Juliette VIII

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Soon enough Juliette found herself in her second-worst nightmare—trapped on a boat with a man that wanted to either fuck her or kill her, and a woman who literally held her life in her hands. (It could only be worse if spiders were involved).

She was having a bad time.

“So, Milady, what do you like to do for fun?” The so-called ‘Red King’ asked her, leaning over just a little too close for comfort. “You wanna tell us a bit about yourself?”

And yet, somehow, this conversation was worse.

“I’m,” she wanted to say no, she really did, “…not opposed. To talking about ourselves, I mean.”

“Great! What country are you from? Me, I’m from the good ol’ C of A! That’s the abbreviation for Australia, in case you didn’t know. And Saanvi here’s from India.”

“Peace!” she grinned, throwing up peace signs. “Peace and love!”

“…Right,” Juliette reluctantly said. “I’m from, um, France.”

“France! Mm, sexy.” She forced herself not to gag. “So, how much of a bad-bitch are you? I hear everyone in France smokes. What’s the biggest pound of pot you’ve dragged? You got any tattoos?”

“Um, no—?”

“Oh, oh!” Saanvi butted in, “You’ve got tattoos, don’t you Kingy!”

“Hell yeah I do! You wanna see my tats?” He grinned and pulled up his furs. Flexing his arm, he showed off a bright red and black dragon wrapped around his bicep. “You like? I got it back in Brisbane. My mom was against it, but I just got it without her knowing. And hey, shows what she knows, this thing looks awesome!”

‘That doesn’t make you sound cool,’ Juliette cried mentally. ‘That makes you sound the opposite of cool. Lame! Lame boy, you’re so lame! You’re like a walking badboy stereotype from a bad fanfic! Go die in a hole forever, please!’

“Holy wow!” Saanvi cheered, looking amazed despite the fact there was no way this was the first time she’d seen it. “That’s so cool! Is that why you took the name Red King?”

“Hell yeah it is. I had to pick a badass name for my empire. And what’s more badass than the color red!”

‘How did this man defeat me. Please, God-Thing that sent us here, for the love of everything, end my suffering.’

She hoped she was imagining the faint laughter in the back of her head. She really did.

“Coolio! So you’re the Red King, of the Red Kingdom, who rules from the Red Capital! Thematic!”

Juliette blinked, startled out of her depressive spiral. “Wait, The Red Capital? That’s the name of your capital city?”

‘Why did you just put Red in front of everything? Have you not a single creative bone in your body!?’

“Of course! You like it?”

Juliette glanced over at Saanvi, screaming at her with her eyes. “…Yes. It’s very, uh, imposing?”

“Hah!” the man grinned, raising his arms in triumph. “Imposing, I like that! You see Saanvi? I told you it was a good name!”

“Hm, hm,” she hummed, “I never said it was that bad, you know. Just too red!”

“Ah, but red is the color of passion! What better color to paint my empire in!”

“Oh~ Passion! I didn’t think about that! Love love, it’s great Kingy!”

Juliette was beginning to wish she had taken her chances on the run.

--

Night was beginning to fall, and she could tell the King was getting impatient. He’d obviously expected her soul-orb to return by now, and was confused that nothing had happened yet.

Conversation had gradually petered out as time went by. The two of them could only talk for so long, and Juliette preferred not to talk with the man who wanted to kill her for longer than she had to. So now the three of them were just sitting in the boat, doing nothing. The King was staring out the side of the boat, tapping the side impatiently, while Juliette was just staring at her hands, trying to think about anything other than what was currently going on. Saanvi had fallen asleep at some point, and Juliette wished she wasn’t currently in the hands of her enemies, as otherwise she’d join her.

The whole experience had the feeling of an awkward car ride, just without the car.

She hoped nothing would go wrong with their plan. She forced herself not to even glance at Saanvi. She wasn’t going to risk even the slightest chance of him figuring out what was going on. She’d just have to trust that Saanvi knew what she was doing.

She wondered how long it would take, before her soul-orb was supposed to arrive. It had been at least half a day since they left, but never having seen it happen before she wasn’t sure how far she needed to go.

She worried what would happen if the King got too impatient to continue. He couldn’t kill her, but he didn’t need to kill her to destroy her.

“My King!” one of the soldiers further downriver shouted. “The lighthouse is in sight! We’ve reached Midharbor!”

‘Lighthouse?’

Juliette leaned over the edge of the boat, trying to see what he was talking about.

It was faint at first, a small light far in the distance. But as they got closer it began to grow brighter, the orange light flickering softly, until finally they were close enough for the lighthouse in full to be revealed. A tower of stones piled high so as to tower over the river, with a crackling bonfire burning precariously on top of it.

For some reason, despite its primitive make, she was awed by it. In the darkness of the night, the flames of the lighthouse seemed like a second sun, burning alongside the stars. A stark, lively reminder that even in the dead of night, people still lived here.

She closed her eyes, letting the feeling wash over her. She wasn’t normally so… poetic. She must be more unsettled than she’d thought.

They passed by the pillar of flame with quiet relief. Everyone was tired and ready to get off the boats.

Soon enough, they arrived at the docks, and she was almost politely dragged out of the boat by the King. A quick check to make sure her arms were still bound, and they were off into the city.

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There weren’t that many people out when they arrived, probably all asleep. Yet, for some reason, all those people were glaring at her as she passed. A narrowed eye here, a scowl there, one person even shouted at her. It was… more surprising, than anything. How did these people know who she was? She’d never met them before in her life!

‘Did he stir them against me?’ she thought, frowning. ‘They wouldn’t know who I was otherwise, right? Is that how he uses propaganda, turning the people against his enemies before they ever meet them?’

It was… she didn’t want to say smart, but that was probably more because it was being used against her. And damn if that didn’t feel like a bad reason to dislike propaganda.

She shook the thought off. She didn’t care what these strangers thought—she was the Queen! And sure, she’d be under this Red King’s boot for the foreseeable future, but that was only until she threw it off and retook her rightful place. She was, and always would be, the Queen. So it was damn well time she started acting like it.

She stood up from her slouch, set her shoulders, and cleared her face of all emotion. Then, with her head held high, she followed her captors into the city.

--

In the end, the most impressive thing about Midharbor was the lighthouse. Everything else about it—from its newly built walls to its still-used-tents to its generic housing, none of it stood out from any other village she’d seen.

But that didn’t particularly matter. This village was the outskirts of a much larger empire, and yet it was on par with any city in her own lands besides the capital.

‘How many cities like this does this man own? Two? Three? Five? How big an empire has he crafted?’

She supposed it didn’t matter right now. She’d already been defeated. The only thing she should be thinking about is her immediate survival.

She shook away those thoughts as she followed Saanvi back to the port. As she’d recently learned, Midharbor had never been ruled by a God-King, and had instead been a smaller fishing village along the river. The King had conquered it recently and named it Midharbor, since it was midway between his capital and the furthest of Saanvi’s cities.

It helped explain why this city was so underdeveloped, but it also worried her. She’d thought that all the cities in the world were owned by God-Kings, but apparently not. And if there were these… mortal cities about, then that meant there could be mortal kingdoms and empires as well.

She’d thought that all her enemies started at the same time as her, with a least similar resources. It meant that there was only so far someone could advance, only so big their kingdoms could get in the half a year since they arrived.

But a mortal kingdom had no such restriction. How many empires already existed in the world? Could even this Red Kingdom be dwarfed by some unknown advanced empire, their only protection being mutual ignorance?

Ah, her thoughts were so depressing this morning, huh?

“Here we are!” Saanvi cheered, skipping to a stop in front of the boat.

Looking out at the small harbor, Juliette felt her previous worries begin to dissipate.

Now that they were leaving, the lighthouse no longer looked as tall—the menacing height that it permeated was gone in the day. Right now, it just looked like a particularly tall pile of rocks.

For some reason, that was almost disappointing.

This was the greatest works a mortal could produce? And under the supervision of a God-King, no less?

Why was she even worried?

--

Luckily, this ride was much shorter, so it saved her the painful awkwardness of sitting with the other rulers for too long.

That said, the second she stepped foot in the Red Capital, she immediately wished she was back on the boat.

The weight of what was going on suddenly hit her, the fact of where she was and what she was doing. She was alone and captured in a hostile city, here to swear herself to a tyrant. Her only ally might stab her in the back at any moment, and the man who would be her King was plotting to kill her.

Saanvi prodded her forward. Juliette glanced down at the other woman with shaky eyes, feeling more lost than she had since she first arrived.

Saanvi just gave her a thin, almost apologetic smile, and pulled her forward.

She swallowed, and forced herself to take another step forward.

From the outside the city was somewhat impressive. At least, more impressive than Midharbor was. Its walls were thick and sturdy, and she could see the smoke of fireplaces wafting over barely visible roofs. There was another lighthouse as well, this one towering much higher and looking much better crafted than the one at Midharbor. This one actually looked impressive in the daytime, a towering monument of primitive stonework.

The people of the city were much less hostile than she’d expected after Midharbor—perhaps he didn’t feel the need to force his propaganda on his more loyal subjects? Something to think about later. Either way, they welcomed her into the city with an almost lukewarm reception.

Inside the walls, the city was so different as to look almost alien. Instead of wooden huts like she’d made in her own city, instead this King had decided to use stone. Stone houses dominated the city, built from hundreds of carved rocks and boulders set together. Juliette couldn’t help but wonder when he’d gotten the time to do that. It must have taken ages! They created a sea of grey and brown down the gravel roads within the walls. The only wooden part of the buildings were the roofs, which were for some reason painted a bright red. She guessed that was where the whole ‘Red Kingdom’ thing came from.

And then they were at the largest building. The Palace. A stone mansion at the center of the city, short and squat and imposing, an almost castle-like structure which just barely towered over the surrounding buildings. Massive tree trunks sat as columns around the outer wall to help hold up the roof, painted with the same reds as the rest of the buildings.

She wondered if it inspired both awe and fear in the citizens of this city. It certainly did for her.

The inside was much more humble, though. Or perhaps they used all their effort on the outside and just rushed the inside. The outer wall immediately gave way to a large open throne room, a large firepit in the center. The throne in the back was—you guessed it—painted red, with a collection of furs piled on for comfort. Crude benches and chairs lined the walls, and as they entered the soldiers following them lined up against the wall with ease born of long familiarity. In a side room she was able to catch a glimpse of two women carving up a deer, and what looked like a couple servants quietly entered from the other side.

The whole experience was almost surreal. It was like she’d gone from the stone age straight to a medieval castle without ever realizing it.

The last to enter, the three monarchs made their way into the throne room. The King immediately sped ahead, claiming his throne before the other two could even get halfway into the room.

‘That eager, huh?’

“So, here we are,” he began, waving her forward as though she were not already making her way over to him. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect you to have made it this far.”

“Oh?” She asked, trying to play ignorant. “Why is that?”

He stared at her for a long moment, and she worried he wasn’t going to buy it, but then he simply sighed. “It’s not important. Moving on, I suppose we have to make this a big ceremony, huh? Alright then, eh-hem!” he cleared his throat.

“This last week has been painful for us,” he spoke, his voice echoing around the room. Immediately, all of the servants and soldiers stopped what they were doing turning to look at him with an eerie synchronicity. “We have fought a brutal war, and lost many good men on the fields of battle. Soon, we will take the time to mourn them and begin the funerary rights. However! Their sacrifice was not in vain! Now,” he nodded at her, “Introduce yourself to my court, my newest conquest!”

‘Never call me that again. Ew.’

Juliette took a deep breath. “I am Juliette Francois,” she told them, turning to address the room. “I am the Queen who rules further up the river. And today, I have come to,” she forced herself not to grimace. “To swear fealty to this Red King as his newest vassal.”

Murmurs broke out amongst the court, a quiet pandemonium as people stared at her incredulously. For some reason, it reminded her of highschool, back when she had a face full of pimples and her classmates would giggle and mock her behind her back.

In an instant, she realized she hated all of these people.

The Red King knocked on the arms of his throne twice, and instantly the throne room quieted.

“Queen Juliette,” he told her, staring down at her imperiously from his raised throne. “Do you swear yourself to me? To follow me, and serve me, as my loyal vassal,” she shuddered at the way he said that word, “for the rest of time? Before the gods, the mortals, and me, do you swear this?”

‘I will kill you one day.’

“Yes,” she nodded, taking a knee before his throne. “I… I swear. Before the gods, the mortals, and you. That I will be your loyal vassal for so long as we both shall live.”

‘And not a second longer.’

“Good!” he grinned down at her. “Then I, King William, the Red King, do declare you my new vassal! Rise, Duchess Juliette, and take your place as my newest subject!”

‘Wait your name is William!? I thought it was Billy!’ she thought incredulously, before the second thing he said hit her. ‘Duchess!? Did you really just demote me like that? You piece of shit—’

The people around her clapped and cheered, and Saanvi came and took her to the guest rooms before she could strangle the King on his throne.

It wouldn’t do much, but it would be so cathartic.

9,921 God-Kings Remain