Enlightened Empire

Chapter 416: Survivors

The medical tent at the back of the southern army's main camp smelled of sweat and blood. Row upon row, soldiers lay on their straw mats and silently told of the war that had just come to an end. Among them lay two whose status was quite unusual, though they also couldn't have been more different.

One was a former scout, whose exploits would no doubt make him a hero after the end of the war. However, the status of the man lying next to him was even more peculiar.

"Alright then, Master Chalco. It looks like you have recovered well. You should be able to eat solid foods again, and your wounds have all scabbed over nicely. Just stay here and drink plenty of fluid for a few more days, and you'll be right as rain."

After the doctor had given his diagnosis to the warrior who used to be his enemy mere days ago, he left for the next patient. Surely, he would have many more to visit over the course of a day. Despite the man's friendly demeanor, Chalco couldn't help but consider just how many he would have to bury today alone, or how many had already died under his care.

"It's no wonder you guys won the war," he finally said as he lay back down on his cheap mat.

"What are you talking about, mole rat?"

In the bunk next to Chalco, Taki the heroic scout sat up as he replied.

"What a rude nickname you have given me, ear worm."

However, Taki sneered at Chalco's complaint.

"You kept calling our men moles and rats, just because we were better at digging than you. So you started it! And who's 'ear worm'!?"

"Whatever you say, ear worm." Chalco laughed. "You know how you got that name."

Before Taki could assault his ears again, Chalco preceded his next, screamed complaint.

"The doctor told you to rest, did he not?" he said. "Maybe you should listen to your experts."

For a few seconds, Taki returned a dirty look, before he sank back down onto his straw. Finally, there was some peace and quiet. Although the two were arguing, it made Chalco smile. Never had he expected to spend casual days like this with a commoner. However, compared to the miracle of their return, commoners and warriors getting along wasn't much of a shock.

The barrels of gunpowder that Taki had exploded had also destroyed Chalco's precious wall. At the time however, he had had no idea about any of that, nor had he cared. Rather, he had been under water already, and had just barely survived the explosion as a result. Even so, both him and Taki had been stuck under water, and in absolute darkness. In his attempt to feel around for some orientation, he had somehow got a hold of the unconscious body of the commoner who had gotten him into this mess.

Against his better judgment, Chalco had taken him along, and saved his life. After a desperate struggle, he had made it back out of the water at last. By pure chance, he had found a little pocket of air and a dry spot to stand on before he had run out of breath or strength.

Even so, he still hadn't been able see a thing, and Chalco had had no idea how to proceed. In the first place, he hadn't known where they had been at all. Since the original main tunnel of the southern army would have collapsed from the explosion, he had doubted their position to be anywhere near reinforcements.

After he had felt around for a while, he had also realized that they had been completely locked in, with the only way in and out of their cave being the water hole they had escaped from just before. It had taken hours until things finally turned for the better. More precisely, it had taken until Taki had woken up again.

This commoner somehow had better ears than almost all cultivators Chalco had ever met. Thus, he had been able to knock on the walls around them in search of hollow or weak parts. Finally, armed with a sense to rival their missing sight, they slowly began to make their way through the earth.

Taki would use his ears to check the road ahead for weaknesses, and Chalco would use his expertise in building these very tunnels to plan their advance. Thus, they had slowly made progress through the ground. Not only had they been exhausted and injured, they had also been forced into slow, careful progress to prevent a additional tunnel collapses that would have killed them both. Only the dirty water they had swam through had kept them alive in the end. By the time they had returned back above ground, almost three full days had passed. Their injuries had gotten infected, and both men had been completely exhausted.

Although Chalco had made his way outside, he hadn't been happy about his survival for too long. Because by the time they had returned, the war had been practically over. The city's walls had already been stormed. There had been no turning the tides anymore, no desperate last struggle Chalco had prepared himself for. In the end, the two had just been brought into one of the medical tents of the southern army, where they had experienced the end of the war in peace, though also surrounded by nasty smell and occasional screams of pain.

While Chalco was still sentimental about the past, his newest companion had already forgotten about his doctor's orders again, and was chattering away as usual.

"I just don't get what you mean. How did we win the war because of the doctors," Taki mumbled as he sat back up yet again. "We were the ones fighting and dying on the front line. What in the underworld did that guy do?"

"It is more than just the doctors." Chalco shook his head, almost too lazy to explain. However, he had nothing better to do, so he thought he may as well substantiate his thoughts. "You were not on the other side, ear worm. Only someone who has fought in Antila would know just how different our treatment was."

As he remembered the ruined house he had slept in for months, he stared up at the clean roof of the tent, tinted in a shining yellow from the midday sun.

"So what was the difference?"

"Well, Antila had no medical tents, for one. In fact, no one in that city has seen single doctor since the start of the war. Maybe our masters did, but they surely were not sharing them with us walking dead. Something like this," Chalco motioned around him. "a professionally organized medical tent, with real doctors and real medicine for every single military unit in your army, that is ridiculous luxury, unheard of in medalan combat."

"So how did you guys handle your wounds if you had no doctors?" Taki changed to sit cross-legged and turned towards Chalco, clearly interested.

"Most men in the allied army were cultivators," Chalco gladly explained to his eager listener. "Cultivators just sleep off the lighter injuries. For heavier ones, most warriors know how to handle them, to some degree. When one spends a lifetime in combat, they collect much practical experience after all."

"Didn't do you much good, did it?" Taki laughed, as if the southern army's victory had been solely his achievement. To be honest, Chalco was dismissive of the scout's 'hero' title. Though he would never say so, since he didn't want to upset his new companion, he was convinced that the southern army's victory had been inevitable from the start, hero or not.

"You say that, but we never really had a chance. I understand that even better now that I have seen your camp. I told you, it's not just the doctors. I have never seen such a well-organized military camp. And I have not eaten this well since the start of the war either."

Chalco sighed. Had he known about the absolute difference in overall strength earlier, maybe he would have helped the southerners win the war sooner, instead of trying to prevent them all this time. Maybe that way, less of his home would have been destroyed, and fewer of his friends would have died. However, someone seemed blissfully unaware of his privileged position.

"Actually, the food's been getting worse," Taki moaned. "I heard we're supplying the refugees from the city. Why not feed the soldiers who won the war, rather than those enemies?"

"See, that's what I meant. Our standards are different. How could you ever complain when all your food is clean, and fills your stomach." For a second, Chalco thought on the second part of Taki's statement, before he continued in a somber tone. "But it is good that your king takes care of Antila's survivors, at least."

In response, Taki grinned. "Hey, he's your king too now."

"I suppose that is the truth. It has become more and more obvious why his subjects seem to revere him so much. As soon as the fighting stopped, he did everything he could to help the people of Antila. Our own master has never treated us this well, not even the warriors, let alone the commoners. And ever since the start of the war, our life has become even worse. Most people were little more than fodder to our noble masters."

Today, the two of them had been allowed to walk around a bit for the first time. 'Light exercise', their doctor had called it. In the distance, they had been able to see the burning remains of what once had been Antila. Of course, from their vantage point they had only seen everything this side of the outer wall, but that had been more than enough.

Fires could be seen raging beyond the walls, or what was left of them. Chalco's greatest work was little more than a mountain of rubble by now, no longer salvageable, and the trenches that surrounded the city were filled with former citizens of Antila, now without a home. Surely, the inside of the city would look even worse than it had when he had last seen it, and it had already been in ruins then.

Thus, a depressing silence covered the entire tent, as Chalco mourned the destruction of his home, and the death of those who had stood to defend it.

"So what do you plan to do now?" Taki finally said, in an annoyingly chipper voice.

"What could this master do?" a mirthless voice came back. "The city is destroyed, my family has perished in the war, and my greatest work has been shot to ruins by those blasted cannons. Where to go from here, maybe only the Divines would know."

"Well, it's not that bad, is it? At least you're still alive." When Taki saw Chalco's nasty look, he clearly realized that he had said something wrong, so the scout flinched back and changed his tone. "I mean, maybe you can try to rebuild your city yourself, right?"

If only things were that simple, friend.

While Chalco only sighed in response at first, he knew that the scout wouldn't stop asking questions anyways. Thus, he tried to distract him with his own question.

"And what do you plan to do, ear worm?" he thus asked.

"Well, once I'm better, I guess I'll go back to Saniya. Maybe I'll find something to do where I don't have to kill people. I don't like war." Taki's simple statement resonated deeply with both men. "But first, I'll have to find out if Qhatuq has family living somewhere. If he does, I want to make sure they're taken care of. And even if I can't find a body anymore, at least I want to erect a small beacon for Qhatuq somewhere. At least that much, I owe him."

Of course, Taki had told Chalco about his dead companion Qhatuq before. Since he had died on the same hill Chalco and Pari had tried to take, the architect thought it prudent to just stay quiet and keep his involvement in the battle a secret. Thus, both men turned silent for once. Yet only seconds later, the somber moment was interrupted by a sudden shout from their right.

"Who's dead, huh, rookie?"

Without either of them noticing, a figure had appeared at the entrance of the tent. The man was a bit short, and quite thin and pale, but he still carried himself like a soldier. That was the case even though he was missing a leg, and walking on crutches.

"A ghost!" Taki screamed, and scrambled off his mat in shock.

"Shut it, rookie!" the one-legged figure shouted back. "You're the ghost!"

For a second, Taki only stared stupidly, before he finally reacted.

"Wait. Qhatuq? It's really you?"

"Who else could it be, idiot? I see you're still not the brightest." the one-legged soldier said, this time with a sneer on his face.

"Quatuq! You're alive!"

From one moment to the next, Taki's eyes lit up like stars. As if he wasn't injured at all, he jumped back to his feet and rushed at the new arrival for a hug.

"That's what I said. Now stop pushing me, you're gonna shove me over!"

As Qhatuq tried to hold off the overenthusiastic Taki with one hand, he struggled to stay upright by holding onto his crutches with the other. Finally, the young scout managed to calm himself a bit and took a step back.

"Wait, your leg," he finally realized in shock. "What happened?"

"Well, turns out, they didn't kill me on that damned hill. They did catch me though, and then sent me back to their city. They asked some questions, but how much can they get out of a normal soldier? Just in case they wanted to trade me for one of their guys some time later, they kept me alive, since I'm technically an officer. They didn't try very hard with the keeping alive part though. Starved me half to death, and they didn't fix the ankle I broke in the fight, so it festered and they just took it off."

"That's horrible. Are you..." For a second, Taki tried to read in Qhatuq's impassive face, in search for words. However, finally he only came up with: "How are you?"

"Lighter." Qhatuq laughed, before he continued in a somber tone. "I'll survive somehow."

Chalco was impressed by this commoner's resilience. In comparison, what right did he have to complain? If nothing else, he still had all his limbs, as well as the entire rest of his life, to regain what had been lost.

"Anyways," Qhatuq continued, "Our guys took the city and freed all the prisoners. I was told you had somehow survived even without my supervision, and so I came over to see how you were doing."

"Ah, I'm great!" When the talk came back to him, Taki finally perked up, and pointed at his chest to show off his achievements. "I'm a war hero, you know?"

As the two friends shared an emotional reunion, Chalco felt like an outsider once more. As an enemy combatant, he had, of course, always been one. Still, he felt uncomfortable just lying here and intruding on the moment.

I should go see if Qori survived the final days, he suddenly thought. I hope he didn't try to be a hero.

Beyond the safety of his friend, he also thought about his own plans for the future. Considering the way he had been treated by the enemy so far, he doubted that he would become a prisoner, at least not for long. So he had his freedom, and he had his health.

Still, staying here didn't seem like an option for now. The city was almost completely destroyed. He wouldn't be able to rebuild it, not in an entire lifetime, not by himself. However, he didn't know where else to go. Only now did he realize that he knew far too little about the world outside of his medical tent.

"Excuse me," he finally interrupted the talk between the friends. "Qhatuq, was it?"

"Yes. It seems like you saved this idiot's life." the one-legged man replied. "Thank you for that."

"Ah, for the most part, I was focused on saving this life," Chalco pointed at his chest. "In the process, another one may have been saved, and he may have even helped out in the process."

"Well, either way, I think we owe you a favor," Qhatuq said. It seemed like this commoner had much better manners than the irresponsible ear worm.

"In that case, could you tell me what is happening on outside? What will happen to Antila in the future?"

"Well, I was also only released yesterday, so I don't really know." Qhatuq frowned. "Though I heard that our king is negotiating with the foreigners these days. It looks like they're willing to pay a massive compensation to end the war peacefully."

"Looks like we'll finally be able to go home then," Taki added.

"That is good news," Chalco agreed.

Inside however, he felt nostalgic again. No matter how much money the Kingdom of the South would receive, their king certainly wouldn't use it to rebuild his home. And if he did, surely that wise king wouldn't entrust the rebuilding project to someone who had fought against the southern army mere days earlier. Since Chalco had been to their capital before, he knew very well just how many capable architects Saniya had. They wouldn't have to rely on him.

Maybe, he thought, the smartest move would be to go to the southern capital as well, to prove his worth, and to accumulate strength. Then one day, he would return to Antila, the place of his birth and seat of his family, and restore it to its former glory; no, even greater glory than before!

First however, he would have to find out if Qori was still alive. In the strange lands he would soon enter, he surely could use a trustworthy friend by his side.