The King and his merry men

[Erik Vrell]

“You've got this…” Erik said to himself as he watched Victor enter the palace, the assassin’s words echoing in his head. The psychic fidgeted with his badge as he approached the crowd of secondaries idly chattering amongst themselves outside the palace. He had no idea how to command a crowd like this, the most he’d ever been put in charge of was half a dozen mindbreakers on a witch hunt. Even then, his brothers had been within a mental shout if things got out of hand. 

Nervously, Erik rose up the steps of the palace before turning to address the crowd, his voice catching in his throat as he opened his mouth. While his nerves were nowhere near as bad as they were in his audience with Gilgamesh, his heart was still trying its best to pound it's way out of his ribcage.

‘Just relax.’ Erik thought to himself. ‘Your audience went well, there's no reason to think this won't.’ Unfortunately, reason did little to steady the psychic’s nerves. Struggling for inspiration, Erik’s mind wandered back to home, specifically to the commanding voice of his father addressing an assembly of mindbreakers before a witch hunt. 

‘Come on, just like father…’ He mumbled to himself.

“Attention!” Erik cried, his voice firm but not harsh. “On behalf of Lord Victor, I, Nobleman Erik Vrell, come bearing an announcement.” As he stated his status, he made an effort to display his golden lion badge to the crowd, confirming that he was, indeed, a noble. 

“You will assist in the distribution of radios to the citizens of Nippur, so that you may hear the glorious declarations of King Gilgamesh! Compliance is not mandatory, but those who do will be rewarded with extra rations.” If the crowd was not paying listening before, the mention of extra rations caught their attention. A murmur ran through the crowd as Erik stepped down from the palace steps and pushed through the crowd towards the bazaar, producing his omnillium from inside his robes as he did so. Arriving at an empty bazaar stall, Erik got to work summoning the necessary materials. 

At first he began summoning radios for the people to distribute. Once he had summoned enough radios that every one of the volunteers had left to give them out, he started summoning a stack of paper tickets. Each one had the same message marked on it. 

“This citizen is entitled to an extra portion of rations, as decreed by Lord Victor of the diplomacy bureau.”

Once he had a full stack of notes, Erik got back to summoning radios as the workers were starting to return. While summoning, Erik’s thoughts drifted slightly to the idea that the workers might not be doing their jobs. How could he be sure they weren't just dumping the radios out of sight? The psychic soon dismissed the thought when he saw the looks on the citizen’s faces. Despite their weariness, the was a glimmer of hope and joy in the eyes of the tired people. It looked to Erik like some proper, and admittedly easy, work was good for their spirits. 

Erik summoned tirelessly for what seemed like hours, and most likely was, although sometimes it was hard to tell in the Omniverse. Finally, a worker returned to Erik with a radio still in hand. 

“Everyone’s been given a radio.” He said as he laid the radio onto the table Erik was sitting behind. As he laid it down, his eyes caught on Erik’s badge and he remembered the psychic’s status. “Oh, I'm sorry, nobleman…” 

“Erik. Erik Vrell.”

“Nobleman Erik.” 

The psychic gave a nod to the man, before turning to the pile of tickets beside him. 

“Just show them this when you collect your rations.” Erik told the man. “You’ll get as much as you need.” 

“Thank you.” The man said eagerly, grinning as he took the ticket and disappeared into the thinning crowds of the bazaar, presumably home to his family. 

Slowly, the workers Erik had organised trickled back to the bazaar, returning their surplus radios and getting a ticket for extra rations in return. After a number of workers had received their tickets and left, no workers had returned to Erik for a while. Just as he moved to start packing up, another worker rounded the corner and came up to the table. 

“Are you the last one?” Erik asked as he took her radio and handed her a ticket. The woman nodded as she happily took the ticket, clutching it as if it might fly away if she didn't hold on tight enough. As she turned to leave, she hesitated, before turning back to Erik.

“When will you start broadcasting?” She asked. Erik paused for a moment, not quite sure himself of when broadcasting would begin. Before they could do that they needed to construct radio towers, and they needed someone and somewhere to host the show.

“Soon.” Erik said after a long moment of thought. The woman looked a little unsure of his estimation, but shrugged it off and went back to focusing on her ration ticket as she merged into the crowd. With the last worker gone, Erik turned to the pile of unclaimed radios and ration tickets beside him.

“Looks like I got a bit overzealous…” Erik murmured to himself as he started extracting the Omnillium back from the piles. Despite not having moved from the table, the psychic was exhausted. Summoning for hours at a time really took a lot out of you. After he had finally reabsorbed all of the radios and tickets, Erik rubbed his eyes before reclining back in his chair. 

“By the Gods, I'm tired…” He yawned as he stretched his arms out, trying to loosen up his stiff back. Cracking the stiffness out of his back, Erik’s eyes wandered over to the palace as he settled into his chair. 

“I should tell Victor I'm done…” He thought to himself. “Not yet, though, I'll rest a little while longer.” The psychic leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, listening to the thinned out crowds moving through the bazaar, chattering excitedly about Gilgamesh’s return and their new radios to hear his decrees. 

“I wonder how the other meetings are going…” Erik wondered idly, blissfully unaware of the clashing of egos that had occurred while he was working.