Joseph XIII, Gamila VI

PA 1.3

Joseph

There were times, when sitting on his throne listening to people complain about the same stupid issues day in and day out, that Joseph’s mind liked to wander.

It wasn’t that he meant to be rude, really, but this person was complaining yet again about how they needed to get their boat back from the army because ‘fish don’t swim close enough to shore,’ and ‘the fish get scared when there’s too many people around!’

‘Well, I’m sorry Mr. Fisherman, but we did tell you the boat was on loan when we gave it too you. And even then, it’s not like we can just take it back, so please stop wasting my time with your inane ramblings every single day!’

He didn’t say that out loud, of course. That would be rude. Instead, he replied calmly, “I apologize, but we cannot return anyone’s boat until the war is over. You were told when we gave it to you—it was a temporary loan that we could requisition during times of war. You knew this when you accepted.”

“But we’ve already won anyway, haven’t we? What’s the harm in just the one boat, huh?”

“You are correct that just one boat wouldn’t make a difference,” Joseph nodded his head. “However, once people see that you got your boat back early, they’ll all start clambering at me to return their boats as well. And then I will have to tell them no, I can’t, which will cause them to turn to you, complaining about favoritism and whatnot. Some of them might try to steal your boat for themselves. Tell me, are prepared to deal with the fallout of that?”

“Well,” the man spluttered. “Surely you’d stop them, yeah?”

“True,” he nodded. “Stealing government property is illegal. However, I prefer to avoid allowing the crime to happen at all, rather than creating an opportunity for it to happen. So I apologize once again, but I will not be returning your boat until this war has ended."

The man winced and complained a bit more, before finally, finally leaving.

For today, at least. Joseph had no doubt he’d be back tomorrow.

‘God, aren’t I supposed to be a King? Why do I feel like I’m working customer service again?’

Luckily, it seems he had something different to distract him today, in the form of scout entering the Plaza.

The scout, having learned from their blunder last time, had been standing off to the side, waiting for him to finish with the fisherman before stepping forward. Honestly, Joseph kind of wished he’s just barged in like last time.

“Pharaoh, I’ve arrived with news from the front!” the scout told him calmly, taking a knee in front of him. “Three days ago, General Meixiu led the army into battle with the enemy King Quang and King Tobias’ forces. She proceeded to crush them utterly, even taking the enemy King Tobias captive!”

The courtiers and other hangers-ons in the Plaza let out cheers and claps for the army’s victory, though it was noticeably less than last time despite the arguably more important victory. Perhaps they had already expected to win, and so this wasn’t as big a deal for them anymore.

While the others in the Plaza were busy congratulating each other for doing nothing, the scout quickly leaned in and handed him a clay slab which had what looked like Chinese characters painted on it.

“This’ll give you more detailed information about what happened,” the scout told him quietly. “The General asked me to keep this quiet, for your eyes only.”

Well, that was ominous.

Glancing down at the slab, Joseph frowned as his eyes immediately translated what was on the slab into English.

Fatalities: 35

Casualties: 118

Future Fatalities: 30+

King Tobias offers his allegiance in exchange for freedom.

Possible political consequences with ally.

Not necessary to win war, but helpful.

King Quang escaped, whereabouts currently unknown.

That was… better than he’d feared, but worse than he’d hoped.

Quang escaping was, of course, awful, and could delay this war indefinitely if they let it. King Tobias’ offer of allegiance was interesting as well, but despite all that, his eyes couldn’t help but be drawn back to the top of the slab.

Thirty-five fatalities. Over a hundred wounded, with over thirty of them not expected to survive their injuries. That was… a lot of dead people. Not compared to the size of his Kingdom, or even the size of his army, but…

He couldn’t do anything more than offer a silent prayer to a god he didn’t believe in that their afterlives would be better than their lives.

And that wasn’t even counting the enemy casualties—he didn’t for a second believe that those numbers included the enemy army, nor even that Meixiu would care enough to even count the other side’s dead. She was… he didn’t want to say cold-hearted, but ruthless would probably be a good descriptor.

Sighing, he ignored that for now. The war was still raging after all, and more people would be dead by the time it was over. He’d mourn properly then.

The issue with the two God-Kings was more pressing, anyway. King Quang having escaped was an issue, but one he’d have to leave in Meixiu’s more capable hands. King Tobias’ offer of allegiance, however, was something she’d left him to deal with.

Instinctively, he wanted to say yes. Accepting Tobias as a vassal would save not only the man’s life, but also the lives of many of his soldiers as well. Not only that, but it would make holding his lands after the war so much easier than if he were dead. After all, if he’d compared the (mostly) passive and happy people in Meixiu’s old lands compared to the ‘one-wrong-move-away-from-revolt’ people in Domenic’s old lands, it was no contest which side was easier to govern.

Unfortunately, her warning about the political consequences reminded him that his ally might not agree with that. Beyond Tobias’ lands being so far away from his own, they were also right next to the Two Oasis’ lands. And with the Starfell Kingdom using their current war as a distraction to finally take out Getoralaind, he wasn’t sure if he could afford pissing off his only ally. Taking the Wustenreich for himself would make things easier in the short term, but there were a lot of possible long-term consequences.

He grimaced. He needed more time to think about this, probably talk it over with Hsekiu and Kaiden as well. Meixiu seemed to be somewhat against it, with the way she’d highlighted only the political problems it would bring in her message, but she’d also left the decision completely to him. He had no way to contact Gamila to ask her about it, but he wouldn’t be surprised if she agreed with Meixiu.

He then sighed once more as he realized he’d have to tell King Cui about this. The man had spent his early days sitting in the Plaza with him, pretending at being a King in a foreign court, but had long since grown bored of the mundanity of actually holding court and had since spent most of his days down by the docks, painting and playing cards with the dockworkers. It was, some would say, unbecoming of a King to do so, but to tell the truth Joseph would rather be down there with him.

Damn responsibility.

--

Gamila

Over the past few weeks, Gamila had slowly but surely managed to slip her way further into the Queen’s good graces.

Following her first report, at least five people including Akil had been rounded up and dumped in the dungeons—which she’d only just learned existed after they’d been imprisoned. One person was made an example of, being executed in front of everyone as a warning to all traitors.

Naturally, not a day later even more people were complaining about the ‘ruthless Queen.’

Ah, sometimes people just did her job for her.

But beyond having started with gaining her attention by reporting some people who’d been complaining, she’d since built upon that with weekly reports and outstanding work in the training yard. Never getting tired or needing to eat meant that she’d been taking and excelling at the long and uncomfortable nightshifts that most people tried everything in their power to avoid.

Perhaps, if Queen Olivia had been a bit more perceptive, she would have considered the idea she was a God-King. But between her dark skin and easy camaraderie with her ‘friends’ and fellow soldiers, she was above suspicion. Maybe not forever, but she’d long since mapped out ways to escape the city if she was caught.

What all this meant, however, was that she had just a bit more freedom of movement than other soldiers. People knew the Queen liked her—even if they didn’t know why—and so she was able to slip into places she normally wouldn’t be allowed.

Or in this case, infiltrate a meeting that she probably should not have been able to witness.

“Queen Olivia,” a soldier bowed before her, greenish-blue markings on his leather armor denoting his allegiance to the Song. “I come with news, from King Quang. He requests your assistance destroying the Sunset army to the north.”

Gamila hadn’t actually been meaning to meet with the Queen today. However, this soldier had arrived at the gates at sunrise this morning during her shift, asking to meet with the Queen on behalf of King Quang. Taking the excuse to gather more information, she’d offered to lead him to her, and upon arriving, stationed herself at the door to ‘guard’ the Queen’s chambers.

Olivia had given her a look, but didn’t say anything, focusing instead on the soldier in front of her.

“I see,” the Queen stared down at the soldier imperiously, a scowl forming on her face. “So Quang, after nearly two months of leaving me in the dark with nothing more than orders to guard a border that the enemy just moved around, finally contacts me to beg help in a war that he told us would be so easy to win we wouldn’t need to do anything but hold. Tell me, does King Quang really have the balls to demand anything of me now?”

The soldier began to sweat, suddenly looking like he’d rather be anywhere but there. “I… doubt he meant it as an insult, Queen Olivia. But you see, we… we recently took back Wen’s capital, Dàhé! It was easy, even, since the people revolted against the few troops the Sunset Kingdom had left there the second our army came across the horizon. That’s where he is now, you see, along with his army. So I assure you, the King is simply taking this time to reconnect with his allies to the south!”

Gamila would give the man this—he recovered from that pretty damn well.

In an instant, Olivia began to calm down, almost deflating at the soldier’s words. “Wen…” she sighed sadly, looking for a moment like a lost young woman, rather than the hardass she normally was. But then the moment passed, and she was sitting straight with a scowl on her face like it had always been there. “I see. But what, pray tell, does he expect us to do for him? Or is he so desperate that our sixty-odd soldiers will actually help him?”

The soldier winced, but continued to bullshit admirably. Which was good, since his wellbeing probably depended on keeping her in a good enough mood to let him leave. “It’s not that he’s desperate,” she soldier assured the Queen quickly. “He just wants everyone to gather together for one last push against the Sunset army. They’re already stranded deep in our lands without anyway back, so the King believes that we can force them to crumble with just one more battle!”

Olivia stared at him long enough for it to become somewhat awkward, before finally nodding.

“Very well,” she grunted. “I’ll bring my soldiers to Dàhé as soon as possible. Now, leave. Ask one of the guards to point you to the exit of my city if you’ve forgotten your way.”

“Of course, Queen Olivia,” the soldier saluted her, before speed-walking past Gamila out the door.

The moment he was gone, Olivia let herself (slightly) relax, rubbing her forehead. Gamila wondered if she should still be here, or— “Soldier,” well that answers that question. “Go back to the barracks, and inform everyone to prepare to march. We’re leaving tomorrow for Dàhé. After you’ve done that, report back here—you’re joining my personal guard. Congratulations.”

Gamila blinked, thrown off by the sudden orders. “I, uh, yes, My Queen!”

“Didn’t you hear me?” Olivia scowled at her. “I said go!”

Gamila, wisely, left immediately.

And the second she was out of the room, started brainstorming what she’d need to do next.

Getting this information to Meixiu was beyond important. Unfortunately, she wasn’t quite sure how. The Merchant wasn’t available right now—frankly, he was too irregular to work with consistently anyway. She’d definitely need to work on that once this was over with. But other than that, she didn’t really have any way to contact Joseph or Meixiu. When she’d left, she’d been so focused on getting into the enemy camp that she didn’t spend enough time thinking about how she’d get information out, and that was starting to come back to bite her now.

She needed some way to get this information to Meixiu, but nothing she could think of could work! She needed people; someone she could trust to get her information to Meixiu!

Unless… ah. There was an idea.

--

The dungeons of Fortaleza weren’t much to look at—just a hole in the ground that had been dug to throw people in and forget they existed. Each cell was a tiny room with a cot and a bucket. Food would be brought in every morning and every night, and the only light was a single torch at the back whose smoke made the room somewhat hard to breathe in.

She wondered if this was how people got lung cancer.

There were about a dozen prisoners right now, but only one guard. Probably because the cells themselves were sealed off with mudbrick until there was only a hole big enough for food to be shoved through, with the ‘door’ broken down and rebuilt anytime a prisoner needed to be moved.

It was pretty damn inhumane, but right now it suited her purposes just fine.

“You are Akil, are you not?” she asked softly, distorting her voice as best she could as she spoke through one of those small holes. She’d put on a mask, to make sure he couldn’t recognize her face, but changing her voice was much harder.

“…Ah? Y-yeah, I am. Who’s asking?”

The weakness of his voice made her wince, but she shook it off. She’d put him here, but now she was going to get him out. They would be even after this.

“A friend,” she continued softly. “And I’m going to get you out of here.”

Behind her, laying in a pool of his own blood, was the dead guard. He had been… surprisingly easy to kill. She pushed the implications of that off for later. She had something more important to focus on right now.

“But my help does not come cheap. Tell me, what would you do in exchange for your freedom?”

“I… Any… Anything. Please.”

“Then, I need you to turn against the Queen who so wrongfully imprisoned you here. Can you do that.”

This time, the answer was instant. It was a low, hateful, “Yes.”

She let out a sigh of relief. “Good. Then, I will give you a pot. You will go north, to the Sunset army, and give it to their leader. Can you do that for me?”

“…Yes.”

“Then we have an accord. Do not betray me—trust me, you do not want to know what will happen to you if you do.”

Bringing up the stone hammer she’d snuck in here, she slammed it against the ‘door,’ causing the deliberately poorly built wall to come crashing down. She winced at the noise, especially when some of the other prisoners started causing a ruckus, but she ignored them. Luckily, that sound was common coming from the prison.

Akil stood up from his cot, wincing as light poured over him for the first time in days. He was skinny, his hair having grown long and disgusting, and his eyes were bloodshot. He looked like a man a minute away from death.

It made something sour in her, to know she’d caused something like this to happen to someone. But there was no time to focus on that now.

“Wait ten minutes at least, or as long as you can after I leave,” she told him, handing him a bag filled with food, the aforementioned pot, and a waterskin. “If you want, you can break the others out, but our deal still stands regardless. Here is a cloak—wear it to hide your face. The northern gate is open, and the guards will not stop you—march directly there from here. Do not waste anymore time in this city, lest you get caught again—and this time, I have no doubt they’d kill you. Do you have any questions?”

The man stared at her, his eyes still squinting at the light. “…No. I just… I want to see the sun again.”

“…You will,” she told him softly. “Sunrise and sunset both. The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, I promise that you’ll see them all.”

And with that she left him, hoping and praying that he’d make it out of the city and to the Sunset army fine. For both their sakes.

9,896 God-Kings Remain