Chapter 808: Facing Reality

"You’re right," Liam said, stopping in the middle of the hallway as he realized the magnitude of what they’d just said. "This whole time, I’ve been thinking about how we’ll crush them once the forces of the Church arrive from across the sea. The Church has been gathering its resources for a hundred years to launch another Crusade, and this Holy war is just the beginning..."

"I know," Hugo said, putting a hand on Liam’s shoulder and giving him a slight tug to continue following their guide. "I thought that the Eldritch were barely holding on and that they were weakening year over year as we advanced. But now, I think they’ve been doing the same thing the Church has."

"Lady Heila knew the Holy War was coming when I mentioned it to her," Carwyn said while unconsciously flexing his shoulder. He’d mistakenly addressed Heila as ’your Worship’ and praised the Holy Lord of Light for allowing her to bestow a Miracle of Healing on him when he arrived in the Vale, losing his duel to Captain Barsali.

Heila had wasted no time in explaining to him that she had nothing to do with his Church, their Holy Lord of Light, or anything that could be called a ’miracle.’ If he wanted to thank her, she told him, then he needed to accept that he owed a debt of gratitude to a witch.

He’d tried countering, suggesting that if she could channel the blessings of the Holy Lord of Light, then the Church would surely welcome her in with open arms despite being a ’demon’ but she not only refused, she openly mocked the Church for its misguided attempts to subjugate all lands leading to the Heavenly Shores in the west.

"I think," Carwyn said reluctantly. "I think that the Eldritch have been preparing for the upcoming Holy War even longer than we have. They’ve let us grow complacent with our small victories in pocket wars that are little more than skirmishes in their eyes. Now, they’re baring their fangs for the first time since the Second Crusade... and I don’t know if we have a chance of winning."

"You’re saying that we should just surrender now?" Liam asked cautiously. "You know what the Church would do to you if they heard such a statement?"

"I’m sure they’d turn me over to the Inquisition faster than I could blink," Carwyn said with a dark chuckle. "But am I wrong? They attacked my caravan and maybe half a dozen others in Hanrahan Barony at the same time as they were raiding more than a dozen hamlets in Dunn Barony and as near as any of us can tell, they suffered almost no losses for it."

"It’s easy to claim victories in an ambush campaign," Liam countered. "We don’t know how they’ll fare in a real war yet." In fact, from Liam’s perspective, the Eldritch raids against ’soft targets’ like the Dunn hamlets and the Hanrahan convoys spoke of a position of weakness more than one of strength.

If the Eldritch were truly powerhouses capable of threatening human strongholds, why hadn’t they attacked the Town of Dunn or Hanrahan? In fact, they hadn’t attacked even a single village and Sir Carwyn was the only knight they’d fought so far. Clearly, the demons were powerful and coordinated... even well armed and well equipped. But it felt too early to be talking about surrender when humanity hadn’t even fielded its strongest warriors against the Eldritch threat yet.

"True, we don’t know how they’ll fare in a real war," Hugo said thoughtfully. "But do we really want to find out what they’ll do to our people in an open war? Without Grand Templars and High Inquisitors from the Church, do we even have a chance against Lady Ashlynn’s forces?"

"And if that’s the case," Hugo said with a heavy sigh as he looked at the slowly crumbling resistance in Lord Liam’s eyes. "If that’s the case, shouldn’t we look for the best terms we can find to preserve as many lives and as much of our holdings as we can?"

"Because I think," Hugo said softly. "Whatever terms we can obtain now, they’ll be a hundred times better than the terms we’re offered when they’ve torn our armies asunder and razed our homes to the ground."

"None of that," Liam said, clapping his hand on Sir Hugo’s back. He’d been impressed by how much information the man had gathered in the days that he’d been a prisoner in the Vale, but it was clear that he still had much to learn when it came to fighting wars.

"It’s too soon to surrender," Liam said as he glanced at Sir Carwyn for support. "We should at least wait until Marquis Bors has recognized the real threat and prepared a counterattack. Don’t admit defeat before you’ve truly fought."

"But, that’s just it," Carwyn said, shaking his head at the young lord. "I have fought them, Lord Liam," he said. "One on one, and there were two more of them just like the captain I fought. I don’t think our knights have the advantage they used to have," he said.

"And... I’ve seen their witchcraft," he added quietly. "I’ve never been hurt as badly as I was in that duel, but look at me now. Not a mark on me. As a healer, Lady Heila is capable of miracles greater than the High Priest in Lothian City, I’m sure of it, and Lady Ashlynn has a whole coven of witches."

"I know you still have hope for resisting," Carwyn said. "But, I think that we should listen to what Lady Ashlynn has to say tonight with a very, very open mind," he said cautiously. "We may not get a second chance to confer with her and I," he said as a lump suddenly lodged in his throat. "I owe my first duty to my family, and my second duty to my village."

"So, if there’s a way to protect my family and my village from harm," Carwyn said firmly. "I intend to grab hold of it with both hands, even if I have to break my oaths to Baron Hanrahan to do it."