29. The Rogue


    The God of Trade’s evangels got to trading with their newfound peace, using the respite to buy more marble from Hitara, selling a fortune of wood. The ‘peace of Utbah’ created stability. Gisco settled in Gatula, hiring more horse archers for the wars to come, but otherwise negotiated with southern tribes migrating northwards. Yerek had never been stronger, it began minting it’s own coins, although it now had a great supply of Poltu and Moru coins which were both legal tender. The salt flats of Gharb and Polt were given to the workers, giving it to some oligarch was politically risky, and keeping them in control of the state was riskier. The five evangels to the God of Trade began slowly purchasing other salt flats from other oligarchs and doing the same thing; such actions earned respect among the governed. Taxes were low to non existent, and various grown food was distributed, producing a lush land that could afford to produce many families. Delegations from the Church of Truth country of Lori and the Church of Order state Peria came to pay their respects to their new southern neighbour. Lori’s King Nathaniel was a tall blonde man, he stepped in the harbour of Moru city. Peering one way and then the other.


    “So this is ‘Yerek,’ how quaint!” he bellowed in laughter.


    The Lori delegation had a few bodyguards, but Moru city was remarkably safe. With the free food and even free wine and beer, there were few vagrants to bother the king, and people looked mostly disinterested. He was not greeted by anyone and simply went into a bar where he drank beer and wine and had a meal, listening to local conversations.


    “War is over and Yerek won, to think the God Powers of Trade could do such a thing,” a man said.


    “Is Mercurius not being too cautious and not spreading the faith.”


    “You want more war?” A woman said, “we will defend what we have and prepare for the next war, but we shouldn’t actively look for one.”


    This is sort of opinion bubbled around. The more extreme interventionists versus the more cautious people who wished to simply exist in peace.


    “You might have beaten the Church of Light once, but they will seek revenge,” Nathaniel said loudly, “you know that right?”


    “We are aware,” the bar owner said, “would you like another drink sir?”


    He threw a golden Lori coin, and the bar owner raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips in mirth.


    “Thank you,” the man said, “business is good.”The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    The wooden furnishes polished to a shine, Nathaniel could see that people were relaxed.


    “So the war has been won?” Nathaniel asked.


    “It has, it has, thankfully. Less people will die,” the bar owner said, “war is a terrible thing.”


    “It sure is,” Nathaniel said.


    They will come back and with a vengeance.


    Peria’s delegation was more formal and boring, they sent a ship to Halab and promised peace for ten years, the Halab citizenry somehow got Mercurius’s attention who promised the ten year peace and possibly more and that was that. The ship left, and the state of Yerek was left to exist. Another evangel was added to the roster, a man named Symachus, a man who had ginger hair and green eyes. He aided in the supplying of various remote villages, the vital work of an evangel to the God of Trade and to the state of Yerek. And so there were six known evangels, Zelra, Nichomachus, Symachus, Mardonius and Salutius and the original Mercurius. Life was peaceful and time slipped by.


    Autumn of 570, a man with his own ambitions based himself in the Balnan mountains. Spendius a man with black hair and green blue eyes, a secret seventh evangel to the God of Trade. Yerek was now a peaceful oasis, stable and prosperous but did not wish more bloodshed after such a tumultuous war. In the Balnan mountains, a Balnan by ethnicity he returned to the crime scene, the destruction of the first temple. Looking at the ruptured marble, the remnants of what once was. Mercurius’s very limited return to Balna was undone by even the first wave of Uruq raiders. Uruq had apparently installed a client king in Balna and destroyed the Church of Order uprising in the north and made the Church of Truth loyalists in the kingdom be silent, demanding even more taxes. King Balar had been killed and now King Selim effectively a puppet of Uruq ruled. Another peace was signed in the meantime between the Church of Order nations and the Church of Light who had enough of conflict for a while. Spendius bided his time, buying iron from Balna and selling it to the Hunur for small margins. He then did a much bolder thing, he openly preached that the God of Trade would rule. It was blasphemous and it was insane. Local tribes openly spat at him, there the medium height man was spotted by Uruq soldiers who immediately charged at him.


    “An agent of Yerek!” A soldier shouted.


    “I proclaim a new nation!” He said, “the nation of Mendek will live now!”


    The soldiers pursued Spendius and he appeared behind them and stabbed them with a blade, disappearing to target each one individually. The local citizenry were bewildered, seeing three dead Uruq troops. Spendius looted their armour and took their Uruq coins before selling the bloody armour sets in a Byz market. He took the knives of the soldiers and used them as impromptu throwing knives.


    I will get my country back. No. I will create it. The Church of Light will pay for their crimes. Yerek can do what they want, I have no bad blood with them, but they have not done enough.


    Spendius spent the night in a cave, while his co-religionists strengthened their Republic, working tirelessly to make sure that local hamlets and villages had supplies. The evangels to the God of Water and Farming meant that a lot of people became redundant seeking to live in the cities, cutting and threshing the crops that were grown by evangels. Spendius would live quite a different life. An outlaw, a rogue was on the outskirts of Balna, in total enemy territory, while Yerek slept and ate, confident in their crossbows and their cavalry armies. A cave with moss, with the occasional bats overlooking some Balnan settlement. Spendius was determined to make his impact. He saw the flickering lamps, the hubbub of human activity.