“And so, on this day, I acknowledge Nikola of Troy as a sworn brother…”

Nikola wasn’t paying attention to the Emperor. His speech had lasted more than half an hour and would last just as much before the Emperor finally got to the point, whatever that might be.

They were going towards the Zhao Xin Town next. The captured flag of Xiongnu was publicly burned, and the Emperor had even wanted the phoenix for himself.

But Nikola had none of that. With a conjured storm, he had shown the Emperor he was not in the mood to appease him right now. He didn’t know if Cas’s curse was lifted yet, and so he was on edge. Hence, the Emperor’s decision to hold this ceremony. Two bowls of sake waited for when he was done speaking.

The army was restless. They knew they had done nothing in the war, and some even had been heard grumbling that they shouldn’t even be there. Nikola was annoyed at these men. It was their land and their families that would be savaged if Xiongnu managed to breach into Chinese territory again. And yet, they thought that Nikola would be there to conquer Xiongnu all by himself. What use were they?

Only General Lao didn’t get on Nikola’s nerves. The man even got his best messenger to deliver Nikola’s letters. Didn’t even bat an eye when one of the letters was sent with the second-best messenger to the Wise King of the Left. General Lao would not tell the Emperor that, Nikola was sure. And even if he did tell, he hadn’t opened the letter. Nikola had placed a spell that made people unable to open the letter if it wasn’t for them.

Stealing a glance at General Lao, he saw that the man was hanging on the Emperor’s every word. Why, though? Emperor Han was a spoiled brat. Even if he looked older than Nikola. He was thirty, and he took so long for a simple speech. General Lao must have noticed that he was being watched because he looked at Nikola and nodded. Nikola nodded back.

They stood like that in the slight drizzle and listened to the Emperor. Finally, the man went and picked up one of the sake bowls. Nikola stood and picked the other.

“May it be known that from today on, you are my younger brother, prince Nikola.”

Nikola furrowed his brows at being called younger, but he still looked eighteen. It couldn’t be helped.

“I thank you, older brother Han. May nothing stand against us for long,” they drank the sake and people cheered half-heartedly. They were much happier when the Emperor let them go back to their tents. Longcheng was said to be cursed now, even if Nikola had sent the Furies away to Zhao Xin Town.

Already, rumors that Longcheng’s curse was spreading all over Xiongnu were heard. The Wise King of the Left would surely be forced to accept Nikola’s proposition. He was one of the few people that Nikola had spared from the Furies. It would be suspicious if he doesn’t join in on the suffering soon.

“Brother, a word,” said the Emperor as Nikola was leaving. Nikola followed his “older brother” to the man’s tent and entered inside. There was a golden statue of a naked woman inside.

A pilfered treasure from Longcheng. Nikola sneered at the statue. If it was melted down, then the Emperor could pay the wages of a thousand of his soldiers for the next month. But that was too much foresight for the man, it seems.

“Brother, General Lao told me you have sent letters to the Jade Gate Pass. The Wise King of the Left is said to be there. What did you offer him?”

Nikola made himself comfortable on the pillows tossed on the ground. So, General Lao did have plenty of loyalty left for the Emperor? Nikola needed someone like him for himself.

“I offered to fund a Southern Xiongnu, close to the Chinese border. Think of it, brother. The worse enemy of Xiongnu are fellow nomads. And what worse nomads than those of Xiongnu origin themselves? They know their tactics best; they use the same weapons. It will be a bloody civil war. Brother against brother. Father against the son.”

The Emperor smiled and waved his finger at Nikola.

“You are too cruel, brother. I like it. But you could have told me of your plan. General Lao nearly accused you of plotting to replace me with Han Guo.”

Nikola laughed as if to disperse the accusation. He wasn’t simply plotting; he was already acting towards the goal.

“And carry the shame of backstabbing my brother? Brother, you wound me,” they laughed together, and the Emperor took out a sake bottle. The bottle was small, and its content went into two bowls. It was still morning, and they shouldn’t be drinking, but they still drank their fill.

Nikola had misjudged General Lao. Perhaps the man could see right through him? Or did he have similar ambition and did he want to replace the Emperor with himself? His next letters wouldn’t pass through the man, that was for certain.

“I will remain at Longcheng with half of the army, brother. I will leave you the full cavalry and our good General Lao, of course.”

Coward, Nikola wanted to snort at the man, but he held himself back. Longcheng was not a Chinese city. It had walls, but the inside was with few buildings and yurts. It was more of a village with open spaces for cattle and horses. The Emperor would find more comfort in his tent than in the deserted settlement.

“Together with the good General, I am sure we can take Zhao Xin Town,” said Nikola. And if he sends the General to lure the army of the second born son of the Chanyu, then he wouldn’t morn his potential death.

“I hear your Wei Caihong has started reforms in the capital,” said the Emperor as he passed some scrolls to Nikola. Nikola began to read them.

A mandatory orphanage in all settlements. An official order that all schools are staffed. More funding for the university for officials that Han Wudi created. Nikola smiled at all this. Wei Caihong would take China in hand and improve it. Of that Nikola was sure.

“I dislike how grasping cousin Wei is,” said the Emperor, and Nikola blinked. Grasping? None of these reforms furthered his power. They merely gave him the love of the people. Oh…

“Wei Caihong only wants to improve on your work, brother.” Lied Nikola smoothly. The Emperor had lived in his father’s shadow all his life. It was Han Wudi’s work that Wei Caihong was continuing.

“Be as it may, you will write to him and tell him to follow the plan my Ministers wrote for him. He is just a regent, brother. I will leave the things he already made, for they are good work, but from now on, his actions would be restricted.”

Nikola grinned, as if he would let this happen. He reached out a hand as if to shake the Emperor’s and then quick as lightning he touched the man’s forehead. The Emperor became hypnotized, and Nikola issued his first command to his puppet.

“You will give Wei Caihong creative freedom. And you will not remember this command,” taking back his hand, Nikola masked his face into a gentle smile.

“You were saying something about my husband, brother?” Asked Nikola, looking distracted.

“Ah, yes. I was saying that I will give him more freedoms. Perhaps after the war, you will move from your village and stay in the capital with the whole family? He does good work, he does.”

Their conversation continued until the sunset and Nikola had to issue a couple of more commands. By the end of the conversation the Emperor looked dazed and so Nikola commanded him to go to bed without dinner. Least the servants saw him and made note of his weird behavior.

In front of Nikola’s tent waited General Lao. The Atlantean had a mind to brush him off for telling the Emperor of Nikola’s actions. But then he wouldn’t know why he had waited in the drizzle. So instead, Nikola invited the man inside his tent.

“General Lao, what an honor,” said Nikola, smiling, even though said smile wasn’t reaching his eyes.

“I must tell you why I told the Emperor of your letter,” said the General, and Nikola couldn’t hold himself back. He snorted.

“Because you are loyal to my brother?” Asked Nikola sarcastically. It was an open secret that General Lao was a descendant of Liu Bang, just like the Emperor. But he was also a descendant of a lowly concubine. If he hadn’t been a military genius, or at least rumored to be, Nikola hadn’t seen him in action, then he wouldn’t be a General today.

“Because I feel that the Wei family is better for China than the Liu family ever was,” said the General. Nikola frowned at him. As if he were going to be caught in such an easy trap.

“Speak your treason to someone else, if you dare. Word of it will reach my brother,” snapped Nikola, and General Lao paled.

“Wei Caihong’s reforms are a godsend to the population. And you single-handedly took two cities of the Xiongnu Empire, the capital among them. Not to mention all the villages you burned when you were lost, my prince.”

“I support my brother,” said Nikola stubbornly. General Lao was not going to get anything to report out of him tonight. He had betrayed him once. But Nikola wasn’t going to go with this to the Emperor. Worst-case scenario, General Lao was trying to play both sides.

“I know you are the Emerald Emperor of Atlantis, your Imperial Majesty,” tried General Lao again. Nikola gave out another snort.

“I don’t even try to hide it anymore, do I? And why should I? I have the support of the Emperor. And this war will go more smoothly if I was allowed to use all of my powers.”

General Lao looked positively green at that. Nikola wondered if he was going to barf in his tent. He was prepared to chase him away when the General took out his sword.

“So, you don’t deny it?” Asked General Lao, and Nikola reached for his sword.

“I am who I am. Do you want to take this outside?” Asked Nikola, and General Lao nodded. Just as his back was turned, Nikola sent an ice needle to the back of his neck, forcing the General to topple down.

“In the Amazonian rainforest, the natives use wooden needles laced with poison,” he said to the petrified General. He stood up and went to him, digging the needle further into the man’s flesh. The only thing he could do was whimper.

“It was a Chinese Taoist priest that taught me about acupuncture,” continued Nikola as he played with the needle. “Had you been on my side, you would have gained much. Fear not, I will not kill our “glorious” Emperor. I will even win him the war. But you, dear General Lao, will not be there to see it.”

With one swift motion, Nikola decapitated the General, splitting the needle in the process. He melted the ice and went outside his tent to yell.

“I have been attacked. General Lao is a traitor! Help, he is a catspaw of Xiongnu!” Soldiers ran to his tent, not wanting to believe that their general had attacked their Emperor’s sworn brother. Even the Emperor was called.

Nikola told him the truth of the conversation, omitting the part where General Lao had ousted him as the Emerald Emperor and the ice needle.

 Pale, the Emperor had ordered for the corpse to be nailed to a tree so that General Lao won’t find any rest. Nikola slept like a newborn that night. The bloody pillows he had thrown at the corner of his tent, the only proof of the truth of what he had done.