Blood Shaper

Glowl sauntered into a room deep within the embassy complex that belonged to his Kingdom of Nelam. The issues a few years ago that revolved around that blasted elven woman they called the Impossible Fist or whatever had broken open a few cracks with the leaders of Tumbling Rapids, which had led to several changes, including downgrading the building that was used as an embassy, but strides had been made to make up for that. Things had been looking good for the eventual annexation of the prosperous city and the expansion of Nelam’s borders, and the original embassy had been returned, but things started to fray shortly after that. A smaller group of neutral members of the city’s ruling council had been replaced with people who weren’t fans of his, leading to a stalemate among the ruling council. With no true noble to lead the city and effectively overrule the insipid council, there was no one to bribe, bully, or blackmail into bowing to him, and he’d had to deal with the lack of progress. He knew that dammed Adventurer’s Guild that disobeyed and denied him his due time and time again had to be behind the series of suspicious increments, accidents, and scandals, but he couldn’t actually do anything about it, not without tipping his hand.

But that was in the past. His people in the city had brought him wonderful new information, information that was a turning point in dealing with more than one thorny problem! He whisked past the only other occupant of the office and sat himself in his chair, his personal, gold-trimmed seat that he carried with him, to show everyone his station above them.

“Welcome back, your majesty.” Kurtis Nel, his chief agent in Tumbling Rapids, greeted him. “I hope everything went well.”

“I didn’t get a chance to catch that bastard guildmaster before he left, but I did get to stomp all over fucking Lenesalera. Kicked the door open right in his face and got him to flinch, too. Coward, all I did was stare at him.”

“You do have quite the commanding presence, majesty.”

Glowl snorted a laugh. “If presence was enough, I’d already rule the world.”

The smaller man nodded along while he pulled out some papers. “Did you manage to get the agreement of the Crusader General? I know we had backup plans if they rejected you completely, but your goals will be easier to accomplish if they allow you to join.”

“Ha!” Glowl grinned triumphantly, “They couldn’t afford to turn me down! They’re too afraid of that outworlder vampyr they’re after to turn down more manpower. Oh, they insinuated it was about ‘keeping an eye on me’ like you said they would, especially after I made those threats you recommended, but I could smell the fear in them.” He snorted as he worked himself deeper into his seat, “That news you gave me worked like a charm, they were too focused on that to put any effort into stopping me from coming with, and I’m sure having more force to bear against ‘the terrible threat of a vampyr’,” He said in a mocking falsetto, “is reassuring for those wimps.”

“Avalon’s leader pushing into Tumbling Rapid’s territory to deal with vampyr threats is something of a big deal, your majesty. If he isn’t a vampyr it shows he's confident in himself and his military to push the boundaries with his neighbors, and if he is a vampyr, the cunning and guile to set up a false flag operation and pull it off successfully makes him quite the threat. Maneuvering other vampyr into sacrificing themselves, then ‘saving’ the victims and bringing them back to Avalon while also ‘saving’ those that were changed by turning them into vampires would require a notable amount of work and a large amount of intelligence.”

“Yes, yes.” Glowl waved off Kurtis’ gentle warnings, “I get it. If he’s turning people into vampyr but covering it up by claiming that they’re this new vampire thing, it shows he isn’t as crazy as the rest of those monsters and can’t be underestimated. But none of that matters since we don’t really care about any of that, do we? Tell me, what are we actually after by moving with this campaign the Crusade has set up?”

“Removing Avalon as a threat to Nelam’s hegemony over the area.” Kurtis promptly replied.

“Exactly! We let the Crusade focus on taking out the vampyr, while we destroy Avalon’s foundation. If we can get some slaves to replace the ones that have been running off to that blasted city, that’s even better, but we need to wreck them and staunch the flow of losses we’ve been having.” Glowl clenched his fist as he turned to look out the window, his eyes gleaming with fervor. “And get back my damn dragon!”

“Your majesty, I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t bring up my trepidations. What happens if the Crusade loses?” Kurtis carefully asked, making sure his tone and questions didn’t provoke the king’s ire.

“Then they’ll send another army, an even bigger one, probably with more direct support from the Empire and the Concord. They sent token forces to act like they have control over what’s going on; if this lot loses, they’ll send a real army to wipe everything out. That wouldn’t be too bad of a result, actually,” He grinned maliciously, “If we can wreak some havoc, grab my dragon, and pull out at the best moment, we might be able to make them lose. Then, the cleanup force comes in and completely demolishes them. We could get some good stock from the refugees.”

“What about the time in between?” Kurtis asked plaintively, “It took this smaller army almost a full year to make it here, and there’s another month or so once they leave Tumbling Rapids to make it to Avalon itself if the maps we’ve seen are correct. If this Kay person really is a vampyr, and as dangerous as the Crusade thinks, wouldn’t we be the best target for revenge, just because we’re so much closer? It’s only a couple of months to the edge of our territory.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Glowl stared at him, head tilted to the side as he contemplated. The heavy-set king was a large man who best resembled a bear covered in finery and gold, but his eyes were like a hawk watching its prey. “You know, Kurtis, I’ve had my eye on you for some time now. My spymaster recommended you for this mission to bring Tumbling Rapids to us, and that’s something to pay attention to. Sometimes, his best people are loyal, and sometimes, they’re little snakes, unwilling to sacrifice themselves for Nelam but always willing to throw someone under the bus. With everything that happened here, I thought you were one of the latter ones since you were so willing to let some of my nobles fuck everything up. Our plans were pushed back, supplies and money were stolen, and here you are standing pretty. It was suspicious.” Glowl planted both arms on the desk and leaned into Kurtis’ face. “And so I started watching you. Everything you did, everyone you spoke to. And do you know what I found?” He paused to wait for an answer.

“Yes, your majesty,” Kurtis replied calmly.

Glowl’s ring was wide and savage, “Exactly!” He threw himself back in his chair, pushing it along the floor. “You’re damn good at your job and the exact right balance between ambitions and loyal. You want more for yourself, but you can balance that against Nelam's needs and my orders. Exactly the kind of man I need in positions like this. Especially when you can contradict me, when necessary.” The last two words were in a bestial growl. Glowl waited until he saw his point was made, which was almost immediately, and continued in a calmer tone, “You’re right that being the closest target for revenge isn’t a desirable spot. We won’t pull out at a bad time for the Crusade then. Making sure their Class Line Progenitor leader is dead and vilified will have to be enough. I’d love to bring in a bigger force to really make sure that Avalon gets pulled up by the roots, but that’d be too suspicious. Hmm.”

“Perhaps I can find out which members of this campaign would be willing to make some detours or act slightly off of the script and approach them?” Kurtis suggested. “I’m sure that some of the nobles or leaders that have come more for glory, prestige, or loot would be open to… acting in ways that are helpful to your aims in exchange for some compensation, as long as they acquire the glory they’re after of course.”

“Excellent idea!” Glowl surged out of his chair, pushing it even farther back along the floor. “You handle that. I’m hungry, so I’m going to get some dinner. Be quick about it; the city gave the Crusade two days to resupply before they had to move on, and we’ll be going with them.

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The man who answered to the name “Kurtis Nel” watched composedly as the never to be sufficiently damned king of Nelam sauntered out of his office. His parting words were a recognizable tactic to those who spent any amount of time in Glowl’s company. Make a demand with a time limit or some other added difficulty, then wander off to do something mundane, showing through his actions how beneath the golden king you were. It was all part of the persona that had become a very real part of Glowl’s personality, a driving force that sought to reinforce part of the man’s Class, one based on others' perception of him as some higher power, a dominating force. He was just thankful that Glowl’s Class didn’t ebb or flow by minute amounts based on someone’s perception of him, or if it did, it was too small to be noticeable. His own feelings toward the king were mostly centered around the emotions of disgust and hatred, so the king’s Class giving him the ability to tell who was truly cowed or loyal would be a disaster.

He pulled a page out of a secret drawer and began to quickly note down what information he felt was best to share with Avalon through one of the information pipelines he’d discovered. Certain individuals in Tumbling Rapids were more than happy to pass along messages to various contacts for the right amount of coin so Avalon’s spies wouldn’t even know the tips were from him. He had no real loyalty to Avalon, but the city and future nation were looking like they were going to be quite the thorn in Nelam’s side in a few years, and that was worth supporting. Plus, members of the one group he truly felt no loyalty to anymore had started setting up operations there, and he didn’t want those operations to get burned down if Avalon fell.

Once upon a time, he had been an average young man in one of the beastkin-heavy nations that had eventually been conquered by Glowl before Nelam was even a real country. Glowl was an enemy to justify invading other countries and subsequently empowering his own Class, so he’d settled for beastkin. The man others knew as Kurtis Nel possessed a different name then, and had looked quite different. Some deliberate disfigurement had helped disguise him as human, and he’d used money, favors, and blackmail over the years to further reinforce the transformation. Deep inside himself, he hoped that one day he’d have his real body back, but he knew that might not ever happen.

Early on, he’d been focused on surviving where others had died, but then he found himself doing quite well in service to Nelam’s intelligence service. The skills and Skills that let him survive in a nation that wanted nothing more than to kill or enslave him had done him well as a spy for that same nation and eventually in ruining certain plots that would have helped that country. Very few in Nelam knew that many important prisoners had escaped thanks to him, and many quiet takeovers had suddenly become massive conflagrations of war and strife because he’d moved a few pieces here or there. He’d even managed to take out a few skilled spies, infiltrators, and agents by pushing the blame for the failures onto them, further weakening Nelam.

He had mostly ignored the various anti-slavery groups, as they were either too disorganized to be worth working with or too competent to trust him. A few years ago, though, several of them had suddenly and quietly recognized, driven by some unknown events, and one of those now much more formidable groups had contacted him, somehow seeing through his decades-long disguise. After years of caution and double-checking, he’d found himself a high-ranking member. His goals of doing his best to wreak what small disasters he could have been overridden by a desire he’d always held but had never thought he could achieve. The total collapse of Nelam.

He finished disguising his message and folding it in the right way for the drop-off he’d be making, then started writing the important letters to members of his organization throughout Nelam. The king was going to be away on a much more difficult campaign than Glowl had imagined, and it would be multiple months before he returned. There were plans to put into action and foundations to put cracks in. One way or another, at this opportunity or another, Nelam would fall. It was a rotting edifice held up by the strength of one man and the power of his Class and would never have stood the test of time. The man who had taken on the name Kurtis Nel was just making sure it collapsed that much faster.