After the Battle

The battle had raged for many hours, but ultimately the united forces of the Cambyses Empire and the Ulgen Khanate were forced to pull back and return to their camp. Thus did Falco, Kenneth by his side, sit in a tent with Lupus, Shahbaz, Buri and Minos, discussing what was to be done. There had to be a way into Hyperion.

"The only way into the city is through that gate that has a horse painted upon it!" exclaimed Lupus, banging his fist upon a table. "If we can break it down, then surely we can get through!"

"And how in the world are we supposed to do that, Lupus?" inquired Shahbaz. "With stone throwers? Everything we could use, the Hyperionites could counter us with the exact same thing! They have axemen, broad swordsmen, hoplites, bowmen, chariot archers, scouts, camel riders, chariots, stone throwers and the best cavalry in the world."

"The cavalry of the Ulgen Khanate is equal to that of the Hyperionite Steed!" objected Lupus, standing to his feet with his hands upon the table.

"That's it!" exclaimed Falco, snapping his fingers together. "The Hyperionite Steed is our way in!" Immediately, all eyes were upon Falco, all confused as to what the Last Divine Deucalion of Aether could possibly mean. "We have horses, we managed the win some Hyperionite armour and if we had killed some of their cavalrymen, then we will have some of their horsehide trousers! Dressed as the Hyperionite Steed we can go through the gates and be in Hyperion!"

"We would have to fool Pardus and Acinonyx first." Commented Minos. "They are the leader and second-in-command of the Hyperionite Steed after all."

Falco had heard Pardus speak of leading the Hyperionite Steed during the latter's time as ambassador to Aether. As for Acinonyx, the trousers of white horsehide had been enough to identify the Crown Prince of Hyperion as a member of the Hyperionite Steed.

"That is risky." Uttered Buri, stroking his reddish-blond beard. "Perhaps something such as a siege tower would be better."

Alas, the discussion on how to get into the city proved to be long, with everyone arguing the merits and flaws of the plans. Be it by disguising themselves as the Hyperionite Steed or by using a siege tower, there was no real agreement on what to do.

Sighing, Falco rose from his seat and exited the tent with Kenneth following after him. Running a hand through his curly red hair, he made the tent he had been granted where Acinonyx's own helmet lay upon the ground. Well, he had a bit of Hyperionite armour, a helmet yes, but sadly no breastplate to go with it, unless anyone would be willing to give up theirs. He hadn't any horsehide trousers either and he, like any civilized person, objected to the killing of a horse just to make a pair of trousers to create an illusion of him being half man and half horse from a distance.

What was to be done then? Just go on up to the gates of Hyperion and hope that the gates were open? Hardly a good plan.

Looking at his leather coif and doublet upon an armour stand, Falco began to wonder how long he could possibly last with armour such as that. He had survived one battle, but what if he did not survive the next? New armour was an idea, but he very well could not have taken armour from a Hyperionite he had slain. If he were to do that, he might get slain by one of his allies.

Picking up his sword from a table with its broken, half-rusted blade and missing pommel, the Last Divine Deucalion of Aether looked upon this which had been first used by his great-grandfather. How long until the sword was of no use at all. How did it continue to be of use? If only he could have figured that out.

His mind wandering, Falco thought about how he was an uncle. His sister Eithne had born a son Aeneas. Falco knew that he had yet another objective now. He had to rescue Rowena and the others, slay Acinonyx and make sure no harm befell Eithne, her husband Ascanius and their son Aeneas. He would have to bring this up to Lupus and Shahbaz. Leo, Pardus and Acinonyx could die, but not Ascanius. His sister was happily married now, she could not lose a husband she loved.

What about Rowena? Though Falco knew a marriage between her and Acinonyx could not have possibly been happy, he wondered how she was, how she was being treated by Acinonyx, Leo, Pardus and the rest. Were she and the others who had been forced into marriage being treated relatively—

Stubbing his right toe on something, Falco looked down. There was a bit of roof jutting out of the ground, it was like this everywhere in the area, the entire camp seemed to have been built upon the ruins of an earlier Hyperion. If it wasn't the bits of roof jutting out of the ground, then it was the bits and pieces of statues lying around. When they had been setting up his tent, Falco had found a few pieces of a statue of the Donkey God, a wing that must have belonged to a statue of the Storm Falcon and a horn that no doubt belonged to the Earth Bull.

The Earth Bull... That evil deity who was the patron of crown princes, rebels and bandits. He had been the patron god of Aether and now it almost looked like as if he was the patron god of Hyperion as well. Even Aether's palace and Hyperion looked the same, both with their red painted columns and carved stone bull horns visible everywhere. There were some minor differences, for instance the palace at Aether never had a gate with a horse painted on it, but even then, the similarities were astounding. Clothing of the inhabitants may have been different, but at the end of the day the architecture was the same be it on Aether or at this city state on the mainland.

Then Falco thought of the Storm Falcon. When Falco's mother Oda had been giving birth to him, a falcon had appeared above the doorway of the room where she had been giving birth, this resulting the priesthood of the Storm Falcon claiming Falco had been fathered by their patron. Even Rowena's mother, a madwoman, had claimed Rowena's father was truly the Storm Falcon. There was little reason to believe either claim, one made by a priesthood wanting a new member, the other made by a madwoman and yet... the Storm Falcon was still in their family trees. Both of Falco's parents, Tigris and Oda, claimed descent from the Storm Falcon, Tigris from a man who was both son and twice great-grandson to the god and Oda from a great-grandson, and Rowena's father himself had been able to trace his ancestry back to the Storm Falcon, being able to identify the deity as his thrice great-grandfather, but Falco and Rowena both hypothesized their ancestors to have simply been members of the Storm Falcon's clergy, as a god's priests were identified as their children. Even Leo could identify the Storm Falcon as his four-times great-grandfather and no doubt his thrice great-grandfather had simply been a member of the Storm Falcon's priesthood as well. Royalty, nobility, it mattered not, all the world could find the Storm Falcon somewhere in their family tree.

Finally, Falco thought of the Donkey God, patron of redheads and foreigners. His grandfather Conall, first Divine Deucalion of their dynasty, had been named High Priest of the Donkey God by Menes, the Commoner who became a General who became the Divine Deucalion of Aether. Conall had been Menes' right hand both as general and as Divine Deucalion and when Menes came to see that he had no children to succeed him, he named Conall his successor and thus did things change. Redheads, the descendants of immigrants would sit the throne of Aether and with them the Donkey God became the patron of the royal family, but what prayers could Falco make to him?