The Veneer of Injustice

Part 7

Earth Moon 9, 1527 C.Q

My chambers were silent except for the soft chinks that came from my armor as I buckled on each piece. I wore armor every day, but this armor was different: each piece, from my greaves to my chest plate and chainmail tunic, was lightly painted with a dark green color which would camouflage well in Emerstones' evergreen forests. The weapons-belt was also thicker and stronger and contained enough loops for all my weapons – my sword, four daggers, two pouches of stones and a sling, and four pouches of enchanted items and powders. I also wore sheathes on my back for a set of dual-wielding blades and a quiver complete with twenty arrows and a small crossbow. The armor itself was even lighter and suppler than my usual dress, and an emerald enchanted with a strong communication spell was inlaid over my heart.

I slid my swords into their sheathes and then reached for my helmet. The top of the helmet, above the clear face-guard, was studded with emeralds that would shine only for those looking through a face-guard issued by Emerstones' armed forces, the military and the guard corps. Because every soldier had armor exactly like mine, these emeralds on my helmet were meant to mark me as the prince of Emerstones and supreme military commander.

The sight of these emeralds reminded me – as if I needed a reminder – of why I wore this armor.

My beloved princedom faced an invasion. And, though I did not wish to remember, I could not avoid the memory of the last invasion, which had occurred when I was fifteen and had devastated me. Before it had happened, I had begun to make plans of how I could change Emerstones for the better – I had even begun to write speeches announcing the transformations that had taken place in my heart and mind. But everything changed for me in that invasion: fighting by my father's side, I learned that we had been invaded only because our neighbors thought my father was growing soft and weak and becoming unable to properly discipline his people. Seeing an opportunity, the other princes had decided to seize the resources they coveted instead of being content with the trickle they received through trade with the crown's official agents. The massive army that they brought in their attack razed three defenseless villages and nearly seized an emerald mine before my father completed the execution of his strategy and massacred their troops. Though Emerstones won, we suffered heavy casualties, alongside a horrifying number of civilian deaths, and many of the surviving soldiers were plagued by their terrible memories of the war until after my coronation, when I finally found a healer with enough magic to soothe their illnesses. Like the other veterans of the war, I, too, still had nightmares sometimes of those destroyed villages and the blood I had had to shed to achieve victory. In the aftermath, I resolved on two things: to improve my father's grand defense strategy, as comprehensive as it had been, so that the capital would receive better, earlier warnings next time, and to keep Emerstones a tyranny under my reign.

I closed my eyes and pursed my lips. This invasion will not be a repeat of the last one. No matter the blood that I may need to spill, I will protect Emerstones. May my conscience be blackened if it will ensure that my people live. May the Almighty grant this one wish of this unworthy soul.

Murmuring a prayer under my breath, I placed my helmet on my head and swung a thick yet light waterproof military-issue cloak over my broad shoulders. I latched the small plain clasp of the cloak over my neck and checked that the small knives I had slid into tiny sheathes in my boots, greaves, and bracers were secure.

Taking a deep breath, I left my chambers and, as I strode through the halls, began to consider all the battle strategies I had drafted over the last eleven years.

Even amid my planning, I noted the fright etched onto the faces of the staff, guards, and soldiers as they rushed about the castle in preparation. Though they bowed to me when they saw me in acknowledgement, for once that fright was not directed towards me, and they were not preoccupied with how they should behave in my presence.