by D Richardson
"Lightning!" the mage countered.
"Wall(earth)!" The spell grounded itself against my shield.
"Silence!" Willow ordered.
"Insight."
The mage thrust his staff at me, his lips moving, but the words unspoken. His eyes were filled with panic and my own filled with madness. I had just learned a new spell. "Broil(silence)!"
A wave of dead heat sprayed out from my staff and deep into the ranks of our enemy, halting the air and ridding it of vibrations and sound. By using the attributes of the silence spell within broil, I mixed the two with both effects. A thousand players before me choked and gagged and panicked and struggled against the melting heat and they screamed in silence, for there was nothing to carry their voice.
"Broil(explosion)!" This might have been a mistake.
As if in slow motion, my staff blossomed into splinters, explosions traveling outwards, knocking us back with deafening roars with even more explosions and countless more as the spell traveled the length of the shore, spreading out like gasoline vapors and scattering like cluster bombs. I fell into the rough sand, protected by a glassy blue shield that cracked and shattered against the onslaught. When the explosions ceased, my ears were ringing, and I was limp with fatigue. I sat up to see the shore charred black and scarlet, smoking, littered with the dead and dying, the cavalry scattered atop their panicking horses and those with discipline looked in our direction with fear and awe.
We had won.
Chapter 36
The Open Skies
We stood across from them, the charred remains of our enemies smoking along the shore between us. They stared into us, and us into them, and when I knew who they were, I stopped.
I wasn't ready for this.
The airship landed in the grass beside us, air whipping into eddies as the magical engines whirled asleep. The leader of the cavalry barked an order to his men, and they trotted back toward the ship and fell in formation. Blue and white flags flapped against the breeze. Their soldiers, players and nipsies alike, stood watching us not with spite or fear, but with respect.
My own forces, the militiamen and the Seekers, lacked such discipline. They stood in bunched up gaggles and sloppy groups off to the side, allowing us space for the dialogue between us. Willow beside me glared at them with a furrowed brow.
The cavalry commander and his few companions trotted over. A small man, a young woman, and some tall guy - each adorned in expensive armor and helmets. They stopped a polite distance away, dismounted, and walked. The commander slid off his helmet, and from it, flowing red hair fell out. Girly face, girly figure, glistening smile. It was Tae.
Beside him, the girl pulled off her headgear. Dark skin, blonde hair, white tattoos - Simone. The tall one couldn't get the helmet to come off, but I knew who it was already - Relce. He tried to do it as dramatically as the others, but when it became apparent to all that it wasn't happening, he crossed his arms as slowly as he could while still looking somewhat casual about it. He failed.
I smiled, and they returned it.
"So this is where you've been," Tae said.
"Yep."
"You're a general now."
"Yep."
"Do you hate us?"
I paused. I hadn't thought that far ahead. I knew I hated the players, hated the terror they brought into my world, hated the evil they brought out of my people's hearts, but these players - they were once my friends. Were they still?
"I don't know," I said.
Simone looked away with sad eyes. "You have every right to."
A twinge of anger shot through me at the sound of her voice, and it bled into mine. "Where's Smith?" I spoke as if it were a threat.
She turned to me. "We don't talk anymore," she let out.
"And the guild?"
"Dismantled," Relce said. "After the siege, Smith turned tail and ran like a little wiener. He took the money and—"
"What money?" I asked with all the patience I could muster, but it didn't come off that way.
Tae sighed. "Your bounty," he said. "We heard all about it after the fact, but it wasn't until after the meteor killed us that we found out. That we found out everything."
My hands felt hot, and I was simmering beneath the surface. "And?" I said.
"And what?"
"Do you agree with our cause? Do you align yourselves with the idea, the ideology, that we nipsies are sovereign, that we—"
"Whoa," he stopped me. "We're having two different conversations here."
"Yes," Simone answered for them.
I took a deep breath, but I was still hesitant to trust them. We shared good times, sure, but I was different then. I was no more the Alex of that time than I was Lord Gaia now. "Thank you," I said, "for your help."
"Well, I owed a debt," Tae said with a smile. "How about your town here? Word has it you made your own nipsy republic."
"It will soon be an empire," I said with pride.
"So it really is you," he chuckled. "You really are the reincarnation. You know, you stabbed me back then. Back when you were him."
Relce stifled a laugh from underneath his helmet. His mustache was dangling beneath it. "Yeah, one shot both of us in that fight."
I shrugged. "Maybe you deserved it."
The laughter eased the tension between us, and I felt again that I was in good company. I already wanted to show them into our town, show them my home and my living room and make tea for us to recount better times. But they were players, and they were everything that was wrong with this world.
Or should I think like that? Should I paint such broad strokes of prejudice against a group of people just because of their titles? Would hating them merely because they were players be any different from Smith's contempt for the nipsies? These here were people too, at least in their world, with lives and needs and wants, and as long as they respected me as one of them, what would it matter?
I felt a nudge. "You're brooding, again," Willow whispered.
The three players in front of me stood patiently, awkwardly looking around and idly picking at their armor while they waited for me. Relce even had the time to pull off his helmet, showing us all his shaved head. He almost looked like Trell with all that shine. Was this a nod to the memory of Trell? They were good friends, I remember, so certainly he mourned - or would he? Why else the bald head? There was absolutely no fashionable reason to look like that.
It had to be. Without a doubt, there had to be players out there plagued by the realness of the nipsies, the realness of the NPCs - because we were. There stood before me a man who had lost a brother and nearby an army where even a nipsy stood at the helm of the behemoth airship - and not as cannon fodder. Even if the smallest fraction of players believed in us, it would be enough to take advantage of.
A pinch on my cheek. It was Willow. I brushed her off me. "An alliance!" I shouted. My friends, the player army, my own militia, all shook back in surprise when the echo reached them. "If you believe in our sovereignty, if you believe we are deserving of human rights, then I, the governor of the republic, offer an alliance between our forces."
Tae smiled. "Alex, have you ever heard of a Turing test?"
"Nope."
He chuckled. "Maybe I'll explain later." He took a deep breath and raised his feminine voice for all to hear. "I, the leader of the Open Skies Free Company, accept your offer." He approached with an open hand, and I took it.
Cheers across the battlefield, both from the player guild who actually landed an alliance with an entire nation, and my own to form a friendship with the owners of that massive floating battleship.
A portal ripped open in the nearby field. Boot-hat man stepped out and looked around, first on his guard, then in confusion. His eyes traced the cheering people, the airship, the smoldering wrecks of warships, and then fell on us. He hobbled over in a hurry.
"Hey, buddy, you ready? We're good on our end."
I nodded, then turned to my player friends. "Excuse me. I have a war t
o win."
***
"I was hesitant at first," the prince said. "But when I heard of who you were, who you are, then I was convinced, and so I would gladly proceed as my father did before me."
We stood in the empty throne room of the castle, stonework along the walls, slips of light pouring in from the stained-glass windows, footsteps echoing against the marble floors. Yun and boot-hat man were pacing around, drinking in the artwork and décor, and beside us, a group of high ranking officers.
The prince, the rightful heir to the Vellen throne, was a young man. A boyish face, handsome, blond with a charismatic smile. He was regal in his mannerisms, fit for a king - and a king he shall be. The royal family was removed in a coup some decade prior, and now with our support - and the support of the Vellen military - there would be a new coup d’état, but without the civil war. The past conspirators were already arrested, and with the hatred of the ruling class, all it took was the presence of the prince.
"And you are sure?" I asked. "You will support our cause?"
"Of course," he said with a bow. "Not only would I be bound by honor, bound by vassalage, but also by conviction. Your cause will be ours, and it is just."
I smiled. One of the military officers approached with a sword cradled in his arms. The sheath was laden with gold, silk fringes that dangled and caught the candlelight. I took it with care and pulled it from its sheath. The prince kneeled and bowed his head as an honorable man, and I raised the blade high. "Then I accept you as my vassal," I spoke with authority, the resolve in my soul echoing into his. I eased the sword down to tap his shoulders. I had no idea if this was the correct way to complete the ceremony, or if there even was a ceremony to complete. Regardless, I slipped the sword back into its sheath and handed it to him.
A short applause by the nearby generals and officers, some weeping at the sight of what they perceived as justice. Vellen was once again monarchy, no longer an oppressive dictatorship, and these old soldiers had been given back the royal family that they themselves swore fealty to.
The far door opened, flooding the throne room with sunlight. Thumping drums and applause. I walked with the king to the balcony, into the blinding light, and beheld thousands of people below us who roared and cheered and celebrated at the sight of their rightful ruler and their savior against the brutal dictatorship. Flower petals drifted among them, glittering in the light, the columns and rows of nipsy regiments presenting arms and ceremonial cannons firing. It was a noisy, wonderful, magical celebration that dawned a new age for them.
A lengthy speech that I paid no attention to. A fancy dinner, a bombardment of royal marriage proposals, gifts and drunken after-parties, and by the time the night was spent, we said our goodbyes to our new friends as the lords of our once enemies.
I stumbled through the portal and into the valley grass - home. Boot-hat man shuffled back into his place, Yun bridal carried a princess up the porch stairs, past an unamused Willow, and up to his room. Willow glared at me, waiting for the quiet to find us. All I wanted was a post-victory nap, but I knew what I'd find was the same yelling and arguing from this morning.
"An alliance?" Willow demanded. "With players? The hell were you thinking?"
"Relax," I said. "Remember? These were the ones who went out of their way to save me when you kidnapped me."
She scoffed. "Players of the same guild who sold you out, left you to die, left all their nipsy members to die."
"That was the leader," I said. "And he wasn't there."
"And what if he was?" she tested.
A flash of anger in my eyes spoke for me. "Then I would peel the skin off his face like an apple."
She took a deep breath. "Lord Gaia rejected the players in their entirety."
I snapped back at her. "And how would that make me any different than the players we reject?" A silence found us, the breeze came, and a far door slammed shut. "I realized something," I said softly. "That even some of them, some of the players, believe in us, believe in our sovereignty, believe in our freedoms and our sapience. If we shut them out completely, shut out our allies, then it would be us against the worlds. Lord Gaia might've found a way to close the gate, at least temporarily, but maybe there's another way, maybe there's—"
"Enough, Alex," she said. "I get it." She turned away from me. Her hair flowed against the wind as she rested her eyes in thought. "You always find your way."
***
The next morning, I woke to the sound of pounding on our front door. I yawned and ignored it until it went away. After gathering my strength to push Willow's limp, naked body off me, I threw on a robe and went to investigate.
Some jackass nailed something to our door, and they were nowhere to be found. At least they were smart because if I had caught them, I'd kidnap and torture them and use their bodies for me and Willow's entertainment. I pulled the papers from the nail and gave it a glance over as well as I could with sleepy eyes.
It was a summons to the city hall, signed by a page full of signatures, presumably the new electors of the republic. "What is it?" Willow yawned. She draped herself over me and looked over my shoulder.
"They had elections last night," I said.
"Without even letting us know? That's kinda mean," she said.
"It doesn't matter anymore. I lost."
Chapter 37
The Crowned Republic
A total letdown.
I was invited to the city hall to witness the tail end of the ceremony and the announcement of the new president while I sat back and watched. I knew I wanted these people to have these freedoms, sure, but this still felt like something was taken from me. I stood in the back of the crowd, rested against the wall, while the entire charade was coming to a close.
They had elected, to no surprise, the mustached balding guy who spoke for the people back when I was summoned here last. Now he was smiling wide and shaking hands with members of the communities and wealthy businessmen, and kissing babies. I sighed and turned to leave, but a hand tugged on my sleeve.
"Wait." It was an older man, white beard and neatly parted hair. I recognized him from my walk in as one of the electors. "There's an announcement coming up that you should hear," he said.
"No thanks, I'm going back to bed." Even though it was past noon and I wasn't even tired, I just wanted to escape from this defeat.
"Just wait for a second," he hushed.
I rolled my eyes.
"Excuse me," the president shouted. "Everyone! We have an important announcement to make." The passing conversations faded away, and some dozens of people shuffled and forced their way through the crowd to the front.
"Come on," the old man said. I followed him through the crowd, no longer needing to squeeze through people as they looked back at us, into me, and made a path. Before I realized it, the entirety of the city hall was staring at me. My cheeks were warm from the embarrassment.
"Ladies and gentlemen," the president said from the raised platform. "As we have discussed among the communities and between the electors, we have thus decided to reform the government into something new - a crowned republic." Applause rained across the building. He raised his hand to settle the noise. "And I can think of no other person the crown can go to," he gestured at me, and I felt a thousand smiles, “than the woman, herself.”
I was brought next to him, to share his sight of the audience and his feeling of victory.
"The woman who built the republic, who defended it time and time again against our transgressors, who secured alliances and wealth, who welcomed us into her city and her heart. The descendant of Lord Gaia, and our new queen - Alex."
The people stood and applauded. Cheers, smiles, victory.
"And so," he continued, "the sun has set on the Reka Republic, and a new dawn on our new nation, The Nipsy Republic."
"No," I said. My voice carried far, and it brought a stop to the festivities. I felt guilty for dropping the smiles from their faces, but my resolve didn't waver. "Let us not call
ourselves nipsies. Let us not define ourselves by what we are not. We're not just nipsies, not just NPC's, not just non-player-characters." I looked across the audience and the people and into them, reaching to their souls as they did mine. We were connected. "We are people! And let us demand to the worlds that we are treated as sovereign souls! Let us be called the People's Republic!"
***
After the ceremony and my coronation, I met with the new president - my vassal - in his office. It was once the governor's office that I never really used, and now they had already decorated it in presidential effects - gaudy picture frames and fancy-boy candles. The room smelled like fresh paper and potpourri.
"You see, Alex," the president said from his seat. "Or, uh, Queen Alex, or maybe King, if you're into that."
"It's fine," I said.
"Right, well, we all agreed that maybe having a twenty-something-year-old president with only a few months' experience of building houses, might not be the best idea. Yet we couldn't just set aside everything you had done - your leadership, your drive to see things through, that sort of thing."
"Uh huh."
"So this was the best we could come up with." He leaned forward in his chair. "We will run the country, while you do... whatever it is that you do."
"And what role would I have in this crowned republic?"
"Well, you're the queen. That's one thing."
"What about the constitution?" I asked. "Should we, uh, write something up? Have a bunch of people sign it, maybe paint a few pictures of the whole event?"
He pointed finger guns and winked. "That's why we're talking."
And so we did. We discussed the role of the future monarchy within the laws of a republic and just how much legal reach the monarch actually had. We both agreed it would be minimal, but with special privileges during times of war and other events, specifically in politics. The entire thing was a careful balancing act of democratic values and authoritative leadership.
