Chapter 39 - There Is No War Here

I could practically see red in my vision as everything reformed. For the briefest of moments, I could see actual uncertainty in Frederick’s eyes. Unfortunately, it was short lived and a fake smile spread over his face.
“My friend! You’ve… you’ve been touched by so much Dusk… The Lord has already–”
“You don’t get to call me that,” I snapped at him. Frederick turned to face me and the air grew thick. Willow was still scrambling backwards, her eyes frantically turning between Frederick and me but I tried not to focus on her. I needed to keep my wits about me.
“Maybe not yet, but once we begin our journey, I’m sure we will become the fastest of friends,” Frederick insisted.
He was still gripping Dawnforger tightly, but he had thankfully stopped trying to move toward anyone but me. He flexed his hand and the blade began to shine with the bright light of Dawn.
“But first, if you’ll hold still, I can sear that creeping Dusk out of you now,” Frederick said, pointing the sword toward me as the smile broke and his expression hardened.
“My prince! I’m telling you, you’re overreacting!” Gwendoline rushed forward, putting herself between me and him. Huh… that was odd, I’d never actually seen that from this angle before.
“No, Gwendoline, don’t get in his way… as much as you think Frederick is on your side, that only matters if you’re on his. You’re only going to make him think you’re corrupted,” I said, and Frederick stopped for a moment.
“There’s some sense still in you. Good! We can cleanse the Dusk that’s made you choose this place over your destiny,” he said with undeserved hope.
“Oh no,” I shook my head. “You misunderstand.”
I looked away from him, at the crowd that was all watching, some standing defensively in front of others… others taking more steps backwards, then at the town behind them before my head snapped back to Frederick.
“If those are my two choices, it’s not even a contest.”
“Dusk has truly invaded this place that deeply it would seem. I’m sorry I allowed it to reach you like this my friend,” Frederick said, his blade dipping and a look of sorrow actually passed through his eyes. “I may need to have the crown reevaluate if I’m not going to do an outright Cleansing of the land. Perhaps assign a charter here and retake ownership until I can ensure the Lord of Dusk’s influence has been properly removed.”
“No!” I snapped, already seeing Daniel moving out of the corner of my eye, probably to object to the very same thing. “This place belongs to the people who live here. Not the crown.”
“The land itself belongs to the crown,” Frederick argued back. “The people who work it do so under our protection. They gather the resources, are paid for their work, and are more than happy to do it to ensure we exist to save them from the Lord of Dusk. If the land is being corrupted by that Lord, then it is my responsibility to restore the proper order of things. In fact, this continued resistance makes me think I should handle this myself instead of bringing it to the Crown’s Land Distribution Committee.”
He turned, Dawnforger still in one hand, and raised the other in a gesture that was familiar from the hundreds of times I’d seen him do it before. For being “Dawn’s Chosen” I always thought it was funny that he felt like he had to move his hand to control the mental interfaces that came with being Activated. He should have been more versed in controlling the internal system better than basically anyone. He also should have realized how stupid it was to mention the exact solution I needed to fix this.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to find that funny… because I knew exactly what he was about to do and how to stop him. And it was only possible because I’d so far managed to not court war before doing it.
“Gwen! Give me access to your Land Distribution Window. The share option at the bottom with full access! I can stop any fighting here and now,” I called over to her, briefly snapping Frederick out of his trance.
“Don’t do that Sister. I’m not sure what our friend here intends to do, but I’m taking ownership of this land back for the crown so that we can place it under new management,” Frederick ordered, pointing a finger her way.
Gwendoline looked genuinely unsure, her attention shifting between us. I tried my best not to yell at her to listen to me, I didn’t need to push her toward Frederick. Instead I looked over at Daniel, hoping she’d make the right choice.
“Hey, I’m about to make a few choices without asking permission and they are sure as Dusk going to affect Danwood… you can yell at me for it later. Though, I really hope you’d rather not,” I said, flexing my hand before looking back to Frederick. “I’m not going to join you, I’m not going to help you… and honestly, I don’t want to fight you either. But if you try to take this place from these people… I will stop you.”
“You’d defy Dawn? You’d side with land corrupted by Dusk?”
“Look around you! What about any of Danwood looks like it’s been corrupted? The road they built? The families they’ve given new homes to?” I demanded, easing my voice. “They aren’t here cowering behind each other because of Dusk right now, Frederick! You pulled your sword on them! All because they wouldn’t tell you where I went.”
“Of course Dusk would cower before the might of Dawn!” Frederick insisted. “It’s no bother, that fear will vanish as soon as the Dusk is cleansed away. And so will your resistance. Now, let me clear the permissions here, I’ll need to set the Cleansing properties and we can begin fixing this place.”
“Gwen!” I said, looking over at her, trying to basically will her to work with me for once. “Please.”
She stared at me as I stressed the word, then looked over to Frederick who’d returned to his blank stare with a hand held in the air. Then, for the briefest of moments, she touched the gem hanging at her neck, still perfectly crystal-clear while her eyes unfocused.
[Interface Access Alert!] Gwendoline of Shinecliff has granted you Shared Access to the Royal Land Distribution System.
I smiled. For once… the universe didn’t seem to be fighting against me. While I’d never personally cared about the whole nonsense with Gwendoline suddenly becoming ‘The Royal Dawnmother’ just because of the prophecy, I was more than happy to take advantage of it now.
Because it was a fancy title which, technically, gave her a whole litany of responsibilities and permissions that I simply did not care about. I did, however, care that it allowed her to act as an intermediary for every level of land purchase and ownership claim. She was technically even on the Land Distribution Committee. And right now, that was the exact level of system authority that I needed.
“This land isn’t yours to cleanse. It’s not yours to decide the future of. How are you so blinded by this nonsense that you can’t see that?” I asked, hoping to slow Frederick down by forcing him to talk, though I knew it was probably futile.
I drew a wide line, trying to cover as much as I could without drawing any other town into it. Every last bit of the Grand Oak Forest, all of the land the crown owned touching the Salt Waste Desert to the west and up and along the border of Dawn’s End to the north. Then finally I took the line around and selected all of the land separating Danwood from Gold’s Lodge. I wanted to make sure we had space but I also only had so much to work with too.
Logically, I knew there might have been a different solution. But logic was for people who had time to spare.
[Crown Frontier Territory Secession] You have selected to purchase all crown-held land, mineral, gathering, and oversight rights for 837 square kilometers of Frontier-Class territory. You have selected to sever the selected territory from the Dawnmere Family. This will remove their taxing rights and all legal authority. A new, system-designated name will be assigned to the territory and oversight rights will be granted to you. The system-designated name may be changed once at no cost. New Territory Classification: Provisional Freehold Territory Foreign Relation Status: No Current Diplomatic Agreements
Total Cost: 92,685 gold Warning: The Dawnmere Family automatically declares war on any neighboring nation/territory that does not have a local chapter of the Church of Dawn. A fortnight grace period has been automatically applied before the declaration will be made official.
I briefly, ever so briefly, hesitated when I saw the cost. I knew I was obviously targeting a lot, most of which was useless land, but that was still almost every last bit of what I had left. I’d have a few thousand gold still, but with my spending habits that would only go so far. It didn’t matter. I just had to make myself believe it didn’t matter.
I’d made gold in the past, I could do it again if I really needed it. Right now, Danwood needed it more than I did.
It was the last warning that really left me in a bind. I didn’t want to… but there was one possible solution that could turn this away from an immediate start to a war between Dawn and Dusk. I mentally clicked accept and watched my wallet empty before I turned my head to the side.
“Gwen, I’d like to ask you to build and run a Sanctum of Dawn, at least until other Sisters can come to run it, do you accept?” I asked, Frederick starting to wave his hand a bit frantically. “I’m not asking you to forsake the crown… I just need one here in this new territory to prevent a war. That’s what Dawn would want, right?”
“You’ve stolen this land from Dawn, how dare you try to claim what it would want! What have you done?” Frederick snapped, his hand finally dropping before Dawnforger was brought back up. “You’d turn this place into a battlefield for Dawn and Dusk?”
“Whoa there, there is no need for that at all,” I said, holding a hand up in a halting gesture as I opened up the menu and found the first restriction I could find. “Let’s say we don’t let weapons be used inside of towns right now. Lots of ways to hurt people with pointy things.”
[Regional Restrictions Enforced!] Weaponry: Military-Grade weapons are unauthorized for non-citizens within all regional Town Limits without prior authorization.
Frederick stopped in his tracks. His arm started to shake, the hand holding Dawnforger seemingly fighting against some unseen force. After a moment, he gasped and dropped the blade he loved so much to the ground. Normally, my kingdoms didn’t abide by most system rules or we were already at war, so this would have never worked… but right now… it was just the perfect timing.
“You guys are okay with that rule… right?” I said, looking around at the group. “Quick show of hands, anyone think I should revert that?”
Daniel looked almost surprised that I had addressed him, and funnily even seemed to look around for a moment. No one was budging.
“You think you can rule over this place? Steal it from the crown? My friend, how far has Dusk taken you? How much is the Lord of Dusk holding over you if you’d go this far…” Frederick said, almost pleadingly.
“Oh stars, absolutely not,” I said, shaking my head. “I just live here. I have no interest in running this place, I’ll leave that up to the folks that built it with the care it deserves. Though…”
I looked at the interface again, finding a few menus with taxing options that I couldn’t lower below a minimum threshold.
“Hey Daniel, it looks like I’m gonna be taxing you guys here for a bit… it’s temporary I promise. Same with all the oversight stuff… I really don’t need to deal with that nonsense. I’ll figure out how to give you guys ownership once this intruder leaves,” I said. Maybe I could have been less hostile with Frederick, but why bother. Even when everyone was being reasonable he just hadn’t listened. I looked over at Gwendoline who had yet to actually react. “Gwen… please, accept my request.”
Her eyes widened and she looked over at Frederick.
“My prince… if they aren’t trying to fight you… if… Corbin doesn’t want to go… isn’t this fine?” she asked, ignoring me as she took a few steps toward the prince.
“Fine?! Sister, have you truly succumbed? You know he cannot stay here. We must have our party together to hunt down and destroy the Jewels of Dusk! They’re the only way to prevent the Lord of Dusk from destroying our world!” Frederick insisted. There was an edge to his tone and he looked down at his sword with a bit of a scowl. “Here Sister, let me coat you with Dawn.”
His hands came together, a glowing ball of light sparking and starting to form between them. I knew that ability… I’d felt that ability. The searing pain it sent through the body was torturous and that was for me who knew how to resist the feeling. If he used it on Gwendoline…
Well… any inkling of defiance and doubt she’d shown would absolutely be burned away, along with much of her free will as she became just as deeply zealous as Frederick was.
“Stop!” I shouted, drawing Frederick’s gaze to me.
“Don’t you worry my friend, the Sister will be back in her right mind in no time, then we will cure you and be on our way. The Lord of Dusk waits for no man and we cannot let him get the Jewels!”
“I. DO NOT. WANT THE JEWELS!” I shouted, my anger starting to rise. Why wouldn’t he just listen?! Why did he have to force every single word from us into his delusional world view? “And without me, you can’t find anything other than the first one. I won’t go. I won’t unlock the waypath. And there’s nothing you can do that will change my mind.”
“Nothing? My friend… this land has been coated in Dusk. When I cleanse it, you will remember your destiny is to destroy the Lord of Dusk. But first, I must make my Royal Dawnmother right once more.”
He moved his hands forward toward Gwendoline who’d been frozen in a mixture of fear and surprise. The ball of light wasn’t quite ready, but if he kept a good grip on her, something I couldn’t see anyone in the area preventing him from doing… he’d be able to continue channeling the spell until he’d wiped away her resistance.
There was one… and only one surefire way I knew that would distract him.
Dusk take me… I hated the prophecy.
“I AM the Lord of Dusk!” I practically shouted, my voice echoing off of the homes around us before my interface suddenly lit up.
[Title Acquired] You have been recognized as The Lord of Dusk. Dusk-powered spells have been unlocked on your Spell List.
I could drop him into the shadows right then and there… I could suffocate the life out of him, then take out Gwendoline before her Natural Trait automatically had a chance to resurrect him. Without realizing it when I started this life, my avoidance may have set up the perfect situation to finally kill Frederick and be done with him once and for all.
But…
That only mattered if the prophecy didn’t decide one of his brothers could take up his mantle. Or maybe someone else would take his place. I didn’t know… I just couldn’t know… Every time I’d managed to kill one or both of them in the past, there was always something that made it not matter and there was no way of knowing that now would be any different.
But even that didn’t really matter to me…
There hadn’t been a gasp of shock that came from the crowd… or sudden screams of terror like I’d heard in the past… No… They were all just watching, waiting to see what would happen before they made the choice to react. Waiting to see just what would become of their… no… our home. Even in that stressful moment, my eyes swept the crowd, briefly stopping on Willow.
Her eyes were wide… but she didn’t look afraid… I didn’t want her to look afraid. I didn’t want any of them to…
And that was all it took to stay my hand from striking and instead I lifted it. A wide, cloudy energy billowed out and created a barrier of Dusk that blocked Frederick from pushing forward toward Gwendoline. The ball of light in his hands quavered against the darkness and he instinctively pulled back from the force he deemed poison.
“I am not going to fight you, Frederick. And I’m not going to claim the Jewels either. But this land… this town… it is off-limits to you and all of this boarshit,” I said through gritted teeth.
“You… you’re the Lord of Dusk? That’s… no that’s not possible, my friend!” Frederick faltered slightly, though the glowing ball of Dawn in his hands didn’t fizzle, instead shining even brighter when he turned my way. “We aren’t too late, he’s overtaken you my friend, I’ll–”
“What’s wrong with you!?”
Frederick’s eyes went wide and he searched for the voice. I mentally cursed Willow from bringing attention to herself, but she had stayed silent far longer than I probably should have realistically expected. She only looked at Frederick for a moment before she looked at the two men bearing Lord Drake’s sigil.
“You two have seen all of this, haven’t you?! What part of any of this deserves this reaction?”
“Willow, don’t,” I said, over my shoulder. “If they defy him, he’ll just think they’re corrupted too. He’s a zealot and he can’t be reasoned with.”
I looked over to Gwendoline one more time. Maybe it wouldn’t matter given what I’d just called myself in front of the literal heir apparent to the throne… but the provisional grace period was still activated in the window that hadn’t closed on the edge of my vision. “Gwen… please… found the Sanctum. I promise you… this town isn’t Dusk… if you found the Sanctum, you can restrict Dawn-class spells until he leaves from here and things are safe again.”
Frederick nearly missed a step.
“Only Dusk would demand to restrict Dawn!” he sputtered, looking back to Gwendoline. “Sister, if you stand with me, you won’t do that. I am Dawn’s Chosen!”
“Dawn doesn’t value violence, my Prince… Regardless of what he’s called himself… there is no war here,” Gwendoline said, finally finding her voice.
[Regional Update] Gwendoline of Shinecliff, the Royal Dawnmother, has requested Founding Rights for the Church of Dawn. A request to construct a Sanctum has been submitted to all valid settlements within this region.
I accepted the request, Gwendoline’s eyes briefly unfocused… and then the light between Frederick’s hands vanished.
[Foreign Relationship Status Updated] You have met the Dawnmere Crownland’s provisional requirements. Potential Diplomatic Relationships may be negotiated following ecclesiastical review.
Frederick stared at his hands, shaking them as if he could will Dawn to cooperate. Even as “Dawn’s Chosen” though… he still had to respect the system-level rights given to the Church of Dawn. Gwendoline never could have done it without going through the entire Council back in the Dawnmere Kingdom, but in a new territory where she was the founder? It was the perfect edge case.
“That’s… you…” Frederick was actually speechless and with him essentially declawed, there was really only one more thing to do.
“Hey Daniel,” I called over to him. “I’m done with deciding everything for everyone… can we uh…”
“Settlement Vote!” Daniel shouted, already picking up on my meaning as he stared daggers at the man who’d been considering destroying his home. “Raise your hand if you think we should ask Prince Frederick to leave. Immediately.”