I squatted down in front of Hara and waited for her to raise her eyes to me. "The girls that will be watching after you are very dear to me… If you hurt… No… If you even scare them, you'll pay."
She shuddered again, unable to speak, nodding vigorously instead.
'Good enough…' I sighed, brushing off my hands and stepping out to see Rune and Vive hiding nearby. 'Little eavesdroppers… Glad I didn't actually have to hurt her…' "Hey girls." I called out and they promptly stepped out from behind the little nook where they were hiding. Vive confidentiality so, and Rune a bit more afraid of getting in trouble.
"So… You're not going to like skin us alive for listening in are you?" Vive smirked.
I just rolled my eyes. "Bring her some food… And she's a prisoner, so you can be nice… But don't like, take her shackles off or anything like that ok?"
They quickly scampered off.
'Probably no one better than them to show her we aren't crazy cannibals… She's too weak physically to do anything without magic, so this should be fine… And if it's not, Vive will just murder her… Although, I guess that's concerning in its own way…'
I rubbed my head, moving on as I rounded up the other commanders. "Alright… Tabernath is MIA Bhaltiar as well. Al, you're good, Elianara… You…"
"I can fight with a broken nose…" He grumbled.
'Well alright then…' "Philly, how's your hand?"
She smiled dimly. "I can move it… But it's not pretty. It will take weeks to recover."
'Weeks huh… Not months…' I sighed. "Ok… You, you're the new commander of the Bhaltairs group, right?"
The man stepped up and leaned forward on the table. He looked like he had a lot to say to me, but he cut it all short. "That's right… Call me Vasick."
I rubbed my head again. "Ok… Everyone report… My squad… 0 Casualties, 0 injuries… So far the auxiliary units have stayed safe like we told them to, but being protected could quickly turn into a liability…"
Phily leaned in with eyes that barely flickered with life. "We lost 7 of our mournclaws… And all of our stoneskins…"
'Wait what?' "I thought 12 made it back?"
"Several of the ones that made it back died from injuries… One lost two legs… So we are counting that as well…"
"So we have seven left. What about cavalry?"
"Of my 200 men I still have around 98."
'Fairy dust… over 50% casualties?' "Al?"
"32 injuries, 12 major, 0 casualties for now."
'That's good… Better… At least…' Next in the natural order was the man that took Bhaltair's place… But after looking at him I changed my gaze to Elianara. "Commander Elianara?"
He folded his arms and stared off into space. "We lost 64… An entire guild. The wall would have fallen if not for your sister…"
'Of course she ended up in the thick of it…' The image of Bhaltair's men suddenly flashed through my mind as they were brutally finished off.
"Of Our 150 men… 23 remain…" Vasick said, further chilling my bones.
"Goo– I-I mean…." My words caught in my throat. "I'll give you the information from the prisoner now…"
They all listened intently as I cleared my throat and tugged at my collar before telling them everything.
Al leaned forward. "They could come with all five of the sages… But we still have orders to defend Kasesh…"
"That's true… But… We're two commanders down… Almost three. Our war beasts are virtually wiped out… And all this is from the best battle we could have possibly taken. A battle we won… Do you think we will survive another?"
"To retreat is cowardice…" Elianara growled.
"If we stay and die… Who will defend Elana? You have more stake in this than most, your city, and your family being next on the chopping block…"
For once he finally shut up.
"For now we fortify our defenses… If Rokai tries something, we defend, until then we start evacuating people through the tunnels… This was always the plan, only now we are bringing everyone."
"You can't give us orders…" Elianara grumbled.
"How many people defeated a sage in the last great war?"
Phily leaned forward and whispered in my ear. "Only one… It was your grandmother."
"Right… Oh, so it's kind of a big deal? Yeah… So I'm appointing myself general until Ulf returns. As a general, I order you to follow my orders before I put your head through the table."
Elianara looked at me for a moment before letting out a long groan and finally caving in. "There's no point in fighting you over this… We'll just be weakening ourselves even more…"
"Alright… Good… Take your remaining forces and begin the evacuation… Al, I need you're men on guard duty, and Phily… You and your men need to rest… But if they are up to it… We need more arrows…"
She slowly pulled her feet together and straightened her back. "Yes general."
"Uh… General, what should I do? I mean…"
I turned back to Vasick. It still felt unreal… Suddenly my brother's men, what was left were under my command, people I had sparred with and been beat down by… Memories, faintly, or didn't even have, since I let the dragon control me… I felt a bit of regret for that…
"General?"
"It's nothing… Gather the rest of your men… And meet me at the dwarves' workshop I have… An idea…"
With a firm solute, he quickly left. 'Only 15% of them are still alive… And they were literally the toughest squad we had…' As I finally found myself alone with the images of the battle flashing through my mind, I started to cry, leaning forward on the table and covering my head for a moment before I got up and headed to the dwarves. 'Just keep moving and everything will be fine…'
"DON'T YOU ASK ANY MORE OF US!" One shouted as I walked through the door.
I slowly swallowed. 'That's quite a greeting… But I guess it's fair sense they aren't actually military…' "We're evacuating the city… The commanders will follow behind with everyone else through the underground tunnels…"
Just like that all of them calmed down.
"But… I do have a favor to ask…"
The same man who had just screamed at me lowered his voice. "Just one then… And then we'll be going. It will give us some time to pack up our gear."
"You can carve Dwarven Runes into anything, right?"
"Aye. Anything, leather, metal, stone, wood."
"What about human skin?"
One of them dropped their hammer and it slammed to the ground. "WE-"
The one that had been speaking raised his hand and silenced him. "Aye… anything… What did you have in mind?"
"Durability, strength, speed, endurance, each one as many times over as you can until you run out of room or they run out of will."
He crossed his arms. "If they agree we will try… But they might be done with it faster than you think… When we are done, we leave."
"That's right, your terms are all fine."
He sighed. "We have a condition…"
"Ok…"
"Dragon scales… You may be just a little girl now, but if you live long enough you'll grow a few. For us to break tradition, we must have the promise of something of great value."
"Sure… If I live long enough."
"Like you said, they stop when they lose the will, and then we pack up and go."
'This was the Bhaltairs squad… You think a little pain will stop them from anything? They probably like it…'
I explained to them what they were doing, and sure enough, not a single one rejected it. Out of all of them only 8 had to stop early, still covering over half their body… Although, that didn't stop the screaming from going all night long.