The Undying Emperor [Grand Conquest Fantasy]

I loathe the tiresome details of explaining defunct legal systems, but I must make an exception at this time or the events of the revolution will make little sense. No leader rules alone. Lesser historians accuse the bloody king of attempting to rule alone, and they say that was why his response to the revolution was so ineffectual and violent. Their evidence for this is misleading at best.

The year prior, much of King Charles' administrators were killed either by the Bureaucrat's Coup, or were part of it and killed by Acheliah. This left vacancies for which there were no suitable nobles to fill the role. A truly tiresome amount of secondhand nobility had served King Charles. The man had a penchant for scooping up those done a disservice by the muddy laws of inheritance as well as widows and widowers. In short, he recruited nobles who were made dependent on their stipends for service. The system has merits, but is only as strong as the charisma of the current ruler. Had King Fredriech been able to inherit the good will of the councillors from his father, his reign would have been much improved.

Instead, he had no choice but to call up those lesser people whom the council would have directed. He truncated the hierarchy and attempted to work with men of a lesser caliber directly. The true error he made was his attempt to leave their respective pays as they had been. He saw himself as taking on more work rather than pulling the administrators higher and ladening them with more responsibility. Resentment was natural. Envy followed as these low-born, pseudo-nobles failed to secure themselves better accommodations. The manors and estates near the palace became tangled in inheritance settlements, often vacant save for the serving staff, while the men doing the work of governing had to walk to the palace every day.

One could not imagine a more fertile field for a man of intrigue to plow. Bribes became especially powerful because the Feugard boy had stockpiles of the old coinage, while they were paid in the diminished mint. Seduction occurred as well, both physical and ideological(1). This was such an obvious tactic that it presented opportunity for meeting with him and under circumstances he himself had made secret no less.

The host of the night was a balding bachelor known throughout the court as a cretin. Despite is effective power in the kingdom, his meal was unimpressive. Aside from the wine, a roasted rabbit could be found on a poor craftsman's table. The wine, however, was exquisite. Taken from the king's own cellar, it was of a vintage unattainable by the common man, given to him in lieu of money.

The fine port wetted another's throat, while the host drank naught but his own blood.

Austin Feugard found the door unlocked, his calls unanswered save by the scrape of utensils against porcelain. With no servants to tend to the house, the only illumination in the night was a few candles to either side of the blackened pot. "Just in time, I was about to eat the other half," Golden said, mouth still half full with the dry meat. He washed it down with the wine and grinned as panic struck the Feugard boy.

His analytical mind won out, even after seeing the slumped form of the host at the other side of the table. A bib of blood colored his shirt. "You have me at a loss."

"Oh come now, is the light that bad?" Golden asked, pulling one of the candles closer to cast his face in a flickering, reverse illumination. The dark pockets of his eyes twisted with his grin. "This is far from the first time we've met."

"The priest. Solhart's accomplice," Austin said, pulling out a seat and joining him in the gloom. Elsewhere in the city, a thousand minor crimes were being committed, and a thousand more people were being preached to. Over a bottle of wine in the dark, the two sharpest minds in the city began to talk.

"It seems to me," Golden said as he filled a goblet for Austin. "That you don't have a good means of winning this revolution. Legally speaking."

"Legally?" Austin responded, tasting the wine with the manners of a noble.

The former angel shrugged, waving a bone in his hand for emphasis. "You have the manpower, sure, but then what? Do you plan to drag out the king and cut off his head? Gabriel would be the claimant then."

"Gabriel is on an adventure and unlikely to survive. Kassie would be the claimant, if I plan to cut off his head at all. I do that, and Acheliah would flay me alive."

Golden snickered. "She would, if she could. She's absent though."

"Which is why I was coming here. To buy another man," Austin said, gesturing to the corpse.

Stolen novel; please report.

Golden clicked his tongue and shook his head. "Not a good idea, that one. When the king came down on him for the loss of Donjon, he proved to be the type of man whose loyalty is secured through such force. He would have turned you in."

"Perhaps. Glory is not won without chance."

The former angel laughed and poured him more wine, until the goblet nearly overflowed. "You were aware of the coup before it happened, yes? Perhaps you were aware they expected the angel to be gone the too? Did your sources inform you how that was supposed to happen?"

Austin pursed his lips and accepted the wine. Eyes narrow, he watched Golden. "No, they did not. That's why I expected it to fail."

"I'm sure you're aware that Acheliah, like the other divine beasts of the world, is an army unto herself, yes? Perhaps you think peace largely reigns because the angels are keep each other in check? That belief isn't entirely unfounded. Acheliah isn't like a human. She doesn't merely need a good night's sleep to get her strength back. If she were to exhaust herself fighting someone like the wolf lords of Skaldheim, or Aurum in the central kingdoms it would be years before she could fight again. In fact, the analogy of an army holds here. If you break an army upon another of equal numbers unless you have spectacular tactics your own forces will be depleted and then what? Raise new levies? Of fresh recruits who know nothing of the hardship of violence? Even if you got the numbers back through conscription, it would not be an army as strong. It takes years to rebuild, for armies and for the divine. If two emissaries of the gods were to clash, any of the others could subjugate them with ease. Or an entity worse. That's the secret they keep from the masses. There are much worse things out there, and one of those entities of wrath was the coup's plan. He was absent then. He is present now."

"Delinquent once, but should be trusted now?"

"Glory is not won without chance," Golden said, relishing in the wine. "At least in this case, you will be in a position to escape if she returns. Your revolution needs legitimacy, and there is no greater legitimacy in the eyes of the people than the founding of the kingdom. The first king was not ordained by Acheliah, he was elected by the people. Only his successors, whom grew up under her guidance, were crowned by her. Thus, the root of his legitimacy is back to the will of the people and times have changed. Thousands of families cast their vote for the founder. How many noble families remain? And among them, how many are but branches of the same family? In truth, you can count them on one hand, while the low born are countless. It's true that many harken their roots to foreign kingdoms, but hardly a man alive cannot trace his lineage back to the original families. They are lowborn by one crime or another, stripped of their status forever more by the actions of their forefathers. Actions which were taken only by kings annointed by Acheliah, not by the will of the people. A new conclave can be called, and assert the restoration of all rights to all descendants. That conclave will be the root of your legitimacy."

The historical record attesting to these facts had not seen the light of day in centuries, and no mortal had read it. Legitimacy is a matter of perception however. Its purpose is to induce obedience. The fundamental law of human nature is that of self-interest. A seven hundred year old ritual would only be seen as more legitimate than the king if the conclave appeared to serve the self-interests of the people more than the current king could.

Austin Feugard considered this. He drank the king's wine and contemplated, his vision expanding far beyond a mere list of legal reforms. His promises of a new paradigm at last had a concrete path forward.

"You won't be a king," Golden cautioned as he carved off the last morsel of meat from the dead man's rabbit. "But you will rule. And then you will be the one that will have to deal with the terrors of the night. That which Acheliah kept at bay. I tell you this because that is why you will need me. You will need my conspirator, and you will need Lucius just as she needed him."

Insight struck him. "The tasks. The reason she summoned him to the capital."

Golden nodded. "Why she gave him gold and an army and the king's authority. She was his hunting dog and he proved that even a mortal can keep the realm safe, now that we have ley cannons. The age of the divine has been ended by the ingenuity of man."

"We'll have to break open the libraries of the temples," Austin said, a grin now on his face. "I think they've hoarded their secrets for long enough. Why should a good merchant have to pay a tithe to sail the seas because only they can chart the lanes?"

"You may find things you don't want to know, if you do that," Golden said after washing down the last of his voracious meal.

"Such as?"

"The mundane answer would be samples of the creatures that live at the bottom of the goddess' ocean. Disgusting things are down there. You might also learn just how many people the temple allowed to die in the name of their goddess," Golden answered, and from that moment, the Feugard boy was truly ensnared. There was little direct control, but that just made him more useful at breaking things I wanted broken. Most importantly, there was very little time between the tenuous alliance and his realization that he was dependent on Lucius, but that I will come to in due time.

The king had not yet been toppled, and one last member of the Warden Blades had yet to be fully subdued. At this time, the Steel Blade was not broken.

It should be noted that Austin Feugard did not engage in physical seduction himself. Charm of that sort was not one of his interests and without the allure of status tied to his family name, few women were blinded by him.