A Wolf's Plan

The sun has not risen yet, but I can see its rays peaking over the horizon. I should meet back up with the army. After a bit of retracing my steps I arrive at our encampment. Instead of questioning me like I though they would, the lookouts stationed at the border simply salute me. I’ve prepared an explanation and everything.
It's not long before I spot the captains around a cooking fire with a good number of the troops. A large pot of soup sits overtop the fire with the troops eagerly awaiting their share. Cloudrea sees me first. She hops out of Maheed’s lap and runs to my leg without so much as a word. She bumps against my leg and wraps her arms around it as she says, “W-welcome back master Kar.”

“No master. Just Kar.”

She nods her head furiously into my leg. “As you c-co-command master Kar.”

I peel her off my leg and carry her hand towards the fire. Naz calls out as I approach. “Oi. Where were ye last night? The poor lil’ lass was worried for ya.”

I had prepared an excuse for the lookouts, but I’ve been debated what to tell the others. I can’t just tell them I’m a monster with so many other people around. Perhaps I’ll just tell them part of the truth. “I was practicing magic. The best time to bolster my magic skills is a night because I use Moon magic.”
To prove it further, I envelop my hand in pale light and send a dark pulse towards Naz. He’s enveloped in darkness and freaks out. His hands pat all over his body to make sure he’s still there. Then he jumps off the log and stumbles around looking for anything. Before he wanders into the fire I pick him up and move him behind the log. He flailed around in silence through the whole journey.

Toross asks, “Uhh, Kar? How long will he be like that?”

“Hopefully not too long. I didn’t put that much power behind it.” I didn’t actually consider that before I blinded him. All my targets were dead before the effect ran off.

Wal watched Naz creep around the benches as she spoke. “So long as he’s ready for the siege, I hardly think it matters. I find the fire much more calming without his loudmouth.”
As soon as she finished talking, Naz stumbled across her tail. Without any acknowledgment, she whipped her tail back and smacked the poor blind dwarf, sending him flying through the air into a tent. A large crash, likely from the sounds of cots smashing to bits, bellows from the tent.

Everyone other than Wal stare at the entrance of the tent, waiting for Naz to reappear. A moment of silence ensues before Maheed turns back around and hisses, “I’m sure he’s fine.”
It’s not long before the soup is ready. As the troops line up to get their share, I watch Naz crawl out of the tent, still darkened by my spell. It looks like he’s being guided by smell. I make sure to grab a bowl for him.
Before he gets too close to the fire, I lightly kick him in the side. He shoots up and puts of his fists like he’s ready to fight. I move the wooden bowl back and forth in front of his face and his head follows it. His upraised fist slowly turn into begging hands. I place the soup in one hand and his spoon in the other. Within a second, he plops onto the ground and takes a swig of the boiling hot soup, like it’s an ice cold ale. He gracefully places the bowl on the ground before flailing back, writhing silently. Idiot…

Cloudrea and I are able to finish a bowl before a jarcoban messenger shows up. “King Alister has requested the presence of lord Kar’Desh and his court.”
I suppose it’s time. Cloudrea crawls onto my back and Wal scoops up Naz under her arm. He struggles for a bit, until she whacked him. After that he hung, looking very grumpy.

As the messenger leads us through the camp, Naz’s shadows dissipate and his voice slowly grows louder and louder. “…Stones curse that kid. Oi! I can see now, lemmie down!”
He probably should’ve thought of his words a bit better. Wal drops him and he lands with an ‘oof!’ I’m almost starting to feel bad for the geezer. He gets up and dusts off his beard as we briefly explain the situation to him.

It’s not long before we meet up with Alister and his children. A table has been set up, next to the road leading into the city. On it, is a map of Karvithia and a few wooden figures. Aroura smiles sweetly at me while Alister greets me like we’re old friends. “Lord Kar’Desh! Ready to usurp your city?”

I nod. “I am. What sort of plan have you drawn up?”

Although it looked like Alister would explain, Prince Killian responds instead. “Well, it’s quite simple really. As we have discussed, your strength is a marvel. We’re going to have you invade the city alone to truly display your dominance over Karvithia!”
He leans on the table and points at the lake on the map. “If you’ll look here, you’ll notice that the city itself rests upon the lake. They use this to create a moat around the entire wall. You will use it to infiltrate the city. Poetic, is it not? The very thing that has kept them alive and safe for decades will herald their downfall.”

Clearly annoyed with his brother wasting time, Prince Zachary interjects. “At any rate, once you enter the city through their docks, you’ll open the gates from the inside. If you see any artillery or wall-mounted batiste, dismantle them. Once the gates are open, the main army will march onto the city and occupy key points. After some rest, should you need it, you’ll storm the castle and kill Leonhart.”

It sounds simple… But too easy. I stare at the map for a moment in contemplation. “Why are the forests unmapped?”
I point to the area on the map I think we’re camped in. “We’re here correct? Why are the forests surrounding us blank?”

Zachary looks at me with a tilted head. “Because there’s no point in mapping uncivilized terrain? What merit does a question like that hold?”

I ignore his question and study the map some more. Although we didn’t coordinate the attack, the Karvithian army was mostly destroyed from the flank. From Lunatic’s Spires. If Leonhart has control over monsters… I reach for the green orb of souls safely tucked away in my belt. “Alister, do you know if Leonhart can control the dead?”

His smile weakens until it’s barely visible. “I’ve seen him raise corpses nearby to fight for him, but nothing more than that.”

I straighten my back before speaking. “When the army advances, they’ll be assaulted on all sides by an undead army.”
The others all lean in closer as though to make sure they don’t miss anything I’m about to say. “Last night, I went wandering through the forest to practice my magic. On my journey, I encountered a large pile of corpses. A dozen hundred of them at least. When I came close, every last one of those corpses rose and attacked me. They were aided by spirits. I destroyed one pile, but I have to imagine there are many more hidden throughout these forests. If I were Leonhart, I would wait until our army is assaulting the gates before I sent the undead to assault us.”

Killian leans on the table and stares at the map. “That may cause… A few issues.”

“With an organized force, most undead shouldn’t be an issue. If there are any special undead, like the defender of that first hamlet, we’ll have to find a special way to deal with them. Removing the head, will eventually kill any undead, but as we saw they can still fight without it. The other issue are the specters. They can’t be touched by steel. You either need magic or silver to slay them.”
Aroura can’t be everywhere at once… But what if her magic can? “Aroura, can you infuse weapons with any sort of magic energy.”

She steps forward. “Yes, but without proper channeling or containment, the power would dissipate within minutes.”

Maheed hissed from behind me. “Then horsemen and jarcoba wait with you. When the specters arrive, you infuse their weapons and they do everything they can to end them.”

As he holds his head in his hand, Alister openly thinks. “My realm is actually a form of magic. Could that slay these spirits?”

“So long as you can extend it into your weapon, any magic will do.”

His smile deepens and his eyes light up. “Excellent. I shall stay and fight with our men.”

That covers the ghosts. Naz speaks my concerns. “That’s them ghosts dealt with. But what do we do when them orcs show up? I can’t catch that many giant swords.”

Toross chimes in. “The arms. If we can somehow remove the hands or arms, then they should be slightly less dangerous.”

As the others discuss how they’re going to defend themselves against the undead, I started to ponder what to do once I’m in the city. It sounds like I won’t get reinforcements until the undead are slaughtered. I wonder if we could send out hunting parties to destroy the undead mounds. I wonder if the Karvithians know what Leonhart is doing with their dead. They have called him the lich king. At least the commanders did.
My mind shows me vague memories of the people I killed. I can’t quite remember their faces, but their lack of training became apparent to me. Despite Leonhart warning Solaris months in advance about his invasion, their troops had no training… Could they have been slaves? Or maybe they were bound by some other means? What about the day after Desh possessed me? Even after they saw the heavens scorch the Earth, their army didn’t retreat until ordered to.

“What about Kar?” What about me? Wal’s words broke me out of my trance. She continued.
“Will you be with us or invading the city alone?”

Toross answers for me. “No matter how powerful he is, without an army at his back, I can’t see the Karvithians accepting his rule.”

That… Gives me an idea. Although I’m not sure it’s exactly good. “Then we may need to move the troops closer to the city. I’m certain that I can convince the Karvithians to turn against their current King, if they see Solaris destroy Leonhart’s undead army. Besides, I don’t think Leonhart would unleash his ambush if our troops aren’t close to the city.”

Toross stares at me with a pang of worry in his eyes. His voice, on the other hand, is nothing but doubtful. “How? What could you possibly do to turn an entire city against the one they serve?”

“You’ve seen the gibbets correct? The countless hanging cages? These people are living in fear. I’ve lived in fear my entire life. At any point, a human could decide that I’m unsightly, or perhaps that I wasn’t worth the trouble of slowing down. All it took for me to think of overthrowing Alister was one fight against the Karvithians.”
Only Alister and the princes kept their composure. The others began silently freaking out and casting glances at Alister. Right. They weren’t there. I continue. “He knows. It’s why he’s ordered me to be Lord of Karvithia.”
Alister simply smiles and nods with affirmative grunts. “If all it took for me is one fight. All it will take for the Karvithians is the presence of someone who can defeat their oppressor.”

The others start to object, but Alister overpowers them. “You truly are overconfident in your strength and charisma aren’t you? I’m amazed by your gall. But! That’s exactly the kind of arrogance I had, and exactly the arrogance you’ll need!”
He elbows his sons. “You two could learn something from him.”

Killian places his hand across his chest and bows to his father. “Thank you father, for your wisdom. If I may, I wish to summarize our current plan of attack. We will march closer towards Karvithia in an attempt to antagonize Leonhart, while lord Kar’Desh incites a rebellion from within city walls.”

We all offer our understanding. Aroura offers the only question. “What of Cloudrea? Where will she go?”
I almost forgot about her on my back. I turn my head to the side and my nose grazes past her hair.

Alister raises and eyebrow. “What is Cloudrea? Oh, you must be referring to the slave girl. She’s Kar’s issue.”
Something about him using my nickname after calling Cloudrea ‘what’ sends a spike of anger through me. He continues. “Speaking of, you should get going. Grab some new equipment. You need to look the part of a hero after all. And grab a horse. Any horse. How about… That one!”
He points at a random horse tied to a feeding trough. He said any horse? I might take his. Somehow he reads my mind. “Except my horse. Don’t take mine, I’ll leave you here alone. What are you still doing here, go find the quartermaster!”
As I leave, my court salutes and goes to follow me, but he stops them. “No no, you all stay. I wish to converse with you all.”

They look to me for assurance and I give them a single nod. With that, their eyes harden with newfound resolve. Well. I should say Toross and Naz did. I can’t see Maheed’s eyes and Wal looked stalwart as usual. As they all turned to face the King, Aroura slipped out of the meeting and followed me. Once she caught up, Cloudrea greeted her. “Welcome back, mistress Aroura.”
I really need to break her of that habit.

Aroura gave a cute smile and wave towards her. Afterwards, she turns to me with a more grim expression. “What will you do? I know you’re shockingly reliable, but you’re still just one man.”

‘Shocking,’ hm? How should I respond? I can’t simply dodge the question. Perhaps
just the truth then. “I do have a plan. It relies lightly on combat and more on magic and coercion.”
I light up my hand in pale energy. “I can blind and deafen people without injuring them.”

She looks at me with clear confusion. “Where are you learning all these spells? I had an instructor to guide me, but you’re creating all these spells I’ve never seen or heard of before like it’s natural.”

How to handle this. Toy with her? Brag about my talent maybe?
No, don’t try to change the mood. Just a vague answer will suffice. “My… Curse. Comes with various benefits.”
Now I need to end her questioning… “I know I may seem rash and foolish, but Aroura. You can trust me.”
I give her a smile I’ve often used to seduce unsuspecting elven beauties. Hopefully it works on humans too.

She stammers for a moment before ultimately, she’s unsure what to say. She cobbles together her next words. “I… I do trust you, it’s just… There must be something I can do to aid you further. I could watch after Cloudrea!”

Absolutely not. I shouldn’t let either of them grow closer to each other. Besides. “She’ll be safer in the city with me. She won’t be out of place in the city, and it won’t be a warzone.”
Now, it’s time for the finishing move. I stop and turn towards her. She, as expected, does the same. My hands gently land on her shoulders and our eyes lock. Once again, I display my seducing smile. “You’re doing enough. You’ve taught me all I need to know about magic, and now you’re saving my men when I’m not there. I’m becoming more and more indebted to you each day.”
As I speak, I gradually draw my face closer and closer to hers as though I’m about to kiss her. I let a moment of silence hang in the air before I pull away and say, “I should get going. We have a long day ahead of us.”

She lets out a breath of relief and disappointment. It’s a trick I’ve found often works. Tell a girl some nice things about her, while slightly undermining yourself. Go for a kiss, but lose courage and pull away, then find an excuse to leave. It almost always leaves them wanting more, but they’re too bashful or disappointed to say anything. In this case, it might be both. Now she should be overconfident in her deceit, and it distracts her from her current questions.
I wave as I leave, and she struggles to wave back. My trick worked better than I thought it would. Now. Back to the matter at hand.