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TRANSCRIPT:
GUDIK: (Sees Thann) And who the hell are you?
THANN: I’m your assassin.
GUDIK: What.
TETHIK: Cousin, shut your mouth for two seconds and listen. I have to tell you the most important thing you have ever heard, I have to tell you now, and you have to listen to it with your full attention.
GUDIK: You don’t get to talk to me like that, Tethik!
TETHIK: I bloody well do, because it’s not just me doing the talking. Have a seat and a drink. If you are still offended at my rudeness in five minutes time you can have me executed, I suppose. And him, too, for that matter.
THANN: Hey!
Tethik chants the spell to activate the ring
IPOLA appears.
IPOLA: Tethik?
TETHIK: Your Majesty. We’re here, at last.
IPOLA: I see.
27 thoughts on “The Message, At Last – Page 1062”
Ganurath
I can totally imagine the priest staying perfectly quiet and letting this discussion occur without commentary.
I can’t imagine it actually happening, mind you. But I can imagine the hypothetical.
Xpacetrue
Indeed, look at his face. The next few words on the next page are probably along the lines of “Your Majesty, I must protest!” or “Rebuke these wicked ones and their blasphemous magic!” I almost want to here him talk like that, though. I just want to see him put in his place.
Reservist
Maybe Therik is eyeing queen Ipola’s feminine assets. ^^
I mean, she’s still very hot and curvy, and as a priest of Thrasu, he probably doesn’t do the naughty very often.
(That is, if ever Thrasu’s clergy is like the Roman Catholic obedience of Christianity about priests’ celibacy, chastity, etc.)
Athaic
Oh, the way the priest’s mouth is gaping, I think it may be a minute or two before he recovers his voice.
If, in the meantime, Ipola and Tethik drop enough clusterbombs of bad news, it may earn them five more minutes.
“Your idiot brother is about to ally himself with a demon-worshipping* Erogenian warlock from the end of time” ought to do the trick, I believe. Well, it will get them either stunned silence or a speedy recovery toward the utterance of explosive expletives.
* I guess Kivalians are seeing Urth deities as demons
Jean
*Except they don’t know about the demon-worshipping ancient Erogenian. They know about the *dragons*…but they don’t know about AncientBlondie McEvilButtHead personally coming back from the mostly dead.
Prairie Son
Actually, I don’t think they know about the dragons yet.
And yes, this priest (Therik?) is very likely to do something stupid. Maybe we’ll see if Thann also knows the Secret Erogenian Technique For Tying Tongues In Knots.
Xpacetrue
I’d be very surprised if it hasn’t already been established as canon that (a) Ipola and company know that the Urrts are trying to bring Suach back to the world and (b) that the Church of Thrasu considers Suach to be the very essence of evil. I seem to recall that being either mentioned or strongly implied. At the least, we *know* that Ipola is aware that at least some Urtts can now use Suach’s magic, which is something that they did not know until recently.
jd.
Gudik has already shown capable to tell Therik off. And since he appears nowhere near even curious about Ipola’s appearance, I think we can fairly safely assume that this method of communication has been used at least some times in the past between the sovereigns.
I think if the priest tries to meddle, Gudik might well suggest he’ll hire Thann for a quick job and that would be the end of it.
TheSkulker
Video conferencing at its finest!
Salisria
But truly a fantasy comic since Tethik didn’t manage to call Ipola while she was in the bathroom.
MidnightDStroyer
I’m certain that, if you look around long enough, you can find a comic that does…Rule 34, baby!
😉
jd.
Ipola is the queen of a country at war. She bathes in armor.
More seriously, she’s savvy enough in diplomacy to have set up a secondary spell on the ring (or whatever she uses on her end) to appear fully clothed at all times. In other circumstances, she might benefit from distracting the caller by pretending (with the same kind of secondary spell, only reversed) to be taking a bath, but I don’t see it worthwhile here. She needs Gudik focused and serious. Which he already looks to be.
MidnightDStroyer
I’m reminded of a certain telephone company that used to say, “Talking long distance is the next best thing to being there.”
Does that ring a Bell?
😀
Reservist
Noice. 🙂
DR
Hitch-Hiker’s quote? “Listen to me Arthur, I’ve got to tell you the most important thing you’ve ever heard, I’ve got to tell you now, and I’ve got to tell you in that pub there.” “Why?” “Because you’re going to need a very stiff drink.”
MidnightDStroyer
“Six pints of bitter & hurry please. The world’s about to end.”
Yeah, if I have to go out under those circumstances, I’ll need some anesthesia too.
jd.
A number of thoughts and remarks:
– I can’t help feeling Gudik looks like an 80’s pop singer, particularly in that last panel. From a-ha or Duran Duran, maybe. I mean that in a good way. (I like a-ha and have been entertaining the notion that I dismissed Duran Duran a little too quickly back in the day.) Or maybe just a young, blond Tom Cruise.
– That last panel also shows that Gudik has at least one of the qualities of a good king: when his trusted advisor tells him to listen, he sits and pays attention, if with a possibly annoyed expression. (Which might in equal likelihood stem from frustration at the stalling battle, anger at Tethik’s impatience, concern about mention of an “assassin”, or realization that Ipola’s appearance means serious business.)
– I love Tethik’s offhand “execute him too, for that matter” comment.
– On this, I fear I have read too much into Tethik’s rudeness in the previous pages. While I still feel that *ordinarily* he’d be too shrewd to act so rashly, either the frustration of having to travel with Thann is taking its toll or he knows that Gudik listens better when shouted at and was just working himself up earlier.
SeanR
I did some re-reading and his opinion on the matter is addressed back when he had his earlier traveling partner. Back on that page, he opines on how he gave up the crown because, as he put it, the priests who supported his claim would be ignoring his sides atrocities, while heaping judgement on the other sides atrocities, and vice versa, and sinking his country into civil war wasn’t worth the crown.
Lora
Smart call to have Ipola there to talk to Gudik, too. She can verify what Tethik says and vice versa. Now I just hope Gudik isn’t in so bad a mood that he won’t listen.
A bad day is about to get worse.
EmmaC
I’m not sure Gudik will be given the choice to ‘believe’ Ipola even if he wants to. It’ll depend how far the priest will go to: accuse Thethik of sorcery, blasphem etc. And how far Gudik is actually interesting to fight the Urtt/betrayal.
Because, if he thinks he is smarter and stronger than those that are acting against him, he will get rid of Tethik and just deny whatever Ipola is saying… I am not very optimistic for this encounter I have to admit but we will see how ‘good’ Gudik.
jd.
As I said above, sis, Gudik shows neither surprise nor shock at Ipola’s appearance, so this means of communication must be at least deemed useful enough not to matter about possible sorcery.
By the way, I can’t remember when Erogenians were accused of sorcery by Kivalians. Even brother Wexim ( https://barbarianprincess.com/comic/cool-medieval-stuff-divinity-and-diplomacy/page-519/ ) accused him about politics, not magick (though Agana did suggest, a few pages earlier, that some Kivalians do take a dim view of magick, she also hinted that it was at most a small majority).
Last, neither Ipola nor Tethik are stupid. They wouldn’t use the ring if it wasn’t at least half likely to help more than harm their cause.
Nothing says this will come out fine. But I don’t think it’s already doomed.
Zaid
Damn, Tethik’s being an idiot here. Sure we’ve been following his internal monologue for months now, not that that justifies anything, but since he’s appeared he’s called his King ‘Gudik’ or ‘Cousin’ and addressed Ipola as ‘her majesty’ as well as pushed Gudik as if he were talking to Maldik. If the churchman has any sort of powers of observation or the wiles of the bishop back home he’d point out that Tethik acts more the part of Ipola’s minion than Gudik’s. Tethik’s undermining his own case before he’s even presented it. He was better with the Bear tribe.
It’s like Zona in Maldik’s court all over again.
Prairie Son
Tethik is acting like Gudik is family. Which he is. He’s also letting it be known in a not very subtle way that he doesn’t approve of the way Gudik is doing things. Which is scary when you remember that the reason Gudik is on the throne is because Tethik didn’t claim it.
I’ve been trying to figure out where Tethik fits in the Plantagenet schema, and have about finalized the conclusion that he’s Geoffrey of York. Just as a cousin instead of an illegitimate son. William of Salisbury is possible too.
Wolf
I thought it was one more generation back. That Gudik and Malik’s daddy was only on the throne because he did not contest it. Does anyone remember where it was said?
Raoullefere
I don’t know why, but I pictured Gudik as having a beard.
hwyla
I’m a bit surprised by Gudik’s height in comparison to Tethik. Especially since the name ‘Longshanks’ has been used in the past for him, I had imagined Tethik to be rather tall for a Kivalian.
You know, I feel a bit sorry for Maldik at the moment. Yes, he’s an idiot, and certainly not nice, but I imagine growing up he must have been constantly compared to Gudik. And now I see that Gudik certainly won the DNA raffle not just in looks, but also apparently is close to a foot taller as well.
I agree with others that Tethik is pushing it. I would have thought him to be much more diplomatic than this. He’s better with Maldik even. Part of me has wanted to snap at him that if he was going to piss and moan about wars and typical soldier actions and attitude, then he darn well should not have refused the throne when he had a chance.
SeanR
Read back to where he’s traveling with his first companion and you’ll find that he didn’t pursue the throne because he didn’t want to sink his own country into a civil war.
He didn’t turn down the throne, he just didn’t contest it when someone else, with a decent claim of his own, spoke up for it.
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