“Most wars lasted years on end because what might have looked like temporary peace to outsiders were by no means anything like peace. Temporary truces between warring parties were more like rest periods, where the parties involved swore off hostilities against one another for reasons either political or practical.

The instant the truce expired though, they would go right back at it with renewed gusto, probably moreso since the period of relative peace would have allowed them to rebuild their armies to a better state than before.

Truce-breakers were rare, as it was the sort of reputation one does not simply shrug off. Few nobles would parley with a known truce-breaker, as it was the worst sort of oath breaking tantamount to throwing one’s credibility down into a ditch and shitting on it. For that reason, truces were generally held as sacred and their conditions followed to the letter, if not entirely in spirit.” - Excerpt from “The Vagaries of Warfare” by Maxim Stavros Odenlos, Military Scholar from the Clangeddin Empire, circa 443 VA.

“So how did things go, Your Grace?” asked Reinhardt when the young Duchess called for a commander’s meeting two days later. Over the past two days both forces had traded messengers back and forth, as they sent missives likely related to the captives and the overall situation.

Many nobles might have taken offense at the relaxed way Reinhardt addressed the young Duchess of Dvergarder, but much like her father, Andrea Utghwes was a warrior first, noble later, and she was used to people being blunt and relaxed around her. The same applied to her knight-captains. The commander from Fort Kuzi raised an eyebrow but said nothing either. The current Duke of Jonkver might be a bit stricter about manners but presently the young Duchess of Dvergarder was the ranking noble.

If she saw fit to take no offense from the perceived rudeness, nobody else would say a word about it either.

“Good news overall. I think we can safely say that the battle at Fort Kuzi is over,” announced the young Duchess to some murmurs from the gathered commanders. The way the face of commander Tovmund brightened as he spoke in low voices to his subordinates spoke much about how relieved he was to hear that. “The Bostvans had agreed to a truce for the next year, in exchange for us allowing them to ransom their captured nobles.”

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More murmurs grew as she said those words, as by now the commanders were well aware of the presence of the Bostvan captives. All five of the captives survived, though two of them were unlikely to walk unaided ever again without the interference of a really good healer. The young Duchess was not kind enough to lend her own personal healer to them, and she had not cared whether the Bostvans considered them worthwhile enough to heal back to shape or not.

Surprisingly enough one of the captives - the woman who nearly died from internal bleeding - was a direct relative of Duke Emil Bostvan himself, as she was one of his nieces. That probably played a role in why the Bostvans agreed to a truce so readily.

Well, that and their lack of provisions, as well as the heavy losses they had taken. Out of the forty-five thousand strong army that had arrived at Fort Kuzi, roughly two-thirds remained, while of the defender’s twenty thousand they barely lost three or four thousand to death or injury. The disproportionate amount of casualties was mostly due to the effect of the defenses, especially the earthen ramparts that were far tougher than they had seemed to be at first glance.

Reinhardt’s mercenaries got off pretty lightly overall, with maybe forty dead and another hundred or so injured. Most of the injuries were light enough that the injured would be fit to fight after a few more days of rest, with only a small portion badly injured.

The rest of the meeting was more a discussion about what they planned to do next. While the battle at Fort Kuzi was over for the time being, reports from Fort Kazka up north painted a less pretty picture, as it told of many bloody clashes where both the Centrals and the defenders kept sending reinforcements to the meat grinder.

A decision was reached before long to send what forces they could up north to help as soon as the Bostvans had left. Even so, part of their forces would have to remain on defense just in case. Commander Tovmund eventually relented and agreed to remain behind to defend the fort with three thousand men, together with the contingent from the Hellraisers as support. The heavily injured casualties - thousands of them - would also be left behind to recuperate, while the rest of the remaining army, over ten thousand strong, would march northwards towards Fort Kazka.

By dawn of the next day, the Bostvan messengers sent over the agreed upon ransom, and went back with the captives in tow. They dismantled their encampment that very noon, and had departed back to where they came from by sunset. Scouts from Fort Kuzi naturally kept track of their movements, while the rest of the army rested in preparation for the hard marching ahead of them.

The next day, after they were certain that the Bostvans had truly retreated, the force of over ten thousand soldiers and mercenaries marched northward. They marched from dawn until dusk, keeping up a speed that the soldiers would have been hard pressed to keep up with if not for the many wagons they brought along. The soldiers took turns to rest in the wagons as they marched, which allowed them to keep up with the punishing pace.

It was roughly a week’s distance between the two forts, and the army marched tirelessly for six days, only for the young Duchess to call for an early break on the afternoon of the seventh day. They were close to the battlefield by then, and she commanded the soldiers to get some extra rest, as they would go into battle the next day.

She wanted them to be fresh for that battle.