Egor I

"There, there… sit still" Artza said as she was rinsing Egor's wounds. Artza was as fine a wife as could be found in Batarian space and she was his. Many years ago, he had claimed her as a slave when he had raided the city from whence she came. She was a priestess of the Oten-cult and was made a kitchen-wench. In those days, Egor was still a bastard and when he grew fond of her, he was free to marry her. Now she was here with him in his chambers, lying with him, treating his wounds after battle. "Ouch!" Egor exclaimed as Artza pulled out pieces of shrapnel from his calf muscle. "Be done with it, woman," he snarled at her, a little more harshly than he had intended."Beloved," she said and kissed his neck. "I have to do this properly or the wound shall fester".

He clenched his teeth together as she continued removing pieces of metal and put them into a little metal tray on the bedside table. It was a hurtful wound, but the one that had thrown the grenade at Egor had suffered a much worse fate, one that had not given him the mercy of death by pistol-fire.

The chambers were simple and spartan, with very few ornaments or furniture. True Batarians did not believe in silk, gold and velvet. They believed in iron, blood and fire. Besides the simple wooden bed and the bedside table, the room did not contain anything but his armour, his spear and his rifle. A banner with the sigil of house Xian hung upon the wall – a varren rampant or upon a black field with a chief gules. He looked upon the sigil with envy – he was the rightful heir to the dynasty, not his nitwit brother. But he had more honour than to plot against his own kin, even though he knew he easily could make himself the king of The Stars Beyond. He had the support. He had the men. It was him, who had conquered, it was him who had driven Xiao's enemies before him. Egor was even born before Xiao. The only reason the Iron Crown rested upon Xiao's head and not his own was because Egor's mother had been a concubine and Xiao's mother had been a duke's daughter. It mattered not. Xiao had granted Egor the lordship of Ujon, making Egor a proper lord.

"I don't think you should be fighting anymore," Artza said. "You are not as young as you used to be. Any one of these battles could be your last," she said and cleaned some soot out of a wound on Egor's back. "A widow's life is no life for me," she said and turned his face towards her. "My brother's foolish wars shall soon see an end. After a few defeats at the hand of The Citadel, he shall broker for peace and I shall come back to you and live merrily to the end of our days," he said and kissed her lovingly on her lips. "Maybe we'll even have a few children to fill our home. They'll be princes, you know," he said, trying to lead her unto other thoughts. She looked down into her lap. "But what if the campaign against The Citadel is just half-way successful?" she asked with a worrisome look in her eyes. "The struggle would last years," she said. "If it is Oten's will, you'll die. And if that is Oten's plan for you, I will not object. But I want to be there with you when you leave this world and if you ride vanguard as you have done in every single battle so far, I might not be able to" she said and shed a single tear. Egor embraced her and sat with her for several moments until she felt better. He kissed her.

When they were done, he jumped off her. He was hot and sweating all over. Hopefully her womb would quicken this time and give him a child. He went to the window, cooling his body in the evening's cold wind. He had taken her for hours. He always did after battles. He wished he could elope with her and get far away from Kar'Shan, his half-brothers, his king and his responsibilities. He loved her so dearly. She was not the fairest of Batarians; His brother had made fun of this fact many times over, calling Egor, Egor Goatfucker and his wife Artzen the Beauty. Egor understood why his brother teased him so. Even though Egor himself had a maimed face and scars all over, women threw themselves at his feet. He was an honourable warrior, almost seven feet tall and built like a brick house, 300 pounds of pure muscle. His victories and daring tactical moves were known far and wide. Yet, his heart belonged to Artzen, the small heathen commoner of plain looks. And he did not appreciate when mocked her or her looks.

He remembered the day he had come to his father and told him that he was intending on taking the heathen servant as his wife. He had been drinking with his friends, the few he had, at the local tavern, building up courage for the fall-out he and his father were sure to be having. Old city of Saarguhl, the ancestreal hold of the House Gha'aniid to which Egor's father belonged, was busy and the streets were filled with song and dance. The King of the Kingdom of Palaven was visiting, trying to raise the levies of his batarian vassals to quell the Hierachists rebellion and so Aetus Vexos, the steward of the King and his three sons had come to Kwaigorr to gain the support of House Gha'aniid. Back then, the Archduke had been Fallan, older brother of Egor's father Xiao. Egor often thought to himself that he resembled his uncle much more than his father. Fallan had been monstrously tall and strong, yet not quite as much as Egor; he had been very smart and a worthy leader and administrator.

A tournament was being held in Aetus' honour, which was why Egor had decided to break the news to his father, the duke's marshall; Xiao was always in a good mood when blood was being spilled. He remebered how his younger trueborn half-brothers Balak and Yak had teased him as he passed through the stables where they were drinking ale in secret. This had made him more determined, however. He had wanted to prove himself to his younger, weakling brothers.

Oddly enough, Xian had not seemed angry or even disappointed when Egor broke the news that he wanted to wed the priestess.

"A bastard freak like you are not going to secure me any alliances anyway. Let her be your punishment"

His wedding day had been cursed too. Had very same day, Xiao and Yak had slit the throats of Aetus and Fallan both, proclaiming Xian Archduke and declared a war of independence against The Kingdom.

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. "Who's there?" Egor asked.

"Lord Xian! Lord Ben Loawi and his squire and nephew Ben Goarkha! Your half-brother, Spymaster Balak, whishes to see you in the council chambers!" General Loawi cried. Egor sighed. Balak was the second-youngest of Egor's half-brothers and the least honourable. Rather than wielding a spear and thrusting it into the bellies of his enemies, he preferred wielding a dagger and thrust it into the backs of his allies. This was why Xiao had appointed him spymaster, the fool that he was, granting Balak much more power than he should ever have been granted. Egor sat down on the bed next to his wife, stroking her cheek tenderly. "I have to go see my brother, beloved. I'll see you later," he said.

Moments later, he was walking down one of the castle hallways, heading for the council chambers. He wore a blood-red tunic with chain mail underneath it and a black cape over it, held together with a chain of steel. He also wore leather gloves as he had lost two fingers in the last battle and the stumps were quite a nasty sight.

The castle was ancient indeed. That much one could tell when you walked around the castle. The stones were old and dusty and many different sections of the castle had collapsed. But this was where the Kings of Old had reigned and any king that wanted to be taken seriously had to hold Kar'shan. Xiao had already begun restoring the castle to its former glory, but there was still much to do. The roof needed repairs and the rain would come pouring in whenever the gods decided for it to rain and the walls were in no condition to hold back any larger host of enemies.

He arrived at the old huge wooden door of the council chambers. He entered the large circular room where the Large Council of Old had sat for several thousand years. In the middle of the stood a large round table. In the King's seat at the other end of the table sat Lord Balak, Egor's half-brother, Lord of Urrhen and Spymaster of the King. He sat leisurely back in the chair, which was way too big for him. Sometimes, it was hard for Egor to believe that he and Balak the Tiny were of the same blood at all, but then he remembered that they were only half-brother and that the mother of his half-brothers was quite a tiny being. "Well, well, well… If it isn't my favourite bastard brother," he said almost spitefully, but was just par for the course with him. "Speak the purpose of this meeting or lose your tongue, Balak!" Egor said wrathfully. "Ha! Don't make empty threats, dear bastard brother" he grinned with his crooked, yellow smile. "People will respect you less for it!" Balak said.

"You would not harm me, dear brother. A kinslayer you are not" he said.

"I may be baseborn, but I understand the importance of remaining loyal to one's own kin" Egor said. "Something you could use a lesson in".

"True," Balak Shrugged. "You have always been true to Brother, as you were loyal to our father," he said. "But what if your kin is not true to you?" Balak asked. "I call it by 'Balak', its name and distrust its lies," Egor answered. "Oh brother!" Balak laughed, revealing all his ugly yellow teeth. "You wound me! I am as loyal to this family as you are," he said. To Egor's great distaste, Balak wore the very same black cape and crimson tunic as Egor did - the colours of their house. "I too, am a warrior. But whereas you fight on the battlefield, I fight in the shadows, protecting the King from dangers he never even realised existed," Balak explained.

"You are a rake and cutthroat," Egor said. "You and I have nothing in common".

"Oh, but we do!" Balak exclaimed and rose from the chair. "We both like living," he explained as he walked towards his half-brother. "And we do not want to die". "I fear not death" Egor said spitefully at the mere suggestion that he feared being claimed by Othen, the great father of suns. "No, but you do not want to make your dear beloved wife a widow, now do you?" Balak said with a grim smile. "I admit; I am craven. I fear death. And I fear that our dear brother, the King plots to kill me," Balak said. "Spare me your lies, snaketongue," Egor said. "Our brother might not be the finest of men, but he is our brother. Having you killed would be kinslaying," he defended his brother. "Ahh… But as I've learned our brother is not the most honourable of men… and he has a secret worth killing for," he said and threw a document down on the table in front of Egor.

"What is this?" Egor asked, looking at the dusty old folder at his hand. "This…" Balak said and held a dramatic pause. "Is the reason we're attacking The Citadel". Egor skimmed through the document, page after page. What he read instilled a sense of horror in his heart. He could not believe his very eyes. Page after page, filled with numbers and transactions. A papertrail.

"Where… Where did you get this?" Egor asked in disbelief.

Balak looked at his hands. "A human by the name Ivan came to me with this document" Balak Explained. "He said he was working with some Turian. Asked me if we knew what all these money had been used for. I knew," Balak said.

"The fleet. All those hundreds and hundreds of ships," Egor said, awestruck at this new discovery. Something seemed very much awry.

"We should have figured something fishy was going on. Fleets don't appear out of nothing. I had wondered where Brother had gotten all those funds from. And apparently they came with instructions," Balak said. "I think whoever gave us all these money want us to attack The Citadel rather than uniting the Terminus," he continued. "And Brother seems to keep his end of the bargain…". Egor stood, looking at the many numbers and letters for a while before looking up at his half-brother. "This human," Egor said. "Is he nearby? I wish to speak to him," he said. Balak folded his fingers and looked away from Egor before answering. "Unfortunately, he was shot down in his ship while trying to leave the planet. Apparently, someone has mistakenly marked his ship as a hostile vessel and was gunned down by our planetary defences" Balak explained. Egors eyes widened. What a queer coincidence. "I see… but why is it had you fear that Brother might want you dead?" Egor said. "Does he know that you have obtained this document?" he asked. "I think he knows, yes. Unfortunately, not even the spymaster can keep everything a secret" Balak said and looked down at his feet. "Tomorrow, when we attack… I'll be in the vanguard. King's request".