Thaos was in chaos. Garrison members lay dying in the streets. Women and children were crying somewhere in the distance. Some knelt at the sides of their dying brothers, sons, fathers, friends. Gisken troops banged on doors, ordering people to open their doors. Some held soldiers at gunpoint, marching them towards the hills. The same direction Blair and the Captain were leading them.
The gods have left us, Elise thought to herself as she half-carried half-dragged Ulrick out of town, where all the Giskens seemed to be coming from. They’ve abandoned us to monsters.
“Are you alright?” The captain asked. Funny: he actually sounded like he cared. “Let me take him.”
“I’m fine,” she said curtly. “I think you’ve done enough to him.”
“Elise…” Ulrick groaned. He still had his hand pressed against his stomach. His shirt was soaked red in blood.
“Hang in there,” she said.
He groaned in response.
She turned to Finn. “When are you going to take him to a doctor?”
“For the last time: he doesn’t need a doctor,” Blair snapped. “Quit asking!”
“Lieutenant, there’s no need to be so abrasive,” the Captain said. He turned to Elise, again. “He is right, though, miss: healing is the Watchman’s Blessing. General Fleischer won’t want to waste resources on him when he doesn’t need them.”
Elise didn’t understand it. How could she? What sort of pagan nonsense was all that talk about blessings? Did they really expect him to recover from two stab wounds without help?
Then again, that was probably the point: nothing she’d seen that day made her think that they valued human life.
The farther they walked from town, the more the scene around them changed. As they walked farther into the hills beyond Thaos, the death and the pain the Giskens had brought with them slowly faded into the distance, as did the town she’d known her whole life. Slowly, it was replaced with men wearing the same uniforms and carrying the same guns as Blair and the Captain. Most of them hardly even spared Elise and Ulrick a second glance; they were too busy saluting their Gisken captors. Some, she couldn’t help but notice, couldn’t seen to look Blair in the eye. All of the Giskens they passed gave them a wide berth. She didn’t see any other prisoners, and Elise got the feeling that there weren’t any.
Gods, let Milo be okay, Elise prayed silently. Let him be somewhere safe!
She didn’t know why she bothered: it was clear that they didn’t care enough to help them, anymore. Assuming they ever cared.
Eventually, they reached a tent toward the center of the veritable city of tents. It was bigger than the other ones, and judging the amount of people walking around outside the tent and the people standing guard outside of the tent, it was one of the most important spots in camp.
“Here we are,” the Captain said.
Thank the Gods for that: Ulrick was getting heavy; she didn’t think she’d be able to carry him any longer.
The guards saluted Blair and the Captain, and Blair began to talk with the guards.
Finn took Ulrick off of Elise’s shoulders. Ulrick groaned as he did, but otherwise seemed fine.
She didn’t argue: she was too tired to argue. They’d only gone a few miles, and her blouse was already soaked with sweat.
“We’re going to talk to General Fleischer,” Finn said. “Just… be honest with him. He appreciates honesty and respect.”
Elise nodded and kept the fact that she wasn’t sure how she would fake respect for the man who’d ruined her life so thoroughly in the past hour to herself.
The knife she’d put in her apron pocket felt as if it weighed a ton. To think: she was about to be put in front of the man who’d lead the man who killed her father. Maybe, if she could get close enough, she could stop this invasion right then and there.
The thought made her heart thump in her chest like a bird trying to break free. They’d kill her if she did that. Kill her in as painful of a way as they could imagine. But… it was worth it if she could stop them from killing hundreds - thousands - of more people, right?
Then again, as far as she knew, they would just pick a new leader if she did that. Someone who might be even worse than this General Fleischer was.
“He’s ready for us,” Blair said.
Elise went into the tent, Finn dragging Ulrick behind her.
The tent wasn’t as big on the inside as she thought it would be: there was barely room for the cot, the table, and the chair. There was an older man sitting in the chair, pouring over one of the maps that littered the table. His hair was short and neatly groomed, and his uniform was perfect: not a speck of dust or so much as a stray thread in sight. He had an eyepatch over his left eye, and Elise could see the traces of a scar poking out from under it. A sword sat on his hip, while a rifle sat slung over the chair.
Elise froze.
“General Fleischer, sir,” Blair said, saluting.
General Fleischer looked up.
Elise clenched her fists at her sides before anyone could see them shaking. Raul’s eyes seemed to stare right through her.
But, he didn’t seem to notice her as much: he seemed focused on Ulrick.
“Commander Praetor,” he said with a nod. “You… seem a little worse for wear.”
She couldn’t help but shoot a glance at Ulrick. Commander? That was… a much higher rank than she thought he was.
“All thanks to your lieutenant, general,” Ulrick said. He was managing to stand on his own, but based on how much he was swaying, he wouldn’t be able to do that for much longer.
General Fleischer looked to her. “And who is this?”
Elise didn’t say anything: the words wouldn’t leave her mouth.
“… Are you mute?” General Fleischer asked. “What’s your name, girl?”
“E-Elise Brewer, sir.” She bowed her head.
“She tried to shoot me in the tavern, sir,” Blair said. “She and her father were harboring the Watchman.”
General Fleischer turned to the Captain. “Captain Ackers: is this true?”
“I don’t know, sir,” the Captain said. “I arrived after the incident had happened.”
He looked back at Elise. “Miss Brewer: would you like to refute the Lieutenant’s claims?”
“I-I was just trying to help Ulrick because the Lieutenant was…” Elise didn’t finish the thought: she could see Blair glaring at her out of the corner of her eye.
“He was what?” General Fleischer prompted.
“He… umm…”
“Sir, the Lieutenant was continuing to engage the target after he was already subdued,” Captain Ackers said. “Pardon my frankness, but he was torturing him in behavior completely unbefitting of a military officer.”
Blair glared at Captain Ackers, but he didn’t say anything.
“Would you agree with that assessment, Miss Brewer?” General Fleischer asked.
Elise nodded.
“This is the third report this week,” General Fleischer said, rubbing his temples. “Captain Ackers: what would you suggest I do about this?”
Captain Ackers glanced at Blair. Blair looked ready to kill him right then and there. “At the very least, I suggest a temporary relieve of command, sir. To give him time to clear his head.”
“With all due respect, my head is crystal clear,” Blair growled. “Captain Ackers is taking things out of-”
“Lieutenant, I suggest you hold your tongue before you say something you’ll regret,” General Fleischer said in a voice that send a shiver up her spine. He looked to her. “And what would you suggest I do with Miss Brewer?”
Captain Ackers hesitated. “I think a level of mercy would be appropriate, sir. I would expect anyone to do the same thing in her position.”
“Mercy, though that could lead to some of my men getting killed?”
Captain Ackers didn’t respond to that.
General Fleischer sighed, then looked to Blair. “Lieutenant: find Dr. Braun, have him stitch up Commander Praetor. He is to stay in the medical tent under guard until we can find more suitable accommodations for him. We’ll discuss punitive measures for your actions when you get back.” He saluted. “You’re dismissed.”
Blair saluted and lead Ulrick out of the tent.
“What’s going to happen to him?” Elise asked.
“He’ll be interrogated for information regarding the movements of his army,” General Fleischer said. “I think you should be more concerned about what will happen to you.”
Elise clenched her hands at her sides.
“Now, my aide-de-camps suggests mercy, and in a way, I agree with him: I’m certain that you aren’t capable of cold, calculated violence. Are you?”
The knife in her pocket felt like a boulder. “No, sir.”
General Fleischer seemed satisfied with that answer. “That being said, of course, there are certain rules that I, as a military leader, must follow. First and foremost of those rules being to protect the lives of my men over the lives of all others. Whether the threats to the safety of those in my command are civilians or enemy soldiers, it’s my responsibility to eliminate those threats. Do you understand?”
Elise thought back to the bodies she saw laying in the streets. The garrison members who’d been slaughtered. She was able to see her face among the dead in her mind’s eye after he said that. Her entire body began to shake, and her face grew hot as more tears threatened to come to the surface.
“I understand,” she managed to squeak out.
“Because of the circumstances, I’ll be forced to deal with you as I do with enemy soldiers,” General Fleischer continued. “Ordinarily, I would give captured soldiers two options: hard labor for two years, or death. However, my men and I have been lacking a… feminine touch around camp.”
Her cheeks began to burn.
General Fleischer’s cheeks grew red, as well. The first human emotion she’d seen from him. “I apologize: I think that means something very different in Gisken than it does in Caithian.” He sat up a little straighter. “What I meant to say was that we don’t have as many camp followers to perform duties such as cooking, or washing uniforms, and I’ve asked the ones we do have to focus their attention on my men. Rather than hard labor, I would extend you the offer of working on my personal staff. Two years of washing bedsheets and starching shirts, or you can be executed.”
Indentured servitude to the man who’d ruined her life or death? General Fleischer seemed to think that the options were merciful, and so did Captain Ackers. Elise couldn’t decide which option was worse.
But, maybe the knife in her pocket would be able to serve its purpose with one of those options.
“The first option,” Elise said. “I-I pick the first option.”
“Good,” General Fleischer said with a nod. “I’m glad, though I’m sure you don’t believe me.” He nodded at Captain Ackers. “The man next to you is Captain Finn Ackers, my aide-de-camps: you’ll be under his charge. Captain: show Miss Brewer around camp, and make certain Miss Bauer knows she has one more mouth to feed. Once she’s oriented and gone to work, you’ll report back to me.” He saluted. “You’re dismissed.”
Finn saluted back and lead Elise out of the tent.
Elise let out a sigh she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.
“General Fleischer’s a good man,” Finn said. “I promise: he’ll treat you with respect and dignity.”
“Like Blair treated Ulrick with respect and dignity?” Elise asked. “You’re going to do something horrible to him, aren’t you?”
Finn didn’t say anything.
She looked down at her feet. “He doesn’t deserve everything you’ve done to him, you know. I don’t think anyone deserves that.”
Finn stayed quiet for a few seconds. “Let’s find Miss Bauer: I think she can give you a better tour of this camp than I can.”
***
“I don’t know why the general’s wasting time on you: it’s not like you need a doctor.”
Ulrick opened his eyes. The Giskens’ doctor was hard at work, stitching up the front of his shoulder. Even as the doctor worked, Ulrick could feel his own body hard at work, healing itself. And he could feel the blackness crawling farther up his arm as it did. It was how the Blessing given by the Godswater worked: his body healed itself, and his arms, starting from his fingers, blackened. The more it healed, the more his arms seemed to necrotize. Nobody was certain, but Eza seemed to think that once it reached his heart, he would die.
He believed it: the death was almost to his shoulders, thanks to Blair, and he could feel himself fading in and out of consciousness.
“I don’t suppose you plan on telling us where the Godswater is, do you?” Blair asked.
Ulrick didn’t respond.
Blair snorted. “You’re a dumber bastard than I thought you were, then: at this point, I’m starting to think you like getting prodded. You know the general wants me to keep hurting you until your body finally gives up on you. Or until you tell us where the damned Godswater is. You really want to do that.”
More than I want you bastards to find the Godswater, he thought to himself.
“Fine,” Blair said. “Pray the general changes his mind and just tells me to shoot you.”
Ulrick closed his eyes, again. Gods, give me strength!
As always, he didn’t hear anyone answer.
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