Dom sat behind the desk of the Lord's Office of Tongpai Town. He was sat in a lavish chair, with a red cushion and padded arm rests. Centurion Pullo was beside him, wrapping his arm tightly with a bandage with a worried look on his face.
"Ouch!" Dom exclaimed as Centurion Pullo pulled the bandage tight as he began to tie it, some red blood dripping down the arm.
"Sorry Lord, I need to make it tight to stop the bleeding!" Centurion Pullo replied, his apology not very meaningful as he worked automatically, having done similar dressings hundreds of times in his long career.
Dom cast his eyes around the emptying room. The Lord's Office was extravagantly dressed compared to most of what they had seen so far in Tongpai Town, the wealth of the Town having been spent primarily on those in high positions. The walls were painted in a pale coral red, with golden trimmings around the edges. The desk was built well and must have been imported from elsewhere as the colour of the wood was not native to any of the forests that were near Tongpai Town or Riverside.
To the side of the desk was another door, that lead in to the Lord's Bedroom, which had an extremely large bed that could fit multiple people and was full of empty wine amphoras, plates of food, comfortable bed sheets, blankets and cushions.
"It's disgusting." Tomoe exclaimed from inside the room. She wasn't looking at the empty plates or the empty amphoras, but the three naked men whose throats had been cut. They hadn't been cut by any of Dom's men though, and had been done by the owner of the room. Their bodies were covered in old wounds and bruises, evident that they weren't necessary willing guests.
"They must have had secrets that the Lord of Tongpai didn't want exposing." Hua Rong replied, as he kicked a chair angrily.
Sat on the chair was a bearded man with olive skin, his greying eyes showed his age and he sat upright with no fear.
"Explain again who you are?" Dom asked the man from his seat, staring down at the man, who seemed undeterred by the view in front of him.
"As I said earlier, I am an envoy from the north of the Tongpai Lake, as they call it here." The Envoy replied, "Those men you killed earlier, with the wicker shields, are mine. My Lord will not be happy at the death of his men."
"Why are you here?" Hua Rong asked angrily, wanting to make more progress.
"I am here to create alliances with our southern friends, so that we can better trade and defend ourselves. Mainly against invaders as yourself." The Envoy said with a defiant look.
"These would not have been good allies." Dom replied, "They do not care for their own people, and they won't exist much longer if we didn't intervene."
"Yes, because of this so called hidden enemy from the forests." The Envoy replied with a roll of his eyes.
Dom turned away from the prisoner, the only survivor in the room after they had entered. He looked down at the corpse of the Lord of Tongpai Town, an obese woman of around fifty years old, her body in a pool of blood from the wound to her stomach that Centurion Pullo had given her. Pushed to the side of the room were a few other bodies of Warriors, one being the ever surviving Aelfred whose body was now separated from his head after he had attacked Dom before Tomoe could kill him.
"Where is Bagoas?" Hua Rong asked, following the script he had been given earlier.
Dom still seethed at the trap they had fallen in to, they had been talking with the Lord of Tongpai Town, Da Qiao, from the other side of the door. They had agreed to surrender and would open the doors and let Dom inside, as long as their lives were spared and they would be given a decent living or a chance to leave with some gold.
Dom had agreed, wanting a peaceful and quick end to the battle that had taken place, however upon entering the room they had been pounced upon by the Warriors behind the doors, who clashed with prepared legionaries who charged in at the first sign of danger. Dom had narrowly missed a major injury as Aelfred swung his sword at him as he entered. Thanks to Centurion Pullo's quick thinking and pushing Dom out of the away, Tomoe had stepped in and swung her sword at Aelfred decapitating him as he over exerted with his swing. Unfortunately Dom had still received a slash and his left arm now had a large gash up the side of it.
"I do not know." The Envoy replied, "He was not with us when you besieged the Town Centre. It was just myself and Lady Da Qiao, we were celebrating a successful future collaboration."
"Did you kill those three?" Gua Rong asked, pointing at the three dead naked men in the bedroom beyond.
"No, she did that herself." The Envoy smiled cruelly, "They were not very entertaining anyway."
Hua Rong punched him in the face, a level of anger that Dom hadn't expected from his calm Archer. The Envoy spatted some blood on the floor, before turning back to Dom.
"You attack an innocent town, and then beat up your prisoners." The Envoy stated coldly, "You don't have much control over your dogs do you."
Dom's response was to nod at Centurion Pullo, who ordered two of his men to take the Envoy down below to the courtyard where the rest of those captured during the Town Centre raid were being held.
"What now?" Tomoe asked as she sat on the edge of the desk beside Dom, her armour clinking loudly as it made contact with the wooden surface.
"I'm not sure, we need to claim the building, but I was expecting a notification that I had conquered the Town." Dom replied, "But nothing has come through yet."
"Something doesn't feel right about all of this." Hua Rong agreed.
"We are definitely missing something." Tomoe seconded as she looked around the room at the lavish ornaments that were placed on shelves.
"Hua Rong, go downstairs and speak with some of those that have been captured, find out as much as you can." Dom ordered, "And see if you can locate Bagoas, the Advisor."
"How will I know if it's him?" Hua Rong asked seriously.
"Check his pants." Tomoe replied seriously, which caused Dom and Centurion Pullo who was beside him to both blush at. Tomoe looked confused, before continuing, "He's a Eunuch isn't he?"
As Hua Rong left, a Legionary entered to let them know that Subutai, Xun You, Gan Ning and Tomyris had all arrived at the Town Centre.
"That is great news!" Dom declared, "Please send them here straight away."
"How is Gan Ning going to be?" Tomoe asked seriously as she loved over the body of Lady Da Qiao.
"I hope he understands that we didn't have a choice." Dom replied dejectedly, with Gan Ning having originally come from the same time, place and force as Da Qiao.
.....
Gan Ning was crouched next to the large body of the Lord of Tongpai Town. A sadness in his eyes as he looked over the body of someone he had once known. Subutai was stood by the doorway with the arrow in his hand as he explained the situation to Dom, whilst Tomyris, who was covered in dried blood from the attack on the Military Camp, was re-checking Dom's wounded arm. Xun You had also arrived, but had seemed to have had a very eventless evening so far.
"We need to get the walls defended and calm the local populace." Subutai stated as he finished his update.
"If they are that close, we may need to evacuate people to Riverside." Dom replied.
"They will not be happy to move, and Riverside doesn't have the capacity for thousands of refugees." Tomyris replied. "If we had some of the Tongpai Leadership alive, maybe it would have been easier to persuade them."
"We could base half of them in the Riverside Military Camp temporarily." Xun You replied, "We could also find out who the lead civilians are and have them calm the populace. I have already tasked Centurion Meng Gao to liaise with his contacts here and see what he can do in pulling the civilian leadership together."
"That was a good idea." Subutai agreed. Dom was about to reply, but Gan Ning rolled the Lord of Tongpai Town on to her back, a grunt leaving his mouth as he pushed her large weight.
"It's not her." Gan Ning said emotionlessly. "It's not the Da Qiao I know."
"Maybe it is a different Da Qiao?" Subutai said, walking to Gan Ning and putting a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm glad that it isn't, I can't imagine what she must have gone through to change from the kind person I knew to this monster. She would never hold slaves, especially like this and treat civilians the way these have been treated." Gan Ning replied seriously, "She was my old Lord's sister in law, and she was a lovely woman from what I remember. She was small, petite and one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen. She was kind with a stunning smile. We actually went to war because of her!"
"I am sure we will find her one day." Subutai replied, surprised by Gan Ning's emotional outburst.
"It doesn't matter." Gan Ning said with a smile, "Be it her, or any one of my old friends or acquaintances, sometimes you just miss home."
Dom sat and listened to the conversation, feelings of his own brewing as he thought about his own home that had been lost, and the family that had broken and disappeared from him as well. The realism of the game, now causing him to have real emotions within it.
"You have new friends now." Dom replied as he stood up, pain shooting down his arm. "Sometimes in life, things happen out of our control, but look around at all those that are here now. We are here for you."
Gan Ning looked up and smiled, casting his eyes over Tomoe and Tomyris, the terrifying battle women that they were. Xun You, someone that was from an enemy state in history, whose strategy mind he could now learn from. Subutai, an amazing commander and a friend who he would die for and Dom, a Lord that cared for his people.
"You are right." Gan Ning agreed as he stood up, "Sorry, it's been a long night and I am tired. We have a lot left to do."
"We do!" Dom agreed, "Get everyone rested and rotated in shifts, the walls defended and the civilians calmed. By morning we need the Town Leadership gathered and a plan in place to deal with our new foe."
"I will speak with Hua Rong and see what information he has gathered." Xun You stated, "We should also move the prisoners to an easier to control location, and find some rooms here to sleep in."
As they agreed with the decisions and prepared to move, another Legionary burst in to the room quickly, his face showing some excitement.
"Lord Lazarus, Centurion Octavian has sent me, we have found an access to a Basement floor." The Legionary began, "We have found some things that you will need to see!"
...
Dom stood at the bottom of the Basement staircase, which opened up to a candle lit hall that was below the Courtyard. The Basement had a small warehouse to the right, and a small corridor with locked rooms to the left. He had come with Gan Ning and Subutai, whilst Xun You had headed to Hua Rong, Tomyris had headed back to the Military Camp and Tomoe was arranging the Town Centre to become Riverside's headquarters.
"How did you find it?" Gan Ning asked Centurion Octavian who was stood at the warehouse door.
"We noticed one of the prisoners acting strange, we guessed he was going to try something, but rather than stop him, I decided to see what he did instead and pretend to be ignorant." Centurion Octavian replied with a large smile, "He's tied up now, so you can question him later."
"Why the smile?" Dom asked, seeing that the Centurion wanted to continue.
"It's Bagoas." He replied with a laugh, "As soon as we drew a sword on him, he announced his name and that he would be of great use to us."
"We will see about that." Dom replied seriously.
"Gan Ning, check the locked rooms to the left with the legionaries." Subutai ordered, wanting to give him something to take his mind of the long day. "We'll go and check out the Warehouse."