Chapter 1022: Undertow Council
An excerpt from the book, Undertow: Beacon of Hope, or Lie of the Masses:
When the Storm Queen started attacking locations of high slave activity, the people were confused…at first.
Why did she spend so much time attacking places where there were no cultivation resources, simply living chattel that had to be fed, cared for and essentially served no purpose other than hard larbor?
Was there actually some kind of mine or special farm found only in the [Abyssal Lands]?
Was she actually gathering up people for the sake of a large scale sacrifice?
It wasn’t until the first batch of refugees fleeing to other kingdoms that the people of Pearl Scale learned the truth: she was freeing slaves.
She didn’t try to recruit them into an army, she didn’t spill their blood for a ritual, she didn’t even try to take their children as payment for freeing them from their shackles!
For all intents and purposes, the Storm Queen was simply liberating slaves and then…letting them go. Surprisingly though, the amount of slaves that were recorded being employed in a particular location did not match the amount of slaves being recorded as refugees.
When these refugees were asked what happened to their fellow slaves, they all simply replied that they decided to become citizens of Undertow, the city of freedom.
…
Historical footnote:
A majority of the slaves during this time period were Aetherii of the Aquarum tribe, as such, it would make sense for many of them to choose being citizens as opposed to becoming refugees in other nations. Quality of environmental aether in other lands would be far inferior to the quality in the [Abyssal Lands], especially for Aquarums.
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*Bing-Bong*
Wait…are you serious? We need to provide this kind of warning?
|Yeah,|
Is…isn’t that what’s the “R” rating for?
|You’d think, but when it comes to matters like this, people tend to be…blind or bias.|
Fair enough.
…
The following chapter will contain significantly more swearing in the dialogue than previous chapters.
As to why they’re swearing…let’s just say constant [Chaos] exposure has a very unusual side effect.
Anyways, we thank you for reading thus and will now return to the regularly scheduled program.
*Bing-Bong*
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“The fuck you mean we have fucking visitors?”
“As I said, counselor. We got visitors knocking at our front door. ”
“Holy shit…”
In the past, Undertow was a pseudomonarchy.
When the Storm Queen founded this place, she had initially wanted to make a city somewhat similar to democracy or at the very least, a meritocracy.
However, the citizens at the time were not quite ready to govern themselves, so they insisted that the Storm Queen become their actual queen.
She took the title reluctantly, but insisted on having a council of ministers and advisors who actually ran all the government in her stead. The Storm Queen was a fighter, not a politician.
Ironically, it wasn’t until after the Storm Queen had perished that Undertow finally got their shit together and established a representative democracy of sorts. It was more or less a leadership counsel, but the members were elected to lead.
Regardless, the Undertow Counsel was called for an emergency meeting in the building that was once the Storm Queen’s palace, due to a change that none of them had expected to happen even during the hundreds of years after the death of the Storm Queen: guests.
Not invaders.
Not newly liberated slaves.
Not a randomly intelligent aether beast wanting to live among mortals.
For the first time in years, they had honest to goodness guests….and they had no idea how to react to such news.
Well…in a unified sense, anyways.
One would think it’d be easy for seven elected officials to come to a consensus, but reality was very different.
…
“I just say we give them fucking boot. We’re isolationist city-state for a fucking reason and I don’t think I need to remind any of you motherfuckers why,” a gruff looking Aquarum covered in scars declared. “Besides, the only ‘guests’ we could conceivably have would probably originate from Pearl Scale.”
The councilor currently suggesting isolationist ideology was a man known as Fang Wei. Prior to becoming a councilor, he was a member of the Undertow Mercenaries, a group of selected aether warriors whose sole purpose was to operate on the surface and bring back goods, money and the occasional newly liberated slave. During his time, he had focused mostly on the most latter option and had maintained a bit of an edge against the surface. In his eyes, the surface hadn’t changed in centuries.
“Feng Wei, quit being a fucking shitkicker. You and I know both that there is more than one possibility as to where these assholes came from and that everyone isn’t fucking like that anymore. Get your head out of you ass.”
“Fuck you.”
“Fuck me yourself, coward.”
Directly opposing Feng Wei was a scholarly looking Aquarum man named Deng Li. Just like Feng Wei, he was also a former member of the Undertow Mercenaries but his experience on the surface was a touch more positive. Deng Li managed to score multiple escort contracts with merchants that allowed him to explore the places beyond the Pearl Scale Empire, which allowed him to mingle with a broad spectrum of people. As such, he had a more positive view on these potential outsiders, especially when he learned that slavery was less normal than what he and his people had initially thought.
That stated, sharing this revelation with the rest of his people proved…tricky, to say the least.
Not everyone is open to the idea of people being able to change, after all. In fact, people were more than likely to insult each other over such ideals.
And possibly come to blows.
“You and I both know that fucking outsiders are able to change their mind on a dime. How do we know these guests aren’t just spies or plants for somebody worst?!”
“How about we let them in first before we fucking judge them, you fuckhead.”
“Listen here you-”
“BOTH OF YOU, SHUT THE FUCK UP!”
However, before either side could get to the point that they thought stabbing was the best idea to end this dispute, the Head Councilor decided to interject.
Despite all the members being technically equal in terms of status, there was always a leader in groups such as these, and Head Councilor Bing Feng happened to fit that bill. Then again, it also helped that he was an Aether Lord.
“I don’t give a fuck about what either you have to say in this matter, because the decision had already been made for us. The Guardian has decided to let them without prejudice.”
“What?!”
Evidently, this was the first time any of the councilors present heard of such news, so they couldn’t help but explode in a flurry of questions and discussion.
“Sir Tortallion allowed them in? Why?!”
“Maybe he knows something we don’t?”
“Just who exactly are these visitors if the Guardian is allowing them in?”
“…”
Bing Feng allowed the councilors to continue talking amongst themselves until a natural lull occurred. Once it had, Bing Feng decided to drop back to back bombshells on all their heads. Better to rip the band-aid in one go.
“As to who Sir Tortallion allowed in, none of y’all fuckers are going to believe this… they’re members of the Zhen Clan.”
“WHAT?!”
Due to the bad blood between the Storm Queen and the Pearl Scale Empire, the councillors of Undertow couldn’t believe it that their guardian had allowed members of the latter’s war clan into the gates.
There had to be more to the story, right?
“Wait…why did he allows those fuckers in?”
At the question, Bing Feng let out a deep sigh.
“Because, the current matriarch of the Zhen Clan, a woman named Zhen Xun Tian, is carrying the legacy of Sir Krakelios upon her back. Not only that, it appears she is able to wield his power with the same amount of fluidity.”
“Oh.”
Hearing that one factor was enough to shut up most of the councillors, but there was still one more piece of information that needed to be known.
“Okay, allowing her in makes a lot more fucking sense…I think…but the messengers stated that more that least four other people are accompanying her. Who are they?”
“Well,” Bing Feng continued. “One of them is her direct son. It appears that he is not able to wield [Chaos] though.”
“Shame, but understandable.”
“The other three are her distant grandnephews and all of them appear to be able to wield [Chaos] to varying degrees.”
“Oh.”
“That’s not…too shocking.”
“Hell, most of us in the council can use [Chaos] as well.”
Seeing that the council was now more less silenced by the revelation as to why Sir Tortallion allowed in outsiders, Bing Feng figured now was the time to drop the biggest piece of news.
“Well then, I guess y’all won’t react then when I tell you that amongst these nephews of the Zhen Clan Matriarch, one of them is the Kaijin Lord of this era.”
“FUCKING WHAT?!”
Evidently, Bing Feng was wrong.
