[IRP] Power Begets Power

[Swift_Assassin]

Shad was back in his room, thinking about the whole thing in his head. First, was Cecily herself. She doesn't seem to particularly like him that much. Someone as traveled as she was, someone who's spent her whole life raised like a proper noble, interacting with other proper nobles, his lack of decorum, lack of social graces, and other things, belonged to someone deemed a noble. He was seemingly her opposite in a lot of ways. Shad hadn't formed much of an opinion on her outside of how useful she could be in the long term. And her becoming Marquess of Laus was to go a long way in his eyes. They'll finally have something resembling an army to fight with, depending on how bloodless this attack is. Thinking of it, despite her seeming low opinion of his, he couldn't be happier that she's here. He did wonder what happened between her and Satsume that he swore her his fealty, but it wasn't his place.

Next was this attack. This won't be like the last two sieges Shad had been part of. For starters, there won't be any Hyperions in the castle beforehand. The first one, Cercium Keep two years ago, when Shad became Baron. The previous Baron, Faustus, had manned the keep with mercenaries. And Shad had a small army consisting of the former surviving retainers to his father, a few other Hyperions, and some of Tyber Fens' men. That one was relatively easy. Very few casualties, considering the scale. The previous one was of course Berg Castle. Shad barely got through that one. But it was also a surprise attack uphill towards a fortified position. This battle is still a bit unknown to him. They'll sneak into Laus castle town, but when does the attack start? Are they going to infiltrate the castle and try to assassinate the required obstacles in Cecily's way and get loud if they are noticed? Or will the fighting take place in the town and move to the castle? It's probably the former, because they lack the manpower to sustain the later. That will also weaken them overall. Cecily's not stupid enough to try that way, but even the best of plans can get tossed to the wind in an instance.

And where does this go from here? What actions does the Emperor consider when faced with Marquess Cecily of Laus and Marquess Elbert IV of Pharae unifying their might? If Lady Orica joins Tania to their forces, perhaps some of the other marches who might dare to go against the Emperor would be empowered to join them. If Tyber can get whatever Etrurian remnants together to join this coalition, restoring the Lycian League and Etruria could be possible.

Shad sat on the bed thinking all this, his imagination going wild. He snapped of it really quickly, thinking how to himself how painfully optimistic that sounded. He stepped out of his room and began pacing in the hall outside their rooms. He stopped and began talking to himself out loud. "I wonder what happened to Orica. Ambrose was the last one to see her as far as I can tell. And he seemed painfully ambivalent to her fate. Now that I think about it, I don't believe any of us saw her while we were in Tania. You'd think she'd defend her town during that whole thing." Shad sighed. "Having her with us would probably help if we had to do a frontal assault. A front line of Goldhardt, Satsume, and Orica probably couldn't be stopped. Cecily, Lita, and I could probably handle the rest if those three killed everything in front of us. Man, there is so many people I'd like to have with us if that happened. Eli and his brother. Kalin and her brother, I think. Never fought with him, but more people couldn't hurt. Ambrose, Lennox, Carla. Oh, the list goes on." He slumped against the wall, looking down at the ground. "I wonder how much longer we'll all be traveling together before we all go our separate ways. Even the men who joined me two years ago, most of them are dead now. My uncle's missing. Alice went back to her brother. Cass went back home. Lennox and Carla ran off. And I left Maria in Bern...Hopefully this war will be over before that happens. At least my family will be together again."