Meetings and Plans

The clatter of weapons striking weapons reaches your ears as you watch your soldiers training in a field. In particular, you are watching a girl, one of the two females you first recruited some time ago. Despite her young age, the girl was ferociously throwing herself into her training, her sword slashing at her training partner with a zeal that was causing the older and much larger man to back away, even as he deflected each strike.

“Come on man! Imagine she’s a Pict! They’re larger than this slip of a girl and twice as ferocious!” barked one of the Centurions who had been patrolling through the training pairs. The two fighters stopped and marched back into their space before the girl threw herself at her adversary, her movement almost textbook Roman style fighting, but her ferocity very much not. Within moments the man was backing up again, only to run into the Centurion preventing his escape. “No running you coward! There’ll be a hundred more like her actually trying to kill you on the battlefield!” the Centurion barked before shoving the man forward.

“Solus” came the gruff voice of Strabo from beside you. You turn to face the man and see a small procession of workers following him.

“Is that a girl!? Training with a sword!? Someone aught to stop her!” exclaimed one of the workers, attempting to rush forward and stop the bout. Strabo, without blinking, twisted around and caught the man by the arm before hauling him back in line.

“That woman is a volunteer like any other, and has earned her place through blood sweat and tears” Strabo told the men, staring at them each in turn until they looked away.

“But a girl like that should be getting ready for marriage! It’s Christian!” the offender said, trying to marshal some sort of moral high ground.

“We’re not priests” Strabo grunted, turning to lead the men towards your command tent. You chuckle as you make to follow them, throwing a look over your shoulder at the girl. You notice that she was looking at you, a look somewhere between expectant and hopeful. You smile at the girl before turning around and carrying on after Strabo’s procession.

“That’s it! Fight like the whole legion’s behind you!” you heard being shouted out as you left.

The actual meeting took place inside the war room of your tent, a map of Tarentum stretched across the table while everyone gathered around.

“I suspected you would be involved with this” one of the men grumbled at you. “The way you spoke back at that meeting in Tarentum was a give away” he added.

“I’m merely the patron, Strabo is the one in command of the troops” you say, pointing at the man in question.

“Yes, and I believe we are here to discuss some kind of rebellion” Strabo said, brushing his hands over the map to smooth it down before studying it in detail.

“The taxes that the Governor levies is too high, most people can barely afford our crafts to begin with” started one of the men, an elected leader of sorts. “I’m Tevron, I and my colleagues here speak for the Craftsmens League” the man introduced. You nod at him and his colleagues before turning back to the map.

“The simple fact of the matter is that if I could just remove the Governor, I would have done so already” you say with a sigh. “It’s not the Governor I care about, it’s the fact that he’s Odoacer’s man now” you continue, unrolling a map of Italy. “Simply put, if we take the Governor out, the Federates will be on us inside of a month, I don’t know about you but I can’t raise tens of thousands of soldiers inside of a month” you say as you eye the distance between Ravenna and Tarentum.

“It would be more than a month, there’s no way Odoacer can march an army that far in that time frame” Strabo commented, analysing the map of Italy himself. “A Roman army might have been able to do it a couple hundred years ago but even I don’t fancy our chances” he added.

“Still, the fact remains, we are not ready to take on the might of Odoacer just yet” you say, folding your arms and thinking about the situation. “We’d need to install a new Governor who would do what was necessary to keep Odoacer from catching on” you tell the group.

“A new Governor? Replace the old one with a new one?” Trevon asked, a disgusted look on his face.

“Well what did you expect? To be declared Emperor of the entire world and all the heavens combined?” you fired back and the man grimaced. “My troops aren’t ready, there just isn’t enough of them” you say “This is the only way to really free Tarentum right now, and besides you’ll be paying taxes regardless of who’s in charge, so might as well get used to it now” you explain, eyeing up the map and looking for a potential next target.

“We’ll need to actually deal with the Governor, he’s got his own band of Federates” Strabo commented “how hard will it be to get troops into the city?” he asked.

“The tax men are on everyone that tries to enter or leave now” you say with an annoyed grimace “an entry AND an exit tax” you mutter.

“How are you getting in and out?” one of Trevon’s colleagues asked, frowning in confusion.

“I pay the taxes” you lied, and trying not to smile at Strabo’s look “The best way we are going to do this is to get as many people from inside of Tarentum on our side as possible and bring in only small groups” you say “We’ve got a man on the inside who’ll happily take up forming a militia if it means he gets the job of leading the city’s garrison afterwards” you add.

“I’ll meet this man first” Strabo grunted “But that could possibly be the best we’ve got” he added after a moment’s thought. “How many crossbows can we smuggle into the city?” he asked.

“As many as you want” You reply with a grin.

“Good, then we’ll create a militia and arm them with spears and crossbows and see if we can bring some of our own troops in quietly” Strabo muttered, pulling the map of Tarentum out again and studying it’s layout. “We could smuggle their equipment in first and have them pose as merchants and travellers aiming to get at the sea” he said before nodding “As good a plan as we’re going to get for the moment, but I’ll mull it over some more and refine it” Strabo continued before looking at you “You take care of the militia and let me know when we are ready”

“What about us!” Trevon demanded. “You’ve told us we’ll be paying taxes no matter what, so why should we side with you at all?!” he asked, slamming his hands on the table. You look at the man, boring your eyes into him as you mull over his words. Just as he began to fidget under your gaze, you spoke up.

“Because, while yes, you will have to pay taxes, I will ensure it is done with minimal corruption and with plenty of breaks for you” you say and get a frown from the man. “I’ll give you and your league some subsidies to help them get back on track” you add and the man grimaced.

“Promises can be broken” he said, matching your gaze with his own. You groan and rub your face as you pace around the room.

“Fine! I’ll do you one better” you snap “Strabo, go get Cattleya and have her sit and chat with these goons until they have something they like” you order. You look around the room, noting the regret being displayed by the craftsmen. They know they pushed one step too far.

It wasn’t long before Strabo came back with Cattleya in tow. When the men saw her, there was looks of anger all around but a stern glance from you had them stay silent.

“Gentlemen, this is Cattleya, don’t be fooled by her age, she’s in charge of our trade efforts” you tell the craftsmen.

“Uhh, can we use the meeting tent?” Cattleya asked. There was no such tent and you suddenly suspected that the girl knew a lot more about you than you had thought. With a mental flex, you create the tent in question and send its location to the girl. Cattleya blinked but otherwise didn’t react to the sudden information download.

“Sure, Strabo, you can take care of this right? I have other things that need my attention” you say. The venerable soldier nodded and began ushering the craftsmen out, letting Cattleya lead them towards the newly fabricated tent.

As you make your way past the training fields, you stop to observe the soldier girl again. She was panting from the exertion of training but still managed that same ferocity.

“What is that girl’s name?” you ask absentmindedly.

“Vera” Strabo grunted “Vera Brusilius” he told you. You turned to look at him. You had thought he’d be watching the craftsmen.

“Isn’t that a title?” you asked and Strabo shrugged. You turn back to the girl who looked close to collapsing yet still picked herself up to carry on. You could feel a niggling feeling in the back of your mind, almost like that sensation you felt from Sabine after you’d converted her to worshiping you. “I want her in on the attack” you tell Strabo. The venerable soldier turned to look at you for a moment before turning his gaze back to the girl.

“I’ll make it happen” he told you and then turned to go find the meeting tent. You stayed there and watched a moment longer before leaving as well.