Story:Kings of Strife/Int 4

Intermission Four
The view from the window was filled with a saturated and sharp whiteness. All of the mountains in the distance as well as the flat hills of ice seemed to shine and sparkle in the light of the sun. Although usually cold, uninviting, and empty, the land as of this moment was dotted with the silhouettes of caravans, cars, and soldiers. They always came to spoil the area around this season, but the hired hands cleaned the land up shortly after they would leave, preserving the beautiful plains of the north until the next time they would be soiled, once again with secure vehicles and legions of international soldiers. While the sunlight was brilliant and the snowy ground was smartly sparkling, the bombastic sky was another marvel altogether. Clouds were out in full force and were scattered across the light blue atmosphere, stained red and pure white by the bright, warm sun. Another snowfall was imminent before the night was over, but for now, the fat clouds drifted in the air and shed the moment an awe-inspiring aesthetic tone, as if it were being painted by a dramatic and bold artist of the ages. A glare of sunlight beamed into the window and stunned the onlooker, instantly forcing him to grimace slightly and clench his eyes shut. After the previous five months of perpetual darkness and snowfall, the sun was out in Norzaven once again, and would be shining in full glory for the next three months before the cycle would reset. Even with the sun out and shining, the most that would change in the nation’s climate is that some of the snow would melt around the coastline. Besides that, the temperature was usually so frigid in the nation, even with the benefit of the sunlight, that there was a fine layer of permafrost among the entirety of the Norzavish vicinity. This was very off-putting to almost every form of life that existed; little more than shrubbery and small hibernating animals bothered to flourish in the northern chunk of land that was Norzaven. Its population was less than 5,000 in total. That made it the perfect place for the World Council to meet. “Nazroka is beautiful this time of year, isn’t it?” From behind the one looking out of the window came a slow and deep, yet charismatic and light-toned voice. The observer turned his head slightly, looking at the one speaking to him. The man speaking to him was Senator Gravish, of Norzaven. Gravish was a tall and muscular man, dressed in a complete black tuxedo suit, who was looking back with crossed arms and a slight grin. The speaker had an unremarkable face with normal wrinkles and lines for his age, and his light blond hair was gelled to the side. A thin beard coated the sides of his face. Altogether not very out of the ordinary for his age, the man gave off a toothed smile to the one watching him and had a seat at a chair that sat in the middle of the room, otherwise unoccupied besides himself and the observer. “I’m supposed to be the host and Nneoh’s rep beat me to arriving in my own meeting place. What kind of story is that!” Shaking his head and laughing, the blond man tapped at his knee with a gloved hand and glanced out of one of the windows himself. The Nneonian representative said nothing, but simply adjusted the tie to his own black suit. As a former military man, the Nneonian had a grizzled face devoid of any hair, and he was very tall and very muscular. Much like the man representing Norzaven, the observer wore a black tuxedo suit, except his dress shirt beneath it was white and his tie was a light shade of blue. It was too tight and uncomfortable to the observer; he hated ties. Suits as well. The entire getup, as well as his current affair, was incredibly stressful and falsified, to him, yet it was very serious and very important. As much as he did not want to attend, he knew it was simply impossible for him not to, as well as incredibly out of line for him to speak badly about it. Thus he found himself attending in a permanently irritable mood. Not only did he have to go to the summit, but the other councilmen were late. Such a thing was want for termination in Nneoh. Still, these frustrations seemed to slip away from the Nneonian’s mind as he watched out of the huge window and onto the Norzavish scenery. Snow was something that never fell in tropical Nneoh, so to be immersed in it and above it so drastically was an experience the Nneonian had never experienced before. He was transfixed by the beaming sun and the resisting majesty of the ground’s quilt of snow. As he stood watching the landscape in front of him, the door to the scenic room opened once again and two more people entered the room. Norzaven’s representative moved to greet them as well, but backed off when he found the two of them, the monarchs of Mortis who shared their seat as representative, already in the midst of conversation. For the next ten minutes the other representatives trickled in until, finally, all eight members of the council had arrived and all nine members were in the expansive room. As the final person sat down, the Nneonian representative – the only one still standing at this point – turned and looked upon them all with a glare before finally speaking. “I believe we have much to discuss, gentlemen.” With these simple words, he sat down in his appointed seat at the rectangular crystal table that was in the middle of the room. A noticeable grunt sounded from opposite his position, and the imposing Nneonian general looked to its origin. Mortis’ queen looked at him with a scowl; he adjusted his tie and ignored it. “Yes, we do. Like, first off – where is Lord Saerys?” The inquiry came from the bearded elder who hailed from Otnak, the small island nation east of the island that Nneoh and Galgria shared. The bearded man, unlike the rest of the attendants, disregarded the formal dress code and had donned a floral print t-shirt and light-colored corduroy pants. “And here I was hoping we’d all heard the news.” The Norzavish leader shook his head and gave a frown that was quite aching in the severity of its mocking nature. “You see, good old Elder Trizus, Saerys has tragically perished. The majority of the Shorican bureaucracy has, as well. There was, er – an accident – in Phenicks, during a very trying time, too. The President Commandant we all knew and loved was erased from the face of the earth, and so was a good amount of his successors and retainers.” “Accident my ass,” growled the Nneonian. “This is not the place for your bullshit, Senator Gravish. What happened in Phenicks was no accident. No amount of decimation like that could be caused accidentally. For all we know it was a plot by one of you. Although my bet goes to you, Gravish.” The Nneonian senator glared at the Norzavish one with fire in his heart, but the angry scowl was met only with another toothy grin. “Now, now, General Garland, we’re not here to point fingers… That’s how wars get started, and we remember the last time one of those broke out, don’t we?” Garland, the Nneonian representative, crushed his hands into fists and only glared at the Norzavish man harder after a glance to the skinny man seated to his right. The man in question shivered and looked down with a frown. “Oh yeah – eight years ago, was it? Ahhh, I remember Lord Saerys disapproved of that, as well… What an agreeable man he was, truly tragic that he is no longer with us…” Old bearded Elder Trizus of Otnak scratched at his legendary chin-mane. The hair on his head thinned every time the council met, and his prodigious beard only grew in size. By now, his hair was completely bald with only a few white wisps of forgotten hair poking from his retired scalp. “The last time you requested an economic subsidy, Elder Trizus, I believe Saerys was the one with the deciding vote, and he shut it down. You didn’t call him agreeable then, now did you?” This retort came from the barrel-chested King of Mortis, who was sitting at the table with the most dignified posture of all the members, but was looking to Trizus with a light-hearted, childish grin. “Oh, is that right…? Yes, yes, I remember now,” Trizus muttered as he scratched his shiny head. “What a terrible old fellow he was, that Lord Saerys. Truly a disgrace to our good names. Good riddance, I say, good riddance indeed.” Trizus looked out the clear window with as focused a look as his tired old emerald eyes could produce, and at his reply, King Mateulikus of Mortis let out a roaring laugh. “Let’s get back to business, shall we, dear,” inquired Queen Varinamious, also of Mortis. She was by far the most focused of the two appointed to represent Mortis, even though it was the king who held most of the actual decision power in the summit council. Still, at her behest, the king held in his laughter and chortled silently to himself. “Yes, I agree with Queen Varinamious,” spoke the man at the head of the table. He sat up straight with a grunt and looked up with a determined look. He wore the black tuxedo as was the dress standard for the occasion, but over his suit he stubbornly wore a navy blue mantle and cape over his shoulders, as was the standard for high ranking Inusian officers and military men. With his deep-set eyes, heavy brow, and low-cut black hair with gray sides, the High Lord General of Inusia cut quite the intimidating figure. “Let us get back to the matter at hand, fellow leaders.” King Mateulikus gulped silently and looked forward with his chin pointed once the Lord General began to speak. Queen Varinamious looked at him out of the side of her eyes and shook her head slightly, but followed his example and sat in her proper posture. The other members of the summit followed suit soon afterwards, and decorum was re-established. “Right, then,” muttered Senator Gravish. “Back to Shorica. Despite what General Garland may proclaim, I am completely ignorant as to what exactly caused… well, whatever happened back in Phenicks. And I make it my business to be as intelligent as I can be when it comes to things like this.” “Yeah, yeah, so do we all, Gravish.” Garland of Nneoh started to grind his teeth. “That’s how we all know about it in the first place.” The first decision the World Summit had made, as they were all on their way to arriving to the previously scheduled meeting, was to completely cover up the incident in Phenicks from spreading to the world’s media, and forcefully enforcing this through censorship and manual control. It wasn’t the cleanest way, but it was the only way for them to keep peace and order from falling to mass terror. “…Except Elder Trizus, I suppose,” said General Garland as an afterthought. The old man flashed him a toothless smile, and Garland only sighed. “Now that all of us are caught up with the situation at hand, it is time we investigated why such a tragedy happened. It was undoubtedly a natural disaster, one we’ve never seen before. The magnitude of the destruction eclipses any that a nation could produce without outside aid, so I believe it’s safe to say we can discount any of the people sitting at this table as culprits for the incident,” reasoned Queen Varinamious. What she meant was unspoken, but understood to all – to unleash such a powerful weapon and to completely eradicate Shorica’s capital city would be a clear declaration of war, and any war that involved such a weapon would scar the world beyond recognition. “Something none of us here could harness ourselves… Could it be that this was a divine action? A message from the gods?” Skinny, unremarkable Castion Immanuel, Revulcia of Galgria, sat next to General Garland, and struggled to ignore the glare from the military man that his inquisition had provoked. Galgria was a small portion of the eastern island that Nneoh once held control over until the civil war eight years ago had given the nation its independence. Revulcia Castion, the leader of the revolution and ruler of its ensuing new territory, was quite the religious man. “Such an explanation is definitely possible… But sadly, I’m afraid that simply chalking it up to that would lead to our downfall,” muttered the Lord General of Inusia. All the members of the summit looked to him in confusion, even the till-then silent President of Honris, Jolynus Hult. “Yes, it seems I have no choice at this point. It is time you all knew the truth… of this world and the power it holds.” “You’re… What could you mean, Lord Maebyss?” Senator Gravish, who had been calm and in control for the entirety of the summit so far, was for the first time as surprised and taken aback, as were the other members of the meeting. A tense silence filled the air as the increasingly desperate leaders wondered what could possibly be more terrifying than a celestial attack or the world filled with war. Lord Maebyss, the High Lord General and most powerful governing man of Inusia, looked around at those other leaders of the world’s major countries and sighed. “I’ve had men on the issue since it occurred, and the conclusion they’ve reached is unanimous. Destruction of that scale could only have been caused by the power of the Crystals.” “Eh? The Crystal? I’ve heard of that,” yelped Elder Trizus. “That’s that trinket you Inusians keep under lock and key, right? From what I’ve heard of it, that thing is one of your countries most precious artifacts!” A few of the other leaders in attendance nodded in agreement with this information, but to the ones who didn’t, this was their first time hearing about such a thing. “Yes, Elder Trizus, that’s correct,” confirmed Lord General Maebyss. “You’ve tried to buy it from us countless times, but I made it quite clear each time that it was not for sale. Not something like that.” “That begs the question, Lord Maebyss; how could such an artifact, if its so powerful and important, get out of your hands and into the possession of one who would destroy an entire city with it?” Revulcia Castion looked to the Inusian leader with clear anger in his eyes. He had seen enough bloodshed in the long war that had driven nation against nation in the effort to establish the country he now ruled over, and it had made its mark on him; bloodshed was not something the young man was ever fond of. The idea that Maebyss’ carelessness could have caused so much death infuriated him beyond reason. “What I personally find concerning is the fact that Lord Maebyss said Crystals – with an s. From what I’ve heard, Inusia’s only ever had one Crystal.” Queen Varinamious was once again the voice of reason as her husband still sat flabbergasted by Maebyss’ reveal. “As sharp as ever, Your Majesty.” Maebyss looked distressed by what he had to say, but continued to talk nonetheless. The rest of the council listened patiently and attentively. “Yes, what she implies is correct. Not only is Inusia’s Crystal in rogue hands, but three others that have been hidden around the world are also unaccounted for. In other words, some group of people are gathering the Crystals with malicious intent – intent that we all can see has very dangerous consequences.” The room sat in stunned silence. “Does… Does this have anything to do with the Ouroboros criminal society…?” President Jolynus twirled her finger in her curly hair as she asked the question they were all thinking. “Does this mean our nations are in danger, even now…? Could we be in danger?” “No,” grunted General Garland. “This is the most top-secret of all things; nobody outside of this council and our own personal guards know about us meeting here.” “Garland is correct on this front,” added Senator Gravish, “and Jolynus is correct on the first. No other group in the world has the ability to perform such coordinated acts with such precision and ruthlessness. No terrorists or rebels could have done something like this, if Maebyss is to be believed.” “The Ouroboros…” Even Elder Trizus, the most mild-mannered and joyous of them all, lowered his head and scratched his beard with a darkening mood. “I always knew we should have taken them down years and years ago, when they were first brought to my attention. There’s no good to be had letting terrorists organizations grow and grow unchecked, I say.” “And I say the same to you that I did when you first brought it up in my first Summit meeting, Elder Trizus,” retorted Lord Maebyss. “Focusing on taking down an ethereal group of criminals allied across the globe would only weaken all of our military and sap our already dwindling budgets. A sensible man applies insect repellant instead of bothering with swatting every fly in the sky.” “A fat lot of good that’s doing for us now, not to mention Lord Saerys and all the people in Phenicks,” grumbled King Mateulikus. What he thought was a witty line delivered to his wife was loud enough for all to hear, and he was met with quite a few glares. “King Maetulikus is right,” stated Castion of Galgria. He was the only one not irritated by the King’s childish behavior, perhaps because he was the youngest representative in attendance. “It’s useless to ponder about what should have been done. All that we can do now is take down this Ouroboros and stop whatever it is they’re planning to do with those Crystals.” “Heheh, so now we’re trying to not only squash all the ants, but taking back the crumbs they stole, as well? How the tables have turned over the years!” Despite himself, Elder Trizus gave out a hearty laugh that betrayed his frail stature. “I already told you, we’re not going to eradicate Ouroboros. To do so would be impossible. All we need to do is retrieve the Crystals and return them to their neutral equilibrium and the society will return to useless obscurity. To interfere in their childish criminals acts is not something that is worth our time past that point.” Lord Maebyss was clearly growing frustrated with Trizus’ antics, but said nothing to explicitly call him out. “Neutral equilibrium?!” General Garland almost stood up in a huff. His chest and wide shoulders were struggling to keep up with his rapid, agitated breathing. “You’re the only one who knew these damn jewels existed until minutes ago, Maebyss, and you’re telling me the system we had for these crazy things was neutral? Maybe if you weren’t hogging everything important in the world to yourself, we wouldn’t be in this mess, and Saerys wouldn’t have had to have died, dammit!” “Now that’s quite enough out of you, Garland.” Unlike the leader of Nneoh, who showed at least some semblance of self-control, the young representative for Galgria stood and looked the taller general in the eye with burning defiance. “How many times do you have to be told that what’s in the past is over and done with? We have bigger things to think about!” Almost immediately afterward, Garland stood up and pointed his large chest out, pushing Revulcia Castion away and rattling the crystal table. “Don’t you get fresh with me, boy. I’m talking about the future here – because once we get those Crystals back, there’s no way in hell I’m letting them all go back under Maebyss’ hands.” Lord Maebyss only sighed and crossed his hands. “I made it quite clear that only one of these Crystals was under Inusia’s direct jurisdiction. The rest were scattered across the world, and we only kept tabs on them to ensure their safety.” “Well your security clearly wasn’t good enough, dammit!” Garland slammed his fist down on the table and a silent spiderweb of cracks from the impact point spread out an instant later. Blood trickled from his tightly clenched knuckles. “Why was it that your country knew of these things and not ours? We can’t be trusted to take care of these Crystals, even though they were apparently in our territory?!” Maebyss could only sigh. “One last thing, Maebyss. One last question I have to ask you. Which countries no longer have a Crystal? Where were these other three stolen from?” “The first was hidden in the Inusian Desert – one in the ruins of Aquari, the former capital city of ruined Shimura – and the final one in Mount Gulg, in Nneoh.” Garland stared at Lord Maebyss, who had answered with his eyes closed as he refused to make eye contact, and let his fists loosen. A look of frustration flashed on the general’s face, followed by anger, disbelief, frustration, and finally speechless despair. He sat quietly and put his head in his hands. “…So it looks like there is only one option ahead of us,” murmured the shaken Revulcia Castion, who had long since returned to his seat. “and that it is, regrettably, one that leads to bloodshed.” “Yes. You are correct.” Lord Maebyss looked straight forward now, his appearance and posture as composed as ever. “Our only hope is to pool our forces in an alliance, use all of our intelligence to track down the Crystals, and eradicate any who hold them. They are not in the right hands until they are in our hands. Then we may wound Ouroboros to a point that is necessary for punishment… Them, and any who would seek to use the Crystals.” “What about Shorica,” asked President Jolynus of Honris. Next to Otnak and Mortis, her rocky island nation was perhaps the weakest and poorest of them all, and the concept of it being ruined was terrifying to the usually strong-willed electorate. “Are we going to give it any relief effort? Salvage any possible survivors? Anything at all?” It mortified her how little the appalling subject had come up in the summit, which by now was nearing its end. The sun had completely set outside the scenic room by now. Nobody answered her question. They all knew that, in light of what had happened and what was likely to come, their own collective safety was a much higher priority than that of those who had already perished.

...End of Fourth Intermission.

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