Chapter 44: To Cast Away Evil

It was the first day of spring.

Jack knew it was the first day because his calendar told him so yet there were other subtle clues about the changing of the seasons. The first clue was the longer days. The sun was starting to come up at an earlier hour and it was setting later in the evening. The cooler weather had long since vanished, replaced by the middling malaise of mild temperatures. Finally, the last of the snows had long since melted into the ground, sparking a new revival in the natural life around the city.

The arrival of spring also meant something else to Jack—an ending to the six months of preparation by all the Allied nations before once again going to war.

It was a day in autumn the prior year when the great war council of the Allied countries assembled and voted to go to war with Bancroft and his Javan hordes after an impassioned speech by Jack’s sister, Vera. After that speech, Jack allowed each country to have a six-month grace period to rebuild their forces, stockpile any supplies needed for the war ahead, and get their country on war footing once more.

Jack knew that the prior six months had been extremely productive, at least for Galicia. In those months, new recruits had been inducted into the army, bringing it back up to full strength after the losses suffered in the Fifth Swabian War. Many ships had been revitalized, including the Destiny, which had made good on the wounds suffered in the previous war. Lastly, the logistical network of transporting not only the Galician armed forces but those of the combined nations of the West had been put into play, with a mass creation of transport vessels for the moving of men and material.

The reason this network was necessary was for one simple reason. Jack wasn’t going to wait for Bancroft to send his fleet to the West. He was determined to go on the offensive against his old mentor, bringing the war from the West to the East. The transport network would need to be sufficient to carry his fleet and his army across the great ocean to land on Java proper.

To say that such an idea was daunting was a total understatement. There was much in consideration for such a task, and Jack had his planners busy for the entire six months orchestrating a cross-ocean invasion. It was a task they were well-prepared to do, and Jack felt comfortable with the plan ahead of them as spring dawned on the country.

In all, Galicia was as prepared as she could be for the war ahead. Jack would see to a few last-minute preparations before the army was due to set sail for the mustering point for all Allied countries—the city of Zarah, in Picardy. Once the city was the center of Swabian strength in Picardy, mostly because of it’s excellent harbor and strategic positioning on the eastern reaches of the Western countries. For that reason, Jack selected Zarah as the coming together point before they moved east.

When the great Galician armada set sail at the end of the week, they would have Zarah as their first destination.

Jack was interrupted from his thoughts as he felt a tugging on his leg. He looked down into the precocious blue eyes of his son, John, as the toddler beamed back at him.

“Dada!” said John before raising his arms in the universal signal to be held.

Jack chuckled and grabbed the boy and held him close to him. As of today, John was now a year and a half old. The newborn baby that arrived in Apulia was now running around the Galician Castle as fast as his little stubby legs could carry him. He’d long since reached the phase when it was all his parents could do to keep up with him. Just the previous day, Jack had caught his son trying to scale the side of the staircase that led to one of the upper floors. John had made it nearly five feet off the ground before Jack caught him, but it was hardly the first instance of such behavior (nor the last in Jack’s estimate).

John was a handful, and he was becoming more so by the day. He was so much of a handful that most days his three parents went to sleep exhausted after chasing him around throughout the waking hours.

“That boy is going to be the end of me,” muttered Kat after one particular instance of him being destructive for no reason whatsoever. “He never stops moving!”

Jack started to laugh. “And to think, he hasn’t even entered the terrible twos yet.”

Kat gave him a look that said she wanted to melt into the floor.

While John’s biological mother wished for some hours of relaxation, his other mother wished for the right to get pregnant at all.

It had now been a little over seven months since Jack and Abigail made the decision to stop taking her birth control pills. Jack had expected a few months of prolonged infertility until her hormone levels recovered, but now that it had been half a year without any signs of pregnancy, he could tell Abigail was starting to fret about her chances of becoming pregnant.

“How come it hasn’t happened yet?” she asked that morning, as they laid together sweaty and breathing heavily after another round of sex. “Jack, it’s been almost a year and I’m still not pregnant.”

Jack pushed up on his side and put his hand under his head. “It’s been seven months and that’s entirely normal. We knew you wouldn’t get pregnant right away. It’s just a matter of time.”

Abigail curled into his side. “What if I’m the problem though, Jack? What if I can’t get pregnant? What if I’m barren or infertile?”

Jack chuckled and kissed her nose lightly. “You’re not infertile, Abigail. This is just going to take time. We have to be patient.”

She clearly didn’t like that answer. “I don’t want to wait. I want to be pregnant now.”

“Chasing John around the Castle really makes you want to have one of your own, does it?” he asked humorously.

Abigail either didn’t get the joke or chose to ignore it. “That’s not the point. I’ve been thinking about this for years now. Three years to be more exact.”

Jack nodded. It was now three years ago that they’d met—the first time that Jack boarded the Destiny back in Quiller’s Cove. His life was never the same when he saw the lovely brunette looking back at him at the top of the gangplank.

“I still want this more than I can even convey into words,” she continued. “And I don’t get why this isn’t happening? I mean look at me! I have so much cum in me that I might as well be filled with nothing else!”

That wasn’t quite as much of an overstatement as she would have liked. Jack looked between her legs, where another healthy dollop of cum was now seeping out of her pussy and staining the bed sheets beneath her. Hardly a day had gone by in the last six months where they didn’t get to “practice” for making their baby.

“It has to be me,” she grunted finally. “I know your swimmers work so the fault has to be with me.”

Jack gently caressed her bare shoulder. “Patience, my love. Just be patient for me. Everything will happen when it’s supposed to and not a second sooner.”

“I don’t like being patient,” she whined. “Not with something like this.”

“Well, you’re just going to have to learn,” said Jack, kissing her again.

Abigail stopped protesting and slipped out of bed as she started to get dressed for the day. Jack wasn’t as quick to follow her, watching as she slipped on her naval uniform one garment at a time. It was always something he enjoyed, watching his women in various states of dressing and undressing. He especially loved the way Abigail’s tight trousers gripped her legs and bottom. Mostly, it was the knowledge that some of his cum was still leaking out of her body at this very moment, an ever pleasing thought.

Still, there was another reason why Jack wasn’t upset that Abigail wasn’t pregnant yet. He knew it would take time but the recent developments with Java put him in no hurry to have a pregnant wife on his hands. When he had first given his acceptance of Abigail stopping her birth control, the war hadn’t yet begun. There was still the hope that Bancroft would leave Jack in solitude without a conflict developing between them.

That hope was completely shattered when Bancroft murdered his sister and her family, putting them on the road to war. And even though Jack would now prefer that Abigail wait to get pregnant until they settled the conflict, he had no desire to tell her to wait after she’d already gotten her heart set on the matter.

What made it even worse was that this conflict with Bancroft had every marking of being the final conflict as prophesied. If that was the case, there was still a question of whether Jack would live or die after fighting the final battle. If his death was on the table, there was another very real reason why he didn’t want Abigail to get pregnant. He didn’t want to consign their child to a life without his/her father.

For those reasons, Jack was secretly content for the process to take as long as necessary. He just hoped that in the process, Abigail wouldn’t go nuts with wondering when a seed might finally take hold.

After Abigail was fully dressed and off to naval headquarters, Jack got out of bed and drank his morning coffee on the balcony. It was here that he was interrupted by John as he was contemplating the arrival of spring, but John wasn’t the only visitor to the balcony. He looked over to see Kat and Evelyn walking onto the balcony as well.

“There you are,” said Kat, relieved at the very sight of him. “We thought you’d be in your study by this hour. Why are you still in our room?”

Jack shrugged. “Just feeling a little sluggish this morning is all. I had a late morning with Abigail and I haven’t really started my day yet.”

Kat gave him a knowing look. “Must have been a very late morning if Abigail had anything to do with it.”

Jack chuckled briefly before giving his grandmother a more sobering look. Despite being married with children, he still disliked any mention of sexual activity around his oldest female relative.

“Don’t be embarrassed, Jack,” chastised Evelyn playfully. “Don’t you remember what I told you the day we met?”

“I do,” replied Jack, nodding his head. “You said that kings don’t get embarrassed.”

“And you still haven’t accepted that piece of wisdom yet?”

“I’m sure it will fully process one day,” he added lightly.

Evelyn started to chuckle. “We can only hope.”

“So what was so important that you needed to find me?” asked Jack, changing the subject. “I didn’t think anyone would miss me if I wasn’t working already today.”

Kat giggled. “Guess again, love. Like everything else, everyone’s plans seem to hinge around you.”

“Figures,” replied Jack sourly.

“Actually today, we were consulting the prophecy that mentions you,” said Evelyn. “And we believe we’ve found something important in one of the more obscure passages.”

“How important?” asked Jack with a raised eyebrow. “Something we missed? Or a detail that could help us?”

“Potentially both,” answered Evelyn cryptically. “Depending on how you want to interpret it.”

“You’re losing me,” said Jack with a chuckle.

“Come over here and we’ll show you.”

Jack followed both Kat and Evelyn off the balcony and toward one of the small desks that sat in the corner of the bedroom. Jack turned on the light and passed John over to Kat while Evelyn placed an older passage in front of him. Jack looked at it curiously, not recognizing any of the language.

“This isn’t the one I’ve seen before,” said Jack as he looked over at Kat. “I’ve seen the passage about uniting both dark and fair as well as freeing the slaves but this one looks unfamiliar.”

“That’s because for the most part, it is,” said Kat. “Even to Evelyn and I, who were the most familiar with this prophecy. Truthfully, we didn’t think it pertained to you which is why it went unnoticed.”

Jack blinked. “Isn’t the entire prophecy about me?”

Evelyn shook her head. “Not all of it. In fact, most of it deals with events unrelated to you personally but it’s hard to tell what is true prophecy and what just might have been the ramblings of the prophetess when she made it.”

“Because she was quite mad when this was written down two thousand years ago, right?” asked Jack.

Kat nodded. “Maybe mad is the wrong way to put it. She had moments of lucidity but when she was uttering prophecy, she went into a trance-like state that had quite an effect on the locals. Hence, she was called mad.”

“You’re not exactly increasing my faith in this prophecy,” teased Jack.

Evelyn scowled at him. “Be serious, Jack. This is extremely important. The events of the past three years have all followed the path that was laid out for them by this prophecy. And this other passage we’re about to show you is no doubt cut from the same cloth.”

“Okay, okay, show me then,” said Jack. “How was this found?”

“I found it,” said Kat while biting her lip. “As part of one of my read-throughs. I didn’t usually stop on this page because before now, it really didn’t seem to pertain to you but on closer inspection, it’s starting to make sense now.”

“Show him the teacher section,” said Evelyn to Kat.

Kat used her finger to point out a small section and Jack began to read it aloud.

“There’s that freer of slaves again,” muttered Jack. “I take it that’s me?”

Kat nodded while adjusting John to her other hip. “That’s a very safe assumption. You’re referred to in many such ways throughout this prophecy and it’s usually as the freer of slaves.”

“That last paragraph is familiar to us though,” said Jack. “That’s when we first noticed that the prophecy was unclear about whether I would live or die. It’s exactly the same, isn’t it?”

Evelyn nodded. “Which might explain how we missed it in the first place. It’s the same passage almost verbatim as the earlier passage you saw but the statements before them made no sense until recent examination.”

“Mostly it was the student versus the teacher stuff,” added Kat. “We really didn’t think that applied to you since we looked at this prophecy as being you against the Swabians.”

That was when Jack finally understood why they were showing him this.

The Swabians were never the ultimate evil that needed to be defeated.

“Bancroft is the teacher,” he whispered in a hoarse tone. “He’s the ultimate evil.”

Kat and Evelyn shared an apprehensive look before they both started to nod. “That’s what we believe,” said Evelyn. “It fits with what we know of the situation.”

“And it’s adequate that they refer to me as the student,” said Jack. “Bancroft was once my mentor. He even taught a few classes at the Academy when I went through it. It’s an apt way of looking at it.”

“In any event, Jack, it seems to confirm a few things we’ve suspected,” said Kat nervously. “More or less why things seemed a little easier with the Swabians than we anticipated.”

“Because according to this, they were never the final enemy,” said Jack. “It was always going to come down to Bancroft and Java. It makes sense. It was on my mind frequently during the Swabian campaign but I can truly say I never had a moment when I felt like the end was near. Not like Art anyway, who seemed to know when his time had come. I thought perhaps it was ignorant bliss at the time but this could explain why.”

“This still bothers me on many levels though, Jack,” whispered Kat. “It says here the teacher will dominate the student and that this war will truly engulf the world. This doesn’t look good at all.”

No, it really didn’t. Kat had a point as Jack reread the passage several times. However, it was on the fourth reading that he had a small epiphany.

“No, it doesn’t sound the greatest but all of this stuff can be inferred anyway due to the nature of any war against Bancroft,” said Jack.

Kat looked at him funny. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, look at where we start,” explained Jack. “I live in Galicia and he lives in Java. Somebody is going to have to cross that ocean to strike at the other. There’s no other explanation so that passage makes sense. That leads us to the next passage about it engulfing the world, which in a very literal sense it will. We have nearly the entire West united against the entire East. That is truly everyone in the world, is it not?”

Kat tugged on his elbow. “It still makes me nervous seeing it spelled out so clearly in the text about Bancroft dominating the war. And you.”

Jack let out a small sigh. “Yes, that can be worrying, I suppose. But we all know that we can’t take this prophecy at face value. Some of these things that are written are not literal translations of the meaning. For example, the main passage has to deal with me conquering the skies, right? Obviously, that’s a veiled reference to our airplanes and hence it’s not a literal translation. It doesn’t mean that Bancroft will win the conflict.”

“Jack has a point,” said Evelyn with a nod. “Many of the things that are written come true in the manner that we didn’t expect. While this could be a portent of things to come, it doesn’t necessarily mean that Bancroft could win this conflict.”

“Wasn’t the entire prophecy about me winning though?” asked Jack. “I know whether I live or die is still unclear, but I’m still supposed to win, aren’t I?”

Kat and Evelyn shared a look with each other.

“Jack, this prophecy has you winning,” said Kat. “This prophecy has been remarkably accurate so far but just remember there are multiple prophecies out there. The one we looked at about the Swabians, remember? That prophecy called for them to conquer the entire West.”

“But it didn’t come true,” pointed out Jack. “In the end, it wasn’t accurate.”

“It wasn’t accurate right now, Jack,” corrected Evelyn. “Just because you defeated them in this moment of time doesn’t mean it couldn’t be written for one hundred years in the future. We just have no way of knowing whether a prophecy could be talking about our time or a time yet to come.”

“Which means there could still be some kind of prophecy about Java out there,” added Kat. “One that could call for Bancroft’s exclusive victory. The problem with ours is that it’s so ambiguous. We don’t know which way this could go, especially in regards to this passage. The last statement ends with a question. Will you cast away evil or will evil cast a long shadow?”

Jack let out a deep sigh. He reached up to rub his forehead, hating the many twists and turns of prophecy. The only thing it ever did was make him more confused than when he started, and he hated the thought that his life wasn’t in his own hands.

If it was all planned out long before he was born, what role did self-determination play in all of it? Did he truly have none? Did he have to prepare and fight so hard for this outcome? Or could he just show up at the appointed time with Bancroft and triumph because that was what he was meant to do, regardless of his prior planning?

It was all ambiguous and for that reason, Jack pushed the passage away from him.

“We can only control what we can,” he said finally, looking at both women. “We need to be prepared for anything. If it’s truly a choice between us and him, then we need to give fate and destiny every reason to pick us. To that end, I believe in being as prepared as we can be for this conflict. Nothing else matters.”

That answer seemed to satisfy Evelyn. She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the forehead before making her departure from their bedroom.

Kat, on the other hand, seemed more nervous than ever after this morning’s revelation.

She clung to him after Evelyn was gone, eventually moving to the bed where she wrapped her entire body around his.

“This makes me so uneasy, Jack,” she whispered against his ear. “I feel more lost than ever now in regards to this prophecy.”

Jack kissed her lightly. “This discovery changes nothing as far as I’m concerned. Maybe it clarifies things a little but it hasn’t taught us anything we didn’t know, right? Bancroft is still our most dangerous foe and we don’t know the outcome of such a war. Nothing else major has changed.”

“I don’t know how you can be so cavalier about it,” said Kat. “This is your life we’re talking about, Jack.”

Jack gave her a wry smile. ‘I know, but we’ve known that for years now, Kat. Why is it so important now?”

“It was always important,” she corrected. “But more so now. You’re a father and a husband. You’re the king of your country and you’ve just emerged victorious from the largest war in five hundred years. Why now must destiny demand more of a sacrifice from you?”

Kat’s question was apt indeed. What more could Jack sacrifice before he could live in peace? He’d already given so much blood, both in terms of his men and his relatives. What more could he still have left to give?

And would his life even be enough if that was called for?

“We’re not going to focus on this now,” said Jack as he gently played with a strand of Kat’s blonde hair. “What we are going to focus on is preparing for what’s in front of us. We have to leave Kalmar soon for Picardy. I’m going to throw myself into my preparations and make sure we give destiny every reason to pick us. There’s really no other option we have.”

Kat nodded her head but she didn’t release her grip on him. Jack couldn’t say he blamed her. If she was in the same position, he would have felt the same way.

The more he thought about it, the more he thought that he was just a pawn dancing to the strings of prophecy. How much of what was around them was preordained? And how much could Jack truly influence?

One thing was for certain. He was going to give this war with Bancroft everything he had. If he didn’t, there was nothing stopping the mad Javan Emperor from dominating the entire world with all his resources.

If Jack didn’t stand up to him, who would?

“I really don’t care if the crews are exhausted, Clark. I want those men ready to sail at a moment’s notice. We’re at war, damnit! I need my best ships on the front line!”

Bancroft brought his fist down hard on his desk to emphasize his point, and it nearly made Clark jump in the process. Looking back, Bancroft had never known Clark to be one that was jumpy but his actions as of lately seemed to reveal that Clark was more fragile than he once gave him credit for.

With recent events, that wasn’t as surprising as it used to be. Clark had a habit of screwing up in the past few months, one that showed itself to Bancroft at the most inopportune times.

Today was one of them.

“The crew just got back from their cruise to Occitania yesterday, a mission that has been ongoing for three months,” argued Clark. “The men are typically given at least a week’s furlough after such a long mission. Why can’t we give them a little time to recuperate before we send them back out again?”

Bancroft tried not to grind his teeth. “Because Clark, the Revenge is now my deadliest ship afloat. And I want them on the front lines in case we see any Fourthie shit coming our way from the East! With the Renown not due for service for another month, there’s no time to allow the Revenge any furlough.”

Bancroft had thought that Clark would have put it together already. Since the Revenge was the first in a series of four of the new, deadly battlecruisers, Bancroft wanted to have at least one in service at any moment. Even a week’s furlough was too long, especially when Jack Easterbrook could show up on their eastern shores at any moment.

The sooner the Renown was in service, the better, but for now, they would have to rely on the Revenge.

Clark opened his mouth to protest but Bancroft cut him off.

“Save me the trouble, Clark,” snapped the emperor. “I remember a time when you used to just do the things I told you to do without any argument. It seems that time has long since passed but don’t think I don’t remember how great those days used to be. It leaves me wondering if I need to make another man my deputy. After all, you would be nothing but a traitor if not for me.”

Now the shoe was on the other foot. Bancroft watched as Clark silently stewed as a result of those words. The truth of the matter was that the only reason Clark could remotely be considered a traitor was because of his loyalty to Bancroft, helping to spring him from Charles’ prison.

If not for Bancroft, Clark would still be a loyal deputy in naval headquarters with no career path. It was only Bancroft’s influence that put him as the number two man in all of Java.

Something that Bancroft suspected that Clark had long since forgotten.

“Now just pipe down and do what I told you to,” ended Bancroft as he tapped his pen against his desk.

To his credit, Clark didn’t protest any further. At least he seemed to know when Bancroft had reached his limit as he usually didn’t push things beyond the breaking point.

With the issue with the Revenge satisfied, Bancroft could turn his attention back to the topic that he originally started with—Tyrol.

It made him seethe beyond belief that the Tyrolean rebellion was still ongoing. In fact, it showed no signs of weakening whatsoever, and in the two years of the rebellion, the Tyrolean force became more of a threat by the day.

He’d now sent two armies to destroy Trevor Downing and his ragtag group of rebels, and both armies had been thoroughly ravaged. This last army under General Dennis Ryan had been so destroyed that Bancroft had been forced to reconstitute nearly fifteen regiments in the process, mostly filling them with new and young recruits. During that process, Downing and his men had run rampart over Thessaly, moving first from Worchester, where they disrupted the supply depot to Ruthenia, and then moving throughout the rest of Thessaly.

Along the way, the army took what they needed from the Thessalian population, and Bancroft’s spies were now certain that the food and supply issues plaguing the Tyroleans had long since been put to rest.

Most perplexing of the entire affair was the seeming culpability of the Thessalian governor, Franklin Morris, a sniveling and opportunistic creature that Bancroft was long familiar with. He even remembered Charles griping about Morris during his reign, and time hadn’t tempered the Thessalian governor.

“Now, about Tyrol,” began Bancroft, still tapping his pencil. “It’s important to me that we neutralize Tyrol before we’re faced with a potential two-front war against Easterbrook. I know the army has been rebuilding in the past six months, and with our other commitments in Occitania and Ruthenia, direct action against the rebels has not been possible. However, we are under a constraint in that we don’t know when Easterbrook could show up. I like to think we would have first warning that something might happen from Quiller’s Cove, but you know how unreliable Commodore Lucas can be. We need to wipe up the Tyroleans so we can focus full attention on the Fourthies.”

“That still might take some time before the army is ready to go again,” warned Clark. “General Ryan has been quite clear that he’s not ready to go on the offensive just yet.”

Bancroft scowled. “He better be ready when I give the command! He should consider himself fortunate that he’s still in command after losing most of the last army. If I had someone that I could rely on to replace him with, he’d already be gone but you and I both know that we can’t give that job to General Zander.”

Clark gave an approving nod to the last statement. In fact, calling Brian Zander a general, the man who’d helped Bancroft to power by seizing the Belfort garrison, was just about as heavy as a stretch as there was.

He should have never been promoted above a colonel at best.

“I will reiterate to General Ryan that he is to assume the offensive as soon as humanly possible,” replied Clark, making the note.

“You do that,” said Bancroft. “Remind Ryan that these Tyroleans need just one good blow and they’ll fall apart. We almost had them on the ropes once and they slipped out of our noose. That cannot be permitted to happen again. Not if we want to take the war to Easterbrook.”

Truthfully, if Bancroft had his way, his army would already be over in the Fourth Vector. Not long after his declaration of war on Easterbrook, Bancroft envisioned sending over a great fleet and army to conquer the nations of the Fourth Vector, however, reality had its way of messing up his plans. Just about as soon as the declaration was issued, most of the Javan army force in Java was destroyed by the Tyroleans. Though there were still sizeable forces occupying Ruthenia and Occitania, they were needed there where ongoing resistance was flaring up more and more.

In short, these delays were the real reason why Bancroft had to worry about Easterbrook taking the offensive against him, and he couldn’t begin to think about leaving for the Fourth Vector until the major threat of Tyrol was cleared up.