Chapter 61: We’re not paying
Andrew was lead into an opulent palace by two muscular bearded men. His hands and legs were chained to his waist so the two men carried him a foot off the ground as he could only kneel due to his restraints. They stopped in front of a golden staircase atop which a younger-looking dark-skinned man laid in a pile of silken pillows while three dark-skinned women fanned him and fed him from a tray of fruit. The man said nothing for several minutes as Andrew was forced to kneel before him. Finally, the man said, "My name is Asoka, you didn't know that, did you?"
Andrew tried to regain his normal regal look raising his head as high as he could, "And why do you believe that?"
Asoka chuckled, "Because you followed that fool, Darius, here and attacked with your tiny army thinking you would be able to annex a province from me. This means you didn't do any research on who you were attacking, Andrew Windsor, false king of the Windsor Kingdom."
Andrew spoke up confidently, "I am the rightful King of the Windsor Kingdom!"
Asoka chuckled again, "I wonder if your pretty niece, Emily Windsor-Smith feels the same? Not that I care if a woman is not allowed to lead a country. No man would allow a woman to lead here in my empire, after all. I seem to recall sending you very fair terms for your surrender and yet you tried to run away, may I ask why you decided this?"
Andrew frowned, "You think cutting off my balls is a fair term for surrender?"
Asoka laughed, "You attacked my people unprovoked my ignorant friend, did you think you could just go home without paying? I asked for gold or your balls."
Andrew stared at Asoka and replied, "I don't have that much gold."
Asoka shook his head and said, "Tch, unlike you, I know all about the nations that surround me. You have exactly that much gold in your treasury. I don't mean your Royal treasury, I am talking about the one your Grandfather has under his residence. You see, it was my man who designed it and built it. Your Grandfather didn't want the Church to find out how much he put aside for your education."
Andrew's forehead broke in a cold sweat, "If I pay the ransom, you'll release my men as well?"
Asoka smiled and said, "You have already turned down those terms of surrender. Now that I have already taken you and your men captive, we'll have to discuss a new ransom, won't we? And since you are here, I can't very well have those discussions with you, now can I? I need to speak with the acting leader of your Kingdom, a Duke Morely, wasn't it? I will have to send a messenger to your Kingdom with new terms. They are also quite fair."
Andrew frowned his eyes darting around as he tried to think a way out of his situation, "What terms have you given for us?"
Asoka chuckled, "Tch, listen to you barking at me like you are a King. You are in my empire and you think you have the right to speak to me as if I am one of your people?" He raised a finger lightly pointing at Andrew which caused one the muscular men to punch him in him hard in the stomach knocking the wind out of him. Andrew made wheezing and gasping sounds before he was able to catch his breath coughing awkwardly. Asoka shook his head, "How many of your men lost their lives because of your stupidity and ignorance, Andrew? All you had to do was pay me the money your Grandfather stole and you would have been back in your castle with half your army alive and well instead of here in my palace getting your balls cut off."
Andrew stammered, "W-what? Y-you can't do that! My allies will destroy you!"
Asoka laughed, "You mean the City of Connaissance? Why would she start a war with me over you? If I kill you, do you think she will shed even a single tear for you?"
Andrew started to fight against his restraints as a tall skinny olive-skinned man brought a brazier filled with red hot coals, with a thickly padded gloved hand he retrieved a long thin blade from the coals. Asoka smiled and said, "He is very good at his craft, Andrew. Almost no one dies when he makes his cut."
*****
Teslaimia wandered around the city before finding her way into Dan's tea shop and taking up her normal table by the window. Dan walked up with a smile on his face and asked, "What can I get for you today, Princess?"
She looked up still partially distracted, " Jasmine tea and your scone of the day."
Dan nodded and smiled quickly bringing over her order, "You alright? You aren't your normal peppy self today."
She took a sip of the tea and then said, "Have you ever found yourself wishing you didn't get what you wanted?"
Dan scratched his head, "I don't follow, you mean like, buyers remorse?"
"No, not really like that... I mean, as if you had always had a dream of living a certain kind of life and then when it started to become true you felt like you were going to miss the life you were living before that too much."
Dan punched his fist into his hand and said, "Aha! You mean marriage!"
Teslaimia laughed and shook her head, "Maybe I should start at the beginning... I was raised from childhood to be an empress. In my culture that isn't really a position of power like in southern culture, it's a position of fame and a luxurious lifestyle. I have always dreamed of being with a powerful person like that and being that kind of empress until I thought it was lost to me. I have just realized that my current lifestyle is very appealing to me and I don't really want it to change."
Dan nodded and then said, "So, in the end, I was right. You do mean marriage!"
Teslaimia tried to deny it and ended up saying. "Yes, I guess you are right."
Dan laughed and then said, "When a man takes a wife, she has to put up with his changes in direction in life. For better or worse, that's just part of what happens in a marriage. No matter what direction that is, I think it's more important to be supportive if you want your married life to be a happy one."
A young couple came in the door and took up a table on the other side of the shop. The young man saying, "We'll take two scones and regular tea."
The young lady almost before the young man finished said, "Chai for me instead thank you."
The young man frowned and said, "The Chai is more expensive, just have the regular tea."
The young lady snapped back, "This is so like you Bart, you just decide everything and to hell with what I think!"
"I already explained it to you, my father needs me back on the farm, I can't just abandon him, I am his only child!"
The young lady stared at him and said, "And what about me? I have a good job at the Airship port, I am happy and I love the city. I don't want to be a farmer's wife, that's why I married you, Bart!"
"Come on baby, don't argue with me in public about this, look just have the Chai, I'm sorry." He looked at Dan and said, "Just one scone please, a regular tea and a Chai."
Dan scratched the back of his head, "You know the Chai is only a Pixie more than the regular tea?"
She looked at Dan and said, "He doesn't want to spend the money because we have to move to his father's farm in the Windsor Kingdom. I'm not even from there and apparently I have to move there because his father hurt his back trying to lift too much at once."
Dan's eyebrow twitched and he said, "You know, you two kids remind me of myself and the misses when we were younger, how about I bring you the two scones, a regular tea and the Chai for the same price as the two regular teas and the scones."
*****
Roger's knee was tapping on the ground as Jon sat across the desk from him, "Jon, is she serious about this?"
Jon nodded and said, "She feels strongly that a civil war in the Windsor Kingdom is bad for them but also disastrous for us."
"You know as well as I do, that aside from those two ships, we only have enough forces to guard our walls at best." Roger looked at Jon, "Seriously, is she expecting that I can pull off this miracle just because I killed a few bandits?"
Jon sighed and said, "Roger if you ask me, it's impossible. I told her we couldn't hold territory in the Kingdom even if we wanted to do that. Having said that, I told her it would be impossible to defeat a full brigade of Inquisition soldiers with just my small mercenary company too, and yet, that's exactly what happened. I think, she just wants to know exactly what we can do before she comes up with the answer for what we can't do."
Roger stood up and then paced back and forth before saying, "If we take the entire troop by airship and drop in on the palace, we can claim victory as long as the entire senior Nobility is there to be captured. So draw it up that way. It's on her to get them all there at the same time. Also, we'll need the support of the Church and the support of any locals we can get behind us, or this is just going to be a single battle victory at best."
Jon smiled and said, "See, you had a plan after all."
Roger thought for a moment and then asked, "Jon you used to be a Knight in one of their orders, are you still friends with the guys in Sleeping Dragon?"
Jon nodded, "Mhm, their knight commander and I were all part of the same class. Only that was Andrew's class. Most of the guys were very loyal to him."
Roger nodded, "Why did you fall out with him?"
Jon closed his eyes, "Andrew is a genius on the battlefield. Only, sometimes he is too smart for his own good. He overlooks things that don't fit into his master plan. I was second in the Red Lion Brigade during a battle that Andrew was leading, he ignored the enemy movement on our flank because his plan called for their lines to turn and flee when he made his thrust at their main body. My commander was a long time veteran Knight, Sir Oscar."
Roger nodded and said, "I knew Sir Oscar myself, he was a good man."
Jon nodded and said, "Sir Oscar saw that the flank wasn't breaking off the way Andrew planned and had to take us from our assigned position and cut off the flanking troop. Only, we ended up fighting three against our one. I watched my friends die one by one. Red Lion Brigade lost nearly the entire troop. If we hadn't headed off the troop we would have lost at least three times as many soldiers, maybe even the battle. Do you know what Andrew did? He blamed the Red Lion Brigade's losses on Sir Oscar not following orders. Sir Oscar and my friends died on the battlefield for that bastard's glory and rather than a medal, and a hero's funeral, his family was told he died dishonorably. I was appointed as Red Lion Brigade's new Knight Commander and told to whip them into shape. I brought them all back to our barracks and had them vote, stay in the military and reform the brigade with new recruits, or join me and form the Red Lion Mercenaries."
Roger nodded and said, "A tough choice to have made. Your men chose you over their Kingdom, which shows how they saw the battle as well. Jon, do you think you have enough pull with those men in Sleeping Dragon that they would side with you and Lady Connaissance over the Nobility?"
*****
"We're not paying!" The young lady shouted at Dan, "His tea is cold the scones are stale, clearly made yesterday and this Chai is terrible."
The young man said, "Lisa, it's not that bad, you're making a scene."
She pointed over at Teslaimia and said, "You think I don't see you checking her out with your eyes instead of looking at me. Maybe you think she will want to move to the Windsor Kingdom and be your little farm wife, huh?"
She yelled over at Teslaimia, "Get your own husband, and stop staring at mine!"
Teslaimia's eyes grew wide and she pointed at herself. She hadn't even looked in their direction once since they arrived as she was lost in thought thinking about what was most important in her own life at the moment.
"Yes, you! You might look a little pretty, but you have no class looking at my husband like that." She grabbed his hand and dragged him out the door.
Once they were gone Teslaimia laughed loudly a huge smile on her face, "Is that what you were trying to say about marriage, Dan?"
He cleaned up their table and chuckled, "Mm, yes, something like that. The guy managed to leave enough money at least. Did you resolve your inner conflict?"
She smiled and nodded, "I did. Thank you. I need to adapt to changes and remember I fell in love with a person, not a lifestyle."
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