Ruthless V6Ch13-Prep Time

Once James was alone again—only Mina with him—he reviewed his new Talents and the resulting Skills.

[Imperial Presence: As an Emperor, your presence creates a deeper and more lasting impression than those of lesser Rulers. Your rule can be much more oppressive, or more liberating, than that of a lower tier of Ruler, depending on how you choose to use this influence. Generates Skills “Imperial Motion” and “The Sword of Law.”]

Always treating me as the potential bad guy, huh? James thought, almost laughing. Well, I guess I know what they say about power corrupting…

[Imperial Motion: An Emperor’s rule is felt wherever his territory extends. Using ambient Mana within the territory you control, freely teleport to any location within your domain. This Skill only functions when your starting point is within the bounds of existing territory that is geographically contiguous with your destination.]

As he read the text, he interpreted it as meaning he could teleport from any part of his territory to any other part, as long as the territory wasn’t broken up—was “geographically contiguous.”

That’s a clever limit. Otherwise James would be able to teleport to address a threat to his territory from literally anywhere on Earth, which would make his rule impossible to challenge except by someone much stronger than himself—much stronger, since Rulers were significantly more powerful within their own domains.

It also made James glad that he had connected his territories up to this point, even if the connection leading up to the city was incredibly narrow—a corridor just wide enough for the Army to march through. That was good enough for Imperial Motion to be effective, which meant that James’s rule had just become exponentially more difficult to challenge.

[The Sword of Law: An Emperor’s decrees are law at the instant he chooses to enforce them. You wield that power wherever your territory extends. Speak your Will into existence in any public setting, and create laws. Then the territory itself will punish any violations of your edict, by whatever means you prefer—including, but not limited to, expulsion, incarceration, or execution. Effects limited by quantity of aura and your imagination. May the Sword of Law be swift and just.]

Nice. I can finally deliver on the basic, simple promises I’ve made about how I would run things.

[Tyrant’s Might: A Ruler above the average in power and might can begin to act tyrannically. You could choose to take from others what is theirs, whether by destroying it or simply appropriating it. Rulers will not find themselves immune to your predations. Generates Skills “Despoil” and “Dispossess.”]

Outright calling me a tyrant. Cool.

[Despoil: A powerful enough Ruler, turned loose against an enemy, can ruin the environment around them. By unleashing your aura outside of your own territory, corrupt an environment into a twisted version of itself, subverting the intentions of other Rulers and the natural order. Effects limited by quantity of aura and your imagination. Happy hunting.]

Freaky. Not sure whether I’ll want to use this, but it’s always good to have more in the tool belt.

[Dispossess: Fundamentally, a Ruler is someone against whom others have no effective recourse, including when the Ruler wrongs someone. Grants the ability to break another Ruler’s aura if it is of a lower quality than yours, rolling back their control over territory and stealing it for yourself. Requires your physical presence within touching distance of the other Ruler’s territory. Consumes aura. In circumstances where the enemy’s aura is compatible, you may appropriate some of theirs when seizing control of their territory. Happy hunting.]

Dispossess sounded a lot like certain events that James had already experienced—except that Dispossess removed the requirement of him having to fight another Ruler for the privilege of taking their stuff. He imagined that in practice, using the Skill would provoke a lot of fights, but then again, how many Rulers would actually be bold enough to fight back against someone who was capable of simply taking their territory from them? They would then be fighting on James’s turf, where his Fisher King—or rather, Fisher Emperor—powers were at their most effective.

No matter how I look at it, this upgrade is a game-changer. It’s just as big of a deal as I thought.

“Was it good news, skapi?” Mina asked quietly.

“I just became the Fisher Emperor,” James said, looking steadily at her and smiling slightly.

“You’re going to wait for me to ask you to elaborate, huh?” Mina said after a moment.

They shared a chuckle, and then James explained his new powers to her.

After that, she suggested he should look at his Job description, to make sure that nothing else had changed. But the only alteration was the replacement of “King” with “Emperor”; no big strength enhancements, even though he absolutely felt more powerful.

As James was about to go into the meaning of the change for their present tactical situation, he sensed a presence moving toward the exterior of the tent. It was the Panther Queen. She was approaching alone, for some reason.

“Looks like we’re about to have company,” James muttered quietly.

Mina stopped talking mid-question, and both the King and Queen took seats on the wooden chairs their subjects had brought for the tent—the closest they would have to thrones in this place until and unless it was tamed and made into a key seat of power.

When the Panther Queen stepped inside, the silence had already had time to settle deeply in the room. Both James and Mina watched her quietly as she entered, and though James smiled at seeing her, the Panther Queen looked distinctly uncomfortable, as if she wasn’t certain she wanted to be there.

James thought he knew what she had come for, but he would let her say it in her own time.

“Good to see you,” he said. “You contributed a lot to the battle, and everyone under me was very impressed with you.”

The Panther Queen bowed her head slightly in acknowledgement of James’s words, but her eyes focused on Mina.

Mina nodded in greeting and gave the Panther Queen a small smile, but the expression was stiff. There was a noticeable tension between the two females. It seemed that Mina had not forgotten the Panther Queen’s offer to become one of James’s mates after their previous fight, while the Panther Queen had probably not forgotten Mina’s harsh negotiation tactics after the same fight—in which Mina had forced the Queen to negotiate terms of surrender while fighting James’s venom, rather than healing her first.

The Panther Queen was the first to speak after James’s greeting.

“It was a pleasure to serve under your command,” she said, locking eyes with James. “The experience cleared some doubts I have had. And I have reached a decision.”

“Go on,” Mina said, looking intrigued.

James remained silent for the moment. He was pleased at how good his wife had become at dealing with affairs of state. It was nice to sit back a bit and observe.

“You have taken this city,” the Panther Queen said. “You had only a modicum of help from myself and another Ruler who wanted to support you in the conquest. Even if I were to leave, and Mageddon was to suddenly disappear, the rest of Orlando would still inevitably fall into your lap given the performance of your army, and you personally, in the combat of the day.”

“Do you want to leave?” James asked.

The Panther Queen shook her head brusquely. “Please let me finish. This is already difficult enough for me to say. After this evening, I recognize that it is likely you will eventually take the entire region. Every habitable area of the state will fall under your control, until your territory butts up against that of a more formidable Ruler who you have to take time preparing to fight. That is the future… which means that if I were to remain a Ruler in Florida, I would either end up fighting you again or begging you to leave me alone in some small slice of space in Florida. Begging for scraps. My nominal independence would become even more of a joke than it is now. I see the writing on the wall, and I have already informed my forces of my decision. I formally request permission to join the Fisher Kingdom as one of your subordinate Rulers.”

James raised an eyebrow, then looked at Mina, who gave him a small smile and the slightest nod. No objections from the wife, then.

“I accept your submission,” James said calmly. “Your form of address will remain the Panther Queen, but you are now a member of my advisory council, and your Pantherfolk are citizens of the Fisher Empire.”

The Panther Queen looked surprised at the last part of that sentence, so James quickly added, “After today’s surrenders, my Job was upgraded from King to Emperor. I will announce further details in the morning, but the entire city will fall to me. Perhaps even sooner than we expected. And yes, maybe the whole state in time. You’re making the right decision.”

She nodded, and her jaws twitched in something like a smile. “I will leave you to plan the full consummation of your victory, then,” she said. “Unless you need something more from me.”

“No,” James replied, giving her a warm look. “You’ve already done plenty.”

The Panther Queen bowed lower than she had earlier, and she left. She seemed a bit relieved to have gotten the matter over with.

“We should talk about what comes next, skapi,” Mina said, not addressing what had just happened at all. “How are you preparing for the World Leaders’ Summit? I have been thinking mostly about this battle and how we would manage if things went wrong for the last few weeks. But now that you have pulled that off, and you’ve acquired a more impressive leadership title, I imagine that there will be a lot more eyes on you at the Summit, yes?”

James shrugged. “Probably? I don’t really have a lot of confidence in my ability to navigate the summit as a politician, honestly.”

Mina gave him the most skeptical look James had ever seen from her, and he laughed.

“I mean, I know I have a lot of Skills related to leadership, and people here trust me. That’s not the same as working a room full of people who have all those same kinds of Skills and have actually been using them every day. I definitely won’t be the best manipulator there.”

“Didn’t the System announcement about this Summit say that mental manipulation would be forbidden in the Summit?” Mina asked.

“That’s not what I mean,” James said, shaking his head and grimacing. “I mean the old-fashioned kind of manipulation.”

“You think you’re going to be manipulated by someone without using magic? You?”

“Hey, I can get rooked just like anyone,” James said, laughing. “I appreciate the faith, I think. But that wasn’t what I was really worrying about either. I’m saying everyone there will be manipulating each other, and I won’t really be well equipped to compete in that arena. Because even though I’m an Emperor, my Empire was built more on swords, not words. So I’m going to try and rely on Rotter and a few other advisors to help me make good decisions in the moment and mostly play the politics by ear. I’ll try to be a straight shooter as much as possible. Rotter will record everything that happens on-site, and we’ll judge later whether any agreements we made with other participants are reasonable or whether we got talked into shitty deals. Honestly, I’m sure there are some trade agreements we should be making, and I’m going to prepare a speech in case I have the chance to give one… but I’m much more interested in preparing for the Victors Tournament that’s happening afterward.”

“Of course you are,” Mina said, shaking her head. “My Emperor of the sword. I know you, though. You’re going to wish you thought more about this Summit beforehand when you’re actually there. You’re saying you don’t know how to manipulate people or something without Skills, but I think you do well at talking people into things. You always have. That was part of why I supported you becoming a lawyer. You could sell ice in the North Pole. I bet that lots of these other leaders will be looking to you for guidance. One of the only Emperors, probably. Stronger than most of them. Thousands of people in your Empire. Handsome. Did I mention strong?”

James snorted. “You might have mentioned.”

“Anyway, now is your opportunity to make alliances, and I’m sure you’ll do that just as well without much preparation. You are good at making friends, and people instinctively trust you. But you should think about what the Fisher Empire needs from our new allies before you meet them. That way, you can make handshake agreements that we formalize later. People are still not satisfied with the way things are, even though you keep them safe and fed. That’s why we ended up making this trip here, skapi. Why the Electricity Commission people sacrificed their lives…”

That’s actually a very good point… Shit. Why are people willing to die for creature comforts like Internet access? We don’t need Internet, air conditioning, or even electricity anymore. We’re fucking superhumans! But now I’ll feel like a monster if I don’t try to do something to make people a little more comfortable here…

James let out a heavy sigh. “I hate it when you’re right. Fine.”

He opened up his magic satchel and pulled out a thick binder full of papers.

“What is that?”

He gave her a slightly annoyed look.

“Our advisors prepared a bunch of documents summarizing strengths and weaknesses of the Fisher Empire and items we might emphasize in negotiations,” he said after a moment. “I was going to rely on Rotter and the others to remember, but I guess I’ll study it myself.”

“So you were skipping your homework?” Mina asked, chuckling.

“Some things never change,” James replied, smiling back. “Thought I was past homework by now. I did skim the binder, but it was super boring. Guess I’ll actually read the whole thing. Not like I need sleep anymore.”

He had been hoping to spend the night preparing monsters he could take with him into the Victors Tournament, but he supposed he could balance that with study.

“I’ll help however I can,” Mina offered.

“You take this bit, then,” James said, opening the binder and giving Mina a fifth of his documents. “I’ve never been that interested in trade policy.”

Mina’s eyes widened as if she had suddenly realized she had asked for responsibility she wasn’t sure she wanted. But she took the proffered papers.

James sighed.

It was going to be a long night.