"Are you well?" Lombard said. "Who else would it be? I am very much aware of my own appearance. I know that this empty sleeve causes more attention than it ought to."
"No, it was just… Wait, you're joining ? Why am I only hearing this now?" Oliver asked.
"Why did you expect to hear it before now?" Lombard replied. "I am quite sure that you have grown used to running your battlefields, young Patrick, but here, there are far more n in the hierarchy above you. It is only your connection to Lord Blackwell that sees you as well-inford as you currently are. There is no divine right allowing you it."
"I… suppose…" Oliver said.
The Captain drew back slightly, knitting his eyebrows in sothing as close to his stony heart could get to understanding. "It is simple, Oliver," he said, lowering his voice. "You simply ought to strike through. It doesn't matter who is in command. Do not think of unnecessary things.
Obey your orders, but within your vision, hold true our aim – hold true what victory consists of for us, and interpret orders in the context of victory. You will understand your Generals far better that way."
"…You almost sound like you're telling to do sothing rash, even though you had General Blackwell lecture otherwise," Oliver said.
"That is quite the opposite of what I am telling you to do," Lombard said with an imnse frown. "I'm simply giving you the ans to understand n that you have not t. That bothered you, did it not? Serving a man that you know nothing of? I am afraid it simply cos with the territory. You will have the opportunity to et with General Karstly this evening.
Not in person, of course, but in a eting for the officers. You will not have to go in completely blind."
"Only now?" Oliver said. "I've been waiting days for so sort of eting. We've been ready to move ever since General Blackwell said."
"You've been waiting a day and a half," Lombard said with ice-cold precision. "Do not get so excited. Use this opportunity to take a look at the man, and decide for yourself what you think he's worth. I shall be doing the sa, though I have t him before. My own priority is to see complete victory for my Lord, after all.
He's placing imnse significance on the importance of his opening move, and I will see it a success for him."
"You say that despite being a minor piece like ?" Oliver asked, knowing very well he was being daring.
"True enough, we are not the giant pillars upon which this army rests. We are n in between. I would not call us insignificant. We are in the perfect place to make a change on the battlefield. We are freer than higher powers, so too do we have more strength under our command than lower place n. Do not underestimate what it ans to be a Captain, Oliver," Lombard said.
Lombard left Oliver with those words until evening ca hurtling around, and sure enough, as Lombard had told him they would, a soldier of General Karstly's inner circle ca to summon Oliver as a Captain, to invite him to this eting.
"This is most interesting," Verdant comnted as they went.
"What is?" Oliver asked.
"The fact that you are being treated as a Captain without question, my Lord," Verdant replied. "Had this been any other army, no matter how many n you'd brought yourself, you would have found it difficult to be afforded the authority that you currently have. No doubt this is the influence of Lord Blackwell and Captain Lombard."
"…I see," Oliver said. He hadn't considered it. To him, it had seed natural, but then when he thought about it, he supposed he'd been presumptuous to expect to keep the sa command that he'd been afforded elsewhere.
The eting was ant only to be for officers, and so Oliver had only been able to get away with bringing Verdant and Lasha along, though he wasn't really sure if it was worth bringing her, especially when she was marching with such clear disinterest, as if she couldn't rember why she'd been brought long in the first place.
"This way," the soldier told them, as he guided them through many rows of tents, towards a section of the encampnts deep within Karstly's domain. As they were now, thousands of n were still strewn around Lord Blackwell's castle, but in the coming days, they too would be organized and sent to different posts, just as Oliver was being sent away in the advance force.
Lord Karstly's tent was as large as one would expect from a General. It could have held a hundred n inside of it without trouble. Rightly, given his rank, Karstly should have been staying in the castle along with Lord Blackwell, but for whatever reason, he'd been left outside. Oliver wondered whether it was a decision on Karstly's part, or an order from Lord Blackwell.
The doors of the tent were tied open, leaving the entrance wide and inviting. There already seed to be a good many n gathered before Oliver and his group arrived, and they were sharing quiet conversation.
"Please wait a mont," the soldier told them, holding them at the entrance to the tent, before disappearing inside. He rushed up to speak to a man with long white hair, wearing shining armour of steel plate, so brilliant in its shine that it could have been silver.
The man ducked his head down to give an ear to the soldier's report, and nodded, a smile brightening on his face. He looked over to where Oliver and his group stood by the door, and then motioned with a big arm for them to co inside.
"Join us, Captain Patrick, Lord Idris, Lady Blackthorn! There's room enough already," the man said jovially.
Oliver was only briefly impressed by the fact that the man seed to have either rembered or been inford of all their nas. It was very different to the treatnt that he'd expected to receive – and the treatnt that Lombard had warned him of. He wondered which of General Karstly's officers he was.
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