1453: Revival of Byzantium

Innocentius has absolutely no right in making a decision like this, and neither does Mauro as he cannot even think it straight on whether which choice is ultimately the best for them. Thus the two of them looked at the eunuch at the same time, making the middle aged Ottoman ambassador grow suspicion that this man seating by a short table on his left might be the legendary emperor of Constantinople, overseeing this conference by dressing up as a clerk. But this 'clerk' certainly do not look like to be in his ripe ages according to the intel provided earlier, and there is no report of seeing the emperor within this army, so who might it be?

The eunuch too noticed that the attention of the entire hall has been shifted to him, feeling pressurised he excused himself lifting down the quill and went straight out of the doors. With the only man here, that can represent the emperor gone, Innocentius had to stand up and seek for pardon from the ambassador, saying that they might need some more time to decide on this matter as the significance for this treaty is far too big for them to handle.

Although the Ottoman ambassador expressed his kindness saying that he understands their difficulties and is able to wait for them till the end of the day, Mauro and Innocentius are still pretty uneased as they both know that although the ambassadors can wait, but the troops trapped inside the fortress cannot wait, and they do not know whether the Ottoman forces out there holding their blades can wait or not. There has been multiple cases in history where by the diplomat is still within the enemy camp, and his or her affiliated army begins launching a full out attack making use of the 'oh they are already here to negotiate with us, so they wont send troops to attack us' mentality within the enemies.

The two men, one tall and one short, started trudging outside the doors of Constantine in circles, waiting for the eunuch to come out and explain the situation of the emperor. After a good long ten minutes of waiting Mauro could no longer control himself and started to deliberately step on the ground heavily as he walks making loud banging sounds to attract the attention of the people on the inside. Innocentius glared at this man's barbaric action of insubordination in rage, but after giving it some thoughts he hesitated and did not bother stopping Mauro's actions.

Mauro's tricks worked as intended, roughly a minute later the door is swung open with the eunuch that disappeared just now poking his head out of the door and greeted the two lords. "The emperor is awake, and I am pleased to invite the two graceful lords in for a personnel…."

Mauro shoved the poor eunuch aside before he could have a chance to finish his sentence and stormed in to the room, with senator Innocentius following closely behind. Then they met the emperor, who is there lying flat on an one man bed in the side of the room. The room is filled with the nasty scent of medication and the table before the emperor is filled with bottles and jars of liquids, which one cannot classify whether it is filled with the medication to tend to the emperor's wounded head or is it the liquor that is used by the emperor to soothe his pain and agony.

The emperor is totally stripped of the energetic and vibrant image he displayed in the past, now lying on the bed with half of his head wrapped in a yellowish coloured bandage, and the rest of his limbs lying lifelessly on the mattress, with only his eyes and mouth moving as he looked at the two familiar people, who now seems to be a little shocked, or in other words, caught in a dilemma of helplessness seeing the person they came here for an answer being in this state.

"I heard you two from a far away." The emperor opened his tried mouth, sounding like he has aged by at least a decade in these past few days. "Especially you, Lord Mauro, I can hear you talking on the outside, there is no need to bully the poor floor. I am injured in the head, not the ear."

Mauro's face blushed in apologise. "I shall personally go and apologise to the floor I just thumped on emperor, no worries. I shall make sure I do that."

"You better do young man." The emperor laid back down on to his straws filled pillows, and suddenly it seems like something has struck him making him lift up his hands signalling to the eunuch standing by the door. The later hurried around pouring another bottle of what it seems to be alcohol, sipping the brownish liquid in to the lips of the emperor gently, and then rubbed the lips of Constantine before the emperor regain his ability to talk. "Pardon me, Lord Giovanni is indeed right, alcohol like this can fulfil the addiction in your heart, pacify the torment and suffering on my head."

"I mean no disrespect, but are you feeling alright, your majesty?" Asked senator Innocentius.

The emperor closed his eyes for a while, and replied. "No, I am not fine Innocentius, I am not… I can feel the energy draining from my head since the time I received the wound, I can feel my muscles melting on my four limbs and becoming numb, I can feel the pain on the back of my head expanding, I can feel the vision on my left eye getting impaired. Thus, maybe it is now the time for me to… consider for some other things that I have not considered before."

These words of the emperor pulled Mauro and Innocentius back in to the harsh reality, both of them realised that the current situation can turn straight down if the news of the emperor's current state, or the possible worst outcome is spread to the outside, especially in to the ears of those Ottoman delegates. The senator collapsed seating on the cracking wooden ground and started weeping out loud, muttering words like the emperor shall be fine, and the emperor shall lead the Roman people into the next victory, which is pretty understandable, as Innocentius is much more dependent on the emperor in the senate for his long term stance in the opposition party. While for Mauro, he is now thinking about one thing… If the emperor is gone, then who shall be making decisions, or in his pirate terms, who shall be the boss of Constantinople? Is it till the supposed Senate whose power has dwindled since the fall of the Mega Doux, or is it… The Junta led by his master Giovanni?

"Anyways, Lord Mauro, Honourable Senator." The emperor interrupted their wild thoughts by giving a cough. "I heard about the offers from the Ottomans from my servant, and it indeed sound really quite tricky. What do you two think?"

After a brief period of silence, the senator replied with his words filled with uncertainty. "Your majesty, I think that we should agree with the Ottoman delegates, this shall be a chance for…"

But his words are immediately cut off violently by Mauro, who always seemed to have a different opinion with him." Hell no, your majesty! Emperor! We must not submit to these intriguing terms by the infidels! You know, emperor this is a trick from the Ottomans where by they give us some hope at least, promising us that we can return in once piece without suffering much lose, and still manage to keep the lands we have conquered, making us sign the terms willingly. And the moment when we sign the contract, we shall fall in to the death trap prepared by them…"

"I know there are some evil trickeries within these terms, Lord Mauro. You people in the west have always said that we, the Romans are masters in the art of intrigues and plots, of course you would expect me to see through these dirty plots hidden in the words as well don't you, Lord Mauro?" It looks like the emperor has managed to recover some of his energy after consuming the alcohol, he could even joke around on himself.

"But we shall agree to the treaty… Don't give me that face Lord Mauro, I know what you are going to say, and I know that all treaties are only kept by the military might of both parties and it is as good as a sheet of waste paper if we are too weak… But Lord Mauro, you must see things from a macro perspective of view, and you should not only focus on the things happening around in the situation, but also the political situation in Edirne, the events happening in Constantinople, and the geo political environment in the entire region… Then you will find it not hard to analysis that the Ottomans cannot afford to wait and drag on this war, but we…. Got even lesser time on our side."