Jackal Among Snakes

After Argrave had done a dressing-down on the imprisoned emperor, a fair bit passed before either party again spoke. The emperor had been kneeling at the low-lying table politely, but he stretched his legs out and sat more comfortably. His indignance at being called a feeble-minded warrior had faded from his face so subtly Argrave wondered if he’d imagined it.

“Legacy… is a fickle thing,” Ji Meng said. His gaze wandered to the ceiling. “The last of the Zhu dynasty… as a baby, they said he was a tiny monster that pulled the wings from flies and then ate them. They claimed that as an infant his mother offered her milk, yet he tore apart her skin and gnawed on her insides instead. And as emperor, he was a man of size, barrel-chested. Any who opposed him would be ashes scattered to the grass.”

Ji Meng looked back at Argrave. “People still remember him like that. But he was a deluded man kept ignorant by his court. The emperor propped upright barely knew of my uprising before I burst into his room and slammed his head upon the wall. He died in less than a second. When I exited the cheers of my army grew loud, and despite the ease he died I raised his body to please the crowd.”

The emperor tapped the table. “That’s as much metaphor as it is a recounting. I raised his body to show those people the dead emperor, and I’ve allowed his legacy to persist because it suited me better than the truth. And until the oceans conquer the land, the surviving imperial court will not allow a single whisper of this conspiracy to leave the palace. Through changing wind and rain, the pigeons of the court fly only with each other.” He pointed a single finger at Argrave. “And you are no pigeon. How is it you, then, claim to know any of how my name will echo, how my court conspires, barbarian emperor?”

Though the question was for Argrave, Anneliese answered first. “I suspect you know Argrave speaks truly. The ignorant emperor in your story—you see yourself in him, now. Perhaps it is why you came here.”

“She’s right. If the imperial court is your country’s heart, it’s strangled tightly by an enemy of mine. And by consequence, you come here—the vanguard for an invasion.” Argrave looked at Anneliese. “You probably came here to verify for yourself what your pigeons were reporting, rather than die ignorant like the one before you. But what I don’t think you anticipated is that your nation had become a proxy for something greater. Something grander.”

“No. I came to ensure no general of mine would emerge victorious, and then return to my empire hesitant to relinquish their armies. Too many great generals have been ousted by the feeble-minded warrior you would decry. Most usurpers are former leaders, and—"

“Yet Admiral Tan Shu was your leader for this expedition,” Argrave interrupted. “You chose her for this task precisely because she doesn’t pose such a threat. A woman can’t challenge your authority the same way a man might.”

“Given that one saved your life and defeated me at the same time, that’s evidently an opinion I need to revise.” He looked at Anneliese. “Not to mention that your favored concubine accompanies you, sitting at equal footing and speaking without deference. Ours are a much different people.”

“She is at equal footing with me,” Argrave explained succinctly. “But I’m glad you admit the reason you came. You didn’t fear being usurped—you feared that you had already been blinded by your court. Am I wrong?”

Ji Meng remained silent, staring out at the windows, then looked at Argrave. “You truly live in this cold land? Then it is no wonder we lost.”

Argrave thought it was an attempt to divert the conversation, so he repeated, “Am I wrong?”

Ji Meng smiled at Argrave’s insistence. “Yes. I sought to totally restructure my court by gaining control of an army, earning their loyalty, and enforcing my decree upon my return. I sought to, once again, take the imperial court from whoever was holding it—and this time, rebuild it precisely as suits me. The eunuchs, the officials, the governor families… I intended to wash them away with my might as I had before until I had a clean slate. When I was done it would be like sand smoothed over with the back of a rake. From there… I might write my own story.” He leaned into the table. “Instead, they sent word of my coming to you. They told you the totality of my forces. Am I wrong?” he repeated back to Argrave.

“Not quite,” Argrave shook his head, glad the emperor was coming clean.

“There’s a lie there, somewhere. You knew me and my forces very well. My blade has not been used frequently. Few in the court even know what it does. Tan Shu’s bident, too, was a well-kept secret. You blocked her ably. You expected my attack, and knew its strength. I’ve fought enough to know these things. And I know that you knew.” He planted his fist on the table and leaned in closer. “Tan Shu tells me your ships knew how to ward our liquid fire. They even knew from whence it poured. Your strategy, from the beginning, knew of the Sea Dragon’s shield. Even once inside, you handled our force in a way that suggests prior knowledge. Someone betrayed the Great Chu.”

Argrave was taken aback by the complete insight into the battle the emperor possessed. The man was not considered a master general for no reason. It wasn’t exactly unsubtle, but few enough that Argrave interacted with had ever called his prior knowledge out so blatantly.

“I suspect that whoever’s leaking this information intends to use me for something.” Ji Meng leaned backward and sat politely on his pillow once more. “You have me here. You’ve isolated me from my power, physically and socially. Now, you have a request to make of me. Perhaps our leak intends to use me to restructure the court precisely as I intended to. They wish to use me as a cudgel for their own ascent.” Ji Meng laughed. “It would be a fitting thing.”

Argrave thought it was somewhat terrifying the man had landed on the right answer even without all the facts at hand, but instead carried on calmly, “Again, not quite. It’s like we told you. This is grander than your imperial court. The puppet masters have strings on their own backs. And the one puppeteering this whole play is my enemy. The Qircassian Coalition.”

“So you claim. Yet for tens of thousands of years, our people have rejected the influence of the gods. We have our own principles, our own power, and our own way to confront the advent of the Test of Heaven. Our government is structured in such a way that the court is utterly free of outside influence. Our bureaucracy has its faults, but it is first and foremost a great wall built around our country to ward away any and all gods.”

“But like any wall, with one hole, an entire army might enter your territory,” Anneliese clasped her hands before her.

Argrave nodded in agreement with her. “You’ve said yourself that I had an insider. I’m telling you who my insider is—one of the divine. And to that end, I’ve taken the liberty of preparing many that might verify what it is I’m saying.”

Ji Meng shook his head. “I cannot trust a man that would ally himself with gods.”

“If that’s true, your empire will become yet another under divinity’s thumb. But if that’s not true, and you can agree to work with us, it’s just a possibility.”

“Speak your intentions frankly.” Ji Meng crossed his arms.

“I want for you to revitalize the vision of the Great Chu you just laid out before me.” Argrave planted his hands on the table. “I want you to turn your people against the gods that’ve parasitized your country. You’ll help me end them.”

JI Meng shook his head. “I’m already noticing a flaw. You defeated me. The men that I came with are either blind, or still out at sea as they witness you humiliate and subjugate the pride of our Imperial Navy—this Sea Dragon that we speak on, even now. I have not earned their respect, and so I cannot expect them to be as loyal as they would be. I am not the returning victorious emperor. I am the one who led them to their deaths. That does not inspire trust.”

“So tell them the truth—or some manner of it,” Argrave suggested.

“Elaborate.” Ji Meng listened intently.

“Tell them that I respected your prowess, and so gave you the truth of the situation: the imperial court sold you out to have you killed in battle. Tell them that you managed to talk me out of having them all executed.” Argrave waved his hand at himself. “Tell them that you earned the favor of this very evidently superior combatant, and he kept you alive to amuse himself.”

Ji Meng, again, did not take kindly to being made light of. He stared for what seemed like an eternity before he asked, “You would let me leave?”

Argrave crossed his arms and stayed silent for a few moments, just as the emperor had. “This ship is mine. All your divine armaments are mine—and I’m keeping your royal guard for myself, as well.”

“And the prisoners you blinded?” Ji Meng’s question was unemotional.

“My responsibility,” Argrave said, tapping his chest.

“Better you than me. But I cannot hope to achieve anything if you should steal all of our weapons,” Ji Meng reasoned. “The imperial court will surely act when I declare them traitors. And by ‘act,’ I mean rebel.”

“I won’t take your enchanted weapons.” Ji Meng looked confused—he didn’t view lesser weapons as ‘enchanted,’ even if they used magic. He rephrased, saying, “I don’t need your mundane arms.”

“Without divine armaments, we would still be an army of peasants before elite soldiers. And that’s if we survived the voyage home.” Ji Meng was uncompromising.

“Army of peasants, is it? Fortunately, you led a peasant rebellion.” Argrave smiled.

Ji Meng adamantly continued, “That means I have experience enough to know this one would fail.”

Argrave looked to Anneliese, seeking her counsel. She gestured to him, pointing outside. Argrave looked at Ji Meng and commanded, “Wait here.”

Argrave and Anneliese walked outside, shutting the sliding door behind them. Despite the door between them, she still conjured a ward.

“I have an idea. Let me say it all before you cut in.”

“Go ahead,” Argrave gestured at her.

Anneliese took a few moments to gather her thoughts. Finally, she looked at him firmly. “Alright. To preface this, I believe he is sincere when he says he would fail without divine armaments. To that end… perhaps we ought to have the Veidimen accompany him,” Anneliese suggested. “Not as invaders, but as his allies. Then, this invasion they seem so hellbent on committing… rather than have them as foreign occupiers, they have a pathway to peacefully cut off the head of the empire, and then take its place.”

Argrave was taken aback, but brightened to the idea at once. Still, he didn’t agree right away. “Ji Meng is sharp—you just heard that conversation, right? And the Veidimen aren’t inclined to lying.”

“Ji Meng has no choice in the matter,” Anneliese insisted. “Despite his composure, I can tell that he desperately wishes to return to his empire. I never saw him happier as when he suggested restructuring the imperial court with his army. He will take any path, even one he knows to be poisoned.”

Argrave looked at the door, then back at her. “The man is every bit as fierce and ruthless as Patriarch Dras. If the Veidimen do go along with this idea—which sounds somewhat dubious—he may have a trap ready and waiting for them. And I’m fairly confident the full might of the Great Chu is superior to that of the Veidimen. Once they arrive not as invaders but as allies, they’ll be thrust into the politics of the imperial court. And if Ji Meng, smart bastard that he is, does something… the whole might of that nation could fall upon them if they cannot muster competition to his intrigue.”

“With Sataistador in the Great Chu… I think that this is something we can genuinely orchestrate,” Anneliese said in a low voice. “For now, I say we take him to meet the Blackgard Union. They’ll be arriving soon as reinforcements—and then, we’ll explain what we know about the Qircassian Coalition. The true assault will be coming soon, if Sataistador wasn’t wrong. And we cannot deal with it alone. Let him see his true enemies.”

“Right,” Argrave nodded. “I do like the idea, Anne. But if Ji Meng actually manages to take control of the Great Chu again, well… you’ve just spoken to the man.”

“I did. Without an ambush, I suspect we would not have beat him. And at the helm of such a great nation, without something like the imperial court to check him… it would not be good.” She looked back at the door. “So long as we stay one step ahead, however… I believe there is definitely a way forward in this tangled mess.”

Argrave nodded in quiet agreement. “But we’re planning months ahead. Right now, we’ve only seen the gods Sataistador fought—three lesser ones, of no consequence. We’ll have to wait longer.”

Anneliese crossed her arms and sighed, as though to dispel her hope. “You’re right. Troubled times approach… and it’s simply too early to tell. But, Argrave. You forget something. We have Ji Meng. And it will matter, one way or another.”

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