Blood in the Streets

Written by: AtheistBasementDragon

Edited by: The Usual Gang of Drunken Perverted Idiots

Chapter 22: Epilogue

When news of the assassination attempt hit the city, it was news tainted with half truths, useful truths, convenient lies, and not a little bit of unintended guesswork, not to mention erroneous conclusions based on the fundamental lack of information held even by the Agante themselves.

The evident suicides of both Ginedine and Berenice were covered up, stating that they died in the attack alongside Maximillian, while Necran Adama was blamed for the conspiracy. He was said to have taken 'the easy way out' rather than face justice for his crimes. Criers at every street corner slammed the conspirators as heretics, and a number of priests 'disappeared', charged with 'disturbing the safety of the public'.

Posted fliers everywhere praised the efforts of the valiant soldiers of the Theocracy and of Dominic in particular. But with this came another pair of consequences.

As the body count rose and more people lost family to the front lines, a scapegoat emerged. The elf population became the target of blame for the established government, and criers regularly promoted the slave population as a dangerous threat as humans shrank in number within the cities as they had to move into the ranks of the army.

The work camps were placed under Raymond's 'watch' and became the chief suppliers for food and material to arm the soldiers raised in Kami Miyako and elsewhere. The military supplies being sent gave convenient and precise counts for the total soldiers expected to occupy a given area, and Raymond ensured that this information fell into the hands of Pandora's Actor and Doppel One as they perpetuated the lie that Tira and Thousand Mile Astrologer were still alive.

Their connection to Enlaith served as the basis for a small information network among the slaves of the city, while Thousand Mile Astrologer regularly reported 'interference' with her scrying abilities, and often sent military units on expensive goose chases after other units that did not exist, keeping the Slane Theocracy chasing its tail.

Solution's 'hunts' became her favorite time of day, expanding from the usual 'filth' to occasionally talented personnel who might have risen through the ranks to improve the performance of the Theocracy's administration. Raymond's conscience troubled him in such things, but whenever it got too much, he reminded himself that he wanted his nation to fall before the Black Pope sought her revenge in earnest.

Through all of this, Raymond had barely an hour to himself, but he managed one, single, vital task. As the members of the Black Scripture that had pulled out of the Southern Holy Kingdom made their way east using their superhuman abilities and a fair bit of flight magic from mages paid along the way, a meeting was arranged.

The meeting had been brief. Raymond had given each of them a letter with strict instructions not to open it until one hour before they expected to face off against Zesshi. Confused but compliant, they left the city that day and traveled east.

Around the Slane Theocracy however, problems began to emerge, the Slane Theocracy had always been heavily reliant upon trade, not only externally with its human neighbors, but internally between cities, and military operations were being sustained by bleeding local resources. Centralized distribution solved the problem temporarily, sending all goods to the capital and then allocating them accordingly, however it often created shortages. People began to grow hungry, and the mounting death toll saw a slow rise in antiwar sentiment begin.

This too, was solved... in two ways... the first was redoubling the anti-elven messages, blaming them for both real and imagined distribution problems... and targeting those who still complained, with long knives. Those who objected to food ration sizes or percentages allocated to the capital, developed a habit of disappearing and never turning up again.

As it was in Kami Miyako, so it was in Wheaton, Feron, and countless other locations. Aalon continued about his business dealings, and tension rose among the mountain elves as they waited for the call to come up.

Nua settled into a routine of service to Raymond's house, continuing her de facto control over his schedule and administration, but when Solution was present, she sought to learn how to better defend herself. Though the burns were plentiful, so too was her improvement.

Yvon recovered quickly enough and returned to govern, and on their first joint session between the three remaining cardinals, Yvon asked Dominic, "How... how did you survive?"

"Simple, obviously I had the guard handy with a top quality healing potion of course, but I also had the podium moved just a bit to absorb more of the damage, and I had a barrier slate erected in front where the podium is normally open. It was only a minor enchantment, but it was enough to lower the amount of the impact I took. I should have gotten nothing more than minor burns, but..." Dominic clucked his tongue in annoyance, "the spell used was more powerful than I expected it to be.

"Still, taking a blast like that, dangerous." Raymond said with faux concern.

"Worth it to see their plans come to nothing. I was in a scripture once, calculated risks are part of the job." Dominic reminded him with a cocky smile.

He enjoyed a proud moment of silence, then told the other two surviving cardinals, "Let's get to work, this war won't win itself without us. We've got to keep the spirits up and the motivation strong. So with that in mind, I'd like to propose we start drawing up plans for public executions."

"For who?" Raymond asked with an uncomfortable feeling roiling in his guts.

"Ration frauds, and anyone who dodges a levy call, and of course if there are thieves, we can just blame a food shortage on a few of them and cut rations for a few days to send more to the fighting units, and frankly it wouldn't hurt to randomly throw a slave up there and blame them for a murder or an assault on a human or stealing food or trying to raise rebellion themselves... that sort of thing." Dominic explained in a coldly rational voice.

Raymond shuddered as he imagined what his city was about to look like. "Do we really want that kind of mess around the city, or the country at large?" He asked as calmly as he could.

"As it serves as a reminder of order... Yes, we do." Dominic replied, "It doesn't matter, I know it is unpleasant, but there will be plenty of slaves left over when the time comes to clean up their Blood in the Streets."