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“I... ah...”

“You cannot remember?”

“...No, I can’t. The last thing I can recall about them is... prior to seizing control of Kavia.”

“Oh,” said Gohvis, sounding abruptly surprised. “So you won the Kavian civil war even without their help. Impressive.”

Jercash returned a flat look. “I resent what you are implying, right now.”

“It was a compliment.”

“Sure it was.”

“In any case, it seems they have been missing for quite some time, then. I thought perhaps they had disappeared just before your incursion into Hoss, but if it was before you even finished conquering Kavia, then...”

“Then what? Finish that sentence, please. Why are you suddenly so curious about them?”

“Does this timing not strike you as strange?” said Gohvis. “A bit too coincidental?”

Jercash saw what he was getting at.

“It has been many years since someone last tried,” said Gohvis. “Is it not about that time again?”

That time again...

Yeah, maybe it was.

This was the way with Abolish. It had almost slipped his mind altogether. Which was perhaps the whole idea behind waiting so long.

Minor coup attempts were a common enough thing. A weekly--or even daily--occurrence, at times.

But major attempts...

Well, those were considerably rarer, now weren’t they? Izalog had made sure to teach him all about that long ago, when he’d begun to approach this tier of power and influence. And with the reaper’s help, he’d gone even further and discovered some generational patterns, reaching a few new conclusions of his own about the nature of would-be Abolish usurpers.

Going back all the way to Abolish’s inception, it occurred roughly every fourty years. A major internal event.

Sometimes, it skipped a generation. Other times, it happened a bit early or late. But by and large, the pattern was consistent.

And that hadn’t changed during Morgunov and Dozer’s rule. Instead, the attempts had simply failed every time.

There were several reasons why he and the others were not trying to wrest power away from those two. For some of them, like Jercash, they just didn’t think it was worth the risk. This position was already quite the lofty one--and in some ways, more desirable than the zenith.

For others, though, it was because, time and again, they’d personally seen what became of those who tried.

And then, of course, there were still others, like Gohvis, who were just total enigmas, perhaps too interested in their hobbies or obsessions to care about things like ruling.

But at this point, Jercash supposed that type of mindset was now a bit outdated.

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Jercash paused for a deep breath as he thought about his next words. He’d largely been ignoring the magnificent snowscape that he and Gohvis were both standing in, but now he took a moment to appreciate it. These mountains. This biting wind. Cold and lifeless and terrible--but beautiful, nonetheless.

One of the perks of being so old. Being able to stand in brutal places like this, unbothered by the elements--and therefore, able to instead admire the natural wonder of the world that much more.

“Where did you bring me?” he decided to ask.

“The Ridoas.”

Jercash had to stop and blink at that. The Ridoas were the most famous mountains in the world, due entirely to them being the home of the highest peak in the world, Mt. Vinayoaka.

They were also in Luugh, on the other side of the Hardwick Sea, over a thousand miles north of Kavia and Hoss.

“...Bit far to take me, don’t you think?”

“We were being pursued. And you’ve been out for days, by the way.”

Oh.

Oh no.

He groaned. “Still. If it was mountains to get lost in that you wanted, the Waress were right there next to us.”

“I sent decoys there, too. Some of which are still being chased, even now.”

Huh. Well, that was another thing that Jercash had already known about the Monster. His mastery over illusions. Hell, in all likelihood, the Gohvis in front of him probably wasn’t the real one.

“What about my men? Do you know how many survived? Or where they are?”

“Yes, but now that you’ve brought that up, I am reminded of something that I must ask you, first.”

“Shoot.”

“What happened to Koh?”

“Hmm?” Jercash needed a second to think about that. “The dog?”

“Yes. I lent him and Germal to you when you visited my library, but I did not sense them among your forces during the battle.”

“Uh...”

Huh.

That was a good question. What had happened to them? He was having trouble recalling.

In fact... when was the last time he’d seen them? Even that was hard to remember.

He’d gone through all that trouble to get them under his command, so he would’ve noticed if they’d just upped and disappeared.

Gohvis was right. They definitely hadn’t been involved in that last battle. Hell, had they been there for any of the battles?

Next page on the 9th

At midnight PST as usual. Thanks for reading, everyone.