A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1778 - 1778: Demands of the Wind - Part 3

"A reason to act not of your own. Is that what you reach for these days? At the Academy, you seemed far more certain of your direction. You were full of a righteous little anger. Have you forgotten the sting of your want for justice?"

"Do I not continue to fight for the sake of that justice?" Oliver asked.

"I do not know," Hod said. "Has your fire died, or are you the most full of it that you have ever been? You are certainly beyond what you were previously. Yet here you sit before me, as a broken man, by all appearances. You have no certainty. You have no will. You sit as if you're waiting for something to happen, for someone else to tell you what to do."

Oliver scowled. "You're rather quick with your insults, Minister. You're a good hand at strategy, but when it comes to getting people to like you, you certainly make your life difficult."

"Obviously. That is my nature. And I am content with that," Hod said. "Do I burden you with what I ask of you, General Patrick?"

"I don't know, do you? What's your purpose behind removing me from the walls? Do you do so because you see what you claim to see now?"

Hod straightened. "Not at all. It is because I am quite certain that I can not defeat Tavar."

"What?" Oliver asked, stunned by the easy admission – that which was contrary to the basis that they'd built all their strategies on so far. "How can you say that so easily? If you can't beat Tavar, then who can? Besides, haven't we been winning so far? Are we not doing well enough?"

"Have you seen my strategies upset and topple him?" Hod asked. "I cause him hardly a ripple. I had thought that I might be able to do more than that. But the old man was hiding more than he let on back at the Academy. I might know the theory, but he knows how to swim in it. There are things he touches that I can not get a sense for. That which I cannot see or feel, I cannot predict. I find myself increasingly bested."

"That doesn't make sense… We're relying on you, Hod. You've been there every step of the way for us. You're the reason that Queen Asabel's armies hold to any sort of position at all."

"The total strategy of war is one thing," Hod said. "The practical application on the battlefield is quite another. To sit there, on those walls, and breathe in the same air as Tavar. To hear the noises of battle as he does, and to attempt to influence men in the same way that he does. I run something that is a poor simulation. I run entirely on imitation, what I have deduced from watching other men. It's a hollow thing, and already, Tavar sees through it, and soon enough he might have the entire measure of it."

"Then… what? Then… I still don't believe you… but let us assume that you're right, and it is so, then what do we do? How can we possibly go forward if you can't match Tavar?" Oliver said. "We're beaten from the start."

"Strange, is it not?" Hod said. "I find myself thinking that. I thought that when it came to strategy, eternally, I would comfortably have the upper hand on Tavar. But I have been reassured throughout this battling with him that such a thing is not the case. I assumed to, as you assumed, that none of us could match Germanicus alone. Yet you can. Why do you suppose that is?"

"I don't know," Oliver said. "I really don't. So, I don't appreciate you relying on me to keep him in check. Fortune is what defeated him those times before."

"Ah…" Hod said, nodding. He pointed a finger at Oliver. "Indeed, fortune is what brought you victory."

Oliver slackened with relief. "So you see, you cannot rely on me to do it again and again. We had our victory then, but we must seek other ways. I will likely be put in my place the next time we fight. He's a man of the Fifth Boundary, Minister, I do believe it to be so, though I struggle to sense the Goddess that has so blessed him. He's terrifying, truly…"

"And you are merely of the Fourth," Hod said. "Our Fourth Boundary General Patrick managed to match our Fifth Boundary foe, and not through the conventional use of Command that would so best other Swords – for you both drew on your men, to the limited degree that you both can, and you both found support there from them. You were outmatched, by all the metrics we do understand, yet our men declare that not only did you beat him, you toyed with him, as if you were the man of the Fifth Boundary, not he."

"Well, yes, that's something," Oliver said. "I have to admit, it was surprising to find myself so well-positioned against him. But that was the mere fortune of the situation. It won't happen again. Such things can't. Dice have more sides than just one."

"Fortune indeed," Hod said. "That is what you and Tavar have that I do not. Fortune favours you. The Gods themselves favour you. All that I am, is this," he said, tapping his head. "The favour of the Gods was given to me at birth, and then, they have declared that to be enough. You both interfere with realms that I cannot define. Of Command, and the Boundaries. Theoretically, I know them to exist, but I only can speak based on the experiences of others. But I posit you this, General Patrick. There are more realms than they that a man can exist in. There are forces beyond us that some of us interfere with that others can't. A victory achieved out of nothing… I refuse to believe it exists. Everything builds from something, that is an irrefutable law. And so if I cling to it, and I see a victory made, without the proper energies that I can ascribe elsewhere, what am I to assume?"