7. To Die By Your Side

Clear blue skies became dark grey thunderclouds. Soft waves became high floods. The moon grew thrice as large, as if giants hung a lantern nearby to study the ship more closely.

Until she suddenly disappeared completely.

Within a few heartbeats, the ship started shaking uncontrollably. Sailors fell overboard, joined by barrels and rope. The deck flooded. Enra and Chonib held each other tighly and rolled with the waves, left to right, right to left.

Olombos landed next to them. The splashes from his heavy footfalls soaked Enra. The others screamed for their king; Enra couldn’t find the lion anymore.

There was no thunder, no hurricane, nothing of the sort. Chonib could only enchant the moon and thus control the waves. It was enough to nearly topple the ship upside-down. Painting after painting fell into the water and the highest mast broke, but Olombos was too heavy to get off the ship. The other travelers used him as an anchor to stay upright.

Enra tried to help. His power over the Sun was uncontrolled and merely gave them a short burst of lightning strikes.

The ship broke in two, its hull on fire. This pulled Enra and Chonib apart, severing their touch.

Loud bangs and cracks followed. The noise overpowered the sailor’s screams as they fell into the freezing water.

Enra sucked in a last breath and fell underwater too. His arms and legs searched in all directions, but couldn’t feel Chonib anywhere. His eyes opened, even if the filthy water pricked and stabbed them, but he only found darkness broken up by ruined paintings.

And yet. A light?

He turned his attention inward, searching for his own feeble magic. Until he glowed as well.

In the dark, murky waters two lights were attracted to each other.

Enra’s breath ran out. He made his final swimming strokes, covered in layers of bubbles. The other light still moved, but slowly.

Swim. Swim. Swim. His body shut down, refused work, due to the lack of oxygen.

His paws felt two other paws.

A strong current pulled the bears, locked in embrace, back to the surface.

Enra and Chonib had not expected to survive this long. After being locked in a cell for years, however, they started to believe they might leave this place alive.

The King of Esprante had died that night, and so had their Moonreader. The storms created by two gods at once had also destroyed a large part of the fleet. Olombos had survived and received all possible funds for his voyage. Chonib could only try and send his fleet the wrong way from inside her cell.

The king was succeeded by his own son, Carlos the Second, who was only three years old. Even when the poor boy became an adult, his commands were inconsistent and usually ignored. For he was not right in the head.

Even the shape of his head was wrong. For years, the royal family of Esprante had only married each other and born children with their own cousins or sisters. They said it was to keep their blood “pure” and “royal”. The result, however, was a child with physical defects over his entire body and lacking the genes to even get children of his own.

A week after Carlos died—at a very young age—Otto attacked. In truth, however, Esprante had already been defeated years earlier.

Chonib stood on Enra’s shoulders. She could follow the battle in the city by watching through the bars.

“What’s the status?” Enra said.

“Not as great as you’d think,” she said. “Those Espranti have … cannons they can hold in their hand!? They’re shooting down our archers with ease!”

Our archers. Even after all that had happened, they couldn’t help but see Ottojon as their group. Their empire. Their community.

Of course, dear reader, Chonib was talking about handguns. An Kina invention from long ago which they had not traded with Otto on purpose. Thanks to discoverers like Olombos, these new technologies reached the countries of Origina instead.

The only reason Otto still won was his sheer number of soldiers. All the boys who’d been brainwashed and put into Devirma the past 500 years.

Chonib kissed Enra on his cheek. Even locked in a cell together, for all those years, he’d never told her he left here. Never answered her love with more than a hug. All eyes on revenge against Otto.

And still she didn’t give up. “We can life in freedom together. Walk away together, if you want.”

“I go alone,” said Enra, as always. Chonib should have become despondent long ago and she didn’t even understand herself why that hadn’t happened. “The last time we traveled together we both nearly died.”

When Otto came to free them, he wasn’t in a great mood. They’d won back a large part of Esprante, but at what cost? Almost their entire fleet and army. He’d now seen how much more advanced the other empires were. For how long Ottojon had done nothing to progress its military.

On the long journey home, Chonib explained everything. And she could be honest. What they’d done was a brave and risky attempt to keep Otto’s empire intact for much longer.

And so he rewarded them both again. Enra became his highest commander. Chonib his highest advisor. The rhino with the scarred face laughed himself silly when Enra appointed him as the empire’s accountant—or Sultan of Treasure—telling him the three of them might just be “the luckiest animals on Somnia”.

Rightfully so. It felt like the three of them rolled over the floor with laughter for hours, unable to stop. They had tried to destroy Otto their entire life—and instead they had saved him repeatedly and were now the most important beings in the empire.

Their laughter subsided when they felt that trusty desert sand under their paws again.

Chonib froze, eyes wide open. The beautiful streets were gone. The artful buildings, the colorful decorations, the acrobats and poets, everything gone. Most homes and paths had fallen into disrepair. Whatever stood upright was gray and served only one purpose: make weapons or make food.

No children played outside. The fountain was filled with sand.

When they entered the meeting room, the map on the wall told the rest of the story. Large parts of Ottojon had been lost. They still held Compana quite comfortably. But that continent was surrounded by water on all sides, and at the opposing shore waited many fleets with stronger ships than theirs.

Unfortunately, Otto had started his empire from the middle of Compana, the other empires like a circle around him. And now Ottojon was crushed from all sides.

Enra and Chonib were mostly at war with themselves. Was Ottojon their home or not? Did they belong to the right side, or was it simply the only side they’d ever really known?

Once they were alone, Enra wasted no second.

“I must seize power. Then I can decide if we defend Ottojon or let it be conquered. Tonight I will fight Otto. Because the snake that took everything from me and treated me like a slave will never be—”

Chonib burst into tears, which she wiped against his chest.

“I can’t do this anymore. I just want to live, with you, in freedom and peace. That’s what I was meant to do, that’s always been my life’s purpose. But you … you …”

Sharp, bleak moonlight penetrated the room.

“An empire already falls apart when the capital is lost—how long do you think you can lead Ottojon if nobody likes or supports you? Or do you think you can completely remove all the laws and rewrite them from scratch again?”

“No, that was Otto’s first mistake,” he said. “You can’t ignore the past, it would be illogical. Everything that happened before has consequences now.”

Chonib made a face to disagree with removing the laws being a mistake. She clung to him.

“Just don’t go alone. You need others. You need me.”

“I need others?” Enra said as he turned around to leave. “Let even more animals die for me? Put you in danger again!?”

She gave him a final kiss. “That you fear putting me in danger so much,” she whispered, “is that not the biggest sign of your love?”

Enra fell silent, playing with the weapon in his claws.

She smiled faintly. “As a Demigod of the Sun said once: It’s illogical.”

He smiled back and dropped his weapon, just to hold Chonib tightly and—but no, the words didn’t leave his mouth. Not then, not now, probably never.

All eyes on revenge, even now, especially now.

Chonib turned away to hide her tears.

“As long as my light burns, you may come to my room and I am yours. If the light goes out … I never want to see my sun again.”

Enra wanted to give a thousand replies, too many to actually choose one. She didn’t really love him, just his magic. He’d disappoint her. He’d lose her, because he endangered everyone. It was illogical. You could never lead an empire or make inventions on love, right?

And the biggest secret that he’d always kept: he could not give her any children.

That’s what they’d taken from him during that operation, when he was just a young boy. Because no children ment no sons who would kill you to get your wealth or throne, or so the Devirma philosophy stated.

So he said nothing.

She left the room, towards the bedrooms of Otto and his sons.

“Behind every powerful man in history stood a woman who tossed a coin,” she said. “Half the time, she was insane and manipulated the man endlessly. And half the time that woman was the only reason the empire hadn’t already collapsed in on itself.”

“And which are you?” he asked softly.

“Both.”