05: Relfak (III)

‘Rius, friend. Tell me how you are. How are you?’
‘Well, King Relfak, I’m well. And may I ask how your highness is faring?’ Rius responded.
‘Good, good.’ Relfak said. ‘Well then, straight to business, shall we?’
‘If your highness wishes it.’
‘Rius, I know you can’t stand recognizing me as one greater than yourself, so please, save the formal you for the Tike.’
‘Yes, your…’ Rius faultered. ‘Relfak.’
Relfak smiled as one of Rius’s advisors leant to his side and whispered something into his ear. ‘There is nothing that you need hide from me here, Rius.’ He stated.
‘Relfak. Why have I been summoned thus?’ he asked in reply.
‘Well, Rius.’ Relfak explained. ‘We’ve been having human problems.’
‘Surely you don’t blame this on me!’
‘Don’t tempt me to, Rius!’ Relfak snapped, a little bit angry with the ambassador’s interruption. ‘You are Babuja’s ambassador of Norlanta, not of humans! Humans may well live in Babuja if they wish, and are no longer your concern. Surely you know this. And if a babuk lives in Norlanta, they are not officially my concern. But this is not the point! Let me explain.’
Relfak paused, gazed expectantly at Rius, gave him one last chance to object again before he spoke. Rius was silent.
‘Fine then.’ Relfak said. ‘Rius, friend, these humans are a real menace. A babuk would not harm another without reason, but these humans… they attack the innocent! But I am not saying all humans do, by no means! Humans are normally quite pleasant. I speak of just a few.’
‘Which few, Relfak?’
‘Ah, Rius, that is what I had you summoned here for. I wish to know more about them. They are thieves, criminals namely. They steal for their own good, and bargain their services off to other no-gooders. Recently, this group has landed in Babuja Norla, and are causing me much grief. You must understand that I do not like crime in my continent, Rius.’
Pondering only for a moment, Rius developed a theory. ‘They sound like a syndicate I know of in Norlanta, Relfak. There, they have such a strong hold on the underground world, that not even the government dares mess with them.’
‘Not even the Izedoids?’ Relfak questioned.
‘They do no harm to imperial matters.’ Rius clarified. ‘Except when they use projectile weapons.’
‘They use projectile weapons? Guns? Bombs, even?’
‘Not bombs, Relfak. And even guns, they only use in emergencies. But when they do… they’re always in big trouble with the Izedoids.’
Some babuks shuffled uncomfortably in their seat, not liking the thought of messing with the imperial Izedoids.
‘Mostly, though, they keep themselves fairly well hidden from Izonia.’ Rius said.
‘Tell me all you know about these people, Rius. I don’t like the likes of such hidden men in my continent.’
‘Well, Relfak, you’re lucky, in that I know more about them than most. The Tike himself told me all he knew of them!’
‘Tell me, too, then!’ Relfak demanded.
‘They call themselves the Ar Dakar.’ Rius quickly replied, trying to prevent anger on Relfak’s part. ‘They are lead by a mysterious leader, Avanar Dakar, who gives his orders through, and only through, the one man he chose as his messenger. That man is the only living person that has ever communicated with Avanar, that isn’t to say Avanar doesn’t communicate with others, but that when he does, they do not know the nature of he whom they are communicating with. Nothing more is known about him. And neither is much known about the messenger, whose name is Bendor.’
Rius took a long breath before continuing. ‘Relfak, your highness, these people are the very epitome of organized crime. They are thieves, in essence, and are trained to such an extent as to make themselves practically invisible. The man Bendor sends his commandments to four high captains, the only four men that truly know anything about Bendor. Each high captain gives orders to the squad captains, who, in turn, are the only ones who know anything about the high captains. To each of the countless squad captains belongs an Ar Dakar squad of approximately five men. And of course, the men in each squad do not know about Bendor, or the high captains, but know of their own captains only. The rest of Norlanta, or the most of it, does not know anything about the squad captains at all. As you can see, their structure is perfect. And the only way to wipe them out is to get at Avanar Dakar, which is impossible without Bendor. Unfortunately, though, the second somebody lays a hand on Bendor, Avanar will obliterate them!’
‘Obliterate?’
‘Yes, it is his word for destroying them, and everything about them, without killing them. But if he must kill, then he does.’
‘What does this mean?’ Relfak asked.
‘It means that he removes them from existence. He makes sure that all record’s of his victim’s existence are destroyed, he ensures their removal from the continent, and that they never speak of anything to do with their past ever again. The trick is: most people think that when he obliterates a person, they are killed, but who can truly know? If somebody is removed from existence, where everybody that knew about them as who they were previously no longer recognizes or remembers them, how would it make a difference to those people whether the victim was killed, or not? But our sources suggest that Avanar spares the victims lives, for some unknown reason.’
Relfak groaned to himself. ‘These people seem deathly evil. And now you propose that some of them have moved to Babuja?’
‘I can only guess, Relfak, after what you have told me. All I know of their presence in Babuja is to do with what you have said to me, just now. And even then, these people your highness complains of may not be of the Ar Dakar. But it is highly likely that they are.’
Relfak sighed. ‘I guess I should thank you, Rius. I will contact the Tike on this matter, as it is worse than I had anticipated. Meanwhile, I wish you to do what is in your power to eliminate them from Babuja, where eliminating them from the source, as you portrayed to me, is near impossible.’
‘But you said they weren’t my—’
‘You live in my continent and you’ll do what I say, ambassador!’ Relfak hissed. He didn’t like it when people failed to follow his orders. They were always in the best interest of his people, and needed to be heeded.
‘You can leave now, Rius. I must organize a meeting with the Tike of Norlanta as soon as possible. These… Ar Dakar need to be taught a lesson. Nobody defies the law on my soil.’