Nasr was riding quickly, rushing his men across the country. It had been a week and a half since he had gotten word about the strange movements in the Kingdoms camp. They had suddenly withdrawn, heading back to the border. But more importantly to him, a considerable chunk of the invading force had disappeared, returning home. He didn't know what brought about the retreat of the Kingdom's army, but it wasn't something he was willing to miss.
Mobilising his resting force he charged straight for the west coast, only stopping to let them sleep and eat. It was an exhausting march, but within the week they had arrived at their destination. It was an abandoned fort, slowly being repopulated, a scar left by Alfred's swift invasion.
Nasr clenched his fist looking at it. His anger boiled. If it wasn't for Harun something like this would never happened. He hated his brother. It was never the rule for the oldest son to inherit the throne, only who the Sultan chose. His brother had allowed the nation to weaken and be invaded, wasting valuable men on an unjust and pointless cause. Nasr shook his head, trying to clear his mind of his hateful thoughts. His quick march had left him with the problem of overextending his supply. Adrian had warned that with the death of Yusuf, supply would be an issue for a while, but the news of the Kingdom's withdrawal was too good of an opportunity to pass up.
Nasr called for the end of the march, setting up camp within and around the abandoned fort. He went straight for the commander's room to rest. A map with chest pieces showing the Kingdom's forces laid on his table. Nasr stood over it looking. He removed one of the pieces and reorganised the rest. He knew the rough location of the remaining army, holding out near a major port on the Tears of Gaia.
Nasr counted his remaining army. With Mansa still gone with his two thousand men, and the casualties taken from his conflict with Harun, he had 14 thousand men left. It was a massive loss compared to what he initially had, but with reinforcements slowly trickling from the west, he knew that it would be back up 15. The way south from his location only had one major road network that his army could feasibly use without splitting it too much.
Moving pieces around, he tried to split them trying to calculate if it would be possible. Nothing worked. The position held by the Kingdom was strong and due to his rushed mobilisation, he had left behind vital siege equipment to follow behind. He regretted his mistake now but knew there was no point crying over it. He couldn't attack without suffering heavy losses. And with the added port, starving them out was out of the question. He didn't wish to spill blood on the Sacred Lake, but more importantly, he didn't think he had the ships to pull it off.
Nasr thought about all types of ways to attack, but each one seemed unfeasible. The port was the main route of trade East for the Sultanate meaning he couldn't risk a complete destruction of it. His only option was to force them out of the settlements. The more he thought about it the greater his anger rose. It boiled over with his fist slamming into the table.
With the loss of Aswad, he would struggle to force them out through espionage. On his return to the capital, he tried to find someone to take his place, but no one was as good as Aswad who had been trained his entire life to take the position. In haste, he got someone who he believed was qualified enough, but without them having full access to the Dancer network created, it had many problems.
Yusuf's face popped up. He could hear his condescending laugh even now, mocking him from the grave. The hate he held for the man grew even with his death. He had to calm himself. It wasn't over yet. He could try and bribe one of the soldiers to kill an important official in the Kingdom's camp or try and force a revolt within the port amongst his people. He wanted to try and play on the Kingdom's brutality during their campaign but suddenly stopped himself, realising it wouldn't work.
Alfred had made sure to keep pillaging to a minimum during the invasion, making the citizens lenient to their presence. They didn't overstep their boundaries too heavily, only having cases littered around. The people just chose to ignore them and carry on with their already hard lives. They wouldn't seek out trouble for no reason as long as they didn't suffer too much.
'Wait or attack?' it was the choice he had to make. Wait for his siege equipment to arrive and potentially have to face the entire army of the Kingdom, or attack now and try to force them out of the fort. Nasr stayed up for the night thinking about what to do, multiple plans coming and going. He could only regret that Mansa wasn't by his side to provide him support.
Within the capital, Adrian walked around with joy. He had achieved near ultimate power in the capital. The sentries placed on him now only watched him every couple hours, before leaving him alone. It was something he had gotten Nasr to do; and although he had ordered the complete cease of it, they were still Mansa'a men. They had loyalties to their General and would follow his order alongside the Sultans. Although they made sure to not push it they were always around when Adrian had to make a big deal or meet with someone important.
That being said, with his freedom Adrian made sure to use the time wisely, meeting with people on his side. Walking into his office, one of his assistants sat in a chair, waiting for him. Taking his seat he looked at the young man. "Tell me, what do you have." He didn't know how long it had been since he could talk freely to his people, instead of having to mask everything he said as innocent requests. Finally, he could get an update on the things happening.
"The new spymaster is incompetent. He has no clue of who has loyalties to who in the Palace. He has approached many of your people and is trying to recruit them. He hasn't even begun a replacement effort, to fill the palace with his people." Hearing the servant's words he gave a little chuckle.
"How many of Aswad's dancers remain?"
"Amongst the servants, less than 15% I would say. We have slowly removed them, but it has gotten hard. The initial purge of them went well enough but obviously, they realised and went defensive. I believe the rest will not be found. As for his killers, I don't know. We have gotten around 10 of them, but how many more remain is a mystery."
"Its fine. They shouldn't pose a threat to us any longer. To kill me would see a collapse of the Sultanate right now. Have our people carry a weapon and poison however. Just incase. If they can't defend themselves, then they mustnt leak anything" Adrian spoke with a cold voice, getting a nod from his assistant.
"What do we do about the supply issue? Nasr has asked for a stable supply to be created within two weeks." Asking the question, Adrian put his hand on his chin. He thought about it.
"See Ahmed. Get him to cook up new books. Make it seem like Yusuf was stealing more funds than he already was. Make the books that we have already found seem fake. We need Nasr to believe that all the supplies that had been provided came from Yusuf's own pocket. With his death, the merchants are fractured and refuse to cooperate. I'll amplify the severity to Nasr, make it seem they have completely betrayed the crown."
The assistant bowed, getting ready to leave, but was stopped by Adrian. Writing on a note, he made a letter for Harun, detailing a shipment of gold and funds that would arrive for him. "I will have 500 gold coins and 4 carriages of supplies sent North. Have Ahmed make the books using these figures." Handing the note to the assistant he continued, "Send this to Harun. I would use my own birds but I don't know who is watching them now. I have Nasr's trust but Mansa's men are still careful around me. Now they don't watch what I write, I don't know if they will shoot my birds down instead."
The assistant took the note, leaving Adrian alone. He wrote another note detailing the issues he was facing, before sending it to Nasr using his own birds. Getting back to his work on his desk wrote out new laws that he would soon implement in the Capital.