It was like standing before a road paved with fire. Whether he crossed it himself or waited for someone to drag him along, Eltoshan knew he was going to get burned and there was no way out of it.

He couldn't fight Sigurd. Displeased as he was with his old friend's sudden siege on Augustria, he did appreciate the efforts he'd gone through to help him. They went too far back, so many good memories of him and Sigurd and Cuan at the Academy. Politics had a nasty way of driving people apart, and he couldn't let that happen.

But he also knew he couldn't fight Shagall. Trying to reason with him hadn't done any good, and next time he might not be lucky enough to simply be thrown in a dungeon. And like it or not, Shagall was his master and he did owe him a certain degree of loyalty.

Not like he deserves it, of course. Shagall may have been the only remaining blood of Augusty's royal family, but he was still an unreasonable tyrant, hateful and stubborn. Eltoshan iwanted/i to bring the man down to heel and stop the fighting, then he wouldn't have to fight Sigurd at all.

But he was also a realist, and he knew such a thing would be impossible. Him dying wouldn't do his wife and son any good, or Lachesis. Especially Lachesis.

He had no choice but to walk through the fire, and you could not do that without getting burned.