The Power of Ten

Red and gray scales burned along and stained the vizier’s awkward lower body. His stubby fins and tail instantly grew longer, sharper, more lethal and predatory, his tail and lower body extending out into something that was definitely not a sunfish... although it was definitely thicker and more powerful than any normal shark.

Hellfire-red ignited inside his black eyes, but he could only quiver there, his now much-wider jaw shaking open and revealing rows of shark’s teeth.

“Give,” Legion said, shaking their head and holding out a clawed and scaled hand.

Ah. Taking the Queen had established a racial tie, and they could Consume merfolk now, eh?

I just shook my head in resignation, and waved my hand, in doing so stripping the vizier of all his clothing and accoutrements, including his Chain of Office. With his Astral Ward down, a Light of Revelation instantly revealed the deep, fluid crimson of his Aura to his King, who could only stare in disbelief. The hefty and paralyzed Vizier wafted across the air towards Legion.

“Why are you...” the King began, and trailed off as Legion unceremoniously slapped the vizier with nine Tails, branding him in gold and crimson; then grabbed him and jammed him down their throat.

“<Your Royal Majesty, I HOPE that you will accept a Blessing from me.>” I strode right up to the edge of the water, within his reach, and held out my hand, ignoring the fate of the vizier.

King Oichio blinked at me, at the word Ringing in the air, and all sorts of emotions swirled in his dark eyes as he stared down at me.

Then he abruptly stuck out his great webbed hand, also tipped with deadly claws, breaking the surface of the water and pausing right in front of me and my hand.

I grasped two of the middle digits, gently pulled them forward, and bent over to kiss the back of his hand. Sacred energy swirled out and formed a demonic Rune on the back of his mighty palm.

-If Your Majesty would open the Door for a moment.- He stared at me, eyes flickering as he focused on the Door in his mind, and after only one breath he grimaced, forced the Door open, and glided through.

He was a bunch of liquid rainbows and gold, a whimsical King who wanted the best for his people, a fierce warrior... but not the best manager or politician. He ruled as much by personal strength and nobody daring to tell him otherwise.

-Your Majesty, there are things you need to know now and act on with great speed,- /said a voice that contained two others that he knew, and he turned to look at the golden swirls dotted with other ribbons that was Legion. Two of those ribbons were instantly familiar: one flowing crimson, one inky black. -There is dark corruption in your kingdom, and you must act before they get away. Would you like our assistance?-

“TRUTH. HOPE. VALOR,” I added to that, and he grimaced even as his eyes lit up and his heart swelled.

This was a moment that could make or break his Kingdom. The truth of it pounded in his soul.

-Tell me what I need to know,- he /declared, his eyes flashing, and the much-faster-than-talking /communication began.

I actually didn’t need to speak with him now, as Legion had informed me that they had all the information required to not bomb any of his people into oblivion, and a great deal more besides. I dropped the belongings of the queen and vizier onto a Cast Disk that I slaved to the King off-handedly.

Legion glanced at me, I nodded with a sigh, and even as King Oichio was turning and starting to bellow out orders, they leapt out to join him at his side, moving through the water as if they were boneless and just as impossibly strong as ever. The instant Legion struck the water, their legs and tails merged into a many-finned set of powerful draconic tails, and they swelled in size to nearly as large as the Dragon King.

I landed on Sleipner as the cleared dome in the water filled itself smoothly back in, and the motorcycle bobbed up with it.

Prince Tithkianlan broke the surface next to me, still trying to hide his shock. He looked at the Blessing on his own hand, and the blizzard of communication happening between Legion and the Dragon King of Lemuria.

There were a lot of things going on, and the King’s voice was traveling through the water. Knots of conflict were breaking out among his escort as hidden Warlocks and traitors were revealed among them and summarily killed.

Me, I was murmuring TRUTH mentally whenever the King wanted to doubt, and he could only sigh and grieve and rage, while HOPE and VALOR gave him the strength to act now, when acting would do the most good.

“Did you know about this, Lady Traveler?” the triton prince asked me in passable Human, scarcely believing what was taking place so quickly.

“No. But there was no way I was going to reveal to them the fact that we could bomb the Hell out of the Sahaug and Deep Ones without verifying that there would be no leaks. I had Legion turn off her Aura as the Dispel I wove into the waters suppressed their Crowns and the vizier’s Chain so I could study their Auras with a VII. They didn’t layer their protections enough, probably figuring the Crown and Chain were enough since the Toys would shield them even if not being worn, since they were their proper bearers.”

He considered that extremely rude and totally pragmatic maneuver, and could only nod at my foresight. “I imagine that you did the same when you first met us, Your Majesty?” he asked, both ruefully and respectfully.

I nodded without hesitation. “Of course I did, Your Highness. General Peronithc was an Azure-wrapped stick-in-the-mud, but the rest of you held to the white and silver marvelously. I found it very inspiring.”

I gave him a Smile, and I’m pretty sure right then his heart skipped a beat, judging by how he stared.

“Normally, I believe proper etiquette would see to it that you stay for a couple more days of feasting as an ambassador... but, you know, there is going to be a tremendous amount of violent activity in the near future. The King is going to need someone trustworthy by his side, and a royal triton prince might not be a bad candidate for the position.”

He looked at me, I lifted an eyebrow at the fourth son of the Triton King of the Mediterranean, and he managed to laugh.

“Hope! Valor!” he made the effort to repeat, and then dove down smoothly, shooting away to offer his services to the distraught but incredibly decisive King who was learning about all sorts of things his queen and vizier had been up to in order to cement their own positions and futures, and probably bring about the utter doom of his Kingdom and people.

It was a good thing that Legion was able to inform him that the Whale Shark Tribe was totally innocent of anything, or they likely would have been exterminated. The Gulper Tribe, on the other hand...

Legion was both his wife and principal advisor, and I could tell he was already totally smitten by them. A Half-Dragon Whale Shark merfolk was not all that different from a Sea Serpent merfolk if they chose to transform, come to think of it...

Well, what would happen is what would happen. As amused as me at the implications, Sleipner rolled out of the area of the Interdiction, and I Waterjumped us away. My diplomatic efforts were over much more quickly than I had anticipated, as Legion would take over telling the Lemurian King about things going on. I was keeping the Dragon King sequestered for the moment in the Markspace, but soon enough he was going to poke his head out, and then he would have a whole world of people to chat with.

Good communication would solve a lot of problems, if not all of them. It was a small world, after all.

-------------

A few days pass by...

“I did not expect to see you here.”

Legion merely held out their hand, and despite himself, the King took it. He had witnessed those scaled and clawed hands carve through a foot of stone and more of coral, heave multi-ton blocks and monstrous pets around like toys, and he knew they were sharper than razors.

They felt like gossamer on his palm, and he was pulled effortlessly over next to the outlander Warlock. It was very humbling, feeling such a vast discrepancy in their strengths, and it only made his desire for them burn the brighter.

“Your Queen’s reason for enjoying this spot was to look over all that was going to be hers one day. We... are simply enjoying the view.”

Her voice was like the deepest and most subtle waves, so calm he was ready to just fall asleep listening to it, all his emotions of the past days draining away.

The Dragon King Oichio, King of Lemuria, the largest merfolk Realm on the Shrouded Earth, slumped against the Warlock who had taken on a form derived from that of his traitorous wife... although the draconic alterations and blazing red hair were definitely much, much different, and gave her a wilder and far more deadly air.

In the Markspace, he saw gold, and the colors of thousands of other souls. The fearsome Aura she radiated to all his subjects did not affect him at all.

The two of them looked out over his underwater kingdom. The water here was supernaturally clear, showing the marvels of light and coral, homes grown more than made, the subtle ebb and flow of colors and bioluminescence in all hues, and those lights were playing off bright scales as the people of his Kingdom swam about their business here and there.

It truly was a breathtaking sight, and it had been years since he was able to appreciate it like this, feeling a serene joy and appreciation for the view, a sense that this was something grand and worthy of protecting, of sacrificing for.

It had been too long since he felt something so ethereal, yet so strong from anyone.

“We are sorry to be the bearer of such horrible news,” they went on, and when his arm came around their waist, it was as natural as if it belonged there. “It is not the first time We have seen this.”

It wasn’t a royal We. It was the We of thousands of souls speaking with him, and his traitorous queen was but a small and largely ignored thing among them.

He wanted to wave it off, to prove he was a man and could deal with such emotional pain, but he could only slump and say nothing. That impossibly strong hand stroked his shoulder with the reassurance of a spouse of many years, and with a terrifying understanding of exactly what he was feeling... many times over.

His perhaps not entirely beloved queen (at least he’d been faithful to her!) had been a Dagonic Pact Sponsor, a true champion of the demon prince’s efforts on this world. He had only known her as a quiet Priestess of the Waters, and had no clue as to the dark and vile Evil that was her actual Patron.

The only reason to take such a deep investment was to get access to the Dagonic Bloodline through the Black Waters... the same Bloodline that ran through ALL the Deep Ones.

The same Bloodline that bound them all to the oldest of their kind, to the Father Dagon and Mother Hydra of this world, and through them, to the distant demon prince Himself.

They had four children, three sons he had been greatly proud of, and one daughter he’d married off in grand fashion.

All of them, and all of their children, were now dead. Over eighty grandchildren and a hundred great-grandchildren as well, for his sons had, at their mother’s encouragement, been quite liberal in spreading around the royal bloodline... something that was actually quite traditional among the merfolk, and not looked down upon at all.

But the Dagonic Bloodline could not be allowed to exist. It would tie them to Dagon, and spread across his kingdom, eventually turning all of them into submissive servants and slaves of the Deep Ones and their Elder Demon Patron.

He had killed them all. They could not escape the notice of their progenitor within Legion, and they could not run nor hide from Legion, although many had tried.

All of his legitimate heirs were dead. He had other children, but they had all been sired before he came to the throne, and by tradition were ineligible to directly inherit. If he died without an heir, they could of course compete as warriors for the seat, but he could not name even the most valiant of them the Crown Prince and be seen as legitimate.

Having to slaughter so many of his descendants because of the machinations of his own Queen still lit towers of rage inside him, and equal waves of grief. He thought he had raised them well and proud, warrior sons of the Sea Dragon’s Throne, and in the end they were just pawns for the Demon of the Abyssal Depths...