16. Shockwaves


    Peria was overjoyed at the news of the fall of Moru but angry at the rise of a new pagan realm. Nonetheless knocking out a Church of Light country from the competition was appreciated, even if some foul abomination had taken its place. General Faiz held Nova, but now he was under siege, 15,000 Perian troops, with many Church of Order priests shooting lightning bolts at his guards.


    “What do you mean Moru has fallen!” Faiz screamed, “that is ridiculous, that must be false information told to us by the Perians. I want the spy-”


    “It’s true,” another spy said, running up to the commander.


    “How?” He said throwing his arms up and down in a tantrum.


    “Pagans took the major cities, they had a God of Trade or something, our informants in the Churches tell us of a sudden taking of all the settlements,” the messenger said desperately.


    Faiz’s face turned sour, a tanned brown face, he sighed deeply at the news. He nodded and then looked at his soldiers. He put a brave face, but deep down he was flabbergasted and scared.


    “How much supplies do we have?”


    “Enough for a month sir,” a soldier curtly replied.


    We can’t defend Nova and take on these imposters. How can Moru have fallen? Surely that’s impossible. What kind of trickery could they have possibly done?


    “This just came in just now sir, the Perians are-” he was interrupted by lightning bolts falling next to him.


    Falling to the floor, the ground shook, and Perians entered onto one of the walls.


    “Damn it, who is manning the walls?”


    They were being systematically taken out, dried cinders of corpses falling over the battlements. He clasped his forehead in pain.


    “Reinforce the walls!”


    Besieged? Me. I am besieged. This is supposed to be an invasion. Fuck. What a nonsense.


    He clenched his fists in anger and frustration.


    Poltu spies reported on their findings in Moru now ‘Yerek’ with great haste. Carrier pigeons were being sent frantically. Spies riding to Gharb to give news to the local governor.


    “King Khalid has been overthrown,” the spy said.


    “How is that possible? Surely his army should have crushed any rebels?”


    “We are not too sure, our spies saw suspicious movements, trades and then their cities were filled with masses of rebels. It’s like someone bribed the masses en-masse, I can’t explain it any other way. It was incredible.”


    “Someone bribed their cities, what else happened?” the governor asked.


    “They’ve abolished slavery,” the spy said to much shock.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    The governor sat down and looked at the spy almost in disbelief.


    “Who does the work then?” He asked stupefied.


    “That’s not the point, the worshippers of ‘the three’ seem to want to liberate the slaves.”


    Governor Karim of Gharb stared at his agents on the field and tapped his finger on the oak wooden table top.


    “Give me a whore!” The governor screamed.


    “Sir, this is serious,” the spy said, flabbergasted.


    “Give me two whores!” He shouted back in defiance.


    “You couldn’t finish them both last time!” A rude guard shouted from behind a wall.


    “Find him! Flog him! Flog that man!” Karim shouted in palpitations, “damn it, what a headache you’ve given me. Report this to the king of Poltu, maybe he’ll have an idea of what to do.”


    “King Ahmed will be told soon sir.”


    The governor’s quarters were garish and overly bright and colourful, more of a place of pleasure than administration. Thousands of troops had already been gathering for other purposes. An aristocrat, albeit appointed to the position of governor, the title was not completely inheritable.


    This makes my plot against Ahmed almost impossible. If I start a civil war now, who knows what those pagans might end up doing?


    The city of Gharb was full of whispers. Merchants and soldiers alike, slave and common man talked of the total toppling of the government of Moru.


    In Lori, the politically isolated Church of Truth nation, built extra sea and land walls.


    “Build more, if the Church of Light comes here, they should be met with so much rock that they won’t possibly want to chew on it. If they spend their entire raiding budget doing so, they will lose heart!” The Earth Mage priest said, as he put rock after rock in place.


    Messages came from Lori spies that were in Moru.


    The King of Lori Nathaniel stared over his fortifications as a piece of parchment was put in his hands, he extended the message in front of him and began reading. He wrinkled his forehead in order to read it more effectively.


    “Is this true?” He said, “who made up these lies?”


    “Sir, everyone is saying it’s true,” the spymaster said, “I’ve received multiple letters.”


    “Moru is toppled and is now called Yerek. King Khalid fled on the ocean, this is all unbelievable. If someone spat in the Church of Light then we should hold a feast, but by God pagans took them down? How?”


    “The God of Trade, Farming and Water sir, they successfully turned a whole lot of the populace against their king and turfed him out, Khalid was nearly captured our spies from the palace reported. The forces gathering in Gharb were in fact preparing for civil war, but maybe not now, it’s hard to tell,” the spy said so thoroughly that the king was just impressed more than anything.


    “Anything else?” King Nathaniel asked, looking with skepticism.


    “The people are being armed, a lot of them. These pagans are aware that they have the ire of the Church of Light community and nations, so they are trying to arm their supporters as quickly as possible.”


    “Hahaha, goodness me, with what pitchforks?” The king laughed in roaring laughter.


    “Crossbows,” the spy said matter of factly.


    “Ooh good choice,” the king admitted almost too quickly, “is there any chance that they will spread their ways, these pesky pagans?”


    “The God of Trade supporters could very well target Gharb next, I believe Lori is too far away for them to target, but the Church of Light nations might want to take us out, we are quite strategically located.”


    “Tell me something I don’t already know,” the king said, “what’s the political stability of the new regime?”


    “Pretty rock solid, they freed the slaves and are feeding the poor somehow, ah also there are no taxes, or very few of them anyway.”


    “Kingdom ruled by a madman,” Nathaniel joked.


    “That’s another thing, they’re calling it a republic by all accounts, there is no monarchy in the new system.”


    “They’re just asking for trouble now,” Nathaniel said shaking his head, “so they are pagans, worship three gods, and they don’t have a king or any kind of monarchy.”


    “Yes sir,” the spy said.


    The king burst out into rapturous laughter. A tall blonde man, his island was warm, and he had tanned skin, but his natural complexion without sunshine would be considerably paler. Piercing dark blue eyes, he was an intimidating figure even without finding he was a monarch.


    “Maybe I should visit this… Republic. Just a diplomatic tour,” he said quietly.


    “Sir,” the spy said, “are we sufficiently fortified?”


    “All our priests ever do is fortify Lori city and its environs, I think we’ll be fine, besides my son is around, and we have capable stewards. Don’t we?”


    “Of course sir.”


    “Don’t grovel, tell me if any of them are doing a bad job ok.”


    “Sure.”


    Lori’s king would visit Yerek, partly to see if any of the rumours were true. Nathaniel probably just wanted to spectate battles as was bored on his island nation, a 30 year old man he had grown bored of just endlessly making his island nation safe. He would witness something.