The public coronation ceremony was still being planned and was not going to be happening immediately. Rather than wait for that and keep the tournament winners waiting, I made the decision to start meeting with some, especially since I already knew them, and had Nodel and some other advisors I was growing to trust meet with the others.
I sat on the gaudy gold throne and watched as the first of my day’s planned meetings walked in.
The man walked in with strong steps and a confident posture, but of course, that was only what was visible on the surface. A quick glance at the truth told me that my visitor’s head was down with tense, bunched shoulders.
Stopping where the carpet leading to the throne ended, the man bowed. “You honor me with an audience, your highness.”
“Oh, none of that, now,” I said, waving my hand dismissively.
The man jerked, and then the illusion broke, leaving me looking down at Atlessoa’s shocked face.
“Pilus?!”
The two soldiers manning the doorway—two that had been sworn to secrecy on the first day, who were good men who only wanted to serve the good of the Kingdom—stepped forward at the sight of the illusion breaking, but I raised a hand and they stopped.
“We’re fine. Actually, if you two could wait outside, that would be great.”
They looked at each other, then back to me.
“Uh, your highness…”
“It’s fine!” I said, standing and jauntily descending the handful of steps to the floor from where the throne was elevated. Grinning, I clapped a hand onto Atlessoa’s shoulder, who was still just standing there flabbergasted. “I’ve already beaten her in the arena once. Give us the room.”
The soldiers stepped outside, and I turned back to Atlessoa, who was finally finding her voice.
“What is happening right now?” she asked. “You were sitting on the king’s throne!”
“Some… stuff happened. Turns out the king wasn’t a very good guy. The official story is that for my tournament win, I was granted a duel with the king for the crown, and in a surprise twist, I won.”
“You won. A duel. For the crown. And now you’re… king?”
I laughed at the absurdity, but nodded. “Come on, let’s get out of this dumb room and find somewhere more comfortable to chat.”
Once Atlessoa and I had settled in somewhere comfortable with some tea, I recounted my story to her. I gave her the full story, from the moment I left Roko to when I joined the north through to when I killed the king, so she would have the context for it all, as well as a better understanding of why I had been unable to come back sooner.
When I was done, Atlessoa looked a bit shell shocked, and after asking a few clarifying questions, she sat there pensive.
“Obviously, you no longer have anything to worry about. Whatever you want, whatever you need, just ask. You’ll be taken care of. To be honest, once I found you, that was always going to be the case. I would never have let you go back to Roko after what you told me. I would have spirited you away to Freehold with me, and we could build you a new identity as a novice tamer. As much as we have available to us now, with all this, I was hardly hurting for comfort and stability out east. But now… things are a bit more complicated. And honestly, if you’re willing, I could use your help.”
“My help?”
“You’ve gained a tremendous amount of skill and power, and I would like to use it. I’d like your help with my reign.”
“...as the king’s assassin?”
“More like… as the king’s spymaster?”
“I–I mean, of course. Of course I’ll help, Pilus. You helped me when I needed it most, and I won’t abandon you when you need my help, even if it did mean being your assassin. Spymaster, though, spying against… not the north, given your story. So, the south? That’s fine with me, by the way, even though I’m southern, for you–”
“Al’Tiolese.”
“–what?”
“It’s not so much a secret as it was essentially scrubbed from history, but the palace has records. I’ve only just started going through them, trying to figure out what I need to do as king, and found it. Al’Tiol. That’s the original name for the land in the south. So a ‘southerner’ would be Al’Tiolese.”
Atlessoa sat in shocked silence for a bit as she processed that, and I let her. I saw her murmur the name to herself a few times, feeling the shape of it in her mouth. After the moment had passed, I went on to clarify.
“And no, I don’t need you to spy on the Al’Tiolese people in the Kingdom. In fact, maybe the opposite. What I need is someone who watches the central Kingdom, the old Horuthian blood, the noble families, the wealthy and powerful. I want to clean this Kingdom up, Atlessoa, and make it a good place to live for people from all backgrounds.
“Al’Tiolese people deserve to live with all the same rights and access that any Horuthian does, and in the same way, each Horuthian deserves a chance to live their best lives, avoiding poverty and enslavement. No more young girls being forced into a life of unwilling sex work, no more unnecessary pain and destitution. And any Velgein who wants to live in this land should have the right to as well, as a free person, maybe even as a citizen some day.
“There are going to be people who will try to stop that from happening, people who need to keep their claws dug in, grasping on to whatever power they had as we try and even the playing field,” I said, thinking about the Church and how they wielded their power over healing through price fixing and enforced exclusivity. “It could be a difficult, maybe impossible task.”
Atlessoa smiled brilliantly at me. “It would be my honor,” she said, and her smile turned playful. “Your highness.”
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“Ugh.”
* * *
Without a clear idea for where trouble might appear, it was hard to set Atlessoa to any specific task, so she started sticking by me and acting like a bodyguard. Not that I need one, but I am in a potentially dangerous situation, so I’ll allow it.
After speaking with Atlessoa, I arranged to meet with Gorban. The man walked into the throne room with a measured but confident stride, and I kept my face impassive when I noticed his step falter for a moment once he recognized my face.
To give him credit, he barely missed the step, and immediately picked his stride back up before coming to rest before the throne. He paused for a mere moment as he looked up at me, before he curtly bowed.
“Your highness.”
“Really? Not even going to comment, huh.”
Gorban blinked at me, then tightened his lips, clearly unsure if he should speak.
“Fair enough. So, you made it to the semifinals, and against almost anyone else on our side of the bracket, likely would have made it to the finals. You’ve earned a reward. What is it that you ask for?”
Gorban straightened. “My guandao teacher’s school. I entered the tournament to secure funding for it.”
I more-or-less knew that already, having had many conversations with Gorban since meeting the man in Fespen. The guandao was a weapon style fading with the decline of Al’Tiolese culture, and Gorban had wanted to help popularize it and make sure that the school where he learned it remained open despite some financial troubles.
“Done,” I said. “What else?”
Gorban paused, then bowed his head. “I only reached the semifinals, Pil– your highness. I don’t deserve more.”
“Hmm. Is Shirel still in the capital?”
“Yes. We were going to head back to Taraponi together.”
I turned to my left. “Do you remember her? The dagger wielder you faced? How far do you think she would have gone, if she didn’t face you?”
The Shadowblade appeared out of thin air next to me, kneeling. I caught Gorban’s surprise out of the corner of my eye and stifled a chuckle.
“She was good. Very good. She would not have struggled against most of the swordsmen I faced, although she likely would have also met her match in the semifinals.”
I nodded. “Seek her out. Offer her a position under you, and if she accepts, train her as you see fit.”
The Shadowblade vanished, and I turned back to Gorban. “I’d like to make you a job offer, as well.”
“A… job?” he repeated, finally showing some of his mounting surprise at the whole situation.
“The way you fight is remarkable. This Kingdom relies too heavily on swords, and while I love a good sword as much as the next guy, things will… probably be changing. Tarandback combat is going to become a reality eventually, and I want people to learn how to benefit from it and also deal with it. Polearms are a superior defense to a mounted opponent. I’d like to put you in a well-compensated position in the army to start training some units in dealing with mounted enemies, and also start studying how to use polearms better as a rider.”
Unlike Rugnor, I was not planning to invade the north. However, it was only a matter of time before bandits were going to successfully acquire tarands, if they hadn’t already. Peacekeepers within the Kingdom were going to need to learn how to deal with them. Tarands were also expanding the Kingdom’s reach, and we were bound to spread further south through the desert, if possible, and further east into the wild. I had no idea if we would come into contact with other humans or sources of conflict, and even if not, dealing with dangerous beasts would be easier for soldiers armed with spears or polearms from tarandback than on the ground with swords.
Gorban was still mulling it over. “Think about it. Shirel is being offered a job here as well, so you won’t have to separate. You’ll be well-compensated, and it does not need to be forever. You can think about it as starting a sponsored branch of your teacher’s school in the capital, which will help your guandao arts spread and take a deeper root in the Kingdom’s culture.”
* * *
My next meeting was a bit more awkward, and I decided to meet the man in a training yard without any pomp. In fact, the man I was meeting only knew me as the Tamers Guild leader, and for the moment, I wanted to keep it that way.
“Ugh, you,” Regan said as I walked over to greet him.
“Yeah. Uh. Sorry?”
He shook his head. “I’m still pretty pissed off about it, but… it was your win, fair and square. I even got you to handicap yourself for the fight, and you still rung my bell,” he said, rubbing his chest. “Literally.”
That was good. I had worried the man would hold a grudge about me running him down with Horsey in the arena, and would be a problem with the whole me-becoming-the-king thing. That had been part of the reason I wanted to meet with him.
“Still, quarterfinals is a large accomplishment. I’ve been asked to find out what you wanted as a reward.”
“What else? Coin, prestige, fame,” he said, rolling his wrist. “The usual.”
“Well, I’m sure the crown will be able to manage some of that,” I said, motioning for him to follow. “But I also wanted to offer you something else.”
Regan was, no doubt, a skilled swordsman. In fact, he had been rather famous within his circles for his skills. My beating him was more about the uneven footing and my unfair advantage, but I probably could not compare with straight skill, same as Gorban. While Regan was not a friend, I wanted to make the most of his talents. I led him to the area where I had stabled Horsey and the second tarand I had brought with me to the capital to haul my wagon. Since I no longer had a pair of unevolved tarands, I could not use the second one to haul, but I had him wearing Horsey’s old, pre-evolution saddle.
“If you’re willing to learn how to tame him, I would like to offer you my second tarand as a gift,” I said. “And teach you to ride. You’ve got a wealth of skill with the sword, and given the same advantages I had in the arena, I think you could do great, great things. You’re already known as one of the best with a sword in the capital, and this is the chance to become one of the foremost and best tarandback swordsmen in the Kingdom—in the entire world.”
I could see Regan starting to bite, so I mounted up on Horsey and drew my own blade, continuing to elucidate all the benefits and considerations as I demonstrated various things I had learned on my own. The other tarand was still in my control, but I convinced Regan to climb into the saddle and try a few things out through simple charges that I guided the tarand through, and as a part of the day bled away to our training, I could see the idea take hold in the man’s heart.
While my long-term plan was to get people trained up as potential cavalry, and I planned on teaching those that would learn how to wield polearms from tarandback, as well as training mounted archers, the fact of the matter was that the majority of Horuth’s existing army were swordsmen. In the short term, the quickest way to make use of their skills was learn how to adapt them to riding. The better tarandback swordsmen got, the more valuable it would be for Gorban’s unit to train against, and two competing units working in competition would accelerate the army’s total skill for riding or dealing with enemy riders.
“Great,” I said with a big smile when Regan finally accepted. I walked him through how to infuse a treat with his magical will—which I had become quite good at over my years as Guild master—and when it seemed like he had managed to figure it out, I reined in the tarand and released my control, allowing him to feed it and take over as the beast’s tamer. “Take your time training, and any resources you need for figuring out the best way to blend the sword and riding will be yours.” I motioned over one of the soldiers who was acting as my guard. “If you need anything, just ask Ben here for it, and we’ll get it for you. Keep me apprised on how it’s going and we’ll work out next steps.”
I gave him a wave and started to walk away, as I had spent far more of the day fooling around with Regan and Horsey than I had planned and still had others I needed to meet.
“How can he promise to get me anything I need?” I heard Regan snort as I walked away.
The soldier I left with him, Ben, must have whispered a response, because before I was out of range, I heard Regan’s incredulous shout.
“What do you mean, the king?!”