章 35: Meeting The Governor (2)
Having finished listening to the Governors tale, Bazel asked a few more questions for clarification to see if he could puzzle out the identities of these five figures.
'I do not know the amount of noble houses, I only know of three. Sanguis and McGrath I am familiar with and I have heard Astral be mentioned, but if there are more I do not know their names or traits.
'Two of the five are familiar, at least based on the Governors description. One of them was a member of Sanguis and the other a McGrath, the descriptions match as does their mutual hatred of one another.
'As for the scholar and the woman, I have no idea. But the one who actually quoted the bible, I wonder if he is related to the weapon that Tiernan used? It did have a cross on it after all and it was clearly not a weapon made by the McGraths, Tiernan said as much when he went to use it.
'It's a bit of a stretch...I can only assume that the five were each representatives of their own House and that this council is the apparatus they use to decide on things as equals, such as the previous buffer zone status that Occultatum had previously enjoyed.'
'I should check in with Tiernan and ask him to confirm, he seems like he might give up such information. Although interacting with him is risky as I do not know his overall aim, other than that he tried to recruit me and is probably still interested in it.'
Finished with his deductions, all that remained was the main topic of his meeting with the Governor. Which was made a lot easier to breach now that the Governor had told his little story, an easy opening for a manipulative individual.
"Governor," began Bazel with a serious tone, "those men you met were most likely the representatives of each of the main powers at play, the ones who truly rule the country as you have said. They were also the ones to decide that this city should not be touched, as it was the buffer between all their territories which helped them not tear the other to shreds.
"Alas, that has come to an end due to a prophecy that every single faction received at the same time which has forced them all to change their mind and race to take control of the city.
"So, the city is walking on thin ice where every single power wants control of it while every single other power does not want the other to have that control. So much so that they are effectively keeping the other in a deadlock, which only allows for them to deploy a pitiful amount of their full strength to the city.
"Such a small amount of strength, however, is more than enough to take it over if you remain inactive...if you remain as slothful and scared as you are. Even if you try to remain neutral, what then? What will you do when someone like me comes along and just kidnaps you, either forcing you to do their bidding or outright kills you so that they can replace you with a puppet.
"What good will your neutrality be when the city is torn asunder and burns to the ground under the feet of these 'godly' beings that care little for what they step on."
The Governor most definitely wanted to reply, but a shadow shot out from behind Bazel and silencing him.
"It will do you no good, your little kingdom will be destroyed if you continue down this path...but I am here to offer you a different path. One that while is not guaranteed to work, it will at least give you a fighting chance to not die the death of a dog.
"I have already gotten the Southern Central Police Department under my wing and soon we will branch out to all the other departments, where in every single one I will create a branch of DASF to start combatting this new threat of the noble houses.
"This will be the foundation of the power of our city, a foundation that will give us enough strength to have a say in the upcoming tribulations and to not allow ourselves to be stamped into pieces.
"With your support we will have the funding and resources we need and if you call in the national guard and allow me to give them the same treatment as the police departments then we will have a powerful fighting force that will give us an equally powerful fighting chance.
"As well as a chance for real neutrality, one that will allow the city to function despite what will inevitably come to pass. With strength we can uphold the rule of law and the sanctity of your own office, neutrality through deterrence."
Allowing the Governor to speak, Bazel removed his shadow and waited for the man to respond.
"What you are suggesting seems tempting, but I have seen the reports that have been sent. You are already in conflict with that House Sanguis, so where is this neutrality that you speak of? It seems to me that you are simply using me in your own personal fight with them, dragging down the entire city due to your departments conflict," said the Governor, analyzing the situation carefully and accurately.
"They have violated the rule of law, kidnapping people left and right while also being the cause for hundreds of deaths already. Thus they must be punished, just like any other normal criminal."
The Governor scoffed in response and said,
"Like a normal criminal? These are gods, not mortals. Perhaps it is easy for you to say, as your own ilk will not look too different, but to me it does not seem that way."
Bazel shook his head whilst clicking his tongue, speaking in a belittling tone,
"Governor, Governor, did you not just say that you saw the same reports? Did you forget that my department has already fought a battle with House Sanguis, where we ended up completely annihilating over 30 of them? And that is just the confirmed kills, who knows if we killed more in our initial opening assault.
"No matter how strong they are or how godly they appear to be," said Bazel as he leaned in and looked the Governor straight in the eye, "they bleed just like you and I."
The Governor was livid, completely in disbelief,
"Impossible, how can a mortal wound a god? Blasphemy!"
'Is this guy some kind of religious zealot?' wondered Bazel as he searched for a method to free the Governor of his false assumption.
An idea came to him, a slightly insane one but an idea nevertheless.
Using one of his shadows he stole Neto's machete from right under his nose and delivered it to his own hands. He unsheathed the blade and presented the handle towards the mayor, while aiming the blade towards his stomach. He could already tell that Neto would disagree with what he was about to do, so he preemptively silenced him by making a gesture of silence with one of his shadows.
"You saw what I can do, I am one of the gods that you speak of. Furthermore, I personally killed thirteen House Sanguis men on my own all at the same time. Give it a test, see if even someone as weak and spineless as you can make me bleed."
He forced the Governors shaky hand onto the handle and then closed his hand around it, opening his suit up and placing the edge on his stomach.
"Do it" ordered Bazel whilst forcing the man to stop trying to avert his gaze with a shadow.
Bazel could only assume that a storm of emotions was going through the Governors mind, two conflicting sides at play propelled forward by the pressure that he was being placed under.
Finally the Governor caved, closing his eyes he gave a small thrust as he stuck the pointy end into Bazel's stomach.
Slowly it went in, causing a great pain for Bazel but he did not so much as flinch. Instead he waited as the weak hearted and timid Governor plunged the blade into his stomach, and then tore it back out with one quick movement as if he were pulling off a band aid.
"Open your eyes and look, look at how I bleed"
The Governor did as he was told, slowly opening them and taking in the sight of blood oozing forth from Bazel's wound.
"I do not know if I am a God, but I sure as hell bleed like a mortal man. Just like all the other members of the noble houses whom I have killed or seen be killed before."
Seeing that the Governor was finally started to come around, he asked his partner to come out and control his shadows to stitch together both his internal and external wounds like he had done before.
The Governor watched on in wonder as the ghastly wound that he had inflicted began to close up in real time, stitched together by a cat of all things.
"So?" asked Bazel, "Do we have an agreement?"
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