Change of plans
Mercury POV
"Bloody hell", Mercury cursed as he pushed past Loivissa and towards the messenger, "tell me everything that you know".
The messenger quickly fell into step beside Mercury as they proceeded out towards their camp, while Loivissa followed after them after a little while had passed.
"Word just came in from one of the scouting groups of the Winterborn navy", the messenger explained while walking, "they were initially surprised at the large number of ships crowding the waters of Kalt, and when they sent a scouting party inland to investigate, the party spotted the campsite of a massive army. They believe it to easily be above 100.000 strong, but from their reports, an estimated 60.000 of those bear the standard that they were told to look out for, the standard of the colonial forces".
"Since it is the Winterborn navy that discovered it, I have to assume that the Supreme Commander already knows of this", Mercury reasoned outwardly calmly, but inwards, he was cringing at the news, "make sure that word of this has gotten to Vollar Reklian in Ercolano immediately, and tell him that I want him to contact me as soon as possible through scrying mirror. After that, you are to make the same request to the Supreme Commander, and then you can discreetly and quietly begin alerting my other advisors to the situation and tell them that I expect them to be sober for a meeting with me early tomorrow morning".
"Yes, at once your highness", the messenger said and parted ways with Mercury and Loivissa.
"Why are you so agitated about this?", Loivissa questioned Mercury after she had caught up with him again.
"Not out loud until we reach the tent", Mercury hushed her, as he wanted to make sure that the spreading of this information was done in as proper a way as could be done.
He soon after felt her request entrance to his mind, and although he was still wary of granting it to her at the moment, who knew what else she might unintentionally discover if he slipped, he still gave it to her.
Now, what is with all of this cloak and dagger stuff?, Loivissa demanded mentally.
The flow of information can be the key between despair and success, Mercury answered, as such, it might create problems for morale if news of this was leaked to the general soldiers before our counterplan is ready.
Why the need for such secrecy? I mean, yes, it is a formidable force, but we have beaten them at every encounter we have had with them without problem, Loivissa questioned curiously.
The Ra'zac Empire's armies and navies are typically divided into two categories; the Superiors and the Colonials, Mercury started to explain, recently, the Superiors' armies and navies have almost exclusively been entrenched in Alagaësia, while the Colonials' have been busy keeping the colonies in check.
If that is true, then what have we been fighting so far?, Loivissa asked with a nervousness to her voice.
Conscripts, Mercury stated bluntly, farmers, fishermen, carpenters, city guards and pretty much everyone else that they could spare have been given a weapon, perhaps a little armour, and a few weeks of formal training at the most, before they are then sent into battle. The Colonials that we are now facing are not of the same stock as the ones that we have been fighting until now. They are better trained, better equipped, have a far higher morale and they are battle-hardened veterans.
"Barzul!", Loivissa cursed out loud, before remembering the watchful eyes that were drawn to her outburst and mentally apologized, sorry, I could not control myself.
It is alright, none of them will understand what you said or why you said it anyway, Mercury shrugged it off, but yes, this is indeed an ill fate for our expedition, and one that I wished that we did not need to contend with for another while.
You did not count on the Colonials' coming?, Loivissa asked confused.
We did, but we hoped that we would have full control over the isles by then and that we would be able to break them during the subsequent amphibious assault, which would have made it much easier, Mercury reasoned, in fact, a part of our strategy revolved around not giving the Ra'zac Empire reason to call for aid until it was too late, because they would deem me manageable. As I have mentioned earlier; I was only able to get the dökkálfar to help because they did not believe that they would have to face the professional armies during the conquest campaign.
Why are the dökkálfar so afraid of the Ra'zac Empire's professional armies anyway? They are clearly better fighters and mages than them, Loivissa questioned confused just as Mercury moved past the Varangian guards guarding his tent.
Once safely inside and away from prying ears, Mercury answered vocally instead of mentally, "until now, the only safe strategy that the dökkálfar have been able to use against the invasion attempts of the Ra'zac Empire has been to run and hide in the countryside, while constantly making small ambushes and skirmishes against the Ra'zac Empire's forces until they grew tired enough of the constant pricking and pinching that they simply abandoned the attempt to continue their stay and left, so it is understandable that they would be pensive about meeting their professional armies in open battle".
"So what are we going to do now then?", Loivissa questioned as Mercury noticed that she did not flop down on the bed as usual, but rather kept standing beside his desk, which he was now standing behind.
Instead of answering immediately, Mercury procured maps detailing the area surrounding Rushno, the area from Olobobos to Irisweld and the area from Olobobos to Middelfart, after which he emptied his desk of everything but the enchanted mirror and spread the maps out over it.
He quickly became so engrossed in estimating travel times between segments for both dökkálfar and human armies, studying the geography of the areas, pondering on the supplies of the areas and so on that he forgot to answer Loivissa's question and completely overheard her repeated attempts at verbally contacting him, as well as the mirror sporting the image of Vollar of the other army that had been delivered to his tent and then had to be directed by Loivissa where to stand.
There were so many scenarios to consider. Was he still their main target or had the plan already fallen apart? How soon could he expect an attack if they did end up attacking him? Was capturing Irisweld and stripping it of its supplies in order to deny them to the enemy a viable option or would it take too much time and too many resources? Could he even hope to meet them in combat now or would it be better to slowly fall back east and use a scorched earth tactic, and how would his later public approval rating be affected if he did any of these things?
How callous could he allow himself to be without being perceived as a tyrant, and almost just as important, how much could he get away with in the name of necessity before Loivissa had had enough? The latter part both confused and irritated Mercury greatly.
He did not know when exactly it had happened, probably slowly over time and without his notice, but he did know that recently, he had begun measuring what actions he could allow himself to make based on how repulsed Loivissa would be with them.
On one hand, Mercury knew that it was actually sort of good to have a moral compass to guide his own actions with in order to not become too callous, but on the other hand, the possibilities that it denied sometimes would be quite effective, and though Mercury would never actually do most of them unless he was truly cornered, the mere possibility of no longer being able to do them irked him greatly.
Mercury did not understand why she had this…power…over his choices. It should not be there, he had never allowed it to be there. It was part of the reason why he had continued to keep what happened that night from Loivissa, although that now seemed to begin to backfire as well, just as Kilgharrah had said that it would.
Damn dragon, why was he right about this?! No, Mercury could not allow him to be completely right, or find out about it anyway. He would never live it down if the damn dragon discovered that he had been right. Kilgharrah still teased him about his miscalculation of when to enter The Northern Wastes 2 decades ago, so if he ever found out that he had been right about this, then he would have material for another century.
Was that why Kilgharrah had so easily agreed to go with the other army? Because he knew that Loivissa would begin to find out about it? No, trying to actively damage his relationship with Loivissa was not something that Kilgharrah would do. He would tease and irritate it, sure, but never try to damage it.
But then why had he agreed so easily to go..?
Mercury!, came Loivissa's voice high pitched and unexpected inside his head.
"Hmm? Sorry, my mind was elsewhere. What did you say?", Mercury asked confused as he came out of his musings. He had forgotten that they had never separated their mental contact and was simply happy that he always had his musings on a much lower plane of his mind.
"She was trying to tell you that everyone were gathered", came the voice of the Supreme Commander, who had accurately guessed what was being said, from the enchanted mirror on Mercury's desk.
"Again, my apologies for the delay. I was deep in my musings", Mercury apologized, "can I assume that everyone are up to speed on the current situation?"
"It was ships under my direct control that discovered them, so I would believe that it should be I that asked the question", the Supreme Commander said with a raised eyebrow.
"Your apprentice brought me up to speed while we waited", came Vollar's more moderate response.
"Good, then the only subject that needs to be addressed is our immediate response to this development", Mercury summarized.
"I do not see how anything has happened to change our overall strategy", the Supreme Commander simply said.
"And you are sure of this?", Mercury needed to be sure about it.
"The taking of Middelfart went as planned. I do not make mistakes on my part", the Supreme Commander huffed.
"Which means that they will target me then", Mercury reasoned.
"How can you two be so sure of what will happen? I believe that we have a right to know what you are not telling us, now that we are facing an enemy that we did not plan on engaging before we were in a better position", Vollar demanded after having swept his head from side to side to follow what apparently went on between the two.
"How we know what we know is not as important right now as what to do with this knowledge", Mercury quickly tried to defuse the situation, "since it is fairly certain that my army will be its target, I can safely say that they have likely fortified Irisweld to use it as an advance and fall back point, which means that it would be a waste of precious time and resources to try and take it to deny its supplies to the enemy. Furthermore, I do not believe that I can hold both Terzigno and Ercolano with my limited forces, and only holding one of them enables the enemy to go around us".
"I agree, with the forces at our disposal, it would be best to retreat for the moment", Vollar agreed, "if we can lead the enemy on a wild goose chase through the landscape, then the Supreme Commander's army should be able to swoop in and take all the cities that we leave behind and eventually join us in a two front attack on the enemy army".
"A prudent strategy, and one that the dökkálfar are familiar with", Mercury commented, "but it is also one that the Ra'zac Empire knows of and we risk not only that they redirect their attention northwards, but also the ire of the general population that we leave to fend for themselves with our retreat. Many of them know that their complacency with us would result in severe punishments if the Ra'zac Empire comes back in control of their region, and I am sure that they would not be soon to forgive, even if we eventually won, and that might pose a problem for the later stabilization".
"Then what strategy do you propose then?", the Supreme Commander asked more intrigued than nervous or irritated at the usual strategy's rejection.
"I advance", Mercury stated quite simply, "I have been considering the landscape of Rushno and its surrounding areas, as well as the approximated distances between yourself and my position, and I believe that if I move about half of my army towards the slopes just south of the intersection, while letting a fourth fall back to Ottaviano and the remaining fourth go into hiding in the large forest to the east, then I should be able to hold out against their onslaught until your forces gets here to hit them in the back. It of course needs no saying that Tel Betri for the time being will be left to its own devices in the interest of speed and keeping your army united".
"Explain upon how you intend to keep them locked down without being overrun or simply bypassed", the Supreme Commander ordered.
"The fourth that takes hiding in the woods would easily be able to deal with any enemy coming their way, even if they all do, because moving such a large army requires it to be spread out and with the forest so close to the road, they will easily be able to quickly make surprise attacks, where they cut off sections of the enemy and annihilate them before retreating", Mercury explained, the idea was actually one that he originally had gotten from the battle of Teutoburg Forest, before he continued, "I believe that when my siege engines from Hydronium arrive, which they should well in advance of the enemy, considering that they have at least the better part of a month's marching time if they moved immediately, then I will be able to hold the main enemy force back on the slopes of Rushno with them and the fortifications that I will have built in the meantime, while the fourth that I will send back to Ottaviano will act as both a stopper for the small forces that may go westwards around Rushno, as well as being my primary reinforcement and resting point for the battle-weary men that are replaced from the front".
"How will these troop movements between Ottaviano and your front work, and how would supplies be transported to your front?", the Supreme Commander pointed out issues that were not detailed upon yet, "you should know that even if I try to hurry as much as I can, then you could easily have to hold them off for at least a month".
"I did not choose the general location at random", Mercury huffed, "the part of the old transport rivers that runs down the slopes of Rushno and towards Terzigno will be to my right side when facing north, so all I need to do is to use this to transport men and goods to and from the front".
"And what do you intend to do with Terzigno and Ercolano? We cannot allow their supplies to be used by the enemy", the Supreme Commander inquired.
"Tomorrow, I will make the situation clear to the citizens of Terzigno and tell them that all wishing to seek safety further westwards will be given supplies from the city storage to do so, as well as a small escort, but that I will be taking the remaining supplies with me and that no guards will be left in the city. I expect the same to be done at Ercolano", as Mercury said the latter part, he directed his gaze at Vollar, who nodded in compliance, before Mercury continued, "I doubt that many will choose to remain to wait for the approaching vengeful ra'zac, so if the enemy forces reaches the cities, they will see nothing but broken gates, and I expect all of them to be broken beyond immediate repair, Vollar, as well as a ghost town without anything of value to them at the moment".
"That seems to be all that there is to discuss then", the Supreme Commander said with a nod in a clear indication to end this meeting, "I wish you all the best of luck, and that our enemies be sent to the deepest of the watery hells", before he punched his chest and cut off the connection.
Vollar quickly took his leave as well, leaving only Loivissa and Mercury behind in the relative darkness of the tent.
"You know that you are breaking your promise to them, after only making it earlier today no less", Loivissa's voice said from beside Mercury, as he leaned over the table with the maps.
"I told them that I would protect my subjects from harm to the best of my abilities, not necessarily their property", Mercury answered, "they will all still have the choice of leaving temporarily to ensure their own safety or to stay behind and risk death".
The decision to take this specific route of events had mostly been made because Mercury believed that Loivissa would understand the necessity of the situation, and judging by the fact that her voice was neither accusatory nor angry, it seemed that she did.
Mercury let out a long sigh and once again rubbed his conscious against that nice soft relatively peaceful spot that he had suddenly discovered during the meeting. It was not often that Mercury discovered such places of peace within his mind, but the timing of this one could not have been better, as it had been a rather stressful evening.
"Ahem, what about the people north of Rushno?", Loivissa cleared her throat and asked.
"Hmm? Oh yes, you are right, I will have to organize some scouting parties to go north and either buy or destroy the crops there", Mercury remembered after shaking himself for becoming too engrossed in the relatively peaceful spot.
Although it was dark in the tent, as there were only a few lit candles to help illuminate the maps on the desk, Mercury's eyes had no trouble seeing in the dark, which he guessed to be the same with Loivissa's elven ones.
That was why Mercury was confused when he turned his head to look at her and found her to be staring in a completely different direction from where he stood, especially since it would be quite obvious to anyone not deaf where he had been during the meeting.
"Is something the matter Loivissa?", Mercury inquired curiously concerned, as it did not seem like her to avoid his gaze so completely.
"No, nothing is wrong", Loivissa said too quickly for it to be true, "but should you really be taking the destruction of entire villages' livelihood as casual as you are? I mean, who knows how many will have to starve because their crops are gone?"
So it has something to do with what happened at Tel Noach then?, Mercury mused, before he tried to explain, "it is not something that I enjoy doing, but if I did not, then the enemy's supply trains would be shorter and they would be more inclined to simply circumvent my position all together. I guess that you could say that the scorched earth tactic is like trying to starve your enemy into submission, but it is unfortunately also an effective strategy when facing a superior foe".
"I do understand, and I know that you would not do so if there was a better alternative to it", Loivissa said understandingly, but still facing away from him.
At this point, Mercury was almost completely unsure of what was the matter, as it clearly had not been that issue, and right now, he really wished that she would just tell him as he was sure that Adûn would have a long time ago.
In his uncertainty, he rubbed against the peaceful spot extra hard, as it acted as a very good stress relief and he was unsure of when it would be completely engulfed in the rest of his mind once again, as all previous peaceful spots had been over time and use.
Loivissa elicited an unexpected yelp and in his surprise at the rather strange action, which he was beginning to attribute to something that Adûn might do to her in his drunken state, he laid his hand on her chin and slowly forced her to face him.
When she did, he found her cheeks to be beet red from what Mercury guessed to be a blush and she could not even keep the smallest amount of eye contact with him, instead choosing to look down at the ground, which seriously made him question what on earth Adûn was doing.
"Do I need to know something or is it too private?", Mercury questioned as he kept looking at her, despite her not looking back at him.
"N- no, I would rather not tell", Loivissa managed to say while still avoiding eye contact.
"Okay, then go back to your tent and sort this out in private", Mercury advised and released her from his hold, "we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, so make sure to get plenty of rest and for Adûn to at least stop drinking if he has not already".
"Y- yes, goodnight", Loivissa said strangely timid as she quickly exited the tent again.
"It is probably best that I do not know", Mercury muttered to himself after she had left, "now where did that spot go? They never usually disappear that quickly".
So, at least we now know where those ships from chapter 14 went.
