Magnifico

Sacrifices made for wrong reason

The soldiers that went out to find Jonas had come back to Alaphas. They had no vital clue as to where Jonas had run to, they didn’t want to bring back an empty message to Magnifico because they knew his reactions may not be welcoming.

“Look, since we couldn’t find King Jonas, don’t you think it’s in our best interest to lie to Magnifico?” a commander said as he stopped his horse and other soldier’s horses too.

“Lie to him? How can we possibly do that? We don’t even have Jonas yet nor do we have any idea where he had run to" The first infantry soldier said.

“Who said we have Jonas? We are not going to say we have Jonas but we will claim we know where he had escaped to.” The commander said.

“But sir, how do we claim we know where he had run to when we have no clue?” The second infantry soldier asked as others nod in agreement with his question.

“We are going to say any name, you moron. Look, I’m the commander and I wouldn’t want to lose my head. You know I will take the big chunk of the blame if we don’t come back to Magnifico with a positive response. I’m not ready to die comrades” the commander said.

“But who are we going to call? I mean which kingdom are we going to claim that Jonas escaped to?” a third infantry soldier asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe we should tell him it’s the kingdom of Azmak.” The commander said.

“Aren’t we going to put them in danger if we do so?” The first infantry soldier asked.

“Sometimes, sacrifices have to be made, some people have to go for others to stay alive. We should save our lives first and let Magnifico decide the fate of Azmak people,” The commander said.

They all agreed to what the commander said, the commander mounted back to his horse and they all went in together inside the palace to report for their investigation. When they came into the palace, they saw Magnifico sitting on the throne with a fire burning beside him.

“Why have you come?” Magnifico asked.

The soldier all knelt before him and the commander came a little bit forward, walking slowly with his head looking down.h

“My lord, we are the team that was sent out to search for the former king, Jonas. We have searched and searched but couldn’t find him. However, he was so careless that he left a trail which we followed.” The commander said.

“That’s a good one. I thought your journey would be useless.” Magnifico said.

“No no my lord.” The commander said immediately.

“Where is the kingdom of Azmak?” Magnifico asked.

“Kingdom of Azmak is located in the far east. It is the only remaining kingdom in the far east and has remained undefeated. It is ruled by a king known as King Kylian.” The commander explained.

“I see, Jonas is fast. I will go get him myself soon, seems like he knows too much.” Magnifico said.

He instructed the soldiers to leave the palace and they all got up and headed for the door.

“I told you, imagine if we had told him we had no clue,” the commander said to his troops as they were leaving the palace.

“That wouldn’t have ended well I guess,” the first trooper said.

“There’s no point in guessing. It wouldn’t have ended well certainly” the commander said.

“But he said he will go get him himself, what does that mean?” a soldier asked.

“Well, it means that to get him by sneaking into the kingdom of Azmak but we all know that isn’t his style so I think we may be going to war with the Azmak army very soon,” the commander said while they were leaving.

“But that would be putting lots of innocent people in the danger,” the same soldier said again.

“Shut up! What do you know about putting people’s lives in danger? If you want to die like a fowl, kindly go back and tell Magnifico that we couldn’t find Jonas and see for yourself what he is going to do or probably what his reaction would look like, that’s only if you will come back” the commander angrily replied. The soldiers all kept quiet and when no further questions were raised, the retired them all to go home and prepare for the next day.

It was the following day when Magnifico was outside the palace, standing alone, watching the environment when he suddenly remembered Jonas. He wondered how Jonas managed to escape and why he escaped.

“Jonas has always surprised me. After all the kind warnings I gave him but he still chose to escape. You can never fully trust humans and these beings surprise me a lot. Why would he escape? Is it because of the little cute finger that I removed?” Magnifico was questioning himself while standing outside the palace. He continued “ I must visit the kingdom of Azmak and burn everything down. You can’t steal my prisoner and expect me to let you be. Who knows what Jonas was telling them by now? Probably he may be revealing to them vital information about myself, yeah, I know Jonas will do everything possible to survive because he is a coward. He must be fished out, yeah! I must fish him out, I must go to war with Azmak and wherever he is hidden, I will go there to get him myself. Azmak will be severely punished for doing this. They just need to feel the sharpness of my sword and I will need to taste their drops of blood. For allowing my most important prisoner to take refuge in their country, they have already jumped from a frying pan to a burning fire.” Magnifico was saying silently as he was standing with his long sword in between his legs and his two his legs were spread a little bit from each other. His two hands were on top of his sword.

The following day, Magnifico assembled the officials in the palace.

“It must be an emergency meeting as regards Jonas' escape from Alaphas,” a minister said while walking in groups with other palace officials going to the palace.

“ I don’t know. I guess it must be very serious to summon us all this early morning.” Another official said.

“I just hope we will all be safe,” the official said.

They all went in to see Magnifico in the palace together while they were discussing what might have prompted Magnifico to assemble them that early morning.

“We greet you, my lord,” an official said as they all knelt before Magnifico to greet him.

“I guess you all know why I have summoned you?” Magnifico asked.

“We don’t know Sir,” they all said.

“Your former King Jonas have escaped from Alaphas and it is believed that he had left for Azmak. You know it amazes me that Jonas had to leave, a person whom I hold in high esteem. I would have killed him earlier when I had the chance and it now seems to me like all humans are ingrates” Magnifico said. Now, the officials that were summoned by Magnifico have known why they were all called in the first place and they know that Jonas had escaped. It was all rumors to most of them until they were called by Magnifico and they knew it was official.

“Are we going to fight with Azmak kingdom because of Jonas?” an official asked Magnifico.

Magnifico laughed and said “We are not going to war with whatever the name of their kingdom is but we are going to punish them for hiding my prisoner. Is that answered?”

“Your wish is always our command” all the officials shouted as they prostrate before Magnifico.

“Good, I don’t think I will entertain more questions. The king of Azmak will certainly hear from me soon. And for Jonas, I will bring back his head and put it on a hanger where I will be watching it every day. A king doesn’t run away from the people he leads, he behaved cowardly.” Magnifico added.

The officials were asked to leave and get their subjects prepared for war against Azmak.

No one expected the sudden turn of the event especially when concerns going to war with Azmak because of King Jonas. The palace officials wish they could talk sense into Magnifico but they know that they are in no position to advise him, they have decided to take everything they see except a few of them.

“ This beast takes us for fools. I still can not believe that we will fight the people of Azmak because king Jonas took refuge there. It’s crazy and now both sides will suffer the consequences of Magnifico’s premature decision.” King Jonas' secretary said to the other officials as they were leaving the palace.

“ Keep your voice down. The walls have ears and Magnifico might hear you and get us all killed” an official said in retribution. He was trying to calm the secretary down so that he doesn’t get them into trouble.

“I’m just fed up with all these. How long are we going to continue being used and sacrificed as animals for a useless quest that shouldn’t concern us? If Jonas had escaped to Azmak, how does it concern us? It doesn’t affect us in any way unless there is something Magnifico is afraid of” the secretary added.

“Please let's get your home and talk further on this. We are not safe talking about him just outside the palace door.” Another official advised. They hastily left the palace and moved to the secretary’s office. Three out of the twelve officials that came out from the palace had made it to the secretary’s office, the others didn’t come because they were afraid they will be spotted and tagged a rebellious group.

Immediately they came into the secretary’s office, they slammed the door and locked it. They searched the room to know if there is anyone that may be eavesdropping but appeared they were alone in the room. Jonas’ secretary seems to be very wise, and also very careful even though he couldn’t lower his voice when he was talking about Magnifico outside the palace.

“Gentlemen, to me, going to the far east in the name of a reckless war doesn’t make sense unless there is something Magnifico wants to settle. Maybe he wants to silence Jonas for holding key information about something he doesn’t want to reveal to us” the secretary said. The room doused in silence and everyone seemed to have seen a point from the angle the secretary was coming from.

“What do you think that is?” the first officer asked.

“I don’t know but I guess it may be something that Magnifico needs urgently or probably an information Jonas has that Magnifico doesn’t want to let it spread” the secretary replied.

“I think you are correct. So what’s your plan?” the second official asked.

“I guess we should seek for the Finder, he is known to possess some special qualities of locating people wherever they are or hiding. His qualities are legendary and I believe that he will find Jonas wherever he is soon as possible” the secretary said.

“But what are we going to tell Jonas? If he is located, of what importance is it to us” the first official asked.

“Yes! True, of what use is it to us?” the second official asked and he was in agreement with the first question the official asked.

The room paused for a while because the secretary wasn’t expecting the question. He didn’t think it through so he couldn’t give a hasty reply to the question.

“Emm, I guess we ehh-eh just tell him anything. Maybe tell him that Magnifico was searching for him and he is planning to go to war with Azmak because of him” the secretary opined.

“does it worth the risk?” the first official asked.

“I don’t think so but for the fact that there is something Jonas knows that we don’t, I guess it does worth the risk” the secretary replied. They all agreed to seek the Finder if they need to effectively find Jonas. They agreed that it’s in their best interest if they can keep what they discussed in the meeting to themselves if they want to survive. They agreed not even to tell other officials who were not present anything they have discussed. They didn’t want to entertain any unnecessary mistakes that could cost them their lives or the lives of their loved ones and ultimately, they don’t want to be used as food for the lions.