Jackal Among Snakes

“Don’t worry. What you’re seeing now isn’t where you’ll be,” he told her. “Just trust me, Sophia.”

Her small hand clenched his own tightly, and he walked through the doorway with short, slow strides to let her keep up. The moment they passed through, the temperature was noticeably colder. Sophia looked a little surprised at this, and when she looked around, she was surprised to see exactly what he’d promised—windows. Specifically, windows just overlooking the sea. Her head whipped about everywhere, taking in her surroundings with the utmost curiosity. When her brain seemed liable to explode, she looked up at Argrave with wide eyes, pleading for answers.

Argrave laughed and scooped Sophia up. “This place is going to be our home away from home, for a little while,” he explained as he walked through the room. They were in an unused storage room near the bottom of the Sea Dragon. Argrave would be sure this place was impeccably guarded in the future, but for now, it sufficed as was.

Argrave headed through the gargantuan ship-fortress for the front deck. Along the way, he explained, “We’re on a ship right now. The Sea Dragon, it’s called. That door teleported us here.”

“A ship?” Sophia sounded even more confused. “But ships aren’t this big. And don’t ships… don’t they go wibble-wobble, ‘cause of the tides?” She emulated the rocking of a ship.

“This ship is very special,” Argrave said in summary.

Sophia was entranced by the foreign architecture and landscape near the Sea Dragon, and it allowed Argrave to take her to the front deck without sparing another word. When he arrived, Anneliese stood there waiting. She had something new in hand—Rowe’s weapon. She looked like a right proper wizard, staff and all. She gave him a strangely lonely smile. Argrave had already heard the news from Elenore that she’d breached S-rank.

“Want to look around on your own?” Argrave asked Sophia, setting her down upon her own two feet. She cautiously walked to the edge of the deck while Argrave joined Anneliese.

“Congratulations,” he told Anneliese quietly as they watched Sophia peek over the edge of the railing.

Anneliese only silently took his hand, clutching it tightly. He didn’t quite know what she was thinking, and it appeared she lacked the words to express it at present. After a moment of each other’s company, the both of them walked forward to speak to Sophia at around the same time.

“Sophia,” Argrave called out. She ran back up to him.

“Why doesn’t the ship wibble-wobble?” She asked.

“We can explain all that later.” Argrave shook his head, then sat cross-legged on the deck. “Right now, I want to talk about what’s going to happen in the future.”

Sophia grew anxious as Anneliese sat just beside Argrave. She looked between them like they were going to do something terrible to her.

Anneliese laid Rowe’s staff just beside her, then said to Sophia, “Argrave and I are going to help you learn something.”

Sophia blinked, relieved that was all it was. “But… you’ve already helped me so much.”

“We… Hause… she discovered that there’s something very special about you,” Argrave explained. “We want to help you understand that special something all the better. Do you remember when I had you pull upon that power inside you that was attached to all those other people?”

Sophia shook her head. Argrave was taken aback.

“You don’t remember when we were in that courtyard, and those three people gathered there, and then…?”

Sophia shook her head again, looking confused. Argrave looked to Anneliese. She indicated to him that Sophia wasn’t lying—she genuinely didn’t remember, despite how short the time had been since it happened.

“Well, don’t… don’t worry about it,” Argrave said, trying to disguise his concern. “The point is, we’re going to help you understand something about yourself. Every day, we’ll come to this place and work on it a bit more. It might be scary, hard, but it’s very important.”

“Will it help you?” Sophia asked.

Argrave smiled, somewhat touched. “Very much so.”

Sophia nodded quickly, declaring, “Okay. I’ll do my very, very best.”

“Thank you, Sophia.” Argrave rose to his feet, then helped Anneliese up. “This ship is going to be starting its voyage soon. Would you like to watch it go to sea?”

When Sophia agreed, Argrave, Anneliese, and Sophia watched as their vast fleet prepared for this long voyage. They watched as supplies and seamen walked through the portal in the Sea Dragon, making to take their place in the countless vessels. By midday, everyone was settled in their place. People walked to the uppermost levels of the Sea Dragon, and then blew the great horn atop it. The colossal vessel started to cut through the sea, its deck still as steady as any building on the ground.

Argrave watched as the Sea Dragon led them forward through endless cold blue. Behind, their vast armada began its voyage in hot pursuit. Hundreds of Veidimen longships and Great Chu turtle ships followed the bow wave left behind by their vessel. It would be a long time before the vast majority of those sailors again saw land. And when they did, it would not be what they knew.

“We’re leaving Berendar,” Argrave said to no one in particular.

Sophia looked up at him, clinging to the deck’s railing. “Have you ever before?”

“Not like this,” Argrave answered, watching the writhing tides.

#####

“They’ve disembarked.”

An orange-robed imperial eunuch stood idle in one of the gardens of the Great Chu. His soft hand played with a fruit dangling from a tree, pulling it down enough to bend the branch before letting it bounce gently back. Well-hidden amidst well-trimmed shrubbery, one of the emissaries of Erlebnis conveyed this message.

“When did they leave? One month ago?” The eunuch answered back. “Should I expect them at the shores by nightfall?”

“One minute ago,” the emissary answered back.

The eunuch turned, focusing his writhing blue eyes upon the emissary. “Considering how ineffectual the emperor’s army was because of our disadvantage in information, you can see why I might think otherwise.”

The emissary could say nothing in response. It had been their fault the emperor’s army had been so utterly dismantled. If Erlebnis had properly gathered information, as was his domain, Emperor Ji Meng might’ve known what to expect. His navy would have at least done actual damage to King Argrave’s forces. Now, he was captured. That was perhaps the most devastating result.

But Erlebnis could not entirely be faulted. His influence had gone from its apex to the lowest it’d been in several millennia after Argrave’s brazen yet successful heist. Suddenly, obligations and responsibilities went unfulfilled, promises were broken, and a sprawling network of intrigue collapsed when its foundation suddenly vanished. They’d been forced to utterly vacate Berendar, accelerated by Argrave’s wanton destruction of countless sites of worship.

“I’ll prepare everyone to receive the king and his pet emperor in a fashion he deserves,” the eunuch shook his head. “But you need to give me yet another payment for my efforts. Something to build my collection. If you can give me information, I can get it.”

“It shall be—” the emissary said, then silenced itself.

The eunuch looked at it peculiarly, yet then a voice cut through the air.

“Grand Eunuch Hao,” another eunuch said, walking in meekly and bowing before him.

“Am I needed?” he responded, his voice several pitches lower than the other’s.

“Governor Zen has come again.”

The grand eunuch turned away from the fruit tree. “Protesting the extended regency, same as last time?”

“Indeed.”

Hao walked down the impeccably tiled pathway of the imperial palace. “Then it seems I must abate his worries, one way or the other.”

The eunuch looked a little stunned as Grand Eunuch Hao walked by. He seemed to have been preparing himself to listen to a long speech, but no such thing came. Instead, he turned and followed with quick steps to catch up. He hadn’t remembered Hao ever acting with such haste.

#####

Emperor Ji Meng watched the cup full of the strange brew that sapped away his vital force. ‘Magic,’ these people called his energy. But whatever the name, this brew utterly incapacitated him. He could see the surface of the liquid just barely disturbed. That was the only way that he was able to discern that the Sea Dragon had started moving.

At least they know to try and keep me ignorant, thought the emperor. But this was his ship, and he knew it better than they could ever hope to. It would take three weeks to make it to Great Chu, he was certain. Once there, he’d a rough plan as to what needed to be done. The only person he could trust to help him remove the shackles these people had placed upon him was Governor Zen.

Zen was tied to Ji Meng by marriage—the governor’s daughter was Ji Meng’s highest-ranking consort, the empress. The man wasn’t a loyal hound of the emperor—he was an opportunist, pure and simple, and a genius besides. But it was an opportunist that could plainly see the opportunity that rested in Ji Meng’s hands. He intended to take back his seat on the imperial throne—not as a puppet, but as an emperor well and true. If he managed to do that… it would be yet another brick to the monument that was his legacy. And should Zen aid him in doing that, he’d certainly have a strong backing in Ji Meng.

But for now, drink their poisoned tea, smile when they tell you to, and wait, thought the emperor, as he picked up his cup and obeyed his thoughts. This is not yet the end for you.