The Girl with No Name
Copyright 2013 by Edward -EC-
EC's Erotic Fiction - /~caligula97030/

(warnings: public nudity, sex between adults, corporal punishment, maledom, 
humiliation, war violence, occult, language)

Chapter Twenty-Six – The Witness

The Defenders crossed into the Lord of the Blue Moon's territory the day before 
Good Friday, 1758. The force consisted of 2600 mounted raiders, musketeers, 
nymphs, and even several cannons. Additionally, there were wagon trains 
bringing along enough supplies to travel as far as a crossroads south of Malénkta-
Gordnáckta. The Grand Duke promised to dispatch additional supplies from the 
border town, but the help would not include any regular troops. Danka realized 
the Sovereign would help the Defenders in case they did, by some miracle, have a 
chance of taking Sumy Ris, but secretly he did not expect them to win. 

On the southern shore of the river that formed the border between the Duchy and 
the Kingdom, the Defenders celebrated Easter. The dispirited local populace 
watched from a distance as the Danubians burned four screaming captured priests 
and their women danced naked around the huge bonfire. The invaders spent the 
next day passing out loaves of bread and dried river fish to hundreds of starving 
bystanders, feeding them to mock the story out of the Christian New Testament. 
An officer who spoke the Kingdom of the Moon's language shouted:

"The Roman God and his executed son cannot feed you, so it was our Path in Life 
to give you this meal! Remember, in your prayers, who fed you and who did not!"

The Defenders' journey to their first objective, the crossroads south of Malénkta-
Gordnáckta, proved more difficult than the easy ride-through the previous 
summer. The Lord of the Blue Moon's army had partially recovered from the 
previous year's defeats and was strong enough to engage the Danubians. There 
were a series of small battles as the Danubians worked their way westward, which 
resulted in 50 killed and 120 injured. The musketeers and archers were not as 
affected by injuries as were the cavalrymen. Ominously, the Defenders already 
had lost a third of their best horsemen even before reaching the rendezvous point. 
The cannons were not as useful as the commander had anticipated because they 
took too long to set up. The sling bombs were not being deployed because the 
commander wanted to hold on to that secret for the final assault on Sumy Ris.

The Defenders were enormously relieved to see the Grand Duke's supply 
expedition, after having spent nearly two weeks fighting skirmish after skirmish. 
The Defenders' commander ordered all of the wounded to return north with the 
Grand Duke's army. After the regular soldiers departed, the invaders rested a day 
before continuing westward to their objective. Their morale greatly improved 
when the harassing attacks from the Lord of the Blue Moon's troops became less 
frequent. They passed through countryside that was completely depopulated and 
vacant, the contested zone that had been repeatedly devastated by war and 
invasions over the past four years. 

The Lord of the Blue Moon's troops fell back, but not because the Defenders were 
too strong for them. The eastern enemy would shadow the Danubians to see what 
happened when they entered the Lord of the Red Moon's territory. Meanwhile, 
they would wait for supplies and re-enforcements. The Lord of the Blue Moon 
had learned from his past reckless mistakes and actually had a sound strategy 
regarding the Danubian invasion. He would wait to see if there was a major battle 
between the Danubians and the rival faction, then, assuming the victorious army 
was severely weakened, would attack the winners with his forces intact. The Lord 
of the Red Moon had decided on the same strategy. He would allow the 
Danubians to advance, see if the Blue Moon column attacked them, then order his 
men to assault whoever remained alive. So, the Defenders continued their 
advance towards Sumy Ris, aware of the two armies following them but 
mistakenly assuming neither was strong enough to launch an attack.

----------

On May 11th, the Defenders approached a town called Aksheriri Ris. The location 
was significant because it was inside the Lord of the Red Moon's territory and 
was only a day's journey east of the former Danubian capitol. In fact, from its 
hilltop it was possible to see the upper part of the watchtower overlooking Sumy 
Ris.

Commander Sáupeckt knew that he had to capture Aksheriri Ris before 
proceeding to his main objective, to use it as a base of operations if at all possible. 
Aksheriri Ris was not very large, but its location was much more defensible than 
the flat farmland surrounding Sumy Ris. It sat on top of a hill and was partially 
surrounded by a small river that had cut a row of steep cliffs to the south and the 
west, so it could only be approached from the east or north. The town was much 
newer than Sumy Ris. During Danubian times it had been the site of a large 
seminary, but after 1502 the Ottomans tore down the seminary and used the 
location as a defensible place to store trading goods. There were some solidly-
built warehouses around a market, along with a central plaza and a large mosque 
that was demolished after the Kingdom of the Moon became independent from 
the Ottoman Empire. The most important structure (apart from the ruined mosque) 
was an Ottoman-built garrison building, on the far northwest side of the town.

At one time the place must have been attractive, but in 1758 Aksheriri Ris was not 
in good condition. The town already was damaged from the war of independence 
and also from a raid the previous year by the Kingdom's rival faction. Only about 
half of the houses were occupied and the remaining inhabitants had partially 
dismantled the others for building supplies. The city had a wall facing the 
northern and eastern approaches, but the wall had collapsed in several places, 
leaving large gaps through which an enemy could easily enter. The Lord of the 
Red Moon's army had dug some trenches and built cannon emplacements over the 
past winter, but in May of 1758 there were not enough men to guard them. There 
were three guarded gates, to the east, northeast, and north that the residents still 
used out of habit, but there were plenty of other gaps where a person could freely 
walk into or out of the town.

Aksheriri Ris had a garrison of several hundred troops from the Red Moon army 
and about half of the civilian population was still living there. The place definitely 
was not abandoned and would have to be taken by force. When he saw the 
garrison, Commander Sáupeckt suddenly realized how precarious his situation 
had become because the Danubians would not be able to take Aksheriri Ris 
without suffering significant losses. They would not be at full strength to assault 
Sumy Ris and there were two enemy armies of unknown size lurking nearby. 
Ilmátarkt commented to Danka that he had sat in on some of the commander's 
planning sessions and the other officers seemed very aware that capturing and 
holding onto Sumy Ris with 2500 troops was unrealistic, especially if the 
Danubians felt it was necessary to hold onto a second town and split their forces.

Under the circumstances the Defenders would have been better off bypassing 
Aksheriri Ris and trying to flee northward towards the Duchy. However, doing so 
would have entailed battling in the open with the forces of the Lord of the Red 
Moon and there was no guarantee the Danubians could hold off a sustained attack. 
Also, the majority of the Defenders were not yet aware how precarious their 
situation had become, but they would find out soon enough if they had to 
withdraw under constant assaults. There was another reason the commander 
decided not to retreat. During the previous summer he had defeated a force ten 
times the size of his own with his secret weapon: the sling-bombs. The Kingdom 
of the Moon factions would face a horrible surprise the first time he deployed 
them. If he chose the right moment and the Defenders killed enough of the enemy, 
it was possible the superior numbers of the enemy troops would not matter.

Commander Sáupeckt decided a withdrawal was too risky and that if events went 
his way, it still might be possible to capture Sumy Ris. It would be better to 
occupy Aksheriri Ris, claim a victory, send word to the Grand Duke that the 
Defenders had captured a strategic town, and hope the Royal Army would enter 
the Kingdom to assist with the assault against Sumy Ris. Ilmátarkt and Danka 
knew that Commander Sáupeckt was too caught up is his own fantasies to realize 
the Grand Duke would fully understand what really was going on: that the 
Defenders were cornered and faced imminent defeat.

----------

The assault on the town went as well as could be expected under the 
circumstances. The cannon crews finally proved their usefulness by dueling with 
the garrison's cannons and providing cover for the musketeers rushing through the 
gaps in the wall to enter the town. The Danubians swept into the unmanned 
trenches and used them for concealment and cover as they advanced on the town. 
The trenches were deep enough for the Danubian cannon crews to haul in their 
guns and direct them against the Red Moon troops at very short range. The 
townsfolk watched in dismay as fortifications they had worked on all winter 
ended up aiding the Danubians instead of the town's garrison, by allowing the 
enemy to easily bypass the outer defenses. With minimal opposition, the 
Danubians emerged from the trenches and charged through the walls. Danubian 
musketeers attacked the poorly-organized locals, driving them back while archers 
entered the houses and took over the upper floors. Families of terrified civilians 
added to the confusion and greatly complicated the operation.

The Danubians needed to clear out the local population, but did not want to do so 
by killing them. (The relative goodwill was not just because the Danubians were 
not accustomed to killing non-combatants: showing mercy towards the locals also 
would mean having to deal with far fewer rotting bodies once the town was under 
Danubian control.) When they took over the eastern gate, the militia ordered the 
nymphs to start chasing the town's non-combatants towards that exit. Amazed that 
they weren't being targeted for killing, thousands of panicky civilians rushed out, 
directed by strange half-naked women screaming in a foreign language and 
pointing crossbows at them. 

Meanwhile, the city's garrison fought bravely, but they were badly outnumbered. 
The two remaining gates fell, followed by the warehouses. The militia turned the 
cannons around and used them against the Ottoman garrison building. When the 
building collapsed and the Danubians killed off the remaining enemy troops, the 
fighting ended. After a full day of chaotic and brutal combat, Aksheriri Ris came 
under Danubian control, for the first time in 250 years.

The Defenders had taken the town and could set up defensive positions, but it was 
clear to everyone they were in deep trouble. A fourth of the attackers had been 
killed or injured, which reduced the number of troops available for combat to 
1700. Like their predecessors, they did not have enough men to guard the outer 
trenches and there was no reason a new group of assailants couldn't use them 
exactly in the same way the Danubians had used them. So, Commander Sáupeckt 
ordered the unfortunate civilians who had not managed to evacuate to go outside 
and fill in holes they had spent all winter digging. Filling in the trenches would 
clear the field of vision and ensure no one could approach by using them as cover. 
Dalibora watched the operation with dismay. "We need to be using those defenses, 
not covering them up."

The medical staff set up an infirmary in one of the storehouses and spent the next 
several days operating on dozens of seriously injured patients. The medical team, 
in spite of being well-prepared, used up all their supplies. Horrid memories of the 
wounded from the battles of 1754 entered Danka's thoughts as she worked on 
dozens of equally hideous injuries in Aksheriri Ris. The mortality rate in the 
infirmary was very high, because Danka and one of the doctors quietly poisoned 
any patient they thought would not recover.

At the end of the second day in the captured town, the commander of the squad in 
charge of the sling-bombs moved his entire stock into a small storeroom inside 
the infirmary building. His reasoning was that the infirmary was the most 
defensible building now that the Ottoman garrison fort was ruined and the most 
likely place the Defenders would make their last stand. The doctors normally 
would have been very nervous about having high-explosives kept among their 
patients, but it was true that, because the patients could not easily move, it made 
sense to keep the most important means of defense in the same location.

Danka and her husband looked at the stacked boxes of sling-bombs, to make sure 
they were secured and none would fall and set off the others. At that moment the 
couple realized a horrible fact. The only reason the Defenders were attempting to 
capture Sumy Ris was because Commander Sáupeckt had taken control of the 
militia and was using it to pursue his own dream instead of protecting the Duchy. 
The only reason he had taken control over the entire militia was because his unit 
won an impressive battle the previous summer. The only reason he won that battle 
was because of the bomb-formula provided by Danka and the design 
improvement provided by her husband.

Danka looked back at the room full of mutilated patients.

"This is our doing, yours and mine. We'll have a lot to answer for when we hold 
up our mirrors."

Ilmátarkt thought about arguing that only the commander was to blame, but he 
knew his wife was right. What could he say? They were trying to do the right 
thing, just trying to help the militia win its battles. How badly their efforts had 
failed.

"There's a saying... from the True Believers. 'The path to the Domain of 
Beelzebub is paved with the cobblestones of the kind actions of the righteous.' I 
guess the Destroyer understood that."

It was frightening to hear Ilmátarkt talk like that. He had always been so confident 
everything had a reasonable explanation and the deities were just the result of 
wishful thinking. That confidence in his own intellect and his unusual beliefs 
seemed to have vanished.

----------

While Danka spent her time with the medical staff, events outside were moving 
quickly. Commander Sáupeckt sent out messengers with the cheery news that 
Aksheriri Ris was firmly under Danubian control and that the Defenders were 
fully ready to assist the Royal Army in an assault against Sumy Ris. In other 
words, the hidden meaning of the message was that the militia did not have the 
strength to take Sumy Ris by themselves and would need back-up. 

Historical records from the period indicate the Grand Duke was extremely 
irritated at the situation and at himself for allowing it to happen. Nevertheless, he 
did lead an expeditionary force to help the militia. Its purpose would not be to do 
anything about Sumy Ris, but instead to rescue as many Defenders as possible. 
The sovereign understood that to do nothing while loyal militia fighters were 
defeated and slaughtered would make him lose honor among his subjects. 
However, as soon as everyone returned to the Duchy, the Grand Duke would 
make the Defenders pay for their folly by disarming and disbanding their units.

Meanwhile, the Lord of the Red Moon decided that allowing the Danubians to 
continue their occupation of Aksheriri Ris was intolerable. Yes, it would be 
possible to simply wait and starve them out, but the Lord of the Red Moon was 
not the type of leader who was willing to wait more than a few weeks. He decided 
to order his army forward and launch an assault to re-take the town. By the 
beginning of June he was able to gather 6000 troops for the assault, which was 
more than three times the number the Danubians had to defend themselves. 
However, 6000 Red Moon troops in 1758 were not the same impressive fighting 
force 6000 Red Moon troops would have been in 1754. The Red Moon Army was 
ragged and disorganized, having lost most of their best troops and officers years 
before. 

When the Red Moon Army pushed forward, they ran into many problems, 
including getting stuck in the loose dirt of the freshly filled trenches. Still, it 
appeared they would overwhelm the Defenders by sheer numbers. When the Red 
Moon troops recaptured the northeast gate, Commander Sáupeckt realized he 
could not wait any longer to use his secret weapon, the sling bombs. The 
Danubians hurled the explosives at the assailants and killed enough of them to 
force a chaotic retreat. The gate was back under Danubian control, but the Red 
Moon Army was not defeated and now they knew the Danubians' secret. The Red 
Moon commanders also knew how to defeat that secret, by firing volleys at 
anyone using a sling or carrying a small wooden box. When their musketeers 
finally managed to shoot one of the Danubian bomb-throwers, he fell off a rooftop 
and the explosion from the bomb he was about to throw and extra one he was 
carrying destroyed the gate along with two cannons and killed dozens of 
Defenders. As soon as the smoke cleared enough to see what they were doing, the 
enemy troops surged past the wreckage and entered the town.

Dalibora showed up at the infirmary to order Danka to join the rest of the squad in 
the defense of the town center. Danka reluctantly left her husband, suspecting it 
would be the last time she would ever see him. She wanted to kiss him goodbye, 
but Dalibora was yelling at her to move out.

The nymphs moved about the upper floors of buildings and houses as they hunted 
and engaged enemy troops who were fighting to get into the city. The women had 
to expose themselves to enemy fire whenever they tried to jump from one rooftop 
to the next, but were greatly assisted by smoke from muskets and burning houses, 
which provided concealment. However, needing to avoid the numerous thatched 
roofs of shoddily-repaired buildings and avoiding slippery tiles of many others 
horribly complicated their efforts to move about quickly. The archers aimed at 
their targets in the streets below and the enemy musket-men fired back, every so 
often hitting a nymph and sending her tumbling onto the ground. Within an hour 
both Dalibora and Oana had lost half their squad-members.

The Defenders fell back. Already half of the town was back under the control of 
the Lord of the Red Moon's troops and they were setting up to re-capture some of 
the larger buildings in the town center. The next large round of shooting, however, 
came from the east, outside the town. The attention of the Red Moon soldiers 
suddenly shifted to counter a cavalry charge by the rival Blue Moon soldiers as 
they attacked and raided the cannon crews of the Lord of the Red Moon's men. 
The assault was a daring one, meant to silence the Red Moon cannons so the 
Army of the Lord of the Blue Moon could advance unimpeded towards the town. 
The civil war reignited as the Red Moon soldiers withdrew from their more 
advanced positions in town to counter the approaching threat from outside. It 
turned out the Lord of the Blue Moon's commanders had decided to advance 
towards the city, but the rival faction had moved in prematurely, because the 
Danubians had not yet been defeated. The Defenders took advantage of the 
dubious respite to consolidate their positions around the mayor's residence and the 
town's armory while the Kingdom's soldiers fought each other. However, some of 
the Defenders were not able to withdraw and had to fight in place until they were 
killed.

The night that followed was the most nightmarish of Danka's life, a night in which 
she saw the Destroyer exercise total control over human beings. There was a 
chaotic three-way battle between the Danubians, the Red Moon faction, and the 
Blue Moon faction. Inside Aksheriri Ris, most of the fighting was between the 
Danubians and troops from the Red Moon Army. Outside, along the slope leading 
away from the town, the fighting was mostly between and between Red Moon 
soldiers and the Blue Moon soldiers. The only light was from explosions and 
burning buildings, so as the night wore on the fighting consisted of increasingly 
chaotic clashes between squad-sized units battling enemies they could barely see.

The Red Moon faction consolidated its control of the east gate and its cannons. As 
soon as the unit's commanders could bring up some cannon crews, the guns fired 
into the area still held by the Danubians. There were several explosions around 
the government area of the town. Then Danka saw the infirmary blow up. A 
cannonball or shell must have hit the room where the sling-bombs were being 
kept and set them off. Following a massive explosion that sent debris raining over 
the surrounding area, the building completely collapsed into burning wreckage. If 
Ilmátarkt was still in there (which was extremely likely) she had just become a 
widow. 

Before Danka had time to mourn her husband, Dalibora's calf was shattered by a 
musket-ball and she tumbled to a balcony before falling to the street. Danka and 
the remaining nymphs had to go down and rescue her, because it was obvious she 
was still alive and must not be captured. When the women got to her, she was 
bleeding profusely and it was obvious her leg was badly hurt. Danka tore off her 
own skirt and ripped it into strips to make a tourniquet. The surviving nymphs, 
joined by a squad of Danubian musket-men, covered Danka and another squad 
member as they dragged Dalibora towards a stone house. They laid her on the 
floor and Danka more closely examined the wound. The bone was shattered. 
There was no question the leg would have to be amputated, but Danka did not 
have access to surgery equipment. All she had was a pouch of morphine and some 
other medicines to sedate injured patients.

Oana showed up, dragging in a member of her squad who had been shot in the 
chest. Danka cursed herself, because in the past she had successfully operated on 
a similar injury, but at that moment she did not have the equipment. Without 
surgery was not likely the second patient would survive very long. Danka's only 
option was to sedate her and try to control the bleeding.

The noise of battle continued outside, but Danka was out of the fight. Her quiver 
was empty and somehow her crossbow had broken. Even if she had crossbow 
bolts, she wouldn't have been able to use them. She was naked, having given up 
her skirt to make the tourniquet for Dalibora. Her husband was most likely dead. 
Her squad leader would never walk again, even assuming she could be operated 
on before her wound festered. She was in a wrecked stone house with two dying 
patients she could not treat, in a ruined town deep inside enemy territory.

For a while nothing happened. She peered outside and saw no living soldiers, but 
there were several dead men from the Red Moon faction lying on the street. 
Danka's heart jumped into her throat. Red Moon soldiers had been fighting right 
outside the house. Had they taken the city? The noise of battle had subsided, but 
by dawn break it increased again. From what Danka was able to hear from her 
location, it seemed the fighting from the east had died down and the new fighting 
was to the north, and perhaps not even in the city. Then the firing from the east 
picked up again.

Oana suddenly banged on the door and called out to Danka to let her in. She 
dragged in another nymph who had a serious head injury. A quick look at the new 
patient told Danka she was mortally wounded. Dalibora weakly asked what was 
going on. Oana paused for a moment, as though she were trying to decide whether 
to tell the truth or a lie. Finally she responded:

"Nothing's going on. The Red Moons are still in the outer part of the city, but 
we've pushed them back somewhat." Oana turned to Danka. "Make sure you keep 
this door barred and don't go out. No matter what you hear or think you're hearing, 
do not open this door and don't go out. I'll come back when it's safer."

"Can you at least get me a weapon? I don't have any bolts and my crossbow is 
broken."

"That's your fault. And no, I don't carry around extra weapons to pass out to 
dishonored careless fools. Now bar the door and don't go outside until I come 
back."

The battle sounds continued for a while. Danka thought she could hear "DOC-
DOC DANUBE! ... DOC-DOC DANUBE! ... DOC-DOC DANUBE! ..." in the 
distance, but figured it must have been her imagination. The shooting from the 
north stopped, but there seemed to be a lot of shouting and movement outside. 
Then that stopped as well. There was more shooting from the direction of the 
wrecked garrison building and muffled screaming. There was a long period of 
relative silence, occasionally interrupted by a shot or a scream. Later, in the 
afternoon, there was another round of shooting near the warehouses and 
marketplace. Several squads of cavalrymen rode by the house. Later, a group of 
foreigners stopped outside the door and chatted for a bit before moving away. 
Danka felt sick. The Red Moon army must have retaken Aksheriri Ris. She 
looked around the house for women's clothing, but there was nothing. Whatever 
clothing the owners had they would have taken with them when they evacuated. 

She noted a ladder going up to a loft, and another leading to a hatch door in the 
roof. Maybe she could go up to the roof and observe what was happening in the 
town. The house was close to the highest point on the hill and its roof stood above 
the rooftops of the nearby houses, so she had a panoramic view of both the city 
and the countryside beyond. When she looked to the north, in the distance she saw 
a large column of troops headed in the direction of the Duchy. She then heard 
series of horrific screams and some cruel laughter. She looked towards the 
mayor's residence and saw that the banner flying over the building was from the 
Blue Moon faction, not the Red Moon faction. Apparently the Lord of the Blue 
Moon had taken control of the city. 

She looked again at the retreating column. Were they Danubian? Was it possible 
the Grand Duke's regular army did show up to evacuate the surviving Defenders? 
That would have explained the "DOC-DOC DANUBE! ... DOC-DOC 
DANUBE! ... DOC-DOC DANUBE! ..." she had heard earlier. But then...why 
would Oana not have returned to tell her and the others to leave with everyone 
else? Was it possible that Oana was killed? Or was it possible that she knew about 
the evacuation? Danka's mind went over the last conversation with her. She 
seemed to be hiding something. She had repeatedly told Danka not to look outside 
until she came back. The horrible thought came into her consciousness that Oana 
had deliberately left her and Dalibora behind, but why would she do that?

Dalibora weakly called out to her. Danka descended the ladder. Dalibora was 
conscious and in a lot of pain. Danka administered some morphine and the squad 
leader asked what was going on. As best she could, Danka described what she 
saw from the rooftop. The squad leader agreed there must have been an 
evacuation, that Oana knew about it, and out of pure spite, did not tell the rescuers 
about Danka and her three patients.

"Remember... Oana has the Destroyer in her soul. I'm not surprised. Not at all. 
She hated both of us and blamed us for her squad being taken away last year. She 
wanted revenge, and now she got it."

"But...she'd hate us that much... to leave us to be impaled?"

"She hates us that much, Defender Danka. She hates us that much."

"So what do we do?"

Dalibora thought for a moment before responding. She weakly sat up to look at 
her leg.

"You know... I'm still your commanding officer."

"Yes."

"You are sworn to obey me."

"Yes, I'm sworn to obey you."

"Then I am ordering to you poison me. And I'm ordering you to poison the others. 
I don't what to be in the Realm of the Living when the foreigners break down that 
door. As soon as my soul separates from my body, you will escape. Somehow you 
will sneak out of this cursed town and somehow you will return to the Duchy. 
When you return, you will find Oana. Those are my last orders."

"But..."

"I am ordering you to poison me. I am ordering you to separate my soul from my 
body. What part of that don't you understand?"

Danka prepared a fatal dose of sedative. There was a barrel of rainwater and a 
cracked cup with which she could administer it. She held Dalibora's hand while 
holding the cup to her mouth. It took about a minute for Dalibora's eyes to roll up 
slightly and her grip to loosen. Danka administered another dose to the woman 
with the chest wound. She looked at the woman with the head injury. She was 
unconscious and it was clear she was dying, so Danka did not bother trying to 
poison her. She glanced again at her dead squad leader.

A loud bang on the door made her jump. She heard shouting in the Kingdom's 
language and another bang. Dropping her medicine pouch, she rushed up the 
ladder and pushed open the hatch, just as the main door crashed open. A squad of 
Blue Moon troops entered the house as Danka exited and moved away from the 
opening. The course thatch dug into her unprotected skin, but that was the least of 
her worries. She lay flat as the hatch opened and a man looked both ways to make 
sure no one was on the roof. Fortunately he did not climb up to check the other 
side, so Danka stayed hidden. She watched the troops haul out the three corpses 
and toss them onto the street below. 

From her vantage point Danka watched the enemy soldiers leave the house. One 
soldier marked the door with a piece of chalk to indicate the house had been 
checked and cleared. Danka crept back towards the hatch. If at all possible, she 
had to get back inside. She would be spotted on the roof as soon as someone 
happened to glance in her direction. It turned out all the soldiers had indeed left. 
She decided to stay in the loft in case anyone came back in and wait for nightfall 
before attempting to escape.

She looked at the bloodstains on the floor where her companions had died. She 
mourned the fact their bodies had been tossed outside, to lie in the street until 
someone came along and loaded them into a garbage wagon. They would not be 
given proper burials and would not be given mirrors, so they'd have nothing to 
hold up before the Creator in the Afterlife. As for her husband, and the other 
doctors, and all of their patients, not even bodies were left, given the force of the 
explosion and the fire that had destroyed the infirmary. She wondered how the 
Creator handled such situations.

For the first time, Danka prayed directly to the Destroyer. Very well, you've made 
me your witness. You've denied my desire to die with my companions. You've 
taken my husband. Now what? If you want me to escape and bear witness, how 
am I supposed to do that?

Danka waited in silence for a long time. There was no response. She was beyond 
exhausted, so there was nothing for her to do except sleep and wait for sunset so 
she could get out of the house.

She woke up to a world that was pitch black. It was true the house had no lanterns 
and was abandoned, but surely there would be some light coming in somewhere. 
She reached around and to her dismay, couldn't find anything to lay her hands on. 
She had to be in a void. What this the Realm of the Destroyer? Finally light did 
enter her imagination. So...the Destroyer had finally returned. Hopefully she'd 
receive instructions concerning what she needed to do next. But the familiar eyes 
did not appear. Instead, she saw Babáckt Yaga. Her former mistress's eyes stared 
deep into her soul.

"What have you done?"

"I...I don't understand, Alchemist."

"What have you done?"

"I guess...I guess I survived a battle, Alchemist. Now I need to figure out how to 
escape and bear witness of what happened here."

"To escape? To bear witness? To bear witness for whom? For the Profane One?"

"Yes, Alchemist. To bear witness for the Profane One."

"And you were foolish enough to think the Profane One would help you..."

"I was foolish enough to think that, Alchemist. That's what I was expecting."

"The Profane One helps no one. The Profane One will not help you. Serving the 
Profane One is vanity. Didn't I teach you that?"

"Yes, Alchemist."

"And you ignored my teachings. You ended up ignoring everything, didn't you?"

"Yes, Alchemist."

There was a long pause while Babáckt Yaga's eyes bore into Danka. The former 
Mistress continued:

"Do you really think you deserve to escape? Maybe a Blue Moon impalement 
hook is where you belong?"

"I don't know what I deserve, Alchemist."

"You don't know what you deserve. Well then... I, not the Destroyer, but I, will 
give you what you don't deserve. I will guide you to safety. But for you to accept 
my help, you must obey my instructions."

"Yes, Alchemist?"

"You are to take nothing with you from this cursed kingdom. You are not to carry 
anything in your hands, nor wear anything on your body. You will need to take 
off your boots and leave them behind: they're ruined anyway. When you leave 
this house, you will see a path ahead of you. It won't be lit up or obvious, but 
you'll know it's there. You will follow that path and not deviate from it. It will 
guide you out of Aksheriri Ris, guide you across the war zone, and guide you into 
the Duchy. The path will lead you to food and will lead you around your enemies. 
Throughout most of your journey, your enemies will be close-by, but they won't 
see you if you walk along the path precisely at the moment it shows itself. When 
the path deviates, you'll know you need to sleep."

"That's it, Alchemist? I just need to follow a path?"

"It will be hard at times, because often the path will lead you right out into the 
open, across fields and over hilltops, even though crowded areas. Part of the 
purpose of your journey will be to test your courage and your faith. But if you 
stay on the path and traverse it when it indicates, you will remain in the Realm of 
the Living and you will fulfill your Path in Life. There's one more detail. You 
must unbraid your hair before you begin your journey. Until you reach safety, 
your hair must be loose. Braids are a symbol of honor, and right now you have no 
honor."

Fearful that Babáckt Yaga's apparition would disappear, Danka undid her braids 
and fluffed out her hair.

"Now, go to the front door and turn left. Don't crouch or try to hide. Walk with 
confidence and dignity. Whenever you see the path, keep going."

"Alchemist?"

"Yes Follower Danka?"

"Will I ever see you again?"

"No. The Realm of the Afterlife allows me only one visit to the Realm of the 
Living. I've just used it on you. Now, like everyone else, I will fade and exist only 
in memory."

Babáckt Yaga's image disappeared, allowing Danka to see the dim evening light 
entering through openings in the dwelling's walls. Not knowing what else to do, 
she exited the front door and turned left, as instructed. Sure enough, in the 
darkness she could make out a path, a slightly lighter line of dried mud leading 
towards the city's eastern gate.

She struggled not to crouch or hide, which was very difficult given that she was 
completely naked in a strange town full of enemies. As she walked, she wondered 
about her unprotected feet, worried she might step on something sharp or stub her 
toe. She felt nothing: no rocks, no glass, no metal, no thorns. Wreckage was all 
around her, but her feet only touched cool smooth dirt.

She had numerous close calls as she walked away from the house. A squad of 
enemy soldiers crossed right in front of her but did not see her. She crossed a 
street and no sooner had she passed to the other side, a group of enemy 
cavalrymen galloped past. She walked right past people who had their backs 
turned, precisely at the moment they would have seen her had they turned around. 
After each "close call", she became slightly more confident that she really would 
be able to simply walk away.

The gate was wide open, to allow a supply caravan to pass through. The guards 
were too busy checking letters and talking to the drivers to notice a naked woman 
passing by the wagons on the other side. The path veered off the main road and 
crossed a meadow. Shortly before daybreak Danka came up to an abandoned 
village with a functioning well. She was ravenously thirsty, and the water was 
some of the best she had ever tasted. She left the village and crossed an orchard. 
All of the trees had been stripped of their fruit except for one, which had a single 
branch containing some apples. The wanderer feasted and continued her walk. 
The path lead her towards a ruined manor. Its fields lay abandoned, but there were 
some carrots and beets growing wild among the weeds. She came across another 
well inside a once-luxurious courtyard which, in spite of the destruction all 
around it, remained intact. Danka drank some more water and kept going.

By the end of the day, she had gone so far that Aksheriri Ris was no longer in 
sight. The Path veered into a ruined house, where most of the roof had collapsed. 
One room, containing a bed, remained intact. Danka soundly slept, the best night 
of sleep she had enjoyed for months. When she woke up, she noticed a sealed jar 
lying next to a wall. She opened it to discover it was full of dried fruit. She ate as 
much as she could before following the path eastward.

The second day was foggy in the morning and rainy in the afternoon. Her feet 
were covered in mud and her body was covered in water, but getting wet didn't 
bother her, since she didn't have to worry about her clothing. She could hear the 
noise from humans all around and see shadowy figures in the distance, but no one 
came close enough to recognize her as a naked wandering woman. It turned out to 
be fortunate that she stuffed herself with dried fruit in the morning, because she 
did not come across anything else to eat until the day had almost ended. As the 
sun set, she found several wild berry bushes growing next to an abandoned 
cottage. After eating, the path led her inside, where another bed was waiting.

She continued walking towards the east, in a journey that became more dreamlike 
with every passing day. During the entire journey she was crossing land that was 
completely unfamiliar. She walked along stream banks, across meadows, over 
hills that gave her a panoramic view of the landscape, and even though a small 
forest. She dreamt of what the land must have looked like during more peaceful 
times. Her imagination raced through the past, letting her see what the region 
looked like when it still was part of the Danubian Kingdom and referred to as 
Lower Danubia. She saw abandoned churches, some of which still had Danubian-
style architecture. With each physical remnant of the past, she was able to 
visualize how it must have appeared hundreds of years before.

Eight days after escaping from Aksheriri Ris, Danka walked over a grassy hill 
where a few wild sheep were grazing. Nearby was a derelict manor, and on the 
other side there was a wrecked peasant village where empty impalement hooks 
were still hanging on some of the ruined walls. The ground was covered with 
scattered human bones, which were partially buried, bleached, and very brittle. 
The people in that spot must have been killed years before, perhaps right at the 
beginning of the Kingdom's civil war. Without really knowing why, Danka was 
convinced she was standing in the village where Isauria was born and had spent 
her childhood. Undoubtedly some of the bones under her feet were from the 
corpses of Isauria's relatives.

If Danka really was in Isauria's village, then Malénkta-Gordnáckta was just a 
short distance to the northeast. The imaginary path went over a second grassy hill 
overlooking both the manor and the village before crossing the road and 
continuing directly east. Danka was enormously relieved the route did not go 
north, because in her current condition Malénkta-Gordnáckta was absolutely the 
last place she wanted to go.

The day after she passed the road that led to the Duchy's border, the tops of the 
southern Danubian mountains came into sight, to her left. An yet, she was never 
tempted to turn north in an effort to shorten her time in the Kingdom of the Moon. 
By the middle of her journey she had complete confidence in the path. As long as 
she followed it, she was perfectly safe. She passed to the south of the ruined town 
she searched with Isauria, but when she reached the crest of a hill, she looked 
down and could see both the distant ruins and the river bordering the Duchy. She 
was only vaguely aware of the change, but by the final week of her trip she was 
walking completely in the open. She was naked and unarmed, but the Ancients 
were protecting her.

When she approached the location where she and Isauria had attacked the loggers, 
the path finally veered north. It was apparent she would re-enter the Duchy 
through the abandoned logging camp before proceeding towards the villages. The 
Ancients had a final test for her before they would allow her to leave the 
Kingdom of the Moon. She'd have to walk right through the middle of a town, in 
broad daylight and in plain view of hundreds of foreigners.

When they saw a detached naked woman walking through their town, the locals 
lined up along the road to stare at the strange sight. They talked among 
themselves, speculating who she was. Was she a spirit? A ghost? Lilith? A 
refugee who had gone mad? She couldn't be a mortal in her right mind, because 
she did not react at all to the murmuring crowd. Only one man approached her, 
wanting to touch her to see if she was at least a real person. As he raised his hand, 
she turned around and silently glared at him. Frightened, he backed away.

The crowd followed Danka as she headed towards the border. They stopped when 
she passed through a ruined church the locals considered cursed. She crested a 
final hill and made her way towards the river, which was swollen with mountain 
runoff. She casually swam across and emerged on Danubian soil.

Danka was in no hurry for the trip to end, and it seemed the path accommodated 
that wish for a few more days. She bathed in cold streams and foraged in the 
woods, eating berries and mushrooms during the day. At night she slept in the 
open. 

She reached the bone-covered meadow where the Defenders had defeated the Red 
Moon soldiers nearly a year before. Not even a year, but how long ago that 
seemed, as though it were a different lifetime. Maybe it was. During those final 
days Danka's view of herself and her way of thinking transformed. In some ways 
she went back to being who she had been at the very start of her travels. She 
certainly did not consider herself a nymph fighting for the Defenders' militia. 
Anyhow, she suspected the Defenders no longer existed. Even if some of them 
had been rescued by the Royal Army, the Grand Duke would have no reason to 
allow the defeated militia to continue its operations.

The path ended at the largest of the three villages. As she stood in the main plaza, 
the settlers stared at her, not only because she was naked, but because her hair 
was loose. She seemed disoriented. The villagers were intimidated to approach 
her, but even with her disheveled appearance, some of them recognized her. One 
man remembered Isauria was her apprentice and left to find the girl. A few 
minutes later Isauria showed up. Like everyone else, she was shocked at her 
mentor's wild look, but she knew what to do. She led Danka to the bathhouse, 
bathed her, helped her clean her teeth, and re-braided her hair. 

Sitting in her bath, Danka returned to her senses as the surreal dreamy feeling of 
her journey receded. She found it hard to believe that she had just walked for 
three weeks, naked, through enemy territory without being caught. And yet, it 
really happened: she wouldn't be sitting in the bath with her former servant 
washing her hair had the trip been nothing but a dream. As the reality of the 
Realm of the Living intruded upon her thoughts, the details of those final horrid 
hours in Aksheriri Ris invaded her soul and completely pushed aside the pleasant 
bliss she had felt during her trip. She stared at the edge of her tub and muttered:

"I'm a widow. I'm a widow, Apprentice Isauria, and a dishonored one at that, 
because I didn't bury my husband."

She explained what happened to Ilmátarkt, how she left him in the infirmary, and 
how, after Dalibora pulled her away, the entire structure blew up. Not only was 
her husband killed, but the other doctors were killed, along with dozens of injured 
patients. They were blown to unrecognizable bits and buried under burning 
timbers. Isauria surprised Danka with her response, one that seemed to come from 
a much older person.

"You didn't bury your husband because you couldn't; there was nothing to bury. 
You can't feel guilty about something you had no control over. Your Path in Life 
was to remain in the Realm of the Living and his Path in Life was destined to end 
where it did. And since his Path in Life had to end, wasn't it better it ended with a 
quick explosion than any other way? Doctor Ilmátarkt died the way he would 
have wanted to die. When his soul separated from his body, he was serving those 
around him, he was with his crew and the people he cared about. He died instantly, 
without knowing he was dying. Would you have wanted to see him dying in 
horrible pain and then have to abandon his body? Would that have been better, 
Defender Danka?"

"No. It wouldn't have been."

"I'm saying that because I would give anything for my family to have died the 
way Doctor Ilmátarkt died. Anything."

After a long pause, Danka commented:

"Speaking of that, I might have passed through your village, Apprentice Isauria. 
On my way back."

"Was it just west of the crossroads that lead up to Malénkta-Gordnáckta?"

"Yes."

"And there were sheep pastures, and a manor house, and two grassy hills, and on 
the other side of one of the hills some stone houses?"

"Yes."

"That was my village."

"I saw what happened there. I guess... looking at it through your perspective... my 
husband was indeed lucky."

Danka and Isauria could think of nothing more to say at the moment, but the bond 
between them had strengthened. Each had a much deeper understanding of the 
other. No longer was Danka the "Mistress" for Isauria, no longer was Isauria the 
"Servant" for Danka.

----------

Danka dressed in a new nymph's skirt and borrowed boots to pay a visit to the 
village elders. She told them what they already suspected, that the Defenders had 
been defeated and their expedition had failed. She gave a very short summary of 
the battle, but commented she would write a detailed report that would provide 
additional information and could be given to whoever was keeping records of the 
Defenders' activities. She spent the next three days with Isauria preparing a 
meticulous account of what happened to the expedition, from the time the militia 
left their base in the Duchy until the day she escaped. She tried to remember the 
names and circumstances of everyone she had seen killed or suspected had been 
killed. The only significant detail she left out was her former squad leader's 
betrayal. She'd address the situation with Oana herself.

She delivered the completed report to the village elder. When one of his assistants 
expressed skepticism over her claim that she simply walked away, she responded:

"You can believe whatever you want to believe. It makes no difference to me. 
However, I did witness the battle and, I with the protection of the Ancients, I did 
manage to return. If you check what I've written against what other witnesses will 
have to say about the battle, you'll see that everything in the report is the truth."

The meeting ended and Danka was dismissed. Outside she overheard a couple of 
settlers talking about a column of Royal Guards who had been spotted in the hills 
to the west moving towards the villages. From what Danka could hear, the Guards 
were only a few hours away. Danka realized that if she wanted to retrieve her 
belongings from the Defenders' base camp in the mountains, she'd have to go 
there immediately. She took one of the Defenders' mules and departed with 
Isauria without telling anyone in the village where she was going. 

Danka and Isauria returned to the base camp for the last time in their lives. There 
were very few people there, mostly the blacksmith and his assistants and a few 
workers who remained behind to repair the cabins and prepare them for following 
winter. The renegade priest was present as well. Danka decided to warn him about 
the Royal Guards and their pending takeover of the encampment. He called 
together the small group of Defenders, the paltry remnants of a formerly-
impressive militia that had spent years making life miserable for the Kingdom of 
the Moon's soldiers. Danka summarized the battle and the destruction of the unit. 
She didn't know whether Commander Sáupeckt was still alive, but suspected he 
was not. She confirmed the deaths of many others, including the majority of the 
nymphs. 

Danka's companions gathered up their belongings and fled the encampment. They 
didn't know how they would be treated by the Royal Guards, but did not want to 
take the risk of finding out. The Priest returned to his quarters. He calculated that 
if the Grand Duke's men were occupied talking to him, it would give the others 
more time to put distance between themselves and the encampment.

Danka entered the cave, lit two lanterns, and went to where she and her husband 
kept their belongings. She grabbed her bucket, Ilmátarkt's journals and research, 
and his stash of medicines and alchemy ingredients. She took off the borrowed 
boots and the nymph's skirt. She no longer was a nymph, so she had no right to 
wear the skirt. She put on the old boots from her bucket, the ones she had worn 
when she left Rika Héckt-nemát. When Isauria offered Danka a dress, she shook 
her head.

"I need to perform Public Penance. It's not my Path in Life to get dressed right 
now."

She told the teenager to take off her nymph's skirt and put on her trader's outfit. 
As the girl was changing, Danka put on her penance collar. She told Isauria to go 
to the armory and take a new crossbow and as many bolts as she could fit in her 
quiver. Their roles would be reversed: Danka would carry the supplies and Isauria 
would carry the weapon. When Isauria re-appeared with her new weapon, Danka 
took a look at her companion's dark hair. She realized it had grown out enough 
that it was long enough to braid. That gave Danka an idea, to see if Isauria could 
receive an official certificate from the Defenders' Priest, because a certificate 
would give her full social status in the Duchy as an adult woman. 

Danka and Isauria found the Priest in his study, writing some final entries in a 
journal. He was shocked to see her wearing a Public Penance collar, but she 
responded simply by telling him the truth, the collar was a disguise so she could 
travel safely. She asked about a certificate for Isauria.

"Has the girl passed her fifteenth birthday?"

"No. I was planning to serve as her guardian until she was old enough to have her 
hair braided but, as you can see, that'll be impossible. No one will be around to 
attest she has the right to be a full citizen when she turns fifteen. So, I'm asking 
you to do that right now. I need her to accompany me, and she needs to travel as 
an adult, not a child."

"As you wish. Braid her hair, and I'll prepare the certificate."

Usually the hair-braiding ceremony is a momentous event in a young woman's 
life, second only to marriage. It is a special time, accompanied by celebration and 
ceremonies. For Isauria, there would be none of that. Like Danka's marriage, 
Isauria's hair-braiding would be done out of necessity and in a hurry, without any 
fanfare or celebration. Danka arranged Isauria's hair, taking her time in an effort 
to make it look as good as possible. If Isauria couldn't have a ceremony, at least 
she could have nice braids. When the priest handed her the paper, she became a 
Danubian citizen. Also, she aged a year, because her date of birth had to be 
moved back for the document to be valid.

The priest asked about documentation concerning Danka's collar. Would she like 
to have an updated Public Penance certificate? Danka hadn't thought about that, 
but realized a new certificate would be important. She also realized she had the 
opportunity to assume a new identity. The priest smiled mischievously.

"Excellent, because I have just what you need, a certificate for a woman in Rika 
Chorna called Vesna Rogúskt. Very fancy and official-looking."

"And... what happened to the real Vesna Rogúskt?"

"She was the wife of a Defender. Died two years ago in childbirth, just a few days 
before you showed up. But now he's dead too, and I kept the paper in case 
someone else needed it. So... it's yours, along with the name."

The two women knelt while the Priest issued a final goodbye blessing. They 
quietly wondered about the wisdom of being blessed by a man who spent his life 
"honoring" the Destroyer. Seeing the doubt on their faces, the Priest commented:

"Everyone seems to misunderstand the Destroyer. The Realm of the Living needs 
the Destroyer every bit as much as the Realm of the Living needs the Creator. 
Both of you are farm-girls, correct? Well, every year you plant a seed and give 
life to a plant. Then, a few months later, you pull the plant out of the ground and 
take its life away. Then you put in another seed and start another life. The point is, 
you can't start the second life until the first one has ended. The Destroyer is cruel, 
because death is cruel. But that does not make the Destroyer evil, any more than 
pulling plants out of the ground makes a farmer evil. There is a difference 
between cruel and evil."

"So... you're not leaving with everyone else?"

"No. I will be executed, undoubtedly, as a heretic and a corrupting influence, but 
from the beginning I knew that was my Path in Life. I would not have it any other 
way. And when I hold up my mirror, I will finally have the chance to explain why 
I did all the things that I did. In the end, I will see the ultimate truth and 
understand myself. I'm looking forward to that. I'm not scared at all."

Minutes later, the women left the encampment, traveling along a trail that would 
bypass the villages and the likely route of the approaching Royal Guards. Isauria 
rode on the mule along with their belongings, while Danka (now to be known to 
the world as Vesna Rogúskt from Rika Chorna) walked ahead leading the animal 
by the reins. Ironically, Isauria's social status was way above that of her former 
mentor. Although they were both adults, Vesna was collared and Isauria was not. 
Had she wanted to, Isauria could have made Vesna kneel whenever they spoke to 
each other.

The path forked, one way going west and the other going east. As much as she 
would have liked to go east, Vesna knew that she had to return to the western 
valley. She had to settle Isauria's situation and then find Oana, assuming Oana 
was still alive.

----------

The same day that Defender Danka departed with Apprentice Isauria and the mule, 
the Danubian Royal Army took control of the garrison near the villages. The 
village elder gave Danka's notes to the commander of the Royal Guards. The 
Royal commander was impressed with the document's descriptive detail and 
organization of facts and events. It would make a valuable contribution to the 
Grand Duke's archive about the militia's failed assault on Aksheriri Ris. Knowing 
that the settlers could not possibly have written such a document, the Guards 
inquired about the author. The settlers described a nymph, incredibly beautiful, 
who had sought the Destroyer's protection after the battle so she could return. 
When the Royal Guards asked where she was, no one could find her. She had 
disappeared without a trace. The villagers neglected to mention anything about 
Isauria and the apprentice was completely forgotten.

The tragic, bizarre story behind the naked nymph's return from the Defenders' 
heroic battle became a favorite topic for discussion and speculation throughout 
the region. The settlers told each other fantastic tales about her escape and 
exaggerated her physical beauty. The Royal Guards adopted the villagers' stories 
and came up with some campfire songs to alleviate their boredom in that 
wretched, isolated garrison. Within a few months there were many versions 
floating around both sides of the eastern border about the alluring wanderer's 
adventures. Men imposed their own fantasies on her and some, including the 
village elder, claimed to have had sex with her. 

By the following year, no one remembered the vanished nymph as Danka, the 
wife of Doctor Ilmátarkt and a member of Dalibora's squad. Instead, she became a 
woman of incredible beauty and mystery, a cursed deliverer of tragedy to the 
Realm of the Living. 
 

----------


Note01: During the 1970s, a group of revisionist historians more closely 
examined the relationship between the Grand Duke and Commander Sáupeckt to 
look for clues indicating whether the Sovereign somehow betrayed the militia 
leader. Questions asked by the revisionists included: 1) Why did the Grand Duke 
allow an independent militia to guard the southeastern region in the first place, 
instead of using Royal Guards? 2) Why did the Grand Duke allow Commander 
Sáupeckt to assault Sumy Ris, if he was convinced the expedition was likely to fail? 
Would it not have been better to convince the militia leader to not press forward 
with the project, or try to replace him with a more cautious leader and thus save 
lives? 3) Is it possible Commander Sáupeckt could have taken Sumy Ris, if he had 
direct support from the Crown? 4) How much talent did Commander Sáupeckt 
really have as a military commander? 5) What were the Grand Duke's personal 
feelings about Commander Sáupeckt and the Defenders? 

Let's examine these questions, keeping in mind that communications during the 
1750s were unreliable and the Grand Duke did not always have timely and 
accurate intelligence concerning the situation along the eastern section of the 
border.

1) Between 1754 and 1764, the Grand Duke's most important priority, far more 
than anything else, was to permanently secure Hórkustk Ris province and make 
sure that is was so well protected that neither faction from the rival Kingdom 
would attempt to invade or launch cross-border raids. Absolutely nothing could 
be allowed to disrupt the incoming settlers and their new farms, so the Grand 
Duke stationed every available soldier he could spare to protect the peace of the 
region. The increased security of Hórkustk Ris province came at the expense of 
other areas such as the eastern border and the Vice Duchy of Rika Chorna. Given 
his lack of resources, the Grand Duke was more than happy to allow armed 
civilians to organize and secure a part of the border his troops could not 
adequately protect.

2) Our sources indicate that Commander Sáupeckt's rise to power over the 
Defenders' entire militia caught the the Grand Duke by surprise. Because of poor 
communications, the Royal House was not aware until the spring of 1758 that the 
guerrilla units had coalesced around a single leader. He was genuinely 
concerned when he learned about the plan to assault Sumy Ris, but, because of 
issues of tradition and protocol, was not in a position to convince Commander 
Sáupeckt to abort the mission. Instead, he provided information and maps to make 
sure the militia leader knew that Sumy Ris was indefensible. The Royal Army's 
intelligence, along with Defender Danka's updated map, did not make the militia 
leader change his mind, but it did make him change his target: to first capture 
Aksheriri Ris to later use as a base of operations against Sumy Ris.

From what my colleagues and I have seen of contemporary writings and the 
Grand Duke's memoirs, any deliberate act of deception or betrayal by the Grand 
Duke over Sumy Ris seems extremely unlikely. The ruler certainly would not have 
passed up the opportunity to capture the former Danubian capitol, if he were 
convinced it could be defended without straining the resources of the Royal Army 
in other parts of the Duchy. When the Grand Duke understood the Defenders' 
operation was destined to proceed, he provided as much support as he could, 
short of committing troops. Even if the militia troops were defeated, he wanted 
them to do as much damage as possible to the Kingdom of the Moon factions and 
further weaken them as a threat against the Royal Army and Hórkustk Ris 
province. In addition to providing supplies, during the expedition Royal Guards 
entered the Kingdom of the Moon on three occasions to evacuate wounded and 
dead Defenders prior to the final evacuation from Aksheriri Ris.

3) Given the Royal Army's experience in 1754, it is certainly possible the capture 
of Sumy Ris could have been repeated in 1758, but occupying the city and the 
surrounding region over a prolonged period of time would not have been possible, 
given the Royal Army's resources at the time. That reality is even more evident 
today than it was in 1758, because the devastation and depopulation from the 
civil war in the northern part of the Kingdom of the Moon was much more severe 
than in the southern part. The Danubians, both the Royal Army and the Defenders, 
had an inaccurate idea concerning the remaining strength of the two factions, 
which caused Commander Sáupeckt to badly underestimate the size and strength 
of the armies shadowing his unit as they moved towards Aksheriri Ris.

4) Commander Sáupeckt's defeat is undoubtedly the favorite classic tale of hubris, 
tragedy, and partial redemption that seems so well-suited for Danubian story-
telling. The fact that he died with a crossbow in his hands while recklessly 
confronting an entire squad of Red Moon musketeers so the last of his men could 
scramble over some walls to join the Grand Duke's army assured his place as a 
hero instead of a villain in Danubian lore. Whatever else he may have been, he 
was no coward, although I suspect he used the enemy squad to commit suicide. 
But tragedy aside, was Commander Sáupeckt a good military leader? He was, but 
for company-sized tactical operations, not long-term strategic operations. His 
rise to power within the militia was the direct result of a single battle, which in 
turn was the result of the secret sling-bombs supplied to him by Defender Danka. 
In other words, had Danka not provided the bomb design to her commander, he 
would not have had the prestige to take control of the Defenders, and the ill-fated 
campaign against Sumy Ris would not have happened.

5) The Grand Duke viewed Commander Sáupeckt no differently than he viewed 
any other subject with charisma and talent, by asking: how can this person be 
useful to me? If the militia leader had a realistic chance of taking Sumy Ris, the 
Grand Duke would have been happy to let him claim most of the glory of victory, 
knowing that he would eventually consolidate control over the new territory 
through patience, co-opting of supporters, and cunning.

- Maritza Ortskt-Dukovna -


Note02: The Army of the Blue Moon defeated the rival faction, seized control of 
Aksheriri Ris, and held it from June 1758 through October of the same year. 
During those months Blue Moon troops launched raids against Sumy Ris and 
other previously safe towns within the Lord of the Red Moon's traditional area of 
control. The Lord of the Red Moon's men eventually retook the city, but lost 
control of it again at the beginning of 1759. The location changed hands a total of 
six times during the final phase of the Kingdom of the Moon's civil war and by 
1764 not a single structure remained standing. The Ottoman Sultan ordered a 
mosque built on the hilltop in 1770, but that building was destroyed exactly a 
century later when the former Kingdom of the Moon's territory became an 
Austrian protectorate. After World War II a French casino developer purchased 
the entire hill, demolished all remaining ruins and archeological sites, and built 
the Emerald City resort, which continues to occupy the site today.

- Maritza Ortskt-Dukovna -