I entered the palace like I was stepping barefoot on broken glass.
We walked escorted by the hunter across dilapidated corridors until we reached a great hall with half of the roof top missing and vegetation punching through what remained of the floor tiles. There was still a little daylight entering from the open roof, but most of the illumination came from torches and a bonfire in the middle of the room. It smelled like a mix of moss and smoke.
There were several orcs and goblins going to their respective duties inside that main hall. They observed me with the same surprise and apprehension as humans would an orc entering the royal palace in the capital.
In the opposing wall there was an orc sitting on an improvised throne made of wood and fur.
The first thing one would notice is that half his face and upper body had been burnt badly, but the scars only made him look more intimidating. He was big and incredibly muscular, more the size of an ogre than an orc.
Yet, at the same time, he looked old. It was not his body that gave this impression, just some wrinkles and the lack of light in his remaining eye.
He said something to the orcs accompanying me in a guttural language that I could not understand, the annoyance in his voice was clear even without comprehension.
“The lass is the emissary and want to speak with you, boss.” One of the hunters replied.
“So, Emissary, speak!” The orc boss said to me in a heavily accented Imperial. That was not the power of the Seal, he really knew our language.
“I ... I came here in the ... in the name of Her Majesty, Queen Julya Dimetres of Central.”
Suddenly the entire place became silent. Everybody stopped what they were doing and looked at me, pretty much as expected.
Except for the orc boss.
He appeared ... unfazed, glaring at me with an emotionless stare.
I felt a cold chill in my spine.
“So, the Gods sent another one...” He made a dismiss gesture to the crowd and shouted, “Leave us!”
The crowd left the hall. I looked at Uther and said that he should probably also leave, what he did reluctantly.
I was alone with their leader, using all my willpower to keep my cool and appear dignified, the results been less than ideal.
“My name is Garaktinur, I am the boss of this mob. What the emissary of the Gods desire of us?” I could tell by his voice that the seal was affecting him, but there was also some veiled hostility toward me.
And I was the emissary of Her Majesty, not the Gods, but I was not going to correct him now.
“What the Gods desire? I ... I mean ...the Gods, request that your group leave this place and return to the southern lands.”
I had thought about what the best alternative would be and realized I could just order them to leave the forest and return to Cartographer's Bane. That would avoid unnecessary bloodshed with no need for deals and negotiations.
He just lowered his head, his expression tired and sorrowful, defeated even.
“If this is your wish, I will make it so. I just ask for a small concession, let me kill the females and the wounded first, so that they will not need to starve during the march. That way some of us may even survive long enough to do whatever it is that you demand of us.”
I was taken aback.
“What? No! I don’t want that!”
“I am sorry, I should have expected no mercy. We all will suffer the fate that we must then.”
“No, you don’t understand! I don’t want your people to die. I don’t want anyone to die. Why do you think I would want that?” I asked exasperatedly, dropping any attempt to appear imposing.
That was his time to look confused, I suppose my reaction was not what he anticipated. I think he realized that there was something off about me, so after a moment of awkward silence, he reclined and began to explain himself:
“When the man in red armor came to my village, it was the happiest day of my life. To hear the voice of the Gods was indescribable, it filled my hearth with joy and purpose.
“The man in red armor said he wanted to conquer the human lands to the North, so I offered our best warriors to accompany him, but that was not enough. He demanded that we take all our food and depart with everybody that could walk, leaving anyone that couldn’t. I wanted to protest, but that was the will of the Gods, so we left our newborn and elders to die.
“During the march, one of my wives got hurt, but we could not stop to treat her, so she died. Many more died, so many that I lost count, but we had victories and plunder, so we were too elated to realize the cost of all that.
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“Until we reached the great wall.
“I am a warrior, death does not scare me, but no matter how brave one is, a fortress like that should never be attacked head on. We needed machines, magic, great beasts, and most important, we needed time and preparation.
“The moment we set foot in the city, the man in red armor ordered the attack.
“That was not combat, it was just a massacre. We never even reached the walls. So many died. So many... I don’t know why I survived. I wish I didn’t.
“One day, I watched a hydra devastate a nearby encampment, indifferent to whether it would come our way. Bodies piled so high against the walls that they threatened to overflow. I finally realized the bottomless cruelty of the Gods. I had lost everything; only a few of my people were alive, broken, and wounded. So, I left. Some others followed me and more joined during our wandering. There was no food left, so we ate the humans, then our dead, and finally, our dying.
“Until we found this forest. This place offers us some shelter and we can forage, fish and hunt, but we are barely surviving. Winter will come soon, and we have almost nothing in stock.
“If we leave this place now, it will be the dead of us. But I am just tired, if the Gods want us dead that much, I would rather to just end it quickly.”
I just stood there dumbstruck, opening and closing my mouth, trying for words that never came.
That was not what I expected, that was not what I expected at all.
He got up and stood in front of me with an evaluating stare. I never felt so small in my life.
“You are chosen by the Gods, but you are not a leader, are you? You speak with borrowed authority; I sense none of your own.” He came close to my ear and asked with a low, cold voice. “What are you?”
All the willpower I had was barely enough for me to not wet myself. I was paralyzed by fear, sure that he could kill me even if I used the power of the Seal on him.
But he just stepped back.
“You must be tired from your trip; I will arrange accommodations. We can discuss what you want tomorrow.” And he walked off the room, leaving me alone.
I fell on my knees like a puppet with its strings cut.
***
Me and Uther were directed to a room in the broken palace. There was a haystack with crude leather sheets on top that could pass for a bed, rock piles that were used as stools and a low table. That was as pauper as it would get, but by the standard of this village that could be considered a luxurious bedroom.
I sat on one of the improvised rock stools, still feeling the aftermath of the adrenaline rush from my confrontation with the Orc boss.
“Gift, are you ok? You are pale as a sheet of paper." Inquired Uther, visibly worried.
I nodded, but I was not sure if I was ok or not.
My mind was spinning. There were several things about me and the power I received that I had ignored or downplayed up until now, but I could not anymore. One thing in special was hammering in my mind so loudly that I let it slip:
“I could have ordered then to kill themselves.”
“What are you … you are trembling!”
I was very scared of Garaktinur of course, but I was mostly afraid of myself. I remained silent for a moment, putting in order what I wanted to say.
“I could have ordered them to march to their deaths, and they would obey. I could wipe out this entire village with just one phrase. It would be the easiest way to solve this, requiring barely any effort.”
The story of Garaktinur made me finally understand the nature of the Seal’s power. What it had was not the power to dominate monsters, it was loyalty, they obeyed the one carrying the Seal as an act of loyalty.
During the siege I never questioned the drive those monsters had to run to certain death to fulfil the desires of a tyrant, I just believed the monsters were stupid, with no regard for their own lives. But it was not that, they drew their lives away for loyalty to a man that was just using them for his own egoistic reasons.
“I don’t want to do something like that.” I said with a small voice.
“Why not?” Inquired Uther. I looked at him, his face was neutral, but I could sense some displeasure. He was a soldier and a strategy that would annihilate your enemy without any drawbacks was not something he would discard without reason.
“If you order me to do it, I will, but I don’t want to. They are just trying to survive here; most can’t even fight. The monsters are not innocent, they have killed thousands and committed unspeakable acts, but they also got only suffering and loss from this war.
“I understand now that the cause of all that misery was not them; it was the Seal and the one wielding it.” I lowered my head, dropped my shoulders, and squeezed my hands. “And I am both now.”
I thought about the monster army as something another person with a similar power would do, but it finally sunk in that I now had the capacity to do something just as terrible.
Did I have the guts to do it? Not at that point, at least. But add a convenient solution here, a lesser evil there, slowly getting accustomed to seeing monsters as tools, increasing the number of casualties I would tolerate as collateral damage or unavoidable sacrifices to whatever goal I was aiming for, no matter if noble or selfish...
It was the first time I understood the scale of the terrifying gift I had received.
I had no idea what the future held for me or how I would be used, but it dawned on me that I did not want to be the source of so much despair and suffering.
“I will not force you, but we need to remove the monsters as a threat and open the roads to Nariel.” His voice had none of the playful undertone it usually had; that was Prince Uther, second in line to the throne of Central, that was speaking. “They don’t have the fighting power Allan described, but what they have now is still enough to devastate all villages and farms near Silver Lake and kill hundreds before we can counter them. Even if they do nothing, just blocking the roads will cripple our commerce with Nariel, increasing the price of food and pushing over the edge the families that today are just scrapping by.
“Before the war, the King of Nariel was talking with us about an alliance. After the war, things got complicated, now we are the ones that need this alliance badly. If we can’t show that we are still able to deal with our own problems, this alliance will not happen, and our neighbors can decide that nibble at our borders is worth the risk after all.”
He came closer and put his hands on my shoulders, his voice switching to a kinder tone: “You can leave the negotiation tomorrow with me, the monster leader can speak our language, you don’t need to get involved. I shouldn't had involved you in the first place.”
I did not look at Uther, just kept staring at the floor.
“I want to do this. No, I need to do this.”
“You did more than enough. We were able to get in without any confrontation, but I was wrong to put the negotiation on your shoulders.”
I raised my head and, mustering all the determination I had, looked straight into his grey eyes. “I will do what you need of me, even if I ultimately must do something that will make me hate myself, I will do it. I will be useful to you. I will remove the monsters as a threat and open the roads, I promise you.”
We kept our stares locked in silence for a few instants.
“Fine, Miss Emissary, I will let the negotiations in your care.” He touched my face and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. “Do you have a plan?”
“Yes, it is simple, really: I will just tell Garaktinur the truth.”
