"Kay finished his speech. They'll be here in less than a minute." Shadow said, a rune dimming on her arm.
Fire took a deep breath. "Let's hope this goes by without creating any bigger issues."
Fire used the few seconds he had to mentally prepare himself for what was going to happen. Everyone would enter the room, they'd close the door and hold their ballot. Maybe Kay wouldn't be too confrontational due to his recent injuries but Fire wasn't too hopeful. Ideally the entire thing wouldn't take more than ten minutes and once it was over they'd have an officially elected leader.
Shadow asked, as if reading Fire's thoughts: "What if it isn't you?"
Fire replied: "I'll make do, I don't have to be at the top to see this through, it'll be just like back home. It's not ideal but it's workable."
Before they could exchange any more words the rest of the group was upon them. Somewhat surprisingly Destiny was the first one to enter the room, quickly followed by Steve and Jennifer as well as Lucy, who gave them a quick greeting by waving a handful of ballot paper at them. Almost immediately after them came Urist and Fristad, who were loudly chatting about something. Then came Warnado, Amanda and Kay.
Oh no.
The moment Kay entered the room his eyes were fixed on Fire burning with competitiveness and other things that Fire deliberately ignored. Kay was still wearing his infirmary garb, that combined with the fact that his movements were even more exaggeratedly grandiose than usual did not bode well at all.
"I'm back!" Kay exclaimed as he struck a pose. "Hope you didn't miss me too much. I'm feeling just in the mood for an electoral debate. Would be a good change of pace after defeating the mods-damned Ender in single combat!"
Shadow cut in. "Kay, there isn't even everyone here yet. You're welcome for the healing by the way."
Kay blinked in indignance, Fire looked back at the entrance. Tyron and Astro were the next ones to enter, Astro pulling Tyron aside almost immediately. A few seconds later Voidblade and Rose entered and shut the door behind them. Voidblade immediately tried to gain as much distance as he could from the humans in the room, a tendency of his that would hopefully lessen as he got more used to living with them.
Shadow spoke again. "Alright, now that everyone is here it's time to explain exactly why we are here in case anyone hasn't heard it yet."
Fire was glad that his sister was taking the speaking role, since he was one of the candidates it would have been quite odd if he had announced the ballot himself. Shadow was a good speaker if she wanted to be, there was something about her that made people listen.
Shadow continued: "Fire built the foundations of this shelter but immediately taking the lead would be a bit undemocratic, so we decided to hold a ballot for who is going to take the position of leader. Currently the two obvious candidates are Fire and Kay, however if anyone else wants to step forward they can."
There was no response for a few seconds. "We have our candidates then."
Lucy spoke up: "I have the papers but no urn. How are we going about this?"
Urist started shifting on the spot and a few seconds later he was holding some kind of vessel. "Almost forgot I had this thing, memento 'o my last colony."
He hurried forward and placed the vessel on the central table. Fire took a closer look at it, it was odd to say the least. Its basic shape was that of an urn made from what looked to be silver, decorated with spikes of various other metals. On the urn were engravings that Fire couldn't read. Urist had started to teach him the runes and iconography that dwarves used but his grasp on them was still rudimentary. The only runes Fire could decipher meant "elephant" and "lever".
As much as Fire would have liked to contemplate the urn, there was an election at hand and his opposition seemed quite eager to get some words out.
"Most of you have heard my routine already," Kay oozed confidently, sitting on the table, arms folded loosely and eyes half-closed. "So, I'll be brief and hopefully a little less formal. Pretty sure I used the word mitigating last time - ha! - breaking out the big-boy words and such. What on earth was I at?" He paused for a few isolated chuckles.
"Suffice to say, I'm a military man. I've withstood sieges, led ambushes, taken death-blows for superiors and underlings alike. I am fiercely loyal to those I consider friends and exceedingly liberal with the definition of friend. I am a skilled swordsman, hand-to-hand fighter and now magical man. I will whip that congregation into shape. I have fought men and Divines and Endlings, and if you give me an army I will teach them how to massacre all three. I am, to the best of my knowledge, the only one who has bested a captain of the Tower or faced the Entity and I will seek to convey what I have learned.
"And it doesn't stop on the training field. I am a man of exceeding mental fortitude and strategic instinct. Out in that battlefield I was telling the book how to use its own powers to maximum effect. In warfare I was renowned for low-casualty, unconventional raids that wreaked havoc on our enemies before we engaged them in open combat. Herobrine's 10th wasn't actually that large. Maybe eight thousand at its peak, and yet we held the Arcadian peninsula for a year.
"Moreover, I'd like to think I understand people. I know how to keep morale up. As I've hopefully proved, I can be quite persuasive," he chuckled and a few more people joined him than the last time. "And I tend to lead from the front. While I am glad that this shelter was built and ready for our arrival, I would like to point out that Fire just kind of left without telling anyone he was going aside from Shadow. And he also only told Shadow he had sighted the Ender at the Prophet's hill, which might have been useful to know before she turned up hunting for us a day or two later."
He was mad now. Obviously mad. Fire wanted to stop him but he picked back up.
"And he wasn't there at the Tower, either. This is not to cast aspersions about Fire's motives or character, but his leadership style does feel a tad detached for my tastes. There's leading from the front and then there's leading from a front, somewhere. Moreover, it does seem premature to me that someone who has barely even faced the Entity or his little squad of goons thinks he can adequately lead people against them, on account of his success in simulated warfare," Kay concluded with a harsh and bitter brogue. "I appreciate your support."
With that, he stood up and rejoined Warnado, furrowing his eyebrows and tightening his folded arms. A polite but somewhat uneasy round of applause went up. Tyron patted Kay on the shoulder, but his face was such a mess of consternation that he might have been congratulating or consoling him.
Fire took a few moments to consider. Just like when Kay had lost his temper in the village, the temptation to deliver a crushing, deconstructive response was there but yet again Fire decided against it, if anything it would escalate the tension further.
He said: "I suppose I'll start with some backstory as well to stay in theme and then respond to the more glaring accusations. I was born to pretty much the worst parents you could imagine, not only were they war profiteers and generally horrible people, they were also dead for as long as I can remember. I only found out about this when I was older but for brevity I'll spare you most of the events after. The important point is that I had a sister who was pathologically afraid of anyone but me and I spent most of my life looking for a way to remedy this.
"I finally found a group of people who managed to create a world parallel to mine, a world in which my sister could be free. That is the world where I truly spent the majority of my life, time wise at least. It's been a good five millenia now, in which I have gathered all kinds of experience in war and other matters, and contrary to what some might say, this experience was quite real.
"Eventually I made a slight mistake when experimenting with a new potion mixture and ended up in Nexus, where I ran into the very man who is now my opposition. I admit, I have had a history of disappearing in moments that were in hindsight quite inconvenient. The first time I managed to negotiate my 'release' with the Ender and gained valuable information in turn, which not only included the knowledge of safety of the location we are in but it also allowed me to return home and bring Shadow here. I could have just stayed in my world and hoped for the best but something tells me that it wouldn't have ended well. As for the second time, as Kay put it, the shelter is essential to our current well-being.
"I know most of you have already made up your mind for who you want to elect, in fact, I think that for some that decision only has one viable choice, whichever that might be. Do what you think is best for our survival, because that's what it comes down to in the end."
Once Fire had stopped speaking Lucy started going around the room, handing out ballot paper and writing implements to everyone.
Once she arrived at Shadow she was met with a raised palm. Shadow said: "My vote was decided before I even arrived. I'm abstaining to have a result that better represents the opinion of those who don't have my reasons."
Astro, after conferring with Kay a second, cleared his throat: "Naturally, Kay has my support, but I respect that I'm a free vote on account of my past affiliations. For pretty much the exact same reasons, I abstain. Wizards think alike, I suppose." He lightly tossed his ballot in.
Everyone got a few minutes to consider and cast their vote, some took longer than others. Fristad and Voidblade were the very first ones to put their paper into the urn, causing some slight awkwardness when it came to who went first.
Warnado was next, folding his ballot in the shape of a boat with a spell and flicking it off his wrist. Amanda rolled her eyes and handed in a less spectacular but certainly more anonymous entry to the anonymous ballot.
Lucy and Urist were the next ones to vote, followed automatically by Destiny, who seemed to have waited until the initial wave subsided. Rose followed a short while after, adding a second, identical boat to the urn, giving Warnado a sly smile. Fire smiled in turn, it seemed that Warnado had yet again managed to bring out a soft spot in someone.
When Shadow gave the warning that only a minute of time was left Steve and Jennifer stepped up as well, albeit slowly. Only Tyron remained not having voted, still looking deeply conflicted. As the last seconds ticked down he quickly scribbled down a name, folded the paper and threw it into the urn. He looked like he'd handed over a baby, or dropped it on the floor.
Shadow announced: "So, we have all the votes. I think it would be best if Astro and I do the counting together. Astro?"
Astro nodded and they spent a minute unfolding papers, separating them into piles and counting them. They spoke to each other the whole time, Shadow casting a ward to prevent people listening in on them. Then, finally they spoke.
"The count reads," announced Astro, "Eight for Fire, three for Kay, with two abstentions."
Fire felt relief flood through him, but shot a look at Kay to figure out what was going to happen. He looked like he'd just tasted sour milk and was appropriately silent. He walked up and offered a hand to Fire, forcing a smile that was as iron-clad as his gaze.
"Congratulations," he said, offering a thorny, reluctant olive branch. "I did give you a fight."
Fire replied: "That you did. Even if I had lost you would have had my support. It's the ends of survival we're fighting for here, how we get there is less important."
"Naturally, survival is paramount and unity is key to that," Kay conceded as though making a point to someone else. It wouldn't have surprised Fire if that had been the Book speaking for Kay. "How do you intend to proceed, commander?"
Fire collected his thoughts, an outline for a plan was in his mind already, the details gradually filling in.
"The congregation will be here in less than two days, until then we need a clear command structure that allows us to smoothly integrate everyone into the shelter. The core group and some of the skilled early arrivals will act as group leaders in their respective areas, once more arrive they'll have to delegate another layer of command. That way we keep the chain of command short but ideally without sacrificing professionalism. We don't have the time to build up elaborate structures."
"How are we defining 'areas'?" asked Kay with a pragmatic sigh.
"Rough division between combat and non-combat, with each being split into smaller categories. Not everyone will be a soldier, we need logistics too, aspects of that'll be most of the non-combat areas. The combat area is split into things like conventional weapons, siege operations, guerrilla tactics, magic, and a few others. The middle elements in the chain control the areas they are proficient in."
"What's the general strategy?" interjected Astro wearily, as though just to remind Kay others had similar questions. "How soon do we want them combat-ready?"
That was a good question, one that was very difficult to answer since a lot of the variables were unknown.
"I could say 'as soon as possible' but that satisfies no-one. I don't know how close whatever the Entity is planning is to completion so we need to assume earlier rather than later. A rough estimate would be two weeks for the bare minimum of being able to put up a fight. Victory is not very likely through direct combat, the Entity remains something that we can't 'just' kill."
"What will you have me oversee?" Kay asked flatly.
Fire said: "Actually, I thought about making you my second-in-command when it comes to warfare. You are experienced and I could use an additional opinion when forming plans. Shadow would be filling the equivalent role on the magical side of things. Do you accept?"
"Absolutely," said Kay, obviously surprised but not hesitating for a second. Collecting himself, he added: "I would be honoured. Dealing with the Endlings will be crucial and hopefully I'll be able to give some insight on how that might be achieved. I've some formations from the Onslaught that might prove helpful."
So far so good, now there was one final matter Fire had to address. "One last thing I'd like to say while we're all in a room together. It's regarding that prophecy that started off the shelter. I don't know how much of it should be trusted, all I know is that people see me as its champion and I intend to use it to smooth things over until they can trust us because of how we lead not because of a prophecy."
There was a silence in the room, they were obviously waiting for Fire to continue. "That's all, get some rest, clear your head. In the evening we'll meet here again to figure out the chain of command."