“And THEY have conspired to pull us apart, one by one. And THEY have conspired to steal, kidnap, pillage and rape every single town and village in this and county. And THEY …have kidnapped my daughter and threatened me with her life unless I dissolve this country’s army and surrender; the very same acts they may perform on your loved ones. Your friends, your neighbours, the local butcher, the local mercenary and even any merchant they catch. They are ruthless, more ruthless than any wild monster. But I am NOT weak willed. I am NOT going to surrender to these infidels. I am NOT going to surrender or collude with these invades like my brother. And I am NOT-…not strong enough, to hold them back all alone, just like how I am unable to save my daughter… That’s why I need YOUR help. If you are a young abled man, a powerful witch or wizard, we need YOU in the army. If you are a skilled smith we need YOU hammering away, day in and day out, forging us new weapons. If you are a merchant we need YOU bringing in supplies. I am not strong enough to stop them and neither may you, or you or you, but fear not my fellow citizens for together, WE are strong enough. The enemy may taunt us, threaten and intimidate us, but we will NOT be divided. With a united heart, spirit and soul, we will drive these invaders back. For our freedom! For our loved ones! For our princess!“ *1
“UWOAAHHHHHHHH!!!” The loud screams, shouts and cheering jumbled up into a roaring blast, their original voices incoherent. The king raised his arm, waiting for silence to descend.
“I now declare our country is in a state of defensive war. You can sign up in the booths at the north end of the courtyard. Registration for the army and volunteering or goods and services will also be held indefinitely. The government office can be found on Royale Parade. I look forward to seeing many of you on the battlefield.”
The king retreated from the balcony edge back into the shaded region, the clapping from the crowd increasing in volume as the staged hands got to work. In the shadows stood Liam and Sophia. *2
“Good work out there.”
“Are you sure that was a good idea your majesty?”
“What do you mean by that Sophia? The derailment from the planned speech at the end or the announcement of my daughter being kidnapped and my showing of weakness?”
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“Uh...both your majesty. Hey, Liam, say something.”
“I am not as intelligent as either of you two in the field of politics but I have faith in his majesty.”
“Hahaha, you are a great friend Liam. Well Sophia, sorry if I hurt your pride with the change in speech at the end but I realised our mistake too late. Even with people secretly controlling the crowd’s mentality, the speech needs to speak to people. Citizens care more about their small community and livelihood rather than royal authority, so I tried to connect with them, that’s all. As for the princess…. well…the people have always really loved the princess, so announcing her kidnapping will only spurn on more citizens to join the fight. And this way they won’t know that we know she’s escaped.”
“But what about the regular nobility. I don’t think they will approve of this speech.”
“They don’t need to. I’ve been fed up with them for years, if they abandon us or do anything fishy I will personally knock some sense into them. So how’s the interrogation of the spies, any more new information?”
“No unfortunately. With all due respect sir, I think your methods were very brutal- yes and efficient and perfectly fine. Haha, yes perfectly fine and they definitely deserved it…. but I think you may have destroyed their sanity…they keep screaming that there are monsters everywhere when we try to question them now and we’ve learnt nothing new.” The king had previously overheard a pair of spies by coincidence. One was a lower noble of this country, so the term traitor may have been better, but it mattered little for the pair. After learning as much as he could, the king proceeded to seize the two by surprise as the pair prepared to separate. It was a forceful, yet quiet seizure and was followed by a day long interrogation and torture performed by a wrathful parent. They would never be the same again. Or sane again. But the information they spewed was a treasure trove and included a long list of associates and accomplices. Most were trivial people, small time servants, peasants, merchants and lower nobility; some even unaware of who they were truly helping. However there were two other big wigs included in the list and so unexpected that the king would have never imagined them a traitor.
The trio left the lavish room and started at a brisk pace down the hallway, the intricate carvings and paintings along the wall a insignificant back drop in front of their clouded minds. The king gave a loud sigh. “ An enemy in the dark is so much harder to deal with than an enemy in the open. Liam, perform the purge tonight. Make sure none of them are alerted and you capture as many of them alive as possible, but most importantly, do not let anyone of them get away alive. We need to figure out who we are facing and if we are really going to be dealing with a three sided war.”
“Sir, yes sir!” Liam turned the corner and headed down a different corridor.
“A question your majesty!” “Yes Sophia?” “Are you sure it is ok to openly recruit like this? I fear we may end up hiring a few rats and moles.” “Yes, unfortunately there is not much we can do. We are always bound to hire some. The most we can do is do a basic background check and make sure that none of the new recruits are in a position to do major damage. I’m sure there were at least a few of them in the crowd.” “Understood your majesty.”
Suddenly a guard scrambled towards the pair in a rush, performing a hasty bow.
“Sire, a man claims to have found your daughter, but that she refuses to come to the palace. She wants you to meet her personally in the Wanderer’s Inn tonight at 7 O’clock. *3