B5 Chapter 30 – Battle of the Pen

Merigold of House Herimar had long heard of the fierce battles fought in the court of the Emperor. Nobles had killed for the chance to speak a single sentence in the ear of someone close to the Emperor, while entire Houses had been toppled for the slightest advantage in the enormous bureaucracy of the capital.

As a minor administration official from an unimportant house, she had never imagined that such a thing would ever concern her. Buried in papers, totting up the numbers, that was where she belonged. That was where she was happy. To her horror, this new post she had been placed in had somehow thrust her into the centre of a fight she was woefully unequipped to take on.

Thankfully, she had others she could draw on for support.

“The Bureau of Military Affairs are planning to petition the Court again this morning,” Esmer reported as she arrived, not a single blonde hair on her head out of place. How was she always so well groomed?

She slammed a report down in front of Merigold, who stared at it blearily.

“They’ve traded favours and have someone ready to approve the proposal before it can be brought before the full court.”

“An emergency approval?” Merigold blinked. “They must have traded some serious favours.”

Certain High Nobles had that authority, but not many. Someone at the Bureau was pulling big strings. And for what?! So they could show the new Rebellion Suppression Administration that they didn’t have to listen to them?

Merigold was starting to think very uncharitable things about the people in the Military Administration.

“Are they so desperate to get those soldiers killed?” she despaired.

From his own desk nearby, Dolan, her other staff member, shot her a weighing glance.

“Lady Herimar…” he began slowly, but she waved a hand.

“Please call me Merigold,” she asked him.

Both of her staff members were from more prestigious and powerful Houses than she was. Having them speak to her with such polite terms made her feel positively wretched.

“I won’t,” he demurred. “Like it or not, you have a significant amount of authority right now. I won’t treat someone rising so fast as if they were beneath me.”

She didn’t like it, but she understood his position.

“Very well. What were you going to say?”

Hopefully he had a solution. Come to think of it, Dolan was looking rather well-groomed as well. His dark hair was freshly brushed and his moustache had been recently trimmed. He wore it military style, shaped above the upper lip without much curl or wax, giving him a soldier-ish air.

“I was going to ask just how confident you are that the expeditionary force would fail and be killed,” he asked. “We’ve been fighting the bureau tooth and nail for a week, but I still don’t know why you have such confidence.”

Merigold nodded wearily.

“It’s just a question of numbers.”

She fumbled around her desk until she found the documents she was looking for. Bundled together with a clip, they represented the sum total of the research she had been able to collate regarding Tyron Steelarm and the Necromancer Class. She held it out and Dolan came to collect as she started to explain.

“Necromancy was outlawed in the Empire after the incident in Granin five hundred years ago, but it wasn’t all that common before then. The records I’ve been able to get access to aren’t very complete, but they all tend to agree on a few points. Without regulation, Necromancers are able to gain levels at an accelerated pace; like a snowball rolling down a mountainside, they gather momentum until they can become a runaway force.

“For that reason…” she trailed off with a wide yawn, then blinked a few times. “… Ah, for that reason, Necromancers were strictly regulated in the Empire, much like Bards and Minstrels are now.”

Dolan flicked through the pages, looking over her notes and frowning.

“And what does this have to do with the expeditionary force?”

“Oh,” Merigold said. “It’s just that from the little we can piece together, Tyron Steelarm seemed to have grown rather rapidly. Strong enough to mentally dominate a Magister at a relatively low level. Then I have a running calculation of the quality and quantity of… people he’s been able to… convert. We can estimate how strong his army is. Combine that with the Slayers who fled with him, we can see that the thousand-strong expedition only has a sixty percent chance of being successful in defeating the rebellion.”

Dolan continued to flick through the pages.

“And… isn’t sixty percent quite good? Why can’t they try?”

“Because if they fail, then a Necromancer gets hold of their remains and souls!” she exclaimed, exasperated. “That’s a forty percent chance that the rebellion grows significantly stronger!”

Dolan placed the notes down and exchanged a look with Esmer. It seemed they both had the same thought, but Merigold had no idea what it might be.

“Is there something I’m missing?” she asked, mind sluggishly moving into gear. She needed some sleep. Perhaps there was an angle she hadn’t considered? Were her calculations off? It was possible… but only if she’d used incorrect data. She didn’t think she had….

“There is a potential strategy we could employ,” Dolan started slowly. He reached down and tapped on her notes with a single finger. “If your calculations are correct, then the expedition has a sixty percent chance to succeed. Those odds aren’t terrible.”

He held up a hand to forestall her protest.

“I know, there is a significant risk. Either they would succeed, or strengthen the rebellion. However, for our administration, both outcomes are acceptable.”

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Esmer picked up where he left off. Her blue eyes were as sharp as icicles as she explained the situation.

“If the expedition succeeds, all well and good. We will be relegated to documenting the failed rebellion and filing reports to the Imperial Records for a year or two before being disbanded. If they fail, then the rebellion will be strengthened, but so will our position. The Military Administration will be humiliated, whoever is pushing back against us will lose their head, and we will be able to step into the vacuum. The second expeditionary force will be under our control entirely, and we can ensure that the full weight of the Empire is used to strike down the rebellion with surety.”

Merigold looked back and forth between her two subordinates, not quite sure she understood what she was hearing.

“That would leave a thousand of the Golden Army to die. Worse than die! They would be enslaved,” she said, aghast. “We can’t do that!”

Esmer pointed to the document she’d placed on Merigold’s desk earlier.