War in the City Chapter 15

IN THE FIFTH YEAR OF THE NEW ERA
Varro burst through the door breathless. “Have you heard the news?” he asked, his chest heaving.
“How could we not?” Pompey replied quietly, slightly annoyed by this interruption. “Now keep quiet, I want to hear this.”
On the monitor, Qual stepped away and Azom stepped into view. “I am Azom, your new leader!” he announced loudly. “I killed Ducas myself.” Azom lifted his right hand to reveal that he was holding Ducas’ severed head. Peter quickly turned away. Varro almost threw up. Pompey was unaffected by the sight.
“If you surrender now,” Azom continued, “you will be treated well. If you continue fighting, you will most assuredly be killed. Marram has no tolerance for resistance. We demand strict obedience. You are a conquered nation, a vassal of Marram. Rebellion will be met by the strictest of measures. I will murder your children, I will destroy what you hold sacred, I will kill your sick and wounded.” Ducas’ head remained in view the whole time, staring out at the audience. “You will learn to serve Maram,” Azom shouted out. The monitor then shut off, the message apparently done.
“Short and to the point,” Peter commented.
“We’ll make him eat those words,” Pompey said angrily. “Varro, you talked to the Resistance survivors?”
“You must have heard me.”
“Refresh my memory.”
“I told them to meet at Daved Park in two days time, bringing with them any who are sympathetic to our cause.”
“Simple enough.”
“Although,” Varro added, “in retrospect, I wish I had phrased myself differently. Almost everyone is sympathetic to our cause.”
Peter voiced his agreement. “We would have a huge crowd if everyone who hated Marram joined up with us.”
“Perhaps that wouldn’t be such a bad idea,” Pompey decided.
Varro was horrified. “Oh no. We can’t get too big too quickly. They’ll crush us like a bug.”
“He’s right,” Peter added. “It would be all out war again.”
“If we want to get ride of Marram, it has to be all out war,” Pompey said. “However, I agree we don’t want to engage Marram before we’re ready. Perhaps it is better to start small so that Marram doesn’t find out about us.”
“How small is small?” Peter asked.
“Well, let’s start out with the entire Watcher population,” Pompey said. “From that we subtract WIN. That’s what, twenty percent did you say Varro?”
“About.”
“Alright, about twenty percent. From that we subtract all the cowards, The Watchers who are too afraid to risk their own lives. From that, we subtract all those who are too old or too out of shape to fight, or those who can’t fight for one reason or another. From that we subtract all those who have children, as Azom said he would kill the children of anyone who resisted. From that we subtract all those who are too young to join us. Have we narrowed things down enough yet Varro?”
Varro exchanged glances with Peter. “I don’t know,” he said. “I’d have to look at some statistics to see how many people we’re talking about.”
“You won’t find any statistics on cowards,” Peter reminded him.
“True. I’ll have to keep that in mind.”
“You don’t need to look at your statistics,” Pompey said. “If too many people show up in two days, we can pick from among them. In the mean time, I need you two to recruit the best people you can find, and bring them with you when we meet again. I’ll do the same. We’ll defeat Marram yet, of that you can be certain.”


“So what do you think of WIN?” Somnia asked Nuntius.
“Quite an unexpected development,” Nuntius commented.
“Unexpected, but welcome,” Navis said. “We couldn’t have won without them.”
“I don’t know if I agree with either of those two conclusions, Navis,” Nuntius replied. “We could have won without them, once more Harpies entered the city. As for them being welcome, I don’t know about that either. They now have forced Marram into an agreement where they hold a significant amount of power, yet we have no control over them.”
“We could order Azom to disregard the agreement if you’re concerned about it,” Navis suggested.
“Perhaps,” Nuntius said thoughtfully.
“Not an option,” Scientia spoke up. “The Deka religion as it was established in that region, well before Marram even existed, stressed the importance of keeping your word. If he were to tell Azom to break his word, it would lessen his faith in the absolutism of Deka.”
“But Azom didn’t give his word, Palzo did,” Navis pointed out.
“Azom agreed to it by accepting WIN’s help. We might as well face it, WIN has an unbreakable grip on our plans now. Whatever we do from now on must include WIN,” Scientia replied.
“Poor Paper. He was promised supreme power, and now he has Marram and WIN both above him,” Navis commented.
“Paper has served his purpose,” Nuntius responded. “He is no longer a concern. We have other things to worry about.”


“What the hell is this?”
Azom was not used to being addressed in such a tone of voice. Paper, however, was under Deka’s protection. He did not dare to inflict harm on him. “You explain it to him,” Azom said to Palzo as he walked out of the room.
Paper looked fiercely at Palzo, expecting some sort of explanation. “We needed WIN’s assistance,” Palzo said. “WIN agreed to help us provided we agree to their terms. I agreed.”
“You agreed? What about Azom?”
“He affirmed the agreement.”
“What kid of terms did you agree to?”
Judas stood up from his chair and handed Paper a list. “Here is the complete list.”
Paper rapidly flipped through them. “Deka! There’s almost a hundred different terms.”
“Ninety seven,” Judas said proudly.
“Ninety seven! What do you think this is?” Without giving Judas time to answer, Paper turned on Palzo. “How could you agree to this?”
“I had no choice. We were losing.”
“Have you no faith in Deka? He will always deliver you.”
“Oh, give it a rest Paper,” Judas said.
“You are not a believer?” Palzo asked Judas. “I myself was not a believer until Deka himself appeared to me.”
Judas laughed. “My friend, you have no idea what you’re talking abou-“
“Judas don’t you dare!” Paper exclaimed horrified.
“Afraid Paper?” Judas asked mockingly. “They can’t touch us here.”
Paper decided if he couldn’t shut Judas up, he might as well change the subject. “Who do you think you are? Marram is my work. I was appointed, I got them here, I was set up as second only to Azom.”
“Appointed by the gods?” Judas got immense pleasure from seeing Paper wince and Palzo looked confused.
“Damn it Judas stop that. You’ve done enough already!”
Judas pretended to be serious. “Alright Paper, perhaps you do deserve a little status after all you hard work. You were promised a second in command, it’s only fair that’s what you receive.” Judas’ face broke into a large smile. “A pity you didn’t get a signed agreement. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m afraid I have to go make sure my copy of my signed agreement with Marram stays in a safe place.”


“I don’t know who he is, but if he thinks for one minute that I’m just going to roll over and let him take possession of all my hard work, he’s got another thing coming.”
Roc tried to calm Paper down. “Let’s not blow this thing out of proportion,” he advised.
“Blow it out of proportion? I risk my life to implement this, and Judas tries to just walk over and take it all way from me. He’s going to regret that decision.”
“Paper, we can’t start fighting among ourselves. Not now.”
“And why not? We are supreme. Do you see any threat?”
“We are supreme because of WIN.”
“We are supreme because of Marram, and with Marram I will achieve my power one way or another.”


“Teacher, display a random scene from Fera,” Paper commanded. The monitor in Paper’s room showed part of a mountain range. “Nuntius, I know you can hear me,” Paper said. “Reveal yourself to me. We have much to talk about.”
“That we do,” said Nuntius, as he appeared floating above the mountains, filling most of the monitor. “You are concerned about WIN.”
“Concerned about WIN and concerned about Judas. If Marram would have brought in reinforcements, they would never have needed WIN.”
“We are in agreement there Watcher. Marram never should have agreed to WIN’s terms, and though neither of us like it, there’s nothing we can do about it.”
“You can command Azom not to honor the agreement.”
“This is not an option. If I tell Azom to break his word, his faith in Deka would diminish. Keeping your word is one of the commandments of Deka.”
Paper thought for a moment. “Perhaps Azom is kept in bondage to WIN, but I never gave my word. What if I were to assassinate Judas?”
“Judas would only be succeeded by another member of WIN, probably Jonz. The contract Marram made with WIN would still stand. You would have to kill almost all of WIN to secure an agreement.”
“Surely there is some way out of this,” Paper said desperately.
“I wish there were, but there is not,” Nuntius said. “Fear not Paper. I will make sure you are more than compensated for your actions. Our work is not done yet though. Our servant is imprisoned in the city.”
“Your servant? You mean Gaius?”
“I mean Gaius. He must be released.”


“Why so glum, brother Cain? WIN has triumphed.”
“Brother Judas, I voted against helping Marram. I oppose this new direction you have led WIN into.”
“It is not too late to join us in our triumph, even if you didn’t take part in the fighting.”
Cain swallowed. “I did take part in the fighting.”
“Surely you didn’t take up arms against your brothers in WIN?”
“Of course not brother Judas. I fought against Marramianes only.” Cain lowered his head. “I worry though that soon I will not be able to fight against Marram without attacking my own brothers. Oh, brother Judas what a terrible position you have forced me into.”
“Are there others like you?” Judas asked.
“About one fourth of WIN thinks like I do,” Cain responded.
“You tell them what I’m telling you,” Judas said. “Tell them that I don’t expect them to fight for Marram, but they should honor the surrender signed by the President of the city himself. If they don’t, more bloodshed will surely follow.”
Cain nodded. “I’ll do my best to convince them of that.”