Sea of Dekatos

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

“The wealth of the city is determined by events on the sea.”

-- Sento of Yang

Fangshao flew just above the cloud layer, able to hide from the surface but not from his own thoughts. If he had not spent his life killing, training, and meditating upon more effective ways to gather power, he might have understood his emotions better. As it was, he did not even know he had emotions. Tante brains were unusual things; he understood the concept of angles and the different sword strokes they permitted, or how certain techniques could deflect an attack off to the side, and he also intimately knew when to strike, when to negotiate, and when an alliance had born fruit and was now over-ripe and unneeded. His feelings, however, were a mystery to him. If he had been more in touch with his emotions, he would have known that his deep feelings of shame sent him above the cloud layer because he did not want to be seen.

The clouds swept by beneath him as the sun slowly sank into the orange sands. The desert was an inhospitable place, hostile and searing, a vast wasteland of splintered rocks and hot sands.

When he had crushed the soft skins and taken their water, things would be much improved. He would have hundreds of mates, each waiting in the shallow waters where his hunting groups could keep them pure and ready to bear eggs for he alone. He would roam the cities of the soft skins, exploring, burning their books, if they had any, and wearing their clothes to mock their defeat. The lower sea would be his, but in order to do that, he had to dispose of some rivals first. Vardonus, victor of many battles, would be the most powerful. If allowed to escape, his hunting groups would eventually ensnare and kill Fangshao. Malakor would be trouble, as that brine-spawned killer seethed with ambitions and plans, just waiting for the chance to move up in power. Malakor was skilled with both sword and spell, as well as being patient and confident. Arianna, one of the rare female Nobles, would have to be removed from her perch as well.

After he cast them into oblivion, after he defeated the soft skins and filled their sea with eggs that he himself had fertilized, he would set out more barrels of water and food in the desert, and find another sea. Conquering was the most pleasing, invigorating act he had yet discovered, sublime beyond his ability to describe. Briefly he feared that he would find no more seas in the desert of splintered rocks, and the idea came into his head of having the Benthics dig one. He would give it to two Nobles and a group of Benthics and tell them that it was theirs to populate and enrich with their brood, but he would change his mind in a year and wage war against them purely for the pleasure. Saliva filled his mouth the way it often did just before he thrust his head into a barrel full of fat, juicy fish.

He flew onwards, managing to get his tired beast to the edge of the upper sea. It looked much like the lower one, of similar size, but instead of five cities surrounding it there were only small clusters of buildings. A few Benthics had to be raised up out of the muck and made into workers, as the forges and metal smelting industries could not be located underwater. The sea itself had a massive crystal pyramid in the center, surrounded by eight transparent towers.

The crystal veins beneath the sea floor were far larger than expected. They ran deep, and none had been yet mined to exhaustion. The result was that some of the Benthics had found or stolen tools and mined the crystal themselves, making small houses or temples to some new gods that they now worshiped. The Nobles entered with hunting groups and killed them all, of course, at Fangshao’s insistence. The crystals, like the surface or females, were for the Nobles only.

He landed his tired Arkhaios at the edge of the sea and let it slip into the shallow waters to drink and lower its raging body temperature. Fangshao also waded into the water and swam, his armored body sinking so that he had to stay in the shallow areas. Some Benthics approached, identifiable as such from their lack of armored plate or weapons, as well as the haunted look in their eyes. They watched as he snared some fish with his gloved hand. Cooking them was not required; this was a day of duty, not feasting. Taking off his helmet he bit into the fish, tossing the heads back into the sea to feed the bloodkelp. He slid back onto his silver Arkhaios and flicked the chains, sending it across the sea. Descended from a fish, it was still buoyant and easily swam across the surface, bringing him to the edge of the pyramid where the crystal steps rose from the water. Lesser Nobles took the chains from him and brought the beast underwater where it would be housed, unlike the green Arkhaios which did not have gills and had to be kept on the surface.