“Heroes can always be relied upon to act in the manner which they believe will achieve the most Good. This makes them eminently controllable. You need only create larger problems than yourself, then ensure the blame falls on somebody else.”
– Dread Empress Malicia the First
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Amadeus of the Green Stretch put down the letter, face expressionless.
Complications in the Principate were to be expected. It was only possible to string along the civil war for so long before one side or the other won. His plans accounted for that eventuality. The time that the civil war continued to buy Praes was being used to strengthen the Legions. Marshal Grem One-Eye had long since been tasked with fortifying the Red Flower Vales for the eventual confrontation with the Principate. In terms of skill, Grem was without a doubt the best military strategist on Calernia. He may have less experience than Klaus Papenheim, but the Lycaonese as a rule did not concern themselves with the politics of the lower Principate. They were too busy holding off the Chain of Hunger or the Kingdom of the Dead to bother with the happenings down south.
Which was why news of Constance’s Scar came as such an unpleasant surprise.
Finding out that a two-mile wide city had materialized in the Principate and shortly thereafter been destroyed by the Gnomes had upended years of scheming on Malicia’s part. In order to extend the conflict for as long as possible, they needed at least three major contenders. With only two major contenders, if one side ever weakened, the other could seize the opportunity and strike. With more crowns in play, each Prince would have to concern themselves with the actions of the others in the event that they tried to capitalize.
Princess Constance had been one of those three.
She had also been his preferred candidate as well. If she had seized control, her grasp on power would have been the most tenuous. None of the other Princes respected her. It was likely the Principate would devolve back into infighting shortly after, if she seized the reins. More importantly, she didn’t have the hearts of her peasantry either. Her soldiers pillaged and burned fields, killing the common folk as they went.
In the aftermath of her demise, the principality Aisne had turned on itself. It had become a nest of political infighting so venomous it would make even the Praesi high lords proud. With the death of their leader coming so suddenly and unexpectedly, the knives had slid out, and anyone with even a hint of a claim had risen up at the opportunity.
Deft as she was, Malicia had adapted. She had extended offers of loans to Prince Amadis Milenan of Iserre through the Pravus Bank in support of his bid for the seat of First Prince. The man had accepted them, but Black had his concerns. Prince Amadis may be as proud as a peacock and arrogant to a fault, but he was still a shrewd manipulator. He had been deftly arranging events in the background inside the Principate. Playing off against all three of the forerunners in the race for the seat of First Prince. Prince Amadis was more dangerous than either of the others.
Plans needed to be recalibrated to take these events into account. A war that had once seemed decades on the horizon was now possibly looming close, the heat of its breath felt on the back of the neck. Most concerning of all, the rate at which heroes were showing up within Callow had just risen from one to two a year.
The parameters he had set could not reasonably account for intervention from the Gnomes. Whilst reading about events like the fall of Kerguel made for grim research in abstract, seeing the force that they could actually deploy made for a much more pointed lesson. Calernia was a backwater on the greater stage of Creation. That they had interfered in the Principate rather than Praes didn’t make it much better.
Whilst the massacre of Princess Constance’s forces was being correctly blamed on the Gnomes, the appearance of the city was not. Teleportation on such a scale was far beyond the ability of even the most talented Praesi practitioners. Wekesa claimed it was not the action of a sorcerer at all. The resulting Keter’s Due from such an event would have left most of Bayeux a desolate wasteland.
This did not change the fact that in the eyes of the people on Calernia, the foremost experts on magic and thus the most likely culprits were the sorcerers from Praes. Blame would be placed squarely at their feet. The strategic advantage of having the ability to move objects or people on such a large scale would be considered unacceptable by all the other political entities on the continent. Claims that they did not have such an advantage would not be taken seriously. The word of the Dread Empire of Praes could not be trusted in the eyes of the heavens. That meant war was a certainty, and with possibly more than just the Principate. Praes needed to be prepared for the calling of a crusade.
The cogs in his head slowly started to turn. Forces would need to be redeployed. The First, Third and Tenth Legion were all garrisoned at the Vales, but with the threat of a Crusade looming there was no guarantee this would be enough to stem the tide. New Legions would need time to harden before they could be deployed, which meant that old Legions would need to be moved. Still, with the threat of an oncoming war, new Legions would need to be raised.
Something was amiss.
It was like a grain of sand had slipped between the cogs of the machine, and Black couldn’t tell where it was. There were too many unknowns. Subtle investigations by the Eyes of the Empire into the events leading up to Constance’s Scar had been unable to turn anything up. The city had just appeared in the Bayeux heartland, and nobody had been able to determine why.
There was another player who had entered the stage, and Black would find out who they were.
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Amadeus of the Green Stretch stood on one of the balconies at the palace in Summerholm. His green eyes scanned the horizon, watching the sun set. The latest news from the Eyes of the Empire had flagged three travelling wizards as potential villains. They were fleeing the Principate after allegedly having raised undead.
Some of Scribe’s helpers had been sent to Beaumarais to verify the story. After arriving, they had learned about the sorcerer named Roland leaving town to chase down a Praesi warlock. Careful investigation of the events rendered that explanation unlikely, and the one provided at the border fortress had been taken as the truth. It spoke to a level of shrewdness that amused Black, villains escaping persecution from the House of Light by spinning a heroic tale.
Background checks on the other two proved to be more interesting. Maxime Redflame was noted to be a formerly retired War Wizard who had served with several Fantassin companies before settling down after the death of his family. The man had a terrible reputation and was known as both a drunkard and troublemaker. A note was placed to keep watch on him more closely. The third figure was an enigma. Taylor, allegedly from off the continent, had no information to go on at all. It was as if she had appeared out of the void. That was cause for concern.
Out of the three, she was earmarked to be watched the closest. Someone with no visible background and no ties to anyone else was almost certainly Named. The others had an existing history. Connections to people they could possibly call friends. Taylor did not.
The group had been given a medium priority and left for monitoring by the Eyes. At first, they continued to exercise caution, keeping their heads down. After months of doing nothing but selling their services in an entirely legal manner, they were downgraded to a lower priority. They didn’t ask questions about the Calamities or try to raise trouble at all. From all outward appearances, they were proper citizens of the Empire.
That made the most recent reports all the more unfortunate.
Up until just recently, they had remained within the rules of the Empire, just barely skirting the edges of them. There had been attempts to integrate other villains into the current structure of Praes before, but they always chose to overreach. One of the members of the eyes had reported some unusual activity in a nameless town out in the middle of nowhere. A scuffle with a painter, which indicated they might have higher ambitions.
She had been ordered to link up with other members of the Eyes near Hedges and find out more.
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Black was reviewing the latest set of reforms he had planned for the guilds in Callow when Eudokia came in.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“There have been concerning developments near Hedges,” she stated. Ink stained hands placed a letter on the desk beside him.
Reaching to his left, he picked up a bottle and silently poured a glass of wine, proffering it her way. Then, he picked up the letter and started to peruse its contents.
Complaints had come from senior members of the eyes in the region, requesting clarification as to why they were so understaffed. Upon further investigation, it appeared they had always been understaffed. The system he had set up in Callow did not allow for a discrepancy this large to occur, without something major as the cause.
The cogs in his mind began to turn, slowly grinding away at the problem. Hedges was near the location of one of Triumphant’s Hell Eggs. More specifically, the one used to house a demon of absence. It would not normally be the first explanation he would reach towards, but in this case it seemed the most likely.
“I’ll contact Wekesa and ask him to investigate the area for signs of demonic corruption.”
“Should I prepare the Eyes for a purge?”
“Possibly.”
An empty glass was placed down beside him, along with another letter. Silently, Eudokia lit another candle and placed it on the desk, then left soon afterwards.
Picking the letter up, it was pleasing to note that the potential villain that the eyes were investigating was continuing to keep her head down. The two men were no longer considered villain candidates as they both showed signs of physically ageing. Taylor, however, had been marked down as a certainty. Physically, she had remained the same since she had first entered the Empire.
The group had passed through Callow into the Duchy of Daoine and there had been no notable negative reports from them at any step of the way. Black maintained a much more hands-off approach with dealing with Daoine, but in this case that was unlikely to be a problem. This villain hadn’t upset the Empire. What she were after was unclear and would take a much more careful line of investigation to determine, but right now she wasn’t considered a threat.
There was a chance, however unlikely, that she may be able to be integrated into the Empire after all.
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Wekesa’s investigations into the events at Hedges had proved alarming. He had confirmed that the banner was no longer present, and that an encounter with the demon had taken place on site. The largest discrepancy was the presence of what at first glance appeared to be a magical imitation of the tabula rasa effect. It was as if someone had overlapped an extraordinarily close mimicry of creation on top of it, following similar but not entirely identical rules.
Wekesa’s investigation was still ongoing to determine the exact source of the effect, but it was the other details surrounding the event which were occupying Amadeus’s attention. The eyes had reported an Artist displaying unusual behaviour. The Artist was registered as having appeared intermittently at locations in the Empire separated by such vast distances that it was not physically possible for him to have travelled the intervening space in the time. Furthermore, whenever he left, there were strange deaths that occurred in the area soon afterwards.
Direct action would be taken the next time the Artist appeared. Loosing a demon within the confines of the Empire was not behaviour that would be tolerated.
Then there was the other isolated villain in the Empire. Taylor’s name had not been determined yet, but the activities of her band had finally started to skirt the edges of the law. It was no surprise that a band of ambitious sorcerers containing a villainous Name began investigating lore on how to summon devils. It was still a disappointment.
Taylor was both paranoid and cautious, almost to a fault. It appeared she had an Aspect similar to Scribe’s Fade, she would often disappear from tracking for extended periods of time before eventually resurfacing. At first, this had been a cause for concern, and he had considered taking action. To her misfortune, there was no way for her to obtain the information she appeared to be searching for without risking engaging actively with Eyes of the Empire. It had been simple enough to slip a tracking spell onto a purchased tome that completely bypassed her protections.
It was unfortunate, but Wekesa had informed Black that an eavesdropping spell would have proven too easy for the wizards to detect. Using an enchanted book to listen in on their conversations would have made observation substantially easier.
The engagements that her band were observed participating in were against foes that would have been dealt with by the Legions were they on site, never against individuals of value to the Empire. Furthermore, they remained outside Callow proper and inside Daoine instead. Were any issues to arise, Black would anonymously inform the Duchy about their problem. They would eagerly solve it themselves. For now, Taylor would remain under observation.
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Matters within the Principate were proving to be more optimistic than Amadeus had initially expected. Despite his fears regarding Prince Amadis, another protracted draw had proceeded to develop. Malicia had proven her deftness once again, succeeding in tying up the Principate in war. Prince Dagobert of Lange had been trying to strong-arm the Lycaonese into supporting his bid for First Prince. Predictably, it was proving unsuccessful. He was currently engaged in a stalemate with Prince Fabian of Lyonis, and it seemed unlikely that progress would be made any time soon.
Prince Amadis was trying to talk them into pretending to sign an alliance with Dagobert and then backstab him on the field of battle. Princess Aenor of Aequitan decried both, arguing that they should remain out of the conflict and stay firm in upholding their duty up north. Piece by piece, the Principate was splintering. Hatreds were becoming more and more entrenched.
Less notably, two years on and the Principality of Aisne was still embroiled in internal conflicts. It amused Black to see them continue to connive, much like Praesi High Lords. The fact that Praes had nothing to do with it made the irony all the more sweet. If the situation there dragged on much longer, it may kill the idea of Aisne existing as a part of the Principate at all.
This had bought him more time to prepare. A fourteenth legion was in the process of being raised. When the news of Gnomish activity had reached the High Lords, politicking in Praes had, for about the span of a day, taken the back foot. Ater was quiet while they tried to decide how best to leverage the information, and news of the outcome proved to be enlightening. Spies within Wolof had informed him the Sahelians were trying to find a method to achieve a similar scale of teleportation ritual. This served to once again reinforce his belief that all of them needed to die. The Sahelians, of course, never knew to leave well enough alone. If a new kind of demon was discovered that wiped out half of Calernia, they would try to leash it instead of exterminate it.
That left one more outstanding problem. Cordelia Hasenbach. It had been over a year since she was first crowned Prince of Rhenia, and recently she had been trying to raise awareness about the Pravus Bank. The ongoing civil war was key to the Empire’s strategy, allowing them to buy the necessary time to prepare before the inevitable Crusade. Malicia had been funding the civil war indirectly through Mercantis. The City of Bought and Sold allowed the trade of almost anything if you had the gold. Were it not for the ongoing investment of Praesi coin, the Princes of Procer would have long since ran out of the capital required to continue fielding more mercenaries in their bitter feud.
Assassin had tried to have her killed, but her cousin, Agnes Hasenbach had at some point come into an oracular Name. Her ability to see the shape of the future had rendered all attempts made thus far unsuccessful. Efforts were being made to learn the extent of the Augur’s abilities. Sooner or later a weakness would be determined, and they would be able to strike. The only question that remained was whether it would be before or after she had succeeded in bringing the war to an end. Malicia was optimistic, Amadeus was not.
Taking into account his most pessimistic projections, Amadeus estimated he would need to agitate the Chain of Hunger within the next two to three years. It would serve to destabilize Rhenia and shift the focus of Cordelia Hasenbach away from the southern principalities, right as she would begin to involve herself with the civil war. Breaking her momentum at that pivotal moment would crush attempts to reunite the Principate for at least another year, buying Amadeus additional time to prepare.
If nothing were done, the cries of Rhenia would be the clarion call that brought the crusade to bear. Amadeus could feel the shape of it in his bones. It had been twelve years since the Conquest of Callow. How many more years would he have, he wondered, until the hours tolled for war.
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Amadeus finished his final review of the up-and-coming soldiers for the fourteenth legion. Whilst the troops themselves were green, it seemed likely they would prove capable once hardened on the field. Unfortunately, it appeared there was a dearth of sufficiently talented officers to man the legion within the Empire itself. The daughter of Istrid of the Red Shields, Juniper, had potential, but she was also years away from being ready to take command. Efforts would have to be made to extend his search and possibly consider recruiting from Callowan stock. Integrating them into the Legions would further bind them to Praes, making it harder to untangle the two nations for any would be heroes down the line.
Making his way to one of the nearby offices, he sat down and started perusing the latest reports from the Eyes. His eyebrows rose. Reports from Daoine indicated that the villainous band led by Taylor had left the confines of Daoine and re-entered Callow proper. She had kept her head below the waterline for over two years now. Amadeus considered it likely that she would remain that way, but he wouldn’t settle for possibilities, only certainties.
He would need to ask Wekesa to set an appropriate trap. Bait of some sort that would lure her out should she be inclined to overreach. It would be a pointed lesson, with a visit from Assassin at the end of it as a reminder of why she should continue to stay as she was.
Black viewed her avoiding the trap being the more likely outcome, in which case a more direct visit was in order. He had considered it unlikely that there were any other villains who were directly compatible with their rule, but it seemed that wasn’t necessarily true.