"What?" Gerrod's eyebrows scrunched as he pulled back.
"My grandson was taken away by men claiming to be bandits and kidnappers, but they don't demand gold nor silver, food nor weapons, they demanded for us to go to war with Shokan in exchange for our children. We had no choice but to insult Queen Ci Shoka and cause all of this." He wept as he spoke.
Gerrod frowned, 'That's not something I wanted to hear...'
He looked at the trembling old man again and sighed, "Where are the children being held?"
"I- I'm not sure. A man comes here with a small band of twenty five warriors every week to inspect the estate. He was with the kidnappers when they first came. Perhaps he could shed some light." Count Locost looked up hopefully.
His eyes darted from here to there like a cornered animal. He felt desperate enough to lower his head to their enemies.
Gerrod sharpened up and replied coldly, "Send letters to the other Lords of my arrival and offer. Tell them that they must swear loyalty to Shokan, and only then will I send supplies. Tell them, I will also make it my mission to save as many of their children as I can."
He left. Count Locost didn't reply.
As he stepped outside everyone looked worriedly at him.
He nodded. They cheered. Though it sounded like an emergency room with all the coughing.
--
Elsewhere.
Shokan royal palace. Inner assembly.
"We must seek peace! If we don't give them what they want we will be crushed!" Count Delrae shouted.
"We will seek no peace!" Count Azifirat shouted back, "They have chosen to declare their independence! It is an act of treason and we will not stand for it!"
"Yea! I, Baron Rael will not stand for it!"
"Nor will the Longmire Clan! We, lords of the Faewood in the east will not stand for this!" Hamtyr Longmire said coldly, "We will fight! For the Queen! Now is not the time to sit on the fence! Sides must be chosen! For Shokan or for the rebels?"
Count Delrae looked enraged and shouted back across the assembly, "The lords of the Faewood? You are lords of nothing! Just a petty clan that takes care of the Faewoods! You dare speak against me?!"
"Count Delrae!" Avizasi interjected coldly slamming her hand into the throne, "You have gone too far in this court."
Count Delrae didn't stop and instead swiveled on her, "Princess! You don't know your place! First, you cut trade with the Tenli and cause a brutal war! Then you assassinate Baron Gascomer and cause a rebellion! And now?! Now you give a no-name man the position of 'Right Hand' which has been empty for nearly two years! And you give him the responsibility of subjugating Tenli? Are you mad?!"
"Count Delrae! Another word and I will have your head!" Count Azifirat shouted!
Count Delrae scowled, "Hrumph. You think because your the previous kings illegitimate brother that you have status? You're just as bad as this Princess playing at Queen! I cannot support this court anymore if this is the kind of actions it will take!"
"Are you rebelling?" Avizasi asked calmly.
Count Delrae frowned, "I will not join your enemies. But do not expect my men to take to the field. We, the Countship of Dell will have no part in this war."
He stood up confidently. Walking out of the assembly of lords.
Many other lords followed declaring their intention to stay out of this war. To Avizasi this was the same as declaring war against her throne. In her heart, she marked them all as traitors in that moment. If they cannot give her the loyalty she is due as the only Shokan royal left, then they are no longer going to be given her loyalty or nor mercy.
"Hamtyr, good work," Avizasi said coldly.
Indeed. It had all been a ploy. She entended to rat out any of the remaining hard-line nobles.
In Shokan, there are three factions.
The two strongest are the Royal Faction headed by Count Azifirat with its goal to restore the throne back to the royalty giving them the power they believe is deserved by birthright.
Count Azifirat. Baron Rael. Hamtyr Longmire. Kriza Koglem. Polux Ler.
Those are the ones who support her claim to the throne and wish to see power restored.
Two nobles. Three large clans with position in the farming sector.
The next strongest is the Independence Faction. They wish to believe in their heart of hearts that Shokan is corrupted and rotten. They wish for nothing more than to finish what the last king started and strip the remainder of power from the royal house.
Count Mastif. Baron Gascomer Jr. Baron Laffite. Baron Junkir.
The weakest faction and the one which could have an immediate effect on the war situation is not really a faction but a stance. They stand undecided on what to do. They are the nobles and clans like Count Delrae who wish nothing to do with the war and regardless of who wins will continue operating in their own way.
They were on the fence, anyway. Count Delrae and the others who left became enemies in Avizasi's heart the moment they turned their backs on her.
In order to truly draw lines, she had Hamtyr who has a decent reputation and good standing among the farming sector as protectors of the Faewood provoke him.
Her logic is that if they want to leave they will look for even the smallest thing to leave on. Anything to do so. And that when they leave they will all make a hard exit. That is how she saw it.
Now, left in the chamber are the aforementioned few clans and two noble houses as well as all the farming clans in the kingdom.
Longmire, Ler and Kogmer clans with the biggest influence on the farming sector clans had expended their influence to get the Clans into the Royal faction. The promise of status and tax cuts being their Modus Operandi.
No nobles stayed behind.
"Your highness. We may now go along with the ceremony." Hamtyr kneeled.
The other clan's representatives who didn't know what was happening kneeled as well.
Count Azifirat and Baron Rael kneeled.
Avizasi stood from her throne and raised the golden scepter high.
"As of this day, We, the royal house of Shokan, Ci Shoka, declare that those present will be awarded noble titles after this war is done and given a fair share of the lands left empty! I, declare that the throne of Shokan will now fall to me! Let the assembly vote." She looked around an almost imperceivable smirk on her face.
The clans looked to Longmire, Kogmer, and Ler who each nodded.
Count Azifirat and Baron Rael were predictably in favor. It was a landslide victory with no votes against since the opposition had all left the assembly.
She smiled.
"All hail the Queen of Shokan, may she reign for a hundred years!" Baron Rael announced at her side.
"May she reign for a hundred years!" Count Azifirat raised a cry.
"May she reign for a hundred years!!" They chimed.
"For my first decree as Queen of Shokan, I declare a state of war and will begin mass recruitment of the populace! Clans of old, gather your warriors! We will begin our march in a month's time!" Avizasi slammed her scepter on the ground.
"Yes, your highness!" They lowered their heads and immediately left after.
Much work is to be done. The heads of the farming clans are in charge of large farming communities with thousands of people. Though they are technically lords in their own right, they weren't given titles since the previous royalty treated them more as managers of their surfs. But, with Avizasi's declaration, the clan's long-held hope of rising to nobility would be achieved.
But first, they must win. And the clans who had been seen as nothing more than managers for centuries. Who had been abused as lesser for so long would give up this opportunity? Not a chance in hell!
Only Count Azifirat, Baron Rael, Hamtyr, Kriza and Polux were left in the assembly.
Avizasi laid back in her throne, "What's the real situation in the Faewood?"
Hamtyr frowned, "We are being pushed back by the insurgent forces of the rebellion. The deterioration of loyalty to the crown was worse than we imagined."
"Hold the frontline for as long as you can. I will send engineers to build forts behind the front line to retreat to in time." Avizasi looked to Kriza, "What of the Laelands?"
"Your highness. We are being attacked by Baron Gascomer north of the Laelands as well as attacked by strange 'bandits' from across the sea. We believe them to be pirates of some sort." Kriza kneeled hesitantly, "Sadid is likely giving the Independence faction support."
"Hold fast. I will send a detachment lead by Jasafir down in time. You have my permission to militarize the old Fort in the middle of the Laeland slope." She nodded calmly.
Kriza stood and bowed.
Polux looked nervous. Very nervous, "What is the situation in the Nazlands?"
He cupped his fist tightly, "We are being battered from the low lands down the summit but... we won't be able to hold much longer. Remnants of Tenli resistance have been coming down the mountains into our backs. I've taken them in and given them food but we are quickly being run dry. We cannot continue splitting our food and men or else they will break our lines."
"I will send supplies to Nazland west through the secret paths," Avizasi said harshly.
"If we do that..." Baron Rael's eyes popped.
"I know." Avizasi said lightly, "He will have to cope somehow, we cannot afford to lose Nazland which has the strongest strategic value at this moment."
Naturally, they were talking about Gerrod. Nazland is situated north near the pass. A part of the Nazland's are up in the mountain summits where it's not too high that crops can't grow. But not too low that it's simple farmland.
It is also the largest producer of food in Shokan and most natrually defended. If it is lost then it will turn into the previous war. Except they aren't Shokan. They're Tenli.
Elsewhere in a valley in the mountain range a young man with scars all over his body and a strange bone fang necklace sneezed.
"Something is about to go very wrong." This young man is precisely Gerrod.
He looked around cautiously. He knew better than to ignore his gut reactions.
The small army behind him stopped, "Did you find their hideout?"
Redhead whispered behind him.
'Damn it. Am I just being crazy?' Gerrod shook off the feeling and kept walking without replying.
It has been four days since he spoke with Count Locost. Right now he and his crew are tracking the 'bandits' back to their 'hideout.'
Following them had lead the crew to this lowland in the mountains. In comparison to the cutting winds above this lowland is fairly dry and flourishing. An oasis in the mountains.
A stream runs through this place and out to the sea many miles away. Yet. There is still fish in the waters.
Gerrod froze and dropped low. The crew didn't hesitate to do the same.
No one spoke.
Gerrod motioned for everyone to follow carefully. Contact could be anywhere.
'Two guards.' He looked closely through the dark woodland.
Past the trees at about a football field away, he saw a large mansion of sorts. On the armor of the 'bandits' is a scratched out crest, 'I'd bet my life savings that its the Daray crest.'
Daray's crest is that of a hurricane swallowing an armory of sorts. Weapons flying at extreme speeds in the hurricane. An homage to their founding king who united what is now Daray through the force of his Noble ability. Royal Harrowing. Able to rend flesh from bone in under a second flat. At least at the peak ability, it is.
Gerrod encroached further. The crew spread out carefully.
Once they got to the edge of the woods Gerrod raised as hand. Everyone froze.
They were now surrounding the mansion from the treeline.
He closed his fist. Shadows shot out of the treeline from all directions, Gerrod included.
"Intruders!" Naturally, they couldn't close the distance fast enough. But it didn't matter.
Crack! Crack!
Redhead appeared from the side of one guard before he had even managed to look around and broke his neck.
Blackhair slide and took out the other guards' legs from behind. When he fell Blackhair put him in a lock and broke his neck.
"Archers!" Shakyleg screamed and pressed himself up against the wall of the mansion.
Bolts whizzed by like bullets. Gerrod knew how fast bullets were. And knew arrows are a lot slower. But when you get an arrow shot at you, well, you can't very well feel the difference of speed since at such close range it's impossible to dodge.
"Break!" Gerrod slammed into the double doors tearing them off their hinges.
Taking to the front he wove a defense formation around him. The arrows that came for him from the 'bandits' were deflected or simply broken.
In his time traveling the mountains, his aura which was exposed to harsh weather was beaten into a more tenacious form.
The formation was also more powerful as he continued to mature and increase in power.
His aura flicked arrows out of the air, broke them, caught them, deflected them.
One thing it did not do was let them through.
"Breaking!" Once they arrived at the first door on the left Redhead shouted and kicked down the door.
Gerrod made sure everyone had gone into the room before ducking in as well.
"You Tenli mutts never understand do you? We will find out who sent you and kill that hostage! Then murder your whole family!" Gruff. Tough and rugged. A voice shook the house.
Gerrod could feel the force of its aura and grimaced, "A challenger?"
He glanced around the room. Redhead and Blackhair nodded.
Weirdiris and Shakyleg looked worried but nodded as well.
They had each taken up a certain level of responsibility these days and he had given them control over the others.
They split up into groups and vanished out of the mansion from the windows.
Gerrod nodded, 'Good, now I just need to play my part.'