"You were given a mission, Ironbane, and you abandoned it," Earl Maddon said, his voice tight with tension. He ought to have been given the orders for a counterattack there and then – the Sea Serpents were gaining ground bit by bit. They hardly had the time for such discussions. But Earl Maddon chose to wait nonetheless. Despite his strength, he was a cautious man.
"My mission, good Earl, is to serve you in your path to victory," Ironbane said. "I would have needed to lay down my life to do as you bid of me. I thought it to be prudent to offer you something more substantial, in the form of the information that I have already delivered."
"And you believe your conclusions to be worthwhile ones? You believe that you have solved the riddle of our opponent, and the strange dark forces that he wields?" Earl Maddon replied.
