Explaining what had happened to the court of the Calia had been a task in and of itself. The brief mont Chenzhou had taken to explain Anna’s absence, omitting the worst of her actions, had imdiately been overshadowed by the report of Fox’s discoveries and the Bandri’s double cross.
Lady Yang had been particularly furious, her rage bouncing off the walls of the council chamber. “This cannot be forgiven! We must remind the Bandri of their place in the world at all costs. If we allow any of the tribes to double-cross us like these, they will all do so, and there will truly be no chance for peace.”
Eirian had never seen the tall, willowly woman so angry. Or so expressive in general. The only emotion she’d ever really shown had been when she was talking about her family on the ride to Tira-Lian.
Most of the court seed to agree with her, calling for an even bloodier response.
“We should wipe them from the Earth for such treachery.” The Wen representative snapped.
Eirian frowned at him. As much as she understood the emotion behind it, she was still bristling with anger herself since he’d lied to her face about it.
Next to her, Chenzhou shifted. While he was equally angry, or at least, he was angry about the double cross, Eirian had realized he didn’t prefer the bloody response to pretty much anything. He was a peacekeeper, a defender to Eirian’s soldier, and his imdiate reaction to anything was rarely violent.
It was the one area they seed to disagree on regularly.
The Colfaxes seed to be the only ones supporting that view, though. Marian’s well-spoken relatives may have been so of the youngest in the room and rarely spoke, but when they did, it was usually worth hearing.
“A response of great violence now guarantees a war, and we just finished a decade-long one. Perhaps a demonstration of rcy-”
“Three thousand of my n are dead.” Mingzhe snapped. He’d been a walking cloud of rage since only one of his three remaining outposts reported in on ti, and while Fox was still in the borderlands trying to find out what had happened, the worst had been assud by everyone.
They couldn’t afford to be hopeful.
Under the table, Chenzhou’s hand snuck out and took hers. He’d been doing it more lately.
Touching her.
Not in any exciting way that she could really use right now, but in a small way that sohow managed to take her by surprise every ti.
He was the sa with Mingzhe. Like he’d suddenly realized he had permission to touch other people and was slowly testing the waters.
It wasn’t uncommon after a near-death experience, and Chenzhou certainly had one of those.
But she suspected it actually had more to do with Brendan. It was painfully obvious that Chenzhou wanted to be a father; he didn’t hide it, and the few free minutes they could find in the day, he usually spent asking questions about how they should raise him, like Eirian had any knowledge about children other than that you had to teach them everything.
Mingzhe kept offering advice from his own childhood, which really only served to inform Eirian that she never wanted twins and that Mingzhe’s mother, whom she’d never t but whose re ntion made Chenzhou pale, was terrifying.
Mingzhe’s mother, she’d also discovered, was a forr First Eye from before Yuze’s predecessor. She’d left her position to marry and have children with a man who didn’t want his wife working, and when she’d agreed, found himself managed by his wife the sa way her spies had been.
By all accounts, he seed to enjoy it. Mingzhe reported his father was surprisingly faithful, given that side of his family’s antiquated views on marriage.
It even turned out that Mingzhe’s younger brother had married a noble woman from the capital, and Eirian vaguely recognized the na of a lower noble-class family.
“Such a bold first strike is unlike the tribes.” Henri Colfax pointed out, unruffled by Mingzhe’s anger. “It may be worthwhile to spend so effort in discovering why they chose this path.”
Chenzhou looked thoughtful, and Eirian could see the value, but a response to the attack still needed to be made.
If the Calia went straight to negotiations after such a devastating attack, they risked opening themselves to another. The longer it took them to act against the Bandri, the more emboldened their other enemies would beco. If Chenzhou allowed the Crimson Army to be picked off every ti they set foot in the borderlands, they would lose complete control long before the end of the fighting season.
The threat went far beyond the battle for the borderlands. Eric was in a precarious position. Eirian’s father was pushing to establish an advisory council that would objectively reduce his workload, but in reality would shift a significant portion of his power to them. He’d tried it once while Jacques was alive, but her uncle had been popular enough with the public that it had never gained traction. Eric was still in the early days of his reign and hadn’t been in the public eye as much as his older siblings.
It was entirely possible that her father might get it established simply because of how unfamiliar the public was with him and the constant fear of a tyrannical king. If the Crimson Army fell, it could be held against Eric as much as Chenzhou. Even if sothing happened to Chenzhou as a result and Eirian managed to keep control of the Calia, a defeated Crimson Army was useless against her father.
“I disagree; there must be so response.” Lord Yin shook his head at Henri, who frowned.
“I am not saying we need not give a response at all,” Henri explained. “rely a asured one. It would be foolish to consider only one path forward.”
“Regardless of the response, we need to know why,” Chenzhou stated, taking Yuze’s place as the voice of intelligence at the table.
Mingzhe nodded reluctantly. “It is very concerning how they knew so much about our movents and how to counter them so effectively.”
“There’s clearly a leak in the Calia.” Lady Yang stated.
Chenzhou, Mingzhe, and Eirian stiffened. They hadn’t shared the complete story of Snake and Anna yet, nor of the items missing from the Vault, out of concern for who could be involved.
And because once it was out, everyone would beco even more paranoid and would inevitably end up fighting one another when they needed to be fighting the tribes.
~ tbc
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