Fourth Vector Ch. 06

"Wait until you see the common people," warned Jack. "Most of them would fall over if the breeze was strong enough."

"We'll need to get those people fed and cared for immediately," said Heron. "While we have little in stocks of food, I can disband a good portion of the army now that the fighting is over. That should help with the problem of feeding all those soldiers and allow those men to get back to their fields."

"It's probably going to be lean for a while until you can get a harvest in," said Jack. "But you should eventually be able to catch up. If you like, I can see if we have any extra grain at our base in Quiller's Cove and send it with my supply ships."

Heron smiled eagerly. "If you can, that would be terrific. I'll take any aid we can get until we can get our feet back firmly on the ground."

"Consider it done," said Jack with a nod. "It'll take a few weeks for them to get out here but it'll definitely help."

"I appreciate that, ally," said Heron with an amused grin. "It looks like Nikias was right in his initial assessment of you. You have really returned balance to our homeland."

"You mean, he didn't scare the shit out of you when he told you I signed an alliance with Daimanos?" asked Jack with a laugh.

Heron chuckled as well. "I'll admit, I was initially a little hesitant but the thing with Daimanos is that he is usually his own worst enemy. You've seen enough of his personality—he's abrasive, abusive, and downright cruel. You don't attract good people to that kind of leader."

"There were some warning signs from the start," said Jack, remembering the first night and the banquet. "He seemed to have an answer for everything. He seemed to be trying a bit too hard to portray a polished exterior. I'm ashamed to say I was blinded by his single-mindedness."

"That was one thing our father always tried to get out of him. That kind of ostentatiousness isn't good for a general, much less a king. He always tried to do it through humility as if learning that he wasn't all-powerful would eventually let him become a more normal person," said Heron. "It never worked. If anything, I think it worsened the situation. Towards the end of our father's life, there was an intense hatred on the part of Daimanos toward our father. I feel like that hatred is what caused this whole mess"

"Thankfully for everyone, Daimanos is dead now," said Jack. "All that suffering is over."

"Almost over," said Heron with a shiver. "Except for those poor souls still recovering from that terrible fire."

"About that, I've been meaning to ask you more about that fire. You seemed well-familiar with it when we talked earlier, but I've never seen anything like it in my past experiences or through studies. What was it exactly?" asked Jack, remembering the explosion that launched the globs of fire all over the fort.

"That is a particularly nasty weapon that I'm surprised he resorted to," said Heron. "Father always said to only use it as a last resort to stave off ultimate defeat. Although, I shouldn't be surprised that Daimanos acted on his own accord with it."

"Nasty is quite right," said Jack. "It stuck to everything it landed on. And it couldn't be extinguished. I saw one man run out into the ocean and he still couldn't get it out."

"That's part of the recipe for it. When I was a boy, Sorella was fighting a war against a much greater opponent, an empire who was determined to conquer the island. They had great, wooden ships more advanced than ours and quickly swept our navy from the seas," said Heron. "Being that they were wooden, we tried to shoot some incendiary projectiles at them to light their ships on fire, but it was rather ineffective. For one, it burned too weakly and was easily put out. Half the time, it wouldn't even cause a spark."

"The other issue was that with so much water, it was easily extinguished. The enemy ships would keep enough water on the decks to easily counter the weapon so it was rather ineffective for our part. For a while, it looked like Sorella might be conquered."

"So what changed? How did you make it more effective?"

"One of our engineers figured out that if he added a local component called naphtha to the fire, it burned much hotter, longer, and proved all but impossible to extinguish. Naphtha is in plentiful supply on the island so we modified our projectiles to include an extra chamber for naphtha, and then we tested it on the enemy ships. The results exceeded our expectations quite handily."

"That good, huh? I saw what quick work it made of Daimanos' fort," said Jack.

"You should see it launched against wooden ships," said Heron with a solemn look. "You've never seen such an inferno in your entire life. Once it lands, it'll burn continuously, even directly on the water. We launched it against the entire enemy fleet of over fifty ships. Those that were struck immediately burned rapidly until the entire crews were killed and the ship sunk. Those that weren't hit right away suffered a worse fate. They had to wait until their oxygen was sucked off from all the fire. It turned the entire area into total carnage. I still remember the sounds of their screams."

"I imagine they were the same screams we heard just a few days ago," added Jack. "I can't think of a worse way to die."

"Despite the method, it did work. The empire retreated, and we were never attacked again," said Heron. "Father commanded that we keep stores of this weapon, which we now called Sorellan fire. It was to be our ultimate deterrent weapon, and it has largely worked. Sorella hasn't been attacked by an outside power since that last event."

"Is it easy to make?" asked Jack. "You mentioned that this naphtha is in good supply on your island. What about the rest of the recipe?"

"It's not hard at all," said Heron with a quick head shake. "All you need is naphtha and oil. You need to make your projectile with two separate compartments for them both and let the force of the explosion merge them together. As a precaution we light a fuse to them before we fire them. Once it's launched, the fire will catch up to the oil and set the whole thing aflame. Then when it hits, the entire mixture will combine to catch fire."

"That's a surprisingly easy recipe for such a powerful weapon."

Heron nodded. "The naphtha is the key. Without it, the whole thing falls apart."

"Do you keep stores of the weapon?"

"I have enough storage of it in our armory back in my capitol," said Heron. "It would've stayed there in the event of my death as well. Despite several of my generals wanting to use it against Daimanos, I could never have authorized that against my own people. There's no power on earth that's worth the mark that would leave on your soul."

"These people are lucky to have you as their king, Heron," said Jack. "You're a wise man, and you care for them deeply. It is to their great fortune that they don't have to suffer Daimanos as their king any longer."

Heron smiled weakly. "I've made my share of mistakes. Too many mistakes. I just hope that we're able to start over. You've given this island a second chance, and I intend to take full advantage of it." Heron pulled out two cups and filled them with water, passing one over to Jack.

Jack drank eagerly and then set his cup back down. "One thing still bothers me. Something that I can't quite figure out."

"Well tell it to me and let's see if we can solve the mystery," said Heron with a light chuckle.

"Daimanos was so intent on seeing our technology. It was all that he talked about during our initial meeting and at our later banquet. What I don't understand is why he attacked us. He opened fire on theValiant and tried to board her to capture the vessel. He hoped to have us wipe out your men before falling on us to wipe the rest out. If he wanted our technology so much, then why did he betray us?"

Heron took another drink before answering the question. "I'm not sure I have the full answer for you, Jack. There aren't many men who understood how my brother's mind worked. But if I had to take a guess, he felt threatened by the technology. He knew you had the ability to destroy him, so he wanted to destroy you before you could turn on him."

"Yet it was his eagerness to betray us that turned our hand. If he hadn't, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now," said Jack with a smile.

Heron rubbed his chin. "How much did he pester you about seeing some of your technology in action?"

"It was damn near every other sentence," answered Jack. "I told him to wait until the battle was over and then we could talk about it."

Heron snapped his fingers. "Your usefulness to Daimanos evaporated at that moment. The second you denied him, even if it was just temporary, was the second he set his sights against you. He was one of the most insecure men I've ever known. I think it's a large reason why he was never able to marry. He would go into a rage if any woman he was courting so much as looked at another man. Once that happened, he would discard her quickly. In his mind, you had already betrayed him."

"So you're saying because I didn't immediately give in, he took that as a violation of our alliance?" asked Jack.

"No one can say for certain now, but that would be my guess," said Heron. "My brother's behavior was predictable. Erratic, yes, but predictable. It was probably for that reason that he decided to separate you from your ships and then put a good portion of your people on shore. Divide and conquer."

"I can't say it's not a good plan," said Jack. "It nearly worked. It's hard to imagine someone so deranged that they could contemplate betraying a brand-new alliance."

Heron shrugged. "Deranged was a good word to describe him overall. I have to wonder if he damaged any of the relationships with our neighbors nearby. I haven't seen any trading ships in months. Visitors to Sorella have been few and far between. When Daimanos gained the upper hand in the conflict, most of my embassies were sent home and then he sent his own. Now that the war is over, we'll have to try to reestablish diplomatic relations."

Jack perked up. "Speaking of diplomatic relations, I'm hoping to ask for your help in that regard."

"You want to set up your own embassy?" asked Heron with an amused look.

Jack chuckled. "Not yet, but I think this request will be simpler to fulfill. Most of this part of the world hasn't been explored by our peoples. For that reason, we don't have much knowledge of the lands or the peoples contained within. When I started this mission, I had an extremely crude map that has already proven to be outdated. I received another map from Lishkerra when I stopped there."

Heron sat up straight and interrupted him. "You were at Lishkerra? And you're still alive to talk about it?"

Jack smiled. "Yeah, that's right. We're considered friends of the Lishkerrans now, although that is the best we could do. We were looking for an alliance."

Heron kept staring at him with a blank look. "You do realize the Lishkerrans kill all humans who land on their island, right?"

Jack started to chuckle before he could reply. "We realized it after they attacked us, but we were able to get to their elder council and turn things around. Long story short, I can count on a warm reception at Lishkerra moving forward."

"Hmm, well one day you'll have to tell me more about this long story," said Heron with a confused look.

Jack grinned and then took another sip of water. The full details of that story would wait for another time as they were still cause for some embarrassment. Especially as he remembered the sight of the maiden girls with their already pregnant stomachs.

"One day I will," confirmed Jack. "Anyway, the map we received in Lishkerra just had your island on it, as well as two to the east of here. I know one has some great fire-breathing beasts on it—"

"Yes, those are dragons," interrupted Heron. "You must avoid that island at all costs."

"I also heard the other island is full of slavers. Not great people either," said Jack.

Heron nodded. "That would be the Andalucians. You're right about them not being great people. They are particularly clannish in their behavior. They usually don't have one overarching leader, but they have several clan chiefs who are almost always at war with each other. Each clan has their own warriors and their own slaves. The slaves man the fields and the mines and keep their society going."

"Where do they get the slaves? Are they homegrown or do they take them from other peoples?" asked Jack.

"A mix of both. The majority of them are homegrown, a subclass of peoples who have always been slaves there and will always be. Their look is quite different from that of the Andalucian clans and that reinforces the slavery aspect for them. There's also another factor where any unscrupulous merchant can sell people as slaves to the Andalucians. They don't care where the slaves come from as there is always a high need for them. Working those mines in particular is practically a death sentence."

"So we'll want to make sure we stay away from both of those lands," said Jack with a nod. "But that's about all of my knowledge of the Vector. What other lands are nearby? Are there many? Is this area still rather remote?"

"Not quite," said Heron while rummaging through his desk. "I do have a map but it's back in my city or else I'd show you. Here, let me sketch what I know."

Heron grabbed a piece of paper from the desk as well as a pen. He began by sketching three islands and pointed to the westernmost island. "This is Sorella, of course. This next island in the middle is Andalucia. Lastly, this easternmost island is the land of the dragons."

Heron then drew two smaller islands right above Andalucia. "There are good peoples that live on both of these islands. One is mostly traders while the other is filled with mostly farmers. Either way, safe to land for the most part."

Next, Heron sketched out two much larger islands, dwarfing everything else that Jack had seen in the Vector so far. These islands were just off to the northwest of Sorella across a narrow channel of water. "Now, do you remember my story of when we were attacked by an empire when I was a boy and we dispersed them with the Sorellan fire? This is that empire. This is Swabia. They are a rising power in the Vector and have been for the last several hundred years. I'd advise you not to go there, personally."

"Why is that?" asked Jack.

"If you thought my brother was bad, you've seen nothing compared to the Swabians," warned Heron. "They have a nasty reputation throughout this portion of the world. They are aggressive, perfidious, and cruel people overall. They have been expanding their empire ruthlessly at the expense of all of their neighbors. I'm also sure they won't take kindly to you seeing as you are now allied to us. The Swabian Emperor has a long memory and I'm sure he hasn't forgotten the bloody nose we gave him decades ago."

"That almost reminds me of my own home country," said Jack with a grim smile. "You almost described the Javan Empire."

Heron sat back further in his chair. "Now that I just can't see. I can tell you're a good man, Jack. You don't give me the impression of being cut from the same stalk as these Swabians."

"Perhaps it's a good thing you haven't met our emperor yet," said Jack with a knowing look. "He can be just as bloodthirsty as how you described the Swabians."

"Well then, perhaps it's a good thing that you're on our side," said Heron with a chuckle. "Swabia has swallowed up a good portion of the Vector. There are a lot of peoples to the north of here that remain free, small islands like Sorella. The Apulians are perfectly content to stay isolated. The Carinthians do nothing but squabble amongst themselves and the Nax have only recently been conquered. Of course, the Picards still fight them when they can and the Galicians have been in decline for years so they haven't been much help."

Jack sat up straighter upon hearing the word Galicians. His memory flashed back to their time in Lishkerra when both Numa and Vigo thought he was one of them instead of Javan. A question began to form in his mind, one that he needed an answer for.

Jack leaned forward. "Who are these Galicians, Heron? Tell me about them?"

Heron's eyes rolled up in thought. "That's quite the heartbreaking story, unfortunately. A real tragedy concerning those people and their recent history. Are you sure you want the whole story?"Jack nodded eagerly in response.

"Very well then," said Heron with a sigh. "The Kingdom of Galicia goes back over two thousand years. It all started on the island of Galicia, one of the western islands of what you easterners call the Fourth Vector. The country started small but expanded quickly through a series of dynastic marriages until they occupied a large footprint of islands in their sector of the world."

"Conquest by marriage then?" asked Jack. "Not by sword?"

Heron nodded. "For the most part. Not that the Galicians were pacifists. They were some of the fiercest warriors in this part of the world by far, but they expanded peacefully and generally didn't cause the same issues of destruction like the Swabians, or my brother for that matter."

"So what happened from there? Where does the story turn?"

Heron pursed his lips. "To answer that question, we need to look at the Galician royal family. Or rather, look through the history books because they no longer exist. A real shame about that as well for the Galician king was generally a force of reason and good in the world. He long kept the Swabians in check and provided overlordship of the entire Vector. To this day, they remain the best sailors anywhere in the world."

"What happened to him? Did he die in battle?"

Heron shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. Most say it was poison while there are some out there that say it was just pure bad luck, but the line just happened to die out. It all started with the last true king, Robert III. Galician power was at its maximum at that point but a series of unfortunate events to that family brought it down as low as it could go."

"You see, Robert's wife, Elizabeth, was pregnant at the time. Up until that point, she had been relatively healthy but for no reason, her health started to decline. She became sickly, weak, and frail. It wasn't hard to see that her body would never last through the rigors of childbirth and that's precisely what happened. Both her and the child, a boy, were lost during the birth."

"Was he the only heir?" asked Jack.

"No, that's part of the oddity surrounding the event. The king had an elder son already, Richard, another seemingly healthy lad. He started to come down with the same symptoms of his mother, the queen. It wasn't much more than a few months later that he died as well, after just having a mere cold."

Jack nodded. "So the king lost both of his heirs and his queen in short succession. That must have been horrible."

"Normally, they would've looked for another wife for the king—as a way to keep the royal bloodline going. Alas, time was working against him. Not long after his son died, they found Robert III dead in his own bed. A healthy man of only forty years and dead for no reason."

"I see why they suspect poison. Or foul play," said Jack. "Did anyone stand to gain from killing them?"

Heron shrugged. "Maybe the Swabians, who always were at odds with the Galicians. But the Galicians were generally a good people. Fair traders, brave soldiers, good folk at heart. Beautiful people as well. Known for their blonde hair and blue eyes, they're still to this day some of the fairest people in the entire world."

Heron leaned closer and gestured to Jack's hair. "In fact, it rather looks like you might be of some Galician ancestry yourself. You don't see blonde hair too often in the world and more often than not, it points to some Galician heritage."