In the northernmost corner of the city of Yort stood erected a majestic mansion of epic proportions; five stories high, the mansion occupied sixty acres of land. All around it had the terrains long been emptied to give way for its verdant and lavish gardens of imported trees. The mansion itself had been commissioned to one Eliza Lockhart, a reputed architect of the highest esteem within the uppermost strata of society in the Capital. Thus, the mansion was luxuriously decorated in its exterior. The walls were of the whitest marble, and each stone was pasted together with jade-like mortar; giving the mansion an ethereal feel of holy benediction. Up on the roof, the balustrade was decorated with gargoyles and other monstrosities said to ward off evil spirits. Sharply angled arches gave way to beautifully engraved windows and the doors were built from the sturdiest of ancient oak. Overall, the mansion would take the breath away of passers-by with its solemnity.
This was the city lord's mansion.
This was the home of Theo Nightsky, the usurper; and he had commissioned his home not three years prior to this. So costly had this edifice been, in fact, that no less than one third of Yort's hospitals had to be closed down to pay for it; leaving two of the six million inhabitants without a stable place to find care for their illnesses.
This, however, was not public knowledge.
Inside the mansion, within the great hall, sat fifty officials in absolute silence and without looking at each other.
The great hall was great, indeed. Its walls were decorated with depictions of the grandest scenes of great heroes' epics of the past; for Theo Nightsky was an avid reader of history and he wanted his guests to be privy to this. Each one vivid and lifelike as if one wasn't looking at a sculpture, but a window into the past. The ceiling was made from purple onyx and small holes had been left at irregular intervals, making it look like a genuine night sky. The great hall was the pride of house Nightsky. Whenever a grand event had to take place in the city, it would always commence there.
This night, however, the atmosphere was sombre as if everyone were in mourning. Instead of the shouting, debating, and arguing of officials, only deathly silence remained. The reason was simple to deduce, it was the arrival of Farmer that caused this. News of the young lord's tragedy had reached Nightsky's ears a few hours earlier and it was said that it had caused his cultivation to suffer from deviation. Rumours said that he'd executed the messenger as soon as he was told of his son's injuries. Since then he'd been beside his son trying to comfort him.
Hence, it was unsurprising that the officials were scared beyond belief when they received a special summons that morning. None of them would have believed it if someone told them that Nightsky wasn't going to punish them in order to vent his frustrations.
From one side of the hall a large door was opened. The officials could hear heavy footsteps emerging from the corridor behind it. The steps were slow and lacking of their usual gracefulness. City lord Theo Nightsky was coming.
"All rise for the Lord!" Shouted the castellan. In unison, every official obeyed and rose to bow towards the large seat at one side of the room.
Slowly, but steadily, a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties sat on the seat without glancing at anyone. He was tall and well built. His face was hardened from battle and other adversities and was now frozen in a semi-perpetual scowl. His eyes were malignant and grey. He wore expensive silk robes and on his chest was embroidered a pair of purple dragons flying around a crescent moon, his house's crest.
Although protocol dictated that once the city lord had taken his seat so should everyone else, no one dared to raise from their bow. Their faces were crestfallen in shame and they dared not show them to their lord.
"Give me one reason, just one, why I shouldn't have each and every one of you EXECUTED!" Bellowed Nightsky after a few seconds of silence, losing any semblance of tranquillity he had earlier. "My son has been crippled. CRIPPLED! And the man responsible is neither dead nor in custody! In fact, the bastard is still staying at Zed's inn as if it had nothing to do with him!" His face was contorted in rage and wherever his eyes trailed, an official would feel their blood freezing and their heart skipping a beat. "You bunch of fucking imbeciles, what have you been doing?!"
This last sentence startled the officials, for the city lord had never once sworn in front of them, not even in private. This highlighted just how furious he was.
"Speak, now, or I will feed you to the pigs!" Shouted Nightsky when he saw that no one dared to even lift their heads.
"Reporting to city lord, we sent Dachir with an armed contingent of a full two-hundred members of the guard to capture the man, but he was simply too powerful to apprehend." Spoke up timidly a hunched man from the side.
"What kind of excuse is this?" Rebutted another from across the room. The one to speak up was Theo Nightsky's right hand man and it just so happened that he was the head of military affairs, a position which included overseeing the city guard. "Are you suggesting the fault of the matter lies with the guards?"
"I dare not do so, good Jakyr, but it is an undeniable fact that there is no one in the city guard strong enough to face this man." Countered the official. "What should have been done, send the men to their deaths?"
"Quiet!" Interrupted Nightsky. He wasn't in the mood for pointless bickering and those who knew him well could see that he was close to exploding murderously. "My son is still on his bed, suffering immensely. Doctors don't know if he'll ever be able to walk again. What I need to hear right now aren't excuses; I need to hear what we can do to bring this monster of a pirate to justice."
"That will not be as easy as was once thought, my lord."
As soon as this last sentence was said, every official took in a breath of cold air. Who could possibly dare to say such a thing to Nightsky when he was on the brink of killing someone? Was that person suicidal? However, they soon saw that the one responsible for the statement was a grey-cloaked man hidden next to the entrance of the great hall.
His name was Noram, and he was the one in charge of the spies in Yort. Not many were the ones who knew more than that particular piece of information. Truthfully, it was more accurate to say he was second only to Jakyr in terms of hierarchy under Nightsky. In fact, the three of them had been brothers since childhood and had achieved all they had by themselves. If Jakyr and Noram claimed to be the only two that could talk with Nightsky on the same level, no one would claim to be the third.
"Please explain yourself." Curtly demanded Nightsky. Even though the man speaking was as close to him as a brother, he would still kill him if he didn't explain himself properly.
"The man who did this is called Farmer and…"
"What does it matter what he's called?! I want him dead!" Interrupted the irate city lord.
"Please, my lord, if it were such a simple matter, his head would already be in front of you. The fact it isn't already is my fault and I intend to explain myself right now." With that, Noram shifted his cloak and tossed an object towards Nightsky. Crashing in a dull thud, a thin arm landed in front of the seat where Nightsky sat. It was Noram's very own right arm! "I hope this token will be enough to show my sincerity."
Immediately a small commotion rose between the ranks of officials but it was quickly put a stop to by Jakyr, who surreptitiously flashed the hilt of his blade to those who wouldn't keep quiet. Similarly, a troubled look flashed across Nightsky's face; he hadn't wanted his brother to lose a limb but he was also grateful to Noram for this sacrifice, because he now had the potential premise to demand much more of the other officials.
"This is enough." Said the city lord after a few minutes of silently pondering his next course of action. "Tell us, what do you know of this Farmer?"
"Thank you, my Lord." Noram bowed respectfully as he made his way to the centre of the great hall so as he could be seen by everyone. His next few words would be of crucial importance and it was imperative that everyone understood him. "After exhausting the most urgent of channels, our organisation has been able to draw up a profile of this man. We know is that the man in question is pirate lord Farmer.
"Pirate lord Farmer possesses a similar status in the Azure Sea as is pirate lord Krieg around these parts."
"If that's the case, then things will be quite simple, we can bait him with reaching an agreement of similar terms to the one we have with Krieg and capture him like that." Enthusiastically interrupted an official.
"I'm afraid that would fail miserably." Responded Noram. "Although they both command the fear and respect of government officials and the common people alike in their domains, if one were to ask what the difference between them is, I'd be hard-pressed to find two more distinct individuals. Firstly, Krieg has been in power for the better part of two decades and he is a traditionalist at heart: he sells slaves, pillages a few ships and villages, and possesses a relatively large armada.
"Farmer seemingly doesn't care for any of this. He has one ship and one ship only. Instead of selling slaves, he liberates them. He exclusively boards ships belonging to relatively large organisations such as the Reichslag Trade Federation. Overall, Farmer is no pirate in any traditional sense of the word.
"But mark my words very carefully gentlemen: never underestimate this man. This was our mistake for the last few hours. I recently gathered a summary of his exploits and, I confess, each one is grander than the last. Allow me to elaborate:
"He appeared in the Azure Sea five years ago as a small-time pirate aboard a random vessel of no importance. He crippled the captain of the ship only three months after joining because the captain wanted to kidnap a few women to sell them as slaves. The rest of the crew didn't take kindly to that and so they set up an ambush for him. An attack from which he walked out without so much as a scratch; showing to the world, as he did so, that he was already at the seventh dimension. I should add that he was around twenty years old at the time."
For a moment the atmosphere in the great hall became incomparably gloomy. Even Jakyr was at a loss for words. A seventh dimension twenty-year-old, this was something only seen in the capital by the most talented individuals! He himself was only at the sixth dimension. Jakyr glanced to the side and could see the seriousness in Nightsky's eyes. To be fair, he couldn't blame him for feeling pressured.
"This isn't all. After that, he left the ship and bought a small vessel as he sailed the waters of the Azure Sea. In less than a year he went to the slaving town of Acrom and completely destroyed their corporation. Without raising a single finger! He upheaved the slave trade of Acrom with schemes! There's no evidence of his involvement, but all observers agree that Farmer is the one responsible for this. Then he went to the island of Cabrera.
"I won't go into details, suffice it to say that it has now become a forbidden swampland of death and decay. In other words, the entire military of Cabrera, renowned all over the continent for their proficiency in cannons and hand-cannons wasn't enough to stop Farmer!
"After that he sailed to the South and conquered the Unholy Trident, a delta said to be completely unnavigable due to the sharp jagged rocks, remains of shipwrecks, and a myriad of creatures so terrible that any good man's heart would stop beating just from them being described. As to the veracity of these rumours as to the dangerousness of the Trident, nothing can be said, but it does show that his navigational abilities are unmatched.
"It is unsurprising, then, that shortly after word of his feats spread around that hundreds, if not thousands, of men rushed to join his crew. And he rejected every single one of them! His current crew is made up of people he has saved over the years, be it from the slave trade or other tragedies. Anyone seeking him out is immediately rejected. This is to keep spies and saboteurs from joining his ranks.
"That being said, many of the aristocratic families of the Azure Sea didn't give up on infiltrating his ship. Each and every one of them failed. No one knows how, but any spy or saboteur that made their way on his ship would always, without exception, be ousted after a single hour on the ship. On one occasion, the house of Polo on the Isle of Randa kidnapped the family members of a few of his crewmen and blackmailed them to get them to assassinate Farmer.
"Farmer found out about this and set out to the Isle of Randa post-haste. Once he arrived, he spent three days to decimate the Polo family's fortune and status; in the process he somehow managed to get to own all of their debts without them realising it, slaughtered all their intelligence services, and, once he'd done all that, infiltrated their home one night and cruelly tortured and crippled every single member of the family… I do not have the heart nor the courage to describe what Farmer did to the Polo family; I can say, however, that the young lord can consider himself very fortunate indeed."
As this was said a shadow of fear crossed the faces of every official in the great hall. Even though what Noram had explained was earth-shattering, no one doubted the truth of his words. Noram was known to never report anything unless he was reasonably confident that the informations was faithful to reality. Hence, many were the officials wondering whether it was worth antagonising such a malignant star. After all, it was the young lord who'd provoked Farmer first.
"What is, in your opinion, the most favourable course of action?" Seeing the dread on his official's faces, Nightsky was seriously tempted in ordering a mass-execution. However, he also understood that this sentiment was reasonable and thus opted to let Noram speak. He trusted that his close friend would have drafted a suitable plan of action.
"My lord, Farmer is a legendary pirate in every sense of the word. The exploits I have explained here are a mere scratch on the surface of the matter." Noram's expression was one of distraught, as if he were truly at a loss and this surprised both Jakyr and Nightsky as they had never seen him bearing a similar expression before. "Farmer is incredibly powerful. His martial strength should either be at the pinnacle of the seventh dimension if not the eighth already.
"This alone makes him someone worth fearing. In addition, he is extremely cunning. I have not gone into details earlier, but if you look at my report you'll see that the schemes he comes up with are innovative, seemingly without flaws, and unquestionably brilliant. His intelligence is one that puts me to shame. And then there's his navigational skills. Even if we could sacrifice everything to expel him from the city, he would just need to get on a small boat and sail away, regroup, and come back over and over again before he toppled everything we've endeavoured to build. At sea, not even Krieg would dare to fight Farmer and this is something the pirate lord himself has confirmed in writing just an hour ago."
"Are you saying that what's best for us is to forgive this man and let him be on his way?" Jakyr was completely dumbfounded and couldn't help himself from blurting out this question.
"You don't understand, that's not possible either. Farmer has already begun to set things into motion. My spies tell me he has been moving around the city with clear objectives in mind. The young lord attempted to seize a member of his crew and that's the one thing Farmer has never forgiven over the years. From that moment on, everyone in this chamber became irreconcilable enemies with this man." By the end of his explanation Noram seemed to have aged at least a decade. One could see from that how truly desperate he felt from the situation.
At the same time, shouting and heated exchanges broke out through the ranks of officials. Some were demanding the city lord give up his son for the sake of the city, others were calling for a massive military strike, and a few were even advocating for complete submission to Farmer. The clamouring was that of a bazaar, quite unlike the city lord's mansion they were in. Evidently, Noram's explanation had shaken them all up.
However, high up on his seat, a look of determination flashed in Nightsky's eyes.