Further Beyond: Ascension

Tirsday, 2nd of Maia, 470th Year of the Fifth Era

It was late into the night as the moon still shone its dim glister upon the village of Hutangali. Situated a little behind the village's Great Hall were a series of clandestine caverns that not everyone even among the Singalion clan knew the full extent of. And just as it happened, Parulian had found himself within one of these many caverns with an open ledge which showed the view of the valleys to the north of Hutangali proper. Because it was late in the night, not much can be seen from the view except for many sporadic glowing lights from the flames of the many villages and hamlets within the valley itself.

At the mouth of the cave that they were in, King Tagam was holding a western-looking chalice as several bottles of wine could be seen near him. Within the cave besides himself and the king of Hutangali were all his five-star warrior lieutenants as well as only three other Hutangalian elder councillors including Lord Sohasurahan alongside reverend Steinmann. Funnily enough, the King had failed to invite the delegate from Rumaparau, a decision which Parulian was still wracking his head around regarding the nature of this clandestine meeting. Perhaps to loosen his mind so that he was able to think more clearly, Parulian had grabbed one of the wine bottles and poured some more into his chalice before taking a sip.

As if to add to the atmosphere of the night, at a corner of the cave, Hasudungan was strumming on the guitar he had brought with him, filling the air with random yet quaint little melodies. Mardomu and Hariara were sitting with their backs against the cave's walls while Ronggur was still sitting up straight, bowing his already reddened head slightly as he folded his arms. Next to the men were an empty bottle of wine and a few other yet unopened bottles of liquor. The atmosphere was very informal, yet the look on Tagam's face was somewhat forlorn as despite all that warmness, it appeared as if he had a lot weighing on his mind. Parulian merely sighed as he decided he might as well ask right then and there.

"Alright bang, so what exactly is so important that you brought us here to talk in such a, uh… clandestine location?" He finally asked King Tagam "If you leave it be for even just another hour, I promise you, at the very least Ronggur there will actually pass out."

"Oy!! Who sezz so, hah?? I ken def-finitelyyy hold mah liquor you ass..!" Ronggur Sigompul's blurred blabberings of protest only caused the men gathered to laugh. "OOIY! Wassso funnehh hah??"

"Alright I think that's enough liquor for you…" Lord Sohasurahan said as he took away the bottle that was next to Ronggur. Luckily enough, Ronggur didn't make too much of a stink about it when his wine bottle was taken away from him, only giving Lord Soharusahan a slightly contemptuous expression.

"We apologise gentlemen, our brother here is always like that when his lips touch western wine.." Mardomu could only rub his temples in frustration at Ronggur's complete lack of decorum while the others continued to laugh.

Finally after giggling a little at Lord Ronggur's display, King Tagam finally decided to speak up. "This whole situation's a fucking mess, gentlemen." King Tagam shook his head before downing an entire goblet of wine "Arrrghh!! Fuck my council and fuck those old snakes who've burrowed in deep within my kingdom! I'll be honest with you Ruli, besides the four men I've brought with me here to meet with you all, I have absolutely no trust in any of the elders of this Godforsaken realm!"

"Well that's definitely news to me…" Parulian couldn't help but furrow his brows at King Tagam's statements. He absolutely noticed the tension between a few members of the council and it was quite normal for realms to have factions in them but this? The utter contempt he had heard in King Tagam's voice was palpable. "You have to start explaining things more clearly."

"It's exactly as I said, Ruli. I know none of you good lords of Goria are stupid, so when I sent my brother to ask for aid to deal with some bandits, did you not think it odd? A realm of tens of thousands of souls can't deal with a few hundred upstart bandits?"

"Our fathers gave Lord Sohasurahan here a hard time, that's for sure." Lord Hariara said as he was reminded of Hutangali's initial request for aid "And to be fair, it also just doesn't make any sense. A realm capable of mustering three thousand warriors can't even lend a fraction of that amount to deal with bandits?"

"It's because half the warriors that we have are under the control of those damned elders! Ever since my father died not four years ago, the vassal lords have been quick to upend my each and every decision as king!" King Tagam said frustratedly "Every time I require something from them, they ask for concession after concession from me! Not especially those Siposoan bastards!"

"Your wife's clan?" Parulian raised an eyebrow. Well it would seem with that one piece of information had gave him a clearer picture on what the factions looked like within Hutangali.

"Don't even bother calling that wretched and vile witch that! It's bad enough that the bandits are laying about on their lands yet they have made no effort to spare even a single one of their warriors to try and take back our lands! At this point, I'm not even truly sure those bandits appearing in the land is a coincidence. I smell a conspiracy, and a treacherous one at that, but I lack solid proof of any foul play which is why I am so frustrated right now! Do you know how absolutely shameful it is for a king to go around practically begging his allies to help him? At this point I don't even mind actually swearing direct vassalage to the Hulubalang if it means I could be rid of those snakes!"

When King Tagam said that, the tension in the room grew a little more tense as even Lord Hasudungan had finally stopped his guitar playing. The Gorian warriors immediately started looking at one another because of what they just heard coming out of the king's mouth. A sovereign raja willingly submitting to another raja regardless of even if it was to the Hulubalang was unheard of and unthinkable outside of direct conquest. Parulian was questioning whether or not the king was just drunk on the wine and was speaking nonsense out of heightened emotions.

"Alright, I think we should all lay off on the wine for now because I don't think you're meaning what you're saying right now, lord King." Parulian said "You say these things but what of your peoples? What of the clans that have sworn fealty to you?"

"Did you not hear a word I said? Many of the clans are throwing their support behind the Siposoan and even the ones that are outwardly not hostile towards the Singalion would much rather sit back on the sidelines waiting to submit when a winner is clear to be seen. They have even shown signs of propping up my younger son Hasianta against his elder brother as my heir. Besides the forces of my lae here, clan Simarhosa, I trust no other clan with my life outside of mine own but even then I have to work my brothers to death to make sure our integrity is unquestioned."

Parulian could only throw his head back at the absolutely horrid situation the king of Hutangali was facing. He brought both his arms to his face before he looked the king dead in the eye. "You know, we were called here because of a request from an allied realm to deal with some bandits, not to deal with internal power struggles!"

"Look, Ruli, I truly do apologise for that, but unfortunately this also has ramifications with our relationship both with your realm, the church, and to a lesser extent the Newlander Republic!" Hearing this, Parulian could only fold his arms before he leaned in closer to focus on what the king was saying. He was beginning to regret drinking half a bottle of wine before this conversation started in earnest though at the same time, he wouldn't know how he'd receive such horseshit news without the help of the wine. Regardless, king Tagam had continued his explanation. "While outwardly, when my father had decided to accept baptism and the church all those years ago after Haumarara, most of the clans had appeared to accept the church, I know till this day there are a significant number of traditionalists and detractors within my own court."

"Well naturally so, bang." Parulian nodded as he knew all to well that even within Goria, there were still subsets of society - regardless of how clandestine - that were still apprehensive to fully embrace the new religion though with most Gorians being born and brought up within the faith it wasn't too big of a problem. "But again, unless they were openly opposing our efforts of christianisation, I can hardly see how that would trouble you to this extent. Eventually with efforts from the Lord Archbishop and a more intensive effort from our missionaries, even those hardliner traditionalists would cave in and die out. And besides that, hasn't your conversion aided in easing tensions and trade with the Bontarmata of the North? I would've suspected this to be quite an enticement to the more avaricious of your lords."

"That's why you have to hear me out, Ruli. The objection - for the most part - isn't to the religion itself but to the control of said religion. The church as it stands now in Hutangali is under the auspices of the Most Reverend Steinmann and indirectly under the supervision of the Lord Ephorus in Goria. Our elders do not like that and have repeatedly made efforts to try and outmaneuver the church and place their own people within the organisation. In doing so, they'd have an even stronger grasp on the people than what their previous privileges would even grant them. As it stands now, most of the native priests-in-training within the church are from the Siposoan clan and that bodes poorly for the future of my true line! They will brand my eldest son a bastard and have his claim along with that of his other siblings annulled. If that were to happen and word of it gets out to our allies in Rumaparau, what would you think the king would think to have his grandson and heir betrothed to a bastard?"

Parulian was exasperated by the current circumstances as they were far more complex than he had initially anticipated. Schemes within the church body, conspiracies to depose heirs, all of this happening in a realm tucked away within the mountains. Parulian looked to the priest Reverend Steinmann to see if he had any thoughts on this. Out of all the foreign missionaries besides the Lord Ephorus himself, Parulian had respected Reverend Albert Steinmann the most. Not just because he practically grew up with the foreign missionary as he came to the Halaklands at a very young age but also because he was a proud member of Gorian Halak society, being married to a Gorian noble lady as well as the father of Priscilla and her brother Reinhard who was one of the tiger-warriors that was a part of the expedition.

The Reverend looked to be deep in thought yet his expression also showed tinges of distraught as he was stroking his blond beard. Finally he took a deep breath before speaking.

"I came to the Halaklands at a young age as a young deacon missionary straight from a boat from Alfshaven in the Kaiserreich. I was barely sixteen at the time." Reverend Steinmann said with a hint of nostalgia "But despite my current vocation as humble servant of our Lord Jesus Christ, I was born the bastard son of a Count and his favourite mistress. Suffice it to say, I am no stranger to petty court politics and neither am I stranger to the politics of the church. But I had thought when I came here, and I started helping to grow that beloved Church within the Halaklands that we could build a church free from the ugly politics I so detested from back home. But after the Lord Ephorus had started trusting me more and more to grow the church - specifically here in Hutangali - where for long periods of time I have to leave my beloved family back in Goria, it hurts my heart to see the church I helped to nurture and grow fall to the same vices of debauched politics that wouldn't be strange to see in the churches of the papists!"

Parulian could understand where the reverend priest was coming from, but from the other hand, he couldn't help but wince and feel guilty. Though he didn't doubt for a second the sincerity that the Lord Ephorus had for the faith and to spread it to all peoples, neither was he doubting his own father's love for Christ, but regardless the church was still an institution, and it was a most useful institution to serve as a tool for politics. The very fact that the Ephorus in Goria was still the overarching prelate of the churches in Hutangali and Rumaparau was proof of that. However he had to give credit where credit was due. The fact that the elders of Hutangali - despite them being relatively more recent converts to the faith - would even have the idea to use the church for their own political gain speaks volumes of their shrewdness in politics.

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"However, with all that being said, despite how I personally feel on the matter, I can not in good conscience in turn bar any of the faithful from coming to the service of Christ and his church." Reverend Steinmann added while his expression became a little more dejected.

"Even when you know that there's reasonable doubt to the sincerity of these young men?" Lord Sohasurahan asked back, however it was king Tagam who answered back.

"No, the Reverend Father is right." King Tagam shook his head "As it stands now, regardless of how much sense it makes, we are working merely on conjecture and assumptions. We can't arbitrarily bar the young novices from joining the priesthood, especially when the ordination is set to happen near the end of the year. And once they're ordained, the odd circumstances of my marital status would be too much for even the Reverend Steinnman to wave away if the Siposoan were to ever lodge their complaints towards me. Especially now that Reverend Edward Hazelby has been captured by the bandits for months."

"That too is a huge concern for myself and the church as a whole." Reverend Steinmann spoke once more of a pressing matter "Though the Lord Ephorus has had his many disagreements with the good Reverend Hazelby, it is still a matter of great importance towards the church as a whole for him to be rescued. The man's expertise in the field of medicine is a Godsent talent and losing him will be detrimental to the work of the church."

"It would also be detrimental to me because he was the one that married me to Therese in the first place." King Tagam was slightly fidgety as he mentioned that fact.

"If I may be so blunt to speak, bang." Lord Mardomu spoke up again as he raised his hand to which the king nodded and obliged him to continue "Forgive me if you take this as me speaking out of turn, alai sudena i boi didokkon salam (All of this is your fault.)... Your insistence in marrying two women and having to wives is the entire cause for this predicament. I can barely handle the one wife that I have, let alone having two."

"Oy, that's my sister you're talking about, lae…" Lord Hasudungan said as he pointed towards Mardomu "...But you do have a point. About bang Tagam and his polygamy thing."

"Brothers, do you think I don't know that? If it were up to me I wouldn't want this either." the King sounded sincere in his defence.

"Then why'd you take that foreign woman as your wife in addition to the Lady of the Siposoan? All of this could have been avoided if you refrained from that." Mardomu continued in his critique of the king.

"Lae Mardomu, while I appreciate your concerns regarding this matter, I need to make one thing clear to everyone here so I don't get misunderstood!" King Tagam's tone turned serious "As far as I'm concerned, My Beloved Therese is my one and only wife in the eyes of Our Lord! When I met her in my youth, I fell in love instantly! A sweet girl who had lost her family and was being cared for by Father Hazelby. Regardless of what the elders say, though it was in secret, I had married her first, blessed by Father Hazelby and at the time she was my only wife! It was the first christian marriage to be performed in all of Hutangali! But then my father, no doubt coerced by those accursed elders, forced upon me to take that bitch whom I shall not name as a second wife and to the eyes of the 'adat' only that bitch marriage would be recognised. For God's sake, the first night I spent with that disgusting woman, I was practically poisoned by some witch concoction put inside of my drink!"

"...Honestly, anyone here besides the reverend father whose marriage was not arranged by their parents please show a raise of hands?" As Parulian asked that question, no one in the cave raised their hand. He then quickly refocused his expression towards King Tagam with a sly smile before explaining, "See? Every single one of us here sucked it up and learned to love our wives so…"

"Look, Ruli, the point is this. I love Therese and that's enough! I neither have the care nor the ability to try and rationalise and explain to you the concept of love but it really is as simple as 'I love Therese' and the story should've ended there! And honest to God Almighty, if you knew what that bitch had done to me throughout my life, you'd all quickly understand what I mean. Regardless of how pretty you are on the outside, if the inside is already so hideous, there's no point to even continue like that. But Therese is different! She's kind, patient, understanding… anything a man could wish for in a wife and ten times more!"

"Your arguments would be a thousand times more convincing if you hadn't fathered four children with the Lady of the Siposoan." Parulian shook his head as he filled in his wine goblet once more.

"God forbid a man make the best of the rotten situation he was put in!" King Tagam harrumphed before he finally shook his head in a resigned sigh "But regardless of all of that, my friends, the threat to the family I love is real. I am at a loss as to what to do and my wife is heartbroken that her adopted father is suffering away, going through unimaginable suffering in the throes of bandit trash! All the while my beloved children are being sidelined and my realm is being torn apart from under me…"

"Then that leaves us back to square one, what exactly are you trying to achieve here? We need clear goals and fixing the problems you've described without plunging your realm into the chaos of civil war is a difficult ask…"

"Gentlemen, what I imperatively need right now is to grow my own base of power while undermining the elders. Regardless of whatever else is happening, the pain being felt from the interrupted trade routes to the republic is very real. Without that road, I can not supply my clan's personal forces with enough munitions and neither can I effectively trade the spices that the Bontarmata want in their markets. Hutangali's ports are grossly underdeveloped and relying on Rumaparau would only really benefit them which is why I said earlier that I might as well establish myself as a direct vassal of the Hulubalang and under the protection of Goria, I can effectively gather my strength. Besides, it's just a formality in the end anyways. I have spoken with my brothers here and the most honoured Simarhosa clan and they don't oppose the plan. I believe the Hulubalang will be fair in his ruling and won't treat us any differently than he does now."

As Parulian heard the offer, he couldn't help but nod while scratching his bearded chin in deep thought. "You've given me a lot to think of, no doubt. However, again, I don't yet have the full authority to make a decision as important as that. And honestly, what we have to face currently takes precedence over any other future 'what-if' scenarios."

"And I wholeheartedly agree with you. As I said before, our most immediate concern is of course the eradication of the bandit scum. If we're lucky we might even find some documents that would incriminate my opposition and help to root out the corruption from within."

"Alright, then let's talk real here for a bit. How many men can you truly send out to help in taking care of this problem?" Parulian asked matter-of-factly.

"Including myself and my son, I can spare three-hundred good warriors, most of whom are awakened to at least the first star with the non-aura users being our musketeer contingent. However, every casualty that we incur would greatly damage the balance of power I have maintained with the elders."

"...Hmmm… Alright then…" As Parulian was thinking, an idea had popped up in his head which caused him to grin "I am very sure the Lord favours us as his righteous soldiers. Though the plan I have in mind would be considerably risky on my part, I have the confidence that each of my men are worth at the very least ten of the bandits'. If all things go according to plan, I don't see how we would even incur any casualties. All I need you and your men to do is to set up defensive perimeters surrounding the more vulnerable points of the enemy fort and their points of escape to cut them off from running away."

"To be honest though, even if it's against half a thousand of those bandits, I'm very confident just the five of you are surely more than enough to wipe that fort out five times over." King Tagam said offhandedly as he truly believed the five Gorian warriors were capable of that which elicited laughter from the men "But regardless, I shall do as you direct, Ruli."

"While I respect the confidence you have in us, truly, it isn't good to underestimate any enemy. If we were going by that logic, my father the Swordsaint would've just conquered the entirety of the Halaklands on his own the moment he attained the control of a 'domain'. But even a Swordsaint would find it difficult to unite a people on his own."

"True enough. Anyways, I don't know about you all but I'm getting very dizzy here… The drinks are starting to catch up to me, I fear…" King Tagam said as he got up from the cave's ground and walked towards the open ledge overlooking the great Patni Valley "...We should continue strategising tomorrow… During more sober hours. Hahahaha!"

"Emma tutu." Parulian said as he too got up and walked up next to King Tagam upon the ledge as he laid his eyes upon the valley shone by the small flickering lights of torches from the villages with the backdrop of the gorgeously shimmering stars upon the ebony horizon. "Honestly though, bang, I don't envy your situation at all. But there is one thing I think I can be envious of you."

"And what would that be, Ruli?"

"Your realm is well and truly beautiful…" Parulian had closed his eyes as he felt the midnight breeze flow through and around his body. He even outstretched his arms to the sky as the stars looked so close it was like he could grab them.

The only thing ruining the absolutely marvelous scene and atmosphere was Lord Ronggur's sudden snoring which surprised everyone for a second but they all laughed afterwards.

"...You know, Ruli, with all the fatigue and stress I've been feeling lately, nights like these with friends and a beautiful atmosphere is truly wonderful…" King Tagam said "And when I see the beautiful night sky, sometimes I just wish I can fly straight to heaven and leave all of these useless worries behind…"

"I know what you mean…"

"You know, that actually reminds me of a song, my Lords." Lord Hariara Idabagak said as he too walked up to the ledge with his hands behind his back. "I'm sure the Reverend Father knows the song well too."

"Hmmm, though I know of Lord Idabagak's most beautiful singing talents, do you think it wise to disturb the quiet peace at this late hour?" Reverend Steinmann said as he smiled sheepishly.

"Bah! I would dare anyone from the valley complaining to their king for trying to unwind with his friends every once in a while…" The King waved away Reverend Steinmann's concerns "Go on ahead, brother Ara."

Lord Hariara smiled as he took in a deep breath of the cold yet soothing night heir as he wrapped himself with his ulos tighter, "~Na mulak Jesus i, di dihasangapon i. Mangalap nabadia i, tu hasonangan i. (When Christ makes His return, in Glory from up on high! To bring up all His saints on earth… to eternal happiness!)"

Truly, among all his male peers, Parulian could not lie and had to admit it was Lord Hariara who was blessed with the most beautiful singing voice among all the Halak. Sometimes the world just straight up wasn't fair. It wasn't enough that the Idabagak Lord was blessed with superior martial prowess and the looks of an angel, he just had to have the voice of one too. As Lord Hariara started singing, Lord Hasudungan wasted no time to accompany the man on his guitar with equally skillful melodic playing.

Not wanting to be left out of the party, everyone else there joined in singing the chorus as they divided their voices so naturally with Parulian taking the role of bass. "~Hutundalhon ma, na di pudingki. Jesus ma haposanki, di haroroNa i! (I will leave it all, far behind of me! Only Jesus will I hold, when He returns for me!)"

As if he didn't want to lose to the Gorian lord, King Tagam let out a powerful yet no less melodious voice as he sang another verse of the song, "Nang arta, sangap i, tu aha ringkot i? Na tading do sudena i, di hamagoan i. (All riches, glory, vain… For what do we hold on? For all is left in folly, and all is darkness still.)

" ~Hutundalhon ma, na di pudingki. Jesus ma haposanki, di haroroNa i! (I will leave it all, far behind of me! Only Jesus will I hold, when He returns for me!)"

And so the men continued to sing into the night, managing to still sound oh so great despite the fact that the lot of them were drunker than any lord should be. And naturally all of that could be heard throughout the valley and even to the village, but no one paid it too much mind as the people of Hutangali had rarely heard such wonderful singing. Some people might even think it was actual angels coming down to sing, but regardless, it was but the cries of tired men.

***

Josias had found it hard to sleep in the village barracks even though it was so late at night. It was most probably all the excitement that was building up in him. As he was fidgeting left and right, he finally thought of getting up and praying. It might help him be granted peace of mind as everyone else was asleep. But it was then when he had just finished his prayer did he hear the beautiful yet familiar voices whom he knew to belong to his father and his friends singing in the middle of the night.

But despite the poor choice of timing in such ungodly hours, Josias couldn't help but laugh quietly and smiled before laying himself back down upon his bed. The beautiful singing actually managed to help him somewhat and soon enough he was drifting soundly back to sleep as he hummed the song tiredly before finally entering into his dreams.