Range: Yes indeed! To next time....
Dewirix: Yes...but I think Talena's a bit too upset to see it that way.
You know, the whole 'friend dying and being forced to flee' thing does that!
Boris: Perhaps not, but if you've got it, use it! And it IS a very nice gun!
blsteen: I'm not quite sure what you mean.... But the thing about EU3 is that without player intervention the same sorts of things happen as did historically...in a broad sense!
BAYEZID II PART 1
XXX
18/6/1434.
Talena cursed life in general, but spared a thought for the weather, the Turks and her own predicament. After swimming from the walls of Constantinople she had been forced to creep at nights along the shore of the Mamara before heading inland. She’d been forced to hide in forest as the Turkish army was still very near the city. For a week she’d been lost in a tangle of forests and swamps near Heraclea before striking out inland.
That had been over two months ago, and her progress north had always been hindered, first by the Ottoman army decamping, then the Turkish capital of Edirne itself. Her own unique constitution ensured that she only felt hungry, rather than dying from starvation, but it did not help her temper much.
And now she was stuck. She was on the road leading along the Maritsa River into Edirne, and no way to cross. She could dive into the water and swim across, but the water was rapid, and the banks steep. If she tried to swim she might well be swept under, and she wasn’t sure whether she’d survive that or not. On the other side of her was a steep, rocky slope with a ruined church from Imperial times part way up. Before her was the Ottoman capital. To turn around now would be to go back miles to find a safe crossing, while to go forward would put her in the capital of the enemy.
It was as she stood there debating and looking south that she heard the thunder of hooves from behind her. Talena turned and swore. Cavalry was approaching down the road from the city. There were at least a dozen of them, and along the flat road they’d already seen her.
Talena stood still for a moment, and then darted up the overgrown path to the ruined church. It was that or dive into the river, which she had no desire to do. Not content with driving her off, the Turks dismounted and set off after her.
Thoughts and decisions flashed through her mind. She could run into the woods and avoid capture, she could fight them, or she could surrender. To a soldier the last option was unthinkable, but there were a lot of Ottoman soldiers, probably too many to fight. However, there was something she had to do. She had to stop some of her possessions falling into Turkish hands if she was killed or captured.
Taking the gun from her pack and making sure it was sealed in the air-tight bag, she added some other items and ran into the ruined church. She found a likely place and stuffed them in, then ran outside and towards the forest.
It was only as she crested the hill she saw that she was trapped. The Turks, seemingly alert to ambush, had sent a force of soldiers parallel with the road on a small track, and these were now alerted to her presence by a trumpet blast.
Talena stood at bay as two dozen dismounted cavalry and infantry closed in on her. She drew her blade, but knew even she couldn’t fight so many.
A bearded Turk said something to her, and since she was bereft of her translator she had no clue what he was saying.
“”Woman. Give up!” he growled in broken Greek.
Talena raised her blade, but the infantry had their bows, and she well remembered the pain and darkness that an arrow to the heart had caused. And this time they would simply bury her and she’d be trapped, semi-alive, under the ground forever!
It was a terrible thought, so she dropped the knife.
The leader gestured, and Talena was grabbed. Her wrists were tightly bound with rope, and she was dragged back down towards the road. She could tell, even without understanding the language, that they were astonished to find a woman dressed like her alone in the forest. Talena was expecting the worst, either to be executed or even worse, sold into a harem.
What she found instead was an ornate procession where bearers carried gold encrusted and curtained in silk litters, escorted by soldiers. It was clearly for someone important. And then Talena saw who was in the first of them. Immediately she pulled away, but her captors pushed her forward.
“Kneel!” the leader said in Greek.
With fifty swords present and her hands tied, Talena awkwardly knelt before Sultan Bayezid II. She couldn’t help but notice that he was not riding, and that his left shoulder where she had shot him was still bandaged and wrapped.
There was an exchange with the carriage in which the distant ruin and Talena were obviously discussed.
Finally the Sultan looked down at Talena. “What were you doing here?” he demanded in good Greek.
“I came to pray at the church, Lord,” she replied.
A boot to her stomach knocked her to the ground. “You will address me as Master,” the Sultan told her. “Well, be that as it may, you drew arms against my soldiers, and you were spying on me.”
Talena got to her knees again. She would rather have put her hand in a fire then call anyone ‘Master’, but it couldn’t be helped. “Master, I did not know you were passing until I saw your soldiers.”
The Sultan coughed violently before looking down at her. “You are Greek?” he looked at her dirty and torn clothes. “Fleeing from Constantinople, perhaps?” He seemed to consider. “You will come with me back to Constantinople, girl. I have some announcements to make there.” He gestured to his guards and gave orders, before laying back on his cushions.
Talena found herself hustled down the procession to join a group of other prisoners surrounded by Ottoman soldiers. She sighed; she was going back to Constantinople!
XXX
Sultan Bayezid had accomplished in only a few years what so many before had failed to do – he had conquered Constantinople and destroyed the final remnants of the Roman Empire, and stood at a pinnacle of prestige at home and abroad.
To cement his power, and perpetuate his nation’s legacy, he therefore declared that he was the successor of the Roman Empire, and that he would henceforth be known as the Padishah, the King of Kings. Constantinople, renamed officially to Istanbul, would be his capital, and he claimed dominion over all the former Empire’s lands.
Much of this was propaganda of course, but the Sultan was a religious man, who believed he had the divine and most important command to fulfil these goals. Soon he would begin to look south towards the remaining Greek territories held by the Republic of Venice....