Blade(Part 1): Dawn

Chapter 38: Xerxei

Xerxei, Kai, and Akhtar were all summoned to Skaola's capital, Septe, but not only the capital city. The three of them were summoned to the capital building, the palace of King Aziz himself. There was only one reason they would be summoned back to Septe so quickly. Akhtar had almost caught up to Alexius, and was ordered to report to Septe right as she arrived at Noglidas. What she arrived in the city, though, was a terrible sight. It was a riot. Akhtar told Kai and Xerxei that she saw half the population of the entire city with weapons in their hands, killing every Skaolan soldier they saw. Akhtar sensed boiling rage from every colonist, and it was driving them to stab their spears and swords into the soldiers of Skaola dozens and dozens of times. She swore she saw one group of colonist even rip the limbs off of one swordsman. Being Skaolan-born herself, she was terrified of what might happen to her. Kai and Xerxei were with Akhtar as she told King Aziz of what she saw in the capital city of Astros. The King was angry, sitting on his throne carved from a rock that was as black as night, or the Abyss itself.

"Traitors," he growled. "Scum. They dare defy my rights to the lands of Northern Orathan? To all lands? They forget that every piece of land under Zenartha's great, blue sky is mine. Every ocean, every river, every hill, every rock, to the tiniest specks of dust. So be it. I will erase every memory of those colonies from history itself." Surely, the King was exaggerating.

"How would you do that, my lord?" Xerxei wondered.

"You will be silent unless I address you!" Aziz roared. "Do not test me, Xerxei. You will find that my wrath is greater than anything that the other gods can bring upon you." Xerxei wasn't the least bit intimidated, but he remained silent.

"You know what to do, Shadows," Aziz growled. "I ordered your arrival here to give you these orders myself."

"It makes clear how seriously you are taking this, that's for sure," said Akhtar. "What would you have us do?"

"I will be sending you back north with a fleet of hundreds," King Aziz declared. "You will take Noglidas back from these insurgents, and you will cleanse the city. Leave no one alive. The other colonies simply require a reminder of what happens when you challenge the will of a god. I would like the three of you to be that reminder. Do you understand this?"

The three Shadows all said, "Yes, sir."

"Be gone," the King spat, waving them away. The three of them left the throne hall through its huge golden doors. The black statues of the sitting thirty-foot jackals on either side of it seemed to be watching them as they went down the corridors of the palace.

"So, I guess we're about to fight another war," Akhtar sighed. "Even after finally taking Acran. It shouldn't be difficult to quell this rebellion, though."

"I don't know about that," said Xerxei. "After everything we've done to them?"

"Well, they deserve it," Akhtar hissed. "You know Aziz conquers everything he sees. He conquered the colonies. He is the one who fought to control them and won. When you lose a war, you don't get to decide what happens to you. Those colonies are only fragments of the countries that founded them, and were constantly at war with one another. Aziz brought order to chaos, and now, they're plunging themselves into chaos again. It's best that we wipe all of their cities out, not just Noglidas." Xerxei didn't know whether to agree with or be scared of Akhtar's words. While she was his friends, and agreed that the people of Noglidas were far out of line, he didn't believe that every colony deserved to be punished for a single colony's actions.

"That's one way of thinking about it," Xerxei admitted. "But I seriously doubt it would be that easy, even for us."

"But would we risk every one of those colonies rising against us?" asked Akhtar. "I think not."