Our walk through the city was conducted in silence. Not a word was spoken between members of our estranged group. The guards that were escorting us didn’t look like they wanted to be here, and I definitely didn’t want to be here, but we were both trapped by our own obligations.
The destination was surprisingly not the very top of the city, but one tier down. It was still a wealthy part of the city, but it seemed less focused on official or public buildings and more on private ones like housing and the occasional business. Obviously, we were going to the houses, specifically Larvell’s house. I played a little game in wondering which of these almost mansions did the grumpy Ulgor live in.
It turned out to be one that was made of carved stone with four large windows on the front of the building, two on the first floor, two on the second. I didn’t know how much it would cost for stonework considering there was earth centered magic, but glass was still expensive. The dark wood double doors in front made for quite the sight as the escort opened the door for us.
No matter the universe one may find themselves in, there seemed to always be those people who liked to hunt in an eccentric kind of way. The first sight we were subjected to was a wide entry hall that had many mounted and stuffed animals. I had seen some during my travels but there were many fantastical looking creatures in the menagerie that were quite foreign to me. The most prominent one was a nine-foot monster of an animal that looked like a combination of a bear and a lizard.
I had little time to gawk however as the escort continued to lead us further into the building. There was another set of double doors ahead, and the escort finally gave us some instructions.
“Lord James, your escort can wait out here. Councilor Larvell will meet with you inside.”
I only gave a short nod in response to both the guards and my own company. They shifted over to one side of the hall, crossing their arms and looking unamused with the whole situation. Meanwhile I was preparing myself to enter the lion’s den where Larvell was waiting to most likely make my day all the more difficult. Figuring I should just get it over with, I opened the right side of the door.
Instead of an office as I expected, the room turned out to be a lounge with a lot of comfortable looking chairs and couches spaced appropriately around the room for people to sit in conversation. This was probably the room that used for parties most often, but right now its only occupant was Larvell who was sitting in a large chair in front of the fireplace with a drink in his hand and some kind of board game on a short coffee table in front of him.
I hadn’t had much of a chance to look at him the last time we met, but now that he was in front of me, it was clear that he was certainly a seasoned individual. Streaks of grey went through his hair and beard. Deep wrinkles creased the skin around his face though his features still remained strong. If I hadn’t known how volatile the man was, I would have described him as wizened.
He turned his head to look at me and then beckoned me in with an open hand in my direction. “Lord James, I was expecting you. Please, come in, have a seat.” His hand shifted to gesture to a similar seat right across the table from him.
With as much confidence as I could muster in my appearance, I walked over and sat. Larvell did not immediately start the conversation again, instead opting to take another sip from his glass before speaking.
“Would you care for a drink?”
The question was so simple that it caught me a little off guard. “No, thank you.”
He shrugged slightly. “Your loss. It's an excellent vintage.” He took another sip of his drink as if to make the point. There was a somewhat awkward pause that I wasn’t sure if I should fill or not. “Do you play?” Another simple off-the-cuff question that I hadn’t expected as he directed my attention to the game in front of us.
It was a circular playing board with numerous peg holes drilled into it. The playing pieces were elaborately carved characters with distinctive features arranged in an orderly fashion on either side of the board. It vaguely reminded me of chess by its appearance as a whole, though the rules probably varied significantly.
“I can’t say I'm familiar with the rules.”
He used a finger to gesture to the game pieces. “Well, each piece can move in a different manner from its fellows. The goal is to flank the opponent's pieces on two sides in order to eliminate them. If you are whittled down to only a single piece, then you lose. I find the game to be stimulating and a good test of one's ability to lead. You need to know not only your own pieces and how best to use them, but more importantly, the mind of your opponent. The person sitting across from you is the real danger. They will use tricks, misdirection, lure you into a believing you have the advantage only to sweep in and steal victory.”
His expression was neutral, but that only made it feel odder. His gaze would occasionally leave the board during his explanation and look directly at me, making me quite confident that he was being rather allegorical at the moment. It didn’t feel like the right time to interrupt though, nor did I know what I would say regardless, so I continued to listen.
“It’s a rather fitting game for people in our position, wouldn’t you think? There’s only one thing that I find it is lacking in that would make it a true mirror to life and its challenges.” He methodically reached forward a removed a piece from its slot on his side of the board, studying it closely. “Sometimes, a piece could be convinced to change sides.” He then placed the piece in a peg on my side of the board.
If he got any heavier handed with that bit of imagery, he might have suffocated me. He continued his allegorical ramblings much to my growing exasperation.
“Betrayal is of a constant concern in my line of work. You must be always aware of this lest a single piece brings about that destruction of your entire formation.”
At this point I was done with the nonsense and didn’t want to play his little game anymore. “Councilor Larvell, I must ask that you please speak plainly and tell me why you have called me here.”
He simply stared at me for a few seconds before exhaling through his nose and standing and walking closer to the fire. “Very well, I’ll be plain with you. I don’t much care for people who are trying to spread sedition through the ranks of my army. Whatever you may have discussed with the captain, it ends now. You will cease or be detained for treason.”
Well, it was clear that he was keeping an eye on me, probably since our little spat at the council meeting. Despite the threat levied at me, I maintained a calm disposition. “You know, the captain had similar concerns during our conversation. He is a loyal man, but I will tell you the same thing that I told him. It isn’t treason to offer sound advice.”
Larvell’s voice became a little more directed. “When that ‘advice’ involves openly questioning the commands of your superiors, I'd consider that sedition.”
It was my turn to stand from my chair to at least try to meet him on the same level despite his height advantage over me. Even if it was futile, I tried to convince him once again. “You can’t just sit back and expect this war to blow over you like a storm. If you do nothing, you are going to lose, period.”
“That is not a forgone conclusion.” He countered firmly. “If we secure our borders and wait, then eventually we will gain a more favorable position. Alathos isn’t immortal, and he is the main voice driving the Thrainians to war. Without a clear heir to take his place, someone more temperate in their emotions might take his place and allow us to put an end to the war without more major conflicts.”
That was his plan? Wait for Alathos to die of old age? I could do nothing but stand there and stare at him for longer than was probably polite. “All I'm hearing is a lot of assumptions and maybes that might not happen. Regardless, it is obvious that you don’t understand Alathos as a person. If you did, you would know that your plan is destined to fail.”
“And what makes you so certain of this.” Larvell challenged me.
“If the fact that the man strapped me to a table and had me torn to pieces thousands of times to steal the goddesses blessing wasn’t enough...” I saw the slight twitch of his brow as he imagined that. “Then the fact that the man is a narcissistic egomaniac on a level few can truly comprehend should be more than enough to convince you.”
I decided to drive home my point a little more. “Tell me, are you counting on the forests dividing the Thrainian territories from the coalition’s being the bulwark that will keep you safe and secure while you wait for the monster to drop dead?”
“They have protected us well thus far and there is no reason to assume that they will fail us in the future so long as we remain vigilant.” Larvell replied confidently.
I nodded. “Yes, they are great natural barriers, preventing large armies from moving easily or heavy equipment from being transported. Perfect for ambushes, hit and run, wars of attrition, all those great strategies. So, here’s a question for you. Why hasn’t Alathos just burned them to the ground?”
Larvell paused, clearly caught without an immediate answer to my question. I kept pushing him. “Here’s another question for you, has Alathos ever ordered his men to salt the earth in the villages they raid? How about poison the wells?”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Now his brow dropped, and he seemed rather upset to answer me as he knew where I was heading with this line of questions. “No, he has not.”
“Exactly, because the man’s ego is so massive that he considered your territory as just land that his people have yet to settle. If he starts to get old, he will start to get desperate. He will burn the forest, destroy your land, starve and poison your people, all so he can realize his vision of a world where Thrainians rule above all. There is no waiting for that kind of evil to die out, it will continue to grow until it consumes everything in its path.”
He at least seemed to be considering the possibility, but there was still that spark of defiance in his eyes. “You’re the one making assumptions now. Assuming that we wouldn’t stop them, that we couldn’t put out the fires or prevent him from taking our farms.”
“You might be able to, for a while. Maybe if you focused completely on defense, you could stop their attacks for a few years. Still, that plan accumulates a lot of cost over time. Every attempt they make to push into your territory will result in some form of damage, including a loss of life. That also doesn’t take into account them trying a variety of tactics to counter you. You said so yourself, betrayal is of a constant concern. Durdan has already had an attempt on his life from a man whose family was being held hostage. The same could be done against you or any other figure of power. If even one succeeds, then your carefully prepared defenses could crumble.”
Larvell huffed in exasperation as he walked away to the other side of the room grumbling all the way. “Everything we are discussing is in the future, something that none of us can predict with any certainty. All I want is to save the lives of my people today by not throwing them into what has, time and again, been proven to be little more than a butcher's shop.”
I sighed. “Look, I hate to repeat myself so much, but you cannot sit back and do nothing. It is understandable that you are afraid for the lives of your people, and I know how you feel about that after what happened to your family, but this-”
My eyes went wide as I barely managed to move my head in time to dodge a flying glass that was heading right for me. It whizzed right by my ear and shattered on the wall at the other side of the room, the little bit of alcohol that was left splashing all over the place. After turning back to him his face had clear hostility written all over it.
With measured movements he raised a hand and pointed a very condemning finger at me. “I don’t want to hear another word out of your mouth. You don’t get to stand there and tell me how I should feel about burying three of my children like you understand at all how that feels.”
I was stunned by the sudden aggression. Part of me wanted to retort, be indignant, or otherwise defend myself. However, he was right. I didn’t have the right to do that, I couldn’t understand what he was going through, and then a revelation hit me like a ton of bricks. What I said was dangerously close to everything that I hated about people trying to empathize with me. They all believe that they can imagine what it is like, what they think I must feel even though they have no idea what I'm thinking.
Taking a breath, I decided to address him less like the powerful military figure and more like the person he was. “You’re right. I don’t know what you’re feeling, not exactly, because I’m not you, nor am I a parent myself. So, I apologize, and I won’t assume to understand your pain anymore. Instead, I’ll simply ask you the question that needs asking. What the fuck are you doing?”
My aggressive question caught him off guard, and the look on his face was one of confusion like he was trying to decide whether he misheard me or not. Soon enough though, his brow furrowed again in anger and indignation. “You are treading dangerous territory coming into my house and insulting me.”
“You’re the one who dragged me here, quite forcefully I might add, but that doesn’t subtract from the validity of my question because it appears to me that you aren’t doing anything, least of all that which protects your people in the long run. All you’re doing is condemning them to a slow death by a thousand cuts. Even if your plan worked, how many would die over the years, the decades of skirmishes and defensive battles it would take? Swift action can save just as many lives if not more! I don’t want your soldiers to die any more than you do. If this war could be resolved with a simple conversation, I would have done everything that could possibly be done to make that happen, but it can’t!”
Larvell scowled at me, choosing to remain silent for a few moments. “You make is sound so easy, to give orders and commands that hold lives in the balance. When your words can mean the difference between one person dying and a thousand, you learn to choose them very carefully.”
His anger seemed to subside slightly into a look of pure exhaustion. “You want me to be honest? Fine, there is a decent chance that what you are saying is correct, and more lives might be saved by being aggressive in this instance. In either decision though I am commanding my people to lay down their lives on blind hope alone. I am forced to make a choice between two evils and pray that it is the right one.”
For the first time since we met, he looked at me with something other than disregard or contempt. “I recognize your deeds in Yol’vastume were nothing short of a miracle. The best I can offer you is the promise that if you can bring me another of these miracles, one that ensures that most of my army, my people, will not die pointlessly throwing themselves against the Thrainians, then I will voice my support in favor of your proposition. Until then, my decision will remain unchanged.”
A miracle... I exhaled through my nose before pinching the bridge of it. Everyone keeps telling me that, but it’s still hard to think that way. Yol’vastume was just me using my unique position and knowledge to create an opening for the rest of the army. Hardly a miracle as I would imagine it. Asking for the same decisive game changer for a completely different situation wasn’t an easy thing.
My thoughts started to race as I tried to come up with some plan on how to make that happen. I didn’t have much time right now though, and this seemed like the only way to get through to him. With some hesitance, I gave him my answer.
“Alright, I’ll see what I can come up with.”
Larvell grunted in acknowledgment of my words before moving back to his chair and practically falling down into it. He rubbed a hand across his face for a moment as a weary sigh escaped him. “I think I’ve had my fill of conversation for today. You are free to leave if you wish.”
It felt a little strange to just leave him there in what was obviously a brooding mood. I thought that I should say something, but nothing came to mind that felt right. In lieu of anything overly complicated, I just gave a simple farewell statement.
“Take care of yourself, Larvell.”
He watched me leave for a second before turning to stare into the fire. When I exited the lounge, I was met with the concerned faces of my group. Jorn spoke to me while trying to maintain the expected decorum.
“Sir, is everything alright? Things got a little... noisy in there, and we were debating whether to interrupt or not.”
I gave him a nod in appreciation for the worry. “Everything is fine. Our debate got a little heated for a moment, but we’ve come to an understanding. We’re leaving now, though. Still have a lot of work to do.”
Jorn nodded as my little escort fell in behind me. Larvell’s personal guard escorted us to the exit, but after that left us to our own devices as we were once again on the street. For a minute I just stood there, not knowing exactly what to do while becoming lost in my own thoughts.
A miracle to decisively win a battle. I knew exactly what Larvell wanted from me, but I didn’t know if I could actually bring myself to do it. My internal debate with myself was interrupted when Ulthises slithered up next to me.
“My lord, may I suggest that we move to collect lady Kala and the rest of our group?”
His suggestion made me realize that we were standing in the middle of the street and getting in the way of traffic somewhat. Meeting up with Kala again was probably a good idea as enough time had probably passed for them to have finished their goal as well. I didn’t have any better ideas regardless.
“Yes, that sounds reasonable. Let’s get to it then.” We were off again, making our way up the steady incline of the city to the church.
When we finally stood before the large doors, I heard what sounded like a voice talking from within the main hall. It seemed another sermon had been started, whether planned or prompted by Kala I didn’t know, but I wasn’t about to walk into the middle of it and cause a scene, so waiting outside was the only choice left.
I leaned against the wall of the church, getting as comfortable as I could while everyone else stood in a protective array around my position, heads slowly turning as they scanned everyone nearby for potential threats. It was doubtful that someone would do something aggressive in such a public setting, but the risk of idiots was a forever present one, so the odds were non-zero at the very least. After another fifteen minutes, a lot of muffled talking, and even a song of worship to close everything out, the doors finally opened, and a stream of people steadily left.
I did my best to become one with the wall, not moving an inch as if the movement would attract the attention of all these religiously inclined people who would swarm me. Thankfully, my tactic seemed to work for the most part. Many people simply walked right by without even noticing I was there. A few near the end of the line though had enough awareness, or perhaps were simply not as stifled by the crowd, to see me. Those that noticed me came by to meet me, ask for prayers, or offer them, and wish me luck in my task of rallying the armies of the coalition.
It seemed that Kala and the bishop were doing good work at least. I politely excused myself claiming the need to conduct business inside and slipped away. Able to breathe again, I set about trying to find Kala, a simple task considering that she was standing on the other side of the room talking with the bishop. She must have noticed movement heading her way because she stopped her conversation and looked at us before breaking out into a wide smile.
“James, you’re back. How’d it go with the soldiers?”
I shrugged as I stepped into conversation distance. “Alright I suppose. Got a solid maybe out of the local captain. He’s going to think about it.”
“Well, better than a no at least.” Kala said with a shrug of her own.
I huffed in amusement. “My thoughts exactly.” Trying not to be rude, I brought the bishop into the conversation. “Bishop Yolder, hope you’ve had a good morning.”
“A good morning indeed, Lord James. I’m glad to hear that you are having some success in your mission.”
A half-hearted smile found its way to my face. “Yeah, a bit of progress at least.”
Kala seemed to pick up on my mood and gave me a tilt of her head. “Did something happen? You have a look on your face.”
To prepare for a retelling, I took a deep breath. “Yeah, had a run-in with councilor Larvell.”
Kala’s face soured a bit. “What did that... he, want?”
The fact that she bit an insult out of her tongue amused me a bit, but it didn’t help my somber mood all too much. “We had a debate, it got heated, we both threw around a few light insults, and then we came to an agreement, surprisingly enough. However, it’s the terms of the agreement that have me worried.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “He wants a ‘miracle’, specifically, a miracle that will prevent most of his army from dying in battle to the Thrainians if they do deploy to aid Yol’vastume.”
Her brow furrowed a bit. “That’s, vague. I have no idea what he expects you to do to accomplish that. It sounds completely unreasonable.”
I shook my head. “No, that’s the thing, I know exactly what he wants, and I'm pretty sure I could do it too.”
Kala looked surprised, and then hesitantly happy. “Oh, well, isn’t that a good thing? Doesn’t that mean we can have his support?”
“We could, but I'm trying to weigh the costs in my head. Kala, you know about all the knowledge I have about aspects of the world that are yet unknown to you and the people at large, right?” She nodded. “Well, I've been intentionally avoiding the subjects I thought could be used to create things that this world just isn’t prepared to handle yet.”
Now she looked concerned, and even the bishop was giving me a curious look. “What are you saying, James?”
I inhaled sharply through my nose before letting it out in a sigh and finally getting it off my chest. “I think I'm going to have to create a weapon.”