Official confirmation that two more of Mingzhe's outposts had been annihilated didn't change much. They'd all assumed that was the case anyway, so planning continued, but it did have the added effect of plunging Mingzhe into a darkness that neither Chenzhou nor Eirian had ever seen before.
The return of Yuze and Fox had brought a wealth of information, none of it good. On top of confirming the deaths, Yuze had managed to track down a few old sources who'd confirmed Beng Shai was in contact with the southern tribes, sending messengers at a much higher rate than they'd ever seen before. Yuze had also managed to confirm that Beng Shai had taken control of the Bandri through a minor civil war that had ended with minimal casualties because he'd championed an end to the fighting, and after a ten-year war, the tribe was exhausted. Most of the tribe had sided with him against his older brothers, and instead of fighting a battle they probably wouldn't win, they'd salvaged what power they could under their younger half-brother.
Yuze's source had also said that Beng Shai had brought in all the outlying groups of the Bandri. Uniting them in one huge camp, which went against the very way of life for the tribes.
None of them could figure out how he'd managed it, and none of the reasons they could come up with for why Beng Shai would force such a drastic change were good.
Mingzhe had barely spoken since he'd heard the news, moving along silently and just following Chenzhou around after the meeting had ended.
Now he was just lying in bed staring up at the ceiling, still silent. He hadn't even bothered pretending he needed to return to the family house to check on things, like he'd done every few days before.
Chenzhou and Eirian glanced at him every few minutes as they changed for bed, but neither of them tried to speak to him until they were lying on either side of him.
"Mingzhe…" Chenzhou started.
Mingzhe cut him off. "They're my soldiers." It didn't matter that there was no way anyone could have known what was going to happen, that there was nothing Mingzhe could have done. Even the other outposts were too far away to intervene in an attack that would have only lasted hours. "They were my soldiers," Mingzhe repeated, voice hard.
That was the price of command. Of being a leader people willing followed. The responsibility never faded, no matter what happened. There hadn't been such a complete loss of a single force in the recent history of the Camelia. Even during the largest pitched battles of the war, they hadn't lost an entire company completely. Perhaps it had happened before that, but no one remembered it now.
Now, Mingzhe was going to have to carry it with him, known for being the commander who lost an entire company, instead of his actual ability as a commander, and constantly reminded of the soldiers he'd lost.
Some generals marked success in the amount of land they'd taken or the number of enemies they defeated. But a few very good ones measured success in how many of their soldiers they managed to bring home after accomplishing their mission.
That was the kind of general Mingzhe was. And Chenzhou, Eirian was realizing. They were both a bit more risk-averse than she was, but Eirian didn't usually command entire armies.
"We'll find out what happened," Eirian promised. "At the very least, they'll be avenged."
"Revenge solves nothing," Mingzhe muttered. "My father and mother argue about it all the time."
Chenzhou managed to smile. "You're mother is not the type to let a slight go."
Mingzhe glanced at him. "No, she's not. She doesn't think anything should go unanswered. My father, for all his faults, doesn't believe in wasting time and effort on things he doesn't think matter, and that usually includes the opinions of others."
Thought, Eirian considered that. "I kind of agree with your father. With some people, there's no changing their minds about anything anyway. Even when you can prove they're wrong."
"Opinion is a difficult thing to manage." Chenzhou agreed, adjusting his pillows. "Sometimes it isn't even based in reality."
"This was planned." Mingzhe changed the subject. "Maybe just one outpost could have been an impulsive choice, but three. Would it have been four if we hadn't realized and managed to warn the last one?"
"They might still try." Eirian pointed out without thinking and then winced when Chenzhou glared at her.
"They must have been planning this during the last war." Mingzhe ignored her and pushed on. "We haven't manned the outposts since the war ended, and that's the only time when they could have learned our patterns."
"You shouldn't be using the same routes over and over." Eirian frowned. "There was no variation?"
"We've never needed it before." Chenzhou defended. "The tribes never paid attention to the patrols. They only ever attacked the outposts with any kind of forethought. Everything else was skirmishes that occurred when they accidentally found one another. Even during the war, they mainly attacked the camps instead of the patrols."
"Maybe they're finally learning to adapt their tactics?" Eirian suggested. "Only dead societies don't change."
"Beng Shai must be a much stronger leader than he seems if he can bring about that kind of change." Mingzhe shifted deeper into the bed, shifting the mattress and tilting it enough that Chenzhou and Eirian slid closer.
They hadn't done anything interesting since they'd started sharing a bed, though Eirian had hinted at it a few times and both men had proven to be utterly oblivious to what she was suggesting. She'd given up for the time being, because she knew Mingzhe wasn't in the headspace for it, but they hadn't woken up tangled together more than once.
And neither Chenzhou nor Mingzhe seemed bothered by that.
Eirian didn't mind it either, and honestly, she'd been too busy to set aside time for more anyway, since most of her personal time, and there was precious little of it to begin with, was now focused on Brendan.
At least he was settling in and seemed happy.
"I should meet with him again." Chenzhou mused. "Try to get a better idea of who we're facing."
~ tbc