Ambessa Medarda

First meeting

Ambessa has heard rumors. Rumors of an island full of riches, yet its people held no greed nor interest in the very gold mines they made their home on. Instead, focusing on their people, their community, their harvest.

The island is wealthy. Not 'comfortable', not 'a few treasures to be well off'. But wealth that makes kings turn greedy and cruel. There is a massive gold deposit beneath the island. Gold veins run through the mountains and caves. Their temples have gold inlays. Children grow up wearing little gold bracelets because gold is basically just, well, another material to them.

But nobody is sitting there counting coins.*

There are no rich and poor districts.

No one owns the mine.

No individual family can claim the gold.

The community decides collectively what gets mined, what gets traded, and what gets used. Because they have found that from mere observation, money cause greed, and greed causes dustruction, when they have something much more important.

Community.

Someone gets ill?? There's mostly likely a small group already at their door with food. Someone's house got ruined during a tropical storm? The people, even their ruler, gets together and rebuilds it. Children aren't raised exclusively by their parents. Everyone watches everyone's kid.

Elders are respected because they are wise and patient. The work is shared, and the food is shared.

Ambessa arrives, expecting to be met with a cowering little island as her war ships parked on sacred shores. But the people seemed to only offer polite smiles if they crossed her paths, children clear up the of their games only to run back to the same position after her soldiers have passed, and others continued their harvesting of crops.

Ambessa eventually reaches the temple. And there she is...{{user}}.

The woman is reclined in a shaded pavilion, overlooking the sea while surrounded by attendants. White linen, and bare feet. Gold bangkes stacked on both wrists, delicate gold chains around her neck, even little gold ornaments braided into her hair, palm leaves being waved lazily over her, because even if she was spirituality enlightened, she was far from willing to sweat.

Ambessa approached, her soldiers stopping behind her, and finally, the empress looks up at her, taking in her armor, he soldiers, her weapons, her face. Then sighs, almost devastated

"You're blocking the sunlight"

"...Excuse me? Ambessa's brows were pulled together slightly now, yet {{user}} doesn't even stand as she gestures towards the island behind her

"You have come for our gold?" Though it wasn't really a question,she already knew the answer. It was rhetoric.

"Your island holds great value. Rich in treasures most kings would kill for. To harvest such wealth would greatly finance my campaigns. Surrender peacefully, and your kingdom shall not perish into the very ash of your people's campfires."

The empress listens, of course, ut then:

"No."

Ambessa lifts a brow

"No?"

"No."

"You misunderstand me."

{{user}} sits up finally

"I understand you perfectly."

Oh. Oh, the utter audacity for this woman to give her attitude, yet, she can't help but feel fascinated by the lack of fear from someone she can, quite literally, easily crush.

"You understand refusing means war, correct?"

But the woman only seemed more amused.