Outskirts of Vidantia with farmlands first and slums afterwards didn’t look much different from any other city, except it took for them almost half a day to reach the downtown area. Unfortunately right then it was Leo’s turn to carry the Cleaver, thus he didn’t see much of the interesting part of the capital. But it was impossible to not notice when they arrived at an enormous palace complex and fortunately it was turn for the next two Dalina’s guards to take over the carrying duty.
Dozens of white buildings, built in a different style compared to the rest of the city center, surrounded the five storeys high empress’s residence. The whole complex was separated with a tall wall from the rest of the world and probably should be considered an autonomous town within the city except instead of dirty streets there were nice marble walkways with flower beds at both sides and instead of street vendors there were patrolling guards.
Leo guessed that in late spring this place probably looked like a magical fairy tale, but before he was allowed to explore more to his big disappointment he was brought to one of the smaller buildings not that far from the gate and locked up in a small room. Dalina even stationed a couple of guards at the door and below windows, clearly indicating the futility of any attempts to escape.
Leo, of course, couldn’t guess the guards were there to only prevent him from wandering off. In fact, he was not clear why exactly he was here.
“Most of us are present so let’s get started.” A middle aged woman, sitting in the main seat, said.
Her name was Angele Vidas and she was the current empress of Vidantia empire. If Leo was here he would’ve considered her to be plain looking or maybe even slightly ugly, but that was to his regular standards. In Dreadlands though even her enemies thought her to be smart and impressive woman with strong will and even stronger fighting talents. Similar to the Southern queen, the empress didn’t wear fancy clothing, but preferred leather combat gear, just like the rest of the people at the round table she was sitting at.
In the large room, including the empress’s, there were thirteen seats around the table with hers being slightly larger, and all, except for the three that were empty, were filled with Vidas family members. With serious expressions all of them focused on the youngest one, Dalina Vidas, awaiting her report.
She did have a few days to gather her thoughts and prepare, but even then she was not completely certain on few details, mainly about the weird male-slave. The strange weapon lying on the table in front of her didn’t make much sense either, but fortunately her main task was to gather intelligence, not analyze it.
“Your imperial highness, esteemed Council of Devotees!” Dalina finally began, “As you know few days ago inquisitor Meda Matas informed us she had found peculiar pieces of leather covered in strange markings, possibly the language of the Gods. Originally they were attached to this item you see in front of me which … well … according to the inquisitor magically quadrupled in weight on its own and crippled warlord Levin who is known for her incredible strength.”
Despite the speaker being the youngest, the other council members attentively listened and took Dalina’s every word very seriously. Everyone knew this was not a joking matter and both inquisitor Matas and warlord Levin had exceptional reputation thus them being involved parties made everything more credible. Of course, the fact that one of the strongest warlords of the empire was crippled just like that sounded unbelievable.
Ignoring changes in the expressions of the people around the table, Dalina continued, “Upon my arrival to the palace I allowed myself to immediately show the pieces of leather both to the empress and aunt Ilona since they are our top experts in the language of the Gods and at the first glance they could identify the texts being authentic. More importantly, judging by the age of the leather pieces, they can’t be older than a year or two.”
Except for the empress and Ilona Vidas, the rest of the present gasped in shock. Dalina’s words meant they have had a breakthrough at last and after centuries of fruitless search the current generation of Vidas family were close to finally meeting a God.
“We’ll be able to research the writings at a later date, but first I have to share the information I received in Varena city.” Dalina seriously continued, “I must apologize in advance – it’s really hard to not jump to conclusions, but I’ll do my best to stick by the facts …”
It took her almost half a day to finish the report and surprisingly she didn’t leave out one detail. Not only she was able to repeat her conversation with warlord Baltis word for world, she did the same with the inquisitor’s report and even every single sentence Leo had uttered since they first met.
Stolen story; please report.
Dalina also described every single peculiarity about him, including the initiative to help to carry the weapon, herb gathering and cooking and the casual behavior around women. Of course, the tendency to tell unbelievable stories of his origin was also not left out, but that was only ‘a second hand information’ coming from warlord Baltis, thus – not verified.
“What do you think?” Empress asked the council after Dalina finished her report and a prolonged moment of silence filled the hall.
“I think I can speak for everyone present if I say there might’ve been an encounter with a God, but before we jump to any conclusions, let’s listen to what information the male-slave has to offer.” An elderly lady said in a low, calm voice.
She sat next to the empress at her right side, indicating her important status.
“Madam Vesta has a point.” Another member, also an elderly woman from across the table, agreed, “Of course, we can’t blindly trust a male-slave, but we can’t forcefully interrogate him either. Under the threat or influence of pain weak minded people like him are ready to invent anything to lessen it and satisfy the interrogator’s curiosity – his previous tales clearly point at that. What would you say if we … Since he’s such a great cook, why don’t we let him work in the kitchen for a bit? Obviously there is no way any of us, especially the empress, should sample any of his dishes, but if he feels comfortable in that environment and sneakily drinks … let’s say … mandrake extract wine – the hallucinogenic effect should be sufficient for him to obediently tell everything he knows.”
“That’s not a bad idea.” Empress nodded, “Dalina, since you already are familiar with him, your task will be to observe the male-slave and make sure to find out any inconsistencies in his behavior. Although it’s highly improbable, there is a chance this whole endeavor is a charade fabricated by our southern cousin. The common knowledge is she prefers an open conflict, but one can never be certain. Meanwhile I and Ilona will continue to work on the newly acquired items – maybe we can have another breakthrough. By the way, that goes to all present – feel free to join us if you have any free time – during the past century we have figured out only the meaning of four words in the divine language and that is way too little. I would also like all of you to spend some time inspecting the weapon Dalina brought back – the material is too peculiar and so is the craftsmanship. It is highly likely it’s not originated from Dreadlands, but, of course, let’s not jump to premature conclusions.”
The next day Leo was not surprised he was brought to the kitchen to ‘work’ – he was kind of banking on it in hopes the culinary skills would allow him to keep his puny life. He was shocked though no one ordered anything or was interested in the food he prepared on his own initiative.
The other male-slave, a guy named Raimo, who worked alongside of him explained it was normal – the aristocrats were moody and picky and ordered their food from different kitchens on a whim. The guy was rather chatty and didn’t do anything but sit around all day eating and drinking. He did look kind of girly, but Leo wasn’t as interested in his looks – it was his habits that made him weary.
In Dreadlands male slaves normally didn’t allow themselves to raise their heads, to not speak about freely consuming the food belonging to their masters. When Leo asked, the guy said it was fine – the two of them were ‘special’ and the status of imperial cooks allowed them to ‘sample’ things as much as they wanted.
To his great surprise in the next couple of days Leo learned it was actually so. The supervisor lady only kept bringing raw meat and wine and didn’t control where it went. When in the evening on the second day Leo couldn’t hold back curiosity and asked if they really were allowed to behave as freely as Raimo said, the supervisor snorted saying they were quite daring for male-slaves, but them eating was still better than throwing the food out.
Since it was like that, Leo didn’t need to hold back anymore. He didn’t thoughtlessly copy Raimo though and didn’t start to sit around doing nothing but eating.
In the kitchen’s backyard he found two old iron pots at least five times the size compared to the one he used to cook for Lana’s group. Ignoring Raimo’s stupefied expression, he filled them with water and carried around the yard till he barely could lift a leg. Afterwards he cooked a small pile of meat, ate it, rested for a while and went back to carrying the two pots.
Leo didn’t know if he’ll ever get his hands on the Cleaver again, but it was clear master Shaw gave the weapon to him as means to gradually increase his physical strength. Since he lost it, he needed to carry other heavy stuff even though from the side it looked like a silly endeavor and a waste of time.
With time going by Raimo kept bugging Leo to join him for a drink, at least in late evenings, but even though Leo would’ve gladly succumbed to the enticing Firewater aroma, he clearly remembered grandpa Noel’s warning to not drink until he was at least eighteen years old. He already carried the risk of dying because of the lightning mutation and there was no need to worsen his situation thus despite the temptation Leo kept refusing Raimo’s invitations.
Leo’s resolve strengthened when he noticed his colleague becoming more nervous with days going by and his offers to join for a drink more and more frequent. On the sixth day Raimo’s persistence started to become annoying when Leo got a revelation – he ‘guessed’ that the slightly older and experienced male-slave was trying to make him a scapegoat for all the Firewater he had consumed! From then on they barely exchanged any sentences, of course, not because of the lack of trying from Raimo’s side.
A couple days later Dalina finally had enough. Empress and the rest of the Council of Devotees were curious for the delay of results and she was fed up from watching over the weird male slave in secret. Her younger sister Raimona also hated the guy to the bones and kept complaining it was too humiliating for her to play the role of a male-slave in order to convince another one to willingly have few mouthfuls of alcohol.
Leo didn’t notice how in the evening of the eleventh day Dalina knocked him out with a heavy hit on the back of his head and angrily fed few coups of mandrake extract wine. He only realized he was completely wasted after waking up, but despite the bump on the head he felt like in heaven … he missed the taste of the Firewater and the feeling of ecstasy. In fact, a day hadn’t passed by without him reminiscing about the carefree times on the ape island … until he was chased away, of course.