Chapter 3: Matters of State
The city of Orion, a sprawling metropolis encased in walls of sandstone and glass. Rapid expansion and a desire to allow the city to flow with the landscape led it to become almost haphazard in design. Four boulevards extended from the central city hall in the four cardinal directions, but the rest of the city was a maze of streets and homes. Outside the weather was bright, but within the city hall the atmosphere was much more grim.
The council’s chamber was packed full of Orion citizens. Tradesmen and bankers and fisherman and laborers all squeezed in as best they could to listen to the council debate. It had been two days now since Doogler had returned with his frantic report, and one since they received the missive from North Reach. The chamber was abuzz with conversation, for many had travelled to observe the river before Orion’s army had locked-down the hillside nearest to it.
The pounding of a stone gavel and RumpTroll’s voice calling for silence rose above the chatter in the room. Slowly the talk died down, until all eyes were on the semi-circle of their leaders. “Well, I’ll cut right to the chase,” spoke RumpTroll. He was wearing his finest suit for the meeting, although the man always seemed to be wearing a suit, and owned none that could claimed as poor quality. “You all have heard of the, event, to the west.” The crowd began to murmur as he continued. “We are still determining the cause of the disturbance, and we are forbidding anyone from approaching the river. The council decrees that no-one may travel farther west than the base of the hills, ad our military will be there to enforce this rule.” The crowd’s talking grew in volume, until iFizze stood up and called for silence.
“First, I would like to tell you that whatever this is, is not our doing,” spoke the ruler of Orion. We are attempting to resolve this situation, and will be strengthening our garrison in case of any threat. You have nothing to worry…”
“What about them North Reachers?” shouted a woman from the crowd. It’s near them too, what if they’re tryin’ to pull somethin’ on us?” A chorus of agreements and argument sprung up throughout the citizens, each trying to debate the source and reason of the ‘Angry River’ they were calling it.
Rump’s gavel and commands eventually silenced the crowd, but they were becoming visibly restless, and iFizze knew this would be his best chance to keep them under control.
“It is not North Reach. Their leader, Gaiden, has sent word to us indicating they thing WE are the ones responsible, and demanding that we desist whatever activity they think we are doing.”
“It’s all a ruse to attack us,” grumbled another council member by the name of Daring. “We should ready our army, or even strike first!”
A round of cheers echoed through the room until iFizze’s glare quieted them down again.
“Yes, we’ve had our quarrels with them, but we can’t simply declare war because we feel like it.” Ignoring the grumbles throughout the room, he continued. “We will be sending diplomats to North Reach to discuss our mutual problem, as well as strengthening our defenses and activating our reserves.”
The debating continued for hours, with ideas and threats and conspiracies thrown from citizens and council members alike. When the chambers had finally emptied, iFizze turned to his fellow leaders.
“Send word to Zeal. In case this situation falls apart, I want to make sure we have ourselves covered.”
___
It was five days later before emissaries from both North Reach and Orion met. Soldiers from both cities erected a massive tent on the North Reach side of the river were the diplomats could speak and observe the increasingly violent water. As night fell and lanterns were lit, the emissaries from both cities were finally prepared for one another. Soldiers eyed each other warily, diplomats shook hands stiffly, and the discussions began.
A diplomat from Orion opened the exchange, adjusting his brightly-colored robes as he spoke. “We would like to begin by stating that Orion has had no hand in the creation of this event, and insist that North Reach recall its threats of violence on our lands and people.”
“We require proof,” the man from North Reach rebuffed. “The location of that, thing,” he pointed to the now faintly visible plume of smoke in the darkness “is highly suspicious.”
Farther away from the tent, patrols of guards watched the night and each other with equal suspicion. Each city sent ten guards with their diplomats, four of which stayed by the tent while the remaining were split into two groups of three. Each group circled the tent, watching for bandits but never letting the other guards out of their sight.
“I don’t like that thing, sir,” a footman said to his lieutenant. The smoke ain’t natural, and even less so at night.” The plume was barely visible except for where it blotted out the stars, but the roar of it could be heard quite a distance away. “Quiet!” snarled Lieutenant Danvield of the North Reach garrison. The nights since the river had seemingly become possessed had felt darker, more ominous somehow, but he just attributed it to all the damn smoke the river had been belching. Shrugging it off, the soldier and his two squadmates continued their path at the edges of the torchlight until a series of shouts eminated from their left.
Drawing their weapons they turned, searching for the source of the commotion. Danvield was the first to spot them in the dim light, a trio of Orion soldiers beset by about 8 zombies. “What do we do, sir?” asked the soldier who spoke before. Danvield spit on the ground. “Guess we gotta go save those lousy pissants.”
With a shout, the three North Reach warriors charged into the mass. Danvield beheaded a zombie that had bowled over one of the Orion guards while the other two set about assisting the others from Orion. Zombies are dumb, fairly impervious to pain other than that from fire. However, Danvield felt these ones were more driven, attacking almost frantically even for Zombies. Leaping back to avoid the swipe of a decaying hand, he countered with a swing that delimbed the undead before using a backhand stroke to cleanly remove its head. “Only way to down them things, take off their heads!” he shouted to the rest. He was sure they had fought the beings before, but felt it prudent to shout something, anyway. Pulling an axe out of the neck of a zombie, one of the Orion guards shouted “More are coming, look!”
It’s a bloody horde thought Danvield to himself. By now the shouts and sounds of battle had drawn the other patrolling guards, and a furious battle had ensued. One of the Orion sergeants informed the rest that the diplomats were being ushered to the walls of North Reach by their eight guards before entering the fray with a scream. By now all twelve remaining soldiers were in the thick of it, swinging sword, axe, and torch.
“These fuckers are fighting like no zombies I’ve ever seen!” screamed a soldier. And indeed they were. The zombies tend to attack anything that moves, but never with any thought or purpose. These ones, however. They seemed almost driven, throwing themselves at the soldiers with swinging arms and furious moaning. “Damn it, fall back for the walls!” screamed Danvield. The Orion seargant shouted in agreement, and the throng of soldiers slowly backed their way towards the city, doing everything in their power not to fall under the weight of the zombie horde. One soldier screamed as a swipe from a zombie slashed open his arm, while another tried to fend it off. All were growing weary, but they continued their slow retreat towards the city.
Without warning, hundreds of burning arrows slammed into the mass of the undead. Some fell, the ones who were ignited began to thrash in fear before they were incinerated. The barrage of arrows continued even as the bloodied and worn soldiers stumbled through the gates and the portcullis slammed shut. As healers began to tend to the wounded, Danvield spotted his capitan approaching.
“The hell happened out there, Danvield?” he screamed while eying the Orion soldiers suspiciously.
“Zombies, sir,” Danvield panted. “Hundreds of ‘em. Came out of nowhere, jumped us. “
“Jumped you?” the captain spat. “Zombies don’t ‘jump’. They waddle and moan and smack shit around,” his face developing an angry shade of crimson.
“Wasn’t natural, sir,” replied Danvield nervously. “Those things were different, driven. Almost, I don’t know sir, panicked?”
The twang of bows continued for a good time longer. As the sun rose the next morning, the corpses of the zombies were incinerated by the light, and Orion’s diplomats returned with their escort to recount the tale of the night for the Orion Council.
___
“Not even Orion would have the stomach to sacrifice one of their aristocrats,” scowled Tishabisha. “Maybe they aren’t responsible for this whole mess after all.”
To the east, Orions leaders were coming to the same conclusion about North Reach.
“Reports are coming in from this region of increased monster attacks,” reported Doogler. “It must be related to the river”
“Must be,” agreed iFizze. “Send another message to Zeal. We’re going to need help with this.”
