The Golden’s Task:
“I trust all went well for the three of you” King Julion, Lord of all Leun, asked of the three captains assembled around him. The four middle aged men and the lesser multitude of servants, scribes, and maintenance men sat in a large chamber of the King’s Ischya residence. The large chamber was relatively empty of furniture except for a table of roughly draw maps and charts to the side, near the large door at the entrance and four large chairs that were brought into the center, one chair facing the other three.
The residence, King Juilon’s Ischya residence, while very much modest in comparison to the other grand palaces of the civilization of the far west, was still a site to behold when one come upon the complex, which only bowed down to the King’s rather unused Palace in the capital in terms of grandiose for buildings located in Leun. This was due to the fact that the King preferred to be out in his kingdom and the numerous city sates that constituted Leun rather than stay in isolation in the palace and listen to endless reports of how this or that was done. That was as his father had done.
He yearned to be out with his people, make them think that he truly cared about everyone, which he did, and he made it duty to use his extensive memory to learn the name or surname of everyone he meet. This was unsurprisingly an insurmountable duty, but the King still remembered the names and faces most of the small group of captains that he had under his trust. That was what allowed him to let the three captains to relax more than if the King simply asked for a report, but he introduced, each in turn to, the captain of the 2nd oldest Soliman, Odysseus, the captain of the 3rd oldest Golden, Rustinous, and captain of the newly commissioned Augustos, Polyos. And true to the King’s tactic, the captains divulged more then even Juilos thought.
All three immediately reported, no, rather blurted out nonsense, or what seemed to be with all three rapidly speaking in such close proximity. He was initially a tad surprised and annoyed at the sudden unprofessionalism displayed by the three men, as he could not account for it, was it the site of himself, for the small navy of Leun was consistently working to rescue this fishing ship or escorting this Leun trade fleet, it was nonstop work and between traveling overland and commanding his own personal ship, Juilos rarely had a chance to speak an actual discussion with his commanding subordinates after the initial celebration of a the launching of a new ship or the annual 3 year review. A review which Juilos has regretted ever since he proposed the plans to his father Augustos when he was a mere teenager due to complications in accomplishing it.
“Captains, gentlemen! Now one by one, give me a short report of the issues or hopefully lack of them before you arrived here and please try to avoid the unprofessionalism that just, just erupted. You don’t have to be formal to me as others in my position require, but please don’t be like to common beggar, blurting everything out as if your life depending on it. Odysseus, lets hear your account first.”
“My King, Juilos, all went well from our departure from the waters several leagues north or Tars, nothing was of note. No.” Captain Odysseus suddenly stopped and quickly glancing at captains Rustinous and Polyos, started to lean in towards the King and brought up his hand to mouth to blocks any spoken words, but the King quickly announced to all three.
“ Odysseus… All three of you, confidentiality does not matter, for the reason so you will learn by the end of this discussion. Odysseus, continue.” Was what Juilos announced, still continuing his psychological campaign to earn their trust and loyalty, for the task which he set ahead for them will rely on nothing but their trust and loyalty to him. What wasn’t known to the King, however, was that his campaign was already ended in victory and if anything, he was tying up lose ends; this he realized by the behavior of the captains within 10 minutes.
After glancing at first King Juilos, then the captains seated to his right, Odysseus finally reported, almost with reluctance, ”We saw no Nahari warships, though we saw a patrol of Tars warships, if you want to call them that, for the were tiny in compared to ours. Though, do not be fool my King, there was merchants a plenty, more than I have ever personally seen. As we traveled farther and farther west upon the sea, more and more trade ships of all nations appeared on the horizons, though a large majority were Opulensi.” Odysseus concluded and followed his hands into his lap and waited for King to process the information and make a response. However, instead of providing praise as Odysseus expected, for he had fulfilled his order to the fullest, the King unknowingly disappointed by simply accepting the information and moving on.
“Thank you Odysseus, Rustinous, your report”
Rustinous, who had been pretending to listen but rather listlessly looked of into the distance trying to control his fiery temper which was very much annoyed with Odysseus’s droll report. Odysseus had a reputation of being pompous and prideful fool, making the most simple and/or pathetic of tasks seems like he was a Golden Men performing it, and the King actually believed him. Rustinous kept his cool and promptly answered the King.
“We surveyed the large southern island as you said my King and the prospector said that there is indeed a great possibility of silver and even gold on the island.” At the first moment that the word, gold, or even silver, left the lips of Rustinous, the eyes of the other 3 males lit up, especially those of captains yet to speak, Polyos.
“If you send a servant down to my ship, the Golden, docked down in the harbor and fetch my scribe, Ostmen, he can give you the written report of whole matter, but in his short description of it to me, he said that the volume of a trade stemming from those, lucrative resources, could be great.”
“More gold for all of us!” Odysseus exclaimed looking cheerful at the possible accumulation of wealth.
“We can speak of the Gold at a later time, please let Rustinous continue.” King Juilon wearily interjected.
“Thank you King Juilon, but I do not have much more to say, we were blown off course, which caused delays in getting here, which you probably noticed.”
“Yes”
“Actually, I do have a problem, and it worries me, sir, and it is a small rivalry that is slowly coming into bloom, between the conscripts of your naval conscription plan and the veterans. I didn’t detect the conflict until it was right in my face” said Rustinous with a chuckle, remembering back to the night when his third in command, Hastos, who was a good man, psychologically abused a rather heavier set, and lazier man of his crew, Argatos.
“Has this conflict started a physical conflict?” King Juilon asked after a second of quiet thinking.
“NO, no, my king, just, no a conflict, more a rivalry.” Rustinous blurted out in an attempt to quickly let the King not have time to wonder about he being the cause of this rivalry. For besides being a anger prone man, Rustinous was also a very stressed man, always fearing demotion, for his family was one of the original seafaring Leuns, and as he was the 5th son, he had a tradition to maintain, and to fail to remain a captain was to fail remain a Lusker, his family’s surname. So Rustinous was always on the look out, even for such trivial matters. Crewmen who had long served under Rustinous privately concluded that this look out behavior also caused the temper.
This stressful look out and temper was duly noted by the King in earlier occasions with Rustinous, but he did not notice now, as that was Rustinous’ relived thought when Julion simply concluded with a:
“I foresaw possible resentment when I implemented the conscription, an open rivalry though… I did not see that occurring, but rivalries make the ones involved work all that harder. Right?
“Of course.”
“Yes”
“Yes sir.” Rung throughout the hall simultaneously as the three captains raced to prove themselves the best of the three to the king in their own small rivalry that had started to develop. If the king had known this, then their own behavior would have answered his inquiry.
“Then it should be of little consequence to us, if even that. Thank you Rustinous. Polyos, your report?” King Juilon stated and asked and turned his head to face Polyos, the quietest of the three captains. Of course, he had yet to formally give his report, but even so, he could have put his two cents in as had Odysseus. But Polyos was more a quiet, calculating man, a schemer as rumor had it.
“My patrols brought nothing out of the nothing out of the ordinary.” Was Polyos’ quick and curt reply.
“Ah, nothing is always good. Thank you Polyos.” King Juilon said in the same manner as Polyos. The three captains then leaned further into their seat, if it was even possible, as all three had presumed correctly that they had not be invited to this meeting just to talk of reports. They had been invited for something important and prepared themselves for the task King Juilon had set for them as the King himself took a deep breath and leaned backed in the chair eventually saying,
“Captains, gentlemen, as you may have assumed, I brought the three of you for a vital mission. Do any of you know of the recently established colony to the far north?” Juilon asked as 2 of the three captains leaned back trying to hide their blank and unknowing faces while the third, instantly delighted at the chance to outshine the others, said,” It was established, what… 6 years ago to help better encourage trade with the Acaya.”
“You lie Polyos” exclaimed Odysseus,” The Accan Empire is half way across the world to the west. How could we establish a colony even close to them?”
“No Odysseus, not Acca, Acaya” King Juilon quickly interjected in order to dispel any chance of an argument.
“Humph” Was all Odysseus replied.
“Well… I have not heard from this colony for 6 months and I fear that something negative has affected it, if it even exists any more.” King Juilon said with a shade of weariness, as if he had stressed over the issue for many hours.
“It was the Acaya” Odysseus nearly yelled as he jumped to his feet practically stunning the King.
“I concur” Rustinous added.
“We should take a fleet and kill them for their evil actions” Odysseus proclaimed, but King Juilon, finally regaining his sense, quickly spoke to stop any aggressive towards Acaya. “We will do no such thing Odysseus. The Acaya have shown no aggression towards us and we have and will continue to return the favor. Please sit down Odysseus.”
“But who else would have committed such a, a, atrocity as to kill the colony?” Odysseus said as he slowly sat back down trying to argue for his course of action.
“I do not know, that is why” King Juilon said and taking a deep breath, “I will be sending the three of you north with your ships to investigate the situation and if possible, correct the problem.”