Gamila I

PA 0

The first thing Gamila did once she got out of the river was to force herself to calm down.

She’d made the mistake of charging straight at her problems before. Of thinking she’d get the opportunity of a fair fight.

That was how she ended up dethroned, destroyed, and humiliated by the Bastard, the late King Anderson.

He’d been one of the rulers that Meixiu had killed on her march down the river. A repugnant man, he’d let the power go to his head far too quickly, declaring himself a god and taking most of the beautiful women in his village as concubines.

He had been generally hated by his own people, but he gave his best warriors their own share of the women, and had them beat down anyone who opposed him. He had been a tyrant, plain and simple.

She gone to him for help when her own village was attacked, unknowing of his true personality.

That had been a mistake.

Instead of helping her, he slaughtered her guards and took her as a concubine for himself. He’d defiled her, and she’d been forced to become a prisoner as her village was conquered.

But she didn’t give into despair. Not now, and not then. Instead she’d plotted, and planned, and when the moment was right, she struck.

She got her revenge on him, not through a fair fight, but a stab in the back. When Meixiu arrived to conquer his village, she snuck behind his back and destroyed his soul-orb while he was distracted by Meixiu’s army. Then she rallied her oppressed people, grabbing weapons and slaughtering the men from behind, winning the day for the other Queen.

It was what had led to Meixiu to giving her that position as general in the first place.

So as much as she wanted to run back into the camp, to gather her part of the army, and to bash that bastard’s fucking face in—

She couldn’t. She needed to be smart about this. And she remembered what Lukman had said, when she was pretending to be dead.

“My people! We’ve suffered a grave wound today—our own leaders, in their greed and selfishness, have betrayed our glorious Queen. For you see—the Queen is not a prisoner. She is dead, killed by the King in that city over there. She was betrayed by Gamila, who sold us out to become Queen in her own right!”

This wasn’t a battle that needed to be fought with soldiers—all she needed to do was get the Queen over here, to show she was still alive. Once the soldiers realize that the Queen is still alive, it would discredit everything the other General said.

So instead of running back to her own army, she turned towards the city, to get her Queen.

--

Joseph VI

For once, Joseph had actually thought that things were going his way. That, for once, he didn’t need to run damage control after one of his plans blew up in his face.

He should never have been so optimistic.

Because every single time a plan looked like it had worked out, it turns out some unforeseen variable just showed up and created new problems.

Let’s back up for a minute.

That afternoon, not even an hour after he’d gotten back from meeting with Meixiu’s generals, he’d been urgently summoned to the entrance of the city, along with Meixiu and Kaiden.

In front of him was a familiar looking woman, soaked with blood and mud, looking utterly exhausted. She was tall with dark skin, her hair tied into messy short braids. She was leaning heavily against the wall, chugging from a waterskin as his guards shuffled awkwardly around her, unsure what to do with her.

“Gamila!” Meixiu hissed worriedly, bolting to the newcomer. She stopped right in front of her, looking like she was about to reach forward to comfort the other woman, before freezing and just standing there with her hands awkwardly extended out.

“Queen Meixiu,” Gamila smiled tiredly back. Showing none of the hesitation of her queen, she reached forward to grasp the other woman in a hug (incidentally splattering Meixiu with mud.) “It’s been a hell of an afternoon.”

Meixiu was unable to respond, frozen in what looked like a mental breakdown (though whether that was from the hug or the gore splattering on her was unclear), leaving Joseph to figure out what the hell was going on.

“Miss… Gamila, was it? I’m sorry if this might seem insensitive, but you don’t exactly look okay. So, I’m just going to ask—why are you covered in blood? What is one of Meixiu’s generals doing here, in my city, covered in blood and looking half-way to passing out?” Joseph asked slowly, dreading the answer.

“Well, to start with, it’s… not my own blood,” she replied dryly, letting go of her Queen. “And, I’m so sorry my Queen, but, well… it’s just that… Lukman has…” she shook her head, taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry, but there’s no easy way to say this. Lukman has revolted against you. Hemede likely has as well. I’m unsure of Amon, but I doubt he would betray you, so it’s possible he’s dead, or leading the rest of the army against you as we speak.”

Meixiu took a step back, looking dumbstruck. “Lukman… Amon is…” she whispered, looking truly shattered for the first time since they’d met.

Joseph was… well, shocked wasn’t the right word. He’d sort of expected something like this to happen to someone at some point. But just… he hadn’t expected it to be his problem.

“So,” he sighed, feeling the weight of all his dashed hopes crashing onto his shoulders. “We’ve just lost the army and are back to waiting to die in this fortress, is that it?”

“No,” she shook her head. “We haven’t lost that easily. My own people follow me before the other generals. Once they see I’m still alive, they’ll return to my side and fight for us. And Amon’s people will follow the Queen as he did. In fact, I’d say that Lukman’s position is the weakest out of all of the generals—all of the power that he has was appointed to him by the Queen. And once they realize that he is rebelling against the Queen, even his own people may start to leave him.”

“Well,” Joseph took a deep breath. “That’s better than I thought. So, we’re only sort of boned, rather than completely fucked? You’re saying we still have a chance?”

“Yes,” Gamila nodded decisively.

“Wait,” Kaiden interrupted, making the others jump. They may or may not have forgotten he was there. “Back up a bit, I’m confused. You said that your people will fight for you once they see that you’re alive, right? But why would they think you were dead in the first place?”

The others stared at Kaiden for a moment, before turning to look at the very alive Gamila.

“That… is a good point,” Joseph concurred, narrowing his eyes as he saw the other woman tense. “Why would they think you were dead?”

“I,” she flinched. “I mean, they tried to kill me, obviously. They just failed, and I played dead long enough for them to stop paying attention to me. Once they left, I escaped, immediately coming to warn my Queen of the impending coup.”

That actually sounded like she was telling the truth, but it was so at odds with what he was seeing that Joseph was starting to feel justifiably wary. “But surely, they would have actually tried to kill you, right? If they think you’re dead, they must have at least stabbed you or something, right? Yet here you are, remarkably unstabbed.”

The other woman glanced between the two of them with wide eyes, looking about a second away from bolting.

“Enough,” Meixiu snapped suddenly, stepping between them. “She has come to warn us about the betrayal. I will not cast suspicion on one of my most loyal generals. I will not have you, my fledgling ally cast suspicion on my own general. I trust her, and I expect you to trust her as well.”

Kaiden looked suitably chastised, but Joseph wasn’t convinced. “While normally I’d agree with you, apparently half of your damn generals have just revolted against you, so I hope you don’t blame me for being suspicious of the one in front of us.”

Meixiu winced, but didn’t back down. “I understand why you’re suspicious, but I just… you don’t know them like I do. Thinking about it, I can see Lukman and Hemede betraying me. Lukman was bitter, but competent—so long as I gave him the validation he craved, he would follow me loyally. My loss must have destroyed his trust in me. And Hemede… I never trusted him. He was too attached to his position, too sure of his own supremacy. He was a coward. But he was also competent, too competent to get rid of. So, I kept him in power, where I could keep an eye on him and where I had three others of equal power to counter him. Unfortunately, me getting captured must have given him the confidence to turn against me.” The other Queen stopped for a moment to gather her thoughts, leveling a glare at Joseph. “But Gamila is different. I did not make her my general not just because she was powerful or competent, but because I saw her for who she was as a person. Hurt and broken by circumstance, she rose above it and flourished. She is kind, and passionate, and loyal. So, hear me when I say, I understand that you do not trust her. But you said you were my ally, correct? Then trust me on this. I know Gamila—and I know that she has no want or will to betray me. I trust her, and that should be enough for you.”

The two monarchs stared at each other for a long moment. Meixiu unwilling to back down, and Joseph still not convinced enough to let this go. Then, suddenly—

“I am also from Earth.”

The three other Earthlings in attendance flinched, spinning to look at the object of their disagreement with wide eyes.

Gamila flinched at their wide eyed stares, but forged on regardless. “I’m from Ethiopia,” she continued, her voice only slightly quivering. “I was brought to this place to be a Queen, the same as Meixiu. But it didn’t work out. I failed, and was taken prisoner by Anderson until Meixiu helped free me. I didn’t tell her—or anyone—about it, because I was afraid she’d try to kill me if she knew. So that’s the reason why they thought I was dead—they did kill me. It just didn’t stick.”

Joseph felt himself untense a bit at that. Sure, it opened up a whole new can of worms if true, (which it had to be, given she not only named Earth, but Ethiopia as her home country), but it explained why she was lying in the first place.

Kaiden looked bemused, likely thrown off both by the deception and the reveal.

And then Meixiu was… well, she looked like she had broke, still staring at the other woman in shock.

“Why…” she croaked.

“Why hide it, or why tell you this now?” Gamila asked humorlessly. “To answer the first, I just didn’t trust you enough. You were going around killing other people because they were ‘God-Kings,’ and I was terrified I would be next if I told you. But… after that speech, when I saw how much trust you gave me, well… I’d have to be scum to keep it a secret after that.”

Meixiu still looked lost. She slowly brought up her hands to her eyes, covering them. Then, with a deep breath, she whispered, “Okay.”

Joseph glanced at her, starting to feel a bit concerned. “Meixiu—” he began.

“NO!” she snapped, removing her hand to glare at him. “I just—we have bigger things to worry about right now. Rebellion, army, Domenic. Just—let’s focus on that, got it!”

Joseph didn’t flinch at her tone, just staring at her quietly. Then, he sighed. “All right. We can talk about this later. So, Gamila,” he turned back to the other woman. “Do you have any ideas on how to proceed? You have the most recent experience with Meixiu’s army. What can you tell us about it?”

“Well,” she began cautiously, “currently, the army is divided into five groups. You’ve got the Queen’s army, which makes up the largest group of around forty people. Then you’ve got Amon’s group, who is the smallest at twenty but just as devoted to her as her own people are. The other three groups all have around thirty people last I checked. They’ve all been slowly mixing together over the past few weeks, but it’s still pretty divided. If we return swiftly, then over half the army should instantly return to our side, but the biggest issue will be getting across to everyone that the Queen is not, in fact, dead.”

“They think I’m dead too!?” Meixiu asked incredulously.

“Yes. Or at least, that’s what I heard. Lukman made a big speech about how I betrayed you and that you were actually dead, along with Amon. I didn’t hear much about Hemede, but that speaks volumes in itself about what his part in this is.”

Joseph frowned, rubbing his chin in thought. “How certain are you that they’d just rebel back to us? If they’re willing to fight for this general in the first place, then certainly they’d have to have some loyalty to him.”

“Very certain,” she nodded at him. “Lukman’s currently working off of a chaotic mob-rule based on lies. He’s pushing his agenda on people who have no way of proving it. Once we show everyone he’s lying, he loses not just his justification for fighting, but also his legitimacy. How many people would want to follow a proven liar, after all?”

“Right,” he nodded at her. “So right now, we should focus more on getting the truth out over actually fighting. In that case, here’s what we can do…”

--

Domenic I

Domenic could admit to himself when he had been outplayed. When someone smarter than him came along and enacted some incredible plan that left him reeling. There was no shame in being bested by a genius, after all.

This, however, was not some stroke of genius. This was petty, pointless time-wasting, led by a man who was surviving purely due to his own stubborn refusal to just give the fuck up already.

TWO MONTHS! Two months, he’d sat outside this damn fortress, doing nothing. It wasn’t even like he was being productive about this either! His army couldn’t go and conquer more cities while he waited, because the second he let up the siege his enemy would strike. And he couldn’t leave his army alone to do his own thing either, because the incompetent primitives would fall apart the instant they lost his incredible leadership.

Hell, one of them had even tried to kill him! Like hell he was leaving these people unattended!

But that didn’t change the fact that he had been sitting outside of a city, in the desert, in a tent, for two months. He was angry, he was uncomfortable, and, worst of all, he was bored.

He was itching to do something. To accomplish something, to fight someone, to do something other than stare at a wall for days on end.

So, when he saw the army of Queen Meixiu collapse into infighting, well…

Well.

She’d conquered quite a few cities herself. That big army just went and proved it. So, if he crushed it now, then all of those cities would be his.

And so Domenic had found something to do.

9,948 God-Kings Remain