Marlon Norse remained in Carles, the city's stone walls now standing under his command like a silent challenge to the enemy. He didn't need anyone to remind him to keep it safe—he knew that Estalis would strike back with a vengeance.
Carles was no longer a town but a city. It was Estalis that declared it a city, and there was no move from Northem to demote it back to a town.
A general of countless campaigns, Marlon wasted no time. The Zuran commander entrusted with the care of Carles, pale with fear, found himself staring at the gleam of Marlon's sword mere inches from his throat. With steel pressing at his skin, the man was forced to send messages to Turik and the Crown Prince of Estalis, reporting a fabricated triumph: the Estalis and Zuran forces had crushed the Northem army under Marlon's command, and he now rotted in the dungeons of Marquina Manor.
