32. Reactions

Mercurius, Mardonius and Salutius recieved the news of the rogue evangel, a man who had founded his own state. Immediately the other God of Trade Evangels were convened.

“Yerek is founded on bribery, not on violence, we made the people wealthy and they revolted and we won a war yes, but we did not do what this man is doing!” Mercurius shouted in fury, “he’s making a mockery of the God of Trade.”

Salutius started talking with the God of Trade in his head.

“Why are you not stripping that imposter’s God Powers? Yerek is put in danger because of you.”

“He evangelises my religion, ok he does it differently, but that’s his choice,” the God of Trade said simply.

“His choice?” Mercurius and Mardonius repeated at the same time, completely dumbfounded.

Nichomachus shook his head in disgust at what was, worried for the future. They sat in Moru city, all of them looking at each other. Sitting on a round table, discussing policy of the state.

“Should one of us spy on him?” Symachus asked.

“If it’s one of us, it should be you,” Mardonius said to Symachus, “you are the least known evangel.”

The ginger looked at the old man with a knowing look, nodding.

“King Balar has been overthrown,” Mercurius whispered, receiving a piece of paper that informed him of the fact, “a man who converted willingly to the Church of Light, get’s the floor taken out from him and gets killed.”

“His regime ultimately destroyed the first temple,” Salutius said, “I have no pity for him, but yes, King Selim is a puppet of Uruq. Now we have to deal with this Mendek.”

Mercurius looked at his compatriots and sighed. He got everyone’s attention with his eyes, teleporting and bringing some fresh orange juice before looking at the council of evangels.

“What are our two mounted generals’ loyalty? Utbah and Gisco, if they turn on the Republic we will have a problem,” Mercurius thought aloud.

Nichomachus dark eyes looked sternly at Mercurius.

“It should be impossible given the situation of the three cities I have founded,” he said, “but then again, Utbah in particular has men loyal to him, tribes loyal to him. The situation is precarious for the Republic.”

“Wersh could turn on us?” Mercurius whispered.

“It’s not totally impossible, but our welfare makes it less likely,” Salutius said, “but still not impossible.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“The Food and Water evangels mean a lot of people lose their livelihoods,” Mardonius said sagely, “the countryside becomes less important.”

“In many ways the Yerek revolution improved things, but we cannot be complacent, more people need crossbows and the cavalry generals can’t grow too powerful, we need some way to deal with this madman proclaiming his own nation,” Mercurius said.

In Uruq, the conversation was a bit more dramatic. The king of Uruq king Mehmet was throwing goblets of drinks around, outright screaming. People tried to hush him, but his anger was explosive.

“What do you mean some lunatic ran around killing people and then just takes one of our northern cities!” He screamed. “I thought we were a country?”

A large tall, strong man, he was not a stranger to exercise and martial prowess.

“Mendek has claimed Hisar sir, I don’t know what to say.”

“Men…” Mehmet said apoplectically, “send a 40,000 man army and destroy this motherfucker! Who is this cunt? Not even Yerek does this shit. We had no warning whatsoever. My spies had nothing, suddenly some guy takes a city. We just made Byz and Balna protectorates, what do you mean some random…”

A short bald man kneeled before the king.

“The governor of Caer wants to talk sir,” a man servant said.

“The Hunur are reporting that some of their clans have been absorbed by the lunatic, he’s hopping around causing chaos,” the governor said.

Mehmet looked at both the manservant and the governor and made a flicking motion with his hands.

“I don’t need this right now,” he said, “summon the generals, capture that fucking city and end this madness right now! Do you understand me?”

“Of course your highness,” a chorus of people said.

The king went outside into the training grounds, ready to vent his anger in sparring. Some ribs of others were broken that day.

The Ostro clan would be the loudest and proudest outright riding to face the Mendek challenger to the Hunur confederacy’s throne. The Ostro clan leader had 20,000 riders and was riding to deal with the periphery rebellion. A man named Bleda, a strong muscly man rode his men to defeat the captured clans and to punish the Mendek rebel.

“Spendius?” Bleda said, “is that some sort of bad pun on the God of Trade?”

“No it’s a real name,” one of the scouting riders said.

“Are you sure?” Bleda said, “this guy seems like a crank, how did he even manage to cause so much of a nuisance so quickly?”

“No one is quite sure,” the scout said.

20,000 horsemen were a formidable force even on a bad day, they were spread out, awaiting any sign of the rebel. They would ride some distance yet before they would spot him. The Ostro clan had the grey flag of the Hunur flown high, a grey flag with a golden flame, all the Church of Light polities seemed to have that motif, an indication of their loyalty to the new religion.

King Selim reigned in Bethyr aided by Church of Light tribesmen and Church of Light priests, he heard the disturbing reports of what was happening in and across the mountains. He had a quiet anger about him.

“So the miscreant took Hisar, and is currently rampaging through the Balnan mountains, shouldn’t his taking of Othar have been challenged by now.”

“Sir, 15,000 troops have been marshalled from the north, to face him.”

“Do not waste loyalists,” Selim said cynically.

“But sir if you put to many hostiles they’ll-”

“Enough!” Selim said, “I don’t want to hear it, they will serve for their treachery to the faith.”

A relatively small man, it did not seem to stop him, he had plenty of retainers willing to serve him. He tapped the table and a goblet of wine was put before him. He eyed the men before him.

“Who forgot to change the carpet?” He said, “change the carpet, this belonged to that imbecile.”

“Of course sir,” a scared retainer said.

The royal residence was filled with Uruq mercenaries subsidised by Uruq, 2000 of them watched carefully at what Balar’s men would do, ensuring with the point of a sword and spear the loyalty through fear. Spendius had caused all parties to be intensely on edge, three large armies were now hurtling toward him and his newfound nation, and public opinion was that surely that would be the end of him.