Orgeeg titled his head and nodded to the man, Dulab, who sat beside him. Orgeeg was in awe of the man. There had been talk of a Binorian soldier who brought down his enemies without the use of a blade, a man who was basically myth, so adept at the Form of Empathy commonly known among the Remu as the combat of speech, that his feats bordered on fiction, becoming a thing used to frighten new recruits and unsettle veterans.
When the Queen Dahli had brought Dulab to the Palace, a man whom she claimed was the key piece in Masutap's downfall. Orgeeg hadn't been impressed while eyeing the lanky man with a face touched lightly by wrinkles, brown eyes and a rust colored beard with neatly cropped black hair on his scalp. He did not give off the air of one who'd ever been in combat before, the lack of muscle attested to this so too did the way he carried himself, reserved, as if death may greet him if he allowed anyone to see what lay within him.
But a simple conversation between Dulab and Orgeeg enabled the Rank One of the Royal Black Guard to doubt his assessment of the man. Dulab, having only met Orgeeg for a span of moments, said to him: "The key to entering Tabrimas lies not in valance but in one's capacity to live to one's full potential." Dulab's words, as if plucked from a tree holding the sweetest fruit, sated Orgeeg's doubt regarding the man. And during the journey to the Westlocal, as they conversed amidst slow strides while guiding their horses, Orgeeg came to hold the mixed race man in high regard.
Dulab reminded Orgeeg of the Remu Masters, the wisdom they held and the way they observed everything with a keen eye as if seeing things for the first time. But a part of him wondered whether Dulab had assessed him and molded himself to fit the character of people who could automatically draw Orgeeg's respect. The thing about the Form of Empathy is how rarely it borders on the truth and at the same time how easily it made one think of lies as truth. That being said, what then was Dulab's true character? Say, if he was in the company of a drunk would he slur his speech and talk without aim as opposed to how he'd act in the presence of a nobleman? Orgeeg concluded that the shifting of Dulab's character was an unavoidable side effect of mastering the Form of Empathy. But it did beg the question, what lay beneath Dulab's facade?
"How did you manage to do it?" Orgeeg asked, eliciting a smile from Dulab.
"She knew the drink was poisoned, she just needed to forget it. Only for a moment, long enough for her to sip." Dylan answered.
"I did not know the Form of Empathy could be employed to such a degree."
A faint sneer twisted Dulab's features before quickly retreating behind his coy smile. "Orgeeg, Orgeeg, Orgeeg. My friend." Dulab calling him his friend suddenly made Orgeeg feel proud of himself, as if it was the biggest accomplishment of his career as a spy and the Rank one of the Royal Black Guard. "You have to understand," Dulab continued. "The Forms are all utter nonsense. Empathy, Grind, Pride, Sleight, Rage and all the others, all of them mean nothing before where the true battle is fought." And Dulab lifted his index finger and tapped his temple. "The mind, Orgeeg, win a thousand battles in your mind and you'll win a thousand battles outside it. There's no Empathy, no Grind or Pride. The Forms are just man's attempt to simplify how the mind may act under certain conditions. And I believe this restricts the ability to improvise, sticking to the same recurring patterns of action, making one fixed. And a fixed enemy is a conquered foe, improvising should be a Form in itself, Orgeeg, maybe I'll start it." Dulab chuckled. "There's a reason the Champions of Meena do not employ Forms of Combat, for they understand how time consuming such a sequence of attacking and defending is, not to mention predictable. Better to hit with brute force and eradicate an opponent on all fronts than focus on one part then another." Dulab lifted his head to stare at Masutap. "I wonder what the Kolotian, Ishar, fights like."
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Orgeeg felt a shiver at the mention of Ishar's name quickly followed by rage at the fear the Kolotian drew out of him. "The Kolotian doesn't fight a battle within his mind, no, he takes all that is in his mind, the utter madness within, and forces reality to twist to mirror it." Orgeeg shook his head. "It is not a fight, when you face him." Orgeeg recalled himself upon the Ganidan Plain, curled in on himself from Ishar's kick to his groin. "It is annihilation." He recalled Desan's screams as Ishar broke him piece by piece. "And Madness." And he heard the screams of the returned Legions from the Ganidan Plain, the returned survivors if that's what they could be called. Not an ounce of lucidity within their being. A burden to Binoria's pocket as they do nothing but lay on the ground screaming and muttering nonsense.
Dulab nodded. "I would like to meet the Kolotian one day."
"Pray to all the Gods that such a desire is not met." Orgeeg said and turned his attention to the woman sitting before him. Stiff as a board. Incapable of even lifting her tongue due to the heavy dose of Hump rat's poison. A dose that would no doubt kill a man ten times her body weight in seconds. Yet she still breathed, shallow breaths that were barely noticeable but very much there. Her half lidded eyes were fixed on him and her mouth, open from a jaw whose ability to clench was rendered obsolete by the poison, trembled. Orgeeg wondered why Binoria's rival Kingdoms didn't employ the use of poisons on the past Kings of Binoria. Orgeeg guessed it was because they didn't have a willing test subject, most poisons do not work on the Champions of Meena. On the insistence of the Queen and much to Orgeeg's dismay, they had tested several poisons on her and only the Hump rat's poison seemed to have any effect. And the effect was short lived, the lethal dose that had been dealt Dahli had only lasted for half an hour. But it was enough time for one to act without being impeded by one with the Jojoh Meena.
Orgeeg leaned forward. "Masutap, your day of reckoning has come." He spoke calmly, as if explaining something to an infant. "You thought the power of the Goddess Meena was enough to stay justice's hand, but the Royal Black Guard never forgets," he balled his hands into fists. The Royal Black Guards all around the tavern took slow steps forward, crowding towards their table, their hands gripping the hilts of their blades, eager for blood. "Masutap, you failed at your duty, the punishment for this is for you to lose your sight, your ability to hear, your hands and your feet. But at the same time you killed Prince Desan, and attempted to kill Queen Dahli, for that, death is its only reward."
Masutap let loose a groan and her eyes flashed a brilliant red as the Jojoh Meena took effect, bolstering her strength and her body. Just as it had done Dahli, it'd be a while before she fully recovered enough to move and by then she'd have been hacked to pieces, this was her end. No matter where she retreated to, no matter what she did, she was going to die. Orgeeg gave the order for the Royal Black Guard to have their vengeance and they moved to obey, raising their blades.
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