27 This Is Difficult

The baron had taken me to the dungeon below the castle where they kept their prisoners. There laid at least thirty men and women, the men were the majority but from what I was exposed to it seemed the women also played a very large part in their budding rebellion.

My nose instinctively crinkled at the rancid smell that permeated from the cells. The prisoners seemed to have all gotten used to it.

"Who among you can speak for the others?" I ask, the group remained relatively unmoved by my words. Likely intent on preserving as much energy as possible in their squalor.

The baron beside me angrily repeated my words, hitting the bars with a stick making a terrible noise, "Are you lot deaf?!"

After a few shady looks at each other, grumbles here and there, a woman stood to her feet, she was stout and slender as most peasant women happened to be, her dirt brown hair took on an even more unkempt shape, her cheeks looked like they'd begun to recede and her limbs looked more emaciated.

"What do you want?" she coughs out, her eyes sizing me up and immediately disregarding me with a roll.

"Is no one leading with you?" I ask with a disarming smile. I had thought for certain a man would be the one to rise, even as she did I saw some desire to lead in the eyes of the many men behind her.

She looks behind her and shrugs, "Well I guess it's just me." She says, not thinking about it too much.

I nod to the guard beside us he opens the cellar and prompts the woman out. "Mathilda. Please go with the Baron here and carry out what we discussed."

As Mathilda and the Baron leave I look to the woman, she still had a rather unimpressed look on her face. Either she was unimpressed or just unfazed by everything. "And what's your name?"

"Emilia." she deadpanned, not bothering to look at me.

"Well, Emilia, walk with me, let us leave this rancid place." Although I was sure the stench didn't bother her much as she herself was a predominant source of it, I wasn't entertaining the idea of getting used to it.

She walked sluggishly, her exhaustion no doubt an effect of the malnutrition she suffered. "What was your profession before you joined the traitor's attempts at dissent?"

At my words, I get the first facial reaction. A touch of anger, "I was a baker." She had will. They must have discussed amongst themselves not to give in to goading. But she wasn't doing a very good job. She'd already validated my attempts.

"You are quite young. Some food and nice bath to wipe off all that grime and banish that terrible stench, you'd be a beautiful woman." I let her see my smile, though she gave no visible reaction, I was close.

"I bet a lot of handsome young men have bought your bread just to win your favour, I know this to be true because you see, I am a handsome young man and would certainly do the same for a woman as beautiful as yourself," I say this with a chipper and confident voice and observe her reaction.

She hid her face but I could tell she was grinding her teeth so I continue, "I would say you are no older than a twenty. But I do not understand why you would pick up arms and rise against your lord in a futile attempt to prove loyalty to a man who has never displayed such virtue himself!"

As my goading turns into a scolding her shock is evident. Her tongue quicker than her mind, she reacts, "You need not understand, your noble scum need only roll over and die! Let the people rule themselves and you will see from the bowels of the demon Raugr himself that your vile ways have become your undoing, we will spread our influence until all your heads roll and your palaces are stained with the blood of your families just like the streets and farms are stained with the blood, sweat and tears of true hardworking and well-deserving people!"

I was shocked. So was the guard that tagged along for my protection. Her hate was thick and likely impenetrable by reason. Although her hate would be justified quite firmly in the world I come from, bringing many, myself included to advocate for a right to something as simple as suffrage unfortunately for her, I stood on the losing side of such liberal ideas, beautiful as they were.

"You are a very passionate woman," I state. We'd stopped walking and she bravely bared her fangs up at me, her glare was heat but her malnourished state only made me pity her.

"And I can tell you are more than willing to die for your delusional cause-"

"Faster than you would for the people who you're meant to protect on the behalf of God!" I blink. Was this perhaps the beginning of the renaissance?

I look to her and only smirk. "Too bad you won't be seeing the good Lord anytime soon. But your friends will and so will their families as well as anyone else who fights for the delusions of a traitor. And you will stand to watch it all happen. I will make you the courier for the consequences of defying the natural order of things. You shall be meek."

***

I stood atop a platform just outside the castle on a slightly elevated land, Mathilda and the Baron hanging loosely around me as I spoke to the gathered crowd

"Denizens of Perlun! Your children lined up in chains behind I, the Regent of Aville have caused great alarm not only for their Lords but for neighbouring cities and villages." I gesture to the thirty-seven men and women kneeled and chained to one another in pairs of four.

I looked down to the crowd of average looking people, they were surrounded by guards on all sides just in case something unwanted occurred. I scanned their faces as I made my declaration, "They have failed their lords on earth, representatives of the three glorious Gods we serve, for their betrayal, for their treason in serving the heretic Osmond and wilfully doing his bidding. They shall be executed." There was a collective gasp from the crowd. Although they knew well what came for the prisoners behind me, perhaps they still held hope there would be mercy.

"Execution shall be carried out in a manner chosen by the region of Perlun's Lord, Baron Kasim."

I made to step off the platform and suddenly a woman rushed out from the crowd, prostrating at my feet, holding on to my clothes.

"Please, Lord! Mercy! Mercy for my child, Marcus! Mercy!" She screamed, tears in her eyes as she gripped my ankle firmly.

Pitiful. Certainly worth of sympathy. But my sympathies have no place in enforcing the law. I crouch down to her and take hold of her hands, pulling them away from my ankle and holding the dirt-stained and calloused hands of a mother in mine.

"I want more than anything to set these children free. I love these men and women as much as you do, they are my people, children of Saia just like I am." she looked me in the eye and I could see hope build. "But punishments must be met out to those who disobey."

I urged her to rise to her feet, she was much shorter than I was and aged enough to be a grandparent. I wouldn't be much surprised if she was. I embraced her, holding her tight and speaking apologies for her son's disobedience in her ears before turning to the less tense crowd. Amazing what a little show of compassion and sympathy will do.

"I love you all. But as the Gods punish us for our sins, we, as representatives of Gods divine rule must do the same. Mothers, Fathers, I urge you to deter your children from the ways of sin, lest they become scapegoats for heretics!"

I let go of the woman and place a single silver in her hands, her tearful eyes widened and even within her grief she saw value in it. "Take this," I whispered, "Bury your son."

A silver was a bit much for a peasant woman but I couldn't accurately tell the difference between a bronze and a silver with just my fingertips, so I just gave her the first thing that I pulled out.

I kissed her forehead and left. The crowd's little pockets of murmurs had died down the moment I professed my love for them, so I was certain I'd left a lasting impression on them. I doubt they'd be any more rebellions in the region for a while.

As I left, I approached Mathilda and the tied up Emilia, still looking quite sunken, the both of them.

"You really won't let Edward off will you?"

"You are the worsts person and the best liar!" Emilia spat.

I rolled my eyes at them both and beckoned to Mathilda to follow. Emilia would be left to the whims of the Baron. I'd given him the choice to enlist her as a servant or set her free and back into the community.

"Rainald…"

I could hear the Baron's voice now, shouting out an order for the beheading of one John. I didn't know for sure if I should feel responsible for their deaths or if the baron should or if the executioner should.

"Please Rainald…"

Perhaps the executioner? After all, he carried out the act. But then he only did so on his superior's orders, leaders took responsibility for actions taken by their men, didn't they? That's why they are leaders. But that would mean I-

"Rainald!"

Mathilda now stood in front of me, I didn't want to look at her. I didn't want to see what her face looked like as she cried.

"Look at me, Rainald." She sniffled.

I do as she says, albeit reluctantly. Her eyes are red and welled up with tears, her crimson hairs stuck onto her wet cheeks.

"Will, you not let him go? At least, let him to me."

"Mathilda I…"

"Lord Regent! Lord Regent!" I turned at the call to a man on a horse, galloping towards myself and Mathilda, I stepped aside as the horse began trotting to a stop and the man hopped over to kneel before me.

"Lord Regent. I come bearing news from Aville."

I look to Mathilda, she'd since wiped her tears away, her eyes still red. I cleared my throat and spoke, "Well? What is it?"

"Milord, your brother Orson sent I as well as many other messengers to all parts of the county in search of you. Your sister, Dagena, has gone missing."