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You watched the steam from your cup rise and fade into the night. “I’d ask you the same. How many have died or been crippled, lost of mind or body, and for what? A thin strip of land, when victory comes? And when will that be?”
“Such questions already reveal your thoughts, I think,” Chiara said, “On the face of it, I would believe that the amount of bloodshed and suffering far exceeds any material reward. Do those dead feel the same, though? Remember that we fight against the Grossreich, against the Kaiser. Many would say this war is for more than land. I would agree with them. We fight the Reich alongside the Emreans. There is the potential to shatter the Reich, and remove its blight from our world. We stand against Alexander still, even if he is now a body in the ground, and the Judge Above willing, one of the pitiless souls damned condemned to the abysses to rot alongside the Dhegyar Khans. To fight against the Reich is noble and just. However…”
She drank deep of the mulled wine, her eyes cast star-wards flakes of snow began to fall. “I know not how many believe such when they preach it. I know not whether a crusade to destroy the Grossreich is worth destroying ourselves, either. To drown the enemy in one’s own blood to spite them is the morality of a beast and a fool. Saint Giovannes, the Rebuilder. Do you not believe, Bonaventura, that the future is worth fighting for, though the price may be terrible?”
“It is something easy to say in the moment,” you paused to drink a sip, “And difficult to follow upon when the price already paid might not be near what is demanded. The future seemed close, and now it seemed unknowable.”
“I agree.” Chiara said, her words pulled down low with a sad and sot mumble. “Worse still, I wonder if I have benefited where others have lost all. There is no path to ambition quicker than that of war. Without this, I doubt I would have done more than work with papers and ink. Now, I am readying to become a commissioned <span class="mu-i">Capitano</span>. If this war is not good in spite of all of its ugliness, then what am I being rewarded for?” Another sip. “So I must do my best to make it good and righteous where I can, even if it is only to my comrades.”
Watching Chiara’s face, her eyes, you still sensed doubt, as you got halfway down your mulled wine- best to not let it get cool. “In a position of authority,” you offered, “You are able to do much more good than others might. Do you have plans to that effect?”
Di Scurostrada paused, and said nothing, looking still to the stars.
“You did expect to come to this position someday, didn’t you?” you pressed, “Since I imagine your ambitions stretch further still?”
