Emperor Hakan III. of Carramar

The mightiest man in the whole world, emperor Hakan III. of the carramar empire, was being tortured by the son of a lowly kitchen wench. Although this man normally had a great talent in giving pleasure, now he was only causing pain to him. And all of that had been the fault of Hakan's wife and her devious medical advisors. In what possible world would it be a “huge health risk” for him to eat a bloody steak every day for lunch? Meat was delicious and necessary for good health. Everybody knew that. Hakan should have those swindlers publicly whipped. He stirred in the cold salad, which stood before him, torturing his mind. Less green and radish would have been great.

He sighted. The most powerful man in the world and it only took the chief cook and his own wife to torture him senseless. Two days he had not rammed his teeth in some flesh and he felt like killing someone for it. Even after trying direct orders the kitchen still ignored him. Maybe someone told them they would not survive the day if they brought him what he wanted to eat.

After eating a few more bites, just to satisfy his hunger a bit, he shoved the bowl away and left the empty table. Normally his wife, sister or his daughters would sit with him and eat every day at the same hour. Now his two little girls are to be wed into another kingdom though and his wife was spending day and night preparing them. Hakan really wanted to delay this decision though. It was not an easy life for his little ones and being wed to someone at the age of twelve and fourteen was not the nicest thing to do.

At least his uncle Ravian was not present to have lunch with him. The man was utterly annoying. Non stop nagging about how to rule and what to do, always wanting him to follow his political view. Hakan had sent him on diplomatic mission to the northwest. With the recent riots his hands would be tied and he was unable to return all too soon. Which gave the emperor enough time to get the loyalists of his uncle in the city to be loyalists to the empire again.

Ravian tried to overthrow him ever since the old emperor died. And most assassination attempts most likely were done on his account. But Hakan rather chose a foe that he knew rather than someone else that filled the power vacuum. He was not so naive to believe that he himself would ever fill it for now.

His father had given far too much power to the guilds. Only three years had passed since his father's passing and the struggle to keep them in line had been infuriating. And now he had to do that on an empty stomach. Better said a stomach filled with cold, green salad. He sighed and stepped out of the dining room into the hallway.

Here his most trusted advisors were lying in wait. The second fight of the day, after losing to the kitchen personnel. Just six men, although they all had the power to make his day very, very long. Today he would cut them off quickly.

The generals Artemis and Ezekiel where very loyal to him, as they followed every order down to the core. Especially Artemis had never disobeyed him or his father in over twenty years. On the other hand he always tried to start a war, just to have some fun. Which Hakan disapproved of. Why start a war, when he could not even control his own empire? Ezekiel always urged harsh military actions against revolts, which was often nearly the same as starting a war.

On the other hand they were much more easy to deal with than the person sent by the mage guilds. His father, the deceased emperor had allowed them to be present in politic affairs. If he was still alive, Hakan would murder him. He had given them the right to build a standing force, similar to an army and had lowered their taxes to virtually nothing.

Master Shallandor the wise, a rank 24 fire mage and one of the most obnoxious men alive was constantly trying to get the guilds more rights. He brought up laws, references to his father's decisions and bribed whoever he could to achieve his goals. If he would be on Hakan’s side the problems with the guilds would have been reduced to nothing ages ago.

Then there was his administrator for finance. Hakan called him Ägen, but his name was so long and complicated, he never got it right on the first try. So he just stopped after the second day. It was written Agaendreji Shyiendralek, and the emperor needed over three months just to remember that. He was an uprise trader and leader of the merchant council. After granting them the right to hold merchant councils and allowed them to store their goods right in the harbor instead of in the city, their support never wavered. After all it saved them a lot of costs in the long run.

Which left law and religion. While Hakan stemmed his project to take power from the nobles and guilds solely on law and order, religion also had its place. In a deep dark corner of his subconscious. He liked to bestow useless titles, awarded the churches with money he had taken from guilds or traders and otherwise heeded their advice patiently. Afterwards he chose to ignore it with real religious vigor. Padre Simon was his ally as long as Hakan heeded the advice or pretended to.

His lawyer however was the most sponsored of his advisors. Over fourty law experts, seven study rooms within the palace and a limitless supply of whatever they needed. All to push his lawful war against the guilds further down the road. His father had just given them too much power over the last thirty years. Larsen Taylor was the best lawyer of the empire and head of one of the most loyal houses.

“Good morning, gentlemen. Let us head to the council room shall we?” That delayed their attempts for now. They all knew they would get to speak so no one would dare complain. Which allowed Hakan to set the pace. He entered the council room, sat down on the end of the table and waited for everyone to sit down. When the guild advisor tried to speak up early he shushed him with the wink of his hand. First he engaged padre Simon. Letting him speak early would make him feel heard and important. Although he wasn’t. “Padre, what can I do for you today?”

The priest sighted with concern. “Well, we have opened our halls for the poor last week to feed the homeless and try to help them find new work as we had promised. Sadly our funds are getting lower and lower. The struggle to keep up this beneficial deeds are…”

Hakan knew that it was a near impossible task and highly expensive. That was why he asked them to do it. Now his real objective would come to bear fruit. “I see, it really is a shame that we are unable to help there. Sadly the military cannot afford to help in this matter at the moment with all that’s going on.” He paused dramatically, pretending to think. ”Shallandor, has my father not given privileges to the guilds in the last years, like forming a private standing force?”

Caught of guard, thinking about his own motives the old mage just spouted a small: “Yes?”

“Yeah, I was thinking that this case is indeed a emergency. We cannot leave his high honor alone in the struggle against the poverty, keeping our streets save. Am I right?”

Padre Simon and the fire mage looked stunned. “We would certainly appreciate the help of the guilds, their workforce alone could reduce our costs to nothing. What a splendid idea, Sire.”

Shallandor was not as pleased. “Sir, that would put a huge strain on our organisation and..”

But Hakan did not let him finish. “I understand fully. But this is an emergency and we still have the dungeon under investigation after the “Incident”. So the guild forces should not be all too busy, as you keep asking me daily when we finally can let more groups into the dungeon. Am I wrong?”

Asking a lowly fire mage if he, the emperor, was wrong was really forcing him into the corner here. Hakan really wanted to cut off their attempts to get access to the dungeon back right now. “No, Sire of course not.” Hakan cut in right there before he could continue to speak and gave orders. “Good. You will talk to all the guild leaders that they are to send as many men as the church requests. If I hear padre Simon complain I will not be happy.” The displeasure of the man was now more than visible. He was angry. “Please do as I ask and gather all the mage guild leaders to a meeting as well in the upcoming week. We will talk about the current dungeon situation and hope to resolve the matter of the investigation. Until then, please help out the crisis with your forces.”

Shallandor wanted to protest, although he seemed hopeful considering the meeting could resolve the issue. Hakan waved his hand silencing him in his beginnings. “Please. Padre, can you take matters into your hands and get master Shallandor a list of things you need? And master Shallandor: The meeting we arrange with the mage guild leaders should be as soon as possible. So I want your full focus on the matters at hand.”

They took the hint and stood up. After bowing they left the room. Which left only his advisor for law, finance and his generals. Or better said general. “Where is general Artemis?”

Ezekiel answered clenching his teeth. Obviously his absence upset the military leader. “Sire, we are currently unaware of his whereabouts. I have had a search party ordered in the morning. I am terribly sorry.”

Hakan suspected that had something to do with Artemis wanting to raid the dungeon. Hopefully he had not done something stupid. “Alright. Any military status currently worth considering to take action?”

Ezekiel immediately changed attitude and reported what he had to say. “The situation in the north is a little… escalated. A military camp had been burned down at night, huge explosions had killed seven men. At least it’s not winter so they won’t starve out in the wild now. I advice to take control there immediately. The southern border had four spies captured, they are under question for now.”

Hakan sighted. “I hope under question does not mean torture? Please sent messages to not do that, we are a just nation. We do not torture. Not even in war.”

Ezekiel nodded. “Of course, Sire. I will send message to follow this order again. About the northern border… What action shall we take?”

Hakan folded his hands before his face and stared at the mountain of a man. He was good looking but heavily scarred. Most of them came from fighting Artemis every other week. “Good. Please let the northern border arm the defense and prepare for attacks twenty to thirty kilometers away from the woods. I want to see camps, traps and triple the guards, which should keep them aware enough to not be raided again. That will be all. I figure we will have to engage in fights sooner or later Ezekiel, so don’t worry about taking too little action.”

Then he turned to his finance advisor, which had nothing to say, only offered to partake in a feast, that the merchant council threw in his name. Hakan accepted with pleasure, that way he could finally eat some meat.

“By the way, Mr. Taylor. We need to prepare a treaty for the northern tribesmen, for trade and for a alliance in general. We want to try before we provoke a full fledged war. Furthermore we should try sending a diplomatic mission to establish a trading route. Darkstone is the only reason why we bother with the north anyway.”

“Yes, Sire. I will arrange something.”

“Ägen please assist him with information you have on trading on the northern border, some of your men should have engaged in that already, I presume? Is there something else on today's agenda?”

Larsen Taylor answered. “He have looked over the guild treaty the old emperor had set up and collected more proof that they have to obey. So we should be set up perfectly for the upcoming week. At least from a law point of view.”

“Very well. Thank you all for attending. Ezekiel, please let me know as soon as you find general Artemis.” Hakan stood up and left. “Dismissed.”

Now he just had to suffer through the boring parts of ruling. Normally he did not have the time to decide on the daily struggles of nobles. But today he had finished the council meeting so quickly, it was really astonishing. The quarrels and fights of nobles would keep him occupied until the sun set though.

And he was still hungry...