Chapter 15
January 10th, 1663.
Erich Wemhoff was sitting in a coffee house, something which he did quite a bit these days. He was surrounded by his friends and people who Wolfgang had told him to cooperate with, a radical student cell of abolitionists. The entire coffee house was filled with student radicals, and the owner of the place was on Wolfgang’s payroll, though none of the students knew that.
One of the people who he met upon entering Grössenstadt, a younger man named Fritz, spoke.
“Are you guys ready? This could be dangerous, so I wouldn’t blame you if you backed out now.”
Everyone around the table shook their heads. Erich leaned forward purposefully.
“I’m not afraid of being arrested, the elves have gone through far more than that!”
Everyone voiced their agreements and Fritz smiled.
“Excellent. Then do we know what we’re going to do? Enter Erzatzplasse to meet up with the others, then hand out signs and whatnot and march through the city.”
Everyone around him nodded.
“Then let’s head out, we’re going to start in less than an hour.”
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Erzatzplasse was filled to bursting with people, all there for a single purpose: to protest against the institution of elven slavery.
Erich was shocked by how many people had arrived, it could easily be a few thousand people. He was pleased with how many Grössenburgers felt strongly about abolition, he was afraid the crowd would be too small to be noticeable in a city of multiple millions.
Fritz stood on top of a box, cupping his mouth to project his voice farther.
“Everyone! Are we ready to demonstrate our resolve to the city of Grössenburg?”
The crowd roared with approval.
“Then let’s get going!”
He hopped off the box and took his place at the front of the pack, picking up a sign which read ‘Elven Slavery damages the soul of our nation!’ and hoisting it aloft.
The police watched the thousand strong crowd marching nervously. The Empress had ordered extra patrols, as well as military police, out on the streets in preparation for something, and now that thing was happening.
“Free the elves! Free the elves!”
“Aktion für Freiheit Jetzt!”
“End the evil! End the evil!”
The crowds of people shopping at the Neusjahrmärkte around the city of Grössenburg stopped to gawk at the thousands strong protest passing by. People cheered and booed as they moved, the split nature of Grössenburg’s political body being made quite clear by the reactions of the crowd, a fairly even split of support, hate, and neutrality.
They made sure to pass by as many markets and throngs of people as possible as they marched towards the Administration Building, catching and losing a few people as they made their way across the massive metropolis of Grössenburg.
“Freedom! They deserve freedom!”
“A life in chains is not a life at all! Free them!”
While they passed by an area known for its bars, a bottle was thrown into the crowd.
“Get out of here Messerohrleiberen!”
Some of the crowd got ready to break off and attack him, but their comrades around them convinced them not to or physically held them back. They don’t want to give the police any reason to arrest them. Or worse.
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The Empress watched the crowd move from her tower in Castle Grössenburg.
“This is ridiculous.”
She turned to Brusilov.
“Why did you not inform me of this?”
Brusilov shook his head.
“You have been diverting resources to Abbot Adol, what do you expect me to do?”
“I expect you to do your job.”
Brusilov scoffed and turned to leave.
“Brusilov, if you do not start getting results again, you will be let go.”
He paused for a moment before continuing on silently. The Empress leaned against the rail as she watched the protestors round a corner. They were almost at the Administration Building.
“They’ll just flail about in front of the building and disperse. Simple as that. I see no reason to force it at the moment.”
She sighed heavily.
“All they have to do is stay calm.”
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“Right to life! They have a right to live free of chains! They must be freed!”
The protest had made its way to the Administration Building and were chanting at the front door.
The guards at the building were watching the crowd nervously, their hands never leaving their polearms or muskets. The crowd was very close to the doors, and if they all decided to rush in at once there was really nothing that the guards could do to stop them.
They had no idea how long the protests were supposed to last, as they weren’t informed at all that they would happen, which indicated that this protest was not sanctioned. One of the guards turned to his colleague.
“What do we do?”
His colleague shrugged and the guard went back to looking at the crowd, trying to look as unflapped as possible.
“We should ask the captain.”
His colleague nodded and the guard ran inside, coming back soon after with a man wearing plate and a tudor hat with a purple feather sticking out. He surveyed the crowd carefully.
“This is illegal. Get ready to make them disperse.”
The guard looked at his captain.
“Is that a good idea, sir? With all due respect, there’s a lot of them.”
The captain drew a pistol from his waist.
“People are easy to predict, just fire a gun in the air and all eyes are on you. From there it just depends on how scary you are and how angry the crowd is.”
The captain walked over to the top of the steps and raised his pistol.
“Listen up!”
He fired, causing some in the crowd to scream and everyone to look towards the source of noise.
“You do not have permits to be protesting here! Disperse or you will be dispersed! Come back when you get the proper permits!”
The crowd stared at him in silence for a moment before yelling in anger. He was surprised.
That usually works.
He turned to his subordinate and spoke.
“Go inform the rest of the men to come out. And send a messenger to captain Hessinger to bring everyone here. This might end up getting ugly.”
The guard saluted and ran off inside the building.
“You have fifteen minutes to disperse! After that anyone protesting here will be detained!”
The crowd did not like that, with many expletives and insults hollered at the police captain. He scowled.
“They’re lucky I gave them fifteen minutes.”
He turned to another subordinate.
“As soon as reinforcements come we’re laying into them with clubs.”
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Fritz had briefly gotten away from the protest. He had business to attend to. He turned into a nearby alleyway.
“Fritz, how are things going on your end?”
He looked to the side and found a man in a black and purple guard’s uniform sitting on a barrel.
“Fairly well. Are they acting how we hoped?”
The man nodded.
“Yup. I would be surprised if they didn’t start the beatings before the hour is up.”
Fritz nodded.
“I imagine people will start to disperse after that. Should I lead the efforts?”
The man nodded.
“Yes, you and Otto will be doing that. And then you will convince people to protest again, this time a little more forcefully if the police come.”
Fritz took a drink of water from a flask.
“Understood, so we continue as planned.”
The man jumped off the barrel and picked up his club.
“Then let’s get back to it.”
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Erich stood face to face with another squadron of black and purple policemen who appeared behind the protest. The policemen were armed with clubs, and the crowd only had their fists. Erich had been in plenty of fights, but most of them unarmed. He wasn’t sure if he could take an armed and armored guard.
“You have been given fifteen minutes to disperse, and you have not. This protest is unlawful, and so everyone here will be detained.”
A policeman raised his club and Erich’s eyes widened. He didn’t think they would resort to violence so fast. He raised his arms and the club slammed into his forearms, causing him to yelp in pain.
The same thing was happening all around him as the guards began to forcibly disperse the crowd. He turned to his friends and saw them turning to look at him so he looked around for an exit, finding a small alleyway where there were no guards. He gestured for them to follow and he pushed his way through the crowd.
They got into the alleyway, along with the others who found the same spot, and they ran as hard as they could, slamming into walls and tripping over trash as they tried to get away from the fighting as quickly as possible. At the mouth of the alleyway they found two guards standing there, smacking their clubs against their hands.
Erich yelled at his friends and they redoubled their efforts, slamming into the guards as hard as they could. They knocked the guards down, tumbling over them as their momentum carried the group forward. They clambered back up and kept running, leaving the stunned guards on the ground to be trampled on by the protestors behind them.
The group ran as hard as they could for as long as they could, desperately trying to get away from the protest. They ran to the only spot in Grössenburg they were familiar with, the café in which they met with Fritz in the first place.
The group decided to lay low and just stay in the coffee house until Fritz came back, which he did thirty minutes later.
“Fritz, what the fuck was that?!”
Fritz was exhausted, breathing hard and sweating profusely. He had been running for a while, as the Grössenburg police caught a whiff of him and decided to pursue him through half of the city.
“I don’t know, I didn't think they would get violent that quickly.”
Erich scoffed. He wasn’t even scared anymore, he was angry that he was attacked. His arms ached where the club impacted them.
“What the hell are they doing? Are they trying to piss people off?”
Fritz leaned on his knees. He was genuinely winded.
“I think they’re just more likely to, huff, you know, attack people here."
He took a deep breath and stood up, still breathing a little hard.
"They’re not as beholden to the people as they are in Bickenstadt.”
Erich’s friend spoke.
“That’s fucked up!”
Fritz smiled and nodded.
“Yeah, that is fucked up.”
He smiled dangerously and looked at Erich.
“What do you think about doing it again? But getting ready this time?”
A small grin crept across Erich’s face.
“Well, get ready how?”
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Hundreds of miles away in the province of Holenstadt, Derek Holstehr, a regular soldier in the Grand Imperial Army, was stationed in a fort on the border of Holenstadt and Grössenstadt. His captain stood next to him, standing tall but looking worried.
For the past couple of days they had seen more Holenstadt State Army soldiers arriving at a nearby fort. This, in and of itself, was not unusual. What was unusual, however, was the very high number of troops being added to the garrison, and the frequency in which the fort received more men.
“Sir, what do you think is going on?”
The captain crossed his arms and shook his head.
“Hopefully, it’s nothing. Worse case scenario, it’s just another revolt.”
The soldier shuddered. He had been a private during the revolt just a couple of years ago and he had seen the fighting there. It was nasty, and highly irregular.
“Should we inform the Empress?”
The captain nodded.
“Absolutely. She must know of this.”
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The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
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January 11th, 1663.
The Empress couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Another crowd was marching along the same route as yesterday. It seemed to be about the same size as well, and she could tell from where she was that a few of the people were wearing helmets and other smaller bits of armor, both regular and makeshift.
Abbot Adol was standing next to her, smoking his pipe.
“This seems fishy to me.”
She sighed.
“Alongside the worrying movement in Holenstadt, agreed. Is there anything we can actually do about it at this point?”
Abbot sighed and shook his head.
“I do not believe there is anything we can do. The ball is already rolling.”
The Empress shook her head and turned away from the balcony.
“If you had sole proprietorship of the spy networks here this would not have happened. That’s it, I’m officially letting go of Spymaster Brusilov. Abbot Adol, you are now the official Spymaster Adol.”
Spymaster Adol smiled and bowed to her.
“Excellent choice, ma’am. I won’t let you down, unlike that otherworlder.”
She walked deeper into her chambers.
“That remains to be seen.”
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The crowd had returned to the Administration Building, and this time they looked meaner and angrier. Their chants had not changed much, but there was now a definite edge to them.
“Free them now! Free them now! Free them now!”
"Aktion für Freiheit! Aktion für Freiheit!"
“By any means! They must be free!”
The guards stood at attention in front of the crowd. They were less nervous than before. They had dispersed the crowd successfully before, they could do it again should the need arise.
“This is an illegal assembly! Disperse or be forcibly dispersed!”
Fritz yelled from his spot in the crowd.
“Verpiss dich!”
He threw a tomato, which splattered against his chestplate. The police captain looked at the tomato with disdain.
“Prepare to be detained and dispersed!”
The guards lifted their clubs, and the crowd lifted their makeshift defenses. They blocked clubs with wooden barrel lids and pans, anything they could find that would protect against the heavy blows.
“We will be heard! We will not be cowed! The people of Grössenburg will not stand for it!”
The crowd didn’t attack back, simply protecting themselves from the blows and pushing back any guard that got too close to the block of protesters. The crowd began to chant in unison as they pushed back the policemen.
“We will be heard! We will not be cowed!”
The guards laid into them with club and shield, occasionally able to drag someone out of the block of people and tie their hands with rope. Erich felt a club’s strike glance off of his helmet and he raised his barrel-lid shield to further protect his head. He pushed hard on a guard who got too close, causing him to fall back hard and slam his head into the brick street.
Erich winced and looked at the guard stirring, glad he was at least still alive. He wanted to protest and fight the police, but he was not interested in actually killing anyone.
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A policeman kneeled in front of the Empress. She ordered him to stand and say what was on his mind.
“At what point do we send in the Imperial knights, ma’am?”
The Empress pursed her lips as she thought, causing the man's heart to flutter for a moment, and heat to rise to his cheeks.
“I would like to avoid that. I imagine the Baron will use it as a pretext for some damned foolish thing he’s always cooking up. Otherwise, I would send them in if anything starts getting torched.”
The policeman snapped out of it and saluted the Empress.
“I will spread the word.”
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The protestors were starting to push the guards and police back, spreading out and covering even more ground than before. Suddenly, a brick was flying through the air, and it smashed into a guard’s head, knocking him over immediately.
It was impossible to tell where the brick came from, but it was a clear escalation from the protestors. Another brick flew into the guards, then a second later another.
“Get those slaver pigs!”
People began screaming from the crowd, the source impossible to tell. Erich was getting increasingly nervous. The protest seemed to be progressing towards something more violent, which was fine, but he wished it was better discussed. He was under the impression that they would simply be showing their numbers and resolve.
The guards redoubled their efforts, deflecting bricks and bottles thrown at them and attacking with extra strength and cruelty. A policeman caught the chin of a protester and knocked him out instantly, dragging him out of formation as he felt forward and tying his hands with rope.
After around thirty minutes of constant pushing and shoving, the crowd was getting exhausted, and people were beginning to flood out of the square in any gaps they could create in the police’s lines, going out through alleyways and roads. Erich shoved a guard and ran back into the alleyway, again.
In the alley he met up with his friends and Fritz, who was smiling and breathing hard.
“Hey, I think we should keep going.”
Erich raised an eyebrow.
“How so?”
“Well, I know some places nearby that are run by vocal anti-abolitionists.”
Erich and his friends smiled dangerously.
“Lead the way.”
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The Empress shook her head as she watched the protest disperse and protesters begin causing havoc around the city. She turned to a runner she had stationed in her room for the time being.
“Tell the chief of police to arrest anyone they find causing trouble. This must be stopped.”
He saluted her and ran off. The Empress gazed out at her city, bands of young students and other radicals wandering around and causing havoc.
She sighed loudly.
“This is going to turn into something big. Very big.”
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Erich laughed as he threw a brick through the window of a shop named ‘Herman’s Fleischmarkt’.
“Get shit on slaver!”
Another brick was thrown through another window.
“Say goodbye to your windows moron! Should’ve joined the right side!”
The owner, a middle aged man with messy hair and a short beard ran out and was yelling at the men. One of Erich’s friends got in his face and pushed him back into the wall as he yelled.
“Shut up slaver-lover!”
The man’s son came out of the butcher’s shop and rabbit punched Erich’s friend, causing the rest of his friends to immediately gang up on him, knocking him and his father to the ground and beating them until they were satisfied. They had a lot of anger stored up inside their souls, and it was nice to finally be able to express it.
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It had been hours since the second protest had started, and things were not looking good.
The protest had devolved into a full scale riot throughout the center of Grössenburg. Shops of vocal abolitionists and anti-abolitionists alike were attacked as radicals in both directions decided to vent their anger at the state of things. Entire blocks of shops had their windows destroyed, and anyone caught in the middle was beaten and their goods destroyed or stolen.
Erich slammed into a group of policemen trying to keep the peace and hit one with a makeshift club he had gotten from a broken chair. His friends also joined in using their own makeshift weapons. WIthin just a few seconds the policemen were overwhelmed and beaten.
Fritz was nowhere to be seen, which was fine. Erich and his friends had a great plan for rioting: follow the noise. He heard the unmistakable sounds of smashing glass and gestured for his boys to follow. They ran and found a neutral store being vandalized by some students wearing Grössenburg University uniforms, most likely reactionaries as far as Erich was concerned.
He listened to what they were yelling, just in case he was wrong.
“Hey Mitlaufer, you a messerohrleiber?”
The shop owner desperately shook his head.
“Well you look like one!”
He slapped the owner and Erich leaped into action, running at full speed and jumping as soon as he got within range. He thrust both his legs out, slamming into the other student with extreme force, sending him flying and Erich tumbling down onto the ground. He clambered to his feet and lifted his makeshift club.
The brawl lasted just thirty seconds before the reactionaries were driven from the shop, Erich and his boys ambushing and overwhelming them quickly. He was surprised by how well he and his boys were doing, he had lost plenty of fights with them before, but they were dominating most of theirs recently.
“I think we’ve got a knack for this boys!”
His friends all cheered and they moved on to find more targets.
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A soldier of the Grand Imperial Army stationed in Leibenstadt looked at the horizon worriedly. They had seen an increase in activity by the Anarchic horsemen. They were always a problem, but they often acted individually, which meant they ended up not being too big of a problem.
However, they had been meeting up with each other more often, and riding closer and closer to forts all over Leibenstadt.
He climbed down from his watch tower and went to find the captain of his company. He saluted the man who sat at a desk doing paperwork, something which the soldier was always surprised by how much was involved in army life.
“Sir, the Anarchic horsemen are getting antsy!”
The captain scratched the back of his head.
“Yeah, we’ve been getting reports of that a lot lately. I don’t like it. Keep an eye out for more movement. If you see anything important, don’t hesitate to report it.”
“Oh, speaking of that sir, I saw some Waffenstadt Provincial Guard men the other day. They came close to the fort, then just ran off back where they came. It was very strange.”
The captain raised an eyebrow.
“Seriously? Are you sure you saw that?”
The soldier nodded.
“Yes sir, with my own eyes.”
The captain pursed his lips in thought.
“Just…keep an eye out, understood?”
The soldier saluted.
“Yes sir!”
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January 12th, 1663.
Fritz checked his surroundings and found no one following him. He nodded and slipped into an alleyway.
The city had been experiencing riots on and off for a full day. The guards were overwhelmed, and the brawls were only getting bigger as more people decided to join in on either side.
He turned a corner and found a dead end with a few men in Grand Imperial Army uniforms waiting. One of them, a man wearing plate armor with purple and black cloth sticking out from the joints, spoke.
“Excellent of you to join us. Not like this is time sensitive or anything.”
Fritz waved his hand dismissively.
“Grössenburg is a big city, and I am quite popular.”
The officer scoffed.
“Whatever. Do you think the crowd is ready for the next step?”
Fritz nodded.
“Oh yeah. They are only getting rowdier. Are you guys ready for the next step?”
One of the regular soldiers nodded his head.
“Absolutely.”
He pulled his musket’s hammer to half-cock.
“For Liberation.”
Fritz smiled and nodded.
“For Liberation.”
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“For Liberation!”
A rioter chucked the torch through a broken window into a building, a newspaper called ‘Der Grössenbuger’ known for their inflammatory rhetoric against elves, dwarves, and orcs. People ran out as the newspapers caught on fire and the rioters whooped and hollered. The rioters beat the people who tried to run until they were bruised and bloody pulps on the ground.
More rioters threw flaming debris into the shop, greatly accelerating the burning of the business. They moved on to other stores, leaving that building a great inferno with absolutely no one left to put it out.
The massive crowd moved around the city, burning stores and beating people as they went, a whirlwind of flame and violence. Any policemen or guards they came across were engaged and overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
The rioters were getting increasingly confident and bold. The police seemed to be under orders not to kill anyone, and they were taking full advantage of it. Even as people got arrested or deserted their crowds were still massive, angry, and growing in number.
They chased a group of policemen through a major street, beating any who they caught until they were no longer a threat. As they made their way across the town, they encountered a roadblock of Grand Imperial Army soldiers. Unlike the policemen, they were armed with real weapons, most notably muskets with lug-mounted bayonets.
The rioters stared down the soldiers, and the entire street went silent as the two sides considered what to do. The crowd began to move forward, and the soldiers raised their guns. A voice came from within the crowd, Fritz’s voice.
“They won’t dare shoot us! Keep moving!”
The crowd began to move faster, and they began to yell and holler. Fritz nodded and began to make his way towards the back of the massive throng of people, his face steely and overflowing with resolve.
The officer, a man wearing plate armor with purple and black puff and slash, raised his saber high in the air. As soon as the crowd got within 75 yards, he dropped his saber, giving the order to fire. The sounds of a hundred muskets firing at once echoed throughout the entire city, and people in the crowd dropped like puppets with their strings cut or tumbled to the ground roughly.
It took the crowd, as well as the onlookers, a moment to truly process what had just happened. The formation of soldiers opened in the middle, and a procession of cavalry began to trot forward, all dressed in full plate armor and armed with lances and sabers.
The crowd immediately turned and began to run, but it was too late. The cavalry were upon them, and their sabers began to bite into flesh.
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January 15th, 1663.
A man whispered into the ear of Wolgang von Bickenstadt and he nodded solemnly. He immediately sprang into action, nearly sprinting over to his father’s study.
“Dad, the soldiers open fired on the crowd.”
The Baron took a deep breath, setting down his pen and clasping his hands in prayer.
“May they rest in peace, and may God have mercy upon their souls.”
He stood up from his desk with purpose.
“Come, we must make sure they did not die in vain.”
The two men made their ways towards the war room, bringing any servants or others who might be able to act as runners with them, and began to frantically write out orders.
“We must send a quarter of our forces to the northern border, and the rest south. We are sending the fifth and sixth corps to the north, and the rest south.”
Wolfgang ripped off the paper and handed it to a guard who immediately saluted and ran off.
“We must send six artillery companies north to be placed along the ferry stations, and the south. I want five artillery companies for each battalion in the south.”
The Baron handed his missive to a servant who immediately ran off.
“Where do we want to send my officers? Who should stay north? I am torn between sending Helmut or Ludwin.”
Wolfgang began writing down more orders.
“I say we send Helmut and Ludwin south. Helmut will keep the artillery running smoothly, and Ludwin is needed for commanding.”
The Baron nodded and Wolfgang handed the missive to another soldier. The two men sighed as he left the room.
“We’re starting. We’re finally starting.”
Wolfgang put a hand on his father’s shoulder.
“Yes, we are. Now, we have an announcement to write.”
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January 17th, 1663.
The Baron stood at a podium on a stage, something which he had gotten very used to in the past few years. The wind mage created the loudening sigils and the Baron took a deep breath.
“It saddens me to hear about the falling of patriots, men and women who truly loved the Empire, who thought it could get better. The handling of this protest in Grössenburg is horrendous, it demonstrates a complete lack of interest in what’s important for a leader to listen to: the voices of the people.”
The crowd cheered and clapped.
“I officially declare those one hundred and twenty two killed in the horrific putting down of anti-slavery protests martyrs for the cause of Liberation! They believed that the Empire could be better than it is, and they were murdered in cold blood for it! I will not allow that to stand! There will be a response, I will hold the Empress accountable for ignoring the voices of her people!”
The crowd screamed and roared in approval.
“I will write the Empress an ultimatum! One that ensures the dissolution of elven slavery! This ultimatum will be written and made public for the people of Bickenstadt, and those from elsewhere who simply believe in the cause, to sign! If the Empress continues to refuse to listen to the voices of the people, I will end elven slavery personally! By force if need be!”
The crowd’s screams reached a fever pitch, and many of them chanted ‘Baron! Baron! Baron!’.
“The ultimatum will be made available tomorrow! If you wish to make your voice known, come to the Bickenstadt City Assembly Building and sign your name, come and make history!”
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A soldier for the Grand Imperial Army stationed in Bergzitadelle Freiderick watched the mountain pass which allowed for Caprae Loco to enter Leibenstadt. He had been seeing more movement in the various forts the Brayherds had built in the area. He looked into his telescope and watched another company sized block of Brayherds arrive at the fort. The fifth one this week.
He climbed down from his watchtower and went to find the garrison commander, an old and experienced general named Dietrich Hasselbach. He ran along the parapets and through the multilevel defenses which made up the Empire’s bulwark against the south.
He climbed up nearly a set of vertical stairs and finally made his way into the citadel proper. He ran through the long hallways and tightly packed groups of soldiers until he finally ended up at the Garrison Commander’s Office.
“Sir, the Brayherds have added at least five hundred more to the forts in and around the mountain pass!”
The old commander was sitting at his desk. He was a man fifty six years of age, and more experienced than nearly anyone else in the Empire, save for the Baron. He had fought in every major war and had a hand in putting down every large revolt in the past forty years, and had gained a reputation for extreme competence.
He had short, graying hair, as well as a short, neatly cropped beard and piercing blue eyes. He wore purple and black puff and slash under his plate, and was at least six feet tall. He looked up from his work with his eyes only.
“That’s no good. A thousand men are to reinforce your side of the mountain. Inform the captain of that sector as soon as possible.”
The soldier gave a sharp salute.
“Yes sir!”
He ran out and Dietrich set down his pen. He rubbed his eyes and sighed.
“It’s inevitable, isn’t it? He’s determined to make civil war.”
He shook his head and stood from his desk, moving to a side room which contained nothing but a pedestal and a single fist sized stone, covered in unfathomably intricate runes and sigils and humming with power.
He picked up the Sending Stone and spoke into it.
“Empress, come in. Are you there?”
After a few seconds he heard a reply.
“...yes, Dietrich, what do you have to report?”
“The Brayherds have been massing troops near our border, as has Waffenstadt. And the Anarchic horsemen are agitated, they’re moving around far more than normal. I believe that war is on the horizon.”
The Empress sighed through the stone.
“...yes, I agree. I will do everything I can to stop it, but get the men ready, just in case.”
He saluted while still holding the stone to his head.
“Understood, ma’am. Long live the Empire!”
“...long live the Empire.”