Thunderclouds

Outside the Divine Fort, Richard who hadn’t slept the entire night was staring at the map before him. To him, the city was in a strange location. This area was still close to the northern wastes, with freezing winters and rainy summers that were not comfortable in the slightest. It was also surrounded by hundreds of kilometres of barren land, requiring food to be hauled from more than 200 kilometres away. This was enormous pressure on a city that had hundreds of thousands of mouths to feed.

Richard thought about it for a long time, but after he couldn’t come up with a good explanation he eventually just smiled and realised he had complicated things once more. He was already bearing down on the city, he could just figure things out after the battle. When the first rays of the morning sun lit up the sky, he led his troops towards the Divine Fort. The pope’s face...