“What is it, Nathan?” The Paragon asked his servant, while he was gazing at the city from his palace’s balcony.

“Your plans have been executed.”

“Results?”

“Graham and the Conspiracy have been compromised, the Resistance is partially captured. They really had confidence in their Captain after all, and some went missing, probably evading the militia.”

“Good.” He turned around. “How many do I have to purge?”

“About a quarter of your staff.”

“Will decimation work?”

“I think so. We only have to persecute the top of the hierarchy and some others to show example.”

“I want to talk to them. Are they in the Monolith?”

“No, Sir, they are in house arrest.”

“House arrest? Gather them and schedule a public execution for tomorrow. I’ll have our audience be the executioner. A justified lynch is all we need.”

“Yes.” He stepped back.

“Bring me Graham.” Nathan could feel Tyronne’s scorching hatred.

Nathan nodded. “I knew you would ask for that. I have prepared him for you, he is at your doorstep.”

“Come in then.” A miserable man stepped in, a shadow of its former self. His hair was abominable, his clothes reflected mere simplicity and was too filthy to be proper in the government’s headquarters. “Look at you, you are disgusting. Should have accepted my offer, didn’t you?”

“What is the meaning of this? Why am I in shackles? I demand an explanation.”

“Because you were plotting against me, obviously.”

“That is not true, I swear, I just wanted to shut them down and change their minds. The Paragon will take everything from you, so stop this nonsense, I said.”

“Lying will not help you. The reason I wanted to talk to you is that your son was kidnapped.”

“What?” Tyronne saw the dismay filling his conceited heart.

“By the North, if I remember well, he is a slave in a gold mine. I could launch an invasion if you stayed put and accepted my offer, but I would not risk a war before the Interregional Convergence without a casus belli. It is not suitable to rescue the son of my enemy.”

“But he is Selena’s brother. I beg you…” the old man cried.

“I contacted her and told the truth. You wanted to overthrow me, and he was kidnapped. So you must die, and he stay where he is because of that. She cannot save you anymore, old faggot. Put him in a cell, he’ll lose his head by tomorrow as the symbol of my legitimacy. The others are to face the crowd. Except the Cardinals, they are to be killed silently, we do not want an uproar now. Tell them they died of a sickness and have them buried under the palace.”

“Yes, Paragon.” his staff hurried to complete the task he gave out.

“The Grand General arrived, sir.” Announced his guards.

“Let him in.” Commanded Tyronne.

“Your Grace. I have heard about the blasphemous deeds to remove you from power.”

“Did you come to check on me, Edmund?”

“I want to thank you for the promotion.”

“It is only natural. You did well.”

“How did you capture the Conspiracy and the Resistance?”

“I have given them fake information and started to battle against each other. The Resistance thought they could kill high value targets, the others thought that was going on a trip under cover to examine the army.’

“I understand. It was an excellent plan.”

“Not really, but both of them were stupid and greedy. Many of them died as well when I moved the militia in. So I have to fill the vacant positions, now.”

“Is that why I have become the Grand General?”

“I wanted to give the title to you a long time ago, but the late Joachim was hard to make a traitor. He had unwavering loyalty to himself and he knew what would happen if things would go wrong. He killed ten of my men before going down.”

“Well, you know that I am your ally, don’t you?”

“Of course. We have to go and check on the army, including the introduction of the new Grand General.”

“Your request is humble, we can start our journey right away. Most of the armies are stationed at the Predator Valley.”

“I guess Joachim was doing everything but his job. There was no breakthrough since the start of the war. He only sent raid groups to plunder the countryside.”

“He had never listened to me, but since I am the Grand General, we could pull it off. Could we build tunnels?”

“Yes. But that would use a lot of resources. I’d rather you did something else.”

“Understood.”

“Could you prepare my coach? I hope it is charged.”

“Yes, Sir, we have prepared it for you, just in case.”

Tyronne and Edmund ventured to the coach, which resembled an electric car, and was designed by the Paragon himself. The structure was created of aluminium and covered by wood. The coating was made of burgundy coloured velvet which was ornamented with gold symbols resembling ivy. Although it could be mistaken as a vehicle from three centuries ago, the equipment inside was contemporary. Electric motors drove the coach and batteries were the finest. Those could last several weeks without charging.

Arriving at the Valley, they were greeted as the new Grand General and his assistant. Tyronne knew what would happen if he popped up randomly at the army. He was a role model to the regulars and the professionals alike, causing a combination of fervour, disarray and euphoria that would render the soldiers unable to fulfil their duties. He wore a mask just in case.

“Let us begin the formal introductions. I am Edmund, your new Grand General.” The officer shouted at the assembly displaying a dominant, earnest and invigorating attitude. Tyronne was bored with all these formalities, so he gathered the remaining head officers and generals, inviting them to the new Head of the Army’s tent. After the speech, he visited his new residence. He knew that Tyronne would invite the others over, so he started making plans how to breach the machines’ defence without losing half of the army and lots of resources.

“We have two options. We either get around the mountains, which can be done through the Northern Association’s territories or the Districts’ territory, North and South or we false attack and retreat several times to lure them into and open fight.”

“I have other matters to attend to, I’ll leave you here. Do your best, officers.” He walked back to his cab and left for the Capital. “I have a lot of paperwork to fill, and I have to take a shit. I cannot do that in front of these people.” After entering his cab, he started thinking. “He is the only one capable of defeating them. If I remember well, he believes in uniformity in the army, meaning he would have the same set of equipment, tent, food and any commodities, blending in with the soldiers, improving their morale. Also he asked for new motorized and mountaineer equipment. He wants to increase armours in the army that has electric engines and shoots acidic bullets. Also, he has requested scoped rifles and thick clothes for two squads that would operate as sharpshooters to eliminate any threats and report on the enemy. These weapons had a special stock that converts mechanical force to electricity, which can come from movement and recoil. My engineers created AC guns to overwhelm the machines. A battery is attached to the receiver of the bolt-action rifle that charges the bullet, which consists of a tungsten head to penetrate their armour and a fluid, which is charged with electricity and holds it as alternate current that cooks the circuits of a robot on impact. Since it’s a prototype, we have both standard gunpowder based calibres and ammo that needs electricity and magnetic forces to be launched.”

The carriage stopped at the entrance of the Grey Palace. “We have arrived, Your Grace.” Claimed one of his new personal assistants.

“Stop calling me ‘Your Grace’, I am not a monarch. A simple ‘Sir’ is enough. Will you take care of the coach?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Ehhhmm… Who is that kid over there, crying?”

“We don’t know. He’s been doing it for two hours now. Some of the maids tried to ask about his problems. His father was killed recently, her mother died long time ago. He is alone. His family was not rich.”

“Was not he stripped away?”

“Apparently, his father was a retired militiaman, who was rendered useless after his back broke in a fight at a festival. He served as a hunter after rehabilitation, but was eviscerated by a gang, which was recently formed, when he did not pay protection money. They had a house at the outer part of the Lower City. My cousin knew his father, so I wanted to ask you to help this little guy.”

“I’ll do what I can. Tell Nathan he has two days to remove the gangs. Gut the leaders, hang the others.” Tyronne approached his subject, who was about six years old, had red hair and blue eyes and had similar characteristics to the six years old Tyronne. He wore simple clothes, mostly used, but one could deduce that the father was taking care of the child, since he was properly washed and fed.

“Hey, kiddo, why are you crying?”

“Father told me to run here. He was speaking to three big men. He haven’t showed up yet.” he sobbed and told his story stuttering.

“Poor kid” he thought. “Who is your father? What is your name?”

“I am Seamus, son of Alfred.”

“Would you like to come to the Palace?” he invited him over.

“The Paragon’s? He might help Father!” Tyronne realized he was not informed about his father’s death.

“What do you think of him?”

“He is the man! Strong, virtuous, embodiment of intelligence.” Knowing that the second part was straight from a priest’s sermon, he was not really satisfied with the reply.

“Well, I have to tell you that I’m the Paragon.”

“Really? I thought you would be stronger.” He smiled at him.

“Don, will you prepare a room and proper clothes for this little man?”

“Yes, Sir.”

Tyronne lifted his guest and entered the palace. He showed him around, since the kid was a resident, until someone would adopt him. Tyronne knew how horrible it was not to have parents to rely on, he tried to ease the little one’s life by giving him another chance. He had a chance to visit all the Paragon’s ministers, and introduced the child to the ministry wing of the palace along with tremendous amount of bedrooms to cope with the needs of all the staff and servants.

“I have several ministers, who awaits my command. The chancellor, who is my right hand, the Grand General, who leads my armies, the Overseer, who helps me gather information, the Camerarius, who is in charge of buying and selling, the Knights, mayors of the Capital, the Servant of Justice, a righteous man, and the Champion of People, who cares about the people outside the city.” Tyronne introduced him to all his subordinates. After the tour, they sat down somewhere to talk a bit.

“So you are six years old? What a man! You’ll be a Vanguard in no time, I am sure.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Daddy will be proud, right?”

“He don’t want me a soldier.” He said sorrowfully.

“I might need help in other duties like speeches. I hope I can count on you.”

After the chit-chat, he said goodbye to the little fellow, who was put in the care of the maids serving Tyronne tirelessly. “I have to work.”

Moving to the Minister’s Chamber, he called together the Council of Ministers to prepare for the Interregional Convergence.

“As I see everyone is here, except for Edmund. Good. Report.”

“Ethan obtained something useful, I sent it to your chamber.”

“Will it be safe to go?”

“Yes, sir.” The Overseer replied. “We have just removed the Resistance and the Conspiracy. The Order of the Underworld wouldn’t do a thing. We will be their guests, their leader just died, so they have no time to set anything up. They have their own turmoil ravaging.”

“That name is too edgy.” He thought. “What about the Vault? That is our most important objective.”

“We are currently working on a project that could open it.”

“Any details?”

“It is said that the lock of the vault is biometric. So we figured out how to make a key, but we do not have the necessary information to produce the key, yet.”

“How much time?”

“Much.”

“Do we have enough?”

“Certainly.”

“Until I do not return, I give you the assignments you have to do. Nathan, govern and tend to Seamus. By the way, he is our guest, and a very promising little chap. If someone hurts him, I’ll have them raped. Camerarius, you should deal with the priests, who do not like to work, and the appointment of new, virtuous Cardinals. Servant of Justice, speak with Nathan about the gangs present in the city. Velvet, you should give out gifts to the loyal upper class citizens. Linen should focus on the removal of the slums appeared at the city walls. Find some talented and loyal people. The Overseer knows what to do. Champion, you should organize some festivals in the countryside. Are we done here?”

“Yes, sir.” They said simultaneously.

Having discussed everything important, the council was dismissed and Tyronne returned to his bedroom, attended chamber business, and sat down to his table, which was full of documents as ever. It was not an easy task to suppress potential revolts and punish members of the higher strata efficiently and simultaneously. He had to take away all their possessions, redistribute a little to placate the others and find the people capable of being obedient and who would be competent replacement of the traitors, then give them wealth to keep them content.

A maid knocked on the door. “Sir, there is someone who would like to thank you.”

The kid he picked up at the streets ran in fearlessly, with a smile that displayed happiness and excitement felt after meeting with one’s role model.

“Hey, kiddo. Have you had dinner?” The sun already set after he came back from the miserable meeting. He had no appetite, since he had neglected his duties before and wanted to do the paperwork he should have days ago.

“Not yet. Will you come with us?” the Paragon nodded, stood up and followed the maid, who sent another one in advance to inform the chef about his and his ward’s desires. No maidens were present at the dining room on arrival, and Tyronne let the kid sit down at his designated place.

“How do you feel?”

“Amazing!”

“I have ordered a rabbit just for you.”

“I haven’t eaten that yet.”

“Really? I think you will like it.”

The staff brought the rabbit and some rice for the little one, and some potatoes for the lord who had some problems with his digestive system. He hated potato, especially badly cooked ones.

“What does oral mean?”

”When you take … Uhm …” He stopped for a moment to rethink the sentence. ”When you have to speak about a topic in the school. Where did you hear that?’

“Miss Mimmy spoke with another lady.”

“Well, do not concern yourself with anything like that.” He signalled the butler and whispered “If anyone speaks like that around the house in the presence of our valuable guest, I’ll cut their tongue out myself. Tell them.” The butler only responded with ’Yes, Sir.’ and hurried away.

“I have prepared a big room for you, next to mine. It has a double bed, new clothes and a desk. Can you read and write?”

“Father teached me some. Anyway where is he?”

“He has some business to attend to. He told me to take care of you. Would you like to learn new things starting tomorrow?”

“What new things?” he asked being astonished.

“I thought you could help me with counting and writing. Would you like that?”

“I like helping, yes!”

“Very well. After you finished your meal, you should go to sleep. Someone will escort you there.”

“Okay.”

“I have to go now, good night.”

“Good night.”

Withdrawing to his chamber, he wanted to continue doing the paperwork. He continued to do so until the sun rose. Sometimes he slept three hours, then he continued working all day next day. When Nathan rushed in, the time was close to noon. “We found the murderers who claimed the life of many, including Edward. They are in the Monolith along with other Resistance members and a waiter who helped them organizing their meetings.”

“Did any harm come to them?”

“Zenon started to interrogate them just now.”

“Who told him to?”

“What?”

“WHO TOLD HIM TO?”

“I did, I thought you would want that.”

“Damn, next time ask me, please, if you want to keep your fucking head. We’ll deal with this later.”

“Sir, they killed your best friend. I thought you might want to see them dead.”

“Edmund asked for their absolution. And I think I have a use for them.”

“I don’t understand. All you longed for since then was to see the perpetrators being tortured. We started to prepare them for that purpose and wanted to surprise you.”

“Send a message to that idiot to cease his actions. If any harm comes to them, he will be held responsible.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“That’s it. Stop nagging and obey my commands already.” He turned around, put on a coat and ventured forward to the Grey Monolith.