The city rejoiced in victory, yet beyond its jubilant walls, Rurik remained in the camp. Under the steady glow of candlelight, he bent over his table, quill in hand, drafting his chronicle of the war.
Though Wessex had surrendered, he dared not let down his guard. He had insisted on taking the night watch himself; to be caught in a drunken feast and slaughtered like a penned beast would have been too inglorious a death to bear.
From within the city came the distant echoes of cheer and song, the revelry of triumph. Rurik raised an eyebrow, then turned back to his parchment, finishing the closing pages of The Britannic Wars — The Wessex Campaign. It took him two hours more to perfect the final passages.
When that task was done, he drew out a new roll of clean vellum. There began a labor greater than any before — the writing of a military treatise.
It would be a work divided into three volumes: Training, Logistics, and Tactics.
