Herald of Steel

Amenheraft seemed to pretend to think for a while about the question, though in reality, he had made up his mind hours ago.

"Our Adhania has suffered too many men and material losses in these last three years. These strong slaves will be a great asset to our mines and farms." He revealed the cruel fate of the captured soldiers.

State-owned captured slaves had an average life span of less than five years, being worked off to the bone under the cruel lashing of their supervisions, nourished by subsistence barely fit for animals.

Many would argue crucifixion that took three to seven days was a much more preferred way to go.

But some may wonder why surrendered soldiers were being treated as such?

Because in this time period, surrendering to an enemy did not mean a guarantee of survival or being treated like a prisoner of war according to the Geneva convention.

A captured or surrendered soldier's fate lay entirely with his captor and it ranged from being simply let go to slavery, to various creative ways of dying.

When any commander ordered a surrender, it did not mean waving a white flag and laying down one's shield and spear, and then standing in an orderly line to be captured and bound, like in modern times.

It simply meant all the soldiers were now discharged from the military chain of command and they were to do what they themselves thought was the best for their own survival.

So they could try to run and risk being killed, they could try and fight out or they could simply give up and let themselves be captured with a promise from their captors that they would not be killed, a promise that their captors had no obligation to keep.

Even if the individual soldier to whom one surrendered would promise not to kill him, if the military high command ordered it, that soldier would have to obey.

And even if he didn't want to do it, well, there were always other soldiers who made no such promises.

On the surface of it, Amenheraft's proposal was very sound.

But Manuk seemed to disagree.

He said boldly. "Your Majesty, I fear I cannot quite agree with his arrangement."

"Oh, why?" Came the curious reply.

Amenheraft knew something was up when Manuk had decided to ask him about the fate of the captured soldiers, something that should have been quite clear to him.

But Manuk had never objected thoughtlessly before, so Amenheraft decided to hear the man make his case,

"Your Majesty, as you have said, this war was won due to Ramuh's blessing. I believe we should show our appreciation." Manuk proposed.

"Yes, I do know that. That's why I chose Makila as the divine mistress." Amenheraft noddingly reminded.

"I'm afraid that's not enough, Your Grace. Six months is too long. The divine mistress ceremony is in March, we are only in September. It is imperative that we show Ramuh our appreciation as soon as possible." Manuk implored.

"Hmmm, so what do you suggest?" Amenheradt asked with a slight wrinkle in his brow.

As an expert on the Takqa himself, he was pretty sure what Manuk was going to say and he didn't like it one bit.

Manuk of course understood his king's displeasure, after all, he had served under him for almost twenty years and knew him for even more.

So he decided to decorate his reasons a bit, "Your Imperial Majesty, our supreme Lord Ramuh blessed us with three blessings today. First, with the thunder strike that destroyed the cavalry charge, second with this fog that trapped the Cantagenan soldiers coming to the encircled soldiers, and third is a lightning strike that killed Agapios."

"What! Agapios was struck by lightning? Where did you hear it?" It was Beihrut that suddenly interrupted Manuk who was speaking to the king, proving once again the man had little more than muscles for a brain.

"A spy in the Cantagenan army relayed the report even before the start of the second battle. But I didn't tell anyone because even I didn't believe it that time, assuming that the spy had been discovered and was being used to mislead us." Manuk said.

"But you believe it now. So show us the evidence." This time it was Amenheraft that asked Manuk eagerly.

Because if that thorn in their side was truly dead by Ramuh's will, then he might really have to follow Manuk's proposal.

"Yes, I did some basic interrogation of some of the newly captured soldiers. They all spoke the same thing- 'General Agapios was struck by lightning and is now recuperating. And their current commander is someone named Samaras."

"Samaras?" Amenheraft quizzically asked, feeling like he had heard the name before somewhere.

As Cantagena's mortal enemy, he was actually quite well acquainted, at least by name to all their famous generals and admirals, but he could not quite recall this particular name.

"He is Agapios's protege. Eldest son of the Kashbu house, he is heralded as Cantagena's rising star and Agapios's successor." Kefka eagerly said the details, likely in an effort to show his usefulness to the king.

"Was. My soldiers confirmed his death." Manuk corrected Kefka.

Then he continued," I also met some different clothed soldiers. Most likely mercenaries. They told me something even more interesting. They said that Agapios was dead and Samaras was hiding this. They believe the reason for this hasty attack was because Samaras wanted to win before people could figure out their general was dead and surrender."

Manik then added his own opinion, " I find this explanation much more believable. Agapios would not have likely made the rookie mistakes we saw in the second battle."

"So what do you propose we do to show our appreciation to Ramuh?" Understanding where this was going, Amenheraft asked with a deadpan expression.

He knew what Manuk was going to say and he knew Manuk would likely convince him.

But it still stung him to lose so many good, free mules.

"Your majesty," Manuk started, "Ramuh has blessed us three times. The first blessing can be equalized with you being his son. The second blessing can be equalized by Mikala as the divine mistress. For the third blessing, we need something more. We need to give him the Cantageneans! Only the blood of these heathens will sate Ramuh." He proposed.

Yes, Manuk here proposing live human sacrifice!

The live human sacrifice of almost thirty thousand humans!