The Tome of Exalted Ponies

The crystal chameleon strikes the light of the soup, fracturing its image into a dazzling display of lights and colors - letting all around marvel at the spectrum of soup - but none see the stylist afterwards, and yet the soup bowl is empty.

…

The coven quickly had to admit that when a full circle of solars – even if Lee was only playing the role of a temporary substitute for Fire Orchid – then what they were able to accomplish in but a few weeks was quite impressive.

The four dozen cultists at the coven hideout, who’s main task had been overseeing the demons creating legions worth of weapons and armor, were put under Cash’s studious tutelage. This saw their work routines transformed using first age methods – reducing their workload to the point that only three cultists were needed to fully oversee the production efforts of hundreds of demon minions.

The rest of the cultists were reassigned to Lee, who used his tiger training technique to quickly turn them into highly disciplined jungle commandos. They would form the core of a very loyal and crafty strike team that could be sent to either capture or kill enemies of future free state of An Teng.

After learning seatongue from Speaker, Sunrise journeyed to the city of the steel lotus, spending days in the outer slums of the city. It wasn’t difficult for her to find disaffected and malcontent tengese ponies there – and unlike trying to recruit in the rural districts, then nobody seemed to care much if these ponies disappeared from the streets.

It didn’t matter if they had been driven from their family farms by realm landowners who wanted to set up large slave driven plantations, or if they simply born in the city to servants who had seen the wealth of their people concentrate among realm overlords while only crumbs ever made it down to them – they were quite easy to recruit, even more so when Sunrise could truthfully say that she was labouring to organize a revolutionary force that was acting with the golden lord’s blessing.

Sullen Hoof trailed Sunrise, identifying and inviting to tea any realm spy he identified. House Ledaal might have folded up its operations in An Teng willingly, but there were several other great houses still profiteering from the serf labour of the land, profits they would likely not give up freely – so they had spies and informants aplenty, but Sullen got enough of them that what few reports that made it back were too scattered to paint a big picture.

With this influx of volunteers, and Sunrise and Cash’s reforms, the cult quickly began to change shape. Secret jungle training camps were set up outside the city, and in the morning, at noon and in the evening the ponies there were not instructed to pray to a demon lord… no, they prayed to the golden lord and to Celestia.

The coven wasn’t all that upset to see their cult reformed from a secret demon cult to a secret Celestia and Golden Lord cult – It was after all more tengese to do so, or so Bitter Copal justified the shift. It had probably helped quite a lot that Cash had subtly eroded Copal’s initial loyalty to his yozi mistress, for of all the things that Bitter Copal could do that his handlers and overseers in malfeas might detect, then a sudden drop in incoming prayers would probably be quickly spotted.

Indeed, once the last prayer reforms had been fully spread to all the major cells of the cults throughout An Teng, it didn’t take long before a new infernal green sun prince appeared – one sent to ask questions.

The unannounced arrival was heralded by the very arrival of a trio of mortal cultists from a far-off cell of the cult. They arrived under the cover of darkness to the main cult hideout, knowing exactly where to sneak in. That was at least what the local cultists who came galloping to Speaker and Copal said, their breath ragged.

“Well, it was bound to happen – they will have to accept that there is a new order developing here in An Teng, one not bound to demons, nor overseas rulers” Bitter Copal stated resolutely.

Speaker could only shake his head. Copal’s jingoism had only gotten stronger since the circle had arrived – and he was not subtle about it. Part of Cash’s way of making Copal distance himself from using demons so much, was to link the demons in Copal’s mind with the general idea of a foreign power that wanted to gain control of An Teng. This demonic cult inspector… or whatever it was… oh this was not going to go over quietly.

Following Copal along, Speaker wondered if he should put up his defensive charms in advance or not. The meeting room that the three visiting cultists were waiting in, was the nicest of the meeting rooms: The walls were decorated with large sheets of firmin resin that had been carved and painted beautifully to depict various tengese myths and legends – grand images of ponies and jungle creatures battling foreign enemies.

The three cultists stood quietly, their traveling garbs with their deep hoods covering their faces. They were dripping wet from the driving rains outside, and in the pale light of the luminescent fungus lamps Speaker beheld the new arrivals – thinking that it was a curious choice to send mortal messengers to a demon cult, especially if you were worried that the local exalted leadership might be off.

It was through this quiet observation, while Bitter Copal introduced himself and welcomed the visitors, that Speaker realized that the three ponies did not reflect any light in their eyes.

Speaker knew exactly what that meant. It was a dececanthrope demon – a demon that would poses corpses and puppet them around as living ponies: “Copal, wait – it’s a decanthrope and its puppets”

Bitter Copal instantly halted in his otherwise quite polite introduction and greeting. Looking at the three ponies, his face soured: “What is your message, slave”

One of the three drew back their hood, revealing a pony with pale skin and a mane that hung quite long – all telltale signs of a decanthrope host. It stepped back, as the two other demonhosts began to unstrap their cargo; heavy saddles laden with two massive gourd bottles each.

Silently the two demonhosts began to pour the content of their gourd bottles on the floor of the underground room: It was sand, silvery sand. Had they brought a piece of the yozi Cecelyne for the inspection?

No – for as the content of the last two large gourds were poured out, the sand came alive and began to swirl through unseen winds into the shape of a pony. The sand-pony didn’t solidify, but it was dense enough that you could make out facial expressions and even where her eyes were looking.

“I’m not talking to you like that – you’ll spread dust and sand everywhere. Materialize” Bitter Copal commanded, looking quite unimpressed.

The sand-pony nodded, but didn’t look terribly pleased: The silvery sand particles condensed into solid forms: Bones appeared first, wreathed in webs of slimy visceral cording and pulsating meat until the final layer of ephemeral flesh encloses them in its borders. Clothes materialized last, a rich garb of beautiful spun essence and otherworldly silks.

Just as the no-longer-sand-pony shook off the materialization process, Speaker sensed a telepathic ‘knocking’ in his head – he knew that Copal had telepathic powers through his demonic exaltation, and this was a very covert way of transmitting messages, so he ‘opened the door’ and let the message through. Copal’s message was quite simple and clearly underlined through a feeling of calculated malice: “Materializing will have cost her nearly all of her essence – she will be quite defenceless now. Strike when ready, but give her no time to escape”

Speaker had to smirk just a little bit – it was such an incredibly simple, but ingenious trick. Copal’s obsessive focus on cleanliness was well known – informed by his background as a doctor and alchemist. This was even known to his fellow green sun princes, so his command hadn’t surprised anyone… but to see Copal exploit that to render an unwary foe defenceless? Oh, that was quite impressive. It was clearly evident to Speaker that the lessons of warfare and governance to Copal had paid off.

“There, now Bitter Copal, can we begin the inspection?” the pony said with a south-eastern accent in sea tongue, sounding not as much annoyed, but a bit exhausted – which made sense, if she had just been completely drained of essence in order to materialize. To Speaker her accent reminded her of Admiral Sand’s – was she from Varang?

Bitter Copal nodded ever so slightly, his topaz-vapor bandages jostling more than enough from his slightest of movement to communicate his intent: “Indeed. We can begin with introductions: Silver Mirage Lakshmi, meet Bright Machine Speaker”

That was his cue. Speaker stepped up, observing the green sun prince before him – but using no charms, not wanting to reveal himself too soon: “Greetings, that is indeed my name – me and my peers have been working hard the last month or so to create Copal an army to take An Teng”

“For just a month? It’ll take you far too long to train up a mortal army that way – you’re already behind schedule! Why haven’t you just summoned a suitable force of demons and taken the country yet?” Lakshmi said, not sounding terribly impressed.

The would-be inspector’s reaction to Speaker’s claim was sensible enough – if one assumed that Speaker and his peers were mortal ponies. For solars, a month and a half were more than plenty to create one or two very elite fighting forces – and for a whole circle, plus Lee, they had made even more than that.

With all that in mind, Speaker’s smirk remained as he approached Lakshmi: “Under normal circumstances, perhaps – I’ve been made to understand that the green sun prince charm set doesn’t really contain any good training charms, which honestly makes perfect sense since enlightenment and personal betterment would fall under the purview of Qaf, the heaven-violating spear, not any of the five yozis you lot are being masterminded by”

Lakshmi’s expression turned from unimpressed to nodding in respect: “A trainer of troops and a scholar of demonic lore? I am impressed”

“Oh, you have no idea – but that’s a moot point really, I’ve seen what I needed to see” Speaker said, nodding briefly to Copal who quickly stepped back.

Lakshmi was about to say something along the line of “What is the meaning of this?!” when Speaker struck, using a mix of his magical martial arts to quickly pummel the partially demonic pony into pieces. It had been while sparing earlier that Lee had discovered that all of the green sun princes were just as susceptible to demon-smiting charms as regular demons, to which end Speaker had used charms from his Hoof of the Daystar style to imbue his blows with holy purity, striking the pony down with magically empowered blows she had no way of surviving.

The decanthrope demon and its hosts all cried in out horror, but Copal quickly seized all three in a strong grip of his essence, holding them tight while Speaker swiftly moved to slay all of them. There was no sense in letting the demon realm know that Bitter Copal had officially gone rogue.

Turning to Speaker, Bitter Copal looked noticeably relieved: “I should thank you Speaker. I haven’t felt this free in years, and I couldn’t have done it without you and your friends”

It was a bit strange to see Bitter Copal’s disposition change like that – and the outline of his bandage-covered face even revealed a smile, which was the first time Speaker had really seen one of those from Copal: “It’s the least we could do”

“Perhaps – but now it is only a matter of time before the other infernals in Gem question why Lakshmi will not return or answer magical messages. We must move quickly now”

Word was quickly spread to the rest of the circle, that the countdown had started for demonic retribution. It stood to reason that now the demon forces at Gem would soon redouble their efforts to get to An Teng, no longer to ‘aid’ Bitter Copal’s efforts, but to capture and question him about their missing peer – as well as to seize An Teng for the yozis.

Luckily, then the rebel forces were well equipped and had been snuck into position for the final push to freeing the country. The only thing missing was having the Golden Lord signal the start of the rebellion – a magical messenger to his celestial secretary handled that, the coven’s spy network reported a few hours later that at every shrine and temple in An Teng a vision of the Golden Lord had appeared, which had proclaimed that the realm had fallen to such a degree that it was no longer fit to rule An Teng – and that he knew of a descendant of the last high king of An Teng, who was ready to take the throne. It wasn’t a direct call for rebellion, but to the satrap and anyone else in charge of the country, then it was a very clear warning that trouble was on the horizon.

In the jungle the rebel force was split into two primary legions: The main force, which would take the city of the steel lotus and the second legion, led by Sunrise and Fallen Twin, which would fly out and take the coastal fortress at Dragon’s Jaw.

The two legions stood assembled and resplendent before the coven and the circle in a very large jungle encampment. Demon slaves had laboured tirelessly to clear the grounds, as well as gather plant fibres that demonic artificers had spun into cloth and later dyed, making for a properly uniformed army. Firmin resin had made their weapons and armor, the dull brown resin hard as steel but lighter than dry firewood – the twin legions of free An Teng were fearsome to behold indeed, and thanks to solar military training charms they were a force to be reconned with.

“Hear me, proud sons and daughters of An Teng! You have all witnessed the divine revelation at our shrines. The Golden Lord supports our cause, making our fight for freedom truly righteous! When the daystar sets tonight, it will set on a free An Teng!” Bitter Copal proudly proclaimed from a podium before the troops, their cheers loud enough to frighten away birds from the surrounding jungle canopies.

Before the speech to the troops, Bitter Copal had used the disguise charm that Shirin had taught the rest of the coven to assume a form supposedly not unlike how he had been before his demonic disfigurement, making him appear as a young and handsome tengese stallion once more – the rest of the coven had done similarly, all of them having agreed that their demon-tainted forms were not terribly suited for public display.

Sunrise then conjured her massive cloud spell, the same she had used years ago to facilitate the evacuation of Brookside in Nexus, which resulted in the founding of Sunhill. As several thousand tengese soldiers boarded, with Fallen Twin and his officers in the lead, Bitter Copal waved them off as they flew west towards the fortress at Dragon’s Jaw.

Trees by the thousands moved out of the way, as local wood elementals who had been summoned and suborned did their tasks, opening up a new road for the army to march on the City of the Steel Lotus.

Sullen Hoof and Ashi of the Six Wheels both journeyed to the city ahead of the army, scouting out any pockets of resistance, while the army marched with Speaker, Lee and Bitter Copal at the head.

Shirin was already at the Satrap’s court, having infiltrated it a while ago to ensure that any reports of a rebel army would never reach the Satrap without her tweaking the content to downplay the news. Now that the army was on the move, her task was to ensure that the Satrap wouldn’t run off – capturing him and forcing him to publicly relinquish control of An Teng was a key part in the coven’s plan to take over An Teng. For while Bitter Copal’s ancestry gave him a legitimate claim to the throne – then if the realm could still come back and say that its satrapi had been usurped, that risk of invasion would needlessly complicate things for the coven.

At the outskirts of the City of the Steel Lotus, Ashi met with the army, reporting that the city seemed open for the taking: “A lot of the realm scions are holed up in their walled estates, the Satrap too – but they haven’t pooled their private troops to make any kind of collective effort against us… the prideful fools – and I checked in at the city watch: They’re ready to swear their loyalty to the new rightful high king of An Teng”

“Perfect – can you have them clear the roads for us to the satrap’s mansion and to the Palace of Threefold Magnificence” Bitter Copal inquired, sounding keen on wanting to minimize any civilians getting caught in any fighting.

Ashi was gone with the wind – literally, her charms of speedy movement making her move like a silent and unseen wind through the streets of the city.

Copal gestured for the first legion to break up into smaller units, so they would fit through the city streets.

Marching through the city, Speaker couldn’t help but notice how basically all the tengese ponies were cheering them on as liberators – and Bitter Copal seemed to relish in it. There were a few skirmishes leading to the government palace, mainly from small groups of soldiers from various realm scions that had sought to barricade the roads around the mansions and estates they guarded.

These barricades were quickly torn down and moved aside, no real fighting coming from it – the troops helming the barricades weren’t stupid enough to try to hold off thousands of enemy soldiers when they were easily outnumbered fifty to one.

At the palace of threefold magnificence Copal and Speaker met with Sully, who had infiltrated the palace earlier to keep track of the place and ensure that nobody there did anything stupid, like sending out emergency messengers to the blessed isle. Most of the staff there was simply told to go home and come back in a week – a few were arrested, mainly staff from the satrap’s administration, leaving Cash to quickly assail the lawbooks there: His task was to sift through millennia of legal history, to find what customs and laws the realm had forced upon An Teng – that they might rid themselves of those, while keeping true original tengese law, plus Cash would likely have to draft replacement legislation for anything they got rid of.

With the palace secured, the next target was the satrap’s estate – an air aspected manse that turned out to have to some very potent lightning-based defensive features that saw the uprising’s first true casualties as gung-ho soldiers tried to storm the place, only to be zapped like bugs.

Speaker’s elemental immunity charms made a mockery of the lightning-casting pillars of the estate, approaching the front door to the estate and loudly demanding that the satrap surrender himself: “We’ve already taken the palace – the city is ours – and Dragon’s Jaw and the legion fortress there has also been seized. Surrender peacefully, and we will permit you to return to the blessed isle alive and well”

Ragara Sora Jor, the realm-appointed satrap of An Teng represented, was in deep despair. The recent pulling out of house Ledaal from An Teng now made him extremely suspicious – had that old hag known something he didn’t? Every week more dynasts would show up at the various ports of call for An Teng, seeking to hide from the civil war – and Jor had been more than happy to let them spend their money at Ragara owned luxury resorts and rental estates.

How could such a massive force have appeared outside the city without his network of spies detecting it? How could the city have been seized so quickly? Then again, his primary targets for his spy network had been the activities of other realm houses and the Lintha.

…to see all of that come crashing down in just one day was a bit much for the stallion, even as his earth aspect tempered his passions and made him slow to anger – but seeing just one pony walk up the bridge to his mansion and completely ignore the lighting being shot at him? Really? It was clear that the pony wasn’t even a unicorn, so how could this be?

“Satrap Jor, surrender peacefully – or I will break this place and come in after you” Speaker declared, calling up to the balcony where he had seen ponies moving around.

Surrounded by his personal guards – all which looked quite uncomfortable and spooked, understandably so – Jor shook his head, looking to his wife and children: “You all need to pack – now – quickly! Grab money and valuables, the smaller the better. We need to get to the harbour”

A thunderous crash sounded from the main gate into the mansion, Speaker having struck it with all of his magical martial might – the gate had cracked and broken, sending shockwaves of tangled essence throughout the manse.

Stepping through the destroyed gate, Speaker quickly turned and used his repair charm to mend it – restoring the proper essence flows of the manse. Having a manse blow up inside a city would not be a good way to wrap up an uprising like this.

In the courtyard Speaker saw several ponies at arms in realm livery, but they were tengese – and didn’t look as if they were all that interested in attacking Speaker, who in turn spoke to them: “Your true king is calling – will you answer?”

The ponies at arms weren’t stupid – they could see that their satrap master wasn’t going to be in charge at the end of the day – so they quickly threw off their livery and opened the gate, disabling the lightning defences and letting Copal’s troops surge in.

In another part of the estate a wagon had been readied, servants frantically loading it with heavy bags of jade coins from the manse treasury, along with other valuables their master had instructed. When Copal’s troops arrived and seized the wagon there was much wailing, the realm-born servants truly fearing that they were about to die – but much to their relief they were simply taken into custody and marched off, without even being put in chains.

Catching the satrap proved slightly more difficult – as at that point he seemed content to go down fighting, having taken a very nice-looking white jade dailklaive from the treasury and readied himself.

Speaker, leading Copal’s troops through the mansion, was about to breach into the room where the cornered satrap was making his last stand to defend his family, when Shimmer suddenly spoke up to him: “There’s a window in there – they’re climbing out…”

Looking around in surprise, Speaker found that Shimmer stood next to him – having likely flown in quietly in the form of a small bird once the lightning defences were down: “Very well – lets close that window”

Quickly retrieving his singing staff, Speaker played a merry little tune that saw the stone of the walls flow to close off the large window in the room beyond the closed door. The screams of confusion coming from inside seemed to indicate that this did not please the ponies left behind.

Shimmer quickly sped off with a squad of soldiers to grab anyone who had made it out the window while Speaker waited. He could hear the ponies inside knocking on the now sealed window – the essence flows of the manse having already reinforced the new wall, making it next to impossible to break. A few moments later Spekaer suddenly found himself briefly confused, as his sensed seemed to… swap?

It took a moment, but he realized that he was seeing what Shimmer was seeing and hearing – and she was holding the daughter of the satrap prisoner, having webbed up the young foal while a few nearby soldiers appeared to be recovering from the filly’s kicking and biting. Nodding, Speaker’s senses returned to himself, letting him present a new ultimatum to the satrap: “We have your daughter. Whether she gets to join you on a boat back to the blessed isle, or attend your funeral here first, is your choice”

Despite the thick oaken door muffling much of the sound, then Speaker and the soldiers outside could easily hear the swearing from inside. Not long after, the satrap emerged to surrender. Later that night, Speaker received a magical message that the fortresses around Dragon’s Jaw had been taken without much of a fight and only a few injuries.

It took a few days to fully secure the city of the steel lotus. Cash worked hard to quickly set up an interim government, and the three princes of An Teng were summoned to attend the coronation of a new high king.

It was during this chaos that, mainly while setting up a new tengese navy – that a skirmish broke out at the harbour of city of the steel lotus: Sullen Hoof and Cash had been doing a tour to tally what suitable warships and river patrol boats there were present, and in doing so discovered a beautiful first age yacht moored.

Sullen Hoof was not slow to point out that it was the exact same ship that the mystery unicorn they had encountered in Port Calin had escaped on. They instantly attempted to board and seize it, but found themselves repelled by – of all things, dozens of very combat ready demons, fending them off – confirming, if nothing else, that this mystery unicorn was a powerful sorcerer.

By the time the rest of the circle showed up to aid in taking the ship, it had cast off and sped off – using strange trickery to veil its presence, for it couldn’t be seen or tracked going down the river of queens towards the ocean. Everyone agreed that this was most mysterious – but Bitter Copal had bigger fish to fry, as the princes had arrived for the coronation.

The coronation event had been forewarned with plenty of time to spare, so anyone who was anything in An Teng – at least who had any intention of remaining in the country afterwards – had shown up to pay their respects. The prince of the highlands was pleased to see that the circle had truly worked the golden lord’s justice, and two other princes similarly seemed not entirely displeased either.

As with such ceremonies, much pomp and circumstance had been set up in advance. Bitter Copal equally received the princes in the government palace, showing them the lineage research he had done which proved that he was the last of lost family line dating back to the last tengese high queen. As the circle had learned in the time in An Teng, then familial relations was everything to the natives – so being able to prove he was descended from high royalty gave Bitter Copal a very strong claim to the throne in the eyes of the native tengese.

There was of course the matter of the satrap. He had proven generally uncooperative, but a solution for that had been found, as the satrap would deliver the pre-coronation “entertainment”.

In a large square in front of the government palace, the old stocks had been put to use once more. The satrap knew the place well, much to his own dread, for it was the square where public lashings, caning and even executions of criminals would take place – especially the ones sentenced by him personally.

Put in a heavily steel-reinforced stock that even his dragonblooded powers couldn’t break, each of his four hooves held tightly – and a jade essence tap put on his horn to prevent him from using charms or floating anything around – the satrap found himself looking at a crowd of tens of thousands of tengese… and it seemed that they were eagerly awaiting whatever punishment he was in for.

Bitter Copal stepped up to the podium next to the locked-up satrap, the crowd roaring their approval, cheering on their new high king: “Fellow country-ponies, I stand before you as but a peer – for I am not yet your king. I cannot ascend the throne until our satrap here relinquishes the realm’s claim on An Teng… so that is what we are going to get today, either by signature or by execution!”

Satrap Jor’s eyes went wide. He had expected an execution the moment he had been taken from his cell to the square, sure – but he had not expected to be forced to sign that bloody document in front of a crowd… not that he had any intention of doing so: “Fool – the imperial legions will descend upon An Teng and see you all put to death! I will sign nothing!”

Shirin approached Bitter Copal with a thick ledger, something she had compiled together with Cash in the weeks before: “Are you sure about that? You do realize that if you sign, we will let you and your family leave unharmed?”

There were spread jeers from the crowd from the few who had heard Shirin’s statement. The crowd wanted blood – and the satrap remained defiant.

With a gesture someone else was brought forth. The satrap couldn’t tell who it was for he was held by the stocks, while Shirin engaged the crowd and the strap: “Oh we have no intention of bringing out neither whips or canes here – we will torture you by your own deeds”

It turned out that the other pony brought forth was the satrap’s wife, a unicorn mare from a different Ragara family who appeared to have been quite content living in the lap of luxury.

The ledger Shirin was holding was thrust into the hooves of the satrap’s wife, while writing kit and a very well-written legal document was placed on a lectern before the satrap. Shirin then haughtily stated: “You, satrap of these lands. Will you sign this document and, as the realm’s chief representative in these lands, relinquish the realm’s claim to these lands?”

The satrap simply spat on the document. It turned out that Cash had made dozens of copies – so it was simply swapped out.

“Very well – Ragara Ruby, read from the marked page on the ledger you got… or we execute the both of you” Shirin stated with a taunting glee.

The unicorn mare looked at the ledger with great uncertainty. It was a legal record, from the satrap’s court. Why these usurpers would want her to read from something that boring sounding was beyond her – Ragara Ruby was much more at home entertaining her husband’s guests at their estate, or at one of their country villas… but the wicked eyes of the mare before her bid her to flip to the marked page.

“In the case of assault against one Sesus Mutra and his entourage, the accused is sentenced to thirty lashes and ten years in a Ragara penal mine” the mare read, sounding very confused at why this had been marked for her to read.

Shirin stalked around the mare: “Also read the footnotes for it – that’s the juicy part – and loud enough so everypony can hear!”

“Footnote… alright, where… here: Sesus Mutra had gotten drunk and raped the accused’s wife. Have someone track the pregnancy to see if it exalts and if so, schedule a… confiscation?” the mare read, sounding both horrified and confused.

Shirin quickly stepped in: “There’s your satrap’s justice. Punishing a stallion who wanted to defend the virtue of his wife, and the sanctity of his family – sent to a penal mine where he was worked to death. And in true Ragara fashion, since to them everything is just about money and valuables, then even the offspring of such sordid affairs are considered assets… not formal adoptions – that’s how little he thinks of us”

“Jor, how could you!” Ruby said, horrified at what she had just read.

The satrap could only bow his head in shame, while Shirin asked him again: “Will you sign the document – or shall we continue this very public reading your court rulings?”

One thing was death – but this kind of drawn-out public humiliation? And worse still, general tarnishing of the name of house Ragara? Even if he was let off alive afterwards he wouldn’t survive his house’s wrath for that…

“Alright! I’ll sign your bloody document – but burn that book!” the satrap shouted.

The book was not burned – there were a lot of judicial review that Cash still had to do with it, a lot of sentences that had to be annulled, and ponies who needed a lot of compensation for what they had been put through.

It thus came to be that An Teng got a new high king, one by the name of Bitter Copal. By his side were his trusted advisors Ashi of Six Wheels and Shirin, and the commander of the An Teng legions General Fallen Twin.

Of course, with An Teng secured, it would be months if not years before everything was sorted out: King Copal had a lot of talking to do with the three princes and other tengese nobles. He had a lot of ideals about reforms, both land reforms and judicial reforms pertaining to personal rights – things like him wanting to abolish serfdom – and while the princes were amicable to some of them, then there were other ideas Copal had which were a bit harder for the princes to accept, as the mix of first age inspiration and fervent nationalism ground against their feudal power structure.

There was also the issue of the demon army working through the fire mountains far to the south-east. With one legion stationed at Dragon’s Jaw, and Lee remaining at the city of the steel lotus to train up a new army, the circle left with Fallen Twin and the second An Teng legion on a giant cloud, flying south-east to either meet the demon army or head them off after a week’s worth of rest and preparations.