Jackal Among Snakes

Chapter 564

A story spread across the Great Chu—a story spread by tongue and page, delivered to all of the age. The words therein spoke of a victor, a conqueror, a fearless leader of the young and old whose name rung bold. He travelled the lands and sea, spurred forth by heaven’s guarantee, to bring the glory of their empire to another land’s history.

The tale, of course, spoke of the emperor.

With heaven’s winds guiding them and the emperor presiding them, an army divine soared to lands not yet explored. Awaiting these soldiers were this lands’ present holders—elves and men, gods and their followers, standing head and shoulders taller. Clash their armies did, thrash they tried… and out of their crowd, the barbarian king stepped proud. With hair as black as the abyss, he stepped forth to resist.

The emperor presiding advanced forth gliding, and the skies shone with lightning and fire as the war kept tightening under the weight of man’s ire. The barbarian king’s black blood stained the snowy soil, dripping and gleaming like oil. Yet just as he bled, the emperor himself spilt red. Two masters at their summit, one fated to plummet.

Yet in the end, who before has ever dashed the hopes and dreams of the empire supreme?

As the barbarian king inflicted a blow most sound, the son of heaven delivered an attack profound. The king crumpled, downed… yet as he lay dying, his gray eyes defying, the emperor merely stood above sighing.

“What a waste,” said the emperor, “A warrior of your stature I must fracture. Tell me, great king, why you resist me, when you might assist me?”

“I resist,” said the king loudly as he died there proudly, “So that the sun persists to grace my people, that we might one day rise an eagle.”

“The sun, you say,” mused the emperor as he gazed upon this icy bay. “But as the suns move, so does the moon prove that light does not always exist. As surely as light comes, so too does it flee. We must strive to thrive when light deigns not dive. While we wait for light to revive, we must survive. Your light is dimming, noble king, yet your tale may be just beginning. I have no need for this land of endless cold, for it is a place that cannot be controlled. Will you and yours embrace the moon and become my boon?”

bestowed a name: Sun, that the king might be the light

such loyalty that even royalty follow

better promise than house and home? A quaint deal, perhaps, yet quite a steal. Back the son of heaven sailed with a greater reward than had been detailed. What use

home ambitions ignited anew.

use have we for the emperor,” they sneered, “When he fancies himself an adventurer? We are the empire’s

Should you see him, he is a pawn, his mind gone and soul withdrawn. Elves storm our shores,

narrative has been taken without consent.

faithful one-by-one. And so, by response,

emperor, baffled, stop atop his fort’s scaffold. From it, he called out to all the devout throughout the opposing redoubt. “Why do you fight, good men? Am I not

the court and its wiles had plans for any trials. Abandoning heaven’s own son, they sought an empire redone; themselves at the top, their reign never to stop. They abandoned their master, walking headlong toward

whole surface of the empire set fire. But the emperor’s new servants, disgusted by this observance, were eager deterrents of the court’s ignorant servants. They rose up to be counted, demonstrating Sun must be accounted,

times he was refused, three times called unworthy. Heaven was watching as this court kept botching, and through the evil gods’ darkness pierced the

of

up and greet

tired and weary souls, to mend the countless holes! There is respite in the light, and there is

to the son

the

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