Chapter IV
Year 9 of the reign of pharaoh Ramesses XI, 14th day of the third month of Peret
Once the competition between the potential wanaxes ended, all participating parties returned back to Mycenae, leaving small garrisons in their conquered territories so that they would remain secure. Now that the challenge was over, the remaining kings joined in and sent some of their own troops as well to help secure the new Mycenaean borders and make sure the barbarians did not cause too much trouble for them.
In Mycenae, without waiting any longer, the kings convened in the Palace of the Wanax to vote for who would finally become the new ruler of the Confederation. Cilix had already expressed his view that he would now support Tirynthius, and so did his allies from Ephyra and Pylos, thus giving Tirynthius all the votes and making this mostly a ceremonial occasion, but one that needed to be observed nonetheless.
After everyone had arrived, Iphiclus, the king of Athens and the acting leader of the Confederation during this succession crisis period, began with a short speech, after which the kings proceeded to cast their votes for their preferred new wanax from the two brothers standing before them.
“I choose Tirynthius,” Iphiclus said.
“I vote for Tirynthius as well,” Anaxandrides, the king of the Isles, said.
“Tirynthius will lead us to victory!” Harpalion, the king of Salamis, said. “He has my vote.”
This was followed by other kings, who had already initially supported Tirynthius, choosing him too.
“My vote goes to Tirynthius,” Leocedes now said, which was followed by Demades doing the same.
“And I say… Tirynthius is the man to lead us,” Cilix said.
Admetos II of Pylos, and Cheiron III of Ephyra, following the lead of Cilix, proceeded to cast their votes for Tirynthius as well.
“Congratulations, Tirynthius, son of Eteweokles, descendant of Perseus!” Iphiclus proclaimed. “We have chosen you to be the high king, the wanax, one who would lead our great Confederation through good times and bad. May the gods protect you and give you the strength to enforce their will.”
“Thank you, my friends,” Tirynthius said. “I will not let you or the gods down.”
“Now, we must proceed to the Temple of Zeus, so that-”
“No! This cannot be!” Hecataeus shouted. “He does not deserve to rule! I am the more capable man, and you know it! The gods know it! I was cheated, Tirynthius must have cheated-”
“Silence, young man! Your brother is the wanax, this matter is done. It would do you good to not protest this and bring even more shame on yourself,” Polyctor, the king of Delphi, said.
“Tirynthius is not the man to lead you all! He is weak, and he cannot be trusted to defend this country!”
“This most recent expedition of his certainly proved otherwise,” Cilix said.
“He cheated! He must have! I know my brother, he is no warrior! He is a mere merchant. Those Egyptians must have helped him, they must have given this victory to him. He would never have been able to do so much on his own!”
“Relax, brother. I know it must feel shitty, but you have to accept the reality,” Tirynthius tried to calm Hecataeus down. “You may not be the wanax, but you are my brother, and I will make sure you are always provided for and well taken care of.”
“You think you can bribe me? Like you and your friends bribed everyone here? You can’t buy me, I actually stand for something.”
“You will not insult the wanax like that. You should leave now, Hecataeus,” Iphiclus said.
“No, I will not leave. In fact, I know what I have to do. I challenge you, brother, to a duel to the death! This way we can truly determine who can be the real wanax.”
“This is madness! Cease this nonsense at once!” Harpalion said.
“Hecataeus, this is the last warning. Leave the palace this instant, or you will be escorted out by the guards,” Iphiclus said.
“Guards cannot touch me. I am a candidate for the wanax, and the laws state that one such man cannot be ordered around by the lesser kings.”
“You are no wanax. Tirynthius is the wanax.”
“He has not yet been blessed by the priests. Which means that both of us are still equal at this point.”
“That… is technically true,” Polyctor explained. “One becomes a wanax only after being blessed by the priest of Zeus. Before that point, all potential successors are to be treated equally and a duel between them can be called. Though usually this does not take place at such a late date, especially after the confirmation by the kings.”
“But I still have the right to challenge him to a duel. Our father became the leader this way. He proved his worth, why shouldn’t you have to?”
“These are different times,” Tirynthius said. “Please, brother, stop this before any more trouble is caused.”
“Enough with this, we will just escort Tirynthius to the temple. We will deal with his lunatic brother later,” Iphiclus snapped.
Tirynthius and the kings pushed through Hecataeus and left the hall, proceeding into the courtyard, through which they hoped to leave the palace. Hecataeus then rushed off to his hidden stash under some rocks to retrieve his weapons – a shield and a sword – and rushed back to block the passage of the kings and his brother, all of whom were unarmed.
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“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Keteus said. “A real man would have accepted his defeat gracefully, instead of doing whatever the fuck you’re doing right now. You will be charged for attempted regicide after we’re done with this ordeal.”
“I won’t be. I will either be dead, or I will be the wanax. One of us will not leave this palace alive,” Hecataeus said to Tirynthius. “I will have my fucking duel, and whoever interferes will die!”
By now, the KIA agents Neberzer and Sutenhi had noticed the commotion and approached the scene, also taking with them a shield and a sword they had found in another hidden stash nearby.
“Alright, brother, alright. If this is what you want, you will have your damn duel,” Tirynthius said. “I don’t want any unnecessary casualties.”
“You cannot be serious,” Iphiclus said. “You can’t agree to this.”
“I think I must. Doesn’t seem to be any other way to get rid of him right now. He will just continue harassing me and in the process someone else could die because of our dispute. I do not want to risk that. After all, being the wanax I should take the responsibility for my subjects.”
“That’s right! Now come and face me!” Hecataeus shouted.
“Just let me get my weapons,” Tirynthius went to the KIA agents, who gave him the shield and the sword.
Tirynthius faced Hecataeus, while the KIA agents and the kings cleared the immediate area around them and moved behind Tirynthius.
“Are you… ready?” Polyctor asked.
“I am fucking ready,” Hecataeus said.
“I am ready as well,” Tirynthius said.
“In that case… Let the duel begin,” Polyctor said anxiously. “He who has the blessing of Ares will win.”
The kings nervously watched the scene unfold, and in a few moments, Hecataeus began approaching Tirynthius, appearing to be preparing for the first strike. Tirynthius, however, did not get into a defensive position.
“You brought this on yourself,” Tirynthius said.
He dropped his shield, and revealed a hidden loaded gun he had behind it. He fired it at Hecataeus’ stomach, before his brother could realize what was happening.
Hecataeus screamed and fell down, dropping his weapons. He was not dead, however, just writhing in pain on the grass in the yard.
“Get some medics in here, right now!” Tirynthius said to the astonished kings, who relayed it to the approaching guards who had arrived there as well.
“So that’s how you won, huh?” Hecataeus said. “Well, go on then, kill me. Kill me! Do it! Be a man! Kill me like our father killed his brother! Kill me!”
“No, I won’t do that. You are still my brother, and, despite everything, I believe you deserve to live. No more violence needs to commence today.”
“I am half dead already! I can’t fucking feel my legs. Even if I survive, I will be a cripple. Just end me!”
“Maybe that will be a good lesson for you then. You are still young, you have time to think it over.”
“Fuck you! I hate you!” Hecataeus screamed as he was being loaded onto a stretcher by medics. “These technologies will not save you forever!”
“But their rejection will certainly be the end of you.”
Hecataeus continued to scream in rage and pain as he was being carried off, while Tirynthius turned back to the kings, still looking shocked.
“That was… impressive,” Cilix said. “Technically you still won fair and square, since the rules allow any single-handed weapons to be used.”
“I need me one of those for sure,” Harpalion said.
“You will all get some in time, don’t worry,” Tirynthius said.
“I don’t know about Hecataeus though. He may still prove to be some trouble,” Keteus said.
“I don’t think so. He only cared about winning, but he lost, and there’s no reversing that now. No point in killing me now, that wouldn’t give him the throne anyways. He will be angry for a while, but he will calm down soon enough. Now, can we proceed with the rites?”
“Of course. You have proved yourself more times than needed already, it is time to make it official,” Iphiclus said.
Tirynthius was blessed by the priest of Zeus and so in effect became the wanax of the Mycenaean Confederation. Shortly after that, Tirynthius went to the hospital where Hecataeus was being treated. Hecataeus had survived, as the medics stopped the bleeding and removed the bullet, but his spine was injured and so he became disabled from the waist down.
A couple weeks later, the official coronation ceremony of Tirynthius took place, attended by all the kings, as well as foreign officials and rulers, including king Huzaru of Alashiya, king Muwatalli III of Hatti and pharaoh Ramesses XI of the Commonwealth of Kemet, Kush, and Retjenu. Even some Eastern Coalition representatives arrived to witness the ceremony and give regards from the eastern monarchs to the new ruler. The succession issue was finally resolved, and Tirynthius was now recognized by everyone as the wanax of the Mycenaean Confederation.
“Another day, another successful political killing to make the dead dude’s brother into the king,” Amenemheb said as he sat down at the table with the KIA agents during the feast after the coronation ceremony. “Weird how that’s happened twice already, both times with you present.”
“Hey, we didn’t kill him. That was all Tirynthius, we just provided the tools for the job,” Sutenhi replied. “And he’s not dead, he’s just unable to cause any trouble for the foreseeable future. Our methods are advancing.”
“I can see that.”
“Now we just need to decide which one of us is gonna remain here for a little while longer and observe how Hecataeus very accidentally swallows the wrong pills one day and descends into an eternally long nap.”
“Ha, that’s good,” Kefennu, Amenemheb’s chief of security, said, also being present at the table, along with Iornuf, Amenemheb’s chief alchemist.
“That was a joke, we’re not actually doing that.”
“Or maybe we are,” Neberzer said. “You can never know with us KIA types.”
“That is also very true.”
“So where are you guys heading to next after this?” Amenemheb asked.
“Well, obviously, we can’t say. It’s secret. We don’t even know now, we will receive new assignments upon return. But even then, we couldn’t tell you.”
“That’s just no fun. Can’t tell anyone about your fun adventures. Me and my crew meanwhile get to brag about all the places we’ve visited. Gets all the girls swooning, let me tell you that.”
“Is that so?” Neitheret asked.
“Oh, absolutely. Want to hear about one?”
“I’m not so easily impressed, you know, with all the places I visited myself.”
“I believe you. Still, let me at least try. Come on, I’ll buy you a drink.”
“The drinks are free here.”
“That is true. Forgot this line doesn’t work in every circumstance. Anyways, let’s just go to the bar. I’ll tell you about the time we made a fake copy of the Book of Thoth to defeat a treasurer’s army of tax dodgers.”
“Huh, really? Well, lead the way.”
Neitheret and Amenemheb got up and proceeded to go to the bar.
“He’s the goddamn royal envoy and he still has such terrible game,” Kefennu laughed.
“Not going along to watch over him?” Sutenhi asked.
“Nah, my service is of no use in such places, he has plenty of protections for himself, if you know what I mean.”
“I see. Well, glad to know he’s still having fun.”
“Yup. Anyways, since we’re here already, I thought we could discuss some things, which could profit both of our parties.”
“And what’s that?”
“Well, me and Iornuf here have thought for a while about creating an armament company with all the money we’ve acquired over the years. You know, I’m kind of a military guy, I know about weapons, and he is the alchemist, he knows about… uh… chemicals. So, perfect match. But there are many people working on weapon manufacturing, so we needed to find some niche.”
“And it seems like you agents don’t have dedicated weapons for yourself, if I got that right,” Iornuf said. “Having to rely on army issue weapons may not always be very practical, so we thought we could alleviate that problem.”
“I see where you’re going,” Sutenhi said. “We indeed could use some specialized tools and weapons, I can’t argue with that. Are you thinking about guns?”
“Not only. Explosives too. Poisons. Daggers. All sorts of other equipment you might need.”
“We do have a weapons’ development division already though.”
“But not production. You have, what, twenty of these bad boys?” Kefennu took out his gun and put it on the table. “Now how about a few hundred of them, for every one of your agents, and specifically tailored for various situations?”
“Now you’ve got me interested.”