The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2

Part 27

He placed a huge hand under each of his wives' petite bottoms and held them to each side with outstretched arms as he gracefully bowed to the crowd and went to one knee in each of the four cardinal directions, and they posed proudly and prettily with perfect balance as they sat on his hands while he did so. Finally he held them close again and gave Pakdag a respectful nod.

"Congratulations on your victory in The Tournament of Governors." the war god told him with a grin. "Would you care to speak about your performance?"

"I would." Mark smiled, and turned to the audience. He waited while Pakdag held his hands up to request silence from the crowd, and eventually they quieted to hear his speech.

"Since my marriage to Alilia, Hilia and The People of Life are formally allied. And since Alilia generally behaves like I'm the leader in our marriage, some have said that I now rule The People of Life. But legally that's not the case. I'm not the ruling Prince of The People of Life. And though I think they trust me, and trust my vow of justice, I'm sure that they don't want me to be their Prince. They much prefer the present situation.

"Alilia is still their ruling Princess, they trust her long and excellent record of looking out for their interests, and they want her to continue her rule, even if she delegates all of the duties of her office. They want her to continue looking out for their interests as her highest priority.

"They know that there's almost no chance that our vows of justice on The Truthstone of Falgaroth will fail, and they know that there's almost no chance that The Just Alliance will fall, but they feel secure in knowing that even if all that happens and everyone else turns against them, Alilia will still be looking out for them, still acting as a buffer between them and the rest of the world, if necessary.

"I think that's true of everyone else too. They all like The Just Alliance and The Kellaran-Triax Alliance, but most are glad that their nations are not ruled by either of those alliances. They're glad that the final word on what happens to them and to their nations still rests with their own well-known and well-trusted rulers, who are of their own race and their own nation.

"Even with our vows of justice, every one of our races and nations have been stabbed in the back too many times over our world's long history to feel fully comfortable with giving any outsider deciding control

over us.

"That's one of three guiding principles behind my strategy in the tournament today.

"The second was that I wanted to prove the worth of the status quo. In the scenario I was given absolute command of The Just Alliance, but I didn't exercise it. I continued as I've been doing; delegating almost all of the duties of ruling Hilia and Serminak to those with the appropriate skills for it, and offering suggestions to The Assembly of The Just Alliance in my role as Key as I saw fit.

"There were a few occasions where I took command of fighters of other nations in a relatively small section of the battle for a limited time, but almost all the time I left the present command structure and political state of Kellaran exactly as it is. Prince Yazadril of The High People stayed on as Supreme Commander of The Militaries of The Just Alliance, and every ruler or ruling council of every nation continued to reign as they have. I see no reason to upset the existing order on Kellaran, and I think my performance in the tournament helps prove that point. I'm sure that our high morale and effectiveness was partially due to the fact that our nations were still independent and no political upheaval took place.

"My third guiding principle was inspired by the rules of the tournament itself. They state that only declared team leaders could exercise overall command, and only supporting team members could provide creative advice to the leaders or have independent command of parts of the military delegated to them. Everyone else would just follow orders as best they could.

"But the gods themselves have made it clear to me in the past that creativity is one of our most crucial resources, so I decided to make sure that my team had as much creativity as possible.

"Furthermore, I was sure that every person would be more effective and have better morale if they retained their independence. Even the most dedicated soldier who's completely committed to following orders to have the freedom to disregard orders and act independently if it becomes obvious that it's the smartest thing to do at the time. Sometimes the soldier on the ene knows things that aren't obvious to his commanders, and he doesn't have time to consult them. He also wants to be able to make suggestions and know that his suggestions will be passed up the chain of command to the appropriate level, and given serious consideration.

wan

"Some of you have speculated that my turn took so much longer than anyone else's because the duration of my scenario was longer. But it only lasted about four and a half years subjectively, which I'd guess was about average.

"Since the tournament ended,

everyone here has remembered that

you were on my team. But what you

here may

not realize is that everyone

else on Kellaran was also on my team. Hasked the gods to make absolutely everyone in the whole of my

world a supporting run

team, and they had to run my scenario with all twelve billion or so of us actively participating. That's

why my turn took so long in real time.

"That's why I won, more than anything else.

"And that's how things will be run in real life from now on. It's actually how things are run already, but I want everyone to be aware of it.

"Every one of you, of every race and

every nation, is an independent thinker with intelligence and creativity that you can contribute to our cause. Every suggestion that you make will be passed up the chain of command to the people who are responsible for whatever you're suggesting about, and given serious consideration. None of you are slaves to your commanders or your orders, and none of you will be disciplined for disobeying any order if you can give a reasonable justification for doing so.

"You are all on my team. More truthfully, you are all on our team.

"There are no losers here today, because absolutely all of you, including every one of the other contestants, can truthfully say that you were an active member of the team that won The Tournament of Governors!

"And most important of all, you are all part of the team that will defeat the real demons, and bring an age of paradise to Kellaran!"

The crowd had spontaneously started to cheer about thirty seconds before he was finished, and by the time he spoke the last word they were so loud that they only heard what he was saying because he willed it to be so, and insured it with his new god-power with almost no conscious consideration.

"Damn, that was the best speech ever!" Talia laughed as she hugged his neck.

The crowd went wild and roared with almost manic enthusiasm.

They were so exuberant that Pakdag didn't bother with speaking over them. He simply grinned and held. his hand high, and an ornate oval plaque of gold on pure white ivory about thirty centimeters high appeared in it. The great Revealing above magnified it so much that all could read the words that were engraved on it, declaring Mark the winner of The Tournament of

Governors, and listing the specifics of his achievement.

The crowd roared even louder as they read it, then even louder yet as Pakdag handed it to Mark, who set Talia on his shoulder to free a hand and then waved the plaque overhead as he yelled out his victory with wordless joy.

The delirious ovation went on for a minute or so, until Mark laughed and spoke over them. "Well, since I won the tournament without changing the leadership of Kellaran, I guess the Assembly doesn't need to meet to discuss it. We're due for some lunch, so thank you, to all of you, and we'll..."

"We disagree." Grakonexikaldoron pleasantly stated as she, Somonik, Tithian, and Senchak appeared on the stage, all of them grinning. "All the members of The Assembly of The Just Alliance are present, and we declare that this meeting of The Assembly is now in session.‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒