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This was done because I felt there was a certain inherit weakness to where I started the story earlier. (Note: Jara is a filler name, also, I'll consider for which characters last names are also appropriate).
Chapter 1: A Revolution as a Work in Progress
There was nothing more than an echoing of soft footsteps upon marble as the wizard slowly slogged up to the dark mahogany table. Surrounding this glorious centerpiece in the vast meeting chamber were paintings, the magnum opi of dozens of great artists from all peoples and nations of the world. The light of morning painted colorful images upon the marble as they passed through a perfectly spaced line of stained glass windows, each towering above him. Despite the grand display of art and architecture that surrounded him, he was generally unimpressed with the world, as he was every morning. He yawned loudly, not raising either of his hands to cover his mouth. “Calidron!” he said “Would you mind, before dragging me through this pathetic excuse of a private art collection, providing me with a bit more shut eye?”
All the way across the vast landscape of the table, a tall, sharp-faced man, dressed in a handsome, black garb from head to toe, with a grey wolf-skin cloak around his shoulders, stood up calmly. His dark blue eyes focused intently upon the wizard, whose tattered grey and brown cloak clashed violently with the surroundings to an appalling degree, so much so that he barely suppressed a sneer of disgust. “My summons are not chronologically negotiable Wizard, I am a man of urgent business.”
“Of course … my liege.” The balding spellcaster pulled up a chair, and leaned backwards on it, placing both of his bare feet on his end of the table. He allowed his staff to rest against another chair. He sweetly tilted his head to one side, with a genial grin masking whatever emotion wriggled beneth. “I am to understand that you have need of my services?”
Calidron sat down again, and allowed his jeweled hands to lock one another in place, the massive gemstones keeping the knuckles from separating. “This city has… well, had a vast number of wizards, all of whom were involved in the construction of a defense network…”
“And you need my genius to uncover it?”
Calidron’s wide grin revealed perfect white teeth “No, actually, we have already found it; we need you to activate it, and to use it against Commander Aliden and his forces when they arrive.”
The wizards head straightened from its crooked alignment. “Aliden is coming? You didn’t tell me that it would be him!”
“It was irrelevant, the only man I fear leading a force is Marcus Aleman, not because he’s a great general, but because he knows the secrets of this city. However, fortunately for us, the Church’s hound won’t be a problem, the King refuses to trust his mockery of a domain to the moralists anymore. Aliden, although a solid enough leader, will bring a weak force to bear. Starvation has probably already set in, he is raping and pillaging and looting as we speak.”
“Then why did you drag an aging nut like me into this mess?” the wizard demanded. He was secretly frustrated, his composure was breaking.
“Because, I had no plans for you to use the network to combat Aliden’s rabble. I do not fear invasion, I fear a Counter-Revolution, and I fear that soon, the disenfranchised merchant class, being the greedy parasites they are, will rally the mob into frenzy, ruining everything I have built since I freed them from the tyranny if the kings pet governors, ungrateful whelps.” Calidron sighed quietly, his anger, formally expressing itself in an angry growl, dissipated into the stagnate air. “Do you know what it is to do what I have done, to take an entire city from the King himself? Sure the Merchant’s Council in Yeshura has done the same; sure they think that they have protected themselves from further tariffs and regulations. But me, I am building something here, a new empire. Children shall recite loyalty oaths to me, statues are already being built in my honor.”
“I’m sure your big friend over there had nothing to do with that.” The wizard said, his frog-like face and small, beady eyes glowing.
The second man, dressed in a frightening suit of massive plate armor, who from a glance, looked seven feet tall or more, didn’t turn to acknowledge him. The deep, strangely warm voice that navigated out of it’s shell didn’t seem offended.
“I don’t kill or threaten civilian’s wizard, my firm is paid to prevent conflicts, not to make itself an accessory to state murder.”
The wizard nearly flew out of his chair in laughter, however, he did manage to tip the chair over, and he fell with a loud slap upon the mirthless marble.
“Now that’s a good joke!” he screamed in between hysterics. “A mercenary… HELL… a mercenary with principles.” His head hurt mightily, but the sheer hilarity of this event to him was opium for his pain.
Calidron was just about finish standing, presumably to inflict some violence upon the little man, when a low, rather anxious, foreign sounding, female voice filled the chamber. "Jara, Jara, You have to stop them." The wizard stopped laughing instantly, and rolled onto all fours to see who was coming. A tall, dark skinned woman was running maddeningly toward them. She stopped just short of the now standing wizard ignoring his presence completely. "Jara, there's a riot, the Black Hawks, they're killing all of them. We need to..." Just as the metal mountain prepared to speak, Calidron got his say in.
"Of course they are, that was my order, rioters must be put down." He seemed more irritated that his conversation with the wizard had been cut short than that people were dying inside his city.
The metallic monstrosity, now Jara, turned toward Calidron "Sir, containment is the advisable strategy for controlling rioters. My dragons can cut off several roads with fire, and they can be channeled away from vital buildings and structures. Cutting them down will only set a flame in their hearts."
Calidron adopted an emotionless veneer "I have been studying history for as long as I have lived, Jara. I assure you, one cannot allow the weeds of rebellion to prosper in your garden, if you try and stop my lawn care, I shall relieve you of command, and have you killed if you do not leave."
Jara remained still. "My contract is with the Merchant's Council, whom sent me to you in good faith that my dragons would be used wisely. The rebellion is a single movement, and no individual head has the right to make a decision without the other's approval. Your failure to understand this reveals a great deal of arrogance, which shall be detailed in my report..."
"A REPORT!!!" Calidron seemed to explode "You ass, YOU WERE SENT TO SPY ON ME!!!"
"Yes, you have been deemed dangerous, given that you refused to lower taxes on most basic foodstuffs, and that you didn't support the rights of merchants before our rebellion, but more important matters are at hand. You have two choices Calidron, either you call off your hired thugs, Or I create hell on earth."
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