Guardian of the North

Guardian of the North is a part of Tales of Arkain.

## Synopsis

One Demon Slaves leader named Bales was talking to himself.

## Story

Bales sat on his balcony and took a sip of his glass filled with red wine. His gaze went over the land around his mansion. The very ground was nothing but scorched earth and lava. Only very few places still were green and could be used as farmland - and those were all created with magic, not natural. Any natural source of food or water in the lands that he ruled over had ceased to exist long before his ancestors had been forced into servitude. If it weren't for the ice in the mountains on the other side of the border, all who lived here would rely on the southern regions or magic even for water. When the northern border was opened, Bales had been quick to send out expeditions to collect ice. That had made it easier for him to monopolize the water trade in the north. When the border was still closed off, he, like all others who lived in the north, had to rely on water exports from the southern lands - and those were expensive. The foundation for his rise to power had been laid. He had prevented other northern warlords from doing the same and by doing so, he had become more powerful than them. After only a few years, he had become the most powerful mortal in the north.

He had been named the Guardian of the North. While the Kingdoms in the west had guardians of the different elements that were part of their respective orders, among the Demon Slaves, the rank of a guardian was the highest position that one could reach - a position that was envied and, from a certain point of view, the very position that most mortals dreamed of when they joined the Demons: Power, wealth, security. But the fools always underestimated the price that they had to pay. Most were little more than cannon fodder to the Demons. Bales loathed all who joined the Demon Slaves willingly. They were blind and weak in mind, no matter how powerful they were otherwise.
Bales was nothing like those who joined the Demons willingly. He belonged to the old families, he was a descendant of those who had willingly sold their souls to the Demons. He was born and raised on this side of the Void, like many others. Unlike most of them, however, he had not made a new pact with any particular Demon to either renew the bond or to gain any advantage. Apart from the ancestors who originally joined the Demons, no one of the Bales family had been foolish enough to do such a thing. Bales did not rely on the help of his demonic overseers, he took matters into his own hands - and he made sure that those who were in his service shared his view. His personal guard consisted only of old family members who had never renewed the pacts of their ancestors and, like him, had no loyalty towards their masters. For the western realms, the Demon Slaves were all the same. While this was true for most of them, there were a few who secretly or even openly defied their Demon overlords. However, only the fewest were able to keep their agenda to themselves which was why Bales could not be sure of any other Demon Slave who shared his opinion. Most were discovered by Demon spies (or Demon Slaves who sought to rise the ranks) and then disposed of.

Some who stood up to the Demons still held loyalty to the Kingdoms in the west. Bales on the other hand had never known service to anyone but the Demons and he had decided to keep his loyalty to himself. Of course, he was forced to send troops and resources to support all operations of other Demon Slaves, but he stayed out of conflicts as much as possible, using his position as Guardian of the North to prevent as much involvement as possible. He was the guardian of the northern border, to the Cold North as the western realms called it. The Demons called the northern region "Glacius" and for reasons that Bales had yet to understand, had never ever tried using the northern lands to attack the Kingdoms - despite the fact that it would have given them an advantage in their invasions of Isalmur. Something up there apparently made even the Demons uncomfortable which is why the Demons did not seem to mind that Bales kept much more troops back in his realm than he should - it had also allowed him to make sure that his court had as little Demons as possible in it. In fact, only lesser Demons and a handful of succubi lived in his border fortress now. As a guardian, Bales was even in a position to command the lesser Demons - the succubi on the other hand only answered to their own demonic masters and mistresses. They were dangerous but Bales had been able to hold them on a short leash. They never heard anything they were not supposed to hear and only had influence over those who were in no position to be dangerous to Bales. Some of the succubi or the ones who had fallen for their charms even had suffered some very unfortunate accidents. He was not sure if they had never reported him because they may actually enjoy this "game" - demonic minds, especially those of succubi, were difficult to understand by mortals, even those who had spent as much time with them as the Demon Slaves, they might even appreciate Bales killing someone they could maybe have considered a "rival" - or if their superiors simply did not care about what happened in the north. Bales did not even know who they answered to. The closest large demon fortress was the Forge of Kôstragoth in the south but they did not seem to be affiliated to the succubi in his court. Of course, he could just forget the whole affair, but ignoring it did not seem like a sensible course of action. It was better to know who was the one who kept an eye on him than not.

Bales could hear noises coming from his chamber door. He groaned, but still stood up and left the balcony, entering his personal chambers as the door opened. He was certain that he already knew who was entering - and he was right. It was one of his lieutenants, followed by two female elven slaves. Or to be specific: Elven pleasure slaves. His lieutenant just looked at him. Bales waved him off and nodded to the door to the bedroom. The lieutenant led the two Elves into the bedroom, closed the door behind them and left. Bales made no attempt to follow them. Instead, he closed the door to his balcony, drew the curtain and took a seat at his desk to continue enjoying his wine there. These women were yet another "gift" from other demon slave leaders. He received those at a regular basis. Other Demon Slaves sent him such "gifts" to gain his favour, the Demons used to send him such gifts to buy his loyality. It was one of the "perks" that a higher ranking position among the Demon Slaves had. Bales was just annoyed, he had no interest in such things - also there was no way to tell who had sent this gift and what they had in mind. There had been a time when succubi had tried to infiltrate his chambers this way. This is how some accidents happened that, unfortunately, had made some of the demonesses "disappear". After a while, the Demons stopped trying to send succubi and also stopped sending slaves. Only other Demon Slaves continued to do so - the irony of slaves sending slaves of their own was not lost on Bales, yet he himself had no interest in keeping slaves. The fools should know better than wanting their own slaves.

In the bedroom, Bales' concubine awaited those slaves with a smile, some tea and food. They would sit together, drink, eat and talk. Ironically, the Demon Slaves in the north treated their pleasure slaves poorly and therefore those pleasure slaves were very thankful to be treated like ordinary beings for once. Most of the time, the northern Demon Slaves sent the same pleasure slaves over and over again to Bales, who gave them small favors for the gift to make them believe that he actually cared for such gifts. Therefore, those slaves already knew what to expect and most of them were secretly in league with Bales who not only did not use their bodies for his amusement, but gave them food and some actual peace. They were even allowed to just sleep if they wanted to and their families were secretly sent supplies to make up for the lousy income. The fact that he demanded nothing from them in return, not even knowledge or espionage (some had offered such to show their thanks and even did it when it was declined) had ensured that they kept quiet and told nobody about the ruse. It was an unwanted necessity. There was two kinds of Demon Slaves in the north: Those who were shared Bales's point of view and those who were just barbaric, even by the standards of Demon Slaves. While Bales knew nothing but contempt for them, it was sadly imperative to give them the feeling that he appreciated their gifts to make sure they kept themselves occupied with other things than wonder about his motives. It was his careful behaviour that had ensured his survival so far. While he made clear that he was no simple slave but a powerful man (even though he had no illusions about "freedom" that others had), he also made sure not to act too suspiciously.

He took another sip of his wine and studied the worldmap of Arkain that laid on the desk before him. Not much was known about Glacius to the north... At least not to the Demon Slaves, the Demons did not share much of their knowledge. From the south, Bales knew even less but the area down there was not his problem but that of the Guardian of the South. According to what Bales had heard, the southern border was far more active than the northern one. While he only sent expeditions to the north to gather ice, the southern guardian had no control over their border, Demons and their slaves alike travelled southwards to capture slaves though Bales knew nothing about the people who lived there. The west had no guardian and the Guardian of the East... Bales had heard that such a position existed but he knew nothing of it. Did it matter? Not yet, no. But one day... One day, Bales would not bow to the Demons anymore - neither to the kings of the west or the dangers of the north. One day, he would be his own master. And when that day had come, nobody would stand in his way. Nobody.