I feel, is too nice.”

“Hisako.”  Aquilina said it once, and though she knew she had no chance of scaring the raiju, at least she stayed quiet.  “Right.  Now, Vapula.  How many are in there?”

Vapula closed her eyes, breathed in heavily, then slowly released the breath.  When she opened her eyes, they glowed a soft white light.  “I can see fifty people, though only fifteen are awake right now.  Seven are on the first floor, six are on the second, and the last two are at the top.  Those two have more demonic energy than the others, and there is the same feeling coming from both of them.  I suspect those are a monster and her husband, though they are currently occupied.”

“And?”

“Second window from the left, second floor,” Vapula continued, eyes no longer glowing.  “That room is empty.”

Aquilina nodded.  “Good.  Jehona, you’re up.  Stay off the top floor.”

She was already on it, as it happened.  Jehona scaled the building to the window, and, once there, removed her left glove.  Her hand then dissolved into smoke, and seeped between the cracks of the window.  The smoke crept to the lock on the window, and within seconds, unlocked it.  The smoke pushed at the window, slowly and silently opening it.  Jehona’s hand returned from its misty form as she climbed through the window.  Once inside, she smiled.  She was in her element, now.

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Hisako could only stare as she watched Jehona nimbly climb the mansion’s wall, and perform a magic that she had never seen before.  She did not question it, though, feeling it would be better to hear it from Jehona herself.

Aquilina looked back to the rest of the group, save Hisako.  “You know the drill.  Once she opens the front door, we go in, quietly.  Then, we deal with the monster and her husband, make one of them tell us where our supplies are, and have the Valus city guard come arrest them.  Hisako, that will be your job.  Not torturing either of them.”

“It would be more effective to kill them, but fine.”

Aquilina sighed.  She knew that she would need to talk to her about that, but now was not the time.  So too did Belial, if only because there was better things to do than question a murderous woman.

Vapula, however, disagreed with Aquilina, whether she realized or not.

“Hisako, what happened that made you like this?”  Vapula asked, looking quite visibly concerned.  “No one, human or monster, goes down whatever path you have willingly.  So what caused it?”

Hisako had yet to look away from the building.  “I felt myself die, and watched friends and family be slaughtered by my enemies.  Enemies I could have stopped before then if I had killed them.  It hadn’t taken long before I snapped, and pacifism was no longer an option.”

“Killing is still never the right option,” Vapula continued with her none too subtle diatribe.  “While I will not condone or justify whatever your own foes have done, to take another’s life is a choice no one deserves, or should have to make, no matter what either party has done.”

Hisako turned to look at Vapula at that.  “One day, I will tell you what I have gone through.  But not today.  Perhaps that will help you understand.”

As if timed, Jehona opened the door of the mansion, as slowly and silently as one of her caliber would do.  She raised a hand for the other Pillars to follow, which they all, save Hisako, did.  Nodding, Jehona turned back to the door…

Only to duck as a black fur covered hand swung out, claws carving a decent sized chunk from the door as they missed their intended target.  She dodged backwards, hand springing away from whatever just made an attempt at her life.  Upon looking up, she saw what, or rather, who it was; a thinly muscled hellhound, followed closely by a pale, meek(er) looking human.  This was likely the same monster-human duo that Vapula had detected.

Truthfully, Jehona was just thinking about how impressive it was for the hellhound to have snuck up on her.

“Look, love!”  The hellhound’s voice was scratchy, like she gargled glass shards regularly.  “Some wannabe heroes!  How's about I deal with them?”  The man didn’t respond verbally; rather, he snapped his fingers.  An explosion of light followed, and when the darkness settled back in, there were nine more of the hellhound behind the original.

“Perfect,” the prime hellhound said with a smile.  Then, two ran towards each Pillar.