-----------------------------
If there are spelling mistakes, please let me know.
Leave a comment; support is always appreciated.
I remind you to leave your ideas or what you would like to see.
-------------------------------
Anno Domini 828, October-23-November-5
Although the previous night had been very good and enjoyable, I was barely able to sleep at all… and it was not because my wife was some sort of nymphomaniac, but because I was not made to have someone sleeping beside me.
I was used to all the sounds one could find in a camp: shouting, the clash of metal, insults, the noise of beer mugs striking each other, the soldiers' cheers, the sound of training weapons, and the complaints and groans they made while sparring.
But it was another thing entirely to sleep with someone breathing next to you. Every time I drifted off, I felt a movement in the bed and woke up reaching for a knife, thinking someone was trying to kill me.
Perhaps the habit of sleeping in camps for years had done something to me, but I was not built for this, and I paid the price for it, since I had not been able to sleep at all. I kept waking up agitated, while María seemed to sleep deeply; no matter how abruptly I rose, she continued resting peacefully without even stirring.
So, after leaving the room and bathing while extremely tired, the meeting with my in-laws began again. They probably thought that after a pleasant night I would be more agreeable when it came to discussing political assistance—something I was not particularly willing to entertain, since those men coveted important positions in the imperial defense, such as the new themas.
I finally understood why they were so eager to become strategos of the new themas. All the positions in the thematic army were open, meaning they could assign a large number of their friends to those posts and later collect favors for having granted them well-paid and influential offices. They could appoint tourmarches, drungarios kentarchos; they could practically fill the entire structure with politicians, which was why those posts were so coveted.
The same applied to the thema of Jerusalem, since in theory I could fill the thematic army there with my own officers, although my provincial force would have to grow both in quality and in number.
At that moment I had fifteen thousand Varangians under arms, but I did not know how many would remain. Now that their purses were full, some would likely return home, others might stay, and I would have to see how many would eventually form a stable force.
Once everything was concluded and I returned to my mansion with my wife, loaded with clothes and possessions that belonged to her, we immediately began preparations for the journey to Crete, securing what was important and safeguarding what interested me most.
That very afternoon we set sail for Crete, as my parents would surely have many questions.
With a fleet of seven ships, we began the return to Heraklion, informing Theophilos that I would have everything ready for the thema of Jerusalem and asking to be excused from attending his marriage, since the imperial frontier was of vital importance.
I expected a calmer voyage, but instead I had someone severely afflicted by seasickness: María.
Apparently, being on the ship for more than an hour had made her extremely ill, and she was soon leaning over the side vomiting.
"Alright… I know it's terrible, but you'll have to get through it," I said, rubbing María's back as she turned pale as a ghost after emptying her stomach.
"Ah… this is awful… how much longer until we reach Crete?" María asked, her eyes half-closed.
"Seven days, or ten, depending on the winds," I replied, placing a crate so she could sit.
"What?… I thought it would be shorter… can't we go by land?" María asked, her breathing somewhat uneven.
"Crete is an island," I answered calmly.
"I know… but… can't we travel by road?"
"Well, that would take about a month. We would have to move to Morea and still take a ship from there, and the voyage would last at least two days."
"Ah… this is horrible," María said, swaying slightly as she sat on the crate.
"How did you manage to reach Constantinople from Anatolia, where your family lives? You must have crossed the sea," I said, placing my arm around her.
"That trip was shorter… I barely noticed it. We've been at sea much longer now," María replied.
"I would like to give you that luxury, María, but traveling by land to Morea carries the risk of Bulgarian raids, and we are in the season for attacks. For example, Strategos Skleros was not at the apple ceremony because he had to defend the frontier, so it would not be advisable. I do not have enough men here for an escort large enough to deter any group of Bulgarian raiders," I said, gently rubbing her back.
"I see… I'll have to endure it," María said softly.
"Yes… I'm sorry… let me see if we have something interesting to do," I said, moving off to fetch León's books.
Already accustomed to the movement of the ship, I went quickly down to the hold where León kept several of his books—an entire collection of ancient texts—and took the one that seemed newest. With it in hand, I returned to María, who was staring at the sea with her hands on her stomach, still swaying.
I sat beside her, and we began to read. After glancing through several pages, I realized it was Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. The introductory sections were in Greek, but the main body of the text was in Latin.
"Oh… Latin," I muttered, making a face as I read beside María.
"Don't you know how to read Latin?" María asked.
"I did not see it as necessary, only Greek, Arabic, Bulgarian, and Norse," I said, lowering my head.
"He, he, well, that is far more than one would expect. I only know how to read Greek and Latin," she replied more calmly, smiling.
"Oh, great, teach me," I said, wrapping my arm around her.
And so we remained like that for a long time. Although I knew a few words in Latin, it was very basic, so I could not read a book like that without help. While she explained what the words meant, I paid close attention, and it seemed that her stomach discomfort had begun to fade.
When we stopped due to lack of light, she felt unwell again, though each time the discomfort was less severe, until finally, on the seventh day of our voyage, she was able to eat without feeding the fish.
At last, after eight days at sea, we reached my port, which was vibrant with life. With tens of thousands of slaves and spoils being sold, and its position as a safe harbor amid the Empire's commercial traffic, Heraklion had become a fully established port, where thousands of merchants conducted business and paid docking fees and taxes for their activities.
Without wasting time, we disembarked and went straight to my parents, where I introduced María, earning myself a firm ear-pull from my mother for not inviting them to the wedding.
I explained that there had not been time, since it had been an order from the basileus Rhōmaiōn and had been arranged within five days, and that even sending the message in a drakkar rowed by the best Varangians would have made it impossible to bring them to Constantinople in time.
Leaving María to get acquainted with my parents, I set everything else aside, as there were matters to review, especially the Varangians who had arrived, since I needed to confirm how many troops I would have.
The Syriacs who had migrated had also begun to settle, though unfortunately they were not many, only about twenty thousand had arrived over time, but now that those Syrian territories were under Byzantine control, I did not believe more migrants from that region would come.
I had distributed them among the Varangian and Greek settlements; in this way I ensured that no culture except the Greek would form a majority in certain areas, although this was becoming increasingly difficult, since the Greeks were few and most migrants belonged to non-Greek cultures.
Finally, speaking with the local jarls and the newly arrived ones, most of the jarls would return to their lands but leave their men behind to begin building, as they intended to bring their entire tribes. That meant a massive Varangian migratory wave was coming.
I was not about to become fussy about migrants, but clearly this could place the Varangians as the dominant culture on the island, and that could be dangerous. Even considering their sense of honor, if they saw themselves in the majority they might attempt something, so I would likely send the next migratory wave brought by Hakon entirely to Jerusalem and the other cities under my control.
I had many things to do now, so I immediately began managing the funds I had promised to León and placed them at his disposal, along with the crews of architects and builders working in Heraklion on the city's expansion.
Recently, foreign quarters had begun to be established near the ports, where merchants from other parts of Europe were settling to open businesses or rent warehouses and continue with their activities. Slowly we began to take control of certain areas of Heraklion as I had planned, and that provided me with steady rental income.
Moving the gold so that León could do as he pleased in his city and govern it in his own way, I began organizing the construction of the optical telegraph, since it was an important investment for an island that was slowly rising again and that could soon attract the attention of Saracen pirates if they noticed the accumulated wealth.
During the following days, I dedicated myself to gathering as many construction materials as possible, while pressing the head of my shipyards to see how the project I had requested was progressing. They had advanced somewhat, as the lower part of the ship had been built in a manner similar to what I had asked for. I was able to observe dozens of failed prototypes they had worked on, many half-finished hulls that had broken or warped under the pressure of the applied techniques, but each failure seemed to make them improve.
Unfortunately, I had nothing ready yet to transport equipment to Jerusalem, though I hoped that at some point it would be prepared.
So I simply focused on preparing everything for the journey to Jerusalem. I reviewed what Lysandros had accomplished, since the man had effectively become the governor of Heraklion, managing everything while I was absent. There was no need to take him to Jerusalem, where I would remain for several months to secure the defenses and arm the thematic army as effectively as possible.
The advantage of having increased the output of the smithies was that, since Theophilos would not have another order until the following year, all production would now be mine. It was time to standardize my forces, as full armor was rare among my men due to the lack of shipments intended to equip them.
Now I had to take advantage of the fact that we could manufacture around two hundred full sets of armor per month and use the remainder of the year to produce the best equipment possible, so that when the campaign in Bulgaria began, my forces would be so well equipped that we would crush the Bulgarians in every sense.
Once everything was organized, I began boarding a ship bound for the Holy City and ordered that my wife travel later, after I had properly pacified the city, since I did not yet know in what condition it stood.
-----------------------------
If there are spelling mistakes, please let me know.
Leave a comment; support is always appreciated.
I remind you to leave your ideas or what you would like to see.
-------------------------------