War Council or Witch Hunt?

It was only then that I realized just what lengths the Elf King Edagri went to in order to assemble this meeting. He brought his eldest son, Gihri, and his entire High Council. The three Ogre Stewards had offered Freehold to be the host for this meeting.

There were representatives from the Islands Beyond the Shore, Queen Rini and her entourage, as well as the Council of Merchants, with one representative each appointed from the five species that lived on the isles. The seers sent two of their own, as they swore no political fealty. The Dwarven Free Cities sent two representatives as well, Ramsh and Lali. I saw no representatives from the Kingdom of Neshi, my home. Unless that was actually meant to be me, accompanied by Ipas, Giorg, and Hilami. Otherwise, it seemed Edagri went out of his way to invite at least one representative from all the races other than demons. A few of those in attendance stared at me, some with curiosity, others with knowing contempt. Those people knew what I did. To be honest, so did I.

With that, all who were present were asked to be seated by King Edagri, ninety-nine seats in total arranged around a large square table. Plenty of food and drink from all over the world, a mixture of the familiar and the new, perhaps to entice people to listen, had been laid out all over the table.

King Edagri called out to the group, “Friends and foes of ages past, I have assembled you all here for one purpose. The Demon Lord Ayya has resumed his assault on the world. He and his Children of Fire shall stop at nothing until everything we have worked to build for centuries has been destroyed. We stand today on the precipice of destruction, and none of us alone are equipped to stop it. Only united do we stand a chance to defeat this terrible evil. It is our last chance, or else we have already lost.”

Immediately, the Merman King, Tritos Kastaki, I believed his name was, stood up inside his water box and said, “Your Highness, why do you bring this… this scum into our meeting?” He pointed directly at me as he asked that question. “My people have been hunted like whales by these demon hordes, and you want to include the man responsible for all our hardship in our conversations? Utterly despicable.”

He was not wrong, in a sense. My failure to defeat him all those years ago did in fact lead to the situation we all faced at this moment. I wanted to speak up for myself, but Hilami put a hand on my arm. Not now. Wait.

The others whispered amongst themselves. Some agreed with the Merfolk King. They saw me as a threat to the world just as much as, if not more than the Demon King himself. But one person did speak up for me. Queen Rini, a lovely older woman with long black hair, stood up from her seat.

“My peers,” she said, “I sense no ill intentions from this man. I think you are overreacting here.”

“Silence, woman!” Ramsh, one of the Dwarven representatives shouted. “For all we know, this man, this so-called hero, is actually a demon spy wearing his face.”

“A demon spy?” Queen Rini asked. “Surely, you jest.”

“Do not take me for some jester,” the dwarf retorted. “Their magic has grown in considerable strength in recent months. There could be demons sitting at this table, sharing our bread and our fruit.” The dwarf pierced through me with a frosty stare. “And I refuse to break bread with the enemy.”

“Silence!” King Edagri roared. “All of you will remain quiet unless you are given permission to speak. This man is my guest, and I invited him to attend this meeting.”

“You invited him, alright,” the Merfolk King interrupted. “Perhaps the dwarves were right about you. Never trust an elf.”

“I called this meeting, and I will invite whomever I choose,” Edagri countered. “Halliyah Zikatta is the chosen hero. Now, say what you will about the laws of gods and men, but the rules for Choosing are clear. Once someone is chosen, a solemn duty is bestowed upon them. Nothing can remove that from them. They will complete the task -”

“Or they will die trying,” the Merfolk King interrupted once again. “Now, say what you will about the laws of gods and men…” He summoned a fish and laid it flat on the table. Accompanying the fish was a knife the merman summoned to his own hand. “The laws of my people are clear with regards to what we do to the worst criminals.” The knife flawlessly disconnected the fish's head from its body. He sent me a very clear message.

“You would count this man amongst murderers and heretics, even amongst the demons?” Edagri asked him.

“I would,” the merman said solemnly. “My people have suffered greatly because of him. I will see to it that he pays the price for it. He deserves justice.”

Giorg stood up next. For all of the Elf King's gusto, he had long lost control over this meeting by now. “Were you not a king, I would challenge you to a duel to protect my friend's honor.”

One of the cat-faced Aiurosi stood up in response. “Your friend has no honor. If you want to cast your lot among the damned, then so be it.” He turned to Edagri and pleaded, “If your magic beckons him to fight, fine, but the world begs of you. At the very least, sentence him to exile once this war is won. Justice must be served.”

“For what crimes?” Giorg asked. “He did not fight the Demon Lord's battles!”

“He did not fight at all!” Lali, Ramsh's associate shouted from across the table. “He lost one fight, if you can even call it a fight, then disappeared for fifteen years. Our people have counted the days. We yearn for peace, for justice.”

“Justice has been served,” Edagri insisted. “This man has been chosen to defeat Ayya. He will defeat him. We must be there to support him.”

“I refuse to fight with a traitor to the Freefolk,” the Merfolk King protested. “And if you insist on fighting with him, then I will refuse to fight with you.”

Once again, I moved to speak for myself. And once again, Hilami stopped me from doing so. I asked her why she did this. However, she remained silent. Now was not the time.

Some of the representatives agreed with the Merfolk King, a few quietly, the others loud and proud. And all these petty rulers bickered all through the night. As I did not even want to be here, I paid very little attention to what they said. Everyone sitting at the table had a right to speak, and speak they did, among other things, such as tossing the occasional fruit at each other. King Edagri sat and listened to it all, looking more and more like a man admitting defeat as the night dragged on. The people there shouted, hurled insults at each other, bargained, threatened, pleaded, boasted, waved their swords around, cursed and swore and demanded all through the night. Many death threats were hurled across the table that night, though I cared not to see who did the hurling and who got hurled at.

I just wanted to go home. But no home awaited me even if I ran out of this room right at that moment. Nothing would welcome me home if I ran out of the city. No farm or village would accept me if I ran across the Dorns.

Home? Home was destroyed when the Children of Fire invaded. My home was no different than theirs. Oh, wait. Yes. It was. Their cozy little castles weren't destroyed by the Demon Lord. It was the small folk that suffered. My home was no different than theirs, those who lost their entire livelihoods to endless summer, to sun and sand. But I was to be blamed for all of that?

Murderer. Traitor. Monster. Heathen. I heard all of the words they called me. None of those words would be used to describe me. I would not allow it. My thoughts turned to the people of Andawas, all of those whose homes and lives were lost to the demon attack. They were me, and I was them. Sure, their lives would have been spared had I defeated the Demon Lord. I could have done better. I had a chance to still do better. And I planned to do better.

If I was going to fight, I would do it for them. For me.

At last, I stood up to speak. This time, Hilami would not stop me. She tried, but my anger was stronger than her grip. “To Arakkia with all of your petty squabbles!  Were I the Watcher, I would cast all of them down into the deepest pits of the flaming abyss!”

The whole room fell silent save for a couple of glasses being dropped and shattered.

“You dare take the Watcher's name in vain?” one of the Aiurosi representatives asked me. Queen Rini guided him back to his seat by putting a hand on his shoulder.

“I did not ask for any of this,” I told them. “I came so close to winning, but his magic was too strong for me. He tossed me off the walls of Luwas like old garbage.”

The others began to listen intently to my rant.

“I lost one battle, and I ran away,” I admitted. “Call me a coward, if you must. I know I am one. I did it. I ran away when I should have kept fighting. But I will not be blamed for your lost crops or the fact that not a single cloud has been spotted in the sky in fifteen years.”

“Halliyah…” Hilami tried to calm me, but to no avail.

“I will not be blamed for the thousands who gave their lives fighting and losing your war,” I continued my tirade. “I lost one battle. How many have you lost? Dozens? Hundreds? Maybe I should blame you for my home being lost to this war. Maybe the people should threaten to execute you for your crimes. You failed to defeat the Demon Lord as much as I have, but nobody calls you murderers. Nobody calls you traitors.”

No one responded to my accusations.

“But… I will fight. Not because of some damned curse, but because I said so…”

Hilami grabbed a hand. I started to cry.

“But I refuse to become the villain. I know I need to make things right.”

The Merfolk King stared off into the distance, completely disinterested in what I had to say. Some whispered to each other, wondering what to make of this situation. Giorg gave me a reassuring glance. But I knew I wouldn’t convince any of them. That tirade was more directed at myself than at them, anyways. I took a deep breath. In and out. The more days that passed, the more weight felt lifted from my shoulders. None of the others spoke until Edagri stood up from his seat.

“Perhaps you need some rest,” he told me. “You’ve been through a lot.”

Rest? Rest?! I had already slept the entire day away, and he suggested I needed more sleep? With a deep sigh, I relented and retreated back to the room they gave me.