Triiffic-Soul: Can I Be In Control?

Syrus was tapping her foot. They were hunting some nearby deer, her mind still on the interaction from earlier in the day. 

They had left for work almost immediately after the situation was ‘sorted’. Grab some game, sell it, then get some money for new clothes. That was the plan. They had savings, but that was better spent on other things in their mind. 

[You worried, Syrus?] (Eva)

[Yes… that man seemed a little unstable. Probably desperate.] (Syrus)

[From what you suggested before, they are runaway knights.] (Luna)

[That’s what I believe. Evidence suggests it anyway, so probably correct.] (Syrus)

[Why would they run away?] Knights, in Eva’s mind, were in a good position. Combat encounters could be complicated and dangerous, but the job paid more consistently than a hunter, and usually with better living conditions based around whoever they were working for.

[Your picture of knights is correct. Nothing different between either continent.] Syrus quickly wondered where to start this mess of a conversation. [...Like any job… things can get complicated…] 

[Knights and mercenaries both do a lot of important work. However, a lot of that work overlaps. This doesn’t usually cause problems because, for the individual countries, knights are more controllable, which is good for certain missions, while mercenaries are more expandable and cheaper because they are only paid on a per-mission contract.]

[That’s—] Eva felt something was wrong with that. She didn’t like any deception that would label Syrus as expendable. 

[It is only fair. I could perhaps have expanded on the many other differences in how the two groups work, but I don’t really feel like it. The main part is they both do similar work.] (Syrus)

[I see where this is going…] Luna sighed. [From what you have told and hinted at, I can guess there was a war at some point on the other continent.] 

[Good enough description. Yeah, war, I guess would be it.] Syrus wanted to laugh. No one really ever called it a war at the time, but it was certainly a war. [A war that ended up with a lot of mercs versus a whole lot of knights.] 

[Was it because of the differences in treatment…] Eva focused on Syrus’s earlier point. Her mind was thinking of some kind of story-like rebellion. 

[Ha. No. Nothing like that.] Syrus completely shot that down. [We were just hired to do a job. Nothing else. Just a conflict that spiralled so large and that no one stood down.] 

Luna felt she understood something. [How… How big did this conflict spiral?] 

[There were some on both sides.] Syrus said, at least to prepare some justification for what was coming next. [Though at least from the mercenaries' side of things. Over the entire conflict… around… over ninety-percent of them were involved.] 

“Cough, cough–” Luna had to nearly stop herself from choking.

[What the fuck do you mean about ninty percent! That’s absurd! Why! How???] Luna couldn’t believe that. Percentage-wise, ninety-percent was insane. Perhaps if the number of mercenaries wasn’t that high, then perhaps that percentage wasn’t that crazy… but she knew that was just her being delusional. From what she knew, the Vita continent had a large number of mercenaries. [So many deaths…]  

[Yeah… most of them died. I was one of the last groups.] Syrus remembered that after a certain point, a bunch of them stopped fighting for money, and wanted to fight for revenge. She tried to convince them to leave if they weren’t here for the money. Some listened. Others didn’t. She understood on some level… so many died, and the ones who didn’t die from combat made their friends and allies the most furious. [Two years. A whole lotta deaths, but hey, that is how the world works. I wasn’t one to leave a job just because it seemed hard.] 

[Hard…? According to you, nearly the entire mercenary force was killed! That’s not hard, that’s basically suicidal.] (Luna)

[Easy to say that now. It started off way simpler. Most people didn’t expect the small conflict to grow into such a large mess.] Syrus’s laid back explanation was grinding Luna’s nerves. They understood Syrus didn’t worry too much about her death, but this wasn’t just some death; it was a historical bloody conflict. 

Eva asked, [Why didn’t you leave? Was it for pride, morals, or the love of the fight?] She hoped it wasn’t the last one.

Syrus could feel the slight judgment. [I’m not that bad. It would say the first two. I did enjoy fighting, but I didn’t participate in missions for that reason.] She thought for a moment about how to word her reply. [Pride followed by morals. I was a very determined individual in completing my requests. As long as the request was honest and didn’t fall outside the scope of what was originally drafted, then I was happy to work until done. If nothing was wrong with the rules of the mission, then there were instances of me shredding contracts due to them making me want to step over some moral lines I didn’t want to cross.] Syrus didn’t elaborate further on that point. [So in the end, the big war, the side I was working for didn't do anything that made me feel like leaving.]

[But from some stories you have told… the other side wasn’t as kind.] (Eva)

[Sigh… yes. That would be correct. Certain groups that were among the coalition of enemies did participate in some dubious acts.] (Syrus)

Eva felt Syrus was putting that lightly. From what she could recall, Syrus had mentioned assassinations and mass poisonings. 

[Anyway, I have gone a bit far off topic. I only really brought that up so you had a reference for the number of Mercs that would be on Vita.] (Syrus)

[The answer: barely any.] (Luna)

[Ten years wouldn’t be enough time to recruit and rebuild numbers…] (Eva)

[That is for sure. Made even worse by the fact that the conflict would have killed many who would’ve been the next generation of teachers and guides.] (Syrus)

[The conflict would’ve also made it so people would be now hesitant to choose such a profession. If so many were exterminated, then it is justifiable to say many would see becoming a mercenary as a doomed path.] Luna's mind continued to think about the lasting damage. She had seen the church use fear to get results like that, but this wasn’t purposeful; well, she hoped it wasn’t.

[Becoming a knight instead wouldn’t be that easier, right?] (Eva)

[You are correct. Knights had a bunch of stricter rules which were usually balanced out by the perks and pay. Even if a country wanted more knights, there is only so much room its facilities could hold. If every kid who would’ve become a Merc tried to be a knight instead, then yeah, most wouldn’t make it.] (Syrus)

Space and pay. Countries didn’t have the luxury to just replace the entire mercenary force with knights. Perhaps with time they could work it, but that required time and adjustments to the whole system. Which they might have been forced to do in some capacity, because Syrus knew that with all the deaths, the stability of the continent would begin breaking.

Gaining a little more information, Eva and Luna understood more about the chaos and turmoil of Syrus’s old home.

[So what makes you worried?] Luna asked. She was confident that if there was something Syrus was worried about, then it was worth looking into. Whatever this worry was, it definitely wasn’t about any risk to themselves. Which was more concerning. [Are they going to do something… desperate?]

[Yeah…] Syrus’s eyes tracked towards the forest where she was sure the man from earlier walked to when he left the city. She had kept an eye out for his movements. [Unfortunately, that is the likely outcome.]

[What are we going to do?] (Eva)

Syrus paused for a moment. [I would like your opinion. But I have an idea.]

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