Chapter 443: The Take Over (2)
"Two hundred lost, you said?"
She nodded. "Mostly new recruits and a few unlucky ones. They charged in too eagerly. War exacts its toll."
He closed his eyes, inhaling the acrid air, tasting it on his tongue. "Every life matters, but some will always be lost."
Josephine reached out, placing a hand gently on his forearm. "Your plan spared a thousand more. That’s what they’ll remember."
Perhaps. The memory of Southeastern screams echoed in his mind, but he forced it down. This was different, a step in a greater campaign—though he wasn’t sure if telling himself that made it any easier.
"Time to move," he said, shaking off the momentary heaviness. "We need to show the people who’s in charge now."
Josephine offered a faint smile. "After you, Baron Evocatore."
They walked through the ruined hall, stepping over debris and smoldering beams. In the courtyard beyond, men and women in Astellian armor moved like streams converging at the keep’s gates. Some carried water to extinguish lingering fires, others escorted civilians to safer quarters. The hush of night was broken by orders, by the crackle of flame, by the subdued whimper of the defeated.
At the far end of the courtyard, they found Alstan once more—his unconscious form propped against a chunk of collapsed masonry. Two Shadow Servants stood guard, their featureless faces revealing no emotion. A small crowd of battered defenders lay nearby, stripped of weapons, wrists bound with rope. They watched Lyan with something akin to hopeless awe.