Blood Shaper

The Shatterplate War Chapter 33

“All right!” Kay pushed himself up from his seat, supporting his weight on his arms as he loomed forward over the small crowd of people positioned slightly below him. “I am done with the shouting. When I said that this was going to be a civil discussion, I meant it! The next person that starts shouting or makes a threat against anyone else will be ejected and replaced with someone that knows how to act!” He looked around the room with a thunderous expression, “Am I understood?”

There were a few murmurs mixed in with louder acknowledgments along with a few silent nods as people calmed down and sat back in their seats. The two people that had been loudest and most aggravating, to Kay as well as each other, sheepishly looked away as they settled back down behind their desks.

“Good.” Kay sat back down in his own chair, which was just a little bit better than everyone else’s. He wasn’t particularly happy about that or about the dais his desk and chair were on, but they’d already been there when they’d started using the room, put in by the people who’d constructed it on his advisors’ orders. Their arguments had swayed Kay enough that he hadn’t made a big deal about it and had it removed, but he still wasn’t happy about it. Realities of power or not, a visual reminder of someone being “above” another person only made the “lower” person unhappy, at least in Kay’s mind. That wasn’t how the culture on Torotia worked, though, so he’d stopped complaining about it. Out loud.

Thankfully, minor disagreements about his furniture aside, Avalon’s Constitutional Congress, to steal a little terminology from Kay’s home nation, was going well. The arguments and shouting matches were annoying but not unexpected. People were going to disagree, and they were going to have to settle those disagreements. But insults and threats were too much. Thankfully the two delegates had only tossed about completely childish insults and threatened to quote: “Fill your pockets with mud and hang you upside down”, and, “Drag you around the edge of Lake Descent with your socks on”. Neither of those was worth actually punishing the two idiots further than the talking to he’d just unleashed.

“Now,” Kay had to keep from rolling his eyes as the same two idiots immediately began glaring at each other across the room before he’d even finished talking, “I understand that there will be disagreements and issues with the topics and subjects of discussion that are brought up. What I don’t understand is why there is such a large amount of vitriol being thrown around over what to me seems to be a simple topic.”

“Lord Kay!” One of the two idiots, a human man whose name Kay kept forgetting, it was something with an S, dramatically clutched at his heart as he reeled backward in place. “This is much more than a simple topic!” He held one hand out in front of him like some kind of orator. “To decide that products made of lumber and other plant-based products would be under the control of the Office of Building when the Minister of Construction who is in charge of said office is an Earth Mage and works only with dirt and stone is a true travesty!” The guy kept going, and Kay started tuning him out.

This whole speech was probably related to some kind of kickback or deal the delegate was trying to pull in for himself. Kay was purposefully moving away from the sole autocrat style of government and setting up a multi-branch system that emulated what he felt were the best parts of different Earth governments that he liked. That was why he couldn’t just shut the guy up and move on. There was nothing in the rules that they were all writing together that said Kay had to let the guy get away with it, but he had to at least let the man talk.

Eventually, the delegate ran out of steam, and his opponent started to rebuttal. There wasn’t any name-calling this time, so Kay stayed out of it. Watching the discussion, Kay admitted to himself that neither of the delegates were actually idiots. The smarmy human one was smarmy and self-centered but not stupid. His opponent, a male dark elf, wasn’t stupid either, but he was letting himself get caught up in the other representative’s flow, which wasn’t doing him any favors. After they both stopped talking, Kay raised a hand.

“I think there might be a misunderstanding here. What powers or responsibilities each Minister and their Office have is not the purview of this Constitutional Congress; it will be the purview of the government we form through this Congress.” Kay swept his gaze across the gathered assembly of people. “From now on, any and all topics brought up that do not apply to continuing or finishing the work of this Congress will be dismissed. Any questions?”

No one had any questions, and Kay mentally patted himself on the back. He also saved a few mental back-pats for his most recent political adviser. Ment Torumn, a former Elder of the Weathered Clans, was a dwarven man with pitch-black hair, a beard that was split into three parts that were braided separately from each other, and thick glasses that made his eyes look huge. A political theorist by trade, or whatever they called that here on Torotia, with several related Classes, Ment was a political wonder, which was why Kay had tasked him with being the speaker for the Congressional Congress, as well as earmarking him a place on Kay’s personal staff after the end of the Congress. He also looked like a bumbling professor type, which made his devious mind that much surprising to the people he unleashed it on.

With Ment’s help, Kay’s plan to cut the greedy and manipulative off at the heels had been refined into a simple and effortless ploy that was as powerful as it was truthful. It really wasn’t the place of the Congressional Congress to set policy like that. But Kay also didn’t need to remind them all that in a certain tone that implied dire punishment for their transgressions.

Kay nodded down at Ment, who turned and started reading off the next topic, proposal, or issue. They were mostly done with the work that had been planned out, and they were going over final additions to the docket on the last planned day of the Congress.

Following the three-branch system of the American government, Avalon’s government was very similar. The executive branch consisted of Kay, his appointed Ministers, and their staff. They were in charge of making sure laws were enacted, along with Kay being Lord of Avalon and all the nitty-gritty work that entailed. Side note: Avalon’s population had reached well over five thousand, bumping Avalon up to a town and Kay to a Lord.

The legislative branch was a two-house branch called the Parliament of Avalon, or just Parliament to steal from the Europeans. The first house was the Regional House, although the names of both houses were subject to change in case anyone thought of better names than Kay had. The Regional House was filled with elected officials from each different region that Avalon was divided into. Each region was divided up by a combination of geographical size and population. Larger areas with fewer people in them would have fewer representatives that covered a wider area in their duties, while more populated areas would have more representatives to cover smaller geographical areas but more people.

The second house was the House of Species, which was almost sure to change later on. That house covered a topic that Kay hadn’t dealt with on Earth since there was only one sapient species. Not every species of person wanted or needed the same thing, so each species that had a population larger than a certain cap, which had been set to one hundred by the Constitutional Congress, received a representative, elected by members of that species, to represent them and their needs to Avalon as a whole. It wasn’t that big a deal if you only had humanoid species, but there weren’t only humanoid species in Torotia or even Avalon. Hell, beastkin were considered humanoid, and they often had requirements that not many other humanoid beings did.

The last branch was the judicial branch, which Kay actually had a meeting about right after the Congressional Congress broke for the day. Technically this was the last scheduled day for the Congress, but Kay had money on it going at least two days longer. Not literally; sadly, no one wanted to bet with him when he could just order people to take longer.

The judicial branch was going to be set up with a Supreme Court and lower courts that solved less important problems, as well as a group of roaming magistrates that would deal with issues in rural, less accessible areas as Avalon spread and became wider. They already had one small village on the outskirts of the town proper that was working on setting up an orchard of those sweet, lemon-like fruits Kay had discovered. Eventually, Kay expected Avalon to swallow up the village and make it just another part of the town, but that hadn’t happened yet.

A few hours later, the Congress broke for the day after doing exactly what Kay had expected and voting to extend their period of activity by at least another day since there were still over two dozen items still left to discuss. A small gnomish man in a fitted suit and white gloves walked over to Kay. “My lord, there is a group of armed individuals that have asked for an audience with you.” Using some Skill that Kay hadn’t heard, the name of Kay’s personal servant Mills, who dressed like a butler all the time, whispered in Kay’s ear even though he was several feet below said ear.

“Who are they, and what did they want?”

“They identified themselves as the Shatterplate Order but gave no indication of their purpose in Avalon.”

“I have another meeting after this that can’t wait. Let them know that we will allow them an audience when I’m ready for them. Then,” Kay continued, “Send someone over to the Office of Information to find out about them.” After a brief pause, he added, “And send someone to ask Commander Mapsight if he knows anything. That sounds like a Bannerthrust type of name.”

“Very good, sir.” Mills vanished from sight as he dashed off on Kay’s orders.

Later the next day, quite literally the first time Kay could get free from his duties to talk to a group of people that refused to talk about what they wanted, Kay sat on his throne, which was as modest as anyone would let him get away with, in his equally modest audience room. Eventually, he would have a throne room for this that would be even gaudier and/or magnificent, but the palace wasn’t done yet. They’d spent the last several months since the people from the Weathered Clans ad showed up making housing.

A group of people, mainly human, marched inside, all of them wearing blue surcoats with black trim and a black symbol on them that looked like a circle with a crack in it. They were all dressed in a way that made Kay think of stereotypical medieval period movies, with rounded helms, swords, and plate armor.

One of them stepped forward and bowed. “Good afternoon to you, Lord Kay of Avalon. I am Hunter Alice Ravenhome of the Shatterplate Order.”

“Greetings, Hunter Ravenhome. What brings a distinguished Order of Vampyr hunter to our little town?”

“Why, we’re hunting Vampyr, of course.” She replied.

Kay sighed quietly. “That’s what I was worried you’d say,” He whispered to himself.