<div style="color:black;font: 10pt arial;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"> </i></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>There was never an actual formal surrender. The fighting just gradually diminished as the legions slowly swept the city. Larger pockets of resistance were bypassed until the smaller ones had been taken. Then those were gradually ground down.</i></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"> </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Bitt picked up his pen again and added more. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">“Dear Lord. What a bland statement for something so terrible. Every street and building was bitterly contested. Fighting raged from floor to floor and room to room. The streets were piled with debris creating roadblocks that had to be taken one at a time. People climbed to the rooftops and rained death down onto the attacking Legionnaires. And when they ran out of arrows and spears they threw bricks, stones, roof tiles and they even levered down sections of the walls themselves. They took the city but the legions paid a high price.”</i></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"> </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He put down his pen and waited for the ink to dry before continuing his reading.</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"> </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The defenders died hard and honorably. They fought well. There was not one part of the city that was not contested and all had to be taken by sword and pilum. All except two places.</i></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"> </i></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The first was the great Library itself. The Legion was forbidden under pain of death from getting anywhere near it. That place was to be taken by the forces of the Magna Bibliotheca - the grand library of the empire alone.</i></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u><span style="text-decoration:none"> </span></u></b></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Bitt unraveled more of the scroll as he read and a small page of parchment came into view at the bottom. Someone had carefully placed the parchment there. Curious he picked up the small piece and found there was writing on it. It was done is a spidery scrawl so unlike the rest of the scroll. So very unlike the writing of a professional scribe.</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"> </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">“I still remember the day the city fell. Many memories haunt me but one stands out among the rest. Technically the city had fallen and the worst of the looting and killing had ended. The survivors on both sides tended to their wounded. The fighting for the Library continued at a ferocious rate. Everyone had been ordered away from it and even the Legionnaires gave it a wide berth. In front of the main entrance was a plaza. A large group of Legionnaires had gathered at the far edge (outside of arrow range). They had set up a group of chairs, tables, couches and even blankets laid on the paving. Many were wounded and were being tended by the medicus; the healers. Others just seemed to be tired. At first the group was angry and gave me and my cousins a difficult time but food and drink were brought out and soon the mood mellowed.</i></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"> </i></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“All eyes were turned to the Great Library and the events happening there. The outer wall was breached and the fighting moved into the courtyard beyond. And then into the interior of the main building itself. The soldiers were intently watching and would shout and cheer at a particularly exciting or interesting scene. They cheered the loudest when someone died. It seemed to be like some sporting event. Like watching their favorite team playing. At first I was angry at them for cheering the deaths of people from a fellow clan and those just defending their homes. But then I noticed they cheered the loudest when an ATTACKER died. When someone or something from the Grand Library was killed or destroyed. Some were even keeping count. Others were betting on who would get killed next!”</i></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"> </i></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“Only later was it explained. When the final assault on the city was planned the Commander had asked that the powerful troops and forces of the Library take part. The giant and ogres would have smashed the walls easily. And the summoned and undead things would wreak havoc on the defenders. Many Legionnaire lives would have been spared and perhaps more of the defenders would have surrendered in fear of them. But that was not to be. “Your petty desires are of no concern to me,” the Grand Librarian said. “I care only for what truly matters; the utter destruction of the true enemy. I will not waste my power on small, trivial things. The city is yours; if you can take it. Do not annoy me again with such stupid requests or your death will be slow and painful.” So the attack went on without them. I will admit to pride in knowing that clan and kindred killed many legionnaires. Some say as many as eight in ten died in the assault. Many of the survivors blamed the deaths of their comrades on the Library. ‘If those ogres had been there to smash down the buildings we wouldn’t have had to clear them one at a time. A library mage could have taken down that damn doe easily. Instead I lost ten good legionnaires before we managed to kill that mage.’ I heard those and similar words many times.</i></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"> </i></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“Worse still; afterward the Grand Library accused the legion of stealing goods that rightfully belonged to them. The fact that those goods belonged to neither and had been looted from the dead bodies of the true owners was ignored by the Library.”</i></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"> </i></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“Legate Tetrinius took a careful count of the forces the Library brought to the city and how many they left with. He noted that many did not survive. The Grand Library people looted the library and left with surprising haste. Not even lingering to be certain that the Cairrge Brachaidhe was truly wiped out. That surprised everyone. They went to all that effort to defeat their enemy and didn’t inflict the killing blow. Many said they no longer had the forces to do it. Too many had been killed. Most exciting was the rumor that the Grand Librarian herself had died. She was last seen by the legion entering the library they were attacking. Certainly, no legionnaire ever saw her again alive after that.”</i></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"> </i></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>‘Trevonna Dalachaie’</i></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"> </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>There was nothing else on the parchment. Not even a date.</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"> </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Carefully, so as to not damage the writing already there he added his own. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">“This bares out what we know. The Magna Bibliotheca withdrew with unexpected haste. And they did not bother any of the clans for several decades. But they are still about. And we fight them still.</i></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"> </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He finished reading the history.</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"> </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;line-height:normal"><i><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>What was left of the legion was unceremoniously sent back to Gamellae with little thanks from an ungrateful emperor. Upon arriving home they found that the Parthians had used their absence to attack and raid. It took two years of hard campaigning to drive them back. Rebuilding the legion back to full strength took almost a decade. In some ways it never did fully recover.</i></div> </div>