Fiction:Tenet/History/19

=~TO WAR-=

~Look, King Makann.

-Look at you, an old man. Look how long you've lived. Look how strong you've become.

~Look at how strong your people have become. Are you still uncertain of the rightness of your path?

-We didn't think so.

~The Xanidactae are tardy. The attack we warned you of has not come, though years have passed.

-Embarassing for us? Maybe. More embarassing for Taboo. He's ingrained himself into the high courts of the Xanidactae, but their Empress is a cautious woman. What you've been doing here, she's been doing over there.

~His dreadful prophecies have failed to spur them to attack. They think him a curiosity, or a devil working towards his own ends. They have no eyes beyond the mountains, and so look to their own security foremost.

-Which means you'll have the honor of striking the first blow.

~Your magi have listened well to my teachings.

-Your warriors have listened well to mine.

~You are the greatest king ever to rule in Namthrakia. Your soldiers form a vast host, as many as there are drops of water in the Parthese River. Your magi bend nature to their whims. Your weapons are myriad and dreadful. No other man has ever commanded such power.

-In other words, everything's in place for the war, O king. The time to march is now. Those Xanidactae won't know what hit them.