"How is your wife...sire" Ash drank the water offered to her by the Marquis.
The table was filled with fresh steaming bread and apples. A flagon of sweet wine provided a lingering aroma in the air.
"She's back home with my mother. She is with my child. In a few months I will have a son or a daughter"
"Congratulations..."
"And yet.." The Marquis interrupted. His tone then degraded into an unfriendly one, warmth gone and sarcasm increased. "I am here, far from home."
"I'm sorry" Ash said, looking around.
"You sound anxious Ash"
"No" A scattered chuckle sounded from her "Not anxious at all"
There was a terrifying silence as Marquis Erik seemed to burn her with his stare.
"Why didn't you stop him Ash? Why did you let General Brent leave with Goldentooth" Marquis Erik leaned on his desk, fingers intertwined.
"I did try to stop him. But General Brent has higher authority than me. I cannot just order him to stay" Ash said, small voice like a mouse trapped.
The Marquis smiled, flashing his polished white teeth. "Let me repeat the question Lady Ash. Why did you not do everything to stop him? You knew that Goldentooth leaving Mythrille would result to this."
"There was nothing I could do that time"
"Oh? But I've heard that General Brent wasn't a careful man. You could have sent some thug and broke his bones. He couldn't have marched out with broken legs"
"Treason!" Ash shouted and regretted it after.
"You could have told the Queen about it and it is no treason anymore. General Brent should have been stopped at all cost."
"But..." Ash tried to search for a reason but the realization of her shortcomings slapped her in the face. "I lacked will" She just said.
"Yeah, a bad blunder. Now Goldentooth is out there, gritting to survive. We have no word about them. We don't know if any of them still lives. A bad blunder like what I just said. But you did another mistake after that" Marquis Erik sighed deeply "Why didn't you go to Cloudcliff? It's the closest city"
"The road to Cloudcliff is perilous. Rebels were everywhere."
"You mean you didn't plan for this. You knew that you and King Harold fleeing from Mythrille was a possibility. You had a month to prepare a safe rout from Mythrille and Cloudcliff. Bribes should have been given. You have the treasury of Vanadis as backing. You have the loyalty of Castonian soldiers. What stopped you?"
"I wasn't sure. I... maybe I didn't plan enough. Maybe I was focused on defending Mythrille and it didn't come into my mind that we would have to abandon it. I made a mistake. I did and now the situation in Eastern Canton is bad"
"Bad?" Marquis Erik snorted. "Don't play it low Ash. Bad doesn't cover what we have right now. It's a shitshow at the very least."
"I'm sorry" Ash lowered her head.
He then heard another sigh from Marquis Erik. A finger then flicked her nose. She looked up and the Marquis was smiling.
"You should have a plan for any eventuality Ash" Marquis Erik's voice was now kind "King Timothy had always been berating me about my plans. They are too complicated, he said. My plans are indeed complicated. I admit that. Have you heard of the battle of the forest where I delayed the Tulosans while King Timothy escaped?"
Ash had even heard a song about it. Two in fact. She only remembers the tune now. The Battle of the Forest was the second military engagement during the Castonian-Tulosan War, second only to the Second Battle of Knightsend. Marquis Erik Connel who wasn't a Marquis back then, delayed a larger Tulosan force, burning the forest in the end.
"You did well in that one sire" Ash said "I am not an expert in the matter but that whole thing saved King Timothy back then"
"Aye it did" Marquis Erik had a smile. "And it was pure luck"
"Luck?"
"Yes, you've heard it right. Luck. I was lucky. We were lucky. Of course I had a plan that time, a complicated one with many holes. What if the Tulosans found another crossing? What if they didn't give chase? What if they were not stupid? A single thing not going our way could have ruined everything. I just got lucky that things went my way that time. And you are repeating my mistakes again"
"I understand" Ash said "From now on I will prepare for the unexpected"
"Let me test you then" Marquis Erik had a small smile. It widened into a grin. "What do you think we should do next. I have a legion with me and we have a Wismarine princess who wreaks havoc in the whole region."
"We should march and retake Mythrille. We will defend it until the monarchs arrive"
"A siege huh? That's a poor answer. Let's say we are sieging. You know, the usual stuff. Rams, ladders, catapults, deaths. We are minding our own business and then Sarah Wismar arrives at out back. We don't have a wall to cower into. Dead Erik and dead Ash."
"So we should go to Cloudcliff instead?"
To that the Marquis provided a sigh. "I am glad you didn't say that we should save Goldentooth. It is painful to say this but we can't help them now. We don't even know where they are or if they still breathe. Sarah would attack Cloudcliff. We need to help Tear defend it. Which brings us to two possibilities. The first is that we arrive there before Sarah and the second is that she outmarches us and Cloudcliff is already under siege by the time we arrive. What should we do in each of the possibilities?"
"If we arrive there before she could" Ash voice trailed as her mind wandered. "We will..."
"Ash" Marquis Erik shook his head "I lied. Two possibilities is a little hopeful. There are more than two possible outcomes. We could arrive there and Tear has already been pulverized by the rebels. Tear could betray us and side with the Wismarines instead. Tear could have fled from Cloudcliff just like what you did. There are thousands of possibilities. You need to remember that Ash"
Ash's heart clenched by her another failure. She nodded. "If there are thousands of possibilities, then we can't plan for them all."
"Smart girl. We can't. But no matter how many tributaries a river has, they all lead to the ocean. We need to have a goal, an anchor to steady our ways. And you know what our goal is?"
"Crush Sarah Wismar"
Marquis Erik chuckled, loud and booming. "Come on. Be a little realistic. Crush her? No, no. We can't. I can't. Sarah Wismar is too dangerous a fish to catch. And so the only thing we can do, the only goal we can have, is to not lose"
"Then what should we do?"
"We will tail her" Marquis Erik rose, clanking the golden chain on his chest. He went to the side and just stared at the horizon "We will not attack, we will just stalk her army until the monarchs arrive. When she lays siege on Cloudcliff, we will just stay at a distance, letting her know that if she assaults the city we will attack her from behind. If she invites us to a battle, we will retreat like rabbits. We will be there, always, at her back. And watching, always watching for weakness. She can't attack any city. She can't cross rivers. She can't do anything but watch us watch her. And when the King and the Queen finally arrives with the bulk of the legions, we will crush her"
Ash fell into a deep thought. It could indeed work. Sarah Wismar had a large army by the looks of it. A large army is a sluggish one. She at least knew that.
"I don't know sire. I don't understand half of what you just said"
"You don't need to understand. Military planning is not your field anyway. What I want you to understand is that we must think in order to survive. You and King Harold almost died because of a mistake. A mistake would mean death. Remember this in the future. The Union chose you"
"The Union is stuck with me, you mean"
"Same thing" The Marquis beckoned to her. "Would you come here for a bit?"
Ash rose and went to the Marquis' side. Marquis Erik pointed at the horizon to the east. "What do you see?"
"Sand and the sky?"
"Wismar" Marquis Erik corrected "Wismar extends for four hundred leagues that way. They have a huge population and a powerful army. Nonetheless the Union is going to crush them. The monarchs are going to take their capital, Malzan, and make their King bow. Now Ash" The Marquis paused. His eyes were sparkling. "would you want to be part of such greatness?"
"Yes" Ash said, looking at the direction of Wismar "I would love to be"
"Then follow my lead Ash. I will be be your mentor"