Nadime was sitting behind her larged desk in her study. She had carved it herself out of one big stone. All the surfaces were smooth polished rock. She was reading the daily reports from the general staff on the campaign against the empire and the Karaim. At the far wall of the octaganol room a large painting of the first Head Councilor Luxarus Crowfort was hanging. His slightly tilted green eyes and ravenblack hair, made his skin look even paler than she remembered. Next to the painting of Crowfort, a smaller painting of her, the second Head Councilor, was hanging. Her chain of though was broken by a small tap on the door.
"Enter, please"
A small balding man clutching a folder with papers entered. His flickering gaze took in all the details of the room at once.
"I see you have changed a lot since your predescessor."
"You can drop the formalities, Khad." she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "What news from the eyes and ears?"
"I see, you cut to the chase as always. The Karaim has been spotted several places. Your cavalery is chasing them, and they are on retreat, but I have found out how Valcon could have been able to kill Luxarus!"
"How?"
"I don't know if you remember our former allies Jaid, north east of us? Anyway, they had developed a network of spies and infiltrators. Valcon was one of them. When they got wiped out by the Triad after the splitting of the ten princes. The network of Jaid was forced to work for the empire. So the empire used Valcon to get to Luxarus. But I don't know if the Karaim attacking the city the very same day was a diverson, put in motion by the empire as a cover-up or if they acted independently."
"That sort of makes sense, but how did we not know that Valcon was an infiltrator?"
"I do not know head councilor"
"Well this calls for immediate action. Go fetch the rest of the council and the general staff, and get them here as soon as possible!" she ordered.
"Go fetch..." the last was a mutter to himself as he left the room, "go fetch... bah"
Half an hour later the small octagonal room was very crowded. Very crowded indeed. Extra chairs had been brought in, and still the general staff had to stand. When they were all assembled Nadime stood up and started to speak.
"I have call this meeting, because certain information has come to my attention." She told them almost everything Khad had told her. "There is reason to believe that our tactics and campaign plans has come to the attention of the Triad. I have therfore called this meeting to make sure that we still have the advantage. The element of surprise."
At this information a general muttering of worry came from the council members.
"But don't worry" she continued " as shabans we know these lands, we will fight 'til every drop of blood is shed, but it will not be our blood. We will shed the blood of our enemy, Wu'di. Our new and improved tactics, will crush the enemy forces into smitherines. Noone will be able to stop us. Oh yes, we will lose soldiers, men will die and wifes will mourn. But the caus of which they lay down their lives, is the cause of which we all put our lives on the line for. It is Freedom. Freedom I say, freedom of oppression, freedom of the empire, and freedom to do what we want as Shabans. We got to fight for our right to freedom. So I say we fight. Are you with me ?"
"AYE!!!"