Commander Caeris sat in a high backed chair in a large room, yet, despite the class of the room’s attendants, the chamber was largely spartan, as were most things in Kelston. When the Empire had first built outer settlements such as this one, they were constructed to defend against both the known and the unknown, which meant that all expense was directed towards things like thicker walls, more complex corridors, or even comfortable barracks to bolster the morale of troops stationed so far from their homes.
Even still, the chairs were made of a dark, polished wood, and adorned with a few light cushions. Meetings in this room were known to last for a while.
Commander Jaskil was the first to arrive. Caeris would have cursed her luck, but one second thought, assumed it was far more likely that this situation had been created intentionally.
“Good evening, Commander Caeris. In spite of our urgent situation, you still seem to have found the time to look the part of a lady, ” Jaskil opened with a beaming smile.
“And yet, I have still arrived first. I wonder here, in this situation, who is said to be waiting on whom?”
“You wound me, Lady Caeris. I was simply tending to my many duties as a commander, a role in which I have served before.”
Caeris tilted her head, thinking on where Jaskil was trying to lead this conversation. Upon deciding that she did not like its direction, she simply did not respond. The others would arrive shortly. He would not be so bold in the presence of her brother.
And so they did. On her side of the table were the other commanders, Jaskil, Nastael, and Germaine. At the head of the table sat her elder brother, in the seat of the High Commander, Havertz Aethulwulf Kaid Auryck.
Facing them, on the other side of the table, were two moderators, their faces covered by a thin sheet of dark cloth. The identities of the moderators were no great secret to those in the room, but as the men and women who actually made The Empire tick, it was their habit to obfuscate their roles and goals, making it more difficult to target any particular faction among them.
Upon taking their seats across the table, they had identified themselves as Mod Kelston and Auxiliary Mod Five. Caeris herself knew that Auxiliary Mod Five was Justice Geld Lars Luger, as he had traveled with them to Kelston to assist in the management of the operation. It was difficult to completely hide one’s identity for weeks while on the road, so he simply hadn’t. Nevertheless, it was not uncommon for Moderators to introduce themselves incorrectly and with voices manipulated by ambient, so even now, she couldn’t be completely sure which of them was the actual Justice.
“Commence,” stated the High Commander, gesturing to the moderators. What plan had they concocted?
The auxiliary that she believed to be Justice spoke up first. “Ah, yes, this evening will long be known as one that furthered the glory of his excellency. We have convened, and all of the funding for this campaign has been secured.”
“And the supply lines from Kelston have long been established. A supply cache will be constructed every 3 days march.” Mod Kelston continued, almost as if the first moderator had never stopped speaking. Their voices also sounded eerily similar.
“What of distance between the caches?” questioned Nastael?
“Such a thing is of no consequence in the Kelston Great Wood. A soldier could starve a mere ten miles from a cache if those ten miles are over a mountain pass, through a deep thicket, or perhaps around an uncrossable river.”
“For that reason our chain will be measured out by time between locations.” The moderators continued their habit of continuing the sentences of the other. Caeris wondered if such a thing were practiced. It had to be. Though, she had to admit, it was unsettling nonetheless.
“But this is not the topic of tonight’s meeting,” interjected the Kelston Mod.
“Yes, all of those other things can be read in a simple report. The topic of tonight’s meeting is of the nature that it is not written down.”
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“Except in the great hall of the moderators in the capital,” added the other mod.
“But fret not, the topic of this meeting is also more simple.”
“What is needed to start a war?”
“An army,” replied Jaskil.
“Intel and roads,” stated Germaine.
“Funding,” added Nastael.
“Powerful ambient users,” said Caeris.
High Commander Havertz let out a sigh and finished the guessing game, “Reason. Justification. It seems that my commanders are more green than I thought, despite your reputations.”
“What justification is needed if it is ordered by The Emperor?” Germaine inquired. “Are we questioning the loyalty of our troops?”
“No,” explained her brother in a calm tone, “it is simply that men only fight for loyalty a few days march from Kelston. Some men only fight for loyalty when in earshot of a tally… But reason? Justification? A man, of his own mind, with a reason to fight, will chase your enemies to the ends of the Earth to crush them, for with proper justification, your enemies are their enemies. Many rulers have fallen along with their armies' realization that the true enemy could be sitting on the throne behind them, sending them to their deaths.”
“The High Commander speaks well,”
“And with such eloquence,” the moderators quipped.
“Yes, it is that which we are here to discuss.”
“Our enemies are the demi human factions present in the Kelston Great Wood, or at least the segment of it that we have managed to map.”
“These demi human factions are primarily composed of elves and axtls. The axtls are condensed into small tribes numbering from a few dozen on the low end to several hundred on the high end.”
“The elves are nomadic by nature, and have no real tribes to speak of, though we believe that there exists some sort of leadership cohort that ties them together.”
“One would think that this means that they would simply leave when threatened, but they would be wrong.”
“We now know that elves tend to believe that, though they own no land, they own certain routes, as well as the right for those routes to remain unchanged by any hand other than their own.”
“This is obviously problematic for any crew trying to establish infrastructure.”
“The story that we will present is of a unified axtl front coalescing to raid Kelston, which has come too far into their territory.”
“Additionally, it is no tall tale, at least not in its entirety.”
“The story functions more like a prophecy.”
“There is a lumber mill village some distance Northwest of here that has encroached on the territory of a particularly large axtl tribe. The village fell mere days ago.”
“There is no axtl coalition army.”
“But after our initial retaliations, there will be.”
“You commanders will deliver both the orders and the reason in the same rally.”
“The only things that must remain consistent is the existence of an army, the annihilation of the village, and the assertion that the elves act as their scouts.”
The moderators had gone on for not more than a minute or so, but it felt as if they had delivered an oration of great magnitude. No, they had, Caeris just was not wrapping her head around it quickly enough.
They HAD been attacked, there WAS an axtl force, but it was NOT an army… Yet?
It seemed convenient. Much too convenient; however, the genius of it was that it was inevitable either way. Even if the moderators were not part of a conspiracy to place a milling town in the midst of a large axtl tribe’s territory, someone would have done it eventually anyways. A local noble could get zealous, or simply overestimate the boundary of their territory.
After all, the whole allure of a border territory in the first place was that it placed one in the prime position for expansion. Central territories could only be expanded upon the collapse of another noble family, or by starting a civil war. The first was rare. The second simply would not be allowed to happen. The Empire would crush internal disputes that rose into full fledged conflicts, and assimilate both territories, eventually deciding how to redistribute them later.
The auxiliary mod spoke again, breaking her train of thought, “and so tonight we will outline your addresses to your platoons.”
“If you have questions, please ask, and when you are finished, we are required to review your outline for verification that the items we wish to remain consistent remain intact.”
And so Caeris began to work, drafting with quill and paper words that would stir the hearts of her men. They would go to war for revenge and retaliation, or rather, that is what they would call it. In reality, it was no war at all, just a brutal slaughter in the name of an ever expanding empire. No, she thought to herself, you know better than to underestimate the demi humans. It would not start as a war… But it would end as one.
As she penned a great web of truth and lies, she thought of the one that helped her in the final trial back in the academy. I am sorry, Aasha. I don’t know what else to do.