It was now the end of winter in Namsang village, Iscalan. K'rar had not gone away on another wild voyage, and had actually stayed put and holidayed for the first time in many years. The Hleb family home was no longer just a regular home, thanks to K'rar. The Hlebs were popular now. They had expanded their house. It was now a stately bungalow fit even to host a noble. And K'rar was a noble. It was the jewel of Namsang. The soil where the popular Iscalan Knight had sprouted out of. K'rar had sent his knights away on an even longer holiday since his return from the Dark Continent of Zenj.
K'rar had returned with a large team of Zenji peoples apart from the glass smiths he employed in his regiment immediately. He had the Nephilim construct another temporary Kaffraria on the beach where he washed up eleven years ago, to accommodate those in his army who had nowhere to go or who had not gone to their comrades' homes to live out the holiday. These could have simply lived on the ships harbored in the waters at Namsang, and most of them did, but a land base for their work was important, more so for the animals, whether army or food animals. The first use he had found for glass apart from those that the smiths were already accustomed to, was the modification of his ships. In collusion with K'rar's already commissioned engineers and thinkers, the foremost of these being Tanny the Polemian, they had for example already manufactured glass windows for the ships' bridges and replaced the opaque, wooden drapes. Now, the ships already in these waters all had such modifications, and those that would soon begin to arrive carrying the knights would be modified with ready-made heavy glass windows. Also, there was more light in everything now thanks to glass oil lanterns and lamps, not only among the regiment but also in civilian life in Iscalan. But the glass phenomenon had spread out from Namsang to infect, though insidiously at first, the whole southwest of Xaxanika. Fishermen for instance quickly realized the importance of glass for their businesses, as they could now go out fishing by night. K'rar had even had to lend them his Zenj smiths sometimes, even to the governor's home. But it was still K'rar and his engineers who first used glass for industrial purposes. And, for what Tanny the Polemian came rushing to show him at the Hleb manor that late February afternoon.
K'rar was with some of his Iscalan comrades, including Chio, Jen, Tuncay and Hazael. They were playing with their canine and Urdian comrades, trying to find out if the eagle could actually be faster than the hound in a straight line, when Hazael spotted the running man in his grey coat, carrying something like a flute. He was coming from the direction of the beach.
'What's the great thinker cooked up now?' they called him this because he was the brain behind much of the practical part of K'rar's own inventive theoretical ideas. In fact, K'rar had conceded to him that he was actually much better than K'rar. K'rar's ideas were largely military-oriented. But his Polemian friend transcended that, and was an inventor of all sorts of contraptions, like what he was now waving this way and that at them.
'You'll not believe this!' he was saying, breathing heavily. After he had caught his breath and stood upright, he handed K'rar the newest contraption, 'behold. The seeing glass.'
'The what, now?'
'Seeing. Glass,' he said, 'this glass, K'rar, can make your eye like that of this Urdian.' He pointed at the bird perching on Hazael's fist.
'What?' said the captain of the Constellation, Jen, 'what are you talking about?'
Tanny dragged them onto a roof, on higher ground, from where they could see the Bovidian Sea and the fleet of warships anchored there.
'Can you see the ships?'
'Yes, I can,' said K'rar, with a slight frown because the Polemian was not getting to the damn point.
'Well, then who is that one in the front, just to the Behemoth's left?' he was referring to a ship rather than a person. K'rar wouldn't be able to recognize the ship from that distance, nor see her name, written in large characters on the side of the ship. He said,
'I can barely see it, Tanny.'
'Of course you can,' Tanny said quickly, 'use the glass.'
K'rar turned the tube around in his fingers, and Tanny made sure he put the narrow end on his eye, to squint through it.
'No way.' K'rar said, letting the glass down, and immediately returning it to his eye, 'what have you done this time, Tanny?'
'Can you see it?'
'It's Jen's ship, the Constellation. How?'
'With the right measurements, I was able to modify the glass. This glass magnifies objects far away, and you can see them as if they're close.'
'Let me see,' Jen wanted to have a go. K'rar was saying,
'That's Asthenes and Estoril on the Sentinel.' This was a Behemoth, the sixth to be constructed of thirteen. He could make out even the features on their skins, 'Tanny, I want more of these. This is a fabulous invention.' K'rar was right. The seeing glass was a simple, yet glorious addition to the already advanced logistics of the Kaffrarian Knights Regiment. He was already visualizing in his head how it could be put to use militarily, which wasn't so difficult. Tanny said, as the other knights had turns in looking through the glass.
'I am already making some more, though I have not perfected the precise details. The seeing g…'
'No. Not seeing glass,' said K'rar, 'spyglass. That's a spyglass.'
'Spyglass is even better,' said Tanny, 'I was going to say it can help in many ways in your field, but it appears you have already thought of many ways.'
'Yes. Perfect your measurements and make us more.'
'Of course, young master.' He took back his spyglass for use in making others, just when a flying smoke signal was seen in the northern sky by Chio, who yelled,
'Arrivals, K'rar!'
It was the first arrival of knights. These ones, possibly hundreds of them, lived in the central regions of the land and had mobilized and traveled on land together. The smoke flare was nearly two miles away. They had just arrived at Iscalan Township from regions of Hannes and Bar'sha.
There were more arrivals by sea on the same day, many of them, that brought thousands of knights with them, including three that had sailed together on the eastern coast from Cauda and from the Kaffraria, carrying crude chemar in their holds. One of them, the Hawkeye, carried mostly horses on it. The ships already in the water suddenly came to life after months of sitting in the water silently, as their stewards arrived, and their crews and passengers returned. Many of the arrivals knew nothing of the glass implements that had been taking place, and took a lot of time studying these. Many of them also came to Namsang to greet K'rar's foster family. The ones arriving by land were a spectacle in the streets of the cities and towns they went through, even attracting large crowds. They all traveled on horseback. K'rar had got even more horses from San Vilgraek than he had asked for, so much so that only a few hundred in the regiment did not have horses.
On the morning of the third day, in the first week of the spring, the final ships sailed from the west, the October Pilgrim, carrying Bartle Frere and Governess Yrma, and the Santillan, named after King Sargios, carrying him, his crown prince, Bekka and Shaniz. This was intentional, that the Santillan come last, so that the king would see off his counterpart and his regiment. Because the entire regiment couldn't fit on the beach, only the minimum number who could assembled there immediately the horn was blown, while others remained on their ships. Those on the beach included hundreds of spectators from nearby and those who had traveled from as far as Aran-Tamar and Seir with the knights, because they would not for the life of it miss the spectacle of K'rar's ships setting sail for a faraway land. Some of the spectators were actually the parents and relatives of some of the knights who had come to see off their children, still mostly younger than thirty, because for all intents and purposes, they were going south to stay there permanently. Also on the beach were the original training officers, including the old seaman Morriffere, now in a wheelchair. Though he was an old, hard man, the numbers of his students that flocked to him to greet him, and the sight of how well they had turned out, made him shed a tear. And, the Scovian woman, Amren, was also present on the beach with her son. When K'rar had boarded the Wild Beast to depart from San Vilgraek, he had found her there already even though she had not communicated that she accepted his proposal to travel to Korazin with him.
Before the king gave his final address to the Kaffrarian Knights, he and K'rar spoke for a long time on the Santillan, about the future of their two nations. The Xaxanikan king was saying,
'You will of course immediately have me informed when you regain your throne?'
'I intend to invite you south, Your Majesty. When I wed Shaniz. You have to attend, obviously.' K'rar was already planning this to be the crowning moment after all things were concluded. He for instance had some jewels he had obtained from Scovian princess Samolla, which she had given him strictly for the purpose of his marriage. Only the king and the Nephilim, three of them, knew that the plan to eventually marry Shaniz was one from a very long time ago. They were in on the secret as such.
'Certainly not missing that,' said the king, 'Now if you need any more help, even militarily, you just send us ships, and I'll send you men.'
'No, that will not be necessary. When I do send ships here, they will be here to fetch you and other guests. And for non-military reasons after that.' This would include the inevitable trading routes that they had already discussed. Also, K'rar was to reimburse the king of Xaxanika for his financial support in raising this ingenious army, either by free goods from the tropics, or with currency. The Korazite kori was way stronger than the Xaxanikan peckle, and K'rar only had to reimburse half of the money he owed. King Sargios had pardoned all the monies going into the knights' wages. The knights' payments would be K'rar's business soon too, but K'rar was not worried.
'The prophecy holds true. You opened up the world's gates. You are an exceptional fellow, K'rar von Caspar. This nation will remember you in its history.'
'I believe I am as Xaxanikan as I am Korazite.'
'I believe so too. Now let us send you off, shall we?'
They disembarked, and the assembly pacified. The knights stood in formation in full uniform. A platform was brought for the king to stand upon and speak. The king's guards stood in random places around the grounds, and the crown prince Ghita, who had already spoken to K'rar himself about sailing down to Korazin once, was standing with the spectating crowd. Shaniz, Bekka and Bartle Frere took their positions at the front of the assembly, with Bartle Frere carrying the flag of the regiment. K'rar stood to the right, with a raw smoke signal and its cylinder. He, too, was clad in his sky blue Commandant's coat and uniform. He carried one sword on his hip, and the other was on his back. His hair was oiled, falling up to his neck, but he had removed all his facial hair.
'And so, the time has come, Kaffrarian Knights,' said the king, 'to sail off to your original commission. Because you are Xaxanikan, and because I have ensured that you completed your course to this point, the king of Korazin invited me here to send you off. Your Commandant,' he gave K'rar a not-so-surreptitious glance, 'is also Xaxanikan by association, and in the same manner you will become Korazite in your commission to help him take back his throne. In doing so you will be helping both Korazin and Xaxanika, not only by our subsequent alliance, but also by his marriage to princess Shaniz.' The assembly reacted to this by cheering and clapping, and some yelled "to marriage!" while looking at a coy Shaniz. Sargios went on,
'Therefore…therefore, be the warriors that he turned you into. This will be a permanent relocation, as long as he keeps you. But you are going with the blessings of Ihanga, of the nation and of your relatives. What's more, you lot are more than just the best ever military establishment, there is now proof of this. You are a brotherhood. You must remain a brotherhood.' He looked down at K'rar to take from him the pneumatic cylinder. Someone brought K'rar the fire with which he then ignited the smoke signal, which the king dropped in the barrel. With another match, he ignited the chemar powder in the base of the barrel, and turned the open end skyward. He said, holding up the cylinder,
'And so it begins!'
The smoke signal fizzed as it went up into the sky. White smoke. The coast was clear. Everyone who was not leaving remained assembled on the land to watch as the knights embarked on the ships. K'rar first scanned the beach to find Amren, then went towards her to fetch the boy.
'Ready for more seasickness?' he said to Amren. Both she and her son had endured two days, along with hundreds of other first-timers, of seasickness on the journey between San Vilgraek and Xaxanika. The woman nodded with a very shy smile, perhaps holding back a tear or two. K'rar had already began training her and Ollinz for life in a palace. For example, they were both opulently dressed, with Ollinz in black clothing of a similar design to the knights uniform. Amren had asked him on more than one occasion about her role in all of this, but K'rar had always deflected this matter, stalling the answer until the opportune time. He added, 'You mind if I take Ollinz with me?'
The boy was already taking K'rar's hand, and together they walked away toward the boarding plank on the Wild Beast, Amren following closely behind.
K'rar sailed as usual on the Behemoth Wild Beast with his brigadiers. The 81 ships, including the sailing ship Pioneer, would move in queues, of about ten ships. Behemoths would sail on the flanks, but three Behemoths, the High Priest, the Wild Beast and the Blue Lotus, were leading the armada. The first row of Stingers would sail close to their sterns, and the rows behind them maintained a similar distance. Five Behemoths made up the flanks. The chimneys began to smoke, the lookouts sat in their posts, and the flags were hoisted. The small but majestic Kaffrarian Armada was leaving home, to go home. K'rar did not know it, but he was leaving Xaxanika to return home exactly eleven years to the day, the ninth day of March.
Once the ships came to the Nightshade islands, they distorted their form to sail around and between them, and then returned to their shape once only the bare sea stared at them. K'rar was standing in the bow with Shaniz, looking at the deep waters. The skies were clear, and the horizon unchanging. K'rar pulled her closer to hold her waist, saying nothing. They remained this way for several minutes, until the land behind them disappeared, and the sea swallowed them. They were not interrupted by the few on the deck. Many were relaxing in the lower decks, knowing the journey was possibly very long, because even the Commandant did not know how far away they were from Moab. He had not even shared his plans on arrival in Korazin. But he knew that during his days on the raft with the mother of storms, Klaadia, she had transported him in a straight line. The irregular Xaxanikan west coast was more or less directly above the northeast coast of Moab, which is Korazin.
But he did assemble his officers on the bridge on the second night. Admiral Sorcatan was already on the bridge when K'rar and the others joined him. The bridge was resplendent now, what with glass windows and the glass lamps lined up along the window panes and on the roof. A table and ten chairs were set in the right corner of the bridge. On it was a sketch map of the eastern nations of Moab, including Shona.
'So, the plan is this. I'll go to Chaldea to get the lay of the land, see what the old bastard has been up to for the last ten years. Now I learned something from the Scovian Empire. There's a story the princess told me, about one of her father's ancestors who faked his death. Long story, but like him, I've been dead eleven years now, and I need it to remain that way as I study the lay of the land and make a strategy. No one must know anything about us or about our approach. Thus we must approach in secret, and remain in hiding until the time comes to show my hand.'
'Remain hidden? How will we hide eighty ships and tens of thousands of knights?' Bartle Frere wanted to know.
'Well, Korazin's east coast is ideal for hiding,' he was moving his index along the coastline on the map, 'this whole stretch between Port Praesof and Matalma is barren coastline. That includes this thin gulf. I will name it Botterein. There's nothing on this peninsula, just dense jungle and limestone towers and weird creatures. Some of my rebels hid there for some time. The jungle grows on the mainland too for some miles. There's enough water and space in it for the ships to hide, and the knights can stay there until I send instructions.'
The Gulf of Botterein, which in Scovian meant "rebirth" or "resurrection", was situated near the midrib of Korazin's east coast, with a narrow mouth in the north. The gulf was actually similar to Lake Vilgraek. Almost, but not quite, a cul-de-sac. With a very narrow 17 mile width, the gulf ran 51 miles from north to south where towering precipices shielded its waters from the Louvithian Sea. The entire stretch of the mainland side was occupied by an extinct shield volcano range and patches of tropical jungle, similar to the central region's Debasian Mountain and its forest, where K'rar had hidden for months. While the Debasian Mountain was a block, the second-highest mountain on mainland Moab, the Mas Garak extinct volcano was the only volcano in all of Moab. K'rar's armada could safely hide in the dead-ended gulf, hidden from any passing vessels. The southern extent of the gulf was open, but not navigable by ships thanks to shallow reef between the mainland and the east strip of the gulf. The knights were perfectly equipped to live in the wild, so it would be no problem for them.
'Now, there is a secret fund my father kept, somewhere in Chaldea, and only I know about it. That, and the money we will get from the Zenj gold and silver, can sustain us for a long time. I will be fighting two enemies at home and abroad, but the foreign one is the chief aggressor. The only certainty in all this business is that I will teach them a lasting lesson. I believe he has by now exerted a lot of influence because there is no Casparon king to keep him in check, and he's in bed with Garrera. We will break him, and herald to him and his posterity that it was a grave mistake to undermine my sovereignty.'
'Great plan. But then there's Godsrealm,' said Sorcatan. None of them had actually ever seen this Godsrealm, as it had been a fairytale until K'rar confirmed its existence.
'Well, Klaadia and I are acquainted, and I have got 24 of her sons and daughters whom she has not seen in 600 years. Interesting reunion, this will be.'
'600 years?' Bartle Frere said.
'Yeah. And the Nephilim can live for more than a hundred and fifty. They'll live in Korazin longer than me. If everything works out, I will settle them in the Debasian Mountain's peaks.' The Nephilim could, in fact, live longer than that. However, their race would not remain forever, K'rar knew. They would eventually fade out and go extinct after many years, even though this meant centuries. K'rar added, 'they will be good protectors of Korazin, when we're all gone.'
'And good builders,' said Shaniz.
There was absolutely nothing on the sea for the next ten days. The horizon remained where it was, undisturbed by any new sights. The armada was travelling nonstop. Three days in, K'rar had released all his birds into the air, and they had been flying away and back to the ships for days. For this reason, their incessant screeching on the evening of the fourteenth day definitely indicated something. K'rar was told of this by a sailor from the deck, while he was drawing a sketch of something he wanted the glass smiths to make. He threw it in the knight's face and told him to get it to Sagakama, an Ariscan glass smith whom K'rar had appointed the head of that team. He went by Tanny's chambers to fetch his spyglass, one of just six the wise Polemian had successfully made, and rushed to the deck. There was till nothing the lookouts had seen from their vertical posts. Still, K'rar went to the bow, where Bartle Frere and Resite were standing, and peeked through the glass.
'What is it?' Bartle Frere was curious, 'the lookouts see nothing.' K'rar's face lit up, and he looked again to confirm.
'Well there's nothing,' he said, but with an obvious smile, 'just a conspicuous color change on the water. Godsrealm, comrades.'
No sooner had he spoken that than the ambience suddenly began to shift. He was familiar with this phenomenon, as were the voyagers of the Iscalan when she plunged K'rar into his Scovian adventure. This weather change was unlike the usual, expected storms sailors are accustomed to. It was recognizable immediately as a direct result of the armada's approach toward the meridian. The flat sea was suddenly forming up knolls of high waves, and the white clouds above them seemed as though they had been possessed by a vicious demon, because they now took on the expected dark, ominous outlook. The blue patches of sky between the cumuli vanished. Nearer to the meridian, the real boundary line between the world of men and the world of the mother of storms, these things were more conspicuous, more sinister-looking. Knights were converging on the decks of their ships to marvel at the spectacle, which they knew indicated that they were closer to their destination.
'Drop anchor just outside the meridian,' K'rar gave the command, which was then resonated throughout the entire fleet. There was frantic activity on the ships as they came closer and closer to the meridian. Now, the daylight had been completely eaten up by the dark, even behind the fleet. The nimbus clouds, just like all those years ago, were extremely close to the surface, and the incessant flashes of lightning and peals of thunder were like a horrible music performance the mother of storms was playing for them. In a few moments, the fleet was stationary just outside the meridian, and a shower of heavy rainfall began to come down. This time there was a real, vertical wall of dark smoky cloud across the entire meridian, as high as the sky. Inside it, the thunder and lightning was visible and had not ceased. The bow of the Wild Beast was only a few meters from the cloud wall, and K'rar stood on the ram in silence. Behind him, the knights were silently watching in anticipation. The three giants on this ship, Asthenes, Estoril and Tahwan stepped forward. When K'rar saw them behind him, he called out against the din of the thunder and into the dark.
'I found your offspring, Klaadia mother of storms!'
No answer came through. K'rar yelled again,
'Show yourself, naiad, I am an old friend. I am the only human you have spoken to for seven centuries. Will you remain hidden…?'
A particularly loud blast of thunder shut him up. The cloud wall in front of him luminesced for a moment, and a gaping tunnel hole the size of the Wild Beast appeared on the black cloud wall. K'rar looked behind him at the shell-shocked audience, and said to Sorcatan, who was standing outside the bridge,
'Get in.'
'Sir?'
'Do it. She can't communicate to us here. We need to get inside. Move in the bow of the ship only. Everyone stand back when he does, and stay behind the cloud.'
The crowd took several steps back, clearing half of the ship's deck. K'rar was by himself now, when Sorcatan directed the ship multiple feet inside the cloud, and then had the two anchors dropped immediately. K'rar was swallowed up by the cloud, along with several feet of the ship. No one on deck could see what had become of him. Inside the cloud K'rar was lifted up off the ship violently, and dropped again by an invisible hand. The conditions inside were extremely hostile, but like before, K'rar was shielded by the water spirit, which at long last showed its face, completely unchanged, in its true, ugly form.
'Oh for God's sake, did you have to playact?' he complained, referring to his being tossed in the air, 'and, I don't like your hideous form.'
'It was only yesterday,' she replied, once more shifting her form to a more appealing look, 'yet you are a man now.'
'In case you've forgotten, Klaadia,' said K'rar, 'I am no spirit. Only human, and the span of my life is eighty years if I am especially strong. It's been eleven years.'
'So, you lived.'
'I did. And, I found your sons. 24 of them are with me, along with 38,000 men, and women. I need you to not kill any of them. Let us pass.'
'I will bring you no harm, king of Korazin. The Most High knew your course, and he sent me again to you.'
'Interesting. Why can't Ihanga just speak to me himself? I have even studied his Sacred Writ.'
'He is the Most High. He is a spirit. You cannot see him and live. But you can see me because I am not fully a spirit.'
'Well, tell him, I appreciate his hand in how things have turned out. Although I still do not know after all these years, why he has been helping me.' But he did have an idea.
'You will learn of his will for you eventually. It will not be long.'
'Well for now, if you don't mind, I would like to go home. I came with your offspring too. I found them.'
The spirit didn't know this. But K'rar couldn't make out if she was happy, surprised or both. In fact she looked shocked.
'You don't seem happy,' said K'rar.
'650 years. And my end has finally come.'
'What?'
'I am happy. And I am sad. When I see them, my life will be over in three years. They are a product of my sin with the sons of men. The Most High's punishment was my current station, and to never see them again.'
'So seeing them will kill you?'
'Ay, K'rar von Caspar. You, son of man, have brought me to my end. But it is an end I will relish, if the last sight I ever see will be my children.'
K'rar was pitiful of her, but he was not emotional.
'That is so sad. Why don't you keep your eyes away from them then?'
'That is not possible. All the clouds and all the drops of water in Godsrealm are my eyes and ears. No one may sneak past. Last year, I saw you sailing east. I would have struck down all your men, but for you.'
'What? That was you? How large is your territory?'
'Like you said, son of man,' said the naiad, 'you are only human. But you're a human who has now opened up all the world's seas. Go, and fulfil your destiny.'
And, just like before, the naiad was gone in the flash of a light, except K'rar wasn't put to sleep. The darkness went with her, so too the rain, the clouds, the lightning and thunder. The miles-high shroud dissipated very quickly too, and the imprisoned evening sun was free again. When everything was clear again, there still remained a large, black cloud above the Wild Beast. K'rar knew Klaadia had left it up as a sign to the Nephilim that she could see them. Shaniz ran to K'rar quickly to examine him for any injuries, but K'rar was simply looking up at the cloud.
'I'm alright,' he said, 'same cannot be said of that spirit. She may not speak to her offspring.'
'Offspring? What offspring?'
'Us, Lady Shaniz,' Asthenes stepped forward, 'that spirit is our mother. We are the result of her relations with our father, a man, when she left her spiritual home in the heavens and came down to seduce the sons of men. We were thus born to Anak as giants.'
This information was previously unbeknown to anyone else but K'rar, who had considered himself bound in confidence by the Nephilim when they explained to him these things.
'So that is your origin,' said Bekka, 'all this time, you waited until now to tell any of us?'
'Some things are best left unknown, lady Bekka, and some things only until the appointed time.' The giant turned away, and so did his prospective wife, Estoril, who was also his cousin. K'rar watched them all the way to the stern of the ship where they descended into their cavernous chambers.
'I thought it would be a grand reunion, after hundreds of years,' he said, 'and I got this. Their mother cannot speak to them. The price of her sins. And Godsrealm is gone forever too.'
'No kidding,' said Shaniz, 'I'm a bit hurt too.'
'Right, that hurdle has passed now. Moab is only a day out. Sorcatan, take us away.'
Sorcatan heeded the call with a bow, and yelled the appropriate orders to resume the journey. Their course would now shift by lots southwest, to avoid the northern coast of Korazin. K'rar took Shaniz's hand and said to her,
'Let's go up into the tower. We'll be today's lookouts.'
The lookout post of the Behemoth was more spacious than a Stinger's. They even had time to sit down on a bench, drink from bottles in a small cupboard fitted into it for a lookout's food supplies. But they were mostly there because it was the opportune time for the more personal matters that would have been inappropriate to speak of before. To Shaniz, one of these matters was that of her mother-in-law.
'You don't know whether she is alive or not. Don't be so pessimistic.'
'It's been eleven years, Shaniz. Even if she was alive, where would I start to look?'
'But you must look. You have the resources of this regiment.'
K'rar caused himself to smile briefly,
'Is this all because you want to meet her, or because you're worried about her?'
'Both, you idiot,' she pulled his left cheek.
'Well, at least the General gave no indication that he wanted to kill her. He would have imprisoned her somewhere, in which case we will find her.'
'Good. That is good.'
They remained quiet, in each other's arms, for the next few minutes.
'I'm going to make you not only queen, Shaniz. You will be an Empress.'
Shaniz sat up straight, demanding with her face an elaboration.
'Once we have concluded restoring balance, what then? Now that Godsrealm is gone…'
'You want to explore.'
'Yes. Now we know Moab, Xaxanika, and the Zenj Empire. And only we have the technology to travel extremely long distances. You and I will redraw the map of the world. But we can also own them.'
'A conquest.'
'I like to think of it as a renaissance. We will find many peoples, bring them to Korazin, and teach them about us. And there's a lot we can teach them, don't you think?'
'I know what else we will do.'
'Yeah?'
'A chronicler. Get a chronicler to write about you. About us. We will be remembered for generations, for centuries. The Chronicles of K'rar von Caspar, first emperor of Korazin, and his renaissance,' she laughed at this title, but K'rar contemplated it seriously.
'We will rebuild Korazin into the center of the world. Where everyone comes to learn about us.'
'Sounds like a plan. But that will take many years, my love. A legacy takes many years.'
'We will have children, to continue it.' K'rar knew she had intended to bring up this subject.
'How many children?'
'How many can you have?'
She chuckled, and pecked his cheek,
'We'll see.'