Snippet #1456946

Faile Abara – Turn 4

Narrative Post:
(Will finish this afternoon, when I get home from school)

The sun broke above the walls of Menetherin Keep, the early morning chill of the plains still fresh and crisp in the air. Tallanver and the newly promoted Manfred stood in the middle of a large courtyard that had been cleared of debris and was serving as the practice yards of the Claw until a more permanent training field could be established.

Based on the position of the sun, it could not have been much after 6:30 in the morning but a large crowd of people were forming in the courtyard. Tallanver guessed that their number was around 50, most of the collected townsmen and villages young men or boys. Though Tallanver, and certainly Manfred had noticed the occasional woman or girl in the crowd. This collected crowd had answered the call for training and possible recruitment into the Claw or another force if Faile wished, though Tallanver knew not all of them would continue with the training. Truth be told, these men and women were not being paid until they were formally recruited, but Faile was providing them with food and shelter in the keep. If they wanted to make some money though, well the construction crews always needed men. Perhaps Tallanver would put them to it, carding lumber or something, build strength and character.
The last few stragglers were coming in through the keep gates now.

Tallanver had wanted them there by first light but they had not started yet so nothing was missed. Some of the men had brought weapons, a spear and even the occasional sword that had been dug out of god knows what box in an addict or basement. They wouldn’t need them right now, or for awhile yet anyways. “Alright Manfred, let’s get this going.” Manfred smiled, and gave a jovial laugh, the man was still very proud of his recent accomplishments which was to be expected, so long as he did his job he could be as proud as he wanted.

Manfred gave a bellowing yell “ATTENTION.” The crowd stopped talking and turned to look at the two men in front of them. Tallanver stepped forward. “So you want to be soldiers eh? It’s a hard life and a trying one, but I cannot say I don’t enjoy it. Your training will be hard, and I can’t guarantee all of you will make the cut. I will give you one chance to leave now, after this you are signed to the roster, committed to your training. You can leave with only Manfred or my permission. At that point we will strike you from the roster. We do not want people who will only go about this half assed. You must be willing and committed to this, because when you are a soldier it is no longer just your life on the line but the lives of your fellow soldiers. If you do it half assed then your risk yourself and the man next to you. So is there anyone who feels they are not up to this?” Not a soul moved. Tallanver smiled, “Good, you are to give me your names and I will add them to the roll. Form one line and when you are done stand to the side.
One by one the name’s were given and all together 54 men and women were added to the roll, eager to begin their training. Tallanver once again took to the front to address his new training recruits. “Alright, if any of you brought weapons from your homes you are to place them against the wall. You will not need them for awhile yet.” Once the weapons had been put to the side and the men returning to some semblance of ranks, Tallanver continued. “Now, My name is Tallanver, I will be leading you ragtag group and turning you into soldiers. This man next to me is Manfred. He will also be teaching you what it takes to be a good fighting soldier. Now that introductions are done, you are to start your training by running. You are to run 20 laps around this courtyard, for those of you who don’t know, that’s about two miles. Get to it.”

The group of trainees looked confused for a moment; they thought they were learning to fight, not running. “Well what are you waiting for!” Tallanver yelled out as he took the front of the group and began running with them. “Many of you may be wondering why we are running. We run because it builds endurance, it builds strength and power. As soldiers you will be expected to run and then fight a battle at the end of it. Battles are tiring; if you don’t have endurance then you do not survive. That is why we run. NOW Keep those legs moving. This is warm-up for you, we haven’t even begun anything yet.”

The sun had risen a bit and was beginning to steam off the morning frost as the trainees finished their two miles, all of them sweating and panting for breath, all getting water from a large cask provided. Both Manfred and Tallanver had been watching the group carefully and already there seemed to be several front runners. “Catch your breath gentlemen; the day has only just begun.”

Tallanver and Manfred disappeared around the corner and came back with several handfuls of long sticks of wood. They were rough and some were misshapen but they would serve their purpose. “Now that you have caught your breath, we are going to spend the next few hours working on turning you rabble into looking like a fighting force. We are going to teach you how to stand, how to form, how to properly march and if you are especially good then we will go into spear formations. The spear is a more basic weapon on the battlefield but the weapon in the hands of a trained spear unit will save your life one day.” The instructions continued for a few minutes before Manfred and Tallanver hurried them into how they should stand at attention, and pulling the poor saps aside that didn’t get it on the first try and showing them again. Thus began the first day of training.

That Evening

Young Rand Al’Thor stood sweating and heaving in his boots as he stood in attention with the squad that Sergeant Manfred had placed them in. The two drill sergeants, one being the famed Tallanver and the now famous Manfred, had placed all the trainees in five equal squads each squad had a squad commander and sub commander appointed by the two teachers. Rand had been appointed as sub commander despite being the second youngest in the squad, the youngest being a girl who was a year younger than him, she had come in with her brother from one of the far farms outside of Aemons Field. Rand, and for that matter all the trainees had been shocked to learn that they had split the squads up in this manner and then expected them to sleep, eat, and work together until their training was finished. There had been some awkward grumbling from some of the men about sharing quarters with a women but that was silenced by Tallanver.

And that was the end of that argument. The squads were dismissed to their quarters in the keep and all 54 of them trudged off to their rooms. There was little talking, Tallanver had not lied when he said the training was to be difficult and most of the men and women were simply too tired to talk. Upon reaching the rooms, Rand was pleasantly surprised to find that the room was actually fairly large and fresh beds, linens, and even a dresser had been brought in for each person. The beds were stacked in bunks so that they could fit all the furniture and equipment necessary into the room. Rand placed his belongings on a bottom bunk and smiled as the younger girl, Ewgene he thought her name was, took the top bunk. Rand poked around the room and was happy to find a spacious bathroom in the connecting room that even had several tubs for bath water. A luxury that he realized he had not been able to have in years, not since before the keep had been ransacked at least and the village destroyed. Still his face went hot when he remembered the three women who were in his squad.

Dinner was to be served in an hour in the main dining hall, the trainees were to eat with everyone else in the keep and that produced a lot of talk throughout the day, even more now. Rand could hear several people wondering what it would be like and to be able to see The Falcon even. Rand was so tired and sweaty though and their commanders had told them to wash up and Rand thought that a good bath was a very good idea. Unfortunately so did everyone else, but everyone was so worn out and a few nursing bruises that nobody seemed to care and what would have once been a terribly embarrassing experience, went without much comment.

The day’s training was over but that didn’t stop the commander’s control from reaching into the trainee’s lives. The squads were to report as a unit to the dining hall and any one person who arrived by themselves would get no meal. So Rand was forced to wait until the last person in his unit was finished, which thankfully was not long as no one wanted to wait for the long awaited meal. The meal was simple to say the least and despite knowing that the Falcon ate with the soldiers, all of the trainee’s stared as she came in and took her meal, sitting right down with a group of soldiers and not at a head table. After the meal all the squads reported straight to their ‘barracks’ to sleep. Manfred had said that they would be starting bright and early in the morning once again with yet another two miles run. As rand climbed into his bed he thought about sneaking out and visiting Ishandara, a young horse owned by Faile that he had been allowed to ride a few times, however these thoughts were dispelled as sleep overtook him.

In a small Village in the Kadrin Empire, the last Village before over one hundred miles of nothing but plains.

Eyaso was feeling much better and the coin given to them by the witch was now gone, spent on supplies needed for three girls and three horses to cross the plains. The only problem was securing horses. By securing, the girls of course meant stealing. The problem was, only Yatal had any experience with horses, and that was a very very limited experience and the horse had been an old pack animal for her parents.

Regardless of these troubles, the girls knew that they would need four horses if they wanted to cross the plains easily. They knew from maps and Yatal from experience during her trip in slavers hands the dangers of the plains. As for the rest of their knowledge, that was from the only good thing that being royal slaves had gotten them. Royal Slaves were expected to be literate, as a result all three of the girls could read and write and even do mathematics. It had been very easy to work out what they would need and how much it would cost.

Xiela had gone on ahead of the group and was crouching in some bushes outside of the lord of these lands stables. It had been decided that she should lead this attack as Yatal and Eyaso believed that since her skin was much darker then theirs, then it would be easier for her to sneak up and get passed any guards. Lukily for them there had been only a few guards and the girls soon found themselves resting against the stable walls. “Alright,” Yatal began “We don’t want the prettiest horses, we want heavily muscled ones.” The other girls nodded and Xiela looked around the building to make sure the way was clear. Seeing that it was she held up her hand and counted down. When her fingers were all down the girls vaulted over the small wooden fence and entered the stables, careful so not to wake the horses.

The stables were very well kept and each horse had its own well cared for stall complete with a little name plate beside the stall. The horses were obviously well cared for and very quickly the girls picked out four strong looking horses. None of them knew how to pick out breeds but every horse in the stable was ‘loot’ from the old Selican campaign and the only reason that the horses didn’t make a noise is because they recognized Eyaso’s smell. The horses they ended up picking were fairly normal horses, none of them war horses but well cared for and good horses nonetheless. The girls grabbed three saddles and quickly fumbled with the straps and then placed a fourth special saddle that had many small bags on it to the fourth horse before the three girls warily sat themselves in each saddle. The horses neighed softly at being mounted by untrained children but made little complaint. After a few seconds of fumbling around the girls touched the horses flanks and they were off at a gallop, riding hard and fast away from the lord lands and out into the plains where they had hidden their supplies and where the last and maybe the most dangerous leg of the journey was to begin.

Five days Later, roughly 70-80 miles into the plains

The girls continued riding long into the night. They had been taking the days slowly and not pressing the horses, so they decided that it would be best to continue riding a few hours into the night. After all, their food was mostly dried and none of it needed to be cooked. Some times they would take turns sleeping in the saddle, but always at least one of the girls was up for watch.

The current watch was Xiela when the glow of a fire could be seen from behind a hill. The fire was much to big to be a campfire and so Xiela hurriedly awoke the others before the topped the rise overlooking the fire. What they saw was frightening, below them a small caravan of three wagons were burning and the sound of metal ringing off metal was still carrying through the night. Several bodies lay strewn on the ground, some wore tattered dirt covered leather, but beneath that leather were high priced steel mail armor. Worse though, the vast majority of the bodies were young men and women, some in cloth but many more in silks and the bodies of guards in rough leathers. Yatal wanted to press on and go around the site, but Eyaso wanted to get a closer look.

The result of this was a brief argument that was ended when the last remaining fight moved out from the fires of one of the wagons. A young man had been thrown into the sight of the girls by a much larger man in smoke stained armor. The armored man was almost laughing hysterically as the younger man struggled to stand back up. "I've waited for this for years boy. You and your friends did a fair job on my men, but now it's just you and me." The larger man started laughing again as he came over and delivered a strong kick to the young man, causing him to scream out in pain. "I'm going to enjoy hearing your last scream boy." The man said as he raised a large war hammer over his head. Eyaso could not watch anymore and she kicked her horse into a gallop brandishing a stolen short sword. "The man appeared taken unawares and as he turned in surprise the young man's hand shot up and a small thin blade sprouted in the large man's neck. The large man appeared surprised and his gaze turned back to the young man. The larger man's eyes looked like death and he knew he was going to die, but not without taking the young man's life. The hammer raised one last time but Eyaso was upon him, She swung her shortsword and cut deep into the side of the man's head, the sword stuck though and wrenched Eyaso's shoulder, almost pulling her from the horse and forcing her to let go. The large man fell and the young man appeared almost stunned. Eyaso bit her lip enough to draw blood in an effort to keep from screaming as the jarring tore apart the fresh scabs on her arm allowing fresh blood to pour from that bloody wound on her arm.

Eyaso quickly dismounted from her horse and ran over to the fallen man, Xiela and Yatal not far behind. Eyaso reached the man first though and finally got a good look at him. He was a very handsome man with semi long white hair and brown eyes with a hint of gold. On his nose though was a pair of glasses, a device that helped some people see better, she knew from seeing several people with them in the royal palace. Now that Eyaso was kneeling over the boy though, she was unsure what to do or say at all, he was clearly a wealthy son of a noble but even she could tell the people who had attacked this caravan were more then simple bandits.

The young man appeared equally confused as he stared back up at Eyaso, his eyes were unmoving but he appeared to be stunned, and yet calculating something. Finally the boy spoke. "Well, I've decided I'm not dead yet, I don't think an angel would be dust covered and have a scar one eye." A slight grin was on the boy's face though he appeared to be in quite a bit of pain. Eyaso however had a very perplexed look on her face, she was completely taken aback by this comment and had no idea whether to take it as an insult or some kind of joke. Finally she decided on the second option, it made a bit more sense then the first. Eyaso tried to return the smile but she was honestly terrible at any real showings of emotions and she was sure she did not quite get it right. The boy almost laughed, "Sorry, I was trying to be funny. My name's Mattrim, but you can call me Matt." Matt coughed a little before continuing. "Thank you for saving me miss..."

"Eyaso, My name's Eyaso.... Here let me help you." She said extending a hand to the boy which he took carefully. His hand enveloped hers and despite trying to be careful he pulled a little too hard and ended up sprawling Eyaso on top of him. Yatal burst out in uncontrollable laughter at this before helping Mattrim to his feet and allowing him to lean on her. Until he could stand, if gingerly, on both of his feet. The glow of the fires illuminated all of their faces and Mattrim seemed almost surprised, despite being obviously rich it was apparent that he had never seen a dark skinned girl before or a Saborian. "Thank you very much." he said before turning towards Eyaso. It was quite clear that all present were a little uncomfortable, even at a time like this it was evident that all parties were more then a little socially awkward. Mattrim was taller and older then all of them, save perhaps Eyaso might have been a little taller. "Eyaso, I believe I owe you my life." he said, Eyaso once again being taken aback on unsure how to respond. Yatal broke the uncomfortableness by taking charge in her somewhat strange accent. "We will take later. Now is not the time or the place." She said as she swung onto her horse. "Mattrim, we have a spare horse, i'll try to help you on." Eyaso said to Matt. He returned her with a forced smile, it was clear the pain of what had just happened to him was still setting in. "Thank you Eyaso."

The group rode slowly for about an hour before finally coming to a stop. It was not long before Yatal had a fire going and was passing around a small bag of jerky and dried fruits. Matt had been somber since leaving the wagons, his head down as if he was lost in thought. "So Matt" Eyaso said to him, his face perked up somewhat. "Can you explain to us what happened back there? Why were you attacked."

Matt's face turned sad again. "Well, the man who you killed was captain of my father's gaurd. I suppose my father decided he had finally had enough of me. I am an engineering student at the university in the capital and I have been a a bit free in some political ideas. But the Emperor and my father did not agree with me, and I suppose that my father just wanted to be rid of me.... I can't say I'm not surprised."

Eyaso had not expected that reason, and it had definitely perked her interest. The other girls had already gone to sleep and so it was just her and Matt now. "What kind of ideas did you have?"

Matt perked up once again. "Oh I had many ideas, the abolition of slavery was a simple one. But my ideas ran deeper, education for the masses, elected control, a system of economics run by the people and not an emperor. Heck, In my opinion our entire political process is flawed, the idea of an empire ruled by one man is inefficient at best.... I could never voice that though, I don't have the courage to say that. One of my friends did, and the emperor had her arrested and tortured....when she came back I... I didn't even recognize her anymore...." Matt sighed, "Well enough about me, Why are you out and your friends out here."

Eyaso seemed hesitant on telling him, she glanced over at Yatal and Xiela. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want too... I haven't said everything either.."

Eyaso shook her head, "No I'll tell you...." With that simple sentence Eyaso launched into her story. She left very little out and soon found herself telling Matt of her entire life. She left out almost nothing and included even the most gruesome of details. She had not idea why she was telling him all of this and could only keep telling her mind how stupid it was.

Domestic Post

Lustria:
- Spy is to continue information gathering on Kessel and the occasional rumor only to keep the rumors from dying out, to stir the pot so to say and to limit his chance of being tracked. Information is to be gathered on this 'mistress' and Konrad is to be investigated as well. Ties to family, possible cracks in loyalty, something we can drive a wedge in between the two. Perhaps his daughter was one of these 'missing' girls.

Menetherin Plains:
- A silver mine is to be opened in the now cleared cave. Faile is aware of the current fear of mining in the country and offers a wage of 6 silver for all miners. She also has given several benefits to workers including vacation time, paid sick time, fair working hours, and in the event of a mining accident, compensation for injury. It will fall to Theodericus to make sure the mine is very well built and reinforced. Faile wishes to have the safest mine in Lustria.
- The rock that is cleared from the mine is to be saved and stored. Though fairly low quality stone and not fit to reconstruct walls or build buildings, the stone is very useful in the construction of roads.
- Try to find a skilled cartographer and surveyor team. Faile would like to hire this group to survey and build a detailed map of the lands in her domain. This map is to also list the bordering nobles lands. (AKA I would like a map, doesn't have to be anything fancy, hell you can just do something on paint. As long as it has what I want and need, doesn't have to be a work of art lol)

Menetherin City: (This is collected keep and town)
- Theodericus is to be hired for the promised wage of 18 silver. He is to be placed in command of the wall restoration project and given access to whatever materials he needs.
- Warehouse is to continue construction
- Gates are to continue to be reinforced
- Using the newly found silver, try to attract a good silver smith to open shop and begin exporting his finished goods.
- Tax cut is to continue to try and draw more professions to take up shop.
- Current tons of resources are to always be tallied from now on. Currently our stores are 7 tons of lumber and 16 tons of high quality stone. As more resources come in the amount is to be tallied and recorded as it flows in and out of the warehouse. This will be the job of the warehouse manager once one can be found and hired. This person must know some mathematics, enough to keep accurate tallies of the resources in the warehouse. This is also to include spare weapons and armor on hand as well as the number of arrows currently owned.

Aemons Field:
- Reconstruction of the Inn is to continue.
- A large of plot of land is to be tested to see if it is capable for growing crops. Our population is growing and we need to assure that we can feed our people and provide a profit. (4-5 large farms)

Baerlon:
- Talk with the village about the brothel. Faile will agree to construct on these conditions.
1. The women who work there are to be treated fairly and a receive the majority of what they work. Faile will not stand to have them used.
2. The profession will have a very small tax (2%)
3. Every once in a while, Faile will send a representative to make sure that rule 1 is being followed. If it is not then the owners of the brothel will face a possible fine.
- A large plot of land is to be tested to see if it is capable of growing crops. Our population is growing and we need to assure that we can feed our people and provide a profit. (4-5 large farms)

Troop Recruitment:
- Faile has sent out a call for volunteer trainees to undergo military training and eventual induction into an armed forces. While these trainees are 'volunteers' that will receive a room and food with the rest of the soldiers and undergo a rigorous training program led by Tallanver and Manfred. 54 people responded to this call and are in the first week of training. The training is hard and some are expected to drop out, but upon final recruitment, those that are still in training will be very well trained, strong and effective soldiers the lot of them.

Current Troop Movements and Activities:
- Manfred is to be promoted and is given the task of turning our trainees into a well-oiled and powerful fighting force with Tallanver.
- One of the damaged unused courtyards or part of the city is to be cleared and used as a training ground until more permanent fields can be built.
- A few rooms are to be cleared and furnished simply to provide for the trainees.

Trade:
- Begin trading Silver ore, hopefully in the future we can trade less ore and more finished silver goods.
- Begin trading leather clothing and armor from the Tanner
- Begin trading mail coats, helms, and other metallic light armor from the smith. Some Iron is to provided to start this buisness, a small cost for now and a cost that we will be able to profit off of. Finished goods always sell for more then ores.
- Horse trade is to continue as always, Understandably it is slow now but some profit can be made from every sale. Faile's private herd is not for offer, she is planning on growing it to further lower costs from having to resale the currently purchased horses.