Chapter 7

Airship to Norwich: POV (Tabitha)

The wind was silent yet steady and the night sky was clear giving full view of the stars, perfect weather for sailing. Of course all this was irrelevant to Tabitha as she stood on deck waiting away the final few hours till they made port. Albion had been spotted in the distance a short time ago and she had little interest in sleeping right now despite nearly everyone else on this little cargo vessel that she found herself on. Now, normally Tabitha would have her face buried in a book, engrossed in the pages of the story to both pass the time as well as to block out all the mundane ramblings of the people around her, both friend and stranger, which she had little to no interest in most of the time. However, the journey had been a long one and Tabitha had the misfortune of exhausting her current supply of books, extensive as it may have been, and thus she found herself once more bored and inadvertently recounting the, in her opinion, needlessly long trip between the academy and Albion.

At the insistence of the Princess the small party of Tabitha, Louise, Kirche, Siesta, and Wardes went on their trip via horseback instead of using both Wardes’ and her own flight capable familiars in order to ‘remain inconspicuous’; a notion that Tabitha believed to be asinine and a waste of time. One part, however, that had slightly amused her was that at one point before they all left the academy it seemed that they would have to suffer the presence of Guiche; thankfully though, once it was made known that they would be meeting up with Michael, he quickly found an excuse to be unable to accompany them. The way he said it made it seem like such an unfortunate loss for the entire group, though Tabitha was far more thankful then she let on that he wasn’t tagging along with them; yet something else to be grateful to Michael for.

Over all, the journey was fairly calm and for the most part boring aside from a small number of mentionable events. First and foremost was when they had decided to take a shortcut through what was known to be orc infested territory in order to shave off a few weeks of travel. All throughout the detour they were constantly on the lookout for orc attackers, ones that never came; this is not to say they never found any orcs, quite the contrary, for as they were passing through a small valley they came to a rather shocking sight. On each side of the road they traveled were mirrored fields of massacred orcs, hundreds of them, all rotting and still being picked over by carrion eaters. The gruesome sight brought a chill to each of them and at first there seemed to be no clue as to what caused the carnage until Louise spotted a small piece of brass half buried in the road, this first find lead to a few more. All the pieces were there same; hollow cylinders with one end sealed, Tabitha recognized instantly that they were what Michael called ‘bullet casings’. She felt a wave of awe at the sight of what Michael’s small force had managed to do to a numerically superior force of orcs and suffer what appeared to be no casualties.

Other than the orc graveyard the only other ‘major event’ to occur, aside from a few bandit attacks, was an ambush from Fouquet of all people. It was just under two days from Dunkerque when the ground suddenly shook and a monstrous earth golem rose from the ground with Fouquet herself standing on its shoulder laughing maniacally and spouting threats about how it was the end of the road for them. Of course the attack failed; between the four mages in the group Fouquet’s golem lasted a spectacular six minutes before it collapsed into a pile of dirt and Fouquet disappeared into the surrounding forest. That was the last bit of real excitement for the weeks long trip that they had been forced to endure.

One last bit of interest, at least to Louise and Wardes, was once the party had arrived at Dunkerque. They all had been walking around the docks looking for a ship to charter when they began to overhear conversations between dock workers and shipmen about how Norwich had been lost by the Royals; this itself wouldn’t have been more than a bit of bad news considering it was surrounded by the Reconquista, but then a similar discussion spoke of the nearby port city of Anglia also falling to the same group that took Norwich, a group that had been described as a rebel army. This information had set Louise off in a worrisome rant at Wardes whom intern proceeded to down play what they had overheard as baseless and absurd rumor. It had calmed Louise somewhat, at least enough so that they could finally get a ship to take them to Norwich, not an easy task considering most everyone of the ship captains worried enough about the rumors that they didn’t want to risk a run in with a rebel group who could capture entire cities.

Tabitha of course had a better idea of what was really going on and so hadn’t shown any worry about anything, not that she would have in any case, Kirche hadn’t paid any attention, her thoughts had been fixated on seeing Michael again, Siesta also didn’t seem to have any worry either and just continued to show her contented smile and fully satisfied that they were going to be meeting her Master fairly soon. Speaking of Siesta…

“Ah, hello there Ms. Tabitha, I suppose you couldn’t sleep either?” Asked the young maid as she approached the petite blunette. Tabitha, in her usual way just shook her head in the negative and wore her usual expressionless mask. “Hmm, I see… just enjoying the quiet night then?” Another soundless answer, this time in the affirmative.

“Thinking.” She supplied this time.

“About?” Queried the maid.

“The mission.” Simple answers and yet, said more than enough.

“Yes, I suppose that it has been quite a task, though one could argue that it hasn’t really begun yet, we’ve only now just about reached our relative destination.” She leaned against the railing on her arms as Tabitha nodded slowly and continued to stare at the slowly growing land mass in front of her. “It’s been such a slow journey, though I for one think it has been well worth it if only to see Master again, do you suppose he will allow me to stay with him this time?” She asked with a slight dreamy under tone to her voice.

‘Such a one track mind.’ Tabitha thought to herself before answering. “Possibly.” Siesta though didn’t seem to hear as she went off into her own little world as she stared out into the horizon no doubt fantasizing about all the things she and Michael could and most likely would do together. Eventually the turned back to Tabitha and said.

“Well Ms. Tabitha, I believe that I should get at least some rest tonight, I must also let Master know that we are hours away from port, goodnight.” Tabitha merely nodded once more as the maid left.

‘Yes, we’re almost there.’ She thought to herself as she just went back to quietly waiting.

Elsewhere on the ship…

“That little mage girl freaks me the fuck out.” One of the crew members standing watch said to his fellow shipmen who just nodded as they both watched the blunette stand there stock still staring at the slowly approaching land for the past few hours. When she turned to stare at them the both jumped and started looking busy. Tabitha smiled slightly.

Port City of Norwich (Albion): POV (Michael)

Sitting at his desk waiting for Louise and friends to show up Michael was keeping himself occupied by going over reports of the city’s urban modernization progress. Aside from the numerous mage driven factories churning out weapons and ammunition the city was also in the process of having a brand new sewage system installed as well as water mains and pipelines laid in order to eventually grant the entire city with indoor plumbing. The whole process was actually proceeding much faster than it ought to given the level of technology available all thanks to the city’s mages. With the steady influx of new mages from surrounding territory and the burden of arms manufacturing being eased by the acquisition of Anglia and other small cities and larger towns, a small percentage of mages, mainly earth mages, were reassigned to work on the new city wide project.

The procedure was fairly simple; the mages would unearth a section of street, then they would form first stone pipes of certain sizes, and then said pipes would be transmuted into copper, the next best thing since PVC pipe was currently beyond anyone. The last step was to then rebury the section uncovered and then move on. Truthfully all this is just prep work since there are no pumping stations to actually supply the water to the pipes because they are still being built and the special spells that will power them are still in development. Not to mention that the factories producing toilets, sinks, and bathtubs are still working on meeting their orders to supply every building with at least one of each, plus they still need to be installed and hooked up to the water system. Current estimates put the city’s plumbing at several months from completion.

One bit of better news was that the electric grid is nearing completion and outlets are present in nearly all buildings and streetlamps have become a common site, the power plants are also nearly completed and once Axelle finalizes the new electricity generation spells/enchantments they will supply the entire city with free power. Michael was excited when he read the report that Axelle had sent him on the new spells that he had suggested she try to make a reality, the reports said that she was putting the final touches on them and that they would be ready within the month. These spells weren’t just for the power plants but also had application in so much more, especially for one particularly classified project.

Aside from basic utilities being installed there were also emergency services being implemented; police, fire, and medical facilities were begin built and staffed throughout the city as well as schools, libraries, and eventually commercial businesses were being established. The whole city was being used as a test bed by Michael to modernize his soon to be new nation; as kinks and snags were being discovered and solved the lessons learned would be used to modernize the rest of the population centers on the island and make the whole progression proceed far more smoothly.

The final report that really caught Michael’s attention was the one on Prince Wales; basically Michael had always known the Prince’s location at the church like building and had the location surrounded and cordoned off, but recently Wales and a few of his remaining knights had abandoned this area and moved into the surrounding hills due to an unexpected attack by Reconquista assassins that had somehow gotten through Michael’s guards and attempted to off the young Prince. The attack failed but apparently spooked him enough to move to a more hidden local. Michael still knew where he was so it wasn’t a problem, but he ordered security beefed up all throughout his territory to stop any more attacks as well as possible spies and saboteurs.

Leaning back in his seat Michael began to contemplate how he was going to handle the interaction between himself, Louise, and the Prince. ‘Obviously both are going to be ruffled at the fact that I and basically conquering Albion and overthrowing the aristocracy and destroying their very society. Louise especially is going to blow a gasket when she finds out; frankly I can’t decide whether to consider the idea frightening or hilarious, hmm… I guess it shall all depend on the face she makes, and also whether I can get her wand away from her in time.’ Michael’s musings were cut short by a swift knock at the door. “Yes?!” The head of one of his guards poked in and answered.

“A Ms. Valliere and company to see you.” Michael smiled broadly at the news that they were finally here.

“Excellent, show them in immediately.” Nodding the guard left and minutes later the door opened again, and from it a shout and a blur.

“DARLING!” Kirche exploded into the room and literally pounced onto Michael wrapping both her arms and legs around him forcing him to grab onto her panty clad ass to hold her up. She then proceeded to smash her lips against his and he ended up stumbling back to lie on the desk.

“Hmmph…” Michael’s wide eyed surprise and muffled voice quickly turned into one of mirth as he reciprocated the kiss and purposefully groped Kirche’s tight arse. Unfortunately the happy reunion was cut tragically short by an impressive shriek.

“KIRCHE, WHAT THE HELL?!” Louise’s uproar snapped the others out of their stupefaction as Wardes snapped his attention to Louise in surprise for her outburst whilst Siesta had one hell of a ticked mark on her head and an incredible forced smile as her patience was tested in unbelievable ways as she rushed in.

“M-Ms. Kirche please let go of Master!” Siesta was giving an amazing amount of effort to remain respectful but anyone looking could see her nearing a breaking point. Hearing the outburst from Louise and the request from the obviously irritated maid, Kirche released Michael’s lips with a gasp and turned her head to address the others, specifically Louise.

“Now, now Louise can’t you see that I am expressing how much I have missed darling these long months?” Even while out of breathe she still managed to sound teasing and it made Louise all the more livid.

“I DON’T GIVE A DAMN, LET MICHAEL GO RIGHT NOW YOU DAMNED HARLOT!!!” Louise was visibly steaming right now and the whole scene caused a ‘sweat drop moment’ for Wardes and Tabitha who are watching the whole back and forth.

“I agree with Ms. Louise, please get off of Master!” Siesta was starting to fret as she desperately tried to think of a way to dislodge the red head from her Master. Instead of complying to the two other women however, Kirche instead proceeded to press her body against Michael’s even harder and even started rubbing against him a bit all the while pouting.

“Oh come on you two, I’m just so happy to finally get to hold my darling after all this time, can’t you all just give us some time to ourselves, maybe an hour or two?” The question was asked so innocently but all it did was inspire so much more anger.

“NO!!!” They both shouted and by that time even Michael started to get nervous, quickly clearing his throat he addressed the clearly horny girl dry humping him.

“Ehem, ah Kirche, I think we should save this for a different time, after all you are all clearly here for some important business.” Kirche looked back at Michael and re-doubled her pout.

“B-but darling…” she began but was cut off by Michael.

“No buts Kirche, off, now.” Reluctantly and slowly she got off of him and when she stood up she had a look that one might think someone had butchered her favorite puppy and then told her that her favorite kitten was next. Seeing the look on her face Michael leaned in close and whispered. “If you are a good girl I might do something extra special before you have to go back to the academy.” Hearing this Kirche suddenly brightened and all but skipped back over to stand with Tabitha. Smiling, Michael then approached Siesta with his arms out. “Siesta, it’s good to see you again.” He said as his arms circled around his maid and as he did this she cuddled into the hug and rested her head against his shoulder.

“*Sigh* It’s so good to see you to Master.” She said contently, her previous anger forgotten. After a few seconds of this Michael let go and walked over to Tabitha, much to Siesta’s great loss.

“Tabitha, I must say you no doubt had a rough trip with those two loud individuals, way to tough it out.” He gestured Louise and Kirche who both humph’d. As he did this he then patted the blunette on the head earning a blush. Praise and affection, not something Tabitha has ever really gotten since she lost her mother, and getting it now, even though there was nothing really praiseworthy, it nearly brought her to tears and she had to force herself not to tremble. When he stopped and moved on to Louise it took everything she had not to whimper at the lost contact but she quick reasserted her self-control and reapplied her stoic mask.

As he approached Louise with his big friendly smile, she couldn’t help but breakout in a smile herself as she said. “Hello Michael it’s ni…*EEP*.” She squeaked as instead of letting her finish he proceeded to wrap her in a bear hug and lifted her up like she was a stuffed toy. “You brute, put me down, down I say!” Though it was said loudly there wasn’t a hint of anger or malice and she was almost giggling as she said it. Chuckling Michael set the little mageling down.

“Oh Louise, like I could resist giving a big hug to my favorite summoner.” They both gave a bit of a laugh at that.

“As if you had any other summoners.” Big grin on her face as she said that.

“HA! Like I need any others.” Again the both laughed.

“Still, it is not proper to greet a noble like that.” Michael gave an even bigger laugh at that.

“As if I would let that stop me.” With that he turned to look at the only other male in the room, Wardes, who looked like he couldn’t decide whether to be confused or amused. “Louise, I believe that it’s time you introduced me to this… individual here.” This cause Louise to blush slightly as she had to introduce two of her favorite people.

“Um, Michael this is Sir Wardes, he is my f-fiancé, and Wardes this is Michael.” Louise looked cutely embarrassed but Wardes came to her rescue and introduced himself more properly.

“Greetings Michael, I am Viscount Jean-Jacques Francis de Wardes, captain of her Majesties griffon knights.” He said it like he was important and Michael nearly laughed his head off and started to spill the beans about who Wards really was, but kept himself in check and instead ‘properly’ introduced himself.

“Greetings to you as well Wardes, I am Michael, leader of the Albion revolutionary movement.” He said with his shark grin on his face. Hearing this both Louise and Wardes gave a startled gasp.

“Michael, you mean to tell me that you are the leader of those commoner brutes out there!?” Louise nearly shrieked the question.

“Now Louise, that’s not very nice, those men are my soldiers, and this is my city, and also yes.” He relied, still all smiles much to the shock of the pinkette.

“B-but, WHY!” She let burst out. Michael went to and sat on his chair like it was a throne as he explained.

“It’s simple Louise; the aristocracy is far too corrupt to allow it to continue to abuse the common man, and the common man has live for too long under such mistreatment, they have had enough and thus they have chosen to cast off their shackles and fight for their freedom and I have given them the power and leadership to do so.” Louise was speechless; here was Michael, perhaps greatest thing to have ever happened to her, the one who gave her back her proof of nobility, her magic. This person was now leading a movement meant to bring down her society, a society put in place by her version of Jesus. This revelation nearly brought her to her knees. Sensing this Michael tried to move things along. “However, enough about that, what brings you to Albion?” He asked pretending not to already know everything. Wardes quickly answered.

“We are currently on a mission from the Princess to both deliver and retrieve something of great importance from Prince Wales.” Michael feigned surprise at this.

“Prince Wales, is that who you need to find?” At Wardes’ nod he continued. “Well it’s a good thing you came to me first, I know the general area where he can be found.” This surprised both Louise and Wardes.

“You do, how?” Asked Wardes.

“Because one of the first things I did when I took this city was to send out scouts around the city to learn of anything of interest, low and behold one of the things they had learned was that the Prince was hiding a few miles north-east of here in some forested hills, since then I have kept tabs on the Prince’s movements, it’s a good thing you got here so early in the morning, if all goes well we should be able to get to him by mid-afternoon.” Wardes was all business now and despite Louise’s shock over Michael’s revelation wanted to get moving right away.

“I see, than we should set out at once.” Michael just nodded and hopped up and grabbed his greatcoat.

“Okay then let’s go!” Michael then set out the door closely followed by everyone else, a quick stop by the front desk to explain that he was leaving for the day he then led everyone out to the stables where the saddled up and set off towards the hills where Wales was last reported. It was a quick and silent ride as the mood took a down ward spiral after Michael’s admittance to being what was considered essentially a rebel leader. Eventually after hours of riding they turned off the main road onto a trail that no one but Michael even noticed and continued for nearly another mile before they came upon a downed tree with a trio of hooded men behind it.

“Whoever you are you do not belong here, turn back now and you will not be harmed.” The one in the middle shouted while simultaneously pulling out his sword-wand. Seeing this Michael turned to Louise and Wardes.

“I believe this is where you two come in.” Wardes nodded and nudged Louise, she startled before realizing she was up. Drawing upon her noble self-entitlement she addressed the three.

“We are envoys of her highness Princess Henrietta De Tristan on a diplomatic mission to Prince Wales of Albion.” The trio looked slightly startled at this announcement; nonetheless the apparent leader was still standoffish.

“What proof of this do you have that you are who you say you are and not assassins sent by the Reconquista?” Louise looked highly insulted by the implied accusation.

“I am no such thing; I have with me as proof the Princess’s royal ring.” She held up her hand showing the water ruby ring causing the leader to climb over the fallen tree and approach Louise whilst removing a glove and revealing a ring of his own and holding it up to Louise.

“Hold your ring up to mine.” With slight hesitation Louise complied, as the rings met a spark of light flashed between the two rings and became a rainbow of color. “Air and water form to make a rainbow, this proves us both.” With that the leader lowered his hood and showed them all his young face and blonde hair, causing Louise to stutter.

“P-Prince Wales, my apologies h-had I known…” Louise was freaking out much to Wales’ amusement, but he took pity on her and tried to calm her fears.

“If you had known then I would be in serious trouble, in fact the fact that you even knew I was around here worries me greatly, how did you know of my whereabouts?” At that Michael raised his hand.

“That would be me Prince; I have been keeping track of you for months.” Wales looked unsure of himself at this information.

“I see, well we can address that later, for now, I must know what my dearest cousin would find so important as to send such young envoys on a mission to find me.” At this Louise took out the letter from Henrietta and handed it to Wales.

“The Princess told me to give this letter to you and to retrieve another that she gave you in the past.” Wales took the letter with obvious enthusiasm while at the same time looked confused about the whole thing.

“Letters, all this for a pair of letters? Well, I know of the one she speaks of, but it is back at my camp, if you would follow us we could arrive quickly.” At this Wales pocketed the letter he got from Louise and he and his guards retrieved some hidden horses and together everyone went around the fallen tree and made their way to Wales’ camp were the rest of his surviving knights awaited. There were only about half a dozen of them, but each one looked strong and loyal to their Prince. “Welcome to our camp, it’s not much but for now its home.” Said the Prince as they all entered the camp and dismounted their horses. “The letter you seek is in my tent, please wait here while I retrieve it.” With that he went into his tent.

“I can’t believe that the Prince is forced to live in the middle of the woods like common bandits now, all because of those treacherous Reconquista!” Blurted Louise as she observed the campsite and its minimal accommodations.

“Oh Louise, it is not as bad as you are making it sound.” Said the Prince as he exited his tent, Louise blushed at being over heard by the young royal. “I have found the letter you seek, but I’d like a minute to read the newest letter my cousin has sent me.” Louise just nodded shyly as Wales opened his letter and began reading, after a few minutes he just sighed and kissed the letter before folding it back up and pocketing it. “Well, it seems that your mission is far more vital to the Princess than I had believed; very well, here is what you seek.” Said Wales as he took out a very worn-out envelope and held it out, before Louise could even think to move Wardes moved quickly; closing the distance between him and Wales faster than even Michael could believe.

In one smooth motion Wardes grabbed the letter in Wales’ out stretched hand while simultaneously drawing his sword-wand and skewering the Prince’s heart. Then, before anyone could do more than look surprised Wardes quickly withdrew his weapon and spun, rattling off a spell and unleashing a wave of wind-blades at Wales’ collected knights slicing them to blood chunks. This was not the end of his attack however, as he completed his twirl he brought up his fist that was clutching the letter and pointed it at his original group, and all suddenly froze mid movement. A fiendish and triumphant smile showed on his face as he saw how the others were paralyzed.

Louise had never moved more than enough to convey her utter shock and horror at Wardes’ actions, same as Siesta. Tabitha was actually in the middle of chanting a spell and was only a syllable and a gesture from completion while Kirche was still in the process of reaching for her wand. As for Michael, he was trying to raise his Samaritan but only got it a quarter of the way up and even now was gritting his teeth in struggle trying do desperately move to shoot this bastard. Everyone was confused as to what was happening, at least until they noticed a soft glow coming from Wardes’ gloved hand; see as they noticed it Wardes calmly pocketed the letter and then removed his glove revealing what could only be the ring of Andvari.

‘Fuck, Fuck, FUCK! Why the fuck does he have that, Cromwell was supposed to have the ring NOT Wardes, when did he even get it!?’ Michael was… slightly nervous that Wardes had ended up with the damned water spirits treasure, however his opinion on the matter was nowhere near as strong as Louise’s.

“WARDES! W-what is all this!? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!!!?” Even when fully paralyzed Louise can still scream out anything, but in this case it just made Wardes chuckle.

“Why… I am completing my mission.” He said nonchalantly and confusing Louise even more. “*Sigh* Allow me to elaborate; my mission had three objectives, first was to acquire this.” He began as he patted the pocket with the letter. “The damning letter that Princess Henrietta wrote to Prince Wales, the contents of which would doom the Princess engagement to the Germanian Emperor and thus destroying any chance at an alliance between Tristan and Germania. The second objective was to kill said Prince, speaking of the Prince.” In one swift motion he turned towards the Prince who was on his knees and still alive, Wardes had actually missed Wales’ heart thanks to a reflexive movement by the young Prince and had only gotten a lung, but he was still frozen by the ring. The Prince just looked on defiantly as Wardes pointed his weapon at his face, smiled and then spoke a quick spell and sent a javelin of wind in to Wales’ face, leaving a large hole in his head.

“NOOO!!!” Louise could only scream as the Prince’s now thoroughly dead body fell backwards from the force of the attack. Chuckling once again he turned back to Louise.

“Well, now that that is taken care of my next objective would have been you.” He said much to the young pinkette’s bafflement. “However as I have discovered over the past few weeks it seems as though you have been rendered useless to me, such a shame.” The sting of being called useless by the one she had admired for years was probably the greatest wound she had suffered today and now she was sobbing as she desperately tried to understand.

“W-why… *SOB* Whyyy…? *SOB*.” Tears were streaming down her face, and finally Michael was able at say something through clenched teeth.

“Don’t you get it Louise, this damn pedo is Reconquista?” The realization was like a smack to the head for her. But Michael’s words had drawn Wardes’ attention as he stalked over to him.

“Quite astute of you to realize it Mr. Rebel Leader. However from what I have learned you are the one responsible for making Louise useless to both me and my employers.” With that he uttered a spell, waved his sword-wand and sent an air-hammer at Michael, sending him flying into a nearby tree. Michael’s enchanted greatcoat the only thing saving him from broken bones, though he did get the wind knock out of him. See him still alive, Wardes walked to where Michael landed and pointed his weapon at him intending to finish him off like Wales. “Humph, seems you are tougher than you look, fitting for someone who has been such a nuisance for the Reconquista. Since I cannot complete my third objective I’ll have to make up for it by killing the one responsible for ruining the descendant of the void and the instigator of the damned rebellion which will no doubt fall apart without it’s leader.”

Michael could only look defiant as Wardes opened his mouth to speak the spell that would end him. A thunderous *BANG* however was heard instead followed by the sight of the side of Wardes’ head exploding outwards in a mess of bone fragments and grey matter. A fraction of a second latter his head jerked to the same side with a barely audible snap signifying his neck breaking, this also forced the rest of his body to fall the in the same direction. The expression on his face never changed from the one of pure assurance of victory even as he hit the ground.

With Wardes’ death the power of the ring of Andvari ceased to function and everyone found themselves able to move and the first thing they did was snap their attention to the now former Viscount and then to a ruffling bunch of foliage to see five individual exiting and approaching Michael as he got to his feet.

“Damn Lieutenant, could you have cut it any closer?” Michael said to the head hooded guy as he step up and revealed his smiling face, showing it to be Lt. Brian and his reaper team.

“Sorry Sir, had some heavy assed undergrowth to work our way through, and that was after the stop we had to make at Reigate in order to pick up our new sniper rifles, one of which just saved your head… Sir.” He commented as he hefted said weapon.

It was a very new addition to his military; resembling the Barrett M82, the SR-Mk.1, or just SR-1, is the first true sniper rifle in Michael’s army. Like all weapons in his fledgling military, the SR-1 is designed modularly and to be very easy to maintain and repair. This is where the slight changes from the M82 come in, so slight that the changes would only be apparent to real weapon experts and only if they disassembled the rifle, since that is the only real change, the way the parts are designed to be more modular, aside from that it is almost an exact copy. The only notable thing about this weapon is the use of special enchantments made to significantly reduce the noise of each gunshot as well as to reduce the overall weight of the weapon. Lastly, unlike the M82, which uses a 10 round magazine, the SR-1 uses a 15 round magazine.

“Well, I guess I’ve heard worse excuses to almost be late.” Michael replied with a chuckle, then looked at Wardes’ corpse and crouched down, retrieved the letter from his pocket and took the ring of Andvari from his finger and putting it into his own pocket before stand back up. “So ends Viscount Wardes, local chapter leader of NAMBLA and Reconquista lackey.” His statement wasn’t really understood by anyone but it brought a smirk to his face. He then went over to Wales’ body and took his royal ring and the other letter from his pocket and turned to Brian. “Lt., have you and your men give the Prince a good burial and then clean up this campsite, after that head on over to Carlow and await further orders, gather up the rest of the teams along the way.”

“YES SIR!” He acknowledged with a salute and then signaled his men to get to work. Michael then turned to Kirche.

“Kirche, be a sweetheart and torch the other corpse please?” The amorous redhead just nodded gently with a light smile and took out her wand and set to work. Michael’s next task was the miserable looking Louise, walking over to her he took a knee and placed his hands on her reluctant shoulders. “Louise, I know there’s nothing I can really say to make this situation any better, but for what it’s worth I’m sorry that Wardes turned out to be what he was, and I want you to know that despite how it may seem you aren’t alone, no matter what I’ll always be here for you.” He said as sincerely as he could. Louise, despite learning that Michael was a rebel leader, suddenly broke down and jumped into his arms and just sobbed her heart out, letting out all her pain at being betrayed by the one she was supposed to be betrothed to. All Michael could do was hold her and try to whisper comforting words into her ear.

Once Louise had finished her sob fest, the girls and Michael all saddled up and started their trip back to Norwich. The journey took until just after dark and like the ride out had been a quiet one and a bit more somber. When they got back to Michael’s place, which was basically a royal hotel suite in a fancy hotel, Siesta took the now exhausted Louise to one of the bedrooms and set to getting her to sleep while Kirche and Tabitha went to ready themselves for bed too. Sometime later Michael found himself back in his office reading more reports and other such paperwork when his door suddenly opened and both Siesta and Kirche walked in, both dressed in light sleepwear, where they got it from is anyone’s guess.

“Well Master, Ms. Louise is now fast asleep.” Started Siesta, to which Michael nodded as he got up and walk around to the front of his desk were he crossed his arms and leaned against it.

“Yes, she has had a tying day, what with me, Wardes, and the Prince, both of whom ended up dead, I doubt she was awake more than a couple minutes after her head hit her pillow.” Siesta merely nodded as well before Kirche began.

“Tabitha has secluded herself to her room with an arm full of new books she found from somewhere.” She informed with a musing smile. Michael just smirked at that.

“Heh, yea if there are books nearby and Tabitha is in need of reading material, you can bet she’ll find them.” They all laughed at that and Michael could’ve sworn he heard someone sneeze. “But I suppose we should all get some sleep no-oomph…” Once more Michael found himself being lip locked by an over enamored redheaded bronze busty teen. The make out session lasted until Siesta finally got over her shock at the boldness of the Germanian girl to sputter out a sentence.

“M-M-Ms. Kirche p-please release Master!” Kirche managed pull her face from Michael’s and just looked at Siesta with an amused smirk.

“I have a better idea dear, why don’t you come and join us, I know I have missed darling dearly and I have little doubt you have missed him too.” Her voice was inviting, seductive, and teasing all at once. Poor Siesta suddenly found herself squirming with conflicted desire as a part of her felt she had to hold back and didn’t know why while the other part of her desperately wanted to be with her Master. Michael solved this internal struggle by holding out an inviting arm and saying the words she needed to hear.

“Get over here and join the love.” That’s all it took as she launched herself into that arm.

“MASTER!” Thus a three-way make out started as Siesta did her best to match Kirche’s lip lock while Kirche kept on trying to up the ante. Both their hands were roaming all over him and his hands were doing the same; fondling, groping, and teasing enough to make them all worked up.

“Um, girls, I think we should really get to bed.” While it was a suggestion, it held a lot of promises so they did go to Michael’s bedroom, eventually. Though the door was only across the room, neither one of the girls wanted to stop the make out session and it is very awkward trying to walk three people at the same time. But once they got into the room the clothes started flying off at impressive speeds and soon they were all naked atop his bed with Michael on his back with the other two on top in a make shift sixty-nine position. He had two sets of hands and lips working his steel rod trying to coax out what he had been saving up for quite some time, all the while he had two luscious backsides in his face, one for each hand. He put two fingers in each girl’s quim and a thumb for the clit, as he set himself to work teasing the two beauties in front of him.

This continued on for some time as one of them would have most of his length in their mouth while the other would work his sack, every so often one would take her mouth off him and let out a deep groan or breathy whimper as her body shuddered from his fingers. Eventually he felt the telltale signs of his long awaited release.

“Ohh girls I’m about to cum, augh.” With that his three month dry spell ended and he let out spirt after spirt on the two as they never let up on their work one bit. After what felt like hours but what was really just over a minute or two he finally relaxed and looked at his work. Both had gotten their faced fairly covered while also taking a good amount in their mouths, when they saw that he was done shooting they started cleaning off each other’s face and sucking out any left in his shaft, all while only using their tongues. As they were doing this they were also taking ample amounts of time kissing and sharing and by the time all three were clean Michael had been licked back to full hardness. Seeing this both smiled vivaciously and Siesta asked the question on both their minds.

“So Master, which one of us gets to have this first.” To accent the query she teased the head a bit with a finger. Michael gave his own naughty smile.

“Oh, I’ve got an idea.” With that he got up and in a short couple of minutes he had them on the bed in a proper sixty-nine position with Kirche on top and Siesta underneath with him looking on from his seated position on a nearby plush chair. “Okay, rules are simple, first one to get the other to cum first, gets to play with me first, go!” They both hesitated for a second before Siesta surprisingly struck first by plunging her tongue into the bronze hot box on top of her eliciting a breathy moan from the redhead. This motivated Kirche into action as she too muff-dived into the maid under her drawing out a squeak of a whimper as the two finally got into the pleasurable competition.

As Michael sat back and enjoyed the erotic act of girl-on-girl pleasuring he began to notice the differences in technique the two were using. Kirche lived up to her ardent personality and applied the philosophy she lived by to what she was currently doing and was going at it feverishly and passionately; licking, sucking, and nipping at everything she could see doing all she could to build up an amorous fire before letting explode out in a roaring inferno to give the greatest pleasure she could.

Siesta on the other hand, was going at it with a gentle assertiveness, working any sensitive spot she could locate to bring out a firm and efficient climax. She had Kirche panting and gushing quite nicely and she must have thought to finish her off with a surprise because she inserted her fingers into Kirche’s little backdoor, however while it definitely upped the redhead’s excitement it wasn’t enough to finish it since Kirche has done extensive anal play with Michael before so it didn’t have the effect Siesta was hoping for. It did however give Kirche the idea for she too drove a finger in to maid’s tight rosebud and quickly found an intense spot, while at the same time working all the other sensitive parts furiously. That was it, Siesta’s eyes shot open, her hips buckled, and her scream was loud though muffled as her long stoked up climax exploded out of her, it was so intense that a geyser of juice erupted from her pussy and splashed into Kirche’s face and neck, soaking her. Kirche’s smirk of triumph was short lived however, as the vibrations from Siesta’s scream and the excitement of making her orgasm set off Kirche’s own climax, as her eyes shut tight and her mouth opened in a silent scream.

The orgasmic scene lasted for some minutes as the two held each other tight as they trembled in ecstasy. When they finally calmed down, they both just laid there in a sweaty and gasping mess though it was clear that Siesta was the most worn out from the ordeal and Kirche was looking at him expectantly, Michael’s shark-smirk was on full display.

“Well, while it’s obvious that you both enjoyed that, the winner was Kirche; now bring that bronze ass over here.” With much eagerness Kirche got up to her feet and did her best to sashay over to Michael on her quite shaky legs. When she got to him she got up onto the chair with him and without any preamble lined him up and plunged it all in. As her ass met his lap she let out a shivering sigh at finally being so full again, Michael meanwhile quickly had a hand on her hip and another latched on a breast with fingers teasing and tormenting its nipple. This treatment had Kirche riding him for all she was worth in seconds and their lips were lock again. After a few minutes Kirche slammed herself down, raised head to look at the sealing and screamed out.

“Oh Darling YES!!!” Her orgasm had her violently shaking, jerking, and thrashing wildly. Michael didn’t stop though, and instead stood up causing Kirche to wrap her arms and legs around him as he then proceeded to pin her against the nearest wall and thrust into her as fast as he could. Poor Kirche’s pussy was frothing in seconds and the orgasm that had taken her before was now being followed up by dozens more as all she could do was weakly hold on for dear life as Michael kept driving into her, seeking his own release. After nearly ten minutes of this he finally gave one last hard thrust and blasted everything he could in the well fuck cunt he was buried in. As he came back down he took a look at his handy work and was pleased to see that Kirche’s eyes were glazed over, signifying that she was very well and truly fucked.

That done he turned and went to deposit Kirche to the bed where Siesta laid, watching the two rut and was diligently playing with herself, she was quite worked up now and looked at Michael with a pleading needy look.

“Master, is it my turn now?” Michael just smiled and nodded. Siesta then made to get up and go to him, but instead Michael shook his head, confusing her.

“Just lay down.” So she got on her back and Michael proceeded to do her in the missionary position.

He entered her and then bent down to press his whole body against hers and began kissing her passionately as his hands explored her. Slowly Michael worked his way in and out, gently massaging her breasts and rolling her nipples between his fingers as he coaxed a quiet but long orgasm out of her that left her weak and gasping for breath. As he lifted himself off of her and gripped her hips in preparation for a harder fucking she stopped him.

“Wait Master, I’d like to do it a different way, please?” He looked at her curiously before nodding and pulling out. She smile and then maneuvered herself on to her stomach before raising herself onto her hands and knees then lowering her head to the mattress and reaching around with her hands to grip and spread her butt cheeks. Looking back with a bit of nervousness she asked in a quiet voice. “Master, I’d like you to take me here now.” That really surprised him.

“You sure Siesta?” A quiet ‘yes Master’ was the answer he got. So he thrust into her pussy once more to lube up his cock before placing himself at her puckered entrance and pushing. He quickly got past her sphincter and moved in deeper slowly but steadily.

“Ah Master, so big ah!” When he finally bottomed out he waited for a minute for her to adjust before pulling almost all the way out and pushing back home. He did this for a few minute before she started meeting his thrusts and soon he was going faster and faster. “Oh Master, it feels so good!” He was ramming her pretty fast now and she was rubbing her sex fairly fast too. Before he knew it she tensed up and her ass squeezed him almost painfully as she came, hard. For the second time tonight her pussy gushed a steady spray and when her climax let up enough for him to start moving again Michael gripped both of her ass cheeks and started slamming her ass hard and after a few minutes he came deep in her well-toned ass causing her to have another orgasm from the feel of it.

After he pulled out, which caused Siesta to fall over, he set about rearranging both girls so that their heads were both on the pillows and then he laid between them. When he did both of them cuddle up to him, they didn’t even say good night they all fell asleep instantly.

The next morning…

When Michael woke up he discovered that he had boob in each hand and a girl at each side. ‘Now this is how a man is supposed to wake up!’ Taking a nipple from each he tweaked and teased until they both stirred and awoke; they were both still tired but were all smiles anyway.

“Good morning girls.” They smiled and responded with a ‘good morning ‘Master’ ‘darling’’ respectively. “Well now, I don’t know about you two but I could use a bath.” They both smiled and nodded and then got up and followed him to his large private bath that had heating and cleanliness enchantments keeping the water both wonderfully warm and clean permanently. Though the purpose was to wash each other they did a wonderful job of getting dirty over and over again, but they eventually got cleaned, dried, and dressed then went on down to the breakfast area where Louise and Tabitha were already eating.

“Well, look who finally decided to show up, what took you three so long?” Michael, Siesta, and Kirche just looked to each other before giggling, and Michael answered playfully.

“We were just having a… enthusiastic conversation, weren’t we?” Siesta managed to get herself under control long enough to contribute.

“Oh yes Master, quite the… enthusiastic conversation, most enthusiastic indeed.” Louise just looked sort of confused while Tabitha just had a ‘really’ look, but it was Louise that still asked.

“A conversation, about what?” Michael chuckled a bit.

“Oh, nothing you’d be interested in I assure you.” Louise just looked skeptical but surprisingly didn’t press the issue.

“*Sigh* Well, if you say so.” She then got up and started towards the door. “It doesn’t really matter though, we need to hurry back to the Princess and deliver the news about Wardes and Prince Wales.” As she left Michael managed to pull the other three girls aside for a quick conversation of their own.

“Okay listen you three; I’ve got some important things I need you each to do. Siesta, you are going to be staying with me from now on.” The young maid’s eyes brightened at this as she asked excitedly.

“Really Master, I finally get to actually be your maid?!” Michael just nodded before continuing.

“Yes I finally have a reason to actually have a maid around, but you still need to understand that I still won’t be around that often and I still don’t have a central residence yet.” Siesta didn’t look deterred one bit.

“That is fine Master; just being in the same country as you is still a massive improvement, plus at least I’ll get to see you a lot more often right?” Smiling, Michael answered.

“Yes that’s true. Now, on to you two; I need you both to accompany Louise and basically be her friends and companions, after the diabolical with Wardes she desperately needs friends.” Tabitha just nodded in understanding, while Kirche had mixed feelings.

“Darling that’s so like you; caring for other and trying to help, though I must say I am quite jealous of the maid for getting to stay with you, I do agree with your assessment of the Valliere, I’ll gladly try to be her friend, if only to make you happy darling.” She said that last bit with a smile and immediately set off after Louise. Michael however quickly looked to Tabitha.

“Tabitha, I also need you to pay attention and report anything interesting that happens around the Princess, since Henrietta is such close friends with Louise she will no doubt keep her close for at least moral support, and as Louise’s friend you should be able to be close as well.” Tabitha just nodded that she understood. “Excellent, I knew I could count on you, give me a call when you get back to the capitol and don’t waste your time with horses, use Sylpeed instead.” Once more nodding she turned to leave; however before she left Michael couldn’t resist one last parting remark. “Oh, and Tabitha…” She turned back around. “Next time we visit one another, perhaps you and I could have an ‘enthusiastic conversation’ of our own.” He finished his statement with a wink and had Tabitha quickly turning and leaving sporting a huge blush, unlike Louise, she got the meaning behind that.

Once outside everyone but Michael and Siesta got on board Tabitha’s familiar and waved goodbye, though Tabitha still had a bit of a blush on her face. Once they were away Siesta turned to Michael.

“Well Master, it looks like it’s just you and me now.” Nodding he just looked at her.

“Yes, well come on, we need to pack up and get our happy asses to Carlow, I’ve got a battle to plan and to lead.” He didn’t even give her a chance to express her confusion; he just turned and went to get started. Shaking herself out of her bafflement she just ran after her Master.

Around that time… Grampian Plains: POV (Sergeant Jake Sander)

The Grampian Plains was a large stretch of grass land in southwest Albion somewhere half way between Anglia and Montrose and for the past few weeks Michael’s forces have been having a few small skirmishes with the Reconquista forces. It was never anything impressive, just small units, normally nothing bigger than platoon or company strength as each side sent out forces to gage the other’s response. The Reconquista had mostly stopped sending out larger forces after their repeated failures to break the revolutionary’s lines and when they had learned that Carlow had fallen. Since then the city of Montrose, the last large port city that traded directly with Gallia, had spent it’s time and man power shoring up its defenses and bolstering it garrison.

Despite the Reconquista more or less abandoning the Plains, Michael’s forces were advancing at a snail’s pace since he wanted to consolidate every town and village liberated by his forces before moving on. However, Sgt. Sander had it on good authority that Michael is about to order a rapid advancement on Montrose and the rest of the deep Albion south once the cities of Armagh and Torquay were finally taken, and since Armagh was next in line this reality was quickly approaching. Because of this and a little bit of prompting by Michael himself, the sergeant and about a dozen others were about to attempt a new type of raiding strategy, one that involved 50cals.

“Okay boys, looks like we have another group of scouts, lock and load.” Sanders put up his vid-phone and signaled his driver. Currently he was sitting in a four horse open carriage with four others, a driver, two bazooka men, and one rifleman. There was another carriage like his hidden in another stand of trees, one of many that dotted the plains, that was also waiting for him to start the attack on the two hundred or so mounted scouts that were coming close to his team’s location. As the enemy reached about three hundred meters Sanders gave the signal to his driver and with a snap of the reins they were off and not a minute later the other team exploded out of their grove.

When the Reconquista men saw the two carriages come out of the patches of trees they didn’t know what to think, some just stared while others just laughed. None though, thought they were a threat, big mistake. As soon as the carriages got to within one hundred and fifty meters the cloth covers were thrown away and reviled a damning sight for those who recognized what they were seeing. In the back of each carriage was a single 50cal bolted to the floor and two of the dreaded bazookas. Before the leader of the cavalry could give out any orders four missiles were shot at them, two hitting the front of the column and two hitting the back, turning dozens of men and horses into bloody pieces of meat. As the rest of the men realized they were truly under attack, there was nothing that could be done.

The mage-knights in the group couldn’t get off any spells because the column had been forced to cluster because of the frightened horses and inexperienced men, though quite frankly it wouldn’t have done them any good anyway since not a minute after the bazookas fired the machine guns opened up, spraying high caliber death on the on the horsemen. Since the bullets were armor piercing and none of the men were wearing heavy armor, each round tended to go through two or sometimes even three men, and with two 50cals cutting them up the two hundred man scouting party didn’t last more than five minutes. As the last horseman fell Sgt. Sander waved the other team over.

“Alright boys, great work, these bastards had no clue what hit’em, lets head back to HQ and report and rearm and get out there for another hunt.” A resounding cheer rose up from that and they headed back to the nearest command base.

Over the next few days scenes like this one played out all up and down the plains, soon the Reconquista were not sending anyone out beyond the immediate area outside their cities, the revolutionary forces have unofficial control of the south.

A week after the fall of Carlow… Lundonium: POV (Cromwell)

The leader of the Reconquista, Lord Cromwell, was not a very happy man right now, after all how could he be, he just learned that over an eighth of his kingdom had fallen into the hands of rebels and his army had suffered huge losses. No one could tell him how these rebels had gained so much power or how they had taken so much territory before he had even heard of them.

“This is unacceptable, how could so many cities and nobles be captured or killed by commoners!” He about screamed at one of his lackeys.

“I h-have no idea milord, they just appeared out of now where, and we can’t explain how they are doing it.” The sniveling underling stammered out.

“Humph, I bet I can guess, they no doubt caught the local lords by surprise, yes that’s it, they were obviously fools and incompetents, it’s the only way that a plebian army could have defeated an army led by nobles.” He was utterly convinced that was the reason. “While I would like to send an army with capable commanders to destroy them, I am afraid that with the fall of Carlow the rebels have most likely grown too numerous and to dug in to defeat with the forces we currently have, so we must wait until our forces in the far north finish off the last of the royalist and return back down here to bolster our numbers, then with all our force along with our navy we will drive them from our shore.” All the other lackeys were applauding the seemingly logical decision on what to do about the rabble in the south. “Tell me, what cites are left between us and them?”

“Um… Armagh and Torquey milord.” Said his main underling.

“Well then, our path is clear, Armagh is of no real use to us, have all but the city’s guardsmen withdraw to reinforce Torquey, we shall send an additional one hundred thousand men and thirty warships as well. We will let the rebels have Armagh while we fortify Torquey, which will keep the rebels at bay until our forces are finished in the north.” The underling didn’t look so sure though.

“Milord, are you sure that it is wise to simple give the rebels more territory?” Cromwell looked at the man as if he were a moron.

“Of course I think it’s wise, do not question my tactical brilliance!” The lackey trembled at the raised voice of his lord.

“F-forgive me milord, I meant no disrespect, I shall dispatch your order immediately.” Cromwell just waved him away and turned to look out over his great capitol city.

‘Why can’t any of these fools see my genius, it’s so obvious to anyone with a brain.’ He just shook his head as he mused on the stupidity of those around him.

Carlow: POV (Michael)

Much had changed in the past few weeks since the capture of Carlow; a side from the massive repair effort to fix all the damage from the assault, all over the city various improvements that have been implemented in Norwich and other cities have sprung up. Factories, schools, emergency services, and other infrastructure now dotted the cityscape while the people all generally looked much happier and healthier. All this however is not what has Michael’s current attention, no, that was reserved for the new weapon that was currently resting on the table in front of him. The weapon was the first SIMPAR, or Standard Issue Multi-Purpose Assault Rifle. This specific one was called the AR-Mk.1 a.k.a AR-1.

The AR-1 resembles the Heckler & Koch G3, however it's shorter, only about thirty-two inches (81.2cm) long. The AR is also matte black in color and sports a number of features not normally found on the G3 such as; an accessory rail system allowing the attachment of special equipment, a vertical grip under the barrel that can be detached and replaced with a bipod or even a grenade launcher, also it has the attachments for a sling and comes with a standard cleaning kit. The cleaning kit can be stored in the buttstock, or if the buttstock is replaced with either the folding or collapsible buttstock, the kit can be stored with the soldiers other equipment.

The rife is designed to be totally ambidextrous, ergonomic, as simple to clean and maintain as a M16, and utilizes a fully modular design making it capable of being disassembled and reassembled quickly and easily by anyone with minimal training so as to be easily repaired by simply swapping out any damaged pieces, and give the user some customization options. That, in Michael's opinion, is what makes this weapon so appealing, not only is it the first weapon truly developed by his nation, but it is also the first SIMPAR. A 'Standard Issue Multi-Purpose Assault Rifle'. For the AR-1 that means that with a few add-ons this rifle could serve as a designated marksman rifle by simply equipping a magnifying scope via the rail system and attaching the bipod or the weapon could allow a soldier to act as a grenadier by attaching the grenade launcher.

Lastly, the AR-1 uses the same 7.62 AP rounds as the M1 variant has been using, but unlike that rifle the AR-1, depending on user preferences, can utilize newly developed ammunition such as anti-dragon rounds or incendiary rounds, all made possible thanks to newly created magical enchantments. All rounds are loaded into 20 or 40 round magazines and there is even the option of a 100 round drum, made available thanks to the selective fire switch allowing for single-fire, three round burst, or full auto.

This weapon was currently taking priority for the cities manufacturing capacity, his goal was to rearm his entire army eventually, however for now he was focused on just getting the forces that were going to attack Armagh supplied with them. Armed with this weapon estimated casualties were expected to be far fewer than without. As he was about to review the current attack plan a knock on the door resounded.

“Enter!” One of his aids stepped in and handed him a report. “Thank you.” The man nodded and left, as the door closed he read the report and as he did his eyes widened and he quickly left to find Quinten. He quickly found him in another office like area and thrusted the report at him. “Is this report accurate?” Taking the paper Quinten quickly looked it over.

“As far as we can tell yes, Armagh has had all its forces accept its standard city garrison withdrawn to Torquey.” Michael couldn’t believe it; with that one move the Reconquista had just allowed Michael to advance his plans by several weeks at least.

“How many men do we currently have ready to attack?” Quinten looked surprised by the question but just looked at his notes before answering.

“Well Sir, we were originally going to send about two hundred and fifty thousand to take the city after they were rearmed with the new AR-1s, but so far we have about eighty percent of the men gathered and trained, however only about twenty thousand are armed with the AR-1.” Michael nodded but then asked a follow-up question.

“Okay and what is the estimated size of Armagh’s garrison?” Again Quinten looked at his notes.

“About thirty thousand guardsmen and roughly ten thousand mages.” Michael smiled fiendishly at this and Quinten suddenly understood what Michael was getting at. “Sir, you can’t be thinking about attacking now?”

“Why not; with twenty thousand men armed with the AR-1s and accompanied by howitzer support plus over one hundred thousand more troops in reserve the battle will be a short laugh, after all the only real threat is the cities mages, the guardsmen were practically worthless against us before the AR-1s now they’re practically a nonfactor.” Quinten saw the logic but was still unsure.

“I don’t know Sir, sending so few could cause unnecessary casualties.” Michael’s confidence never faltered.

“I don’t think it will be that bad, hell, have Briek lead them, he seems more than capable of handling situations involving him being out numbered, look what happened in Wrotham, and he was being held back.” Quinten just sighed.

“Well Sir if you think it’s a good idea…” Michael just clapped him on the back.

“Don’t worry old buddy, you know I’d never take a risk I didn’t think was going to pay off.” Quinten just smiled, Michael was right, he was always right.

Armagh: The day of the attack… POV (Colonel Briek Evron)

‘I don’t know whether to feel complemented or fucked.’ That’s what Col. Briek was currently trying to decide as he looked out over Armagh as he tried his earthly best to capture this mildly worthwhile city, and do it with only twenty thousand men. It wasn’t the enemy garrison of thirty thousand guardsmen which outnumbered his forces, oh on that was practically irrelevant against his AR-1 equipped soldiers; no what got him nervous were the ten thousand mage defenders that were also arrayed against him that was the real issue. Sighing to himself he thought; ‘I suppose I should feel flattered that Michael thinks that I am so capable.’ The sound of his vid-phone pulled him out of his musings; opening it up he saw the face of Major Samuel whom he had brought with him as his second-in-command and also directly in charge of the artillery.

“Sir, the howitzers are in place and our men are ready to advance.”

“Good, commence the bombardment of the city wall and once it’s down order the charge, you know the drill.” The Major nodded smartly as Briek continued. “Do we have any idea on enemy force deployment inside the city?”

“According to our intel Sir, there is about half the guardsmen on the wall with maybe a third of the mages just waiting for us to just blindly throw ourselves at the wall like good ignorant peasants…” Both the Major and Colonel chuckled at that. “…the rest of the guardsmen are spread out in the city with some at the palace, most of the rest of the mages have positioned themselves to defend said palace.” Briek nodded at that last part.

“Probably didn’t want to stray too far into the commoner slums.” He said offhandedly.

“Wouldn’t put the thought past them Sir.” With another nod Briek gave the final order.

“Well, handout my orders Major, we’ve got another city to ‘liberate’.” The Major saluted before hanging up. Looking out at the city wall again Briek got to witness the first dozen or so rounds slam into it; through the smoke and debris he saw men get blasted in every direction in many states of dismemberment, as well as his forces beginning to slowly march towards the walls.

‘Well, here we go again.’

Hours later inside Armagh… POV (Private Geffrey Hodgkin)

The battle for Armagh had been going on for the better part of the day now; as usual getting inside the city had been easy, the dumb nobles never seemed to learn that well garrisoned and defended walls didn’t make a formidable defense, it just made it a juicy target for the artillery guys. Now however, the hard part, clearing out the enemy from the city itself; this had as usual, degenerated into street by street, block by block, and often building by building fighting as the revolutionary forces tried their damnedest to weed out those pesky mages. Speaking of mages…

Hodgkin calmly raised his AR at the trio of mages that were leading about forty guardsmen armed with pikes and a few muskets, flipped hit selector switch to full-auto, and let it spray, specifically at the mages and when they were down he just aimed at the densest group of clustered enemies. In seconds his thirty-round mag was emptied, the mages were dead, and nearly half the guardsmen were dead or wounded. As he finished unloading, the rest of his platoon made themselves known by gunning down any enemy that still looked ready for a fight and within a minute the surviving guardsmen had either fled or were on the ground begging for their lives. One of the squads in his platoon was on prisoner duty and rounded them up and was already escorting them to the holding area near the city’s now destroyed wall.

Scenes like this had been playing themselves out all day as one to three mages had been roaming around with up to platoon sized elements trying to drive out the invaders. At first it looked like they were attempting to establish a battle line through the city, however the idea seemed to have been abandoned and now it was nothing more than hundreds of scattered skirmishes. These skirmished however were more or less between the mages and rebel forces since it was only the mages who seemed to actually be of any effectiveness against the invaders.

Hodgkin had seen it all before though; he had been in a couple of battles, mainly in Wrotham forest and at Carlow. In those battles he and other veterans had learned that the outcome of most fights between riflemen and mages came down to who was faster; the rifleman’s draw of his weapon or the mage’s casting speed. A quick drawing soldier could easily gun down a mage and any backup he brought, but a fast casting mage or one that had the element of surprise could takeout whole squads or even platoons of soldiers with one spell, this has been the main reason for most of the revolutionaries’ casualties in this war, the damned mages. Hodgkin’s contemplation on this ended as he neared his platoon sergeant and heard him speaking to his radio to what must have been an officer.

“…yes Sir… Yes we are… Right away Sir!” He put his radio away and turned to his collected troops. “Alright listen up, I just got word from Captain Viktor that resistance in the city proper has been reduced to near nothing, nearly the entire city guardsmen are now killed or have surrendered while the remain mages in the city have fallen back to the palace and are now fanatically defending it… guess where we are going?” A collection of groans and sighs swept through the experienced soldiers; a large group of well entrenched and battle crazy mages… fuck. Any soldier who had been in one real battle can tell you that that kind of situation is a real meat grinder, those locations are what cause the real casualties in a battle. “Well, come on let’s get this meat to the magical grinder.” More groans.

When they got to where Capt. Viktor was at the front line established near the front palace wall, it was clear that things had bogged down to ‘who can get the luckiest hit’. Soldiers were trying to snipe at exposed mages and mages were trying to get spells off at the insolent rebels without getting their heads blown off. Already it seemed that some of the men had resorted to bazookas given the large number of destroyed towers and blown out windows, and the mages had gotten some pretty good shots in too based on the skewered, immolated, crushed, and/or eviscerated bodies of Hodgkin’s fellow soldiers. As the captain saw them he turned to the sergeant.

“Hey there sergeant, glad you could make it, as you can see, we’re all having a party.” As if to accentuate his point, another of the palace towers exploded. “From what we can tell, nearly half of the city’s defending mages are here and…” He got interrupted by a loud ‘look out’ and was knocked to the ground as a wave of dense wind blew through and sliced up any unlucky soul that couldn’t get down fast enough, one fellow who dropped next to Hodgkin had the top third of his head cut clean off. Seeing this seemed to have finally snapped something in the Captain. “Fucking hell, that’s it; I have lost too may damn men to those fuckers! Give me that!” He yanked the radio from its carrier and started yelling in it. “This is Captain Viktor; I want every piece of artillery to start hammering the palace right fucking NOW!”

Not two minutes passed before the first shell hit and before long a near continuous rain of death started blanketing the palace and its grounds. It was an hour before the captain called off the bombardment, by that time the walls were rubble, the palace was rubble, hell everything was rubble. As Hodgkin and his fellows started combing for survivors and assisting in securing the area his sergeant came up next to him. “Hell of a day eh private?”

“Yeah, hell of a day sergeant.” They both nodded and the sergeant said something that brought Hodgkin a little worry.

“The next city, Torquey I think it is, is going to be even better, after all they got all of this city’s defending army, what we fought was only the standing garrison.” Hodgkin merely nodded grimy.

With this Armagh was ‘liberated’.

Days after the fall of Carlow… Romalia: POV (Pope Vittorio Serevare)

Deep within the Halkeginian version of the Vatican, the Pope of Romalia and the highest standing cardinals of the Brimiric faith were having an intense meeting on what to do about a serious piece of information that Pope Vittorio has acquired.

“Your holiness, tell us is it true, has a rebel group seized a large portion of Albion?” One of the cardinals asked to which the Pope just nodded solemnly.

“Yes cardinal, I am afraid it is true, according to my source they have recently taken the city of Carlow.” This caused uproar amongst the assembled holy men. Unknown to them however was that Vittorio’s information was supplied to him by Sheffield, the familiar of King Joseph of Gallia. Because of Sheffield’s status as being the familiar of a void mage, she gets a special ability, specifically that of Myoznitnirn, the Mind of God. This lets her use any magical item, and one of the ones she has allows her to teleport, perfect for being a massager, and with Joseph’s penchant for playing games it was inevitable for him to want to mess with someone like Michael by reporting him to the Pope.

“How is this possible, your grace, how can an army of commoners best one of nobles?” The same one asked.

“Does it matter, they are all blasphemers and their leader is a heretic, they are trying to destroy the mandate of the founder by going against their noble betters, they must be destroyed.” Another said causing a round of fanatical agreement mixed with more shouts. Vittorio simply raised his hand causing the assembled cardinals to quiet.

“You are quite right cardinal, this new rebel group must be stopped to protect the founder’s ideals; though it is not idyllic, the Reconquista who has nearly finish replacing the royal family as leaders of Albion, is much more preferable to commoners. Thus, I have dispatched a special group of agents to dispose of the rebel leader; once he is gone his followers will no doubt fall into disorganization and either be destroyed by the Reconquista or scatter to the wind. After that we can then deal with Reconquista as needed.” This made many of the cardinals feel a lot better and mutterings of approval swept the chamber. What the Pope didn’t tell them was that these ‘special agents’ were nothing more than a team of assassin mages, ones that have been doing the church’s wet work for years.

“Well, it seems as if the situation is well in hand your holiness.” All assembled nodded in agreement and the young Pope gently smiled.

“Thankyou cardinal, now on to other matters, specifically the upcoming marital alliance between the Princess of Tristan and the Emperor of Germania…”

Three weeks after the fall of Armagh… City of Torquey: POV (Duke Edmund Walterus)

He couldn’t believe what he was seeing; an army of what must have been three hundred thousand plebeians was marching towards the city that he has been entrusted to defend by the Holy Lord Cromwell. He wasn’t worried though, no there was no need for worry, after all Lord Cromwell was very generous with his forces, granting him nearly four hundred thousand soldiers and nearly fifty thousand mages and even thirty warships, Duke Walterus had no doubt he had all he needed to defeat this foolish gathering of peasants. His disbelief was simply that, disbelief, he didn’t think that those rebels were this foolhardy.

“Look at those plebs, they can’t honestly think they can defeat the defenses of this city?” He gloated to one of the lesser lords beside him.

“They are most foolish indeed milord, to think they can best a larger force supported by airships and as large a mage force as you have. Look, there is even a storm coming in behind them, they pick a poor time to attack as well as a foolish target, though that storm may cause problems for the fleet.” The Duke looked at the fairly intense storm rapidly coming up on the rear of the rebel army but had different thoughts of it.

“While I agree with your assessment on the intelligence of our foe, I feel that that storm may prove to be in our benefit; I think that our more experienced wind and perhaps even water mages could use such weather to our advantage.” He began to chuckle mirthfully at his words and the other noble quickly joined him and added.

“Most indeed milord, I see what you a thinking, *chuckles* no doubt our mages could… what in Brimir’s name?!” He suddenly blurted out as his eyes widened in shock. The Duke quickly turned to look at what his subordinate found so shocking and he too then gawked. What they saw was that the storm had reached the rebel rear and had seemed to have exploded into activity as it broiled and churned while bolts of lightning began to crisscross it with alarming speed and as it looked to have reached a climax the front of the storm seemed to burst and out of it came a warship, a metal warship. As the ship emerged from the storm clouds it seemed to give off a primordial roar that challenged all who gazed upon it.

Ship was totally unfamiliar to the Duke; for one it bore no sails, had a fairly wide deck which boasted numerous long barreled cannons, and seemed to be made of dark gleaming steel. The Duke had no explanation for what he was seeing, and it was frightening to him.

“What in founder’s name is that ship?”

Onboard the Revolutionary Warship Dreadnaught: POV (Michael)

Michael was incredibly excited for the unveiling of one of his greatest projects, Halkeginia’s first steel airship designed and built by humans. Michael had been working towards this moment ever since Reigate had been taken and had put Axelle and her department on getting the necessary components designed and manufactured. Once Carlow had been taken he hadn’t wasted any time in ordering Axelle and most of her staff along with over a hundred mages, mostly earth and fire, to move there in order to start construction. Making the hull was fairly simple; the mages more or less grew it out of earth and rock and then transmuted it into the desired metal, in this case a high grade steel.

The real hard parts were what Michael had Axelle working on; first was a way to keep it in the air, common wind stones just wouldn’t cut it without a shit ton of them and levitation spells would require nearly a dozen mages constantly recasting. So a solution had to be developed, and that solution was thought up by Michael and made a reality by Axelle. Basically an enhanced permanent levitation spell; now normally a spell like that would be exhausted within minutes trying to keep up a multi-ton warship, that is why a brand-new type of spell was invented at Michael’s request.

It was a type of magical circle like spell that was meant to intake the massive amount of ambient magic that permeated and saturated the world and use it to empower whatever spell it was hooked up to, in this case the levitation spell and the ship’s new propulsion spell. This took the appearance of a wind tunnel like tube structure that ran the length of the ship’s underside; call the ‘wind-magic propulsion system’ or WMP system it too is a permanently casted spell powered by the magic intake spell, only this one is a spell that blows wind and provide thrust similar to a rocket engine. Using the special wind tunnel housing along with a special valve and rudder devise allowing for controlled speed and turning giving it a projected max speed of 35kts, thanks in part to not having to plow through the water.

The magic intake spell which provided the power for the other two main spells worked like how it sounded, by inhaling magic and then converting into the required type power necessary to not only maintain the levitation and propulsion spells, but it could also convert the magic into electricity, powering anything else that was plugged into it. The magic intake spell really worked just like a power generator that almost literally ran off the air or at least the magic in the air and special intake vents were dotted all about the underside of the warship and if someone would look closely they could just barely see the magic being sucked into the vents. Michael had taken to calling the whole thing simply the MIE (Magic Intake Engine).

Aside from the new propulsion system, levitation system, and power plant, which is all planned to be miniaturized and used for other things, the Dreadnaught also had some impressive armaments. Sporting three twin-barreled 10in main guns, twenty repurposed ball turret howitzer broadside guns, and ten-underside deployable 8in precision surface bombardment cannons; this 600ft long metal beast can take on anything the kingdoms of Halkeginia can throw at it. This also includes dragons thanks to over thirty 50cals spread throughout the ship in both double and quadruple linked barrel turrets.

As he thought all this Michael’s smile never faltered as he sat on his command chair in the bridge tower located towards the rear of the ship behind the two forward main cannons, the third behind the command tower. Standing next to him, was Siesta with a trolley of snacks and refreshments; she looked for all the world, the good attending maid, even if her outfit was a bit skimpy with the extra frills, high skirt, and tight top that showed plenty of cleavage. It didn’t seem to bother her though as she wore a smile as well, her Master’s enthusiasm was infectious.

Axelle was also there, though she was as excited as a schoolgirl on crack as she jumped from station to station keeping track of how well her greatest achievement was performing, she was practically bouncing, and she eventually made it over to Michael.

“Oh I can’t believe how well it’s going, this is all so incredible!” Michael just laughed at her excitement as he stood up.

“Well, none of this would be possible without you my dear, you should be proud of yourself.” Her smile brightened even more at that.

“Oh you are as much to thank for this as me, if it weren’t for you I’d have never even thought of any of the things I have achieved, without you I’d have been stuck in a library wasting my life away on theories, without you…” She had been talking more and more excitedly, more frantically and before any of them knew it she launched herself at him and desperately kissed him, it only lasted a few seconds but once she realized what she was doing, she shot back as if burned. “O-oh my I-I’m s-so sorry I-I don’t know what…” Her blushing and frantic apology was cut off as Michael took hold of her chin and guided it up to his lips and gave her a real world-shattering kiss that left her in a daze.

“Perhaps we can continue this later; after all we have a battle to win.” She just nodded her head and slowly, shakily walked off to continue her monitoring of the ship internals, she eventually got her giddiness back but the blush never completely went away. After a quick chuckle Michael returned his attention to the ten window panes that showed him the outside, the panes also each had a special magnification enchantment on them, letting the observer get a close up of specific areas of the battlefield. “Well now, I think it’s finally time we ‘show the flag,’ lieutenant?” The man at one of the stations simply nodded and hit a button.

Outside, the ship could easily be heard sounding a deep bone rattling horn; this was a signal to the army below, and once they heard it hundreds of banners and flags were unfurled displaying for the first time the Albion revolutionary movement’s flag for all to see.

The main background was a midnight blue dominated by a white five pointed star, over this was a double-headed Aquila similar to the one used by the Imperium of Man from the Warhammer 40k universe, only this one had its wings extended out and pointed upwards. On the body of the Aquila rests a single teardrop of blood representing the blood that has been shed and the blood that will be shed in defending the nation. Above Aquila is a large shattered chain that creates a half circle around the Aquila, while under the Aquila is a ribbon which makes the other half of the circle around the Aquila and on it reads in Latin; 'Liberum Aeternum' or "Eternally Free".

This is the new symbol of Michael’s army, and as he saw it he felt his shark grin return with a vengeance, ‘Now our enemies have something more to attribute their fear to.’ He then turned to a table in the middle of the room, this one contained a map of the surrounding area, however this was no ordinary map; it was a battle map that displayed real-time tactical data. On it he saw the symbols representing the three divisions of one hundred thousand each that were being led by his newly promoted generals, Briek was of course one of them. This map display was made possible thanks to Axelle and her people; it was actually an advanced scrying spell, Michael hoped to get it refined enough to be more detailed and be sort of like a 3d hologram, but for now he was happy with the simple 2d map.

“Okay people, let’s begin, gunners have main cannons target the two closest enemy airships, communication, give the order for our forces to attack as soon as the first enemy ships are down.” A flurry of activity suddenly started as the bridge crew carried out his orders. The two front main cannon turrets suddenly came to life as they maneuvered to aim at their respective targets, a thunderous blast erupted from each as the twin barrels of each turret as they fired their very first shots in anger. The result, two Reconquista warships suddenly seemed to half disintegrate while the other half burst into flames. All of Torquey and every Reconquista soldier and mage could only watch in astonishment as two fireballs that were once frigates suddenly descended onto the ground.

The Dreadnought however did not give much time for them to be in shock as its guns sounded again and two more ships died, this seemed to have broken the spell for suddenly the remaining twenty six Reconquista warships, seventeen other frigates, six fast cruisers, and three ships of the line (battleships), all went full sail and began a desperate race to close the distance. As if mocking them the Dreadnought’s guns ended two more frigates.

On the ground meanwhile, Michael’s forces had charged the Reconquista lines and were already taking a horrifying toll; even when the mages got their act together they suddenly found themselves victims of sniper fire and artillery strikes. It seemed as though every time one of them tried to cast a major spell they instead got themselves and those around them blown to meaty bits. This however was no coincidence; this was the work of Michael’s new air-battleship, one of the other features of his battle map was that it could show the locations of heavy spell usage, using that information the various communications people were able to send coordinates to artillery crews on the ground.

Michael was seeing all this and as he watched he noticed that casualties were beginning to mount despite his ship’s efforts.

“Okay our boys could use a little more help, get our bombardment cannons deployed.” He then looked outside as the main guns boomed and this time it was a frigate and one of the cruisers that exploded, the cruiser even ended up falling onto the city’s wall. “Also, get our secondary guns firing; I want those enemy ships dead!” On each side of the ship were ten broadside guns, only five though were actually position like typical broadsides, that is to say in the hull. The other five on each side were typical single barreled turrets on raised and/or extended platforms, allowing three to point forward or backwards without blocking another’s field of fire. These guns quickly picked their targets and in an instant half a dozen ships died.

“Sir, our forces have broken through the enemy lines and our artillery has destroyed the city wall, our forces will be entering the city shortly. Also we are getting reports of mass surrendering among enemy units, the Reconquista field army is collapsing!” One of the aides commented causing Michael to smile viciously.

“Excellent, reposition us in over the city to provide precision fire support.” The Dreadnaught began moving forward and in doing so further closed the distance between the remaining enemy ships, which at this time consisted of only four cruisers and two battleships, the third battleship now a burning wreck on the rear of what was the Reconquista field army. As Michael’s ship got closer the remaining ships suddenly turned to ready for a broadside salvo thinking that they finally get to kill this monster, Michael saw this and had a monster of an idea. “Hold fire on the remaining enemy ships; let them get in a salvo, it’s only fair.” Most of those who heard him chuckled at that, they knew what would come next.

The Reconquista ships finally unleashed their retribution; hundreds of cannon ball sped towards the offending ship, some actually missing, but the ones that hit though merely bounced off the thick steel armor with loud metallic ‘ting’ sounds. Seeing their attacks being so easily brushed off, the crews of the Reconquista ships felt their spirits plummet in despair and as they saw the long guns on the unstoppable enemy vessel realign on them, they silently cursed their foolish Masters for sending them to their deaths.

Michael watched in satisfaction as the last enemy ships fell and turned to see how his forces were progressing through the city and saw that they were making great time thanks to his ship’s support. While resistance was heavy thanks to the radical devotion of the mages, the common soldiers were surrendering by the hundreds, this had really picked up after they witnessed their fleet totally annihilated by only one opposing vessel, even the mages had started to crack after they saw the Dreadnaught take a full broadside from six warships and basically ignore it.

It would be five more hours before Michael’s forces would secure the city and its palace, by the end he had suffered about twenty thousand casualties from the mage’s stiff defense, far better than what he was expecting actually. Even more surprising was that his forces had taken nearly ten thousand mages prisoner along with over half of the defending army.

“Sir we are getting word from General Briek, he has captured the local lord, a Duke, and his command staff, the Duke however is requesting to surrender to you personally.” Michael tilted his head in thought for a minute, on the one hand he could just say fuck’em, but this is the first time that the noble in charge of a city has actually agreed to surrender, he was actually curious to see this.

“Alright, tell him I’ll be there shortly.” He then went out to one of the new longboats that were made with the same flight techno-magic as the Dreadnaught; it could hold twenty passengers along with pilot and a gunner for the 50cal that was positioned at front, it made a good troop carrier for small units like squads. It took him about five minutes to fly to the palace, disembark with about ten bodyguards, and make it to the throne room; luckily it had a large balcony. When he arrived he saw the General, about a hundred of his men, and a dozen or so fancy dressed men on their knees, the only man in actual armor was out in front.

“General Briek, I heard that the former ruler of this city actually wants to surrender?” Briek turned to look at Michael, slightly amused as he replied.

“Yes Sir, apparently when our men blew the doors open they found him and his staff with their hands up and their foci all in a pile in front of them, after that the Duke over there ask surprisingly politely to have the honor of surrendering to our leader, I sent the word up and now you’re here.” Michael looked between Briek and the Duke for a second before shrugging and walking over to the former city lord.

“So I heard that you wanted to surrender to me personally, is that right?” The Duke looked up at him before nodding and speaking.

“Indeed, I am Duke Edmund Walterus, appointed the defender of the city of Torquey by the Lord Cromwell, are you the leader of this… movement?” You could tell that he was doing everything he could to not say anything insulting. To this Michael nodded proudly.

“Leader and founder, I am Michael.” The Duke also nodded his head, but in understanding.

“Ah… I see…” He then looked down for a second before suddenly raising his arm up and out towards Michael, in a split second he had a small foci in his outstretched hand that was hidden in his sleeve now pointed dead center at Michael’s chest, he only needed to say one word, but Michael was faster, the gesture of looking away had alerted him that the Duke was going to try something. In one swift and smooth movement he side stepped and with one hand grabbed the Duke’s wrist and painfully wrenched it causing him drop his mini wand, at the same time Michael brought up one of his knees while dropping his other elbow on the Duke’s out stretched arm, completely shattering it. The Duke got one scream of pain before Michael delivered a hard punch to his throat, crushing his wind pipe. The Duke fell back, clutching his trachea with his good hand while Michael just stood there for a moment, listening to the resulting wet gurgles of his handy work before turning away and picking up the dropped foci and walking over to his stunned men.

“Really guys? None of you thought to check them over for hidden foci or other weapons?” None of them responded but they all had the decency to look sheepish. Michael just shook his head. “Come on boys get it together you’re all smarter than this.” He then handed the foci to Briek before heading on out to the large balcony he arrive on, leaning in the railing he gazed out on the battle-scarred city below him and then looked up to admire his flagship making a slow lazy circle around the city.

‘A pretty good day…’

Two days after the fall of Torquey… Lundonium: POV (Cromwell)

Cromwell was a very angry man right now, no, not just angry but completely and absolutely livid, pissed-off doesn’t even scratch the surface of his unabashed rage. Why is he so mad? He just learned that the last city between his throne city and the infuriating commoner rebels has just recently fallen to those same rebels. Cromwell was about to bust some shit right quick, but first he needed to deal with what he believed (somehow) to be at least partially responsible, a certain kneeling woman in front of him.

“I’m not pleased with you Fouquet, not one bit, not only have you failed in your attempt in acquiring the legendary ‘staff of destruction,’ but you also failed in your task to assist the Viscount Wards!” Fouquet a.k.a Matilda of Sachsen-Gotha, trembled slightly at her employer’s palpable anger, she had originally came here to report on the fate of the Viscount, but the bad news coupled with a report he had just gotten seemed to have set the man off in an insane anger. Now she was on one knee, without a wand, surrounded by his personal guards, and the current focus of his ire.

“Milord, please forgive me, I know I failed in getting the staff, but I did manage to deliver the ring of Andvari like I was commanded.” She said pleading; however he was not in a forgiving mood.

“Yes you did deliver the ring, however when Wardes was killed you admitted that you made no effort to retrieve it, and now those FOUNDER DAMNED REBELS HAVE IT!” She flinched as he shouted that last part.

“Milord please, if I had tried to attack them I would hav…AHHH…” She was cut off as Cromwell had snapped his fingers and one of his guards, an earth mage, had pulled out his sword wand and cast a spell causing the floor to engulf Fouquet up to her neck, her face suddenly in terror as Cromwell sneered at her as he got up and stomped over to her.

“I DON’T CARE FOR YOUR PITIFUL FEARS YOU WORTHLESS THIEF; YOU HAVE FAILED ME FAR TOO MOMENTOUSLY FOR ME TO EVEN THINK OF FORGIVENESS!!!” Cromwell’s face was beet red from the anger and shouting, taking a second he managed to calm himself slightly to look at Fouquet impassively before continuing. “Goodbye Fouquet, perhaps you can find forgiveness for your failures in the eyes of our holy found Brimir.” She didn’t even have time to scream as the earth enveloped her head and then suddenly all compressed several sizes smaller, crushing and palping her before sinking down into the floor, adding her remains to others that have disappointed Cromwell to such a degree.

With that done Cromwell retook his seat on his plush throne and called for his advisers/aids. After filing into the room he began to issue out his orders.

“I want every available fighting man that can be found brought here to reinforce the city’s defenses, every single one, call in the garrisons from all the surrounding towns and villages. Also, have our forces at Rathluirc Castle ready to send its garrison in the event of a siege, and call in every ship as well, even those patrolling the coast. I want absolutely everything we have that is not fighting the royals here as fast as possible to help defend against THOSE BLASTED REBELS, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!!!” Rapid fire head nodding was seen all around. “WELL THEN GET TO WORK!!!” A mad dash to the doors and Cromwell was alone in his throne room except for his guards. Bringing his hand to his face he used his fingers to massage the bridge of his nose as he thought.

“By the grace of Brimir, how could things have gone so wrong because of some uncouth peasants?’

Chapter End