It was almost noon, the sun shone brightly, yet the room was dark. Thick wooden shutters blocked out all light that tried to wurm its way in. The wooden door creaked open, groaning from a combination of disuse and lack of maintenance. A streak of light made clear what was inside of the room, just a bed and a nightstand.
One might think of such a room as spartan yet a closer look would betray that expectation. The bed was made of exotic blue cherry, an expensive wood even across the icy expanse in the region where it grew. The difficulty to find blue cherry wood on the continent of circens made it a material only to be used by the noblest of houses of Bellheim.
The blanket was made of tightly woven wool and dyed a dark purple, on this dark background in a lighter shades of bright red an intricate stitching depicted the myth of Mehanosk, who for a time ruled over the other gods. The craftsmanship that went into the bed clearly betrayed the wealth of its owner.
The owner of these luxuries was a decrepit old man, the occupant of the bed, his wrinkly hand lay outside the blanket. The intruder, a small boy, held a small lit candle in his hands as he moved across the room.
The boy carefully placed the candle on the nightstand and sat down in a kneeling position next to the bed. The candle flame, while small, shone brightly on the boy’s face as he carefully tugged at the hand. The old man opened his eyes with great difficulty, once in his youth he had been one of three great generals, yet in his old age his muscles had atrophied and all that was left was a burnt out husk of his former self.
He had slept in a upright position, his head and upper body sunken away in the purple pillows. There was a certain look of discomfort on his face, his back had never gotten used to the softness of a luxury bed.. For most his adult life he had slept on hard field beds in his tent or on the harder ground. At times he had slept sitting with his head resting against his knee and a weapon cradled in his arms.
The curse of old age had caught up with him and now that he was old and infirm, his family had done what they thought was best for him. They put him in this dark room in a soft comfortable bed and left him alone.
The last time his son, the current Pater Familias, visited was three months ago. Most of his daily contact was with the servants who took care of him. These servants came by less often in the recent days, becoming less and less respectful the clearer it became that his days on Circens were numbered.
His grandson was the only one of his family that visited him daily, the boy loved listening to his stories. The boy was serious and silent for his age and his dark hair, slightly long, neatly fell around his face. Unlike his older sister and half-brother he was not known to play in the woods that bordered the estate and thus his hair was rarely a mess.
The old man blinked his eyes a couple of times to banish the sleep and the boy asked;
“Are you awake grandfather?”
“Ah yes, Chev, I’m awake. I suppose you are here for another story of mine, are you not?”
While his grandfather knew that Chev liked his stories of gods, myths, and fairytales, he was not in the mood today. As he felt the shadow of his own death coming ever closer he wanted to tell his grandson a story about himself, so he said;
“Today I will not talk about Mehanosk, I know i said so last time but I want to tell you another story. No doubt you will like it, maybe even more than what i can tell about Mehanosk. Today’s story will be about our glorious nation, I will tell you about the grand war of 356.”
“Didn’t you fight in that war grandfather?”
Chev looked at his grandfather full expectation, his teachers had told him his family had made great contributions to the nation in that war. More specifically it was his grandfather that was named a national hero for his deeds in that fourteen year long war.
“Yes, I fought in that war, well how to start this off.”
His grandfather sighed and continued;
“Nowadays we enjoy a peace that has lasted for more than 50 years, and our diplomacy reflects such.
Before the grand war however… well, the country spoke a different language I suppose. This language widely understood by many, was one of strife and death, of war and destruction, the language of conquest.
Our army was strong, well stronger than it is nowadays anyway, and was strengthened by the daily skirmishes that were fought on the borders.”
“I was a proud member of the Northern Legion, commonly known as the Legion of Ice. As a blessed I was placed in the breaker squad. Back in the day blessed where rarer and so our squad was a tight-knit group of nobles. All of us came from the lower academy together, enrolling in the army in a fit of youthful optimism.”
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Chev looked at his grandfather with a puzzled look on his face and asked;
“Grandfather what is a Breaker squad?”
Surprised his grandfather looked at him and said exasperated;
“Your teachers haven’t told you about breakers? Well I guess that now in this period of peace they have gotten onto the backline. The name breakers signifies their role in the legion, they are supposed to break the enemy lines.
With their blessings they can easily break through their lines and ravage these. In the chaos that ensues our own infantry can advance and win us the battle. We are not the only ones with blessed, all our neighbours have their own as well.”
“Anyway to get back on topic the first four years after I finished training were relatively peaceful. Sure we of the Legion of Ice had our skirmishes against those savages that live on that desolate sheet of ice we call the icy expanse, but there had not been any war in the 40 years prior to then.”
“It all changed when the previous High-prince fell ill and died. Prince Asherd then ascended to his position of High-Prince and changed the status quo. The princes of bellheim had their eyes set on the then independent duchy of Clenal for quite some time, but until then all of them had been passive.
High-prince Asherd however was a warlord and he wanted to show the continent what he was capable of. In the summer of 356 mere weeks after he became High-prince he did show what he was capable of, he declared war against the Clenassian duke.”
“The assault went well at the start, the Grand Legion quickly strode through the duchy to their capital city, Grand Clenasse. They besieged it yet the duke was not there, he had sought the aid of our rival Ravichstan. The High-minister of Ravichstan was more than happy to send a minister of war and an army in aid and thus joined the war.”
“The Ravichstani army mobilized immediately, but to get over the mountain range between the duchy and the republic took more time than they had anticipated. They almost arrived too late, Grand Clenasse, after a four month siege had almost surrendered to us.
The Ravichstani army did however make it in time and they were with more than us. When Asherd’s scouts saw this large army, Asherd made the sensible decision to break up siege and retreat back to our border. The Ravichstans went into pursuit and followed the grand legion all the way back to the border river Sange”
“At the river Sange it came to a clash between the Grand Legion and the ravichstans. The first days of this clash were bloody, the infantry killing and being killed with their simple guns. There was no clear winner and thus a stalemate was created we entrenched ourselves on our side of the Sange and the Ravichstani did the same at Clenal’s side”
“To break the stalemate both armies send their blessed troops, the prince our breakers, the Ravichstani minister of war his ‘finest’.”
“Ravichstani ‘finest’ truly are their finest troops, taken from their homes and trained from a young age these blessed are the best blessed Ravichstan has to offer. It is said that only a tenth of those who are trained make it into the troop.”
“The breaker squad of the Grand Army was slightly weaker than their ‘finest’. The reason for this was that any blessed could join our breaker squads. Every time their Finest raided our lines could have been the last one but their infantry was never able to follow up on their raids.“
“So the Grand Legion held on for two years on its own and that is when Asherd, eager to break the stalemate, decided to draw the breaker troops from the other legions. In the third year of the war in the autumn I arrived at the frontline.”
“From the sky the frontline fortifications looked a bit like an anthill, stretching out over a large stretch of land, and the soldiers looked up and cheered as our airship descended. When I stood in the first trench and looked upon the river, that separated us from the Ravichstans, it filled me with courage.”
“The Sange was our river and we would drive those filthy southerlings from its shores.”
A glimmer of rage could be seen in the old man’s eyes as he remembered the past. Just a glimmer however as he immediately calmed down and continued his story.
“The stalemate was not broken however as we stumbled upon the same problem our enemies had prevented from overrunning us in the previous year. A mass assault was highly difficult as our own infantrymen could not cross the river while we were raiding the enemy lines. Weeks turned into months and those quickly turned into years, before we noticed 5 years had passed and we were still in a stalemate.”
“Our infantry was reinforced with new men from the other legions every new year. The breakers did not have this pleasure as there were no replacement troops for us, and we were needed to keep Ravichstani’s finest at bay.”
“You see, a troop of blessed will decimate any undefended army in minutes. Sure with incredible luck they might take one blessed down eventually but the only way to reliably stop a blessed is by sending another blessed”
“Seven years in a trench is of course to much for any man so we still got short leaves every other month. In those leaves we went back to the cities and there we were received as heroes. Many of us ended up with a couple of sweethearts under the common folk. I stayed away from such pleasures however as I had met your gran on one such leave.”
The old man sighed as some emotion contorted his face, what emotion it was Chev did not know;
“Ahh your gran, a wonderful lass she was. Daughter of the Löwes, one of the oldest houses in the capital, they understandably did not want her to have anything to do with me. I was considered an upstart, coming from the house of Hohburg. Our house was just a small provincial power back then. Even so i was in love, and that makes one do crazy things. I vowed I would push our house into high nobility.”
“However, I think I have said enough for today and my body grows weary, now if you could straighten this pillow for me, Chev.”
Chev was a bit disappointed but his grandfather often let him hang, feigning tiredness, and it was almost lunchtime so he straightened the pillow and left the room taking the small candle with him.