“Where are they headed, my friend? Where are they going?” As Lin helped him, General Trexen as Achang poured over a table filled with maps.

“It is questionable,” said Lin. He struggled to keep the sir away from the end of his sentence. He had only just been promoted to general, and that put him at the same status as Achang. It was quite hard, however, to feel equal to a man perhaps fifty years his senior. When Emperor Ehajdon had given him the job, he had warned that all his other generals were quite old. Lin was now seeing this for himself.

Achang was nearly blind, and as he leaned forward in his comfortable chair, he squinted at the maps that lay before him. “Get a servant in here,” he told Lin, not looking up.

“Servant!” Lin shouted.

As a servant was coming in, Achang said, “I just can’t find a map of the Karaki lands. That’s all I need.”

Lin, who was standing next to Achang, saw the map immediately, and brought it over so that Achang could see.

“Ah!” said Achang. He looked up at the servant. “I do not need you anymore. You may go.”

With a shrug, the man left, leaving Lin alone with Achang once more. As Achang pored over the map, General Ras Xaien entered the room. Xaien was a short old man with a long white beard, who walked with a cane, but he was rather sharper than Achang, or so Lin had come to believe.

Lin, Achang, and Xaien had all been sent to the plains around the city of Gansu, and that area was serving as a staging area for the armies of the Minsu. More troops poured in every day, until now, the army camp was rivaling Gansu in population, and perhaps fifteen thousand soldiers were ready for combat, but it did not seem that the soldiers would help to save the Vedil anytime soon.

Lin and Xaien agreed that they should at least be marching east with all due speed, heading support the Holy Citadel, and perhaps from there, punch a hole in the Makini front lines, but Achang, as the most senior, kept overruling them.

He wanted to review all the options, again and again. It seemed that the army would sit on the fields of Gansu forever.

And due to Minsu law, there was nothing either Lin or Xaien could do to stop him. They had appealed to the Emperor, only to find him gone from his residences.

“How are things going, young one?” asked Xaien.

“Much the same,” said Lin.

“Good,” said Xaien. “At least the Makini are not knocking on our front door.” He made an odd sort of hop, that he did whenever he was annoyed, which, recently, was quite often. “How are things going, Trexen?” he asked.

“Very well,” said Achang. “It appears that the House Karaki troop movements are defensive, rather than offensive. We need not be worried.”

“But what of the Makini troop movements?” asked Xaien. “Those are quite offensive.”

“We have time,” said Achang. “We wait, and see what happens.”

“You will not wait, old fool,” came a voice, and all three general’s heads turned to the doorway. There stood Emperor Ehajdon, clad regally, yet functionally. There were no courtiers around him, only a pair of bodyguards.

“Your Majesty,” said Achang, standing, as both Lin and Xaien bowed. “What brings you to this humble place?”

“What brings me here, Achang, to this map room, is you,” said the Emperor.

“What do you mean?” asked Achang. “Did I displease Your Majesty?”

“Quite,” said Ehajdon. Followed by his bodyguards, he walked over to the only chair in the room, the leather one Achang sat upon. “Get up.”

With difficulty, Achang twisted his frame to look upon the Emperor in his new position.

“But, I am old, Your Majesty,” he said. “I will be nine and eighty before the year is out. Grant me some comfort.”

“It is good you know how old you are, Achang,” said Ehajdon. “Now, get up.”

With great difficulty, Achang got up from his chair, his whole body shaking with effort. He grasped for his canes, the two of them, as he needed one for each arm, and, painfully slowly, rounded around the table until he was standing opposite his old chair.

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The Emperor sat down, and his two bodyguards flanked him. Seeing where this was going, both Lin and Xaien hurried to also stand by his side.

When Ehajdon spoke again, Achang stood alone. “In the last month,” said the Emperor, “I have been traveling the Minsu countryside without rest, making sure that every part of this House’s domain was ready for the war that was to come. During that time, I expected my three best generals to be able to do something. Sadly, when I returned to the Minsu Palace, I learned that they had not.

“And when I reviewed the information I had at hand,” said Ehajdon, “I realized who was at fault. I realized that there is a sharp drop in quality between my second best general, and my third best. Achang, you have stayed on this field so long that I walked into a building to get here. The building that, I was told, was constructed as the headquarters of the army. A residence for the generals. But then I learned that it was constructed under your orders alone, Achang. Yours.”

“But, Your Majesty,” said Achang, wobbling on his crutches. “I needed a place to work!”

“What purpose will this building serve when the army moves out?” asked Ehajdon. “That is, if you ever expect it to move out. This building took two weeks to construct, a horrible waste of time, unless of course, you plan to be here for much longer.”

Surprisingly, Achang did not deny it. “We have all the time in the world, Your Majesty--” he said.

Ehajdon cut him off. “Even if that were true,” he said, “which it is not, the Vedil do not have all the time in the world. With the recent failure of my negotiations for the Karaki to join us, and the utter lack of order with what remains of the Tachens, the Vedil are House Minsu’s only ally. We must march to support them.”

“I do not agree, Your Majesty,” said Achang. “Safety first. We must make what we can out of our limited resources.”

“And what kind of frugal spending is it to create this building?” asked Ehajdon, “when by all rights it should be abandoned in a few days as the army moves out?”

“But…” said Achang.

“I did not think that you would be so much of a problem until now,” said the Emperor. “I thought that making Lin my third general would correct the imbalance you caused. But then, you kept overruling him, him and Xaien. You would not see their logic, and if I order this army to move out myself, you would simply fail to see their logic somewhere else down the road, when lives might be at stake.

“I am releasing you from your position.”

“Your Majesty,” said Achang. “I…I don’t know where you could have found the reason to make such an order.”

Lin was amazed. It had been clear what Ehajdon was doing the moment he began to speak. Achang not knowing what was going on was yet another reason why he had to go.

“I explained it to you,” said the Emperor, replying to Achang. “But still, I will give you one more chance. I will turn your fate over to your colleagues, who may well know you better than I do. Xaien, Lin, do either of you believe that there is the slightest reason to retain Achang, here?”

“No, Your Majesty,” said Xaien immediately.

“No, Your Majesty,” said Lin, a beat later, beginning to understand how horrible Achang had to feel, as the man slunk in his crutches, and almost fell.

“Then it has been decided,” said Ehajdon. “Trexen as Achang, you are removed from duty. Your generalship has ended.”

“But,” said Achang, “I serve you, as I served your father, and your grandfather, and your great-grandfather.”

“And I am told that at one point, you served well,” said the Emperor. “But that time has passed. Think of this as a retirement.”

And before Achang could say anything else, Ehajdon raised his voice. “Servants!” he called, “help Trexen as Achang to his carriage!”

A pair of servants entered, looking not the least bit surprised at their new task, and performed admirably. Soon, the once-general Achang was gone.

Ehajdon turned to Xaien. “You know Achang well,” he said. “Please make sure your old friend gets to his carriage safely, and does not try to convince any that he still has authority.”

“You are a wise emperor,” said Xaien. The small man bowed and left, shuffling on his cane.

Lin found himself alone with the Emperor and his guards.

“I would ask something of you, Your Majesty,” said Lin.

Ehajdon got up from the chair. “What, my general?”

“Did you have to be so, well, blunt, with Achang?” asked Lin. “I read about him, when I studied in the Academy, and he was once a great strategist. He may be well past his prime, but he has done much for the Minsu, and his age grants him respect.”

“Age may grant respect in popular culture,” said Ehajdon, “but it does not do the same for me. I have seen too many old dying fools trying to drag society down with them.”

Lin wasn’t sure what to say to that. “I am sure you are right, Your Majesty.”

“I know I am right, Lin.” Ehajdon took out a rolled-up scroll, and set it on the table. He unfurled it. “Here is the damage report from the Holy Citadel,” said the Emperor, looking down upon the paper.

Lin read. “Eighty-four civilian fatalities, three hundred ninety seven civilians otherwise injured, eighteen soldier fatalities, forty-six soldiers otherwise injured, property damage estimated at one million standard coinages. Details follow.” He stopped reading. “It sounds horrible.”

“And it is,” said Ehajdon. “But perhaps not in the way you would expect. One hundred and two dead in a city of two hundred thousand is not much of a blow. But it is a show of Makini power. This is what we are up against, and why I cannot allow for incompetence.”

Ehajdon rolled up the paper and put it away. “I ascended to Emperor to stop atrocities like this from happening. I wasted no time in trying to reunify the Empire. But it appears I am too late. We will still win this war, sooner or later, but more of this--” he patted the paper in his pocket, “--is going to occur.”

“I will do whatever you ask of me, Your Majesty,” said Lin.

“Good,” said Ehajdon. “For a moment, I thought you were second-guessing my ethics. I can assure you, those do not need oversight.”

He started to walk from the room, followed by his pair of guards. At the door, he stopped, and turned. “March the soldiers well, General. In due time, the levies will be called upon, and hundreds of thousands more will come to assist. The Makini will be crushed. Farewell.”

And the Emperor left.

Lin smiled, filled with renewed hope. He bowed in the direction of the empty doorway. “I assure you, Your Majesty,” he whispered, “The Makini will die.”