Ruthless: Path of Conquest

After Alan had explained what he wanted, James issued another announcement with his public address system.

[Attention, everyone who can hear this message. Tomorrow morning, we will have our first public assembly to discuss future plans for this community, including residency requirements.]

“This way, I’ll be able to address the whole community as a group before I leave to help you and Dean out,” James explained. “I was planning this talk for the day after tomorrow, but bumping up the timing seems appropriate.”

The two of them exchanged small talk before Alan made an excuse to return to his wife. James was fairly certain that Alan felt guilty for even asking for his help. It had been written all over his face, and he didn’t seem to be trying very hard to hide it.

I might still get him to stay here, James thought. Alan and Mitzi could be valuable members of my community, if I convince them that it’s the best way for them to make a difference. That shouldn’t require any lying, since as far as James was concerned, it was objectively the truth.

More importantly, now was the time when he would make his case to the people living in his territory that they should accept his authority. Including his System-granted position of Fisher King.

He began his preparations for the next day.

—

The morning of the assembly, Alan watched James move about in mild awe.

He seemed to be in several places at once, communicating with as many people as he could and putting everyone at ease. More people had shown up that morning, seemingly just in time for the assembly, though it seemed this number—around a hundred adults in total, with an unknown but smaller number of children in tow—was within the parameters that James must have been calculating. Alan thought there was just enough space in the new, in-progress housing to have everyone lodged by the time it was finished. Which, given the progress so far and knowing James, would be before he left with Alan.

The wolves were among the morning arrivals, and Damien Rousseau appeared with them. In front of all the onlookers, he walked up to James, addressed him as “King James,” and pulled him into a hug.

The mood was triumphant. People who had not seen each other since Orientation confirmed that their friends and acquaintances were still alive. They were high fiving each other, swapping congratulations, and competing for face time with “King James.” And he somehow seemed to accommodate all of them.

Overnight, he and Mina had constructed an additional, grand new building that they were calling the Community Center. Mina was visibly tired, and her little sister hovered near her like a bodyguard, helping her politely make small talk and rebuff any longer conversations. The fact that Mina was carrying her baby around made people more understanding. James seemed as energetic as ever, flitting from person to person after he’d stayed in one spot just long enough to make an impact.

Alan found it mildly annoying that James made time to pay attention to Jeremiah Rotter of all people for a few minutes. James even showed Rotter something he had written on a paper he produced from his pocket. His speech for that day?

Why am I annoyed? Alan wondered. Was he a bit jealous? Yes, he probably was. Alan would have expected James to consult with him if he wanted a last minute eye on his speech. They had known each other for years, after all.

What am I thinking, though? He was planning to leave and return to help Dean. Wasn’t he? While Rotter would probably stick around. Stay stuck onto James like a leech, if he could. It was only logical for James to invest time in cultivating people who were going to be around. But Alan’s face still burned as he thought about the situation.

“Something the matter?” Mitzi asked quietly.

“Hm. What?” Alan was pulled back from his thoughts and only belatedly realized his wife had been looking at him with some concern.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “Your face—well, you look a little upset. What’s wrong?”

“I think maybe my instinct about who to join might have been wrong,” Alan said.

“We haven’t made any final decisions about that yet, though, right?” Mitzi took his hand and squeezed it. “Relax. We can figure it out later.”

Alan smiled. His wife was right. “As wise as you are beautiful,” he murmured half to himself. He saw her lips turn up at the corners in his peripheral vision.

Then he very pointedly looked away from James. He took in the Community Center.

The results of James and Mina’s late night construction efforts spoke for themselves. The new Community Center was a far more elegant building than either the first building James had thrown up or the two new residential structures the other Mages had collaborated with Mina to begin building. The founding couple had clearly thought that this might be the first of these buildings that would stand permanently.

In style, it reminded Alan of a church, though perhaps a church as Frank Lloyd Wright would have designed one rather than as most churches were actually designed. And for some reason, the building was an octagon shape. Other than that, it felt like a place where solemn matters were contemplated and discussed.

And so it was.

After a certain time had elapsed, James invited the crowd inside. The building was even more like a church than Alan had expected. There was a single large, main room with a stage and a podium. Scores of stone chairs sat facing toward the stage.

At least they’re sort of ergonomically designed, Alan thought. If we hadn’t brought our own blankets and gear, we wouldn’t have slept at all last night.

The crowd filed in, and the excited hum settled down to a dull roar.

Finally, James took the podium and began to speak. It was a serious speech, and Alan could tell preparation had gone into it. When James had found the time, he couldn’t be certain.

“Thank you, everyone, for being here today. The fact that you’re here on this land at all shows that you trust my leadership and protection—” A few enthusiastic people in the crowd whistled at this, until James raised a hand to silence them—“and the fact that you entered this building shows that you trust my wife’s engineering skills.” A louder general hoot went up. Mina smiled shyly from her seat behind and to the left of James on stage.

“There are several topics I considered that we needed to address. I will be unavailable tomorrow, so it needed to be today. First of all, I consider it my duty to update you on the state of the neighborhood where we’re beginning to build our community. Several of us have scouted the neighboring territories. There are some small chunks of land that appear to be more or less unoccupied, or only occupied by wandering beasts. Unfortunately, if you move a little further out, you run into the territory of monsters that are comparable in power to myself.” A concerned murmur moved the crowd.

“For these reasons,” James continued, “I recommend that we do not stray far from the borders of the Fisher Kingdom unless we go in force. Going somewhere with me counts as going in force—” some chuckles at that—“but the best thing is for me and a whole party of combat-capable people to go together. Eventually, these neighbors are threats we will likely have to face. My territory expands slowly, day by day, as my aura reaches new patches of land. The territory of these rivals does the same. A clash is almost certainly inevitable, and that day will require us to prepare, build our numbers, and increase our individual strengths. We have unfortunately descended into a world where might makes right, and neutral spaces will inevitably shrink and disappear.

“Related to this is the leadership structure. Some of you will have only heard secondhand, from other people, that I am calling myself the Fisher King. That isn’t entirely accurate.” He smiled a bit sheepishly. “Well, I am calling myself that, but the System gave me the label first. And I did a lot to earn that name. Killed somewhere in the high hundreds or low thousands of monsters. Somewhere along the line I lost count. I defeated the final enemy of my own Orientation, a monster with the power to destroy human souls and turn the bodies of the fallen into his puppets. I drove more than one species of creature to extinction. Fought a three-headed wolf the size of an SUV until he admitted defeat and surrendered leadership of his pack to me. And I impressed a god enough that he courted me to become his Chosen One.

“That was the Spider God, Anansi,” James continued. “He is a god of stories, and his representative is always with me, to chronicle my adventures.” There was a tiny flicker of movement on James’s head, which Alan guessed was the tiny spider trying to be seen. “Despite being favored by a god, my first loyalty has always been, and will always be, to you, my fellow humans. We live in a world that is constantly trying to kill us. This was true even before the System. Hurricanes, plagues, and everything wild that lived on the continent of Australia—” There was a choked off bit of laughter from the audience.

“Well, now things are even worse. It’s a fact that during these chaotic times, strong centralized leadership is needed. I firmly believe that in these circumstances, a chain of command dependent on multiple lines of authority, or any structure based on the old tried and true idea of checks and balances, will fail at the first test. People who completed Orientation, all of you know how long democracy lasted when the System arrived. Those who completed Orientation beside me know that there was no place safer than standing by my side. Returning now to the leadership structure. As this land is protected by my aura, and as I am likely to remain the strongest single person on this land, I will remain as the ruler of this area until and unless I am violently deposed.

“I won’t expect anyone to stay who can’t accept that. If you find me too intolerable, you are welcome to leave with our well wishes and a reasonable quantity of food, in search of a more democratic society. Those who remain have a right to know what to expect from my leadership. First, in exchange for accepting me as leader, you should understand that I will always be prepared to risk my life for any of yours unless my family is in jeopardy at the same time. I will work hard to keep you safe.” Alan looked around, and he found people were nodding along. Of course. They were already prepared to accept something like this as soon as they decided to stay on land controlled by someone called the Fisher King. They were just lucky that James happened to also mean what he said—as far as Alan could tell.

“My family, for those of you who haven’t already met them, includes my wife, Mina, her sister Yulia, and my son James, Junior.” The two women briefly stood up from behind James. “We are also taking care of our neighbor’s children until their family returns.” Alan saw that those three children were in the front row. Someone was watching them for James and his family. I’d guess that phrasing was about sparing the little boy’s feelings? But James was on to the next topic already.

“Second, I will expect effort from you all. Survival itself will require the best from all of us. My understanding of my powers is that they will help us more successfully work the land, but there will be farming required. Continuing building construction. Salvaging materials from the civilization the System just wrecked. We’ll honor the fallen—and we’ll try to move forward. Recreate some of the technology we had before the collapse. But the bottom line is, there is no room to be idle. I know in my bones that you all understand what I mean. You’re all survivors. We’ve all been through a great deal. The struggle isn’t over. In some way, make yourselves useful to this community. If you don’t know how you can best do that, come and see me. We’ll discuss how your knowledge and capabilities fit in. I don’t expect people to automatically know what to do, but we’ll discover the way together bit by bit.

“Third, we are an extremely diverse group of people, and I expect more of us to arrive each day. We won’t even all be human in this community. Some of you have already seen my pack of wolves. They arrived this morning, and although they are not inside with us, they are aware of the rules we are discussing. In order for us to work together, and be able to trust each other to some degree, we have to have a common set of ideals that we pledge ourselves to, much like the United States when the country was formed. I think that we need to all—including me—pledge that we are going to stand for these common values, and that can be the foundation for us to build something new. For that reason, I want to introduce a loyalty pledge for everyone who wants to live here. We will all swear to uphold some common values.” He took out a piece of paper from within his pocket and read it aloud with his hand over his heart.

“I pledge allegiance to the Fisher Kingdom and to the ideals for which it stands: protection of the innocent, justice for all, and the promise to reconquer the Earth for humanity and our allied species. Only our sacrifices honor the fallen. Only victory can bring peace. Only we can win back the world.” Alan found the citizenship pledge a bit cartoonishly idealistic and slightly jingoistic—but then again, had the Pledge of Allegiance and the old national anthem been any different? And people had treated both with such solemnity. Looking at the faces of the crowd, he couldn’t see anyone laughing or smiling. They took this invented oath as seriously as they took the person who had written it.

“Anyone who wants to remain on this land, the only formal requirement is that you must make the citizenship pledge. The informal requirements are the obvious things: don’t hurt other people; don’t take their stuff; and do your best to pull your own weight. There are so many other things I want to talk about. The ongoing effort to rescue more children who were orphaned in the midst of this crisis—we will need more people to take in children and, if trends continue, possibly a larger scale solution. That assumes children continue being found. Also, after the meeting, I will take volunteers to search the old buildings and look for salvageable goods and materials. At least one person with construction experience is needed, to help figure out if any of the buildings are salvageable. We already have at least one hunting party, of course—my friends who went hunting with me yesterday know who they are! And we will need to figure out the matter of farming, as well as of forming a militia to defend us.

“But I intend for these meetings to be held regularly. It would be unreasonable for us to hammer out every problem today. For now, I want to open the floor for your thoughts. Another promise I can make is that I will remain open to people’s opinions before making important decisions—unless the decisions are urgently needed for our survival. So, who wants to be heard?”

Hands began to shoot up.

James called on the fastest one first.

Alan saw who the eager beaver was in his peripheral vision, and he rolled his eyes. It was Rotter.

He tried to speak, but Alan couldn’t hear what he was saying.

“The acoustics in this building work best if you’re on the stage,” James said. “Why don’t you come and stand up here at the podium?”