PreCursive

  I was right.

  Graden exploded to his feet in rage, pointing a trembling sausage fi Prince Oskar. “You disobedient little rat!” He seethed. “After everything your brother and I have done for you, you repay us with this?!”

  “It is partly because of everything you, my brother, and your cabal have dohat I have decided on this course of a,” Prince Oskar said defiantly as Grey stood up from his chair. “Let us dispeh the falsehoods. My Father is dead. Before he sent me away, Aric showed me his deg corpse, still lying in his chambers. Likely as a warning as to what would happen if I defied him.”

  “I see that it did not work, Yhness,” Grey said wryly, as the rest of the table got to their feet. Looks like iations were starting to fall through.

  To our be.

  “It did not, no,” Oskar said stoically, disregarding Graden for a moment. He met Grey’s eyes. “All his little dispy did is vince me that he had fallen far from the man I thought he was.” He shook his head sadly. “Once upon a time, Aric erfeight and a man I roud to not only call my brother, but my future King as well. Sadly, he ged when he fell into the pany of Lraden and his cabal.”

  “Shut your mouth, you little shit!” Graden barked, smming a fist oable between us. Despite his appearahe solid wooden table cracked in half at his blow. The broken pieces of the table fell to the dirt below. I guess just because he was a fat bastard, it didn’t mean he was weak. “You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

  “Perhaps,” Oskar ined his head ever so slightly. “Perhaps not. But what I do know is that I have no iion of allowial to fall uhe trol of Aric’s depravity. Much less your ow me be clear. Not on my life have I ever seriously sidered making a py for the throne. But here and now, I am. I will not allow Aric to bee King. The throne shall fall to me, as the st sane son of the Eisenherz line. Headmaster Grey,” He turned back to Grey, making sure to keep Leopold and Woodri his view. “Marshall Leopold, and ander Woodrick. Will you support my bid for the throne, in exge for my support of the Uprising?”

  The three leaders of the Uprising exged gnces, but it didn’t seem like they needed much ving. Grey cleared his throat. “To be perfectly ho, it was always our iion to support you, Yhness. In truth, we were relut to forcibly end the Eisenherz dynasty and thus throw the Kingdom into further chaos. We were quite armed about your prese Helstein, in case those pns were ruined. Yes, Yhness. You t on our support.”

  Prince Oskar nodded regally at Grey’s words, while Leopold nodded along stoically and Woodrick smiled winningly. Any further celebration was ruined by Graden audibly growling, like he was a rabid beast. The man was pletely red in the face, with a promi vein bulging in his forehead as he grit his teeth.

  “Do you think I’ll LET YOU, BOY?!” He shouted. He jabbed o finger behind him, in the dire of the Loyalist forces beyond the tent. “Your forces are RIGHT THERE in the midst of mine! You ’t possibly think I’ll just let you happily march them over the field to the traitors?! This isn’t a storybook, you little fool! At a word from me, I’ll have them sughtered to the st man!”

  Prince azed at him disdainfully. “Of course this isn’t a storybook. Do you think I made this decision lightly? My anders were informed of my iions weeks ago. This entire frontation was meticulously pnned in adva a signal from me, they were instructed to advao a position away from the main host with our supplies.” I hadn’t noticed, but the Prince had kept a hand in his pocket for some time now. He withdrew it, revealing a small medallion. There was a simple gss jewel set into its face.

  It was glowing blue.

  In fact, I’d say it was glowing the blue of the Uprising.

  Prince Oskar crossed his arms over his chest, visibly satisfied at the apparent success of his pn. “I would say you might hear them just about…now.”

  The te quiet for a moment. Sure enough, I thought that I could just barely hear the marg of armor-cd feet out of sight. I guess when the Prince said his forces were going to march away from the main host, he meant towards us.

  Two things happehen.

  First, Leopold cursed and dashed back towards the terance we had e through. He ripped it backward and started frantically signaling a no with his arms. He gave it up after a moment and ran out of the tent altogether, to my fusion.

  The sed thing was that Lraden finally had enough. With a veritable roar, he leapt at the Prince across the shattered remains of the table he had broken with his hands outstretched, as if to grab him by the neck.

  Most of us reached for our ons, seeing that the ‘iations’ were breaking down into violence. In particur, I saw that the armored knight quickly stepped in front of Prince Oskar with his sword and shield drawn.

  We have bothered.

  With a negligent wave of one glowing silver and bck hand, Grey grabbed the fat raight out of the air with a telekiic spell or skill of some kind. Graden struggled uselessly in midair, still trying to grasp at Prince Oskar impotently.

  “Why, Rickard Graden,” Grey said with a vicious smile. “Did you just attempt regicide against the future High King of Herztal?”

  Prince Oskar stepped up from beyond his bodyguard, as the sound of marg feet grew closer to our positioopped o Grey with a small smile on his youthful features. “I believe he did, Headmaster. I’m afraid that in this case, I’m going to have to see that the Duchy of Helstein is stripped from House Graden.”

  Grey started chug to himself, as the rest of the tent realized what had just happened. I saw Graden’s two flury and make a break for the outside of the tent before they could be captured and held hostage. They were stopped before they even reached the fp by Woodrick, who plunged a hand into the dirt. The two nobles were almost immediately bound in roots.

  I felt a little foolish.

  I could have dohat.

  Meanwhile, Grey floated the furious former Duke closer to his position so they were nearly eye to eye. “You might not have been involved in the spiracy that saw me branded by the Savoy, Rickard,” Grey said menagly. “But I’ll have you squealing everything you know about the others that were before long.”

  As the entrao the tent across from us opened letting a Herztalian soldier wearing officer’s livery inside, I breathed a sigh of relief. A sed ter, I ughed slightly, shaking my head at the absurdity of it all.

  Had we just wotle of Helstein without even trying?

  ……………………………………………………………………………………………………

  “Yer shittin me,” Azarus said to me in disbelief, after the meeting had broken up. It was hours ter at this point, and I was back with Azarus, Sylvia, and Renauld. Well, and the still atose Venix. The four of us were sitting around the makeshift campfire that we had built, after the news had broke to the army that there wasn’t going to be a battle. Fade was sitting with us as well, looking like he was actively paying attention to what I had to say.

  It was just us, for now. Grey and Honoka were still with the rest of the Uprising leadership, whiow included Prince Oskar. Despite having essentially won a major battle bloodlessly, there was still plenty of work to be doo settle things.

  “I swear I’m not,” I said with wide eyes, accepting a stick of grilled meat from Renauld. I nodded my thanks to the Gnoll and took a bite before I tinued. “After that, Grey and the Prince went to break it to the Loyalist forces that they had a few choices open. They could either y down their arms, surrender, aaken prisohey could swear fealty to Prince Oskar, and join the bined forces of the Uprising. Or…they could insist on battle against a much rger force, and against one of the Prince. And probably get demolished.”

  “And how did they take it?” Sylvia asked from her p the log o me, intrigued.

  I smiled at her and ughed. “Most of them just immediately joihe Prince! Hell, we had the most defes from the Helstein forces. I’m thinking Duke Graden wasly a popur leader.”

  “Oh, he isn’t. Or, well, wasn’t,” Renauld broke in, flopping down onto a chair not far from me. “He was notorious for being a greedy, wasteful, tasteless bastard. You know the city of Helstein wasn’t always…that?” He waved dismissively at said blocky city, which we were camped outside the walls of. “When Rickard Graden came to power, he spent enormous amounts of gold rebuilding the city to fit his worthless sense of taste. He robably the least popur major Lord in the Kingdom, despite being one of the wealthiest.”

  “Who’s the city going to go to now? The Prince say anything?” Azarus asked me, leaning forward.

  “I don’t know who’s going to keep it. But I do know that the Uprising is going to hang onto it for now. They’re essentially moving their Headquarters from Hollow Hill to Helstein.” I said to my dwarven friend. “Which makes sense.”

  Sylvia nodded slowly. “It does. It’s a much more defensible location. In fact, it’s one of the most difficult to siege cities in the Kingdom. There was a great deal of apprehension among the soldiers about trying to take the city again, after the st assault failed.”

  “None of that now,” I said with a smile, gazing out at the numerous other fires I could see just like ours. When the news had broken to the rank and file of the Uprising, the cheers had echoed up and down the mountain valley. I had no doubt that the people iy had been able to hear it, they’d been so loud.

  There were impromptu parties springing up all over the pce among the army. People were so relieved that they didn’t o risk their life in open battle that and had given them leave to let their hair down. I didn’t bme them for it. The main host of the Uprising had been marg for weeks lohan we had, all the way from Hollow Hill.

  They deserved this win, even if I thought it wouldn’t st.

  That dampened my smile slightly, which didn’t escape the notiy friends.

  “Nathan?” Sylvia asked me, ed. She y a hand on my right forearm. “Is there something wrong?”

  “Ah, well,” I said, embarrassed that she had noticed. “I was just thinking about something the Prince said before I left. He said…that Aric wasn’t going to take his defe lying dowein is important, after all.”

  Renauld sighed, but nodded. “You’re right. People were calling it the gateway to the south, but it go both ways. It also be the gateway to the north. You bet your ass that Aric is going to try and hit us. Which…reminds me of something. What happeo those guys from the other Order?”

  “Oh, the Solstice’s Fme guys?” I snorted, reag for the mug of ale I’d gotten from a nearby party. After taking a swig aing it down, I sighed. “Well, they were long gone by the time the Loyalists had surrendered. Apparently, they noticed the way the wind was shifting and immediately abahe field. They hauled ass out of here further south, and nobody was able to keep up with their pace. This was around the time the Prince’s forces were marg on the iatio. Good news is they weren’t able to take their supplies with them, so we have a bunch of Csser-level materials and equipment to py around and outfit some troops with.”

  “Eh, good enough I suppose,” Azarus said a little doubtfully. “But ya be sure that those pricks are runnin’ straight into Aric’s arms. We ain’t see o’ them.”

  I nodded, but tried not to let it bother me. After all, we had scored a major win today. Not only had we wotle without a fight, but the Uprising now had royal support behind it. That was going to sway more than a few feters to our side.

  I just hoped it would be worth it, in the end.