The Red Hand

Interlude 14 – The Participants Assemble.

"Lady Amakusa... Lady Amakusa... Really? Come on, Shiroe. Get up, sleepy head." Feline poked and prodded at the Samurai hero to wake her from her slumber. The two of them were riding in a carriage together, and were nearing their destination.

"Ugh..." Amakusa slowly opened her eyes. She was still quite tired and she had a bit of a headache. As she sat up, she noticed that her head had been resting on the carriage window, which gave her a bit of bedhead. "What's up?" She asked while yawning. “Is something wrong?”

"No. I just wanted to wake you since we'll be at the Holy City soon." Feline giggled as she looked at Amakusa's wild hair. "You looked like you were pretty tired, so I let you sleep as long as I could." She could've woken her a bit later, but there was always the chance that the sleeping girl would've ignored her pleas. Amakusa had a nasty habit of oversleeping, so it wouldn't be the first time they'd had to struggle to get her out of bed.

"Yeah... Thanks for that" Amakusa yawned again. "I don't do well with carriage rides, and cars weren't much better. Sadly, sleep doesn't bypass the problems, since I already have a bit of a headache."

{These kinds of trips always wear me out. Why did becoming a Hero not fix this problem?} (Amakusa)

"It's still funny how you can have all that power and the ability to perform such extraordinary feats of strength, yet something as simple as motion sickness gets you." Feline chuckled.

"It's not funny, it's bullshit." Amakusa sighed.
{Apparently being born with crazy strength and then having it augmented by Gods doesn't do anything to stop stupid things like this...} (Amakusa)

"Well, you could have Hitomi take a look at you when we arrive in the Holy City." Feline smirked, and Amakusa's entire body shuddered at the thought of her fellow 'Hero's' hands running over her body.

"I'd like to stay out of that spider's web." Amakusa said as she violently shook her head. "She's already got one degenerate pet, and I have no intention of becoming her second!"

{At this point, I'm expecting reports that either she or that Shapeshifter girl is pregnant. I've heard stories about what she has that girl do with her transformation ability, and I don't want to know if even HALF of them are true.} (Amakusa)

"I'll admit that she is a bit... eccentric..." Feline gave a dry laugh, as she knew all to well what kind of things the 'Holy Hero' got up to in her private life. "But she's beloved by so many that we just all look the other way."

{Not to mention, Nobles and Royalty are not much better in their depravity. Power and money tend to make people do... well...} (Feline)

"Just don't you go and turn into someone like her, Feline." Amakusa laughed. "You might put on the air of a pure Princess, but I've heard tale of you taking some of the maids into your private chambers for some fun." She'd actually caught Feline in the act, but was keeping that quiet so as to not embarrass the hell out of her.

"I only do that someti- I mean I have no idea what you're talking about." Feline caught herself and shifted into denial. "As a self-respecting member of the Royal family, I would never do such debaucherous things, and I certainly wouldn't take advantage of my station to have fun with the palace servants."

{Nor would I use intimacy to obtain information that I otherwise shouldn't have, and I most certainly wouldn't do things like make the supporting staff loyal to me by having a bit of fun with them.} (Feline)

"Suuuure." Amakusa shrugged not really wanting to debate the topic. "Just keep your hands off me, and we won't have a problem." She had little interest in such endeavors, and was quantifiably not interested in Feline romantically or physically.

"But how else will we tie you to our family?" Feline decided to play along and tease her. "You rebuffed my brother's advances, so I suppose I'll just have to seduce you myself! How about it? Do you want a Princess for a wife?" She joked, but Amakusa knew that such a thing wasn't legally possible in the Kingdom, even if such relationships were tolerated throughout most Enoris.

"I'm good." Amakusa rolled her eyes. "Besides, I couldn't give a damn about romance. I don't care if you're a man or a woman, it's not happening." She'd more or less sworn off it once her last relationship collapsed, and she'd not given it another thought since.

"You always did say that you were married to your blade." Feline giggled as she recalled a prior converstation. “So I suppose that makes sense.”

"I am." Amakusa nodded. "The sword is my one true love, and nothing will ever come close to it." She'd been a student of the blade since she was a child, and had always been adept with sword combat.

{I defeated my father at such a young age, and I never really ran into anyone who could challenge me. Even after coming to this world I've struggled to find somebody who could give me a good fight, and maybe I never will.} (Amakusa)

"I'll be sure to make a nice wedding for the two of you. Should I prepare a suit or dress for the sword?" Feline laughed.

"A dress, of course. Inori is my favorite girl in the whole world, so she has to look pretty!" Amakusa laughed as she looked over at the sword sitting next to her. It was a gift from her father, and one of the few items that she'd brought with her upon being summoned. "She's a good girl and the only person who would never betray me." She glanced at Feline, who ignored the comment.

Not wanting to dwell on Amakusa's slight, Feline switched topics. "Are you going to be alright at this summit?" She asked how she would handle meeting the other Heroes. "I know you don't get along with the others, but I hope you can put that aside for this last duty." There was always friction between the Heroes, and Amakusa didn't really get along with any of them.

"I'll try my best." Amakusa shrugged. "Muichiro is going to be the most problematic, though. I don't really dislike Hitomi or Hiyuki. It's just that I have a few disagreements with their life choices or philosophy. However, he is probably going to be the reason any arguments break out."

{Hiyuki is just a bit annoying with his whole Hero of Justice schtick, but I guess that's not the worst thing in the world, and Hitomi, for all her indecency, isn't really a bad person. I just can't agree that selling drugs or running brothels to fund programs for the poor is a good idea. But Muichiro, that son of a bitch is no Hero. I don't care what commands the Gods gave us, that doesn't suddenly make it ok to torture people and... rape women...} (Amakusa)

"Who is in all is coming anyway?" Amakusa asked about the guest list. "I know it's the Heroes and their nation's leadership, but from what I overheard, other nations are coming too." She figured it best to know who was coming so she could prepare herself.

Feline thought for a moment before answering. "Besides the obvious participants, the Holy City will be hosting a representative from the Merchant Confederation of Northwind, I'm being sent on behalf of the the United City State Alliance, the Empire's Crown Princess Rebeckah will be attending in place of her father, the Demon Kings have elected to send Princess-Regent Ariel Ravenwood, and the Dwarven Prime Minister is attending, as well as two of the Gods."

"Wait! Two Gods?!?" Amakusa didn't expect to hear that they'd be coming themselves since they rarely appeared for anything. "I figured they'd just give orders to the Church, but they're coming in person?!?"

{I thought they couldn't really do that?!?} (Amakusa)

"Well, they're using avatars, but yes." Feline nodded. "I don't know which two, but I suspect that Lord Gale will be one of them." He was the head of the pantheon, and basically their leader/spokesperson.

{So the head of their little group is coming in person. How interesting. But I guess it makes sense if things are as bad as I've been told.} (Amakusa)

"This will be the first time that most of us have actually spoken to one of the Gods in person, so there's a bit of excitement among the attendees." Feline smiled. As a devout worshipper, the chance to meet a God 'in the flesh' was exhilirating. "Tell me, you met most of the Gods when they brought you here. What were they like?" She'd never really asked Amakusa about the Gods before, and was curious as to her thoughts about them.

{I think telling her that I figure most of them for pricks is a bad idea, so let's bend the truth a bit.} (Amakusa)

"They were as you expect." Amakusa shrugged, trying to keep things vague and yet still truthful. "They're beings far above us and they think in act in such different ways to us mortals. They seemed amicable enough when we spoke, but I can't really tell you much more about them. We didn't stay in their divine realm for more than a few minutes and I've only spoken to them on a few occasions, and never about anything beyond our mission."

{Though I get the idea that they don't really care that much about the people of this world. They're just more concerned about saving their own power and position, which the world dying would complicate.} (Amakusa)

"That's about what I expected." Feline replied. "I've always wanted to meet one of them myself, but they have little reason to want to speak to someone like me. Though I've heard that when the Divine Sword Halifax rested in the Imperial Palace, Lady Elariel would send messengers to speak with her creation."

{Though that relationship soured quite some time ago.} (Feline)

"I read in the Library that it disappeared like three hundred years ago." Amakusa was interested in such a legendary weapon, but no one seemed to know where it went, and she was explicitly told that no Divine Weapon would be provided to her, even though there was more than one sword.

{I would love to tell her the truth about things, but we've sworn to keep Lady Halifax's identity a secret, and I'd rather not break a promise with a God.} (Feline)

"I can't tell you much that you don't already know. The blade vanished from the Imperial Vault where it rested around three hundred years ago." Feline explained a bit. "There are stories that Princess Sherry took the weapon and hid it somewhere, but since she died over a hundred years ago, there's no way to know." She knew that the truth was that Halifax was wondering the world as an adventurer, but she and all others who knew were bound by an Oath of silence.

"I'd love to get my hands on such an amazing blade!" Amakusa giggled, her eyes showing greed and excitement. "A Hero wielding a Divine Sword! Just how cool would that be." She imagined wielding it would be amazing, and the idea of having such a blade worthy of her status made her giddle.

"It would be lovely a lovely sight that would truly give the people hope." Feline lied.

{Knowing what I know. I need to be careful to keep Shiroe AWAY from Lady Halifax at all costs. Otherwise, this world might lose a Hero, since the last time someone tried to wield her, the entire continent nearly erupted into chaos.} (Feline)

The two women then continued their chat until the Holy City came into view. As the center of most of the world's faith, it was an extravagant metropolis, and one of the largest cities in the world. It sat at the center of a massive lake, one regarded as sacred by the faith, and was flanked by massive mountains on both sides. While at its center was a massive marble-white Spire that seemed to pierce into the heavens themselves.

"Jeez." Amakusa stuck her head out of the carriage to get a better look at the approaching city. "Talk about a terrible place to build a city. How can they even do something like this?" Even on her homeworld, such a feat would be difficult.

"Magic." Feline answered. "They have an entire corp of mages dedicated to earth magic, and they reinforce the city's foundation and expand it when needed. It's taken a few centuries for the city to get to this point, and if I'm not mistaken, it was little more than a small settlement on the lakeside until around three hundred years ago."

{Many also speculate the Gods themselves lent their aid in its development, but that's always been little more than rumor.} (Feline)

"I suppose there are worse places to have the entire continent's leadership gather for a discussion on saving the world." Amakusa slipped out the window and onto the top of the carrier, causing Feline no small amount of panic.

"Wait! That's not safe!" Feline called out from inside the carrier.

"I can survive being flung into a mountain, so I doubt a fall from a carriage at such slow speed would even tickle." Amakusa laughed as she stood on the roof, the wind causing her hair to flutter.

{I swear she acts like a child sometimes, and she's not that much younger than me!} (Feline)

“Just don't get hurt please.” Feline sighed as Amakusa retreated into deep thought.

{Just you wait, Alm. Once I'm done with this job, it will be time to find you. I know those bastards lied to me all those years ago when they said you ran away, and I'm sorry it's taken me this long to start looking. But I swear, once I find you, I'll make those idiots PAY for what they did.} Amkusa took a death breath, and her eyes turned fierce before letting out a few words under her breath.

"Even if that means turning the entire world into my enemy." Amakusa's words were almost silent, but they were ice cold. Though she could not know it at the time, her search for the slave girl would be the least of her worries.