The Swamp, The Jungle, and the Valley (1/2)

"An Alliance is where vultures gathered to circle a prey together, or later, circle on each other."

-Vestal Queen Aostroa Ji'hanni of Mezenia, The Dreamer-

© [unedited version from 5 years ago]

The high winds of Mothercradle seeps through the body of a woman not belonging to the stylings of the luxurious scenery, instead, she presents an exotic beauty of her own that contests that of the prestigious Akan City. She was welcomed in the Castellated Abbey, a fortified palace divided by the leaders of Religion and Military both united under the Midnight Diadem, or as the common folks call it, The Crown of Supremacy.

She strolls there as a sight of the swamps, a fresh alien passing through the glassy doors and archways of the while barefooted, leaving bugs from every step. The marble floors here shines a hot pink hue like most found in Akan bedrocks. Her wonderous eyes capture each aerial sights of the floating abbey the same way her body captures foreign elegance. She reigns relaxed smile yet the articles of her clothing reflect a culture of discomfort; a tight dress-armor made out of unspeakable carapaces, thorax of large insects, and leathers from exotic beasts are intertwined together to embrace her lithe body, while from her bosom up to her chest, a centipede binds her gown which allows her to wander like an overflowing marsh. Her armor seems alive, breathing with the wearer.

On top of her trimmed head rests a crown of jeweled mushrooms surrounded by leaves in quagmire fashion. Even with the peculiar lighting of the glass dome above, it is unmistakable that she wears the Swamp Crown, one of the Eternal Crowns forged by both loved and forgotten gods to administer covenants to the mortal races.

"Appreciating our lush lands, Swamp Queen?" An aged man dressed in ornamented robes slowly descends from the high stairs. His ring-filled fingers hold tight on a staff that is etched with the symbols of the god of Honest Work- Sa'andio. Even with the haze of flowers hanging from the columns and ceiling, the Queen could smell a strong perfume from him, like those used on embalmed corpses to hide the stench of rot.

"What can I say? I respect this place a lot, I'm still that same impoverished girl who dreamed of walking in prestigious palaces, after all." With admiration, she caressed one of the hundreds of dead-eyed sculptures displayed in the hall, she could sense life in them, her bugs could.

"Impoverished?"

"Yes but I'm afraid my young kingdom can't afford such luxuries as these, or even a palace itself. But know that I rule a savage country, luxurious materials are but an impracticality, any Schynthal would choose a fruit-bearing sapling over a jewel-bearing tree at any time of the cycle I assure you."

"Ah yes… I sense fresh confidence from a fresh Queen, you seem very certain and faithful of your swarm- or should I say… people? But does this indomitable faith goes the other way around?" The High Priest grinned, showing a row of goldplated teeth.

"Be a witness of the proof..." The Queen smiled back, her bronze eyes kindling from her high cheekbones as she starts to twirl several times to showcase her dress, doing so like how a small girl would while playing in a green field of spring-day.

"Does that performance imply that your fashion sense reflects your people's faith in you?" The High Priest asked in ridicule, eyeing the queen like she's an imbecile lass who just happened to pick up a crown from the swamps.

"You finally asked the correct question, High Priest. Clothing me with their own skin and naming a frail woman as queen who doesn't even scuttle, crawl and hive like them is achieved by requiring something way greater than mere faith." She provoked the religious leader.

"Be my guest of claiming what is higher than a godly virtue, girl."

The Queen merely chuckled "Wits."

Then she continues: "And in case your history failed to record, persistent intelligence among savages is followed by unfaltering authority." She slowly twirls once again and a swarm of slow, horrible insects escaped her clothing, vicious-looking enough to convince that they could consume the frail woman that homes them in a matter of seconds, but somehow, they don't.

"A virtue such as faith is defeated by something as simple as wits, you say?" The High Priest appeared unimpressed.

"Oh, not just simple wits, but true and 'godly' wits. Can you say the same with your show-cased faith?"

The tall conundrum doors at the end of the hall opened, heavy sounds bathing the entire hall as the thick afternoon lights gushed forth, a silhouette of a monstrous size blackens the center of the doorway yet a gentle voice echoed from it like it came from a deep trench. "High Priest Colovius, I see you've been entertaining my guest…"

"Your Supremacy…" the High Priest knelt before the silhouette.

"Rise up, Uncle. We would not want the First Queen of the Swamplands to think that we Akans waste time on vain formalities now do we?"

High Priest Colovius struggled to stand up from his weak knees until a thin hand of bronze-coloured glimmer was offered unto him, it was the Queen's, but he turned a blind eye.

"Thank you for the help but it was completely unneeded." He sighed.

"Oh, cease the pride Uncle, Does your sect not teach us to be humble and grateful to all?" The King of the Castellated Abbey stepped out of the blinding light to reveal a man dressed in simple items of clothing; his voluminous torso covered by a white tunic with specks of stains collected from a history of maintained use, his sandals are of humble leather and his trouser is what any middle-class citizen would walk the realm with, but the Crown sitting on top of his head contrasts his deep humility in the same intensity.

The Crown of Supremacy, also known as the Midnight Diadem, the very first Crown ever forged. Made by the Leader of the gods: Akantanel, he dropped it from his high throne in the Firmament to promise anyone who wears it with boundless authority to either spread dominion or compose alliances. Around the reign of its first wearers rose a glorious country resting on an elevated valley that became a constant seat of power- the proud country of Akan, directly named after the god himself.

"Queen Eun, I hope that my palace fared you well?" He grabbed the Swamp Queen's hand to place a kiss upon it, lips are soft and gentle like the inside of a flower.

"It fared me very well, Your Supremacy, I have to say that I'm impressed most with the mediums of culture made by your people."

"Oh, I fear that ours is but a speck on the thousands from yours. So tell me, Queen Eun, what is your secret on successfully uniting a population with myriad of differences and have them serve under one flag?" The Supreme Leader flashed her a brilliant smile.

"I'm sure that you already know the answer to that, look at your Akans, money and faith have millions of contrasts and yet some of your High Priests had united the two concepts to the people." Queen Eun smiled warmly when the High Priest looked back.

"Well said. Everything is possible and all else is an excuse in the eyes of authority." His Supremacy turned to the High Priest. "Uhm, Uncle? would you be kind to retire from the Castle and proceed to your duties? I heard that High Priest Jin was seeking your presence in the gardens earlier."

"As you will, my king…"

"So… I never thought the Swamp Queen would possess such elegant beauty!" the King compliments, if Eun isn't a Queen, she knows that she'll be falling for this man's gentle glamour.

"Oh, beauty? Did you manage to rule this mighty country solely through your charms Supreme One? Because I won't doubt if you say so." The Queen compliments back.

"Queen Eun that's an overstatement, Uhm, please allow me to assist you?" He stepped aside, gesturing towards the conundrum doors from whence he came from.

"Of course…" They both walked towards the sun-lit hall, the heavy doors closing loud before them to announce their privacy. Inside the Dome of Authority lies a vast roundtable by the centere circled by 14 ivory chairs, made for the 14 known rulers of the Viridian Realm- well, about to be 15 now in addition to the new Swamp Country. In the middle of it carves a map of all the lands and seas underneath the Firmament of the gods.

Queen Eun walked across the room to the tall windows. The country of Akan looks tiny from the floating palace, but it is a bastion nonetheless. A county walled by mountain ranges where lush carpets of grass rolled north and south into green valleys.

"When will our Navenxite friend arrive?" The Supreme Leader asked, pouring honeyed tea on a cup to be offered to Queen Eun. There are no slaves, servants nor guards in the Castellated Abbey, something that the Queen is disturbed about.

"He is a lover of dusk, I'm sure the Scholar-King would arrive when the sun sinks completely."

"Then let us converse casually before he arrives." The king insists. "Oh, I want you to pardon the absence of your seat. I'll make sure to ask the best carpenters in my sphere to make one for the Leader of the young Swampland Country. For now, you can take mine." The king offered the Akan chair, his own seat of the table to her.

"You are most kind." She sat down then proceeds to sip upon the offered drink, she doesn't bother if it is poisoned or not. It is pure idiocy if one attempts to poison the wearer of the Swamp Crown. The main reason why Queen Eun went alone in Akan is because her crown deemed her invulnerable to death, but not from time's decay.

"I'm grateful that you trust my brew, last time that I offered it to someone, he gently declined by stating words of paranoia."

"Well, whoever that person is, they are missing out greatly." The Queen raised her cup in praise since the king's brew of tea was indeed exquisite of taste.

"Don't worry, the Zhoutanian Emperor had enough shares of luxury that my mere tea is not a loss I assure you." The king stared out to the tall hall windows to watch the sun sink on the distant mountains of the Sovenian border, his neighboring country in the north.

"Oh, I know how Emperor Xin is. He doesn't take any exceptions or mere chances, he is a cold leader like the steel mechanizations of his laboratories. But like any steel, he rusts." The Queen stressed out, making the Supreme Leader cock his brow.

"What a profound way of viewing Zhoutania..."

"I haven't even started yet…" the Queen scoffed, silence filled the hall except for the noontime birds passing above the dome.

"To think that your stretched eyes and buttoned nose had me guess that you're of Zhoutanian blood, yet you speak such brazen viewpoint about them."

"Well, it takes one to know one." The Queen finished her cup, drowning the fiery rage within her with the tea. She denounces the Zhoutanian Emperor greatly more than anything else.

"So, who else knows of your fresh queendom except for the Navenxite King and me?" The King intrigues.

"Do I get something in return if I impart such delicate information to you, Your Supremacy?" The Queen asked. The Supreme King took his kettle then walked towards her, pouring her empty cup for a refill.

"I guess my humble tea would suffice?" The king smiled meekly at her.

"You really are charming..." The queen mirrored the smile then took a sip from her cup. She can't believe that the most powerful seat in all Viridia is claimed by a man who is simple, casual, and would warmly trade a cup of tea for sensitive state confidences. She wonders how The King would behave during warfare, but something's telling her not to wonder furthermore.

"I'm sure that Emperor Xin doesn't know of the new country blooming from his western border, and… It's a given that the Mezenian Sovereignty already knows of you because she just knows everything, but who else?" The King sat beside her. Queen Eun stared back at him then reverted her gaze up to the glass dome, the sky is transitioning to a murky hue that somehow reminds her of home. The dusk is approaching and the stars are beginning to peek, the Scholar-King must be near.

"Well, there are already four countries who know of the Schynths as far as I'm aware." She finally confessed.

"Then who is the fourth?" The king asked.

"A moon ago, a young Ocmenian diplomat wandered deep in my southern borders with no army to back him up except for a strange servant, a Sovenian slave I guess…" She recollects. The Supreme King smiled down his hands, he's well aware of the pair she spoke of.

"He started to speak of 'peaceful tidings' and 'homage' to the great country of the Swamps, and from that moment I knew that I had to welcome them in my capital, it is wiser to welcome an Ocmenian Embassy than Ocmenian Armies."

"Well, I just wish you treated our dessert neighbors well." The King said.

"They wouldn't be visiting Sovenia by now if I didn't."

The Conundrum doors behind them opened. A presence refreshed the room with scents of drenched moss and succulent incense as if a whole jungle had compressed in the room. There stands a terrifically tall man with jade pierced all over his face, clad in the armor of leaves and jade that barely covers much of his frightening physique. About two Akan men are needed to reach his height, even with that fact, the huge helm of long leaves and purple feathers that spreads like a fan on his head made him more gargantuan- it is the Headdress of Omen, powerful as any of the crowns.

"King Octavus, Queen Eun…" He bowed, striking his obsidian javelin on the marble floors, the long edge of it impales a serpent's head with eyes jeweled and twinkling from the starlight. From behind him appeared two female soldiers with same jade piercings and hair shaven into a mohawk.

"King Ethweltexco, Just in time for the assembly." the Supreme King bowed in response. The Scholar-King settled on the largest seat in the roundtable leaving his guards behind.

"Have you both started without me? Because I sensed that my arrival interrupted a certain discussion." King Ethweltexco asked.

"I assure you that our discussion is nothing that could pique your interest." Queen Eun answered casually. Ethweltexco was the first genuine ally she had after she found her country even if their lands are an ocean apart.

"Oh? Well then, since I'm here, shall we start?" Ethweltexco gestured his native guards to close the Conundrum doors and vacate the room.

"Not before I let you taste this brew of mine." The Supreme King stood to retrieve his kettle.

"Don't bother young one…" King Ethweltexco gestured with his large palm to stop Octavus. "Your brew is infamously addictive and I might end up conquering your country just for that drink alone." The Scholar-King quipped, earning him a laugh from the Supreme King.

"Alright, since we are all here, let me thank both of you for trusting your agendas with the Akan Government, I pledge that your decision won't fruit disappointment. This congress will prevail in utmost security in a non-disclosure agreement." The Supreme King announced.

"That better be the case, the publicity of the Schynths is at stake here if you disappoint our agenda." Queen Eun said.

"That won't be a problem." King Octavus assured.

"But dear leaders, what is this agenda exactly?" He implored. The Scholar-King threw his head up, slowly raising his arms to the night sky,

"War."

He proclaimed to the stars.