13-1. A World Alone
Smoke rose from the still smoldering ashes of a defeated army, drifting in the wind to blot out the sun. Sadie Song stood in the center of it, stoically surveying what could only be called a catastrophe. Ironshore had survived. The aggressors had fallen. And the off-world mercenaries sent by the Green Mountain Mining Company were all dead.
Even the demi-god who’d led them.
Sadie had decapitated Greffyn Cornelius with her own blade. His corpse remained where she’d left it, untouched and unmoving. Despite that fatal injury, she half expected him to rise and rejoin the fight.
But even with everything else that had happened, her mind remained on the one act she most fervently wished hadn’t been necessary. In addition to slaying the dwarven demi-god, she had been forced, at last, to put her brother down.
Like a rabid dog.
Or a criminal who had staunchly refused all efforts at rehabilitation.
More than the horror she felt at executing her own brother, Sadie was terrified of her lack of regret. Nico Song had been a terrible person who’d only grown worse since the world had changed. A modicum of power had pushed him down the road to despotism, and his inferiority complex had sent him into a terribly dark place.
There had been no possibility of redemption.
Sadie had tried to let him be. When he’d allowed Dat to die, she’d convinced herself that it was just incompetence rather than malice. And maybe that was partially true at the time. Since then, he’d proven his detestability.
The world was a better place without him.
And yet, he was still her brother. By all rights, he deserved a little grief from his only remaining sibling. Sadie failed to muster those sorts of feelings, though. Not for him. He had made his choices, and now, he’d suffered the consequences.
Even if she didn’t regret her own actions, Sadie could not revel in the victory she’d helped achieve. Ironshore had been saved, but so many people had already died that it felt hollow. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t help but see the whole situation as a failure.
“We have the necromancer in custody,” came a voice from behind.
For a few moments, Sadie didn’t respond. Instead, she continued to stare off across the battlefield, desperately trying to come to terms with the consequences of a bloody war. Finally, she turned to regard the speaker.
Despite his youth, Enoch Taim was a stoic man. It was easy to peg him as dour or joyless, but there was a subtle fervor to him that became evident after only a few moments in his presence.
Sadie had met him in Argos, where she’d spent the past months working on her cultivation in the Temple of Virtue. His backstory was simple enough. As a young man, he’d dreamed of going into the military, not to further imperialistic aims or to revel in violence. No – he’d fantasized about combatting evil and bringing the bad guys to justice.
Age brought with it a certain nuance that was further muddied by the world’s transformation. But he’d never abandoned the roots of that personality, and he’d spent most of the past decade working toward that noble goal. However, over the past few years, he’d latched onto the Temple of Virtue, where he acted to safeguard the Healers within.
Often, he accompanied them to hotbeds of disease. They went without thought for their personal safety. He went to ensure they never had to worry about such things.
It was a perfect arrangement, and one that filled him with purpose.
Sadie’s arrival in Argos had changed everything, though. No longer was the Temple the mostly directionless hub of the Hartwood Foundation. It was that, but under Sadie’s influence, it had become so much more.
Enoch was the first to come to her, but more had followed. Twelve, in total. All with the same goals – to ensure that justice was served, regardless of someone’s power or influence. The loose organization was in its nascent stages, but they had already begun to form an identity.
And Sadie was their leader.
She’d never asked for that designation, but she had never argued with it, either. Because, like them, she’d come to realize that if Earth was meant to survive after the threat of excisement had passed, its population needed rules. Laws. Order. And more than anything, they needed someone willing and able to enforce the foundational principles of a working society.
Enoch had been the first, but he would not be the last.
Sadie had committed to the budding organization even before she’d consciously accepted its inevitability. But now that she’d stepped foot on that path, her way seemed so clear. Nico’s death, as regrettable as it was necessary, cemented her intentions.
Now, she needed to see it through.
It was one thing to kill a man in the heat of battle. It was something else altogether to publicly execute a criminal. But that time had come.
“Very well,” she said, pushing thoughts of Nico from her mind. Her brother did not deserve her regret. Grief, perhaps, though even that felt distant. She would not miss the man he’d become. Rather, she would lament the loss of the boy she’d known in her youth.
But even that would remain private.
She had an image to uphold, after all. And justice could not be seen to hesitate just because the arbiter had a relationship with the fallen criminal.
She studied Enoch as she followed him through the battlefield. It was as much an effort to insulate herself from the horrors inherent in striding among a carpet of rapidly rotting bodies as to truly regard the man. In any case, he was dressed much as she was – which was to say that he wore a full set of armor. However, instead of white-and-gold, like hers, his was white-enameled and trimmed in silver.
It was also much lower quality, though he wore it with stoic pride.
His sword was also smaller and far less flashy. A workmanlike claymore that was currently strapped to his back. He was also proficient with a shield, though he preferred to pair it with a mace. Both remained in his humble quarters in the Temple of Virtue, just like his other equipment.
The plan had come together quickly, and he’d rightly chosen to travel light. Sadie had as well.
Otherwise, Enoch was an unremarkable man. A little taller than average. A little broader. But not so large as to stand out in a crowd. The same could be said for his facial features. Without his armor, no one would ever notice the pale-faced, black-bearded man.
But with it, he was someone worthy of regard.
Not that he cared much about that. His self-worth was entirely internal and wholly independent of outside perception. That attitude was something Sadie greatly admired, though she knew she could never actualize such a thing within her own mind.
She cared greatly what other people thought of her, but not because she hung on their judgement. Rather, she cared because she knew just how great a tool respect from the populace – even their love – could be.
As Sadie and Enoch traversed the battlefield, others picked through the remains. Some did so in an effort to recover any valuable equipment. Many had been members of the Iron Legion. A good deal of wealth and effort had gone into equipping them, so recovering that gear was of paramount importance.
However, there was another category of people making their ways through the piles of corpses. They weren’t looking for valuable items. Rather, they searched for their fallen loved ones. Men, women, and even children with tear-streaked faces, all hoping to find some semblance of closure.
It wasn’t right, reusing people’s bodies like that. Sadie knew that, after death, they were just collections of meat and bones. So did the people they left behind. But what it did to those survivors – that was real, and it only added to their grief.
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Sadie’s first instinct was to outlaw necromancy in general, but she knew that would not work. Surrounding Hong Kong was a population that depended on the practice just to survive. What’s more, most of them were peaceful as well as respectful of the dead. She’d seen as much with her own two eyes.
And yet, some rules needed to be put in place. Some restrictions meant to not only prevent a situation like the Siege of Ironshore, but also to mitigate the psychological damage that came from someone seeing their loved ones reanimated into an unthinking monster.
That kind of thing could lead to all sorts of issues if it wasn’t curtailed.
After a few more moments, they left the battlefield behind. And after pushing through the sparse forest surrounding the city, they found their way to the necromancer camp.
Or what was left of it.
Most of the tents had been trampled or destroyed. More bodies were strewn across the camp. Some had been zombies. Others had been wholly different and much more powerful undead. But Sadie focused on the corpses of the necromancers themselves.
Very few of them had been capable of raising the dead, but they all carried with them the stench of their deathly attunements. From experience, Sadie knew that animating corpses was only the most visible form of necromancy. The society surrounding Hong Kong relied on a host of non-combat personnel to function. From Fleshshapers to Preservers and everything in between, the whole culture was geared toward getting the most out of their undead minions.
The same was true of the army.
In this case, there were a few survivors, though. Pallid men and women, thin to the point of malnutrition, and all gathered into captive groups. Members of the Iron Legion guarded them, though from their expressions, that would not last long. Soon, they’d decide to mete out justice for their fallen comrades.
Sadie could not let that happen.
For their sakes. For the very concept of justice, which needed to remain impartial, lest it veer into the territory of vengeance.
Nearby, Sadie also saw her followers. The other twelve men and women who, like Enoch, had become devoted to the very same principles she had committed herself to uphold. And just like Enoch, they all seemed possessed of unnatural calm. Encased in white-enameled armor, they watched everything, ready to leap into action should the situation call for it.
Eventually, she and Enoch reached their destination.
“Captain Essex,” she acknowledged the commander who’d directed Ironshore’s defense.
“Miss Song.”
His voice was tense. He knew just how close the situation was to turning monstrous.
Because kneeling behind him was one of the men most responsible for the horrors of the battlefield Sadie had just left behind. Lau Hoi-Yan.
He looked almost as deathly as the corpses, though his features were more skeletal than zombie-like. He also wore a sneer that, as he locked eyes with Sadie, turned into a mocking grin. “The brother-killer has arrived to hold us all to account,” he rasped, his voice like two stones grating together. He raised his shackled hands, intoning, “Deliver us, holy one.”
“Silence!” one of the legionnaire guards spat, backhanding him. The bag of bones went sprawling to the muddy ground, though his mocking grin never left his face.
“Enough,” Sadie said, stepping in. “We are better than this. We must be.”
Lau Hoi-Yan let out a sputtering chuckle that, as he picked himself up, became a full-throated laugh. It sounded like a death rattle. “You family’s incompetence knows no bounds,” he breathed between laughs. “It must be hereditary. Perhaps the old man was the only one with any sense.”
Sadie struggled to remain outwardly calm, but there was nothing she could do about the anger roiling within.
“Gather the prisoners. We must do this properly,” she said to Essex. “We will do it in the square.”
With that, she turned and strode from the camp. Behind her, Lau Hoi-Yan continued to laugh, though to her, it was the forced mirth of a man who knew his own fate. She ignored it.
The trip back to the city passed in a blur. It was only a few miles, but when she reached the gate, she saw that it still hadn’t been fully repaired. Not surprising, considering that the city’s defenses would be getting quite an upgrade. After being attacked multiple times, Ironshore was finally taking its security seriously enough to enlist outside help.
The services of Anupriya Pandey and her team of Architects and Ethereal Engineers had already been retained. And from a personal perspective, Sadie knew that Anupriya had a vested interest in keeping the city safe. Her relationship with Carmen might still be in its infancy, but from her brief observation, Sadie got the impression that it was meant to last.
Unless one of them screwed it up, which was more than a possibility.
In any case, Sadie didn’t hesitate to enter the city, and soon after, she found her way to the main square. There, Ramik had already set everything up. It had only been a day since the end of the battle, but the goblin mayor of Ironshore had wasted no time in his response.
Sadie could respect his dedication.
A platform had been raised before the government building. It was only a few feet high, but it would serve its purpose. Already, people had begun to gather. What was coming needed to be public. It needed an audience. And the call had already gone out. According to Ramik, thousands would soon crowd the square.
The few hundred who’d already arrived milled about, but the crowd parted before Sadie’s determined stride.
Finally, she planted herself on what amounted to a wooden stage. Enoch stood on the ground nearby, his searching gaze alert for any sign of trouble.
Slowly, people filtered in until the square was entirely crowded. Ramik had estimated thousands, but it seemed that everyone wanted to see the proverbial show. There wasn’t room for everyone, so even the streets leading to the square were crowded.
A din of conversation filled the area. Sadie’s eyes flicked from one person to another. Almost every face showed the hardship the citizens had been forced to endure. Hunger had run rampant. Wounds and disease were prevalent as well, evidence that the city’s Healers had been overwhelmed.
Sadie watched it all, as outwardly stoic as Enoch.
Then, at last, Essex and the legionnaires led a procession of prisoners into the square. First among them was Lau Hoi-Yan, a mask of haughty amusement decorating his face.
After they had arrived, Essex himself dragged the leader onto the stage.
“You stand accused of foul necromancy, numerous war crimes, and unprovoked aggression that resulted in thousands of deaths,” Sadie said. “What do you have to say in your defense?”
The necromancer looked at Sadie, then swept his eyes across the crowd before saying, “Defense? What need is there for defense? I see only cattle before me. You believe you are men and women, sapient creatures meant for more? I see future zombies. I see the pupal stage before you take your true and eternal forms. More, I see weakness. You do not deserve life. You barely deserve undeath. My actions need no defense. They are inevitable.”
It was precisely what Sadie had expected, though the words riled the crowd. If the legionnaires hadn’t been there, they might have fallen upon the necromancer and ripped him to pieces.
But there was no place in any civilized society for mob justice.
The world needed authority. Enforcement of a code of justice, and one they could depend upon for impartiality.
They needed Sadie to fulfil her purpose.
“Then you are guilty,” she said.
Before he could respond, her sword flashed. The arc of her swing left a trail of white afterimages as she beheaded the prisoner.
She didn’t even look at the fallen corpse. Instead, she simply intoned, “Bring the next one.”
Over the next hour, she repeated the process more than a hundred times. Some begged. Some pleaded. Some maintained that they hadn’t had a choice. But Sadie knew differently. She had been to Hong Kong. Lao Hoi-Yan had been a powerful leader, but plenty of necromancers had abandoned him in favor of forming their own, independent communities. The people who’d come to besiege Ironshore had done so because they believed in his cause.
Or at the very least, they wanted to use the siege for their own benefit. To climb to prominence over the corpses of thousands of innocent people.
She executed them all.
When she had finished, the stage was soaked in blood, though Enoch and the others had helpfully removed the bodies. None of that blood stained their white armor.
Finally, she addressed the crowd. “For too long, this world has functioned upon the simple rule of might makes right,” she stated. “That will no longer be the case. If someone oversteps the bounds of civilization, we will be there to right the wrong.”
With that simple declaration, the Order of Adjudicators was officially born, with Sadie at its head.
There was still a lot of work to be done, mostly regarding organization and rules. But the basic principles would remain the same. She felt a call, but not to battle. Rather, she was driven to epitomize justice. And the Order of Adjudicators would follow her lead.
It took a little while for the crowd to disperse. They didn’t look happy about what had happened. Nor were they angry. If Sadie was forced to characterize their reactions, she would have called it resigned relief. Delivering justice was not meant to be a joyous occasion. Rather, it was a regrettable necessity. A reality they could neither escape nor deny.
For a while after the square had emptied, Sadie simply stood on that stage, lost in thought. But then, she noticed a lone figure approaching. And it was one she recognized.
Upon seeing Hu Shui, her heart leaped into her throat. Her eyes flicked toward the direction from which he’d come, but she did not see the man’s expected companions. No Benedict Emerson.
And no Elijah Hart.
Her stomach twisted into knots as Hu Shui covered the square. His footsteps didn’t falter until he reached the stage. Looking up at her, he said, “I am sorry. I tried to help, but…”
“He’s not dead,” Sadie stated. “I would have felt it.”
Hu Shui shook his head. “Dead or not, he is gone. I waited. I hoped…but he did not return.”
Some people might have dropped to their knees and wailed in despair at such news. But not Sadie. That was not her. And besides, so long as Elijah was alive, she would maintain hope of his return.
“Tell me everything,” she said, a subtle threat in her voice. She did not accuse Hu Shui of any wrongdoing, but she did find it curious that the weakest among the trio who’d entered the Labyrinth of Dead Gods had returned, while the other two had not.
With a nod, Hu Shui told her the story. He didn’t give too many details, but he got the gist of the Primal Realm across. To end it, he said, “We conquered the realm. I waited for a few days after they fell through the portal to the abyss, but eventually, I concluded that they would not return. I…I am sorry. I wish I was strong enough to save them.”
Sadie believed him.
But she also clung to her first impression. Elijah wasn’t dead. He was just temporarily gone. “He will return,” she said with full confidence.
And in the meantime, Sadie had work to do. Not only did she need to organize the Order of Adjudicators, but there were still two Primal Realms to conquer. And not long to do it.
With a subtle exhale, she thanked Hu Shui. Then, she stepped down from the stage, ready to do her duty. When Elijah did return, he would find a world better off than when he'd left.