Remnant 3 -CH3-

As they rolled into Filch Steve was amused.

The guards at the gate had no idea who he was, or who his group might be, and were now going through normal protocol.

Since the Creep turned people into walking corpses with a bite, most cities, towns, and villages simply turned everyone away at the gate.

Filch on the other hand knew exactly what their moat water could do and were keen to utilize it to their advantage.

“New mayoress seems to have stomped out any and all corruption,” Lucia murmured from beside Steve. “It would seem Geneva picked the right person to manage Filch for you.”

Steve shrugged his shoulders to that.

He hadn’t wanted to be involved for replacing Shelly. The very thought of the determined little woman made his heart lurch to the side.

Only for the memory of her to stir up thoughts of Misty, Xivin, and Kassandra as well. Followed by Chessa, Raelin, and Rachel. They all still hurt in a way, but were significantly dampened with time now.

“I don’t think we need to stop in and see her. This is just a quick pass through to see how things look,” Lucia murmured, her right hand coming up to adjust James’ swaddle. “I’m quite curious to see how things are turning out in the area given your position and prestige.”

“I mean, I don’t-”

“Yes, yes,” Jaina said padding along next to the wagon. “Him being a man and being so high ranked. Especially in Lamals. Interesting, interesting.”

Oh.

Yes.

Being on the farm for so long away from all this I’d forgotten that men are little better than chairs in some countries.

The guards at the gates suddenly stood up quite straight. Their spears locking into their sides and their heels coming together.

Heh. They just figured out who we are.

Didn’t they?

One of the several guards that had rushed away came back now with another woman in tow.

The designations at her collar and tunic marked her as some type of officer.

Hurrying over to his side of the wagon the woman stood at attention in front of him.

“Ah! Welcome to Filch Com-”

“No,” Steve said holding her eyes with his own. “I’m just passing through. No need for… anything like that.”

Lucia chuckled and leaned forward, catching the officer’s eyes.

“Just direct any correspondence that would have been sent to the citadel to the Morning Dove inn. We’ll be staying there for several hours and then departing,” Lucia said. “And please, don’t trouble the mayoress. This isn’t an official visit, we’re really just passing through.”

“Yes, Princess. I understand,” said the officer, nodding her head quickly. “Do you need an escort or anything like that?”

“Not at all. We have a good company of Witch-Knights with us,” Lucia said, giving the officer a beautiful smile.

“Ah! Should… we have some Witch-Knight candidates. Should I send them over?” asked the officer.

“Yes, yes. Send them to Nancy,” Jaina said as she slowly prowled around the officer. “I will induct them today and send them back. If they live.”

Jaina chuckled at something apparently she found funny and then moved over to where Nancy was at the back of the wagon.

“See? Keeping that Creep in the barrel will work out,” Jaina said to the other woman.

Uh?

There’s a Creep in a barrel?

Everyone looked back to the officer.

“Then… then have a good day, Commander, Princess,” said the officer, taking several steps back. She gestured up to the guards at the front of the column.

Stepping out of the way the guards made a corridor for the wagons to pass through.

“Thank you, we will,” Lucia said as the wagon in front of them started rolling forward again.

Steve gave a small flip of the reins that got the oxen moving again.

Really wish we could move faster with the horses.

But they’re literally all breeding stock right now. We don’t have the numbers to risk on actual use outside the farm.

Though… still somewhat surprising how much Gwen has taken to them.

Rolling into Filch Steve found that things had definitely changed. Even at a glance and only looking at the first bit he could see so far.

The streets were packed.

People were everywhere.

What had felt like a busy city before now felt like a crammed and very full metropolis bursting at the seems.

“Oh. Goodness,” Lucia said, apparently having the same feeling Steve did. Their wagons slowed to an crawl was people were forced to one side of the street or the other by oxen. “This is going to be quite the slow go of it. Maybe I shouldn’t have declined that escort.”

“Honestly I think the escort would make it worse,” Hiren said from directly behind Steve and Lucia. She and Felisa were in the wagon with Steve and Lucia.

Siena, Aubrey, Beati, and Kimor were spread out into the other wagons.

“I agree,” Felisa murmured. “Bad enough we’re being marked out as we are, worse so if we had an escort. Though… theres… theres a lot of men, here.”

Steve blinked at that comment and realized that she was right. He hadn’t really noticed it.

Throughout the crowd were men.

Men of any number of races, all mingling and moving through the crowd as if nothing were the matter at all.

Last time he’d been through here, men were being paraded around more like possessions. That or being guarded by far too many women like they were afraid the man might run.

“I… I wonder-ah! I’ve got it,” said Lucia and then laughed softly.

“Oh? And what’s that?” Steve asked, having to raise his voice a bit. The sounds of the crowds around them were starting to drown nearly everything out.

“Citadel Bril is where most young men were sent. Sent to die, be turned into… objects… or the pens. We saw that first hand when we got rid of all those poor excuses for soldiers,” Lucia explained. “Genie sends back any young men that are sent to the Citadel wall. Along with a written pardon, signed by herself, and you.”

“Me?” Steve asked. He couldn’t remember ever signing such a thing.

“I helped Genie learn to forge your signature,” Lucia said as if it were the most boring thing in the world. “I figured you’d rather her have the ability to sign on your behalf than having her bother you with every little thing that needed your approval.”

At first Steve wanted to be angry at Lucia.

That she was deliberately cutting him out of things that could be important. Perhaps she was even plotting something and this was just the first step in setting him up.

Then he realized it was Lucia.

Lucia had never wavered, strayed, or hindered him in any way.

She was pompous at times, self satisfying, and reeked of arrogance when it came to her beauty or her mind.

But she’d never done him wrong in any way.

Which meant she genuinely believed he didn’t want to be bothered by such a thing as signing paperwork that was meaningless to him.

And he trusted that, and her. Especially since she was right. He didn’t want to be bothered with that.

“Thank you,” Steve said simply, his thoughts coming to a sudden halt once he understood that Lucia was correct.

“Of course, darling,” said Lucia with a laugh. “Though, I had no idea that Filch would end up this way. This is far more people than the city can handle. They’re going to have to grow.”

“Can’t,” Hiren interjected. “No one wants to live outside the walls. I’m going to wager the prices on rooms, houses, and even sleeping in an alleyway, is likely experiencing a massive price hike.”

Huh. Yes.

No one would want to live outside the walls given what had happened to everyone living that way during the Creep.

And no one is ever going to believe it can’t happen again.

“Hiren, take your girls and set up to deploy a Witch-Stone wall around Filch,” Steve ordered. “Ask Jaina and Nancy to join you. I want it done by the time we leave. Guess I’m going to have to talk to the mayoress after-all.”

“I’ll handle that,” Lucia said even as they crawled along the road. “In fact, you just get off here and I’ll take care of it. Leave Nancy with me for now though, would you? I’ll have her join you once I’m situated.”

Steve turned his head and looked back to the Wight. She was sitting off the back of the wagon with her feet dangling down. She enjoyed people watching and being part of the scenery if she wasn’t involved directly.

She must have been paying attention though because her head turned sidweays and caught his own eyes as he made the same gesture.

Nodding her head at him, she smirked and quirked a brow.

“That’s fine,” Steve said, turning back to Lucia. Then he leaned over and kissed her once. Then lightly touched James on the forehead. “I’ll go get the walls extended and the moat redug. Won’t take long at all.”

“You’re a good Commander, dear,” Lucia said as Steve stepped off the wagon’s side and joined the crowd.

Hiren and Felisa were next to him before he could even think to look for them.

“Let’s go,” Steve said.

***

Standing in the open fields beyond Filch Steve felt a lot better.

He hadn’t much cared for being surrounded by people. Even when he had the wagon to act as a barrier he’d felt rather uncomfortable.

“Aubrey, moat,” Hiren commanded. “Kimor, you’re her relief. Work it with the shovel and Witchery.”

“Felisa I-”

“Wha’? No,” Aubrey said putting her hands on her hips. “I wanna build the walls.”

Hiren stopped talking and looked back to Aubrey.

“You’ll dig the moat because that’s what I’m telling you to do,” Hiren said, her tone having dropped into a very chilly territory.

Aubrey bristled at that and lifted her chin up.

“Consider it your punishment for not listening last time and I’ll let it go,” Hiren offered. “Or we can go the other route. In front of Steve.”

Steve had noticed that Aubrey had suddenly stopped breathing. He could see her eyes were stuck to Hiren, but he got the impression she wanted to look at him.

Aubrey’s chin slowly dipped down and she shook her head.

“I’ll dig the moat,” Aubrey mumbled, visibly deflating.

Not wanting to be a catalyst for further problems, Steve pulled his shovel off his pack and held it out to her.

“Thank you,” Steve said politely. “I appreciate you doing the work.”

Nodding her head at that Aubrey took the shovel and started heading off for the spot laid out for the new moat.

Kimor followed along behind her. Chuckling to herself she reached out and slapped Aubrey on the shoulder.

Who promptly shoved Kimor, causing the other to start laughing even louder.

“Felisa, Beati, each of you take a side. East, or South. Start building up the Witch-Stone. Jaina is doing the Northern side with Siena. They’ll move around to the eastern side when they finish to assist and continue in a circuit,” Hiren said, turning to look back to the other two women.

Beati visibly winced and looked to Felisa.

“Can I do south?” asked the Racoon-kin.

“Of course,” Felisa said with a chuckle. The two women started walking off toward that side of Filch.

“Jaina is very strong. Beati doesn’t like telling her no or to stop,” Hiren explained. “Felis and Jaina just get along better.”

“And the idiot twins?” Steve asked, tilting his head toward the direction Kimor and Aubrey had went.

“Nothing out of the ordinary. Aubrey wants to lead,” Hiren said and then pointed toward the west. Her own wall she’d be working on.

It would also be the last one assisted which meant Hiren would do the lion’s share of the work on it.

“She’s just not bright enough for it. Good girl, takes care of you, handy in a fight and follows orders in those times,” Hiren continued. “Just not so much when it isn’t fighting. She gets antsy and can’t seem to keep her brain switched on.”

“Ah, and what’s the ‘other route’ you mentioned?” Steve asked.

“I beat her ass black and blue in a Witch-Knight sparring session and you get to watch it happen,” Hiren said with a casual shrug of a shoulder. “She’s stronger than I am, but I’m just a better fighter. Strength isn’t everything.”

“True enough,” said Steve.

“You’re a fair example of that, actually. If you get close enough to get a hold of someone… they’re dead,” murmured Hiren. “If I had to fight you, I wouldn’t. I’d do everything I could to stay away from you or keep you away from me.

“Use whatever magic or abilities I have to remove your ability to engage me directly and just keep you at a distance.”

Steve felt his mind come to a stumbling and very unamused stop at her words.

She was absolutely right.

If someone were to remove his ability to close and engage on a target, there would be nothing he could do.

“Though to be fair you sufficiently negated most of those ideas when you started throwing rocks,” Hiren grumbled. “I have no idea how you can whip those out with that kind of force and impact.

“You knocked down a damn wall. A wall. With a stone. How hard to you have to throw something to make that occur. It was just a rock. Probably fill your pockets or your pack with rocks, don’t you?”

Feeling very stupid Steve could only smile at the rather intelligent woman.

“You’re rather bright, Hiren. Remind me to bug you in the future about stuff,” Steve said.

“Uh… alright. Thanks… I appreciate the compliment,” Hiren said, her cheeks turning a faint red. She was also unable to look at him. “Alright. Let’s see what I can do. We’ve been practicing so much in the creeplands every night but never with that much Witch-Stone.

“Just don’t need it with the dome Jaina throws up every night.”

Yeah, that dome is getting bigger every night, too. Jaina is just too strong anymore.

Far too strong.

Though… I wonder if that’s how most people look at me.

A monster that you somehow have to figure out to combat.

Or just surrender to it.

Coming to a stop Hiren looked out to the far north.

“I think this is about right, isn’t it?” Hiren asked.

“Huh? Oh. Uh,” blurted Steve as he looked around. Turning toward the north he gauged where they were. “Think so. Doesn’t have to be perfect. This is just to expand the city and give them more room to work with.”

Hiren snorted at that and then held her hands up.

“Pretty sure the mayoress is going to want to suck your cock hard enough to pull your nuts out through your tip,” suggested Hiren. “And she’s very pretty. Genie got her from the capital. I know you like watching when we do that for you. Especially the prettier ones like me.”

“You’re a bit more foul mouthed when no one is around,” Steve commented, having noticed a difference now.

“I don’t have to act differently around you. I can be as filthy-” Hiren paused and then slowly began raising her hands. There was a deep rumbling noise in front of them. Dirt and grass being shoved to one side, only to get pulled back into the disturbance in the ground.

Witch-Stone slowly began to rise up from the ground.

The dark gray material that was harder than regular stone, had nowhere for you to get a fingernail into, and was quite dense.

So far only able to be made by Witches and Witch-Knights.

Letting out a slow hiss of breath Hiren brought her hands up quickly, as far as she could raise them.

Witch-Stone shot upward until it reached something close to what Steve would assume was thirty feet tall.

Steve didn’t need to look at the width to know it was likely ten feet deep. The length of it was just over fifty feet long as well he’d guess. She’d done the work of years in the span of minutes.

“As filthy as I want. I could tell your cock in my mouth right now. That the idea of sucking on it actually gets me really excited.

“That I actually go and help myself out when-ever you’re done with me. After all, you did order me to take care of my own needs. So I do and consider that a need.

“So the next time you make me get down on my knees and give you a good sucking, realizing that as soon as I’m done draining you, I’m off to my room to make sure I feel just as good. Even as I’m sometimes still coughing up your seed,” Hiren said, turning to look at him. Her face was read and sweat was gliding down from her temples. “And let’s be honest. You’ll probably think this is all rather funny. Even when I tell you to get down on the grass and let me pull one out of you, and then you can watch me take care of myself.

“Fifty fifty chance that you’ll let me do it right here. Mostly because I know you like being in control and dominating. Having me services you in a field where anyone could see.

“You love watching when you tell me to come service you. You’re not that into when Felisa offers but if I’m around and look busy… you always tell me to do it.

“And maybe I like it when you make me do such things and I act accordingly to get you to do it. Not as much as Nancy or Felisa, but somewhat. In my own way.”

Steve raised his eyebrows at that and grinned. Hiren just got a lot more interesting.

“And around the others?” he asked, letting the question dangle at the end.

“Witch-Knight Captain Hiren Mess, ever ready and always willing. To serve her lord Bril dutifully and while preserving his honor and her own,” Hiren said, her smile growing wider. “The pride of the Witch-Knights, taught by Jaina Bril, loyal mistress to Steven Bril, and daring tactician who leads battles through the creeplands every day.”

“Heh. I can definitely see how you’d separate the two,” Steve admitted looking back to the wall. “Even as you cough, huh?”

“Your seed is almost too damn thick. I feel like I’m coughing for hours. Gets stuck in my teeth, too. Besides, you like watching me swallow and choke,” Hiren said and then laughed. “Don’t worry, I’ll still act accordingly to keep you interested. Come along, my lord Bril. I need to start on the next section.”

Grinning, Steve followed Hiren as she started to walk away.

I had no idea she was like this.

I should talk to my Witch-Knights more. Learn more about them.

Busy or not, I should definitely learn more.