Rising Moon

~Chapter Twenty-Three~

Hector leaned against one of the supporting poles of the royal tent, absently staring at the ground in front of him. The warrior had long ago tuned out the sounds of discussion going on at the large round table. It was the same discussion that the group had been having every night for the past week: which towns and cities would they pass over the following day, and which ones would they talk with?

After salvaging the city of Storolfshvall a week prior, Apaiz Alfketill and Commander Geirfinndottir had been publicly executed in the manner which they had requested the following morning at dawn. Hector was sure that they had screamed and hollered, snarling curses in the faces of the whole army while their bodies burned to ash. However, he hadn't known for sure. He had been with Varian, Quirin, and Selene the whole time. He wanted to make sure that Varian and Selene were kept far away from the violence, and Quirin had of course wanted to stay with his beloved son. When the execution was over, the matter of dealing with Alfketill and Geirfinndottir's soldiers was at hand.

General Ulysses and King Edmund had been successful in their interrogation the night before the execution. They had discovered the captains and lieutenants who had led the attack on Storolfshvall. Each one had been flogged as punishment after their two leaders were dead. Some of the more violent foot soldiers had faced the same punishment. No one was killed. The Loyalists could not afford to lose more fighters than absolutely necessary, whatever they had done. The rest of the soldiers who had been placed under Apiz Alfketill and Commander Geirfinndottir were put on half rations and forced to their knees as a group in front of Ulysses to face severe, public chastisement for their actions.

Those whom Apiaz Alfketill and Commander Geirfinndottir had accused of insubordination and even treason were all given full pardon and a personal apology from General Ulysses. Varian had been given three days of undisturbed rest, extra rations, and personal medical care as compensation for the horrific treatment he faced at Alfketill's hands. It was not much, but it was what Ulysses and the Loyalists could afford. The few others who had been severely mistreated and injured like Varian were given the same treatment.

The citizens of Storolfshvall who had chosen to join with the Loyalist forces (almost all of them specifically requesting to be placed under the command of Hector) also received a public apology from Ulysses and King Edmund. They had their requests met and were placed in Hector's divisions, and they were given the parts of the rations that would have been regularly been received by Apaiz Alfketill's men had they not chosen to attack innocent people.

The dead from Storolfshvall, both soldiers and civilians, were given a mass funeral just after General Ulysses' apology to the surviving citizens. The funeral lasted no longer than an hour, most of that time dedicated to the burning. Hector had however, been present and had spent a few minutes (it was all that could be spared) to sing a funeral song for the ceremony. It was a traditional mourning hymn, recited at many funerals. But Hector broke tradition to sing it in the native tongue instead of in common.

"The people deserve to understand the words of the final lullaby for their loved ones," he had said when asked about his change to the song.

After the executions, punishments, and apologies were all served, there had been an extra hour and a half of time so that the army could pack up camp to leave. Hector had taken the opportunity to find Mythica. It didn't take long to locate her, and once he did, he asked about Selene's family.

Mythica explained that she had been successful in finding them, mentioning that Hector would have to check them over, just to make sure the bodies were the right ones. The warrior had quickly gone with her to look over the three bodies.

They were remarkably well preserved, no doubt the work of Mythica and her magic-users in an attempt to make it easier for Hector and Selene. He hadn't needed to look at them for long, they were Selene's family without a doubt. What had taken time was for Hector to draw his sad eyes away from them. He simply stared at the three of them, thinking, just thinking. He thought about who they were, what they had been like, what they had done in their life. He thought about what it must have been like for them, hiding in their home while their city burned around them, waiting to be killed just like their neighbors. He thought of poor Selene, broken and alone in a war-torn country that wasn't even the magical land she was promised.