Throughout one of the coldest days in March, after the rumor that a rebel had been captured and was being held within the Citadel became common knowledge, some within the peasantry begin anxiously asking militia men when they can expect the execution to take place. Those most anxious to see the rebel’s neck snap are those who have lost loved ones over the years of ethnic bloodshed. Some among the Barovians demand that they be given the right to cast stones at the Gundarakite on his death march. Some argue that the man should be humiliated and then hung before his family, and before all the Gundarakite youth to set an example.
The Gundarakite families who live in Vallaki quietly go about their business, doing their best to avoid any attention from the Barovians, especially those families with ties to the militia. The long drawn out winter is hard enough on Vallaki’s second class citizens, the scorn of Barovians. For some Gundarakites, they dread for their own safety more than anything else anytime a rebel is captured. For other Gundarakites though, behind locked doors, and only among family, do they celebrate, dance, and sing to pay homage to a fallen hero. As for outlanders, how the Gundarakites feel about the impending execution of a freedom fighter, or a rebel, depending on your politics or ethics, can only be known by those in the strictest of confidence.