Cataryna and Amara

[Miriam Ics]

Short explanation about how it started.

The Eagles were sent to many battles till Red noticed some melites at Luhgreten. She was sent there with Revan and Bob and a few others, including the General, to deal with them. In mean time  Lord Kuvio Eirikr were arrested and killed and Cataryna was sure this started the strange sequence of events. She remembered to be so angry with his death that she could not avoid to feel happy when she wounded the melite Judge, Kalixta.

After the last battle at Sandefur she remained trapped in a spell at Winifael for a few turns and several days passed, during which she took orders from Red sent by his scribe, and some in his own hand, letters that she kept carefully amid the breasts until she could finally rejoined her army, the best army of all time, the Eagles of Hope.

[Miriam Ics]

Cataryna was in her tent when she heard Amara Angelo, Vice-marshal of the wolves, reciting a poem:

Darkness and Light,
A King's Might.
War is brewing,
Join the fight.

Eagles and Wolves,
Tharmarkians all.
We stand together,
Melhed will fall.

We fight and die,
We kill and save.
We invade them
like a tidal wave.

Ashes and dust,
they will be this.
They started this war.
But we'll finish.
(By Amara Angelo)

"Well, well, I guess this takes away my worries about the Wolfes. Baroness Amara and Count Jonn will definitely make the Wolfes the second best army" she said to Captain Gotwin with a huge smile in her face.

Gotwin couldn't hold a loud laugh.

"Do not let her hear this Lady Cataryna."

Cataryna smiled again and went back to her tent to prepare herself for the night. If she were lucky, would be a good night.

A new day started and a new order arrived:

“Effective immediately for those in Tepmona—with apologies to the ladies, for war demands a certain brutality of mind: kill or rape anything that moves. Burn what doesn't. We are done pillaging.
Enzo Solari
General of Thalmarkin
Duke of Sandefur
Baron of Coness
Marshal of Livestock and Peasant Liberation Force”

[Miriam Ics]

She couldn’t believe that those were the orders to follow. She remembered perfectly to hear the General say: "We do not kill, rape, burn and it is ineffective for our purposes! We pillage and maraud, because we want to hurt the melites more." But now, they were ordered to kill, rape and burn and she refused it:

“Lord General, With all respect I have for you I will kill and burn. Only.”

Swift as the Eagle of Hope reaches its enemy, the answer came in spurts and all sides. Barons, lords, ladies, and even dukes entered a heated discussion about the rights and duties of nobles, removing estates from the most exalted and removing them from the army due to confusion, making Cataryna feel guilty of having gotten something that looked like a "Pandora's Box ".

One day, after seeing some letter from Alitoth Himoura saying “Bah! Nobody wanfs weaklings for subjects. Kill them all. The gods will know their own” Cataryna answered:

From your words, I understand that you never saw your family home being under attack, your old servants that nourished you being killed, their daughters being rapped and you, seeing this and not able to do anything to stop it.
No, I will never agreed with this.
We can kill the nobles, we can force the peasants to obey and we can burn it all, but I will never agree with savagery.
Lady Cataryna Bowker
Dame of Unger

[Miriam Ics]

Amara Angelo answered too:

You need not agree with each other, but you should keep such thoughts to yourselves, at least until the war is over and Melhed is utterly destroyed. We need morale to stay up and arguing amongst ourselves not only lowers the morale of our men, but also the morale of the realm as a whole. I'm glad you feel that way, Dame Cataryna, I agree, but, if you don't like it, don't do it, but don't judge others in times of war. War brings out the best and worst of people. We need to be the guiding light of the North and show the Melites no mercy, if we are to win. Remember, it was they who broke the treaty, not us. It was they who used priests and such as instruments of war, and it was they that executed one of our own nobles. We are not the aggressors, we are the Thalmar.
Amara Angelo
Baroness of Pellan

And another Letter from Amara Angelo
I wake up expecting to find some small debate on this, and instead, I see an argument, a full-blown argument, in the middle of a war? What are you thinking? We need to win. We need to stop this. We need to work as one. We can kill rape and burn, or not. The choice is yours. I, personally, think we should not do it, however, we need to do what we can to win, therefore, I will tolerate it, until ordered otherwise.
Amara Angelo
Baroness of Pellan