Neytopia › Part 2: Noon › Chapter 45

A storm of swords and spears

The people in the room didn’t know how to react. Their god had killed their king and no amount of dogma could have prepared them for the situation. The next moments were crucial. The raven put back on his helmet, concealing his identity. The giant, now the Greater man, left the hall. He stood on the wall by the city’s gates and addressed the whole northern army, who were camped outside the fortress.

Brave northerners: The king lost my favor with the way he ruled. He twisted my words into lies that served only himself. He even ordered his own soldiers to fight me. Behold, the insanity of mankind, who have the arrogance to question their creator when he appears before them in flesh and bone!

A storm was closing in and lightning struck the nearby fields as he spoke. The raven, by his side, screamed,

The king is dead, long live the king!

The soldiers reacted differently to the news. Some raised their weapons against their own god, driven by an ancient sense of blind loyalty to their former king. Most, however, kneeled before the giant, acknowledging his right to rule. The giant continued,

You, you standing there against me. Yes, YOU! You owe nothing to your old king. Bow down to me. He used you and sacrificed the women and children he had sworn to protect. All to stay in power—He paused to look over the soldiers—The king is dead and he’s never coming back.

That sentence hit people like a bucket of cold water. It was true, in an instant, the whole world had changed.

You have to decide now. Do you want another human of weak flesh that bends to corruption and desire to rule over you? Or, perhaps, you would rather have me as ruler? I, who saved you from yourselves. I, who made you. Because only I can lead you to victory!

A young squire asked from the fields,

What victory?

What victory? Well, let me tell you. A storm of swords and spears, stronger than anything you ever imagined, is rising in the south. It won’t be long before it gets here. The people from the south know how weak we are. They are preparing to come with their ships and take the land away from us. They aren’t human; they are wolves in human shape. They will burn our fields, rape our women and enslave us.

Now the storm was right above the fortress from which the giant spoke, and rain was pouring down on everyone. People were tired of fighting, of war, of hunger and death. Yet they all stood, listening to the giant in silence as it rained on them. It wasn’t just the soldiers. Peasants, artisans, women and children occupied the nearby fields and meadows. They had come from everywhere to meet the giant and most were happy with how he had dealt with the king.

This is a time to show strength, not fear. This is a time to be united, not divided. Therefore, I ask you to forgive the heathens, even the man who led them into battle, as we will need every soul in the war to come. Decide now, all of you: will you fight by my side, or will you too be my enemy?

Black clouds swirled above the giant, spitting lightning on the city. Nobody questioned his authority now. Timidly they began raising their weapons and tools, showing they were ready to fight for him. Soon the meadows, roads and hills near the fortress were filled with thousands of raised swords, shovels, hammers, pans and hoes. The giant held his hammer high. Thunder struck nearby, lighting the whole valley. He spoke with a booming voice,

We will defend the country you built with your hands and destroy the invader! We will let no one land in the north to take what is ours by right. Are you with me!?

The people occupying the meadows shouted back,

Yes!

The giant’s voice boomed across the fields,

Into victory!

As one, everyone replied,

Into victory!

The preparations for the new war began the next day. Nobody knew how much time they had, so every able man was moved to the southern shore. Thousands of farmers and artisans moved to form the new camp-cities. The largest one was located by the only strait between the two continents. The only alternative path to the northern continent was to sail the dangerous Middle Sea, even more dangerous at the time since it was the Summer. At high council meetings, the giant’s military advisers warned him,

We don’t know if they will go through the strait. On a calm day, they could disembark on the far west and imitate the raven’s push eastward during the war. It will be impossible for us to stop them then. We must move west, otherwise—

The giant slammed his fist on the table,

The barbarians will use the strait to invade the North. And I know this because it was revealed to me in a dream.

There was no possible reply to that. The military advisers looked at each other, then at the raven, who said,

Greater man, sometimes we can’t tell the difference between a dream and reality, between a lie and truth.

We will wait for them at the strait, and that’s final. I don’t want to hear anything more on this subject.

The few survivors and former soldiers from the city under the mountain joined the camp-city, claiming to be citizens of a small western village, which northerners readily accepted. Some of them even joined the new army, to fight side by side with their former enemies.

Among them was the leader of the people from the city under the mountain. He was bitter because his people had won the war but he did not rule. He burst into the giant’s tent while he was speaking to the raven. The raven wanted to kill him on the spot, but restrained himself. The giant’s personal guard stopped him. After looking up and down at the leader, the giant waved away his guards and ordered everyone to leave, leaving the raven, the giant and the leader. The leader spoke with anger,

Most of our noble blood was shed, but the northern kingdom remains the same. Only now, thanks to a lie, the northern people are even more delusional, following the orders of a “god”! And who are you, huh? Just an oversized man whom we healed in his hour of need and now turns his back on us. Have you forgotten why we fought this war!?

The raven replied,

Thanks to me, we triumphed with only sixty-four demoralized men. You could never, not even close, have achieved what I achieved. In fact, you lost the only city you had to defend. My wife and child died because of your incompetence. So shut your mouth before I shut it for you.

The leader left the tent, swearing at everyone on his way out. Then he disappeared from the camp.

But the raven was too concerned with the giant to care about the leader; the giant was convincing in his role of Greater man. Too convincing. He spoke to the little girl about it:

He talks in private just like he talks to the northern sheeple, like he believes he is a god. Every day I see him stray further away from me. I fear… I fear my friend has forgotten it’s all a lie. He really has forgotten the purpose of this war. But what can I do when he doesn’t talk to me anymore except about preparations for our Glorious Victory?

The raven tried to talk to the giant, but the giant didn’t have time to listen, saying,

We must defend ourselves from the South. Isn’t that why you took me out of my island? Isn’t that why we headed north to rally an army?

My dear friend, none of that matters to me now. Let them come and conquer, we’ll never have enough forces to stop them and you know it. Look at us, we are what, two thousand and forty-eight exhausted men? And it’s mostly untrained peasants and artisans. We can’t win this war. Let’s just abandon the cities and take shelter up north, where the barbarians won’t come for a long, long time.

But the giant refused, saying,

Listen to me: I am the Greater man.

Not this shit again.

I won’t back down before some heathens. We, the righteous, will win this war. This is my chosen people, and I, their god, will help them prevail.

The raven looked at his friend in horror. He didn’t recognize whoever had just spoken. The giant had spent too much time behind enemy lines, he had seen too much during the war. The walking corpses starved for months, the dead children frozen in the snow, the pyres… The giant was too wrapped up in his lie, and if the raven did not stop him, both the giant and the men following him would be massacred in the southern shores. The raven said,

Listen to me now, and listen carefully. I know somewhere inside you there is still the same giant who fought with me and endured, come hail, hunger or sword. The same brave man whom I told to act as the god of some deranged folk to stop a war that tore apart a whole continent. I beg, no, I implore to that man, wherever he is, please, please, listen to reason. We can’t win this fight. Tell the soldiers to come with us to the north to find peace. Please, you—

The giant stared at the raven, confused at first. But then he was overcome by anger, and shouted,

Never back down! We will never back down! Are you a traitor? Are you with those heathens!?

He shoved the raven into the ground.

Guards! Take this man. Take him out of my tent. Out!

The guards were also horrified. They were soldiers from the city under the mountain, their brothers in arms. But still, they obeyed their king’s orders.

The raven let himself be carried out of the tent, watching his old friend’s descent to madness. It reminded him of a story the little girl told him. The story of the northern king.