BLACK SNAKE | REN KOUEN
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"What do you hope to accomplish in destroying two of my ships and pledging your loyalty to me?" asked Kouen, searching the Hassahan Prince's face for changes in his generally bright countenance. He had him detained and stripped of his weapons, including the sword he carried that bore the eight-pointed star surrounded by a circle upon the base of its blade, and had, after having kept him imprisoned separate from the others for the whole night, gone to seek out the motivations for his actions.
The Hassahan prince displayed no obvious ill intent, but the destruction of two supply ships said the contrary. He sat peacefully, cross-legged in the center of a storage tent packed with tools provided to Egil Vång, the skilled blacksmith that accompanied his now-dead king into the battlefield to provide him and his soldiers with the best weapons and reparations.
The prince looked at him with coal-black eyes and a friendly smile, answering, "You should consider that a display of my loyalty."
It appeared obvious that Kouen would need all the patience he possessed to deal with this man.
"Don't glare at me like that," said Melik Buhari.
"Consider your circumstances," said Kouen. "No man would accept the loyalty of another who chooses to show it through the destruction of two of his supply ships."
"Okay, okay," said Melik, "I understand your distrust. It isn't completely unfounded. It was probably not a good idea to destroy your supply ships, but I had to do it because as Crown Prince of Hassah, people have certain expectations of me. You should know that as the future emperor of your country."
He understood expectations, but that didn't answer why he thought it was a brilliant idea to destroy those ships before pledging his loyalty. Did he intend to use that as a display of his strength? If so, it didn't work. The only impression it made on Kouen was that he was destructive with no positive motivations.
"You should also consider the fact that I destroyed two supply ships, not two ships full of soldiers," continued Melik. "If I had any real bad intentions, I would've gone straight for your soldiers' ships and as a Metal Vessel user; you know that it wouldn't have been all that hard for me to accomplish it, even with all those magicians you're carrying for extra protection."
"Why are you dancing around the subject?" asked Kouen. "Answer the question."
"Hassah came to pledge its loyalty to Asta," said Melik, and for the first instant since their conversation began, it appeared to Kouen that he had heard a hint of honesty in his tone. "Hassah is a sacred country. We don't like war."
"Yet you have warriors to partake in one."
"We are not so stupid that we would not have any. They are meant to protect us from the threat of others if that threat was not crushed by Ione first," said Melik. "The Kou Empire is a threat to our country, but Ione is now a part of it, and that left us with only one viable option: join you. We have conditions—nothing too outrageous that you would deny—but we can settle those when we clean up here. Call it a secret alliance until I find all of Nikias' moles."
"You could be one of them."
"I am one of them, at least as far as he knows. The truth is that I serve one person and one only: Asta. You can consider my loyalty to you an extension of that."
Kouen could criticize Asta's inexperience in war and naivety with people all that he wanted, but he couldn't deny that the soldiers loyal to her were among the more trustworthy individuals in the Caste Guard. Under the guise of an imprisoned soldier, Carina Olander searched for information on Nikias' informants.
"You will be released from your chains," Kouen told him. "Until you earn my trust, however, I will keep your metal vessel. Do you have any complaints on the condition?"
Melik brightened. "None. Keep it as long as you need."
Kouen turned away to depart, but the prince rattled his chains, calling for him, "Wait! Don't go!"
He halted, looking back to him and noticed Melik was a bit distracted with picking the locks of his chains.
"Since we cleared the air between us, you should know Asta confessed she feels compelled to save Nikias, but that she will betray him for you to gain control of this country in your empire's stead."
"I know."
"Oh, you do? Did you plan for her to be taken as well?"
"No, that is what she decided to do in an effort to her cause. She has not yet grown up enough to realize that not everyone can be saved."
"I think it is because she is so familiar with the notion that she is so determined to save him," said Melik, releasing himself from his bindings. "You must have noticed it by now. I heard it has a tendency to manifest around metal vessel users quicker than around others." At the perplexed expression that he must have let slip, Melik pointed to his right eye, continuing his explanation, "She can see things. Things that haven't happened. Things that can happen. Things that might or might not happen. Her eye is sharper the closer she is to more rukh."
"Asta?"
"There are magicians capable of divination, you know, somewhere out there. Don't sound too surprised, you married her because of it, didn't you? She's incredibly valuable."
"Are you saying that Asta is a magician?"
"The truth is I don't think she's a magician. I don't think I've known anyone that knows what she actually is, I just know what others have told me and what I've seen—she speaks to the dead and all," explained Melik. "She's scarily accurate."
That was it. The answer he sought when Asta betrayed him. The reason his marriage to her was accepted without complaints from his father and with the encouragement of his stepmother. The problem now was why she was of any importance at all. A skill like the one Melik described, if she truly possessed it, would be a desirable one and with it on the Kou Empire's side, they could make easy work of conquering the rest of the world, but was that all it meant?
"What have you heard?" asked Kouen.
"Wait, you sound like you didn't know this about her," said Melik, covering his mouth. "Whoops."