Patrick sits back down, he seems to regain his calm with the action, but I’m not going to trust the outward appearance he projects. He kept a straight face for days while also thinking that I was spying for the Rykz.

Yvonne is eating out of her bowl, looking somewhat bored now that silence has taken hold over the group. My Lady is watching over the group, directing her gaze to all of us in turn.

I imitate Yvonne and start working on finishing my bowl of food since I barely had a chance to start before the conversation got derailed.

“Remember to speak lightly and if you know something of a sensitive nature about our current situation, keep it to yourself until you’re sure they won’t overhear you.” Lady Lance reminds us all and I lower my head somewhat in reaction to her words, I completely forgot about controlling my volume earlier. “Jessica, keep going, why would Princess Celyz under-prepare you for the effect of her construct on purpose?”

“Look at it this way, if she had prepared me and I didn’t scream out in pain, what wouldn’t have happened?” I ask her somewhat deviously.

“…” Lady Lance turns her gaze away from me.

She tries to be as casual about it as possible but the awkwardness of her movements is obvious to me.

“Lady Lance yelled out in fear for her dear friend.” Yvonne speaks up with an amused smile when it becomes obvious that my Lady isn’t going to, acting more embarrassed about her actions than I thought she would be.

“I think that was the point.” I continue, estimating that I probably wouldn’t get any more information than this about my Lady’s feelings about me. “The Princess didn’t cause me any more pain than I would have suffered anyway, but she arranged the events in such a way that she also gained some information while healing me.”

“Devious.” Yvonne comments with admiration on her face.

“Princess Celyz wanted to hear how you would react to my yells, I don’t know what she wants to do with that bit of knowledge but I’m sure we’re all able to imagine what the worst scenario is.” I finish relating my thoughts on the matter to them with a helpless sigh.

I throw a quick glance at my Lady, I can see from her worried frown that, while her eyes are still looking away from me, the reason is that she is thinking deeply about this new piece of data and how it can affect us.

“How soon could we hope to be rescued if it comes down to it?” I ask, out of curiosity. I don’t think that it’s even possible for a rescue mission to reach us here if anyone even knew, but they have more information than I do and it can’t hurt to ask.

“There is no way to tell, the rest of the Izla doesn’t even know that the Rykz are here.” Patrick answers me in a flat voice, the other two remain silent. Is that all they have to say about that?

“We need to be careful when scouting this city to find a way to escape.” I say to move the conversation along. “If the Rykz think we know too much, they might just consider us too much of a liability to keep alive.”

“The Princess was indeed straightforward when she warned us that the actions we take could result in our deaths.” Lady Lance agrees with me, making a short nod.

“It was just a scare tactic, the creature isn’t so oblivious that it would misunderstand how valuable we are as hostages.” Patrick dismisses the concern.

“I don’t think so. The Princess listed it as one of the events that can befall us in their custody and I don’t think it was a bluff. Either way, it seems that the only way out is if they let us.” I do my best to dismiss Patrick’s words without turning it into an attack against him.

“People have escaped similarly fortified prisons, and those were built to keep people in. This place is meant for the opposite.” Yvonne argues.

“The valley and tunnels leading out of it are patrolled by Rykz, they aren’t going to let four humans slip by them without noticing.” I counter.

“Should we attempt talking to the Rykz about a hostage exchange? Before the war truly begins. If we succeed, it could lead to their Queen and our Duke talking.” Lady Lance suggests.

“I honestly don’t think that’s going to be an option.” I reluctantly tell my Lady.

“What do you mean?” She asks.

“If their Queen cared about your titles or planned to use you as bargaining tools, our encounter with her would have been very different, she didn’t even speak to us directly. Princess Celyz is the only one who is planning to use us.” I share my thoughts.

“And you don’t think that it has anything to do with titles.” Lady Lance speaks like she read my mind. “Why?”

“My confrontation with As … Patrick, wouldn’t have been tolerated on her part. The Princess’ maneuvers have been clever and discreet, she presents an open facade while passively looking for angles to uncover more about our relationships to each other. I don’t know what she wants but if it involved your positions in society, then she would never have thanked me after I apologized on Patrick’s behalf. She chose a side with those words.” I try to explain, fumbling along with clumsy sentences.

“You think that Princess Celyz has shown too much discernment in her actions to say something like that accidentally when she could have just as easily remained silent after saying that your apology was unnecessary.” Lady Lance recaps my arguments, nodding along in agreement. “I think you are correct.”

“Aren’t you reading into this too deeply?” Yvonne asks. “The Princess seemed to enjoy talking to you Jessica, that could have been the only reason behind her actions.”

“She lied to me by omission barely an hour later to ensure that I would scream out in pain when she activated her healing construct.” I remind her.

“So she’s ruthless.” Yvonne frowns.

“No, yes. It’s … Her personality has as much depth to it as any human’s.” Except for Ass-face who is about as deep as a puddle. “Princess Celyz’ priority is her hive. I have no doubt that if she decides that I am not worth the food her hive is feeding me, then she will have me executed.” I take a breath of air. “At the same time, she values knowledge and has something planned for us, so I’m not worried about that eventuality.”

“Princess Celyz is a crafty being, I think we can all agree on that. We should all be careful when interacting with her, the Rykz Queen gave her the authority over our treatment, so do not antagonize her unless your life is threatened.” Lady Lance orders. “Next, what were you doing this morning, Jessica?” She asks in a serious tone, staring straight at me and making it clear that she expects to be answered.

“Helped weed the mushroom pit field again.” I hear Patrick muffle an exclamation of outrage. I wave my hand with casual dismissal in reaction. “I’m not trying to start an argument so don’t get mad when I say this.” I point at the two baskets that contained the bowls of food that we ate. “Food grows on trees but it isn’t free. I’m not working very hard for mine because …” I pause and harden my the expression on my face. “Because I quite simply can’t anymore. But I will give some of my time in exchange for the food they provide me for as long as I stay here.”

Patrick scoffs at my words, I ignore him to observe my Lady’s and Yvonne’s reactions, but they both maintain unreadable expressions on their faces. After a while, I consider that they’ve accepted my explanation and won’t challenge me on my decision so I move on.

“I took a good long look at the Rykz Queen yesterday.” I tell them. “I have a rough count of their numbers if you need it.”

“Having more estimations can’t hurt, go ahead.” Lady Lance says.

“Are we trusting the peasant to do proper mathematics now!?” Patrick explodes, but my Lady glares at him and he backs down.

Why am I not surprised that he lost his cool now rather than when I told them that I am going to keep working to maintain the Rykz’ mushroom pit fields? Ah, it offends his pride, that’s why.

“I tallied about eighty to a hundred-twenty eggs per tendril.” I say.

“That’s about the same as we all did, how many tendrils do you think there are?” Lady Lance nods.

“I’m unfortunately confident that there are at least two thousand.” I make a sad grimace as I give her the number.

“We also rounded to that number. Our lowest count puts the number of Rykz eggs at a hundred thousand while our highest reaches as high as three hundred thousand.” Lady Lance recapitulates.

“Can they even feed that many Rykz with only this mountain valley to cultivate from?” Yvonne asks, doubtful.

“I doubt it.” Patrick agrees with her doubts.

“Even if it’s just a hundred thousand of them?” I ask. I may have worked fields my whole life but I wouldn’t know where to start estimating how many Rykz can be fed by one of those mushroom pit fields. “As far as I could tell when I saw their workers eat, they ate the same amount as a human would during their meal.” I mention because they were probably here for every meal.

“If that’s the case then they can feed about fifty thousand with the current amount of pit fields.” Lady Lance answers. “It’s a rough estimation based on my own land’s output, it could be more but not fifty thousand more.”

“They either have large reserves of food hidden away or a plan to acquire some in the near future. Village granaries seem like the most feasible option to reach that end, they might be able to do it if they split their army a hundred ways.” Patrick comments.

“The issue came up when I talked with the Princess.” I tell them. “I alluded to the tunnels as a way for them to raid villages because the entrance we used is hidden between two cornfields. She didn’t deny it so it might mean that there are tunnels all over the Izla, there may be one near every farming village.”

“It’s not very trustworthy if that’s the only clue, she might be trying to mislead us on purpose to later let one of us escape with false information.” Lady Lance warns.

“I agree, but I have something else that I thought of, she didn’t deny it either. The reasoning behind my conclusion, however, seems sound to me.”

“Go ahead.” My Lady tells me with a serious nod.

“Corn is sown earlier than wheat because it takes longer for it to grow to full size and more water, it’s more work. They are harvested soon after wheat is sown and I think those two facts form a window that the Rykz intend to take advantage of. The Princess said that I was correct when I told her of my reasoning. They plan to attack before the cornfields are harvested but after wheat fields have been sown, within a week or two.” I explain.

“You mean that they plan to harvest the fields themselves? That’s … human armies don’t behave that way.” Lady Lance says with a worried expression. “The Duke won’t think of this, the court doesn’t even know that the Rykz are present no the Izla.”

“It’s a clever tactic if they have enough workers to carry it out. All they would need to do is spread out scout patrols over all the Izla to force the peasants out of the fields, and we already know that they will have enough workers and scouts to do just that as soon as those eggs hatch.” Patrick comments in a cold analytic tone.

“What can we do to stop them?” Yvonne asks.

“There is nothing that we can do if we can’t even get a message out.” I shake my head. “I don’t think the Princess would have admitted to their plans so readily if there was a chance we could leak them out.”

“Why would she admit anything at all? She has remained silent when questioned before.” Patrick asks, voice suspicious.

“My conclusion is that she is testing our intelligence while also getting to know us.” I share.

“Why?” He repeats.

“Princess Celyz said that she is trying to foster some trust with the objective to strike a bargain later. I don’t know anything more than that.” I make a helpless shrug.

The group remains silent and thoughtful for a few minutes, thinking about what this new information could mean.

“I think I know the Rykz’ weakness. Besides how they’re overreaching and stretching themselves thin by spawning so many eggs at once.”

“Well? Don’t keep us waiting.” Yvonne rolls her eyes.

“Just one question to all of you before I share my theory. Did you see any other Princess than Celyz?”

“No.” I can reply immediately because I make sure to pay attention to my surroundings when outside.

“Me neither.” Yvonne adds.

“I saw another on the lake’s shore yesterday when walking along with Princess Celyz.” Patrick says.

“I also saw one this morning, also near the lake’s shore.” Lady Lance rubs her temples. I noticed my Lady do this before, it makes her look so focused. “We’ve only seen two or three of them in this city. It has only been a few days since we arrived, but I would have expected to see more of the Rykz nobility than that in their main military outpost right before the beginning of a war.”

“You think that there are very few Princesses on the Izla?” Patrick asks.

“As much as I try to remember, I do not recall any mention of Princesses fighting in battle. That is one thing that would have been mentioned to us by our tutors when they introduced us to the Rykz, however briefly they did so. It is possible that the amount of Rykz Princesses is so small that they are never risked in battle.” Lady Lance explains.

“Why is that a weakness?” I ask, unable to catch her meaning by myself.

“Be it workers, scouts, or warriors, they do not act without orders, without a Princess to direct them towards their tasks.”

“Kind of like peasants, really.” Patrick sneers, throwing a look my way.

“If the number of Princesses is as low as I believe it to be, then that is a weakness we can exploit.” Lady Lance ignores Patrick. I do the same, taking pride in following the order she gave and certain that she would notice.

“How can we exploit it if they never enter the field of battle?” Yvonne asks.

“They have to be present to direct the Rykz army, whether they show themselves or not. If we find and eliminate the commanding Princesses, then it will disrupt the Rykz army, perhaps enough to obliterate it.”

“The Rykz have engaged in war with the Empire before, right?” I ask.

“You think that humans have tried before and as such the Rykz are aware of their weak point.” Lady Lance catches my meaning instantly. “I believe you are correct, we might catch one or two but we would never succeed in killing all of them before the battle ends, just reaching one of them would take a dedicated squad of titled Nobles.” My Lady sends me an acknowledging nod.

“There is another problem.” I tell her. “If you do remove all of the commanding Princesses, then the Rykz army will most likely just keep obeying their last orders.”

“Those creatures would keep fighting to the last.” Yvonne says with a shiver.

“Our army would break long before it came to that.” Patrick says coldly. “Human armies simply do not fight to the last soldier, a well-disciplined human army can sustain at most twenty percent casualties before it routs. Two-thirds of the Izla’s army will be composed of peasants, it would be unrealistic to expect them to hold past ten percent losses during the first battle.”

“And the ones after that?” Lady Lance asks.

“Impossible to tell, morale, rumors, supplies, there are too many factors that come into play and change day by day. A spoiled meal or a bad rumor can break an army the same way that a charismatic figurehead can salvage a rout.” Patrick shakes his head. “The figure of ten percent I gave you is tentative, an estimation that was made after gathering the casualty reports of battles against cold bloods during the last campaign during which peasants had to take up arms to push the hordes back.”

“In conclusion, the killing of Princesses should only be considered if we can contain the Rykz army, or if we can assassinate them outside of the battlefield.” Lady Lance says, observing us in turn for objections. Seeing none, she continues. “What kind of numbers can we expect from the Rykz once those eggs hatch?”

“Two-thirds will be workers, the mix between scout and warrior types will depend on the output of their forges. I have no way to find that out since the creature warned us from approaching their forges.” Patrick answers.

“The larger the army, the harder it gets logistically. Equipment needs to be repaired, supplies need to be transported, camps need to be planned and dug with discipline to prevent diseases. Problems accumulate along with the distance to your supply base. I do not know enough about the Rykz to give a completely accurate report but I stand by my estimation that two-thirds of the eggs will be workers.”

“Thank you, Patrick.” Lady Lance says.

“Couldn’t this discussion wait?” I ask her.

“Wh … If we manage to get out, there will be very little time to give a report to the Duke. It is important to combine what we know while we have time right now.” She tells me.

“I realize that, but shouldn’t our priority be to find a way out of here first? Or at least agree on a plan of action before we discuss the coming war?” I frown, puzzled at the fact that I have to explain this to my Lady who is usually two steps ahead of me when she isn’t outright reading me like a book.