Contingency Plans
I’m not in the south for this week. Why... Months ago, on my birthday actually, Loch told me the Alliance was looking to move up here to go to party against the Forsaken. What does that mean for me? I gotta fucking plan for every bad situation that could come my way.
Back in the old days we didn’t call war parties. We got out a cask of beer and got the best brains in the company to talk shit out. I’m not drinking the beer, Mal offered to help and her stipulation was I couldn’t drink anymore. The moment I put alcohol to my lips again, she’s gonna know... and knowing her kind of magic I’m not risking it. Instead of the beer, I’m drinking an old favorite of mine. Milk.
Gregor put his feet on the table and relaxed in his seat. “Lord Shepherd, thank you for inviting me out of the woods to actually get some rest.”
“Oh fuck off mate.” I muttered putting my mug down. “now all of us are here, we need to get the biggest point off to discussion. The Alliance are commin’ and we need to find a way to cover our asses, no matter which way things fall.”
Besides Gregor I had Robar, Moonie, Archi, and the Matron all around me as my ‘think tank’. These are the people who are going to be able to pull a miracle out of our asses for our survival. Robar raised his hand first to speak. “I suppose we should speculate what the tactics will be for both sides, shouldn’t we.”
“Plauge.” The forsaken man croaked as if it was the only word he knew. It might have been the first word he learned in common but he kept speaking as he shambled forward. “The Dark Lady will use plague. It’s why we were always fiddling with it. She’s not going to let anyone take any ground. Just not how she works.”
We’ve known about plague for a while and i shift a bit feeling uncomfortable by how obvious it was for Archi. “How bad of plague are we thinking?”
“Look at what she did to Gilneas.” He grumbled looking around. “You see the Alliance land, we need to pull people inside the mountain fast. But,”
Everyone was staring at the undead guy. He is really our key view in on the Forsaken and knowing some major shit might be hitting us. It was Gregor who groaned. “I really hate it when you say but partner...”
“But.” Archi croaked shooting his one good eye at Gregor. “the last batch of plague we were making was toxic, highly toxic. This shit was a doozy and it’s why I wanted out. If she gets pressured, she might release it. That shit eats through everything and will get into the water table.”
I’m suddenly chilled to the bone. If that plague is released, I would lose Stonebrill. We might have some time before we start dealing with the effects of the problems the plague would cause, but it would reach us. My hands plant themselves on the long table as I let out a rushed breath. “Fucking hell.... She’s mad enough to do it?”
“Flora and Anton thinks so. Not long ago she shot down some of her own people who wanted to rejoin their families in the Alliance.” Archi shook his head with a perpetually grumpy look to him. “It’s not going to be pleasant, if Greymane is coming here.”
Robar crossed his arms looking as annoyed as I felt. “Then our options are few. We must find a way to secure a place where the people can be safe.”
Fuck me... I had taken the risk of building here thinking the Alliance would be too stupid to attack. Now I’m eating my words and I need to scramble fast if I’m going to have something secure enough. “Shit.. You’re right. Okay, I need land options but I need northern territories, if I can still stay in Lordearon that would be good. I don’t want to ever bow to that dog or that boy.”
“We can get you some lands to look at.” Robar said with a small nod his eyes shifting to Moonie who was quiet up until now.
The elderly lord locked his eyes to me and I know he’s been busy. While I’m gone it’s his job to play with the Anderson brothers. They all get to feel the mind of a sadist who’s been locked away for most of my own life. With a graceful flourish of his hands he moved to the next part of this meeting. “How are we with preparations for this... gang war we are in?”
“Currently, as of when I left, I’m now a member of the Black Knuckle, minus a tattoo which I’m fucking grateful for.” I said looking at my unmarked skin. “Shadow bumped into Colton and is going to be an ‘informant’ for him and his men.”
“But she pissed him off and he got volatile.” Gregor snipped. “I could have shot the bastard. But Kat got her shields up in time.”
“Kat is a valuable asset.” Moonie said quietly his head nodding in approval. “A young engineer like her could become a good staple.”
I shook my head. “No mate, not unless she asks. I’m not putting her in the same place she was in with her old gang. She’s our smelter.”
“We aren’t going to need a smelter is we don’t have the silver mines.” Robar quipped with a worried look to me. “If we end up needing to evacuate.”
Again I feel myself go cold. Plucking up my milk I drink a bit. Fuck, Robar was right though. If I don’t have silver to smelt she’s just an outside employee not doing anything for us. And I know a woman like Kat will not be paid for charity.
Right now Stonebrill is mainly focused on our own internal affairs with small groups pestering the gang down south. Mal’s last call in confirmed that Colton was looking for a way to bother me in the south, which as of right now I don’t have anything.
But there was an option.
“Get me some plans for iron mines in the south, Duskwood preferable. They need to be highly protected since we’re going to be close to the Brother’s turf. But if we’re going to be losing our silver, I want us to double our efforts to get as much ore out of here as we can before anything goes down.” Looking to Robar I nodded to get his attention. “Tell Thomas that we need to bust the machines into over time, once we get the new staging area for us I’ll move the silver there before we slowly funnel it to Kat for smelting. Also get me the report about how much this is going to cost me...”
All of this makes me feel like I’m fucked six ways to Sunday, but there’s one thing I’m going to be glad of. If all hell breaks loose, I didn’t leave all these people to suffer a fate worse than death.
Also.
It hit me that building a new place, it might be good for me. Stonebrill was my attempt to make something I could share with Lochlyn. I’ll never get to do that now. There are whole parts of the house I built I can’t walk into. I can’t stand and be there around the shadows of a woman who died. It’ll drive me up the fucking wall. Only way to change that is to build something new. This time build it all just for me. Don’t let anyone else influence what I make. If I can’t trust having anyone by my side, I better make something all on my own.
((Best part of this whole scene is Darsa’s assumption of Greymane attacking Lordearon is a misunderstanding from Lochlyn when she told him Greymane was just attacking north. But this is going to save a lot of lives come this short SL.))
