Supreme Magus novel Chapter 1016

Chapter 1016 End of the Line Part 2

"He’s the to-go guy when you want things done by the book, but he lacks both foresight and flexibility. He was too good to remain a Lieutenant but not good enough to make a decent Captain.

"Lotta, instead, is a smart and competent woman, but too ambitious for her own good. You never know if she’s serving the army, her political allies’ interests, or her own.

"If I had to make an educated guess, I’d say that probably Berion chose Kortus to make you look good, while his enemies exploited the crisis to put Lotta in charge of the reinforcements before one of Berion’s people was available." Tlea said.

"That’s one heck of analysis for someone who just a second ago claimed to don’t like to talk behind the back of her colleagues." Friya was glad to not have joined the army.

The more she learned about it, the less she liked the power plays hidden behind even the smallest decision.

Phloria rolled her eyes, glad that Friya was just a consultant. Her brash attitude coupled with her habit to speak to anyone as if they were her peers, disregarding both age and rank, would have made her career so short that she would become a cautionary tale in the army.

"Indeed, it is." Tlea laughed. "For a moment I had forgotten that in my line of work, there is no place for politeness. To survive as long as I did, you must learn to distinguish with a glance if a vein is worth your time or not, and people are no different.

"You’re my crystal veins, girls. Don’t let me down." The chief Prospector yawned and wished them good night before going to her tent. Casting arrays all day was a tiring business and age only moved forward.

"Is it me, or does Tlea resemble Yondra a bit?" Phloria asked once they were alone.

"Yeah." Quylla remembered with nostalgia the late Professor of the Black Griffon who had clashed with Lith on their first meeting, just to later offer her magical legacy and her professorship to him.

"Nope. Age aside, they have nothing in common." Friya had never met Yondra, but she considered herself a good judge of character. "Based on what you told about how she lived and died, Yondra was passionate, whereas Tlea is calculative.

"She didn’t ask us for protecting her unit or her disciple, only her own ass."

"What a Lith-like thing to say!" Quylla gasped at her sister’s cynical analysis.

"Yet Friya is not completely wrong." Phloria thought back at all Tlea’s words and actions. "I’m not as cynical as you two, but if there’s something I learned from Kulah’s aftermath, is that believing in blind loyalty is for fools.

"Under all the pretty words about honor and the oaths we took, under our uniforms, the military are still humans. Let’s take Tlea’s words with a grain of salt and from tomorrow onwards, let’s put a tail on her as well."

Friya nodded and prepared their beds. The following day promised to be interesting as well.

***

Thanks to Friya’s custom amulet, they could resume their search exactly from the same spot they had left a few hours prior.

Between the words they had shared among themselves and with Tlea, the Ernas sisters had a lot to think about. They proceeded in silence, only interrupted by the status reports Friya and Phloria regularly received from their respective subordinates.