Chapter 489: Hospitality

After ordering his guards to stand down and report what had happened to Armant, Vahn made arrangements for his former travel companions to rest and tidy themselves while he personally prepared a feast. The traditional, plant-, fungi-, nut-, and fruit-based cuisine of the Sadida was a tad earthy for non-Sadida. Instead, he combined a variety of high-quality ingredients to prepare a Kozuki-style oden that would have made Yamato pounce like a ravenous wolf...

"A King, Regent or otherwise, shouldn’t be preparing meals for his guests. Such actions will ruin the prestige of the crown..." Armant remarked with a sigh, entering the kitchen where three versions of Vahn were coordinating to speed things up.

"Prestige is a shield without substance, Armant. The only thing it protects are the egos of the mentally fragile and physically feeble. Real power and authority are exhibited through hospitality and not caring what those who would conspire against you think," Vahn countered, punctuating his words by taking a loud sip from the ladle in his hands.

"..."

Not wanting to argue over the semantics of prestige and its significance as a deterrent, Armant waited for Vahn to return his ladle to the oversized pot he was stirring before stating, "I came here to ask how you intend to handle this matter. From what I have been informed, it involves the son of the nation of Sufokia’s Empress—Prince Adale Kraw Sufokis. I understand that one of your kin was severely wounded in the incident. But remember, you are the King Regent of Sadida. Your decision will be interpreted as the will of the Sadida Kingdom..."

"Failing to hold rulers to account for their actions is what leads to nations falling to corruption..." Vahn countered, raising his gaze to meet Armant’s as he stated, "I understand your concerns, but politics should not dictate morality. Morality should dictate politics..."

"..."

"Just promise me you won’t order the Sadida Kingdom to war to uphold those values. I am not saying that your views are wrong, but your status as a God affords you a moral intransigence that is incompatible with the lives and circumstances of mortals..." Armant argued calmly, prompting Vahn to cup his chin and seriously consider his words.

"You make a fair point..." Vahn conceded, surprising Armant considerably. The latter had expected him to rebut, but there was an underlying truth to his argument that Vahn couldn’t help but acknowledge.

"As for me sending the Sadida people to war, that was never a matter for consideration. I would support Amalia or your decision if you determined a war was necessary. But I would sooner resolve things on my own than send those I have been entrusted with protecting to their deaths..." Vahn stated, his tone measured—almost serene. But at the same time, a subtle pressure permeated the kitchen, giving Armant goosebumps and causing his body to tense involuntarily...

Forcibly regaining his composure, Armant brought his clenched right fist to his chest and bowed his head, stating, "With Your Majesty’s permission, I will return and ready the documents to have Prince Adale summoned to the palace..."

"Mmnn...it is only fair that he be permitted to defend his position..." Vahn acknowledged, nodding. As he did, Armant raised his head and departed as if he were in a rush. Vahn found this amusing. But he resisted the urge to call out to the Prince at the last moment, allowing him to leave without straining his spirit further...

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"Incredible...this is exactly the scene Phaeris witnessed—down to the smallest of details..." Phaeris, the turquoise-skinned, presently humanoid dragon, remarked, standing with Vahn, Grougaloragran, Yugo, and Adamai in the sky over a volcanic isle encircled by what appeared to be enormous crimson claws—jutting up from the sea.

’I wasn’t aware that Sufokia had such an extensive fleet of submersible warships...’ Vahn noted to himself, his eyes scanning the more than one hundred ships comprising Prince Adale’s fleet. Even the smallest vessel was close to a hundred meters long. And the largest, resembling a giant whale with an iron-black hide, brass accents, and a hull lined to the teeth with cannons, was more than three...

As concerning as Sufokia possessing a secret, technologically advanced fleet was, the more concerning aspect was how it was being used. Every ship present, sans Prince Adale’s flagship, was currently bombarding the primary island of the Crimson Claw Archipelago with thousands of Stasis-powered lasers. Stasis, an amethyst-hued energy that opposed the blue-green energy of Wakfu, was the energy of stagnation, decay, and death in the Krosmoz—the name of the universe he currently occupied. And as the bombardment produced craters and gaseous clouds of evaporated Stasis that covered the island like a noxious fog, it ensured no life could naturally take root in the region for hundreds of years...

"Before our good King and his friends arrived, the nation of Sufokia had been mining this island for crystals infused with Stasis energy..." Phaeris explained, his expression serious as he attested, "I was content to leave them be, but their mining activities began to threaten my mission when an explosion deep within their mine connected it to the sanctum where I was guarding the Dofus of one of our siblings. I was forced to reveal myself in its defense, eventually leading to the senseless, week-long bombardment you’re witnessing here..."

"Wait—this went on for a whole week...?" Yugo asked, looking aghast at the notion.

"Indeed, my young King. This Phaeris tried many times to convince these people that he did not intend them harm. But as I could not allow them to return to the island and jeopardize the Dofus, they continued their assault with few intervals for rest..." Phaeris appended, exhaling streams of smoky Wakfu from his nose.

"Hark, Dragon God. See the nation of Sufokia’s sins with your own eyes..." Grougaloragran interjected, his formerly blind eyes blazing with fury as a cartoonish but colossal paddle ship with multiple sails and three massive masts appeared at the edge of the remembrance. As it did, the Sufokian fleet ceased its bombardment and began to submerge, the shadows they produced beneath the water moving toward the newly arrived ship before Prince Adale’s flagship breached the surface tangentially to its keel—very clearly attempting to sink it...

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As damning as Prince Adale’s actions were, they weren’t the reason Vahn was reproducing the scene from Yugo’s, Phaeris’s, Grougaloragran’s, and Adamai’s memories. Yugo’s group was in the area searching for Nox. That search had led them to the Crimson Claw Archipelago—where sailors and fishermen had been reporting instances of Nox’s Wakfu-absorbing insects draining the Wakfu from their catches.

When Yugo’s group sailed into the coastal waters of the Crimson Claw Archipelago atop the ship Vahn had gifted them, the Album Diaboli, they had no clue they were sailing toward an assault on one of their own. They attempted to reason with Prince Adale and get him to call off the attack, but the latter was evidently under orders from his father to sink any ships that entered the region. Sufokia had no historical claim to the isles of the Crimson Claw Archipelago, so they couldn’t allow the fact that they were mining a rare and valuable ore like Stasili—crystallized Stasis—to get out to other nations.

Once he realized that the newly arrived ship belonged to his King, Phaeris couldn’t ignore Sufokia’s subsequent assault on the Album Diaboli. It was presumably at this time that Nox made his move, penetrating the sanctum that Phaeris had been guarding for ten millennia and stealing the Dofus—an effectively infinite source of Wakfu that also functioned as a vessel for Eliatropes like Yugo and their Dragon kin to reincarnate indefinitely. As for the Dofus in question, it belonged to the sole female among the Eliatropic Dragons, a Crimson Dragon called Shinonome. Phaeris rushed over when he sensed someone had entered the island’s inner sanctum. But before he could reach it, a Stasis explosion that reacted with the island’s crystalline Stasili deposits was triggered—the resultant blast functionally erasing the island and leaving behind a luminous purple chasm that seawater couldn’t recede into...

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With the combined recollection eventually reaching the point where Yugo and Adamai recovered the severely injured Phaeris, escaped the Sufokian fleet, and teleported to the spatial anchor he had set up specifically in the event the young Eliatrope needed his assistance, Vahn and everyone who had been within the recollection opened their eyes.

"That was so surreal. Even though we were watching from the side, I felt like I was re-experiencing everything the version of me in the recollection was experiencing..." Yugo remarked, touching his right hand to his chest. His heart was racing, but he could feel himself calming by the second as a familiar warmth spread through him.

"That’s because I was directly recalling your thoughts and emotions at the time," Vahn explained with a smile, his expression turning serious as he looked to Grougaloragran and Phaeris as he hypothesized, "I could be mistaken, but there is a good chance that Nox was the one who triggered the explosion in the Sufokian mines. Then, while you were occupied with the Sufokian bombardment, he likely spread his machines throughout the mines to trigger the even larger explosion we observed..."

"Yes. Phaeris agrees with the Dragon God’s assessment. If only Phaeris had been half as insightful..." Phaeris sighed, closing his eyes and briefly slumping atop the cushion he was seated on—forming one of five anchor points atop a blue-green magic circle.

"This is why it’s important for those with long lives to regularly associate with those who depart this world much sooner. Those who live within the constraints of a finite lifespan are capable of anything..." Vahn said sagely, simultaneously materializing cups of hot cocoa before everyone’s crossed legs. He didn’t feel it was fair to Phaeris to blame himself for Nox slipping past his security. If anything, the draconic man was overdue a reward for lasting ten millennia...

Breaking the silence his words and the cozy hot cocoa had invited to settle over the group, Vahn raised his gaze, his words directed at Phaeris as he asked, "To complete my grasp of this situation, I have to ask. Was there a reason you couldn’t relocate Shinonome’s Dofus once it had been discovered?"

"O Wise Dragon God—it was because of the influence that Shinonome’s Dofus had on its surroundings..." Phaeris stated, touching his chest and forcing it to emit an amethyst-purple glow as he explained, "As children born of the union between the Great Dragon and the Goddess Eliatrope, we Dragon brothers and sisters have Stasis at the core of our being. Our bond with our Eliatrope brothers and sisters allows us to wield its power safely, while also preventing us from surviving indefinitely if they perish..."

Nodding, Grougaloragran took over the explanation, revealing, "Nearly ten thousand years ago to this day, Shinonome’s Eliatrope brother, Qilby, was sealed away by King Yugo’s past incarnation. The space he was sealed in exists between dimensions—a boundless expanse where the influence of Wakfu and Stasis do not reach. He is unable to perish, therefore unable to return to his Dofus and be reborn..."

"..."

Though he immediately felt the punishment of this Qilby was too extreme, Vahn didn’t doubt that Yugo’s past self had a good reason for condemning the man to such a cruel, borderline unconscionable fate. And now that he understood that Shinonome’s Dofus was the reason that Stasili existed on the Crimson Claw Archipelago in the first place, he had more than enough ammunition to completely demolish any claim that Sufokia believed it had to the extremely rare mineral. And since it was their illegal mining that had set in motion the cataclysmic events he had witnessed in the recollection, his conscience wouldn’t allow them to downplay their involvement or shift the blame entirely to Nox...

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