Spear of Destiny: Chapter 10

Somehow, I - Dragozin Hector, formerly Hector Park, Private First Class - had ended up in charge of a Vlachian province large enough to be its own small country. The fantasy of ruling a nation was pretty common in the gaming world, and if you were able to put the game down and go eat some Cheetos when you felt like it, being the lord of all you surveyed was a great way to relieve stress. But Archemi didn’t feel like a game anymore. I’d been here nearly six months, and now it was just… life. A life that came with dragons and awesome friends, beautiful women and delicious food, but also responsibilities. In my case, those responsibilities included twenty-one thousand square miles of territory, 2.2 million people, 10 counties and at least three major ethnic groups. All of it was mine to rule. I was doing my best not to fuck it up.

I returned to my quarters, where my anxious butler helped me get ready to do Important Duke Stuff. The bathtub in the Ducal Suite was basically a giant kitty litter box without the mess, because my half-vampire self had to sleep buried in sand to gain the Well Rested buff. That meant I had to take actual baths in the Princess Suite, which had belonged to the old Voivode's infant daughter. It was done up in shades of pink and pearl and still had the girl's collection of stuffed toy dinosaurs on the counter. There was also scented bubble bath, which I made liberal use of - because if I had to wash in a Hello Hookwing-themed bathroom, then by god I was going to smell fucking fabulous.

After scrubbing off the filth of the last several days, shaving my face and the sides of my scalp and refreshing my Tuun braids, I started to feel almost human again. I let Rudolph the Butler help me into my only [Nobleman's Outfit], poked some food into my face-hole, and then I was off again: jogging deliriously down to the Great Hall.

I arrived to find everyone ready for me, other than Taethawn. The guards were guarding, the throne was throning, and Vash was in his position to the chair’s left – the heart side, where the Voivode’s bodyguard customarily stood. I nodded to the men and women protecting my seat as they saluted, dropping down into the humble chair that served as the ruling seat of Myszno.

“Oh - you smell nice,” Vash remarked. “Is that jasmine?”

“Yup.” I leaned back, opening up my HUD. Archemi’s holographic interface was modular, so I pulled up the Kingdom Management windows I’d need and pushed them to the left, then set my character sheet and Karalti’s to the right. “Okay, let’s get this orgy of Voivoding started. Where’s Taethawn?”

“Who knows?” The monk sighed. “Istvan notified him, but Meewfolk being what they are, he’ll be here somewhere between five minutes and half an hour.”

“Pretty much what I expected.” I had an Ability Point to spend, but decided to save that until I could properly assess my available combat skills. I quickly doled out my skill points, assigning two to Leadership and one to Strategy, bringing both Skills to Beginner 10: the maximum level I could attain before mentoring under a trainer or reading a Journeyman Skill Tome. No sooner had I confirmed that than I got a notification.

[Your Steward has added 55,099 gold olbia to the Treasury!]

[You have 65,862 olbia available for projects or withdrawal. You have 120 Build Points.]

“Nice. Istvan just dropped fifty-five K in the bank, and there’s a lot more where that came from,” I said. “Not enough to rebuild the university, but still. It’s better than it was.”

“Indeed. Though out of curiosity, where did you source all this gold?” Vash asked in Tuun.

“Lahati’s Tomb,” I replied, in the same language. It was one of the reasons I was happy to keep him as my bodyguard. No one else in the castle besides Karalti spoke Tuun, so we could discuss Important Duke Stuff in relative secrecy. “And no, we didn’t graverob the last dragon queen of Myszno. She gave her grave goods and those of her clanmates to Karalti as an inheritance.”

Vash grunted. “I’m glad. Or we would be having stern words.”

“Believe me, Karalti has strong opinions on that as well.” I closed my sheet and opened Karalti’s. “I’m going to zone out for a bit. Need to read over Karalti’s new Path.”

“I’ll make sure no one emerges out of the curtains to stab you.” He reached into the front of his Tuun herder’s jacket, and pulled out a long-stemmed pipe. “Do you mind?”

I grinned at him. “No, but Istvan will chew you out if he catches you smoking on the job.”

“Taethawn won’t.” Vash shrugged, already preparing his bowl. “As vices go, majza is not the worst. It keeps me alert, and it helps with pain.”

“Your arm still bugging you?” I motioned to his right arm, the mechanical one. He’d lost the original in possibly the most epic way imaginable: by punching a diving dragon in the face. Rin had replaced it with a high-end magical prosthesis. The first attempt had nearly killed him. The second implant was doing better, or so I'd thought.

“No, not the arm.” He shook his head. “The blows I took to the face smashed my sinuses into little pieces. They have caused me pain ever since.”

I cocked my head. As much as I liked Vash, there were a lot of things I still didn't know about the guy. For example: why was he was a self-described 'kinslayer' with fifteen dead relatives? “How'd you get them?”

“The scars?” He cocked his eyebrows as he lit his pipe, eyes closed. “My sister.”

I blinked a couple times. “Your sister smashed up your face? What the fuck for?”

Vash took a long drag off the pipe and shook his head. “Nothing I feel like recounting right now. But…”

“But what?”

“Speaking of my sister, I may need to ask a personal favor of you someday soon. That is, if this common scoundrel can request such a thing from a great and noble lord such as yourself.”

That got a laugh. “Of course you can. You're starting to sound like Istvan.”

He gazed piously toward the ceiling. “You are what you eat.”

I snorted, and turned back to Karalti’s sheet. ‘Navigail, read out Karalti’s new Path of Royalty descriptions for me.’

The Path of Royalty

Grace, power, and charisma: three qualities embodied in Archemi's queen dragons, some of the most powerful creatures to ever fly the skies of Archemi. Like the queens found in bee colonies, queen dragons are born to rule - but to do so effectively, they must advance in the Path of Royalty.

The milestones of the Path of Royalty are available at the same levels as those of her Combat Path (the Path of Alacrity). All milestones that would be accrued prior to her current level are gained automatically. By advancing your dragon's level through battling and training, she will gain more abilities in both the Path of Royalty and Path of Alacrity at Levels 20, 25, and 30. The Path of Royalty does not have an Advanced Path option.

Abilities on the Path of Royalty can be leveled. By spending Lexica - the points used to gain new spells or improve currently known spells - you can improve your dragon's Path of Royalty abilities from Level I to Level V.

Ooh - that was neat. Karalti’s Path of Alacrity abilities didn’t have any advancements, so that was a big change. I bought up the Path menus, scanning the new abilities Karalti had gained from her communion with Lahati:

Level 5: Queensong of Life and Death I

As with all Paths and Advanced Paths, the Path of Royalty has a foundational ability key to the use and advancement of the class. For your dragon, this ability is her Queensong. The Queensong is a special, magically-charged vocalization which allows your queen to communicate with fellow dragons - and other species - at vast distances. It is unique to each queen dragon, reflecting and magnifying the elemental Words of Power written into their genes.

Your dragon has the Queensong of Life and Death. Once per day, she may emit a cry which - at her discretion - either restores 50% of her allies' maximum stamina (to a maximum of 100 allies) or causes the Fear and Nausea debuffs to susceptible opponents (to a maximum of 100 enemies).

The Queensong is a magical ability, not a sonic attack, and is therefore not affected by the Mute status. However, powerful anti-magic fields (Level V or above) will nullify the effects of the Queensong. However, the Queensong will in turn degrade the effectiveness of anti-magic fields, weakening them by one spell level.

Level this ability to improve the number of daily uses, effective range, and number of allies/enemies affected by the ability.

Level 10: Wingleader I

Your dragon telepathically calls to your allied dragons, uniting them into a fearsomely determined unit. Your queen dragon selects up to 10 allied dragons who will instinctively form a unit at her direction, gaining immunity to fear for 10 minutes, +10% speed and +10% damage against one individual target.

Level 15: Pack Tactics I

Your queen telepathically summons allied dragons into a savage fighting unit, directing them to encircle an enemy and tear them to pieces. You select up to 10 allied dragons to form a unit, who gain +15% aerial maneuverability and +15% speed against 5 or fewer targets for 10 minutes. If the unit can encircle the enemy, they gain +25% damage against those targets and one extra breath weapon charge. If an ally achieves a critical strike against an opponent's vital area, they gain +25% additional damage to that strike.

Level 20: Lifebringer I

Your queen dragon gains the ability to heal allies with her Queensong. By spending 80 points of mana, she can target as many allies as her Queensong is able to affect and heal them for 100 HP per unit.

Level 25: Harbinger I

Your queen's song turns dark and terrifying, instilling terror and sabotaging your foes' will to fight. By spending 80 points of mana, your dragon's Queensong induces the Terrified debuff in susceptible enemies and injures them for 50 HP. Terrified enemies in mass combat scenarios will break rank and attempt to flee. If the enemies are Undead, the Queensong does not induce Terror, but instead deals double damage.

Level 30: Armor of Darkness I

Your queen dragon uses her intense connection to the Darkness and Life elements to protect and fortify your allies. All allies within range of the dragon's Queensong gain +250 magical armor, immunity to fear, +25% attack speed, and regenerate 10 HP per second for 10 minutes. Ally melee and ranged attacks deal damage to Incorporeal enemies, and all affected allies deal double damage to Undead.

My eyebrows climbed further and further toward my hairline as my HUD cheerfully narrated this absolute BEAST of a Path. Healing a hundred or more people at a time? Hundreds of people dealing double damage to Undead? Me being me, my first response was to kick myself. If I'd trained her harder, been BETTER at this damn game, we could have had some of those advantages when we'd fought the Demon.

“Idiot,” I muttered. I was about to assign Karalti's Lexica for her... but then hesitated. When she was younger, I'd have done it without a second thought. But now? It didn't feel right.

“Hrrn?” Vash glanced over at me.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “Nothing I can fix right now.”

A few minutes later, the doors at the end of the hall opened, admitting the commander of the Orphans Company. Taethawn the Bleak was easily the tallest Meewfolk I’d ever met. Archemi’s cat people were generally over six foot, but from his clawed hind feet to the tips of his triangular ears, Taethawn pushed eight feet of long limbs and lean muscle. His ears were heavily chipped, pierced with mis-matched rings, and his eyes were different colors: one blue, one yellow. He didn't wear any clothes to speak of, just pounds of jewelry and weapons: rings on his fingers, toes and tail; silver claw sheaths, bracelets, chokers, and two jeweled scimitars. His modesty was preserved by his short, sleek coat of grimy white fur.

“How good to see you again, Your Grace,” Taethawn purred, sweeping into a bow in front of the dais. He had the thick musical accent common to Meewfolk who had emigrated from their island homeland to the mainland of Artana. “I had heard rumorsss of your untimely demise. Those tales were exaggerated, I see.”

“Just a little bit. I was out hunting down your pay,” I said. “According to Mr. Kingdom Management System here, we owe you two weeks of backpay after clearing out Vyeshniki for us. Good work, and thanks.”

“Oh, believe me, it was our pleasure.” He gave me a slow-eyed squint, just like a pleased cat. “It is not often we can engage an enemy that is so deserving of punishment. My men were able to make a fitting example out of the bandit leader, to the delight of the Alderman of Vyeshniki.”

“Good to hear. Do you have enough men to rotate out for a second house-cleaning campaign?” I asked. “We need to retake Bas County, also in the south of the province.”

The Meewfolk made a show of thinking about it, pacing back and forth with his tail lashing. “It dependsss how many men you require. We have been campaigning for monthsss. My infantry and light cavalry are exhausted, and require at least another week of rest to heal injuriesss and regain energy and morale. I have little more than specialist unitsss available for deployment: a few hundred elite infantry, some heavy cavalry, bombardiersss.”

“How many all up?”

He shrugged. “Perhapsss eight hundred.”

I frowned, tapping my lip. The Royal troops Ignas had sent with us were still relatively fresh, but that still only gave us just three thousand soldiers.

"Eight hundred might be all we need. We’re hoping the scouts that Suri sent out return tonight. Solonovka isn't too far by air, so we should know within a day or two. I'll tell you what: I'll pay your back pay and cover the Company for another two weeks regardless of how many you can field, but keep those eight hundred soldiers ready to deploy. Suit you?"

Vash, who had taken position to the left of the throne, shot me a curious glance.

"Cover… the Company?" Taethawn arched his tail into a curious question-mark shape. “Let me make sure I understand you correctly, your Grace. You mean the entire company?”

"Well, yeah. We'll pay the soldiers for their leave," I said.

Taethawn blinked at me. "You would... pay them while they rest? Not just for the ones you plan to use in battle?"

There was an awkward pause.

"Well, yeah," I said. "I'm not going to stiff your soldiers for needing to take some downtime. They get full pay while they recover. Why?"

One of Taethawn's ears flicked. I heard him sniff the air a couple of times before he cocked his head. "You're serious, aren't you?"

"Why?" I repeated. "Is that a problem?"

His eyes widened, and he held his hands up, claws sheathed. "No, not at all, Your Grace. You are simply the first human lord to have ever made such an offer, without trying to... ahh... how shall I say...?"

"Nickel and dime you?" I asked.

"Yesss, Your Grace," he said, sweeping into a low bow. "It is exceedingly generousss for you to pay my Company while they are on leave. Normally, we are simply ordered to leave the territory which we served, and we retreat to Sathbar and ressst. If the lord is generousss, he fliesss us there... at our expenssse."

"Well, screw that," I said, leaning back into my chair. “The lives of soldiers aren’t something I’m willing to bargain over. I’ll brawl with merchants over the price of wheat, but not the health of your men. Your soldiers will get their full wage during rotation. They’ve earned it."

He bowed again. "I thank you for this most generousss offer, my lord."

[You have gained +350 Renown: The Orphans Company.]

"My pleasure." I gave him a short nod. "Once we have more money, I'll loop you in on my plans for Myszno's military. There might be a role for you moving forward."

"Your plansss?" Taethawn stood up, blinking. "A role?"

"Yeah," I said. "I'm only just starting to put the ideas together, but I think this province has the potential to train the best army this world has ever seen. With what's coming, we're going to need it. I want to modernize the structure of Myszno's military. A defined Army and Airforce, a code of military law, and a structured system of merit-based command."

Vash, who had said nothing throughout the entire exchange, coughed a cloud of smoke around the stem of his pipe.

The Meewfolk laughed, a nearly-silent hissing peal of mirth. "My lord... with all respect, if you do such a thing, you will need to hire me for the rest of your daysss - as your bodyguard." He paused to grin at me, bearing two-inch long fangs. "You propose nothing short of a revolution. War is naught but politicsss by a different name, and were you to remove military command from your fellow noblesss, they would become but pompous landlordsss. They would seek to kill you, or maneuver to have you disgraced and exiled. You would make many enemiesss very quickly. Perhaps even your king, the Volod."

"Too bad." I shrugged. "I don't think the Volod will be a problem: Ignas knows as well as I do that the Drachan are coming, and they're going to make what happened here with the Demon look like a kindergarten slap-fight. We need to unify, we need to modernize, and if the nobility doesn't understand that, the nobility can suck my dick."

Taethawn began to laugh again, harder. He held up a hand, shaking his head, and bent down to rest his palms on his knees.

"I like you, Your Grace," he gasped. "You are a breath of fresh air in thisss stuffy backwater. Should you do thisss, I think I shall support you on principle. But you will do well to watch your neck in the aftermath. There shall be many eager to lay their blade upon your throat, should you try and place the power of the military into common handsss."

"I'm basically immortal. So like I said: they can blow me." I queried the KMS with a thought: 'Pay The Orphans Company 25,730 olbia.'

[25,730 gold paid to the Orphans Company.]

[You have gained +150 Renown: The Orphans Company.]

"There's your pay for the last period, and the next two weeks," I continued. "I'll call you back once the scouts return from Bas."

"A thousand thanks, Your Grace." The Meewfolk pressed his palms together and bowed deeply from the waist. "While my troops rest, by all means feel free to call on this one's servicesss as an officer and strategist. Your Vlachian troopsss are disinclined to obey a 'cat-man', but I can both see and smell your personal sincerity. For you, our fee is inclusive of my experience, mrah?"

"I'll be sure to do that." I smiled back at him, and tried the slow happy cat squint he'd given me earlier in the meeting. He squinted back, tail lashing. "Let's call it here. I'd like a written report on Vyeshniki. They're not far from the border of Bas; it might be useful for review to plan the mission there."

"A scribed report?" He cocked his hip and played with his whiskers, stroking them thoughtfully. "Another new concept. Very well. I shall do this thing."

“Thanks. That’ll be all, Commander.”

“By your leave, my lord.” Taethawn had a noticeable bounce in his step as he sauntered off, slipping through a crack in the door.

"What do you think?" I asked Vash. "Is he right? About my idea?"

"Absolutely. You’re crazier than I thought if you think the satraps will accept a word of what you just proposed. Or the Volod, for that matter." Vash replied. He leaned back against one of the pillars behind the throne, arms crossed. "With the exception of Lord Soma, the nobility of Myszno, no matter how well-padded their bottoms may be, are the descendants of conquerors. The entire system of rule here is based on might: the might of lords at every level to defend their holdings. If you take that privilege away from them, you might as well piss in their mouths, too."

I hadn't thought of it that way. Frowning, I rubbed a hand over my chin. "But the system of vassalage is so fucking inefficient. Once the Dragon Gates are open, we’re looking at fighting the Drachan and their minions on a global scale. How the fuck am I supposed to ‘unite the peoples of Archemi’ if the lords of one nation can’t commit to forming a standardized military? Maybe I could win them over? If we have high enough Renown-"

"Renown works differently for nobility," Vash said, cutting me off. "Your popularity with your soldiers and the people is one thing. Your peers have to be wooed as individuals, otherwise, Lord Soma would be simpering after both of us based on your popularity with the people you rescued from the Demon’s rampage.”

Damn. I’d forgotten that.

“Politics is a rotten game, Hector. You may gain Renown with one Lord, and alienate another as your enemy in the process,” he continued. “Let us say you restore Lady Hussar to her seat, and she declares she shall support you. The Hussar family is loathed by House Vargan, in the county next door. The Vargans, however, are fond of the Turok family of Boros, with whom they have been swapping spit and bearing children for since the 1500s. Do you see what I am saying?"

"Unfortunately, yes." I tapped the arm of my chair. "But the lords can vote on things. All I need is a majority of lords to vote for my plans, once they're ready. Preferably two-thirds majority, to avoid conflict."

"There will be conflict no matter what you do. Those who refuse to join this revolution of yours will become your enemies," Vash said. "So if you go through with this idea, you had best install bars on your windows and those of everyone you care about. Taethawn is wiser than he seems. Your life will be in danger, perhaps even from the Volod himself."

I sighed. "Of course it couldn't be easy."

"Nothing worth having is ever easy," Vash replied. "Except whores. And even then, the more expensive they are, the better they-"

I held up a hand. "Not right now, dude. I do not need the mental image of you in a brothel full of women."

"Who said anything about women?" Vash beamed at me.

Groaning, I slumped back into my chair. "Go get the mayor, or I’m telling Istvan on you."

Five minutes later, I faced the acting mayor of Karhad as he doffed his plain woolen cap and bowed deeply. He was a great big ham of a guy, built wide and solid. Vlachians were normally a swarthy people, but Alan Bubek was pale and pinkish, with a balding thatch of honey-blond curls that clung to the sides of his head like lamb’s wool.

"Good to see you again, Bubek," I said, once he stood up. "I'm guessing this isn't a social call."

"I'm afraid not, Your Grace." The Mayor wrung his hat nervously in his hands. "I am here because the Hospitallers of Veela have isolated a woman with a case of Thornlung. It seems we now face a plague."

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