“Nobody is omniscient. Probably not even the Deities know everything there is to know in this world. Because of that, we have to speculate about what we suspect but do not know.” - Old folk saying.
“Captain Edelstein, good to see you join us. We have been waiting,” said Nestor when Reinhardt strode into the command tent later that evening. The other commanders were already gathered, and from what he could see, they had generally relaxed expressions, which meant that things had gone well for them that day.
It contrasted quite a bit with his own more somber expression and mood, but fortunately most of the people in the tent were not well-versed in reading a therian’s expression. Because of that none other than Uncle Angus likely noticed his less jovial mood, and the old dwarf knew better than to ask him about it under the circumstances.
“Have a seat,” said Nestor in a rather jovial tone. “None of our commanders got sniped today, so I must ask you to convey my praise and rewards to your archer, Captain,” he added. “Speaking of which, did she manage to take down the enemy archer? Some confirmation on that end would be nice, even if the results already showed itself.”
“I’m afraid we would be unable to provide any confirmation, Your Grace,” replied Reinhardt with a sad shake of his head. “When we were returning to camp we found our archer… slain, still where she was when she took up the task. It was by an arrow identical to the ones that took out our commanders yesterday, so I’m afraid at best they both managed to take out each other, or she at least injured him enough to prevent him from harrying us any further.”
“Oh… My… condolences,” said Nestor with a bit of a stammer, clearly having not expected such a situation to occur. “Considering that we took no losses to our commanders to the archer in question, let us assume that she had at least taken him out of the field for the time being, if not permanently, then,” he added after some thought.
“Also, I am sorry to hear that, Captain. I recall that she seemed to be quite close to you.”
“I keep healthy relations with all my platoon leaders, Your Grace, but you’re right. Salicia was… a friend of the family,” replied Reinhardt. “I appreciate the sentiment nonetheless.”
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“All right, then. Let us begin the meeting, in that case. Tell me, where do you think the enemy stands at after today’s battle?” asked Nestor, addressing the gathered commanders and generals in the tent. “Speak freely and feel free to air even your speculations. I feel that we are close to breaking them, but I want your opinions as well.”
“We definitely inflicted plenty of casualties today,” stated Grafin Siobhan Harscape of Bærengant with her gravelly voice. “I would say that probably upwards to ten thousand fell to our cavalry on the right flank? It’s hard to get a proper count, but that was the estimate my lieutenants came to after we discussed about it. I imagine the left flank would have similar results.”
“Och, Aye, I’d say that’d be pretty close over at our side too,” nodded her father, Angus Harscape, in affirmation of her words. “These enemies we face are stubborn and quite disciplined. I’d have expected most to break under the pressure we placed on them today, but they somehow kept holding and refused to give way.”
“We couldn’t quite catch their cavalry even if we got a few good hits in when they were trying to harass our flanks, so they’ve only taken minimal damage,” reported Duke Orsla Banitu of Kolitschei with a disappointed shake of his head. “Their cavalrymen knew to keep their distance and mostly focused on ranged harassment. We couldn’t get them to commit.”
“We managed to hunt down one of their commanders at the last stages of the battle today,” added Reinhardt to the discussion after the Duke finished talking. “The head of the commander in question should be delivered to your staff for identification by now. We couldn’t get the body to make identifying their rank easier, unfortunately.”
“If the information we received about the archer that had been sniping off our commanders being their highest ranked general is true, and they were injured or worse after today’s battle, that might deliver a blow to their morale,” said Griselda from where she was seated besides her husband. “On top of the heavy casualties and loss of important commanders, they should hopefully be near breaking from all the factors put together.”
“It is mostly speculation, but I do feel the same way. We have been hitting them hard these past few days and rendered their numerical advantage almost worthless. Given another strong push or two within the next few days, we should be able to break them,” replied Nestor with a nod. “We will need to finish this battle fast if these Imperials really still have more waves of soldiers, so we can get some time to prepare to deal with those yet to come.”
“We have mostly struck them from the flanks these last few days and made slashing attacks, but had not committed our cavalry into a direct charge,” stated the dwarven Grafin from the side of the table. “With your permission, I would like to lead our chariot force and heavy cavalry into a direct charge towards their front tomorrow. Hopefully that would be the final straw that breaks the donkey’s back.”
“Somewhat risky, to do alone… Let’s make it a unified charge with the whole army behind you, what say you, Grafin Harscape?” asked Nestor in turn, clearly having similar thoughts as the dwarven noble.
“Sounds good to me, Duke Nunez,” replied the dwarf with a throaty guffaw. She then beckoned for one of her subordinates, and a few moments later a couple dwarves brought large mugs of strong dwarven ale and distributed it amongst the gathered commanders. “A toast to tomorrow, then! Let us trample our enemies together!”