WARBRINGERS: Revenge and Revolution

POISON THE WELL

SULIANA

Suliana had to say goodbye to Miram Julie as soon as Jaider asked her if she has a boyfriend. Miram Julie walked her to the door and then hugged her. “Tuesday,” she whispered to her ear before letting her go. Suliana nodded.

Tuesday came and she brought Gon. She was the one who knocked on the door, Gon looking uncomfortable beside her. The door swung open and a face of a young smiling boy greeted them.

“Hello,” the boy said. He was fair-skinned, his eyelashes thick that it framed his beautiful gray eyes. “Who are you?”

“Ellias, akiro, let them enter,” Miram Julie said from inside the house. “They’re visitors.”

“Okay, amir,” The boy named Ellias said. He smiled at them exposing his front teeth with a narrow gap. “Amir said you should enter.”

Suliana looked at Gon and nodded to him. They entered the house. Miram Julie walked from the kitchen. She wiped her hands on the apron that was tied to her pink dress. “Come to the kitchen,” she said. “I prepared something for you. Akiro, you can play outside for a while.”

The little boy shouted with delight, went to his mom for a hug, waved at them, and was out of the door before they could even wave back.

“Let’s go to the kitchen,” Miram Julie said with a smile.

And the three of them went. They saw what Miram Julie prepared for them. The table was filled not with food, nor tea, but papers.

“Sit,” Miram Julie said. “I’m going to serve you some tea.”

Suliana and Gon sat beside each other and looked at the papers scattered on the table. They were journalistic articles, printed in cheap papers so thin and discolored. One particular article caught Suliana’s eyes. (Shinhir sea is ours!) was its title. Below is a drawing of a fisherman crying while a soldier is pointing a spear at him.

Miram Julie set down two cups of tea on the table and sat on the chair in front of them.

“What are these?” Suliana asked.

“Those are rebellious articles written by a small group of journalists,” said Miram Julie. “Most of these journalists are now either dead or in jail. A few joined the Millos.”

There was an article that said---King Doroteo broke all his promises. He is a walking factory of lies, a walking inconsistency.

“The Cantatans never had the chance to read the articles. The remaining journalists are scared now to release all of these--for King Doroteo ordered the soldiers to kill them.”

“This is… this is a lot to take in,” Suliana said.

“Okay, let’s start from the beginning,” Miram Julie said. She took one blank paper and a feather. She dipped the feather to the ink and wrote:

What we know:

1. King Doroteo blinded Cantatans with beautiful promises and the image he wanted to portray.

“When the former king died and the Cantatans needed to elect a new king, a campaign period happened. The former king chose the possible candidates before he died. King Doroteo had two opponents. But King Doroteo won because of his promises,” said Miram Julie. “King Doroteo promised that he will end lamend addiction and crime in Cantata in a year. King Doroteo said he’d give regular jobs to employees being oppressed by their masters. And remember when he proposed that idiotic rule to stop women from learning magic? He promised that…”

“He will never let the Hangyans take the sea…” Suliana suddenly remembered that night. She picked the article she saw a while ago. “He said that wouldn’t let the Hangyans claim the sea beyond Shinhir. He said that if they continue claiming that the sea is theirs… he’d go there and slit Hangyan’s king’s throat.”

“Yes,” Miram Julie said, nodding. “But he didn’t do that. He didn’t end crime and addiction either. He also failed to stop masters and businessmen from oppressing their employers. All his promises are sweet lies that came out from his filthy, misogynistic mouth. He just wanted to be seen as something dependable, something father-like. But he isn’t and perhaps he will never be.”

“But why do Cantatans still worship him?” Gon said. “If he failed to fulfill all his promises, why do they still support him?”

“I am not sure,” Miram Julie said. “But there’s a school of thought that tells us that delusions can be passed from one person to someone else. It’s like poisoning a well. They need just one drop of lie and the delusion will be passed by someone to someone else. And that’s why it’s important to note that…”

Miram Julie wrote on the paper again.

2. King Doroteo has a group of misleaders.

“Misleaders?” Suliana asked, frowning.

“Yes. I heard from some of the rebels that King Doroteo hired people to mislead Cantatans, to make them believe something that isn’t true. King Doroteo said it’s not true, but I believe that it is. The rebels also said that it helped King Doroteo win the election as well. He hired misleaders to spread news about him that are all good…

“But not true,” said Gon. “Scheming son of a bitch.”

Miram Julie raised a finger at Gon. “I don’t condone that kind of language, but yes, he is,” Miram Julie said. “The rebels said that until now, King Doroteo is allocating a part of the kingdom’s budget to the salary of his misleaders. They will spread positive news about the king. They will usually blend in with the crowd when there’s an announcement and tell stories about how the king helped them and how great the king is. All are lies of course.”

“And they’ll do something about the king’s detractors too. They will spread lies about them, so the people will get mad at them. They will make a remark that they killed innocent people. That they abuse children. One time, a rebel told me a story. He was watching a stoning when he heard a man talking beside him. The man was saying that the guy being stoned r***d his sister two months ago while under the influence of lamend and got her pregnant. Therefore, he deserves to die to give the man’s sister some justice. But the rebel knows the guy being stoned. He castrated himself a year ago because he had a lot of children already. It meant that the guy talking was a misleader.”

“Poisoning the well,” Suliana said, his jaw tingled with hate as she uttered the phrase.

And that was when Suliana realized that King Doroteo saying Camia was killed by the Millos was poisoning the well, too. The king wanted the people to believe that the Millos are ruthless killers. And maybe some of them are, Suliana wasn’t certain, but King Doroteo and his soldiers are killers, too.

Everything was deliberate. Everything was planned. It was a cult, indeed.

“That’s not all,” Miram Julie said. “Here is another thing you have to know before we make a plan.”

Miram Julie wrote on the paper again.

3. King Doroteo wanted the approval of the king of Hangyan.

“What?” Gon and Suliana said in chorus.

“This has something to do with the issue of Shinhir. A year ago, the residents of the village of Shinhir were fishing when the boats of the Hangyans came. Hangyan fishermen told the Cantatan fishermen that the sea beyond Shinhir is part of Hangyan. And they made the Cantatans leave the sea. Of course, it wasn’t the first time that they did this, you have to remember that. And the truth is, the sea is still part of the Cantatan territory. Of course, the fishermen of Shinhir told King Doroteo about this, but the king said that he can’t fight the Hangyan because they’re much powerful than us.”

“And still after that, the Cantatans love him. Even if it is obvious that he lied when he promised that he’d protect the village himself,” said Suliana.

“Perhaps the well was poisoned enough already by then,” Miram Julie said. “And the misleaders had done something about it, too. In one of the announcements, they went to the crowd and whispered to the residents that we are indeed very inferior against Hangyan and going against Hangyan might cause a war. I know this because one of the misleaders whispered in my ear, too.”

“So King Doroteo already surrendered the sea beyond Shinhir? He gave it already to Hangyan?” said Suliana. “But why?”

“I don’t know, too. But I think we have a way of figuring that out,” Miram Julie said, then looked at Gon. Gon didn’t know how to react to that. “In fact, we need to figure it out. We can’t fight King Doroteo by plotting his death or something. He has too many supporters who are willing to die… who are willing to kill for him. We need to expose him. We need to know why he is letting the Hangyans claim our territory and expose it to the people. We need to infiltrate the misleaders’ base and get enough proof of their existence to expose it again.”

Miram Julie looked at Suliana, then at Gon. “In short, we need to unposion the well.”

Suliana couldn’t say anything. Suddenly, she realized it wasn’t a simple as she expected it to be. She thought they just have to think of a way to sneak into the castle and poison the king. But she had to admit that the idea of disgracing the king rather than killing him was more exciting and fitting.

After a beat, Gon answered the most important question.

“How will we do that?”

“I’ve thought of that,” Miram Julie said with a smile. “I just don’t know if the both of you will agree to do it.”

“What’s your plan, miram?” said Suliana. “Let us hear it.”

“Suliana, you’d stay here with me,” Miram Julie said, looking at her intently. “I’d teach you magic secretly. We need time to rouse that dormant power inside of you. You will also be the one infiltrating the misleaders, you need to gather proof about their existence to expose them.”

Miram Julie looked at Gon. She didn’t speak instantly, in fact she even sighed. “Gon, you will have a more difficult part in my plan.”

For a moment worry clutched Suliana’s hand like a big hand and she looked at Gon who just stared at Miram Julie, uncertainty written all over his face.

“What do I have to do?” Gon said, then gulped.

“You need to go to Hangyan and spy for us,” Miram Julie said.

Gon’s jaws dropped. Suliana made a little gasp, her eyes widened. She looked at Miram Julie but her teacher was looking intently at Gon. Suliana rested her hands on the ceramic cup of tea, wanting to feel its heat but it was no longer hot and wasn’t even warm. The tea inside cold and unconsumed.

“H-how can he do that? If they see him there--” Suliana said, but then stopped when she saw in Miram Julie’s eyes that she already had the answer.

Miram Julie took a deep breath and tried to smile. “Gon is a krill, Suliana,” she said. “Krills can be traded.”