There was an awkwardly large amount of disdain in the room, mostly coming from the body of Rethans standing in the centre of it. They had lots of questions and they wanted answers. Hence why they were all waiting for Elkay to walk in and start talking.
Finally, the candidate for High General entered the room, a solemn look on his face. Behind him were his running mate Rethais and their two head Ksa, Veekay and Emvee. Elkay left them at the entrance and lifted himself up, striding towards the podium in an attempt to hide his uneasiness.
“Good day, everyone. Thank you for coming.”
Elkay’s pleasantries were met with a stony silence. He ignored the hatred in the air and carried on.
“I understand that there is a huge amount of controversy in my existence here today. I understand that you may feel confused or even deceived. When I am done, maybe you will understand things from my point of view. If you don’t believe me, I have written reports, taken a lie-filter psionic test, produced DNA tests and more, to prove that I am genuine.”
There were a couple of tuts and grunts, but Elkay ignored those too.
“I know what you all heard and saw. You saw what happened back on the first of November last year. I was thrown out of a window and diligently taken to hospital. I was declared dead. Except I didn’t die.
“Fortunately… Or perhaps unfortunately, I was trapped in a coma. One so deep it was unlikely I would ever wake up. The many medics who treated me, they did not know at first. General Kaldoran was the last medic to treat me, and it was he who realised I was not dead, as he inspected my body in the Thre-Vretania Morgue. At the High General’s request, I was moved to a secret facility.
“But General Kaldoran was forced to keep my condition a secret. General Photeianos informed everyone that I had died. He arranged everything, doing so at such a speed that no one could figure out the truth. The casket you buried was filled with weights, but was otherwise empty.”
A handful of growls simmered from the crowd. Elkay wanted to ignore them, they were slightly threatening.
“General Photeianos kept my comatose body inside a specially designed chamber in his house. What he wanted to do with my body, I don’t know. What I do know was that…”
Elkay hesitated. He didn’t really want to say that next sentence. But he had to.
“… My body was… manipulated. While I was comatose. I did not find this out until later. After my confrontation with Photeianos.
“You see, I woke up. My Ksa risked themselves to use Comatic Sleep Talking in order to make sure I was alive. They helped me wake up. And immediately, I attempted to confront Photeianos, who had left me trapped inside his home. I caught him off guard, as he was about to attack one of his own Ksa.
“As one can imagine, I was too weak to properly fight. Days without real food, days without real movement. Photeianos beat me, then told me to leave. Rather than be happy that someone he cared about, someone Photeianos once called his “favourite Vice General”, was now awake, Photeianos attacked me and exiled me. I had no choice but to leave or face being killed. For real.”
The threatening undertone of the room had faded, and in its place was a bleak feeling of confusion. Elkay felt his heartbeat begin to race. What if they didn’t believe him? It didn’t matter. They had to listen, even if they had lost faith in him.
“So I left. I fled to Portalia, where I worked in the Dessaron Battle Arena. I am thankful I had connections there. I felt horrible. I wanted to give up, on everything I had ever strived for. It took many a day trying to convince myself that I was still worth something. Eventually, I came round. I believed in myself again.
“But above all else, I felt betrayed. I felt that you had all been betrayed. Photeianos had attempted to kill his own Ksa, and he had attempted to kill me. Just how many other Rethans had he tried to kill?
“I understand that this seems… cheap, revealing all of this now after becoming a candidate for the position of High General. Part of me feels dirty doing so. But I am telling you all this because you want… need to know. I could press charges if I wanted to. I have the evidence. I won’t. I want to defeat Photeianos in the best way I know how to: democratically, through the power of Rethan society.”
Now the bleakness was fading. Maybe they did believe him?
“I want to thank you all for listening. For giving me the chance to explain myself. It pains me that someone who I trust betrayed me in such an awful way. I hope that, maybe, you will all believe me, and perhaps help me lead us all to justice.”
Some of the Rethans started clapping. It was a weak, confused applause, but it was an applause nonetheless. One that quickly grew into a real applause.
Elkay stepped forward, away from the podium, and bowed. He felt both proud and humbled.
“Thank you, fellow Rethans. Thank you for believing me…”