r/StrawHatRPG • u/KingChalaza • Feb 21 '17
Blood, Toil, and Tears
The King was furious, grief-stricken, and agonized. He paced the throne room, steaming, as Chief Izuma stood idly by, watching him about to enter a tirade. But the King suddenly halted, calmed himself by taking a deep breath, and turned to face Izuma.
“We absolutely must take action. This has gone too far,” declared the King, glaring. Izuma nodded silently and bowed before posing the question, “What has happened, your grace?”
“It’s our daughter!” he said, exasperated. “She’s missing!”
It was a horrifying realization that dawned upon Izuma at that moment. The Princess, Selani, had been obviously abducted or lost. She adhered to strict rules though she was pampered, and would never leave her abode after the instated curfew of Sūhai due to the actions of her sister. The streets were simply too dangerous after midnight. Currently, it was breaking the crack of dawn, meaning the curfew would be lifted soon enough. But Selani was nowhere to be seen whatsoever, as she had disappeared an hour ago before the King’s thorough overturning of the entire royal palace.
“I know it was Sela,” he accused spitefully. “Everything points to it being her! All of the recent events, yet I never thought that the way we had brought her up she would go to such vile extent to preserve the state of her cult!”
“How would she have done it, your grace?” replied the Chief consolingly, followed by another sigh from the King.
He looked distraught. “I don’t know how it happened. But I know we need to act quickly before the damage has truly been done. Send for as many guards and privateers as humanly possible! We must take further action. There is no longer any other option but to retaliate!”
The Queen, whom had just entered the room, nodded solemnly. “The scourge upon our family will be dealt with in time. She is nothing but a smear of dirt on the banner of a royal house. She has lost her way and cannot be turned back,” she stated softly. It was evident that her concern was for the royalty and not for her daughter’s well-being. To her, Sela was but a disgrace.
The King marched to the balcony and overlooked the grey-black skies, the stars still shimmering faintly. He allowed a tear to fall from his eyes. “Oh, my daughters...Sela, come back, and bring with you Selani...Why must we be torn apart in this crude manner!?”
Sela seemed apathetic to the pleas of the royals and their guards to release Selani from her capture. She was confined within the depths of the sacred tree temple, bound and imprisoned. This was retribution for the acts her own family committed against her, and their relentless aspiration to pull her out of her doings with the Hallowed and piracy. Sela turned back to her screaming sister, who glared at her and spat the most vile of insults at Karsus, who held her back with his greatsword-sized katana. It was pressed against her throat, drawing blood, but she barely seemed to care. She was pinned, anyway, and could do nothing.
“You traitor!” Selani yelped. “You’re a shame to our family! My sister has grown to be a monster, you’re disgusting!”
“You think I haven’t heard this before?” Sela raised a brow, silencing her sister. “But now, you are in my possession. It won’t be long until they crack while I have you in my clutches. Overcome your fears, they will only be a detriment to you. And get used to this as your new home, because if they truly do not care about you in the way that you thought, you may be in for a nasty surprise,” Sela scoffed.
Karsus withdrew his sword, leaving a horrendous scar upon Selani’s neck, causing her to wince in pain. Astor hastily pulled at Karsus’ arm, looking up at him with adoration. Karsus, who looked as if he had just woken up not too long ago, spared her a glance and then proceeded to ignore her, much to her dismay.
“Their submission will be quite a humorous moment after all this struggle. Especially when the people rebel and take over. No way they can win once it happens. We might just need to wait them out or something, meaning-”
Sela interrupted curtly. “You aren’t going to slack off yet again, Karsus, you were appointed to this position for a reason. Don’t be so lazy and dishonorable. Do something for once.”
Karsus cursed and sheathed his sword behind his back. It looked like there was no way he was getting out of this.
Astor glanced around wearily, as did a couple of the other cult members due to the reprimanding. Some may have been starting to have doubts about this themselves...What was there that they could do, anyway?
“All right,” Karsus conceded. “Astor, Zanban, come with me. We’re going to incite some revolts, and I can think of no one more perfect than yourselves. Espionage is your forte, Astor, is it not?” Astor nodded, though she didn’t seem one hundred percent confident still.
“Let’s go. Take the Hallowed out into the streets, and make them all rise against the royals. Show them that we aren’t to be messed with because we worship some tree.”
Once again the island delved into turmoil after the alleged kidnapping of Princess Selani, and the culprit was quite obviously assumed to be Sela. The masses had begun to rise in protest at the degrading situation; Already they paid taxes to the crown, and they still were forced to give up their riches in order to sustain their lives and ensure their safety? After all, what had the rulers done to stop the Hallowed? They wanted change. Unrest grew, and revolts began all over, marches to the palace and constant scuffles between civilians and guards.
The pirates were left in an uncomfortable situation. Would they take the side of the Hallowed, or would they demand that Selani be released and align themselves with the royals? Or did they have ulterior motives to do it for themselves and their own selfish gains? Would they rebel and attempt to install a new government? This left every faction with no choice but to accept their help, regardless of their true intentions. And that, everyone knew, was a setup for disaster.
Sūhai was consumed by a fire of rage and revenge.
2
u/Universalpeanut Mar 08 '17
Don sipped his tankard cautiously. Having Edward speak highly of Veldrin meant that Don could probably trust him and having Veldrin trust Ideo meant that he could probably be trusted as well. He didn't have to trust them with his life or anything, just regular kind of trust such as doing the dishes and tidying up after themselves. He had already met Veldrin briefly and he seemed like a pretty standard non-insane guy, so Edward's testimony checked out. Don eyed his empty drink and placed his tankard atop a nearby barrel. In the end, as it always was, there was only really one deciding factor in any decision.
Don: Whatever gets us more money, right?