Life as a New Hire Ch. 44 - Extra

Saku could have also waged war against the Amazons, but she ran into Cáel, who convinced her to seek justice over vengeance -- by his own merit. Cáel's life really was in peril. He could have died. Saku could have decided to kill him and it was unlikely his guardians could have saved him in time.

This also meant that when Temujin was born, he had not only his complete memories from his earlier lifetimes, he was also blessed with all the knowledge that the head of the Earth & Sky would have known had he been alive the entire time. That, and the pre-planning of the E&S military minds, was why he was able to launch his strike so quickly.

Again, this also meant the Alal came back with the knowledge he would have gained had he still been alive and running the Illuminati and Condottieri. He did not know the specifics of Cáel because the Illuminati didn't know who he was, or where they could find him had they known. He was as blind-sided by Cáel's Amazon heritage as everyone else -- but Alal is a great strategist and, like his grandson, is always on his toes and quickly reacts to changing situations.

If you are trying to imagine why this information is important, I'll tell you. The rules about what happens when you pierce the Weave is known to the mystically-inclined community.

The Illuminati has a variety of small organizations within its web of power that dabble in the supernatural. It is not their main thing though. If they want something big done, they will pay for the service. There are a few small, independent occult secret societies out there. To the Illuminati, the Weave is a difficulty to be outmaneuvered.

The Condottieri have a few minor players involved in life beyond death. Their most serious efforts have to do with talking with their ancestors -- the brotherhood of titanic military geniuses that have come and gone. The Condottieri don't worry about the Weave because their application of magic is so finely focused and rarely used.

The approach of the 9 Clans to the arcane differs from clan to clan. The Hashashin, Booth gan and Cult of the Jaguar are religious organizations ~ they kill for a specific deity, or pantheon. The Ninja and Coils of the Serpent use mysticism in the practice of their lethal arts.

The Brotherhood of the Wolf and Ghost Tigers practice shamanism, primarily using totem animals. The Black Lotus combine the use of 'White' necromancy and warding magics in their arcane arsenal. The Black Hand's use of ancient Roman oath-taking is an example of their ventures into the supernatural -- nothing big, or flashy.

The 9 Clans, by and large, see the Weave as an organic part of life -- yet another lesson on the importance of the careful application of force.

The E&S have a combination of shamanism, Sufi mysticism and Buddhist principles in their quest for both enlightenment and spiritual strength. To the E&S, the Weave is an integral part of existence with the understanding that the Weave is something to be coaxed, not forced. The Weave keeps giving them Temujin back after all.

The Egyptian Rite are the most magical group, practicing minor magics at the lowest level -- things like oath-taking and simple protection charms. As you advance within the hierarchy, you get access to greater secrets. They have nearly five thousand years of unbroken occult knowledge to choose from and they are very, very careful on how they use it.

The Egyptian Rite see the Weave as an organic thing, alive, vibrant and prone to reacting harshly to anyone that stirs it from its cautious indifference. The Weave is a primal force that can be worked with, not around. If you treat it with care and respect, it won't crush you for your blasphemous abuse of its essence -- aka magic.

As the readers now know, the Amazons use both ancestor-worship and pantheism in their daily lives ~ prayers and social conventions. The Amazons truly believe their dead forebears observe and judge their deeds and behave accordingly. They don't ask much from their goddess because they believe the goddesses are doing their jobs by providing them an afterlife.

The augurs, while small in number, are considered a very powerful group by other mystic societies ... and are somewhat feared for the 'ease' with which they interact with the forces on the other side of the Weave. This power is brought about by the fanatic devotion the augurs have for their craft and their willingness to walk the fine line between life and death to interact with Weave.

No Amazon joins the augurs seeking power, glory, or a long life full of daughters. They keep joining generation after generation, despite the knowledge they are dooming themselves to a soul-scaring, thankless and poisoned life. To the Amazons, the Weave is a natural force in the World and exists to keep the living alive and to ensure the dead stay dead.

At its conception (late 3rd century BCE), the Seven Pillars of Heaven were based on Confucianism, Taoism and the concept of a Heavenly Celestial hierarchy. As their struggles with the other Chinese secret society dragged on, as new ones sprang up and as foreigners invaded, they grew desperate for an edge. They chose Gong Tao, despite knowing the risks of using Black Magic.

At first, they used if very rarely, and only in very specific instances when only magic could accomplish a goal. Whatever lofty ambitions the leaders of the 7P's had, the Gong Toa practitioners had their own agenda -- personal power garnered from vile supernatural entities. Gradually they made the other spiritual concepts of the organization ring hollow.

Over time, the Masters of the 7P's stopped seeing themselves as the servants of the Celestial order and moved toward the idea that they were to impose Celestial Order on Earth -- with them at the helm. They stopped being servants and started seeing their power as the end goal of their secret society. The Seven Pillars had been corrupted.

Those who opposed the increasing dependence in Gong Tao were slowly marginalized, or assassinated. The rise of political power began to equate with the increasing use of Gong Tao as a useful tool to be used more and more often. By the time of the fall of the Song Dynasty to the Mongol/Yuan forces in 1260, the transformation was complete.

To the Gong Tao sorcerers, the Weave was nothing but an obstacle and tool in obtaining true power. They needed the barrier to keep the nightmarish creations on the other side at bay and as a bargaining chip in dealing with things that wanted access to the life sparks only found in the Sunlit Realm.

The currency was not just souls. It was pain, fear, suffering, misery, agony and despair. The greater the torture they could inflict, the more power they could wield. After all, humanity's hopes, dreams, aspirations, failing and woes helped create the fabric of the Weave.

Mind you, not all Seven Pillars members are slobbering horrors willing to sacrifice their first born sons for another decade, or two, of life. Most believe in the stated aims of their organization -- the rightful rise of China as the premier power on Earth.

A few go so far as to believe that the end goal would usher in a new age of Peace and Prosperity to the World. They knew they would have to do some unspeakable things to achieve this, but they truly believed they were actually helping their fellow humans.

Most weren't like that. They wanted all the riches and glories that ruling the planet would provide them. They were okay with exterminating a few hundred million people to accomplish their planned conquests. They were okay with slavery, rule by fear and torture, and the ultimate supremacy of Han civilization over all those dirty, spiritually-diseased non-Chinese.

Even though they plan to replace all other cultures with their own, those 'converts' would never truly be Han. They would never be allowed to hold real power because they would always be inferior beings. End of story.

Then you had that deep, dark faction that was okay with playing Russian roulette with the Universe. They were just fine with destroying souls to get what they wanted. Could they possible cause Asia to mystically implode? Sure, but they were willing to take that risk in their own quest for global domination. There was no atrocity they would not commit to advance themselves and their agenda.

If you thought the Weave was unaware, or unable to react, you would be sorely mistaken. The Weave existed four billion years ago when the Earth was nothing but a molten orb and will remain after our star burns out. 800 years of being abused by some ass-hats on one portion of one continent on the entire planet ... it would get around to them eventually. In fact, it already had -- 5000 years ago.

Yes, we are back to Alal. Think about it. The greatest threat to the Seven Pillars is Alal aka Cáel O'Shea, head of the Illuminati and the Condottieri. Then you have his grandson, Cáel Nyilas, running around, screwing with their plans in a big way. Without young Mr. Nyilas, the Ninja are destroyed, the E&S crippled and the Amazons are trundled off to extinction -- all of which are Seven Pillars' goals.

On a personal level, you have a man embittered by 5000 years of endless toil suddenly getting what he has always craved -- blood-kin of his own. He's still cursed, but finally he has been gifted, through his efforts and the working of the Weave ... which is fucking with his plans as well.

Letting the Amazons die out was one of his primary objectives. The existence of his grandson, the Amazon Prince, has complicated that matter because achieving their death extinguishes his own blood line. He can't get rid of the Isharan heritage and keep the body ~ if he has to destroy Cáel soul, he will. Against all expectations, his planned resurrection has been turned on its head.

Imagine this:

Granddad #1: "My Grandson was accepted into Harvard Law School."

Granddad #2 "My Grandson flies jet fighters."

Granddad #3: "My Grandson made his first million at the age of 21."

Alal: "My Grandson killed the hero Ajax with his mind alone. The rest of you can go home now and weep over the failings of your seed."

The future was never certain, so there was no guarantee that Cáel would wreak vengeance upon those harming the Weave ... but [as I've said earlier] he has because Cáel knows the difference between Right and Wrong and has the will to set things right. As stated earlier, no living person could have killed Ajax. It took Cáel less than an hour to figure out how to accomplish that extraordinary feat.

Those five augurs willingly sacrificed their lives, found Temujin with one frantic attempt and gifted Cáel with that knowledge, undoing a century of Seven Pillars' planning in one night. The Weave demanded five lives which the augurs readily gave up for that short-cut. Had they known the coming impact of their sacrifice, ten would have gladly died:

-Absent their deaths, Temujin would have been murdered. The Earth and Sky would have still resisted strongly. Without Temujin's presence and fierce will to overcome his opponents, they wouldn't have been nearly as effective. With him, the rank and file knew exactly what they were fighting and dying for. They weren't fighting for survival. They were fighting to win.

-Temujin never forgives an enemy, or forgets a friend, and that attitude influences the E&S at all levels. Without that sacrifice, there would be no JIKIT. There would be no pathway, or reason, for the Amazons to ally with the E&S. In four thousand years, the Amazons had allied with NO ONE.

-With Temujin dead, the Seven Pillars would have relaunched the Secret War. Cáel may have kick-started it a year early, if that much. It was doomed to happen.

-Summer Camp would have been a massacre. The Seven Pillar commandos would have learned a harsh lesson on how young Amazons prefer death over slavery. Over five hundred Amazons would still have died.

-The 9 Clans and Amazons would have still cooperated. Without access to JIKIT, their combined impact would have been negligible.

-Alone, the Khanate couldn't have convinced the Tibetans to support the creation of a Free Tibet.

-Through the intervention of various Asian Intelligence agencies at JIKIT's behest, the Khanate has been able to establish cautious acceptance with key regional players. Without that sacrifice -- that doesn't happen. The Khanate would remain a toxically dangerous enigma.

-India wouldn't have been nearly as close an ally, thus rendering the Khanate's effort to deny the PRC the resources of the South China Sea futile. The MORCOS wouldn't have been there to play their critical role in resolving the Thailand Crisis.

-Russia wouldn't have intervened in Manchuria, which increased the likelihood that instead, Russia would come into the struggle on the PRC's side. It would have meant the resources of that region were accessible to the Chinese in their efforts to rebuild their shattered forces.

-Albania, Armenia, Georgia and the Kurds would have never joined the Khanate, leaving Turkey geographically isolated from the rest of the empire.

-The showdown over Thailand would have been a costly disaster.

Those five augurs gave up their lives to re-chart the destiny of over three billion people -- and perhaps the fate of Earth itself.

{ C: The Fiendish Plans of the Gong Tau Masters ...

-- Part One - the importance of said plans to my hope

of writing another story set in Cael's Universe.

(LNH concludes with the Great Hunt.)

-- Part Two -- suggested story line directions.}

Precursors presaging prose

First, let's jump back to that bit about what happened to Ajax, Saku, Alal and Temujin when they were reborn. The first two were transformed, instantly becoming what they would have been, had they been born and grown up naturally in their new place and time.

The Gong Tao sorcerers were aware of this in principle, but had never felt obliged to bring the dead back to life before. Ghost were still dead and demons were never mortal, so they didn't see any benefit of resurrecting someone. Add to that the millennia of gathered knowledge, power and grasp of the Seven Pillars of Heaven.

Like all great Secret Societies, the 7P's had plans, contingency plans, back-up plans and back-up plans for all of the above. They had planned to decapitate the Earth & Sky (destroy Temujin's soul) then grind out the Mongol-Turkish identity. If that didn't work when the Secret War started up again ... well, they had contingency plans ~ global influence and power.

After a few more decades of foreign investment and exploitation they would still bring Central Asia under their mantel. If that didn't work ... they had plans for that too. They had a series of back-up plans about what to do if the Khanate formed and became a serious threat. They also had plans to implement if the Khanate seized the initiative. Though considered highly unlikely due to their arrogance, they even had a back-up, back-up plan to deal with the Khanate successfully invading.

The answer was simple -- fight a reborn military titan with a reborn military titan of their own. But which reborn ghost to choose? How about one who had experience defeating Mongols? Not too surprisingly, that wasn't a really long roster. To further whittle down the potential candidates they 'X-ed out' all the Chinese ones. After all, a famous Han Warrior-Hero might be attractive to the rank and file, thus a challenge to their leadership.

Foreign candidates ... they ruled out the Japanese because the Japanese had become democratically-elected, pacifist wimps plus you had that whole fifty years of the Sino-Japanese conflict (1895-1945) to work around. They couldn't trust Koreans either. They had the annoying habit of constantly trying to throw off the yoke of foreign oppressors ~ namely the Chinese.

Europeans? On the entire continent, there were only a few Russian possibilities except those few hadn't overcome true Mongols, only their successor states. Besides, the best candidate, Ivan the Terrible, was fucking nuts.

Africa? Only the Egyptians had actually beaten a Mongol army. Not only was Egypt too far away to do them much good, the bastard would be Islamic. Besides, the Mameluke who had done it was really nothing more than an enslaved Turk who rose to power.

The Americas hadn't been around then and the rest of Africa had been irrelevant, so it was back to looking for an Asian. Persia? Nope. They had only thrown out the Mongol-Turkish nobility after the Turks did all the dirty work for them. India? With the current ascendancy the World's largest democracy, it would be hard to find one willing to help the people they were trying to displace (China) ... not worth the risk considering the resources they would have to expend.

The Mongols had the bad habit of kicking all their neighbors' asses and their worst enemies were themselves. Bringing back a Mongol to fight a Mongol was so overflowing with wishful thinking that they would never go there. But wait, the search wasn't over yet.

Low and behold, there was precisely one person left on the list. He was perfect for their cause. He had a great track record kicking Mongol ass, was Sinicized (appreciated the superiority of Han culture), and was from a strategically located foreign nation that opposed the PRC. In their minds, he was the perfect tool for the job -- i.e., stopping Temujin's Tumens.

If you have never heard of Trần Hưng Đạo, you wouldn't be alone. Unless you are Vietnamese and/or a student of Vietnamese, Mongol, or military history, you are probably still trying to figure out how to pronounce his name. After all, he was from freaking Vietnam in the 13th century and not even all of modern Vietnam. The kingdom he protected was called Đại Việt (also known as Amman) and only consisted (at the time) of the northern third of that land.

He wasn't the emperor of Đại Việt either. He was a nobleman and poet (his great love), he never took any of the extensive titles offered to him and when he died, his ashes were scattered on the ground beneath his favorite tree. In many ways he was the ultimate patriot; a man of the people who loved his homeland and was unwaveringly loyal to his monarch.

He also militarily defeated TWO Mongol invasions of said homeland. The second time, he led the forces of his small kingdom to victory over an army of somewhere between 300- to 500,000 Mongol-Chinese. By victory, I mean crushing victory -- hundreds of vessels destroyed, hundreds of thousand enemy slain and several high ranking Mongol officers killed/executed.

After the annihilation of the second army (it was the Mongol's third attempt to conquer the country), the Mongols never came back. It wasn't worth another potential defeat and Kublai Khan had a host of other pressing issues brought about by little Đại Việt kicking his ass -- on three separate occasions.

The Emperors of Đại Việt did end up paying tribute after that third, failed attempt. Invasion was hard on the land and a few coins were worth ensuring peace and prosperity. In time, the dynasty in China changed and even the notion of being a tributary state waned and was forgotten.

The Legend of Trần Hưng Đạo survived and flourished as a champion of his people in their time of greatest need. He was so popular centuries after his death, there were shrines set up for his worship and streets in Communist Vietnam were named in this nobleman's honor. He was a really popular guy.

He also had a Legend ... and shrines ... and all the Seven Pillars had to do was desecrate/steal one to put their plan into action. Trần Hưng Đạo's Legend was both great and still current, so he definitely hadn't perished in the Land of the Endless Black Sands. With one of his shrines, they had a link to the guy in whatever Paradise he had earned.