“Any bad blood, you say?” Braydon paused to think if he had heard any rumours about that but nothing came to mind. He knew that that might not mean much, considering his lack of general knowledge about most of the nobility, but these were two of the most prominent men in the Kingdom. If there was something major, he was sure that he would at least recall something. 

“That’s a no then.” Nela nodded to herself when she saw the lack of any answers from Braydon. She already knew as much but wanted to check if there was something more recent that she had missed. Nela had been slacking on paying attention to the outside world when she started working on the school with Father Odom, even more so when she was avoiding seeing her father.

“Then do you have a clue about why Duke Burn would decide to do this? Forgetting the zealousness with which he has carried out his attacks, it just does not look like an intelligent move when Duke Ryder could easily come and attack him.” Braydon had spent a lot of time thinking about this puzzle with little results. If it were him, he would have tried to make his way back to home territory. Or, if that was not possible, stay put rather than wasting strength.

“Well, it is safe to assume that he knew that Duke Ryder would cut him off if he tried to return to his lands. It’s why the King is here instead of in the west after all.” Nela started going through her thought process by eliminating the options that were not available to the Duke. Since going home was not one, that already limited his actions to the western half of the Kingdom.

“If he were to try and march south to preemptively capture Duke Ryder’s territory, it would do nothing for him. Almost every man that can be used is currently with the man himself, the size of the army that he brought north proves that enough. That means that all that is there are token garrisons which will still be able to cause some damage to Duke Burn if he attacks and buy time for Duke Ryder to hit him from behind.” Nela quickly shut off the idea of using offence as a defence. It was not something that Braydon had even thought about as a possibility, but it would have been a false hope even if he had. There was a reason why Duke Ryder was so relaxed about bringing so many men with him.

In reality it was the amount of men that you could bring to bear that determined how influential you were. In this regard, Duke Ryder was already the best. Not to mention when he had destroyed and integrated the remains of Duke Oakley’s faction and separated both the King and Duke Burn from their power bases. He may not have been able to destroy the other two factions like he had with Duke Oakley but this was about as good as the next best thing could be for him.

“Then why did he not just wait for Duke Ryder to move and save his strength?” Braydon thought that this was the best of the bad options that were presented before Duke Burn. It was by no means what he would want to do in Duke Burn’s position, but it is likely what he would have chosen to do.

“Have you considered what Earl Blake might have been doing?” Nela asked in return. It was clear to her that Braydon had not given the man much thought outside of what Duke Burn had decided to do. The problem there was that even if his was the weakest of all the factions, it was not to be scoffed at. Just because he was on the back foot, it did not mean that Earl Blake had lost all agency. He could still make his own decisions.

“Well, he decided to sit out the battle on the border. Duke Oakley mocked him for it, but his choice was defended by Duke Ryd…” It suddenly dawned on Braydon when he thought of it like that. It was such a minor incident that he had not given it any thought since, but that did not mean that Duke Burn had not paid attention.

“It is likely as you think, Duke Burn is known for having eyes and ears in a lot of places. It is not unreasonable that he found out about something that nobody else has.” As Nela carried on with her deduction, Braydon almost shivered at the thought. It would be hard enough facing down an emboldened Duke Ryder, let alone if Earl Blake had decided to throw his weight behind the former.

“But why would he do that? It is not like he built his own faction for all these years just to throw it away at this point.” Braydon was slightly confused, he saw the benefit for a regular Earl to back Duke Ryder but this was Earl Blake. A man who had built a faction that could almost stand toe to toe with the royal faction. Even if he could not compete directly with the Dukes, he still stood a decent shot of coming out of a civil war better than when he entered.

“What if Duke Ryder gave him an offer he can't refuse? You should know that Earl Blake just suffered a massive set back in his plans, and Duke Ryder should have been planning to make a move soon regardless of Casburland invading or not.” Nela countered, and it was not that much of a stretch. If Earl Blake sided with Duke Ryder and they won, it was not improbable that he became a Duke on the back of it. Even if he didn’t manage to become King, that was not a bad second option. 

“Then you think that Duke Burn attacked him to stop him from combining forces with Duke Ryder? Why didn’t Duke Ryder come to defend him then?” Braydon was only met with more confusion as Nela proposed possible answers to the actions that the Duke were taking. Duke Ryder was obviously concerned with consolidating his forces, he would not have stayed put for so long if it were not the case. But he had instead decided to let Earl Blake’s faction get destroyed.

“If you had the option to weaken a strong foe whilst strengthening yourself and getting rid of someone who will cause you problems later on, would you do it? Duke Ryder wanted Earl Blake’s strength, not the trouble that comes from allying with him once he wins.” Nela continued on with her characteristic smile. The content of her speech made it seem more bloodthirsty than sweet.

“So it was a move to force Duke Burn’s hand?” Braydon realised that even after all the attention that he had been paying to Duke Ryder, he had still underestimated the man. He knew that it was not only Duke Burn who could use schemes, but Duke Ryder had shown that he was by no means a slouch when it came to making use of them either.

“And Duke Burn did it because it was his best option, he is likely as pissed as you think he is.” Nela concluded her thoughts on the matter. With that their discussion was all but over, at least for the time being.

Darkwood

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