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Lorenus knew that the orcas would need more time than he'd like; Yukeci was going to make sure that they recovered as steadily and readily as possible, but even with the magic and their strange recovery, it was going to take longer than the Emperor would have liked. The naga wanted to push the lion on it, wanted to force him to make them recover in mere days, but the Old Hump had stopped him. Rightfully so, for once, though he wouldn't have admitted that to the camel's face.

Still, it irked him as he sat in the meeting tent, waiting for Konie and his skunks, as well as Jahari and his lions. They were supposed to be here at noon, and it was less than a quarter of an hour til then. The great naga slithered back and forth across his jackal perch, aware of the way that he was all but sulking in the process and unable to help it.

This should be my world. My army. My rule.

And yet, despite his powers over the mind, there were things that he could not entirely bend. He was trying to take control of too many things at once, and that meant that he was going to let one or more slip if he didn't start taking better care of what he already had. The Old Hump had reminded him that he had not just one, but nine clans under his control: the elephants, the other five species under the Sizwe banner, the flying serpents, the lions, and now the skunks. That was nine different species, and nine different cultures that he had to keep in line, and there were few in the world that had so many responsibilities. If he spent too much time trying to get the orcas back on their feet and controlling them directly to do that, he would end up neglecting the other forces that he had under his banner.

It was infuriating, but he knew that there was little choice. His aquatic force would have to pull double time when they'd recovered to catch up with the rest of the army. It was going to have to be enough.

His post tensed slightly as he slithered back up from the jackal's ankles to his shoulders, and Lorenus shook his head. Not because of the bad behavior, but because of the reminder that he had never entirely gotten around to training the post to be a proper post. He was always so busy with something else that he had never actually put in the effort to finish training the one untrained slave that he had from the Snakelands. He stroked one narrow set of fingers along the jackal's jawline.

"I imagine that you have much to ssssay."

There was no response, as was proper, and Lorenus sighed, resting his chin on the jackal's head. It was childish, it was improper, but a large part of him was feeling petulant, almost sulky with the lack of progress. It didn't matter that he had gone from a prince to being landless to being an Emperor in less than a year; for him, for his eventual goal of supplanting his father and taking control of the family house - and eventually the desert of the Snakelands proper - it felt like he was still so far away.

It would remain that way until he actually nibbled away at the family holdings, he knew. Conquering the lands between him and his father would only be a tease, a little taste to whet his appetite for what conquest would actually feel like. The first grain of desert sand to fall into his coils would dwarf the triumph of taking everything that came before it.

"Thissss issss infuriating," he muttered under his breath. "It makessss no ssssensssse."

"What makes no sense, Master?"

Finally. Lorenus turned his head toward the Old Hump, his hood flared ever so slightly. Before he could let loose with an impatient verbal blast of spit and venom, he was forced to bottle it up again as Konie and Jahari stepped through right behind the camel. It was probably calculated that way, ensuring that he was kept on good behavior in front of their other minions. Despite having hypnotized the both of them, he doubted that it would go well if he just went off on his oldest advisor.

Instead, he settled for a glare before slithering a little higher, resting his arms on the jackal's head as he got comfortable.

"The lack of progressssss, mosssstly."

"That will change once we head north, I'm sure," the camel said.

"I have other planssss."

"The merchants again, Master?"

"Konie?" Lorenus said as the skunks and lions sat down in the center of the tent. "There issss a meeting to be had ssssoon, issss there not?"

"That there is," the skunk said. "We have regular meetings with the cheetahs and the spiny lizards to the east."

"Craftsmen," the Old Hump said.

"Merchants, and more." Konie nodded. "They carry many things, though they do not have much to fight with. They usually rely on the fact that we all need their services to keep from being attacked. If one of the tribes attacked them, all the others would fall on the one that was brazen enough to do it."

"So, they have no skills in war, only trickery," the camel said, nodding. "That would be valuable, if we did not already have spies."

"Old Hump. Be sssssilent."

The camel fell quiet again. The skunk hesitated, having to be encouraged by the naga to continue before speaking again.

"There are many things that they have to offer, among them connections between their people and some of the merchants north of us, in the Snakelands. There's a great possibility that they might have information of what's happening north of the border, and more to the point, information that we can use to cut off any resistance from the other tribes. If we make contact, if we can get close, then we can start making deals with them on your behalf, Emperor."

That was what he'd been hoping to hear. Merchants were not a force that could win a war on their own, but they could stretch out a losing war until one side could make something change, or shorten it by supplying the winning side with something that would end it faster. More valuable than any of that, however, was the intel that it could bring from his homeland, something that the Old Hump had been coming up dry on for some time, now.

"It...is risky," the camel said.

"Explain," Lorenus said.

"There's the chance that our moves will be relayed back home rather than kept private."

"That'ssss ssssomething that we can take care of."

"If you can overwhelm any hypnotic commands that other nagas have left in their heads."

"They can do that?" Konie whispered.

"I don't know," Jahari whispered back. "But we best be wary."

It would have been comical in other situations. As it stood, Lorenus made a note to wipe their memories of that part of the meeting and moved on.

"We both know that I have thosssse sssskillssss, Old Hump. You are quibbling."

"No, I'm stating a danger that you're trivailizing. Your skills are formidable, Master, but only if you know that they need to be used. What if some spy escapes before we can take care of everything?"

"And your ssssuggesssstion, then?"

"Seize them all. Declare their possessions yours and seal the border."

Lorenus shook his head. That would be a truly drastic move, and while they had the forces to make it work, he doubted that it would be sufficient, particularly with the orcas still under recovery orders. He wanted this done right, not sloppily.

"You disagree, Master?"

"Ssssealing the borderssss properly would take more men than we have. Worsssse, we'd need to take the border between the tribesss and the Ssssnakelandssss, which would be more obvioussss."

"..."

"And then, we would have to ssseize the goodssss without them desssstroying any of them."

"It could be done. There are battle plans that could be drawn up."

"No."

"...I would suggest that we ignore them, then. Skip over them, paying them for passage through their lands if we must, while linking up with the other force coming up through the west side."

Lorenus shook his head, and he could tell that the Old Hump was getting more and more irritated with him. No surprise; he wasn't usually this resistant.

But this time, he had to be. Whatever his father was setting up to meet them north of the border, it was going to be big. The leader of the Snakelands in all but name was going to test him, forcing him to meet foes again and again. He needed something on the border to make a show of force to keep their advance by sea from being met by anything substantial, and to keep his father's army well away from his eventual landing point. This chess game would not work without something to work as a bluff. Too few pieces and he wouldn't have anything.

And more to the point, merchants had money. There were always mercenaries in the desert, and if they could snag even a few units of them, that would go a long way towards having a credible threat at the border. But for that, they needed cash, and lots of it.

"...You will not turn from this."

"Not thissss time, Old Hump," Lorenus said.

"This is foolishness. I want this said."

"Conssssider it sssso."

"..."

"Issss there anything elssse, Old Hump?"

“Just this. Am I going to be used for this?”

“No. The othersss here will be.”

“...As you wish, Master.”

The camel got to his feet and made his way out of the tent. It wasn’t a surprise; the older advisor didn’t like to be useless in a meeting, nor did he like to waste his time. More than likely, he was going back to his tent to start penning letters to his little spies, connecting to whatever sources of information he still had. He likely thought this whole thing an exercise in stupidity, at best, and an indulgence that they could ill-afford at worst.

Lorenus shook his head. The camel would see the reasons for this, eventually. He just hoped that it wouldn’t turn the Old Hump against him before his reasons became clear.

“Are we actually -”

“No,” he said, interrupting whatever the lion was going to say. “You are going to have your meeting with the othersss without my instructionsss.”

“...We are?” Konie asked.

“Yessss. You are.”

“I’m…surprised that you trust us to such an extent, Master.”

“Do not make me regret it.”

Lorenus tapped the jackal beneath him with his tail, and they were on the move. Jahari and Konie watched him leave, both of them with jaws agape and their eyes wide in a way that they never would have allowed if they were around more of their tribe. Likely, they would try and forget that they had ever -

Forget.

Right.

“Turn around.”

#

Once the hypnosis work was done, they were back on the move. The camps of lion and skunk had moved closer now that their leaders were more or less working in tandem. Not all of them had been brought in and broken down just yet, and Lorenus was rapidly facing the reality that he wouldn’t be able to hold every member of his empire under a hypnotic spell. He could do it for some of them, perhaps even most of them, but to all of them? That would require a greater mind and more time than he would ever have, and he was forcing himself to face up to that.

It didn’t feel good. He felt paranoid, worried about the possibilities of traitors in his midst. The thought of his father’s agents creeping in and taking control of those that he needed most sent shivers down his spine, and the naga fought the urge to look over his shoulder time and time again for the assassin that he swore had already infiltrated the camp.

Nobody has, he thought. Nothing has gone wrong.

But without the total control that he thought he’d have, without the complete support of his advisors, with the knowledge that he was having to take his plans forward on his own…it was daunting, to say the least.

I have to do this.

Attacking the merchants would send them fleeing across the border.

Trying to seize their goods would lead to their product being destroyed or scattered.

The only way to get them on his side was the same way that he got the skunks and the lions on his side: self-interest. Hypnosis could come later, but if he didn’t give them something that they wanted, then they had no reason to stay with him. He could only do so much…and he had to work within very strict boundaries.

After all, his father and the Snakelands were filled with many that could break the minds of others with their powers. He only had himself, and while he was very, very good at it - perhaps even better than his father, at this point - Lorenus knew that he could only stretch himself so far.

He had to be better than good. He had to be the best. Otherwise, he would be crushed at the first meeting of the minds. He was determined not to let that happen.

The End