And so we come to Before Friday Thursday(stop laughing right now)
Despite a wish to see what the rest of the ADRCSI(not official name) are doing, but you will have to wait a bit for that(1 chapter), as we first need to see what has happened to our other protagonist since the last story.
The world ahead
Mercury POV(late winter, 293 AA)
Mercury was standing solitarily in front of the Bone Throne in what used to be the royal palace of Damocles. He was studying the throne one last time, remembering the nooks and crannies that it had had during his time on it.
He had never really liked sitting on it in the first place, and not just because the white ivory seat was highly uncomfortable to sit in for any extended period of time, but also because the very idea of sitting on a throne had never really been one that suited him.
In fact, his dislike of spending overly much time on the throne had garnered him the moniker 'the running king' during his first decades as king, though that might have also been partly because he had spent most of his first three decades on the throne running from one crisis to the next.
To say that his first decade of running the Kingdom of Damocles had been a relaxing task would have been the understatement of understatements, and although the troubles had calmed down severely after that first decade, it had had to take another two decades before he could really say that his kingdom had been stable.
After his kingdom had been properly stabilized, Mercury had had to wait for the Empire's spies to be recalled, before he could properly get room to begin the changes that he had envisioned, and there had been a lot.
The most important of them had been the formation of the Silver Wave Alliance, or just the Alliance, as everyone simply called it, which had taken almost five centuries of negotiating treaties with individual dökkálfar city states in order to form the foundation of the Alliance on the 100th anniversary of the fall of the Ra'zac Empire.
The formation of the Alliance had been the starting block for everything that had happened during the 293 years since then, and the event had even formed the baseline of the new year-system that was now used by all Alliance members, with the years dated as either Before Alliance, BA, or After Alliance, AA.
The common timeline had been the first change to unify the individual countries of the Alliance, but others had soon followed. Mercury had for example sponsored the development of a new standardized distance measuring unit that would be universally constant no matter where in the world you went.
In the end, the unit had been defined as the 50.000.000th fraction of the total circumference of the globe, which had been quite the arduous task to calculate, as it had involved having to measure a fraction of the globe's circumference at several key points on both the continent of Damocles and Alalëa and then take the average value of those measurements in order to decrease the room for error.
Similar changes from their previous definition to a definition based on a natural universal constant to the units of time, pressure, temperature, energy and weight had come later on, but the change to distance measurement had very much been the trial for whether such changes could and should be done at all.
"Reminiscing on how comfortable it was to sit on one last time?", the voice of his current aide de camp, Ilumëo Uluth, said as she appeared from the shadows with Mercury's pet at her left side and a leather inbound folder in her right hand.
Ilumëo was the ninth generation aide de camp after Naina, who had passed away centuries ago. She was a dökkálfar woman in her mid-fifties, which marked her as just about to exit what to dökkálfar women were the prime of their life.
Her hair was a long mass of silver that was braided into one long braid, which hung down her right front shoulder. Her face was streamlined and without any visible flaws to mare it, with eyes the colour of jade, a body that was taller than most male dökkálfar's, and hidden underneath the green silk garments that covered her body was a leather armour that hid multiple daggers, poisons, antidotes and many other things.
She had been his aide de camp for the last two centuries, a task which she had inherited when her grandfather had passed away and her mother had had to leave her job as the aide de camp in order to take up his job of running the family and preparing the next generation.
Since the Uluth family had been the aide de camps for Mercury for four centuries now, they had developed a system that had been passed from one generation to the next to ensure that the next aide de camp was ready when one had to retire or died, though the latter had only occurred once during the span of those four centuries.
The previous aide de camp would keep the family in line as the family matriarch or patriarch, and prepare who she or he believed to be the best candidate among the grandchildren to eventually take over the job that their own parent, or uncle or aunt, was currently holding.
It was not always so, but most of the time, a candidate that was a child of the current aide de camp was chosen, unless of course the children of the aide de camp were not qualified for the job, at which point, one of their cousins would be chosen instead.
The current aide de camp would then follow Mercury around wherever he went and do whatever he required of them. It was a stressful job that required long hours and had very little vacation, which was why most children of the aide de camp were primarily raised by their grandparents.
As far as Mercury knew, Ilumëo herself had barely known her own mother for the first half of her lifespan, as she had primarily been raised by her maternal grandparents while her mother was away as his aide de camp, and since her father had been an active officer in the First Sword, he had been away just as often.
It was literally a part of the job description that you only had a limited amount of time to find a spouse and spend time with any children that you might have, which was why most of Mercury's aides found their future spouses within the military.
Mercury knew for a fact that Ilumëo had an on-going affair with one of his Varangian guards, and aside from getting a laugh out of scaring the daylight out of him when he had once stumbled in on them, he had not interfered any further in the relationship. Who his aide chose to see romantically was her choice, as long as it did not impede upon her duties.
Still, despite the long hours and the lack of time to spend with their own children, all of the Uluth family children always competed like crazy to become the next aide de camp, as that was the position from which all of their family's power and influence flowed from. And that was a lot of influence and power.
Through him, the Uluth family had become more powerful than any archduke alive, except for Mercury himself of course, as he had managed to land all of the children that had not become his aide de camp into important positions all throughout the Alliance.
But as an assurance to make sure that the family would not forget who it was that provided them with everything, Mercury had never once granted any of them lordships or other titles that could give them power of their own.
All Uluth children also had free access to the Isenberg Academy, which was the most prestigious school in the entire Alliance, and which was owned and had been built by Mercury especially to give the Uluth children the best available education.
It had been built on a small previously uninhabited rock island not far from The Capital, which now housed the school and all of the students, the staff that taught the students, the people that kept the grounds and the guards that provided security for everyone.
"I have not sat on it for almost three centuries now, but I can still imagine its hard edge as if it was only yesterday", Mercury finally responded to her inquiry.
It was true, he had given up the throne of Damocles shortly after the Alliance had been formed, as it had been a requirement in order for him to get the job that he needed; lord commander of ALL Alliance forces. In short, whenever something had anything to do with the military or required the use of military units, it fell under Mercury's jurisdiction.
If a province was facing serious unrest, Mercury had the privilege of taking charge of everything that went on within that province, effectively making him its de facto ruler until the unrest had been quelled. Nothing short of a 5/6 agreed upon Tribunal vote could countermand his orders in military affairs.
The Tribunal was the collective assembly of leaders from all provinces that decided on the overall decisions and law-making of the entire Alliance. The members from each province were distributed according to population of that province, and they were up for election at least every decade.
Of course, a new election could be announced before that, but from the moment that you announced it, at least a year had to pass in order to give all the candidates that wanted to run for their province, enough time to prepare their election campaigns.
"I understand", Ilumëo responded, "you just wanted to see it one last time before we left".
As she said the last bit, the pet at her side, which was actually a black panther named Mushu, rubbed his head affectionately on her left leg as it purred. Mushu might have originally been Mercury's pet, but if the cat was to decide here and now on which master it preferred, Mercury figured that it would chose Ilumëo.
Not that Mushu would ever attack himself, as that had only happened the one time when they had met inside the jungles of the Alliance province of Dimholt, and considering that Mercury had mentally conquered Mushu and forced the cat to obey him after it had tried to maul him 15 years ago, he doubted very much that it would try it again, not that Mushu would have more of a chance this time around.
"Have everything been prepared for our departure?", Mercury asked just as Mushu got bored with not receiving any attention from Ilumëo and decided to hop up on the throne, where he curled into a furry ball and purred as Mercury scratched him behind his ears.
"Yes, everything should have been taken care of", Ilumëo responded as she looked inside the folder in her hands, "I have also made sure to get an anniversary gift for your wife this year".
"What did I give her this time?", Mercury asked absentmindedly as he continued to pet his panthers.
"A necklace crafted from the gold of your mines in The Northern Wastes and with pearls from the Ivory Sea imbedded in it", Ilumëo answered evenly.
The Northern Wastes had, as a province, been given to Mercury after his first five decades of being the lord commander, in what was supposed to be an insult, as rewarding him with the archduchy of The Northern Wastes had not really seemed to them like a fair trade for his service, but it had since turned to his advantage.
As his first act as the archduke of the province, Mercury had laid claim to one of the flat mountaintops that dotted the inland, which reached above even the skies, and had since had a fortress built upon that flat mountaintop, which was commonly referred to as Winter's Crown, partly because that on the rare days without any skies blocking the view up the mountain, the walls of the fortress actually made it look like the mountain had been crowned.
"Do you think that she suspects that it has been you, and your predecessor, that has given her the presents since the day that we got married?", Mercury asked as he let his hand run along the smooth white ivory of the Bone Throne's armrest.
"She has sent me her thanks for the last nine years, so yeah, I believe that she does", Ilumëo responded.
Mercury had gotten married 45 years ago, though the marriage had not exactly been one founded on love or something like that. The marriage had been a part of a treaty between the Alliance and his wife's country, which she just so happened to be the princess of.
In short, the treaty had stated that in exchange for joining the Alliance as a fully-fledged member and providing support and supplies for its armies and navies, the Alliance would have to help the country finally win against its neighbouring country, and long-time nemesis, along with promising to have the Alliance's lord commander, also known as Mercury Iridium, marry the king's eldest daughter in what the king had no doubt hoped would be a beneficial tie to power that would spawn him some grandchildren in powerful positions.
Given that his wife had been 16 at the time, still very much a child in Mercury's eyes, combined with the fact that Mercury did not want any children for multiple reasons, one of which was that it was proven by the annals of history that it was the impatient children of powerful men that most often screwed up their parents' plans and usurped them, the king had had to see that dream fail.
On the eve of their wedding night, Mercury had calmly but bluntly told his wife that he would provide her with an allowance each month, which she could do with what she wanted, and that as long as she did not interfere in his business or created a public spectacle, she was free to do whatever she wanted.
For two years, she had been the complacent pretty little princess that she had been raised to be, but after having been mostly neglected by him for two years, she had eventually begun to hate Mercury and had even begun hiring assassins to try and have him killed.
Mercury had of course stopped every attempt on his life, but had only punished her actions by withholding a part of her allowance for the next month. To her, it had seemed like nothing more than a slap on the wrists, which had seemingly infuriated her even more and prompted her to try again not a month afterwards.
Mercury believed the first attempts to take his life had actually been genuine by his wife, but the later ones had seemed more like cries for attention, which Mercury had continued to deny her by continuing his policy of doing nothing more than taking a cut of her allowance for the next month.
After about two decades of this, his wife's hate had eventually turned to apathy and she had stopped trying to kill him, or caring about him in the least for that matter. When this had happened, Mercury had lost the final bit of interest in her as well, as her earlier antics had at least amused him somewhat, but it had all been a part of his plan to make sure that no romantic feelings could ever come between them, and it had worked to perfection.
Mercury had never been good with love, that much had been made painfully obvious to him during his life, even from before he had arrived in Alagaësia. There had been a reason why he had been single when Eragon had come for him.
Then there had been the Elva affair, which had not exactly ended on the best of terms, what with the two of them trying to kill the other for several decades, which only ended when Mercury was the one that succeeded in doing so.
Loivissa's later banishment…had been a rash decision, but to be fair, at the time, he would have banished just about anyone. Naina had been lucky that she had been safely tucked away in The Capital until he had calmed down.
Still, if Loivissa had not been banished, it would have been unlikely that Mercury would have realized what needed to be done, and had found the strength that desperation gave, to push all obstacles on his way aside in order to realize his dreams.
"Also, another major case of money fraud has crippled the Targan province", his aide tore him out of his musings by saying, "the Tribunal are requesting to lease your expert on the matter. Should I inform Teivan that he should set sail for Targan?"
"Yes, and if he makes a fuss about always having to travel all across the Alliance for extended periods of time again, then remind him that he should just shallow his pride and get a proper apprentice to send in his stead", Mercury agreed with her proposal.
Teivan was Mercury's expert on counterfeiting, who was so successful in cracking down on others that he was quite literally often booked several years in advance by individual clients, unless of course Mercury yanked his chain and told him to go somewhere else immediately.
He had originally been a quite successful counterfeiter himself, but had changed sides when Mercury had caught him and offered him more money than he had made by counterfeiting if he would just put his skills to work for him instead.
"By the way, how is your cousin doing in her new home?", Mercury said as the thought crossed his mind.
"She is well now, though the locals were a bit hostile to her when she arrived", Ilumëo answered as she continued to scribble down notes regarding the counterfeit case in her folder, "she says that she will be ready to receive guests in the very near future".
"Good to know", Mercury murmured as he began heading out of the throne room with Mushu springing from the throne to follow him at his side, "that should be all before we depart, should it not?"
"Actually, Earl Atanalcar has sent a request to run for office in the next Tribunal election", Ilumëo read off of her list.
"Hmm, Atanalcar eh? I suppose that it could be beneficial to have him in the Tribunal, so you can tell him that he has my permission, but remind him that I still have the vial with me", Mercury responded thoughtfully.
"Should I also make him aware that his eldest child, and only son, is still studying at Isenberg?", Ilumëo asked without much care for what that actually meant.
"No, he already knows of it perfectly well, so there should be no need", Mercury waved it off.
After that, the duo continued to head out of the palace and down to the docks, where Mercury's ship was anchored. It was the same ship that he had sailed out with when he had first left Alagaësia's shores 470 years ago.
Three other smaller warships lay anchored next to it, which would serve as his escort units, and which were all manned and operated by members of his Varangian Guard. The Varangian Guard had come a long way from back when it had just been 40 men assigned to guard him on foot.
As Mercury walked across the plank to his ship, he let his gaze fall back on The Capital one last time. Its massive onyx outer ring-wall, the pipes beneath them that would flood any besiegers with burning oil, the many zigzagging roads that traversed the steep climb up from the docks and to the portcullises in the wall and finally, he let his gaze shift to the docks, which were brimming with activity, as usual.
Warships were being loaded, prepared or built in dry-docks, their supply-ship counterparts were being readied to carry heavy loads for months of travel on sea and in the civilian portion of the docks, Mercury knew that it was not far different from this portion that was reserved for military vessels.
After all, The Capital was the official seat of the Tribunal, which meant that though the city could never have been called small in all the time that Mercury had known it, its population had still managed to increase many-fold since he had first laid eyes on it, which the city had only accomplished due to techniques about how to build higher and stronger multiple-stories houses that had been assimilated from one of the Alliance's other provinces.
"Farewell, city of towers", Mercury nodded towards the city before he finally walked aboard his ship.
And there we have a part(a very small part) of what he has done for the 400 years.