[puffyn]

---- Arcoscephale, Turn 3 ----

Early summer, year 12 of my exile.

At Last, some good news. Three more hoplites came into town Last week, and I suspect more remnants of the broken taxis will continue to straggle in as they emerge from their winter shelters in a (futile) attempt to find civilization. This means that one-third of my foot soldiers are now non-barbarians, so I have decided that we are strong enough to take on a nearby nest of bandits that the villagers have been harping on us for weeks to attack. Reports indicate that there are almost as many bandit as I have troops under my command, but even my locals, I think, are worth more than these petty thugs, at least after the rigorous training I have put them through.

So there will be some honest fighting, a welcome change from the bizarre events of the Last few weeks, and also some money, because the citizens Skelde Henge have agreed to submit to the direction of the village leaders if we will rid them of the bandits. (Or at least so I have been told.) And there will be no one winking at me, or worse, bowing, no Balachandra or his brother Divakar to chant ridiculous rhymes about me and butter and who knows what else.

If I had known, when I left Pagasae for the Great Campaign so long ago, that one day I would be thousands of leagues from home, scratching battle plans in the mud, in breathless anticipation of a brawl with a bunch of ignorant peasants...

I should be back in a few months. I hope that Thymbre will have returned by then, and I may hear how her journey to learn of quaint local superstitions has fared.

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