Tyranny of Steel

The time had finally come; once more, Hasan had thrown a giant feast to celebrate the arrival of his guests from the East. Those guests, of course, were Berengar and his host. At the same time, Hasan sat at the head of the table with his first wife and his family gathering beside him. Yusuf sat at the other end of the table with his allies nearby.

Berengar and his host were caught between two factions vying for power in the middle of the table. He did not know whether or not Hasan had taken their conversation seriously, but either way, he would be in for a good show tonight. 

Berengar had decided to take a gamble and allow the young Sultan to grow as a ruler. Thus aside from having his guard nearby to protect the lives of Adela and himself, Berengar planned to sit back and watch the show.

He was not nervous in the slightest. However, Adela was having a difficult time sitting still. She was filled with anxiety and feared the potential of the Sultan being poisoned, and she and Berengar taking the blame. 

Seeing his fiancee getting fidgety, Berengar grabbed ahold of her hand and whispered to her with a voice filled with confidence.

"Relax... Everything is going to be fine."

Upon feeling the warmth of Berengar's hand, Adela began to calm down; she closed her eyes and took a deep breath while gripping Berengar's hand tightly. As time passed, the food was eventually brought to the table, where Berengar and Adela waited for the Muslims to say their prayers.

After that was over, Berengar eyed Hasan with hidden intent; while doing so, the cupbearer was beginning to pour Hasan's wine. Though Berengar had not outright said that the chalice would be poisoned, he heavily implied it. Thus, he hoped that the young Sultan would not be foolish enough to take a drink from it.

After catching Berengar's gaze, Hasan nodded in return which signaled to Berengar that everything was going to be okay. Seeing this, Berengar began to relax his grip on Adela's hand slightly. Instead, he began to drink from the fruit juice which was poured for their consumption.

He knew his glass would not be poisoned; after all, he was the scapegoat the conspirators intended to implicate in their crime. Thus he took a heavy swig before placing the chalice down. After doing so, Hasan tapped his goblet with a spoon gaining everyone's attention before giving a speech.

"I would like to make a toast to our guests from Austria. I see great things happening between our two realms shortly. They have journeyed a long way to help us in our time of need, and as such, I would like to personally thank Duke Berengar for the assistance he has provided me during his stay."

When these words were spoken, Yusuf and his allies looked at each other with troubled gazes; they did not know precisely what Hasan was referring to. However, it did not matter; in the end, Hasan would still be poisoned, and Berengar would take the blame, or so they thought. After saying his piece, Hasan lifted his glass in the air and said the final words of his toast.

"To a new golden age!"

Berengar quickly raised his glass and replied before drinking its contents. As for Hasan, he did not take a drink from the glass and instead placed it on the table, still filled to the brim. In doing so, Yusuf and his allies became alarmed; Hasan was supposed to drink the fruit juice laced with arsenic, yet he had not done so. As such, Yusuf began to put on the facade of a concerned brother as he asked Hasan the question on his mind.

"Dearest brother, is your stomach upset? Why do you not drink after your toast?"

To this, Hasan merely sneered as he pushed the glass across the table, sliding it over to Yusuf without spilling a drop. After doing so, he gazed at Yusuf with an intimidating glare. 

"Brother, prove your loyalty to me and drink from this chalice. After all, if you truly supported me, you would be happy to make sure that I am not about to be poisoned, would you not?"

The moment Hasan said this, Yusuf's eyes opened wide in shock, as did his allies. Yusuf began to protest as he tried not to drink from the chalice that he knew was poisoned.

"I would not dare drink from the Sultan's prized chalice. It would be disrespectful."

In response to this, Hasan smiled cruelly and spoke his mind.

"I am afraid I am going to have to insist."

Immediately after saying this, the young Sultan snapped his fingers; in doing so, the house Guard who were present immediately restrained Yusuf and his allies at the table, as well as the cupbearer who poisoned the drink. 

While Yusuf struggled desperately from the grasp of the house guards who held him in place, one of the men loyal to Hasan had a wicked smile on his face as he picked up the poisoned chalice and forced its contents down Yusuf's throat.

Within seconds Yusuf began to foam at the mouth as he broke out into seizures, eventually passing away on the spot. Upon seeing this, the women present started to shriek in horror, including Adela, who was sitting next to Berengar. Berengar, of course, was enjoying the sight as if it were the most entertaining show he had ever watched. 

After Yusuf's body collapsed onto the floor, Hasan gave a new decree to the guards present who were loyal to him.

"My brother tried to poison me! The men who sit next to him conspired against my life so that they could usurp my position! Kill them all!"

With this said, the house guards unleashed their blades as they began to slaughter the religious fanatics who comprised Hasan's royal court. Immediately a spear was thrust through the back of the marshal where it protruded through his chest. Blood spilled onto the table as the spymaster gazed in horror at the sight, however before he could react his jugular, and carotid arteries were cut open by another man loyal to the Sultan.

As this was going on, Berengar's guards surrounded him and Adela forming a wall of steel around their master and his fiancee to protect them from the chaos. They wielded their muskets with bayonets affixed in all directions, prepared to kill anyone who decided to harm them.

As for Hasan, he sat down at the table and began to dig into the food; seeing the banquet host taking the first bite, Berengar followed suit. In the middle of the bloodshed, two rulers partook of the meat on the table as if the gruesome sight did not cause the slightest bit of discomfort. 

Before long, the guards had cleared the dining hall and had begun to spread through every corner of the castle, killing everyone on the list of names that Hasan had written as a potential assassin within his court. Sounds of steel clashing with steel resounded as the royal guard began to fight among themselves. 

Those loyal to Hasan had been alerted of this event beforehand and were adequately armed and prepared for the slaughter. Yusuf and his allies had no way of knowing that Hasan had the guards loyal to them taken off duty for the night and replaced with those loyal to himself. After all, chainmail veils covered all of their faces.

After slaughtering the opposition at the dinner table, the loyal guards proceeded to the rest quarters of the disloyal guards and began to kill them in their sleep. Some had woken up due to the sounds of chaos and prepared themselves, but it was not enough to spare their lives.

While Berengar dined upon the roasted lamb, he commented on the flavor as if the bloodbath transpiring around them was non-existent.

"I will tell you one thing, lamb is the king of all meats, and your chefs know how to prepare it wonderfully!"

Hasan sighed upon hearing this before responding with a dejected expression.

"It is a pity most of my kitchen staff are going to be purged tonight..."

Berengar merely nodded his head upon hearing this and responding in an equally depressing voice.

"It is a pity indeed..."

Adela was in the middle of her seat, freaking out; she had never seen such violence and brutality. It was shocking for her; as she began to panic, Berengar grabbed ahold of her hand and tried to calm her down.

"Relax, sweetheart; everything will be fine!"

Adela unknowingly began to scream at Berengar as she raised from her seat.

"Fine? How can you call this fine!?! How are you so calm in a situation like this?" How can you still eat despite all this bloodshed! I think I am going to be sick..."

After saying this, Adela leaned over and hurled up the contents of her stomach; the sights and smells were too much for her fragile mind to handle. Berengar deeply regretted bringing her along; such a sight was something he never wanted her to witness.

Berengar sat Adela down next to him and began to rub her shoulders as he comforted her. Her gaze was affixed on the floor below, too frightened to look up at the savage display that surrounded her.

"If I had known things would end up like this, I would have never brought you here, Adela; I am truly sorry. However, I am a man who has fought on the front lines of war; this is trivial to compared to what I have witnessed." 

While he was comforting Adela, one of Hasan's wives pulled out a dagger from her dress and charged at the young Sultan. However, before she could reach him with her blade, one of Berengar's guards lowered his musket and fired a golf ball-sized hole through her chest, killing her on the spot.

A few of the other guards immediately lowered their rifled muskets as well, presenting a threat to the Sultan's other wives. Upon seeing this, Hasan was shocked he knew some of his wives were among the opposition, but he never thought they would dare kill him. As such, he wiped the sweat from his brow before addressing Berengar.

"Thanks... If not for your warning, or your men, I would have died tonight."

Berengar shook his head; he was still comforting Adela when he spoke to Hasan and thus was relatively calm about the whole thing.

"Not a problem... So I have to ask what happens now?"

As the screams of the slaughter continued in the background, Hasan began to speak of his plans for the future.

"In the upcoming days, I will purge the opposition from my army when only men loyal to me remain among its ranks; we can discuss the military aid you offered. I owe you my life, and a military alliance between our two kingdoms is the least I can do to repay you."

While listening to Hasan's plans, Berengar poured some of his fortified wine into his chalice; after Hasan and was finished speaking, he lifted the goblet in the air and spoke the words.

"A salaam alaikum."

In response to this, Hasan raised his new chalice as well before responding with the phrase

"Wa-Alaikum-Salaam"

the purges of the Kingdom of Granda would go on for a few more days. Thousands of conspirators from every facet of society and those loyal to them would be slaughtered by Hasan as he solidified his power as the Sultan of Granada. After all, not all of the religious fundamentalists who wanted Hasan removed were stationed in Granada. 

By the end of this event, Sultan Hasan Al-Fadl would reign supreme in the Emirate of Granada, and in doing so, provided Berengar with a valuable ally in Iberia. With Berengar's interference, the era of Secular Rule in Granada had truly begun. 

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