The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2 novel Chapter 199

Part 27

He placed a huge hand under each of his wives’ petite bottoms and held them to each side with outstretched arms as he gracefully bowed to the crowd and went to one knee in each of the four cardinal directions, and they posed proudly and prettily with perfect balance as they sat on his hands while he did so. Finally he held them close again and gave Pakdag a respectful nod.

“Congratulations on your victory in The Tournament of Governors.” the war god told him with a grin. “Would you care to speak about your performance?”

“I would.” Mark smiled, and turned to the audience. He waited while Pakdag held his hands up to request silence from the crowd, and eventually they quieted to hear his speech.

“Since my marriage to Alilia, Hilia and The People of Life are formally allied. And since Alilia generally behaves like I’m the leader in our marriage, some have said that I now rule The People of Life. But legally that’s not the case. I’m not the ruling Prince of The People of Life. And though I think they trust me, and trust my vow of justice, I’m sure that they don’t want me to be their Prince. They much prefer the present situation.

“Alilia is still their ruling Princess, they trust her long and excellent record of looking out for their interests, and they want her to continue her rule, even if she delegates all of the duties of her office. They want her to continue looking out for their interests as her highest priority.

“They know that there’s almost no chance that our vows of justice on The Truthstone of Falgaroth will fail, and they know that there’s almost no chance that The Just Alliance will fall, but they feel secure in knowing that even if all that happens and everyone else turns against them, Alilia will still be looking out for them, still acting as a buffer between them and the rest of the world, if necessary.

“I think that’s true of everyone else too. They all like The Just Alliance and The Kellaran-Triax Alliance, but most are glad that their nations are not ruled by either of those alliances. They’re glad that the final word on what happens to them and to their nations still rests with their own well-known and well-trusted rulers, who are of their own race and their own nation.

“Even with our vows of justice, every one of our races and nations have been stabbed in the back too many times over our world’s long history to feel fully comfortable with giving any outsider deciding control over us.

“That’s one of three guiding principles behind my strategy in the tournament today.

“The second was that I wanted to prove the worth of the status quo. In the scenario I was given absolute command of The Just Alliance, but I didn’t exercise it. I continued as I’ve been doing; delegating almost all of the duties of ruling Hilia and Serminak to those with the appropriate skills for it, and offering suggestions to The Assembly of The Just Alliance in my role as Key as I saw fit.

“There were a few occasions where I took command of fighters of other nations in a relatively small section of the battle for a limited time, but almost all the time I left the present command structure and political state of Kellaran exactly as it is. Prince Yazadril of The High People stayed on as Supreme Commander of The Militaries of The Just Alliance, and every ruler or ruling council of every nation continued to reign as they have. I see no reason to upset the existing order on Kellaran, and I think my performance in the tournament helps prove that point. I’m sure that our high morale and effectiveness was partially due to the fact that our nations were still independent and no political upheaval took place.

“My third guiding principle was inspired by the rules of the tournament itself. They state that only declared team leaders could exercise overall command, and only supporting team members could provide creative advice to the leaders or have independent command of parts of the military delegated to them. Everyone else would just follow orders as best they could.

“But the gods themselves have made it clear to me in the past that creativity is one of our most crucial resources, so I decided to make sure that my team had as much creativity as possible.

“Furthermore, I was sure that every person would be more effective and have better morale if they retained their independence. Even the most dedicated soldier who’s completely committed to following orders wants to have the freedom to disregard orders and act independently if it becomes obvious that it’s the smartest thing to do at the time. Sometimes the soldier on the scene knows things that aren’t obvious to his commanders, and he doesn’t have time to consult them. He also wants to be able to make suggestions and know that his suggestions will be passed up the chain of command to the appropriate level, and given serious consideration.