Chapter 27: Chapter 26 – To Rebuild a People

"To destroy, is easy. It takes but a mere moment, a flick of the hand for some, to annihilate every living being in a city.

 

To create, on the other hand, is far more difficult. What might have taken just a single day to destroy, would take years, if not decades, of rebuilding before it reaches its proper glory.

 

I have little respect for those who destroy, but I respect those who create with all my soul." - Nec Aarin, The Bone Lord.

Formerly the Abode of Spirit Lords, Danna, Central Junora, third day of the second week of the ninth month, year 37 VA.

 

Surprisingly, cleanup after the war - for as one sided as it had been, Vitalica and Ptolodecca had gone to war against Junora - was far more troublesome and tedious than the war itself.

 

Two weeks after the battle at the Kur-Urseth plains, Adalbert had rendez-vouzed with the rest of the group as ordered, his sweep of the perimeter finished. He had faced only light resistance - evidenced by the fact that only a thousand or so of the ten thousand with him were lost, with not even a single living soldier as casualty, other than one archer who broke his leg in a bad fall - as most of the Junoran troops were gathered to face the Bone Lord instead.

 

As for Danna itself, the city was beyond safe. Myrddin and his Death's Hands had scoured the city for any possible survivor, but found nothing but piled up clothing and weapons in their search.

 

The Bone Lord's great magical working had been very thorough, and not a single inhabitant of Danna, a city of at least ten thousand, had been spared. Not even the serfs who had not been turned into thralls yet.

 

It was in the Bone Lord's nature to rather butcher innocents than to sacrifice his people to potentially save them. Which Aoife reasoned was a slim chance to begin with. Had they gone with a more normal siege those serfs would likely be forcefully turned to thralls, or worse, converted into emergency food.

 

Junorans were not a picky lot about what they eat.

 

Aideen still shuddered inside, at the nonchalance with which grandpa Aarin - she found it harder to reconcile the adorable, doting, paternal figure that had looked after her the past couple years with the Bone Lord's indifference and ruthlessness - condemned an entire city, the men, the women, the young, the old, all without exception, to an ignominious death.

 

It definitely gave her a new perspective to view her grandpa Aarin with. The doting, paternal love he showered to his disciples and their children, were the same things that fueled his unquenchable rage should one attempt to harm his loved ones. And his rage… was a sight to behold.

 

A harsh lesson the Junoran Spirit Servant seemed to have forgotten over the centuries, and it paid for the forgetfulness with its nation, its people, and its very own existence as a result.

 

In the past few weeks, Vitalica and Ptolodecca had both been frantic with movement, as soldiers and civil servants were mobilized to claim the now ownerless Junoran lands.

 

In a move that surprised Ciarran - and Theodin, once he received the news - to no end, the Bone Lord had generously given most of Junora to Vitalica. The central, western, and northern areas of Junora, its most fertile and populous, were all ceded to Vitalica, while Ptolodecca only claimed the southern and eastern regions for themselves.

 

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Of course, with such great rewards came responsibilities and difficulties as well. To integrate an area literally four times the size of their own nascent nation would be an unprecedented challenge for Vitalica, and the handling of the former Junoran serfs was also rife with difficulties.

 

People who were treated as objects all their lives, as mere possession of their betters, apparently had a difficult time regaining their spirit, or even believing that life could be done in a better way. So downtrodden were their spirits Aideen had even heard stories of people begging to be maltreated, as the "worthless possessions" they are.

 

She could not fathom how people could have thought that way, yet as her mother sternly said, the same applied to those people. They could not fathom how a life of freedom, where they were free to pursue their wants and needs without being restricted by their masters, were like.

 

It was like trying to explain the shape of the sun to a blind man, as her father explained with a dejected sigh.

 

Because of these, Vitalica sent the majority of their civil officials - many of them trusted old friends from Theodin's days of rebellion - as well as a large contingent of militia to help keep order in the villages that were now their territory.

 

The early reports they had received so far indicated quite a bit of difficulty to have the former Junoran serfs adjust to their new lives, and plans were underway to have some volunteers to migrate to Junora, in the hopes that they would be able to connect better with these former serfs.

 

Ironically, the regions taken over by Ptolodecca had far fewer difficulties in integration. To the serfs there, it was literally exchanging an undead overlord for a new one, and they were just happy that the new one was far nicer.

 

Unlike what Vitalica tried, the Bone Lord went for a more gradual approach to his new citizens. He had necromancers and their undead entourage "posted" by every village to "keep an eye" on the serfs, with the only major changes made being the removal of any mention of thralldom, or breeding quotas. He also set taxes at one third what the village used to have to pay, but otherwise did not give them any special treatment.

 

Other than not asking them to pay any taxes for this year and leaving them enough food to last to the next winter, that is. As well as having skeletons placed all over the villages and farms, not to rein the serfs, but for the sake of keeping them safe.

 

When Aideen gathered her courage and asked grandpa Aarin why he chose to integrate the Junorans that way, the Bone Lord chittered, and answered.

 

"To have things done the way Ciarran and Theodin tried to do, child, would be akin to the sun rising from the north-east for these people," he explained patiently, apparently having long awaited for her to ask the question. "These former serfs are like… people who had starved for weeks. You cannot suddenly drop a feast before them, lest you risk many of them gorging themselves to death in their hunger."

 

"Instead, you slowly, gently ease them out of hunger, until eventually, on a day to celebrate, they would forget what hunger was," he continued. "Theodin will probably have to learn this the hard way, but that is his lot in life. I cannot - and will not - hold his hand unless it is truly a dire emergency. Vitalica… needed to stand on its own merits."

 

"Or else, it could instead fall into shambles. A mockery of what your grandfather envisioned. Only time, the eternal mistress, will tell."

 

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