Categories > Games > Final Fantasy Tactics > The Way of the Warrior
A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, Part 1
0 reviewsAfter the battle with Altima Ramza disappeared. Moving away from the newly rebuilt kingdom of Ivalice, he began a family in a small village in Odallia. Fifteen years later, however, his peaceful li...
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Final Fantasy Tactics:
The Way of the Warrior
Chapter 2: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, Part 1
The door opened, slamming against the wall as it did so. The two guards in the room quickly drew their swords and turned to the doorway, only to find that it was an expected visitor, the messenger from the front.
"You're lucky that I look at what I'm killing Horace." One of the guards spit as he sheathed his sword. The messenger, huffing and puffing, nodded.
"Well? Out with it man!" the second guard exclaimed.
Horace reached into his cloak and produced a large, sealed envelope. "Sir Capricus sends this message to the General with his regards." He said, handing the envelope to the first guard. The guard then took the envelope and walked across the room, handing the envelope to the General, who sat in his special chair near the window. The General opened the envelope and pulled out the contents. As he began reading them, he motioned to the guard, "That will be all, please show Horace to the door." The guard nodded and turned back towards Horace.
"Alright, time for you to go my friend." He said, putting his arm around the man and herding him out the door.
Horace stood next to the door for a moment, wondering if he should be insulted or not. After all he had gone through to deliver that message, he was sure that he'd get some amount of praise from the General, or maybe a promotion....or at least the chance to see the great man's face. Shrugging, he headed towards the barracks, all the time wondering what the need was for all the secrecy.
"Well what does it say?"
"It says just what I told you it would Rad, Mustadio writes that the invasion has something to do with the stones...some sort of ancient technology. He also says that he sent Aralius and Madison on the trail of more clues but Cid hasn't seen any sign of them yet..."
"I'm sure they're fine Ramza, Aralius is a resourceful young man, much like his father was." He said with a grin. Ramza sent him a withering glance in reply, and Rad knew instantly that he shouldn't pursue the topic any further.
"Also, Sir Capricus says that Delita is moving in typical fashion for our old friend. Instead of trying to slowly absorb the many cities of Ordallia, it appears that he is marching straight towards his target."
"Which would be what exactly?" Rad asked as he moved to the window and sat on the sill.
Ramza frowned for a moment and laid the papers on his desk. Leaning forward, he set his elbows on the desk and propped his head up and thought. "At this point, I'm not really sure, but it seems to be Lafos."
Rad arched his eyebrow and stood up. "What could he want here? Lafos is just a small farming town."
"What about the chapel?"
Ramza looked up towards the second guard. "You know what Ziek, you may be right, but the only way to be sure would be to talk to the person that knows this chapel better than any other. Go and fetch Father Orillio, and tell him that it's urgent." Ziek nodded and headed out the door. Ramza then reached into the desk and pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill. "As for you Rad, I want you to take this letter down to Horace in the barracks and tell him that he's to be off with it at first light. I want Capricus' men to begin stage one of our plans as soon as humanly possible so it's imperative that he receives this."
"Why don't I wait until Ziek is back, after all..." Ramza stopped writing and looked at Rad.
"You know, I'm not completely helpless, even if I don't have the use of my legs back."
"Well I know it's just that..."
"No buts. Take this to Horace with my instructions, and if you're that worried about it you can run there and back." Rad opened his mouth to reply, but realizing that he was fighting a losing battle, shut his mouth and took the envelope. Ramza was right of course, even without his legs he could probably wield a sword better than most, and he had more than enough training in other methods of combat that it would be almost impossible for his friend to be harmed. And yet...fate had dealt stranger cards to them, and the mysterious illness that hampered Ramza's legs from being fully functional worried the fighter much more than he would care to admit.
Ramza sighed as the door closed behind Rad. This was not particularly what he had in mind when he had fled Ivalice. He laughed at the irony of it all; fleeing one war right into another, except this was worse, much worse. What Delita was doing could cause a global war.
"There has to be someone behind the scenes." He whispered, wheeling the special chair crafted specifically for him to the window. "But who? And where's Aralius?" Sighing again he let his shoulders slump and rested his chin on the top of his chest. There were too many questions and not enough time to find answers. Not one fiber in his being liked this, for more than obvious reasons.
It was easy to tell Delita's tactic; it was so much like him, reach out and take what he wanted except this time Delita had all the cards and Ramza was left manipulating an army of farmers in monks in a last ditch opportunity to save his new homeland.
Worst of all he still hadn't had time to fully recover from the sword through the belly he had received when Delita's troops had destroyed his home, taken those cursed stones, and most painfully, killed his beloved Alice. Ramza wiped a lone tear from his face. As soon as he could walk again, he would find out what this was all about, one way or the other, but for now all he could do it wait. Disguise himself as best he could while holding Delita from his goal until the proper people could be contacted. Remembering this, Ramza decided that he should begin a list of the people he would need to find. "Agrias..." he thought as he wheeled to the desk. "...Meliadoul...Rafa and Malak..." He reached into the desk and pulled a fresh sheet of parchment. "...Beowulf and Reis..." He scribbled the names furiously as they came to mind. "...Alicia, Lavian, Miluda?..." Ramza shook his head and scribbled the last name out. Miluda had had a confusing part in the previous war, and was unlikely to come running to his cause. Just then the door creaked open and a familiar old man poked his head in the door.
"Good Day Ramza." The man said.
"We shall see Father Orillio, we shall see. Please come in." Orillio smiled and entered, gently closing the door behind him.
"What can I do for you today?" Ramza wheeled himself to the front of the desk and motioned to the door.
"Would you walk with me?" he asked. Father Orillio looked a bit confused but nodded and opened the door for Ramza who wheeled out into the hallway.
"Surely you did not send for me urgently just to go for a walk?" he asked as they began down the hall. Ramza laughed.
"No, it's just that I've been stuck in that room for a week now and it would be nice to see some friendly faces instead of the grim ones who only seem to find bad news for me." At this it was Father Orillio's turn to laugh. "Actually, we've heard that Delita is bypassing most of the frontier and is headed in a specific direction."
"Really?" replied the Father. "How odd. And what does he seem to be marching for?"
"Right now my best guess would be either Lafos or this church." Ramza wheeled a bit further before realizing that Father Orillio had stopped a few feet ago.
"What could he possibly want here?" The Father asked, resuming his walk.
"Actually, I was hoping that maybe you could tell me that." Ramza said coyly. Father Orillio shook his head.
"All that we keep in this chapel is knowledge. That of God and that of worldly things, no weapons or relics, just our books and our food."
"That's what I feared. Apparently Delita has found something in his research of the stones that leads him to find more knowledge here."
"Excuse me?"
"The Zodiac Stones, Delita has been researching an old burial site in Ivalice somewhere. My friend on the inside tells me that included in the rubble was hundreds of old texts. Texts much like those the Germoik Scriptures that Simon gave me and I'm sure like those that are buried somewhere in the libraries of this chapel."
"I see but what can we do? There's no way we could destroy our libraries, much of the knowledge kept here is found nowhere else in Ordallia being as most of the population lives in their farming colonies."
Ramza nodded as he halted his chair. He stroked his chin for a moment and thought. Then, after coming up with a decent plan, nodded and looked up to the Father. "How many monks do you have that could be at my disposal?" he asked.
"Maybe three or four, many of my monks and priests have been taken by the new work of tending to injured soldiers." Ramza turned his chair around and smiled.
"Perfect. Send them up to my room as soon as you can. I'm glad you had time to have this little chat with me Father." And with that he began wheeling down the hallway, leaving Father Orillio standing at the top of the stairs, wondering what he had planned.
Rad and Ziek had both returned by the time three young monks came up to Ramza's room, inquiring about the work the General had for them. "General, there are some monks here to see you." Rad called from the open door.
"Let them in, I have some very important work for them." Ramza replied as he looked up from the maps on his desk. The monks came in and gave a slight bow to acknowledge Ramza and then stood silent, awaiting their task. Ramza smiled as he laid his pen on the desk and looked up. "What I have for you to do is of the utmost importance for Ordallia's survival." He said as he set his elbows on the table. "It is my belief that the invading army is looking for a piece of knowledge that may be being kept somewhere in the monastery's libraries. What I need you three to do is to go to the library and look for any books authored between the time before Ajora's birth and the time of his death. The book would likely be about some type of magic or possibly even a device of some sort, though you likely won't be able to read the writing itself." Ramza smiled and rolled his chair to the front of the desk. "Like I said, this is of the utmost importance and Father Orrilio and I are counting on you three to do your absolute best." The three monks nodded and bowed before they turned around and followed Ziek out the door.
When they were done Ramza closed his eyes and sighed. "It'd be so much easier if I could do it myself." Rad smiled and walked to the window.
"Maybe. But things never seem to be easy when it comes to Delita."
Ramza laughed. "Isn't that the truth."
*
"The newest report from the front has been received, my liege."
"Well? Let's see it." Delita said as he held out his hand for the papers. The soldier handed the papers to Kleis who then walked the span of the command tent and gave the papers to Delita. "You may go." Delita said as he opened the papers and began rifling through them. After he had paged through them all he threw the papers and slammed his fist on his makeshift desk in disgust.
"What is it sire?" Kleis asked.
"They played me for a damn fool. That damn hero general of theirs saw our strategy from the beginning and led us all the way to the middle of Ordallia."
"Who could have known your plan sire? Ivalice has hardly had contact with Ordallia for centuries, let alone gone to war."
"I know. Perhaps we underestimated the Ordallian's ability to mobilize and organize an army." Delita rose from his chair and moved toward the tent's exit. Kleis was right behind his King, and beside him were two of the King's royal guard. Delita looked out the tent upon the battle before him and sighed. "Gather Kane and Balbanes, it's time to rethink this invasion."
"Yes Your Majesty." Kleis said bowing deeply. Kane whistled and an armored chocobo trotted up to him. As he rode towards the battle Delita turned back into his tent and thought about the man behind the Ordallian army. He was clever, but cleverness only meant a little more time.
A short while later the sound of running chocobos could be heard from inside the tent. Delita placed his pen and paper in a parchment tube which he set in a small box underneath his desk. He then rose and took a few steps toward the door. A moment later three people entered the tent in a short, single file line.
"Father!" Balbanes said as he gave a short embrace.
"Balbanes, how do the men fare?" Delita replied, still holding the shoulders of his eldest son.
"Better if we weren't surrounded." Balbanes said with a small grin, "But you know the men, they'll make due." Delita grinned and gave Balbanes one last pat on the shoulder before moving to the next in line.
"Kane my son how are you?" Delita asked as he embraced his second son.
"I am well father and yourself?" Kane replied.
"I am always much better when you two are here." Delita said with a smile. "Now, down to business, I called the two of you here so that we can formulate a fallback strategy."
"Fallback strategy!? What about the manuals?" Kane said, clearly angered by this turn of events.
"We will return for the manuals later, right now we've been goaded into doing what would most benefit the enemy." Delita replied as he took the map he had marked earlier and moved it in front of his sons and Kleis.
"I agree with your father. Whoever this general the Ordallians have employed is he most defiantly had each of our moves accounted for. Which means this person must be familiar with your father's strategies." Balbanes nodded his agreement, which made Kane harrumph in anger.
"Now the reason I called the two of you here is that we need a plan to do this. This general obviously has my thinking pattern down pat, but maybe we can throw him a few wrinkles." Balbanes smiled and looked up from the map.
"Why don't we turn the tables on them?" Delita raised an eyebrow as his son continued. "What if one of us snuck back to Ivalice and gathered another body of troops, in the meantime, this army can push towards the boarder in mock retreat, and the two armies can meet somewhere near here." He finished by circling a large area on the map between the boarder and their current position. Kane sat forward and took the map and examined it, satisfied he nodded.
"I think that Balbanes may be on to something here, the only thing is who will go back?"
"I'll go." Balbanes offered, "After all, it is my plan, and I know the commander of the second battalion fairly well, it would be nice to see an old friend." Delita nodded.
"That sounds well enough, you can take my chocobo, he's a bit faster than yours and he won't spook easily." Balbanes lowered his head.
"I'm honored father; I'll leave at once then." Delita smiled and nodded.
"Fair travel son, I look forward to seeing you at the...Lafos Woods." Delita watched his son as he left the tent and he swelled with pride to see his oldest son taking on the role of a prince leading his people to battle. When Balbanes was gone, Delita turned his attention to the remaining two men in the tent.
"Well then, with that settled, the three of us should organize our 'fallback'." Delita said.
After hours of arguing over strategy, terrain, and formations, the remaining commanders of the Great Empire's Army emerged from their command tent. As they did so, the sun was beginning to set, and things seemed to be faring just as well as when Delita had called his sons to the tent to plan their new strategy of attack.
The plan was fairly simple actually. First the army would begin to slowly fall back, and when the Great Empire's Army reached the ridge they would separate into two groups: one that would be commanded by Kane and Kleis, the other to be led by the King of Ivalice himself. The two groups would retreat over the ridge and towards the border of Ivalice. Before they reached the ridge the two groups would hope to meet Aralius and the second battalion at the rolling hills just east of Zarghidas Trade City where they would merge the army, forming a giant 'U' around the Ordallian army. The strategy was by no means perfect, and it would take more than one miracle for it to fall into place, but Delita felt that this was their best chance. If they tried to take the country as they currently were there would be nothing left for the second battalion to find. And he would be damned if some no name general would be the end of his quest for an empire.
Delita bode farewell to his son and took his second in command aside, making sure the man knew what would happen if something happened to his son. The man had best not come back if his son was killed, because death would be a luxury not given to the man if he failed his King. His two sons were the only thing left of his wife, his beloved before she had gone inexplicably mad and in her fury attacked him. To this day he was unsure of what had happened that day, or of what had caused her to become insane, but he remembered the day; her birthday.
After making sure his man knew to watch over his son, he moved to the man holding the reigns of his son's chocobo. The beast wasn't as reliable as his own, but he had the experience of taming beasts his son did not. Making sure everything was snug and secure, he reached down and plucked the maps from his other attendant's hands, muttering brief thanks, and snapped the reigns. The chocobo squawked as it began trotting down towards the southern portion of the battlefront, and Delita sighed. This wasn't going nearly as grandly as he had planned.
Kane watched his father take his man aside and begin talking to him. Muttering curses he turned to the man holding the reigns of his chocobo who bowed deeply seeing his master was in a foul mood. Kane nodded his approval and pulled himself up onto the beast, taking the reigns into his hand and muttering his thanks once again to the man. This was ridiculous. If father had only listened and brought the wizards these peasants would be singing a much different tune.
No matter, as long as he acquired what was the true goal of this war; the manuals that were hidden somewhere in the town called Lafos. His man hadn't been as specific as he would have liked when he inquired about the location of the manuals, but a general area would have to be good enough.
Kane wondered if the man had found that blasted Beoulve yet. The bloody man had his stones, and for those stones he would...Never mind it wasn't important. Only the manuals were. Inside those would be the secrets of a society buried beneath hundreds of feet of dirt and rock, deep beneath Goug. With a weapon of that magnitude the whole world would have to tremble before the might of Ivalice...beneath the weight of his iron hand.
This brought up another problem however; his brother. Being twins, both would have to wait for their father to declare the next heir, something he had been unwilling to do for as long as Kane could remember, but it was obvious who he would choose. And it wouldn't be Kane.
"Another problem for another day." He muttered as he kicked the sides of his chocobo, sending the thing sprinting towards the Northern half of the army. He had half a mind to summon his powers against the army of peasants that somehow beat back the well-trained forces of Ivalice, but feared that this would only do more damage to his relationship with his father, and he couldn't have that. As he reached the edge of his forces he handed the papers issuing orders and giving himself command issued by his father. As he did so Kleis rode up and stopped his chocobo slightly behind and to the right of Kane's. The man in command nodded and banged his right fist to his chest before riding off towards the other subcommanders on the front. Kane smiled wickedly. Soon he would have an army greater than this, no; greater than any army the world had ever seen at his command, and when he did...nothing, not even a Beoulve, could stop him from his plans.
The Way of the Warrior
Chapter 2: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, Part 1
The door opened, slamming against the wall as it did so. The two guards in the room quickly drew their swords and turned to the doorway, only to find that it was an expected visitor, the messenger from the front.
"You're lucky that I look at what I'm killing Horace." One of the guards spit as he sheathed his sword. The messenger, huffing and puffing, nodded.
"Well? Out with it man!" the second guard exclaimed.
Horace reached into his cloak and produced a large, sealed envelope. "Sir Capricus sends this message to the General with his regards." He said, handing the envelope to the first guard. The guard then took the envelope and walked across the room, handing the envelope to the General, who sat in his special chair near the window. The General opened the envelope and pulled out the contents. As he began reading them, he motioned to the guard, "That will be all, please show Horace to the door." The guard nodded and turned back towards Horace.
"Alright, time for you to go my friend." He said, putting his arm around the man and herding him out the door.
Horace stood next to the door for a moment, wondering if he should be insulted or not. After all he had gone through to deliver that message, he was sure that he'd get some amount of praise from the General, or maybe a promotion....or at least the chance to see the great man's face. Shrugging, he headed towards the barracks, all the time wondering what the need was for all the secrecy.
"Well what does it say?"
"It says just what I told you it would Rad, Mustadio writes that the invasion has something to do with the stones...some sort of ancient technology. He also says that he sent Aralius and Madison on the trail of more clues but Cid hasn't seen any sign of them yet..."
"I'm sure they're fine Ramza, Aralius is a resourceful young man, much like his father was." He said with a grin. Ramza sent him a withering glance in reply, and Rad knew instantly that he shouldn't pursue the topic any further.
"Also, Sir Capricus says that Delita is moving in typical fashion for our old friend. Instead of trying to slowly absorb the many cities of Ordallia, it appears that he is marching straight towards his target."
"Which would be what exactly?" Rad asked as he moved to the window and sat on the sill.
Ramza frowned for a moment and laid the papers on his desk. Leaning forward, he set his elbows on the desk and propped his head up and thought. "At this point, I'm not really sure, but it seems to be Lafos."
Rad arched his eyebrow and stood up. "What could he want here? Lafos is just a small farming town."
"What about the chapel?"
Ramza looked up towards the second guard. "You know what Ziek, you may be right, but the only way to be sure would be to talk to the person that knows this chapel better than any other. Go and fetch Father Orillio, and tell him that it's urgent." Ziek nodded and headed out the door. Ramza then reached into the desk and pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill. "As for you Rad, I want you to take this letter down to Horace in the barracks and tell him that he's to be off with it at first light. I want Capricus' men to begin stage one of our plans as soon as humanly possible so it's imperative that he receives this."
"Why don't I wait until Ziek is back, after all..." Ramza stopped writing and looked at Rad.
"You know, I'm not completely helpless, even if I don't have the use of my legs back."
"Well I know it's just that..."
"No buts. Take this to Horace with my instructions, and if you're that worried about it you can run there and back." Rad opened his mouth to reply, but realizing that he was fighting a losing battle, shut his mouth and took the envelope. Ramza was right of course, even without his legs he could probably wield a sword better than most, and he had more than enough training in other methods of combat that it would be almost impossible for his friend to be harmed. And yet...fate had dealt stranger cards to them, and the mysterious illness that hampered Ramza's legs from being fully functional worried the fighter much more than he would care to admit.
Ramza sighed as the door closed behind Rad. This was not particularly what he had in mind when he had fled Ivalice. He laughed at the irony of it all; fleeing one war right into another, except this was worse, much worse. What Delita was doing could cause a global war.
"There has to be someone behind the scenes." He whispered, wheeling the special chair crafted specifically for him to the window. "But who? And where's Aralius?" Sighing again he let his shoulders slump and rested his chin on the top of his chest. There were too many questions and not enough time to find answers. Not one fiber in his being liked this, for more than obvious reasons.
It was easy to tell Delita's tactic; it was so much like him, reach out and take what he wanted except this time Delita had all the cards and Ramza was left manipulating an army of farmers in monks in a last ditch opportunity to save his new homeland.
Worst of all he still hadn't had time to fully recover from the sword through the belly he had received when Delita's troops had destroyed his home, taken those cursed stones, and most painfully, killed his beloved Alice. Ramza wiped a lone tear from his face. As soon as he could walk again, he would find out what this was all about, one way or the other, but for now all he could do it wait. Disguise himself as best he could while holding Delita from his goal until the proper people could be contacted. Remembering this, Ramza decided that he should begin a list of the people he would need to find. "Agrias..." he thought as he wheeled to the desk. "...Meliadoul...Rafa and Malak..." He reached into the desk and pulled a fresh sheet of parchment. "...Beowulf and Reis..." He scribbled the names furiously as they came to mind. "...Alicia, Lavian, Miluda?..." Ramza shook his head and scribbled the last name out. Miluda had had a confusing part in the previous war, and was unlikely to come running to his cause. Just then the door creaked open and a familiar old man poked his head in the door.
"Good Day Ramza." The man said.
"We shall see Father Orillio, we shall see. Please come in." Orillio smiled and entered, gently closing the door behind him.
"What can I do for you today?" Ramza wheeled himself to the front of the desk and motioned to the door.
"Would you walk with me?" he asked. Father Orillio looked a bit confused but nodded and opened the door for Ramza who wheeled out into the hallway.
"Surely you did not send for me urgently just to go for a walk?" he asked as they began down the hall. Ramza laughed.
"No, it's just that I've been stuck in that room for a week now and it would be nice to see some friendly faces instead of the grim ones who only seem to find bad news for me." At this it was Father Orillio's turn to laugh. "Actually, we've heard that Delita is bypassing most of the frontier and is headed in a specific direction."
"Really?" replied the Father. "How odd. And what does he seem to be marching for?"
"Right now my best guess would be either Lafos or this church." Ramza wheeled a bit further before realizing that Father Orillio had stopped a few feet ago.
"What could he possibly want here?" The Father asked, resuming his walk.
"Actually, I was hoping that maybe you could tell me that." Ramza said coyly. Father Orillio shook his head.
"All that we keep in this chapel is knowledge. That of God and that of worldly things, no weapons or relics, just our books and our food."
"That's what I feared. Apparently Delita has found something in his research of the stones that leads him to find more knowledge here."
"Excuse me?"
"The Zodiac Stones, Delita has been researching an old burial site in Ivalice somewhere. My friend on the inside tells me that included in the rubble was hundreds of old texts. Texts much like those the Germoik Scriptures that Simon gave me and I'm sure like those that are buried somewhere in the libraries of this chapel."
"I see but what can we do? There's no way we could destroy our libraries, much of the knowledge kept here is found nowhere else in Ordallia being as most of the population lives in their farming colonies."
Ramza nodded as he halted his chair. He stroked his chin for a moment and thought. Then, after coming up with a decent plan, nodded and looked up to the Father. "How many monks do you have that could be at my disposal?" he asked.
"Maybe three or four, many of my monks and priests have been taken by the new work of tending to injured soldiers." Ramza turned his chair around and smiled.
"Perfect. Send them up to my room as soon as you can. I'm glad you had time to have this little chat with me Father." And with that he began wheeling down the hallway, leaving Father Orillio standing at the top of the stairs, wondering what he had planned.
Rad and Ziek had both returned by the time three young monks came up to Ramza's room, inquiring about the work the General had for them. "General, there are some monks here to see you." Rad called from the open door.
"Let them in, I have some very important work for them." Ramza replied as he looked up from the maps on his desk. The monks came in and gave a slight bow to acknowledge Ramza and then stood silent, awaiting their task. Ramza smiled as he laid his pen on the desk and looked up. "What I have for you to do is of the utmost importance for Ordallia's survival." He said as he set his elbows on the table. "It is my belief that the invading army is looking for a piece of knowledge that may be being kept somewhere in the monastery's libraries. What I need you three to do is to go to the library and look for any books authored between the time before Ajora's birth and the time of his death. The book would likely be about some type of magic or possibly even a device of some sort, though you likely won't be able to read the writing itself." Ramza smiled and rolled his chair to the front of the desk. "Like I said, this is of the utmost importance and Father Orrilio and I are counting on you three to do your absolute best." The three monks nodded and bowed before they turned around and followed Ziek out the door.
When they were done Ramza closed his eyes and sighed. "It'd be so much easier if I could do it myself." Rad smiled and walked to the window.
"Maybe. But things never seem to be easy when it comes to Delita."
Ramza laughed. "Isn't that the truth."
*
"The newest report from the front has been received, my liege."
"Well? Let's see it." Delita said as he held out his hand for the papers. The soldier handed the papers to Kleis who then walked the span of the command tent and gave the papers to Delita. "You may go." Delita said as he opened the papers and began rifling through them. After he had paged through them all he threw the papers and slammed his fist on his makeshift desk in disgust.
"What is it sire?" Kleis asked.
"They played me for a damn fool. That damn hero general of theirs saw our strategy from the beginning and led us all the way to the middle of Ordallia."
"Who could have known your plan sire? Ivalice has hardly had contact with Ordallia for centuries, let alone gone to war."
"I know. Perhaps we underestimated the Ordallian's ability to mobilize and organize an army." Delita rose from his chair and moved toward the tent's exit. Kleis was right behind his King, and beside him were two of the King's royal guard. Delita looked out the tent upon the battle before him and sighed. "Gather Kane and Balbanes, it's time to rethink this invasion."
"Yes Your Majesty." Kleis said bowing deeply. Kane whistled and an armored chocobo trotted up to him. As he rode towards the battle Delita turned back into his tent and thought about the man behind the Ordallian army. He was clever, but cleverness only meant a little more time.
A short while later the sound of running chocobos could be heard from inside the tent. Delita placed his pen and paper in a parchment tube which he set in a small box underneath his desk. He then rose and took a few steps toward the door. A moment later three people entered the tent in a short, single file line.
"Father!" Balbanes said as he gave a short embrace.
"Balbanes, how do the men fare?" Delita replied, still holding the shoulders of his eldest son.
"Better if we weren't surrounded." Balbanes said with a small grin, "But you know the men, they'll make due." Delita grinned and gave Balbanes one last pat on the shoulder before moving to the next in line.
"Kane my son how are you?" Delita asked as he embraced his second son.
"I am well father and yourself?" Kane replied.
"I am always much better when you two are here." Delita said with a smile. "Now, down to business, I called the two of you here so that we can formulate a fallback strategy."
"Fallback strategy!? What about the manuals?" Kane said, clearly angered by this turn of events.
"We will return for the manuals later, right now we've been goaded into doing what would most benefit the enemy." Delita replied as he took the map he had marked earlier and moved it in front of his sons and Kleis.
"I agree with your father. Whoever this general the Ordallians have employed is he most defiantly had each of our moves accounted for. Which means this person must be familiar with your father's strategies." Balbanes nodded his agreement, which made Kane harrumph in anger.
"Now the reason I called the two of you here is that we need a plan to do this. This general obviously has my thinking pattern down pat, but maybe we can throw him a few wrinkles." Balbanes smiled and looked up from the map.
"Why don't we turn the tables on them?" Delita raised an eyebrow as his son continued. "What if one of us snuck back to Ivalice and gathered another body of troops, in the meantime, this army can push towards the boarder in mock retreat, and the two armies can meet somewhere near here." He finished by circling a large area on the map between the boarder and their current position. Kane sat forward and took the map and examined it, satisfied he nodded.
"I think that Balbanes may be on to something here, the only thing is who will go back?"
"I'll go." Balbanes offered, "After all, it is my plan, and I know the commander of the second battalion fairly well, it would be nice to see an old friend." Delita nodded.
"That sounds well enough, you can take my chocobo, he's a bit faster than yours and he won't spook easily." Balbanes lowered his head.
"I'm honored father; I'll leave at once then." Delita smiled and nodded.
"Fair travel son, I look forward to seeing you at the...Lafos Woods." Delita watched his son as he left the tent and he swelled with pride to see his oldest son taking on the role of a prince leading his people to battle. When Balbanes was gone, Delita turned his attention to the remaining two men in the tent.
"Well then, with that settled, the three of us should organize our 'fallback'." Delita said.
After hours of arguing over strategy, terrain, and formations, the remaining commanders of the Great Empire's Army emerged from their command tent. As they did so, the sun was beginning to set, and things seemed to be faring just as well as when Delita had called his sons to the tent to plan their new strategy of attack.
The plan was fairly simple actually. First the army would begin to slowly fall back, and when the Great Empire's Army reached the ridge they would separate into two groups: one that would be commanded by Kane and Kleis, the other to be led by the King of Ivalice himself. The two groups would retreat over the ridge and towards the border of Ivalice. Before they reached the ridge the two groups would hope to meet Aralius and the second battalion at the rolling hills just east of Zarghidas Trade City where they would merge the army, forming a giant 'U' around the Ordallian army. The strategy was by no means perfect, and it would take more than one miracle for it to fall into place, but Delita felt that this was their best chance. If they tried to take the country as they currently were there would be nothing left for the second battalion to find. And he would be damned if some no name general would be the end of his quest for an empire.
Delita bode farewell to his son and took his second in command aside, making sure the man knew what would happen if something happened to his son. The man had best not come back if his son was killed, because death would be a luxury not given to the man if he failed his King. His two sons were the only thing left of his wife, his beloved before she had gone inexplicably mad and in her fury attacked him. To this day he was unsure of what had happened that day, or of what had caused her to become insane, but he remembered the day; her birthday.
After making sure his man knew to watch over his son, he moved to the man holding the reigns of his son's chocobo. The beast wasn't as reliable as his own, but he had the experience of taming beasts his son did not. Making sure everything was snug and secure, he reached down and plucked the maps from his other attendant's hands, muttering brief thanks, and snapped the reigns. The chocobo squawked as it began trotting down towards the southern portion of the battlefront, and Delita sighed. This wasn't going nearly as grandly as he had planned.
Kane watched his father take his man aside and begin talking to him. Muttering curses he turned to the man holding the reigns of his chocobo who bowed deeply seeing his master was in a foul mood. Kane nodded his approval and pulled himself up onto the beast, taking the reigns into his hand and muttering his thanks once again to the man. This was ridiculous. If father had only listened and brought the wizards these peasants would be singing a much different tune.
No matter, as long as he acquired what was the true goal of this war; the manuals that were hidden somewhere in the town called Lafos. His man hadn't been as specific as he would have liked when he inquired about the location of the manuals, but a general area would have to be good enough.
Kane wondered if the man had found that blasted Beoulve yet. The bloody man had his stones, and for those stones he would...Never mind it wasn't important. Only the manuals were. Inside those would be the secrets of a society buried beneath hundreds of feet of dirt and rock, deep beneath Goug. With a weapon of that magnitude the whole world would have to tremble before the might of Ivalice...beneath the weight of his iron hand.
This brought up another problem however; his brother. Being twins, both would have to wait for their father to declare the next heir, something he had been unwilling to do for as long as Kane could remember, but it was obvious who he would choose. And it wouldn't be Kane.
"Another problem for another day." He muttered as he kicked the sides of his chocobo, sending the thing sprinting towards the Northern half of the army. He had half a mind to summon his powers against the army of peasants that somehow beat back the well-trained forces of Ivalice, but feared that this would only do more damage to his relationship with his father, and he couldn't have that. As he reached the edge of his forces he handed the papers issuing orders and giving himself command issued by his father. As he did so Kleis rode up and stopped his chocobo slightly behind and to the right of Kane's. The man in command nodded and banged his right fist to his chest before riding off towards the other subcommanders on the front. Kane smiled wickedly. Soon he would have an army greater than this, no; greater than any army the world had ever seen at his command, and when he did...nothing, not even a Beoulve, could stop him from his plans.
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