Empires of Ashes

he nods

"So where to now uncle?"

"Now we regroup, reinforce, and secure the city....Look Nephew. I know what is going on in your homeland, and I know it is not my place to interfere. We may be men of different kingdoms, but we are family. If you decide your people need support on a military front, I and my silver legion will not hesitate to answer."

"Thank you Uncle, I'll tell Mother and Father. Chances they will be in a better position to decide if you are needed"

*ket watches the cemeri soldiers leave* "hm, more importantly can they be trusted in the meantime"

"What?"

"Do we have the full alligence of these men?"

"They serve Cymrai, and the king. Their allegiance is not what you should be questioning. It's why did my men take the most casualties when his didn't lose a single man"

"I lost 200 of my men, 30 dead, the rest wounded, possibly soon to be. In war, some men bear the brunt of the fight, to go to the next life in combat is an honour."

"You should be proud of your men, and his should feel shame for their cowardice"

"Mm, still as an offensive leader I'm done since rest of my force happen to be archers"

Trajan: Unfortunate. Seems your cousin's command is sub-par

"It would seem so"

"Hmph. Another lordling granted military command based on birthright rather than skill and actually bloody earning it, and now over three hundred men have paid for it. No offense."

"He's seen far more combat than I have, you've seen him it's rather obvious that he's far more experienced than I am. If any lordling has been given command based on birthright it's me"

"And how much experience did he have when he gained that command?"

"By Cymraic custom it depends on his superiors, but he had to earn it. Only Princes get the chance to skip that custom. Even then we have veteran advisors who make sure we don't do anything too stupid."

"bah. Apologies, old prejudices die hard. I had to spend five years as a rank and file legionary before I started to climb the ranks"

"As cruel as it sounds, I'm happy the majority of casualties were not actually my sworn men. They were mostly the reinforcements I received at the canyon."

"I suppose. How did LI fare?"

"She took a javelin to the shoulder but apart from that she's gained the respect of my men"

he chuckles
"good. She'll be fine, I've seen clavae survive worse"

"Not surprising, can I let my men go looting?"

"Yes. But they are limited. Only the nobles and slavers. The slaves and downtrodden are not to be touched, and neither are their possessions"

"As you wish"

*He turns and shouts something in Cymraic which is quickly followed by cheering and a rather large amount of men running off toward the Noble sector whilst others begin searching for carts and other similar things*

"They're happy"

"good. Hopefully this will ease the campaign. Winning the downtrodden's support here will cause word to spread. Those elsewhere in kelthro will see us as liberators, not conquorers. and they vastly outnumber the nobles"

"And nobles will fight harder to stop you. The peasants and slaves won't rebel, if they could they would have done long ago"

"But it will mean those towns we do take will not be hostile to us. Maintaining control will be far easier. And besides, the downtrodden need a reason to rebel. Hope. And that is how we will appear to them"

"I guess so"

"You disagree?"

"Not at all, but if you plan on keeping the cities don't be surprised if they don't want change. Many will have never experienced anything different and are unlikely to embrace their 'freedom'."

"Which is a matter for the political leaders to decide. Our job is to take the cities, not manage them"

"But you will have to manage them, until Dracia can truly establish itself as the new ruler by settling here and enforcing their laws and culture"

"Untrue. We wait here a week at most. A governor will be dispatched by morning"

"You expect him to survive getting through Cymria? It would be smarter for Dracia to send him across via boat"

"Who said he will go through cymria?"

"Oh?"

"With this city taken we control part of the bank of the Kuphila. As a result we can now safely and more directly ferry re-enforcements and such by boat, including the governor"

"I did say it'd be smarter to ferry him across"

*ket barks orders to his men, ordering them to set up in the palace, guard it, and see to the wounded there* "if I may step in, the slaves will very likely rebel, once my uncles armies are scattered to the wind, there will be nothing left for them to fear"

"Why would they need to fear?"

"Fear is what keeps a slave a slave, remove the fear and you have a free man"

"Exactly"

"So once we kill my uncle, publicly, preferably, and declare the freedom of slaves, you will have the adoration of an entire nation, and the ire of a select few"

"Your point being?"

"My point is we should March on the capital, put my uncle and his generals to the sword"

"Perhaps. But first we capture Stracia"

"We may need more men, significant casualties were taken in securing this city, the cymiri prince has lost most of his infantry"

"Brochael still has his cavalry and I still have about 300 archers and about 50 men left in my personal guard"

"I know, although my own casualties were relatively light, a line of re-enforcement is already being established"

"I still have 3200 immortals, 100 archers and 100 light cavalry, a force to be reckoned with"