Casualty Reports
Three women, two men and four horses between them rode pell-mell past the Essence-raised stone ramparts and into the safety of the Marukan First Legion's camp. The horses were in a lather, and even the riders were breathing hard, as they calmed to the relative safety of the guarded palisades. Outside, Ma-Ha-Suchi's besieging army howled in rage.
Cathak Nekuto, the General Resplendent, watched from the walls. A volley of crude bone-tipped spears hit the palisade, sailed into the fort past his head. “Brutes,” he said. “Trying to overwhelm us with numbers. Don’t they understand? Tactics Mean Everything!” The general poured Essence into a commanding wave of his arm, and his archers loosed their arrows.
The beastmen below scattered for cover, but Nekuto took no comfort in it; he spoke the words, he used his Charm, but he knew it wasn’t true. Logistics mattered much more, and he was quickly running out of arrows. And food. If he couldn’t change something soon, his army wouldn’t survive another month.
The general went down to debrief his harried scouts.
His lieutenants were already waiting: Choshu Ishi, Amilar Agathon from Lookshy, and the monk Soho; Red Feather, himself a barbarian, and the mercenary Leopard Chao. A collection of immigrants to this strange new nation their missing lords had thought to build. But each had found a home here in the Marukan, not least Nekuto himself. Now he just hoped home was still out there.
“Tao Tie, welcome back. My spy in Celeren tells me the Roseblack is as entrenched and unharmed as ever, the wind says the damn Pagoda is under siege and I’ve lost touch with every other manse or stronghold we had. Give me some good news; what’s going on out there.”
The The Qinglong Alliance’s Rider of Dutiful Expression, Tao Tie, saluted. “The news, general, is that there’s not a damn thing going on out there. The beastmen ramble over our roads and fields like bandits, scattering caravans but leaving shepherds and wranglers alone. They don’t even come close to most range towns.”
“Sir, we made it as far as God Crossing!” Bi Xi, the Messenger of Utmost Discretion, burst into the conversation in her excitement.
The general scowled at the girl, but her scout-captain was quick to fill the space. “I know you said it was untouched, sir,” he said, “but we wanted to be sure the road was clear all the way there. It was.
“Beyond that, sir? There don’t seem to be any lunar exalted leading them. It’s hard to say, with shape-changers, but we haven’t heard tell of a silver anima flare since…” He trailed off, leaving unspoken their lords’ defeat. Nekuto considered, stroking his chin. The lunars were gone, the beastmen were attacking anything organized on the roads but leaving the towns alone. But the Pagoda of Infinite Strategy and the First Legion camped with him were both under siege. That was key. His lieutenants were chomping at the bit to respond. “Alright, you all heard. Assessments?”
Agathon let out a slow, considered breath before he spoke. “They’re not trying to take over; they don’t care to rule.”
“Alright,” Nekuto said, “but they’re aggressive. What’s their purpose, then?”
“Military targets,” Leopard Chao said. “They’re only going after military targets. They want to cripple us. That’s why we lost contact with our other strongholds. They broke them.”
“That doesn’t explain the Pagoda, though. Or Celeren.”
“The lunars.” Eager Choshu Ishi jumped forward. “They don’t attack Celeren because they have no lunars with them, and the Roseblack has too many dragon-blooded for the beastmen to do it without exalted leading them.”
“Hhm. That doesn’t explain the Pagoda.”
“I think I can,” Soho said. The monk rubbed his bald head and tuned to the waiting Tao Tie. “In your scouting, did your team find the House of Courage?”
Tao Tie bowed. “Yes, reverend. It was fine.”
Soho smiled a self-depreciating smile. “Yet you could call that shrine one of our strongholds. It’s a gateway to the valley beyond, which makes it a defense position. I think the reason they don’t attack the Pagoda is the same reason they don’t attack the Sweet Voice of Brass and Glory’s other home: religion. They’re afraid to offend the war gods.
“What I don’t understand, I hope you’ll forgive me saying, is why they don't burn the range towns. What’s the use of crippling our military, if they’re not planning to rule or to kill?”
They all stood silent for a while, thinking. But Nekuto knew. And he knew what he had to do. “Brutes,” he said. “Animals. They’re not men, they’re a pack of wolves, and they’re here because they saw a threat to their pack. They avoid the tigers too strong for them, the Vermillion in Celeren; they ignore the rabbit holes, our range towns, because it’s not hunting time; they only worry about the bear in its cave, and that’s us.
“But the bear can’t fight a whole pack of wolves, and we can’t either. So we’ll do what the bear does. We’ll play dead.”
Ishi broke the silence that followed; he didn’t understand. “Sir?” They all looked at him, questioning. Only Soho still smiled; only he understood.
Nekuto's heart pounded in his chest when he said, “I’m going to disband the army.”
