"Sire," Sir Elwinoth of the High Council entered the great hall with steps that had purpose, and courage. He was a fair looking fellow, long blonde hair, green eyes, a soft face. The women in the kingdom often swooned over him as he rode past at the head of his battle group. He was a decent man, and kept aloof from many of the activities that degrade ones soul.
"You may speak, Sir Elwinoth of Bloxham," King Dilana III sat upon his throne, regal looking, and pompous at the same time. His fat was extensive, rolls upon rolls of thick fat that padded him from the cold, and from much care of his kingdom. His remark to Sir Elwinoth was cold, and uncaring.
"The Linnaens have breached our Northern border, and we would like to send 4 battle groups to the head to stop their progress. We believe that..." He was cut off.
"NO!" Dilana's voice rang through the great hall as if thunder had struck, "This kingdom must be protected. We cannot let the Linnaens enter here. It cannot happen, for this is home of many of my people, and there is much more that can be done here.
Sir Elwinoth's eyes flared. He had, for years, argued with the king about strategies of war. Dilana seemed fine to jump into battle with ever Henry, William, and Thomas that came along, but he hadn't the slightest idea what he was doing; though his pretended expertise of tactics fooled many. Sir Elwinoth was incrdibly angry. As the anger boiled, he turned and walked out, throwing the door as hard as he could against the stone wall. The bang echoed through the great hall, and Sir Elwinoth's captain's joined him as he stormed out.
"Who the Hell does he think he is? Just because he is king doesn't give him a bloody right to try and commandeer what I was appointed to. I know my tactics. I know the terrain. The Linnaens get here, and we'll be overrun." The three of them walked out of the castle, and headed for Sir Elwinoth's troops.
"Perhaps it's time for an internal struggle to end," Captain Freos suggested.
"We can't kill him. An uproar right now would upset the balance of the war, we can't afford to have factions fighting with the Linnaens. Too much knowledge, too much advantage already. Let's throw in our forces, and we don't have any chance."
"We don't have to kill him. I know a man that will do it for 4 bars of pressed silver. All you have to do is provide it."
"I'm not much into the business of murder, Devin, and neither should you be," Sir Elwinoth gave Captain Freos a dirty look, and boarded his horse in a suave manner. "There are other ways to resolve conflicts, and death, destruction, and murder don't really solve anything at all. They only compound the already made mistakes. If there was one thing I learned from Puxley, it was that compounding only makes matters worse. He had many stories to go along with that."
"Well, Puxley was a fool anyway; damn wizards," Captain Freos muttered as he slugged his way on to his horse.
