Salvisa watched Yuber walk out of the camp towards Manastash and turned to her companions. They seemed both stunned and relieved.
"Austen?" Salvisa asked.
"What?" the boy snapped back to reality from some distant shore of thought.
"I don't want to leave these men wounded here, even if they are the enemy. What do you think?"
"Umm… sure."
"I need more confidence than that from a strategist!"
"Yes! Fine!"
"Why!?" Salvisa asked, taking out her seething anger towards herself and Yuber on Austen, whose only fault so far was his timidness. "Why," she started again, forcing herself to be calmer and kinder, "do you think that would be better than hurrying on ahead?"
Austen screwed his freckled face up in search of of a reason behind his gut feeling. From time to time his eyes stopped searching between his eyebrows and darted towards the Harmonian soldiers that tended to their dead and wounded, giving their enemy wide berth. They could hardly decide what to make of the unlikely group that so easily talked down the demon warrior that had plagued their camp and others.
"Do it for the goodwill. Aside from this True Rune business, you're wanted for the murder of a garrison. You may repair some of that damage with kindness, not to mention what this Yuber has done. It only depends on the word spreading among the soldiers faster than the Bishopric's propaganda does."
"Right. Sasarai, does your magic heal?"
He shook his head, "Not like a water or wind rune. I can only help the body defend against ailments- poison, going berserk, afflictions like that."
"There may yet be people who need help with that after those monsters. Kaolin, Austen, help with triage as you can."
Salvisa had spoken louder than necessary, allowing the soldiers at the camp to hear. Their help was accepted warily, and they departed the camp with barely more than a curt nod for thanks. Salvisa didn't doubt that she might undo whatever help she had given to some poor soul within the coming days, but that would be under the fairness of battle. For now, her heart was somewhat eased to have addressed Yuber's crimes in part.
As they approached Manastash, Salvisa grit her teeth. The hill fort had become grander over the two weeks since she had seen it last, but was roughened with scars of battle. Bolts of lightning and flame had scorched the hillside and some of the surrounding forest, and many of the remaining trees has been logged by both defender and attacker. The old town had been razed and its hovels replaced with fresh, modest graves. If this was what Yuber had called "easy," Salvisa prayed that Austen would be able to provide the sorely needed help that Marten had promised.
The hill was busy with preparations for the approaching night, and the battered land around it was empty except for a wiry boy resting one foot on a grave marker while he talked to a tall knight in ebony armor. Salvisa's heart sank further. Yuber would be the last one she would wish for Lop to befriend, but he had done so. There was no mistaking the earnest, convivial expression on the peasant boy's face as he slowly went through the motions of a new fighting skill with his shining knives. Yuber's face had lost its maniacal joy, but his lips retained a pleased curl.
"Salvisa, welcome back!" Lop greeted as he caught sight her.
"Yes, and it looks like we all have a lot to tell. Where are the commanders? I would have thought their apprentice would want to keep close and learn."
"They just went for a break." Lop pouted, "I needed the air. Can't you tell them to let Yuber stay in the fort? It's not fair for what he does for us, even if he does run with monsters at night."
"I'd allowed you to find space for yourself." Salvisa answered, facing Yuber. "Is there someone standing in the way of that?"
He narrowed his eyes like a purring cat. "Peace and shelter are of no interest, and sleep does naught for me."
Seemingly satisfied, Lop broke off conversation with Salvisa and returned to his practice with Yuber.
The welcome for Salvisa's return was subdued, if not grim. It was clear within the fort, just as much from the outside, that soldiers and citizens alike suffered as much as the naked hillside from the Harmonian assault. She saw Walse and his family bolstering the civilians with raw, bold will fueling their strong words in the oil-lit halls on the way to the war room. Even Don, who Salvisa had tagged as better suited for the quiet life of home and the fields, had found a brave face and bold voice. Salvisa bade Kaolin to mingle with her friends while she introduced Austen to her commanders and learned what had caused so much damage to Manastash.
The commanders regarded Austen, when they met him, with a mix of relief and skepticism. The strategist himself earned their contempt with his timidity at first, but as he drew out facts and numbers and histories, he grew in comfort and dissolved the image of a timid boy with the sharp truth of an astute mind and deep comprehension for his age.
The Harmonian forces had gathered around the most vulnerable flanks of the hillside fortress, and despite Yuber's wanton destruction of the enemy camps and the quick arrival of several units under Captain Geddoe from Caleria, the uncanny tactics of the Harmonian army set the rebel forces back on their heels. The supply lines so carefully springing from Caleria were barely defensible.
As the evening wore on, Salvisa could feel her own wits become as ragged as her commanders'. They lacked numbers, more than skill. The Southern Frontier Defense Force especially had come away with numerous victories despite their small numbers, but they fought as a few pebbles trying to block a flood. Austen admitted by the end that their strategy was solid, if unimaginative, given what they knew. For his own part, Austen offered up several scenarios that he knew his father planned on pursuing and likely changes that would be made now that his son worked for the other side. These words were heartily accepted by the commanders like a sweet salve upon a burn.
"By the way," Austen said after a long drink of water towards the end of the evening, "I know Harmonia is referring to you- 'us' now, I guess- as 'the Manastash rebels', and most of the field reports I've seen have locals refer to the group as 'Fire Bringer'. Do you have an official name yet, or banner to fly under?"
Salvisa shook her head, "No, we put the cart before the horse on that."
"The Defense Force are all fighting under their own flags." Geddoe volunteered, speaking for a rare time this meeting. "For the rest, it's been the Harmonian flags you came with but defaced, correct, Sasarai?"
The Bishop nodded. "Futch, your Dragon Knights have their own banner as well?"
A broad-shouldered man wearing a winged circlet in his brown hair agreed, and Salvisa finally was able to tie a name she had heard so much over the evening with a face. He appeared to be in his mid-forties, but age was clearly no excuse for him to lead the Dragon Knights with only a pen and paper. Underneath his violet tunic Futch bristled with muscles needed to swing the massive sword slung across his back, and his black trousers were tight across the massive legs needed to ride his dragon through the skies.
"I wouldn't mind being part of the 'Fire Bringer' again." Futch said.
"Neither would I," Sasarai said, "but that name has too much cache as a southern rebellion from the Grasslands. No one outside the southwest would find that appealing, especially if they identify as Harmonian."
"What's wrong with being just the 'Rebellion'?" someone asked.
"I don't think that gives enough legitimacy." Austen answered.
"'Salvisa's Army'?"
"I don't want this to be about me." Salvisa said flatly. "Can't we be the 'People's Army'' or something like that?"
"Except that's already too similar to the People's Faction in the government. Though that may in itself help." Sasarai bobbed his head from side to side, unsure.
"Our aims, aside from keeping the True Runes safe, are largely the same." Geddoe added.
Many more ideas were bandied around, but for everything florid, inspirational, or aspirational suggested the weight of agreement came solidly on the side of "The People's Army" as the new name. The fight for choice of standard was much fiercer and threatened to come to blows before Salvisa declared through leader's fiat that she chose a napkin sketch of Harmonia's flag redone with its segmented ring emblem reworked in gold upon a green background, instead of white upon blue. Imposed over the ring was a similarly golden triangle. A bonus of the design, suggested one of Sasarai's men, was that they merely needed to dye the old Harmonian standards and patch them up rather than create new ones from whole cloth immediately.