Legon Ascension (2 page)

They were at the dining hall now. Legon found himself seated and waiting for Sydin, who ran off to get food. Sasha looked at Legon concernedly.

“What are you thinking?” she asked.

“Aren’t you paying attention?”
 

“No, you blocked your mind. What’s going on?”
 

Legon didn’t want to talk about it now. “I’ll tell you in a bit when I figure it out.”

Sasha arched an eyebrow. “You could just let down your defenses and then I could find out now,” she tried in a persuasive tone.

He smiled wryly. “I could, but that wouldn’t be as much fun.”

Sasha stuck her tongue out at him but didn’t push the subject. She would get her answers—they both knew that. Sydin returned with three plates of food. The scent of eggs, cheese and something sweet instantly pushed the thoughts of the war from Legon’s mind. Sydin sat after handing everyone a plate. He bowed his head, folding his arms. Legon hadn’t noticed it at first, but the Elves were rather religious, something uncommon in the Cona Empire where he had grown up. But they weren’t overt about their beliefs. It had taken Legon days to figure out that at meals when Elves bowed their heads they were praying, something he found rather odd. Even Ise did it. They all prayed to the White Dragon, but neither Legon nor Sasha had pressed the subject with anyone. It felt awkward to them. Legon noticed Sasha eyeing Sydin’s plate.
 

“You have Chocolate here?” Sasha pointed when Sydin opened his eyes.

Sasha, like all girls, seemed to love this incredibly rare treat. Chocolate came from
 

Cacao or cocoa beans, but it grew in the south and was hard to acquire. It shouldn’t have been a surprise that Legon’s people had it; after all, they were the ones who controlled the south. Still, it was rare, so rare in fact that most people in the Cona Empire only got it once every few years, at best. Legon’s mother said she was given a piece on her wedding day and then another when Sasha was born, but that was the extent of it. Arkin, of course, seemed to come upon it fairly often, so Sasha got a piece ever year for her birthday. They never could figure out how he got a hold of the stuff but it made sense now.
 

Two of the plates Sydin carried had eggs, cheese, bacon and other normal

breakfast items. The third had a small pastry on it that looked to be covered in chocolate, which dripped off the side. Legon felt and heard his mouth fall open. The treat before his eyes would be a week’s pay back home.

“Sydin, that had to cost you a fortune! What’s the occasion?” Sasha said.

Sydin looked confused. “You’ve had this for breakfast every day, I don’t under…”
 

he trailed off.

“Sash, would you like to try this?” Sydin asked.

She sat back, waving the food away. “Oh no, it’s yours, but it looks good.”

Sydin pressed on, saying, “Do you want me to get you one?”
 

Sasha looked a little overwhelmed. “That’s nice of you, but…”

Legon became aware of a familiar THUMP THUMP of boots behind him, and it was no surprise to hear Arkin’s voice.

 
“Sydin, you forget that in the Empire chocolate is worth more than a pound of gold.”

“It’s not here?” Legon asked.

Sydin explained. “Not in the least bit. It grows abundantly in the Elf lands. You know that hot drink you’ve been having every morning?”

Legon thought about it. They did have a hot drink every morning. It was bitter but exceptionally good and it seemed to wake him up.

“Yes, Socolata?” Legon said.

Sydin nodded. “Yes, it’s ground and brewed cocoa beans”

Sasha gasped. “We’ve been drinking chocolate every day? Shouldn’t it be sweeter?”

“We can make it that way, yes. Elves and humans in the south drink and eat a lot of chocolate. In fact, it’s relatively worthless down here,” Sydin said.

Sasha shook her head and Legon sensed her disgust once again at their former home, not the people or the land, but the people’s situation. Chocolate was worthless to the humans here as well as the Elves, meaning the only reason it wasn’t to Sasha and her family was that it was a banned substance in the Empire. Well, having it wasn’t banned, but trading with the Elves was.
 

Sydin looked sad. “Sasha, I’m sorry, it’s just…”

Sasha huffed and spoke. “I’m not sad about the silly pastry, I’m happy about getting those now. It’s just another straw on the pile, you know what I mean?”

Legon did; they all did. It was funny how insignificant something could be and still mess up your day. New thoughts bubbled in Legon’s head and a smile pulled itself across his face. He dug into the eggs, not caring in the least about the little sweet next to him that would fetch the price of a horse back home. When they were done, Legon excused himself and Sasha, who went without complaint, still morose.

As they walked down one of the many passages of the dome, Legon realized he was moving a little fast and he eased down, locking one of his arms with Sasha. She looked up at him, confused but curious.

“So, are you going to tell me what you’re thinking now?” she asked.

“Yep.”

Sasha waited as Legon stuck his hand in his pocket, pulling out a small round piece of chocolate that Sydin had slipped him at the table. He handed it to her.

“Did I make that big of scene?” she asked.

Sasha plopped it in her mouth and her eyes widened. “It’s got a cherry in it!” she said, amazed.

“Wow, that’s neat.” Legon said.

Sasha’s sour mood returned. “Ok, spill it. Wasn’t I an idiot?”

Legon didn’t hesitate in his answer. “No Sash, everyone knew what you meant… truth be told, you said it in a much kinder way than any of us would have, but you also solved the war,” he said, beaming at her.

“Chocolate?” she asked.

“Exactly.”

Sasha stopped and turned Legon to face her. The look in her face was one he’d seen a thousand times; it was the “did you hurt yourself or something” look.
 

Legon took a second to compose his thoughts. “I’m fine, think about it. The Iumenta stay in control by making people think they are happy with material things, right?”

“Yes, I guess so,” Sasha responded.

“But people really don’t have that much now, do they?”

She thought for a moment. “No, but they don’t know that.”

“Ah yes, but we do, and I would be willing to bet that there’s a lot of other things that people don’t know. A lot of stuff that people outside the Empire enjoy that people in the Empire don’t,” Legon said.

“Ok, I think I see where you’re going with this. If people knew their lot, they might not be so willing to support the Iumenta. Or more so, once they see that they are slaves, they will rebel. So what is your plan?”
 

Legon started walking again and explained. “I’m going to send Arkin into the Empire to gather information and start spreading the word that the Iumenta aren’t as wonderful as many people seem to think. I was going to have him gather information for us anyway, but now I think we can put him to more use.”

“But what about the dragons? With them influencing the minds of the people, they have such a strong hold there’s no way it will work.”

“Only if they are in an area to influence it,” Legon pointed out.

“Ok, so that’s what, every major city and then some patrols in areas with a lot of towns?” Sasha speculated.

“But not enough to keep thoughts in check for people in smaller, spread-out areas like co-ops and small towns—the food source of the Empire,” Legon explained.

It clicked home with Sasha now. “You’re going to sow resentment in the rural areas and then, in effect, the cities.”

“Basically, my goal is to keep the Iumenta Dragons focused on the cities. Think about it: as the Iumenta’s control over the minds of the rural areas weakens and as the people’s animosity grows, they will hate their government. So, when our forces inevitably move into an area, the surrounding people will welcome us, cutting off the cities from supply. Thus, by doing this, discord in the cities will rise and the Iumenta will be forced to put more and more effort and resources into controlling the population in the cities.”

“And with farming communities cutting off food supplies, it will make cities easy to siege; just wait it out with a secured country side,” she nodded, impressed.

Legon went on, “…and if we up raids on the borders, the Iumenta will have to send more dragons down to help.”

Sasha finished for him, saying, “…taking them away from the cities. Good thinking, it could take years, but why not? It worked for the Iumenta. That’s how they took over the Cona lands to begin with, so why not us?”

Legon smiled. Sasha was on board with this, and that was a good thing. Now he needed to get Sydin and Iselin in on it as well. Plus, he was going to need to have people attacking the Empire’s supply trains, and Legon knew just the group to do it.
 

For the most part, the Precipice and its forces were commanded by the Elves. It was labeled as a joint affair between the Pawdin Empire and the Cona Republic, but with the constant influx of refugees from the Cona Empire and planning raiding parties, the human staff was overwhelmed. There would be no issue procuring a special unit to wreak havoc on the Empire, but he still would need to talk to Telunone about it. After all, in a few days Telunone would be in charge of this dome. House Evindass was scheduled to meet with Telunone in the afternoon, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

When it was time for the meeting with Telunone, Sydin and Iselin were all in the loop and in agreement with Legon and Sasha. They all walked into a command room of the dome. This room used to be Sydin’s command center, complete with House Evindass banners, but now they were greeted with the gold on white of Paldin, hanging from the ceiling of the far wall. The banner was ivory and in the center was a large dot that represented the sun, with waves rising from the dot to symbolize the sea. All of this was woven in thread that looked like gold—and it probably was. The sun and sea shimmered as the banner slowly moved from the constant movement in the room. Off to the left side of the room was a doorway, out of which a harassed-looking, raven -haired Elf strode. He ran his hand across his face and through his short hair. His firm jaw line was set in a look of agitation, but despite that he still looked friendly enough. He turned a set of large green eyes at them, which sparkled with sapphire blue flecks.
 

“Bad time, Telunone?” Sydin asked.

Telunone responded, frowning. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay here, Sydin? I mean, House Evindass has done such a fantastic job with this place, I don’t want to mess up a good thing.”

Sydin laughed heartily. “Not on your life. This place has been a pain since it was built, and it’s impossible to supply.”

Telunone ran his hand through his hair in exasperation. “Yes, I can see that a storm hit last night in those horrid mountains. Of course, that’s when all our belongings were heading through there and well, now you can guess what.”

Sydin chuckled again and patted Telunone on the shoulder. “So I take it that’s where most of your staff is?”

“Oh yes, and my wife, her favorite painting flew off—sorry, those aren’t your problems. Let’s find a place where we can talk more privately. Sorry Un Prosa and Un Prose, my name is Telunone, it’s an honor,” he said extending a hand to Legon and then Sasha.

Sasha looked confused at his words, “Sorry, what did you call me?”

Sydin broke in, speaking to Telunone. “Forgive me, it has been busy. They don’t know all of the formalities and etiquette yet.”

Telunone seemed to understand. “Un Prose is the feminine of Prosa. You are a lady of a great house. It’s like when the humans say ‘my lady,’ for example.”

Sasha hesitated and nodded. “Oh ok, thank you, you can just call me Sasha if you like.”
 

Telunone laughed softly. “Of course Sasha, now come let us talk.”

Telunone lead them to a small room with a domed ceiling like their apartments. As they walked around a large table in the center of the room, Legon took in the tables’ natural beauty; it was quite unlike anything he had seen before. It was round, but the edges rippled out as if it was once one giant stump that was propped on legs. The top was shiny like glass and when he looked down on it he could see that it got its shine from layer upon layer of some sort of clear coating. The wood looked like it was torn from the tree with large chunks missing. The clear coating made the table look submerged, like you could dip your finger in the liquid surface and touch the tortured wood below. Legon placed his palms on the table, leaning slightly against it, and the shining top held solid. The rest of the room was nice as well, with the same rough eloquence of the table. Telunone strolled over to a mini bar, over which hung Paldin’s banner. He began fiddling with decanters, filling several glasses with the deep amber Poti that the Elves preferred. Legon took a glass, sipped the liquid and resumed admiring the table.

Something about the room felt off to Legon and he looked around. “Where are the chairs?”

Telunone grimaced at this. “Like I said, it has been a hard move.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“Don’t be, it’s not your fault. Now Sydin, I got all of your reports for me, so I think I’m up to speed. Is there something else?”

Sydin stepped up to the table and everyone looked a little awkward standing at it, but no one brought that up.

“We know that House Paldin is going to be running this dome, but House Evindass would like to continue to use some of the human units here, if you are agreeable with that. We would like to coordinate through you.”

Telunone looked at Legon. “Of course, that’s fine. May I ask what you had in mind?”

* * * * *

Sasha looked at Telunone’s glittering eyes now affixed on her brother. She could see no resentment in them; Telunone honestly didn’t mind. If House Evindass needed something, then it would be provided without question. Telunone was simply curious. She knew this would have never happened in any of the human governments, and she wondered how long it took the Elves to get to this level of trust.