155:The Prisoners

When we got back to the Carroburg we handed the prisoners over to Greta. Willow went back to work on Blume’s foot, and wasn’t able to sow her toes back on, but she was able to save the foot. I thought Blume would be relieved, but she just complained about all the fashionable shoes she wouldn’t be able to wear.

We remembered an earlier message we had found, the list Hugo Bottomdown had dropped. And it mentioned “At Pfeildorf ask for Fione the Thresher. Give her the uniforms and pay her. The word is Heidheinheim.” That sounded like it might refer to these mercenaries, and it sort of made sense that they might secretly be fighting for Solland while trying to put the blame on Nuln.

We had a further discussion about the prisoners, and Blume wanted them executed as they had been fighting dishonourably to bring down the Empire, but Greta said it would be better to put them before a court with a signed confession. And she sort of implied she would do anything to get the confession.

So Willow told one of the prisoners the that they were about to be tortured (I don’t know if she believed they would be, or it was a ruse) so they had better tell the truth. And I think she may have even used hypnotism. So they revealed that they were ‘the Threshers,’ which made sense given Bottomdown’s note. And they were trying to make life difficult for the countess by attacking innocent settlements in the guise of Nulner soldiers.

And then Greta got out her wooden box of implements, in front of another of the soldiers, and that really frightened him, and he revealed a similar plan, to bring unrest around Nuln and have the blame be put on Countess Emmanuelle. And he said he would be prepared to turn emperor’s evidence against his fellows.

We didn’t really know what to do with the prisoners now, as they had been ostensibly fighting for Nuln, but fighting in Stirland, but we were heading for Averheim. But we agreed that our mission was so important, the fate of the prisoners and the politics surrounding should not be a priority. And we locked them all up together in the brig, and so Grissen got her old cabin back, even if she now had to share it with us.

We also considered that getting all this evidence in favour of the countess might put us in good stead with her later. And so we instructed the captain to deliver the prisoners to Nuln on our return journey.

The next day we continued towards Averheim, and the day was quiet, until in the afternoon, Willow spotted a line of ships blocking the river. We slowed and the captain of one of the boats from the blockade asked for permission to come aboard.

He said that a military operation was happening further up the river, and it would not possible for us to continue for a while. Blume was a bit rude to him, and the rest of us weren’t that pleased that we were being delayed. But the captain said we would be welcome to dine with the commander in the field that evening and he would explain the situation better. And so we agreed.

So we went ashore and travelled by road until we could see the famous university city of Streissen. It was being besieged by an army, but before that, there was another army, poised to lift the siege. We went to that camp, and waited for the general to arrive.

Willow got speaking to one of the guards and he explained that Streissen had revolted, and the army of Marlene Alptraum, the daughter of Elector Countess Ludmilla Alptraum, was here to put the uprising down. But his army had come to ambush that army. Willow asked who was in charge of this army and he replied that it was General Marius Leitdorf.