A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

"...No, indeed, I would not. Not a Queen like Asabel."

"...You respect her too. And rightly. She will make a good ruler."

"You truly believe in this cause of yours, Oliver Patrick? Do you intend to push it all the way? Even for the chaos that it will bring?"

"I can not see the entirety of the future," Oliver said. "But there was a necessity for action, and we believed in that necessity for action. As things currently stand, I choose to believe in those of us who were better placed, back in the past, and their reasons for making that decision. As I am now, I am merely a sword. The consequences are something I will be forced to deal with when there is no more fighting to be done. But yes – to answer your question. There is justice in it, and I believe there to be a rightness in justice and honour that the Gods look favourably upon."

"Then, for you I have one more question. Is that the offer of Oliver Patrick, or is it of Minister Hod?"

Oliver opened his eyes then, a broad grin blossomed on his face. "That you would ask that question and not immediately know the answer for yourself is immensely flattering."

That made Prince Hendrick draw back, ever so slightly, behind that royal mask that he had been taught to wear. For, once more, the young man in front of him, he found himself to have misjudged. He was taught, in the matter of politics, that Oliver Patrick knew only brutishness – but the offer given to him now, spoken in Oliver's words, and from Oliver's own wanting, it betrayed a subtly of cunning that was almost alarming. They were not the abrupt and mindless movements of the reckless young man that had seen him get into trouble in the past.

It was presented as a neutral option to Prince Hendrick, but he would not allow himself to be deluded into supposing it was so. The capacity of an escort – indeed, that is something that he might carry out, without aligning himself with either side. Yet, it would still serve to increase the anger of the High King. Though, he was not foolish enough to suppose that the High King would not have a rather harsh punishment for them set already.

In the end, it was not the deal that the Emerson man found himself trusting, it was the man that came with it. Had it been Hod, or Blackthorn, he realized, after all, he might not have extended his hand in agreement. He would have felt more of a degree of distrust. Oliver Patrick's politics however, were different, and almost more frightening for it. He wielded honesty as if it were a weapon that others had forgotten, and he inflicted all the more surprise for it.

"General Patrick," he said formally.

Oliver straightened up in his chair, making an effort to appear formal as well. That childishness that he had rested with faded, and there was the look of a hardened man there instead – a man that carried an immense weight of responsibility.

"I believe this offer that you have presented to us to be a favourable one," Prince Hendrick said. "On behalf of the Emerson crown, I shall accept. On my honour, I will see Queen Asabel protected. But I will go no further than that. I will hold to my neutrality, as you have presented it to me."

Oliver nodded. "That is satisfactory for me." He extended his hand.

Hendrick looked at the dangling limb, and shook his head. "A handshake seems like too insufficient a thing to seal a deal quite like this, General…" But he took it none the less. "Very well. We will see it done."

"We intend to march with dawn on the morrow," Oliver said. "I apologise for forcing that quickness of preparation on you, but I am sure you will understand, the effectiveness of the action that we now take is dependent on the timeliness of it. Greeves will do all he can to see your men equipped as quickly as is necessary, and my officers will do the same, though it does bother me to ask it of them, when they ought be resting."

"Let them rest," Prince Hendrick said. "This is a matter that I have agreed to, General. On my honour as an Emerson Prince, I will see it carried out. The merchant is more than enough assistance, I will have my men support him. The Gods know that they will be eager to have something to do, after so long in inactivity. I pray that you have kept them well fed – for their usefulness to you now does depend on the degree to which you saw them looked after."

"I have done my best in that regard," Oliver said. "...Thank you, Prince Hendrick. Perhaps it is a light thing for you, but you honour me in allowing them their rest. I believe you to be an honourable man, and I know Fitzer to be as well. I shall put my trust in the two of you, as I hope you too shall put the trust in me. Regardless of what might occur in these days and weeks that follow, I shall endeavour to see you continued to be treated with the honour that you deserve."

There was implicit in that something that Prince Hendrick found that he could rely upon. It was almost as if Oliver Patrick was declaring that he would see the Prince safely sent home too – just as he was asking for Queen Asabel to be safely escorted.

"Very well, General Patrick," Prince Hendrick said. "I shall be about my business."

Further battling had not seen General Blackwell's position improve, it had only seen it worsen. Every time they touched ranks with their enemy in Tiberius, it was if they were running into an acid wall. They failed to advance their cause, and in return, they only found themselves further corroded, and pushed further towards the helpless state that they now found themselves in.