Chapter 227 – On the Move
The only problem with making a visit to the Deathwatch Kingdom was in deciding how to go about it. From the ruins of Athelas to Vacete, the capital of the new kingdom, was roughly a thousand kilometers. A little more than my trip from Seattle to Mount Shasta, back during the Unsealing. Even if my undead steeds could cover the distance in just under eight hours, that was not a trip one would take on a whim, without planning.
One also had to consider how my approach to the kingdom would be perceived. If the Deathwatch Kingdom had been facing the monsters I deliberately left behind to plague Onerth after my departure, then a company of a hundred death knights would probably have them opening fire the moment we got within range. Even if I had my banner displayed. That was simply too warlike a message.
On the other hand, a smaller retinue would not convey the same level of power or majesty, which was important for first impressions. Traveling as a dracolich, or upon her undead dragon’s back, would be too much of a ‘lone power’ demonstration, not a ‘queen’ demonstration. Not unless she had her army with her. The better course, then, was to find a way to travel in style. Something that would convey my majesty, but without being tantamount to a declaration of war.
The answer, in the end, was to simply bring the Queen of the Damned through the portal. Normally, that would have been impossible, since, while the Queen of the Damned was only sixteen meters across at the beam, and seventy meters from the bowsprit to the stern, could make it through the portal while walking on its skeletal dragon legs, the portal was only forty meters tall. Considering that, when it was walking, the Queen measured ninety-two meters from the ground to the top of the masts, that was a problem. For most ships.
As always, magic changed the calculations somewhat. While I had never envisioned taking the Queen of the Damned through portals to other worlds, I had considered that there might be some time when I may want to keep the ship in a secure dock, or take it beneath the waves. The masts and sails would be more hindrance than boon underwater, so they had been enchanted so that they could retract into the ship, meaning that the walking ship measured only eighteen meters from the ground to the top of the forecastle, which easily allowed it to step through the Gate.
Of course, there was not enough room for the ship to stand by the portal. That was no issue, since the ship’s clawed feet had been enchanted to create platforms of Death magic on demand, strong enough to support the ship’s weight. The Queen’s captain walked the ship through the portal, and then turned about, so that the gangplank could extend to the ground next to the square of land by the Gate, as the masts and sails returned to their normal places.
With that done, all that was left was for me to ensure that the mortals in the group had appropriate protections from the Death mana infusing the ship, and for us to set off. While in flight, the dragon’s wings and the sails worked together, speeding the ship to just over 200 kmh. Slightly faster than a World War I fighter, but far faster than the ship could sail at sea, with the sails alone. Five hours would see us to Vacete, and the Queen of the Damned, flying the colors of Risen Athelia, would make the proper impression.
As we traveled, I had Archmage Ilimys and High Death Speaker Venrel give a primer on the local lands to me and my disciples. It was mostly for my disciples’ benefit, of course, since they had never been to Onerth before. That said, I did find use in it, as well, since much had changed in the years since I’d defeated the Demon King and returned home.
Athelas-that-was and Khasta Kingdom, to which Vacete had belonged, were not neighbors. After all, Khasta was on the front lines of the war, and Vacete had been on the border, where the Demon King’s forces were pressing, in an effort to crush Risen Athelia after I denied his offer of alliance. Between the two countries was the Crethage Confederacy, a collection of city-states that only worked together to defend themselves against other countries trying to absorb their lands.
The Confederacy had been a minor player. So minor, in fact, that they had not even had a copy of the Hero Summoning ritual. They allowed my army to pass, on the way to the front lines, because they had no choice, but they did not welcome me, and refused to open their graveyards so that I could add to my forces. They also had a thriving slave trade. I did not feel bad about the fact that their slaves had been freed and their lands overrun with the undead horrors I’d left behind when I returned home.
Khasta had fared better, but the western borders of the former country had been overwhelmed by the undead. While the undead tide was pushed back, Khasta had been critically weakened, and orks, goblins, trolls, and ogres had made western Khasta and the eastern parts of the Confederacy into their territory. Khastalan, the former capital, was now on the border, a fortress keeping the monster tribes from rampaging through the rest of Deathwatch.
Vacete was the center of the new kingdom, no longer on the border. To the north of the capital was Nearharbor, a port on the south end of the Dragonclaw Cut, a massive, perfectly straight canyon splitting what had once been Darkfang’s Rise in two, deep enough and wide enough that two ships could sail side by side through the passage, and still breathe easy as they made their way to the North Sea, which opened up trade with the elven land of Waselin. To the south, Deepstar was a critical mining town, one of the few places on the western half of the continent that you could mine mithril, and it also had a connection to the subterranean Underland that different races called home. And, to the east, there was Brittlebreak, which had been retaken and reclaimed by one of Vacete’s chief families as soon as my armies had passed through, driving the Demon King’s forces ahead of us.
As for the city itself, it had apparently grown in the years since I’d left Onerth. Being one of the few stable parts of the world, and having worked to keep its defenses in order, Vacete was an island in a sea of chaos, and people from the broken human lands flocked to its banner. The ones who made it helped the city stabilize the outlying villages and towns, and eventually became the core of the Kingdom of Deathwatch.
Politically, the former Lord Mayor of the city was now King Fulco Mournaxe, first of his name, King of Deathwatch, and the High King of the Alliance of the Westlands. There were other petty kingdoms, city-states, and confederations left in the stretches of what had once been the Free Kingdoms, and they all paid homage to Deathwatch. After all, other than the Blessed Vale, Vacete was the only true power in the western half of the continent, save for Waselin and other small kingdoms that hugged the coast, or made their homes on islands dotting the coastlines. Much of the interior of the continent was still trying to recover from the desolation of war. And none had visited the demon lands since the end of the Long War, so none knew what was happening with all but the most western of the Demon King’s formerly subjugated vassal states. Considering the state I’d left them in, I doubted they were exactly prospering.
Lucia shook her head as she looked at me. “I know you’ve gained a reputation for avenging slights with interest in our world, Mistress, but from what I’m hearing, it seems you’ve been treating us with kid gloves. I’m not sure whether my father will be happy, or terrified, when he hears that.”
“You do not descend upon children with the wrath of an angry goddess when they misbehave, Lucia. You give them a spanking, and ensure that they know not to do it again. Earth is still in the process of adjusting to the new realities of Magic affecting everything they knew, especially with the Unsealing complete. The people of Onerth, on the other hand, knew what they were doing, and, save Murena, their gods turned a blind eye to the things they had done. They chose to use things like the Hero Summoning and Slave Collars because it was easier and cheaper than actually solving problems, and there was no way that those things would change without a cataclysm to force the change upon them, one way or the other. The survivors, in time, will learn the lessons of the ‘Unmaking’, and either change their ways, or repeat the mistakes of their ancestors, leading to new cataclysms, in time.”
The two elves looked ruefully at each other, and took the rebuke stoically enough. But then, if they were the types to protest such a thing, they would never have become adherents to the cult that worshipped me. Honestly, it was interesting having living members of the cult nearby. It was one thing with the undead cultists in my nation, and my army, but the living? It was a bit surreal.
I had experimented, a little, with the ‘faith energy’ I gained from my mortal followers. My undead followers granted me that energy, as well, but it was filtered through the connections they already had to me, through being raised as undead, either by myself, or those who were raised by me, to some degree. These new sources of energy were purer, unfiltered by undeath and the bonds of magic connecting me with my undead. Using the energy was not possible for me yet, not like mana was. However, I could watch as it pooled within me, like when I was cultivating mana. But instead of the ocean that was my mana pool, with this faith energy, I was starting from all but nothing, since I was only now consciously watching and attempting to cultivate it.
“Your Majesty,” High Deathspeaker Venrel started, changing the subject, “what are your plans for Deathwatch, and Vacete? It is said that you spared the city much of your ire, and even warned the Lord Mayor of what was coming, giving him time to prepare, but many in the other lands believed that was just fiction to prop up Vacete as they attempted to grow their status after the Long War.”
“No, that much is true. They showed trust in me, and my army, when I passed by them, before the first battle with the Demon King’s army. They drove out the slavers and worked to maintain their fighting forces, even when the rest of Khasta rested, and relaxed, like the rest of the Free Kingdoms. In the early days, I advised them that Murena had tasked me with ending the use of Slave Collars on the continent, and ensuring that the Hero Summoning rituals, in their current form, could never be used again. The Lord Mayor understood the warning for what it was, and acted accordingly. I gave the city further warning when I brought the serpent that had been the guardian of Murena’s temple in Athelas to the temple in Vacete, before I had the Athelas temple torn down stone by stone, so that it could be rebuilt on Earth, if I survived the ritual to return.”
“You were not confident in your survival?” Venrel asked, surprise written clearly across his face.
“You saw the crater, Venrel. I knew full well the force that would be generated by the ritual, and that I would be in the center of it. If the power had not been enough, of the right type, to bring me home, then I would have been stuck there, at the center. And I was not certain whether I would overcome such a blast, since I had not tested myself against something like that before.”
“Your Majesty! Vacete is in sight!” The call from the crow’s nest ended the conversation, as I turned to see the city for the first time in years.