“Those who reach too high would just find themselves burned by the sun.” - Saying by an unknown philosopher.

“Interesting,” noted Marquis Viktor Esvant of Podovniy as he read the missive he received from Anduille and compared it to the urgent requests for aid from the Southern Coalition. He had pored over the requests and debated the risks and benefits should he answer their call. For one, if multiple of their nations worked together, they could likely overwhelm the upstart peasants at the old capital and remove a thorn on his side.

The missive he received from Anduille hinted that they too would be amenable to cooperation, but added a suggestion to have the Southern Coalition – with whom both of their nations were neither friend nor foe – take the brunt of the damage. It was an intriguing prospect, as having the Southern Coalition exhaust themself in delaying the best troops from Levain and Caroma would indeed make any invasion Podovniy and Anduille executed far easier.

As a bonus, they could also turn on and devour the Southern Coalition after they were done, to boot!

Most outsiders probably thought that Podovniy were struggling with internal conflict – and indeed the succession crisis over the former Earl of Kolain’s inheritance was yet to be solved – but unbeknownst to them, if the Marquis wished to stop all the infighting, all it would have taken was a single command from him. A command he was quite itching to give out anyway, as the constant infighting annoyed him quite a bit.

The contenders for the former Earldom’s throne had completely forgotten that their father had capitulated to him, the Marquis of Podovniy, and as such it was well within his power to dissolve the Earldom should he see fit to it. In fact, that would take care of the succession issue in one fell swoop. Dissolve the Earldom, arrest the fighting “heirs” for their misconduct, then split up the land to reward those who were more loyal to him. Several birds with one stone.

Similarly, the drought that affected Podovniy’s northern regions didn’t bother the Marquis much. He still had enough supplies hoarded over from the previous years, more than enough for a military campaign that was projected to only take months at most. As for the peasants who cried out in hunger… who had the time to listen to them?

At worst they’d try an insurrection that’d give his soldiers a chance to blood themselves, anyway.

Instead, the Marquis started to consider the proposal he received from Anduille, that of combining their forces to take Levain out of the equation. Strategically it was a sound proposal, to focus their might on a single enemy rather than each of them hitting their own target. Of course, the proposal had its own issues, like the division of the spoils after victory, but that was a matter for later.

Despite Levain’s famed seven walls, the Marquis doubted that the peasants would be able to hold if the Podovniy March and the Anduille Regency brought their full force against them. In fact, he had constructed siege engines over the past few years for such a purpose, and was all too eager to put them to their proper use.

Earl Kolain’s disastrous defeat without even reaching Levain city itself was an embarrassment he could use as a pretext to strip the man’s descendants of their rank, as well as to dissolve the former Earldom, so there was at least a silver lining to that. The Marquis had also been informed that the city where the late Earl perished had since built tall walls around itself, which combined with its position on a hilltop made it into quite a fortification.

Even so, given the relatively small size of the fort, the Marquis doubted that they could have that many defenders stationed there. It would take too much time to conquer the fort first if their goal was Levain, but leaving a small portion of his army to encircle the hill and besiege the fort would be a quick solution that also removed all risks of the fort’s defenders sallying out and hitting them from behind.

As such, Marquis Viktor Esvant spent the evening plotting out a plan to take over Levain in the shortest time possible, and then sent it over to the Regent of Anduille to see if the other man could add something to the table. Given that they used expensive messenger birds, he received a reply within two days, and was pleased at the young High Regent’s suggestions, which showed his willingness to keep Caroma occupied and on guard against him so Podovniy could focus on Levain itself, while still contributing a significant force towards attacking Levain as well.

After another couple of exchanges between them, the Marquis had come to an agreement to the High Regent, and he placed his signature and seal on another letter – right next to the High Regent’s own seal and signature – that they jointly signed demanding the Southern Coalition’s active participation on the matter.

They basically gave the Southern Coalition a choice between the pan and the fire. If they chose to ignore the letter, then the Coalition would likely be taken apart by Levain and Caroma’s joint forces. If they took the suggestion, then they would have to engage the by then distracted Levainian and Caroman forces with the purpose of keeping them occupied when they wished to return to their threatened homes.

Either way the Southern Coalition was bound to take great losses, but one path also held a sliver of hope within.

Meanwhile, the Podovniy March and the Anduille Regency had much to benefit from if they successfully removed Levain out of the equation. Just the old capital itself held much value, both symbolic and pragmatic, to whoever held it. With their best soldiers far away in the south, likely to be detained and kept from returning during the assault?

The peasants wouldn’t stand much of a chance against his armies.