Chapter 55: War is Coming

-Marion-

Tila dropped us off in front of the gatehouse of the palace, before turning the cart around to find lodging for herself. She didn’t want to crash at the palace – especially because we didn’t know whether we would even stay the night here – and she wanted to be back at her bar as fast as possible. She was loosing some serious money with this short vacation of hers, which made us all the more thankful for her help.

We hugged each other goodbye and then watched as the rickety wagon that got us here pulled its way back down the large main street.

Meanwhile we found ourselves in front of massive terracotta structure that was the Imperial Palace of Rizishma. Thick red walls, topped with strong crenelations and decorated with beautiful cyan painted rock sculptures as well as golden filigree, that all weaved together into the imposing structure we now to had to find our way inside of. To talk with the emperor. Of Rizishma.

Literally the most powerful human alive – that we know of.

It’ll be fiiiiine. We only kidnapped his daughter, killed some of his men and would now threaten him into giving us our daugh- Liana back.

Whilst I was totally not freaking the fuck out, Lorelei proceeded to grab the still-bound rizishman princess – now with a sack pulled over her head – and casually walked up to the group of guards stationed at the gatehouse.

There were four of them on the ground, two outside the gate and two inside. I could see another three guards atop the nearby walls and who knew how many more would be hiding inside the gatehouse itself – those usually also doubled as small barracks of some sort, at least in argonian cities.

The two guards outside the gate quickly became suspicious when Lorelei approached with a body slung over her shoulder like it was the most normal thing in the world and cried out a loud “Halt!” towards the approaching princess carrier. Of course, the guards hadn’t yet realised who exactly Lorelei carried, or they would have reacted much more drastically, I assumed.

Getting over my rising panic about the incredibly stupid thing we were about to do, I gathered my courage – though there was very little of that to begin with, right now – and joined Lorelei along with Rosie.

“Greetings,” Lorelei spoke in elven. I knew she spoke riza as well, which meant she chose elven so that I could actually follow what was going on. Which was very sweet of her. I’d have to thank her for that later, if we were even still alive then.

The four guards gave each other a small look and one of the two guards behind the gate spoke up.

“Pray tell, my lady, what is it you are carrying and what is the purpose of bringing this package to his highness’ doorstep?” he asked in an extremely flowery elven accent. Most likely elethean. The ’proper’ elven spoken in the colony had turned into something of a noble language, only used in very important meetings, when addressing someone far above your own station, or simply when conducting business.

The more common language spoken in the free city to the east was actually new elven, a language that combined elven slang and general grammar with large portions of jarranian and riza. Sadly, I couldn’t speak new elven even a little bit, though I could understand a fraction or so. Luckily, the fancy elven that this guard spoke was rather easy to understand if you spoke elven yourself.

“We are here to meet the emperor,” Lorelei stated coolly.

“And what business does one such as you have with the emperor, carrying a bodice as you do? And was the emperor informed of this meeting prior?” the guard asked, eyeing the slumped figure slung over Lorelei’s shoulder suspiciously.

“No, he hasn’t been informed. Though I suggest you inform him post-haste. Tell him the second princess Lorelei is here to see him. If he asks, tell him it’s a family matter.”

The guard coughed a little and for a moment he looked like he had something to say on the matter, but then thought better of it. “Very well. I shall inform the emperor of your presence. Should he deign your presence worthy of your attention, we will have a meeting arranged shortly.”

With that, the guard whirled around and walked towards the main structure behind him, where he disappeared through another gateway.

It was an awkward twenty minutes of utter silence between us and the remaining guards, until he finally returned.

“His highness has accepted your plea for a meeting. We will require you to hand over any and all weapons – including that wand, spellbook and the bag potions your companions are carrying.”

With a sigh, we complied and handed over our stuff to the guards outside of the gate. There was no point in trying to sneak anything by them, anyway. Lorelei was fully capable of using magic, even without ever carrying a wand or a spellbook on her and I could still use magic without my tools as well, though my control over it was severely diminished and the more complex spells were impossible to remember entirely.

The large gate opened, portcullis slowly sliding upwards into the gatehouse proper, and the guard led us into the palace complex. We would be meeting the emperor in the council chambers, something I was very happy about. Standing in a massive throne room and making demands of him felt like a sucky situation to be in. A smaller room meant less of an audience to worry about.

The council chambers turned out to be just as cosy as I’d hoped, compared to the imposing throne room I was dreading. Though they were still fairly large.

A long wooden table stretched through the length of the room, with high-backed seating for about a dozen people. The wall on the side of the doorway was lined with bookshelves filled to the brim with thick tomes. Potted plants decorated the corners. To the left, a wide stairs – only three steps long – climbed to another room that was raised slightly. A curtain blocked most of the view into it.

Lastly, the wall opposite the doorway was completely opened up, four lavishly decorated pillars holding the roof in its stead. Beyond them was a balcony – just as long as the room itself and nearly as wide – overlooking the city.

On the far side of the table, opposite the small stairs, sat a middle-aged man with deep tanned skin, shoulder long greying hair and a well trimmed van-dyke beard. He wore a long red kaftan that seemed rather simple, compared to the lavishly decorated ones most of the merchants in Khibili were wearing. On his right hand he wore two golden rings – one of which had a ruby embedded into it, the other of which had an onyx instead – that contrasted well with his short black-painted nails. Other than that and the two small brass earrings, simple hoops, no larger than a pupil.

As the four of us entered – Zahria doing so by no action of her own – his dark eyes glanced over at us almost as an afterthought.

“Please, sit,” the man spoke in perfect elven.

As I moved to one of the chairs, I noted the severe lack of guards in the room. Was this man really the emperor? Or simply a middle-man until the real deal showed up? He looked… surprisingly casual.

Lorelei sat the princess down in one of the chairs, then sat down on the one next to it.

The door to the chamber shut with a loud clunk, as the guard who led us here left.

The silence in the room stretched for what felt like forever. The man – presumably emperor – eyed each and every one of us slowly and carefully, before resting on our hostage.

“Plan to tell me why you’ve bound my poor daughter like that, Lolo?” he asked, his voice soft and gentle.

Wait, Lolo?!

“You’re not allowed to call me that,” Lorelei stated. “And your daughter is half of the reason I had to make this detour in the first place.”

“How terrible for you to have to visit an old friend for once. It’s only been, what, seven years?” the emperor sighed.

Wait, old friend?! What the…

“We’re not friends. We were barely acquaintances. And I’m not here for you, I’m here for my daughter.”

“Florence? I haven’t seen her for two years, I’m afraid. Speaking of daughters, though. Would you mind unbinding mine? I’m sure whatever she’s done to piss you off can be talked out between adults.”

“I can’t. She’s leverage.”

“Leverage? For what?”

“My daughter. Liana. You’ve had her kidnapped. I demand her back.”

The emperor’s eyes widened a little, clearly he was woefully under-informed about this entire situation.

“I… see. Didn’t know about that. Whoopsie.”

“Whoopsie?”

“Look-”

“No! You’re not gonna get out of this one with a ‘whoopsie’ and a pat on the back. That might work on my sister, but not on me. I want an explanation, right fucking now. And I want my daughter back. Right. Fucking. Now.”

The emperor held up his hands in surrender and let out another sigh. “Alright, alright. I’ll give you back your daughter and you let Zahria go, okay?”

“Fine. And I want an explanation. Your henchmen nearly killed Rosie.”

The emperor glanced over at me – of all people – and cringed apologetically.

“Not her. Rosie’s my other daughter, next to her.”

“Other d- Alright, okay, yea, this is totally normal. If it means anything to you, miss Rosie,” the emperor turned to the bunny girl, “I apologise for the terrible conduct of my employees and that they tried to… uh… kill you.”

Rosie pouted.

“Yeah she’s your daughter alright,” the emperor chuckled. “Well. I am going to hurry and get the princess, before any of you decide to start a war over this. Believe me, it’s the very last thing I could use right now!”

He rose from his chair and semi elegantly slid out of the room. Semi, because it was barely resembling the regal way in which most nobles I’ve met so far moved – head held high, back straight, the works – but still elegant, because the movements were smooth, well trained. He almost glided through the space, not even making the faintest of sounds as he moved. It reminded me of how Lorelei and Lumielle barely ever made a sound when they themselves moved.

I was starting to think there was more to this connection than met the eye. The emperor was human – full human, as far as was publicly known – which meant him being middle-aged, he entire lifetime had only been a speck on the lives of Lolo’s own family. Except for her children, I guess. Those were all pretty young still.

Whatever the connection was, right now that connection meant that instead of confronting the most powerful human alive – that we know of – we were… bantering with him. Or, Lorelei was, at least. I couldn’t bring myself to do anything really.

The emperor took his sweet time returning to us. After half an hour passed, we started to wonder if he’d decided to make a run for it, leaving us cluelessly waiting around as he gained distance. But Lolo quickly shut that line of thinking down. She knew him well and he wouldn’t go back on his words.

Which then brought me to a line of questioning that had been burning on my tongue since the moment they first exchanged words.

“So… you and the emperor… know each other?” I carefully quested.

Lorelei sighed and rolled her eyes. “Sadly, yes. We used to be close, at a time.”

“Used to be?” Rosie chirped.

“He used to date Lumielle. When they were young – well, when he was young.”

“Those two?” Rosie asked incredulously. “Really? I don’t see it.”

“Like I said, they were younger. It was barely anything serious. More like a fling really. He dumped her suddenly and that was that.”

The door to the council chamber flung open and the emperor re-emerged.

“Who dumped who?” he asked, sliding over and into his chair.

A moment passed until the small figure of Liana slowly peeked inside after him. The moment I saw her, I jumped up from my chair and tackled her in a massive hug, lifting her up and spinning us around.

“Gods, Liana! I was so worried about you!” I nearly cried.

The poor princess was utterly startled and tried her hardest to get me to set her back down the moment she got her bearings, though I couldn’t help but notice she was on the verge of tears herself.

I gently sat her back down and separated, wiping away some rogue budding tears from my eyes. Liana tried to do the same – emphasis on tried – but she was immediately tackled by an overly excited white rabbit and swooped up in much the same way as I did.

“Ahhh Rosie! You can let me down now. Please,” the princess exclaimed, writhing in the steel-grip of Rosie. She decided to squeeze her even more tightly, leading to a very panicked squeal, before finally relenting and setting her down as well.

“I missed you so much, Liana!” the bunny girl sniffled, still clinging to the princess.

Liana gently caressed Rosie’s back as she nestled into her. “It’s alright, I’m fine, Rosie. They were very kind to me. Aside from the whole… kidnapping me and stuff. But it’s not like I’m not used to that happening at this point.” She continued to press up against her best friends’ form, gently sliding her hands across her skin soothingly, until she suddenly glanced up. “Did you work out while I was gone?”

“What? Not really, no. I did get almost killed by this dude’s henchmen, but aside from that I was mostly sleeping.”

Liana studied the bunny girl’s arms closely. She was right. There was definitely some definition there that hadn’t been there when she was de-bunnified. So there was certainly something going on here. From sleepy cuddlebun to hyperactive athlete in the span of days… it smelled magicky.

“Well,” Lorelei interrupted the heartfelt reunion, turning her attention back to the emperor. “I was just telling my companions about the time you dumped my sister.”

Liana whirled around to Lolo, then to the emperor. “This guy dated Lumielle?”

“It was more a fling, really,” Lorelei commented.

The emperor’s nostril flared slightly. Not anger, but… annoyance.

“It was hardly a fling. We were together for seven years, you know.”

“That’s nothing,” Lorelei shrugged.

Rosie tapped her chin. “No, no. That’s dating. Most humans got married much sooner than that, even.”

“Well, whatever it was, he still dumped her, which means he sucks. No one dumps my baby sister like that.”

“You dumped an elven princess?” Zahria’s muffled accusatory noise came from underneath the sack. The emperor immediately rose and crossed the room, pulling off the sack from his daughter’s head and undoing her bindings.

“You aren’t in any position to make accusations right now, Zahria,” he spoke coolly. “ Your mother was worried about you, go see her. Hurry along now.”

With that, the princess was shooed out of the council chamber and the emperor whirled back around to Lorelei.

“You don’t know anything about my relations, Lorelei, so don’t even try to come after me. Have you ever even asked your ‘baby sister’ why I dumped her in the first place?”

Lorelei was quiet, part of her seething out of some ancient grudge, the other shocked from the sudden outburst of the emperor.

“Your sweet baby sister that the gall to fuck my fiancés. Both of them. Behind my back.”

Rosie quickly covered Liana’s ears the moment the emperor pronounced the hard f.

“S-so?” I squeaked out, making the mistake of getting involved. Everyone stared at me blankly for a moment and I realised I’d need to elaborate or… perish, probably. “I-I mean… you were all together, right? You were dating her and you were engaged to the other two. So… it’s okay, right?”

Lorelei nodded sagely. “My girlfriend is right. Which means you still suck. Just cause your harem fantasy didn’t work out quite the way you’d hoped-”

The emperor’s eyebrows shot up “Harem fantasy?! I’ll have you know that my wives and I are in a very healthy polycule, thank you very much.”

“Notably, without my sister in it,” Lorelei commented. “Though I think that was for the best, actually,” she added smugly.

The emperor looked about to reply something snarky, but then took a deep breath and calmed himself.

“Ookay, you’re all pretty fired up right now, so how about a topic change.” Rosie drummed her finger over the table in some sort of rhythm. “Why did you want to kidnap my bestie?”

Liana huffed. “Because kidnapping is a much lighter topic than dating-drama,” she deadpanned.

“No, Rosie’s got a point. I’d like to know that as well,” Lorelei agreed.

“Ugh, fine,” the emperor rolled his eyes overdramatically. Seriously, how could someone this unserious be the most powerful human alive – that we know of?! “When there was this kerfuffle back in Segronne-”

“Kerfuffle?” the little princess mumbled to herself.

“-we knew we had to get involved. Her affinity with shadow magic is an open secret, as well as her destructive potential. There were only very few shadow magic users who could train the princess, after all, and it wasn’t like we could count on your family-” he pointed at Lolo “-to deal with it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lorelei asked sharply.

“I mean, your family doesn’t really involve itself in politics on Jarrainoria.”

Lorelei rose. “Oh that’s bullsh-”

Rosie pulled her hands over Liana’s ears once again.

“Okay, when was the last time your family got involved in jarrainorian politics?” the emperor asked.

The elven princess thought for a spell. “The second demon war.”

“That was twenty years ago…” I thought out loud.

“My point exactly,” the emperor nodded. “So it was only natural that we would make sure to get our hands on the little princess. She would both be an incredibly powerful military asset, as well as a key political figure for Argonne in the coming years.”

“Isn’t Rizishma already the most powerful empire?” I asked. “What good is a claim to a kingdom in the far north, when you’re all the way down south?”

The emperor’s slight agitation at this whole explanation faltered and his face grew darker.

“Things are about to change,” he said, explaining nothing.

“Meaning?” Lorelei asked, clearly dissatisfied from the lacking explanation.

The emperor rubbed his temples and let out a long sigh. “War is coming, Lorelei.” He strode over to a bunch of letters shoved in one of the bookshelves and picked a few of them up. “Argonne has essentially fallen, the entire kingdom barely holding on by a thread. There are small demonic incursions into Thengel again. For the first time in twenty years, the north is unstable, which means the south is anxious. Meanwhile, I get reports by the day of vilesian and arangian troops around the border. Some of them even daring to scout into our lands. The alliance of the two nations is hardly a secret to anyone.”

He paused for a moment, fiddling with the letters.

“I’ve already made the preparations months ago. My armies are gathered at the northern border, waiting for the go-ahead. If Rizishma wishes to stand the test of time, we will have to strike first.

Rizishma will go to war.”

I suppose he was a proper emperor after all.