Born a Monster

Chapter 78

Failure

We hung a left at the first intersection, and just followed the farmland out to where Snowflake met us.

“For obvious reasons, your route has changed. We need to take you over the mountains to the west, and then north along whatever you humans call that river.”

“That adds four days to our journey home.” Said Phoenix.

“Onleh two, we found yeh a mountain pass.”

.....

“Good work, Snowflake. Let the others know we’re revising the plan. I don’t think we’ll get another chance at Rakkal while he’s at Montu’s Glory.”

“An finally we ken go home?”

“Everyone has earned a rest.” I said. “Have you negotiated tax rates?”

“Neh us, but that centaur spearlady talks a mean deal. And the pass itself is watched by Red Tide. Yeh still have your trade token from the city?”

“We do.” Said Peretta, showing it off.

“Well, let’s go, then.”

It was two days north to the pass; a payment of one tenth of our goods got us from the border of God Hand to Black Fist lands, and another twelfth across the loyalist areas of Black Fist. At the pass itself, held by Red Tide troops who were building wooden forts at both ends, there was a brief discussion, but no payment.

“Highway robbery.” Phoenix complained. “It’s just banditry done civil-like.”

Peretta nodded. “I thought it was supposed to be free.”

I shrugged. “The chieftain who promised that is dead. The task we were supposed to perform was not accomplished.”

“Oh? So what happens to your quest now?”

“I am sworn to watch, so long as even a single hero remains on the quest.”

Phoenix twitched her lips to the side. “Nothing like a good solid defeat to end a quest.”

I waved a hand. “The quest continues. Philecto says so.”

“I may not speak their language, but the tones I hear from the back aren’t happy.”

“We left one behind.” I said. “I’d be surprised if any of them were okay with that.”

“Heart of the party?”

“No, he was an asshole who thought he was the best of us.”

“Hm. Might be okay, then. Depends on the group.”

“I was thinking we might stop by Seacrest for a day or so.” I said.

“Oh.” Peretta winced. “Kyle didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“Ask Kyle about Seacrest.”

“While we were looting,” Kyle said, “we came across a map room. It had things drawn on the map in red. The army that just went out traveled to Seacrest, left a big red X there before swinging over to Hattan.”

“Curious.” Philecto said. “They weren’t supposed to stop by Narrow Valley?”

“Not before fall.” Kyle said. “Big push then. Everything.”

“We did wonder where the human prisoners came from.” Rina said. “An entire village, just gone.”

“Not gone.” Kyle said. “Some kind of Darkclaw tribe moved in.”

“From the broken crags by the sea, to the west and south of Seacrest?” I asked.

“How’d you know?”

“Kobolds.” I said. “Darkclaw is a clan of kobolds.”

“I’ve rarely seen kobolds use tools, and never fishing gear.” Philecto said.

“Not the village itself. The mine. The kobolds wanted the necrostone mine.”

“Merciful gods, we must have killed three hundred of those bastards that day. All those restless souls...”

“Trade goods for the Darkclaw.” I said.

#

Our second day north after the pass, we swung westward to avoid what looked like a clash between two villages.

“How do they survive with all this fighting?” Dina asked.

I fumbled with the few words of Kathani I knew, probably using them wrong. “Normally, they don’t. The Red Tide is trying to unify all the Uruk of both local clans into a single fighting force. Before all of this, that would have been nearly four or five thousand soldiers. Now, it is far less.”

Awta spat. “If we wait long enough, they’ll just kill each other off.”

I shook my head. Yes, they were losing numbers after each battle, but those warriors were gaining Combat XP and warrior-class XP if nothing else. Soon, champions would start showing up, and then heroes arising from their ranks.

Our barely-won fight against the Uruk ... lodge? Circle? Cult? Sorcerous cabal? Whatever, their more powerful members had been at least champions.

Normally, in war, these things balance out. The champions fight champions, and heroes duel with heroes, and the normal soldiers just fight and die around them. But if the Red Tide gained enough heroes that they could send them against champions, or worse, line soldiers... Their armies would become far more deadly.

There was no doubt in my mind that Rakkal was a hero. He was easily stronger than Philecto, or at least what I’d seen of Philecto.

“I don’t think they’re killing each other off fast enough. If all of them come to the siege, I don’t know if Narrow Valley can stand against that. Clearly, there are Uruk chieftains who feel the same way.”

“We see the same thing with desert bandits.” Faraj said. “They grow large enough to seize a village or a town for a week, and then they become bolder. Eventually, they over-reach and the troops of the Khan execute them to a man. This Rakkal and his alliance of chaos will not survive contact with the Khanate.”

“Blessed be the Khan.” Rita said, and this was taken up by the others.

Kyle beat me to the question. “I have wondered. We know the Khan is a holy figure, and the hereditary king. How does that work?”

Awta looked like she wanted to spit, but the square covered wagon had entrances only at the front and back. “You understand nothing of our culture, of our ways, or of our religion.”

Kyle tilted his head. “And therefore, I ask. Tell me of these things.”

“Very well, but we must begin with Surresh, the Mask hero, who brought us the word of Mohammed, the prophet of god.”

#

Surresh was the Mask Hero, and was summoned along with Jasmina, Minor Hero of the Scythe, and Diresh, Minor Hero of the Skull.

“I’m sorry.” I said. This is the first I’ve heard of minor heroes. How do they differ from the twelve Legendary Heroes?”

Stop interrupting, or this will take more days than we have.

Legendary heroes, as you know, are summoned to wield one of twelve weapons crafted by the First Men. These twelve weapons are so powerful that not even a hero can wield them without being destroyed. Each of the twelve begins as a newborn, growing and developing as it is used by its summoned hero.

Naturally, there have been attempts to create new Legendary weapons, with various degrees of success. None of them have the durability of the Legendary Weapons, and of course none come close to the power they wield at their peak.

All attempts to make copies of the Legendary weapons themselves are absorbed should the legend come close enough to the copy. Therefore, the only surviving Minor Weapons are those of different types.

The seven minor weapons known to the Khanae are the Scythe and Maul and Shield for warriors, the Chain for stealth classes, the Orb for arcane magicians, and the Bell and the Skull for prophets.

Is that enough to satisfy? Excellent.

Then back to our story, the story of how Surresh the Mask, Jasmina the Scythe, and Diresh the Skull were summoned to deal with Gismann of the Iron Wastes, and the Ghoul King who took up the reins of his empire when Gismann fell.

It is not the deeds of Surresh the Wise that needs be taught today, but rather his teachings. Surresh, although summoned for the Mask, a Stealth weapon, was also a mighty prophet. His belief in the one true god was powerful enough that he could cancel the so-called miracles of lesser spirits, exorcise and command demons, and even take their holy places for his own.

The power of Mohammed and his true father god is unique to the Khanate for now, but as the miracles flow, so too does mortal belief. It cannot be long before the entire world is unified under the one true god, and all lesser gods take their proper place as his servants. So may it become.

Surresh began without respect, as little more than a bandit and raider. But as his deeds gained reknown, first one clan of horse riders, and then a village, and then the entirety of the empire acknowledged him as its Khan. His first and most enforced commandment is this – to love the one true god above all things mortal.

Thus he lived, and thus lived the Khanate, and we gained strength and unity and prosperity as never before. And each Khan raises his sons and daughters in this manner, that we shall always have a strong leader, and thus a strong faith, and thus a strong nation.

In time, we shall be an empire that stretches over this world known to us as Athal. So may it become.

#

“And this lineage,” Kyle asked, “It is unbroken from father to son?”

“No, you fool.” Awta said. “It is from his eldest daughter by Jasmina, who became the first among his wives. From daughter to daughter, the lineage is traced. Though the Khan himself is always male, men are inconstant of their affections. Thus, only through the women of faith and repute is the holy lineage measured and preserved.”

I grew confused. “So if the Khan wants his son upon the throne, he must marry a cousin or such from the holy lineage?”

“Or at times in our history, his sister, though that is not the practice now. Through the medicines of Xi Diong, the Book Hero, the curse upon the holy bloodline has been understood and removed.”

By removed, she literally means expunged – those with birth defects were either slain or forbidden to breed, or were ceremonially cast out from the holy lineage. Even so, it took three generations to be certain all of the inbreeding was truly gone.

.....

For those unaware, Xi Diong brought forth the theory of 25 and 500, the idea that twenty-five mated pairs were the minimum needed to ensure mutations didn’t overwhelm a population, and that five hundred were needed to keep a species from cross-breeding or changing into another. In a world where the Taints of Chaos, Death, Madness, and Evil (usually all lumped together as a single Taint) is a literal thing, such things do happen.

“Well, what about this lineage of allies thing?” Kyle asked. “The world against the horrors, The Khanate against the world, my clan against the Khanate, my dynasty against my clan, my family against my dynasty, my brothers against my family, I against my brothers? Where does that fit in?”

Awta walked to the back of the cart, spit, and returned.

“That is from the old ways, and is still used. It is not, as you southerners think, a call to division, but rather a single priority of resolving conflicting needs. One should submit to and resolve the more major conflicts before acting on the lesser. Men do not always follow this ancient rule of our society.”

“How is it enforced?” Kyle asked.

“Women bring men into the world. When need be, we take them out of it as well.”

“And the men just permit this?” I asked.

“Men do not ask us before many of the things they do to women. Why should we ask their permission before doing things to them? They imprison and mutilate and call it law; at least we kill them cleanly, when the wheel of fate turns in our favor.”

“I thought the nameless father controlled all things?”

“And his is the hand that keeps the wheel of fate spinning.” She said.

“I don’t understand, that seems like a lot of different parts woven into one whole.”

“Tell me your society is any different.”

Kyle raised his hands in surrender. “True of any society I know of.”

We rode northward along the river for a time, before Peretta opened the forward flap.

“Looks like an Uruk warband. I think we’re getting shaken down again.”

#

Yes, I was still using Awta as a translator. Some languages come easily to me. Kathani was not among those.