The revetion that the princely fleet was already on its way shook the council. It also spoiled my pn to let the peasants sow their fields before drilling every volunteer without mercy all through the summer. While nobody transformed into a knight without anything less than a lifetime of training, most motivated men with even a little previous experience with weapons could be forged into near-serviceable soldiers in a few weeks of drill.

  More pressing than ck of trained men was the ck of a fleet. We couldn't hope to beat the Tamsi purely on an open field. Though Isso was a nd of kes, it would take time to recruit the crews and commandeer the boats rge enough to be useful.

  I brought Mulkava with me, as I left the town hall. As he could not walk, four servants had to drag him across the floor. Outside, the Tamsi knights and their armed servants had been stopped by the local militiamen.

  When they saw their master, bound and humiliated, the Tamsi found their courage in aggression. The gunners and halberdiers obeyed my whim, and the Tamsi died. The knights put up a poor fight for their station, thought to their credit they were heavily outnumbered.

  A crowd gathered to stare at me. I gave them a smile. Nobody cheered, but that was fine. The roar of guns --the ear-splitting song of power-- was all the fanfare I needed.

  "Glory to Umu!" shouted a boyish voice that cracked under the weight of its fervour.

  I turned to the shouter and saw my page. Pride burned in his eyes. My smile widened into a grin, and the handgunners answered the shout. It certainly made sense for them to glorify my name after they had killed in it.

  The unsure onlookers joined the show of approval. I went to my horse, only to find that the beast fidgeted in my presence. In order to mount it, I had to whisperer the origin words for the divine ancestor of equines. Afterwards the mare was as still as a statue, unless I commanded it.

  My people hearkened to a small speech, in which I expined, how the ever-jealous Tamsi had cruelly attacked me. The wanton assault had forced me to reveal my true self, even though my aims had been always to guide the Issoans as one of them.

  Stones and other detritus flew towards Mulkava. I drank the fear and hatred in his gaze, before imploring the people to spare him for ter use.

  "To think he insinuated I was some fugitive serpentist!" I ughed. "The council room is full of men, who can verify that they saw ample evidence of my womanhood, when the act of my self-defence burned the fabric over my modesty."

  To cap my speech, I expined the incoming Tamsi fleet and how I had been absolutely right to strike first.

  "Do not despair!" I told them. "We have a fighting chance. It requires courage, tenacity and diligence worthy of your ancestors. All the just gods are on our side, but they do not reward indolence. And cowardice they only detest."

  On my way down to the harbour, I gave more of the little speeches. The content didn't truly matter. The people only needed to see lord Mulkava defeated and humiliated, loaded on a cart like livestock on its way to the market. The mud of the streets had grown too soft to drag a rge man through.

  A shadow sped over the street and up the wall. With a start, I looked into the sky. The rge bird --an eagle, definitely-- circled over us. A shiver went down my spine.

  I gnced at Mulkava. He seemed barely conscious, and in his condition his chants wouldn't be heard by the forces of the sky. Still, I needed to hurry, lest he die out on me.

  Standing on an auction ptform in the harbour, I must have made quite the apparition. A tall woman with cwed hands and scaled talons for feet, cd for war in armour charred bck. The astonishment of my crowd mingled with awe and dread thick enough to taste.

  While Mulkava's barely breathing hulk was dragged over the piers, I gazed into the leafless forest of the ancient masts. What could be seen of the ships was of archaic design, yet the construction remained abundantly sophisticated and smooth. If the Attisans had known the origin of the odd derelicts, they would have reconsidered living so near of them.

  It didn't matter any more. I was about remove the issue.

  Lord Mulkava made for a grand sacrifice. Powerful in spirit, with a noble lineage, an old friend and distant blood kin. I couldn't know, if it was mutual, but there had even been bodily attraction. Were circumstances completely different, we could have been lovers. Well, Mulkava had given up the chance of that, when he sided with foreign tyrants against his own people.

  Most importantly, he had betrayed me. I let the anger flow through my soul, like a warm breeze into a bonfire. But I couldn't sink into the right mood by merely hating Mulkava. He was a fool, only worth mild annoyance.

  Who I hated was the Fulgurite Prince and his 'kindly' gods. They wanted me to submit, just as they wanted to 'heal' my Father. But he needed fixing as much as a sve needed shackles. He was free and powerful, and the kindly gods were right to fear him.

  The world was changing, ever faster. All seers worth their tongue knew it. Perhaps Father would consume the world, as it was foretold. Maybe He would liberate us all. I couldn't know: my mind was that of a mortal and infinitely distant from the thoughts of true divinity.

  Mulkava sunk to his st journey into the murky water, while I chanted in a nguage much older than Ekrish. The tongue had lost its potency from disuse, but those to whom I spoke to needed to hear their own words.

  It was a simple song: feast on the soul offered and give up your vigil. To the sunken prisoners I sang that service to me would be their freedom. Hopefully their minds were too deteriorated to recognise the difference between liberty and svery. Any change was just as alien and welcome to the static captives of a primordial vengeance.

  The spirits of the ke heeded me, and the water in the harbour frothed and seethed. A cry of terror rose among the crowd, as the masts began to rise.

  Out of the ke appeared a small fleet of elegant ships. Despite the ages underwater, barely any detritus covered their sleek bck wood. For a moment, translucent shapes writhed as if in agony on the top decks. They quickly faded and dropped the oars they had been holding, but the oars sticking out from below deck kept their pces.

  The new core of my fleet wasn't enough to beat the Tamsi, especially as the oarsmen were in no shape to fight, but it would give us a chance. We also had Mulkava's galley, a rge vessel suitable to be a river queen's fgship.

  I told a harbour official to arrange the re-equipping of the resurfaced ships, but not to bother with new sails on them. Additionally, I advised against looking under the decks, unless they desired to experience the swift work of deathly wrath.

  The townsfolk were over worst of their fright, and a turbulent sea of people filled the harbour market. All eyes stared at me, but I only noticed one pair.

  Sulme's head poked over the throng. The masses tried to get closer, only to be stopped by the crossed halberds of my guard.

  My heart leaped. For the first time I was aware of the changes in my body. The Nilkoan might understandably find my inhuman parts off-putting. I looked at my palm. Instead the rough pink skin, I had rge, smooth and pale scales like the belly of a reptile. At least I still had arms.

  The people around the ptform continued to stare at me, strangely silent for such a rge crowd. They must have heard the Tamsi tales about possessed fiends. Though unlike in those fables, I wasn't in the process of being crushed by the kindly gods despite the clear day sky above me.

  I was an abomination to them. Perhaps I had mistaken their fear for respect and missed the disgust hidden in it.

  The weariness hit me like a wave. Even Umu was spent from breaking the unseen shackles, which had bound the ancient soldiers to the ke bottom.

  Aanu burned in my veins. I commanded her to my hand and pushed her into the pistol still in its immacute holster.

  "I must rest," I said to the militia captain. "Help me through the crowd."

  My soldiers didn't need to get rough, as the townsfolk willingly spread off my way. I headed towards the direction, in which I had seen Sulme, but he wasn't to be found.

  He must have returned to the townhouse, so I too headed there.

  At the house, I gave my gunners some orders, more to show my authority than out of any real need. The captain left two burly men at the door, and I went inside.

  Sulme wasn't there.

  I turned to my page. "Go get Sulme." I paused. "No, go ask him to come here."

  The boy nodded and disappeared out of the door. For a moment I fidgeted in pce.

  The three house servants stood in a tight family clump, doing their best not to stare. I swallowed my annoyance, as I was quite the sight.

  "Help me out of this armour and fetch me something clean to wear." I did my best to smile kindly.

  "D-do you need a bath?" the father squeaked.

  "No, thank you, but I could use a bucket of warm water."

  After they got over the initial shock, the mother and daughter helped me out of my scorched attire. Because their eyes were stuck on my scaled limbs and tail, which had grown to the size of my forearm, they didn't notice how I stared at what was between my legs.

  Any self-examination was ended before it began, as the mother brought me a set of linen underwear and an undyed wool gown.

  "Would you like something to eat, good dy?" the mother asked, after I was dressed. "We were about to start preparing dinner, when you arrived. While the oven is warm, I can make you what you want."

  I was more hungry than a mortal should be. "No need. I'll eat with you."

  The pair stared at me, so I continued: "If that suits you."

  The mother smiled, but she had to strain herself to do it. "Of course it suits us."

  Our dinner started quiet and stiff, but eventually the family rexed in my presence. They spoke about very mundane things between themselves. I kept my mouth shut except for the simple but filling meal.

  The chance to act like a normal human was quite welcome.