“Fighting a war isn’t that hard. Cleaning up the mess left behind is the hard part.” - Quote attributed to Xaliburnus the Conqueror.

By the time the sun began to set under the horizon, the fighting in Gor-Seinnon had mostly finished.

While Aideen had commanded her forces to encircle and assault the Vitalican crusaders mercilessly, part of them still managed to escape the city through a broken section of the north-eastern wall that had been broken during the previous siege. The Vitalicans sacrificed many of their own to escape from that direction, with only a thousand or so riders making it out of the city in the end.

Only for them to run straight into Arno’s third division of the Wings of Night who had just reached Gor-Seinnon after destroying the Vitalican detachment in the west.

In the end, out of the forty-five thousand or so Vitalican crusaders present in Gor-Seinnon, over half of them – including most of the fanatical ones – perished in battle. Nearly twenty thousand were captured alive after they surrendered, while a small number of higher ranked officers were also caught, though mostly the hard way.

What surprised Aideen was how when the Antemeians used the opportunity to strike back at their besiegers from within the inner city, they had not gone crazy with vengeance or the like, and instead spared the surrendering Vitalicans as well. Granted, those who fought to the bitter end received gruesome deaths, but that was only to be expected.

It also surprised her that the Antemeians were so cooperative and handed over the Vitalicans they captured to her custody for the Lichdom army to manage once the fighting settled down.

For that reason, Aideen had suggested a meeting with the Antemeian elders, or what remained of them, at least. The Council of Flesh Artisans had not gotten away lightly from all the fighting. Out of the twenty-one elders, only seven remained. The rest had all perished in battle against the Vitalicans, with most of the dead dying in the disastrous first large-scale battle against them.

Out of the remaining ones, to Aideen’s surprise two of them were the elders from the egalitarian faction, while none of the hardliner elders had survived. Most of the remaining seven elders sported various kinds of injury on their bodies, with the worst off one being an old half-orcish woman who could barely walk unassisted.

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Even without examining her closely, Aideen expected that her injuries were bad enough to likely kill her within a week.

Should the talks end amicably, she’d put the old woman on her list of patients to treat immediately, as a gesture of friendship, she decided.

“We of the Council of Flesh Artisans… or what’s left of us, heh, would like to extend our deepest gratitude to our friends from the Lichdom for the timely rescue,” said the old half-orcish woman, to Aideen’s surprise. “I am First Elder Adela of the Council, though perhaps given how their request is the one responsible for your presence here, Hasen and Karani here might be better suited to represent us.”

The old woman’s words were met with surprised looks from most of the other Antemeian elders – including the middle-aged couple in question – and even a couple looks of shame from some of them. In the end, however, none of the others protested the decision made by the First Elder, and although the couple looked somewhat nervous, they stepped forward and made their introductions.

“Hasen Abimwa, Elder of the Council,” said the bearded man as he introduced himself. “This is Karani Elezar, my paramour,” he added as he introduced the slightly younger man who shaved his entire head clean. “We are part of the founders of the egalitarian faction of the council, as I believe our student young Sophogenes there might have explained to you respected ones.”

Aideen nodded at the man’s words, as she had brought Sophogenes and a couple others of the necromancers that accompanied them to the meeting. The elders that headed their faction naturally recognized them, which she hoped would help them feel more secure over the discussion. She also noticed the obvious power play the First Elder pulled off by having the egalitarian elders talk for their side.

“A pleasure to meet you, elders, though I wish we could have met under better circumstances,” said Aideen, and it was a sentiment that she truly felt, as nobody deserved the sort of slaughter that the Vitalicans had brought with them. “These are Mimia and Èirynn. They are both personal disciples to the Bone Lord. These are Division Commanders Arno and Leah, of the Wings of Night…”

As Aideen made the introductions, the council members from Antemeia looked suitably impressed. They were well aware that the Lichdom had a very different system of rulership than theirs, where the Bone Lord’s will was absolute. As such, his having sent a couple of his own personal disciples showed the attention he gave to the issue they faced.

Perhaps because of that, the talk went on amicably between the two sides, especially since the elders from the egalitarian faction were the ones who sent the request for help to Ptolodecca to begin with. They were further elated when Arno informed them that while there were some casualties, most of the villagers the Antemeians evacuated to the west had survived.

Arno’s division had arrived too late to stop the Vitalicans entirely, but made it early enough to stop them before they could do much.

The talks progressed further into the night as the Antemeian elders discussed with the Ptolodeccans on how they would proceed from then onwards. Antemeia was in a position of great weakness, with most of their military power expended and unlikely to be replenishable in the short term. They had also realized that they were too weak to even protect their own people, which brought no small amount of thought to the elders present.

Even so, it was impossible for the elders to come to a hasty conclusion on how to do things going forward. As such the Antemeians requested some time to discuss amongst themselves first, which the Ptolodeccans gracefully granted.