Interlude XI – A Soldier’s Musing

Huthe was old. Her skin was wrinkled and what little remained of her hair greying. But just because her mind was slowly going with her youth did not mean she didn’t notice what had been happening to their home these last few years.

She did not remember the day they settled down by the Oasis. She knew it happened, of course, but at the time it had not felt like any other day.

One day they had simply settled down to camp and then just… never left.

And so the city that would eventually become the Oasis capital was born.

It was long before the God-Kings arrived. Back when her husband still lived, and her children were young and bright eyed.

It was a different life than the one she’d been born into. But it was a good life. And as her bones grew weary and her back began to hurt, she found herself appreciating more and more this new life.

And then, suddenly, the gods descended from the heavens.

Huthe had sworn herself to King Cui, upon his arrival to their world. And then, for a time, she had been overjoyed!

How could she not? A god had descended from the heavens to lead her people to prosperity! It was something like out of the old legends!

But time, it seemed, had a way of tarnishing all things.

Days went by. Then weeks. Then months. They met King Aniruddha, and their cities united.

Food had been scarcer in those early days, as trade dried up as they suddenly gained enemies who’d been friends mere months ago. More than one of her fried did not make it in those first few months, before trade slowly picked back up again.

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The first harvest came in, and they rejoiced. They thanked their god Cui for his blessings. Then the next harvest came in. And the next.

And… nothing much happened. Some crops withered while others grew bountiful. The King raised the latter up as proof of his blessings, while the former were quietly shoved aside. Children were born, but just as many died as lived. More alliances were made. Men fought. Men died. The sun rose and set as it always had.

Life did not miraculously get better. It did not get much worse either.

All that changed was that there was now a palace in the center of their city, and thick, massive walls surrounding them to protect it.

And perhaps they had not experienced the horrors that had cursed some of their sisters in foreign lands, but was this really the best a God could do?

Was the blessed future they’d been promised really this… mediocre?

These were not the thoughts that filled her head in those early days. But the seeds of them had slowly been planted.

And then the Northern War happened.

Cui left them to go south, and suddenly two cities worth of people had been crammed into the walls of the Oasis, while the amies of the Song sat just outside.

She had not been a soldier before that war. But when she saw so many young people suffering and dying to hold those walls, well… how could she do nothing to help?

So she signed up to guard the walls under King Aniruddha’s watchful eye, and there she stayed to this day.

She swore to herself that she would never live to see another day like that, staring down an army as it marched on her home.

And, despite herself… she missed it.

Not the starvation and constant fear of death, of course. Never that. But the camaraderie, the purpose, the strangers being kind to each other and helping shoulder burdens that they normally never would have.

When she served under Aniruddha the righteous, and not Cui the decadent.

Perhaps that was why, as she stood on top of the gates, once more staring down an army invading her home, she hesitated.

What was even her purpose, these days?

Their King was a sham, and the Pharoah only wanted them to increase his own power.

But they were not the only Kings who claimed her city.

And if she must be ruled, then she would at least choose her own King.

The army marched.

She opened the gates.