Confessor: Chainfire Trilogy Part 3

From in the distance, a rumbling roar rolled up through the gathering gloom, drawing their attention.

Cara stretched her neck out to see. "What's going on?"

Nicci looked out over the sea of men. "They're cheering for a Ja'La game. Jagang uses Ja'La dh Jin as a distraction, both for the people in the Old World and for his army. The rules used in the army games are quite a bit more brutal, though. It satisfies the blood lust of his soldiers."

Nicci remembered Jagang's devotion to Ja'La. He was a man who understood how to control and direct the emotions of his people. He distracted them from the daily misery of their lives by continually blaming every common trouble they faced on those who refused to put their faith in the Order, the latest of those being the heathens to the north. That distraction kept the people from questioning the teachings of the Order, since all their troubles were blamed on those who questioned.

Nicci knew, because she did that very thing herself as Death's Mistress. Any suffering was blamed on those who were selfish. Anyone who questioned was attacked as selfish.

Jagang won widespread passion for war by building hatred for an imagined oppressor that was condemned for causing every problem the people lived with daily. Personal responsibility was abandoned to the disease of assigning fault for all hardships, and every hardship was blamed on the greedy who failed to do their part. In that way, their daily problems were a constant reminder of the enemy who they believed caused those problems.

The demands for Jagang to destroy the heathens that the people of the Old World believed were the cause of all their troubles served Jagang's ends. He also needed to destroy a free and prosperous people because their very existence put the lie to the Order's beliefs and teachings. The truth would ultimately threaten his rule.

The distraction of blaming others for the people's misery came full circle, being the means to turn attention elsewhere, and to let the people themselves demand of him that he go off to fight this battle against evil. Who could complain about the cost and sacrifice of a war they themselves demanded?

Ja'La, too, was a distraction that served his ends. In the cities the somewhat more civilized games were a focal point that funneled the emotions and energy of the populace into rather meaningless events. It helped give his people a common cause to rally around, to cheer for, promoting a mentality that steeped people in the concept of being joined in opposition to others.

In his army, Ja'La served to distract his men from the misery of service in the army. Since the audience of soldiers was made up of aggressive young men, those games were played under a more brutal set of rules. The violence of such games gave frustrated, combative, hostile men an outlet for their pent-up passions. Without Ja'La, Jagang understood that he might not be able to maintain discipline and control over such a vast and unwieldy force. Without Ja'La they might turn their idle hostility inward, among themselves.

Jagang had his own team, which served to demonstrate the indomitable supremacy of the emperor. They were an extension of his power and might, an object of awe. They reflected that awe onto the emperor. His Ja'La team connected the emperor to his men, made him like them, while at the same time stressing his superiority.

Having spent so much time with him, as his Slave Queen, Nicci knew that despite all of those calculated factors, Jagang, like his men, had actually become caught up in the game. For Jagang, combat was the ultimate game. Ja'La dh Jin was a kind of combat he could enjoy when he was not engaged in actual combat. It kept his own aggressive juices flowing. Since assembling his new team of unbeatable men, a team universally feared, he had come to feel that he, personally, was the master of Ja'La dh Jin.

It had become more than a game to Jagang. It had become an extension of his persona.

Nicci turned away from the sight of the Imperial Order forces gathered below. She could no longer endure the sight, or the thought of the bloody games she so hated. The muffled roars washed over her, a building blood lust that would eventually be turned loose on the People's Palace.

Once back inside, Nicci waited until Nathan pushed the heavy door closed against the cold night descending on the outside world.

"I need to go down to see Panis Rahl's tomb."

He looked back over his shoulder as he forced the latch into place. "So you said. Let's go, then."

As they started away, Ann hesitated. "I know how much you hate going down in that tomb," she said to Nathan as she caught his arm, bringing him to a halt. "Verna and Adie will be waiting. Perhaps you could see to that while I take Nicci down to the tomb."

Nathan cast her a suspicious look. He was about to say something when -Ann gave him a look of her own. He seemed to grasp her meaning.

"Yes, that's a good idea, my dear. Cara and I will go speak with Verna and Adie."