Casus Belli Ch. 07: Accepting Fate

Cassandra swallowed, "I'm actually terrified too, and mostly about the surrender ceremony. What I fear most is getting raped in public, with everyone watching." She looked down at the table, "Especially with people I know watching..."

Denora reached out from opposite the table, and placed a hand on hers. "Most of those people will just feel for you," she said softly, "and everyone will know it isn't of your own choosing."

The young Kangess nodded, "I know, but still..." Silence descended, and after a moment she forced herself to stop worrying. After glancing at the chronometer she took in her gathered maidens. "I now want you all to go and change into the simplest dress you have available," she ordered, "and once we're in the great hall I want you to join the other servants. I'm not going to risk the orcs mistaking you girls for nobles."

The girls clearly didn't agree, but after a moment Denora nodded, "I don't like it, our place is next to you, but I see your reasoning milady."

Cassandra looked at Syldan, "Could you please accompany me to the training room first? It won't take long." The raven haired beauty nodded, and got up after her. She led her out of the living room, and then down the private hallway. When they entered the training room she walked over to the weapons cabinet filling the wall opposite the windows, and opened its central doors, inside it were her swords. She looked over her shoulder at Syldan, who was standing close behind her. "I'm going to take a sword with me to the great hall, but which one do you think I should choose?"

Syldan swallowed, "Well, that would depend on what you're planning to do with it..."

She chuckled, "I'm not going to challenge Bashuk to a duel, if that's what you're worrying about. I just don't want to be seen by him as a 'bed wench' again, I want to be seen as a woman, as a leader, before I offer him the sword in surrender."

Her companion visibly relaxed, "Don't use your own precious swords for it then, because there might still come a day you'll need them, and surrendered swords often end up broken." Syldan moved beside her, and opened up the cabinet to her right. It was filled with all kinds of swords, and after taking them all in for a moment she pointed at one. "That one. It has an elegant no-frills quality, it suits you."

Cassandra nodded slowly, she herself would have gone for a more elaborate one, but Syldan was right, the sword should fit her, and not the occasion. She took the sword from the cabinet, and pulled it from its scabbard, to check it. It looked and felt alright, and she sheathed it again, before she buckled it around her waist. The scabbard was attached to the belt with two adjustable leather straps, which didn't need adjusting, as the sword was positioned on her hip perfectly already. She looked up at Syldan, who nodded approvingly, and then they closed up the cabinets again and returned to the living room.

Once there Syldan excused herself, and Cassandra walked up to the south east facing windows, from where she could observe the main gate. As expected there was a lot of activity; male servants on wagons packed with their luggage leaving the castle. She watched it for a while, until she heard the doors to the private hallway open. Turning halfway around she noticed Denora entering, followed by the other maidens, except for Syldan, who was probably still busy changing. They were all dressed in what, as far as she could remember, were the clothes they had worn when they first met, now years ago.

The simple dresses still fitted well, except for Vala's, which looked just a tad tight in the chest area. "You have grown," she observed with a smile, looking at the buxom maiden.

Vala blushed, "Yes, that seems to be the case..."

The girls set off towards the couches, and then Denora ground to a halt, her eyes widening. Cassandra followed where her senior maiden was looking, and realized it was the sword dangling from her hip that had attracted the maiden's attention. "Don't worry," she said, "I know how to use it. I'm not going to cut myself."

Denora's eyes locked with hers, "You aren't... are you?"

A couple of the other maidens had discovered she had armed herself too by now, and more anxious faces resulted. "No," Cassandra chuckled, "I'm not going to put up a famous last stand. Don't worry..." The faces relaxed, and the girls all sat themselves down. Polly and Moiga ended up next to each other, as usual, and Denora sat down on one of the easy chairs at the head of the low table, but Vala and Leavy, sitting on the couch opposite Moiga and Polly, had left an obvious space between them. She knew for whom that space was, and if she hadn't known already their expectant faces would have told her.

She started moving over to the couches too, which was when Syldan decided to enter the living room. The young Kangess stopped, and watched Syldan approach. She was wearing a simple turquoise dress, which combined well with her caramel skin. Its fit seemed off though, and as Syldan walked past her she realized why that was. The dress wasn't laced up yet. "You're a nice bunch," Syldan said to the maidens around the low table, "leaving me behind to get into my dress alone."

She said it with a chuckle, and Denora started to rise. "As you are," Cassandra told her, while stepping up behind Syldan.

"You don't have to!" the maiden exclaimed when she started lacing her up.

"It's my pleasure," Cassandra replied softly, "because I love you just as much as I do my other maidens." A silence dropped, and then she heard Syldan sniffle, and when she looked up the five other maidens were staring back at her with moist eyes. She swallowed, "You're like the sisters I never had... I meant what I said, please never forget that."

They rose as one, and then they were on her, hugging her from all sides, except for Syldan who was still standing with her back towards her. "Hey!" the raven-haired beauty exclaimed, "let her finish lacing me up first!"

They all watched the hands on the chronometer creep towards eleven o'clock, which seemed to take an eternity. "I hate this waiting," Cassandra said, feeling more anxious by the minute.

The girls all nodded their agreement. "I need to go to the toilet again," Polly muttered, "but I have been twice already since breakfast."

There was some grunting around the table, "Now why did you say that," Leavy complained, "now I have to go too."

When the chronometer finally announced eleven o'clock had arrived Cassandra sighed, "I don't want to sit around for a whole hour in the great hall alone, let's just give it another ten minutes or so."

When they finally did get up, ten minutes later, she had her maidens stand to attention, and then checked their dresses. They then returned the favor, and she stood still between them as they checked her too. Denora stood in front of her, and gave her this strange look, she then swallowed, "This is our last chance, isn't it?" Cassandra didn't get it until six maidens piled in for another round of hugs.

It was twenty past eleven when they entered the reception room, where she found Major Coburn and a full squad of Royal Guards waiting for them. "We'll escort you to the great hall," the Major said, "and then we'll gather at the courtyard, to prepare for surrender."

Not knowing what to answer she just nodded, and then she turned towards her maidens, "Remember, when we enter the great hall you'll split off and join the female servants." She swallowed, "I wish you all the luck in the world, have good lives." Realizing another round of hugging was in the making she turned around towards the Major again quickly, "Please, lead the way Major." Coburn bowed curtly, formed up with half of the squad, and then they were on their way, with the other half of the squad taking up the rear. Outside the reception room, a surprise awaited, Royal Guards forming an honor guard, as far as the eye could see.

She passed along them, and when they reached the end of the hallway, and rounded the corner, the honor guard proved to extend all the way to the ceremonial stairs, and then down them, and further along the hallways leading to the great hall. Walking towards her destination as a Kangess for the last time she looked at the soldiers for any signs of glee, but encountered none, and by the time she entered the great hall she had a huge lump in her throat. The female servants had arranged themselves to the right and left of the thick red runner leading up to the podium at the other end of the large hall.

Walking along them she met nothing but respectful faces while her feet sunk deep into the runner with every step. Beyond the female servants the nobles were gathered to the left and right of the runner too, but before she got to where they were standing she felt a hand fleetingly caress her arm from behind. It was probably Denora's, and she experienced an enormous feeling of loss at this last tender goodbye. She nearly lost it there, but then she felt her maidens' presence behind her, and her back proverbially straightened in response. She was walking along the nobles now, but where the female servants had appeared respectful, if a little anxious, the nobles were clearly in a very different state of mind.

There was no hostility, nor disrespect, just stoic acceptance, anxiety, and a touch of panic, just as Leavy and Vala had told her earlier that morning. The nobles weren't armed, as stipulated by the surrender agreement, but she realized things could still turn violent in a flash, once the orcs started arriving. If that happened the consequences would be disastrous, and not for the orcs, so it was something she would have to address. She went up the steps leading up to the podium, feeling terribly alone because, with her maidens at the opposite end of the hall, she was.

Once up on the podium, there were only half a dozen steps, she moved towards where her lone throne was standing, and then she turned around and took in the audience. Some six to seven hundred people were gathered, the servants included. She put up her hands, and the murmur instantly died away. Cassandra swallowed, and then decided to address the servants, gathered at the far side of the hall, first. "My dear nobles, and trusty servants, we meet again in difficult times. I would like to start by assuring those who have served me and my late father so well here at Bromodin, this keep's trusty servants, that if I had any reason to doubt your safety, you wouldn't be here."

She waited for a short moment, "I would also like to convey my gratitude to all of you, for your loyalty and care, especially to the six of you who have been so close to me these past years. Thank you all, for everything." She lowered her glance a little, taking in the nobles gathered in the three quarters of the hall closest to her. "Dear nobles, I'm aware of your feelings, of your anger, of your anxieties, and of your fears. But please, whatever comes to pass once the orcs arrive, keep in mind that losing control of our tempers will only result in pain and death for those we so dearly want to protect."

Her eyes moved over the faces gazing up at her, "I'm especially looking at the fathers and husbands here. Whatever is going to happen to your wives and daughters, remember that violence will only add to their misery by having to watch you getting killed." There was a lot of uneasy shifting, and some rebellious murmuring. "I mean it," she said, "I'll be one of those women being abused, and the last thing I would want is for someone I love to die a senseless death that will bring me nothing but additional pain." A dead silence descended. "Yes," she said, "nothing is certain, but it seems likely that I'm not to be executed, but will suffer the same fate as the other noble women."

The murmuring slowly returned. "Resistance could also turn even more deadly," she continued, "with women and children ending up slaughtered." Another silence fell. "So no heroics," she ordered, "is that perfectly clear?" It took a short while, but then the first men started to nod, accepting her order. She walked her gaze over the gathered nobles, until she was convinced they had all accepted her point. "If one of you succumbs to rage," she continued, "I'll expect the others to stop him, with all means available." She forced herself to relax, and then she looked over the gathered nobles again, locking eyes with the most anxious and fearful faces among them.

"That brings me to the women, the ones the orcs have promised will serve them in their brothels, probably including, as you now know, your Kangess. We lost this terrible war, and now we will have to pay this awful price. But I would like to remind you of the fact that many thousands of mostly young men have paid an even higher price already, they paid with their lives. And then there are the even larger numbers of young men that got maimed, and will be burdened by it for the rest of their lives. Also, most of these men were commoners, fighting a nobles' war, because it was us, the nobles that chose to fight that war."

There was some muttering at that, so she lifted her hands in a placating gesture, and silence returned. "I know, not all of us chose this path, including me myself." She shrugged, "And in the defense of those who did, the choices offered were all harsh, we were never offered an easy way out. But..., but we must also remember the hideous crime our army committed, against the orcs, in our name. I know how unfair this all seems to be, to us who will now have to pay this awful price, but it is what it is, it can't be changed. And also remember that, however ugly this is going to turn out to be, that we were really all destined to be put to the sword."

Her eyes wandered over the gathered nobles again, and then locked on Marecomb. She gestured in his direction, "The orcs were planning on executing us all, because that was the choice we ourselves made, but in the end they decided to show mercy, they decided to spare our lives, and the lives of our children, and they only did so because of General Marecomb. He managed to convince the orc leader, to grant us all a second chance on life." The General visibly straightened. "So please," she continued, "don't throw this chance away." There were three women with Marecomb, one in her early fifties and two in their early thirties, and all three looked up at him reverently.

Cassandra sighed, "What goes for the men goes for the women too, we will have to resist resisting, because resistance will only invite violence, and violence will only see us hurt more." She swallowed, "Also, should your loved ones be forced to watch, please realize that any screams of pain will hurt them too. So let's not go there, and I know this won't be easy, especially for the inexperienced young women like me among you, but let's show these orcs some true grit. Let's make sure that afterwards they'll look at us with respect, and not with pity."

She waited a moment, to let her words sink in again, and then she turned, and sat herself down on her throne. Now she could only wait for the orcs to arrive. An unexpected calmness descended on her.