Emperor Hakan III. of Carramar

Tock tock tock tock. Tock tock tock tock. Hakan, third of his name let his fingernails hit the red brown oakwood table in rapid succession. He grew tired of this long monologue. Ezekiel was talking for almost an hour already and the number of important tribesman and the measure of their grasp on every region in the north seemed nowhere near their end. Spies had been sent months ago and all the accumulated wisdom was now spread wide open for the great imperial diplomats to hear.

Which tribe leader fucked what woman, had sons and daughters secretly with whom, what land they wanted, if their children desired to overthrow them in leadership. Who of them was most likely to rule them all. All very interesting aspects considering that the diplomatic mission would be of utmost importance to the survival of the empire in the near future.

However, Hakan III. of Carramar had other problems as well. A very important secret mission was currently ongoing. So top secret none of his advisors knew. They all just thought him disinterested with the current situation. Which he clearly was. Who could listen to raw information for over an hour and not be? Most likely his diplomats were as asleep inside as he was on the outside. Something needed to be done, but the emperor's mind was just filled with worry.

This time it needed to succeed. Otherwise a dark future would await him, and following that his fate all of Carramar. With each consistent failure the most powerful man in the world was considering more drastic actions against the guilds and war was thought upon with a much more open heart. Not a good thing, he knew that. But he could not help himself.

Hakan decided it was time to distract himself, blend out his thoughts and work on something productive for now. “Ezekiel.”

The giant of a man turned his attention from the present diplomats to his ruler in command. “Yes, Sire.”

“I think we have dwelled enough in diplomatics for now. The gentlemen will have enough time free within their journey to get briefed.”

Ezekiel bowed. “Yes, Sire. Of course. I got carried away, I apologize.”

Hakan decided not to repeat the goal of their mission and just send them along. “You can leave now.” The diplomats and all his advisors stood up. “Mister Taylor. Ezekiel. Stay.”

When the diplomats left and the doors opened into the hallway Hakan was able to see the guild and finance advisors and his council in faith, padre Simon. They had waited for quite some time to speak.

Especially Shallandor was eager to discuss the imminent meeting with the guild masters. Taking away their armed forces and resources to help the church feed the poor and homeless really had taken a toll on their patience. But it had been necessary. It distracted them. Hakan had taken this concern off their chests already though. They had greedy minds. Always wanted to get out more of him.

“Mister Taylor, I hear the new law is written and ready to be declared officially?”, he asked as his mind changed the topic.

“Yes, Sire. We declared it as official law just about half an hour ago. All over the city.” Larsen Taylor was smiling. A rare occasion. “We are ready to move a great part of guilds into military supervision. Should they agree that is.” Smiling suited the man. He was rather charming this way.

How would the top secret mission have fared? Could they have really been successful? The mission was suicide right from the start. Maybe he should not have given the order. Hakan shook the feeling.

“Ezekiel, I sensed you might have a question?” The tall man always had trouble voicing concerns, even though they were transparently showing on his face.

“Yes, Sire. I would like to voice them eye to eye though. If that is alright?”

“Certainly. Mister Taylor, please let Shallandor know that we are finished in about an hour. Good work.”

Laren left the room immediately.

“Sire, I am concerned. The current military situation is looking… Grim.”

Hakan starred the tall man into submission. When he evaded his gaze he answered his council. “Ezekiel, my father was a great man. Would you not agree?”

“Most certainly, Sire.”

“WRONG.” Hakan spoke coldly, piercing fear even into his military commander. “My father was a drunk old fool that spent all state wealth on women, feasts and expensive courtship.” He paused, while his general could barely muster the courage to breathe. It was considered ill mannered to speak of former rulers in a bad way.

“Then he gave the guilds permission to use the dungeon as they pleased. In exchange for gold he lowered the taxes to almost nothing. He did not care about anything other than his parties and the whores. Fucking a girl every night after drinking himself half dead after a feast was more important to him than preserving his throne.”

The old stories enraged him. “He allowed the guilds to form standing armies, neglected the revolts to the west and north and sold huge amounts of magical shards to our neighbouring countries to the south. He. Was. A. FOOL.” The last words he barely whispered with hatred.

“And now we need to focus our attention on useless things like guilds and dungeon access management instead of treating our military situation. Wild savages to the north, with explosive stones mightier than most magic. A southern military to be reckoned with, which we only contain because we have the only standing and working magical military in the world. My uncle to the west, quelling revolt after revolt and being called the One True Hidden Emperor. My sister to the north, fucking savages for fun and aiming to cut off big parts of our lands for herself. We, the “mighty” Carramareon Empire, barely able to keep everything from falling apart.”

“Sire..”

“No. It is the truth. War is coming. We are struggling to keep ourselves afloat when we really should focus on providing a fair and just system of law to our citizens that protects them from nobles and powerful traders alike. Peace could have been so different….”

Knock. Knock. Knock.

“Come in.”

His secret mission entered. Holding a giant plate of silver, one of his most trusted assassins arrived. After he placed the tray in front of his emperor he stepped aside. On top of which a salad throned in a huge white bowl. The mission failed and his wife had succeeded once more in managing his meal. Hakan placed his head into the palm of his hands. He just wanted to cry. Then the assassin stepped closer and whispered in his ear.

“Sire, we have been compromised. We had to improvise. The hidden mission was a success though.” The rogue grinned before he bowed and left the room.

“What was that about?” Ezekiel was confused.

“A secret mission. Anyway. General I fear we will have to go to war soon. There will be no time to dwell in the peaceful present. Tomorrow you will start to mobilise the royal forces all over the country. It is time we show some muscle. Keep it to yourself for today though. Dismissed.”

“Yes, Sire. Thank you.” The warrior bowed happily. Under normal circumstances he would never do so. He waited his whole life for war. Now it was here.

And Hakan was happy too. Not for the war of course, but for his salad. Quickly he shoved the upper layer of green aside and looked at the bloody medium rare steak. The hidden mission had really been a full success. Initially it should have been just a steak but this was fine too. Finally he was able to eat something good for once. Six days of green and grain really tortured one’s mind. His teeth sunk in the warm flesh and after he finished the godly meal he left the council chamber a entirely new man. It was time to meet the guild leaders.

The meeting had been specially prepared by his law council. Larsen Taylor had chosen the giant throne room at the base entrance of the keep. Here enough room was provided for the giant round table the guild leaders would all sit upon. Forty nine guild master would place their behinds on this table, or they already had and just kept waiting. The fourteen Grandmasters of the mage guilds were the most influential. They easily controlled the healer guilds and approximately half of all the rogue houses. Some possessed more control some less. But each and every guild master had a small army to offer.

And this was the major problem. They were a threat and on a whim, an alliance would rip the great city of Kaeron apart. It would throw the empire into open rebellion, invaders to all sides would come charging in, trying to seize this enormous wealth and power the dungeon provided. Today it lied solely on himself to sway them.

Without any guard to protect him he entered the giant throne room. Twenty meter high walls, decorated with drawings of stunning beauty greeted him. Too bad this table would succumb to defilement soon. Quarreling old men were unsightly. The rumouring that was already present ended the moment he stepped into sight. Quietly he passed his throne, high up above the table and sat down with the guild masters. A great honor, normally only bestowed to those of noble and special character. Stunned nobody spoke.

Hakan would never have done that, if it was not necessary for his plan.

“Gentlemen. Have you chosen a speaker elect?”

Still grasping the concept of the mightiest man in the world sitting down at a table with lowly adventure guild leaders they were speechless. Finally Grandmaster Tyfin spoke. A mage.

“I am the most fit to speak for all of us, if anyone has concerns please voice them. Now... We have taken note of everyone's wishes and I would like to take the honor of presenting them, your grace.”

As Hakan did not answer, the man continued. “First of all we all share the common interest of reopening the dungeon. It is not only an important source of income for us but also of great value for the imperial army. Secondly, we wish to know the status of the pending investigation and would like to hear a statement on why it was issued in the first place.”

Very rude accusations to the emperor. Normally people lost their heads for this behaviour. It showed exactly where the empire currently was. At the mercy of the guild masters.

“Third. We would like to propose a reduction in tax to the crown. Eighty percent… Uhm. It is just way too much, Sire.” The old man talked very slowly and carefully now. “And lastly, we offer our full cooperation to fulfilling these first three points.”

It was pretty much what Hakan had expected. He stood up and slowly walked around the table. “My dear guild leaders. Of course we all know that security is the most important thing for our country.” Hakan stopped between two healer guild masters and touched their shoulders in a friendly gesture. “We want to protect our students and our men. The dungeon had killed over sixty groups before we decided to put this to investigation.” The emperor continued his walk around the table and continued to talk more sharply. “First we thought the reason for this was an ongoing power struggle between two guild masters.”

Stopping for a second he changed his voice again. Friendly and calm. “Of course it was no such thing, since we cannot prove otherwise. I am prepared to open the dungeon again. Under a lower tax than we previously had.”

Naturally the investigation was only a ruse to keep the guild masters from gaining too much influence and power and mainly: distract them. “Naturally I will need something from you in exchange. In front of you all there is a letter in writing that requests your standing armies to aid the military in war times.”

Hakan continued coldly. “I need every single one of you to sign this and place a fingerprint with blood below. Do this and the investigation will be dropped. The dungeon will be opened. For a sixty percent tax.” Previously it had been eighty, after he had raised it from the taxless situation his father had presented them. Naturally they would not take these grateful sixty percent either. They were greedy and they knew he only wanted to have their standing forced for the upcoming war. No way the emperor would back down from further tax deductions.

“Sire, respectfully: sixty percent is far too much for us at the moment. The costs are killing us and for us to work efficiently at all we need at least forty percent or lower.”

Hakan waited for a whole minute while he returned to his throne. The room was dead silent. “I will give you twenty percent tax total.”

Loud cheers all over the room were heard.

“IN. GOOD. FAITH.” He made it very clear. His voice overshadowed even the last cheers. The immediate pencil scratching on their desks was music in Hakans ears. Those fools. When the last signature was scratched to paper and the last soft and wet fingerprint stamped on the thick paper, Hakan the third of Carramar rose from his seat.

“ Àrk hár sânej dùn. “

Barely a whisper, it was heard by every single guild master. Black clouds appeared immediately next to them. Dark blades came to existence from nothing and ended their pathetic lives, sliced them apart mercilessly before Hakan was even able to sit down again.

49 corpses bloodied the mosaic floor of white marmor and deadly silence followed.

He had won.