I opened my eyes when the wagon jumped over a pothole, I could barely keep them open as the fever kept me sitting still unable to move or think clearly and my dry throat along with my parched lips to the point that there were cracks in them made me not waste what little saliva I had left.
"Where are they taking me?" That's the only thing I could think, at that point I didn't know if the pirates had found me and captured me.
A blood-soiled cloth was tied to my abdomen, preventing my wound from being exposed.
"Maybe they are other survivors?..." However that hope soon reappeared from my mind as I saw how a chain was around one of my feet.
Soon a strong cough came over me, a cough so strong that it tore my throat and I could almost feel my own lungs coming out.
My eyes slowly closed again, I felt like I had stones for eyelids and it was a titanic task to keep them open so as not to fall unconscious.
"Don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep..."
"Hey! This wretch is dying!" Said another one who was in the wagon.
At that I felt the wagon stop, heard some footsteps and saw how a silhouette stood in front of me, although I could not see what it looked like, I could hear that it was a middle-aged man.
"I don't plan to use any of our medicine, we should leave it on the road." Say the Man.
"we can make some money with it if we can get it to live long enough, give it some water and do something about that wound." Replied another man.
"And what are we going to do with his wound? Surely it must be about to get infected by now."
"Then we'd better close that wound first, heat an iron and cauterize the wound, if he survives that then it means he'll live all the way to Anat."
Soon I watched as the silhouette held something and gave a flash, fire magic? Probably yes.
Then they took off the bandage I had, I could feel how pieces of cloth remained in the sticky wound and it refused to come out easily, so the man gave a strong yank to rip it off.
"A-Aghg!" I almost screamed in pain, but I kept my teeth clenched to stop myself from doing it.
"If you think that hurts..." he said before placing the burning iron on my wound, I could hear and feel the moment my flesh began to burn.
Even when I tried with all my might not to scream, I couldn't help but give a piercing cry of pain, instinctively I tried to pounce on him but his partner had already reduced me by holding my arms, or rather my arm since the left one was still numb.
Struggling with the little strength that I had, I could not prevent them from continuing. Although I knew that this could save my life, my body reacted in this way to the pain, with my eyes wide open and bloodshot, screaming and hyperventilating, I was about to become unconscious again, however I knew that if I fainted then I would die.
"I'm going to kill you fucking son of a bitch! I'm going to kill you and leave your corpse hanging for the crows to eat!" I screamed as I writhed from the greatest pain I had ever suffered.
"Sure sure, whatever you say." The man didn't care and kept cauterizing the wound, thinking I was talking to him, when in fact I was referring to Molt.
I wasn't going to die here, there was no way I was going to let that bastard get away with it. I was going to tear him apart with my bare hands when I get the chance.
Biting a piece of my robe heavily, as I could smell the aroma of my flesh burning, closing the wound.
my eyes almost slipped out of her orbit and I felt the veins in my head pounding so hard that I felt that if this continued for a little longer I would suffer a cerebral hemorrhage.
"All right, that's it," the man said, then pushed the burning iron away and drove again.
My breathing was very heavy, the sweat went from hot to cold in just a few moments. My skin was completely white like that of an expert, a pale white only interrupted by multiple dark bruises and burnt flesh, I was almost a cadaver that refused to die.
Anat Peripheries.
"Alright Heron, let's see what you have in store for this presentation." The Nahuarch, an admiral, said to me. "According to your specs it's a naval weapon similar to Hellenic fire?"
"Not exactly." I corrected. "Unlike Hellenic fire this method of defense does not have the disadvantage of being as unstable. We already know of cases where not handling that alchemical component with extreme care has caused entire ships to go up in flames. With my newest and most recent invention, the Ustorio mirror!" I said holding up the blanket covering my invention to reveal a large concave mirror.
Taking a few moments to generate speculation and then continue with my explanation. "After long research I have realized that by using these mirrors and at the right angle we can use the sun to our advantage!" I gave a signal and soon my servants went to the mirror to start manipulating it, making the sun's rays go towards a pile of wood from which the ships are made located 60 meters away.
"With this mirror we will be able to concentrate the power of the sun on one point of the enemy ship and make it catch fire! This way we won't have to worry about tragic accidents when placing the Hellenic fire on the ships!" As I spoke of this, the pile of wood began to catch fire, in just moments the wood was engulfed in flames.
"What is your opinion, Nahuarch?" I said hoping that the demonstration had impressed him, however the expression on his face was one of neutrality.
"It won't work in battle." He said as he jotted something down on a scroll.
"What?! B-but you've been able to see that it works and it's much safer than that alchemical mixture!"
"Don't get me wrong sir, it's an iteresant discovery but both us and the enemy are going to be in constant motion, that's not counting the natural rocking of the ships. This will make it extremely difficult to maintain the beam effectively, making it impossible for us to use it on our ships." Explained the admiral.
"And what about a naval defense weapon?! If movement is a problem then keep it in a fixed position protecting the harbor-" I was trying to propose, however the Nahuarch interrupted me.
"That won't be very effective either, it would be a completely useless defense if there is no sun, plus keeping a mirror shiny and pristine when exposed to the elements will cause problems. Besides, if we were to actually need coastal defenses it means we would have lost naval superiority, which means we would lose the war and therefore your weapon would never be used."
I could not respond to that, I did no more than fall to my knees in defeat. If I didn't invent some effective weapon I would lose the funding of the Polis and be left with nothing again.
"Mr Heron, you've made good attempts considering you've never seen battle, if you took the time to learn about war I'm sure you could present something useful next time."
He had reason, I did not know much about war and neither that things would be practical or possible logistically, the previous time I had a mechanical ram in which thanks to a complex system of pulleys that the battering ram hit only... However the complexity of the mechanism so that if something failed no one would know how to repair it, in addition the system occupied so much space in the battery that in the end would require more people to take it to the wall and it was more difficult to move it by rough terrain, Besides the power of the blows was not as high as I had expected so it was simply not worth using something so complicated.
The second project he tried to present was to use a copper cylinder to place a stone or metal projectile connected to a heating boiler and the steam would cause the projectile to explode. Although it worked the projectile came out more than a few meters so it was not possible to use it in battle.
"So... I need to seek military advice, can you help me?"
"I'm sorry, but we are very busy with the war, if you need help go towards the Agora, I know that today they will bring prisoners of war to sell as slaves, maybe you can find some enemy soldier willing to cooperate."
Seeing that I still had oprunity, I stood up, saluted the admiral and thanked him for his advice to return to the city.
Fort of the Sun.
"And what you gonna do, Saskia?" The Vloralden looked at me funny as I walked through the room completely desperate.
"I don't know!" I exclaimed angrily, seeing in the report the number of slaves Duke Canus planned to send.
"A rather ironic problem, you need slaves to produce food and develop this place but you don't have the food to keep those slaves in the first place."
"Damn it, I cannot buy food from the local lords and if I buy food outside the region the nobles will force any commercial caravan to pay so many taxes when they pass through their territories that we will simply go bankrupt!" I said giving a blow to the wall, which made me intantaneamente and provoke in me an expression of pain by hitting hard. "Shit!" I exclaimed with my hand toward me to see if I had been hurt.
"Then simply make peace with those nobles, let Zorzal take care of them when he arrives."
"I can't do that! I know what nobles are like when they consider that their pride was hurt, they will not accept peace unless they put me in my place humiliating me in some way, which I am almost certain that raping me will be an option for them."
"You think they won't fear the prince's wrath?"
"They are not soldiers under Zorzal's command as in the Gali wars, they are nobles appointed by the emperor himself to defend the borders, in addition... as you said, I overstepped my bounds, so they can argue that they were dicipling me." I responded by giving a heavy sigh and crossing my arms. " In the war I could get away with mine because everyone saw that I was useful, however here the master should not be on my side, favoring a slave over the nobles would be something scandalous and would make him lose much support in Sadera."
"Ha! I told you that-"
"I know Volcatts! You don't have to tell me every time something goes wrong!" I interrupted annoying.
"Then you'd better think of some solution about food... after reading this other report." He said showing me a rolled scroll.
"And now what happened?" Already without energy, I extended my hand unbuckled to take the report.
"Apparently the civilian population of this fief is furious because you gave us access to the termae, they are saying that the place is full of fur, outaged because some bararias demi-humans are allowd now and other less pleasant things." He said as I began to read. "And also a rumor has begun to spread about you..."
When I said this I soon got to the part of the rumors, what was written there made me red with both embarrassment and fury.
"Who started this rumor?! I exclaimed in anger as I read aloud. " The slave who wants to be empress enters the termae with the Volralden to make orgies?!"
"We don't know yet, yet we have heard that some people call you lupus imperatix, empress wolf, as a mockery of you."
Starting to tremble with anger, biting my thumb to the point that a thread of blood was beginning to descend from my finger to my lips.
"At what point did it all go to shit?" That's the only thing I could ask.
Women's bedroom, night.
With a dim candle light, I and the other slaves of the prince were gathered around the light.
"Fent-Kauss, don't you think you went a little overboard with that rumor?" Moon, the cat girl told me quite nervous. " If she finds out... or if Prince Zorzal really believes that rumor..."
"It is the easiest and most effective way to damage her reputation, to make others believe that she betrayed the trust of his highness the prince after all that he has given her in his benevolence." I replied, that had been a play my mother remembered when we lived in the harem of the king of the Sheiks. " Even if the prince does not believe it, if he keeps her by his side it would damage his reputation and he would be forced to push her away."
"But what if he believes it? He could try to kill her!" I could see the fur on her ears and tail stand up.
"Moon has reason, maybe you should have thought of something less extreme." Nuriel hugged one of his wings.
"It is not possible." I replied. "Zilfy heard her intentions to want to become empress and Thalassa heard that she is infertile, we cannot waste any more time!"
"What does one thing have to do with the other?!" Zilfy seemed upset, even the snakes she had for hair looked at me menacingly.
"It means that any woman who can give heirs to the prince will sooner or later become a threat to her! She who leads to the master's promogenite by default will gain more influence over Zorzal and the empire than Saskia." I replied somewhat annoyed by her attitude.
"And what if the rumor disappears before the master returns? She will be more alert and more careful with the smallest detail." Said the Anatian girl, I could see she didn't have much trouble with what I did.
"I have something in mind, but I will only use it if I see that the rumor is being forgotten. I'll tell you about that if we need to get to that point. Now... let's go to sleep."
I said extinguishing the candle to lie in bed, although I could not sleep.
"Intrigues in the harem or influencing and manipulating our men, seems the only way we have to gain some influence in this place unless the fortunes of fate make you the sole heir to something... It's not fair Mama, it's not fair but it's the only way we have not to be left out, you taught me what happens when you lose... And I'm not losing this game."
"Men fight in war or in the senate, we have our own battlefield."
Port of Elbe.
After avoiding pirates I had finally arrived at the port of Elbe, although my Polis controlled the waters that did not mean that traders like me could travel safely because most of the fleet is blockading the cities of the league of Morea. However, the war was also beneficial to me, as much of my competition would go bankrupt if the blockade could not be broken.
"I wish this war would end soon, I can't trade with half of Hellas!". Said the local merchant I was sharing a drink with in the city tavern.
"Don't worry, I'm sure this war will be over soon. The economy of the league of Morea is on its last legs." I said in a nonchalant manner.
"Yes, but if they were to hold out until the time the Cytheron games start then Anat would have no choice but to lift the blockade because of the truce, which would cause everyone to go back to trading and that, when the games end, you would have to start all over again."
"Don't worry about that, trust me, the war will be short."
"Oh~ Too bad, that would be the second time I've been late for the fun~" I heard a somewhat nannish voice with a strangely seductive tone, normally I wouldn't pay attention to what kids had to say unless they had money but a strange premonition told me that ignoring it was a bad idea.
Although that childish yet seductive tone would be funny to me for some reason that tone of voice made my skin crawl, for a moment I looked at the local shopkeeper and could see that he was transfixed watching the girl, his skin pale.
"Some local princess?" I wondered and then started to shake my head to find out who that voice was coming from.
My eyes widened like plates to see a little girl, no more than thirteen years old at the entrance, she was dressed dark with red details and ribbons, red boots and black socks above the knee fastened by a black garter with red, a long dark hair along with a headband on his head that looked like horns. But that priestess dress of Emroy was not what she called attention, nor the red eyes of the girl, but what I call her attention was that huge halberd that the girl carried as if it weighed absolutely nothing.
There was no doubt, I was face to face with the apostol of Emroy, Rory the reaper.
"Y-your Holiness Miss Rory!"
"When I went to witness the Gali wars the war was over, I knew the empire was going to win but with everything I heard I found more interesting~ But I was late and now I seem to be late too!" Rory said trying to mimic a feeling of false annoyance, as if playing. " If only there were someone who could take me~ someone like a merchant who must return to his city~" he said playfully as he sat on my lap.
"O-f course I'll take you to Anat! It's the least I can do for her holiness!" I said nervous and somewhat flushed, I could feel the penetrating look of the local merchant telling me that I was a lucky bastard.
"And how are you so sure that you will win the war? If by land you are being defeated?" the local merchant said.
"Oh, it's because in our ranks appeared a very powerful magician." I replied immediately.
"So much for one magician? Yes it must be someone very strong." the apostol said sounding quite interested.
"Yes, it is very powerful! I heard it was able to revive the dead to fight on our side."
However saying that was a mistake, I saw how suddenly the expression of Rory stopped being friendly so that, in an instant, I had the cold edge of his halberd in my throat.
"Who is he?" She demand in a menacing way staring at me with those red eyes, I do not understand why the sudden change until something lit up in my mind.
She serves the god of death, which means that this magician had committed a crime, the greatest heresy that could be done to the god of death, to enter his domain to resurrect someone for worldly purposes.
"I don't know! I only know that he had presented himself to the Polis as an alchemist offering his services, is the only thing that I know!" I said desperately, if she believed that for any reason she was part of this heresy she would not hesitate to kill me for insulting her god.
She'd stare at me for some moments trying to find out if I tell the truth, some moments later she removes her weapon from my neck.
"Okay, so when do we leave?~" She said smiling as if nothing had happened.