I got to my feet on my own, to which Ikari just shrugged.
"Sofya!" Ikari called as I got my way to my feet.
The Sofya returned as I helped myself to my feet, judging the fresh bodies we had both slain as obstacles to avoid.
"Go light the Signal Fire, would you? Vedjek can handle cleaning all this up. Oh! And can you grab some wine on your way back here? To celebrate my old countryman turning to right side of history!"
She curtsied with her dress and left us.
I held my head low, but Ikari just elbowed me with a smile.
"Don't mind her. She is… She was betrothed to Igrin Deit."
"She was-"
"Well, my plans went up in smoke when Igrin was exiled, I will say that much. I had to readjust myself to the new Rat Order very quickly in order not to lose this Castle, but surprisingly they wanted me to take over Igrin's possessions. I just had to change loyalties, replace the defenders with those who would join me. I lost many friends that day… But this is what it means to carve out a place in this World."
"Would… would you call this place your home?"
"My Home? Hmm… In a sense I suppose, but it wasn't my Home before I decided that it should be. I needed to be in control of my own Home before I could say it was mine."
My heart and head sank at that thought.
Ikari quickly changed tone.
"You know, they say the only consistent feature among Quasyn is-
"Quasyn?"
"Outworlders, the others like us. The only consistent thing we have in common is what often appears to be our… lack of Home. Maybe that's the wrong phrase, but from all the people I have ever asked, they have never had the ideal Home situation. Would you be interested in mine?"
"I feel like you're going to say it anyway."
Ikari smiled, "Two birds of a feather. Now, I had a grandfather who fought during the war. Exactly what he did, no one ever dared even say, but we all knew. My entire family orbited around him, doting on him even though he shrugged and dismissed all the help they offered. We lived in a nice home all aside, but my grandfather was always… waiting. The entire family was at his disposal, but he never did anything. I remember wanting… to heal him. I didn't pass medical school fast enough to heal him, but I got the chance to heal in the Middle East. I had some… shall we say… interesting experiences there, especially as a fresh graduate. I had to suture by candlelight, triage my own friends, put bullets in the very heads of patients that I had been talking to, all the grimy shit of war was an entire world apart from the safety of Japan. And what did I get when I returned from trying to heal the world? Stares, like I had just come back from another planet. So I went back to the only place I knew, and asked 'Why?'"
Ikari laughed. "Because their land, their home, is shit. Yes, it might be pretty at times, but if you want to eat, you obey not Laws, but Orders of whatever crazy bastard has murdered his way into controlling whatever thin patch of useful farm land there is. And then they look across the Black Sea with their parched throats and see Rain. They see a land where anyone can simply exist and farm, and they want it all. And they will murder to get it."
"But you aren't fighting the Ottoman Dark Elves, you're fighting against us. You're calling it the Rodent Empire but you're attacking everyone including Rodents!"
"Well, if I had a map I'd show you, but I don't. Tell me, how much do you know about strategy and geology?"
"I've played Civilization, if that's what you mean."
Ikari rolled his eyes, "Good enough. Rivers are difficult to fight over. Always have been and always will. In our world, the Danube heads East into the Black Sea, meaning that Serbia was an open gap that the Ottomans could pour into. In this world, however, the Danube heads South into the Aegean. That one change in the river's flow means that Serbia can be fortified, and the Ottomans held back along it."
"So you want to control the river? And what happens to everyone else along it?"
"Everyone else? There'll be no one else. Because in the future there will only be us or them. And whoever controls it will be able to tax whatever trade to their interests, increasing their economy to increase their army to increase their land to increase their economy. There will only be two sides then, and everyone who won't be on our side will be on theirs."
"That's… brutal…"
"Because that's logically what they'll do. Admittedly, Igrin was my partner in crime in all this, and he had-"
The door shut noisily behind Sofya with a wine jug and two goblets in hand. She mocked a curtsy with both her hands filled and navigated towards us through the corpses.
"Ah, Sofya! We were just going to talk about Igrin! Shame you didn't think to bring a cup of your own."
Sofya stalled, hands grasped. She took a breath, laid both the cups and wine on the floor, and turned about face to the door.
"Petulant as ever… You know, I think Satoshi here watched Igrin die."
Sofya stopped again, only to stamp her feet towards me. Before I realized, she had grasped my hand in both of hers.
"HOW DID MY HUSBAND DIE!" She cried, demanding tears pooling in her eyes.