Taya had woken up early on the day they would make it to Koinelia just to view their arrival. But she was also anxious. She never got anxious whenever she asked someone to join her, but she felt Ricco may choose to turn her offer away.

So far, she’d done very well in recruiting people. But there was always that possibility that she messed up.

True weakness is allowing fear to enslave you. She repeated the Searing Breath’s first mantra in her head. As much as she liked to portray it to her followers, she was not impervious to human flaws.

It was pretty easy to forget about her worries as the early morning fog cleared from the ocean and revealed Koinelia.

Many called it the center of the world. And most of those people didn’t even live there.

From the sea, a wall of docked ships from all over the world surrounded the city. And the buildings seemed to layer up on each other into a mountain of stonework and architecture. Every man-made structure was made of pristinely white stone and roofed with burnt orange tiles.

A thousand years of grandeur seemed to shine brighter here on the ground than the sun itself.

“It’s really something, isn’t it?” Ricco stepped up next to her.

“Something? It’s the biggest city in the world.” Taya said, “I’d argue it’s worthy of a bit more than ‘something’.” She hesitated before asking, “So what do you think of my offer?”

Ricco sighed, “I’m still...it’s just, I’ve lived as a mercenary my entire life. I’ve only ever rubbed shoulders with the dankest and darkest humanity has to offer. I know you probably don’t care about my past, but...I don’t think there’s a reality in which I would help save the world.”

“There will only be that reality if you make that reality, Ricco. You have an incredible power. Turning down this opportunity means letting go of a huge chance to change a life you really don’t seem happy with and letting that power flounder, untrained and unreliable.” Taya said, “Either you keep slave trading for the rest of your life or you can make the choice to want more from life.”

Ricco bit his lip in contemplation before sighing again, “Alright. Alright, fine. You convinced me. I’ll join your guild.”

Taya smiled and shook his hand. “Welcome aboard. Though we can’t make you an actual member until we expand our guild. Which is the whole point of us coming here in the first place.”

“You’ve come all this way to fill out a form?” the mercenary asked.

“They wouldn’t let us do it in Sklava, so we marched our way here.” Taya said, “Good decision in the long run, considering we picked up three more members.”

The others of her party started coming up on deck as the slave traders docked their galley. They marveled at the city as well, save for Gustave and Ruhak, who were presumably familiar with Koini metropolises.

“Are we in The Great Hall?” Bjorn muttered.

Taya chuckled and put her arm around his shoulder, “No, but we’ll certainly eat like we are!”

Ricco said his goodbyes to his crew, who seemed happy for him, luckily. Taya then thanked the captain for his help before they disembarked the galley and stepped onto land for the first time in a while.

“So...do any of you actually know where everything is in the city?” Taya asked.

Ruhak shrugged, “I’ve never stayed in the city’s poorer areas.”

Gustave beckoned them to him. “Come with me. I used to do charity work down here.”

Taya didn’t know what the Koini standard of poverty was, but it baffled her that such cleanliness and the existence of infrastructure at all could be considered poor.

Originally, she thought their group might draw a lot of attention, but the people on the streets were from about as wide a range of places as they were.

Katla and her Ascomanni approached them. As they did, Katla tossed a dubious glance at Bjorn before speaking, “So this is where we part ways?”

“You aren’t going to tell me I owe you a boat?” Taya asked.

“I can build a new one.” Katla shrugged. “But I think my warriors and I are going to be stuck here for a little while. So if you ever have the coin to spare, consider us a personal mercenary levy.”

With that, the Ascomanni left them.

“Alright. Gustave, take us to the guildhall.” Taya said.

As Gustave led them through the winding streets, many of them had food on the mind. But with practically no currency or valuables of any kind to spare, they were relegated to simply smelling what street vendors cooked up. Now that she thought about it, none of them had ever had a decent meal in weeks.

“When we get our guild expanded, I’ll treat everyone to any one meal that they want to eat in celebration.” Taya promised, “But let’s fill out that form first.”

Her weary band looked impatient, but they nodded anyway.

The Koini Guildhall made the Sklaveni one look like a shack one stored their tools in next to a castle.

True, it wasn’t much bigger, as the building was sandwiched between two equally compressed shops, but the elegant stonework put into even the most modest of buildings made all the difference. They stepped inside, meeting the scent of incense and fresh ink.

Soft sunlight passed through the lattice windows onto the stone floor. The bricks were inexplicably warm to Taya’s bare feet.

A rather well-dressed man in his late forties or early fifties glanced up from a piece of parchment he’d been scribbling on, not even surprised at the band of characters before him.

“Can I help you?”

Taya approached the man and placed her hands triumphantly on her hips. “We’ve traveled for many months from the highlands of Sklava to get here. All we need is to go through whatever process is necessary to expand our guild’s registration capacity.”

The man raised an eyebrow. “Miss, I’m certain you’ve heard. Resources are being diverted from all other aspects of government to military matters. It could take another many months for your form to be acknowledged.”

Taya blinked, “What?”

“Your form may not-”

“I...I know what you said.” Taya sighed. In an instance of rage, she grabbed a shelf of scrolls and threw it across the room. “Bureaucratic fucks!”

The man yelped and ducked behind his desk as scrolls rained down.

“Might I ask who exactly is responsible for this slowdown?” Taya asked in a far more cordial tone.

“S-senator Florentius! H-he oversees the treasury! Please don’t hurt me!” the man cried.

Taya sighed, “Change of plan, friends. We’re invading the senate.”

_____________________________________________________________________

Shahla was the first to step off the ferry from Ash-Sham, her face covered by a hijab for the first time in a long time in order to hide her Plague Scars.

She’d done it. She was finally here.

The upper echelon of Koinelia greeted her in all its splendor.

Since Koinelia acknowledged only Ahmed and Hussein as legitimate heirs, that she was Ahmed’s wife helped her greatly in arranging a ferry and even getting a reception by Senator Florentius’s servants.

Waiting for her and her band were about fifteen attendants. A man with a Hikupti complexion bowed to her, “Your highness, it is an honor to meet you. I am Teremun, Steward of the honorable Senator. I am certain you and your companions are weary from your journey. If you it would be to your liking, Master Florentius has prepared an estate for you to-”

“Actually, I would like to speak with him as soon as possible.” Shahla said. Now that her goal was finally within reach, she had a single-minded focus on it. While her friends stood in awe of the city, she sought to get what she came for.

“Er...Master Florentius is currently meeting with the Senate.”

“About what?” Shahla asked.

“I am not at liberty to say.”

“Then I will assume that it’s a subject that doesn’t concern him. Please take me to the Senate Hall.” Shahla ordered.

Teremun nodded, “Yes, your highness.”

The steward called for two horse-drawn carts and invited her and her friends to get in. Shahla got in one with Najeem, Kameko, and Seang while Teremun rode up front with the driver.

Najeem rolled his shoulder over once they were seated, “It’s been quite a while since I’ve had to act official and whatnot.”

Seang scoffed, “I’ve seen you act before. This is child’s play.”

The city occupied Kameko’s attention, “Gods...the Empire really underplayed this place.”

“It’s called the center of the world for a reason.” Seang shrugged.

Shahla spent her time staring out at the buildings that flew by, her thoughts on Xinhou. She battled with herself over whether she truly believed the Koini would send aid to Qahtan.

Xinhou was a risky endeavor even outside of wartime. It was a nearly landlocked city surrounded by enemies. Qahtan is an empire spanning the entire southern Mesogeonian.

But it was still possible they would refuse. Hell, from what she could tell, half the city was shut down to focus on bolstering their borders.

If they let Qahtan go, they can kiss their chance of holding off the Nikan goodbye.

A pit as deep as an ocean had opened up in her stomach by the time the carts came to a stop at the foot of the massive senate building. While giant, the building was actually rather modest when it came to intricacy and stonework.

It was just a smooth, rectangular building made of stone brick with a triangle roof that had a few carvings along the edges, but nothing more. When they stepped up to the massive doors, Teremun stopped them from advancing. “Please, my lady, allow me to announce your presence.”

Shahla nodded, giving him the go ahead.

She wasn’t sure if that was the right idea, given that the introduction would likely be unproportionally dignifying to her...modest look. True, she wasn’t dressed in week old, mud-caked cottons, but she would’ve liked to have a dress for such an important meeting.

Teremun stepped into the senate room, which was a cacophony of arguing shouts and voices of men.

“Most honorable senators!” Teremun announced as he bowed to the senate, “You have a guest. May I introduce Princess Shahla al-Samara, Princess of Qahtan’s Ahmedi Princedom!”

Nevermind. Good thing Teremun was thinking the same thing she was.

Shahla pushed the doors to the senate open, followed onto the floor between two massive bleachers of senators by her companions. She repeated the words she planned to say in her mind a thousand times over within the mere seconds it took to enter the building.

The senate was quieting down for their arrival. A courtesy Shahla hadn’t been expecting. The senators were widely a part of the same demographic. Powerful landowning men from within Koinelia’s homeland between the ages of forty and seventy. There was the rare thirty-year-old, but they sat near the backs of the bleachers, signifying their relative insignificance.

“Greetings, good senators.” Shahla said in the most professional tone her voice could muster, “I hope you are all well. I need a meeting with Senator Florentius. Would it ail you if I were to steal him away for a few minutes?”

The senators had general reactions of apathy.

The Speaker of the Senate, a man of about sixty with a wreath of gold leaves around his head, nodded at her. “Your business will not interrupt ours, your majesty. Please.” The Speaker gestured to a rather isolated corner of the building.

Another man, presumably Senator Florentius, stood from his seat and joined her allies in the corner.

Senator Florentius was a balding man with silver hair, putting him on the more elderly side of the senate’s age range. But he held himself with the confidence of a man who had just come of age and moved with similar strength in his muscles. His chin remained held high until he was unseen by most of his peers. He had a stern, stressed face that made his lips tight and thin and his brow constantly look as though he were about to scold a rowdy child.

He wore a white toga with a bright purple sash around his body.

“Senator Florentius. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure is mine, princess.” the Senator croaked, “I heard about the atrocities committed by your brother-in-law. Tell me, is my friend Ahmed safe? Did you both get away?”

Shahla broke eye contact with the senator.

“Ah,” he nodded somberly, “That is...most unfortunate. My condolences.”

“We do not know if he is dead yet.” Shahla said, “They may keep him alive for ransom or interrogation. But this is why I’ve come here, senator. The Nikan forced me to flee Qahtan to the south, bringing me from Aotearoa all the way here. I call for aid. Qahtan is in dire need. Ali is being essentially annexed into the Nikan empire. If he wins the war, Qahtan is finished. My brother-in-law Hussein now holds the only independent piece of Qahtan and he needs the empire’s support to win this war.”

Florentius’s lips somehow drew even tighter, “I...I am sorry, princess. I truly am. But Koinelia simply isn’t what it used to be. Our legions are spread thin. Especially after Senator Lukas’s blunder in that Nikan city. Whether we wish we could send aid, we simply don’t have the manpower to both secure our nation and help liberate yours.”

Shahla didn’t know why she didn’t expect this. Her stomach sank as she felt something get lodged in her throat.

She felt Najeem’s hand rest on the small of her back.

It’s going to be alright, she told herself, you’ll find another way.

What other way? Koinelia was Qahtan’s last hope. Qahtan was dead now. And the Bedouins would fall soon after. Her tribe would be like Orhan’s, slaughtered without thought and hunted like animals.

“Perhaps, if you were to accrue enough wealth, you could hire mercenary-” Florentius had been speaking while she was distracted, but was cut off as the senate building’s doors exploded off their hinges.

After an initial wave of shock amongst the senate, they all grew silent as seven or eight individuals, shadowed by the sunlight behind them, walked into the building.

“We’re here for a Senator Florentius!” a woman announced, “Now!”

Florentius hid himself behind the stands. “My enemies would send brutes after me in the senate building itself? Is nothing sacred anymore?”

“Look!” Seang hissed, pointing at the dark-haired woman at the front of the group, wrapped in a dark green cloak and carrying a massive sword at her hip. Beneath her knee-length skirt, Shahla could see glowing violet marks on her leg.

Shedim Masters?

“Vai, Orhan, Shakti, get the senators to safety. The rest of us will hold them off.” Seang ordered, “Go!”

“There’s a back door,” Florentius said. “Follow me.”

Shahla tore off her hijab and channeled the moonlight she’d spent a few weeks saving up into her hands.

Najeem sank into the shadows as Shahla, Seang, Kameko and Lokapele stormed out into the middle of the senate house through the fleeing senators.

The dark-haired woman pushed one of her band out of the way as Najeem nearly slashed his throat out.

The woman drew her sword just in time to deflect a bolt of sunlight from Seang’s hand while Najeem fought the man he’d tried to kill before, who was an Ascomanni warrior. Lightning channeled through his arm as he bashed his shield into Najeem.

Shahla attempted to cause a spell of drowsiness, but two metal wires that were under the control of a Hikupti man redirected her hand. Luckily, Lokapele could convince him to let her go with a volley of molten rock shards. Though, she was quickly entangled in another battle with a Koini man with a sword.

Orhan, Vai and Shakti came back into the room to get the other senators out before Shahla saw Orhan stop in his tracks.

“Sila?” he yelped.

A Khongirat woman with a bow who’d been harassing Kameko paused. “Orhan!”

The fighting seemed to simply fizzle out with confusion.

“I take it you two know each other?” The dark-haired woman asked.

“Know him? He’s my dumbass of a brother!” the Khongirat woman spat.

“Says the girl who abandoned her clan for petty vengeance!” Orhan fired back.

“You were just too weak to give Gongsun Guanyu what he deserved!”

“Well, because you left, our entire clan is-”

“Hold up!” Seang cut them off. “Who are you people?”

The dark-haired woman jabbed a thumb at her chest, which linen wrappings only covered Shahla just noticed, like a bandage. And they say modesty is deteriorating in Qahtan.

“My name’s Taya Sergeyev. I’m the leader of the Searing Breath. A guild I can’t expand because Senator Florentius redirected everything to defense.” the woman sighed.

“You attacked the senate for that?” Najeem asked.

“Hey, we didn’t attack anything.” the Hikupti man said, “Yeah, Taya maybe overdid it kicking the doors off their hinges, but you tried to kill us first.”

Najeem blinked, “Oh, right.”

“What is the Searing Breath? And why is it made up of Shedim Masters?” Seang asked.

“Maybe you wanna show us a bit of courtesy for attacking us and introduce yourselves before you launch into your questions?” Taya asked.

Shahla grimaced. This woman clearly thought highly of herself.

“I am Seang. A nun of the Great Creator from Jambudvipa.” Seang said.

Taya nodded, “Thank you.”

Although the fighting had stopped, the members of each party, save for Taya, Seang, Shahla and an Ascomanni giant on the other side, glared at each other as though another skirmish could break out at any second. Anyone with a weapon had it ready at their side.

“Someone’s likely called up some legionnaires by this point. But I don’t think either of us wants to continue the fighting,” Seang said. “Why don’t we find a more...relaxed setting to get to know each other?”

Taya raised her hand toward her followers. They sheathed their weapons, an act quickly followed by Shahla and her allies.

“Teremun said he had a house prepared for us, right?” Seang asked.