Chapter 260 – Captured

"What do you mean by 'Shifty bitch'?" the Princess asks.

"I have better things to do than fight about stupid things. As you know, women are dying! All because Shifty bitch and Icy bitch raped me for kids," I say. "Kali, I'll take over again." I get back to work on remaking the noble's arm. Kali got rid of the rest of the burned skin, letting me focus on completely healing the noble.

"Alzi, I need you to answer me," the Princess says. "Geta, set her down, and go back out. Azula De Vil knows the rules."

"Ok, Elora, but do not push Alzi. She is right about our women."

"I know," the Princess says. "The collar isn't going to be triggered. But it would be best to have Azula De Vil remain alive for us. She isn't in immediate danger, but she will eventually start losing blood again. Keeping her alive will get them to pull back for a bit. They may even be willing to start peace talks with us having captured Azula De Vil."

How crazy is it that I can focus better with howls of pain around me than with these two talking?

"Get out," I say. "You aren't supposed to be in here, I think, so go. If I run out of women to heal, I'll get to the Shifty bitch if she is still alive, but I can't heal fast enough with you two bickering behind me. Fuck off."

"Thank you for helping," Geta says. "Sorry for getting in your way. Please think about saving Azula De Vil, but only enough to get her stable. You don't need to fully heal her. Just keep her from bleeding out when the potion wears off."

"Then convince Kali or Esta to do it," I say. Geta walks off without saying anything more. Shyla's eyes shift between me, my patient, and the Princess. How does the enemy get so much love?

"Lady Alzi," Petra says. Petra is the woman Shyla got to help me keep track of who to heal. She was one of the commoners I never had time to heal during our marches. She lost her arm and an eye but now refuses to let me heal them. Despite the missing eye, she has a good eye for who is stable and who needs healing and keeping track of them. She even has a better grasp of writing than I do, not enough to read a book but enough to take some notes if she has something to write on. "After the current noble, all the other nobles are stable. You have the time if you want to."

"Always time for nobles..."

"Love, I would like to know what you meant by Shifty. Can we talk about it after you finish?"

"Fine. Just shut up, everyone."

"I'm bleeding," my patient whimpers.

"Yes, sorry. I'm trying to get to you, but I'm not good at talking and healing yet," I say. Hopefully, that makes the Princess feel bad enough to be quiet. Maybe I should slow down enough to make sure Shifty is dead by the time I get to her.

...

I decide against going slower. There's no need to punish my patients for that bitch. And I have a strange feeling about that, a feeling that's eerily similar to my collar. But I have no current commands about it, so it must be something else forcing its will onto me.

At least Geta must have been successful in retreating, as no more injured women come in, leaving me with no good excuse in the nobles' eyes and that pit in my stomach, so I move over to Shifty's side.

Her right arm is missing, her side has a deep cut in it, and there are cuts across her eyes. The cuts are easy enough to heal, and I just have to cover over the stump of her arm.

"Done," I say, moving on to the next woman. I see why they wanted me to heal her. I spent more time fighting against it than healing her, and I'll have a chance to heal more commoners today if the fighting has stopped.

"Alzi, dear, can you explain your nickname?" the Princess says. "Please, she is the enemy, and I want to know more about her."

"Her body shimmers like she's hiding it," I say. "Now, get her and you out of here. I have women to heal."

"Thank you, my Love," the Princess says. "Thank you for all you do here. I may call on you to help interrogate her. I think you remember what she let us go through. She can be the first you get revenge on."

"I have Esiyae already."

"No, she is in a cell somewhere, getting some light healing. Her punishment won't truly set in until after the war."

"Whatever, I just want to do my job right now. Leave me alone," I say, walking off towards the commoners.

*** Elora ***

Alzi is just tired and heavily pregnant, so what else should I expect when I try to make demands in her domain? I should've pulled from my private supply and waited until after she was done to make requests. I'll just have to remember to make it up to her when this is over. With Azula De Vil in our hands, we can end this soon.

Edeozia just doesn't have the nobles to keep up with us. We have twice their population and landmass, letting our nobles grow stronger on average, and we also have more nobles, so this war should soon be over. Just don't jump into a trap, Elora.

We've captured a few more of their nobles. They're just the wives of some baroness, but they will give the poison mercenary some company.

I sit down in my small section of the command tent and pull out the mirror to share some good news with Mother. My leg bounces as I stare at the foggy mirror.

"What do you want?" Mother asks, her armor coated in blood. The sounds of the battlefield are not far from her.

"I have captured Azula De Vil," I say.

"Good. Play defensive for now. They will rush you to take her back. Is there anything else?" my Mother asks.

"No, be safe."

I don't get an answer, just seeing my face staring back at me. We're running out of warriors, with Vanya being as pregnant as she is now. I didn't think I would trick Alzi that much; I just wanted it to be easier for her to have sex.

I just have to wait a bit before I can start the interrogation. I need to give Alzi some time to heal the commoners so she'll be willing to join us. I think the threat of what Esiyae is going through should loosen her lips, or I can let Alzi loosen her other lips if she wishes to.

*** Alzi ***

It was a lot more relaxing without the women getting rushed in, wailing in pain. Or having a Princess make demands over your shoulder.

"My Lady," Shyla says. "Princess Elora is asking for you to help her. Are you willing?"

Yet again, that strange pull comes. Not from the collar, but that bitch, Love. Does Elora get the same pulls when I ask for things? "I guess," I say. It would be nice to have that bitch in chains this time and to stop having to deal with this stupid pulling thing.

"Let me get your coat on, my Lady."

Shyla leads me towards the center of the camp. When I leave the medical area, a group of women circle around me. It isn't a far walk, but the tents don't leave enough room for a carriage, and getting on a horse seems like a really stupid thing to do right now.

"Thank you for joining us, dear," the Princess says. Syro is also inside the small tent. My guards stay by the entrance. Shifty has one arm tied up to a metal rod, her feet chained around the pole as well. The only way for her to stay up is to sit on her knees or maybe to sit sideways, but that would stretch her arm. "Azula here hasn't been very talkative."

"What about the rules?" I ask.

"You said she was hiding her true look, right?" Syro asks, moving past my question. "Got any ideas for that?"

"Yuki," I say. "A Kitsune would know something."

"That would take too long, if they would even be willing to show up," the Princess says. "No, we will have to break the rules a bit, and she should be fine with that. She did let Esiyae rape you before finally deciding that the rules should be followed. Unless you want to show your true self?"

"I don't know why you care about seeing the real me. You don't seem that bothered by people hiding something."

"My dear husband here has already gotten the Princess heavily pregnant, though I'm not sure if she is feeling up to repeating the act. But don't worry, I vividly remember everything that your women did to me, trying to force me to break my promise. The pain keeps me up at night, even now. So, what will it be?" the Princess asks.

The woman shimmers once more, and her face changes. Her skin and hair turn white, and her eyes are red like a vampire's. "Happy?"

"Fucking ice elf. Why did you come down from your mountain?"

"Fuck you," she spits out.

I guess that answered the question enough for the Princess, as she keeps asking, "Did you marry the Queen of Edeozia?"

"Yes."

"Is the goal of the war just to get Alzi's child?"

"Yes."

"What will they do now that you are in our possession?"

"I don't know."

"You'd best figure it out," the Princess says. She pulls out a metal rod, making me wonder why we're dealing with someone who uses poison inside a tent and not out in a field or something. The Princess doesn't give our prisoner or me time to think about her actions, the rod slamming into her forearm, snapping it in two.

The bitch screams out in pain, her body lurching forward and pulling on her broken limb. The Princess lets her hang there, screaming as she makes the injury worse and worse for herself. Finally, the Princess pushes the prisoner back so she isn't putting all of her weight on the bone.

"I'm, I don't know. I'm important, but I don't know. I wasn't meant to get caught. Please, please, please. That was Esiyae. I didn't have control until later. Please. I'm sorry, sorry, sorry, please," streams out of the witch's mouth between her cries.

"You broke so fast," the Princess says. "I was hoping you would give me a reason to have some more fun. I didn't really think I would have Alzi rape you, but I was expecting to use her life mana. Unless you are lying about not knowing what they will do... Maybe I should check that a bit."

The next strike hits her ribs with a sickening crunch. Is she trying to make it so Syro can get into her mind? Is there a way to defend against mind mages? My main issue is with Goddesses getting in there, so it probably doesn't matter, but it'd be nice to try to protect my mind.

Elora only takes a single strike to break the witch's thigh in two. The power of a warrior is on full display; the only mana being used is to keep the metal rod from bending. Are bones strong enough to do that, or is she moving it fast enough to cause it to bend naturally?

"Got it," Syro says. "The plan is to have the Queen sneak out of her fight, crush you, and take Alzi hostage to stall out the war and force you to keep her daughter alive. They would get one child from Alzi, and we would get twenty, but they think that's an even trade if they get the dragon bloodline. They may even force her to get the Queen pregnant, just to even out the counts."

"Alzi, if you could, heal her enough so she doesn't die."

"I guess," I say. "Do you want her to stay in pain?"

"Yes. She can take a bit of pain."