***Tirnanog, The Kingdom***
***Magnus***
Unfortunately, Vanya’s prophecy turned out to be eerily accurate.
It took a whole day for the equivalent of the local police force to show up. And as predicted, there was no aningful way to negotiate with them. They tried to evict us from the premises, utterly convinced that they were dealing with a revolt instigated by exiles. Only once we demonstrated the power disparity between us did they relent.
Summarised, it was a pretty sketchy but boring affair, which involved Jeng’s paladins breaking a few bones to get the point across.
Another day went by during which the locals cordoned off the area and evacuated any nearby civilians.
Though that didn’t prevent the local version of reporters from trying everything in their power to bypass the restrictions. The kingdom didn’t have sothing like digital dia, but newspapers were a thing. Vanya even deaned to give a short interview to one of the braver reporters who managed to sneak onto the premises with a flying mutation.
Then two more days passed before an official showed their face, though that was also a bust.
I found myself playing with the ring on my finger while Vanya did her best to explain the situation in as simple terms as possible to soone who held their position not because of their brain, but because of so hereditary title. The guy sounded like a broken record in his single-minded desire to have us vacate the facility without giving us anything in return.
“… no. We are not terrorists. We are the representatives of a foreign power,” the girl tried again with far too much patience. “I have already explained it. So would you please allow us to have a conversation with your king?”
The official, so Earl ‘Insertna’, blinked. Then he repeated his demands, “You are to surrender to the authorities and leave the facility, or you will be removed with force.”
I swear, it was slowly getting boring, and it had been going on for more than two hours! There was a limit to what I could endure when talking to people like this.
“We just need to speak to soone with decision-making power. Judging by the way you are handling the situation, you are clearly not it!” Vanya replied, sounding like she was also slowly getting annoyed.
‘You know… I bet they would send soone with real power if we took a stake, ramd it up that guy’s butt-hole, and placed the stake at the main entrance. I bet that would get us attention,’ I suggested via UI.
Astra groaned from her spot next to . “We aren’t here to stake people, Magnus! Why do you always co up with such crude things?”
The official’s eyes widened. “Staking? What!?”
I threw up my hands. “Hey, I used the UI. I haven’t said anything! Now, you can’t bla for making things complicated! Why would you say that out loud?” I defended myself. “Earl Insertna-”
“My na is Earl Wellington!” he scread.
I waved him off. “-yeah, whatever. I have just this annoying habit of giving nicknas to people who aren’t worth my ti. Bear with .” I returned my attention to Vanya. “Well, Insertna isn’t particularly helpful. We are wasting our ti.”
“We still can’t stake him, though I am beginning to consider other thods,” Vanya grumbled. She narrowed her eyes as if she was about to wring Insertna’s mind into a pretzel. I could imagine her preferred thod would involve a mind-wiped official, and while that might be the easiest solution, there were other possibilities.
“Might I use him as a test subject?” I asked. “I promise, I won’t hurt him, but it might shut him up and demonstrate in no uncertain terms that we are not to be toyed with.”
“I refuse to-”
Hearing no objections, I pulled one of my new toys from my finger and flashed forward, quickly slipping the expanding ring over the man’s head before it contracted back to the size of a choker.
The effect was… disturbing.
Insertna’s voice was cut off as his head disappeared inside the SMD’s warped storage space. There was a contorted version of his ugly mug visible on his neck as he clawed with his fingers at the choker to no avail.
“Fascinating!” I mumbled as he began to stumble around like a chicken which had its head cut off.
“What did you do!?” Astra called out.
“Just put an SMD on his head,” I explained. “No worries, his head is still there. It’s just taking up less space.”
“I can still feel his distress,” Vanya comnted, sounding intrigued. “This might be a viable way to restrain powerful people. People whom we had to put down out of fear of them getting loose. Can you put these bracelets on arms and legs too?”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Maybe? Though there would be the sa limitations as with normal bindings. Maybe building a space-warping cell would be easier,” I mused. “I was more worried about killing him if the warped space did sothing to his brain that I didn’t consider. I am no doctor.”
“But you said you wouldn’t hurt him!” Astra complained.
“It wouldn’t have hurt him much,” I asserted. “Besides, I already put my hand into an SMD, and I was fine. The likelihood of it not working was very small. It’s like being inside a magnetic resonance tomography device. While it may be fine for short-term exposure, I don’t think it is healthy in the long term. But it certainly works for short-term restrictions.”
“Why can’t he just pull it off?” Astra asked once she cald down a little. Lately, she was getting a little twitchy about my antics.
“His head is still there,” I explained while Insertna tripped over a curbstone and fell. He quickly got back to his hands and knees and began crawling far faster than I would have assud him capable of. Sohow, he managed to find the right direction, which led back to where his people had set up restrictions. “Along with the space, all the obvious forces also get warped. So since his head is still there, to him, it is no different from having a choker around his neck.”
“I see…” Vanya mumbled and turned around to walk back into the compound. “If that doesn’t get us the attention of soone important, then I don’t know what would. Though I am not certain whether staking him would have been less eye-catching.”
I stepped closer to my partner and whispered, “Do you also think that she is behaving more and more like so old granny? Isaac will have his fair share of work with that one if that thing between them ever gets serious.”
Astra huffed. “Recently, you have been working hard to age her prematurely. Each ti you pull off one of your shenanigans, it takes away more than a decade from her lifeti! And mine too!”
I scoffed. “You don’t look that old, dear.”
“Gee, thanks…” She rolled her eyes at .
“Thankfully, we are functionally immortal, so I don’t have to worry about stealing away a few decades here or there,” I joked.
And so we waited for yet another day.
It was about midday of the next day when sothing changed among the improvised barricades. They had been erected by the local law enforcent after our fallout with their official. The barricades wouldn’t have truly stopped us if we ever decided to leave, but I guessed it was the thought that counted.
People were moving, clearing the street as sothing huge ca down the road, as barricades were moved aside. At first, I thought it was so kind of wagon, but when it beca visible in all its vain glory, I almost couldn’t believe my eyes.
From further away, it looked like a palanquin, but the closer it ca, the stranger it got.
For one, the thing was huge, taking up the whole width of the two-lane road leading up to the compound. Calling it a palanquin didn’t do it justice. It was more like a movable platform. On each corner, ten carriers were holding onto large tal poles. They must have strength enhancents, or they wouldn’t have been able to move the contraption a millitre.
The number of people was necessary, because they were carrying a little, golden pyramid with an actual stairway leading up to an embellished throne with servants providing everything the heart might desire to both sides. Won in skimpy dresses held food and refreshnts ready. Others were obviously there to entertain different desires.
I might have gaped a little at the scene.
Once I collected myself, I was glad that I was wearing my helt so nobody could see my dumbfounded expression. I had seen a lot since coming to Tirnanog, but nothing was comparable to this. After an entire year with Clan Aerie, seeing soone behave in this manner was quite unthinkable. Not even the third strata’s gambling den of desires ca close to this casually displayed debauchery.
“Are they serious?” Astra whispered next to , no less surprised by the spectacle.
I surveyed the assembly. Aside from the haughty individual sitting on the throne, there were at least twenty servants and forty guards on the construction. Sitting on the lowest stair was the stupid official from yesterday, still wearing his collar. He looked like so headless rider who, unfortunately, misplaced his head.
The entire procession ca to a stop once they reached the compound’s entrance gateway. To be honest, they had no other choice since they would have never gotten that palanquin past the guard house, which was placed between the road’s two lanes.
Once he was sure that he had our full attention, the throne’s occupant rose to his feet and swished his toga as if he had just achieved so grand feat.
“I am King Arseni Osvald, the First!”
I couldn’t stop myself. I knew it was wrong! Disrespectful at the very least, a reason for war at worst, but it had to be done! I imdiately started clapping, giving my best to make it sound cheerful. Pulling off such an entrance without dying of sha had to be honoured sohow!
If looks could kill, I would have died right then and there, grievously injured by both opposing sides and backstabbed by my own wife.
Slowly, I stopped clapping and cleared my throat, “Ahem, please continue. I was just smitten by the performance.”
King Arseni Osvald, the First, huffed, then addressed us once more. “I was inford that there have been issues with so rebels, so I ca to address them personally!”
He waved his hand, and one of his servants stepped forward, pulling out an actual scroll! A gods damned scroll! As if he was about to announce so grand decision!
“The offending party is hereby called upon to evacuate the premises…”
Ignoring the clown who was reading off the sa script as the previous official who had already lost his head for it, I turned to Astra, “Can you believe this? There has to be sothing wrong in their brains.”
I turned around to see what the rest of our group thought of this. “I an, it is like they are incapable of independent thought.”
Vanya frowned. “I am beginning to believe you are right. This slls of long-lasting and repeated psychic influence.”
“You an they-”
“S-I-L-E-N-C-E!” the announcer suddenly called out, sending a shiver down my spine which could only be induced by a psychic ability. It was like getting hit by a shower of cold water droplets. “When the kingdom makes an announcent, the lower classes listen.”
I narrowed my eyes, but Astra’s hand landed on my shoulder.
Vanya stepped forward. “We are not ‘lower classes’. We are a delegation from a group of survivors on another continent. It would behove you to finally take this matter seriously!”
Suddenly, my precognition tingled, and I stepped forward, moving by reflex as I caught the crossbow bolt right in front of Vanya’s face.
It had been fired by one of the king’s guardsn.
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