Amidst the sound, thud, thud, thud, a soldier walked up to King Paul and said, “Sir, your son George has arrived with the nomads.”

“Finally. It took them long enough to reach the castra. I hope Titus can quickly train them up to the level of the rest of the men in Paulsland.”

The soldier looked confused for a second and said, “Sir, George brought the nomads to Five Village Island, not the castra.”

King Paul frowned and was visibly unhappy. After a few seconds, he calmed down and said, “Bring George to me… quickly.”

When the soldier heard the tone in King Paul’s voice with the use of the word quickly, he turned and ran hard to George. He heard irritation in his King’s voice, and he was not going to get in trouble for what George did.

King Paul followed the soldier at a calm pace. His guards opened up doors ahead of him and closed them behind him. Paul headed toward the bridge that connected this fortress to Five Village Island because he wanted to see how brazen his son was.

When he reached the bridge, he saw George on his horse, in his armor, although his helmet was off, so the people could see who the dashing knight was. Paul grew more irritated by the minute as he watched his boy slowly riding his horse across the bridge. The soldier Paul sent out was beside George, trying to get him to hurry up and cross the bridge. George ignored the soldier and waved at anyone he could see.

Paul began to burn with indignation; this was not the time or place for his son to act this way.

When George reached his father, he was not paying attention, but he acknowledged his father with the words, “Father, you didn’t have to meet me. I was coming to you.”

Paul saw how unwary his son was, so he simply said, “George, it's been so long; get off your horse and properly greet your father.”

George was excited to do so. In his mind, he thought getting a hug publicly from his father, who was beloved by the people in the midst of this siege, would further his goals. As soon as he got off the horse, Paul slapped him across the face and Bellowed, “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?”

George was shocked and very hurt to be publicly admonished by his father, but he answered, “Doing what you told me to do. I brought the nomads to your war.”

“I told you to bring them down the north side of the river.”

“But if the Himyarites attack and breach the fortress, then you will need the nomad's help fighting off the Himyarites.”

“George, you need to stop playing politics for a minute and pay attention to the strategic and tactical reality of our situation. Do you even know what's going on?”

“The Himyarites are attacking.”

Thud, thud, thud.

“Do you hear that thudding sound?”

“Um, yes.”

“Do you know what that is?”

“No.”

“The Himyarites have set up ballistae and are firing bolts at our walls and towers. They are slightly out of range of our trebuchet, and that’s fine. Do you know why that’s fine?”

“Because they cannot hurt our walls.”

“No. Stop being stup-… you know what, you have been mostly building with brick, so you probably haven’t seen what happens when a hammer strikes stone enough times. Sooner or later, with enough strikes, the walls and towers will go down, although at the range the ballistae are at, it will be a while. It doesn’t matter if they knock down this fortress; it can be sacrificed because they would still have to cross the bridge and defeat the other fortress before they could take Five Village Island.”

“If it doesn’t matter, why did you make this fortress?”

“It's called redundancy. They have to put in a LOT of effort to take this fortress, and at the end of the day, if they take the fortress, then the fortress should be in ruins, and crumbling towers and walls will do them no good for the next part of the siege. I imagine by that point they will be spent. That’s why I want as many soldiers as possible with Titus at the castra. Once the Himyarite army is spent, we strike.”

“What if they go after the castra instead?”

Paul frowned and said, “That’s why I wanted your nomads at the castra with Titus. It is far more vulnerable, and the consequences are much more severe if they take it. They will be able to reach as far as the Great Lake and perhaps use that to get around and get further into Paulsland. They could wipe out much of the infrastructure we spent the last few years building and burn down many people's homes. The women and children should be able to escape the Himyarite army, but the loss of property would be devastating.”

“Why don’t they do that then?”

“Because Five Island Village is rich. If they go past the castra, they could wreck Paulsland, but they couldn’t hold it. But if they found a reason to go past the castra and managed to breach it or bypass it, it would take Paulsland years to recover. And before you ask, if they sent their army deep into Paulsland like that, we would eventually destroy it, but they could bring in another army of the same size in less than a year. It's not a fair exchange which is why I wanted you at the critical part of the battle, stopping them from crippling our nation.

“Sorry, Father.”

“You're right, you're sorry. You disobeyed my orders because you wanted to be seen next to me in these battles like you were seen next to me when you got married. I didn’t mind the marriage thing. In fact, I was glad I was at your wedding, but that was a celebration; this is a battle. As much as I hate to say it, you don’t matter here. Getting close to me does not help your political situation. Getting out there next to Titus and helping him win the battle will help you more. Chances are coming here, instead of to the castra, hurt your political aspirations more than you know.”

George looked fairly chastised and embarrassed. The last time his father was so upset with him, he was six and disrespected one of his dad's wives in front of him.

Before he could figure out an answer, King Paul looked up and saw Bahari, one of the captains of the various trimarans, crossing the bridge his son was on. Paul was a bit surprised and told his son, “You’re young, and you made a foolish choice, but I do not have time to fully correct your mistake. I need to talk to Bahari.”

George looked confused. He didn’t know who Bahari was, and he thought he knew every important person in the kingdom. If not by sight, at least by name.

Paul called out, “Bahari, what are you doing here? Did you just find out about the war?”

“No, sir, I found out about the war in Egypt when slavers were attempting to sell off our people to the Romans.” Paul’s mouth moved into a scowl, and he grew red in anger, but Bahari continued talking, “You son Washington was able to buy every one of our people back and begin selling the secrets of perfume making to all the merchants.”

Paul visibly relaxed and then, with all too soft of a voice, asked, “What condition were they in when we bought them back?”

“Poor. Every one of them had been raped; the men and the women, adults, and children. All were grieving the loss of family; nobody under the age of seven was on the boat; they killed them and the pregnant women. The Romans required all slaves to be sold naked so all blemishes could be seen, so their shame was compounded. All of them were half-starved when they reached Rome, and many were struggling with thirst.”

Paul nodded his head and remembered learning about how kidnappers would make their victims love them, something called Stockholm syndrome. At first, they beat their victim, abused them, starved them, made them go thirsty, and then when they felt worthless, they showed the victim some kindness and some dignity. In that emotionally vulnerable state, the victim became loyal to the perpetrator. The slaver's job was to put indignity after indignity on his people so when they were bought, they would love the master who showed the slightest bit of humanity.

“Thank you for bringing me this news. Take your crew, load up on flaming arrows and coal oil and harass the Himyarites on the sea.”

“What do you want me to do with the slavers and their ship?”

Paul was confused and asked, “What are you talking about?”

“After Washington bought our people back, he sent all the Paulsland ships in the port of Egypt to capture the slave ships and slavers. We were successful, and we brought them back to you. What do you want us to do with them?”

Paul smiled and said, “I think I am going to go meet them.” Then he turned to George and said, “Go bring some of the leaders of the nomads. I think I want them to see this.”

Paul began making his way to the docks. First, he went through the gate connecting the fortress to the bridge, then crossed the bridge to the fortress on the other side, went through the fortress, and then began walking across the island to the sea. All the while, his guards kept a perimeter around their King and Bahari, who was guiding him.

Along the way, Paul noticed a young woman and called out to her, “Young lady, how old are you?”

She said, “Fourteen.”

“Are you still in training?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Wonderful. I need you to come with me, and I want you to think of a question you have about the human body that nobody has been able to answer.” The girl brightened, but before she could speak, Paul said, “Hold on. Wait until I ask you; it will be a few minutes.”

And so King Paul, Bahari, his guards, and the girl began making their way to the ships. When they reached them, Paul asked Bahari, “How many ships did you capture?”

“Three. And we have thirty-eight men. Two died from their injuries on the way back.”

“A pity. Bring the prisoners out; feel free to take your time; we have to wait for George to bring the nomad leadership.”

As the slavers came out, Paul asked, “Why are they still clothed?”

“Sir?”

“Did they not strip our people naked and parade them around the Roman Empire? If they think that’s appropriate, repay them in kind.”

“Yes, sir.” And immediately, the sailors and soldiers began stripping the captives naked. The slavers knew better than to fight back. In all honesty, they thought they were going to be sold into slavery. But Paul was planning far worse indignities for them.

In a few minutes, all the slavers were off their ships and standing before King Paul for judgment, and King Paul paced back in forth in front of the men waiting for George to return with the nomads. Paul waited for one simple reason; George disobeyed him, and Paul needed to put fear into the hearts of the nomads so they would not be tempted into disobeying like George.

And so the Nomads came, and Paul told George, “I want the Nomads to know what I am telling the slavers, and what the slavers are telling me. You will be my interpreter.”

“Yes, Father.”

Paul looked over the slavers and asked in Greek, “Who can speak for you?” George immediately began translating because the nomads had no way to know Greek yet.

One of the slavers said, “I am the leader. My family can pay a ransom for me, which will be worth far more than if you sell me.”

Paul ignored what he said and asked, “Why did you enslave my people?”

The slaver decided to act like a lawyer and gave his tried and true argument, “I did not enslave anyone. I merely bought slaves from the Himyarite army. Your people, on the other hand, pirated my ship and kidnapped us.”

“What crime did my people commit that warranted slavery? Did they steal or kill someone? Perhaps they owed a large debt, and the only way to pay back the debt was to enslave them?”

The slaver was confused. But he said, “It's war. Your people lost, and they were sold into slavery to help pay for the war.”

“So, you admit that you bought and sold my people to help pay the Himyarite army, so they can kill, rape, and enslave more of my people?”

Every slaver looked horrified, and one yelled out, “He doesn’t speak for me.”

The slave leader said, “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I am told that all the pregnant women and children under seven were murdered. Why did you kill those people?”

“We did not kill anyone. Whatever people do with slaves we do not buy is none of our business.”

Paul was caught off guard and asked, “What do you mean slaves you don’t buy?”

The slaver felt a tinge of hope and said, “We bought every slave we thought we could sell in the Roman Empire, but any we thought were too young, or too damaged, or we did not think would sell, we did not buy. And so, the soldiers did what they always do in those circumstances; they killed them.”

Paul’s face turned red, and he yelled out, “YOU LEFT MY PEOPLE TO DIE!” and struck the slaver.

The slaver couldn’t help himself; he tried to defend himself, “It's just business. If I buy slaves that won't sell, I will go out of business and be sold into slavery myself.”

“You know. I am not from here. I come from a nation called America that was unfortunately destroyed in a great disaster. In that nation, they enshrined in its laws that no cruel or unusual punishment should be given out. They passed that law because they didn’t want someone to get executed for something like stealing. Taking a copper should not get someone killed. In time my nation turned that into giving very light sentences to serious crimes. Like allowing someone who murdered a dozen people to live.” Paul’s tone of voice clearly showed he did not agree with light sentences, and so the slavers began to shake in fear, “I think the idea of no cruel and unusual punishment is a good one, but I also think that if someone commits a crime, the punishment should be worse than the offense. For instance, if someone steals a copper, they should have to pay back four coppers. Killing this person, cutting off their hand, or selling them into slavery is extreme. Do you agree with me?”

What else could the slaver say but, “Yes.” This was a perfect example of why someone should remain silent when every answer is a wrong one.

“Good. I am glad you agree with me. You sold my people into slavery. In fact, you sold many, many of my people into slavery. You watched as the ones you did not buy died. You took the dignity of my people away. I am very, very unhappy with you. But I do have a question. Why sell slaves? What is the purpose of slaves?”

The slavery knew that one instantly, “We need slaves. We need people to plant seed, harvest crops, and mine resources. If we did not have slaves, none of these jobs would get done. Slavery is needed to grow civilization.”

A wicked smile grew across King Paul’s face, “Oh, so you kidnapped my people to grow civilization. I am glad you said that. A deserving punishment for you and your people is to help grow my civilization.” When Paul said this, the slavers visibly relaxed. They thought Paul was talking about making them slaves, then Paul turned to the fourteen-year-old girl and said in Greek still, “I told you to think of one thing you don’t know about the human body that you would like to know. Please ask that question in Greek so these… creatures can hear it.”

“Yes, sir. How is food digested in the human body?”

Paul’s wicked smile grew wider, and he said, “That is a wonderful question. I have no idea, but I know how to find out. Back in my homeland, they found out that they could cut holes in cows leading to their stomach and look inside. Later on, they used those holes to help those cows digest food. I have no idea why that was necessary or how it helped, but it helped the cows in some way. The thing is, if a cow can survive having a window put in its stomach, I bet humans can too. So here's what we are going to do. We are going to get a couple of surgeons to get a glassmaker to make a very special piece of glass, and they will insert it into the slave leader's stomach as a window, and when he eats, we will get to watch his food start the digestion process. I will need you to keep great notes on it. Can you do that for me?”

The girl honestly did not know how to feel. On one hand, King Paul just outrightly announced a cruel experiment on a human, but these were slavers that did horrible things to her people. In the end, she neither smiled nor frowned but said, “Yes, sir,” with a determination to fulfill her duty.

The slaver spluttered out a question, “How does that help your civilization grow? Have us go out and chip rocks off a mountain somewhere and build your cities with our stone. Or have us harvest crops. Don’t practice dark magic on us.”

“But sir, knowledge is another way for a civilization to grow. We don’t have a particular bit of knowledge on digestion, so we are going to get it from you. After all, you came here to kill, rape, and enslave, so I believe this is a worthy punishment. Besides, you will be providing us a service far in excess of what any slave can bring. You and your men will be our human experiments. Congratulations, hundreds of years from now, you will be known for the stomach experiment. We won't use your name, of course, but we thank you for the contribution to this experiment.”

The man cried and begged, but King Paul simply said, “I will show you the same mercy you showed my people.” And three days later, surgeons put a piece of glass into the man's stomach and then had students watch the digestion process. He wasn’t a cow, so he didn’t live particularly long after it was installed, but the students learned a lot, and new knowledge was added to their medical books. In the following days, other questions were asked, and they used these men, these creatures, to try to answer those questions. Some were installed with glass to observe internal bodily functions; others had organs cut out, for example, seeing how a person lived with just one kidney or one lung. Or how much of the intestines can be removed and still survive.

Paul had the nomadic leadership watch the first couple of brutal surgeries and experiments before sending them to the castra to be trained by Titus. As they made their way to the castra and Titus’s instruction, they talked among themselves about how lucky they were that King Paul did not practice that black magic on them, how wise it was to ally with him, and if George ever suggested disobeying his father again, George would lose their support. King Paul’s black magic was worse than anything they ever heard a witch doctor doing. The nomads were not squeamish. Each man had hunted ever since they could pull the string on a bow, and each one cleaned animal, most of the nomads had killed men in battle but watching someone cut a human open and insert glass to watch the inside of the human body function was disturbing to these extremely superstitious people.

As the nomads left, King Paul sent the findings across his nation for everyone to consider and let them know that as soon as the Himyarite army was defeated, they would continue the human vivisections, and it was time for every doctor and surgeon to send in any question they had, as they would soon have an army worth of subjects to try it on.