Fatima V

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Soon after Xian’s terrifying announcement, the four of them gathered in the Big House.

They sat around a carved tree stump that had been dragged inside. On top of it was a fur pelt, which was painted with a basic map of the surrounding area, with the river and vague locations of each of the villages.

“The Sea-King is located here,” Xian told them, pointing to the coast west of where his own village sat. “Unfortunately, I don’t know where his capital is, other than the fact that it is along the coast. Both of the cities my scouts have visited so far were conquered by the King, and I think one of them was just a small fishing settlement that was never ruled by a God-King, since less than three dozen people live there.”

“How large is his kingdom?” Fatima asked, frowning at the map. There was only the major river and the bay (Ocean? Sea?), but the lines were vague and only represented the terrain in the abstract. There was no way to know how big or far away or even exactly where something was. Compared to the detail precise satellite imaging that they were used to, this map was painfully simple.

“It’s hard to say,” Xian shook his head. “He may only have those two villages—he may have a dozen more. Either way, most of the people we’ve talked to agree that he’s moving up the coast. And that’ll eventually lead him to me.”

The four of them exchanged worried looks.

“Surely we have more information than this!” Avery hissed, glaring at the map as though it would reveal the secrets of their enemy to them.

“Unfortunately, there isn’t much more information to gain,” Xian shrugged with a sigh. “Everyone’s isolated in their own little villages, and by the time anything gets back to us it’s already a day late. We know the broad stokes of what he started with, but everything after that is vague speculation.”

Fatima frowned, her eyes trailing along the river. “Is there anything else we have to worry about? This Sea King is important, but I don’t want us to leave our back open to some unknown attacker while we deal with him.”

“Possibly,” Xian frowned, moving to point at a point east of his village. “I found another ruler here—a Queen, who introduced herself as Isabella. She seemed wary of me, so I didn’t push. I don’t know much about her, but I doubt she’d be as immediate a threat.”

“That’s not the only one,” Avery cut in, pointing at a part of the map further north. “I’ve also found someone upriver—I haven’t contacted them yet, one of my scouts just noticed some houses and returned to tell me about it.”

“So you don’t know if they’re a threat?”

“No,” she shook her head. “I’ve been playing it safe with them.

“So, none of these people are a threat to us?” Issei asked hopefully.

“That we know of,” Xian responded. “We know they exist, and it’s likely they know we exist, but as for how big of a threat they are…” the man shrugged. “We can only speculate.”

“In that case, we should focus on the person we do know is a threat,” Avery cut in, tapping the map for emphasis. “This Enzo, the so-called King of the Sea.”

“How should we begin preparing for this?” Fatima asked Xian. “You know the most about this ‘Sea King,’ do you have any ideas?”

“My people have already started mass-producing boats. I want to remove any naval advantage he has before any conflict even begins,” Xian nodded, before sighing slightly. “Unfortunately, the navy isn’t as important right now. Boats are great for transporting people, but not so good at actual combat yet.”

“Huh? Why not?”

“They’re too small, essentially just canoes,” he shook his head. “They’re well-crafted and good for navigating rivers, but too small and weak for any actual combat—in fact, if I were to be able to forgo the sea in exchange for more soldiers, I’d do so in a heartbeat. Right now, the navy is more about transportation than combat.”

“I see…”

“But what about people?” Avery asked, tapping the mouth of the river thoughtfully. “Getting a lot of people downriver will be difficult enough at the best of times—and winter is not the best of times. And that’s not even getting into the logistics of housing those people in your village for who knows how long.”

“You’re right,” Xian nodded tiredly at the other Queen. “Any war right now would be difficult and bloody to fight. That’s why, instead of fighting, I’m hoping to avoid the war in the first place.”

“…you don’t want to fight?” Issei asked, confused. “But then why are we going to all the trouble of planning this out?”

“This is just in case we have to fight,” Xian told him. “But the goal right now is to avoid conflict in the first place. And I believe it’s possible.”

“How so?” Avery narrowed her eyes. “This isn’t something as simple as politely asking your neighbor to stay out of your lawn—this is convincing a foreign warlord to not conquer you. He might not even care enough to communicate with us in the first place.”

“You’re right,” Xian conceded. “All evidence points to the fact we’ll one day have to fight—but the goal isn’t to avoid fighting him entirely, but to avoid fighting him right now. We just aren’t prepared for that—no infrastructure, no army, and it’s the middle of winter to boot. We’d be on the backfoot from the start in a war like this. It’s better if we buy ourselves enough time to build up and prepare than fight a war we might not be able to win.”

“But any peace that gives us enough time to prepare ourselves would also give him time to better prepare himself. He won’t be idle while we get our own affairs in order.”

“I’m aware of that,” he nodded, conceding the point. “However, I feel that it would be more to our advantage—once winter passes, we’ll be in a much better position overall.”

Avery frowned, obviously not convinced. “I don’t like this…” she sighed. “I don’t like the idea of war in the first place. But I’m worried—it may hurt more, if we fight now, we might be saving ourselves from a stronger enemy further down the line.”

“Or we could die, like all the others.”

Avery sighed. “Or we could die. Like all the others.”

The four rulers came to an agreement, and so plans were drafted to speak with the King of the Sea.

--

The next day, the four rulers gathered along the river. Avery and Issei stood on the land, while Xian helped Fatima into their boat. It was a small one, barely big enough for the two of them, but it would work for what they needed.

They’d decided not to bring any mortals with them. Their retainers would stay with Issei in the village and wait for them to return. This was mostly a logistical issue—it was going to be hard enough to get two God-Kings to the city, much less people who needed food, water, and sleep.

“Why do I have to come?” Fatima most certainly didn’t whine, holding her stomach. The boat was barely moving, and yet she was already feeling queasy. Why couldn’t her immortal constitution have fixed this?

“Because I believe you to be the most… diplomatic of us all,” Xian replied hesitantly. “You bring a certain life to our meetings that the rest of us lack. I don’t think it would be a lie to say that if it weren’t for you, this alliance wouldn’t have gotten off the ground in the first place. So, even if it pains you, I wouldn’t want anyone else by my side for something as delicate as this.”

“Aw! That’s so sweet I might just puke! Or maybe that’s just the seasickness…”

“You get a lot bolder when you’re ill,” Avery smirked at her. “I think I might like you more this way.”

“Please don’t stay like this,” Issei told her seriously. “I don’t think I could stand two Avery’s.”

“Oh? You don’t like my personality?” Avery asked, her eyes flashing dangerously as she glared at the teenager.

“You see what I mean?” Xian sighed, motioning to the two squabbling monarchs.

“Ugh,” Fatima sighed. “Let’s just get this over with.”

And with that the two of them set off, the boat trailing down the river, Xian’s fine control allowing him to expertly dodge any ice and rocks in their path. It was almost smooth enough not trigger her motion sickness.

Almost.

Fatima clutched her stomach as the boat rocked, taking deep breaths. ‘There’s no way I can last like this,’ she whimpered mentally. ‘I need something to distract me.’

“Hey, Xian,” she called out, proud of herself for keeping most of the strain out of her voice. “What did you do back in the old world?”

The older man flinched, obviously not having expected the question. “What did I do? Why do you want to know?”

“I’m just curious. We can talk about something else if you want to.”

The man was silent for a moment, causing her to narrow her eyebrows suspiciously. Surely it couldn’t be that bad, could it?

Then the boat rocked suddenly and she was almost forced to pick another topic because by Allah did her stomach hurt when Xian finally responded.

“…I was an archeologist, actually.”

“Oh dang, really?” Fatima asked, sitting up straighter. “That’s actually pretty cool. With how shifty you were being, I thought you might have been in the mob or something.”

“What!?” he turned to look at her incredulously. “No! Why was that your first thought?”

“Eh, I’m pretty woozy right now. I kinda thought that if you were in the mob, I could’ve been a mafia princess. You would have been my right hand, of course, being that you were actually a mobster. You’d be in charge of all the important stuff, like looking intimidating, or putting horse heads in my enemies’ beds, or accounting. Typical mobster stuff.”

“Your mind goes to strange places sometimes.”

“But enough about my failed dreams of being a mafia princess,” she waved the previous conversation away. “What’s it like being an archeologist? Have you touched any bodies? Well, I guess mobsters would also be touching bodies—a point of connection I never considered between the two professions.”

“No,” he shook his head, ignoring her ramblings. “I didn’t deal with much fieldwork. At least, not anymore. I’m nearing fifty now, you know. I spent most of my time making deals with museums, or analyzing pottery in the labs.”

“How often did you analyze pottery?”

“Often. Some might say too often,” he replied, his eyes going distant as he remembered. “There are so many pots in China. There are so many pots in a lot of the world. We had whole warehouses filled with nothing but pots. Thousands upon millions of pots.”

“Why so many pots?”

“Well, people need storage, and pots are easy to make. So everyone in the world has owned at least one pot, most likely more. Then multiply that by every single human to ever live since the invention of pottery, and you get a whole lot of pots.”

“I see…” Fatima hummed thoughtfully. “Do you think we should make less pots in this world? Or would it be better to make more? Should we make sure future archeologists have the privilege of having warehouses full of pots?”

“I don’t think the amount of pots we make really matters,” Xian chuckled, shaking his head. “But what about you? What did you do?”

“Oh, I was an aerospace engineer,” she told him casually.

Xian choked.

“You were a what!?” he asked, turning to look at her incredulously.

“Why does everyone always react like that!?” Fatima pouted. “Is it so hard to believe I’m smart? Do I really give off dumb girl vibes?”

“It’s just that you don’t look that old,” Xian said, avoiding the question. “I was just surprised.”

“Well, I haven’t been one for long,” she sighed, leaning back against the boat. “I only graduated last year, and I only got a job last month.”

“That’s still very impressive,” Xian reassured her.

“I guess,” she muttered. “Not that it matters much. Knowing advanced calculus doesn’t really help in a world that hasn’t even invented the wheel yet. I hate the fact that all the time I spent in school is now wasted.”

“Hm,” Xian hummed, turning to look back at her. “You know, I felt the same way, once.”

“Really? About what?”

“About my marriage,” he told her, and for some reason she was surprised. It was just, the idea of other people leaving behind loved ones had never occurred to her. It made her feel a little bad for never considering it, actually.

“Did you leave your wife behind when you were dragged to this world?”

“Oh, no,” he sighed, shaking his head. “My wife got a job in America, some twenty years ago. But I… I was foolish, and didn’t want her to leave. I grew angry, and we argued, and argued, and eventually, we divorced.”

“Oh,” Fatima mumbled, now feeling somewhat uncomfortable. But Xian looked lost, like he was in his own little world. She wasn’t sure she should interrupt him, now.

“At the time, I felt angry. I felt betrayed. And I felt like our relationship had suddenly become pointless—like I had devoted so much time and energy into something that no longer existed. It suddenly felt like our entire marriage had been one big waste of time, that if we were going to divorce anyway, we should have never gotten together in the first place and saved ourselves the trouble. But, you know, eventually the hurt faded, and our lives moved on, and I realized something.”

“What did you realize?”

“That even if it eventually fell apart, at the time, those years I spent with her were not wasted. We humans exist in the moment. And I realized that the only experiences that are pointless are those you never experienced in the first place.”

“Huh,” Fatima hummed, thinking on the advice. She understood it, technically. That the years she spent there were still important—that even if she no longer had a degree or the job she worked so hard to get, all that she’d learned during those years was still important.

Her wallet would beg to differ, but she supposed her bank account didn’t matter at this point.

Still, she didn’t feel satisfied with that answer. But maybe that was just an age thing. Maybe in a couple years she wouldn’t even care about her degree anymore, too caught up in new things to bother with old ‘maybes.’

She wondered if she even wanted that to happen.

“Ah, it appears we’ve reached the end of the river,” Xian called back to her, as the land around them suddenly gave way to the sea. With just one more push of his oar they were out of the river, and suddenly now on open waters.

Huh, and she barely even felt ill. Maybe she’d be able to make it the whole way at this rate!

“Now, hold on,” Xian told her. “We’ve hit open waters, so this is where it’ll get bumpy.”

Never mind, she was going to die.

9,931 God-Kings Remain