Bane of Gnosis: Chapter 3 – Wisdom in Strength

Chapter 3 – Wisdom in Strength

Bane makes it to the kingdom of Virtus after a few days of traveling and resting. He isn’t met by a party when he gets there like in Astutia. Instead, he is met by a crowd of people who bow to him as he passes by before continuing on with their daily lives. Inside the main castle, he is met with much of the same until he meets with the king of the kingdom who is heavily guarded by his most elite guards who cover every side of the room.

“King Andreas,” Bane says with a little bow. He is responded with silence by the king who stands up, walks to him, and quietly stares at him in an intimidating manner. “In my kingdom and many others, bowing to each other is the proper response to a greeting especially the greeting of a king.”

“We bow to those whose power we recognize,” a guard says.

“Then should I take away more land from you and villainize your people in the history books and fictional stories? Because I can and there’s no sword or fire that you can use to destroy that.”

The guard snarls in response before Andreas raises his hand to tell him to stand down.

“My apologies, King Bane. I was just testing you to see if you would be fearful of me as most others from outside this kingdom are.”

“What reason would I have to be afraid of you when the deck is stacked so against you?”

“My brother, King Alexander, is one reason. He is the reason why your father is dead after all.”

“No one even speaks his name. He will be another hated name in the history books and a villain in storybooks if it isn’t one already.”

“Then let us do battle for the sake of my brother’s name,” Andreas says as he takes off his robes and draws his ax.

“As if it’s worth anything.”

Enraged by Bane’s words, Andreas ferociously attacks him, but in a way that isn’t uncontrollable. In fact, Andreas uses his anger to strike harder and as a motivator to fight better. Bane then uses his cape that is actually a steal shield to get the best of Andreas and knocks the ax out of his hand. The battle ends as Bane puts his sword against Andreas’ throat.

“If it weren’t for those tricky tools that your kingdom has, then my brother would’ve won against your father.”

“Shut up about your brother for once. He already sullied his name and no one but you and those in your kingdom will view him with a modicum of respect. Worry more about your own reputation and the legacy that you’ll leave if you want me to stop taking land away from you.”

“Fine.”

Bane pushes him to the ground and turns to walk away from him.

“Then let’s negotiate. If we are going to work together, you have to give me a reason to trust you.”

Andreas dusts himself off, scoffs, then walks with Bane while both groups of their guards follow them.

“I can give you tips on how to train your army or even lend you some of my instructors. Your kingdom may work well in producing propaganda and creative tools, but it lacks pure strength.”

“I wouldn’t call our arts propaganda.”

“You put hard to find messages in your stories, art, entertainment, and even history that paints a certain view of history while denying another view. What else would you call it?”

“Testing my people’s ability to recognize what I’m saying. It’s a way to strengthen their minds while separating the good from the lazy.”

“It’s like the tests of strength that we have here. So, our ways of thinking aren’t too different from one another then, are they?”

“You use methods that cause physical harm and are out in the open while mine barely scratches people and can be done from any distance. Mine is more effective.”

“But you don’t deny that we aren’t that different.”

“Listen, I came here to give you a chance to redeem your kingdom. Are you going to take it or not?”

“I’ll take it.”

“Good.”

Bane and Andreas talk to each other for a bit in a meeting room and agree to have Andreas send instructors to train his army in both tactics and how to become stronger. In return, Bane will give back the land Virtus had and cease the villainization of their kingdom and people, but King Alexander, the tyrant, will have to be remembered as a villain since the wounds that he cut are still fresh in the minds of every kingdom. To the surprise of Andreas and his people, the meeting went better than they expected and throw a dinner for Bane for his generosity, and to the even greater surprise of the kingdom, Bane sits next to Andreas to show that there is no harsh feelings between either of them. After the dinner ends, Bane surveys the capital of Virtus with all of its gothic architecture and wonders how he can incorporate it into his own kingdom.

“It may not look as welcoming as Astutia, but you cannot say that it isn’t beautiful in its own way,” Andreas says.

“I agree. Though you may deny it, your kingdom values knowledge of the arts more than you think.”

“How so?”

“The intimidating look of it all is important, no?”

“It was always something in the back of my mind that I knew was important and I knew why it was important, but I never gave it any more thought than that.”

“Well, now you know.”

“I just wished that we knew about it sooner so we could’ve combated Astutia’s arts instead of letting it be our greatest threat. Do you know that our kingdom in the same situation that gave rise to my brother?”

“I do. Virtus was the lowest of all kingdoms. Her soldiers were enlisted by every kingdom and even though they didn’t want to involve themselves in the conflicts between the kingdoms, you had to pay your debts and feed your people in some way.”

“My people were essentially slaves and my brother used the only weapon we had against the other kingdoms so that we could be taken seriously rather than be viewed as savages.”

“I still think you made the wrong decision.”

“Then what do you suggest that we should’ve done when generations of our people were used by the kingdoms of others with little to no improvements in the way we lived and how we were viewed?”

“I suggest that you follow my lead and do as I say.”

“I’m only doing that right now because no reasonable choice seems present to me. It’s either I do as you say or attempt to be like my brother and give the other kingdoms a reason to slaughter us to the last man.”

“It won’t come to that if you listen to me. Trust me when I say that things will change soon enough.”

Andreas sees someone on the edge of the roof and is about to react to them, however, he is stopped by their mannerism. Bane looks at Andreas’s expression and looks to where he is looking and is almost hit in the head by a dagger. The assassin then leaps from the room and attempts to escape while Andreas calls for the guards to capture the assassin. Bane rushes after the assassin by climbing down the castle and later ends up catching him by landing on him. The guards then take the assassin into custody for questioning. Bane and Andreas speak to one another near the interrogation room.

“Why were you just staring at him? Were you trying to make him fearful of you just like before when we fought?” Bane asks.

“No, I was about to react and push you out of the way, but it seemed like the assassin was waiting for you to notice him,” Andreas says.

“That’s absurd. He was probably just listening to us.”

“If he was, then he wouldn’t hide in a spot that didn’t hide him too well.”

“Why would he want that?”

“His weapons, armor, and reason for attempting to assassinate you suggest that he wants me to rule like my brother did.”

“That’s not surprising for a motive for a person coming from this place. I had a feeling this would happen.”

“He is not representative of what all of Virtus want! At the very least, he’s an extremist, or at worst he’s…”

“He’s what?”

“Perhaps we were set up. Maybe this man is an assassin from a different kingdom who faked an assassination attempt on your life so that you’d have a reason to hate us.”

“You people aren’t that creative. Who would possibly want me to…Let us speak to the assassin.”

Andreas approaches the assassin and stabs a black rose in his leg. The assassin screams and sways back and forth as if he were woozy.

“Tell us who sent you to assassinate, King Bane,” Andreas says.

“I…uh…I don’t speak to trash like you…I came on a quest from a land of kings and queens…”

“A land of kings and queens. I think he means Regium, where your father was originally from. We have our suspect.”

Andreas squeezes the peddle of the black rose to release a liquid from it that makes the assassin pass out.

“What is that flower?”

“We call it the black rose of truth. These are grown only around our capital. They release a painful toxin that makes its victims drunk and more willing to cooperate while its peddles contain the cure for its toxin. You have your tricks in battle and we have our tricks in interrogation.

“Why don’t you use it again so we can get more information?”

“Unfortunately, it can only be used for a short while, or else the toxin will kill its victim even if you used the cure. Trust me. We’ve tried. I’m surprised that it wasn’t part of the stories told about us.”

“I’ve heard about your interrogation methods but didn’t know that you used these black roses. I’ll head off to Regium immediately to see what the meaning of this is.”

“I will go with you. This assassin was saying that he was from our kingdom when he was really from another. I must know why we were being set up and bring justice to those who would make us look like irredeemable villains when I am trying to make my home a place respected by all kingdoms.”

“Fine, but don’t stare at people before acting.”

“Understood.”

“And you can’t bring your guards with you. They might think that we’re working together to take over the kingdoms together.”

“Even though that sounds ridiculous to me, I understand.”

Andreas convinces his guards that they can’t come with him and quietly leaves his most trusted friends and family in charge while he goes to the kingdom of Regium with Bane. They ride in the same carriage together and don’t say anything to each other as they travel to figure out this mystery behind the attempted assassination and framing of Virtus.