Fatima IX

PA 1 – April

The moment she’d learned what happened to Nancheng, Fatima dropped everything and departed for the city. But even though she’d come as soon as she could, it still felt too late.

Arriving at the port of the city, she was dismayed to see the state it was in. Half of the docks were cordoned off, to dangerous for people to walk on, while the remainder was in the process of being dismantled, with what remained of the original burned and stained. The warehouses were empty, their remaining goods having been moved into the city proper. Guards were on constant patrol, walking around in tight packs of half a dozen as they eyed the few foreign merchants who remained distrustfully.

It hurt her heart to see it like this. It hurt even more to know this was what it looked like after days to recover. She couldn’t even imagine how bad it was at the time.

Pushing past the ruined harbor, she entered the city, the guards at the entrance recognizing her and allowing her in with hopeful eyes, as though she held the solution to their current woes.

She did not, but it would do them no good to know that.

Finally, she arrived at Xian’s house. It was a modest, personal cabin with the symbol of the city—a white spear rising from the blue ocean—painted on the door. With a motion for her guards to wait outside, she took a deep breath, and opened the door to her fellow God-King’s home.

Xian lived alone in a small house, not much bigger than her first studio apartment. A bed and some shelves were pushed against the back wall, while a table and chairs sat at the foyer. Xian was sitting in them quietly, his hands clasped beneath his chin as he stared hollowly at a map of the region he’d spread over the table.

“Xian,” Fatima greeted him softly, stepping into his home. “I heard what happened. I cam as soon as I could.”

Xian glanced up, apparently only just noticing she was there. “Ah. Fatima. I apologize, I didn’t see you there. Is it just you who came?”

“Avery might arrive later, but I advised the others to stay home. I didn’t think you’d want to deal with Isabella right now, and Issei’s too young for this type of stuff,” she answered him. “May I take a seat?”

“Hm? Oh, yes, yes,” Xian nodded absently. “I’m sorry I don’t have anything better to accommodate you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she reassured him. “I’m more worried about you, than anything. Are you doing alright, after what happened?”

Xian closed his eyes for a long moment, before sighing. “…No, I don’t think I am. But I am a King—a leader of these people. My people. So I have to stay strong.”

“Xian…”

“Please, let’s just move on.”

Fatima grimaced, but acquiesced. “Very well. Do you have any idea who did this?”

Xian scowled, frustrated. “No. I have theories, but nothing concrete. Personally, though, I believe it was Enzo, the Sea King.”

Fatima wasn’t surprised, but that didn’t mean she agreed. “I understand where you’re coming from, Xian, but that’s a serious accusation. Enzo is the strongest power in the region, and just accusing him of something like this could insult him greatly, especially if he didn’t do it. It might even lead to war.”

“But what if he did,” Xian’s scowl deepened. “That’s practically a declaration of war in and of itself. Should we just ignore it? Pretend that he did nothing wrong to keep up a facsimile of peace!? Is that peace worth the constant threat to my people’s safety to their very lives!?”

“That is not what I said,” Fatima reassured him. “I’m saying that we should be more cautious. We have no proof that it was him, only a gut feeling.”

“And basic logic.”

“So let’s do some more investigative work before we go accusing him,” she ignored him. “You’ve talked to the people who were there during the attack, right? Did they notice something important?”

“Nothing at first,” Xian frowned. “However, those pirates had some very distinct equipment. Their boats, for starters, were much larger than our own. They also wielded curved stone daggers, and wore black leather armor. Otherwise, they had no distinctive markings, and of the two corpses we recovered their features were too average to be recognizable.”

Fatima hummed, tapping absently on the arm of her chair while she thought. “What about what they took? Was there any rhyme or reason to what they took?”

Xian leaned back, rubbing his chin. “I’m not sure. I know they stole a significant chunk of our food stock, but I don’t remember if they focused on that. Though, why would what they stole matter? We don’t need to know why they attacked, just who.”

“Well, if they focused on stealing food, then it is possible that they might not be able to feed their own people and they attacked out of desperation, making it an attack of convenience rather than aggression. On the other hand if they focused on, say, weapons, then this might have been to weaken us, making it an attack by someone who might want to fight us in the future.”

Xian narrowed his eyes at her. “…You don’t think this was an attack by the Sea King, do you?”

“Perhaps not,” she shrugged. “I mean, he’s the obvious answer, isn’t he? But he’s also a bit too obvious, don’t you think? In an attack from the sea, everyone immediately thinks of the Sea King. So if he attacked us, he’d know he’d be the primary suspect. Perhaps he thought it was a worthwhile risk—or, perhaps it was someone else entirely. Maybe it was a different party hoping to set the two of us against each other in a bid to weaken the both of us. Maybe it was someone trying to ruin the Sea King’s reputation with his neighbors—not that he needs any help with that. Or maybe it just was him and I’m overthinking this,” she shrugged. “But the point is, we don’t know. And so, instead of jumping in guns blazing, we should focus on figuring out who did it before we make an enemy we can’t afford to face.”

“Then let’s send out an expedition,” Xian offered. “My harbor may have been destroyed, but my soldiers are perfectly fine. Let’s send them out to every city on the sea until we find out which one is harboring those damn pirates.”

“Xian, that’s a horrible idea! That’s practically declaring war on every Kingdom in the area!”

“So what? You say we need to wait until we have more information before acting, but then you refuse to look for answers! Are we supposed to do nothing!?”

“I never said that, Xian. I just said we need to exercise caution.”

“Caution? Or cowardice. Because from where I’m sitting, they’re starting to look the same.”

“Xian. Enough. This doesn’t have to be solved with more violence. Just give us some time to figure out a proper plan that doesn’t involve pissing off all our neighbors.”

“We don’t have time for that!”

“Well what would you have us do!?” Fatima threw her hands up, starting to get frustrated. “Go around accusing all our neighbors of attacking us? Demand recompense from innocent strangers? I understand your frustration, Xian, I really do. But at the moment there is nothing we can do.”

Xian scowl softened, before he sighed, placing a hand over his eyes. “…I know. I know! But there has to be something! Something more than just waiting around in the hopes that maybe we’ll find an answer.”

“I understand… no, perhaps I really don’t,” she corrected herself. “But know that I am just as invested in bringing the bastards who did this to justice as you are. So, please, work with me here. Do you have any ideas of someone who would or could have done this besides the Sea King?”

Xian rubbed his eyes, looking as exhausted as he probably felt. “…I don’t know. It had to be someone with a coastal city, so that leaves… a lot of people.”

“Yeah,” Fatima sighed. “Enzo may have taken a lot of the coastal cities out, but even more still remain. Well, let’s think of it this way. The smaller a kingdom is, the less likely it is to waste manpower and resources on something as uncertain as that attack. As such, let’s talk through the most powerful Kingdoms in the area and work our way down from there.”

“Right… right.”

“First, we have the Sea King,” she noted, pointing down at the map between them. “King Enzo is the primary suspect, but might be too suspicious for us to be certain. He’s expansionist and has the largest navy, so he has motive and means, but again, it’s a little too obvious.”

“I’d argue you’re overthinking this,” Xian grunted, before raising his hand with a sigh. “I know, I know. It could be anyone. But still.”

Fatima gave him a look, but didn’t argue. “Anyway, the next most dominant power is the Mare Reale to the south, ruled by King Luca. While he has the means, he’s a bit too far away and lacks motive. If anything, he’d be attacking Enzo, since the two of them have been at odds ever since Enzo’s failed invasion last winter. Of course, there’s the possibility he attacked us to indirectly weaken Enzo, since we’re one of his main trade partners…”

The King also controlled all the sea trade from the south, since he owned the small isthmus that connected them to the south. As such, he had a significant amount of soft power in the region, even if his navy was weaker than Enzo’s. Land trade was also something that did happen, but not at the scale sea trade was currently operating at. Most land-based trade was with nomadic tribes who passed through their territory, rather than official delegations of merchants from other nations.

Enzo and Luca were technically still at war—since they never signed a peace treaty or anything—but following a nasty blizzard which grounded their navies, they’ve been in a stalemate for the past few months.

“Third most powerful is the Mountain Queen, Ishani, though she barely has a navy and only one coastal city. Next would have to be King Randal of the Mossroot Kingdom, but while he has the navy for it he lacks a significant population. He might not have been willing to risk attacking us and losing those people, few as they were, and he’s even further away from us than Luca is.”

“The only thing you’ve done so far is reinforce that it has to be Enzo,” Xian frowned at her.

“Might. It might be Enzo. Just because it’s likely doesn’t make it positive. We need more information before we can declare with certainty that it’s him.”

“And how are we going to figure these things out if you don’t want us to send soldiers to intimidate them? It’s not like we can just ask them. So unless you’re willing to accept my idea…?”

Fatima hummed, crossing her arms. “No—or at least, not yet. If we’re going to avoid further conflict, then we need a soft touch for this. I suppose… perhaps we should try bribe…? No, there’s no real currency to do that with yet. Or maybe something more substantial? Should we try and set up a spy network? Where would we even start with that?”

“Even if we did, wouldn’t it take to long?” Xian asked. “A spy network isn’t just the kind of thing that pops up overnight. Especially not in this world.”

“You’re right,” she conceded. “Though it might be beneficial to have in the future, at least. It might allow us to learn of future attacks before they occur. Still, the idea certainly has some merit right now… Perhaps, instead of looking in the Kingdoms themselves for answers, we ask their neighbors? Everyone has rivals, and even neutral neighbors might be willing to throw them under the bus if given the chance.”

“That doesn’t mean they’d actually seen anything, though,” Xian frowned. “Heck, if they’re the ones who did it, they might make stuff up to throw us off their scent.”

“True, true,” Fatima hummed, nodding thoughtfully. “But… what if we were the ones who made stuff up?”

“…Pardon?”

“We don’t know who attacked us,” she tapped the map sitting between them thoughtfully. “But if we spread some rumors—like, say, that we weren’t the only ones attacked—then suddenly this isn’t an us problem—it’s an international one. These pirates become a threat to everyone. And, hey, they were pretty successful, right? Why wouldn’t others copy them? So, let’s say we inform King Luca that we heard a rumor that King Enzo is building up his navy for a pirate attack on one of his cities. It’s a lie, but it’s probable, something you could easily see him doing. So even if King Luca was behind the first attack, we create a new, bigger threat for him to worry about than us. And if we do so again, spreading rumors all across the coast of pirates and plunderers… we’d turn everyone against each other, but not us—after all, how could it be us, when we were attacked first? When our navy has already been destroyed? Suddenly, we would no longer have to worry about any further attacks, with the everyone else too busy eyeing each other to bother with us!”

Her rant finished, she looked up at Xian for his thoughts on the matter, a wild, smug grin spread across her face.

Xian, for his part, was staring at her with wide eyes. “Ah. Remind me to never get on your bad side.”

“Hm?”

“Nothing,” Xian shook his head. “I mean, that plan might work. Maybe. But it also feels a bit… passive? We wouldn’t get revenge on the people who did this that way. It just feels like it wouldn’t be enough.”

Fatima nodded slowly, the smile slipping from her face. “I get it. But until we can decisively figure out who did it, then it’s best we work on stopping it from ever happening again. Do you have any ideas that could help with that?”

“You mean besides destroying the people who did this the first time?”

“Xian.”

“Right, right,” The older man held up his hands in surrender. “I’ve already set some of my scouts to look for a place to set up watchtowers along the coast. Especially, I want one here,” he pointed to the map, where the thin White Bay fed into the sea. “If we get some sort of barrier or checkpoint there, then we can stop any enemies long before they reach the city itself.”

“I see…” she hummed, staring at where he was pointing. Glancing further east, she frowned as she realized something. “What about Isabella’s capital? Vila Rosa? Should we do something about that?”

Xian shook his head. “It’s probably not necessary. It’s hard to tell on our—admittedly inaccurate—maps, but her city isn’t on the coast. It’s on a lake, in a swampy region. Normal boats can’t make it to her city, and she only has a small harbor on the coast for traveling purposes. While she might be in danger from a full-scale war, she’d be fine from a dozen or so pirates.”

“That’s good,” Fatima sighed in relief. “Still, I think we should warn her to up her defenses anyway. If a war comes to us from the south she would be on the frontlines. Better to be safe than sorry in any case.”

Xian nodded in agreement, before sighing, staring back down at the map. “…Do you really think this could lead to a war?”

Fatima grimaced, but answered honestly. “Maybe. This could be the prelude to a war, it could be a one-off thing, or it could just be normal piracy. Only hindsight will tell.”

“…Is it bad,” the old man murmured hesitantly, “that a part of me wants a war? That a part of me wants to throw all this planning to the wind, and just go out and slaughter those bastards who did this?”

Fatima blinked slowly, letting out a low sigh. “…I don’t think so. You’re angry. I am too, but you were there. There’s probably some sort of PTSD thing going on here, but, um, I don’t think it makes you a bad person. People died because of what happened, and you wanting to avenge them doesn’t make you a bad person. Just… promise me that you’ll be careful not to let it grow beyond that. That you won’t let that desire for vengeance consume you, okay?”

“…Yeah,” Xian nodded. “Yeah, okay. I promise. …And, Fatima?”

“Hm?”

“…Thank you.”

“Of course, Xian. Anytime.”

9,874 God-Kings Remain