Depthless Hunger

Chapter 209: Spiraling Toward a Decisive Victory

Very few in the city saw the message with the severed head, but the reaction was still horror. The celebrations gave way to an ugly mix of bravado, anger, and fear. Kai hoped their morale raising had been enough, because it had just been dealt a serious blow.

For him, shock had given way to hollowness. He remembered his rage about Fhazi or Nirka's infidelity and now felt childish - those petty injustices were nothing compared to the murder of a kind old woman who hadn't even been a threat. If Suortril had been in front of him, Kai would have torn his throat out, but the merchant was untouchable for the moment. So he did his best to push aside grief and focus on strategy.

The worst fact against them was that the merchants hadn't sent the message to announce they were going to take action, they were letting everyone know it had already begun. Before sending out the message, the combined forces led by Yulthens had reclaimed several cities near the coast and set up a line of defenses. Within the retaken territory, remaining uprisings were being brutally crushed and workers forced to produce with their families' lives as the incentive.

The consequence of their swift action was a degree of paralysis. Allies all across Krysal were begging for help, and because their forces were gathered from so many places, every faction wanted to go save their homes. Debates apparently raged as different troops, allied in victory, argued about taking action on their own.

Many of the discussions occurred in what had once been a debate hall for the nobles of Slaerta. Krainuun had asked Kai to go intercede and stop the fighting, so he went to do what he could. When he entered, the tumult of angry voices subsided as they focused on him, leaving only a few still bickering.

"Everybody keep your britches on!" Maggle shouted over those remaining and got the room calmed down. "Kai's got something to say." He leaned in closer to whisper. "The britches are really sagging, sorry to say. If you can't do something, the ugly bits will be showing soon, and I reckon they'll whack us straight in 'em."

"Uh... thanks, Maggle." Kai turned to the rapt audience, for once wishing he'd studied more rhetoric back home. He cleared his throat and did what he could as he addressed the group. "The merchants have always kept us divided, and they want to divide us now! They had to gather to stop us, but we can't stop them alone. Can we debate how to move together, or are we still broken slaves?"

Some cheered, some shouted "No!", and others began talking. Kai took a seat on one side of the room, hoping that he had reined in the discussion enough for them to have a real debate. In his opinion there were only a few good options, but if the leaders of all the main forces weren't on board, then their army would scatter the first time it faced a loss.

"All our trouble is because of the combined army." Nirka stood up to speak over the buzz and managed to draw everyone's attention. "Draw together! We can meet them in battle and finish this!"

"That's what they want." Cragrila leaned in from the opposite side of the room, sitting with the New Laeneria coalition. "They may be reliant on their strongest crystalliers, but we need our strongest too. This is a feint to draw us out."

"A feint that's piercing our hearts! We can't ignore them, so if you say we can't attack, what do we do?"

"I said we don't attack where they want. Don't let them draw us into a trap."

It looked like the two of them could argue back and forth for a while. Kai edged to the side and found Zae Zin Nim sitting with a grim expression on her face. He started to say something to her, to explain that she needed to get involved, but she spoke first.

"I could have forced her," Zae Zin Nim said quietly. "She didn't want to leave Yulthens, and I let her stay. That was another error."

She wasn't thinking about the strategy at all, then. Kai put a hand on her shoulder and for once she didn't move away. "Orillia always made her own choices," he told her. "She shouldn't have had to pay the price, but that's war. There's nothing we can do for her now."

"We can kill them all."

"Not yet, we can't. You need to speak up and keep them from making an unforced error."

After a brief whispered conversation, Zae Zin Nim left her rage enough to understand. She gave him a brief nod, then spoke up and used her qi to amplify her voice over the crowd.

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"I faced an artifact nearly capable of killing me," she said, "and we can be certain that the merchants have purchased others. They will have these with their primary army, ready to use against us. They have sacrificed everything up to this point in order to know our measure and prepare a counterattack."

Her logical argument had a sobering effect on the council, and at least Nirka and Cragrila stopped arguing about a direct frontal attack on the enemy army. But the objection many voiced, and Kai agreed with, was that their opponents would always use that leverage, no matter what they chose to do. There was no easy solution to a war this expansive.

Though Kai tried to focus on the arguments, he always came back to the fact that their opponents were free to attack anywhere in Krysal, while the workers needed to defend every community. Considering it that way, there was one obvious way to tip the scales. And get revenge for Orillia.

"They're willing to sacrifice city states," Kai called out, "but there's one place they'll never sacrifice: Yulthens itself. The merchants of Yulthens didn't organize this counterattack to destroy us, it was to save their wealth and position. If we threaten those things, we can force them to a battle at a specific time and place."

Another chorus of objections and arguments. Cragrila was the one to make her voice heard: "Can we get behind their defensive lines? When they took back cities, they built a buffer around themselves."

"That's one of the questions we need to answer. Why don't you take a force to test their defenses? And we have an army from the sea crystal mines... find out whether they're prepared for an attack over water. Remember, they may have a single powerful army, but they're surrounded by enemies. Their army needs to be fed, and there are endless chances to sabotage their supply lines."

Those suggestions finally got the group moving, some of them discussing more productive actions. Nirka slipped closer to him and smiled tightly as she spoke.

"You're giving everyone something to do, right?"

"That's right," Kai told her. "Go talk to your contacts. Don't let anyone rush off to attack alone, give them some way to help without throwing their lives away."

"Got it. Anybody who can't complete a real mission can at least help with the mining."

As the revolutionaries began to debate their next steps in smaller groups, Kai retreated from the room with Zae Zin Nim. They only got a few steps out before they saw Omilaena leaning on a nearby wall, smoking a long pipe. She breathed out a thin line of smoke, then sucked it all back in when she took a breath before speaking.

"That might help, but you know they can't win this alone." She looked between the two of them with an icy gaze. "What are we going to do about the core of the merchants' forces?"

"I've been thinking about that too," Kai said. "At best, our forces might be able to blunt and spread out their army, but they'll never let themselves separate and be picked off. So I say we have until they stall to prepare. Then we need to take them out from the top."

"I agree with the plan in theory," Zae Zin Nim said, "but we will be outnumbered. Can we become meaningfully stronger in the time remaining to us? Reaching the Earth Soul stage is not possible for me."

"The Frontier elite told me something about Goralian potions and I've been trying to make progress with Krainuun there. Haven't figured out everything yet. Omilaena, you have the expertise there, could I convince you to run southeast to meet a Goralian merchant?"

She shrugged and sucked on the end of her pipe. "If you say so."

"Zae Zin Nim, you can gather everyone with inside knowledge of Yulthens and their defenses. We'll need to do something about the five great crystals above the city wall or they'll break up our attack. I don't have a plan for how we advance enough to stop them, but I trust you'll come up with something."

Her only response was to nod grimly.

"Even if we're running out of time to train, I think I should push forward." Kai rubbed the back of his neck, which still ached from his most recent training. "I'm the closest to a breakthrough, in Physique. That's the best edge I have to offer."

"One on one, we could take them," Omilaena said. "It's hard to say if all the merchants can really work together, especially their top crystalliers."

"I wouldn't bet on being able to separate them. This is their entire way of life at stake here. When things get this serious, people have a way of choosing their own interests over rivalries."

Speaking to his closest allies, Kai felt almost as though they could come to terms with this war. It seemed possible, if not easy. But before they could separate, Krainuun entered the hall. For a brief moment he looked around as if lost, then he shifted closer to them and spoke in a low voice.

"Philaster is lost."

"What?" Kai struggled to remember the map. "Did we have forces there?"

"Not us, but one of the largest other uprisings. I had hoped to ally with them." Krainuun gathered himself and spoke in a flat reporting voice. "They took their forces directly against the army from Yulthens and all reports suggest they were annihilated. Suortril has gathered all five Diamond Crystalliers, many of the Ruby Crystalliers, and others from nearby cities who are Ruby-tier."

They received the news in silence. It was just another step along the path they already knew, but it was still a grim one. Orillia's murder had only been the beginning.

Up to this point, they had been able to win battles because they could field multiple warriors at the level of average crystalliers and overwhelm them with numbers. But in terms of elites, the Diamond Crystalliers outnumbered them, and they would be well-supported by Rubies. Kai believed in the strength of people like Nirka or Maggle, but would he bring them into a fight like that?

In the end, it might be up to him. A monstrous power growled within him, deeply pleased, but it was the only part looking forward to what was to come.