Tales of a Seductress

TOAD – Chapter 90

I stood in front of the mirror. My hand gently touched my stomach, which held the future for this world. Unfortunately, that future would come at a cost. Was it a cost the world was willing to pay? I couldn’t say for certain. I was dressed in a beautiful dress that flowed out around me. One would instantly recognize it as a wedding dress, that was, of course, if it hadn’t been black and red.

I thought back to all the events that had brought me to this moment. I had been a servant being raped and abused by a deranged noble. Then I was a short-lived adventurer who ended up becoming the mother of a goblin hoard. Of course, there was the rape farm, I could never forget that. Then, King Oberon ended up in my life, offering me the chance at being Queen.

The flap to the tent opened and a gaunt-looking man poked his head in, his eyes containing nothing but adoration. “It is time.”

I gave him a nod and left the mirror. As I walked out of the tent, I was immediately greeted with the smell of smoke and blood. I could hear crying, shouts, and the clatter of metal. There was a group of soldiers that quickly formed around me, creating a path for me to move forward. I walked directly where it was loudest. There were screams and cries. Some were from anger, while others were from fury.

There stood in front of us a city wall. The gates had been torn down and soldiers desperately fought against soldiers. One side was trying to enter the city, while the other side did everything they could to prevent it. Even some citizens seemed to get mixed up in the mess, some trying to flee the invading army, while others were joining to protect their homes.

Yet, it was only as I walked through that battlefield that the stalemate seemed to break. Those on my side became enflamed with fury, fighting even stronger than before. My people were able to take on three for every single one of them. They fought without concern for their lives, and it made them extremely difficult for the other side to deal with.

When the other side saw me, my beauty was enough to stun or confuse the opponents. By then, it was usually enough to cut them down. They were turned into blood and body parts and I merely continued forward. I passed through the city gate unimpeded, but it was when I reached the middle of the entrance courtyard that an ambush appeared. A hundred men with a hundred areas erupted all around me and my men. We were covered on all sides.

“Halt!” A voice shouted out. “Halt or we will shoot.”

“Will you now?” I quirked an eyebrow. “Is that your king’s orders?”

There was a silence, and a few guards shifted uncomfortably. I let out a melodious laugh. Although it was nothing special, some of the hardened men started to lower their weapons away.

“Hold fast!” A command barked out.

“I am your future queen.” I sighed. “I’m on the way to my wedding. I was regrettably kidnapped in the night, but I have returned in time. Do you wish to impede upon my destiny?”

“The wedding has been called off. You are not a queen. You attacked the city!”

“I attacked the city because you wouldn’t let me in,” I responded, casually checking my nails. “You shouldn’t impede my progress any further. You can see the soldiers behind me were once your allies. They now work for me, the queen. We are not the human forces sneaking in the southwest of here nor the traitors coming from the east.”

My words were enough to cause a lot of them to start whispering uncertainly amongst each other. The reason I had been met with such hostility was because I lead a large force of soldiers that unexpectedly tried to enter the city. It was only morning, and blood had already been shed. With two other armies marching on the capital, everyone there was on high alert. The only thing they hadn’t expected was someone to sneak in ahead of the army and open the gate from the inside. If the other armies arrived at this time, the death toll would be unimaginable.

Before this point, I hadn’t bothered to explain myself, which only left many of the soldiers on the opposing side more confused. Of course, they all knew about the wedding. Who didn’t know that the glorious King Oberon was going to marry some human woman? It was known that the two armies marching on the city were doing so exactly because of that marriage.

“Very well, put down your arms. Order you men to retreat. We can rectify this situation.” The leader yelled.

I rolled my eyes. “Truthsayer, are we going to continue to play these games? If you’re going to oppose me, the least you can do is show your face. You Truthsayers might all be betrayers, but I didn’t know you were all cowards.”

“Betrayer…” The voice spoke quieter, seemingly insulted, and ever so slowly a man poked his head out from behind one of the buildings. “You call me a betrayer.”

He was youthful and vibrant, but the look on his face was pure malice. I felt a bit embarrassed. To me, getting a man to feel so much for me, whether it was love or hatred, was an exhilarating experience. The truth was that I no longer concerned myself with the difference between what they were.

“Aren’t you standing between me and the King? Aren’t you opposing his will?” I asked.

My words were enough to shake most of the enemy army. They were those used to fighting alongside King Oberon. They were his loyalists. If they weren’t fighting and dying for him, then what was all of this? This Truthsayer represented King Oberon’s power, so they never questioned what they were doing. However, now it sounded like they were the rebels and we were the ones coming to save the day.

“The King doesn’t know about this.” The Truthsayer spoke quietly, but his words were heard by everyone and spread like a wave.

“Then, the King also doesn’t know that you had me kidnapped in the middle of the night. I should have realized it was you. Who else would know the location of a secret church in the middle of the forest? You planned to have me killed and left between the human army and Lord Tigon’s army. Whichever side stumbled on me would blame the other side. They’d end up battling over my body while the King remained safely in the capital.”

The Truthsayer tilted his head. “Then, you understand that I did this all for my lord. I did this for King Oberon.”

“King Oberon has his plans. Those plans need me to live.”

“My lord… overestimates his power.” The Truthsayer looked like he was chewing something unpleasant. “He believes he can keep control of you.”

“You don’t have faith in your lord?” I asked mockingly.

“I saw…” He pointed at his head. “I saw what you truly are. I saw what you truly intend to do. I realized that you had to be stopped. King Oberon will be a god! He will become the God of this world… but not if you’re still here.”

His eyes flickered to my stomach, and I finally realized what was going on. Bahamut was the god of this world. He was passing the throne to Oberon, who needed to do a costly ceremony to reach godhood. However, Bahamut saw a means of being reborn in me. The cost of bearing this child would probably be equal to the cost of turning Oberon into a God. In other words, there was only enough room for one God in this world, and Bahamut’s return directly interfered with Oberon’s plan.

No matter how much a prince loved his father, at some point, he’d want his father to die so he could become King. In much the same way, Oberon would never take kindly to me being the vessel for the dragon god. He’d kill me and Bahamut’s baby just to keep that from happening. I didn’t know how much the Truthsayer knew from his visions, so I decided to prod him a bit.

“What about the baby?” I asked.

He sneered. “Oberon is almost a god already, but he has a single flaw. He has this desire to become a father. It ties him to this mortal realm. He sees you as the final way for him to shed the final shackle that binds him to mortality. I saw that you would never give Oberon a child, but he’s blinded by his desires. He thinks you will give him a baby.”

“Maybe I could…” I responded sheepishly.

“I’ve already seen you don’t!” He snarled back. “I’ve seen that you are the only thing keeping him from becoming a God. If you’re allowed to marry him, he fails. If you’re stopped, he will succeed. That is… I haven’t foreseen it, but that’s what will happen! If he sleeps with you, perhaps he will develop feelings. Perhaps, he’ll want to see his child grow up or want you to become immortal with him. They become shackles, the more shackles that bind him, the more he will succumb. I foresaw that it would be love that kills him, but he always laughed at that.”

“So, this is more of a hunch then?” I asked as I was struck with understanding.

“He wouldn’t listen to me!” He snapped. “He is convinced he has everything under control. I… I try to tell him… he’s so close. Closer than anyone… he will be the God of this world. He can’t let some woman like you stop him!”

I could hear the anguish and irritation in the Truthsayer’s voice. I calmed down a bit as I began to understand. The Truthsayer was Oberon’s first worshipper. All he truly knew was that I wouldn’t get pregnant with Oberon’s child. How could I? I was already pregnant with Bahamut’s baby! Yet, he had decided that meant that I wouldn’t help Oberon on his pathway to godhood at all. He had seen that Oberon would die because of love. I had my thoughts on that too.

I opened my mouth to ask a bit more when the bells started ringing. I looked up at the clock tower.

“My wedding?” I asked flippantly.

“Those are warning bells. Another army has been sighted!” the Truthsayer growled.

“I wonder if it’s Devon or Lord Tigon.” I pondered out loud. “When they arrive, it will become a bloodbath. You need to get those gates closed, and I need to reach my wedding. It’s already too late to blame my death on the humans or the rebels.”

As he thought things through, he glared at me. “You should have just died.”

“Tick… tock… time is passing by. What will you do?”

He looked around at the soldiers he had. Most of them had their bows down at this point. They seemed way less certain of things based on what they had overheard. When they recounted what the Truthsayer had done, he might even end up losing his head.

“I… I give up.” He fell to his knees.

I lifted my hand and snapped. “Men, man the gates, close the door, kill any invaders trying to get into the city.”

My soldiers immediately snapped to attention and started working. The others who a moment earlier had been their enemies were left in a daze, but with nothing else to do, they also started to work on building a defense. I walked up to the Truthsayer, who was sitting on his knees, staring off helplessly.

“You could have ordered those men just now to pepper me with arrows. Had you just killed me as you planned, then you might have succeeded.”

He let out a little half chuckle. “I couldn’t… even writing the order on paper hurt my heart. Your beauty, to destroy it like that is something I couldn’t do.”

I nodded, reaching out and touching his face. “Thankfully, I will need you and your visions for the future.”

His lost expression slowly turned to one of focus and dedication. That focus and dedication were delivered specifically to me.

“Yes, Mistress?”