"You monsters! Listen well! I am Varun, king of Malangri, no, king of Chalt, king of the realm! You will lay at my feet willing or dead! Come on! Who wants to defy me?!"
A hundred orcs chanted the name of Varun, the human, their king. Those boar monsters had been waiting for this for so long.
"No more killing! No more pyres! And no more skulls! You will follow my rules, human rules!"
"Varun! Varun!" They chanted even long after his speech was over. Even when hunting, as a tribute they kept shouting it: "Varun!"
"You will eat what I eat, you will drink what I drink, you will live in houses and for goodness sake you are going to wear clothes! You ragtag of brutes! I will turn you into an empire!"
The fit of an angry man had turned into a creed and with that, the ruins of Chalt revived.
His first order had been to conquer the tower of Malangri. The tall pyramid, he had probably thought, would be too much for such a small number. He did not understand how the dying realm worked.
Monsters were born from mana. No matter how many died, more would come. By the time the last floor was cleared and the human brought to the summit, the orcs were legion.
There, atop the realm, he built a palace for himself.
I would have called it a pavilion at most but to him, this was enough. A hundred retainers in livery would carry him on a palanquin, bring him food, bathe him and clothe him, deliver perfume and music.
They were still orcs, ravenous brutes, but would smelt ore and carry lanterns all the same.
With Malangri secured, the human ordered that the rest of the city be taken. Again he thought that task impossible. The mana drain would prove him right but for now, his horde assailed the temples and gardens under the drums of war.
And so the human was happy.
He would come at his balcony, wearing the ornaments his servants now gathered for him, and he would watch his empire slowly grow.
Behind him the menilis approached, her light steps always a pleasure to his ears. She jumped to hug him and purr against his chest.
Then she stepped back and showed him: "Look! A lotus!"
The flower she had found meant that the waters had stopped stagnating. The stench of Chalt slowly lifted, replaced by crystalline sources on which generous bulbs floated wide open. On the walls, on the stone slabs, everywhere plants were growing again.
"And there are birds! I saw birds fly below!" The menilis was beaming with joy. "Oh Varun! Is that another of your miracles?"
"Maybe, maybe." He answered with feint modesty.
He looked the part of a king, had dressed her as a princess, forbid the veils and still she wore them to attract his ire. She seized his hands and pulled him, pressed him to go see the balconies.
The man resisted. He still had his own preoccupations.
One was simple. As a king, he wanted his subjects to convert to the cult of the moon. Most did and by now other priests conducted the ceremonies but there were still those who followed Korion. This had been a stain on his tiny kingdom.
Another concern was so complex as to escape even him.
"Isn't something lacking?" He lamented to her.
His hands showed the vast room with open colonnades and a marbled floor, gleaming with gold. He had couches, he had a pool, he didn't know what to wish for.
"How about dances?" He suggested. "The orcs can't dance, we should find subjects who can!"
"What if I danced?" The humanoid menilis suggested.
"No! Minette, no! I absolutely forbid it! Shame on you for even suggesting that!"
That made her chuckle.
"You know what I think?" She got close to him and put her head on his shoulder. "I think you miss humans. That little heart of yours wants to leave."
"Here you go again! I would take orcs over humans any day. Any day. Besides, they are much happier without me."
"But you are not happy..." She kept rubbing his chest. "We can't make you happy. I can't make you happy."
"Oh! I know!" He broke out of the mood. "There was this item after all..."
She watched him pace off, talking to himself and waving his hands around. She had no idea he was interacting with an ancient human relic.
"Yes! Yes that should do the trick!" The man concluded before returning to her. "I will be out for a while, wait here for me, Minette, okay?"
"Yes, Varun. As long as you come back."
She played with his dark wavy hair.
He mounted an expedition. They would assail Karnach, the farthest pyramid and in ancient time Malangri's rival. And just from that I knew what artifact he was after this time.
But for now, what mattered was that he was leaving the orcs' grounds. That made me nervous. I would not be able to observe that far and even if I did, how to be sure I would reach him in time? It was my duty to follow him.
Yet I was so close!
For the realm's sake I had almost completed an anti-magic containment sphere! It was utterly useless, it was immensly draining but the principle was sound enough. Vacuum outside, vacuum in and the sphere would hold. Only the parts were slightly off.
Would it be okay to let the human go? To trust again that he would be safe?
I stayed behind. Rascal was with him, for all it changed, while I kept working in that chamber. And when my armor suffered too much, I would cast a portal to let Nasse bring me the spare. He kept repairing it on the ship.
It was during such a pause that the menilis visited.
For the orcs and for her, this place was cursed. Anyone approaching felt weak and sick. Terrible sounds echoed in the hallways. Reality itself warped at times. So her visit was not courtesy.
She carefully entered the chamber. I was sit at the center, letting the magnal detach the cracked iron plates off me.
"Excuse me. Sorcerer?" She tried.
Everyone knew my name. But since the human had taken over, titles were the rule and few knew what to call me.
Still, I stood up and removed the rest of the plates on my arm myself.
"You want to talk about the human." I told her.
"Respectfully, sorcerer, isn't he your king?"
"Ask, then leave."
She approached. I still had my back on her and yet could tell her eyes glaring at the ground. How could a king defer to a simple sorcerer?! She knew from the orcs I was not human and that to her was enough to despise me.
But she needed to know and so, she swallowed her honor.
"Varun is restless. There is nothing I can do to please him. You came with him, would you tell me the secrets of his heart?"
Nasse had finished removing the parts on my legs. She was looking at a coat of silver on clay plates. I removed the helmet, let the monster take it through the portal.
I turned to her and she saw the badger mask on my faceless head.
"That is not your question. You are from Hashal, aren't you?" She stepped back at my words. "You are. And so, you want to be human. So ask me. How do you become human?"
"No!" The menilis fought back. "I just wish for his happiness!"
"We all lie to ourselves. At heart, you are a monster. You may pray to the moon but you still believe humanity will free you from the mana drought. You believe he can make you human."
"No!"
I had not expected her to fall to her knees.
"No you are wrong! I am his princess, a moon priestess, I only care about him! If only I could be..."
Her words trailed there. To please him, she thought, she had to be human.
The magnal was coming back with the new parts. Since I was still standing, he just put them on the ground and returned through the portal.
"Now, he told you his lies. He wants power, he wants fame and yet, he cannot be satisfied. Is it that humans are impossible to please?"
"I should not have come." Her hands were hiding her face. "You only have poison to give."
"He wants you."
Those words, coming from anyone else, would have thrilled her. They shook her instead.
After all I had said, and after all she had failed, what was she supposed to do with this?! He already had her! And so my voice was torture.
"What are your lies, then, sorcerer?" Her voice was getting sharp. "What are you hiding even to yourself? You work here alone on spells no one understands. Aren't you using your king?"
"Yes, I am." I stunned her again. "I tell him he will save the realm, but I know better by now. There is no savior. For all the claims and pretense, I am just another monster."
Feeding on a helpless prey while deluding myself through endless cycles.
We were all lying to ourselves in the end. The warmth, the hopes, the pain, felt like signals guiding a hollow shell. So tell me, silly cat, what made me any different?
To her, it was just the mad rambling of a sorcerer. So she stormed off, away from those cursed halls, and I sat down to let Nasse apply the new plates. And continue my craft. Seeking answers to problems only the weakest creatures cared about.
Meanwhile, the princess waited in vain for her king to return.
The human would not. Orcs brought news of his victory and with it, the uncovering of a new weapon that had called Adhipatya. That relic, in his hands, let him control all monsters.
Its true name had been Domination. Humans of old had crafted a halberd with a curved blade to take down even the tallest monsters. In time, its blessing had changed. It had been hailed in the city of Chalt as the ultimate tool of control.
And with that, Chalt was pacified. Monsters in the ruin slowly turned to the moon at night, saw its divine light and obeyed their new ruler. From his new palace, the king ordered a myriad. He could watch, I assumed, the city being rebuilt stone by stone.
Could he feel it yet? His time was short. Never had the city been so vibrant, so glorious and regal. Yet its decline had begun.
Whether he did or not he had sent a messenger to Malangri. The carrier had to fight to have the orcs let him pass. She would deliver her king's words in person.
The princess received that message and felt both relief and dread.
He wanted for her to join him in his new tower. He wished for her safety and promised everything had been prepared for her arrival. He had found dancers. He had found better music and better food and would throw banquets for her to enjoy.
If she could read between the lines, instead of reading aloud, the letter mentioned almost nothing about him and just lavished over her.
Before she could even depart, there had been a second messenger. A third came after she had left. I knew not how a human felt, only that each night grew dimmer. Could he turn her into a human? In that merciful realm?
With her departure the pyramid went quiet. Orcs trickled out and few replaced them.
It changed nothing for me. I had been working this whole time separated from all this noise. All that existed to me was a little crackling sphere that would just no stabilized between my armored hands.
I had submitted myself to the vacuum for the realm. Devoured each time by the void.
So it was a bit hard for me to care about court drama.