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| Mzuma's Move Mzuma was still not satisfied. The meetings in the war room at Muhuictlan were taking too much time since none of them could agree on the right approach. Thus, Mzuma decided to act on his own without informing the other leaders except for Quetza. He told Quetza that when the time was right, he would support her choice to return one of the Sleepers. In return, Quetza had to keep her mouth shut about what Mzuma was about to do to Bosco. Mzuma was very much aware that the other leaders wouldn't have allowed him to retaliate on his own since it could harm the prospects of future negotiations with Bosco. But it wasn't negotiations that Mzuma was after. It was blood. He had told Shbraqi and Thaqoal that he needed to speak to the warriors of the Stellar Resistance to raise their morale. Especially now that everyone knew that it was Mzuma who took out Wilhelm in combat. Shbraqi and Thaqoal agreed to it, while Quetza pretended to know nothing about Mzuma's plans and nodded along. Quickly, the troops gathered outside their tents to find out what the commotion was all about. Mzuma slowly scaled the steep stairs of the War God's Temple, a terraced pyramid leading to a plateau at the top that could oversee the whole forest. Upon reaching the top, he looked below and saw countless Stellan warriors all gathered already at the bottom, waiting for what Mzuma was about to say. Thaqoal, Shbraqi, and Quetza remained at the bottom with the warriors as well to view Mzuma's speech from a distance. "Brothers and sisters," Mzuma shouted. As Mzuma did his speech in Muhuictlan, he had laid out a plan to simultaneously attack Bosco. Thaqoal and Shbraqi wouldn't have any chance to stop his plans now. Mzuma's forces had already cautiously maneuvred themselves near the lands that the Boscosi had annexed to hide. The warriors looked at their sundials and started to breathe heavier as the time was nearing. They used a breathing technique known to some Stellan warriors to increase their adrenaline and reduce their sense of pain. While Mzuma continued his speech at Muhuictlan, the sundials indicated that it was time to move for the Stellan warriors at the annexed regions. "Not bothering others and keeping to ourselves has apparently made us Stellans seem weak in the eyes of the Boscosi and the Fiorians doing the bidding of the Boscosi." A horde of Stellan warriors suddenly revealed themselves at the Boscosi camps situated in Stella. It didn't matter to which Sachsenwald the camps belonged, the same way the lives of Stellans didn't matter to the Boscosi when they spilled the blood of their innocent. They raided the camp with such haste that the Boscosi soldiers weren't able to properly respond. Besides, the Stellans knew the lands better than the Boscosi. All across Stella, the Boscosi camps were being burned, the throats of the soldiers slit, and the dead impaled on stakes to be mounted as a warning to others. "They entered our lands, took innocent lives, and labeled us as rebels when we refused to serve them. And for what? They want to brand us as slaves to serve foreign masters while tearing down the lands of our ancestors," Mzuma continued. The loved ones of slain Stellans, who weren't warriors and couldn't assist in the attacks on the camps, had infiltrated Bosco itself a few days ago. The pain that was inflicted on them was going to be returned a thousandfold. Mzuma had tasked them to hide themselves in populated areas while awaiting the sundial as well on the right day. And that day was today for them. While the Stellan warriors raided the camps at the border during Mzuma's speech, these individuals would sacrifice their lives to Xiuhtecuhtli to restore honor to their ancestors and loved ones. "Without freedom, we shall never know peace. Whoever dares to enter Stella under the orders from the Boscosi from this day on will forever regret it," he shouted while raising his weapon in the air. With the speech still ongoing at Muhuictlan, a young Stellan man stood anxious in an empty alley of a crowded Boscosi street while trying to maintain his grip on a knife in his tremulous hand. He remembered what had happened to his partner. How she must've screamed and begged them to stop when she was being violated by the Boscosi soldiers, and the state in which he found her body. "Oh great Xiuhtecuhtli, my warmth in cold, my light in the darkness, I sacrifice myself to you. Burn my body and burn my enemies. My blood is yours," the young Stellan man cheered right before he slit his own throat. The bodies of the Stellans who had sacrificed themselves in the Boscosi cities started to burn intensely. A sign that their offers were accepted. Unlike the Boscosi who would spend a lifetime praying at their churches without ever seeing a miracle, the Stellans could pray directly to some of their Gods and request something by providing the necessary sacrifice. Steadily, the bodies of the Stellan who sacrificed themselves started to burst and engulf the streets of various Boscosi cities in a sea of flames. "Your brothers and sisters are out there right now to defend our ancestral land. Raiding their camps and burning the streets that the Boscosi call their home," Mzuma continued shouting. Suddenly, Thaqoal's face dropped when he realized what Mzuma had done. While the Stellar Resistance was still looking at Mzuma in rapt attention, Thaqoal clenched his fists and held his tongue to not cause any division. Meanwhile, Quetza had a devilish grin on her face that almost stretched from ear to ear while listening to Mzuma's speech and sensing Thaqoal's frustration over it. Her amusement was palpable. Thaqoal could feel it in his bones that she was behind all of this. That was not a smile caused by admiration of Mzuma's speech, it was the smile of someone who succeeded in what they wanted to accomplish without showing their true colors. "Let us all honor them!" Mzuma stood tall as the crowd cheered loudly and revered him. Boldly, Mzuma protruded his tongue and initiated a ceremonious dance to celebrate the achievements of today. The Stellan warriors all followed suit. With vigorous movements and stamping of the feet, everyone rhythmically shouted along with Mzuma. Thaqoal couldn't bear to remain any longer and immediately mounted his trusted steed Orac while riding towards Bosco to stop Quetza before it was too late. She was a harbinger of death, Thaqoal believed, and her hubris would become the downfall of both Bosco and Stella if she got her way. |
