Dead Tired - Volume Four - Prologue

Prologue

Fenfang chewed on her thumbnail in a very un-empress-like way. Not because it was getting long, or because she particularly enjoyed the taste of nail, but because she’d tried chewing on the end of her quill once already and discovered that a mouthful of feathers was deeply unpleasant.

She was in her office. It was opulent, well-lit, and most importantly of all, rather quiet. She needed that quiet to focus.

The current situation was a bit of... a massive mess. Her master seemed confident that she’d figure out a way to get past it, but she was a little uncertain.

Declaring herself empress had been a bit silly, in hindsight, but now she had to live with it.

The Flaming Steppes was one of the least favourable regions of the Divine Kingdom. She was discovering that there was a good reason for that.

The land was about as infertile as could be. The locals hardened by rough winds and scorching sun that she suspected cooked away their kindness at times, and the area lacked many of the riches that could be found almost anywhere else in the greater empire. 

At the moment she... was an empress only because she technically ruled over multiple cities. That definition was a stretch. None of the cities were large enough to count as a kingdom, so the title was bit more of a fiction than anything else.

Leaning back into her seat, she glanced to the side and stared at a map of the Steppes. Yu Xiang was her current seat of power, one they had defended against a small but still potent army just a couple of weeks prior. 

The people of the city were actually thriving, which was nice to see. A few magical tricks from the undead in her service had helped encourage the growth of plants, and there had been a lot of fertilizer as well.

The number of undead around the city had grown immensely, thanks to the kind donations of the attacking army.

The city was secured. In fact, she was pretty sure that it would require almost direct intervention from the Jade Throne to truly take it out.

There were Death Butlers patrolling the walls, and her master was... doing something, somewhere, possibly within the city as well. That was terrifying.

Then there was Shitake. A rather large city ruled by the Sect of the Ashen Forest. The very same sect that had squirmed beneath the power of the Jade Throne and which was now loyal to her cause. Or at least, she hoped they were.

Cinder was nice, at least. She had ‘cool older sister’ vibes that Fenfang enjoyed.

In any case, the city was hers. Apparently there had been a big celebration, and the first merchants between Shitake and Yu Xiang had made the trip there and back in one piece.

That was one of her major initiatives, securing the roads.

The common people couldn’t truly do it. Most of the roads were merely beaten paths across scrublands and desert, tracks left by a thousand carts and carriages and trodding feet.

Now she had a tireless army of somewhat-capable undead, and they were working around the clock to build proper roads. That meant carrying gravel and flattened stones out, digging ditches, and building small embankments to protect from the wind. 

It was going to take... eh, she figured ten, maybe twenty years to link both cities. 

It was well worth it, though. The effort cost her very little, and merchants and common folk alike saw it was a respectable way to spend their taxes.

She licked her lips and allowed her eyes to drift up along the map.

Opalhorn had been the city of the Flame’s Heart sect, but it was secretly ruled by a cabal of ancient undead Death Butlers. The city was now firmly in her control, and the people of Opalhorn were seemingly okay with that. 

The best thing to come from there was the trade with the local dwarves. It meant metal and tools and some neat mechanical items that they couldn’t otherwise produce in the Steppes.

There were three more places left on the map. A small city (barely more than a town, really) to the far north. 

She’d sent a small garrison of undead there, along with a tax collector. The fact that she’d sent actual protection to keep the town safe from roving monsters, and the fact that her taxation rate was significantly lower than the empire’s, made her a somewhat popular ruler. Or at least, an accepted one. 

Fenfang took the little victories where she could.

That left Lave Fist City and Seven Hills.

Lava Fist was tricky. The Lava Fist sect were... a bunch of meatheads. They spent more time punching each other in the jaw than caring for politics or anything of the sort. She wasn’t sure how to convince them to join her empire, but they were so easy going that she might just be able to offer them the promise of a good fight and that could be enough.

The locals of the city could be enticed with mushrooms from Shitake and dwarven gizmos from Opalhorn, as well as lowered taxation and heightened security. They’d get used to the undead protecting them eventually.

And that left the final city in the Steppes.

The Limpet groaned.

“Is something the matter?”

She glanced up. Alex had been in the room for some time, merely... standing there, at attention. Apparently this was a normal thing for maids to do. “Just... trying to figure all of this out.” Fenfang said. “It’s a lot. And it’s getting in the way of my studies.”

What good was the title and power of an empire if she herself was weak? She trusted the undead to listen to her master first, so there was no real fear of betrayal there, but what about the others? A cultivator could come and replace her, and would do a better job of it as well, if they had the right experience and education.

“What’s the issue, maybe we can help?” Alex asked. They gestured across the room to where Rem was standing... sleeping? The mantis-dressed-as-a-butler was slumped over on the ground and was breathing slowly. That might actually explain why they were so quiet. Usually Rem was kind of loud.

“Seven Hills is not yet ours,” Fenfang said. “But I think we can fix that?”

“Oh?” Alex asked. They were giving her room to talk, speak her ideas out loud.

“Right, so from all reports, the city’s foodstocks were bought up by the army on the way here. A lot of those purchases were made on credit, with the promise that they’d be repaid from the loot taken from Yu Xiang.”

“Seeing as how most of that army is now undead, I can’t see them making the repayments.”

“Yeah, exactly. And they took a lot of food and supplies. And the cultivators in the army were let loose in the city.”

She’d spent a good deal of time seeing cultivators as grand heroes and powerful beings. The lesser ones, the outer disciples and initiates, were all beyond human, but the elders of old sects? They might as well be gods to the common folk. 

She’d been one of the common folk recently, and that perception was hard to shake off. 

She also knew that cultivators liked to look like heroes, but they rarely acted in a heroic way. There would have been problems with a few dozen young cultivators roaming around the city unchecked.

“We can maybe capitalize on that. Offer protection, lower rates on food. It’ll be a while before we grow a large enough surplus to be able to trade it well, but we’ll get there. Hopefully before anyone starves.”

“I believe in you,” Alex said with a friendly smile. 

“Right,” Fenfang said. 

That left only one thing... figuring out how to keep the Steppes functional while trade was cut off with the Divine Kingdom. The Jade Throne’s proclimation that no-one could leave the Steppes had circulated, and she was... kind of happy that they weren’t just launching an even bigger, more powerful assault and were instead walling the Steppes off.

They probably assumed that she’d mismanaged things and then the common folk would come crawling back.

“I think we might be able to make it on the food and logistics side,” she said. “But that leaves the moral and... non-undead military. I’d life to start recruitment of a large number of talented people can can help make the nation prosper.”

They needed their own martial arts to counter the Jade Throne. They needed talented individuals able to work with the undead to press through the wall that was going up around the Steppes and into the empire itself.

Her Master could raise a very powerful army on a whim, but he didn’t seem inclined, which meant that she’d need to figure it out herself.

“What about a tournament, then?” Alex asked.

“A tournament?”

“Yup!”

Well... that wasn’t a terrible idea. Cultivators did love their tournaments, and it would be a great way to attract potential. But first, she’d need a prize. 

*** 

DT's gonna slip into the weekly rotation starting... in two weeks? Had this scene in mind, so I jotted it down real quick!