June 20, 2024
The King of Dalaka, Bísan Alakrego, rode in his military convoy on the streets of Brimid. Behind him was a line of tanks, artillery, and lines of soldiers walking in perfect unison, and above him were the whirring jets of warplanes. This was the military parade that happened once every 5 years, on the very day that Brimid became a sovereign territory of the Dalakan Union. Techinically, there were parades all over the country, but there was a reason that the king himself always attended the one in Brimid, and not in Polmid, the capital. And there was a reason that the most impressive forces were always at Brimid. And there was a reason that he was so bold to go in an open car to what most considered occupied territory. This was no celebration- it was a promise to the people of Brimid. Many, in fact, but there were two tantamount promises, agreements that decided whether this city grew to be one of the great cities of Dalaka or would be burnt to ash just like what could have happened 20 years ago. These promises were very simple:
- If Brimid revolts, it will cease to exist.
- If Brimid integrates peacefully, it will flourish.
Bísan had been told by his late father- who had ordered and overseen the annexation- these very promises 3 years ago, only days before he passed away. He never said it in those exact words, of course, but he remembered the importance in his eyes, and the gravity of his statements.
“When you are King, my son, do not give up Brimid. Our borders may be free from incursions, but we are not secure. We are dependant, as we always have been, on the gold of foreign nations, but what territory we can gain changes that. And, as small as we are, we are still, culturally, a union under the great city of Polmid. We need Brimid. And we need Brimid’s message. If Brimid is freed, there goes Las’ho, and there goes Hegrid- the whole house of cards falls. And when we fall, we will not be dependent on anyone- we will be nothing at all.”
Those last 6 words had reverberated in his head for all that time since his father had died.
We will be nothing at all.
From those words, and from his own advisors’ advice and knowledge, he, like many others in Polmid, had concluded- that the occupation of Brimid was not only for the good of Dalaka, but for the Bremedi themselves. The city, when it was independent, was weak- its economic growth slow, its industrial output insufficient, and its trade volume nearly nonexistant. The standard of living, once the pains of occupation dulled, would increase with the resources of the Dalakan government. And with full integration to the Dalakan government, its economic opportunities would increase tenfold. Had King Altsan not conquered them, they would have either been puppeted by someone else or fallen into economic ruin at the slightest push. The era of city-states was long dead, and Dalaka as a region had been late to the party of nation-states- so the territory it had been able to grab was small. Whatever unity they could garner, then, was necessary for their very survival.
So it was with those promises that he paraded across the city. And it would be with them in mind that he would make his speech within the next few hours.