Herald of Steel

As Alexander made his way to get some much-needed shut-eye, he by chance spotted a familiar but unlikely figure- Camius, snooping around the third floor.

“Camius, what are you doing here?” Alexander asked with a smile as he noticed Camius’s strangely bulging pockets.

“Stealing all the things I can get away with, doc,” Came the kleptomaniac’s honest answer, which caused Alexander to roar out in laughter.

“Haha, fine, fine, don’t let me stop you,” Alexander brushed his hands at the ‘innocent’ act and attempted to enter his room.

But then suddenly, a lightning bolt of thought sparked inside Alexander as he remembered something and hurriedly instructed, “Camius, quick. I want you to find and arrest Pallidus. Now.”

“Pallidus?” Camius seemed confused as he remembered the man had left the group.

So Alexander elucidated, “Yes, Pallidus. Tomorrow a few soldiers will be executed to please the nobles. And I want Pallidus mixed in there as well.”

“*Whistle*, you are one vindictive man, commander,” Camius grinned and then quickly left to carry out the order.

Though it was upto the individual to determine if Alexander was vindictive or somewhat too cautious as he attempted to snuff out any would-be detractors before they had a chance to grow.

Pallidus would never be on his side and so Alexander thought it was better for the man to die.

And in this way, tomorrow Pallidus would leave for a new plane.

As Camius, left, the exhausted Alexander finally managed to catch some sleep, the night being a peaceful one, as Ophenia too was tired from a hard day’s work, couldn’t come to attack him.

And right around, midnight, he felt a warm, soft body hug him and the sweet, familiar smell told him it was Cambyses and then, even before the dawn broke, he felt the warmth disappear as Cambyses most likely went off to work.

Alexander too woke shortly after, right at the crack of dawn, and quickly got dressed to get to the temple.

As he and his bodyguards made their way to the temple, escorting the king, the day before them promised to be a glorious one.

The light blue sky showed nary a cloud in sight, as a cool, northerly, salty wind graced the people of Adhan with its presence, the still early, dim sun shining gloriously in the eastern sky.

Alexander was looking forward to the day but a report from last night did cause him to frown a bit.

He was told that when Grahtos had told the people that free food would be given at the temple tomorrow, a crowd immediately began to gather right at the edges of the inner city gate as early as noon the day before, and many even attempted to break in.

The crowd had swelled to such heights by dusk that a riot seemed imminent and Menes quickly sent the eight hundred men from Alexander’s group to suppress any unruly behavior and then promptly shut the gates.

‘*Sigh*, hopefully, we can maintain order,’ Alexander wished in his heart as he recalled the report.

And his heart was calmed by the knowledge that around five thousand armed soldiers were on standby to crush any attempted uprising.

With this reassuring thought, the entourage quickly made their way to the temple, where they were greeted by various priests and priestesses.

After the pleasantries were said, and what the priests were supposed to say double-checked, Alexander began to inspect the various preparations that were made for this day.

The inner temple was now literally covered end to end by several rows of huge, covered pots, ready to transfer their contents to the hungry bellies of the populace.

The Temple of Ramuh’s inner courtyard was raised at an elevated position, which housed the temple itself, accessible on all sides by a twenty-meter wide, fifteen-meter high, four-way staircase.

Below the actual temple, was the outer courtyard, around a hundred meters long and a hundred meters wide, encompassing the inner courtyard within its center.

The king sat on his throne, under a glorious parasol, right on the edge of the staircase, imperiously overlooking the outer courtyard. as he was flanked by Alexander, who sat on top of his horse and both were protected by a hollow square formation of elite spearmen.

Below, in the outer courtyard, Alexander could see there were fifty, evenly spaced cooking stations, each holding a pot with a slow simmering flame to keep its contents hot and bubbling away.

A squad of armed soldiers, numbering around five guarded each pot, so as to deter any idiots from doing anything stupid, or causing any trouble while two were responsible for handing out the actual food.

Alexander also noticed that each of the cooking stations had a cart full of very expensive-looking pottery beside them, as wanted by Alexander in case of an emergency.

He was pleasantly surprised by the total number of extra pottery present as he didn’t believe the palace had so many reserves, and so guessed correctly that Cambyses had likely ‘requisitioned’ them from the nobles.

And after finishing surveying these secondary preparations, Alexander placed his eyes on the main showpiece of today, the main character, the person for whom all this was arranged- Kefka!

The blonde man, who had gone significantly paler, had been taken out of his sealed wrapping late last night, and given a bath, heavily perfumed to disguise any smell of rot, which thankfully wasn’t there much to begin with due to the cold weather, then dressed in the golden armor he had been killed in and at last placed in an open casket for all to see.

The open mausoleum of the king was smack right in the middle of the huge outer courtyard, made of a magnificent golden casket that Ptolomy had gifted Alexander from the treasury the previous day, and guarded by twenty armored men.

Alexander was then informed that the two mercenary leaders had bought with them the Adhanian soldiers who had been locked in the cell two days prior due to their crimes and ordered them to be placed at the foot of the temple stairway, to be soon executed.

Alexander was also secretly informed by Camius that he had successfully managed to lure Pallidus and his close group into the cells and because the others were busy sacking the city, this group would not be missed by anyone any time soon.

This pleased Alexander because he could finally get off this thorn without much huss and fuss, as no one was likely to notice five extra men out of a hundred.

And by the time anyone who truly cared noticed, the body would have vanished into thin air and Alexander could chalk up the death as just missing.

Being satisfied by all the preparations, Alexander, at last, ordered the gates to be opened, and soon a tsunami of hungry, impatient peasants assaulted the temple.

But after the expected initial chaos, order was quickly established under the expert guidance of the four thousand soldiers that had been deployed just for this purpose.

These mercenaries might be unruly, but they were also professional fighters, who had long dealt with having to tame wild recruits and this experience was now being put to use here.

They used loud whistles, ear-splitting shouts and barks, and thick wooden clubs to quickly get the mob to separate into fifty separate queues, and afterward, the food distribution began in earnest, with the server loudly chanting, ‘Praise be to King Ptolomy,’ as he poured the hot gruel on to the awaiting empty pot.

Alexander could see all of the fifty queues literally extending from the temple to outside the inner city gates, making him give a true sense of the scale of the total number of people that had come for food.

And as the populace waited for their turn to receive their ration, entertainment in the form of news was provided by the priests and even some soldiers, as they walked between the queues, loudly proclaiming the ‘true story’ of the events that had folded two days ago and educating the public about the things that had really transpired in their city in the recent days.

They were both surprised and horrified to know that archpriest Manuk- the gentle, caring man that had always appeared in front of them in times of need was actually a usurper and a rebel and then were pleasantly pleased to learn about the magnificent exploits of the new king- Ptolomy.

They lamented and cursed that the twin saintesses had been corrupted and gave away all the temple’s riches and then rejoiced when they heard the king had managed to get them all back.

The populace also witnessed the hundred or so, weak, naked men being beheaded and their corpses dragged away for committing crimes against the nobles, though they were not made aware of what those crimes were.

Menicus’s men were also present, loudly trying to recruit artisans and soldiers, which caused many cheers of joy to erupt when the remuneration in food was declared. .

Many excited voices could be heard wanting to join the army and this way the temple feast continued.