Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 59. From the Shadows.
“Are you serious?” Reian asked with disbelief. He was so thrown off by Mustafa’s suggestion that he had forgotten about addressing Mustafa with honorifics and spoke to him as he did in private, and he didn’t even realize what he did after the words had come out of his mouth.
“Can’t you go with us too, father?” Arslan asked his own question, approaching the matter at a very different pace compared to Reian.
“…” Laien and Yin, on the other hand, remained silent. They were both quite surprised as neither of them could fully understand the reasoning behind Mustafa’s action, but they could tell that Reian was a very powerful practitioner even without probing him with their auras. They were being given an opportunity to travel with him through the Ikarian-controlled lands, what would be a great benefit to them, so they wouldn’t object. Well, there was also the matter of the two of them thinking that it would be interesting to travel with Arslan, but they could only smile wryly when they thought about it.
“Trust me, I would love to go with you,” Mustafa answered Arslan’s question, but the little smirk on his face was undoubtedly directed at Reian. “If everything goes well I might join you halfway through if you don’t rush, but that’s pretty unlikely to happen after all,” he said with a sigh. It would be fine if Yimar Maar of the Guode Yimarate turned out to be more reasonable than he expected, but he had learned enough about him and his Sword of Rala to know they would oppose the changes he wanted to bring to Euleanian Yimarates as much as they could. Especially now that he had killed Tashakir, everything would become somewhat harder to manage.
Arslan pouted for a little bit after listening to Mustafa’s explanation, but he consoled himself that he would be able to make friends with Laien and maybe even accomplish something great that would surprise his father. “How long will it take you, father?” he asked instead of being stubborn, wanting to at least know when he could expect the official business to be done.
“If everything goes well, about three weeks. If no, about three months,” Mustafa answered straightforwardly. It would have been quicker if everyone in question was gathered at one place, but the Yimars and other important people, like the top members of the House of Coin or their representatives were scattered all over the three Eulean Yimarates and some were even traveling around the continent with others being back at Arkaria. If the top brass obediently listened to him it would be simple enough to restore order, but he never expected them to obey so easily to begin with. It would take some political maneuvering and some executions to clean up after the mess all those warmongers had made in the southern Eulene.
“Got it,” Arslan said with a slight smile and nodded. He wasn’t overjoyed that the plans of him spending a lot of time with his father changed, but when he thought about it more deeply it was pretty much his fault that they did. “Mhm, both father and Reian were amazing since they were young. I should treat this as a journey to make some acc… accomp… well, some merits for myself,” he thought positively, overall looking forward to the next weeks, maybe months.
“So, does my opinion not matter here?” Reian asked resignedly, this time consciously dropping the honorifics. It wasn’t that he was angry at Mustafa, rather… he was reminded of the days Mustafa trained him when he was young and all the unreasonable requests and decisions of his.
“It doesn’t, but it would help if you went willingly,” Mustafa said with a laugh. “Take two of our water-element spiritual masters with you and pick one additional person to your liking,” he added with a smile and without waiting for Reian’s response as in this case, it mattered not.
“Fine,” Reian gave in. It really would be more enjoyable for him if he traveled willingly instead of being grumpy the whole time. “However, you want us to travel with those small numbers? Won’t it be dangerous?” he asked, worrying about Arslan’s safety. It was one thing back in Makarash for Arslan to walk the streets with only him as the guard, but the lands of Eulene didn’t appear to be nearly as safe. He could protect Arslan from most dangers, but he was still too young; he wouldn’t be able to deal with experts at the level of Yimar Maar or the Sword of Rala who served under him.
Seeing how anxious Reian was, Mustafa smiled with understanding and explained. “Arslan will never learn anything if all he does is travel with a hundred White Guards. As much as possible I’d like him to be the one making decisions during your journey.” Having said so, he glanced at Arslan and added. “Treat this as an opportunity to learn on your own. I won’t always be there to make the choices, there will be times in the future when Reian won’t be there either.”
“Yes, father.” Arslan nodded energetically, his eyes glittering with anticipation. His father was thinking about the same thing he did! Now that it came to that, he would do everything possible to meet his father’s expectations! Maybe he could somehow help his father solve the problems of the Eulene? If he found an opportunity to do that then his father would definitely praise him a lot!
Mustafa chuckled quietly and crouched in front of Arslan. He put his hand on top of his son’s head and looked him in the eye. “If there is one advice I can give you it would be to think about the consequences of your actions. If you have time, always think about what is going to happen later. Try to guess how other people would respond before you do anything important,” he advised in as simple of words as he could find. He could trust Reian to keep Arslan away from doing anything too stupid or reckless, but it would be for the best if his son learned on his own why certain things were better not to be done than if he was only told not to do them and told to listen.
Arslan nodded, committing his father’s words to memory. He understood the concept, but he wasn’t sure if he would be able to always know how other people would react. But, wasn’t the purpose of this whole thing for him to learn just that? Thinking like this he refused to get demotivated.
“Good,” Mustafa smiled contentedly and stood up. He then looked at Laien and Yin and asked. “You should be fine with that, no? You will be able to avoid most trouble thanks to having those guys by your side.”
Laien smirked slightly, while Yin smiled to himself. Avoiding trouble? They had been doing the exact opposite of that ever since they left the Sarkcente Kingdom. Yet, if they were to reflect on their actions… it really was as if they were trying to get themselves killed. It wasn’t their fault though that most of those situations had developed to be so dangerous! Well, it wasn’t their fault most of the time.
“It’s okay, it will be fun to travel with them,” Laien said with a chuckle and exchanged a glance with Yin. It was really good that only they knew each other’s thoughts, or else Mustafa might reconsider sending his son with them. But either way, they needed to tone down on dangerous situations; yes, they quietly promised themselves to do just that.
“Mhm...” Mustafa looked to the side and breathed out heavily. “One of those three died…” he pointed out, having noticed that the boy stopped breathing as his aura disappeared completely. “Take the body, at least their parents will be able to give their son a proper burial,” he gave the unspecific order, not mentioning which of the present men was supposed to carry it out.
“Kasha, Sirius,” Reian called two of the spiritual masters by their names. “You will be coming with young lord and me. Kasha, find Jasmine and tell her to come to the eastern gate. Take horses for the seven of us along the way back too,” he ordered briefly and sent the young woman with the ordeal while keeping the old man Sirius by his side. Both of those two were exceptional water-element spiritual masters, but Kasha was so far only a rising star as she had entered the Realm of Heroes a few months ago. Sirius in comparison was at the fifth Realm of Heroes and was already over one thousand years old; he was one of the most senior members of the White Guard and was a person with a lot of experience… but with little motivation to do anything apart from enjoying his life. Were it not for him owing that very life to Mustafa’s aid, he would have never served the family as faithfully and dutifully as he was doing currently.
“Five horses,” Laien clarified before the black-haired Ikarian woman left. “We have our own horses and a few men waiting outside the palace, just outside of the eastern gate,” he explained with a smile, and as surprising as it was to him the woman nodded in understanding and left without getting unreasonably angry at his attitude or whatever else she could come up with. Now that he thought about it, wasn’t this the first Ikarian woman he saw without a black bag covering her whole body? She was wearing white cloth which covered her hair, but that couldn’t be compared to those horrible and sweaty suits of the other Ikarian women and girls were wearing. He would need to ask her about that if an opportunity to do so appeared.
… he would also need to mention the whole attack plan Flora, Claire and the rest had prepared. Or, would he? They should all be aware that the Grand Yimar arrived early, so the plan should have been called off. The spies Shahash had in the Grand Palace couldn’t be stupid enough to relay an order to attack when they saw him and Yin leaving with Mustafa and the rest… or could they? No, the attack was only supposed to begin when they were close to the outer walls or in case they were obstructed before getting there. Nothing bad should happen, so he didn’t need to bring this matter up to Mustafa… probably. Hopefully. Well, it wasn’t like he could change much by telling him, so worst case scenario he would inform him at the last second.
Yin raised an eyebrow, more or less aware of Laien’s train of thought. He also agreed that it was extremely unlikely for the planned attack to occur, so he saw no reason to mention it. Whoever ended up seeing them leave with Louis and Nathan should have enough sense not to send a call for an assault, not when they would be walking with Mustafa by their side.
“That should be everything,” Mustafa mentioned, thinking if he hadn’t forgotten about anything. After recounting all the things he did and wanted to do, he assumed there was nothing else. “Okay, let’s get going. I trust our little procession will gather enough attention, so there’s no need to inform Yimar Sharu,” he said with a laugh and led the way to the eastern gate.
Arslan followed his father without a second thought and so did Reian and the old man Sirius. Laien and Yin went after them too, and so did Louis and Nathan after a second or two of hesitation. The remaining spiritual masters led the group of around one hundred boys outside. They had in the meanwhile placed the four that were still unconscious on a wooden, flat wheelbarrow and put the one that died on a separate one.
As Mustafa expected, their group attracted a huge amount of attention the moment they stepped out of the building of harem. A search for whoever had killed Tashakir’s older brother was ongoing at the moment, so multiple people noticed them heading towards the eastern gate. The commotion only grew bigger when Kasha and accompanying her brown-haired southern beauty appeared with five Hisan horses… and with the entirety of the White Guard following them.
“Geez,” Mustafa shook his head with a helpless smile on his face. “For better or worse, I should have expected them to come see Arslan off,” he mused quietly, knowing very well how loyal every member of his White Guard was. This elite unit was truly his pride and the backbone supporting the City of Makarash and all the lands under his rule.
“So many of them…” Laien murmured in awe while staring at the one thousand white-clothed men heading their way. He was impressed indeed, but not exactly by the number of those experts itself; one thousand weak martial and spiritual masters wasn’t all that amazing. It was a strong force, surely, but it wouldn’t be enough to cause him goosebumps. In this case what amazed him so much was the calm and powerful aura all those people were emanating.
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He had battled an army of experts in his Vision… or rather, in the recent nightmare. Leaving the benefits he had obtained from the Vision aside, he had learned how an elite unit of experts felt in comparison to the cannon fodder; and those white-clothed people were absolutely comparable to the strongest of the practitioners he had faced in that endless nightmare!
“Fighting them… would be a death wish.” Laien laughed weakly at the thought. There were only a few experts on that level in his Vision, but here he felt hundreds of comparable presences. Just this unit alone… if they had proper coordination and knew how to cooperate like a unit, unlike the Elders of the Martial Schools back in the Sarkcente Kingdom, would be able to wipe out an entire southern Great Martial School on their own. The only saving grace was that the number of extremely strong martial masters was much higher in the south, else Laien would have been forced to admit that the southerners had grown too complacent and became akin to frogs in a well.
“On a brighter note, it doesn’t look like an attack will occur,” Laien thought with a little smirk on his face, glad that he didn’t mention this part before leaving the harem. It was better if no one knew such an attack had ever been planned. He might have revealed everyone’s names to Mustafa, but he didn’t want to also give him a bad impression of their group.
In the time Laien was lost in his thoughts, the two women and one thousand of the White Guard arrived by the gate where their group was waiting.
“Oi, disciple,” the brown-haired beauty called out with a laugh and with a wry smile on her face, her gaze focused on Reian. “Since when do you feel comfortable giving me orders, huh? It looks like I still hadn’t beaten you up enough times,” she said jokingly, enjoying the embarrassed reaction Reian never failed to deliver when she teased him like that in front of everyone. However, that was just it; teasing. If they were to fight to the death, she would say she had a fifty-fifty chance of beating Reian as he was now. The little crybaby from thirty years ago had grown up quite splendidly.
Despite his ears burning red, Reian managed to muster a proper response to his former teacher, Jasmine. “Who else would I ask to guard young lord but you?” he asked… but maybe it wasn’t as much of a ‘proper response’ as he had hoped it to be as not only Jasmine, but even Kasha and quite a few of the White Guards he was closely associated with began chuckling.
“I appreciate the thought,” Jasmine said with a bright smile as she approached close to Reian. “But you should really get over this old lady, boy. I’m nearly thirty times older than you, remember?” she hinted gently, but couldn’t resist laughing a little when the blush on Reian’s face got stronger. Truly, what did this little kid see in a crude old lady like her? He should hurry up and find some girl his own age, sheesh!
“I see you two are getting along as well as ever,” Mustafa said in amusement. Reian was steadily growing more cheeky before him, but when interacting with Jasmine he would always revert to being a child. The wonders of a man’s puppy love, indeed!
“I sometimes wish we weren’t getting along so well,” Jasmine said with a smile and bowed slightly, but it was quite obvious that she didn’t mean her words. “Are those the two who are going to accompany us?” she brought up, eyeing Laien and Yin with curiosity. “As exceptional as Kasha claimed them to be, you are both going to grow up into fine lady-killers, or boy-killers, whatever you prefer,” she said half-jokingly half-seriously and received a light elbow from Kasha for doing so. Was it really necessary to tell them she had described their looks as exceptional…? Eh. She should have known better than to be careless with her words when speaking with Jasmine.
Laien gave the long-haired brunette a long look, unable to tell whether he liked her personality or hated it. As for Yin, he accepted the compliment with the usual carefree attitude of his; he really didn’t care about what other people were doing or saying as he had claimed from the very beginning. He was only concerned with those he considered friends, so he was less prone to getting angered by random, mostly meaningless comments of those around him.
“So, what are you called again?” Jasmine inquired leisurely, in no hurry to leave at all. In fact, she had long since realized that Mustafa was waiting for Yimar Sharu to come here. Had it not been so, he wouldn’t have had made such a spectacle out of leaving the Grand Palace.
“The one with golden earrings is Laien, the one with black ones is Yin,” Arslan introduced the two happily, using the reference point which had caught his eye instead of pointing with his fingers.
“Hmm,” Jasmine smiled, contemplating if she should go ahead and use her aura to probe those two or not. She had heard from Kasha about Laien’s water-element affinity, but she wasn’t too clear about his or Yin’s strength. “Oh well, I can ask them later,” she decided, picking the safer option since she would be traveling with those two for some time. For them to have received Mustafa’s favor they couldn’t be normal children, of that one thing she was sure.
“Here they are,” Reian said in a bright tone, unable to keep himself from smiling. The little group of a few hundred guards Yimar Sharu took with him looked quite pitiful compared to the White Guard. There naturally were those thousands of Yimar Sharu’s men observing the situation from the sidelines and from afar, but he sincerely doubted they would obey Yimar Sharu’s orders in case of an emergency; that was another important difference between truly elite troops like White Guard and a random bunch of practitioners. White Guard would protect Mustafa no matter what and they would always obey his orders, what definitely couldn’t be said about this random gathering of ‘experts’.
“Rala Salar, Grand Yimar,” Yimar Sharu bowed respectfully before Mustafa. He was feeling quite conflicted at the moment; he had already been told that Tashakir killed his chamberlain in front of many people and learned that Tashakir went to implore Mustafa to help with the search of his elder brother. However, no matter how he looked he couldn’t see Tashakir anywhere; where did that man go? He wanted to ask, but he didn’t want to be disrespectful to the Grand Yimar… it was quite a dilemma he was facing.
“Rala Salar, Grand Yimar,” one of the men accompanying Yimar Sharu spoke up. “Could I dare to ask where is our leader? Where is Tashakir? Did he go somewhere on his own?” he asked, seeing how Mustafa’s men weren’t aiding in the search and didn’t appear to be planning to do so anytime soon. There were those olive-cloaked slaves here too… what was the Grand Yimar thinking?
“He is dead,” Mustafa replied so casually it ended up taking a good few seconds for those who heard him, be it his own men or Sharu’s subordinates, to comprehend his words. The only ones who didn’t appear to be shocked were the three youths who had seen Tashakir die and Reian, who had learned about everything beforehand… and maybe the young boys from the harem who didn’t understand what kind of weight those words carried.
“He attacked me when I refused to send my men out to aid with the search of his brother, so I killed him,” Mustafa added and shrugged his shoulders slightly, acting as if he thought that Tashakir’s friends deserved at least this much of an explanation. His attitude was clearly saying that he wasn’t planning to explain himself further; he had said enough and no questions would be tolerated.
Yimar Sharu’s lips and chin convulsed as he fought the disbelief. Tashakir, his Sword of Rala… was dead? What was he supposed to do now? Without him, he would find it nigh impossible to control all the experts he had gathered in the city! Many of those people were here only because of Tashakir; he couldn’t offer them enough wealth or other enticements to make them stay! He was ruined… ruined! Why did this overconfident idiot attack Mustafa? What was he thinking?!
“I can’t believe leader would attack you, Grand Yimar,” the same man who spoke a moment before voice his opinion again, but was instantly pulled away by his friends who began bowing and apologizing to Mustafa. They too had their doubts, but they weren’t tired of living yet; people with their lowly position weren’t allowed to question a Grand Yimar. Even if they were told to go and die, they were expected to do just that. The difference between their standing in the society was simply that huge.
Mustafa shook his head and ignored the panicking men for the time being. He didn’t want to start a massacre in front of all those eyes, so he would take a few days and clear up the annoyances from this city. First, he needed to find out who was close to Tashakir and get rid of them, then he would execute all those who would show signs of disobedience. If Yimar Sharu proved to be useful, he would let him live for now, and if not then he would kill him too and appoint someone else as a Yimar of the Faren Yimarate. Those methods weren’t something he enjoyed, but he had no compassion for the vast majority of the fanatics and warmongers who gathered in this part of the world. Also, he knew that the argument of strength was the simplest and at the same most efficient method to deal with people with whom it was impossible to reason.
“Yimar Sharu,” Mustafa said loudly enough for his voice to be heard clearly above the rising clamor. “I want all the slaves from all the harems released. I won’t stand for the barbaric practices that had been ongoing in this place before I arrived. If you want to set up harems, you need to do it less like beasts and more like people,” he ordered and was met with a very enthusiastic response from Yimar Sharu, one which wouldn’t have come in different circumstances.
Although Yimar Sharu didn’t approve of Mustafa’s philosophy, he realized full well he needed a strong supporter if he wanted to keep his current position; and what better support could there be than a Grand Yimar? Who cares about personal beliefs, he would do everything in his power to please Mustafa!
Mustafa smiled on the outside, but inside he was shaking his head. He knew those types of people all too well… it looked like he would need to kill Yimar Sharu sometime later; a person of this kind would betray him at the first good opportunity. Ruling with fear and strength was simple enough, but the problem of this approach was that the moment someone stronger and scarier than you appeared, you would lose everything overnight. That’s why he had been looking down on the Great Prophet’s methods for a long time… but he regrettably didn’t have quite enough power of influence to make any meaningful changes in the established policy of the Great Prophet’s; not when the Great Prophet was supported by the remaining two out of the three Grand Yimars.
“Either way, that should make it less suspicious,” Mustafa told himself while watching Yimar Sharu direct his subordinates to carry out the new orders. “I still need some time to silence all the possible rumors. It will be for the best if the only version going around about Tashakir's death is mine,” he thought calmly, planning ahead for the later parts of the subjugation of the southern Eulene. Taking over the Faren Yimarate or the Banxi Yimarate was simple enough, but he would need to put considerable effort to establish his influence in the Guode Yimarate. He knew very well that every action had its consequences; predicting them and acting accordingly was why his rule over his own Grand Yimarate was so unshakable. In the end, it was impossible to rule a country in a long-term with brute strength alone… but he wasn’t planning to rule the current Eulene. He first needed to plow the weeds and only then begin the slow process of reformation.
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As the clamor in the Grand Palace continued, two people clad in black cloaks and with pitch-black masks on their faces sat unnoticed on top of the Grand Maraak.
“Ugh, I can’t believe it,” one of the men groaned and reluctantly threw a medium-grade interspatial ring to his companion. “What kind of devilish luck do those two have? I could still understand if they made the stupid plan of those women and of that pretty boy work, but they are making a grand exit in the company of a Grand Yimar?” he complained, feeling utterly disheartened by this sight.
“You sure are miserly, a medium-grade interspatial ring?” the second black-masked man spoke in an elderly, but very much lively voice.
“Teacher, you are already getting one thousand crystal coins from our bet, stop being greedy,” the younger of the two men said a bit unhappily, but then laughed alongside his companion.
The older of the two men chuckled as he returned his gaze to the crowded courtyard of the Grand Palace. “I don’t think you have any objections to them having passed the Trial of Heart? Given Altair’s report I was close to letting them pass this part without further examination anyway,” he mentioned offhandedly, but to the contrast of the casual tone of his words, his lips curved into a dangerous smile.
The younger man frowned under his mask. “Teacher, don’t tell me you made me come all the way here for your own amusement? Why am I needed here if you are the one overseeing the Trail of Will and you made them pass the Trial of Heart just like that?” he asked discontentedly. He could imagine this old man doing something like that and it wasn’t like he could complain much, but really! He had more important things to do than to serve as the Guildmaster’s plaything!
“My, don’t say that,” the old man said with a laugh. “Let’s say that they didn’t pass the Trail of Heart yet, fine? I need you to help out with my Trial anyway. It’s too much work to do for those old bones of mine,” he spoke casually, as if he was making a decision as unimportant as what kind of snack he would eat in the evening.
The young Shade rolled his eyes. That was why he was glad he had finished his apprenticeship under this old man many years ago, he was too fickle and whimsical for comfort. In that sense, that new student of his, Altair, was a perfect match for this crazy old man. They were both equally strange.
“So, what are you planning to do?” the young Shade asked, pitying the fate of those two children in his heart. There were many people to whom the Guildmaster had taken a liking in the past, but so far only three managed to survive the attention from him; he himself was one of those three, the second one was the current vice-master of the guild and the third one was Altair. Everyone else was biting the dust… hundreds of them were.
“Well, I have a few ideas as to how we can make it all more interesting,” the old man said lightheartedly and began explaining his designs to his former student.