Chapter 116 - The Heart of Light
Khisa and Tesfaye were busy preparing for their trip to the capital city.
"It is about time we talk about the steps going forward," Khisa said, folding a map and placing it inside his satchel.
"Yes," Tesfaye replied, crossing his arms. "But I need to stay behind. Without you here, I must oversee operations."
"Of course," Khisa nodded. "I will take Prince Tadesse with me. I need to update the Emperor about our progress. He’s about to gain even more citizens—we must prepare him accordingly."
Tesfaye hesitated. "Will he have a problem with the slaves? They are officially not citizens yet."
Khisa leaned back slightly, his expression hardening. "The way I see it, most of the people we’ve rescued don’t have homes to return to. Their towns were burned, or they were betrayed by their leaders and sold off. We have no choice but to house them here. Right now, we lack manpower at the port, and in exchange for paid labor, we offer them freedom and dignity. It is a win-win. We can’t get more soldiers from inland; they are tied up in ongoing conflicts. If the Emperor has a problem with them staying here, I will take them with me to Nuri once the war ends."
"This is the first time I have felt hopeful about this war. Even as I held ground at Shewa, at the back of my mind was always, Abyssinia will fall. I was in denial for most of my life, but when you showed up, suddenly another path opened for us." Tesfaye said, looking at him.
"This path that I’ve chosen is not easy, and it will only get harder from here. Right now, we have an opportunity to change our history, if we succeed we will create a massive economic bloc. If they want to trade in our land and our waters they will have to do so on our demands. We can eliminate slave trade in its entirety if we do this right." Khisa said his expression unchanging.
"That is ambitious. If you are right then that means this war will set the stage for our rise. Abyssinia will see a new age thanks to you.
If we do succeed, we won’t have to worry about foreigners in our land again." Tesfaye said.
"You are too short sighted Tesfaye, why do you think they started the slave trade in the first place? It’s because they don’t have enough people and resources in their own countries, our entire continent is rich in resources and minerals. If we mine them and produce them ourselves and sell it to them, we gain powerful allies and our countries are protected. That doesn’t mean that they won’t try to break us either. They will, but if we stand united, if one of us falls another can immediately take its place. We are building something bigger than just two nations."