by Brent Tyman
“Golden fucking knights, as if this world wasn’t strange enough,” Lyan drawled before he gulped down his water in one go.
“Goldera knights, the soldiers of heaven. Not much is known about them, other than they used to exist long ago,” Eliandra said.
“Sounds like it just adds to the fact that we should hunker down, force the humans into our armies and let every other nation destroy themselves. It looks like they will do just that with all their meddling,” Dryan said. He likely didn’t know about the demons in the north, other than rumors of turmoil there. Best to leave that news for last.
“Did you find anything else about these knights from their corpses Eliandra had sent before?” I asked. We had delivered the ruined suits of armor the golden knights left behind back to the capital for the truth sayers to study.
“Nothing, nothing,” Flavious said with a sigh. “They tell me that the armor is not even made of gold, but a much more durable material. Other than that, my peers concluded that if there was a being inside, it would have dissipated once it perished. There was no trace of its remains.”
“The last two went north, so they aren’t a concern for now. It troubles me it took you using your power to defeat them. We can’t rely on it forever,” Eklis remarked.
“Quite so, quite so. My peers have been looking for suitable spells that can easily pierce the armor. Once we find the answer to that, we can see if we can apply those methods for the army. It will take time to plan a suitable solution,” Flavious said.
I nodded at that. The truth sayers would find a method to deal with these golden knights, as the threat of them still loomed over us.
“Let’s get to the juicy part, Ordan, tell us what happened after you went to this camp Reska spoke of,” Dryan said.
I went over what happened with Zelenia’s camp after Reska claimed he took our riders from us. Flavious and Eklis looked troubled when I mentioned how strong Zelenia was and the general troop estimates we saw in her camp. It seemed Eliandra only told them a little of what happened while I was trying to chase down Solie.
When I finished detailing Zelenia’s deal, even Lyan was silent with the news. He was deep in thought as he stared at his empty cup.
“I gotta say, Ordan. You deciding to spring that creature loose from that human city has really come back to bite you in the ass,” Lyan remarked.
“Thanks idiot,” I said with a sigh.
“No problem, just letting you know,” Lyan said with a grin, but it dropped when Utalis glared at him.
“Just before anyone speaks, Zelenia seemed genuine in her offer. She will not attack us if we help her,” Eliandra said.
“Hmm,” Flavious muttered. “I want to believe you, my dear. I do, I do. But you cannot guarantee that, and our decision can either result in a neutral ally or a deadly enemy. Ten thousand creatures was troublesome, but with a nation, she could swell her army to incredible numbers.” Flavious tilted his head in thought, and his eyes had a faraway look. No doubt he was relaying this information to the other truth sayers right now for their opinion.
“What’s the alternative? Even if we kill all of her brood, even Ordan can’t slay this queen outright,” Dryan said as he crossed his arms.
“What if we drive it away again, like those Fulgremian mages did? We grab our truth sayers, burn that forest, and force her further east. Then she becomes solely the Vulenchians problem and we can all drink to it,” Lyan said with a waved arm.
“I don’t believe that will work,” Eliandra said. “She was weak before, and even though she consumed Croydra, she was not strong enough to ignore the mages attempts to stop her. Her power is immense now and she will not run if we attack her.”
Everyone was silent as we all tried to come up with solutions.
“I trust her,” I said abruptly. Everyone's eyes turned to me. I drummed my hands along the table absently.
“I don’t know why, or how, but I think we should help her. She seemed adamant that she needed me for her plans, or at least to expand her numbers somehow. If we do this right, having her creatures on our side will open up many opportunities,” I said.
Eklis frowned at me and rested his arm along the table.
“I don’t like it. The fact that she created such a vast army alone is merit to exterminate her. Her intelligence and the fact she can even talk is disturbing. We could lose it all if we are wrong,” Eklis said.
There was silence as everyone digested that, but then Flavious’s head straightened and his eyes came back into focus.
“Indeed, indeed,” Flavious said. “It seems this conundrum has many of my peers conflicted, but one of them highlighted a good point. If we are to survive on this world, we must adapt and reach out for support from others. We gained this capital with the dark elves help, we may gain more if we side with Zelenia.”
I hissed out my teeth and wracked my brain on this. If I wanted to renege on my deal with Zelenia, I had to decide here and now, so we could work out an alternative plan.
In my heart, I already knew what I wanted. I would just come out and say it.
“I’ve decided. We will side with Zelenia and help her take Vulenchia. May the Gods favor us,” I said as I watched everyone reaction.
Eklis looked away, but I knew where he stood. He would support me but would be wary of Zelenia. Flavious nodded with a smile, as well did my women, including Tessa that stood near me with the slaves.
Dryan would oppose this course of action, as he barely got along with truth sayers. Expecting any kindness for a strange creature was out of the question for him. He likely needed to see Zelenia to change his mind. He gave me a neutral expression as I looked at him.
Lyan rarely had a care for matters such as these, other than suggesting ideas. He only had one thing on his mind at all times. Utalis would support me no matter what, as he typically only speaks up when he really wanted to say something.
“I think this is for the best. Zelenia was adamant that she would not hurt Ordan, so that must mean she will also avoid doing anything that would upset him either,” Lunara said.
“I guess we will see,” I said.
The last matter to bring up was the demons in the north. I did not think it would go over well, and there was little we could do about it for now. Still, it was a huge concern.
“Now Reska, Zelenia’s second in command I imagine, told us about how a large surge of prime in the north had opened a gateway to the red deep. Demons are pouring into the Korodo empire,” I said.
Of all the news, this one seemed to make everyone the most speechless, as it should.
“Shit,” Dryan said as he crossed his arms. “One problem after another.”
“Surge of prime?” Eklis asked, and Lyan nodded to him.
“Don’t need some drink to work out what happened, chaos orb smacks into the ground and poof, a gateway opens. Probably killed everyone that was nearby when it landed too,” Lyan said.
“Yes, yes,” Flavious said as he stroked his beard. “I am afraid it gets worse. We had news of turmoil in the north, but this confirms the seriousness. There are many refugees rushing down, through the border into our own territory.”
“Has it really gotten that bad? I’ve always heard that the Korodans are powerful fighters,” Lunara said.
I could back that claim up, as I fought a lizardman under the employ of the Vulenchians. They were tough.
“What are they gonna do against demons?” Dryan said with a waved hand. “We should close off the border and let these lizards fend for themselves. That or make them into slaves.”
Lyan suddenly laughed, as if he had just thought of a good joke.
“Yeah, a lizard… woman would bite off that cock of yours for good,” Lyan snickered to himself as he covered his mouth.
“You shit, not now,” Dryan said as he smacked Lyan’s side.
“You’re in the king's presence, settle down,” Utalis said, and the two seemed to snap to attention. I gripped a hand to my temples and t
ried not to smirk at the display. They never changed.
“Getting back to business,” Eklis intoned as he glared at the pair. “Dryan makes a good point, we owe nothing to the Korodans, and every resource we spend on their refugees means less for our own.”
“Surely we can’t leave them to their fate, aren’t we the reason for their plight?” Eliandra said as she clutched the front of her dress.
“Eh, it's either that or all of us dying. Sucks for them, but Ordan had to throw that orb somewhere,” Lyan said.
“We don’t have the manpower to fight against demons, even if we wanted to,” I said as I gripped the table in front of me. “What we can do is ask for Zelenia’s help after dealing with Vulenchia. We will need more troops if they try to head south.”
“Pfft, why would she help us when she can spend her time gobbling up everyone in Vulenchia?” Dryan asked.
“Her true motivations are unclear, but it's an option,” Eklis said.
“If she won’t help then we have to come up with alternatives, any suggestions?” I asked the group. The room was silent as they tried to plan out ideas.
“Do we know how many demons there are?” Lunara asked suddenly.
“I’m afraid not,” Eliandra said with a sigh. “I’ve tried as hard as I could to get spies into the Korodo empire. They rarely allow ones not of their race into the court and its difficult to recruit lizardmen to my cause. Before we left for the east, I sent off several spies to check on the north. None have returned, or even sent a message.”
“How big is this Korodo empire?” I asked curiously. I had seen it on a map before, but had never focused my attention on it.
Eklis clicked his fingers. “Slaves, go get the map,” he ordered, and I watched as a slave grouped with Tessa rushed off to obey. She came back a moment later with a rolled up parchment. Once she unfurled it on the table, I saw it was a map of the continent similar to the one Zelenia showed me.
“This is us here,” Eklis said as he pointed to Fulgrem. It showed how the country looked before the dark elves took their half.
“And this is the Korodo empire,” Eklis said as he tapped to a spot north of us.
It was huge. The lizardmen empire stretched all across our border and almost all of Vulenchia’s border too. It extended far into the north where I failed to see city names, only wide gaps of green. It seemed like a large part of their empire was swaths of unused land. Most of their cities were near the south border, close to us. Perhaps that was why there were refugees coming in, they were close enough to the cities that they figured they might as well head more south.
As I looked as this map, I could see the immediate problem this demon invasion could pose.
“The entire border is flat land, they could attack us anywhere in the north,” I said and Flavious nodded at this.
“Quite so, my king, quite so,” Flavious said. “We lack an understanding on where the orb landed. I had many of my peers try to calculate the velocity and trajectory of the orb for some time. In fact, some are still at work on this problem.”
Sometimes Flavious would say things that would confuse the others, and it looked like this was one of those times.
“Veloci… what?” Lyan said with an open mouth.
“He’s saying that they are trying to work out the speed and angle of the orb to work out where it could have ended up,” I said with a roll of my eyes.
“Oh,” Lyan said as he blinked his eyes. “Why didn’t he just say so.”
“Lyan, Lyan,” Flavious said with a sigh. “Speed and angle is a very simple and incomplete way of explaining how we are working out the problem. The nature of prime means that we have to account for how the orb’s prime interacts with the surrounding forces. There is also the matter of air resistance, as we lack the proper tools to measure certain variables…”
Lyan’s eyes bulged as he listened to Flavious’s explanation, and he looked to me pleadingly.
“Maybe Lyan can listen to the specifics later in one of your lectures Flavious,” I interrupted the old man. Flavious shook his head and smiled.
“An excellent idea, my king. Yes, yes. Lyan, you may drop by one of my lectures later today. It is about time some Tier One's take in an interest in the truth,” Flavious said to Lyan.
“That quite…” Lyan started, but Eklis waved his comment away.
“Let’s focus. Yes, they can attack us from anywhere and we don’t know where the orb landed just yet. I would say that there is too much ground to cover to just guess for now,” Eklis said.
I stared at the map and tried to make sense of it. Since we split Fulgrem in two, we didn’t have to worry about the dark elves side. Although in a way, we did. No doubt Lunara’s parents would drag my soldiers into their wars, and if I wanted to keep them as an ally, I couldn’t refuse. We still lacked vital information for deciding on our next steps.
“Okay, let’s table this for now,” I said. “I say we send the men I brought back from the east to the Korodan border and they can help keep the refugees at bay for now. Anyone willing to join our army can pass through, the others will have to stay where they are. Once I’ve dealt with my Vulenchian business, we can work on this problem. Agreed?”
Every nodded at this and I let out a sigh of relief. It seemed everyone was just as wary of lengthy discussions as I was.
“All right, that’s everything covered as far as I know. Anything else before we break off?” I asked. My women seemed ready to leave, and so did the trio. But Flavious’s face darkened, and so did Eklis’s.
“One more thing and you're not going to like it,” Eklis said. I shrugged at that.
We had just discussed a possible demon invasion. What else could there be?
“My king, my king,” Flavious said as he tilted his head. It seemed he was struggling to work out what to say. “What do you know of this mages council?”
I quirked my eyebrow at this.
“Andra’s former group. A bunch of mages who have banded together to meddle in national affairs. He complained about them near the end of his life, but I have put little thought into them as of late,” I said. Flavious and Eklis looked at each other, as if sharing something amongst themselves that only they knew.
“Good, good. That is true. Well, a pressing matter has come…” Flavious started, but a soldier rushed through from outside the throne room and saluted as he neared me. The guards that protected us stepped in front of him, but I waved for them to let him through. He performed another salute.
“I’m sorry to interrupt my king, but the mages demand to see you now,” the soldier said, and I stared at the man in confusion.
“What mages?” I asked, and the soldier’s eye went wide.
“The council mages in the guest rooms, they have been waiting for hours to see you,” the soldier said. His face paled when my own didn’t change in expression. What was he talking about?
“That’s fine soldier, send them in,” Eklis ordered and the soldier looked at me for confirmation. I nodded before turning back to the table. I expected the coming explanation would be very interesting indeed.
“There are council mages here?” Dryan asked.
“Yes, yes. I am afraid so. They arrived just before you returned. I was planning to discuss it just now but..” Flavious said but was interrupted by Lunara.
“Let’s kill them. My aunt had joined their group, but there is no love in their eyes for dark elves. They claim to support nations with magical help but scheme in the background. They are probably here to demand that we let them back into Fulgrem,” Lunara said with a surprising amount of malice.
“They aren’t that bad,” Eliandra said, but Lunara whipped her head around to stare at her.
“Not bad? Andra tried to murder my man, our man!” Lunara said as her face twisted in fury.
This was strange from Lunara, as when she had first spoke about the council to me, she was neutral to them. Now it seemed she hated them in the short time since.
“Andra
had gone against the council when he killed the former king of Fulgrem, no?” I asked and Lunara quieted. She stared at the table as her intensive expression died down.
“We can’t trust them,” Lunara said with a sigh. “When you didn’t see me for all those weeks, Eliandra was too busy with paperwork and I had nothing to do here. So I spent my time writing letters to my parents and to my aunt. She would visit sometimes, in secret. She told me that the council has had a change in direction since Andra’s actions. Many of the mages think they should have a heavier say in a nations rule and I know that it spells trouble. My aunt has since left the council but I just know they will oppose us, even try to destroy us, since we took their influence of Fulgrem away from them.”
Lunara had a personal stake in the matter, as she cared for her aunt, even if she spoke little of her. I didn’t know her aunt had been in the palace and felt bitter that this all happened when I was wallowing in my room.
I raised my hand and stroked her arm soothingly, which caused her to rest her head on my side.
“Hmm, a change in direction. I did not foresee this, but now the picture is much clearer,” Flavious said.
“What do you mean? I was always under the impression that the mages council is what all mages aspire to be a part of. They would not accept me because of my father,” Eliandra said as she grabbed my other arm.
“The mages in the guest room are far more pushy than I ever imagined,” Eklis replied with a shake of his head. “They have been a pain ever since they arrived and making absurd demands, as if they were the kings of these lands. It took me a while to keep the men from killing them outright, even though I wished it myself.”
“What do they want?” I asked as my thumb stroked itself over Eliandra’s arm.
“Who knows, they have stated none of their intentions just yet,” Eklis replied.
A commotion at the throne room caught our attention as some guards marched towards us.
“Sir, the mages are here, shall we let them in?” a guard asked.
“Yes, go ahead,” I said as I got up from my seat. I half considered heading up to the throne but thought better of it. There was a table in the way, and we might as well make sure of it more.