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[h3]Departure from Relouse[/h3][/center][hr]
After the encounter with the daring Eskandr wall-jumpers, Otios had not seen that much of the battle until it had come to its conclusion. The city's walls, combined with the strict order to retreat to them, had prevented him from getting outside again -- not that he had been eager to see more of the carnage from close by anyway. A few thunderbolts hurled from the top of the wall, some assistance with igniting large oil barrels or other projectiles drenched in flammable substances, nothing more it had been from his side that cruel night. He himself had been in dire need of mending, a term more commonly used when it came to machines instead of a living being, but probably more appropriate than 'healing' if one took a look at the cramped places where the wounded were treated.

It wasn't that those attending to the injured were doing a bad job, on the contrary. However they could neither bring true restoration for they couldn't erase those memories that would nourish people's nightmares for years or even lifetimes, nor prevent any able-minded individual from stumbling upon the absurdity that was going on: People were put into the grinder standing just outside the city walls only to be patched together and reassembled hours later again inside. And for what ? So that the Parrench army could keep going, so that the process could continue until the loop was completely drained of resources -- humans and yasoi.

Could one blame the Parrench for this ? Certainly not for this conflict had been forced upon them, but history told that the people living here were able to take the initiative in terms of war, too. Could one blame the Eskandr ? In terms of direct causality absolutely, but Otios knew that he had never been far enough to the South yet to truly know whether their situation there perhaps was just too dire to stay. Could one blame humanity as a whole for being unable to find different solutions for such situations and for mixing faith, pride and greed into the mix in tremendous quantities as well ? Yes and this time with neither ifs nor buts!

It was with mixed feelings then when Otios left the gates of Relouse behind him in the morning. At least he'd be able to leave the stench behind before it came to the worst. The flies would thrive and so would the rats and other carnivores whose preferred diet were the already dead. Mass sickness was just bound to come for nothing could keep Relouse's ground water safe from the decay reaching it. Some fancy clerics had quiet profoundly dismissed his idea of improving the dead body situation by letting those having the gift of thunder joining forces to create an improvised, but large scale incineration pit. What he had done with the poker a few hours prior, just bigger! Something that wouldn't need loads of wood or oil to just halfway burn the dead, but would just do things so much more profoundly at a much, much higher temperature. 'Blasphemy!', the holy man had uttered. So first they all had helped to mass produce death and now they were afraid of mass disposal of the outcome albeit knowing that no other approach would be able to prevent even more mass misery in the aftermath ? There certainly were things Otios could not understand...

And so he rode on, trying to reach Loriindton rather sooner than later. If the interpretation of things was right, then there was a real chance of the entirity of Yasoi to be dragged into this mess in an uncontrolled manner. Just staying out of the whole affair would have been the most preferrable option, but he himself had already dismissed that one the moment he had followed Lady Talit's call here. The Eskandr simply couldn't be trusted for staying neutral in case they'd have dealt with Parrench one day. They were humans too after all and right on their way of proving their aggressive potential. If he only had the choice between staying neighbours with a potentially nasty human nation A and a potentially nasty human nation B, then it was obvious to pick the one less unfamiliar.