Blood & Besiegement

by Jeremy Dwyer

  “Now, for the yellow crystals, please?” Cassius asked, and Liora handed these to him, as well. She wasn’t ready to oppose this man, as he was obviously quite clever.

  Cassius then took the four (4) yellow crystals, and started placing them on the short sticks, replacing the red crystals. He held these up the same way, flicking them back and forth, and Liora did the same.

  For a moment, bright beams shone from these yellow crystals, and set the sails of the Ripclaw ablaze. The fishermen arrived just in time to rescue them before the entire boat was burned, and Cassius carefully removed the yellow crystals from the sticks and secreted them away, along with the red and blue crystals, into pockets in his robes. Then, he went with Liora onto the boat of one of the fishermen.

  “Looks like you were about to go down with the ship. Where’s the captain?” one of the fishermen asked.

  “He went down ahead of the ship. He took ill and died and fell overboard, while we were still traveling over land. It was all that we could do to land the ship back at sea level,” Cassius said.

  “Lucky you didn’t get burnt to death!” the fisherman said.

  “Yes, it was a dangerous ordeal,” Cassius said.

  “Perhaps you could take us back to Ihalik?” Liora asked.

  “Perhaps we could, when our day of fishing is over. We’ve got work to do, ya’ know,” the fisherman said.

  “That’s understandable,” Cassius said. He wasn’t at all bothered by the delay, seeing it as an opportunity to calculate.

  The fishermen took Cassius and Liora to the southern coast of Ettromek Island, and then fished for the remainder of the day.

  Cassius used the time to plot his next move, knowing that the crystals were effective for their different purposes – blue crystals gave airships lift, red crystals emitted a bright signaling light around corners and yellow crystals could burn so intensely that they could be used as a weapon. It was time, Cassius thought, to trade these assets in return for the resources and favors of the wealthy and powerful. However, Liora had become as much a liability as an asset, because she witnessed too many of his misdeeds and shared too much of his arcane knowledge of the crystals. Cassius did not plan to allow her to live much longer.

  CHAPTER 12: Fleet and Guard

  The Jenaldej fleet and leadership – including Imperial Prince Emerond, Admiral Gavin, General Joshua and the scholar, Romana, along with all of their troops – arrived at the continent of Revod, the homeland of the Jenaldej Empire. They returned to the primary military academy in the eastern region -- a large stone castle that had been transformed to serve a purpose of both defense and instruction of cadets.

  In the private office of Prince Emerond – which was a war room with maps of all oceans and continents, and the mountainous land bridges that separated them – Admiral Gavin, General Joshua and Romana were present. Ovid, the Chronicler of the Oath who had accompanied them, was also present, and he recorded the proceedings in confidence.

  “Your Majesty, we must begin constructing a defensive fleet immediately,” Admiral Gavin said.

  “I don’t disagree, but the exact proportions must be determined by an authorized resource coordinator. The highest ranking one in this region is Nathan,” Emerond said.

  “Very well. Then we should confer with him, but I urge that we do this immediately,” Admiral Gavin said.

  “General Joshua, please inform Coordinator Nathan that we need for him to join us,” Emerond said.

  General Joshua left the office and made his way to that of the resource coordinator. When he found Nathan, he said to him: “You are needed at the highest level for urgent matters.”

  “The plural ‘matters’ suggests to me that the situation is far worse now than when you left,” Nathan said.

  “We will discuss the subject in detail with Prince Emerond and Admiral Gavin,” Joshua said.

  They made their way back to Prince Emerond’s private office, closed and locked the door for privacy and Emerond immediately began explaining matters.

  “As you well know, the Ahitan woman – Victoria – is still a threat and must be located and eliminated before she can make a strike against us. However, multiple new threats have arisen. The suns themselves have changed – one has fallen from the sky, and now is present in the world in the form of a sunfire creature that calls itself Prince Kirdothet. It is immensely dangerous…yet it has a weakness,” Emerond said.

  “This is quite an extraordinary statement, but please, go on, as I await the report of the remaining negatives, and the scant positive, if any,” Nathan said.

  “The sword that General Joshua holds – the Spirit Sword – is at least somewhat effective against this sunfire creature and can act as a shield against its fires, and even drive it away. However, General Joshua is the only known person who can wield it,” Emerond said.

  General Joshua held up the sword and Nathan saw that it had a slight blue glow to it.

  “Furthermore, the sunfire creature demanded to be led to the location of a girl – one named Taesa – whose voice, as he said, reaches to the kingdom of the sky,” Emerond said.

  “That is intriguing – who is this Taesa?” Nathan asked.

  “From what we have heard, she has immense musical power, and one of her songs is responsible for calling this sunfire creature down from the sky,” Emerond said.

  “This girl is both tremendously dangerous, and in tremendous danger, herself. We will need to allocate scouts to find her, before the sunfire creature does,” Nathan said.

  Nathan continued, saying: “Regarding the sunfire creature’s weakness to the Spirit Sword – that indicates that this creature is not of the so-called demonic sort. I conclude this because the Spirit Sword – which I personally witnessed Joshua acquiring from the apparition in the castle – purportedly does not work against such beings.”

  “Correct. However, that does not mean that no demonic forces are involved,” Romana said.

  “Interesting – please elaborate on that,” Nathan said.

  “There is a large structure on Udovedaj-Pren Island – it was concealed, perhaps by a darkness or by a spirit world veil – that suddenly became visible to us. It consists of several large crystal towers – standing several hundred feet high. It’s known as the Temple of the Sky’s Nine (9) Kings,” Romana said.

  “Of what concern is this structure to us?” Nathan asked.

  “It is a focus for sun worshippers, who are actually demon worshippers,” Romana said.

  “I’m more concerned with this sunfire creature and the risk that it poses to us wherever the Spirit Sword is not present, as we have only one (1) such sword and only one (1) person who can actually wield it,” Nathan said.

  “Demon worship can bring an evil of such magnitude that you would not want to attempt to comprehend,” Romana said.

  “Demons, as you call them, are merely highly energetic apparitions with negative energy. Apparitions themselves are merely the residual life energies from persons whose flesh has died. In time, they all dissipate,” Nathan said.

  “No. Demons are eternal and dangerous and they will not simply dissipate such that we can wait them out,” Romana said.

  “What do you suggest against this?” Nathan asked.

  “Prayer and calculated preparation,” Romana said.

  “Let’s go with calculated preparation: you have that much right,” Nathan said. He did not believe in any sort of religious dimension to these matters.

  “Do not dismiss the power of prayer,” Romana said.

  “You’ve been trained in mathematics, and you know what it can do. This is not a time for philosophies and religiosity,” Nathan said.

  “It’s always a time for religiosity, even when it must be interwoven with calculation. God is ever-present,” Romana said.

  “Believe what you will. This is a time to properly allocate our resources. Regarding this Spirit Sword – where should the singular sword be placed? The answer is that it should be placed everyw
here. I suggest that we construct replicas – indistinguishable to the sharpest eye. The blue halo around the sword can be replicated with the assistance of our drinkers of the Lujladia Ocean waters – they can accompany each sword bearer and project such a blue light to make the appearance more authentic. I suggest, also, that we have several identically attired troops, one of whom is General Joshua with the authentic Spirit Sword – and we position them at various points throughout Revod,” Nathan said.

  “That is an interesting and agreeable strategy of deception,” Emerond said.

  “Only the true Spirit Sword will work against the fire creature,” Joshua said.

  “Yes, but will it know the difference by mere sight? If the sunfire creature could see all things, it would have found the singing girl without needing you to lead it to her. No, I believe this creature has limited vision and discernment, and can be deceived and distracted,” Nathan said.

  “The sunfire creature will test us, and will thereby see through the ruse,” Romana said.

  “Perhaps. However, if it tests us against the authentic Spirit Sword, it will be driven away, will it not?” Nathan asked.

  “Yes. However, Revod will burn when it strikes every other location,” Romana said.

  “That is true either way. If we can give the sunfire creature reason to pause and doubt its abilities and chance of success, it may make fewer attempts, and reduce the damage. Where we cannot eliminate a problem, we strive to minimize it,” Nathan said.

  “I believe that I agree with this strategy. When protecting high value cargo ships at sea, we often use warships positioned unevenly, and in places unpredictable to any adversary, giving them uncertainty as to our true strength and its location,” Admiral Gavin said.

  “Now, on to our next catastrophic difficulty. The warlord, Lavakara, has made his presence known,” Emerond said.

  “The one that the apparition told us about, who supposedly has the power to move from one body to another,” Nathan said.

  “That is the one, yes. For a time, he wielded a ruby dagger, which could be used to control the minds of others, and he used this to subdue an army of Ihalik troops, as well as our own on that island, before demanding a confrontation with General Joshua. The ruby dagger was captured – with the help of animals under Romana’s control – and then destroyed. A religious woman used a song to revive all the troops from their subdued state,” Emerond said.

  “The ruby dagger is no longer in the possession of this Lavakara, but you are indicating that he remains a threat,” Nathan said.

  “He is elusive – he can use the spirit world to move from point to point, making him highly effective in combat, even without the ruby dagger. He bested me in a conflict by using this approach. Because of his battle performance, he now has the loyalty of several thousand Ihalik troops,” Joshua said.

  “Is that all that this Lavakara did?” Nathan asked.

  “No. He attempted to convince everyone present to join with him against Victoria,” Emerond said.

  “We should not be unduly concerned about Lavakara. I don’t believe that he is an immediate adversary,” Nathan said.

  “Not an immediate adversary?” Emerond asked, surprised.

  “No. When he subdued the troops – both Ihalik and Jenaldej – with this ruby dagger, he obviously did not strike you down, so his principal and immediate desire is not to strike at the Jenaldej Empire. When he lost the ruby dagger, he did so because he had not anticipated the use of animals, so his own awareness is limited, which is a weakness. We have greater matters to concern ourselves with: one of fire and one of water,” Nathan said.

  “I think I see your point,” Emerond said.

  “We currently have a small number of ships – between five hundred (500) and eight hundred (800) older ones – divided among the twelve (12) great oceans and the Dead Waters Ocean. We need to build fleets of newer and more powerful ships in each of those thirteen (13) oceans. We need two thousand (2000) warships and three thousand (3000) supply ships in each fleet, for a total of sixty-five thousand (65000) ships. On each ship, soldiers and crew should total three hundred (300), for a combined force of nineteen million five hundred thousand (19500000) military personnel,” Nathan said.

  “This is what we can arrange based on our current resource levels?” Emerond said.

  “Without resorting to conscription? Yes,” Nathan said.

  “Then this is what we can arrange,” Emerond said.

  “How do we know what numbers are adequate? We don’t know what the actual power of this tiara is that the Ahitan woman holds. We only know that it supposedly gives control over the oceans, but that is not entirely clear,” Admiral Gavin asked.

  “We cannot know what numbers are adequate. We must take the maximum that we have available, and carefully allocate them,” Nathan said.

  “We may have to have more at the ready. We may need to put everyone in Revod to work building these ships as quickly as possible. Conscription may be unavoidable,” Admiral Gavin said.

  “It has never worked, and never will. Those unwilling to serve in a combat capacity, or in support thereof, are a weakness in our forces,” Nathan said.

  “Honor and valor cannot be compelled, and that which is false will fail when tested,” General Joshua said.

  “I don’t want the unwilling. We can make our case to the citizens, and let them offer to help in the ways that they are willing and able,” Emerond said.

  “There are two billion three hundred million (2300000000) citizens of the Jenaldej Empire in Revod. There are fifteen million (15000000) living abroad, on various assignments. It’s essential to make efficient use of those who are both willing and capable. If we cannot lead them properly, we do not deserve to mislead more of them. No. This number will be enough, or no number will be enough,” Nathan said.

  “We must begin construction of the fleet immediately,” Gavin said.

  “We need a proper design for the new ships – one that can withstand many difficulties,” Nathan said.

  “We do not know what they are, so what is there to design for? How do we have time to redesign our ships? Why is this even something that is brought up now? Our current designs have proven reliable in war and in peacetime,” Gavin asked.

  “If the sunfire creature attacks our ships, we will have expended our resources for nothing and have little time to adapt to the circumstances and replace them,” Nathan said.

  “I agree. The sunfire creature is an adversary we cannot ignore, even while facing Victoria, and whatever she might prove capable of doing,” Romana said. She was quite worried about Kirdothet’s true nature and plans.

  “If the oceans turn against our ships – assuming that the weapon of our enemy can do such a thing – then they will need to find safe harbor, or, again, we will have expended our resources for nothing, and have little time to correct our course,” Nathan said.

  “Then we must begin work on this proper design at once. Who is to provide it?” Gavin asked.

  “I will direct the design effort. General Joshua will be responsible for guarding Revod against the sunfire creature, including coordinating the decoys. Admiral Gavin will be responsible for refreshing the troops with combat training,” Emerond said.

  “Yes, Your Majesty,” General Joshua said, and he left to make arrangements with his officers and they began distributing their troops around the many cities of Revod, from east to west and from north to south. General Joshua was placed, by drawing lots, at one of the central cities.

  “Yes, Your Majesty,” Admiral Gavin said, and he left to order his captains, and the troops and cadets serving under them, to be assigned to various training exercises for combat readiness.

  Ovid recorded all of these decisions, orders and facts into his book. However, he could not reveal the confidential knowledge for some time to come – perhaps seventy (70) years or more, when the youngest of those present were deceased. However, this was a small time period for the eight hundred thirty-two
(832) year old Chronicler, who could expect many more centuries – millennia, even – of life by the power of the Ursegan Ocean waters that he drank.

  CHAPTER 13: Architecture and Preparation

  In the continent of Baradaxa, in the Port of Kemalorin, the architect, Fantine, had been working to develop new techniques to work with crystals. She was a drinker of the waters of the Kazofen Ocean, which enabled her to alter the structure of stones, which included crystals of various sorts such as diamonds, rubies and emeralds, as well as other stones such as limestone, sandstone or even granite.

  Her ability to do this was related to both her own innate potential for using the power of the waters – and that innate potential was extremely high – as well as the purity of the water she drank, which had great impact. In order to ensure that the water was pure – and that the stone manipulation powers that she gained from it were considerable – she would work to purify the waters before drinking them.

  Fantine gained a lesser form of the powers by drinking a more impure potion of Kazofen water, but she was still able to make changes in stones, albeit with greater difficulty. She often took limestone and made slight alterations to it to produce a very white stone and would put that into a vial of Kazofen Ocean water and then vigorously stir it until the white stone attracted many of the impurities. She then transferred the remaining Kazofen Ocean water – which was more pure – to another vial and drank it from there. This more pure potion would energize her to a greater level and make her more capable of manipulating stones. This, in turn, enabled her to carry out the alchemical purification process and produce even better results, which improved her powers further.

  ~~~

  When Fantine was sixteen (16) years old, she was very curious about structure, strength, shape and light and darkness, and had a natural understanding of them, so she began designing her own structures on a small scale and building them out of fragments of stone and wood and glass. However, she was limited in what she could do by the weight and fragility of the materials, and could not bond them or shape them easily. She had exciting ideas about designing elaborate cities with buildings that could change shape and move, and was highly motivated to take her understanding of structures to a more sophisticated level. Working with simple materials was not sufficient to achieve her goals, and so she needed to be able to alter the materials themselves.