She…what?
Kana has pledged herself to the gods of the Triumvirate and claimed herself as your priestess. That you offered to not only restore Fireforge but also equal rights for all nonhumans as well as land for them in the North. Did you do this, Jacob?
Uh, yes, it was meant to be a threat. This was embarrassing,
Well, as threats go, it’s done wonders for morale. You’re going to have to get control over her.
I nodded. We’ll handle her when the time comes.
Probably not the handling she wants. She adores you both. Serah mentally sighed. Stay safe and come home. Tell Regina I love her.
I will.
Regina glanced over to me. “How’s the situation?”
“Chaotic. Also, we may have accidentally laid the groundwork for a massive migration of nonhumans to our lands.”
Regina nodded. “Good. The empire’s loss is our gain.”
I sighed, trying to figure out how to comfort her despite our situation. Putting the sack containing Redhand’s head on the ground, I said, “Regina, I’m—”
“You don’t need to comfort me, Jacob. I know you would do anything for me.”
“I…see. That still doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try.”
“There is a time and a place for everything.”
There was a hard edge to her voice as well as a distance. It was something I wasn’t used to hearing from her. Regina was a woman who wore her emotions on her tabard, rage and love both. She was a woman of extreme passions and great honesty. I’d rarely seen her try to hide her feelings but it was clearly what she was trying to do now.
“I’m sorry about Gewain.”
Regina’s expression didn’t change. “I do not blame you for his death, Jacob. I do not think he would have survived if we’d gone sooner, and even if he did, it would have been questionable if he would have been the same man. The Imperials have proven again and again their ruthlessness and the only question is whether we can be as ruthless in return.”
“Meeting power for power is a…” I trailed off. I was going to give her a platitude about how one should not degenerate as low as one’s enemies but it would be monstrously hypocritical. Also, sometimes, the ends did justify the means. It was just when that was your justification for everything, as with the Nine Heroes, that it became evil.
Yes, evil.
It was strange that I finally accepted that word. There might not be a cosmic definition of what was good or evil, the gods certainly couldn’t agree on it, but I believed in it now. I saw a cracked reflection in the Nine Heroes but did not confuse myself with the idea we were the same. Jassamine and I had started similarly, but we had taken very different paths. I was now comfortable with saying, even if I was not good, I would try to be better than her.
“Jacob?” Regina asked, noting my silence.
“I have no answer for you. I would love to mention there is some secret wisdom or truth. That peace and good will shall win the day or winning the conflict against them is guaranteed. The truth is, I have no idea. We are facing formidable foes and even our victory today is merely opening the way for a much larger war.”
Seizing Kerifas was a major first step to taking the southern continent as would be recruiting the many allies we had at the Wild Goat Inn. It would not win us the war, though, and was no different a strategy than had been tried and failed by the King Below numerous times before. We had numbers, comparable technology, and if we could convince the Southern nobility and peasantry to sit beside us then we could fight them. The fact the Oghma were sitting this one out was a powerful win and the Nine Heroes had just lost two more of their members.
I wasn’t sure we could beat them, though.
We would try, though.
For humanity’s freedom.
Easy to hide behind that when you’re still in charge, the Trickster said.
Silence, spirit.
As you wish.
Regina gathered her strength, her wounds starting to heal before my eyes and, in a few moments, she was all but healed. Another power of hers I didn’t possess. “The stories of war are much more entertaining. They don’t mention the rapes, the starvation, the famine, dysentery, or pointlessness of it all.”
“No one wants to think their loved ones died for nothing. Yet every war has a loser and that will sting the pride of those on the other side. I sometimes wonder if every war is a result of the previous one, spinning out into eternity.”
“Can the cycle be broken?”
“No, war…is eternal. Men and women killing each other for reasons relating to wealth, pride, or because they want to be something more than merely alive. It doesn’t change. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be fought, both in terms of cause and to end it.”
“That does go in the book.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, I think that actually might be worth writing down.”
Regina stared upward at the ceiling as we heard another runestone explode. “I will end war on the Three Continents.”
I stared at her. “Regina…”
“You made your choice to be willing to fight for those you loved and those you cared for, Jacob, and I respect that. Now do the same and respect mine. I cannot end the conflict with the Usurpers peacefully but I will unite the empire with the Iron Order. I will enforce a peace if I cannot negotiate one. It will be a bloody, nasty, and ignoble business, but maybe we’ll actually be able to change things.”
“You think you can change human nature?”
“I can damn well try.”
I paused and thought about that. “So many of our enemies believe everything they do is in the name of righteousness. The Usurpers believe the killings, slavery, and torture is all done to make the world a better place. The Trickster and Lawgiver believe they can do the same through giving people distractions. Now we join their ranks. In the end, I suppose that’s the lesson from it. Everyone wants a better world, but everyone disagrees about what constitutes one. Our vision is perhaps no worse than anyone else’s.”
“Thank you, Jacob.”
“Don’t thank me just yet. We’ve still got a war to win.”
“We will.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re the heroes.” Regina smiled.
I chuckled. “I suppose we are.”
Regina drew Starlight and we headed out into the ruins of the governor’s palace, fighting guards and helping the servants escape. We passed by the fallen form of Prince Alfreid along the way, just another casualty of the carnage.
The Sixth Great Shadow War had begun.
To be continued in:
WRAITH KING
Book Three of the Wraith Knight Series
Wraith Lord Page 31