Chapter 11.1 Three Sisters Invasion

Cletus was simply a fisherman with a 21-year-old wife and a 3-year-old son. He was at home resting, on the outskirts of the town of Sisterton, until he heard all the movement that began to take place in the town. He saw several of his neighbors advancing to the wharf, all with guns in their hands. They were the Borrell house levies after all.

The fisherman was not a curious man, so he decided not to get involved. As the minutes passed a large brawl was heard, but Cletus simply wanted to avoid such disturbances. They would not affect him after all. He continued with his family, teaching his daughter to speak; not that he was the best teacher.

Such didactic practice for his little girl stopped when screams began to be heard near him. Closer and closer in fact. Cletus couldn't stand it any longer and opened the door to his house, and what he saw was a horrible sight....

The entire town of Sisterton was in flames, and groups of soldiers were marching almost perfectly, in groups of 30, capturing every civilian they saw. They would even go into every house, and come out with the family who owned the property with their spears pointed at their backs. After clearing the house another group of soldiers would enter and loot anything of value, then torch the rest.

Cletus was spotted by one of those squads, so they headed straight for his house.

"You! Freeze!"

Cletus didn't know what to do, so out of sheer fear he stood still.

"Bring your whole family outside! Or they will turn to ashes!" ordered the one who seemed to be the leader, and with just a glance at the house to his right burning, Cletus called his wife and daughter. Cletus was tied up with a rope, while his wife and daughter were only led at the point of a spear towards the dock, where he could see a huge number of soldiers.

Most wore different armor than those who came for them, and their behavior was much less orderly. Even the shield they carried was different. They were in charge of removing everything of value from a pile of dead bodies, which made Cletus nauseous. They were the soldiers who had left half an hour ago for the main square; many of them his neighbors and friends.

They were also making sure to finish them off, which gave the fisherman the creeps.

In addition to the soldiers, he saw the rest of his neighbors and townspeople being gathered in different groups, mainly by age.

At the same time, Ser Walder and Wolfgang looked out over the formed crowds, with the ocean at their backs. It was an empty ocean, all the ships had already departed back to White Harbor, to find more troops to bring to the islands. With the first voyage only 2,500 troops were able to reach the island. The ship did not have room for more, not if you counted all those sailors who were not in combat roles. Of this first group 1,000 were from the Dustin and 1,500 from the Manderly.

"I must thank you, Lord Dustin. Without your support it is likely we would never have been able to avenge Lord Manderly."

"You must not thank me, Lord Manderly was my family too, though not by blood. It was my duty to avenge his death to give him peace in the afterlife."

"What shall we do now?"

"There is a phrase I am fond of, Ser Walder. Men should be treated generously or destroyed utterly, for they can avenge light injuries, but not heavy ones."

"That..."

"That means we cannot simply do what we did. The Three Sisters must be completely destroyed. After all their blood is the same, they are all guilty."

"They are all guilty..." whispered Ser Walder, but doubt was in his eyes.

"Or would you rather go back to life in White Harbor? Away from the battlefield, away from any glory. Retire in the same way your ancestor did... No, in fact, your ancestor lived through Robert's Rebellion, he has something to tell his ancestors. What do you have to tell Ser Walder?"

The doubt in the eyes of the captain of House Manderly's forces dissipated. He had his mind made up.

As the duo began, Cletus was separated from his daughter.

"Baby! Don't take my baby!" cried Cletus' wife heartbreakingly. The soldiers appeared to be separating the civilians into several groups. One of adult men, one of adult women, one of elderly and finally one of children. Cletus tried to hold his wife, to calm her down; understanding that she was at the total mercy of the enemy, but there came a point where Cletus himself was separated from her, with no one left to hold her.

Recklessly Cletus' wife broke away from her group and began to run towards her daughter, who was already in the group of the rest of the children.

"Stop her!" shouted a voice of authority, and in just a few seconds a spear pierced her heart. Such a demonstration caused all those struggling to rejoin their beings to stop in their tracks. Fear was imprinted on their bodies.

Cletus did not understand anything, he did not know what to do. He had never been in a situation like this before. No women were raped and there was no mockery from the invaders either; there was another kind of feeling, A totally cold disgust; the soldiers in the black uniformed armor looked at the citizens as if they were inferior to them; like trash. They were not worthy of being raped.

Eventually the rest of the soldiers, with the triton shield, began to help the forces of House Dustin maintain order. Their faces were different though; they did not contain the cold rationality of the Dustin soldiers. They looked doubtfully at the situation, but they would obey orders.

Wolfgang stood on a small wooden podium, newly constructed by his soldiers from materials from collapsed houses, and all attention was focused on him.

There were 2,500 soldiers and a little over 2,000 civilians, all survivors of the battle, at least those that Wolfgang's forces had encountered.

"Citizens of Sisterton! I beg to be heard. House Borrell, your lord, committed an unforgivable crime. However, such a house no longer exists, which means it cannot pay for its sins. Do you know what this implies?" he asked, but no one answered. It's not as if Wolfgang expected an answer. "That it will be you, the servants of House Borrel, who will pay for your sins. The payment of this debt you owe to House Manderly will be paid with labor; you will work until your debt is paid off."

"Isn't this... slavery?" whispered Ser Walder in confusion.

"It's not, it's just paying off a debt. Isn't that the same thing that is done to criminals when they are worth The Wall? They are not called slaves" Wolfgang answered him quietly.

Ser Walder found that Lord Dustin's words made sense. The population of this place were criminals after all.

"Most of the members of these islands are descendants of the First Men, they are good people, but people who have lost their way. Be thankful that we will help you find it again!" shouted Wolfgang, and all the soldiers of House Dustin began to pound their spears on the ground in sync, until a gesture from Wolfgang caused him to stop. "Let's get to work then."

The soldiers began, with the wood from the houses that were not burned, to build wooden corrals, in which they began to enclose the different groups. They would only start transporting the population when the second batch of soldiers arrived in the territory. After all, it took a substantial number of men to care for such a large number of prisoners, especially considering that, because of the number of prisoners, it would take at least 2 trips to get them to White Harbor.

'With this... House Dustin will get slave labor' was Wolfgang's thought, and he was glad how everything was working out perfectly. His next orders would be to do the same as was done with Sisterton in the rest of the settlements on the island. Then... the same would happen to the other two sisters of the island trio.