Finua

Chapter 28: Colonel Hort

The Second Siege was a conclusive success, and Berahd was indisputably colonized a few short months later. The castle-city's off-white marble quickly faded into gray: the color of advancing industry and commercial progress. But far from inflicting an authoritarian regime, Lady Cerrex did the opposite: she liberated. Where once citizens were oppressed by punishing anti-violence and anti-hate doctrines, now they were free to kill and harass to their heart's content, as long as their victims were legally allowed to defend themselves. Before, a human or an elf could be walking down the beige cobblestone streets of Berahd, unarmed, unsuspecting, and although they would never get jumped by a random bloodthirsty goblin, they would be completely defenseless if they were. Now, however, getting jumped by a goblin was all but inevitable, but the victim would now be entitled to bear arms against their attacker (they were fully allowed to bear arms before, but everyone sort of forgot this).

But as with all mighty civilizations, there always exist those who would destabilize the peaceful status quo for a new, better one. It was our job to stamp out such uprisings. In a token act of good-will and cultural inclusion, goblin patrols painted their armor blue, to represent their solidarity with the blueplates of Berahd.

On a standard day, you could look out your (typically shattered) window and see a line of captured Berahd terrorists lining the curb, shackled and awaiting processing by the Dark Army who had captured them. These criminals were then rounded onto a motor vehicle (which were recharged in special magic fueling stations that smelled oddly of gasoline), and then sent to the inner Castle for internment and questioning, during which they tragically died of unrelated causes. This inner superstructure, which the marble city preceded and surrounded homogenously, consisted of eight great Towers, aligned with the eight points of a compass, five of which served as the new personal headquarters of the Dark Army's highest council: Haraku, Quabbius, Denthrak, Noboru, and Pack. Two others were occupied by Cerrex and whatever the hell kind of material possessions someone like that would have, respectively. But the last one, North, the highest spire of Berahd and perhaps the world, remained unconquered: the High Queen herself remained barricaded in this structure, and not even Cerrex had gotten around to unlocking a door through the High Queen's magic. It was the last piece of Berahd not under our control. But it was also largely insignificant, with the High Queen's involvement being largely indirect, and her magic defensive, preventative, and often bafflingly abstract. Nobody seemed to know the nature or extent of whatever she was doing up there, so all we could do was keep our boots on the ground and control the populace directly.

To this end, I was assigned a patrol.

There was to be one man in charge of me, and one of which I was in charge. The latter arrived at my house on the morning which I was to report to the former. In a pockmarked marble nook, once belonging to some worthless line cook whose body currently rotted under the floorboards, I had taken up residence with Ahka, Vanessa, Kwer, and Lugoke: and Lugoke, likewise, had invited in Buck, who had himself brought in his girlfriend, who had herself promptly left after feeling extraordinarily unsafe. Yusla, squatting with Inko some blocks away with their respective squads, spent his days extorting humans and elves for homecooked food and sexual favors.

"He's huge!" Buck said with delight, stomping around the room and watching Ahka follow him like a smitten duckling.

"He is walking!" Lugoke said, with what sounded like genuine surprise.

"He's been walking," I growled at him.

"We've been super-busy out there, Finua," Buck lamented. "Even I've been busy on my own! For some reason, every time Berahd and Syfor Lek have a council, Lady Cerrex requests my presence as a spokesperson! She wants me to represent you guys, or something. It's wild. What a coincidence that I'm one of the only humans on your side."