Herald of Steel

As the blizzard died down after a few days, and once the surroundings started to change from hellishly cold to one that was just bitter, Cambyses felt the enemy pick up the pace of their attack.

It seemed Perseus was willing to try his luck at a second throw.

And so the attacks were restarted with renewed vigor while the wall defenders worked to keep the enemy at bay, staining the snow-covered ground with dead bodies.

While inside the city, the populace tried to make do with whatever they had.

Life was certainly not easy for them inside.

Though they were not starving, they were certainly hungry. .

Because while the city still provided them with food, it was only one meal a day for everyone except the currently stationed defenders up on the wall who were actively fighting, this concession being so that they had the energy to keep on fighting.

Hence, the amount was just enough to keep them from starving and rebelling, but certainly not enough to sate their hunger.

And it was still quite hard to pass the day with so little food, especially in this cold where the body burnt energy so quickly.

Hence many tried to find alternative ways of procuring food.

Those who could afford to would bribe the cooks to set aside a part of the cooked meal to sell to them later.

Or bribe the city guards to give them a second meal by asking them to turn a blind eye when the same man queued up twice, or even simply giving them a bigger proportion.

As for those too poor to take this crooked route, many would resort to stealing others’ meals or even bullying it off them, with women and children being particularly the preferred target of choice, as the men would swindle off it them by saying they did not eat that much.

And the tragedy was in such situations the much weaker side usually had to relent to such coercion, or else have their entire meal forcibly taken.

So this situation soon gave to the rise phenomenon where one could see many women and children, and even some frailer men finishing their meals around the serving stations, to avoid such a fate.

Not that this was in any guarantee of safeguarding their food.

As after a while the men in charge got smart to this idea and started to command everyone to bring all the given food back to their hideout before eating them.

Or the result was a beating and even being denied to go to get the food the next day.

Cambyses gradually came to know about this practice and tried to stop it as best as she could, but with the few men under her, she would hardly tackle such a widespread practice.

So she turned a blind eye to it for now.

But one thing she did not turn a blind eye to was an incident that happened one day around one of the serving stations.

There, a few desperados, who were too poor to bribe anyone, were too righteous to swindle from the women and children and had become too stupid in hunger, decided to start a quarrel with the servers there, demanding more food, as they even shouted, “We can’t live with so little. You Thesian scums are starving while your lords eat five meals a day! Give us more!”

And this even got some of the more fiery men in the crowd fired up.

But unfortunately for the men, that place was not the best ground to foment a rebellion.

As given the station was a heavily defended point, and the guards there brutally squashed those efforts instantly without giving the situation an inkling of a chance to develop.

While the majority of the people in the queue just stood there watching and hoping that the line would not be shut off due to this and they would be able to get their daily ration.

So those troublemakers were beaten to an inch of their life, so badly in fact that it was doubtful they would be able to survive winter with the kinds of wounds they suffered. and afterward taken, or more accurately dragged to the dungeon.

And once Cambyses came to hear of the incident, she promptly ordered these miscreants to be executed in public for ‘disturbing the peace of the city’.

These men might have been only trying to get a bit more food for themselves and their families, but no matter how soft-hearted Cambyses was, she could never allow actions to become a thing.

So though regrettable, it made to be done, and Cambyses made sure to severely punish them to make an example out of them.

And the results spoke for themselves, as afterward, no such open dissatisfaction about the higher-ups ever happened.

But though Cambyses seemingly suppressed, if not solved the dissatisfaction about the food shortage, it was not just that the populace was chasing around.

Because in addition to being hungry, though the populace was not freezing, they were certainly cold, as good homes able to stave off the chill and thick winter clothing were both in short supply.

And Cambyses could do little to provide them with these in such a short time.

So instead, she built temporary heating points all around the city, which were large fireplaces fueled by coal, where people could gather and warm themselves up.

And that managed to alleviate some of the misery from the cold.

Lastly, there was a chronic shortage of medicine to treat colds and fevers.

But sadly Cambyses could do nothing about that.

The clinic and its medicine were already ordered to give priority to the wounded defenders, and so in this case Cambyses could only ask the ill to pray and hope that natural selection favored them.

So to that effect, the ill and the sick were frequently seen visiting the temples and praying to the gods, to the point that the grounds there became covered with people lying around, as they hoped being closer to the houses of the gods would help them get better.

And the priests and priestesses tried their best in that regard, with Azura and Azira even regularly giving sermons and holding prayers to try and help alleviate their suffering, even if it was just a placebo effect.

While Cambyses felt the only real solution to this chronic shortage of medicine was to reduce demand, which could have been done by not letting so many people into the city in the first place.

But closing the gates to the refugee and having them potentially under Perseus’s mercy also would have been a very unpopular move and since she felt she could accommodate them with some difficulties, she did, making the current situation develop as such.

But still, by implementing these various techniques, Cambyses managed to keep the city ticking, and with the military on her side, things seemed to be going relatively well, and barring any unforeseen scenarios, it seemed Zanan would hold without breaking a sweat.

And this realization was made by Perseus as well, who had grown increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress in the one-and-a-half month they had been there

And so with the new year fast approaching, Perseus felt this siege was going nowhere and sent the same delegate inside the city, to discuss further terms.

“We are willing to leave Zanzan and hand over the two thousand prisoners we have. For a total of 40 million ropals.” The man named his price very directly.

An astronomical price at that.

And this made Cambyses shoot out in anger, “And here we thought you were coming in good faith.”

“Pay 20,000 ropals for one soldier! Your king is delusional.”

“Haha, no, no, the 40 million is both for the prisoners and for us to leave Zanzan. It is not high at all if you think about it. In fact, it is quite cheap,” The man clarified with a chuckle,

“No, it is still too expensive. I saw what you guys did to the outside of our city, burning and razing our buildings,” Cambyses refused the offer by pointing to the fact that Perseus had set the military complex and the brick building kilns on fire when he had started the siege, and then offered her own deal, raising her two fingers and saying, “20 million to leave Zanzan. That is our final price.”

But the man refused to budge on the amount, putting on a knowing smile and saying, “Oh, but 40 million ‘is’ our final price.”

“Or we will execute all your prisoners.”

“And you will also be interested to know we have one of your officers. Laykash! I believe you should know him!”

Perseus had commanded the man to try and extract as much money as possible from them, reasoning that if they could give Leosydas so much money cash, their treasury had to be stacked.

And so the man refused to negotiate and threatened them as such.

But Cambyses, though having had the money, and even after a bit of urging from the other council members still refused, reminding them of Alexander’s instruction not to commit to any peace deals without him, and angrily sent the man out saying,

“Go back. You have already broken the peace treaty and stolen from us. We will not indulge you further!”

And as such, the inherent distrust built by Perseus and the absence of Alexander made it so that the war that could have been over by now was made to drag on towards a very memorable event.