Calm Before the Storm

Agyness returned the nods and salutes of the various captains - her captains, she supposed - as the filed out of the central hall they'd set up as a command space for the coming campaign. They'd be taking their orders to their troops, some excited, some hesitant, all ready. Agyness had been party to these sorts of meetings before, but had never led them, certainly never set strategy. Other than the games any military scholar picked up, her experience had been solely tactical so far. The fact that they were trusting her with this still amazed her.

She bent over the large table holding several maps of the city, ancient maps centuries old alongside the newer maps sketched by her scouts. Though the city was a fair bit smaller than it had been, she had been surprised at how intact it remained.

"Let's hope our people fare as well," she muttered to herself.

"Hmm - what was that?"

Vedran had lingered after the meeting broke, also looking at the maps. He had been trying to fit together in his head how all the pieces that Agyness had just laid out would fit together. If he thought he could see the shape of the plan, it was just echoes of the explanations she'd given to the commanders falling in to place. "I hope it was you being suitably impressed with yourself anyway," he added with a smile.

Agyness gave a skeptical sniff, looking up.

"Not likely. This would be a hell of an operation even for a seasoned commander."

She cast a glance about to make sure what she said next wouldn't be overheard.

"I'd happily hand over the reins, but, honestly, there's not really anyone else. Some of them are well-trained, like your father's troops or Dzen's folks, but they're not experienced in this sort of thing. Some, like the Grobashka and the folks the Grumachar sent, are experienced, but not leaders."

She sighed, giving a long-suffering smile.

"The Palatine trusted me with their troops, and it just kind of snowballed. I just know there's a huge difference between theory and execution."

He smiles back. "Well, lacking experience with this kind of operation, I don't know how I can reassure you. But i think you're doing fine - everyone else seems to have confidence in you as well, from everything I've heard. That's a small but important victory on its own. And even if I didn't trust you, which I absolutely do, no one else is better positioned. You do have the experience, and the training, and you're one of us. I do think that your adventuring experience is valuable here too, considering what we're up against, even if you weren't a Thunderbolt."

"Well, their confidence is more important than mine right now. We have a plan I'd be happy to follow if I didn't know it was mine, and everyone else seems content to do so as well."

She looked back down to the maps, averting her gaze.

"Its just...I don't know them. I've gone into battle plenty of times without knowing the person making the decisions, but I've never asked people to do the same for me."

"No, but you know the commanders - not well maybe, but even so. Command is like a chain of trust like that. You can put your trust in them to do what they're asked, and their troops can trust their commander to make sure the plan they are a part of is solid. Which it is. There's too many of them for you to know them all, but I think it's good that you think of them as people, and not just as 'troops' or 'units'."

"This is where that Thantopolitan education comes back to bite me in the ass," she offered with a rueful smile. "Its only pretty recently, speaking broadly, that we've deployed live troops beyond our borders. So much of our historical tactics involve defensive measures hinged upon the ability to sacrifice troops on the assumption they'll come back."

"I'm having to draw more from modern commanders here. You ever read 'Blood and Sand'? The accounts of the Ahkasic battles, especially the early ones, were pretty useful. Lots of walled cities with chokepoints, like here, where a ridiculously small force can neutralize a significantly larger enemy."

Her expression turned grim again.

"Good to know we learn from our mistakes, I guess."

"I did, but years ago now - probably right around the time we first met." Vedran smiled ruefully. "I was reading it for different reasons - I think I skimmed though a lot of the specifics. But its good that there are resources for you to learn from. I know you feel overwhelmed by this, but if your experience and education have shown you that there are examples to follow, where to find them, and how to take from them and apply to your current situation - that's a pretty good sign to me that you're doing this right. It's the people who claim absolute certainty that worry me the most."

"Me too," Agyness offered with a slight grin. "Isn't that why we're doing this after all?"

"Wait, did I miss the part where someone explained why we're doing this?" Aleyn asked as he entered the central hall. "Sorry, I was explaining to a couple hundred soldiers how to use holy water. 'Throw it at the demons' was apparently a little too terse."

"The larger the numbers, the greater the aggregate stupidity," Agyness commented. "Welcome to the military."

"And Vedran and I were just discussing the fear of moral certainty. We get to worry about outcomes, but its kind of oddly win-win for them, isn't it? Either they destroy Nerath and possibly Arth, or they get to go meet their gods. Not exactly my idea of victory, but they, at least, have no qualms."

Vedran grinned. "If only they'd agree to compromise on that second choice, we could all save ourselves a lot of headaches."

"Then we shouldn't have any qualms about helping them to that second goal," Aleyn added dryly.