Marcus, the Sapphire Emperor, took a deep breath and teleported into the eting place. The past month had been sothing out of a nightmare; while the Swarm’s attacks on his borders had slowed, the rest of the world was being swallowed up at an alarming pace and it was increasingly clear that he wouldn’t be able to stop them.
And, finally, he had been forced to admit that he would need to band together with the other rulers if there was to be any chance of resisting the Swarm, even if he wasn’t leading the coalition. So, he had asked the other rulers who were still themselves to et with him, and they had accepted.
He walked from the teleportation chamber into the main eting hall, where a depressingly small number of people were waiting. “Is this really all of us that are left?” He asked, taking his seat.
The other rulers shared a look. “Yeah.” Isaac, King of Misthaven, replied. “This is everyone. You wanted to et with us?”
Marcus swallowed hard, squeezing his eyes shut. “I…wish to rejoin the alliance.” He managed. “As much as I hate to admit it, reality has forced to admit that this is a threat I cannot handle alone. So, I wish to help us drive back the threat if we can.”
There was a mont of silence before Isaac spoke. “And do you have any sort of plan for how you’ll help us? Or will you just request the remnants of our armies to strengthen your own borders?”
“I will…follow the will of the group.” Marcus replied through gritted teeth. “But it is my opinion that, at this point, our best chance of winning is to withdraw all our forces to the most defensible location we have.”
“So, your capital city.” Zara, Queen of Ilex, said flatly. “Assuming the Ruby Emperor’s palace has been well-maintained.”
“I think that’s not the worst idea.” Alice, Queen of Mountainho, replied thoughtfully. “It’s better than just being sitting ducks in our own territory, and it allows us to be sure no one is compromised like Astrea and Emily.”
“They’re clean, by the way.” Isaac said, looking back over at Marcus. “Each of the n here have independently checked them.”
“Normally I’d rankle over the way you said that, but I suppose it’s actually relevant in this situation.” Zara said wryly. “But I suppose you’ll want to check us yourself anyway?”
“It’s standard procedure for anyone in my palace.” Marcus replied.
“Sensible.” Isaac replied. “Would you give us a few minutes to discuss? You can wait in one of the eting rooms in the anti.”
Marcus frowned. “Discuss what?” He asked. “I thought you didn’t think survival was possible without everyone banding together.”
“We need to discuss if a rger of armies is even viable anymore.” Isaac replied.
“Then why do it without ?” Marcus asked, suspicion rising. The other rulers were behaving…strangely, and his well-honed sense of danger was going off.
“Because we can’t trust you.” Zara replied. “For all we know, you’re trying to determine if we’re weak enough to quickly take over. Then you could take our troops and resources and do everything exactly the way you want it.”
That didn’t really make sense. “Your armies wouldn’t listen to and I’m already worried about holding onto the land I have now.” Marcus pointed out. “Trying to invade you right now would be suicide.”
“Can you really bla us?” Alice asked. “We’re all on edge right now and your expansionist tendencies have always been a concern for those of us who rule smaller nations. Can’t you give us ten minutes?”
As much as he would have liked to press them further, Marcus decided doing so at this mont would be counterproductive. “Ten minutes.” He said, heading back towards the door. “I’ll co back myself by then, only send soone to fetch if you decide early.”
He left the room and retreated to the nearest waiting room, where he sat and began to ponder. Sothing felt off, and it wasn’t just that he wasn’t imdiately accepted back into the alliance. The whole thing just…stunk; he would have accepted their excuses without much complaint if the situation was the sa as it was a month or two ago, but now it should have been clear that if things continued as they were, then they would be conquered by the Swarm with little issue.
He let his thoughts circle the subject for a while, going through several possibilities in his head. Inevitably they ca down to one of two possibilities; either they were ambivalent on the matter of the Swarm taking them over, or were already compromised. If they were really, truly trying everything in their power to resist the Swarm, then they’d be far more welcoming of Marcus.
That cast doubt on his plan to rejoin the alliance. Best case scenario, he was the only one who was truly invested, worst case scenario he was inviting ruin upon himself. So…the question now was how he could bow out without tipping off the other rulers that he had caught on to them.
His musings were interrupted by a knock on the door, which opened a mont later to reveal Isaac. “We’re done.” He said. “So of the others have conditions for your reentry, but so long as you et those we’ll accept you.”
Perfect. “I’ll co hear these conditions out, but if they’re not to my liking I might have to decline anyway.”
Isaac turned and walked back into the eting room without saying a word, and Marcus followed. Soon they were back at the eting table, where Isaac spoke once again. “We have three conditions. One, you cannot take charge in any etings, and must remain cordial and polite, treating everyone here as equals. Two, if you are outvoted on a proposal, you must comply without further complaint, just as the rest of us do, and cannot unilaterally leave the alliance. Three, if we do win, then you must return all lands we may have lost to the countries that owned them prior, and cannot initiate any conflict for fifty years. And, of course, you’d need to swear to an Oath under the Goddess of Law to abide by these conditions.”
Marcus pretended to think on that. “I will have to decline.” He said. “An Oath is too rigid, and would restrict my activities too much. I will have to look for other sources of strength.”
“You were the one who ca to us!” Zara protested. “And you get cold feet over this?!”
“I have my reasons, just as I’m sure you have yours.” Marcus replied, standing up. “Farewell.”
He left, mind racing as he considered the implications of all the other nations being compromised. For better or worse, he was in this alone now, and he needed to find another solution to the problem, fast.
“That was…strange.” Zara said, looking at the door Marcus left through. “Why’d he change his mind like that? Did we really make the conditions too strict?”
“It could be he really was trying to scope us out for conquest if he sohow won the war.” Alice speculated. “Or maybe he suspected us? I an…I guess if we were really concerned about winning at this point, we’d welco him, no conditions needed.”
“I’m not quite so sure about that.” Isaac replied. “We have very good reason to be cautious of him. Perhaps outlining that he can’t be in charge was a bit far, but everything else was reasonable, I think. That doesn’t an that he doesn’t suspect us, he probably does to so extent, but I think we’re long past the point of worrying about winning or not. At this point, whether he joined our coalition and we fought in earnest or not, this is all but a foregone conclusion.
“If I really wanted to try and avoid the inevitable, I’d go deep into hiding. Pack up my family and attempt to eke out a living on the borders of the Spine. And then eventually get caught by the Swarm and converted anyway, provided we don’t die to so monster first.”
“How many people do you think are going to try that?” Alice asked idly. “Do we even bother hunting them down?”
“I don’t think many people are going to try it.” Zara replied. “At least not many who would be capable of doing so in any sort of effective way. Hiding in most inhabited land is going to get you caught fast, and hiding in uninhabited land ans you’ll need a decently high level. And I doubt we’ll need to worry about them; if we stumble across them we’ll convert them, but otherwise they can just live to the natural end of their lives as long as they don’t cause trouble. Eventually the day will co when everyone on this plane is part of the Swarm, we don’t need to rush.”
“I suppose not.” Isaac agreed. “I wish he had told us what this was going to be about before so we had ti to prepare, but…this isn’t a huge loss, I don’t think. I’m willing to bet that Marcus’s armies are almost impotent, what with how heavily they’ve built their national identity on being the Ruby Emperor’s successors. He might not even know yet, I doubt the officers will be eager to report that their troops are unwilling to engage in battle.”
“With how he reportedly treats them? I wouldn’t want to be the one giving that news, that’s for sure.” Alice replied.
“Well…I’m going to go make the report.” Zara said, standing up. “Pleasure seeing you all again.”
“Likewise.” Issac said. “Let us know if there are any new instructions for us.”
“Will do.” Zara replied, leaving the room and heading back to her ho in Ilex. Once she was back in her chambers, she opened a safe and grabbed a small orb that Alia had gifted her for communication purposes and channeled so Mana into it. A few monts later, the Queen’s voice ca through. “Is the eting over?” She asked.
“Yes.” Zara replied. “Marcus wished to rejoin the alliance. We said we would accept if he would swear an Oath to not take charge, obey the will of the group and not withdraw unilaterally, and leave other lands alone for fifty years if the Swarm was defeated. He declined and left.”
“Ah well.” The Queen replied. “No big loss, that’d throw a wrench in the whole faux-resistance plan anyway, so I don’t even know if letting him back in would be the most optimal move at this point. Anyway, good work, let us know if there are any more updates.”
“I will, my Queen.” Zara promised. “Is there anything else you need from ?”
“At the mont, no.” The Queen replied. “In a week or two we’ll want to discuss the coming ‘invasion’ of Ilex, but for now you can just rest.”
“Understood.” Zara replied. “Thank you for your ti.”
“No, thank you!” The Queen laughed. “I’m the one taking ti out of your day. Bye, Zara.”
The connection cut, and Zara carefully placed the orb back into its safe and locked it away, then headed out of her chambers and into the palace proper.
“Do you need an escort, my liege?” One of the guards at her chamber door asked.
“No, I don’t think so.” Zara replied. “I’m just going to check with the ministers, I won’t be leaving the palace.”
“Understood.” The guard replied.
Zara headed down the hallway and into the administrative sections of the palace, where most of her logistics personnel did their work. She ignored most of the lower-rank scribes on the way, the n among them didn’t know about the surrender and the already-converted won wouldn’t have the information she was looking for. Besides, talking with them would only serve to stress them out, and she didn’t want that.
She got to the Minister of Defense’s office and gave a quick rap on the door, then let herself in and closed the door behind her. She took a seat as he put down the paperwork he was working on and gave her a smile.
“How did the eting go, Your Majesty?” The Minister of Defense, Dennis, asked.
“About as expected.” Zara replied. “Marcus claid he wanted to rejoin the alliance then declined to commit once we set out so conditions. We’re not sure if he caught onto us not really being in it to ‘win’ anymore or he was being insincere and our conditions went counter to whatever ulterior motives he had, but we’re not too concerned with it overall.”
“He’s a bundle of trouble, as always.” Dennis sighed. “But I assu this isn’t why you needed to speak with ?”
“Correct.” Zara said. “I just finished updating the Queen on what happened, and she said she’ll be wanting to speak with us in a week or two to discuss the Swarm’s arrival. I wanted to check in on the status of Ilex’s conversion before then.”
Dennis nodded. “One mont.” He said, reaching down and unsealing the magical compartnt where he kept paperwork related to conversion. “I’m going to check the exact numbers here, but from what I recall every village we could reasonably expect to remain undetected has been converted already. We’ve been more cautious about larger settlents, but most have at least ten percent of the won already converted.”
He leafed through his papers for a mont. “On the subject of Countess Ates, most of her key won have already been converted. We’re simply waiting for the right mont to convert her as well, though it seems she’s been cautious as of late and is even considering implenting mandatory identification of her subjects, so we may not get the chance.”
“Tell them to be a bit forceful if they need to be.” Zara instructed. “She’s an unstable elent and it’d really convenient to have her already dealt with when the Queen arrives.”
“Understood.” Dennis replied. “Should I leave a unit of troops on standby nearby in case the situation escalates?”
“If you think it would be best.” Zara said. “I trust your judgent on the matter. If you do, though, use one of the converted units; if it escalates, we might as well convert the city while we’re at it.”
“Consider it done.” Dennis replied. “I’ll send the order as soon as we’re done here.”
Zara nodded, standing up. “Very good. I appreciate your help with this, even though you haven’t been converted yet.”
Dennis smiled wryly. “I was one of the ones advocating for the surrender, it’d be a little strange if I suddenly decided to stop helping now. Have a good day, Your Majesty.”
“You as well.” Zara replied, leaving the room and heading back to her chambers. She might have ti before it was necessary, but she wanted to get a head start on drafting the laws the Queen would be having her implent, just to make the transition that little bit smoother. And then…it’d be business as usual, she supposed.
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