It was the month of the Union Games, and the king was at the palace for just the fourth time in the last two years. The king looked older from constant stress because of the war, which had been going on for just over three years and was showing no signs of coming to a close. Still, the Union Games were still part of the culture of the entire nation, and even the rebels had accepted a ceasefire to let the festival go ahead. But the Crown had lost massive chunks of territory thanks to the Resistance's gruesome tactics, including parading captured northerners and using them as buffers on the battlefield. The rebels had taken two thirds of Alhanan, including its capital Daager and were dangerously close to Polemis, the capital of Et. So they were effectively a few battles from achieving their primary objective, to liberate the south and crown the king of the south. So king Sargios was far from a festive mood. He was a troubled monarch. Still, he, too, had recorded good victories in Hannes, which was free of rebels now, and Cauda, though they were not nearly as significant as the Resistance's battles. The leader of the Resistance had even been audacious enough during the truce and had told the king that he would win the war, that the king should stop fighting. Some of his officials were now considering this outcome, and twice already had asked him to prepare for the possibility of the rebels achieving their purpose. The Crown had lost nearly 4000 men, yet the rebels just seemed to increase their ranks. Although the remaining Revolutionary Guard was capable of engaging the rebels, the rebels had at least five strongholds, including two other fortified cities other than Hazazon-Tamar. He needed a decisive win. He needed to crush at least one of the strongholds to reassure his people, who were harboring a real fear that the Resistance would attempt an attack on the capital. And, King Sargios' generals were not helping their cause. They had lost close to 4000 men in constant offensives that were largely fruitless but for a few short-lived victories.
Today, they were assembled in the throne room along with all the governors except the Sirohan one, discussing the bitter topic of a temporary truce with the Resistance. Governor Yath had been found guilty when Kospar Petry led an attack himself and proved that Yath had been working with him. He had been executed publicly a year after those events, and the province of Siroh had not had a satrap since. Amphine of Cauda brought this up during this heated discussion in support of a move to disband the war council because of its failures.
'The Resistance is still ahead of us, Your Majesty. This war council needs to be reshuffled,' she was saying. In assent, the governors Onder, Yrma and Onysius of Hannes nodded or hummed.
'How could you say that? These good men took back Hannes, defended your province from the rebels, and are about to push them back from Et,' said Chalak, very confidently.
'Defending Hannes and then losing Et and perhaps Bar'sha means there is no work done,' Rodach of Andria interjected, 'I agree with Governess Amphine, we need a new strategy. The truce, thankfully, will help us to regroup and look for that strategy.'
'This war council cannot give us that strategy. Everything they plan is thwarted by the rebels.'
'Kospar Petry is no spring chicken, with all due respect, Governor,' General Jew threw in a defensive maneuver. The eight military members on the war council were stepping on eggshells everywhere. If the governors were all against them, their jobs were in real jeopardy, and Jew knew it. He was the highest ranked warrior on the council, so he had to step in for his men.
The king was watching in total silence as the men and women went on and on about this, not even interrupting when they began discussing the war in lieu of whether they should allow the truce to let the Union Games go on in peace. He was a distressed man. He, too, perhaps needed a break from all this. It was the biggest crisis in his reign, in all of his predecessors' reigns as far back as he could tell, and he knew that the result would have a significant impact on the integrity and the strength of the crown.
Meanwhile, K'rar had just arrived at the palace gate, but he couldn't get in. The head of the Gulta, the palace guard, thought he was a crazy idiot from the moment he said he wanted to speak to the king about how to win the war. But K'rar was serious. He had arrived the night before, and had set about looking for acquaintances of Old Sahar first, knowing that the palace was not readily accessible for anyone who said they wanted to speak to the king. He had found these easily, and then he had learned from them the events of the last three years. He had been so shocked at the end of a long discussion that had ensued. But K'rar had spotted an opportunity out of this. He had been through something like this, and he had fallen from his throne that time. He felt obligated to join this fight on the side of King Sargios. He knew that he could easily be the most experienced of all the men in the palace drawing plans, and it would disturb his conscience if he stayed out of it. Besides, he had registered with the crown long ago, and if anyone was welcome with any fresh idea, it would be K'rar. So, despite having had plans to visit the palace because of Shaniz, he was now trying to stuff it into the hard head of Neder, the Gulta's commander, that it was imperative he be allowed an audience with the king. Neder wanted K'rar to identify himself with some lucrative title, which K'rar did not have.
'Look, young man,' he was bellowing in K'rar's face, 'I will have you thrown in the dungeons if you are so interested in being in the palace.'
'What have you got to lose if you just tell the king my name?' K'rar said to him calmly, 'if His Majesty discovers you turned me away when you should have told him I was here to see him…'
'The king is meeting with the governors. I am not going to interrupt the meeting because of some punk. What did you say, you won a battle for the king?' he and the other two guards who had summoned him laughed like hyenas.
'Is Governor Yrma there too? Then tell her instead. Pass a whisper to her that I am here.'
Neder stopped laughing so suddenly.
'Did I look like I was compromising with you? Get out of here, punk. Last warning.'
K'rar didn't plan on budging. He wasn't going to let himself be bullied by a mere palace guard when he had resolved on very important matters to speak to the king about. He drew his Nephilim royal sword. The guards reacted quickly by doing the same.
'Just what do you think that will earn you?' Neder remarked furiously.
'I have a better idea,' K'rar said, frowning. More Gulta men came running from the armory, which was the building right at the gate, at the sound of the swords, 'if I down both of your men, you let me through. And if I'm just a street punk, you throw me in the dungeons.' The new arrivals had also drawn their swords and were surrounding K'rar. But Neder read the solemnity in K'rar's words, and said,
'Very well. But even if you win I am coming with you. Vilyak and Duarde,' he said. Vilyak and Duarde were the men he chose to fight him. He ordered the other men to stand down, and they stood around in a circle to have a bit of fun. Neder said to his men, 'beat this punk up, lads.'
Vilyak rose to the challenge first, and he began by insulting K'rar,
'You're not more than 20 years old, yet you demand to even look at the king's face.'
'And if I strip your armor, you are no more than a pawn, are you?' he said to him, and then to his companion, 'I will fight you both at once, so draw your weapon, guard. And after all this just pray I do not ask the king to strip your armor for real.'
The men laughed at this. Duarde refused to draw his weapon, so K'rar moved quickly against the one called Vilyak before he set himself, and downed him in a split second. He knew the man would undermine him, so he disarmed him in the process, and stamped his foot on his elbow to hurt him. There were loud gasps, and a muffled painful shriek from the man on the ground.
'Rule number one of combat,' K'rar said, wielding two swords in his hands now and facing his second opponent, 'never underestimate your opponent. Let's hope you last longer.' He was pointing the sword in his right hand at him, and holding the other beneath it. Duarde, who had stopped laughing, lunged, hurling his weapon at K'rar horizontally. K'rar just moved to his left, cut off his weapon by keeping it under his right weapon, and placing his left on the man's neck.
'And, rule number two. A sword fight is never child's play. If you get cocky, you lose your neck.'
K'rar had won the challenge easily. He threw the secondary weapon down by its owner, and looked in the face of Neder.
'Let's go.'
Neder had no choice but to escort the young man, leaving a very bewildered but also awestruck group of guards behind him. He even became very soft to K'rar, and was asking him how he subdued his good men so easily. K'rar did not respond to any of these queries, and just walked silently. He was more interested in touring. It was the first time K'rar had been in a palace in close to five years. This palace, he could tell, was far more splendid and much larger than Chaldea's palace, his palace. He and the Gulta head were walking across a large first courtyard toward another gate, an inner gate, which the man said was called the Gate of Joy. Two miniature towers made its left and right pillars. There were two entrances, one for pedestrians and one for wagons and carriages being brought to the palace. They went through the narrow gate into the second courtyard, which was at least four times larger than the last. In front of them to their right was the long building harboring kitchens, which occupied a long rectangular strip in front of the perimeter wall behind which was an orchard, the orchard that the princess Shaniz and her mother loved. To their left was a long shade, like a waiting shade, with no walls, only a roof. They took this route. To the left side of the shade, K'rar saw another small yard with the temple of Ihanga across from it, obviously the place where worship was conducted. There was another building across from the other end of the waiting shade which K'rar couldn't recognize. Round the back of this building, K'rar was standing in the larger part of the second courtyard. The perimeter wall to the left of the unknown building stretched further left away from K'rar, creating a large space between its west end and the kitchens across. The large space in front of him led to the main palace building, a massive, splendid white walled structure. The distinguishable feature on the palace was the tall cylindrical tower at the back end, visible from here. This tower was part of the building, but its round belly protruded from the wall of the palace. K'rar could recognize a large audience hall perpendicular to the tower. He imagined there was more behind this, but he had now crossed the yard and was approaching the entrance to the throne room, which was the first room, that they were facing. A secondary entrance led to the other parts of the residence for residents who weren't headed to the throne room.
A flight of eight stairs, and K'rar was at the door with Neder, who handed him to the king's guards at the entrance, and stood there to wait for him to be kicked out. One of the king's guards had to speak through the door and inform the guard who would be listening on the other side.
'Tell Governor Yrma that K'rar von Caspar is here to see her.' K'rar waited for some moments, and then the guard inside opened one side of the double door. K'rar moved to get in, but the guard had not opened it for him, and was saying something else. Nonetheless it was too late because K'rar had entered the building, and was standing about thirty meters from the throne, where the king had just raised his head to look, and the whole assembly had gone quiet to do the same. The guard holding his hand to K'rar's chest released it, and K'rar stepped down the stairs into the throne room. It was the same design as all other throne rooms. A wide passage from the entrance to the throne, and spaces for the king's nobles on either side. K'rar moved with an aura of confidence all around him, and stopped just in front of the seats of Governors Heres of Bar'sha and Sars of Et, one on either side of him.
'My lords. Your Majesty,' he made his bows, 'apologies for interrupting the session.'
'I know your face,' said the king, 'It was you who delivered to us one of our first victories in the war.'
'At Governor Onder's residence in Iscalan of Alhanan,' said K'rar, 'it's nice to meet the king again. And Governor Onder, and Governess Yrma.'
'Goodness gracious me,' said Governess Yrma, 'it's my boy indeed! Everyone thought you died in the mountain!'
'Well, I lived. Though I have been there all four years. I only recently returned, and I heard the disturbing reports about the Resistance,' K'rar said, 'so I came running to Your Majesty's service because of it. I can end this war.'
There was an inevitable hum of voices. Governor Heres said aloud,
'You are quite a confident young man! Our most established Generals are failing, but you can end the war?'
'Quiet,' the king shushed him, 'that boy was not a grown man when he dispatched hundreds of rebels those years ago, and here he stands before us a more mature man. Besides, he's the only one in this room who has the spirit you all lack. What's your name again, son?'
'K'rar von Caspar.'
'K'rar, right. Well, K'rar, do you see these eight men here? They are my war council. The governors are suggesting we shuffle them up because of a shameful losing streak. And, the rebels were audacious enough to request a truce. So, what do you make of that?'
K'rar vividly remembered how his father's most trusted men sold the nation to the Goldorans, and especially how the enemy infiltrated the palace so ingeniously. He knew that one of the satraps had been executed on grounds of treason, but that the war effort had not improved at all. He began walking through the aisle, looking at the faces of the governors sternly.
'Governor Yath,' he said, 'I heard he was executed on charges of treason.'
'He passed war intelligence to his true master,' said General Jew, 'the rebel. What's he got to do with any of this?' K'rar was still walking through the aisle, until he stopped in front of Chalak.
'I don't know the details, but I have a hunch, the wrong man was captured,' he was still looking straight in Chalak's face, 'because the war didn't shift, did it?'
'Why are you looking at me like that?' Chalak was getting uneasy. K'rar said,
'Why are you worried? You just look familiar,' he then turned to the king, who was watching with queer eagerness. There was something about the young man in his throne room, just as all those years ago in Iscalan, 'Your Majesty, are these men the only ones on the war council?'
'No, son. Governor Chalak is on it too. And so was Governor Yath. What are you getting at?'
K'rar turned to look at Chalak,
'Are you governor Chalak? The governor of Syene?'
'Yes, I am. Why?' the governor didn't like how K'rar was dealing with him, 'why do I get the feeling you have some kind of issue with me?'
'Yeah, why?' K'rar said, and then turned around again, 'Your Majesty. These are all astute military men. Eight heads used to each other. Nine including the governor. Gentlemen, if we are to reduce your number by one man, whom do you choose? Out of the nine of you?'
There was some silence, and a brief consultation among the eight military men on the council, who were clustered together separate from the rest. Then Jew said,
'The only member of the council who is not an active member of the military is the governor.'
'So will you expel me from the council on the counsel of this strange boy?' Chalak understood the implications of any wind of suspicion, because there was a lot at stake, including the blood of an innocent man.
'Are you somehow suggesting that the governor is the right man?' Governor Heres didn't like K'rar at all, 'Your Majesty, this is madness.'
'Quiet. K'rar, what did you mean when you said Governor Yath was the wrong man?'
'When you live with an ugly woman in your house, she soon becomes beautiful. A friend of mine called Esella told me this,' K'rar said, causing a few laughs, 'I will tell Your Majesty later on the details, but I have firsthand experience of that fact. When you are living in the same house as the enemy, association makes you friends, when there is no war,' he was once more looking at Chalak in the face, 'Governor Chalak, from what I heard, your own Provincial Army turned on your back and forced you to leave your home?'
Chalak was beginning to lose his confidence.
'What is this?'
'Answer the question, Governor.'
'Yes, they turned on me.'
'And, I also learned, from princess Remi herself, that your son's planned engagement to her was cancelled, yes?'
'Yeah, so what?'
'Where is your son, Governor? Is he not with the rebels?'
The room was beginning to warm up because of this bombardment of questions. K'rar had learned from the populace more than a few things.
'So, I can only draw two conclusions from these facts. What you told the rest of the group, that your son informed you that your unit had turned, and that gave you a head start to escape. Or, both you and your son joined bad association, and to get one over the king, your resentment for the cancellation of the engagement turned into rebelliousness, and you lent the defective unit to the rebels, which would have been easy since several of them are southern.'
'How dare you! How dare you accuse me…?'
'It's not impossible,' Governess Yrma interrupted the tirade.
'But, K'rar. Governor Yath was caught red handed. The rebel sent him a letter of appreciation, as well as money, while we were in Cauda,' said Khrispus. He had an interest in this.
'So, two questions arise. First, was this before or after the king found out about the mole?'
'It was after.'
'So, somehow, the rebel, who had expertly remained clandestine, compromised himself at such an opportune moment? When everyone was being watched? It sounds to me like whoever the real culprit was, they tried to end the investigation before the gong fell on them, by putting an innocent man in the mouth of the crocodile.'
The king spotted the intelligence, and stood up with dilated, enlightened eyes. Everyone went silent, except Chalak, who threw in one last show,
'My lord, what does any of that have to do with me?'
'The rebel's message was signed with his initials, weren't they, General?' the king said, still looking like a man who'd just found out that his son was not his son.
'Yes, my lord. K.P. were the initials.' General Khrispus had never forgotten that moment.
'Why was this necessary, for a man who wanted to keep himself unknown? If they had been dealing with each other, there was no need to add the initials. The governor would have known who sent him the goods.'
'There was no need for the note at all, actually,' K'rar said. The king was now standing next to him, both of them next to Chalak.
'Well, in the very next battle, Kospar Petry revealed himself, right after we decided that we would have to confirm if the initials K.P meant Kospar Petry in order to pass Governor Yath's sentence,' he looked into K'rar's face, 'what kind of a coincidence is that?'
'An impossible one, sire. Governor Yath lived in the same Province as the rebel, so it was easy for him to be implicated.'
'He was also Kospar Petry's friend,' General Khrispus said, and stepped out from his cluster, 'why would the old General sacrifice his friend if they were on the same side?'
'Because, General, he is out to secure kingly power,' said K'rar, 'he calls himself king of the south, I don't know why. But he believes it, and the governor is just one piece of the puzzle. A throne is an expensive thing. Blood is not more expensive than it, even a brother's blood.'
'And, you know this how? Xaxanika has not had…'
'I am not from Xaxanika,' said K'rar to the General, 'all that I have said boils down to this: make your battle plans without him, and the war will change.'
'There is no proof of any of this!'
'No, Governor Chalak,' said K'rar, 'calm yourself down. There is no proof, but nonetheless the war council has already chosen to pull you off the panel. Still, the way I see it, you had more than enough incentives to hate the king, even more than Satrap Chalak. If I may ask the king, did you invite the governor on the war council, or did he ask to be added?'
'He asked to be added,' Khrispus knew this for a fact. Yath had also asked to be added, but he was history now. Khrispus squared up to Chalak, and breathed angrily at him, 'Governor, God help you if you caused the death of an innocent man.'
'Guards, take him away. Detain also his wife, we will question them,' the king ordered, and the guards began moving from the back, where they stood along the pillars toward Chalak. Chalak was still protesting,
'I didn't do anything! My lord, why must you take the word of this strange boy…?'
The king was already looking at K'rar. He said to him quietly,
'I should have hired you all those years ago. You are a special kind of strange boy, K'rar.'
'You're too kind, sire,' said K'rar, 'and on that note, we need to talk, Your Majesty. An urgent and personal matter.'
'Of course,' said the king, turning to the others and announcing, 'Governors. You are excused. Jew, you and the council may stay.'
The satrap bowed their respects and departed one by one, except Yrma, who came to say to K'rar before leaving,
'Son, I will be in the compound waiting for you.'
When the hall was almost empty, the king returned to his throne, and K'rar remained standing where he was. The king said, without sitting down,
'What do you men think about this young man?' he asked his war council.
General Cassiane stood up.
'I was there when you told the king to poison the rebels. I thought it was a silly idea, and when it worked, I still thought it stupid. But after today, I know you are a special one, son. A special one.' He sat down. And Jew spoke next, saying,
'You said you are here to be in the king's service for this war. Have you any ideas? We have been on the losing side for ages now. And you just rooted out a spy from among us, potentially.'
'How many men have we?' K'rar said.
'Ettite, Hannish and Forkish fighters add up to 6500 men on the southwestern front, where the rebels have concentrated most of their might. We need a map.'
'Let's move to the Blue Room,' the king said. This room was a dark rectangular room on the block adjacent to the audience room. In it was an extra-large table with a painted and detailed map of the realm. As they walked there as a group, the king said, 'we were discussing a truce to allow the Union Games to go on in peace.'
'Then it will appear as if the Crown was compromising with the rebels. I heard that they are slaughtering northern tribesmen and laying them on the battlefield. If His Majesty allows to a truce, it will not go down people's throats well.'
'That is what Jew thought,' Khrispus said.
'Ay,' Jew said, 'besides, the young man just bought us a glorious element of surprise. If Chalak is the traitor, we should punch back at the rebels swiftly.'
They arrived at the entrance to the room, which they accessed from within, and automatically took positions around the table, with the king at its top. K'rar said in response to Jew's words,
'Speaking of the element of surprise, we ought not to let anyone know that Chalak is in detention.'
'Good suggestion,' the king said, 'the rebels will not know what hit them.'
This was the first time K'rar was looking at a detailed map of Xaxanika. Jew was saying about the rebels.
'They are camped here, here, here and here,' he said, pointing at different locations, including the fortified cities of Hazazon-Tamar, which was the main rebel stronghold, Mayorka, on the intersection of territory borders for Et, Bar'sha and Syene, and Iddoriah of Alhanan, which the rebels had captured from them. Jew added, 'Alhanan fighters are stuck by themselves with no support. The rebels want to win here at Mayorka, so that Alhanan has no support, then if they win, they'll have only Alhanan left to attack, and thus achieve their primary objective.' Iddoriah was many miles south of Mayorka, the point which support forces for Alhanan had to use. The rebels had concentrated a bulk of their forces at Mayorka, hoping to make a decisive victory there and secure the south side of the Bizkek River flowing a couple of miles or three north of Mayorka.
K'rar placed a finger on Mayorka, and rubbed the space in front of the city.
'This here. Does this say there's a flood plain?' he asked.
'Yes,' said General Kratos, who was native Hananite. He knew the place well, 'it is in the valley of the river. They have been fiercely defending their side of the river to prevent an advance to the city.'
'How cocky,' K'rar said, 'how many of their men are in this location?'
'Mayorka has about 3000 rebels. Kospar Petry will bring even half-baked warriors to the battle field as long as he's got the numbers. He knows the essence of war is numbers.'
'Wrong,' said K'rar, 'speed wins wars. Victory must be swift and incisive. Otherwise the men tire, and even five kings are not able to mend the dampened morale.'
'Well we've been trying to retake Mayorka for over a year. A siege did not make much sense, as we cannot get to the east side, which leads to Syene, where most of their supplies pass. The only way was to take it by force.'
'But you don't have 3000 men.'
'We have just over 2400, but this is only near Mayorka. Our men are scattered along the north side of the Bizkek to prevent the rebels from trying to attack Hannes or Cauda again.'
'Here's what we will do,' K'rar began laying down his plan, 'you will quit deploying the entire bulk of your men on the battlefield. Deploy the 1500 men. Have them pitch their tents here,' K'rar touched a hill on the rebels' side of the river from which the Revolutionary Guard had been launching their attacks or defending their side, 'Make them think that you are preparing to attack, so that they also pitch their tents in the valley, but you must not attack. Then while they're distracted, have the rest of your force sneak through these marshes to the west. They must wade through them.'
'Wade through the marshes? Why?' the king asked, and he did so for all the other men in the room. K'rar was about to hand down another very weird, but efficient, idea.
'To sneak up behind their camps. They'll never see you if you use wetland,' his hand was focusing on said wetland.
'That's a good idea,' said Jew, 'that is a very good strategy. Still, at least some of the camp will be reserved on this side of the marsh. We cannot cross here without being seen.'
'That's why all the men must crawl.'
'Crawl?'
'Yes. Crawl all the way across and avoid being spotted. They must move with just their combat weapons. No flags or wagons. Have them drilled in this. A hundred or two hundred at a time depending on the terrain. Cross while the main camp is still here.'
The generals were all bamboozled by these words and strategies, but they couldn't deny the brilliance behind them. Jew said,
'Wading through a swamp, crawling, poisons…I must say, your methods are so eccentric, but they are foolproof even by just thinking of them.'
'I agree,' Kratos said, 'you speak like a century-old warrior.' K'rar remembered being referred to as an old head on young shoulders. He had never forgotten those words.
'We should put this in play right away,' said the king. 'You are dismissed.'
K'rar and the king stayed by themselves when the men left, discussing him. The king said,
'You might not know it, but you are already on this war council. I will see to it that you are paid for your services. And if you turn out to be the man that changes the course of this war to our favor, I will reward you with anything you want.'
'I appreciate very much, sire.' K'rar knew exactly what he wanted from him.
'You are indeed a special one,' said the king, 'you cannot be older than 20.'
'In December I will be eighteen, sir.'
'Eighteen only. Wow. Now, there were some things you were so in a hurry to say to me?'
'Yes, sir. I think it will be injustice to Governess Yrma to not tell her this too. She ought to know what I'm about to tell you.'
So Yrma was brought in, and she found K'rar laying out a large map on a paper. The map of the Moabian continent.
'Welcome, governess.'
The governess wanted to hug him before anything transpired.
'Did you speak to your people back in Iscalan?'
'Not yet. I prefer to surprise them when I visit soon, though it will be during a war.'
'Oh, you young lad. We declared you dead. The giants returned all the lost people, but not you.'
'I had the giants release them.'
'Pardon me, did you say you had the giants release them?'
'Yes, I am yet to explain.'
'Right. And what about Princess Shaniz? She must be overjoyed that you live.'
'I have not yet reunited with her.'
The king knew nothing of this clearly, but he was actually relishing a cordiality between his daughter and the young man, who now said,
'I will speak to her after this, but I would like to ask that this remain between the three of us. When the time comes, I will tell others too.'
'This sounds serious,' said king Sargios, 'is this a map?'
'This is a map of the Nine Flags, or the continent of Moab.' K'rar explained to them that this is where he had come from, but they knew this. So he said, 'there's something I didn't tell you. I left it out of my story every time I told it. My father, Caspar von Balian, was king of Korazin. He died when I was thirteen, by poison. I became king, but for less than a month. One of my father's trusted generals took my throne from me with the help of Goldoran foreign troops,' he was showing the location of Goldora with his index, 'and I went into hiding with a few of my men for eleven months. But I was caught, and then I had to flee. Things turned from one to the other, and then I ended up rowing a boat into the meridian, where I wanted to die at the hands of a demon rather than by my enemy. He watched me do this, and perhaps threw a party for my death. But I survived, because Klaadia, who is very real, spared me on orders, she said, from the Most High.'
'Goodness gracious!' king Sargios and the governess were completely lost for words. Not because of Klaadia, whom they already heard about, but about the new information he had just revealed.
'That means, then, that you are a king?'
'Yes, sire. I am the king of Korazin,' said K'rar, 'now I didn't say anything because I had given it up. I was completely suffocated by my enemies, I was clutching at straws. There was nothing to hold on to. But for the past three years, I have learned from the Nephilim. The giants who once ruled this land, that a king must only abandon his people when he is dead. Your Majesty has demonstrated this to me, too. You haven't given in to the rebels. That is why I felt obliged to storm in earlier today to help. If we succeed, I would also like your help. I will return to my kingdom, and I will deliver my people.'
There was no answer to this question for about two minutes because they were still digesting what K'rar had just said to them being a king.
'Even if we do not succeed, I will still help you, king of Korazin. This is very big news, this,' King Sargios was still shell shocked, 'but, pray. I still have questions. The Nephilim? You've been having a good time with them, it appears.'
'And, you said there is a barrier between this land and your land. How will you get there?' governess Yrma asked.
'The Nephilim. There's only twenty-four of them, and apparently, because I came to this land, and now I really believe that Ihanga brought it about, they awoke from some sort of 607-year trance that the Most High imposed on them, having been the offspring of a female spirit and human men. Klaadia is their mother. She is not entirely a spirit, because the Most High demoted her to just being a naiad, a water spirit. So, while I was there, they opened some sort of scroll that named me, son of Caspar, as their new king, who is destined to take them with me to Korazin, their new home. And that is how I will cross Godsrealm. Reunite them with their mother. She will let us through.'
'Wow, this sounds like a fairy tale. I'd love to see one, a giant,' said the king, 'but then, about the meridian. The distance is too long just to get to it. We do not have the ships…'
'The 24 Nephilim are currently sailing on the Behemoth Pioneer, a ship that I had them build for three years. When this is over, I will invite Your Majesty to the Kaffraria,' K'rar touched them, a group of about 20 islands clustered together, 'where the Nephilim are sailing to make more modifications to the ship. This ship can sail across the Bovidian easily. Part of the help I need is to build more ships, but we will talk about that later.'
The king and his governess were looking at each other. The governess shook her head and said to the king,
'He is a blessing.'
'I will fetch some of them to help us in this war. This is a secret too. Neither your men nor the rebels must expect it.'
'Of course,' the king said. He was about to begin leaving when he stopped, and his eyes dilated, 'no way. No way!'
'What is it Your Majesty? Governess Yrma said.
'Anyone there?' the king called out to the door, and from behind it the voice of his aide came,
'I am here, sire.'
'Bring me the Sacred Writ, now!'
'The Sacred Writ?' Yrma said.
'You said that a scroll, a prophecy, made you king over the Nephilim?' King Sargios asked K'rar.
'Yes.'
'Well, tell you what? Kospar Petry has been deluding himself about being the king of the south. Even my advisors dared to ask me to start considering that it is true.'
K'rar knew here this was going before the scroll was brought in, and the pages opened, and the passage read to him.
The Most High is bringing a shoot from the south, from the extremity of the waters. A king that is, but yet is not, the king of the south. By him, the kings that once were, but are not, will be awakened from their sleep, in a time when tribe will rise against tribe. Listen! It is the sound of a mighty crowd…he has gathered distant peoples and their warriors to his side, and the Most High has granted him dominion over them. The mother of storms shall not do harm to him, and he shall cross her path with fire-breathing monsters of the sea, those having fearsome names. A red-blooded king sits on his throne that he took from him, but the king of the south shall engage him and crush him, and the Most High will be with him. Behold! The gates of the earth are open, for I am bringing a shoot from the south to do this bidding in my behalf.
Yrma said after they read it together,
'The king that is, but who isn't. That is you. From the extremity of the waters, that would still be you. You come from the extreme south. The rebel has been spreading the delusion that he is descended from Khalve the Liberator.' Her face was lit up.
'The mother of storms. That is the spirit that guards Godsrealm, certainly,' the king said, 'so the prophecy already shows that you will pass the barrier regardless of how you do it. But, fire-breathing monsters?'
K'rar knew what this was.
'The ship that the Nephilim are sailing. It is at least ten times bigger than the regular warship in Moab, and many more times bigger than your fishing boats. And its weapons systems are more advanced. We are fitting explosives, found here in the Kaffraria. The Pioneer is one of a new advanced fleet of ships that I have a dream building. All will be named. To have their own unique identities.' K'rar was also introducing just then the custom of naming ships. All the names he had in mind could not be described as "fearsome", but any ship of Behemoth size was bound to be a terrifying sight.
'Now I want to see this ship,' Governess Yrma remarked.
'How does it move?'
'Well, it moves.'
'It sounds like you will need a good military to do all this. Are Revolutionary Guard the warriors in this prophecy?'
'I didn't have them in mind. I will create my own new breed of soldier, both male and female, trained in my methods of combat.'
'Like crawling and using poisons?'
'Yes.'
'You sound like someone the gods are interested in. Our god, and the gods of the Nephilim.'
'About that,' said K'rar, 'princess Shaniz has a book of mine, I hope she still does, containing these concepts, and she has expressed an interest in being part of this, as a pioneer female warrior. Will you allow it?'
'Will I allow it? I will even give you the whole country. I will to be a part of this project, so my daughter and all others who wish may do so too,' he paused, and put his hand on K'rar's shoulder, 'King of the South. You have no idea how that title has caused everyone in this palace anxieties. But now that we know who the true king of the south is, I'm going to have a very good evening today. If you have been having plans to lodge anywhere other than here, forget them. As a king, you will be accommodated in this palace.' This was the second time the monarch was compelling him to stay in a place.