WOLVES WITHOUT TEETH ( geralt of rivia.. )

009. bloodbath and evil thoughts..

Wars are not held just on fields and they are hardly ever just one battle. Sometimes the pawns of a war are thrown into motion far beyond the perception of any parties involved, because violence does not just happen over night, yet it is planned, it is mastered and it is crafted so that every single advantage in existence is taken, every card of action is played well.

Because at the end of the day, no one care about anyone else but the victors.

Wars are not held just in one place, but at least two: the bloodbath and the evil thought.

Sylvain, first king of Arcapan, stepping into the dark ages of his realm, looked out from his tower, which shadow fell on empty streets. A once glee keep fell quiet and in each home, no light would flicker for the whole of life was praying for the return of the handful of warriors they could muster.

Two hundred men is what Sylvain looked towards the mountains for. Storm clouds gathered on the peaks his eyes would try not even to blink their watch upon because his knuckles has whitened on his chair, on those wheels. Geoffrey knew how much the waiting game was killing him.

Ever since he lost his legs, Sylvain has been too restless, too manageable into finding time to think. He missed the simpler days, the river, the weekly walks. But as there was no way to go back in time and stay a little longer in the forest that day, he could not forsaken the path he started on.

Too long have his people suffered under a coward Lord like his father. His greed-mad mother also paid for her crimes against his forever-home, locked away in the tower to the north, to feel coldest region of Arcapan until sickness takes her away.

Sylvain had not visited her as often as he visited Azaras' grave. And ever since their father was buried too, not even the anchoring presence of a weekly ghost had tamed him. Geoffrey's presence had no chance to stand agaist whatever exhilaration of madness overwhelmed Sylvain's eyes with madness, what sickness had drove him to stand where he was now.

Even with the dire condition of Arcapan, he asked for Geoffrey to be there, a hand always on his sword, wearing his knight armour, as if this single gesture of a vague care could make up for all the cold shoulders, all the glares and punches in the heart. One sword balanced down on Sylvain's knees too, his newest sword, who had never seen a single battle.

Oh, how bitter was the flatness in between his lips, that there was no difference he could make.

Somewhere beyond the mountains, the archers or Arcapan have killed the shepherds and the guard dogs of all the herds grazing in the night after Hołopole's secret of raising the best meat, the best fur, the healthiest animals. The more sheep the Arcapan soldiers saw, the deeper grew their hatred for in such greed, this neighbor has denied them food when they asked for aid.

Their aims became so much better, from high above.

"And they won't raise any alarms," Sylvain spoke out of the blue, in the darkness of the tower. He startled Geoffrey's stillness, unsettled even the sky to thunder. "When they have killed every single watcher the sheep will have scattered off and the drainage system of Hołopole will be accessible."

All two hundred men lit only about five torches, spread across the straight line of hunched individuals, marching through the shit, the piss, and grey water, flowing from the houses and castle of the city asleep. Their sweat dripped into the dirt coming to their ankles and their backs had to bend so low their knees soaked in the stench.

But Arcapan's finest swallowed their pride, they bit back all disgust and Sylvain knew they'll follow through, so he counted the seconds.

"Two hundred men against two thousand," Sylvain's smile was darkly attuned to the obscure shadows of blue. A lightning brazed the sky and in a second, as much as a blink of an eye, he looked paler than the dead, smiling from his very grave at the thoughts. His eyes were stone fixed upon the ridges that made the outline of the mountain before that tower's left window.