OOC: Sorry, still can't come up with any good story. Writer's block. All I've got so far is this premise; hopefully I could turn it into something decent along the way.
IC:
Yes, perhaps this wasn't a terribly good idea after all.
Thus, I suppose, thought Ozhan-Aga when he, Bayezid-Pasha, Dwurat-Aga and Khan Toqtamish III were surrounded by grizzly, uncouth, fierce-looking Russian muzhiks. He thought this about a lot of things in the few seconds that passed, actually - about travelling here with all those notables and such light guard, about having set up camp just outside Kiev instead of retreating to safe Ivansk, about the whole campaign plan, about the whole bloody war... but above all, ofcourse, about trusting Niccolo di Olive. Ozhan-Aga cursed himself. Oh, the others trusting him was bad enough, but he! He was the one who had always warned that the Genoese are not trustworthy. Now he was going to die for betraying his beliefs.
Convinced of both his own doom and of di Olive's treachery, Ozhan-Aga was neither alarmed nor surprised when di Olive himself arrived, standing amongst the Russian partisans as if a leader. All of Ozhan-Aga's companions were... well, apart from Bayezid-Pasha, but he was as senile as the Sultan, which was why he smiling dumbly and almost satisfiedly.
Ozhan-Aga spat, quietly muttering curses. Then again, what's the point of being quiet? Hah, they will all be dead soon.
Fortunately before he did anything stupid I - Niccolo di Olive - stabbed Miklay Kosoy, leader of the local Russian bandits-turned-scythics, in the throat, while the soldiers - as per the agreement with Bayezid-Pasha - sprung out from tehir ambushes. The surprised Russians were quickly overwhelmed and slaughtered, especially as some of their own attacked them as well. These were led by Miklay's archnemesis that he never knew he had Dmitriy Ryaboy. I had had time to learn enough about the local underworld through my informants - Dmitriy Ryaboy first and foremost. It was with near regret that I stabbed him as well and ordered the janissaries to slaughter the traitors too.
"Are you sure it is wise to kill possible allies?" - Bayezid-Pasha inquired, walking up to me while the muzhiks were being slaughtered.
"There exists an opinion, which I follow, that the laws themselves do not matter - what matters is how they are carried out. And a Sultan's order is a law - all that take up arms against us, even if they turn around afterwards, must be slain."
"That would include you, kaffir." - Ozhan-Aga grimly approached me - "Did you not lead them here?!"
"That was a different case." - I explained calmly, not honouring him with a single glance - "That was sanctioned by the Sultan, and by Bayezid-Pasha. I must take any measures I see fit to assist you in your struggle with these "scythics". I thought that this experience will assist you; in fact, I still entertain such thoughts. Even if it didn't, it was a good, wholesome slaughter."
Ozhan-Aga opened his mouth to pronounce some retort, but closed it immediately. Good, I also hate long arguments.
"Very well then." - said Bayezid-Pasha, no longer even remotely disturbed by my rejoicing at the bloodshed (in fact, only the Khan was visibly pale, but he was in a state of uninterrupted panic for several years now) - "Let us get back to the headquarters, we have plans to make."
To be continued, hopefully.
