The rest of the requested group had already assembled, with a row of guards lining each side of the room, so Ryu went to the head of the table and sat down, waiting for everyone to make themselves comfortable. Kentario came to stand beside his chair, ready to defend him at a moment’s notice.
“Very well,” Ryu said, when everyone was ready. “What did you come here to discuss?”
“Your Majesty, the civil war in Biermarg is having an enormous impact on our territory and our lives,” the spokesperson of the group began. “Ourvillages are being attacked. Our crops are being burned. Our livestock are being slaughtered. We have come to request the support of the Galandanish army to push these rebels back.”
It was a completely unsurprising request. But as much as Ryu was tempted to simply agree, he was also aware that a number of negotiations had gone on between this group and his father and that no clear solution had been reached. He was also certain that, despite his best efforts to find out the truth, there were likely details about the negotiations that he was unaware of. As he’d said to Kentario all those weeks ago, Galandeen had a responsibility to protect its citizens, and he was loath to use Nalmaga’s cultural practices as a bargaining chip. But completely overruling any decision his father had made was fraught with difficulties.
“At the time of his death, King Sou had not yet agreed to your requests,” Ryu said, looking for a circumspect path to approach the whole thing. “Could you please share with me your own perspective on your negotiations with him?”
On the surface, it was a benevolent willingness to listen to both sides of the story. But it would also hopefully give him the chance to find out what was really going on.
The spokesperson hesitated, looking anxiously at his fellow Nalmagians before speaking. “As you are no doubt aware, it is difficult to discuss what we consider to be unsatisfactory negotiations without casting your father in a bad light. We mean no disrespect. And yet, we cannot proceed without airing our grievances with the late king.”
It was as polite as such as statement could possibly be, and Ryu had known right from the start that there were not likely to be any easy answers to the situation. But a king could not rule by hiding behind half-truths and old anger. As painful as it was going to be, it was his duty to see this through. “For the sake of finding a peaceful solution for both our nations, let’s set aside for the moment the fact that King Sou was my father and simply deal with the issue as from the perspective of a change in government. What did you ask for? What did you receive? What were the reasons behind Sou’s refusal to grant more of your requests?”
The man nodded slowly, accepting his reasoning, and apparently deciding to work with it. “King Sou was a deeply religious man,” he said, his tone calm and respectful. “The Nalmagian people have a very different view of the gifts of the Goddess than Galandeen does. You insist on marrying your soulmates. We do not. You believe that the Goddess determines your destiny. We believe that we must take responsibility for our own decisions and that misfortune cannot be blamed on any God or Goddess, regardless of their power. You see the God Odin as needing recognition only during your funeral ceremonies. We see him as a far greater deity, and we hold festivals for him in winter, much as you do forthe Goddess Selene in summer. But King Sou did not agree with our beliefs and insisted that we alter our rituals to bring them into line with Galandeen. He has already forced us to accept temples to be built in our villages, with Galandanish priestesses imposing their customs on us. People are shamed if they do not marry their soulmate, though we find such an imposition absurd!”
Based on what Oris had told him, Ryu could well see the issue. They were not completely disregarding the role of a person’s soulmate, after all, but merely leaving the possibility open that they might have a different role in their lives than romantic partner. He’d had no idea, however, that his father had demanded the Nalmagians accept such overt religious interference in their lives.
But that was not the only problem that needed addressing. “You hold initiation rites for your young alpha men,” Ryu pointed out. “They are dangerous trials which lead to the deaths of a handful of men every year. Under Galandanish law, that would make you guilty of conspiracy to murder.”
The Nalmagian sighed. “To an extent, this is true. However, is it likely far less simple than you’ve been led to believe. No alpha isforcedto go through the trials. They are awarded honour if they succeed, but there is no shame for those who choose not to. And as I have already stated, many of our people consider sacrificing their own lives to be a form of honour towards the God Odin. To us, there is a balance between the two. Selene creates and Odin destroys. You cannot have one without the other. If no one ever died, the world would be overrun with humans. Or animals, or insects, or anything else. A tree grows new leaves each year, then those leaves die and rot and nourish the earth to make new leaves the next year. Everything must be in balance or the whole of nature will suffer as a result.
“Even so, these rituals are slowly changing. The settled tribes no longer practice them. It is only the nomadic tribes that still carry out the rituals, and even they are gradually giving them up. But change is hard, and the older alphas are reluctant to do away with longstanding traditions. Given time, their views will change, but forcing them to change their practices will only breed anger and hatred.
“But aside from the value placed on these customs themselves, there is another perspective here, one which may offend you. Forgive me, Your Majesty, but you are a new king, and we have not yet had time to weigh the slant of your rule.
“Until relatively recently, under Galandanish law, omegas were given no legal rights against their alpha spouses. Omegas could not request a divorce. They could not legally refuse sex with their alpha partner. They were not permitted to use contraception without their alpha’s consent. By your ownlogic, you, or any monarch preceding you, would have been indirectly guilty of causing the sexual assault of any of those omegas.
“Many of these laws have changed in the recent past, but no doubt, in twenty or thirty years’ time, your own children may yet protest against laws that you find perfectly acceptable, but which they find abhorrent.
“Nalmaga is not perfect, Your Majesty. But neither is Galandeen. Is it fair that you hold our crimes against us, when there is no one to hold you accountable?”
The man fell silent. Ryu sat very still, working hard to keep his expression neutral. The words bit deep, not because he felt any particular guilt about his own role in the past – he’d become king only a month ago, after all, and had spent most of that time just figuring out all the details of what that role entailed. But a lot of what the Nalmagian had said echoed the feelings Ryu had been having about his father for a good few years. Laws had changed, but too slowly for his liking. Omegas had more rights now, but social opinions of them were still mired in the past.
He could also empathise with their religious beliefs and their different perspectives on Selene and Odin. Only two weeks ago, he’d visited Odin’s temple, offering a gift of a basket of mushrooms and a sacrifice of a slaughtered sheep to the ancient god, fulfilling what he’d promised in exchange for Odin sparing his and Kentario’s lives. Plenty of people had thought the action strange, but Ryu wasn’t willing to risk angering Odin by making promises and then forgetting about them once he had what he wanted.
“Let’s call a recess,” Ryu said finally, as the thoughts in his mind showed no sign of slowing. “Maro, please escort our guests to the Sapphire Lounge. Provide them with suitable refreshments.” He turned back to the spokesperson. “I will discuss what you’ve said with my advisors and then we’ll reconvene to see if we can find a solution that will work for everyone.”
He rose, as did the rest of the table, and the Nalmagians filed silently out of the room, accompanied by the rows of guards.
The instant the door was closed behind them, he collapsed into his chair again, the strict control he’d maintained in front of an audience abandoned. Kentario came around his chair and sat down, while Oris, Lord Nae and Lady Iuma moved to sit closer. Maro returned a moment later, joining the gathering around the head of the table.
“What the hell am I supposed to do with that?” Ryu asked, half a rhetorical question, half a desperate plea for help. “And let me just say that right now, I feel like an absolute and total asshole. My father is dead, I’ve just inherited a steaming pile of his bullshit, and somewhere in between trying to not start a second civil war and not being a total dictator to the Nalmagians, I’m actually, Goddess help me,enjoyingthe fact that I get tomake my own decision on this, instead of being forced to do whatever my father would have done.” It was a totally inappropriate outburst which didn’t even begin to address all the swirling issues in his mind. Perhaps it made him look like a poor king, but he was damned if he was going to sit here pretending he knew all the answers.
Oris spoke up first. “Ryu, you are not a terrible person just because you want to make different decisions from the ones your father made.”
That was something that Ryu was really starting to like about Oris – he’d called him Ryu, instead of ‘Your Majesty’. Apparently, the couple of nights he’d spent in the man’s spare bedroom had broken down a few of the walls that still kept many of the other palace staff at bay.
“You no doubt realise you’re in a uniquely difficult position,” Oris went on, “and I don’t mean because you need to negotiate peace with the Nalmagians. The more important decision for you to make today is what path you intend to take to govern this kingdom. If you follow your father’s ideas, the public will brand you a traditionalist and the younger generation will have a hard time relating to you or accepting your decisions. If you choose to forge a new direction, however, there are those who will decide it proves that you’re weak and not a fit replacement for your father. I’m playing devil’s advocate, of course – neither opinion is accurate. But you need to understand how the public will perceive whichever direction you take.”
“And on top of that,” Ryu said, “there’s the bigger issue of what decision is actually the right one for the Nalmagians. It’s not just about me, it’s about them, as well.”
“Let’s keep in mind that neither route is necessarily a bad one,” Lady Iuma said. Both she and Lord Nae had, in the past, proven themselves to be both loyal to Sou and willing to contradict him, on the odd occasions they felt he was truly in the wrong. Lady Iuma, in particular, had been a part of the discussions with the Arctesian ambassador on the night the king was killed. She’d suffered a gunshot wound to the leg, but fortunately, had recovered well in the weeks that followed. Lord Nae, on the other hand, was a very popular figure in noble circles. He was friendly and outgoing, but also willing to state his mind without fear of who would disagree with him. Ryu could trust both of them to give him an honest opinion, at the same time as feeling confident in their points of view.
“If you decide to take a traditional standpoint, it may disappoint the public,” Lady Iuma said, “but it would be a show of strength to our international neighbours. It displays a consistency of rule that will reassure them that any current agreements between our country and theirs remain in place. On the other hand, and particularly given your rather unconventional engagement to Lord Amagarda,” she said, nodding Kentario’s way, “there would be a certain inclination among the younger generation to see a breakwith tradition as a display of courage, that you are not bound by the shackles of the past. It would free you to embrace some innovative ideas as you lead the country into the future.”
Both sets of advice were valid, both positions holding positive and negative consequences. But neither was helping Ryu decide what was actually the better course of action. “What about you?” he asked, turning to Lord Nae. “What’s your opinion on all this?”
