Ruthless: Path of Conquest

James stared intently at the unconscious Moishe as he finished giving him the Blessing of the Fisher King.

He felt a wave of weakness flow through him at the moment that the power shifted from James’s body into Moishe’s. The Fisher King almost swooned. He was still not recovered from the events of recent days, and he felt his own failure to take his foot off the gas.

I’ll be feeling that in the morning, too, he thought.

He allowed himself to drop onto his backside so that he would not fall more painfully and hit his head—or perhaps even land on Moishe.

As James landed, he saw Moishe’s hand grip the sheets tightly.

Yes… Take that, gods!

A moment later, the Assassin shot to an upright position, breathing heavily as if he’d just been running.

“I’m alive!” he exclaimed loudly.

Moishe’s eyes focused on James at the corner of his vision.

“So it wasn’t just a dream,” Moishe murmured.

“Glad to have you back, man,” James said.

Then the door to the room swung forcefully open.

“Oh my God,” muttered Alan, standing in the doorway. “I shouldn’t be surprised, but—goodness.”

“It’s nice to see you, too,” said Moishe, grinning feebly. Then his smile turned to a grimace as he looked down at his body, still in poor condition, suffering from horrendous burns across almost his entire frame.

“I’ll get out of you guys’ way,” James said. “Moishe and I were just spending some quality time together anyway.”

“See you soon,” Moishe said quietly. He allowed his body to slump back down into a supine position. Almost as soon as his back touched the bed again, Alan was on him, hands glowing green with power, trying to repair the damage that had remained so stubbornly insistent thus far.

James rose and stepped through the door and out of the room, where he almost bumped into Mitzi, standing outside and anxiously watching the effort to heal Moishe.

“Well done, waking him up,” she said, smiling.

“All in a day’s work,” James said, returning the smile weakly. His body felt incredibly heavy as he moved. “Do you mind if I take a seat at your table? I have to think about the things he told me and figure out what I’m going to do next.” He tapped his temple with one finger. “I’m going to send a few messages.”

His mind was already quickly working through what he and his followers might need to do to stay ahead of the threat presented by Cyrus’s coreligionists—a threat that only loomed larger after James experienced Moishe’s memories. He was wary of what the rest of the monotheists, informed by the angel that had supported Cyrus of what had happened to him, would do.

“Sure, of course,” Mitzi said. “And you know we’re here if you want our advice.”

“I think I’m going to assemble all my advisors,” James replied. He looked out of the window and saw that it was around midday now. “Let’s have a meeting after everyone’s had lunch.”

He took a seat at Mitzi and Alan’s dining room table.

The first thing he did there was order his wyverns to go and find Moishe’s probably dead fellow Dungeon escapee.

Then he began sending out messages through what he thought of as his PA system, partially explaining the situation to the members of his council.

[Council members, I have communicated with a new arrival to our territory and obtained some new, troubling, and reliable, intelligence on Cyrus and the group he led—and the larger movement with which they are affiliated. The short summary is that people affiliated with Cyrus and his movement are likely spreading across the state—and probably across a much wider area, perhaps globally—and they seem to be hostile to all non-members of their creed. I believe aggressive action on our part will be required, to prevent the area surrounding our current territory from being conquered by religious zealots. I would like to discuss the information and its implications in more detail at a meeting this afternoon. In an hour and a half, once everyone has had time to eat lunch, let’s gather in the community center.]

James tried to think if there was anything else he wanted to reveal in this initial message, but quickly decided that leaving some mystery to be revealed later would serve his purposes.

“It’s good to be a part of the inner circle,” Mitzi said as the message finished transmitting. “Still don’t want anything to drink?”

She must have noticed that James looked a bit out of it. That was mostly from blessing Moishe, but he supposed some water couldn’t hurt. So, this time he took Mitzi up on the offer, and he was pleasantly surprised to see her conjure water out of thin air.

“Weren’t you only able to use fire and lightning before?” he asked.

“The more you practice, the more Skills you unlock as a magic user,” she said. “Alan and I both practice our Skills every day. I wouldn’t want you to think you’re alone in trying to grow.”

James smiled. “I didn’t think I was, but that’s always nice to hear. Very reassuring.”

He sent another message out, this one just to Dave, Damien, Rotter, Samuel, Luna, and his mother.

[This is a message just for those of you who helped me deal with our exile a few days ago. Everything I sent in the general chat with the other council members was true, but I wanted to give you all some extra information to prepare you for the meeting…]

He filled them in on his thinking in more detail. He was anticipating there might be a contentious discussion, and it would be helpful if some members knew where the meeting was supposed to lead.

As James was concluding his second, secret communication, Alan emerged from the sickroom. He looked tired but excited.

“How is Moishe doing?” James asked immediately.

“Thanks to you, he’s better than stable now,” Alan said. “Skin is starting to grow back in places where we had assumed he was going to be permanently scarred. He went back to sleep—he’s pretty tired from the healing, I think—but he thanked you again before that.”

James nodded. “I’m just glad he’ll be all right.”

Alan looked at him carefully. “And you?”

“I’ll be all right, too,” James said. Sometimes it felt silly to him to have people asking whether he was okay. When people who actually cared about him did it, though, it was more charming than anything else. “It takes some energy out of me to bless someone. But I have plenty of time to get it back.”

“Want to give us any more details on what this meeting is about?” Alan asked.

“I’m surprised Moishe didn’t tell you,” James said.

“He was trying his best just to avoid crying out in pain while his skin regrew,” Alan replied sadly. “You probably didn’t hear it, because he was biting into a pillow, but I think the process was quite uncomfortable. I’ll try to do more healing periodically while he’s sleeping, and hopefully the other Healers can do the same.”

James nodded.

“So, are we getting any more info?” Mitzi asked.

“Well, I’ll have to repeat it at the meeting,” James said. “But maybe I could show you some of what I’m thinking. Does either of you have a map of Florida?”

He knew it was a longshot. Pre-System, he himself hadn’t seen a physical map in years. He had used his smartphone for navigation. Now it was barely more useful than a brick, and even with a full charge, he assumed that neither of the map apps he had installed would be working at this point. The Internet was gone.

“Of course!” Alan replied instantly. “Never leave home without it.”

“We knew we wouldn’t get lost on the way here, but Alan always tries to be prepared,” Mitzi said, smiling pleasantly at her husband.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. When they were young, smartphones didn’t exist. A few months ago, I might have laughed to myself at the old folks for owning a map. Joke’s on me!

Alan went off to retrieve his map, and James composed a third announcement, this one intended only for Mina—to summarize all his thoughts on what had happened with Moishe so that the two of them would be on the same page.

No sooner had James sent this last message out than Alan emerged holding a large folding paper map that looked rarely used.

“This is just Central Florida, unfortunately,” Alan said.

“No, that’s perfect,” James said. “As long as it has the ocean on it. I’m interested in figuring out the distance from here to there.”

Alan nodded. “I think it should.”

“Are you considering a beach trip?” Mitzi asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Something like that.”

An hour and a half after making his announcements, James walked with Alan and Mitzi to the community center. Alan and Mitzi had agreed that he could borrow the map of Central Florida indefinitely, so he carried it tucked into his magic satchel.

Mina met up with them in the middle of the courtyard between the community center and the apartment buildings. James wondered if she would have anything to say about his plan for the meeting, but she just smiled and wordlessly took his hand.

When James and his entourage arrived, a little more than half of the council was already seated—including every single nonhuman member of the council. Luna had completed her Evolution, and she looked formidable and almost as large as Samuel with her increased size and newly grown third head.

Undercutting that impression, the giant wolf wagged her tail as she saw James. He couldn’t help but smile at that.

And for the first time, James saw the female that he assumed the bats must have selected as their council member. He hadn’t realized that they had done that in the time that he had been unconscious, so for a moment, he was at a loss as to how this new council member even knew about the meeting.

Then he noticed that she was sitting next to the former Squirrel Queen, who was chattering away quietly to the bat—who listened to Ysabel with a somewhat uncomfortable posture, as if she wanted to escape the conversation. Well, that answered the question of how the bat leader knew about the meeting.

The council members rose for the Fisher King as a body and did not resume their seats until James had taken his. He almost laughed when he saw former Queen Ysabel rise a moment after everyone else, only belatedly realizing that they were doing this to formally greet the Ruler.

As James sat down, he smiled beneficently while secretly taking a far from wholesome joy in the moment.

He had not sought out any particular perks in taking the role of King, but in moments like this, he felt the status of royalty as its own reward.

That’s right, I’m the King… Acknowledged and respected by all. He basked in the glory for a moment before he turned to Rotter.

“Is this everyone who will be able to make it?” James asked quietly. He had expected his mother to be absent—her attendance wouldn’t add much to this particular meeting, in both her and James’s opinion—but there were several others still missing.

“No, sir,” Rotter replied, eager as ever to please. “I believe Chief DaSilva and a few others are running late. I understand that DaSilva is training his first officers today.”

That’s honestly probably just as important as this meeting, James thought.

He nodded. “I’m glad that he’s making progress. I hate to interrupt his work, even for something fairly important.”

The doors opened, and a half-dozen of the slightly late council members walked in.

They looked embarrassed as they saw James sitting at center stage.

“Sorry we’re late, Your Majesty,” said Steve Luck of the Construction Committee. “We were—”

“Don’t worry about explaining yourself, unless it’s something I really need to know,” James interrupted. “I know we’re all busy, and you’re not even the last ones to arrive.”

The man nodded quickly and rushed to find his seat at the table, the others quickly following after him.

“Right, let’s call this meeting of the Fisher Kingdom Governance Council into session,” James said once they were seated. “If anyone else comes in, we’ll loop them into the conversation, but almost everyone is here now.”

The door opened once more, and Leo DaSilva quietly stepped in. Seeing that James was speaking, he threw a quick salute and then silently walked around the edge of the room until he made his way up to his seat on stage.

Good, James thought. I’m glad he made it. I would’ve had to explain myself twice if DaSilva wasn’t here. And I liked the way he came in. I should establish that’s what you do when you arrive late. Just quietly take your seat.

“All right, everyone is here, so I can get us started without any further formalities or delay,” James said. Then he interrupted himself. “Well, there is one thing. We have a few new council members here today. I request that they introduce themselves first, and then we can get down to business. It’s a lot easier for us to all know each other’s names than to say ‘Hey you’ all through the meeting.”

There were a couple of polite chuckles at that.

DaSilva raised his hand.

“You can go ahead and go first,” James said.

“I’m Leon DaSilva,” he said. “You all can just call me Leo. And I am the new Chief of Police, per His Majesty’s decision.”

You’re going to be responsible for a lot more than law and order by the time this meeting is done, James thought. Sorry, big guy!