“Now that I have shared all of the bad news that I have received, can either of you share something more positive?” The King had nothing more to share that was of importance, much to Braydon and Ethan’s delight. Braydon didn’t know about Ethan but he was about ready to break something if there was news worse than his brother gaining a stronger backer.

“As a matter of fact I do.” Ethan stepped up to the plate, in recent days he had been in charge of welcoming any of the lords that they had invited. Braydon was originally doing that, but managing the logistics of such a large army sitting in his land was not an easy task, hence it had been taken up by Ethan. Braydon would have asked Cinar but he was in Cliforge Castle still, making Braydon wonder what the holdup was.

“So what are the numbers? My job has been getting more hectic even with the aid of my Knights and servants.” Braydon knew that there was a positive reaction to their request for the neutral lords to choose a side, having to manage the ones that had come was getting harder. But he had not seen Ethan to ask exactly how many had come

“Well, there were fewer south of the river that wanted to help out, hence the relatively small reaction in the first week or so. But of those north of the river, there were only ten nobles that did not want to take part. It is likely that their relative lack of natural defences combined with a lack of pre-existing royal allies in the area made them more open to working with us.” Ethan really did bring great news, most of the lords from the north east had already arrived with their armies by now and those that hadn’t had already sent a response. They were only waiting on one or two more armies to join them before they had effectively reached the most men they would have before fighting with Duke Ryder.

“Why do you say that about the neutral lords south of the river?” Braydon asked, he understood that they felt less threatened by Duke Ryder because Harmony stood in between them and his armies. But royal allies? He was the only one. 

Braydon knew that he was stronger than the average lord of his rank but that did not mean that he would be able to push his will onto all of his neighbours alone. And once the civil war was over, he would either be removed from power or the royal faction would technically disperse with their victory. Even if he would be favoured by the King, Braydon doubted that it would be that blatant.

“Well, they obviously find comfort on the river protecting them more than others, thus their lack of urgency. Though they are probably looking at what will benefit them more after this whole thing is over. After this is over, you will either be a strong player in the region or replaced by someone who is. I doubt that, even if he won and removed you, Duke Ryder would split your holdings among several nobles.” Ethan paused for breath, his analysis of the situation more in depth than Braydon had expected for someone who had spent all of his time welcoming new arrivals.

“History has shown that the east and north east are hard to tame regions even for aspiring local hegemons. He will want to expand your domains but under the name of one of his allies or subordinates. And I assume that more than one of your neighbours have thought about this.” Ethan really showed why he was one of Aled’s most competent allies at court. Braydon knew that Ethan had a more scholarly temperament and now it was obvious that it was backed up by the required intelligence too.

“Are you sure that you have not been slacking from your work to think of theories about why people do what they do?” Braydon could not help but make a small joke, he felt much better after the good news from Ethan. He did not want to spoil it too much with such serious analysis of the minds of nobles. He had enough of dealing with most of the nobility, he did not want to be inside their heads when they were not even in the room.

“When you speak to enough nobles, you know how to have a shallow conversation without being mentally present.” Ethan had obviously spent a lot more time around nobles that he cared little for than Braydon had. If he had that skill, Braydon would not mind as much if he had to entertain other nobles. But he didn’t and he hated it. 

It was part of the reason why he was running around in the background while Ethan was doing all of the welcoming. Braydon was sure that he would have gone insane after a day or two of what Ethan had been doing for more than a week. He did not really know what it said about his personality that he was more happy doing thankless menial tasks than interacting with his peers, nor did he really want to find out.

“Since we have basically gathered everyone, we should probably start preparing for battle then. Even if it is short notice, I would prefer that we have a somewhat cohesive force to face Ryder with.” Aled interjected before Braydon and Ethan managed to go too far off track. He still did not know how they did it, when he had conversations with them alone they were on task. But, as soon as he got more than one of Braydon Ethan or Cinar in a room, they might have a minute or two of serious conversation before someone attempted to derail it.

“Your Majesty wants us to drill an army over 10,000 strong? Even if we were given a year, I doubt that we could have them any more than a barely organised mob.” Ethan was somewhat sceptical that it would be a practical solution to their problems. He had heard about how poorly the Fiverian army performed when commanded by three separate factions, but he doubted that they would be able to drill so many men to act in unison in time. Duke Ryder certainly would not give them more time.

“No, I know that that would be impractical. But that does not mean that we cannot have a better command structure. I want a clearly defined chain of command, not whatever mess we had against Casburland.” Aled’s vision was ambitious but it was definitely more doable than what Ethan had thought that he was asking for. The problem was that unlike soldiers, the nobles would likely push back against giving up more command of their men than they had to. Even if they were allies of the King.

Darkwood

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