Chapter 214: Scheme at Dawn
By the next dawn, the city of Emperor’s Reach rose with a start, as the booming footsteps of hundreds of thousands of boots stomping southward echoed throughout the city’s tight alleyways and high walls, proclaiming to all that all three armies, totalling nearly three hundred thousand fighting men, were on the warpath.
Yet unlike the cacophonous city below, in a quiet room on the highest floor of the citadel’s central spire, I comfortably sat with the company of Leonid, Hasdrubal, Hamilcar and Abraham, calmly feasting on our final hearty meal in the comfort of proper civilization, before we are hurled into the struggles of a brutal campaign.
"I think it about time you explain your plan from yesterday Grand Marshal, do you not?" I coolly spoke, as I calmly rested my utensils upon my now empty plate.
"Indeed, sire." Hamilcar replied, as he too put down his cutlery, and assumed a serious disposition, having already expected such a conversation to transpire today. "My intent in yesterday’s theatrics was to sow the seeds of gratitude in the general of the Eighth Army, Tessiphina."
"Only for that?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Tessiphina is a woman of many faces." He explained. "She is able to don the steal of a ruthless matriarch, and then quickly embody the gestures of a loving mother; she is capable of donning the armour of an honourable warrior, and yet with the same breath wear the shroud of a devious schemer; it all depends on the situation at hand. Meaning her continued loyalty to the empire, my liege, was not done out of a sense of fealty but because of fear, a fickle incentive that would dissipate as fast as we lose that edge over her, which is when she will turn her poisoned fangs on us instead." He paused for a moment, allowing his words to settle in, before continuing "So to overtake such a disaster before it could even have time to manifest, I had planned to reinforce her devotion with other pillars, one of whom being gratitude."
"And can I assume that you gave her and the general of the Nineth the task of rooting out the dissenters, as a sort of test, to measure how fragile this loyalty truly is." I knowingly said with a nod.
"Yes." He stoically affirmed. "I wished to see how faithfully she and the others would accomplish the task handed to them, or if they would be tempted by the same drivel as the other fools."
"And I can assume that they did not do as well as expected?" I asked with narrowed eyes.
"Though I won’t deny my disappointment in the predictability of the others, for those who truly mattered, which mostly consisted of Tessiphina, her son and Barrafin, then they actually scored better than I thought they would. Though Tessiphina did try to use the issue to further her own political goals with it as well, but she never foolishly crossed the boundaries into the unacceptable or to the domains of excessive greed, as she simply wished to further solidify her position within the wider empire." He paused again, then said. "As I said, sire, she’s a survivor."
I merely nodded in response, my mind quickly processing all I’d just come to know, while slightly adjusting my evaluation of the three, when I noticed the ripple of divinity from behind me, prompting me to half turn to my shadow, as I joyfully said "You’re back love?"
Yet instead of the expected response from my rising shadow, a voice as cold as glaciers echoed out across the chamber with a chilling declaration "They plan to assassinate you."
"Oh?" I muttered with blatant disappointment, as the eyes of all those present narrowed simultaneously at her words, especially those of Abraham and my brothers.
"They dare?!" Hasdrubal even whisperingly muttered, as his lightning like aura pulsed reflexively in his eyes.
"It seems I was too optimistic to expect some sort of innovation from these cowardly curs." I apathetically uttered, having long since grown bored with such simple schemes.
"They plan to do it in the hopes of demoralizing the entire army, while also believing that with the cutting of the head of the snake, your invading troops will no longer have a reason to remain here, thus leading." Eve came to my side and slowly revealed the fruits of her night of effort, but while doing so, I felt her place her hand on top of my shoulder and press on it with a not so insignificant degree of force, as her glare behind her blindfold multiplied tenfold.
Seeing her obvious display of displeasure at my seeming disinterest for such a serious topic, at least for her, I asked with a happy smile and chuckle, as I softly soothed her vicelike grip from my shoulder "When and where?"
"Not sure, but sometime during the march, possibly when we’re nearing the border." She concisely answered, as her tone that had taken a slightly warmer disposition at my light assuaging, began to regain it’s hounding frigidness.
"And how do they plan to achieve such a fantastical result?" I calmly questioned.
"All those I interrogated were nothing more than disposable pawns." She displeasedly said. "All they knew was that they needed to make some sort of large commotion when a still undisclosed signal is made, so it’s safe to assume that they will commence their attack during this time." She finished, saying all she knew, as Abraham silently nodded in the corner, committing all her words to mind.
"Commotion, is it?" I absentmindedly muttered then, before I then turned back to her and asked "The men of which army did you interrogate for this information?"
Though not understanding why I would ask such a random question all of a suddenly, she answered nonetheless "I got this after interrogating men from both the Eighth and Nineth Armies."
"Perfect!" I said with a wide grin.
"What do you have in mind, sire?" The Grand Marshal spoke up in question, his eyes gleaming in anticipation.
"First of all," I began, as I leaned over the table before me "this plan of theirs will give us the prime opportunity to effortlessly deal with most of the rot infecting the legions without having to unnecessarily waste our efforts trying to find them."
"But I doubt these masterminds, whoever they are, would allow all their hidden pieces to act in such an operation." Eve pointed out.
"Indeed." The others quickly agreed with her as well.
"Of course they would." I nodded in agreement as well, before I then looked to her with a small smile "But I’m certain you will be able to handle discovering those remaining few, right my love?"
She did not answer me with words, but merely with a single confident smile, finally easing her icy expression she’d carried since arriving, before I then continued as I meaningfully looked to the Grand Marshal "Secondly, this will give us a golden opportunity to further the aim you sought to achieve yesterday."
And as they all looked at me with slight confusion, I malevolently said "After all, if they were planning to cause such a large and chaotic distraction, it wouldn’t too far beyond the realm of reason for the would-be assassins to become confused and accidently cleave the life out of a different man, one who just so happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time."
A chill ran through all who heard my words, as they began to understand my meaning, before I then looked at them with my mask of sanity fully removed, while my eyes pulsed with a dark voracity that seemed to mimic a hungering maw "After all, what in this world could ever come close to the strength of a mother’s love? How potent a fuel it would it be, when it is now so thoroughly mutilated beyond recognition into unending hatred for those who stole her most precious child from her? What could possibly prove to be a more resilient reason for her to never betray those who offer such a woman the best chance of vengeance?"
The following silence was deafening, almost suffocating, as they all digested the weight of my monstrous words, yet before anyone could utter anything else, Hamilcar’s annylitical voice echoed out "May I suggest, sire, that we do not end the boy’s life, but merely wound him."
"Hmm?" I mouthed in confusion, before asking "Why?"
"Though your plan would undoubtedly wring out the full potential of Tessiphina, it is also one that would leave her as nothing more than a broken weapon by the end, a mere shattered blade we would need discard somewhere down the road, an unworthy end for one I believe could benefit our nation far more than just that. Furthermore, despite the boy lacking his mother’s talent for combat, he more than makes up for it with sheer talent for tactical thinking; he is a born strategist, sire, one I also wholeheartedly believe would prove to be far more helpful to us in the future than being a simple corpse."
I contemplated my most competent general’s words, before I eventually decided to agree with him, after all, if Hamilcar himself is speaking such words of praise upon someone, then they are a talent i would hate to misuse.
"If mere injury is the plan, then I propose we make the wound be as significant as possible without the risk of death, that the healers in the army and nearby lands would be left utterly incapable to properly cure it." Eve’s voice then sounded out again, with a cunning edge to it this time.
Looking at her for a few seconds, I quickly came to understand her reasoning when I saw her smile that all but stole my breath away, as I captivatedly said "You want us to maximise the efficiency of both!"
"Double the gratitude, while constantly fuelling the hate. A perfect mix between the two ideas." She nonchalantly replied, before her mouth then slightly arched into a joyful smile of proud cruelty, as I lightly laughed before pecking a single kiss on her knuckles.
"That just leaves the scapegoat." Abraham then calmly uttered, reminding of the final matter at hand, after all if the one behind this wishes to remain hidden, then we will simply pick and choose to whom our ire will be directed to.
Yet as they all began to ponder this newest question, I calmly said with a shiver inducing tone "I know just the one."
