Romulus

Romulus arrived in the Gatherstorm along with three generals on the 15th of July. Gala and Nero briefed him on the situation and informed him that they found out where Claudia was being held. Romulus immediately asked if she was hurt, to which Nero said no. He thanked them for their help and told Gala to go to Wailing Wind for the ceremony. It had already been delayed, and Maximus was considering canceling it for a simple oath so that Gala could become regent without the security risks, but Romulus told Gala that he convinced Maximus to go forward with the ceremony; it would delayed no further. Gala protested that it would be wrong to hold the ceremony while Claudia was kidnapped, but he assured Gala that she would be back by the time of the ceremony.

Romulus assured her that they were going to get her back no matter the cost. He told Gala that she needed to leave as soon as possible if they wanted to reach the next town by sunset. Romulus also instructed her not to travel during the night under any circumstances.

Before he was about to leave, Romulus, who was gearing up in the royal stables, pulled Nero aside and asked him if he was doing okay. Nero nodded but said he only wanted Mom back. “Don’t worry, we will get her back,” Romulus comforted. He didn’t look into Nero’s eyes when he said this, though but looked at his clothes. “Dressing fancy, eh,” Romulus commented.

Nero looked down and gave a pitiful laugh. “I don’t really choose what to wear.”

“No, sadly not. Do you think this armor is comfortable? But I will tell you that I have a choice for you. I have to come up with strategies for taking the position. It’s a network of tunnels, so we have little information, but in the meantime, I need you to go around to these locations.” Romulus pulled out a map that he squeezed in between his shirt and armor and handed it to Nero. “And find as many men as possible who have enlisted and bring them here.”

“That sounds like an order,” Nero said.

“Well, it's not. I know you don’t want to do something like this, but if you want to move up in the world then you need to meet people and give a good impression also people are more likely to comply if a royal delivers the order personally.”

Nero sighed and clenched his teeth. He shook his head and said he didn’t want to do it. “God, come on,” Romulus said. Even though Romulus gave him a choice, he wasn’t going to let Nero off that easily. “What are you going to do besides that? We all want to get Mom back, and you want to help, right?”

Nero hesitantly nodded. “Fine, I’ll go,” he said. Romulus gave him a smirk patted him on the shoulder and turned toward the generals who arrived with him.

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Romulus, Maximus, and the three generals were holed up in a dimly lit planning room discussing how to get Claudia out. She was last seen entering a tunnel—which they assumed to be a network—with a bag over her face. There was a map of Riverward in the middle—which wasn’t much use in this case—and they placed troop locations on it.

At first, the room was split on how to proceed. Maximus and Romulus wanted to rush into the tunnels and get Claudia out as fast as possible, while the generals wanted to send a small force that would probe the tunnels before sending in a larger force. There was fierce debate, with the generals arguing that sending everybody at the start would lead to unnecessary deaths, and would create a bottleneck, but since Maximus was king, he shut down the debate after ten minutes and told them to organize for a full assault from the get-go. The generals grumbled, but they wouldn’t dare further the point after the king made his decision.

It took about a couple of hours to plan the entire operation. From what regiments were going to be used, the time of attack, and what weapons to bring. The generals attempted to bring up the issue of acceptable losses, but Romulus and Maximus didn’t want to hear it. To them, every man woman, and child was worth one Claudia.

When they finished, Romulus stepped out and found Nero sitting on a bench waiting for him. Romulus approached him and asked how the recruitment went. Nero jumped out of the bench and told him that they found around 300 enlisted men in various “establishments” around the city. Romulus asked him if there was any trouble, to which Nero confirmed.

There was a tavern far from the palace in the depths of the shanty town south of the Wine River and on the edge of the city. It was one of the last locations they hit and almost got into a fight with about twenty men, but after the soldiers that came along with Nero pulled out their swords, the men complied.

Romulus thanked Nero for his work and said that he did a lot for the operation, but before Romulus could walk away, Nero asked how many men were going to rescue their mom. Romulus winced at the question. “20,000,” Romulus responded.

“20,000?! What was the point of me spending an entire day fetching 300 men from brothels and bars for an army of 20,000? I could have done something more useful,” Nero said, infuriated.

Romulus turned back toward Nero. “You have to look at it from a different perspective. This was more about sending a message. We can’t have enlisted men getting drunk when our mom has been kidnapped.”

“But why did ‘I’ have to do it?”

“Because you needed experience in something, and that was all that was available, now please, I have to ride off tonight,” Romulus said.

Nero kept talking. “How are we going to march 20,000 men into one tunnel?”

“We’re not. We are going to march 2,000 men first, have 10,000 form a five-kilometer radius around the tunnel entrance, and the rest are in reserve. I have to go now.”

Romulus left Nero in the palace, while he got ready to leave. The army would be marching tonight. They had 300 kilometers to go and needed to go as fast as possible. Romulus was one the first to leave the city, with his army taking the rest of the night to reach the edge of the city. They didn’t leave Gatherstorm, however, as they wanted to stay concealed for as long as possible. The sun was rising by the time they reached the edge of Gatherstorm, so they decided to stay put for the rest of the day.

They would only travel at night and in no more than groups of 100. They were all told their positions, so it increased speed, but even with the smaller groups moving independently, the trip would take at least two weeks.