“Tell me, Rhydian, what are we going to do about this?” Braydon had called for a meeting of anybody with brains or authority in his castle. The news of the Grand Duke’s death had reached Cliforge yesterday.

“For now it will likely not affect us. Whilst the Grand Duke is dead, it will take the lords of Shuluk a few days to mobilise their armies yet. Even then they will either try to defend themselves or march on the palace in Narabun. That should at least buy us a week before any fighting takes place.” Rhydian’s response did not give them much room to maneuver.

“Even then it should take longer for the fighting to reach Shuluk’s western borders. We might have another week or two after that.” Corban added, he had lived here longer than Rhydian and had a more accurate picture of what happened on the eastern border.

“And what after that? We cannot just sit here and wait for peasants looking for refuge to pour into Fiveria.” Whilst they wanted more subjects, the king had already provided them, they had been in his land for a couple of days now. Forty new families had arrived in Cliforge since the king promised his aid. That was already more than had died to the bandit attack. He had lost 50 people and gained close to 120. Part of the funds the king sent were already going towards enlarging the southern village, now called Sutherford. The crafts guilds in Wathamalin were more than happy to oblige him.

“We could recruit any men that came without families from the capital, though that would slow down the iron mine construction.” Gerald’s suggestion got an obvious cringe from Colin. Though Colin did not object. He knew as well as everyone else there would be no money to be made from the mine if the security of the viscounty could not be secured.

“And how many are there?” Braydon asked the critical question. They needed more men if they were to secure the entire viscounty, but could not fully stop the construction of the mine.

“There are 100 such men. If we are to continue construction, at least 20 need to remain where they are.” Colin was ever the perfectionist when it came to logistics so nobody doubted his numbers. The men had built themselves temporary lodgings over the past few days, and were ready to start building the mines.

“Ten of them are needed to refill the garrison.” Corban interjected here. It would not be good if they were stretched thin in the castle at such a time. And he was by far the most knowledgeable about the defences of Cliforge castle.

“So that leaves us 70 men to play with. That is not enough for water tight patrols of the border. We will need to choose what to protect.” Rhydian’s words left everyone thinking carefully. To protect a border that long fully would take several times the men they could muster.

“Is anyone experienced in patrolling and guarding villages?”

*Silence*

“Rhydian, how long will it take for you to train 70 complete novices into an acceptable force?” Upon nobody answering the first question, he decided that they should tackle all the aspects that they could. Other matters would require more time to find a solution.

“Normally it would take a month, but I can try to expedite it. Not that they would be all too happy about that.” ‘So you are self aware.’

“We will have to, I do not want to be caught on the back foot with potentially hundreds or thousands of displaced peasants. That is a bandit problem waiting to happen and I had enough with 15 of them.” Whilst he was sympathetic to the men for what Rhydian was about to put them through, Braydon was more concerned with not losing control of his land. If that happened he would really be done over.

“We could turn the temporary housing for the construction workers into a barracks for the new troops, Sire. After all, there is no way all 70 of them are going to be able to stay with the garrison inside the castle.” Gerald raised a good point, and Braydon liked it.

“Good idea, it can also double as protection for the mine and it’s construction. That is the last place I want to lose control of.” With that most of what could be decided in one meeting had been decided.

“And somebody tell the king about the change in circumstance. We would not want our partnership to leave its honeymoon period before it even truly began.” Braydon exclaimed, when thinking about how much longer building the mine would take with ⅕ the workers. At the main decisions being made, Steven left to inform the messenger of his task, Corban and Colin not far behind to start working on the new situation at hand.

“Braydon, a word of advice.” Nela spoke up after having sat quietly through the parts where she lacked expertise.

“Anytime. Your advice is always most helpful.”

“It would not be a good idea to let any vagrants through to the other Lords of Fiveria.” This advice sounded odd to him. If he could get rid of his problem and give it to one of his other problems why shouldn’t he?

“How come?”

“It might be fine if you let one or two people through, but what if one or two turns into hundreds at once? Are you certain that nothing could go wrong when letting hundreds of people walk through your castle? Castles are only hard to take when their doors are closed.” After hearing her reasoning, he felt a cold sweat trickle down his back. Just thinking of hundreds of vagrants overrunning the castle was a scary thought. Forget about the viscounty, if that happened he would not be able to secure his own safety.

“Thank you for your warning. I shall be careful to take heed of your advice.” Once she had gotten his agreement, Nela nodded satisfied that her example had scared enough sense into him. To this end, Rhydian was also happy. Nela had found a way of getting around Braydon’s more reckless side. ‘It seems he holds her intelligence in higher regard than I had first thought.’ Rhydian noted this in case he ever needed to warn Braydon against any foolish actions.

With that the first two weeks since the Grand Duke’s assassination were fairly quiet on the Fiveria side of the border. That gave Braydon enough time to prepare a somewhat competent force to face the problem. It would not be enough to face an army but basic patrols and security were a possibility.

Since King Aled was informed, he had offered to send more money to help speed up settling down new arrivals. There was nobody willing to take up the offer of going to be a soldier on the border, however. The king struggled to get people willing to be a soldier in the capital, there was no hope of them being willing to go to Cliforge to do what they were unwilling to do at home. One thing was for certain, Braydon was never going to complain about not having enough people again. Even if it killed him. Not if a vagrant crisis was what would answer his grumbling. He did not expect to start October wishing for more people, only to end it by wishing that they would stay away.