The Call to Arms - Part 3

Conrad froze.

Carmela completely had him. He could not recall a single time that she had mentioned her first name since he had become Jeremiah. Stunned into submission, he simply stood there, trying furiously to come up with an excuse for him knowing her name. Could he claim the chief of staff of the royal guard, or the king, had told him? No, not a sensible excuse. Surely they would prefer not to spread personal information about the high-ranking guardsman unnecessarily.

"I...must have heard it from one of the senior members of the guard Can't recall when exactly I heard your name, but it must have been recent."

Carmela stared at him, utterly unblinking for several seconds.

"That's certainly possible. It's the most logical conclusion as to why you know my name. But what I don't like is how suspicious you're acting."

Neglecting to go fetch her sword, Carmela pulled a dagger out from a holster on the back of her belt, her eyes narrowed.

"What are you hiding, Jeremiah? If the bandits really do have a high number of spies and assassins planted in the capital now, I don't trust them to stay put. If they can't find the king, then I wouldn't put it past them to attack the rest of his staff to cripple us. I need to return immediately. But before the two of us head back, I need to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you're truly with us."

"Captain, I just saved your life! I killed two of these brigands today! How could I be aligned with them?!"

"Yes, and you've only been with us for a month! I can't afford to take any chances!"

It was no use. The royal guard had only succeeded in foreseeing a portion of today's plan, and Carmela was paying the price for it. The decision to move the king to a more secure location was a sensible one. However, they had failed to account for the brigands being organized and numerous enough to ambush multiple squads of the royal guard. Carmela's squad was almost entirely wiped out, and she could only guess at how many more casualties the other squads had suffered. To say she was paranoid and on edge at this moment would be the most grievous understatement.

Nothing other than something grand would suffice in this situation. Conrad could think of only one option that had the potential to eliminate Carmela's suspicions. As he mentally scrambled, he saw someone move behind Carmela's shoulder. Initially thinking it to be another brigand, he panicked, only to realize it was Nana. She watched him quietly, and simply gave him a nod, as if conveying her permission to him.

Conrad breathed out, and turned to Carmela. This was his only shot at this.

"Carmela...it's me. It's Conrad. I'M Conrad Walters. I didn't tell you this earlier because of how outlandish and absurd this situation is. Please understand. It just seemed more natural to build a rapport with you all over again than it was to have a conversation this ridiculous."

Carmela looked shocked for a brief moment, then her eyes narrowed.

"That's MORE than ridiculous. It's entirely unbelievable. Even advanced sorcerers have never been able to switch bodies between people. Not in recorded history, anyways."

"Ten years ago, your mother died because that arrow that I fired missed."

Carmela's arm shook. Her pupils dilated as she listened to Conrad.

"In my grief, I was driven to shoulder all the burden of the event. But your father, in his wisdom, reminded me that the time I had spent refining my swordsmanship led to me being able to save you."

Carmela held in a sob. The only other person who could have told him this was her father. And Joshua was not the type to gossip about something this delicate. He had told friends who came to visit that it was an attack by wild beasts that killed Cassandra, yes, but he did not elaborate any further. And he most certainly would not have mentioned anything about Conrad's actions that night, to anyone. The mystical arts involved in Conrad being moved into this young man's body were being anything she knew, assuredly, but somehow this had to be him.

Carmela moved forward quickly, pulling Conrad into a deep embrace. They stood there for several moments, before the thought of the capital was forced back into Carmela's brain. They broke apart abruptly.

"Conrad, we have no time to waste! Come with me now!"

Conrad retrieved the sword Brutus had forged him from the dead bandit, and passed his spare blade he had grabbed earlier to Carmela. They set off immediately.

As they first couple miles of distance between their starting position and the capital melted away, Conrad posed a question that had been concerning him to Carmela.

"Carmela, why exactly are these bandits so convinced that the king has done them wrong? They're clearly willing to do anything to get to him."

Carmela frowned. "...It's a fact that the people who live at the capital have a far higher standard of living than those in the smaller settlements, Conrad. I won't deny that. On one hand, it's important to allow the smaller settlements to have a degree of autonomy and identity, and we don't want just one city. That would be poor for trading purposes, since different natural resources are more abundant in different areas, obviously. But both the previous king and current king have been accused of hoarding resources for those at the capital, and neglecting the smaller settlements."

"Do you consider that to be true, Carmela? Between the two of us."

"What I know for a fact is that the king is already quite challenged to allocate resources and manage the economy of the capital. That's pretty standard for a major population center, though. We're certainly not living in squalor. The smaller settlements, where most of the bandit extremists assuredly hail from, struggle more with feeding their people and protecting their walls. The growing sentiment for years seems to be that the king is not taking his responsibility to support his entire territory seriously. There have been talks in place to expand the capital and invite more citizens in from the smaller settlements, but those changes don't happen overnight."

Carmela's voice took on a softer tone. "At the end of the day, I believe this comes down to a general sense of detachment and distrust for the ruling parties. Decades upon decades of monster raids, anti-authority sentiments, and herd mentality have created this. Eventually, it gave way to violent revolutionaries like these. I feel for their situation, and their desire to stick with their communities. But if they're starting to resort to even spilling the blood of innocents to make a point and ruin everyone's faith in the king, I can't abide by their choices."

As the two approached the gate, a sudden explosion rocked the side of the palace. Carmela and Conrad watched with horror as the flames raged and the screams of the civilians reached their ears. The most-large scale assault against Estrenbridge in known memory was underway. Their plan to divide the royal guard and strike at the capital had been a success, and the two had no way of knowing how many hidden assailants had infiltrated.

"Conrad! With me! Now!"