Chapter 572: Thomas Choo Choo
One always says that the cruellest thing someone can do is to crush someone’s last straw of hope when he is in his most desperate moment.
It is the same for Thomas Palaiologos.
He wished so hard for a saviour, a saviour appeared, but the saviour he was hoping for ended up smashing his bit of hope on his first sight.
Now he is only left with despair... and hate.
"You want me to meet up with Giovanni Giustinianni?’ Thomas is trying his best to urge his rage and temptation to throw this irritating old man out of the window. "Is that what you want? Let me, a royalty, the righteous successor, surrender to a Lombard barbarian from the west?"
"I am not asking you to surrender, Lord Thomas." The Ecumenical Patriarch retorted with a dimed face. "I am giving you a chance, for you are already incapable of governing over the empire due to your corrupt past, assassination of multiple heads of government in the senate that did not go against your commands, illegal occupation of a holy ground, and most importantly of all, you broke the golden rule set by the former emperor Constantine, that no Ottoman Turk shall ever land his foot in the city of Constantinople, just for this crime alone, it is already sufficient for you to be expelled out of the city."
"What do you think shall become of me? Closed into the cells, like my dear brother?"
"I can promise you that you shall return to your holdings of Galatas, and you shall continue being the sole ruler of the Despotate of Morea there, no one will come and disturb you any further."
"The sole ruler of Morea?" Thomas made a chilling laugh. "You mean sharing a quarter of my lands with Antonius De’Ricci?"
The Ecumenical Patriarch remained silent, for this is beyond his control.
Thomas gazed at outside the window. "Then who is going to become the next emperor?"
"The senate and the people shall elect a reliable member from the Palaiologos to lead the people of Nova Roma."
The Ecumenical Patriarch emphasised on the word reliable, the message in his words is clear, both Thomas and Demetrios are now out of the game, no doubt.
This is like a death sentence to Thomas, he has already expected this outcome just now, but when it really came out of the Ecumenical Patriarch’s mouth, it still felt like a thunder strike directly on his head. Thomas could not help but starting to get engulfed by rage, agony, pain, despair on himself and world, with nothing but only two thoughts revolving in his head.
What has I done wrong?
I must seek revenge.
It takes a man to have great discipline, intelligence, diligence, time and patience to reflect upon oneself to find out what has he truly done wrong, and obviously our dear Thomas is not equipped with that in his head, and so there is only one last thought in his head.
No, I cannot yield and quit the game like a loser, I must seek revenge, I want to see the world burn, I want to see the city in flames, I want to create a catastrophic event no smaller than the fourth crusade, I will make everyone who rejected me suffer.
The psychologic line of defence of Thomas has been destroyed beyond repair, in simpler words, he has lost his sane, together with his honour, moral, and pride.
The royalty born in the purple raised his head up, and stared into the Ecumenical Patriarch with his pair of blood shot eyes. He wants to tear this old fag into pieces, but his last bit of brain is telling him to refrain from doing it, as he still needs the man to do something for him.
"Alright, I agree, I will meet with Sir Giovanni Giustinianni." Thomas replied biting his teeth. "But, you know, for safety reasons, I cannot go into his camp, so he must come to Hagia Irene to discuss my terms and conditions, and I need to guarantee myself a safe passage out of the city, I will need a ship docked at the harbour of Prosphorion, and I will bring all of my wealth along with me."
The Ecumenical Patriarch frowned. "All the conditions you have listed are negotiable, expect for the last one. Remember Thomas, your wealth came from stealing directly from the treasury and every Roman’s pocket, you must return what you have stolen to their original owners."
The disciple of the Ecumenical Patriarch is obviously alarmed by such a comment as he tried repeatedly to signal his master to control his speech.
Thomas can feel that he can almost no longer control his temptation to slay this old man before him, but still he forced an ugly smile on his brownish face and nodded. "Of course, I will... think about it, I will give the city my wealth... As part of my farewell gift, now, your all holiness, may you please, for Christ’s sake, convey my message of peace to Sir Giovanni Giustinianni?"
...
The Ecumenical Patriarch left Hagia Irene.
"Your All Holiness!" His disciple exclaimed when he finally stepped out of the boundaries of Thomas’ archers’ range. "You should not... You should not! Oh Crickey! My gosh!"
"You mean that I should not have spoke those harsh words? Should not have demanded that much from Thomas? Or I should not have agitated Thomas breaking all of his hopes in the first place?"
"Yes! Exactly! Your All holiness! I don’t mean to doubt you on your decision, but we came for peace! Not... Not..."
"Of course, I know that." The Ecumenical Patriarch made a deep sigh. "But didn’t you sense something? That man seating there, Thomas Palaiologos, has totally no intention of giving up his position in the city and back off to his holdings in Morea, in fact you should have noticed that this man has lost all of his sane, and he is obviously up to something when he was making his proposal for peace."
"I... I..." The disciple gulped as his brain started to calm down from the nervousness and started pondering over the words of Thomas again.
"It is way too obvious! Do you recall what he has said a while earlier my child? He wanted to lure Lord Giovanni Giustinianni into Hagia Irene! Into that well prepared death trap! Do you still expect him to have any modesty or trust regarding peace talks?"
After that, the Ecumenical Patriarch walked away with his Staff of Chi Rho, leaving his disciple standing still over there pondering over the conversation between the two men just now.
...
The Ecumenical Patriarch is greeted by a clearly tired and worn-out Giovanni Giustiniani when he went back to the camp.
The figurehead of Orthodoxy asked in curiousness. "What is going on? You look like you have just been beaten up by someone when I was not around."
Giovanni shook his head, made a exhausted chuckle, and sighed pointing to a direction. "The senate is here."
The expression on the Ecumenical Patriarch froze too, for he has already roughly guessed what was going on a while ago, and furthermore he has already caught sight of a renowned senator Issac Phrangopoulos who is in charge of the treasury, standing there a distance away.
The senate.
A thing that should have already been gone with the long run of the time ever since the civil war between John V Palaiologos and John VI Kantakouzenos, brought back by emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos in order to consolidate the power of all classes and occupations of the diminishing state by putting them into one house and discuss policies peacefully, mobilising every single bit of power from the people for the state, only to be turned into a massive battle ground for various nobles and rich merchants that never produce policies, but never ending quarrels within themselves, ending up wasting even more resources of the state.
The crowd of senators, coming from all sizes, immediately stood up and started greeting their religious masters, totally unlike how they questioned and criticised Giovanni relentlessly a while ago. The Ecumenical Patriarch will not interfere with politics and take away a part of their gains, and now without both Thomas and Demetrios Palaiologos, the Ecumenical Patriarch is the de facto head of state, until a new leader has been elected by the senate.
"Glory to Jesus Christ, your all holiness." The senators greeted the old man as a senator called Innocentius Zonaras ushered him to the seat in the middle.
The Ecumenical Patriarch took a quick glance at all the heads beneath him.
Almost an entire fifteen percent of the senate came squeezing in this tent, inclusive of all the significant courtiers in charge of various state matters.
"Where is George Sphrantzes?" The Ecumenical Patriarch noticed something.
The senators looked among themselves and answered. "Lord Sphrantzes came with us a while ago, but left the camp not long ago after we have expressed the senate’s agenda."
The Ecumenical Patriarch realised something, but he chose to kept his mouth shut.
He is starting to pity Giovanni Giustiniani.
