Gala
Gala sat in her study, staring at the letter. She kept trying to tell herself that it wasn’t going to make it better, but she couldn’t bring herself to do anything else. The only other thing to do was deal with Lia, and that wasn’t going well either.
The day after the failed negotiation, Gala ran out of options and paced around the castle trying to come up with more, but she couldn’t change the facts. No one in the People’s Lord wanted to negotiate, and she had to either put her foot down or surrender to them and the death insurance industry, so she went with the former.
Men from all over the city guard kicked down doors, interrogated people, and arrested more death men, but the flow never stopped. Most people would be happy the guard was arresting so many people that the prison was nearly at capacity the entire time, but Gala knew that some of them must have been innocent. The math didn’t add up, but there wasn’t much she could bring herself to do that wouldn’t slow down the operation to destroy the death insurance industry and find Lia, so she stayed in the castle.
However, this letter would make her go outside. It wasn’t one letter but felt like one as she read them all back-to-back. There was a letter from Nero, one from the crown, and one from Romulus, all with terrible news. Nero explained that a false flag attack occurred in the Conqueror’s Sea; the letter from the crown was more up-to-date and put out the notice to every earl in the kingdom that the Lake Republic declared war on the Expert’s Commonwealth and the Griffin Republic. It destroyed an entire Expert’s Commonwealth fleet hours after it claimed the alliance had received the message of war. The alliance, of course, denied it, but it didn’t matter for now. Those things would be decided at the peace treaty, but for now, a transcontinental war had begun.
Despite the popular opinion that the Kingdom of Qar and Dicon Diarchy would be happy that their continental rivals were weakened, the fear of naval invasion trumped any intercontinental rivalry, and the two countries pledged to declare war on the Lake Republic if they stepped foot on Leozan. The odds were low, of course, which—in Gala’s mind—was the only reason they promised intervention.
The last letter came from Romulus and informed Gala of the embarrassment in King Harbor. Maximus was also sent an identical letter, and Noah had come away with a major victory that would no doubt be spread across People’s Lord circles.
Gala slouched in her chair and sighed. The only good news was that Maximus sent a letter a couple of days ago expressing his support of Gala for continuing the door-to-door campaign to hunt down Lia, but that didn’t mean much to her. His support for such an action was a given. After all, it was what he would do in the situation.
So that was the state of affairs, but there was nothing Gala could do about it. Suddenly, the world felt too big for her, and her goals wouldn’t see the light of day because there wasn’t an opening, but who was she to complain? There were politicians, royals, priests, diarchs, generals, etc. whom all wanted their version of the world to play out, and they were all playing against each other like it was the sickest game ever made. Gala knew that some people treated life like a game, especially that Councilman Daniels, who thought it was a good idea to start a transcontinental war.
Now, what would a person do in this situation if it was a game? Gala thought to herself. Doing nothing was the most illogical option, but there was no reason to do something rash, so that leaves a person with one option: their strengths, and the only strength that Gala could use right now was to speak to the people. It worked before; why not now?
#
And so, it was for five relatively normal days, Gala held speech after speech around Wailing Wind, trying to seem as approachable and relatable to the people as possible. If she had a face that the people could trust, why wouldn’t they provide tips to help rid the city of People’s Lord or death men?
Slowly, a couple of tips flowed in, but a lot of them were fake and were probably planted by the People’s Lord. The sameness of it all crawled into Gala’s mind. It was a virus that tried to tell her that she was worthless, that no matter what she did it wouldn’t work, but she was the earl regent, wasn’t she? If she couldn’t do it, who could?
These two voices battled it out on November 6th, Year 500 of the 3rd Era until a messenger knocked on the door of her study and said an urgent letter arrived from the crown. Gala ripped open the letter in front of the young messenger boy and found a personal letter from her father. Besides all the formality that came from a letter from the crown, it read: “The treasury is a lot worse than I let on. The crown is two weeks from defaulting on its debt.”
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“What!?” Gala exclaimed. She looked up at the messenger as if she was supposed to keep her emotions internalized. “Don’t tell anyone what just happened,” Gala ordered. “For the sake of image.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.” Gala paced around the room, darting from one side to the other, trying to figure out what to do. Her hands were over her head, and every couple of moments looked outside the window and wondered how the people would react once she told them. “How? Fuckkkkkkkkkk. What am I supposed to do? Huh?”
She plopped down in her chair. Her mind became numb, and no words went through her head, only instinctual emotions. She thought to herself that this was the type of moment that she was going to face. She wanted reforms passed all her life but knew that there would be a major obstacle in the way, but now it was here, and she didn’t understand why she wasn’t ready for it.
All that thinking, all that governing and looked where she got herself. If she did nothing, the country would be in turmoil; if she was too rash, the country would be in turmoil; and if she was too cautious, the country would be in turmoil. She thought about what everyone else would do. No doubt that Father and Romulus would result in the old ways of resolving these types of issues, but where had that gotten them? A dead mother, getting stuck in the mountains, fighting a losing battle with terrorists?
The correct option wasn’t going to make itself visible, so Gala decided that once she stood back up, she would make a decision. What that decision would be, she didn’t know, but in about one minute, she would stand up and decide. It wasn’t logical nor smart in any sense of the word, but at this point, she needed her heart, not the brain that helped get her into this situation in the first place.
She checked her watch and stared as the seconds went by. How so many people depended on the time for the operation of not only their lives but their jobs, families, friends, and events? How governments depended on them to get tax money, and to host governmental meetings and court cases, but Gala noticed one thing about those activities that had one thing in common: they were for free men. People in chains, forced to work against their will to produce foods, and goods, and extract raw materials from the ground depended on the clock like no other person. It was the only thing that dictated when they weren’t treated like animals.
Gala froze and closed her watch. She calmly stood up, adjusted her clothing, and wrote herself a note. Being slaves was the only thing preventing those people from paying taxes.
#
The next day, Gala stood on a platform in the area between the outside and inside walls of the castle. She looked to her right, and the chairs where she unsuccessfully negotiated with Lia were still there. Hopefully, after this, she would be more willing to stand down.
It seemed like today would be the last hot day of the year. Reports of snowfall emerged from the north, and it wouldn’t be long until the water outside of Wailing Wind would be frozen. Ships departed and made their way to either Staff Harbor or the west in Alington or West’s End.
200 people stood in front of the platform awaiting Gala’s announcement. Many of them were affluent men and women of Wailing Wind, while the others seemed to be everyday people who were lucky enough not to work at that time. Gala looked over her speech and backed up at the people. She wanted to rip up the paper and go about it in her usual style, but it was necessary. Announcements like these weren’t ones to be played with.
Gala walked up to the front of the platform and quieted everyone down. “Hello, good citizens of Wailing Wind,” Gala read off her script. “I have an important announcement today.” Her speech sat on the podium in front of her and the robes she wore heated up her body like she was a pot above a fire. “The treasury is in a weakened position, and action is required to resolve the issue. If radical action is not completed, the people will suffer, and what is the point of our governance if we are not taking care of the people that Mydrazan gave us domain over? Though there will be some pushback, I believe this action is necessary and correct for the stability of this country during these times.”
Gala looked up and looked at the people’s faces. The common people seemed bored. It wasn’t like the roaring speech in the city where she called people to action but seemed like a minor policy change. The affluent people became suspicious. Naturally, any change in the status quo that led to a change in their affluence was to be examined with scrutiny.
“I am hereby announcing the temporary suspension of slavery until further notice in the Earldom of Wailing Wind.” The affluent people’s faces came to a singularity. They all stared in amazement at the announcement, and though it was a calm announcement, the common people also looked in hopefulness and curiosity. Gala took a deep breath. “Slaves do not pay taxes, they do not add to the economy, they do not add much to the kingdom, and the cost of slaves outweigh the benefits of their free labor.” Gala exhaled and could finally rip up her speech. As she did, she said one last thing before disappearing into the castle. “Hail Mydrazan and the king, for they are the only ones who can dismiss such an order.”
Gala hastily walked back into the castle, ignoring anyone trying to talk to her. She could hear nothing from the crowd, and when she arrived in her chamber, she closed the door and threw off the lavish robes that drenched her in sweat. She drank a cup of water on her nightstand before collapsing onto her bed. She lay there thinking about what she had done, and after, about what could happen now, and could only smile.