Post by Laena Pyre on Aug 14, 2019 20:35:55 GMT 1
"But it's not wrong to be cautious. The issue I have with your criticism is that it offers little in the way of hope. You cannot beat him in an honourable fight, so don't fight. You cannot fight him in a dirty fight, so don't fight. There has to be something that can be done to help the cause. We just need to figure out what that is."
"You're right that most men value their reputation and that can be a weakness to be exploited, as much as I hate to admit it. Lord Eldon doesn't care for his, but he is still a man and this still has wants. We need to figure out what it is he wants, truly needs, and then find a way to either take it from him or use it against him. "
"We might not be able to be so direct as to take it away directly, but we can sure make it harder for him to achieve. A rich lord buying blackguards to stand in his place might be culled into behaving if his funds dry up or there are no more men willing to die for him."
"As for getting help, well that is another matter entirely. Lord Eldon would get help because of his power and influence. To prevent him getting help, we would need to reduce one or both of those things. We need to put him on an island. So when the time comes he has no help to seek. so we either erode the relationships between those he would seek help from, or we make it more worthwhile for them to not interfere. Most lords would be happy to be paid to do nothing. Most of them are already!"
"The people who would save him already hate him. They would not help him because they *like* him. They help him because they *want* something from him. And I can no more conceive a way that we could take that from him than we could move a mountain."
"I admit I am not a brilliant strategist. Lord Leo would attest that I spent more time chasing kitchen maids than paying attention to his general teaching me about strategy. But that doesn't mean I don't recognize that each obstacle you name will have a solution. We just have to be clever enough and creative enough to figure it out."
"If you're willing."
She sighs. "I appreciate that I'm being rather negative. But the fight you are wishing to pick is as if you were facing a full army of well-trained, well-equipped knights, supported by experienced archers, and screened by plenty of expendable peasants. Meanwhile, you are fielding two obese peasants who were too slow and stupid to escape 'recruitment'. It doesn't matter how good your plan is, *if you take the field, you will die*! The correct option is to not take the field. Run away, no matter how much it hurts. And wait, and watch. Maybe a situation will arise in the future where your two fat peasants can genuinely make a difference - an unexpected weight on the scales at a crucial moment.
"Do I think it worth some effort to keep an eye on him?" She nods. "Yes. Where it doesn't distract from more achievable goals. Particularly for, as you rightly pointed out, what he *wants*. The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. But we will get precisely one strike of any worth against that man. We have to make *absolutely* sure it is the right one before we do *anything* to attract his attention."