"Why we shilly-shally?" lady Behrr concluded after a long speech. "As soon as we occupy Rasharr, the Admiral will attack. It will be easy to destroy his fleet and win the war." "But, don't you give a damn about those who will die in the battle?" cried Eve who couldn’t have a stomach for this aloofness. "For the girls betrothed to the fallen it is an inconvenience." "No, it isn't." Kahrr said. "So? is it or isn't?" Vasquez asked. "Usually a Forgotten Fiancée doesn't remarry." Lady Behrr stated. "A lineage can even disappear!" "No, if a guy can pay the bride price, the girl finds a husband." Kahrr replied. Puhrr saw JS smiling: "Jay, you've a sly smile glued on your face, why?" "It is a matter of class: they're both right." He said. "Right!" Kahrr yelled and Eve wondered how she hadn't noticed that Kahrr and the other lowborn Rasharr were now more devoted to JS than to aristocrats like Xahrr or even Maurr. "Lady Behrr," JS sighed, "we aren't an occupation army, but a liberation army, and the sooner everybody sticks it in one's mind the better. We can occupy most Rasharr main cities easily and defeat the admiral, and what lies ahead?" "We'll rule Rasharr, of course!" Xahrr uttered. "How long after my fleet disengages?" Aghast silence. No one had thought that JS would leave. "Ah, I see nobody has thought about it." JS stressed. "As I said we are a liberation army, therefore our basis is the countryside, Rasharr's guts. Only the occupying armies seize the cities, it's easier from a military and administrative point of views, but it doesn't mean controlling the country. Past the shock of the conquest, the peasants will start a resistance and the conquerors end besieged inside the cities. They'll have to bargain each sortie, while an elusive enemy can attack focal points in the cities at his pleasure. We defeated Nuhrr in Shundor this way." "But as soon as we land, people will join us." Maurr replied. "Romantic, but not likely. Many won't join us, it's a matter of interest. Did you ever wonder why the GHOULs are so powerful? Their sect has grown dramatically and the admiral had to join to them, not the other way around. We must destroy the GHOULs' strong points, or after a decade-long guerrilla war the GHOULs will get the power again when my fleet goes home." "The GHOULs finger the women's immorality as the cause of social and economic ruin." said Kahrr. "In some planets they killed the consorts' by-blows." "When a country is in dire economic and social crisis, the easiest thing is to blame the laxity of morals and unleash the mob against a scapegoat." JS pointed out. "This way the GHOULs get the upper hand over the State diverting attention from their own sins and dispossessing women of the last vestiges of their power. But there's something more." "Even a commoner can rise in rank among the GHOULs." Guhrr said. "Right! The interclass upward movement. Then we'll break up these two points. Rohrr, Kahrr and the others are the proof that among us anyone can ascend the social ladder if he deserves it." "And what about the matriarchs?" Lady Behrr asked. "The war has taken away the men from the villages. There are whole towns of grass widows or forgotten fiancées and ordinary women do the manly jobs to help the war effort to boot. This contradicts GHOUL morals. We give the women, not the families, the corresponding bride-price, so a woman will have her own wealth and marry who she loves." "That's why you asked to write Ru dramas for an audience of villagers?" JS nodded: "The country is now our stronghold, it takes time but it's working. Today inside the fortified country malls our actors are playing Romeo and Juliet, Rasharr style: our star-crossed lovers don't die but flee to join Maurr's army and then live happily ever after." --- Thanks!