211, 1/2

“The Sovereign Cities have been called that since the time of the Sundering,” Kirginatharp said, “Though tracing the actual history of the Cities is more like tracing a dotted line done in a hundred different colors, each color calling itself the Sovereign Cities, but each actually being a different people and culture entirely.”

“I don’t need to know the whole history.” Erick said, “I need to know if this current batch of warmongers is going to fall upon me and mine like zealots, and what that means, exactly.”

The Wizard of Benevolence and the Second to Rozeta met in one of the nicer rooms of House Benevolence. The sun held high in the sky, and it wouldn’t be moving for a while, since the (arguably) most powerful mortal dragons in the world were inside a [Hasted Shelter].

The declaration of war from the Sovereign Cities had arrived a few hours ago. And now, Erick was talking with one of the few people who had a deep history with the Cities, who was able to give a clear and precise judgment upon the whole lot of people over there, two mountain ranges west and a bit north of Candlepoint.

Kirginatharp said, “You do need to know the whole history, though, if you are to navigate this horror that has landed on your lap.”

“Now that right there. That is something I’m eager to know. Why am I dealing with this shit storm? Why hasn’t anyone else turned the Sovereign Cities into a wasteland? They’re mostly human, so shouldn’t the Quiet War have turned them into a crater long before now? Especially with the Wasteland Kingdoms so close?”

Kirginatharp looked at Erick and frowned.

Erick frowned right back at him, saying, “Don’t give me that look. It’s utterly ridiculous that the Cities have been allowed to exist at all.”

Kirginatharp sighed, as though he had experienced this conversation a thousand times already. “What would you have me do, Erick? Impose my will upon the world? Ensure nothing bad ever happens to anyone else, ever again? I am just one man, trying to do the best I can. I am not a god. I am certainly not a well-disposed Wizard. And even if I were any of those things, it would be wrong of me to impose my will on those who cannot stop me.”

“What about when ‘those who cannot stop you’ are the same people who have declared war on you? Threatening to kill everyone you love and have tried to help, and to burn down Oceanside in the process?”

Kirginatharp frowned a little, then said, “They tried to do that to me, too.” With golden eyes, Kirginatharp said, “This is a story I don’t want you spreading around, so I would have your confidence before I divulge this tale.”

“I will not tell anyone what you tell me unless I deem this information crucial to saving lives—” Before Kirginatharp could complain, Erick added, “— and even then, I won’t tell anyone unless it is absolutely necessary.”

Kirginatharp seemed fine with that arrangement. He began, “My current stance with the Cities began out of old arrangements that need not be repeated, but which, about 300 years ago, ended up thusly:

“Every single bargain of trade I had enacted with every single ruling house, clan, parliament, and individual power of the Cities, had lapsed, because, for the hundred years prior to that, none of the inheritors of those bargains were willing to do the reforms I required of them in order to reinstate those bargains. At that time, the final bargain of trade held by the Cities was held by Pearl. And then Pearl closed its Oceanside-approved arcanaeum, killing three teachers in the process, and severed that final tie.

“All the Cities, of course, demanded that I continue to fend off all the major monsters, while also throwing rotten vegetables at all my Elites, and openly singing horrible songs of how I consorted with—” Kirginatharp’s calm facade cracked, as his eyes glowed gold and his years fell away, revealing the furious Second to Rozeta for a brief moment— And then he calmed himself again. “They sang awful songs about me, personally. They are likely doing the same against you, right now, as we speak. Burning effigies, too.

“When I told them what was required for them to regain their bargains of trade, which I had been telling all of them for the last hundred years, they all refused, demanding that I kowtow to them, and that they didn’t need me, and that my magic was evil, and how it was useless, and that I was demanding too much of them, and… So on and so forth. They are an absolutely infuriating people to deal with, Erick.

“And so, they thought that, because I would not kowtow, and because I would not bend in my requirements, that I was at war with them. So they sent me a formal letter of war like the one you got.” Kirginatharp said, “My requirements to reinstate my bargains of trade were rather simple. One, have one open and publicly accessible registrar per hundred thousand people, which is the bare minimum, by the way. A much better number is 1 registrar per 10,000 people. For a place like Oceanside, that number is 1 per 1,000 people. Two, an Arcanaeum Consortium place of learning must be established in every major city, or at least one in whatever city wishes to reenact the bargain. And Three, to cease killing people who have Matriculated outside of noble control.”

“… All very reasonable. Which means it didn’t work.”

“It worked for a while, actually!” Kirginatharp smiled a fraction, and then he lost that smile. “The bargains were restored, and while my Elites killed major threats to the land, the Cities ‘tried’ to enact my requests. They did not actually try at all, of course. This all came to a head 3 years after that agreement, as all three of my bargains were mutilated in different ways.

“Of the first part: Getting the registrars would take time, so I gave them 5 years to enact that full transformation, but by the end of the first year, I required them to have at least 1 open registrar in every major city. Three years into the new bargains, they had yet to meet the first year requirements, but what was worse is how those small measures of compliance were followed.

“Every single open registrar, of which there were only 4, had their offices in the main town squares. Killtree, Charme, Curio North, and Pearl had complied, while Curio South said that since North Curio was part of South Curio, that they were also complying, but without really needing to actually comply.

“The Curios pull a lot of shit like that, by the way. They pretend to be a single city when it suits them, like with requirements to receive international aid, and two cities when it suits them, like for how much aid should be given. Watch out for that when you deal with them.

“That failure to properly comply with registrar demands was not even the worst part, though! People were able to Matriculate, but if those people weren’t signed up for an army at the same time, or operating under a noble, then those people were usually found executed by noble command, with their bodies spread everywhere across their former homes, and their heads on spikes inside the Executioner Halls, where the nobility displays the heads of those who break the law.”

Erick’s mood darkened. It was already rather dark, but it got worse.

Kirginatharp mirrored Erick’s mood, and continued, “Of my second requirement: The arcanaeums I demanded be built were built, but only the nobles were taught. A few commoners qualified to attend classes, because I locked down that shit as soon as I found out what they were doing. But it wasn’t till year 3 that I discovered that several of my teachers had been face stolen in response to my demand to teach the commoners, and that those impostors were teaching the commoners in ways that would get them killed. Telling the kids to play around with [Cleanse] was a favored tactic.” Kirginatharp said, “By these two mutilations of my bargains, they had automatically failed the third requirement, which was to stop killing people who Matriculate outside of noble control.”

Erick sighed. “What was your response to all that?”

“I murdered every single person responsible, Erick.”

Like a wave of cooling relief on a hot summer day, Erick felt better.

He felt better about everything.

Because he knew, in that moment, that he would need to do a lot of killing himself.

“It was a complicated campaign, of course,” Kirginatharp continued, “A few of my Elites helped me to locate the greatest perpetrators of evil in those lands and I removed those people from power. In some cases I went ten people deep, pulling out the decayed nobility by their roots. It was a thing I am still proud of to this day, because the aftermath of that murdering was like trimming a horribly overgrown tree.

“The level of corruption in those governments dropped to a level not seen in a hundred years. I managed to enact my bargains of trade with some different nobility… But, in my zeal, I went too far. The Shades realized what I was doing over there. Two years after I began cleaning the Cities up, and though there would be many, many more years of that necessary, the Shades gave me an ultimatum, as they usually did. If I left the Cities to their own devices, they would allow whatever I had done already to continue. If I fought them on this, then they would fight me.

“I chose to leave the Cities alone.

“Two years of cleanup had to be enough.

“15 years later, everything I had tried to do was undone, and though I know the Shades were partially responsible, the Shades were not wholly to blame. Violence rarely is the proper way to solve governmental issues, and while I knew this long before then, it is a lesson I have had to learn many, many times.

“At that time, I learned this lesson in this way: I occasionally looked in on the important meetings of the Cities, and when world events conspired to put the Cities anywhere near those events, I paid special attention to those places. I even looked in on some of the smaller, unimportant happenings within the Cities, like decisions of how much [Cleanse] they would allow a city to use in their sewers.

“And though the Shades were involved in one of those —which I know of, for certain— the Shades were not involved in all of them.

“Sometimes the people of the Cities made the right choices; they chose compassion, etcetera.

“But all too often, the people of the Sovereign Cities made the wrong choice. That example about [Cleanse] in the sewers? They voted on ‘none’, because to allow the open use of [Cleanse] meant that the sewermaster would be making money off of the rads they collected— Which I believe they should, of course. But now that the sewermaster could not make a living at his job, with no incentive to stay, the sewermaster quit, and that place had oozes within the month. A hundred people died, Erick. All because a handful of nobles in power voted for violence.” Kirginatharp breathed, centering himself before he got angry again. He continued, “My Elites cleaned up that mess and then pressured the people on the ‘no [Cleanse]’ side of that vote to vote the other way, tilting the vote back in favor of the sewermaster being able to do his job. That guy went back to work and was found guilty of falsified crimes, so he was executed by Charme and his head collected for the Executioner’s Hall.

“The whole reason that group of nobles had voted to disallow the collection of rads through [Cleanse] was because one of them was moving in to take over the sewermaster’s job. Once that person had gotten that job, there would then be a re-vote. [Cleanse] would be allowed again, and that person would then be collecting all those rads themselves. There had been bribes all around in order to make that happen.

“And a hundred people died in the interim.”

Erick’s rage almost blinded him. He shuddered. “… Ahh. That’s pretty… bad.” Erick had a lot more words than that, but he could not string them together at the moment.

Kirginatharp sat silently, too.

“There is a face stealer problem over there.” Erick asked, “How do you think they would respond if I offered them my anti-face-stealer services?”

“They would find reasons for all their enemies to be guilty and none of their friends to be guilty, and they might be right, or they might be face stealers themselves. In my opinion, that is a quagmire that you do not want to step into.” Kirginatharp said, “If you find a noble that has murdered people for their own gain, then simply murder them right back. It is the only way to be sure.”

Erick nodded once, taking that information in, and then he asked, “How about the Dragon Stalkers? How do they fit into this?”

“Ah. Well. That’s a much larger conversation that we need to have some other day.” Kirginatharp glanced around, then turned back to Erick. “Or we could stay in this [Hasted Shelter] for a few hours?”

“I’m fine with hours, but let’s keep to the strategic level; no need to go into tactics or individuals right now, unless they are necessary to know.”

Kirginatharp nodded once. “The Dragon Stalkers were originally a group of zealots conceived in the Sovereign Cities over a thousand years ago, who murdered both parents of dragonkin children, and then the children themselves. They were proponents of the Sovereign Ethnostate; a fully human Veird— almost all of the Cities are human. The Stalkers changed over time to eventually include every race of people, including dragonkin themselves, for dragons are a large problem the world over, due to the Curse. But without the Curse, then dragons would rule the world.

“The Stalkers hate me, because I am a dragon, but they work with me to keep the world clear of dragons.

“They hate you, too, perhaps even more than me and for a grab bag of reasons, but mostly because everything is changing, and our old solutions to old problems now have new solutions. They’ll probably have a schism in their ‘faith’ in the next ten years if everything you’re doing actually works, for a lot of them have recently taken up a new option: They’re calling for every dragon you Benevolence to be cursed with infertility, thus ensuring that no new eggs and no new dragons are born to spread more wyrms and more dragons into the world.

“Which brings me to another problem. Perhaps you should consider this sort of cursing; we don’t need more wyrms in the world. I would like it if there wasn’t even a wyrm season at all next year.” Kirginatharp asked, “Unless your Benevolence Dragons breed true?”

Erick wasn’t sure how to even begin to reply. “… There are so many things you just said which are… Baffling to me— Infertility? Really? But…” Erick frowned.

Kirginatharp said, “Perhaps we should avoid that nest of concern for now. The war with the Cities is more pressing.”

Erick blinked a bit, then asked, “So killing every noble in charge and running through the nation, executing every face stealer I find… Is the proper solution, if I can keep it up and continue to ensure that the Cities transforms into a better sort of place.”

“Theoretically, yes, and since you don’t have the Shades and Melemizargo trying to tear down everything you build, it might actually work. It will take time, though. If you are the biggest power over there, and if you make them listen to you, they will reluctantly do so. You won’t get through to the current generation, or the next generation, but perhaps, with 60 years of direct oversight, that land will change.”

“Well that’s not happening. So how about I [Blessing of Empathy] all the nobility?”

Kirginatharp instantly said, “They will be violently replaced within a month. Some sooner.”

“And if I continue to Bless whoever is in charge?”

Kirginatharp breathed in a bit, taking his time to think. He looked upon Erick with golden eyes. He said, “It might be the best solution, but there are concerns. Several immediate concerns. Many more long term concerns that might not happen.

“Firstly, the people you initially Bless will be executed by others hoping to become nobility through murder. This will be difficult for you to overcome, but if you set aside your concerns for human life, if you don’t care about losing some of the Blessed nobility as they are executed when you’re not looking, then you can Bless most of the nobility.

“This will mean open war, though.

“Which brings me to the second major concern. If open war happens then the Cities will attack Candlepoint and the Gate District and every part of everything you love and care for. You will lose people. But maybe not. Quilatalap is here —which is something I still think you are foolish for pursuing— so he can [True Resurrection] people for you. You and I will not be having that debate, for I am telling you now that every single person he resurrects will have their bank accounts frozen and they will be expunged from their old lives. You can make them new lives if you wish, but they will not be getting their old lives back; in this, I have already decided.”

So that was the line Kirginatharp was not willing to cross.

This was…

This was fine.

“… Reluctantly accepted.”

Kirginatharp eyed Erick for a moment. “Thank you, Erick, for accepting that.

“Along that same concern, though: Since we are allies, I will be devoting forces to your cause, should war happen and should you accept those forces on your lands. Hopefully with enough Elites then there will be fewer deaths. I expect Stratagold and Ar’Cosmos to do the same. Perhaps the people you have here in Weald will be enough? I don’t know about that, though.”

Erick felt a twinge of relief. “I accept your offer of Elites. I would ask them to defend this land while I go and make war, then, if open war should happen. Thank you.”

Kirginatharp smiled a little. “I have enough Elites to do both, Erick.”

Erick nodded.

Kirginatharp continued, “The third major concern ties into the retaliation of the Cities: they have Elites, too, and their kings and their queen all have Domain magic. That magic is the only reason why they are the royalty over there, for it was only through their own personal power that they managed to ascend to real power. But they have others who encroach on their power all the time. I estimate that there are about 20 Domain holders over there. Most of them are archwarriors, though Queen Pearl is a mage.

“Queen Pearl, mage, Exalted Domain, follower of her family’s Exalted Angelic Path.

“King Xaro, warrior of South Curio, Air Domain, follower of the Thieving Hand.

“King Sook, warrior of North Curio, Ocean Domain, follower of the Crushing Depths.

“King Charme, warrior, Blood Domain, Father of Princes, and a former Prince himself.

“King Killtree, warrior, Force Domain, the Unmoving Shield and Unyielding Sword.

“The Curios are the only ones who are currently in a pattern of ‘crushing real threats to their rule’, since the Curios are constantly trying to kill each other and reunite North and South Curio as one Sovereign City. The other three were in a holding pattern of ‘crushing upstarts’. They would have stayed that way had the Dicer Rebellion not happened.

“Now, every City is on edge, and likely fully prepared for war. Especially so since they are united in their hatred of you, Erick.

“That declaration of war was real.

“They are ready for you to try something. Anything at all, and they probably have a response for it.” Kirginatharp said, “While the culture of that place produces terrible people all the time, the people who actually rise to the top of that cesspool are the ones best able to live in their self-made world of horrors. No matter how you respond to this declaration, someone is going to die, somewhere, because that is how these people operate, and that is what war means.” Kirginatharp added, “Or perhaps they’ll do a polite war and surprise everyone.”

Erick felt both beyond furious and utterly exhausted, with at least a hundred more questions in him. “Why, if they have Domains, do they even need other people to come in and kill Ancient Unicorns, like Jane did? Why do they need your help for bargains of trade at all?”

“Because the rulers do not help their fellow man until their fellow man is one of theirs, and simply living in the same City as one of their royalty does not make one a citizen of that City. Sometimes, in unicorn season, those monsters can get all the way to Killtree proper before their king deigns to lift a finger. In part, this is due to their culture of independence, in another part, this is due to the desire of nobles to see other nobles fall, and thus increase their own power. Every time the unicorns make it all the way to Killtree proper, it means that some nobles on the northern side of Killtree have died, which clears the northern lands of Killtree for other nobles to try and rise up in the emptiness.

“In another small way, fighting unicorns is very difficult for many people, even those with a Domain, and Kings of Killtree have died to underhanded tactics from other Sovereign Cities when they have been proactive with unicorn hunts. So they don’t do that anymore. Anyone who does, dies.”

Erick burst out, “How have they not imploded already?! How can they maintain a population?! What the FUCK?!”

Kirginatharp nodded knowingly, calmly saying, “They have imploded, many, many times before.”

“… And yet they keep coming back the same way?” Erick asked, “Have they no regard for the lessons of history?”

“They do not.”

Erick leaned back in his chair, his head flopping back as he stared at the ceiling. For a long moment, that was all he did. And then he turned to face Kirginatharp again. “Thank you for coming here and talking, Kirginatharp. I have… so many more questions, and your experience is invaluable. Do you want a Gate to Oceanside? I can have one ready for you within ten minutes of this conversation ending— Which might not be for another few hours, depending on how much time you’re willing to spend talking.”

Kirginatharp smiled. “I have been waiting what seems like a long time to simply talk with you, Erick, about this and that and anything else you want to discuss. I’m sorry that it took a war to make this happen, but we’re here now. So let’s talk about anything and everything. How about we start with Last Shadow’s Feast? I never got a chance to really discuss all of that with you, in private.” He added, “And then we can talk about what it means now that you’re hosting this Shadow’s Feast.”

Erick chuckled. “It wouldn’t be a day on Veird without ten concurrent crises.”

“Then it’s rather wonderful you have Time Magic now,” Kirginatharp said, grinning.

Erick sighed and smiled, then asked if Kirginatharp wanted anything to eat, or anything for the space. The Second to Rozeta asked after some desserts and teas, and when Erick canceled the [Hasted Shelter] to grab those things, Kirginatharp also grabbed a teapot that was surrounded by a permanent purple lightmask. Erick laughed as he looked down at the teapot. It was the same one with the same lightmask that Erick had made, back when he had made the Light Essence dungeon at Oceanside, so that Kirginatharp could make all the All Stat rings that he wanted.

“How is this teapot working out for you, anyway?” Erick asked.

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“All my Elites now have All Stat rings; every one of them with over a hundred in everything! It’s been quite wonderful for survivability and general ease of monster slaying.” Kirginatharp smiled. “But the number of incidents which require an Elite response are quite reduced, thanks to your own efforts with monster eradication.”

Erick laughed. “That’s not a problem, is it? Am I depriving you of money from monster kills?”

Kirginatharp waved a hand. “I have more than enough of every physical thing I would ever need or want. And so do my people. No; your magic has not been a problem at all. Your magic has kept thousands of people alive who would have otherwise died, either through preserving the lives of my Elites, or through allowing them not to have to make resource-based decisions in the field, they could save everyone.”

Erick smiled brightly. “I’m glad.”

The two of them spoke for hours, about this or that, or about history. Kirginatharp was a wellspring of information regarding everything that Erick was now facing; from war, to problems of magic and the proliferation of secrets, to problems of societies and how to deal with them. They spoke of law and order. Justice and the needs of Veird, and of individuals. They spoke of war crimes, and otherwise.

A lot of it was praise for a lot of the decisions Erick had made already. Kirginatharp had nothing but good things to say about Last Shadow’s Feast, now that they weren’t all joking about orgies, and it was just the two of them. The previous conversation about that had been with Kromolok and Riivo, and back then Kirginatharp had held his tongue in certain ways. Now, though, the viciousness of the Second of Rozeta came out, and Kirginatharp spoke of his open hatred for all things Dark, and how Erick’s [Blessing of Empathy] was the best thing Kirginatharp had ever seen done to the Shades.

“It was catharsis unbridled, Erick,” Kirginatharp said, with a great big sigh. “I loved watching you watch them fall to their knees in horrible realization of what they had done…” And then his smile waned. “But it was still a war crime. No less than what they deserved, all of them… But… When it comes to the Cities… I don’t know. Ruthlessness has its place. And yet…”

Erick picked up what he was putting down. “Yeah. I know. It would be wrong to soul-fuck every single noble of the Sovereign Cities. But what the fuck else can I do? I can’t have real peace talks with them; they’re just going to diatribe at me. And I won’t have a repeat of Terror Peaks… I’m still not happy with how that ended up. I don’t think I ever will be. I killed… I killed so many people, Kirginatharp.”

“Look at it this way: by killing those killers, you saved more lives. Songli is soft, Erick. It’s not their fault that they were targeted so harshly, and so thoroughly, but Terror Peaks was a society at the forefront of martial might. Similarly, the nobility of the Cities is stronger, but not by much, while Candlepoint is much, much more fragile than Songli, simply due to age and coordination, and the fact that you don’t have an army of Elites yourself.”

“I didn’t want a standing army.”

Kirginatharp smiled softly. “Which is a good thing. I’m also glad that you aren’t so keen on this soul-fucking option, too. You’re a good man, Erick. It’s a shame that powerful people can’t be as good as they want to be, or else they get killed.”

“… Yeah.”

“So I’ll accompany you to your peace talks, if you end up having real peace talks. Maybe not the first one, though, because then they’ll just focus on me and that won’t be productive for you, at all.”

Erick smiled. “I’ll take that offer.”

Kirginatharp grinned. And then he put that grin away, saying, “You have other allies that will not go named that you could take in my stead. One of which I am rather sure would be thrilled with the opportunity to commit ‘Justice’ in your name.”

Erick lost his smile. “… No. I’m not trusting her with this— But…” He frowned a little.

“Think about your options, Erick.” Kirginatharp said, “Whatever you pick, I suggest you do not go alone, and certainly not in person.”

“Well, yeah.”

They spoke for a few hours more.

But eventually it was time to get back to the real world.

Erick ended the [Hasted Shelter] and within ten minutes, like he had promised, he had installed a Gate to Oceanside on Financial road, just to the left of Candlepoint’s Gate.