A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1665 - 1665: The Counter Assault - Part 6

"Aren't you?" Tiberius said. "Haven't you committed the same sins, little Lord Blake? Hm? I ought need not explain myself to you. My army will be marching towards the Skreen. You gentlemen can do whatever else it is that you wish to do. You can ram your armies straight into the pitfalls that your enemy has laid out for you, I care not."

"You delight merely in the opportunity, is it?" Tavar said.

Tiberius smiled at him. "Quite right General Tavar. No matter what you do, it shall prove advantageous to me."

"Then, if we were to operate in a loose alliance?" Tavar asked. "Would that too prove advantageous?"

"It would for you, General," Tiberius said. "What do I stand to gain from such an arrangement, mm?"

"To have your word felt, and have it affect an influence, as it has now," Tavar said. "Surely that is more use for you – to have more direct effects on the board, rather than to wait for it to happen?"

"If you do indeed listen," Tiberius said. "But you refuse to bend the knee to your Emperor. You operate with such disrespect as to question me when I say where I will move. Do you not suppose that any arrangement in which you might call it alliance only serves to chain me further?"

"…We are gathering soldiers from all over the realm, Tiberius," Tavar said. "King Wyndon has provided you with twenty thousand men, has he not?"

"He has indeed," Tiberius said, not at all caught off guard by the fact that Tavar knew. "And?"

"Would you not prefer more?" Tavar said.

"Prefer? I am entitled to me, Tavar," Tiberius said.

"We cannot acknowledge you as Emperor," Tavar said. "You understand that."

"I understand that your minds are chained towards a false reality," Tiberius said. "And that in time, you will speak my true title, whether you wish to or not."

"But I can acknowledge your skill as a General, and as a strategist. I can acknowledge your worth as an ally," Tavar said. "I can give you forty thousand men, if you can agree to a loose alliance with us."

"Loose alliance?" Tiberius said, with a raised eyebrow. "Why use that term, Tavar?"

"You are not a man to be chained. You would not wish to serve under me, no matter what title the High King does give me," Tavar said. "I do believe you shall do your own thing, regardless of what happens. But if you would use those forty thousand men for mutual benefit, then I shall put them in your care."

Tiberius waggled a finger at the General from his chair, wearing a grand smile. "See, King Wyndon, there's a man that's worth haggling with. A man that knows his place. Men like him are the reason I still feel for the people, in my role as Emperor. Men like him are the reason for my generosity… But General Tavar – I am a snake. Germanicus there has labelled me as such. I will turn these men against you at the first opportunity I get. Do you well understand that?"

"Finally, he speaks with honesty," Germanicus said.

"I have been honest from the start," Tiberius said. "Poison is not the dishonesty you think it to be, Germanicus. I have stated my intentions, and I operate in line with them. I need not the likes of deceit to govern over you normal men."

"It is a risk we shall have to be willing to take," Tavar said. "I would rather have you vaguely be our ally, than vaguely be our enemy."

"I shall expect them within the week," Tiberius said. "Send them to the Skreen, once I have seen it captured, and I shall consider you a little more favourably in future, Tavar."

"Very well," Tavar said.

"Then I am done here," Tiberius said. "Good luck with your war, gentlemen. Come along, King Wyndon."

"Thank you for the courtesy of heeding our summons," Tavar said, dipping his head ever so slightly.

Tiberius smiled in acknowledgement at that. "You are a clever man, Tavar. A very clever man. If any other had headed this alliance, it would have been far more amusing to see you all burned down in advance. You, however, I shall allow to live for a little longer."

With those parting words, Tiberius left, with a silver gown trailing from his shoulders, all the way along his floor, and soon enough hastily scooped up by four girls that he'd somehow squirrelled away into the hut with him.

King Wyndon turned around to look over his shoulder as he followed along behind. It seemed the expression of a defeated man, not entirely sure of the situation that he had gotten himself into.

"I hate him," Germanicus said once he was out of earshot.

"A feeling I am sure he inspires in many," the Chief Strategist said, heaving a long sigh. "He certainly made me look a fool."

"Whatever he makes us feel, there is no denying the competence that he has," Tavar said.

"…Indeed, but I don't think any of us, save for you, could have tolerated him enough to make use of him. It seems that we have not made a mistake in choosing you, Tavar," the Chief Strategist said. "You go overlooked, General, for what you do is of the utmost subtly. But I do wonder which of you, between you and Tiberius, is the more terrifying man."

"You speak wind, Lord Blake," Tavar said dismissively. "I am as old as Germanicus has pointed out. The years are beyond me. I am merely here to serve out my duty. Shall we conclude this, for I see that King Germanicus grows impatient."

"I suppose it is quicker now. If we assume Tiberius to be right, then the Pendragon assault will be weakening, and slowing. There is the option of attacking there, and trying to defeat Lord Blackwell whilst he is very much by himself," the Chief Strategist said. "We could send you there, General Tavar, and have Germanicus attack Ernest, with his army of sixty thousand. He ought to be able to overwhelm them. I doubt they have the numbers, even with Blackthorn's reinforcements."