It took several weeks for the joint Unone-Konome-Santu force to gather a short ways up stream of Teltras, as various members of the coalition force departed back to their respective cities for reasons of administration or lack of interest in the liberation effort. For every man that left, though, there seemed to be one more willing to join the campaign.

At that time few of the kashi would have professed any desire to 'free' Teltras for the very same reason that it had to be liberated; Teltras was perceived as a willing collaborator in Naotik's dominance and thus it had to be wrested from Naotik's sphere not for its own benefit, but for Radet-Ashru's.

Once supply lines were secured from the rich Radet river delta through to the coalition encampment on the eastern bank preparations for their siege began in earnest, constructing a number of vessels to more rapidly transit people across the later and to assault the Teltrashi harbour. Coalition naval dominance was already without question at that time, the dissenters of the eastern cities having spent the intervening months after their capture agitating for a naval build-up, but further vessels would help secure rapid troop transport.

The day the siege of Teltras was begun was unexpectedly bloody for the coalition, the easterner's infantry being assaulted by an unexpected contingent of Naotik heqosuth on the banks of the river and thereafter screened by a number of Teltrashi peltasts which retreated back into the city via its western gates when the coalition gained a proper beachhead. Early coalition attempts to secure Teltras without a siege via its open harbour were abandoned when rampants well protected by western archers were discovered and estimated losses from such an attack deemed unacceptable.

Instead the coalition forces began to establish a perimeter around the city, but with their forces too thin to encapsulate the city otherwise they resorted to establishing a wall of masonry around it. With the city thus encircled and fishing vessels forced to remain in the harbour, there was little chance for food to enter the city save for the intermittent Naotik heqosuth raids that so plagued the eastern forces.

The siege lasted months yet eventually concluded when starving Teltrashi guardsmen opened the city's southern gate, allowing their foes entry in hopes of a full meal in the near future. The triumphant coalition forces entered the city quickly to ensure that it would be secured and promptly met with the city's leadership with intentions of dismantling it and appointing their own more sympathetic politicians from among the city's vertiya councils.

The ensuing occupation was far more tense than the easterners had naively assumed would be the case, the starving citizens full of resentment for those who had kept them so hungry instead of relieved to have their sycophantic government so removed. Faced with hostile citizenry and strongly encouraged to leave at every turn the Unone eventually did so, being unwilling to project their will on other Radeti unwillingly.

The Konome and Santu were not so willing to depart, keen to gain benefit from the warfare in which many of their best had died. Without the moderating influence of the Unone however their forces turned against one another, eventually dividing the city into two spheres of power, north and south.

In any case, Teltras had been wrested from the hands of Naotik, who after losing so many men and as yet reeling from their recent insufficient harvests were unable to mount an effective counter-assault. Naotik's time at the head of Radet-Ashru had ended.

~Radet Ashru: A History of Hegemony by Shirek of Teltras