The Warlord Chapter 11

WARLORD Chapter 11

This was a battle I really didn't want to fight. First, the Balabans and the Hadyks together outnumbered us by a considerable margin. Chalky and his scouts had done some excellent work during the previous turn, and they'd come up with estimates of our enemies' numbers.

The Balabans had approximately twenty thousand troops, and they could build in two cities. The Hadyks had ten thousand, plus one build. That probably gave them thirty-three or thirty-four thousand, to our thirty. But we had almost three thousand wounded.

There was another good reason that I didn't want to fight at Caladium: I didn't have much of an army there. Yes, I had five thousand cavalry. But seven thousand of our ten thousand 'infantry' were not soldiers. They were auxiliaries. First Army was mainly just for show. It was all part of a plan based on deception. Petra Balaban thought that she'd lured me into a trap.

But Second and Third Armies were where we'd placed our hopes.

Luth and Armene led Second Army. They had nine thousand infantry and a thousand cavalry, with Faldor and Vanea for support. They went through the Portal to Dahlia, and marched on Amaranth through the night. Hopefully they were in position to attack when they heard the gong and Petra Balaban's declaration of war, because time was not on our side.

Peachy and Wantrao led Third Army, with similar numbers, and Zenon and Tya. They'd gone through the Portal to Eglantine, and marched on Bryony.

My whole plan rested on a guess: that Petra Balaban and the Hadyks wanted me badly. That they wanted to kill or capture me, and then crush my army. I also calculated that she didn't expect me to be prepared to betray her.

If she brought fifteen thousand troops to Caladium, that would leave only seven or eight thousand for the garrisons of two cities. Also, given the shortage of family members who could command troops, it was unlikely that she'd left any of her best fighters behind.

Meanwhile, the Grahams' seven cities were defended only by our wounded. They had strict orders to retreat through the Portal if they were attacked. Thanks to our scouts, though, we knew that was highly unlikely.

The first part of Petra Balaban's trap had failed; I was still alive, and fleeing for the (relative) safety of my own army. Jashi's mounted archers were peppering her cavalry escort with arrows, and then interposing themselves between me and my pursuers. I couldn't see what was happening with Boloda and Kisel.

Now I had to try to keep First Army from being destroyed until Amaranth and Bryony were taken. I hadn't just gambled with my life; I was risking the lives of fifteen thousand of our people.

Fortunately (or unfortunately), Deondra wasn't sending the Hadyk troops at us straight away, piecemeal. They were forming up just outside the walls before they moved to join the Balabans, who were advancing on us now.

Time. It was all a matter of time. First Army had to survive long enough for Second and Third to capture their objectives.

That put the onus on our cavalry, and on Sudha and Jashi. Our three thousand foot soldiers wouldn't last long if they had to deal with fifteen thousand enemy infantry. So we retreated, while our cavalry tried to protect us.

Somehow, through all of the maneuvering troops, Boloda and Kisel came galloping back to our lines. They found me easily, and trotted over. Boloda had blood running down her arm; Kisel appeared to be unhurt.

- "Thank goodness." I said.

- "Wasn't that bad." said Boloda. "We just wanted to give you time to get clear."

- "You succeeded."

The cavalry battle began.

We had equal numbers of heavy cavalry, but I'd split two thousand light cavalry between Second and Third Army. Sudha and Jashi could certainly have used those troopers here and now. They bravely tried to screen our front as we retreated, but more and more they had to spread out, to cover threats to our flanks, and then to our rear.

On both ends of our line, we had units facing to the side or even to the rear, confronted by clouds of enemy light cavalry that swarmed around us. The foot soldiers in the middle had to slow their retreat, to avoid exposing these flank units. Even as it was, our front began to bend, looking more and more like a bow being drawn by an archer.

The enemy infantry was catching up, and beginning to apply pressure. Arrows were flying in both directions, and hand to hand fighting erupted not a hundred yards from me.

Worse yet, a wide gap immediately opened up between our auxiliaries and our three thousand infantry. That left more space for enemy cavalry to infiltrate. Jashi was using the concentrated fire of her mounted archers to break up the most serious threats. She couldn't be everywhere at once, though.

On the other side, Sudha was doing essentially the same thing. Even as I watched, though, an enemy cavalry squadron broke through. They rode through a hail of arrows, but only a few fell. There had to be fifty of them. Sixty. It was hard to tell. But they were coming straight for the centre rear of our infantry.

Right where my bodyguards and I were.

- "Inzhay! Trouble!"

He couldn't hear me, of course, over the din of battle. I led my little party closer to where he was directing our troops.

- "Inzhay! Cavalry behind!" Even more cavalry, I could see. Was that a whole second unit?

Now, I've made it clear that Inzhay was no great fighter. I wouldn't have entrusted him with the command of an army, or even of an independent force. But there was nothing wrong with his instincts: he immediately ordered two of our second rank units to face the rear, and sent for a third.

They were light infantry, armed with spears, lacking shields and heavy armour. Could they even stand against a cavalry charge?

Boloda dismounted, and reached for the reins of my horse.

- "Get down." she said. "You're too big a target up there."

That made sense. I couldn't shelter behind our fighters on horseback without clearly advertising where I was. I couldn't fight from horseback, either, and trying to gallop away would probably have left me lying on the ground with a broken back, or a broken neck, if I wasn't stabbed from behind before that.

Kisel thrust a spear into my hand.

- "Kill the warlord!" someone shouted. And then the horsemen were upon us.

The horses they rode were Touchstone creations, which didn't eat, or defecate, or sweat, or make any of a dozen noises. But they were as big as real horses, and no more suicidal than real horses, meaning that they wouldn't run their rider onto a wall of spear points. But where there were gaps, they didn't hesitate to push through.

Our light infantry began falling, and there were big horses to either side of me. I stabbed upwards with the spear, which glanced off the armour of a cavalry trooper. Boloda's thrust with her sword was much more effective, and that rider slipped off the other side of their saddle.

More horses and riders surged into the melee. Boloda was struck from behind: she stumbled and fell. The riderless horse was jostled, and it side-stepped quickly, slamming into me.

It knocked me back a step, and I tripped on another body and fell. I just barely kept my grip on my spear.

Then that horse stepped on me.

Its big hoof landed on my hip, with all of the horse's considerable weight behind and above it. I shrieked as I felt something in my hip snap and give. The pain was hideous. I'd never felt anything remotely that frightening. It took my breath away.

I couldn't move. I didn't even think of moving, because I couldn't think, either. My body might have been paralyzed, but my mind was definitely in shock.

But I could still see. It was amazing to me that I could still see so clearly.

I saw another horse loom over me, with a rider. He had a shield, and a spear. I shouldn't have concluded so quickly that it was a male; this was the Decapolis, after all. But in fact it was a male, and in a moment of horror, I realized that I recognized him.

It was Moran Hadyk.

He shouted something at me, which I didn't hear clearly enough to make out. There was a roaring in my ears. But I saw his face, twisted into a grimace of savage elation.

Then he thrust down with his spear, and stabbed me in the face.

***

The light was too bright. I could only open one eye, but the light hurt my eye, so I closed it right away.

Where was I? Where in the Decapolis were the lights too bright?

I wasn't on the battlefield. My hip felt stiff, and sore, but the mind-numbing pain was gone. The side of my head, and that same side of my face also hurt. But I was lying propped up, rather than on my back. There was no longer a body underneath me. Whatever was propping me up felt softer. Firm, but soft.

I tried to open my eye again, but the light was still too bright.

- "Dan?" I heard. "Daniel?"

I knew that voice.

- "Pee... Peony?"

- "Yes, I'm here." she said. "Can you try to open your eye again?"

- "Light -"

- "Ah. Okay - hang on a sec."

I heard her move. She was only gone for a few moments, and I felt her return even before I heard her voice.

"I turned the lights down." she said. "Try again."

I slowly lifted my eyelid. Actually, it fluttered on me quite a bit, but I could tell immediately that the light wasn't so bright. I saw Peony's beautiful face. All should have been well with the world.

It wasn't.

Peony was wearing a dull off-white tunic, and there was a little name tag on it, that said 'Peony'. Just above that, in smaller words, was the word 'Nurse'.

I wasn't in the Decapolis. This wasn't my chamber. It wasn't my apartment, either. Of course not; Peony wouldn't have been there. But none of the ten cities had a switch for turning the lights down.

There were rails on my bed, and a tube in my arm.

- "Where...?"

- "You're still in North Shore Hospital, Dan." she said. "Remember?"

- "No." My head was reeling. North Shore?

- "But you remembered my name."

- "Yes."

- "What else do you remember? Or who else?"

My last memory was of being stabbed in the face by Moran Hadyk. In the Decapolis. But North Shore was a hospital in my city. Except that it wasn't the closest hospital to where I lived.

- "Hadyk." I said.

- "Very good." said Peony. "Doctor Hadyk is your attending physician. She's an expert in concussions."

Concussion? They didn't put you in a hospital for concussions, did they? And why did my hip hurt? Why couldn't I open both eyes?

"Do you remember anyone else?"

- "Balaban. Morcar. Shorr." I said, in quick succession.

Peony hesitated for a moment. "Dr. Balaban is a surgeon. She performed the operations on your hip. I don't know anyone named Morcar. Or Shore. Unless you mean North Shore - which is here."

Operations? Plural? I wanted to cry. Not because I was in a hospital, but... okay, yes, because I was in a hospital. The Decapolis wasn't real. Hadyk and Balaban were doctors. And I wasn't really married to Peony, which just about broke my heart. If I was dreaming or hallucinating, why couldn't it have stayed as a dream?

"Are you in pain?" she asked.

- "No. Sore. Can't open my eye. Other eye."

Peony frowned. "Dan, do you not remember what happened?"

- "No."

- "Hmm. Maybe... I don't know for sure, but given how many painkillers you were on, you may not remember the last time we talked about this. Do you... do you want me to remind you?"

- Please." My heart was just about breaking. Peony was as lovely and as kind as ever, but she wasn't my wife. I just wanted her to keep talking so that I could listen to her voice.

- "You were hit by a car. You were at a crosswalk, but the driver was impaired, and didn't see you. You have a fractured hip. It's broken in two places. You also have pelvic contusions. You were thrown back onto the sidewalk, and... you landed badly. You fractured your skull. It's a linear fracture, meaning a simple crack. It may sound bad, but that's actually good news."

- "It is?"

- "It could have been much worse. You've had a serious concussion, and you lost consciousness. Your headaches have been... bad. You've had some external swelling, and nausea, and you may experience some difficulties with your balance and coordination."

Well, it wasn't like I was balanced or coordinated before. Nausea? I had a sudden memory of spitting up all over myself. Lovely. Poor Peony had been cleaning up my vomit, and probably wiping my ass.

"Unfortunately, you also fractured the orbital bone around your right eye, and suffered some damage to the eye itself. We won't know how much until the swelling goes down. Dr. Boloda is your eye specialist."

Boloda? I wondered what she (or he) looked like.

"Do you have any questions for me, Dan?"

It was probably too early for 'Will you marry me?'.

- "Will I be able to walk?"

- "According to Dr. Balaban, you'll need extensive rehab, but the odds are good."

- "Will it be you doing the rehab?" That was a possible bright spot.

She shook her head. "No. I'm just a nurse. We have some excellent physiotherapists, though. You'll like them."

Just a nurse? I didn't believe that for a moment. And then a second nurse came into the room.

- "Peony? Your shift ended twenty minutes ago."

- "Thanks, Steph. I just wanted to check on Dan one last time, and it turned out he was awake."

The second nurse came closer. Yes, her name tag read 'Stephanie', and she had hair so black it was almost blue. She smiled.

- "How are we feeling today?"

- "Bit sore." I said. "And confused."

- "Oh?"

- "I'll explain later." said Peony. "I have to go now, Dan. But I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

- "Thank you." I said.

- "Can I get you anything?" asked Stephanie. "Some juice? Do you maybe want to try eating something?"

- "I can try." Truth be told, I was hungry. I just didn't want to heave it all up afterwards, and make Stephanie or Peony clean it up.

- "Cool." she said. "Don't go anywhere." Out she went. Peony gave me a little wave as she left.

I felt a terrible tidal wave of sadness pass over me. It wasn't real. I should've known that, right? I'd invented the whole Decapolis out of a few scraps: the names of my nurses and a few doctors, the name of the hospital... the rest was probably some weird composite of the games I'd played, my subconscious, my job...

Would I still be there if Moran Hadyk hadn't killed me? And yet... the injuries I'd suffered were remarkably similar. A horse had stepped on my hip, and I'd heard as well as felt it crack. Moran had stabbed me in the face; that was close to a fractured skull, and the orbital lobe, and the eye I couldn't open. My injuries weren't fatal, right?

And why had my imagination left my injuries for last?

Nurse Stephanie returned with some apple juice and some dry toast.

- "Let's try this, first." she said. "If you can keep it down, maybe we can graduate to other solids."

- "I'm sorry about... not keeping it down."

- "Not your fault."

She raised the bed a bit, and helped me sit up a little straighter. That was when I noticed the flowers on the windowsill.

- "Did somebody bring those?" I asked.

- "Yes. A lady. Said she was your boss. She felt awful. She said you usually work from home, but she made you come into the office the day of the accident."

Poor Linda; she already had enough stress and drama in her life. Now she was feeling guilty about me. It was nice of her to bring the flowers, though.

- "Are those...?"

- "Dahlias." said Stephanie.

I drank a bit of the juice, and nibbled on the toast. I thought that I was hungry, but I wasn't all that interested in eating.

- "Is there anything to read?" I asked.

- "A few magazines. Not sure if these are your type of thing, though." She held them up for me to see. "Auto Trader: More Car For Your Money. Better Gardens: Flowering Plants from A to Z, Volume One. From Amaranth to Jacaranda."

- "Could I see that one?"

- "Sure. Don't overdo it, though. We don't want to strain your good eye, do we?"

I promised to go easy, and Stephanie said she'd check in on me later.

I just held the magazine in my hands, and stared at the title. Had I read this? That seemed highly unlikely. I certainly didn't remember it. Had someone read it aloud while I was lying there unconscious? That made no sense. I could have been conscious before, and heard the names of the doctors. Peony had talked to me, and was mildly surprised that I didn't remember what she must have told me. But these plants?

I wasn't really in the mood to read about plants. My mind was still on the Decapolis. Had Peachy and Wantrao succeeded? And Luth and Armene? If only one had captured their objective, the Battle outside Caladium would be even bloodier, and it would probably still end in the elimination of most of First Army. I really hoped that someone would manage to kill Moran Hadyk.

Were my friends okay? I thought about Boloda and Kisel, Nosey and Pudge. I worried about Jashi and Sudha. Then I remembered that they were all just figments of my imagination.

I had quite the imagination, apparently. How had I come up with the convoluted family dynamic between Malusha, Jashi, and Wantrao? I couldn't even begin to figure out where in the deepest recesses of my mind Armene and Sudha had originated.

I turned the whole thing over in my mind. For me to create a strategy game in my head was certainly believable. I'd even brought my online nemesis, Peachy XL, into play. Then I'd borrowed the names of doctors and nurses for some of my characters, and named the cities after plants in a magazine.

Had I turned North Shore hospital into the Shorrs? Did 'More car for your money' become the Morcars? Why were there no geographical features, no rivers or swamps, no hills or forests in the world I'd created?

Where had Rona and Deondra Hadyk sprung from? Moran was easy; he was like a composite of some of the most entitled asshole bullies I'd gone to school with. Had I borrowed Portals from Stargate, or Star Trek? Were Touchstones an original idea, or had I unconsciously pilfered them from some other source?

I didn't reach many solid conclusions. But the effort of thinking about these things did keep my mind occupied, and tired me out enough that I closed my eyes and promptly fell asleep.

***

The first of my senses to re-engage was, oddly enough, my sense of touch. Something was brushing against the back of my hand. It moved rhythmically, but not quite as regular as a metronome. It tickled a bit, but it was also very soothing. I finally realized that it was a finger. Somebody was brushing the back of my hand with their finger.

I carefully opened my eye. The light wasn't so bright as before.

- "Oh, Dan..." said Peony. Her voice was surprisingly thick with emotion.

I was even more surprised when she leaned forward and kissed me. I had not been expecting that. I mean, nurses should not be kissing patients who have mostly been unconscious.

But the light was different. And she wasn't wearing scrubs.

- Peony?"

- "Oh, my love..." She kissed me again, very carefully. "Please... promise me that you won't give me a fright like that again."

I choked up at that. What could I answer? How could I promise anything? How could I explain to the love of my life that she was only a facsimile of a pretty nurse who'd been kind to me? And yet I was thrilled to be back with her, in a fantasy-land of my own imagination.

"How do you feel?" my wife asked.

My hip was sore, much the same as it had been in the hospital. My left eye was heavily bandaged, and it ached and itched at the same time.

- "Sore." I said. "But so very happy to see you, love."

A big tear released itself from her eye, rolled down her cheek, and splashed onto the back of my hand.

- "Do you feel up to receiving visitors? They've all been waiting to hear how you are. To see you."

- "I'd like that. But... could you tell them that I'm just sore, so that I don't have to answer the 'How are you?' question over and over again?"

She smiled through her tears. "There's my man."

She brought in my bodyguards first. Boloda had her arm in a sling, but she appeared to be still in one piece.

- "Well, you may end up looking more like me than you might have wanted." she said.

- "I would be proud to look more like you, Boloda." I said.

She clearly hadn't expected that answer. I saw her face, and she was obviously moved. She covered that by kneeling beside my bed, and taking my hand in hers.

- "We thought we'd lost you." she said.

- "Tell me what happened. Please."

- "Some of their cavalry broke through the back of our line -"

- "I saw who it was. Moran Hadyk. A horse stepped on my hip. Then he stabbed me in the face. What happened after that?"

- "Kisel killed a rider beside Moran. But it was Nosey who stabbed Moran in the gut."

I looked at my tall, thin bodyguard. "Thank you, Nosey."

- "I didn't kill him." she said. "It wasn't for lack of trying, though."

Boloda took over. "Sudha buried her sabre in the side of his neck. Practically took his head off. She followed the enemy cavalry with some of her own riders, and arrived just in time. Kisel was fighting two riders, I had my hands full, and Pudge was wrestling on the ground with a trooper that he'd unhorsed."

- "Did... did we win?"

- "Of course we did! Do you think you'd be lying in a bed if we hadn't?"

- "The war is over." said Peony.

- "How... how bad were our losses?"

Boloda didn't sugarcoat it. "Three thousand dead. Four thousand wounded. But Daniel- over twenty-five thousand peons are now people. They didn't disappear when the Turn ended. That's without counting the servants who are now people as well."

- "All right." said Peony. "You'll see him again later. There are others waiting." She ushered my bodyguards out of the chamber.

A moment later, Jashi and Sudha came in, followed by Armene and Wantrao. Jashi's face lit up, but it was Sudha who came forward to take my hand.

- "Thank the Gods." she said.

- "No. Thank you." I said. "You saved my life."

She shook her head. "Nosey did. I just... helped."

- "That's not what I heard. Are you calling Boloda a liar?"

- "Well, she might have exaggerated a little."

- "How long before you're up and about?" asked Wantrao.

- "I don't know. I don't think I recover as quickly as you do."

Inzhay and Virdyan were my next visitors, followed by Luth, Kien and Rima. Faldor and Vanea came in after them. My last visitors were Peachy and her friends Travot and Stina.

- "Holy cow." she said. "You look like shit, Noobley."

- "Thank you, Peachy. And thank you for Bryony. That and Amaranth won us the war."

- "Ah... it was your plan. And I just watched, really. You knew that was how it was going to work out."

Peony let my pint-sized tormentor tease me a little more before shooing them all out.

- "Are you hungry, love?" she asked. "Thirsty?"

- "No. I'm just... really, really glad to be here."

- "I don't know what I would have done if I'd lost you."

She misunderstood me. I mean, I was glad to still be alive, in the here and now, but I was happy to be back in the Decapolis at all, after waking up in the hospital. Whether it was a dream, an imaginary construct, or a delusion, didn't seem to matter as much as the fact that I was back with Peony.

She came around to the far side of the bed, and carefully climbed on with me. This was the opposite side to my broken hip. Unfortunately, she was lying next to the big bandage around my damaged eye. She solved that issue by scooching closer and resting her head on my chest.

"Is this alright?" she asked.

- "Better than alright."

***

I was inordinately pleased when I woke up the next morning, in my chamber at Caladium, with Peony gently snoring beside me.

In the past, the end of a Turn had always resulted in me waking up in my apartment. I had also always worried that the end of the war would mean the end of my adventures in the Decapolis. But for six nights in a row I fell asleep and woke up in the same place.

I also found out Wantrao's secret. The Decapolis didn't let wounds or injuries linger. My hip was stiff and sore, but I was able to get out of bed and walk around five days after the battle. The bandage came off my eye. Boloda was right: I did end up looking like her, with a nasty scar both above and below the eye itself.

To my immense relief, I wasn't the only fortunate one. Most of our thousands of wounded soldiers also recovered. Some, unfortunately, would remain amputees, like Kien and Luth, but the vast majority just got better. Don't ask me how; It wasn't me doing anything consciously. It just happened.

It was definitely time for a family meeting. We had a little over sixty thousand people who had to decide where they were going to live.

- "Do we let them choose? Or settle them by unit?"

- "They'll choose to remain with their units." said Inzhay. "Those are the people they know best."

- "But do we want twenty thousand people in Amaranth and only five thousand in Caladium?" asked Luth.

- "Why don't we ask them?" I suggested.

The result of our inquiry was surprising. The former servants (now referred to as auxiliaries) definitely wanted to remain together. They had longer memories, having served their families for years (and even decades, in many cases). But they were not as attached to their home cities.

To me, the production centres were virtually identical, but the auxiliaries had lived in them so long that they noticed even the most minor differences. Most of them preferred to move to a new location, rather than continue to inhabit the quarters where they had been servants.

The soldiers also wanted to remain with their units. But here there was a significant difference. Some of the units, like Nosey's and Pudge's light infantry company, had been together for years. Then there were the troops who been created at the beginning of the war, and had fought several engagements with their brothers and sisters in arms. In many cases, these soldiers were no longer attuned to the Touchstone where they'd been created.

There were also units that had been created only in the last Turn or two. They too wanted to remain together, but didn't see it as vital that they continue to be with the other units from the same Touchstone. They were far more willing to go where there was space available.

With this information in hand, we devised a three-tiered system to determine where our people would settle. The auxiliaries nominated one representative for each city. That person then drew a chit with the name of their new home on it. If by chance they drew their own home city, they were free to trade it with another group of auxiliaries. It worked, and everyone seemed reasonably happy.

The older, more veteran soldiers, were grouped together into 'armies', of up to a maximum of five thousand. We ended up with six of these. They too drew chits with the name of one city on them. The four remaining 'armies' numbered between two and four thousand. They also drew cities. That left us with roughly ten thousand troops who belonged to units who were ready to move to whichever city had space for them. We let the draft lottery decide it for them, again leaving them the option to trade places with any other unit.

The auxiliaries had made it clear to us that the cities would be crowded, with five thousand people each. They suggested that we build new housing and workshops outside the city walls. This was a completely new innovation. The four families, with their constant warfare, had never done anything like it.

It was Rima who came up with a brilliant idea.

- "Why not put the auxiliaries in charge of the construction? They are the ones who want to move out of the cities more than anyone. Let them design the neighbourhoods outside the walls."

- "Anyone who wants to live there can build their own house." said Jashi. "That's genius."

Since our first attempt to include all of our people in the decision-making process had gone so well, I presented my own ideas for the future to the family.

- "In my homeland, we had many systems of governance. Some had single rulers, like the Matriarchs. Other lands had a form of democracy where the people elected leaders."

- "That sounds very good." said Armene.

- "In theory, perhaps. In practice, our communities were too big. People voted for someone they'd never met, and didn't know at all." I didn't know how to explain the influence of money on elections, since they didn't have any currency in the Decapolis. "People voted for... superficial reasons. The results were... mediocre leaders. The voters lost faith in the system, and many stopped caring who was elected."

- "I would never stop caring." said Armene.

- "How big were your communities?" asked Luth.

- "Peachy and I lived in a realm of forty million people."

- "What's a million?" asked Faldor.

- "A thousand thousand."

There was silence around the table. For them, it was a number that boggled the mind. They had grown up in a world with a few hundred 'people', and perhaps twenty thousand peons - most of whom they would never meet, unless it was on a battlefield.

- "That's representative democracy." said Peachy. "It's indirect. But they had direct democracy in ancient Athens."

- "Civics class?" I said, with my eyebrows raised.

- "Shut up."

- "Peachy's right. Athens was a city of forty thousand citizens, where they met in an assembly. Any man could speak, and vote on every issue."

- "Any man?" said Sudha.

- "That's right. Women weren't citizens. Nor were... auxiliaries. Their system didn't work, either. In practice, the worst speakers were shouted down, and the best speakers swayed the crowd. Powerful men organized cliques, groups who would cheer everything they said. The Athenians made some disastrous decisions, and fell into decay."

- "You make it sound so pessimistic." complained Peachy.

- "Is there no system of government that works well?" asked Boloda.

- "They're all based on people, which means that they're all fallible. We have some advantages, though. First, our numbers are small enough. We have the unit system. Every trooper knows their hundred closest kin very well. If we have the unit commanders meet regularly, they'll also learn to know one another."

I took a deep breath, and began my sales job. "I would also like to expand our family gatherings. I want each city to elect five of their own people to attend our meeting. Each five would select one person to speak for them. That way we would have forty spectators, and ten more members entitled to speak or raise questions."

"Last but not least, I would like for ten of you to serve as city governors. I chose those specific words for very good reason. You would not be rulers; you would not reign. I don't want anyone to be reminded of the Matriarchs. You're no longer officers, either; rather than issuing orders, you would have to ask for cooperation."

- "That sounds like work." said Boloda.

- "It would be. But that's a good thing. In fact, we'll have to find work for all of our people. We don't want anyone sitting idle. The Governors will be very busy providing direction, controlling access to the Touchstone, resolving disputes, and so on."

- "You expect disputes already?" said Faldor.

- "Oh, yes. Maybe not right away, but they will happen. Maybe we'll have one of our own, right now. We have ten cities, and more than a dozen people qualified to be Governors. Rima and Kisel, I didn't plan on either of you taking on the position; Rima because she already has an important task, and Kisel because of the communication issue. Zenon and Tya, I also ruled you out. Not because you aren't qualified, but because you haven't been family members for very long. The people don't know you well enough yet. That will change if we have you take over another important project: contacts between the cities."

- "Contacts?"

- "In my homeland, communities were connected in many ways. Trade was carried on. Goods were exchanged. There were athletic competitions. Tourism. Visiting friends and family. Not all of those apply here, so we'll have to be creative. But we don't want the cities to be isolated from each other."

- "That is an excellent suggestion." said Rima. "I would be happy to help with that project. Perhaps we could regularly rotate teachers. And students."

- "There you go." I said. "Alright. Let me give you my list of nominees, and then we can start arguing. First, Jashi and Sudha."

There were no objections. I hadn't expected any. Both women were supremely capable.

"Armene and Wantrao." I said.

Wantrao cleared his throat. "Thank you for your confidence in me, but I have to respectfully decline."

- "Really?"

- "Two reasons." he said. "I am not all that well-liked -"

- "You're very popular with the troops." I interrupted.

- "My 'popularity', as you put it, takes the form of respect rather than liking. I am not the easiest person to get along with. But the more pressing reason is that I would be prefer to be in the same city as Armene."

She shot him a grateful look and a big smile. Obviously I'd missed some developments while I was recuperating from my injuries.

"Of course, I would be happy to assist Armene with her work as Governor." said Wantrao.

- "Alright."

- "Wait." said Sudha. "Is that an option? Because I'd rather be in the same city as Jashi. If it's possible."

- "Well... yes. Of course."

- "Oh, good. Thank you."

My next two nominees were Inzhay and Virdyan. Thankfully, they didn't ask to be allowed to work as a pair. When I named Faldor and Vanea, however, both were surprised.

- "Really?" said Vanea.

- "Very few people did more for us during the war. And you both have very good heads on your shoulders."

They accepted the offer. My next two nominees, though, raised objections.

- "I'm not nearly popular enough." said Kien.

- "Popularity isn't a pre-requisite. That will come in good time, as people recognize your good sense and your integrity."

- "I..." Luth didn't know how to express her reluctance. "I thought... I was hoping to remain your chief of staff. In some capacity."

- "Well, you'll still be seeing more of Peony and me than most, because we were planning to live in the city where you're Governor."

- "What?" said Faldor. "You're not going to be a governor?"

I shook my head. "No. You all need someone over your heads. Someone with the power to remove a governor if they abuse their power or cause the people to distrust them. I can also coordinate the larger-scale projects, like Rima's education plan, or Zenon and Tya's project, without the responsibility of day-to-day governing."

With those objections out of the way, I had eight governors. My last two nominations were a bit more of a surprise.

- "Peach and Chalky."

- "Me?" said my fourteen year-old rival.

- "You think I want you hanging around anywhere near me, with nothing to do? The Devil finds work for idle hands." The rest of the family had never heard that saying before, but Peachy laughed.

- "Alright, Noobley. Challenge accepted. But I want Travot and Stina with me."

- "If that's what they want, consider it done."

Everybody turned to look at Chalky.

- "I can't... I'm not a..."

- "Not capable? Not popular? Not one of the biggest war heroes we have?"

Jashi was the first to stand, and clap her hands. Sudha joined her a moment later. Everybody joined them. Chalky was too embarrassed to raise any further objections.

***

I wasn't overconfident about my proposals. They didn't cover everything that needed to be done, and they were as likely to fail as many other types of government. I had hopes that our relatively low population would help matters.

There was one more matter that fell to be addressed, and there was no point in putting it off any longer. We discussed it as a family, but delivering that decision would be up to me. It wouldn't have been fair to pawn it off on anyone else.

We met in the Map Room at Caladium. My bodyguards were present, as well as half a dozen more soldiers. Otherwise, it was just me and the four Matriarchs, the heads of their respective families.

It was my first meeting with Lady Morcar. My immediate impression was that she was the least imposing of the four women. She was much prettier than her daughter (though I'll admit that I might have been a bit biased because Melanie Morcar and her crew had tried to murder me). Both had the same thick blonde hair, and favoured a similar hairstyle.

I placed a marker on the very southwest corner of the map, equidistant from Amaranth and Dahlia.

- "This is where you will live." I told them. We had adopted Wantrao's plan.

Lady Shorr snorted, tossing her purple hair. "There's nothing there."

- "That's correct. You will have to build shelters for yourselves. We will supply building materials and tools. I may be able to find volunteers willing to provide instruction on how to go about it."

- "You can't be serious." said Lady Morcar. "There's no Touchstone. What are we to eat and drink? What will we wear? Who will serve us?"

- "You will drink from the stream, so I suggest that you don't foul it. You will eat what you grow, and what you raise. We will provide seeds, chickens and livestock. You will wear the clothing that you make. Again, we will provide direction on how to do these things. After that, you'll be on your own. And the answer to your last question is 'no one'; you will not have servants."

Lady Balaban began to laugh.

- "What is so funny?" asked Rona Hadyk.

- "He means to punish us. This is his way of teaching us a lesson." She laughed again. "How long do we have to put up with this? How long do you intend to keep us there?"

- "For life." I said.

Lady Balaban stopped laughing.

- "You can't be serious." said Lady Morcar.

- "I would say forever, but there is always that the chance that your descendants will learn to behave like human beings. Or maybe our descendants will choose to forgive your next generations for the crimes of their forebears."

- "Crimes?" said Lady Shorr. "What crimes?"

- "He's bluffing." said Petra Balaban.

I shook my head. "We don't want you living among us. We asked every single one of our people for their opinion. Only a little over five thousand out of sixty thousand were in favour of allowing you to live in a production centre - that's less than ten percent. And many of those would accept you only if you acted as our servants."

- "They're not real people." huffed Lady Morcar.

- "The Gods appear to disagree." I said.

The four women all knew by now about the boon I'd asked of the Gods: that all our peons could become people. Their first reaction was simple disbelief. Then they took it as a sign that I was mentally unstable. Petra Balaban and Lady Shorr had come around to seeing it as the main reason for their defeat, since our people could attack and kill their family members - something the peons had been unable to do.

- "How dare you claim to know what the Gods intend!" snapped Rona Hadyk.

- "And who are you to sit in judgment over us?" demanded Lady Morcar.

- "We passed judgment on you long before this. Now we've won the war. If we were truly vindictive, you would all be dead. Or most of you, in any case. We simply don't trust our own ability to differentiate between those of you who deserve to die and those who don't." I turned to my former employer. "As for the will of the Gods, Lady, It's not that hard to discern. They gave Lady Shorr the boon she asked for, and she promptly used it against the Morcars. You were also granted what you wanted, Lady Hadyk - and then you tried to kill the gift of the Gods." Yeah, I felt totally pompous saying that, but it was language that they would understand.

- "We did no such thing!"

- "You allowed your son to challenge me to a duel. Then, when you were certain that you could win the war without me, you gathered the family in this very room, with weapons, to set up an ambush. You can deny it as much as you like, but the Gods know the truth."

Maybe I should have enjoyed rubbing it in their faces a lot more, but I was really just eager to see them on their way.

It seemed like the least the I could do was to watch the Hadyk family climb into the wagons that would take them to the site of their new home. It wasn't part of the plan to make them walk, with small children, but we weren't going to provide them with horses - not saddled horses, anyway.

Lady Rona couldn't pass up the opportunity to spit at my feet.

- "You are the worst thing that ever happened to us." she said, with a snarl. "You killed my son!"

And her husband, I thought. Indirectly, at least.

- "I spared his life, Rona. He tried to kill me three times. No, four. I won't lose any sleep over his passing."

I turned away from her. But I had one more awkward conversation ahead of me.

- "Lady Deondra."

She looked a little older, and a lot more tired.

- "Lord Daniel."

- "I... my condolences, Lady, on the loss of your husband." Parush had died in the final battle.

- "Thank you. And... my condolences on the loss of... any of your friends."

- "You don't have to go, Deondra. You could stay, if you wanted. You and your children. With us."

She attempted a smile. It was among the saddest things I've ever seen. "Thank you." she said. "But we couldn't leave my parents on their own. There... there aren't so many Hadyks left, now."

- "I know."

- "I don't blame you for it."

- "Thank you."

Deondra nodded once more, and turned to go.

- "Have you nothing to say to me?" said another voice.

I turned around, and there she was: Stephanie Hadyk.

- "No." I said.

- "Really? We were to be married, Daniel."

- "I think that I was the only one foolish enough to believe that for a minute. Look at the bright side, Stephanie: now you're not stuck with a fat, ugly husband." And I'm not stuck with a compulsive liar, I thought - but I didn't say it.

I watched them leave with remarkably little emotion. Except for Deondra, I wasn't going to miss any of them. Peony came to stand beside me, and put her arm in mine.

***

As we had done so many times before, I had Peony sit at the desk, while I took up position on the edge of the bed. I could have sat beside her, of course, but then I would have had to turn and look down. Also, if she hugged me, or pulled me down for a kiss, I might not be able to finish what I wanted to say.

Peony was no fool. She didn't press me, but waited for me to unburden myself of whatever was troubling me.

- "I should have told you this before now. I'm sorry if it comes out sounding odd. Well... it is odd."

- "Now you have me worried."

- "No - don't worry, love. It's just... let me start at the beginning. You know that I came from a different land."

- "Yes."

- "What I didn't tell you is that at the end of Turn One, I woke up in my own world. My own chamber, in my own home. I spent the day there, working and doing research. I went to sleep there, only to wake up in the Decapolis again. In Hyacinth, with you apologizing for waking me up."

She smiled. "You weren't gone for a day, Dan. I would have noticed something like that."

- "Do you remember what I was wearing the first time we met? You washed my clothes for me. And then I wore them through Turn One."

- "Yes." she said. "Those soft pants, and a short-sleeved shirt with the images of a group of long-haired men on it, and the word 'Foreigner'."

- "Good. And what was I wearing the day after Turn One ended?"

She frowned. "Soft pants. But a different colour. Blue, with..."

- "A white stripe."

- "Yes. And another short-sleeved shirt. This one was black, and it said 'Bollocks' and 'Sex Pistols'. I didn't know what those were, but I was too shy to ask you."

- "I changed clothes in my home, Peony."

- "I thought... I thought you had used the Touchstone."

- "No. Lady Hadyk only let me use the Portal in Turn One."

She considered what I'd said.

- "Alright. You went home, and changed your clothes. Why is that especially significant? You came back every time."

- "I did. But It wasn't by my choice. At the end of every Turn, I woke up at home. Then, a day later, I re-appeared back here. But I began to worry about the last Turn. What would happen when the war ended? That was why I wanted to talk about how to end the war. Because I wasn't sure if I would be able to come back to you."

Peony looked a little frightened now. "But you're still here."

- "Again, I wasn't in control of that. I never knew how long... the Gods would let me stay. So I chose to ignore that. I went ahead and acted as if I would be here. That was why I shared my feelings. I wanted to marry you - even if I couldn't promise that I would be able to return. In hindsight, I shouldn't have -"

- "Don't say that."

- "Peony -"

- "You could have been killed. In battle, or in that stupid, stupid duel. You almost died in the last battle. Do you think that I would have regretted marrying you if you had died in the war? Quite the opposite. I would have regretted it forever if I hadn't married you!"

Peony with a full head of steam was a little more intimidating than I'd expected. I raised my hands to placate her.

- "I don't regret it love, love. I only fear..."

- "That you won't come back. I heard you."

- "Let me finish. The last Turn was different. When I was wounded in that battle, I lost consciousness. When I awoke, it was in my own home world. Only, not in my own chamber. I woke up in a hospital - a place where we look after our sick and injured people. I was injured, Peony. My hip was broken. My skull was fractured, and my eye was damaged."

- "The... the same wounds you suffered here?"

- "Yes."

I closed my eyes, and tried to think about what I was doing. It had all sounded so much better when I'd rehearsed it in my head earlier. But I realized that if I went ahead, I was going to shake Peony's faith in her Gods, and in her own world.

I took the plunge.

- "The nurse who was looking after me looked like you. Her name was Peony. She even sounded like you." I went on to tell her all of the other connections: the second nurse named Stephanie, my doctor named Hadyk, the surgeon Balaban and the eye specialist Boloda. I also told her the name of the hospital, and about the magazines.

- "What... what does it mean?"

- "I can't say for certain. But it feels to me that I must be imagining everything here. The war was somewhat like the games I played. And I seem to have populated your world with people from my real life."

It was a horrible thing to think, and even worse to say. But Peony appeared to be taking it seriously.

- "What if it's the opposite?" she asked.

- "The opposite?"

- "What if this 'hospital' is imaginary? You could have gone there in your mind because you knew that you'd been injured. Then you filled it with people you knew from here."

- "That's -" I'd been about to say 'That's crazy'. But was it?

- "I'm very flattered that you made me the nurse who was in charge of looking after you."

- "I don't know if I was the one who did that, Peony."

She nodded. "I understand. You fear that the Decapolis, and everyone in it, is imaginary. That you invented us."

- "Yes."

- "How could you invent something you didn't know about?"

It was my turn to be confused. "I don't understand."

- "How could you invent Touchstones and Portals, and then arrive here not knowing what they were? You didn't know that peons were sterile. Nor did you know where Half-Hadyks came from. How could you name the production centres after plants that you didn't know?"

- "Well, they might have come from reading that magazine -"

- "Was Wantrao's life story in that magazine? How could you invent it, and then not know it?"

- "I -"

- "And if you made me up - if you created me in the image of the nurse Peony, why did you give me memories going back decades before you arrived?"

She had me there. "I don't know."

- "If you invented me, Daniel, then you did a splendid job of it, because I am very real. I have fears of my own, which were almost realized. I have hopes and dreams, as well. I can feel, and I can think."

I feel, therefore I am. I suspect that Peony could have held her own with Descartes. She certainly had me beat. She knew it. And on top of that, she knew how I was feeling.

"I'm not trying to just win an argument." she said. "But ask yourself this: do you have to understand how you came to be here? Is it absolutely necessary to know how the Decapolis came to be?"

- "These are things I thought about in my home world. 'Why are we here?' is an important question. 'What is the purpose of life?' is another way of putting it."

- "And how did you answer them?" she said.

Damn. Peony hadn't asked me what the answer was, but rather how I'd answered. The truth, of course, was that I hadn't. "Not fully." I said. "Do your best and try to be nice to people is about as far as I got."

- "That doesn't sound so bad." she said. "You've certainly made me very happy."

Peony got up, and came over to the bed. She hopped up beside me, and wrapped her arm around mine.

"What matters, though," she said, "is whether you are happy here."

- "With you? You know I am."

She gave me a big smile. "Then everything else is secondary. Not unimportant - but secondary."

With that, she pulled on my arm until I leaned over and kissed her.

***

I woke to a very pleasant sensation, and then almost immediately wished I hadn't. Nurse Peony was giving me a sponge bath, and washing up a sticky mess around my groin. I was also embarrassingly erect. I could feel the blood rushing to my face.

- "It's alright, Daniel." said my favourite nurse. "It happens. Perfectly natural."

And mortifying nonetheless. I couldn't look her in the eye.

"Just so you know, Doctor Boloda will be in some time today to have a look at your eye."

- "Thank you." I mumbled.

I wasn't just embarrassed; I was desperately unhappy. Would I be able to return to Peony? The real Peony, I meant. My wife. My wife who I thought was a figment of my imagination.

Was that it? Did I truly prefer to live in my imagination, rather than the real world? But if the sights, sounds, and yes, physical sensations were so much better in one than the other, was it so wrong to want to be there?

Doctor Boloda was a heavyset woman who reminded me of an old joke. The speaker says 'The only things that ever came out of Hamilton were hookers and football players'. The listener responds: 'Hey, my wife is from Hamilton'. Speaker: 'Oh. What position did she play?'. In Doctor Boloda's case, that position would have been inside linebacker for the Tiger-Cats. I'd have felt safe with her as a bodyguard.

She dimmed the lights, and unwrapped my bandages.

- "It looks much better." she told me. "What can you see?"

- "Light. It's like... looking at egg whites."

- "Hmm..."

Doctor Boloda had apparently never attended the class on 'Things Doctors shouldn't say in front of their patients'.

In the late afternoon, my boss came to visit. Poor Linda; she really was torturing herself. I tried to put her mind at ease.

- "It wasn't your fault, Boss. It could've happened to me on the way to the store, or just about anywhere."

I thanked her for the flowers. Linda insisted on staying much longer than necessary; I guess there was some special correlation between how much time she spent with me and how much of her guilt was assuaged.

It wasn't until the evening that I was finally left alone. Nurse Stephanie came in to check on me.

- "How are we feeling tonight?" she asked.

We? Stephanie was obviously chipper and cheerful, while I wanted to be alone so that I could mope and maybe have a good cry. Most people don't want to be in the hospital; I didn't even want to be in this world.

I lived in a relatively shitty little apartment. My job wasn't very important; in the grand scheme of things, I wasn't helping very many people. And even when I thought of the word 'people', it only reminded me of where I wanted to be - and who I wanted to be with.

Most of my 'friends' here were online; I didn't have much in the way of direct human contact. My love life was as barren as a desert. My family only ever reached out on my birthday and at Christmas.

In the Decapolis I had purpose, friends, and a wonderful wife.

Was it imaginary? Peony had me half convinced that this hospital was the product of my imagination. If only that could be so.

I lay there for a long time, thinking and getting nowhere.

***

In the morning, I woke up to find Peony's warm body next to mine. It was a big bed, but she was well over on my side, pressed up against me.

I was back where I belonged.

*****

THE END