I woke up to the smell of a fire and soup and the cover of blackened stone ruins.
"Here," Sofya's silhouette said as she pushed a bowl of soup into my hands, "It's a bit warmer than what we had in the castle."
I guzzled it down so fast I almost coughed it back up as the heat nearly scalded my tongue.
"Don't spill your soup," Vladimir stated, illuminated by the fire, "I fear we may not be able to set a fire for the next few days. The Five Lords are on the March now with a massive army. Rat Nobles have been more or less coming in a trickle from each of their respective regions, Mara and I managed to sneak past their Pathfinders on our way, which was no small feat I assure you, and now we must sneak our way back through them in order to reach the Castle."
Vladimir took another sip of his own. "So don't spill your soup."
I nodded before returning to mine. It was filling, made from whatever scraps they'd found, which was as good as I could ask for considering the situation.
As I set the bowl down, I looked around at the ruins.
"So where are we?"
"Kamk." The Mink girl, Mara, snapped, "The ruins of Kamk."
Then she took it all back.
"I-I'm sorry, I-It's just… if only I had done what you wanted me to do sooner. If only…"
"Kamk was a strategic target controlling a passage directly through the mountains. It was going to get targeted regardless."
"It was doomed. All this time, we lived on a fucking knife edge between peoples we always traded with… It was all set in stone…"
"Do we know anything about what we're going to be fighting through?" I interjected, "Sofya, would you be familiar with some of the Nobles that we'll be fighting?"
"I don't know the difference between a knife and a dagger so I can't answer there," Sofya said in the firelight, "But their Courts, their Internal Politics, those I know."
"Hmm…" Vladimir pondered as he stroked his beard in interest, "A quick test then. What is the heraldry of the Boar Slayer in the River?"
"Lord Rakadvad of Voze, developed after the battle at the Uzke tributary."
"The girl knows her history." Vladimir shrugged with approval.
"I was forced to, as any daughter of the court was. I found such things… lacking before Igrin-" She stopped as she remembered, shook her head, and continued, "Voze is on the Northern frontier of the Empire. They… agree with Exodite teaching up there, but they are far more interested in it as a good story than as a parable. Plenty of foraged cuisine as well, with fried mushroom, truffles, veal…" She caught herself salivating at the thought.
"That emblem was what the Pathfinders were aligned to, so at the front is this Lord Rakadvad… I'd assume the trek from all the way up North to be a long one, so this Lord must be very eager to prove himself." Vladimir said.
"In recent years he has been… quite frustrated with the other 4 Lords. Some even talk of him marching on the Central Plains."
"And this is a chance to prove himself. Arrogant Glory-Hound…" Vladimir spat at the thought. "Any of the other Four Lords?"
"Well, there's the Lord of the Central Plains, Lord Szetvan. Very Zealous, very dangerous. I've seen him flog a girl just for flirting with him. Genuinely terrifying."
"Would you know anything about his court?"
"Just as terrified as I was."
"And if he was… dealt with?"
Sofya blinked twice in shock, "You are really thinking of assassinating him?"
"I believe I could. Do not ask me to take on an entire army though, let alone five."
Sofya and I blinked twice.
"So," Vladimir continued, "What would happen? Because from your words I believe his entourage would be stacked with bumbling Yes-men."
"Uh… yes, he has a lot of Yes-men. Definitely."
"What about the West?"
"Ikari liked Lord Lurikar. They're both Doctors I suppose, they believed in the Sciences. Lurikar wrote fondly to him, asking about the medicines of his time, especially after Ikari turned on Igrin. Igrin was also a Westerner but… he always despised it. In his words, they were a Civilized people who never cared for Civilization."
"Extremely naughty, snaughty and cohorty is the phrase I've heard." Vladimir said, which made Sofya almost snort her soup in laughter.
"I'm sorry!" She laughed as she set the bowl of soup aside, "That's true. That's too true…" She said as she couldn't handle the chuckle bubbling out of her.
I smiled, thankful that Sofya and Vladimir were getting along. Then I turned to Mara, currently gazing a thousand kilometers into her soup. I put an acknowledging hand on her shoulder.
"Thanks for saving me, the both of us."
"I could've saved more people. Saved everyone, on all sides, if I'd managed to be better, to know how this could have gone a better way."
My hand massaged her shoulder. "I know how it feels."
"So then," Sofya started as she coughed out her last few chuckles, "So then there's the East, where I'm from. Lord Karacz has never been happy with the other four. He's always wanted to stay in his mountains and build things. But then… I kept hearing things about a… 'Cannon'?"
"It's a Siege weapon." I chimed in, taking my hand from Mara's shoulder.
"And this would destroy our walls?" Vladimir asked.
"It's going to be the future of warfare for the next 500 years, at least. They'd need a powder, Gunpowder, in order to fire it."
"Saltpetre? I've heard its potential from the Silk Road but… no one except the Fireworks Guilds have managed to create a weapon that can damage a castle's walls."
"If we find Ikari's involvement with Karacz in these papers then I definitely think he'd have given some pointers. I don't think he'd be able to design a cannon, but he'd definitely be able to give the basic principles."
"And the Southerners?"
"Lord Jasozy? If there's anyone who's for taking out Vampires, it's him. Igrin despised him so much and the entire South for that matter, yet he always said it had the most promise with the right shepherd. They have Rats, lots of Rats who believe in his vision of establishing the empire, with his line as its Imperial family of course. Both the East and the West want no part in the South's bullshit, the Northerners are loud and laugh at everyone else's problems, and the Plains are… insane. I… I think Igrin would've been the best candidate, out of everyone, who could've united them all, but his time, his chance is over. The Empire isn't working… and everyone knows it. I-I know its important for everyone to be part of something greater… and I don't want an establishment that houses hundreds of thousands to fall… but…"
"Not all houses are for everyone…" I muttered.
We talked long about strategy and tactics until the fire was nothing but hot embers.
With only the clouded moon for light, we each unraveled a night sheet from the back of the already sleeping horse. There were only two.
I would bunk with Mara in the end, or rather, I said I'd prefer it if Sofya bunked with Vladimir.
"But she's a peasant! A Commoner who you've already slept with!"
"And Vladimir is a King."
Sofya blinked twice, coughed twice, and proceeded to agree with me.
And so there Mara and myself were huddled together again in the cold stone ruins of the place where we had first slept together.
"You said you knew how it felt." She started as soon as we realized that it was too cold and cramped to sleep. "Losing your home. So how should I feel?"
"Like you don't have anywhere left. Like someone's dug a grave inside of you and buried your heart inside it. That when you dig your heart out, you'll feel like it'll be nothing but a piece of rotten meat."
It took Mara a moment to process all of that. Then she hugged her way into me.
"Fuck… so you do know."
"I'm a Quasyn. I was taken from my home fairly recently, and I don't think I'll really ever see it again."
"Do you miss it?"
"In so many ways, not least of all thanks to over half a century of technological advancement and convenience. We could communicate across the world near instantly, we saw beyond the horizon of our skies, and hot food was a normal part of life."
"Holy shit that sounds amazing."
"It was… it really was… but conveniences and technology fade into normal life after a while, so everyone stopped caring. And the people… something was off about the era I grew up. It always felt… ill, like it was all some kind of fever dream of what we thought the future would be, before realizing that the fever dream would crack one day."
"Did you have a family? Friends?"
"Barely. My parents were… traveling merchants. They'd go back and forth, up, down and around entire countries to do business."
"You were nomads?"
"No, we had a home, but my parents were never home, no grandparents either. We never worried about money, about food, about shelter, only that I would never have a chance at getting those things for myself. That's what they taught me after all, that we each had to make a living of our own, and we were all competing for the same thing."
Mara burrowed her head into my chest. "That sounds like something the Rats would do."
"... Yeah, I guess it was all one big Rat Race at the end of it all…"
"Did you ever… have someone? Someone who knew what it felt like?"
"Never."
"Well, how about here?"
In the dim moonlight, her hands wrapped around the back of my head, leveraging herself towards me to make her lips meet mine.