Quoted By:
“Hello your Majesty!”
<span class="mu-b">”Who are you, exactly? I entered self quarantine just in case I was in the middle of dying to an Aristocrat bioweapon...”</span> He shook his hand in response, almost dismissively. Nobody has done <span class="mu-i">that</span> to you before, ever.
“I'm not important enough for you to need to know my name, your Majesty. I'm with Hegemonic Control. I am merely a lowly servant of yours. However, I come to you because of certain obligations of yours. Events have transpired that require your immediate attention, which supersede your own current desires or important affairs. I am its caretaker. It is help you rule to your absolute greatest ability.”
<span class="mu-b">”You dare... What object are you trying to give me, exactly?”</span>
“I am not giving you anything, your Grace. It is your own property, I am merely in charge of bringing it out of storage. It is <span class="mu-s">The Death Mask of Akule the Unspeakable</span>.”
Well, that changes things. He opens the storage compartment, revealing the Mask to you. Even now, you feel how important again. All the attention in the room is placed firmly on the artifact.
<span class="mu-b">”You... chose to bring it to me?”</span>
“No your Majesty, there are only three situations in which the Supreme Ruler wears the mask. Of course, it belongs to you, so you may do whatever you wish with it; but Hegemonic Control simply deems these events important enough to present it to you. The first is when the Supreme Ruler commands a race or nation to be exterminated. The second is when there is rebellion or disobedience in the Hegemony; as your rule must remain pure and above all others. The third and final could be in retaliation to nuclear warfare; to give you the strength to overcome those who would insult you by use of such weapons that are forbidden by our own codes.”
<span class="mu-b">”...The Esaal didn't use nuclear weapons.”</span>
“That is true, your Majesty. But the exact definition of this “law” is unclear. After all, it was once used as a justification to force other nations on Jaxt to disarm their nuclear weapons; after which they could be easily be invaded. But once we entered space, it became impractical or impossible to actually enforce our neighboring nations in space to disarm, and now weapons exist that could be worse then them anyway. This is a question for the State Philosphers, but alas, none of them are left. We'd let Cijan decide that kind of thing. And in his view? It is the spirit of the law over the letter of the law. Meaning; the Esaal killed millions of your subjects, deprived you of your planet, your property, by making it uninhabitable; and went away from it laughing and without getting their hands dirty; exactly as if they had used nuclear weapons. It is one in the same.”
