The War of the Isles

2. Ursula

Whenever I felt like I was swimming in a pool of shit, I would close my eyes and try to remember the good old days—when it was just the three of us. Mila, Ingrid and I. Fighting our way through cannon fires or walking the fields of Arbramuir. 

The only hiccup that I did face then was that even around that time, I felt like I was swimming in shit. I would repeat the same exercise and try to remember my days with Nooka. Just the two of us chasing the horizon but again, those were the days I felt incredibly unsettled. My eyes would close again, and I would try to remember my life before that.

Only then would my mind go blank.

The truth is, I hardly remember my life before the war. I mean, I did know where I came from, but I felt like I couldn't remember my father's laugh or my mother's smile. It was a pathetic indulgence in self-pity, a problem that made me feel different and set apart from the rest. Until many around me succumbed to sorrow by pointing the crossbow towards themselves. 

Was this how we were meant to live? 

Fort Knot was a small island east of the Fjodara. Fjodara was the main Isle, consisting of big cities like Wemburg and Macabara, which was located directly north of Kohm. To the North of Fjordara were what we Southerners called the Ice-Islands and the Fjodarans called the Snowlands. 

Unlike Medini with their 16 kingdoms, all of the Isles were ruled by one King. Leopold VI or "Leopold the Red" was a vicious old man who squandered the royal treasury in his vain indulgence. Be it imported women from Mirsk or Diamonds from Vyompore... 

The bottom line is that we, the people were getting poorer, hungrier, taxed and fucked.

And then came our saviour. The Duke of Macabara, Ben Ackert's son Hans was found inciting antiroyalist thoughts among the masses. The King released a bunch of wild canines loose onto him. This led to protests, strikes and violent attacks on the general nobility or anybody who was loyal to King Leopold. Duke Ackert and Hans's widow Hannah, started to use their ancestral wealth to set up a coup to overthrow King Leopold but that was easier said than done. Thousands of revolting Lords, Ladies and common Islanders were drafted into the resistance. What was supposed to be a revolution for a few months blew up into an outright war. People were forced to choose sides. Achmans, or the old royalists were traditionalists and the Nyewekh front supported Ackert's claim to the throne.

The purpose of this was justice. The belief was that we the Nyewekh Front would defeat the cruel Achmans and help serve the only worthy king in his quest to better the plight of suffering Islanders. We were the true liberators of the oppressed in the Isles.

"Honestly, I needed some dough," replied  Adrian Webber when Mila asked him about his purpose in joining the Nyewekh front. I chuckled. 

It had been three days in Fort Knot. We would help out with patrol duties in the morning and would sit with the soldiers by the bonfire in the evening. That was where we met Lieutanant Adrian Webber. He was a tall man, almost reaching 7 feet, with brown skin and uneven locks. Like most of the soldiers in the Forty Second, he was in his early twenties and unlike most of the soldiers in the Forty Second, he was chirpy.

"I'm serious," he continued. "Ask anybody here. Old Mason here sends most of his money to his mother, bless her, she was blinded in that incident in Carhiem. Christina and Egon have 6 children to support. Charlie sends everything he gets, including soap, to his folks. You must have been too young to realize this, but most of us have been struggling with employment for the last 15 years."

"A heavy bag of coins and a fat belly. Heaven if you ask me," Mason smiled revealing his ghastly yellow teeth.

"I have mostly known political men to be passionate, but never good at war," Adrian continued. "Politics is a rich man's game. People tend to follow those who have big hands and bigger pockets. The Duke's got both since old Leo's treasure box was found empty."