Aleser regarded his sister carefully for a moment, his tongue sampling the air around her as he tried to decide whether he was a brother speaking to his sister or a general speaking to his ruler. She'd addressed him as 'brother,' but that didn't mean anything. Erna could switch between sibling and ruler and back again with the speed of a striking snake.
The problem was that tonight's disaster had been both completely foreseeable and it was the result of an order that Erna had given as the High Lady of the High Fen. He'd executed her orders as faithfully as he could, but there were limits to what he could achieve in such a short time.
"Things started well," Erna prompted as Aleser considered his answer. "There was no sign that we'd see this sort of problem three weeks ago. The champions you recruited knew full well what we intended and what they should have been preparing for, so why did they fail so spectacularly?"
