“Sometimes, what you have in hand is all you have, and it’s entirely up to you to make it last long enough, one way or another.” - Saying Attributed to the Silver Maiden.
“Here you go, next, please,” said Aideen as she ladled some of the soup in the cauldron to the bowl held by the survivor at the front of the line. It had been a couple weeks since the incident where Ver’dun Slovak, King of Vitalica, ignited a ritual that leeched the life out of the majority of the capital city’s populace and left less than a thousand survivors, getting himself a dose of Divine Punishment for the trouble.
Since then, Aideen and the three elven siblings had been working hard to restore order and help the surviving locals live on. There were far too many locals and too little food, so attempting to evacuate was not an option. The survivors would more likely than not starve on the way, even if they could find a place that was willing to house them.
Due to the nature of the capital city, which was kept supplied entirely through trade, with no real sources of food in the vicinity, even the nearest village would be at least several days away, which was a difficult journey for the survivors, most of whom were already no in the best shape to begin with. As it was, if they were made to do strenuous things like journeying afar, the food supplies they gathered might last the group at most a week, if not less.
On the other hand, if they minimized their activities and waited calmly, the food could be stretched for a good while longer. The soup in the cauldron Aideen was sharing to the survivors was such an example. The soup itself was mostly water, only slightly thickened with flour from ground grains, but also made with bone stock which made it at least filling and nutritious enough that people wouldn’t feel too hungry after having a bowl.
They stretched their available supplies as much as they could, though fortunately the ritual had not affected the water sources in the city. If anything, it rendered those water sources cleaner than before, which at least alleviated some woes.
As the survivors made use of the intact buildings near the city center, shelter was not an issue either, and the knowledge that someone was already on their way to get help somewhat alleviated the worries of the survivors. Unfortunately, it was still difficult to find enough food for everyone. The region around Danna was mostly open ground, but there was not much wildlife in the region. Even the few hares or fowl that Eilonwy managed to catch using her skeletal constructs wouldn’t go far when spread between nearly a thousand people.
The mood was understandably rather dour in the city. The place felt like a ghost town, with only the survivors huddled together in the center of the now-empty city. There had been no activity from nearby local forces, like the Vitalican nobles and landlords that lived in the nearest towns, but perhaps they were scared silly by the sight of the Divine Punishment, which was understandable, in a way.
Many of them probably harbored guilt in their hearts and did not want to risk arriving at the site of the Divine Punishment only to find out that there were some lingering agents of the Deities or whatnot waiting to punish them.
On one hand, that made things easier for Aideen to maintain order amongst the survivors, as she had no pesky local authorities to contend with, but on the other hand, it also meant that they were on their own, as there was no aid forthcoming from the local region, and they could only hope that Kino would be able to reach the Lichdom and bring assistance quickly enough.
It appeared that her hopes might be somewhat in vain, however, as another couple of weeks passed without any sign of Kino returning.
Aideen did not think that anything untoward happened to the girl. She was Unliving, and besides she doubted that anything could stop a Void mage of Kino’s caliber by force. Even so, she couldn’t help but to worry, not for herself, but for the nearly thousand survivors of Danna that she was supporting with all she could, together with the three siblings.
While Aideen maintained the same amount of food to distribute as best she could, some of the older people likely had an inkling that the food they had would probably run out sooner rather than later. Some of them started to refuse to eat, claiming all sorts of things from not being hungry to unwilling to take the undead-worshipper's pity any longer. Aideen realized that none of those words – not even the insults – were meant, though, as the men in question were trying to sacrifice themselves so the younger people could have more to eat in their stead.
It took quite a bit of coaxing from Aideen and the family members of the elders before they could persuade them to eat their share like the others, and it saddened her to see people resort to such self-sacrifice even if it was in many ways a place and time that might call for such acts.
Roughly four and a half weeks after the incident, Eilonwy spotted a dust cloud from the south that seemed to be approaching the city, but it was still too far away for even her sharp eyesight to notice any details. All she could tell was that a sizable group was likely headed towards Danna, at a rapid pace to boot, and all they could do was to wait and see for the time being.
As the dust cloud approached closer, Eilonwy noticed that there were actually two separate groups that caused the dust cloud. The people at the front seemed to be local Vitalican noble sorts, but they were disheveled and desperate, running for their lives from whoever or whatever was chasing after them so closely. Due to the proximity between the two groups and how the dust cloud raised by the running Vitalicans obscured their chasers from sight, it was only a while later when both groups were closer to the city that she finally saw a sight that brought her joy.
On the pennants and banners flown by the army chasing after the escaping Vitalican nobles were the unmistakable black-on-purple skull emblem of the Lichdom in all its glory, and from the looks of it, they came with a rather large army to boot.
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umbrellluck· Mar 13, 2024
