Chapter CL – Whosoever shall compel thee to go a revolt, go with him in twain.

53rd of Spring 5860
Outskirts of Bolipoli, County of Bolipoli

“The fifty third.”

So Brown suddenly blurted out, riding in front of the army.

“The fifty third?”

So Ayomide tilted her head at the seemingly random exclamation.

“It has been almost two weeks, young lady, and we are now only approaching Bolipoli. General Tubman had informed us that long ago that they’d be starving in two weeks. Do you get what I mean, young lady?”

“Ah.” Told that she’d be starving in two weeks. Two weeks have passed. Ayomide put one and one together to get two. “Oh.”

“The forest was way harder to navigate than we thought it would be.” Navigating into it was a chore, navigating out was another. First, they had been harassed by elven guerillas, and while that hadn’t been the case on their way out, navigating through the hills and forests had proven much more difficult and time-consuming.

Ayomide had a bright idea “Shouldn’t we rush to Karabush then? Less rest, more walking, such and such.”

John Brown blew on the burning candle that was Ayomide’s idea “The last thing we want is the men being tired when they’re facing overwhelming numbers. The rest of the road is devoid of forest. We’ll go through the southern fork of the highway, the one which connects to Casamonu, which Vaiz says is much more well-maintained and goes through flatter ground. Three days. I trust General Tubman to be prudent enough to hold her men together for a few more days.”

The walls of Bolipoli were slowly coming to view, visible up from the hill which the men were coming from. They were old, modest, but clearly they could still hold them back for a day or two. Ayomide pointed at it, asking “What about the siege? Won’t that lose us time?”

“A few more days… God willing.” That’s about all the magical thinking Brown could summon in response to that. All they could do was summon the cannons for some explosive thinking directed towards the walls of the town.

Thus, men of the republic begun setting up camp for the day. They were readying up for yet another siege, yet another few days wasted on frankly the most boring of warfare to participate in. War was, as it turns out, quite the idle affair outside of battle. War is, mostly, comprised of decisively not-battle. Training, marching, camping, sieging, then back to marching more… battle was a very, very miniscule part of warfare.

As was customary, it was time for Vaiz to carry a white flag towards the gates and do his duty as a priest. You don’t kill a priest, you don’t kill a diplomat, it’s an extra dickish move to do both. Hence the emergence of the priest-diplomat in Gemeinplatz. Helped by the fact that they had a common uniform to make themselves easily identifiable.

“My name is Vaiz! I am here to negotiate on the behalf of the Republic!”

Vaiz couldn’t see the soldiers up on the walls from his position, so all he could do was shout wildly was swinging his flag around. He hoped there was at least somebody to hear him. Flap flap flap, shout shout shout… His ears hoarse and his arms tired.

Soon, his hopes and prayers were answered by the gates opening. Painfully slowly, as castle gates tend to do. Out came… “a darkskin!?”

“You are- are you trying to trick us, lightskin?!” It was a woman with skin that was surprisingly dark for someone meeting Vaiz at the gate. “The Republic, you say! You don’t look like a fugitive to me!”

“I- I am not a fugitive, just a man of the Div-”

“So you lie!”

Shinasi gulped. There was now a spear tip sitting uncomfortably close to his throat. So uncomfortably close that his Adam’s apple was tickled by it when he gulped. Not comfortable at all. Not comfortable. He was trembling like a newborn lamb who had chowed down on coffee beans for breakfast.

“P-please listen to me. I- I am Vaiz, a priest and the chaplain of the army you see up on that hill. I… don’t believe we are enemies, from what you have spoken of. Please don’t kill me. I, uhm… don’t have wife or children, but, I’d still like to live until the Divine taketh me.”

The woman continued holding the spear against Vaiz’s neck, until she guffawed and lowered her weapon. “A collaborator, huh? A traitor to your race. I like you.” She gave a casual wave to Vaiz “Yenisey, the leader of the people up in these walls. Take me to your leader, I want to talk to them.”

Vaiz humbly bowed back. “Miss Yenisey it is. Follow me, I will show you to our Commander-in-Chief.”

Yenisey could only laugh back at the formal reception she received. “Commander-in-Chief? So that’s what you call the Demon King? I am surprised to see a man of the cloth serve Him.”

“Demon?! May the Divine forbid, I never would!” Vaiz smacked himself on the chest just for saying “demon”.

“What? So are you serving Him or not? We are here to join His army!” Yenisey was just about to raise her spear again before Vaiz shrieked in a squeaky voice and jumped away. “The army of the so-called “anti-“Hero and His master.”

“I believe you are… mistaken about the nature of Mister Brown.” Vaiz shook his head, giving up on trying to edificate properly on religious matters. All he could do was turn around and let the woman follow him to Brown’s tent. Passing through the lines upon lines of battle-ready soldiers, who were confused as to why Vaiz was coming back with something other than disappointment following him. “Good news, Mister Brown.”

“Good news?” There were many things Brown expected to hear. A report on the state of the enemy soldiers, how Vaiz had been treated, so on and so forth, that could reveal a lot about the upcoming siege. A simple “good news” was not one of the aforementioned.

“Greetings, lord of darkness! My name is Yenisey!” Yenisey waved casually, but reverently, at Brown. “…you are way lighter than I expected for a lord of darkness. I have seen the legions you command outside, and I am impressed!”

Brown shook his head “My name is John Brown, Miss Yenisey. Call me ‘Mister Brown’ if your wish is to be polite. I am nothing but a man. I do not wish to lord over anyone, for I myself am nothing but a servant of the Lord.”

Yenisey nodded in approval. “If it is your wish, then we shall refer to you as Mister Brown. We are fugitives who were freed by your men. For a while we have waited for your return, up in the mountains. We saw the men of the mayor leave, all of them, they left nothing behind. It was just a matter of informing our brethren in the city and flooding in once they rose up and opened the gates for us.”

“Impressive.” Brown got up from his seat on the bare ground, just to shake the woman’s hand with great respect.

“We wish to join your forces! To march and destroy the Imperials!”

“That’s the spirit, Miss Yenisey. Just to clarify – these are not my forces. These are all free men who serve the Republic of their own volition. They are not mine. I only serve as their leader, until my term is up.”

Yenisey shrugged, clearly not caring about all the details the old man just gave “Whatever! We have a feast set up for you and your men, plenty of lodging too since the garrison is absent. Join us, it’s almost night!”

Thus, on the 53rd of Spring 5860, Bolipoli fell under control of the Republic, and the troops rested and made merry.