* * *
SECTION FIVE:
So Doth the Kriggerman Cry
(Author’s note: If the murder of Exothepobole had sounded the death knell for Asotos’ kingdom, his navy’s insurgence into the Trizentine and revelations regarding Salak and the Stasis confederacy sealed its doom. Eventually, reasons for the attack on the Shikkeron were revealed. When it was understood that Asotos had attempted the capture of Darla to extract her demon in hopes of replicating it to enslave others, all debate ended. Anyone who loved freedom realized that to die resisting this rebel was far better than to live under his yoke of madness.
Of course, Asotos ranted on about all the ‘lies and injustices’ committed against his people, demanding reparations for the ‘wanton attack’ on his delegation of emissaries seeking to attain extradition from the Stasis leaders, the perpetrators of the Exothepobole holocaust. He claimed the ‘murder’ of his chief officer, Salak, and subsequent ‘ambush’ on his fleet while it was trying to assist a crippled ship in deep space, were ‘grounds for war’. Unless due compensation was immediately provided and those responsible for this debacle brought to justice, he would be forced to consider military means to satisfy the ‘wrongs committed against innocent people’.)