Hannis Arc believed himself the one who would create a new world order by fundamentally changing the nature of life. In reality, Ludwig had actually been the one who had helped Bishop Arc from the beginning to break the world apart, to start sending it spiraling out of control and into chaos, and Ludwig would be the one who was there to put the pieces back together for people desperate for a savior. But he would put things back together his way.
It had all been going well, according to that plan, until the spirit king brought information to Hannis Arc from the underworld, telling him of the things Ludwig had been doing and what he had been planning all along. The two of them had sent the savages, the half people, to extract vengeance by eliminating Ludwig.
Ludwig Dreier possessed profound powers, but even such powers had their limits. He was still only one man and could be overwhelmed by numbers such as the half people had. Hannis Arc and Sulachan had surprised him. They caught him off guard and they had almost crushed him.
Oddly enough, and fortunately enough, Richard Rahl of all people had shown up to rescue his wife before Ludwig and Erika could begin their work on her. Ludwig imagined that the Mother Confessor could unlock profoundly important prophecy. He had been particularly interested in working with her, but Lord Rahl and his troops had arrived just in time to ruin those plans. They had also been just in time to encounter the rampaging half people sent to assassinate Ludwig. The Lord Rahl had been so kind as to eliminate the savages, saving Ludwig and Erika from the fate Hannis Arc and the spirit Sulachan had intended for them.
Sometimes chaos, once set in motion, worked against its agent.
Ludwig had been the one who had helped Hannis Arc with prophecy in order for him to bring the long-dead Emperor Sulachan back from the world of the dead so he could fundamentally change the nature of the world. Ludwig thought that reviving the dead to again fight a failed war was unwise, but it served his purposes so he had helped the bishop in his single-minded task.
In part with the help of pivotal prophecy that Ludwig had provided, Hannis Arc had been able to bring the long-dead Emperor Sulachan back to the world of life.
Neither trusted the other one bit, but both believed they were getting the better end of the deal by far, so for the time being they were trusting companions—the best of chums. Ludwig imagined that each of them smiled amicably, inwardly believing that in the end he would cut the other’s throat and be the last one standing.
For now, Ludwig didn’t care about their plans—actually it benefited him for the two of them to focus on each other as they initiated the world’s fall into chaos. That chaos was, after all, one of the choices Ludwig needed to offer people—the most undesirable choice, of course. Ludwig was content to leave them to it. It would keep them busy for the time being.
Ludwig had his own work to do. After barely escaping the abbey with his life, he needed to establish a new place from which to work and set in motion his own plans.
With the citadel only just recently vacated by Hannis Arc in his rush to be off after bigger things, it made the perfect place for Ludwig to establish his new base and at last begin multiplying his power.
Hannis Arc hated being confined to the distant and forgotten Fajin Province in the dirty little city of Saavedra. He had no intentions of ever coming back to the place.
Hannis Arc had his eye on the People’s Palace. He viewed himself as worthy of the seat of power for the D’Haran Empire. He wanted revenge against the House of Rahl. His eyes were filled with visions of vanquishing the House of Rahl and taking rule for himself. As part of his vision, he wanted to rule in their place from the grand People’s Palace, the ancestral home of the House of Rahl.
Ludwig had been to the wedding of one of Lord Rahl’s Mord-Sith. The People’s Palace was certainly grand on a scale unparalleled as far as Ludwig knew. He supposed it was impressive, if you went in for that sort of thing. He didn’t. He wanted to live in the minds of his subjects, to rule from the perspective of their every conscious thought—not from a cold marble palace.
He would live in people’s minds, not their palace.
Hannis Arc was instead fixated on basking in the glittering glory of the palace.
What made the citadel so undesirable to Hannis Arc made it the perfect spot for Ludwig Dreier to establish himself. It was a nearly forgotten place. No one would think to look for him there, least of all Hannis Arc. Hannis Arc, after all, thought he had eliminated his abbot. No one would interfere or bother Ludwig as he went about his work.
One day, though, everyone would come to know him and eagerly take the choice he offered them: order rather than chaos. That was what would make him powerful—people choosing to have him rule over them.