Fatima VIII

PA 1 – April

A week after she’d sent out the summons for the meeting, a congregation of people sat alongside Fatima on the Almawqid docks, waiting for the arrival of the other God-Kings. Mostly made up of personal servants like Nadia, they conversed quietly with each other while they waited, sitting on fur mats around a clay brazier to keep warm. They’d been here for an hour so far, and while normally they would have some more important job to do, the whole city was granted a day off to focus on the arrival of the God-Kings, something the rest of her citizens had taken advantage of, spending the day carousing with family and friends.

Fatima hummed to herself, absently smoothing out the creases of her furs. Beside her Nadia spoke quietly with one of her farmers on the likelihood of planting foreign crops this growing season, while on her other side her guard Lestek played a game of mancala with some of the others. Sitting between them, Fatima stared out over the river, watching with half-lidded eyes as melting ice chunks floated down the river, the occasional frog hopping across them, the amphibious creatures waking up from their long winter hibernation.

She took a deep breath, then released, reveling in the warmer—by comparison—air of spring. It almost allowed her to forget how awful the winters were, when they were followed with such beautiful springs.

Then Fatima blinked, snapping to alertness as something new floated into view. A boat sailed down the river, knocking aside the remaining ice as it cut a path through the half-frozen water. And sitting on that boat, from even as far away as she was, she could see the brilliant red hair of her fellow God-Queen.

Nudging her fellows on the pier, she stood up, smiling as the boat slowly approached them.

“Avery!” she smiled happily as the boat settled in to dock. Grabbing her hand, she helped her fellow Queen out of the boat. Once they were both standing on the pier, she swiftly wrapped the other woman in a tight hug. “Oh, it’s been months since I last saw you! I know the winters make it hard to travel, but we really must meet up more often!”

“Hello, Fatima,” Avery sighed, already resigned to the hug. “It’s good to see you as well. But if you don’t mind, would you give us a moment to unload? These trips have always been exhausting, as I’m sure you know.”

“Oh! Of course, of course!” Fatima nodded, bouncing away from her fellow queen. “Lestek, Lana, would you two come over here and help them unload? Let’s make sure we get them all settled in and cleared out before the rest get here, yeah?”

“They don’t need to do that,” Avery shook her head, frowning. “We can do this on our own.”

“Hey, I’m the host here, in case you forget,” Fatima told her, waving a finger back and forth. “Helping my guests unload is the least we can do. Now, come on, tell me about how the last few months have been? How’s relations going with that Kingdom further up the river? Oh, did you have anything good for dinner last night? Come, come, let’s sit down, you must tell me!”

Avery, overwhelmed, could do nothing but sigh and follow.

--

A little over an hour later heralded the arrival of the remaining God-Kings, who all seemed to have chosen to arrive together. A half-dozen boats arrived at her dock at once, carrying with them Kings, servants, and gifts aplenty.

“Issei!” Fatima grinned, hugging the young God-King the moment he stepped out of the boat. “How have you been?”

Issei pulled away from her quickly, blushing and stammering nonsense.

“He’s been fine, Queen Fatima,” an unknown woman told her stiffly, stepping up beside Issei. “You don’t need to worry about him.”

Fatima tilted her head, trying to remember… Ah! This was that woman Issei brought with him everywhere! Wait, did that mean…?

She glanced between the two of them, eyebrows raised and a wide grin on her face.

“Wha… what’s that face you’re making?” the woman asked warily, taking a step closer to her King.

“Oh, nothing, nothing,” Fatima wiggled her eyebrows at the two of them, clapping her hands on their shoulders. “Just remember to use protection, you two!”

Issei choked, his face burning, while the woman looked somehow even more confused. Giving her a surreptitious thumbs up—which did not appear to help either—Fatima moved on to the others.

“Isabella!” She smiled at the Queen, waiting patiently for her servants to help her out of the boat. “I’m glad you made it safely! I know you live the furthest away, so I was worried you might not have made it in time.”

“Oh, it’s fine, it’s fine,” Isabella shook her head, readjusting her cloak as she did. “But you don’t have to worry, we have God’s favor, after all!”

“Uh, right,” Fatima shrugged, watching curiously as the other woman turned to her servants still in the boat, who handed her—

“You brought your son with you!?” Fatima asked, her smile freezing on her face. “Why?”

“Hm? Why not?” Isabella turned to her curiously, the child held in her arms. It’s little stubby hands reached up at her, causing the woman to give her child a happy smile. “Oh, I know, you want your meal. Just wait a few moments until we finish unpacking, okay? Oh, while we wait, say hi to Queen Fatima!”

Fatima kept a strained smile on her face as the baby gaggled and gurgled in her general direction. It wasn’t necessarily that she didn’t like children, but more, just… why would she bring an infant with her!? Wasn’t it cold!?

“Ah, hello there, little Jesus,” she waved at him, holding out a finger for the child to grasp at. “Um, why don’t I leave you to finish settling in, yes? My people are here to help with whatever you need, so if you need help just ask. I’m going to go welcome Xian now, okay?”

With that goodbye she beat a hasty retreat away from the zealous God-King and towards her final ally.

“Xian!” she smiled, wrapping him in a hug as well. “I’m so happy to see you again! Was the journey here alright? Were there any problems?”

“Well, it was…” the old Chinese man trailed off, before finally sighing. “It was an experience.”

“Oh no!” Fatima frowned sympathetically. “What happened? Was the current too rough? Did you get seasick? Trust me, I know how bad that can be.”

“No, no, it was more… Well, some people just don’t get along, and Isabella is…”

“Ah,” Fatima winced. “Well, surely it wasn’t that bad, right?”

Xian gave her a dead-eyed look, one that conveyed exactly how bad it had been. “She tried to convert me to her religion the whole. Damn. Way. Do you know what it’s like to have a zealous Catholic preaching in your ear for nearly half a day? Next time, Fatima. Next time, she can come herself.”

She gave his arm a reassuring squeeze. “We’ll give you the guest house furthest from her.”

“Thank you, Fatima,” Xian sighed, running a hand down his face. “Thank you.”

--

It wasn’t until evening approached that everyone had gotten settled in, and so under the flickering firelight the fiver God-Kings gathered in her grand hall. The hall was one large room built solely for gatherings like this, with a large round table in the center surrounded by a dozen clay braziers burning brightly. Fatima sat in her own personal ‘throne’—that being a large wooden chair painted a dark green, padded with soft furs and covered with simple geometrical carvings—while the rest of the God-Kings settling into much less extravagant guest chairs.

“Thank you all for arriving before the day’s end,” Fatima smiled at the other four monarchs. “I know you haven’t had much time to relax since you got here, so I’ve asked some of my people to bring in something to eat while we talk. Ah, there they are now!”

As she finished speaking a half-dozen people walked into the gathering hall, carrying trays of food piled with pig’s legs, foraged vegetables, and even a freshly cooked loaf of bread.

“Thank you, Fatima,” Xian nodded, accepting a plate from one of her servants with quiet gratitude. “You’re always a considerate host.”

The others made quiet noises of agreement as the servants finished laying out all the dishes. Placing their hands together, her servants gave them a silent bow, before exiting the hall, leaving only the God-Kings in the room.

For several minutes they simply made small talk, speaking of nothing of particular importance as they ate. Xian talked about his work expanding the navy in case the Sea King Enzo went back on their promise. Isabella cheerfully told them that all of her people now followed the one true way, to the aggrieved looks of the others. Issei talked about how he’d gotten into architecture, his people working on new and improved ways to build houses, and Avery even spoke up without Fatima having to prod her!

However, as they finished off their meals, the conversation finally turned to why she had summoned them all in the first place.

“Recently, trade has been picking up, especially naval trade, right Xian?” Fatima asked, nodding at him.

“Indeed,” he nodded back. “Last autumn my port was filled with traders from all across the sea—mostly from Enzo’s Kingdom, but a fair few that weren’t. And while it dried up once winter came, it’s been picking up a lot recently. We’ve had to expand the docks twice just to deal with it all.”

“And, with that trade, many new and interesting products have been introduced to us,” she continued. “One of which was a new type of grain. One that, after some testing and trial and error, turned out to be domesticated.”

Xian sucked in a breath. “You don’t mean…?”

“Yes,” Fatima nodded solemnly. “I believe that there are other Kingdoms out there who already have access to agriculture.”

“Er, is that bad?” Issei asked raising his hand.

“Of course it is,” Avery scoffed at him. “If they have agriculture, what else could they have? What other technology could they have that we don’t? What if they have actual weapons, like swords? What if they have worse.”

“Oh…”

“It’s unlikely they’re that advanced,” Fatima reassured him. “If they were that powerful, our numbers would be falling way faster than they are currently. That being said, I still have reason to believe that they’re more advanced than us. That is why I’ve brought you all here—to brainstorm ways to swiftly develop technologies capable of protecting us should the worst come to pass.”

“You need not worry so much, Queen Fatima,” Isabella smiled at her. “So long as we have the blessings of God, none shall harm us.”

Fatima gave her a pained smile. “Thank you, Isabella. But I’d rather be able to protect myself, rather than wait for God to protect me.”

Also, she was Muslim, so there was that.

“I think the navy is the biggest thing we should focus on right now,” Xian spoke up. “While it’s true other kingdoms may be more advanced than us, they’re also far away. We can trade for their technology, like we’re currently doing, and catch up to them that way. But I’d rather focus on our current rivals before we bother with people we’ve never met.”

“And leave us always a step behind?” Avery scoffed, scowling at Xian. “If we just wait for everyone else to spoon feed us their mass-produced shit, we’ll never get anywhere! People don’t just trade away their advantages like that!”

“I did not mean we shouldn’t develop our own technologies,” Xian frowned back at her. “I just said we should focus on our neighbors first. The Sea King may be neutral to us now, but if we give him an inch he’ll take a mile.”

“Both of you have a point,” Fatima cut in, aiming to calm them down. “Xian, don’t worry, we’ll continue to focus on the navy. In fact, could you try developing new types of shipbuilding? Come up with better ship designs, and better ways to build them? And Avery, perhaps you could focus on the army? Or metallurgy, perhaps? You brought up the idea of swords earlier, but any type of metallurgy would work wonders for us.”

“Of course, I planned to do that from the start,” Xian nodded.

“Hmph. Very well,” Avery crossed her arms, but didn’t argue.

“Um, what should we do, Fatima?” Issei asked her, frowning lightly. “If we’re all taking different types of technology and developing them, then what should the rest of us do?”

Fatima blinked. She hadn’t actually meant for it to end up like that, but it felt like a good idea now that he’d spelled it out like that. “Hm. Well, I’ve already been working on figuring out agriculture, as I’m sure you could tell by the farms and the greenhouse. So I suppose I’ll continue to work on that. Do you or Isabella have any ideas on what you could work on?”

“Oh, I mean, er…”

“Just have him continue working on his architecture,” Avery rolled her eyes. “It’s all he’s been talking about today anyway.”

“Hm, I think that would work well,” Xian nodded. “Even if it won’t help much when it comes to war, but better housing would work wonders for us. Especially if you can figure out how to make them warmer—each winter people always get ill from their drafty homes.”

Issei’s eyes lit up, and he relaxed in his seat. “Oh, yeah! I can do that!”

“Speaking of disease, Isabella, perhaps you’d like to work on medicines?” Fatima asked, turning to the last member of their alliance. “If you could figure that out, it would help us a lot.”

“If God it willing, then I will do so swiftly,” She smiled at them, and as much as Fatima didn’t agree with everything she did, she was just glad the woman had agreed without a fuss. The last thing she needed was an evangelical zealot denying the existence of germ theory.

“Good, good!” Fatima smiled at them all, relieved things had gone so well. “If that it all, then we can move on to other topics. Otherwise, how about we say we meet back up before winter starts, to see how everything’s been going, yes?”

They all nodded, and as the conversation moved on to other things, Fatima smiled, relaxing into her seat. Now, if all went well, they’d catch up to the other God-Kings in no time.

9,873 God-Kings Remain