The interrogation of the sole surviving Trelawney Knight was, to put it mildly, both incredibly anticlimactic and almost entirely useless. The only remotely actionable intel the Red Mountain Bandits got from him before he expired were the locations of several other groups of knights and the knowledge that the Trelawney Kingdom had gone into full despotic martial law mode due to their invasion/ revolution.

Aside from that, they only gained knowledge that was heavily coated in a thick and rancid layer of racism, propaganda and general Human-supremacist insanity. They still had no idea how the revolution that they were witnessing came about, why it came about and who was behind it, but for now they at least had targets.

The knights could be dealt with by the other groups that had split off from the massive invasion force they had entered with, but the army with Nora and Vaile had a more interesting target to take care of. Yes, they were going to take the head off the serpent. They were aiming for the capital of the Kingdom.

The march to the capital would be indirect, mostly so as not to arouse concern and to not allow the Trelawney Kingdom to consolidate their troops for a siege or decisive engagement. Despite have the numbers of both forces being roughly the same, neither Nora nor Vaile wanted to risk everything on a single battle that might very well see the whole operation undone by bad luck. If they managed to take the capital, only to be trapped inside when the rest of the Trelawney Kingdom’s military arrived, it wouldn’t matter if they killed the king, they would still be forced to fight a costly battle.

In Nora’s case, she did not want to lose lives taking the city (which certainly would be well defended anyways) only to lose even more holding it.

Vaile had seen the result of such actions in dozens of games, let alone history documentaries and movies, so he knew that taking a city in a pyrrhic victory only to have to defend it immediately afterwards was a good way to get your army completely destroyed and your campaign swiftly ended.

Those who did not learn from others were doomed to repeat their mistakes, after all, and both Nora and Vaile did not want to die in such a pointlessly costly and likely fatal engagement.

So, the warband packed its baggage and moved on, its rambling and meandering path causing any who followed to question any and all movements made by the army. Was a right turn towards a lord’s manor a sign of an attack, or was it a feint? Was the turning away from a settlement an act of mercy, or was that settlement still in their crosshairs? The erratic movements of the army and its seemingly random bouts of either heightened or lethargic speed made them a target that its pursuers could neither catch nor form tactics against.

After all, how can you form tactics around the utterly unpredictable?

…

It was almost time. He had received the command from both his ‘king’ and his true master and was gathering his family together. He gave them one final hug and sent them off in a carriage along with most of his wealth, having liquidated most of his assets to give them this boost. It was almost time for him to fulfil his duty to his true master, the Tyrant of Red Mountain.

When he had heard that the Tyrant had died, he nearly lost hope. When he found out that not only had the true heir to the Tyrant’s legacy assumed the mantle of leadership, but that Vaile Almighty had descended upon the mortal plane and was working alongside the New Tyrant, his heart nearly skipped a beat too many. Truly, now was the time for him to fulfil the duty his family had been preparing themselves to enact for so very long.

He was Duke Malvyn Tuko Packard, the latest in the long line of pawns in the Tyrant’s ‘Long Game’. He was prepared to face the consequences of the actions he was about to take, but he had also made sure that his wife and children would not suffer the fallout of his work. He was the hidden blade pointed at the wrongful King of Trelawney’s throat, and it the time he would fulfil his family’s mission was fast approaching.

He did not need a carriage to take him to the capital, he could get there faster with a decent horse. He did not need to bring luggage, as his home away from home in the capital had everything he would need.

As he arrived in the capital, he knew for sure that things were as grim for this kingdom as they could be. Or at least for the current regime it was. He could see the markings left over from bloody crackdowns on any ‘dissenters’ and ‘rebels’ and he could still see and smell the brutalized corpses of the non-humans that had been mercilessly and publicly tortured to death for ‘colluding with the enemy’. Whether any of those accusations were true or not was irrelevant, all that mattered to these people were the message and the spectacle.

Malvyn walked into the palace and bowed to the King. Despite hating the ever-loving shit out of everyone in the capital, let alone the palace, he would have to put on a mask and hide his intent.

“Gud. Yurr heer. Git redi fer wahr.”

As usual, the inbred genetic nightmare of a king was barely understandable through his numerous deformities.

“Yes, my liege.”

“Ah, before you do,” Jaffe Arre interrupted, “would you please follow me to my chambers, Duke Packard? I have something to discuss with you; your ears only, of course.”

Malvyn was now very nervous. Jaffe Arre was one of the worst people he could have to deal with. His talent for uncovering plots and schemes was unnatural. Did Jaffe Arre know that he was preparing to take the life of the King? Still, he had to play it cool. Any wrong moves and it was the end of the line.

“Of course, my good sir. Anything for a fellow servant of the Kingdom.”

“Then follow me, if you please. We have much to discuss.”

The moment where he would make it or break it was fast approaching. Malvyn wracked his brain and wondered if he could escape whatever trap had been set for him. If push came to shove, he could always try and silence the man with a blade to the heart, though doing so would blow his cover for sure. Things were not looking good for the hidden blade, at least not in his own eyes, but whether or not he was right to be worried would soon become apparent.

“Step into my parlor…” Jaffe Arre said through his predator’s smile as he gestured for Malvyn to enter ahead of him.