Letter 7

This is the third chronological letter we have from Tacitus, written in 335 YBCE, some time during the campaign leading up to Gomorrah. The conquest to face Gomorrah saw Julia lead an entire legion, which harbored an estimated 50,000 men, into the then-wilds of Northern Britannia to face the terrible Leviathan. Much of Tacitus’ letter is logistical—perhaps to sort out his own mind and map out how much they had lost on their journey to face the Leviathan—and much is also emotional and pointed at Julia, now seemingly referred to as Augusta, directly. There is no listed date; perhaps Tacitus’ own hurried writings made marking the date cross his mind, though it is known that the conquest against Gomorrah lasted from the modern-day Month of Lightreign to the Month of Fatherhood.

- E. Celestina

Praetor Scipio Africanus reported fifteen percent of the legion harbor injuries from Dragonkin and Corrupkin(1), and around five percent have been casualties that we were forced to make shallow graves for, taking their helmet as proof of their existence. The Praetors reported two of the ten cohorts are reporting not enough food for their men to go around, and while Augusta had authorized taking from the wilderness and accepting donations from surrounding villages and towns, I am afraid it is still not quite enough to keep the legion completely satisfied. Roughly one out of every eight men are currently suffering from an array of illness—our Lifebloods(2) have determined the source to be a lack of fruitful nutrition, as well as not drinking from clean water sources. These concerns I had postulated to Augusta, though she insisted we kept pressing on. While these reports are concerning, it is indeed not yet cause for any immediate emergency. What I have most concerns about, all told, is the princeps.

I had gone through the rounds of the cohorts during a two-day rest period, and had learned something disquieting: though the legionnaires and their centurions harbor trust for the princeps, their families back home, by their own anecdotes, do not approve of Augusta’s decision to march their family members into a campaign that her own father did not come home from. It appears that, to much of Exetia, this conquest is entirely binary; succeed, and she becomes Exetia’s great avenging heroine. Fail, and she becomes a disgraced, fallen princeps no better than Antenius, or perhaps even lower. I asked the men what they would view her as if they failed. Many answered that loss did not even seem to be a thought in the princeps’ mind, so neither was it a concern in theirs. I was seemingly alone in this thought; yet Cassian had requested to privately speak to me, and also spoke of concern for the mind of the princeps. If Augusta’s only desire is vengeance, then what will remain after that vengeance has been satiated?

One event in our march still troubles me, even though there have been many suns since the incident occurred. To clear my thoughts, and perhaps for scholars back home, I will retrace the steps leading up to this event. After months of marching, we had arrived at the City of Magic, though due to being a city-state, the Archwizards there disallowed entry into their gates; though Augusta assured them it was not our intention. We made several key trades: exchanging Exetian wealth for the hiring of several high-ranking Magicians, for one. Augusta had also purchased barrels of black tar, enchanted or chemically altered in some way to keep burning even at extremely low temperatures. For our purposes, it served to be excellent sources of warmth in an environment that was becoming increasingly cold. We were further informed by the Magicians to not travel directly north. Ben Nevis(3) had recently erupted, taking several surrounding towns and villages, and causing a dust storm that was visible even from the distance of the City of Magic. Archwizard Lienus recommended we travel east, then cut northeastward, entering the borders of the Lake District if we have to to avoid the dust storms. This recommendation was followed by Augusta, who took the legion eastward. With Warlocks(4) assisting our ranks, much of our wounded could return to the front lines.

The event is such: on the 16th day of the Month of Chaos, we came upon a small village sitting near the bank of a great River that came directly from the Lake District. While the village was small, its popularity was not; we had learned that it was a center for venturing guilds and questmen, due to the holy sword Caliburn that had declared its dormant existence would be this village. We ordered the legion to remain outside of the village’s borders so as to not cause any confusion, and I, Augusta, and other senior officers went to visit the village personally.

It was home to a skilled blacksmith family, who apparently would let questmen attempt to pull the sword from the earth if they traded or otherwise bought from the smithy. We honored this custom, of course—many of our officers had the helmets of fallen soldiers polished for their families to admire, which allowed us to view the sword in person. It was concealed in plain sight, atop a hill and beneath a tree, hidden by a spell only the smiths could decode. Out of nothing but casual recreation, we invited the first hundred willing soldiers to have their try at Caliburn. All failed, of course, and it did not budge for me nor any of the senior officers. As the sun set, Augusta was the final person to try, though she ordered all of us to march down the hill and back to camp. For a reason I still cannot parse, she wanted her attempt to be for her eyes only. When we returned to camp, Augusta arrived a half hour after us, supper already cooked by the time she sat next to me by our pyre. Many men were certain she did not lift it, as clearly if she had, she would be carrying Caliburn with her; but many more of us were less so. After all, Exetia believed not in the weapons of the divine to guide us. I was the first to ask what had occurred, and she took me aside and told me that one of the villagers had come up to her then and spoke to her before she could attempt. She mentioned he was strange and had a hood, but when I tried to push on what they spoke about, she didn’t elaborate any further. She then told me to have a good supper, and to keep moving in the morning.

I misstepped that evening. I regret not making it a condition for us to leave, for her to tell us the result of her attempt. Yet, I could see in her eyes, of which up until now had only held the burning flames of vengeance, had been tempered by something ominous and cold.

Footnotes: 

1. Corrupkin: Creatures who have been terribly malformed and corrupted by their Path.

2. Lifebloods: Humans who have followed the Life Path to their utmost, gaining a unique connection to nature and healing powers.

3. Ben Nevis: An extremely tall and active stratovolcano in the Scotlands. Since the time that this letter had been written, it had erupted 6 more times, creating ash and dust storms that always caused droughts for years afterward.

4. Warlocks: Magicians who use their powers for war and active combat. Warlock is the male term, Witch is the female term, though there were very few official Witches at the time of Exetia.