War of attrition for the heart part 2

After a short pause, Rufus sat down as Gadaric offered him a glass.

"It is a shame if this wine goes to waste. Your soldiers chose, in a way, a good village to raid," Gadaric explained.

"Why did your men kill your own people?" Rufus asked.

"Orders from the emperor. Our unit, the soul watcher, is a state secret. No witnesses. Brutal, but the correct choice," Gadaric said.

Rufus took a sip from the wine and then placed it down.

"Why are you here. Are you here to assassinate me like last time?" Rufus asked.

"You have grown stronger. I am unable to defeat, let alone kill you. I sent my assassin back, so just listen," Gadaric explained.

Rufus waited.

"What do you want?"

"I couldn't persuade you to stop this war last time. Your resolve is strong, as it is clear that you have no problem burning down villages and continuing this war. I am asking you to imagine this world AFTER you have defeated the emperor," Gadaric proposed.

"So now you believe we have a chance of winning?"

"Small, but yes. You have done better than what my emperor predicted. Would you mind asking your sister to lower that huge crystal that is aimed at me?" Gadaric pointed out as Haley was just outside the house, ready to kill him.

"She kinda does what she wants."

"That is the point I am telling. You have united many nations, knights, and kings. Without the emperor, they would be at each other's throats. Now imagine this, a world where the emperor loses and your allied forces splintering up and go at each other's throats, as they always have," Gadaric pointed out.

"And you think the emperor cares about that. He burned down cities and people to ensure they would obey him," Rufus explained.

"Same as you do here. Same as what the Cassian titan knights had done to the Elvan golden oak knights. What the Sparvian soldiers did to your kingdom. What the Haraldrar do to any village on the coast, and the Guiscards capitalize on all of this. What do you think they will do once this war ends and you win. They will go back to doing what they have been doing for a long time because that is what they were bred for. They will fight, rape, and kill."

"How do you know the emperor cares of such things?"

"I actually am not from the Heian mainland, but from Illeros. I am technically a foreigner. Before we became part of the empire, Illeros was warring with, well, practically everyone. We were warmongering people who were stubborn to the core. All of the nation's wealth went to the military and nothing to the people.

I was born in Corlis, the then capital of Illeros. It was literally a smuggler's paradise, as any law was absent. All the men were at war, sailing, and killing, and only the lowest of the low stayed behind.

I was the youngest of ten children, born to a whore in the red-light district. From the time I could walk, I was put to work in the brothel. Bringing ale and wine to the soldiers and gangsters my mom...serviced.

Eventually, my contribution to my mother wasn't deemed significant anymore, and she got a bright idea. When I was just six, my mother blinded me to get sympathy from the city's filth. She threw me to the streets to beg, hoping some people were left with pity in their hearts. But in this darkness, I found something else. Divinity."

Rufus was surprised.

"I know. I am like you. Not a noble, but still able to awaken a divine power. Miraculous isn't it. With this newfound ability, I went from begging to stealing. And I got very good at it. Still, whatever I made, my bitch of a mother took.

Luckily, there was a man on the other side of the Heian strait called Ala Phokas. He defeated the Illeros king and brought law and order to Illeros. However, the city of Corlis was still filthy and full of criminals. Of course, I was only sixteen then and couldn't care less who the king was, and I was just a pickpocket.

One day a person I knew asked me to join in a heist. We would steal the imperial war chest that was kept in the occupied royal palace of Corlis. It would finally take me out from the rest of the filth, so I joined. Of course, the entire operation was a complete disaster, and we were caught by the imperial soldiers. Before an axe was about to come down on me, the emperor ordered everyone to halt.

He saw a possibility in me. In a mere blind gutter rat. I was named the new ruler and mayor of Corlis. A sixteen-year-old thief. He, of course, said that if I failed, I would be killed. So that was good motivation.

I started to work and created an enforcement group called the watchers to destroy all the gangs. In only two years, I had made a crime stop in Corlis, and though I can take some credit, most of it belonged to the emperor.

He brought order because he wanted order. I was just his instrument and his tool. After Corlis, I was put in charge of other projects, and the watchers soon grew into what they are now. The greatest peacekeepers in the Aesis world."

"Peacekeepers who go killing their own countrymen," Rufus said.

"There is always a greater goal, and we cannot see it, but the emperor is not like us. This is the last olive branch I am offering. Join the empire and stop this futile war, Rufus. I am asking as I know you are like me. You saw the world from the gutters, and we both crawled ourselves up. If I can see it, I know you are, too," Gadaric said and reached his hand out.

Rufus thought for a moment. He then pushed Gadaric's hand away and yelled, "HALEY, NOW!"

A large crystal fell down from the roof. Gadaric snapped his fingers once, and a blast of sound made the crystal explode, causing dust to fall like a cloud.

Rufus blew the dust away with his wings, only to see Gadaric gone.