Joseph

PA 1.1

Some days you woke up and just knew everything was going to be fine. You got dressed, you ate breakfast, and you went to work, comforted by the feeling of everything going your way. Of knowing that no matter how hard your life may be sometimes, there was always going to be a better tomorrow.

This was not one of those days.

“King Joseph, I find the lack of news on developments from the front line disturbing,” King Ciu, once again told him, barging into his throne room for the third day in a row. “How certain are you that everything is going well? Personally, I think you should send some scouts out to check.”

Joseph sighed, already feeling a headache coming on. “I understand, King Ciu. And like I’ve been telling you the past three days, we are working on it. But we can only move so fast—and trust me, our enemies aren’t exactly moving much faster. There aren’t sports cars in the desert.”

“Well, that doesn’t mean we should rest on our laurels—it only takes, what, two days to send a message up and down the river? Why don’t we simply do that?”

Joseph sighed again, rubbing his temple. “Because it would still take a four-day round trip, and would be a waste of time and resources.” Grimacing, he realized he was going to need something more to get him through this conversation. “…Ah, if you could give me a moment—Hsekiu? Could you send for some drinks? I feel we’ll need it today.”

“Of course, Pharaoh,” Hsekiu nodded,

Ciu eyed Joseph, looking thoughtful for probably the first time in his life. “They call you Pharaoh.”

Joseph blinked, startled. “What?”

“Your people, they call you Pharaoh. Not King, Pharaoh.”

“…Isn’t that just another word for King?”

“Maybe,” Ciu grunted. “Maybe not. Whenever my subjects speak to me, they call me King. But yours call you Pharaoh. I find it… odd.”

Joseph hummed thoughtfully. “I never noticed that—honestly, I thought it was just a quirk of the region. A desert civilization would call their kings Pharaohs, you know? I hadn’t thought any more about it.”

“Really? Well, maybe you’re right, and it’s not that big of a deal. Just a quirk of the language. Or maybe the word means something different, something we outsiders simply don’t understand yet.”

“Maybe,” Joseph hummed, before turning and smiled gratefully at Hsekiu as he returned. “Ah, Hsekiu! Thank you, I needed this.”

“Hm?” Ciu looked down at his cup in disdain. “Water? Again? Don’t you people have anything else to drink?”

“Well, we have some crappy beers, but when they can’t even get you drunk I don’t see the point in drinking them.”

“Hmph. Well, I’ll have you know that my own people get to drink over a dozen different flavors of tea—thanks to my own brilliance of coming up with the recipes, of course!”

Joseph gave him an incredulous look. “You drink hot leaf water? In the desert?? Are you trying to get heatstroke!?”

“Hot leaf water!? What sacrilege—!”

“Please tell me you at least put ice in it to cool it off!?”

“Ice!? Ice!? In tea!? What barbarians would do such a thing!?”

“Barbarian is a bit harsh, I think—”

But suddenly, in the middle of their conversation, it happened.

In the back of their heads was a number. It was always there, but out of mind. Like a smudge on the edge of your computer screen, or like your nose on your face. Always there, but something you’d ignore unless you focused on it. And suddenly, that number ticked down.

That wasn’t anything special. It had become common, almost routine to see that number slowly tick down as days passed by. No, what stopped their conversation cold was the number that it changed to.

9,900 God-Kings Remain

9,900 God-Kings Remained. Or, more precisely, 100 people had died.

Strictly speaking, more than that had died since they arrived. Over a hundred had probably died just in their little area.

But somehow, for some reason, it didn’t hit him until now just how many people that was. One hundred God-Kings had died since he’d arrived in this world. All in about a year. And if that continued at the same pace, if people kept on dying so quickly…

It would only take about one hundred years for this whole thing to be over.

One hundred years was a lifetime. And yet, it didn’t feel like very long at all.

One hundred was also a lot of people. And yet it was also very few people.

And a question appeared in both of their minds at the same time, one the two God-Kings desperately didn’t want to think about.

‘Is one thousand that much bigger?’

“Hey, Hsekiu? I think we will be drinking some beer today after all.”

--

Meixiu

At the northernmost edge of the Sunset Kingdom lies a small town called Biancheng. Originally a small fishing village along the river, once Meixiu took over she went about converting it into an unassailable fortress to guard her northern flank. Surrounded by not one but two layers of walls—including a third level being built—there was little in this ancient world capable of taking it.

That didn’t mean they could get cocky, though. While Biancheng itself was impregnable, it wasn’t perfect. It only controlled one side of the river, for example, meaning that if an enemy army were to decide to just go around the city it would be easy enough for them to avoid it.

So that made building up the defenses along the border her job for right now. Starting with something to dam up the river, followed by building some small fortifications like watchtowers along the other side. Nothing too crazy—as Joseph had reminded her, they had neither the time nor the resources necessary to build as much as they wanted.

Manning the new defenses would also be an issue. Biancheng had been specifically designed to work on a skeleton crew of around ten to twenty people, but for every extra layer of defense she added that would require more and more of the army to stay behind and man those defenses.

Meixiu sighed. So much work to do, so little time.

“Queen—er, General Meixiu!” one of the soldiers she’d brought with her called out. “The last of the soldiers have disembarked. What are your orders now?”

“Have the Red, White, and Black divisions start unloading the cargo for building the dam,” she replied, raising her arm for dramatic effect. “Yellow, Blue, Green, and Purple divisions will set up in and around the village. Report back to me in three hours or whenever you’re done, whichever comes last.”

“Understood!” He saluted her, before turning back to her army. “You hear the Queen—General! Get to work you lazy reeds!”

Giving a pleased nod as she saw them get to work, she turned away to look at the border town, its walls looming vacantly over them.

Arriving back in Biancheng after almost two months of staying in the capital was almost surreal. Revisiting places after they’d grown and changed always was, but as a border town the city changed more than most. New watchtowers, new houses, new people. New new new.

How she began to hate the word ‘new.’ Things were just… changing. So much. It got exhausting some days.

And now she was going to change even more. Add new things. In a year, she wondered what this place would become.

“Why the long face, oh Sunset General?”

Glancing to the side she saw Gamila, the dark-skinned immortal who’d once been one of her most trusted generals.

Meixiu still had… so many complicated feeling about Gamila. Even after all this time she wasn’t sure she could trust her—wasn’t sure she could ever trust her.

But Joseph trusted her. And, for better or worse, they were in this together now.

“It’s nothing,” she answered curtly. “Just thinking about the upcoming battle. Speaking of, don’t you have a mission you should be working on right now?”

Was it just her imagination, or did Gamila look somehow… sad?

But she blinked, and the other woman’s face was as placid as ever.

“I do,” she nodded. “But I wanted to… I felt that I had to… no, never mind. It’s not important.”

Shaking her head, Gamila turned and began walking away. “I’ll report back soon, Sunset General. Make sure this place is unbreakable by the time I’m back, yeah?”

And despite herself, Meixiu couldn’t help but feel the slightest smile creep up on her face. “Of course, Sunset Spy. I look forward to hearing your report.”

--

Gamila

Morning dawned on her third day of trekking through the desert when she finally made it back to the river.

When Gamila had first left the border city of Biancheng she’d been confident on her ability to sneak around the civilized parts of the region through the desert. Instead of continuing north from Biancheng along the river she’d instead turned west, making a large circle around the whole kingdom, before finally returning to the river today.

It had been a long and sometimes painful experience, though not needing to sleep, eat, or drink meant that she made a trip that would have taken a mortal over a week in just three days. The most difficult part, however, was soon to come.

She needed to sneak into the capital city of Queen Olivia, the city Fortaleza.

Arriving back at the muddy floodplains along the river, however, she spotted something that might just give her the ability to do so.

Relaxing out along the river was a group of people, looking to be about four men and two women. All of whom were almost certainly locals, and yet there wasn’t a farm in sight. And with the war going on, that might mean…

“Excuse me!” she called out, walking up to them. “I was wondering if you all were heading to the capital?”

“Oh, yes!” the tallest man among them, a dark-skinned man with very short hair spoke up. “We’re on our way to sign up for the army—the Queen wants everyone able to fight for the war, you know.”

“That’s great,” Gamila smiled, pretending to be relieved. “I’m from further north and I haven’t seen anyone else for over a day now—I worried I might have somehow gotten turned around and went the wrong way!”

“Oh, aye, that would have been a real mess,” the man chuckled along with her. “I’m Akil, a pleasure to meet a soon to be fellow soldier!”

“Good to meet you as well, Akil,” she smiled at him. “Do you mind introducing me to the rest of your group?”

“Uh, yeah, that’s my younger brother Abasi, Chatuluka—who was my best friend growing up—and his cousin Jahi. Then there’s Jahi’s sister Jendayi, and her friend Kissa.”

“It’s nice to meet you all!” she smiled at them.

“Yeah, it’s nice to meet you too and all,” Jahi spoke up, raising an eyebrow at her. “But why’d you come talk to us, exactly? We don’t really know each other.”

“Jahi,” Akil hissed, elbowing him sharply. Gamila pretended she didn’t see that.

“Ah, it’s just, if it’s not too much of a bother, do you mind if I travel with you?” she asked, shuffling in place awkwardly. “I’m worried about going alone, you see. I don’t want to run into a bandit or something all on my own—or worse, a hippo.”

Akil nodded sympathetically. “Oh yes, I understand. Hippos are terrifying. Still if that’s all, I don’t see the problem with you joining us. It’s only about another day, anyways. You all are okay with it, yeah?” he asked, turning to look at the rest of his group, who replied with a chorus of agreement. “See, it should be fine.”

“Oh, thank you!” she smiled back at him. “Thank you so much! I mean, it’s like my gramps always said—travelling is always more fun among friends!”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Akil smiled back, his face darkening a bit. “Yeah, I agree! I’m sure I’ll—we’ll have a great time with you around!”

Gamila smiled back, her expression careful and calculated. “I’m sure I will too!”

9,900 God-Kings Remain