“At times it is depressing to witness how the lure of benefits suffices to make some people inflict unspeakable suffering upon many, often including their own kin.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.
After they departed from the Selovi Shahdom, Aideen’s trio traveled west towards the Urvan Emirate, another small nation in the northern region. Unlike their previous travel experience so far, however, they were accosted with trouble shortly after they stepped into the Emirate’s territory.
A group of men – easily twenty or so of them – in dirty soldier outfits accosted the three and demanded tribute and taxes “to support the rightful Emir’s campaign” in loud, threatening voices. At first, the three had not reacted badly, uncertain whether they were actual soldiers from the state or not, but when the leader of the group insinuated that they could pay said “support” with their bodies if they lacked money, Eilonwy and Kino responded at the proposition with lethal violence.
Aideen had no reason nor desire to stop the two either, so she just stood with her arms crossed as the one-sided slaughter unfolded before her, only interjecting briefly to remind the girls to keep one alive for questioning.
It wasn’t really a contest. The twenty or so “soldiers” were poorly disciplined and fought haphazardly, so it was downright overkill to have both Kino and Eilonwy handle them. Eilonwy had not taken them lightly either, as she had immediately brought out all eleven of her skeletons out from storage and sicced them at the soldiers.
In the end, the girls did manage to stay their hand after Aideen reminded them to keep a few people alive and spared four of the soldiers, though their leader was already reduced to an unrecognizable pile of meat on the sandy soil. Eilonwy’s Death Knight had struck the man down with full force the first thing in the fight and he never stood a chance.
Out of the four survivors, the three of them quickly gathered what happened that would allow “soldiers” to dare to extort travelers like that.
Urvan Emirate was currently embroiled in a civil war between the new Emir – the previous Emir’s younger son – and his older brother, who had raised a rebel army to claim the position for himself. These “soldiers” were people employed by said older brother, who lacked popular support but apparently had the wealth to employ a large enough army to be a threat.
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Due to the fact that the populace already disliked him, apparently the older brother doubled down and allowed his troops to freely pillage and rape wherever they pleased. As a result that forced the younger brother to adopt a defensive posture since his troops had to defend many outlying towns and villages from the rampaging hordes led by the older brother.
Aideen, Kino, and Eilonwy just happened to cross the border on the side where the older brother held sway.
The soldiers they caught also foolishly admitted to the deeds they had done before in the name of the “rightful Emir”, which included murder and rape of innocent people, so neither Aideen nor Kino said a word when Eilonwy had her skeletal minions crush their heads before they left. They left the corpses cooling on the sand as they walked away.
This time however, the three adopted a more stealthy approach, as they tried to avoid roving bands of raiders working for the older brother on their way to the territory of the younger brother. They did that mostly to avoid unnecessary conflict, as the civil war in the emirate was not really something they felt like interfering with.
As for why they headed towards the territory held by the younger brother, it was because their contact in the emirate was last known to be there. Because of that, they had little choice but to skulk through the war-torn land to head for the capital city of the Emirate.
They passed by several ransacked villages on their way there, some even with bodies that were fresh enough that they had yet to rot. Many of the bodies – especially the young women – showed signs of abuse all over, and the way some died suggested that they had been allowed to run only to be hunted down like animals shortly afterwards.
It was a horrible thing, to say the least.
Perhaps due to the terrible atrocities they saw on their way, when the three happened to run across an ongoing raid in a village situated near the border between the territories controlled by the two brothers, they abandoned all attempts at stealth and rushed to help instead. They threw caution to the wind as they rushed to the village at full force.
There were maybe fifty or so soldiers in the process of ransacking the village which must have housed around a hundred families or so. Many of the villagers already lay dead or dying. They clearly attempted to resist the rampaging soldiers from harming their loved ones, but failed to stop them.
The sudden appearance of the three women did not stop the soldiers from their pillaging, but the eleven skeletal minions Eilonwy deployed definitely garnered the attention of those soldiers. Aideen left the fighting to Kino and Eilonwy, confident in their ability to at least keep themselves safe from harm, while she herself ran to the aid of the villagers who were dying.
She could not help those who already passed on, but those that still had a breath of life within them, she could save thanks to her prodigious healing skills. Kino and Eilonwy tackled the soldiers, who were spread out since they were in the midst of pillaging and having fun with the villagers. They struck those soldiers like a pair of lionesses let loose amidst a herd of sheep.
A few soldiers apparently had the bright idea to take Aideen hostage in hopes of making the girls spare them. Unfortunately for them, just because Aideen was in the midst of healing some villagers that did not mean she was defenseless. All those enterprising soldiers received for their troubles were shattered bones after a blow of her staff.