Ares turned to face the voice. It was a fairly attractive wolffolk man, one of those that was waiting to face Ares for his crown. “Oh? Who do I owe the pleasure?”

“Ansa. You were familiar with my brother, Inta.”

Ares nodded his head. “I was, yes. A good man.”

“A great man.”

“When you say brother, what kind of brother?”

“He was my wolf brother.”

Ares looked to Heria who yawned and then continued to sip her soup before she caught his gaze. “Wolf brother. They fought alongside each other. Ansa was like Inta, I would have sent him along with you, but he was away.”

“Ah.” Ares nodded. “So, I’m a thief am I?” Ares chuckled. “What have I stolen?”

“You stole many items from the tribe. Leathers, furs, more.”

Ares furrowed his brows in confusion and then he leaned back in realisation. “Ah! Yes, I did want to speak about that.” He chuckled. “I have thought about a few things of how I wanted to go about mentioning this, and what systems I wished to introduce.”

“Big words for a thief.”

“Oh? Then if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to defend myself. It would be a good time to clear a great many things. I assume you’ll mention my lack of compensation to everyone too?”

Ansa nodded.

Ares chuckled and then he stretched. “I’m glad you have brought this up, though I would have preferred you to not be an ass about it. Still, Ansa has brought up some good points, and I realise I may not have explained it well to you.” He extended his arms out and then began to pace.

“Riveans.” He then stopped and looked around. “Does anyone know what it means to be a Rivean?” He glanced towards Heria. “I told you, didn’t I? That the moment you joined me, you would no longer be whatever you were, you’d be Riveans. Though I suppose I didn’t really explain to anyone what a Rivean truly is.”

Ares continued to walk around as his mind raced. “A Rivean is just that, a person of Rivee. They are a member of our Kingdom. They are someone with integrity, honour, hope and many other such ideals. They work for the good of the people and their country, and the people and the country work for the good of them. This means that whatever you produce, whatever you find, belongs to all. I understand that this sounds fairly strange, but I ask of you this. Let us say you have a family, I will take Inta’s family for example. Let us say that it is just Inta, his mother, and his sister.” Ares had to pause or a second for a quick breath. “Let us say, Inta died whilst with Heria. His sister seems rather young, a little girl, I don’t know how much she can help the people or the community, and his mother seems rather ill.” He looked towards the women and locked his jaw together for a moment. I turn to Heria. “With Inta gone, would have you thrown them to the…” He took a second to realise what he was about to say. “Would you have abandoned her?”

“No, I wouldn’t have.”

“Right? You wouldn’t have. I won’t.” He said looking out to the people. “Though I’d go far beyond such a thing. The reason why I took those items, it’s the same reason why when Jin goes out to hunt, that we take most of the items he procures. We eat the food that he brings back, he and his hunters, do we not?” Ares motioned with a hand to the bowl that he had just finished. “Yet none of you cried theft when we did so. Your stomach is filled, as I promised. He took a small share of the meat and leather, of course, I would like for him to have something for his work. Yet he doesn’t really need it. He’ll always have meat when we dine in the morning and the evening. He doesn’t even really need the leather, though I suppose drake leather would be considered valuable, but if he so needed it to create armour of weapons or clothing, he would have some leather. Perhaps not drake leather, but he would have leather. Regardless, I’m not sure why. Soon, once enough time has passed, each of you will have leather. You would not have had to hunt for it, nor would you have to trade for it, everyone will be dressed, equipped, fed, sheltered, protected as long as I am King. For this is what it means to be Rivean.”

He continued to look between them all. “Yes. I have asked that most of what is hunted, mined, scavenged, gathered, to be gathered to be stored for all to use. Why? Because all of you are my family. Yes I have a daughter, the cutest daughter in the world by the way, and yes I have twins, also the cutest twins in the world by the way, and they will be fed, protected, sheltered, taught, and all of it. Yet you are also my family. I will do the same for you. When Inta was captured, did I shrug my shoulders and continue about my day?” Ares asked. “Did I?!” He raised his voice as a sudden rush of emotion flooded him.

“No, you didn’t.” Called Heria, and Ares snapped his head towards her. He relaxed a little and then bowed his head.

“No, I didn’t. What did I do? Did I not ask for a hundred soldiers? I did. The First Century I called them, the first one hundred to be taken out to fight. Then of course I sent them along with my wolffolk whilst I remained relaxing in my tent, fanning myself from the heat.”

He took a step and then stopped. “No. I don’t recall doing that. I recall marching with them. I recall being the first into every fray and fighting alongside them. I recall taking watch with them, the first watch, though there was a night when I fell asleep. Can you blame me? I had taken, what, a dozen arrows or so as I blocked Inta from being peppered with them?” Ares’ eyes burned and his lips twitched. “Even gods may fall.”

“Tell me. Is there any of you, members of the First Century, that will dare claim they slew more humans than me. Tell me, can you? Orndu?” Ares spun in a circle. “Anyone else? You, Ansa? Did you come? Did you join one of the three hundred soldiers that would be called for such a thing? Did you joined the second formation of the army?” He asked. “No. You were not there. You did not bleed for me, though I bled for you and your kin, for all our kin.”

“What did I do to the humans? I trapped them. The soldiers. I trapped them like mice, like the vermin they were. I committed a great evil deed. To kill a man who has dropped their weapon, for those that beg for mercy. For those with no spirit to fight, only following orders of a foolish man. I did not do this once, I did it twice. I called for the slaughter of men who had families back home, who would have done anything to go back to them.” Ares looked down to the fire.

“Yet I’d do it all again if I had to. Knowing what they did to Inta, and how he’d end up. I would have committed much more evil, I would have shown less mercy.” His eyes had welled up this time. “What I did was not so Rivean like, what I did was something more akin to a beast. “As I said, I’d do it all again if I had to. I wouldn’t have slaughtered them all though. I wanted to know what they had done. I wanted them to atone for their sins for much longer. For that, I am sorry.” There was a long silence.

“We returned home and sent the dead off with full honours. Tell me, do you believe I wouldn’t do the same for any Rivean? Tell me, who I expect more or less for myself, or would I want the same? To be send off with full honours. I’m sure there will come a time where I will be sending more of you off, but whatever I can do to minimise such a thing, I will do.” Ares said.

“You don’t know anything about me. Yet you hold so many ideas about me. About who I am, about what I am. Allow me to tell you my story.”