Book 6: Chapter 35
A mobile swarm of people roamed around a marching block of soldiers in ranks, looking surprisingly like the forces Kay had led to the east just a few days ago. Even if Kay hadn’t been able to see the banners held aloft in the center of the march he’d know that these weren’t his people, they were coming from completely the wrong direction. Scouts and sentries had picked them up a few days ago after Kay had arrived back home and the border guards had been alerted to let them through into Avalon’s territory.
The Itarian Crusade and the Shatterplate Order had returned to Avalon, but not as enemies. Messengers led the way with news of their peaceful intentions and at least one of them was a trusted subordinate of the Order’s commander, who freely gave over some information Kay was looking forward to dealing with. It was a mixed bag, as expected. There was dissension in the ranks of both organizations about what to do with Kay’s demands. The Shatterplate Order was more unified in their response, since Commander Ravenhome was the person in charge, but there were still some that protested bowing down to “some upstart”.
More than that though, people could see the writing on the wall. Kay’s demands didn’t technically give him any control over either organization, merely some oversight that would keep them from running off and attacking innocent people again, but anyone with eyes could see that that was merely the beginning. Oversight would become someone being inserted into their leadership, as a simple adviser of course, but they would grow and grow in power until; both groups were subordinate forces in Avalon’s power. That was the vision of the future the people that didn’t want to give in to Kay foresaw.
And they were entirely right. That hadn’t been the plan when Edric Ravenhome and Crusader General Stonegnawer back home with demands of reparations, but plans changed. Kay had long ago cast aside his trepidation and fears over his own growing power and responsibilities, and those were larger than ever. He wasn’t some chosen hero of the age, but he had been given a mission by the System itself. That mission was lower on the list than his other duties, but it was still there and he was going to milk it for every drop of influence he could. He was the weapon the System had created to eradicate the vampyr, and he was going to drag along anyone that could help him with that. If they happened to end up as part of Avalon along the way and became pillars of support for his people and nation, well, those were the inside thoughts that didn’t get spoken out loud. Especially since the “side benefits” were his real goal and dealing with the vampyr was the actual side benefit.
Kay stepped off one of Avalon’s internal walls that had afforded him a better view of the visitors and dropped to the ground. Amanda was waiting at the closest entrance to the palace, flanked by a number of her direct subordinates.
She turned to follow him as he began walking. “How do you want this handled?”
“We’ll try it the easy way first. Diplomacy, convincing arguments, allowing our allies to help. If we have to in order to get things moving, that’s when we move to the hard way.” Kay felt a tiny hand pat his neck in acknowledgment and noted that Isla had once again slipped past the measures he was implementing to find her.
“Very well,” Amanda replied. “A delegation of their leaders will be allowed to approach directly, where we’ll bring them up to speed. The messengers we sent to find them had reports with them for Commander Ravenhome and Crusader General Stonegnawer, but we can’t guarantee they managed to read them or what their subordinates know.”
They moved to Kay’s public office where Miri was already waiting with a large binder in her arms. “Ah, your Majesty. I’ve prepared a number of potential outfits for you to form for your meeting.”