II-126 Politics (I)

Politics is the act of getting what you want through whatever means, including war, but whatever means without saying truly what you want. Politics is getting your enemy to betray themselves. Politics is waving a stick and going "nice doggie" at someone, and masking your insult so they don't take offense, or making your insult deliberate so they do take offense, and they come charging at you like a raging bull, lost of all sense. Politics is romance, deception, and brutality mingled into one, and politics takes a lifetime to learn, but an instant to unravel.

I despise politics. I love politics. Politics made me who I was, from just an errant courting noblewoman to the queen of a great nation, and politics failed me. It failed me before a great adversary that cared nothing for it, that courted power for power itself.

Politics is not power. Politics is any means to obtain it, but there is still a separation. However, in that separation, should you be able to preserve yourself, or should you have something someone else wants, you can yet use politics to ascend, to climb that final threshold, and obtain that which you desire.

Wei, Agnesia, and anyone reading this, when my time is finished, when I am to return back to the black that took me as part of the bargain I made, and that was made on my behalf, please look through these words I have left you. And understand, and forgive me, for this is the only paltry wisdom I have left to offer of my life.

-Ellena of Dawnrest

II-126

Politics (I)

"Tell me again why we are walking here. Why we are looking up at the great mansions of our supposed enemies as if we are mere tourists," Ellena said.

They wandered in that great district of Pride, that district of districts at the heart of Pride. There they looked upon the Old Man's mansion once more, rising into the sky as if a massive pillar of radiant gold. It continued on, however, piercing higher and higher until it reached another ring within the Claimed Hells. Another ring that revolved. Another ring where the Princes and Kings indulged in their plots and schemes, where they applied their power to greater things beyond the gazes of lesser Sinners.

"To understand the nature of our enemy," Wei said.

"Say it again," Ellena said.

"To understand the nature of our enemy," Wei said.

"Say it again, Agnesia."

Her daughter, trailing just slightly behind them, was looking about, glaring at all the haughty Sinners of pride. Here in this district, everyone was bedecked in jewels. Everyone was laden with baubles and precious goods, but theirs was not a creed of greed. Theirs was a symbol of status, a symbol toward power and privilege and pedigree. And they regarded her as if she was a filthy brute, for she stank of wrath. And she was a creature of wrath, after all she experienced.

"To understand the nature of our enemy," Agnesia seethed.

"Good," Ellenasaid, though her gaze lingered a moment longer on her daughter. "What do you see, Wei?"

He stared up at the mansion. "I see gold. A lot of it."

"Yes, but what else?"

"Well, it's above all the other buildings, and yes, that. Pride. Mepheleon briefly arrived a few days ago, and he said to exploit each of the cultures using their habits, their nature, correct?"

Wei nodded, trying to follow where she was going.

"So, we are going to wander these streets, and we are going to see and watch as the people make their mistake."

"The people?" Wei asked. "But we'll be dealing with princes and kings."

"The princes and kings come from somewhere. They follow some culture. The old man, he was easily cowed. He was a powerful count up until he was bullied by a prince, pressed into service to be a mere messenger. A role far beneath him." Ellena let out a scornful laugh. "My husband used to do the same thing to the noblemen and generals who failed him. He was humbling them and it nailed them to resentment. But since he was sword holder and blessed of the dragon blood, blessed of Ignium's shine, they still had to court his power."

"And what does that mean?" Wei asked, trying to seek the truth of her wisdom.

"They will always look up at someone they deem to be more powerful and they will always look down at the ones they despise, for they are lesser."

"So we must present ourselves to be more powerful?" Wei asked.

"No," Ellena said. The guards that accompanied her drew in, their massive gold-armored forms stomping through the streets. Several Sinners of pride stepped aside. A few, however, nearly stood their ground. Wei regarded the scene and watched as Ellena’s soldiers walked around the Sinners who stood their ground.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," a tall orcish Sinner sneered. He spat on one of Ellena’s soldiers. For a moment, Wei considered doing something. Agnesia almost did something, but Ellena pulled them along.

"Now, this is exactly it. They cannot refuse."

"What?" Wei said, not following.

"They cannot refuse a challenge, for a challenge is a direct strike to their ego. You can use that against them. You can use that against all of them. They will either bend or they will rise to face you or someone else on your behalf. More than anyone else, Pride is easy to provoke. Pride is our greatest ally and their own greatest enemy. Always."

"But they should be able to notice this. They should be able to understand this."

"No," Ellena shook her head. "There is a major difference between knowing something and realizing it. I realized that I could not have saved my kingdom. That my husband could do nothing to preserve us from the Dying Queen's touch." Ellena’s breaths came fast, and Agnesia reached out to hold her mother. But Ellena sighed. "I do not know it. Even now, even now, some nights I delude myself. I allow myself to imagine and dream. Dream of lifetimes unlived, of moments where I could have warned my love, where I could have warned my sons, where I could have saved my youngest. If I was only wiser, if I was only more cunning, if I was only more powerful. If, if, if. I realize, but I do not know. It does not sink into me. I am not aware."

Wei regarded her with a single nod. "I see."

"It is also your weakness, Wei. You are a dear boy, and I am sorry for all that you have experienced, for all your struggles. But you are easily provoked as well. You are better than before, but the wounds that line your psyche, they demand that you strike back at the world. And because the world is not truly whole, because the world is not a coherent entity, you lash out, you strike, you face everything that isn't the world, everything that is an adversary, or declares itself to be an adversary against you. You must face everything, including your own heart. Pride, Pride will use pride against you. Pride will use your greatest sin, your greatest pain, and you must be better than they at that."

Wei stared at her, unsure what had gotten into her earlier, when she suddenly demanded they go on this excursion. Agnesia was also lost, but she seemed more content just to spend time with her mother, when the end, an inevitable end, bloomed in the distance. One gained perspective on family, and it took Wei losing everything to get his perspective, and far too late, far too late to be whole. This eventual coming of death, this eventual time for Ellena to pass, that would wound Agnesia, but at least it wouldn't tear her asunder, not like what happened to Wei. Never like what happened to me, Wei thought. Her god bless.

"Let us be on. Let us be on to the next venture."

And they got in another demon and traveled. They took in Wrath from high above, and the city of Wrath was a city of challengers, was a city of many battlefields sectioned and disciplined for controlled and lawful conflicts. The entire place resembled a coliseum, and rather than having a governing mansion, it had a colossal blood grounds, blood grounds that truly fit the name. Gallons of gore and red spilled down, lining the city in channels and rivers from which the defeated and the vanquished drifted along, applying a brutal, if strangely beautiful, aesthetic.

"Here is the most direct of our adversaries. Wrath will make themselves known. Wrath will make their threats known. But Wrath does not become us." And she looked upon Agnesia as she said this. "It does not. We can use this. We can hold hate in our hearts. But we can put down our weapons when we are done." She reached out and held her daughter's hand. "Promise me this."

"Promise. I will," Agnesia said.

And they flew on, drifting over Wrath. It was really rather a beautiful city. And strangely, Wei had a good feeling about them. As good of a feeling as he could about any of the Claimed Hells' greater powers.

Lust was a brief trip. It was a place all about assailing the senses, about provoking one. The structures were suggestive, flesh-like in some ways, but ultimately aesthetically pleasing. Lust always tried to seduce you, but the overcommitment to Lust also resulted in them being built above the greatest city of Sloth. For Lust always ended in some manner of waste.

"Obsession holds them," Ellena pointed that out to them. "To be truly obsessed, to lust endlessly over something, you will end up forgetting yourself. And Envy shares a similar shoe here," Ellena said. "But Envy is directed outward in hate. Lust wishes to possess you, to hold you, and you can use it to lead them on. Envy will do anything it can to become you, to show you that they can have what is yours, and they can be lured all the same as a thief into a trap. But it is Gluttony that I fear the most."

"Gluttony? Why?"

Gluttony then had its major city, its grand mansion, that rose high, built in the waste beneath two other circles. The waste from Lust, the waste from Envy, and waste brought in from all across the Claimed Hells were layered high. Layered high, yet the people there seemed free, seemed happy, seemed willing to stew in disease and festering rot. And it was seeing that, seeing how casually and carefully, freely, people lived within the circle of Sloth, that Wei realized their true threat.

"They are unbound," Wei muttered.

"Yes. I was not going to phrase it that way, but yes, they are not restrained by anything. They can do anything. They can move along any path. Do not ever underestimate them, for all they desire is to be done with the matter, and they will find the most convenient way. They will do and take the path of least resistance each time. I suspect they will only collapse in our favor should all the other circles do so beforehand."

"Greed is simple. Greed will wish to own us, to buy us, but Greed is its own worst enemy. For the means of exchange is not power itself. It is just a symbolic means of purchasing and manipulating and moving power. So we can count on Greed to bid for and against us. Greed will spend money thinking that they can buy us. We simply will spend their money in return, and ignore them thereafter."

"Won't they try to come and collect?" Agnesia asked.

"Greed has some capacity for violence, as all people do in the Claimed Hells," Ellena said. "But ultimately they are merchants, bankers, and such. Even their great warriors have no taste for it. They will try to hire someone from Wrath, but if we can claim Wrath, then they will have to seek another. And eventually, the entire endeavor will become unprofitable. They will betray their own interest when it becomes too expensive."

And finally they went where Gluttony was. Gluttony where food constantly poured down from a cloud of oily blackness. Gluttony that drank and feasted and indulged eternally. Gluttony that resembled a giant maw built atop a distended stomach. Gluttony bloated and more.

"Gluttony, I cannot truly grasp them," Ellena admitted. "They, I fear, will be the greatest wild card here. But, however, I think you have their measure," she regarded Wei.

"What do you mean? You mean my shards. I can use that to provoke them."

"I think you can use that to starve them," she said. "You starve sometimes in multiple ways. You can be full, but starved of affection. You can be full, but starved for taste. And they can be full, full of everything they've ever wanted, but be starved of power instead. You need to give them a taste. You need to give them a taste and deny it to them. And then you need to use them. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Wei said, nodding throughout.

Ellena stopped talking then. The demon flew on and both Wei and Agnesia looked at the former queen as she adopted a pensive expression. "I do not know how much longer I will have. I do not know for how long I can serve you."

"I will find a way," Wei began, but she cut him off.

"Wei, I believe you. I believe you will do all you can, but I'm going to ask you something. Do not throw your life away meaninglessly." He stared at her. "I know, I know your response will be to try and fight death for me. I know, but do not waste yourself. I cannot control what you do." In fact, she looked out from the inside of the demon staring through its essence-shaped screens. "In fact, there is so very little I can control in my life, but at this point, I can say this. Politics, politics cannot preserve us. Politics is just an insulating layer on top of power, but politics, politics has given me perspective on us and everything around us."

She looked at him. "Build something."

"What?" Wei said, surprised.

"Build something worth keeping. Build something you're proud of. Keep building the Drowned Sky Sect. Keep building it. Build it so high and so much, embody all the sins."

"We should embody all the sins," she muttered, as if entering a trance. Then she emerged from it. "We should be another choice, another choice for all of them. We should be that which they all desire and cannot reach. We should be that step beyond just want, just exploitation. You can lead them that way, using the shards, using all you can offer, using your potential capacity. And you can do that by insinuating your danger to Mepheleon."

And Wei leaned back. This talk felt strangely dangerous. But something told him that the Harbinger would have loved it.

"You, there is only one thing that they all share, that one taboo desire. For to gain so much power yet be denied that final step..." Ellena shook her head. "...is that, as the old man said, eventually you addict yourself. Eventually you grow used to where you stand and you look to what you don't have. And what they don't have is a rulership of the Claimed Hells. Rulership that you might be able to offer them. Because you stand apart from Mepheleon, you stand beyond him."

 She leaned in close. "Earth… Beyond these Fathoms. Such a place can be a many layered rebellion against everyone. The systems. The greatest forces. Everyone. And Earth can be our sanctuary. I hope… I hope… I hope that we can see some place beyond this misery. I hope that, should I ever have grandchildren, they be raised far from a place like this. From monsters—and the things we were forced to become here.”

Agnesia looked away. But Wei just clenched his teeth. “They will. You will. And I will not give up on you. Not until I am dead.”

Ellena slowly turned to regard Wei and smiled. “My husband would have adored you. And my sons would have been so jealous. If nothing else, I am glad our lives intersected.”

“Keep being glad. Your life isn’t over. Not until I lose my will to fight.”