Kaiden IV

PA 2 – July

Early in the morning, Kaiden found himself out on the docks of Sun’s Rest, sifting through the messes piled on top of the party barges. The barges—which had arrived back in the capital for the last night of the Kingdom’s New Year party—were sturdy but bland, little more than floating platforms that needed to be tugged along by other boats in order to get them from city to city.

On top of said barges were piles and piles of stuff. Tribute and gifts from various cities and villages, leftover food and drink, bodies of people who’d had a bit too much to drink (that he had to drag away from the edge on more than one occasion). Most of the stuff was an unorganized mess, but he had his own pile of stuff he’d kept more or less safe throughout the party.

Kneeling down, he started dragging a table that had fallen over out of the way when he heard someone else step onto the barge.

“Lord Kaiden,” Herneith—one of his personal guards—came up to him. Standing next to him, she towered over him, with dark skin, close-cropped hair, and a flat nose. She wore leather armor dyed bright, indicating her as a Royal Guard. “I’ve been looking all over for you! Why did you not inform any of us where you were going?”

“It’s fine,” he grunted curtly. Ah, that sounded pretty rude out loud. It wasn’t like he had anything against her, specifically… “Sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you, I just didn’t think it was that big a deal.”

“It is,” she stressed. “The Pharaoh has many enemies both within and without the Kingdom. Including, might I remind you, the fallen tyrant Quang. Any one of them could have attacked you while you were alone and vulnerable.”

Kaiden’s lips twisted. He hated that she had a point, but it wasn’t why he was avoiding them. “I’m not that vulnerable. I know how to fight.”

“So do I. But that does not make me immune to a stab in the back.”

“I am immune to a stab in the back.”

His guard gave him a flat glare. “You know what I mean, my lord.”

He did. “Whatever. You’re here now, aren’t you? So why are we even having this argument in the first place?”

“Just because I am here now does not mean you weren’t alone for an unknown amount of time! We cannot guard you if we don’t know where you are!”

“Well, if my guards want to know where I am, maybe they shouldn’t have gotten so drunk on shitty beer they passed out. Speaking of, I can’t help but notice you’re the only one here. Are the rest still sleeping off their hangovers?”

Herneith flinched, before sighing, looking exhausted. “Yes. They are. Because apparently only one of us takes our oaths to the Pharoah seriously. …Do not worry, my lord. I will inform him of what happened next I see him.”

Ah. Kaiden now felt kind of bad about that. His guards weren’t bad people, really. They let him get away with a lot of stuff he was pretty sure Joseph would’ve had his head for.

Though he supposed it made them pretty shit guards in retrospect.

“It’s fine,” he waved her off, pretending their previous argument never happened. “Um. Here, do you mind helping me carry this stuff back to shore?”

“Oh?” she finished rubbing her eyes, walking over next to him. “What is it?”

“Papyrus,” he replied, taking as big a bundle as he could carry with him. “I’ve been gathering as much as I could while we were travelling up and down the river. I’m hoping to use them to make paper.”

“…You spent the New Year party gathering weeds?”

“Well, Joseph doesn’t let me drink—since apparently we’re working off the American alcohol laws for some reason—and the beer’s pretty shit, anyway, so I can’t really stomach the little An—the others snuck me. So I figured I’d work on my own projects while the rest of you get wasted.”

She frowned, lifting up a much larger pile than him. “Does the Pharoah know about this?”

“Why would I? They’re not my parents, I don’t have to tell them everything I’m doing. Besides, if they aren’t going to tell me about what they’re doing, why should I have to tell them what I’m doing?”

Herneith pursed her lips, but didn’t comment.

Eventually they arrived in his own house, bringing them up to the second floor. As they did, they saw Anube stumble his way over to his position in front of his door, red-eyed and wincing. Herneith gave him a glare but Kaiden just dragged her in without letting her say anything.

Dumping the pile off the side, Kaiden flopped down onto a small green cushion (stuffed with sheep’s wool they traded from the far north—hey, sometimes being a step away from royalty had its perks). He leaned back for a moment, letting the cool morning breeze blow through the shutters and cool him down.

He hated going outside during the day. Early mornings and evenings he could tolerate, but once the sun rose it just got too goddamn hot.

“Would you like me to stay here, my lord?” Herneith asked after giving him a moment to rest. “Or would you like me to return to my post?”

Kaiden blinked, the words taking a moment to register to his heat-scorched brain. Once they did, he hesitated for a moment, wondering what he should do. On the one hand, she was a local, and might have been able to help him in a way that he wouldn’t have thought of.

On the other hand, he was probably going to mess up making paper a lot, and he didn’t want anyone to witness that.

“You can head downstairs, if you want to stay nearby,” he told her after a moment. “It’s not your shift, so you don’t need to guard the door or anything. Otherwise you can take the day off if you want.”

She gave him a dry look. “Thank you for the offer, my lord, but if the rest of your guards are anything like Anube, I think I’ll be the only one working today.”

Ah. Right. He’d forgotten about that.

Herneith shook her head. “Well, if you say it’s fine, then I’ll be resting downstairs today. If you have anything you need, just call me and I’ll be there.”

Giving him a salute, she left him alone, the sound of her sandals ‘plop, plop, plop’-ing down the stairs.

Once she was gone, Kaiden let out a groan, rolling his head to look at his piles of papyrus reeds. He had some ideas of what to do with them, but he wasn’t sure how likely any of those ideas would actually work.

Hopefully one of them would, he really didn’t want to have to ask the others for help.

This was going to be his project. His contribution to the Kingdom. Something important.

Maybe then they’d stop treating him like a child and let him into their council meetings (or whatever they did).

But that wasn’t going to happen without a lot of work, first.

Shuffling onto his knees with a grunt he crawled over to his work cabinet, filled with all the tools he’d used to make drums and ladders and any other woodworking he needed to do. Digging through them for a bit he found what he needed, pulling out the largest stone hammer he had available and another slab of rock he’d use as a base.

Setting it all up in the middle of his room took but a moment, and then he was ready to get to work.

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Now, he vaguely understood how papyrus turned into paper. He was pretty sure if required pounding the reeds flat with a hammer, but he wasn’t sure if he should be pounding the thinner leaves on top or the stronger, much longer and thicker stem.

Ah well. Only one way to find out.

--

Four hours and one thoroughly discouraged Kaiden later, he hadn’t made any progress.

Unless you call failures progress, in which case, hey! He’s made a lot!

He’d started by trying to just pound the reeds flat to see if that’s all he needed to do. All that had done was leave a sticky green mess on his worktop. It had left him scrubbing the stone base with soaked leather until it finally was clean enough to work with again.

Following this he’d tried the same with the tinner leaves on the top, but that had just left him with the same mess as before. Admittedly, he could have thought that through better.

The following several hours were spent doing nothing but experimentation after experimentation, weaving and mashing and snapping and cutting the reeds in every way he could think of in his attempt to figure out how to make paper.

The bucket filled with his failures showed just how well that had been going.

Kaiden let out a long, low sigh, placing his hammer off to the side. Rubbing his eyes, he forced himself to stop, setting the hammer aside. The frustration had been building for a while now and he—he just needed a break.

Standing up (and marveling a bit at how his body didn’t hurt at all despite sitting in the same position for hours), he made his way downstairs to grab a snack.

Coming downstairs he saw Herneith passed out on one of his couches, her spear leaning against the table. It didn’t look like she’d meant to fall asleep, given she was still in full armor.

He rolled his eyes as he saw her, suppressing a smile. ‘Didn’t need a break my ass.’

Reaching the bottom of the stairs he turned around, quietly digging through the pots and barrels stored under the stairs. Eventually grabbing a handful of dried nuts and fruit, he turned to tiptoe his way back upstairs.

Before he could go back up, though, Anube suddenly stuck his head into the door, the guard looking much more awake then he did this morning. “Hey Herneith, could you get—ah crap she’s asleep—huh? Oh, Lord Kaiden! You’re already down here! Uh, Hsekiu’s here to see you, says he has a message from the Pharaoh.”

“A message?” Kaiden blinked, not having expected anything for the next few days. He’d figured Joseph would be too busy cleaning up after New Year’s to talk to anyone for the next few days. He glanced over at Herneith, but seeing as she was still asleep he decided to eschew proper protocol this time. “Alright, let him in.”

Anube nodded, going stepping back outside. Shrugging while he waited, Kaiden plopped down on the couch currently not taken up by his sleeping guard, popping a nut in his mouth as he did so.

“Thank you for meeting with me so swiftly, Lord Kaiden.” Hsekiu smiled, Joseph’s secretary stepping into the room.

“It’s no problem,” Kaiden waved him off, gesturing at his final couch. “You can sit down if you want.”

“Thank you, but this will only take a moment,” he shook his head. “The Pharaoh wanted you to come down to the palace as soon as you were able. He has had… a worrying report from the south, and he wants all the God-Kings gathered.”

Kaiden’s eyes went wide and he leaned forward, suddenly nervous. “What do you mean a ‘worrying report?’ Like… do you mean another war? Can we even afford another one right now?”

“Nothing so bad,” Hsekiu quickly reassured him. “Or at least, not yet. The Pharaoh would have been much more direct if we were worried about something like that. Rather… well, the Pharaoh will be personally travelling south to meet with the Queen of the Stars.”

Kaiden frowned, biting his lip. The fact it wasn’t war was relieving, but why was he going to meet with a foreign Queen? For that matter, why did he need Kaiden’s input on this?

Could… could this be him bringing him into his inner circle? Were they actually going to start treating him like an adult now?

“The Pharaoh will be waiting for you in the meeting hall,” Hsekiu bowed, before turning to leave. “If you have anymore questions, save them for the Pharaoh when you see him.”

Ah. He was in the middle of something, but… well. He was thinking he needed a break anyways.

Before he left he turned and glanced at Herneith, wondering if he should wake her.

He decided not to. She could use the break, and Anube was here anyway, he’d just bring him.

Matter decided, Kaiden left, heading to Joseph’s house.

--

“Hey, uh, Joseph?” he called out hesitantly, knocking on his door. Behind him, Anube stood at attention, or at least a tired equivalent of it. “It’s me, Kaiden!”

There was a shuffling sound from behind the door, but a moment later it suddenly flew open, revealing Meixiu. The stern Asian woman gave him a once-over, her lips curling for a moment at some invisible blemish, before her expression smoothed back out. “Kaiden,” she nodded at him. “You’re late.”

“I came as fast as I could,” he scowled at her. “Also, where are all your guards?”

“Hungover, and probably wishing they were dead,” another voice called out from behind her. Joseph stepped out from behind Meixiu a tired smile on his face. “Kaiden, it’s good to see you again! You vanished at some point during the party, if I hadn’t asked Herneith where you went I would’ve been worried. Here, come in, come in!”

“Thanks,” Kaiden felt himself smile back. Even when he was annoyed at him, there was something about Joseph that made people let their guards down around him. “But, uh, are they really all hungover? I mean, most of mine were too, but Herneith stayed sober. Even Anube showed up, you know?”

As he came in Kaiden glanced around the room. There was a guard standing next to the door inside, but he’d bet good money that it was just Gamila. Joseph’s place was mostly the same as his—being the same building design that had been copy-pasted over and over again throughout the city—barring the large sunset mural covering the back wall.

Joseph had gathered all the God-Kings in the Kingdom together here, which let him realize this was something much more important than Hsekiu let on.

It was a little intimidating, actually.

“Ah, good!” Joseph smiled, leading him down to the couch. Meixiu followed, taking the couch across from him while Joseph sat on the one between them. “I knew I picked the right woman for the job! But don’t hold it against them. We had way too much left over booze this year, and, well, I thought it might be good for morale to just give everyone as much as they could drink! …It turned out that was a bad idea.”

“You think?” Meixiu scoffed, crossing her arms. “Every single soldier that didn’t show up this morning is going to wish a hangover is the worst of their problems!”

Joseph chuckled awkwardly, scratching his cheek. Kaiden, meanwhile, was more curious about what was going on.

“So, uh, why’d you call me here? I heard from Hsekiu that it was something to do with our southern border, but…”

Joseph slowly frowned, letting out a sigh. “Right, that. As you know, our northern border is, well, complex, but it’s more or less protected by our allies King Cui and King Aniruddha of the Two Oasis’. Our southern border, on the other hand, is more hotly contested. The Queen of the Stars, Antonia, rules the Starfell Kingdom to our south. You may or may not also remember our old ally, Getoralaind, which she destroyed while we were busy with our northern war. Well, ever since then that border has been a bit… in question, let us say.”

“I still say we should bring our army,” Meixiu cut in, scowling. “Give them a show of force to remind them we aren’t some weak little city-state they can push around.”

“Absolutely not,” Joseph calmly replied, as if Meixiu’s argument was common. Knowing her, it probably was. “Besides, we’ve already gotten some interesting information about them, right, Gamila?”

Gamila stepped forward from her place by the door, nodding softly. “Aye. My Merchants have discovered something interesting about her rule—she claims her right to rule by a type of divine authority. We claim similar, though not anywhere near the level she’s taken it. However, that has come back to bite her, in regards to us.”

“She’s for some reason declared us an ‘equal’ to her,” Joseph gave him a humorless smile. “Along with some nation to her south that has to do with the moon. Because of that, in her people’s eyes I have the same divine right to rule as she does. While we don’t know why she did this, we do know it’s made her much less likely to go to war with us. We plan to use this information when negotiating a new, concrete border.”

Kaiden blinked, overwhelmed by that knowledge. “Um, okay. Why did you call me here, though? Are you… are you planning to take me with you?”

“No,” Joseph shook his head, missing Kaiden slump.

‘Of course not. Why would he? I didn’t even know this, why would he bring me with him on some important diplomatic expedition?’

“Rather,” Joseph continued, “we need you to go north, and talk with Cui or Aniruddha. See, recently, we’ve had some worrying reports that… ah… how should I put this?”

“Their nation is in revolt,” Meixiu cut in bluntly. “The whole thing. They’ve done a shit job pacifying the lands they took in the last war, and their own heartlands are apparently one wrong move away from rioting as well.”

“You need me to deal with that!?” Kaiden asked incredulously, suddenly regretting ever wishing for more responsibility. How the hell was he ever going to deal with that!?

“No, no,” Joseph shook his head. “And not alone—Gamila will come with you. Really, we’d’ve sent her alone, but since nobody outside this room knows she’s a God-King we can’t do that. But if a God-King doesn’t go they’ll see it as an insult, and with Meixiu coming south with me that’s left you as the only one we can spare.”

“We aren’t going there to fix it,” Gamila reassured him. “Much as we’d like this to end peacefully, getting involved with another nation’s internal problems—especially our ally’s—will only hurt us in the long run. Rather, we’re going up there to get a better lay of the land and figure out exactly what’s going on.”

“If their people revolt, they revolt,” Meixiu shrugged. “If they can’t stop them, then they were a weak ally anyway. Just don’t give them any help unless they ask for it, and don’t make any promises without asking us first, got it?”

“Uh…”

“If you can’t handle it, just say the word,” Joseph smiled at him comfortingly. “Not everyone’s equipped to deal with this sort of stuff, so I won’t force you to do something you aren’t comfortable with. We can find another way, trust me.”

“No, no,” he jumped in quickly, his mouth moving before his brain. “I can do it! Really!”

“Well, if you’re sure…”

“I am!” He was not.

“Then, thank you, Kaiden,” Joseph gave him a tired smile. “It’s good to know we’ll have someone trustworthy dealing with that issue.”

“Of course,” he gave him a shaky smile. “You can count on me.”

Ah, how he’d come to regret that decision.

9,864 God-Kings Remain