[Well, that's about the answer Ethlyn expected. It would take a very different sort of universe, it seems, for Claude to avoid poisons like a sensible man.
That he openly admits to a willingness to use such underhanded methods can't surprise her, either. At one time, Ethlyn would have been shocked and disgusted by the thought--when she imagines someone like Eldigan laid low by a treacherous bite of food, it seems unconscionable.
But Eldigan's troops led by a lesser man might have done less damage in the field. Eldigan desperately ill would have hamstrung his king's "strategy", such as it was, and forced him to sue for peace.
It's a calculation, and it's no more brutal than the calculations of how many men can be lost to arrow and blade before it's "too much."]
I imagine you would write the sorts of books that would send all the established scholars into a rage for contradicting your theories. Folios and counter-folios and a nation full of very happy, very rich printers. [She grins.] That depends on exactly what way he is an ass, though. Maybe it would only be you without your careful diplomacy and restraints?
[Something she knows about only too well herself!]
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2024-10-30 02:30 pm (UTC)That he openly admits to a willingness to use such underhanded methods can't surprise her, either. At one time, Ethlyn would have been shocked and disgusted by the thought--when she imagines someone like Eldigan laid low by a treacherous bite of food, it seems unconscionable.
But Eldigan's troops led by a lesser man might have done less damage in the field. Eldigan desperately ill would have hamstrung his king's "strategy", such as it was, and forced him to sue for peace.
It's a calculation, and it's no more brutal than the calculations of how many men can be lost to arrow and blade before it's "too much."]
I imagine you would write the sorts of books that would send all the established scholars into a rage for contradicting your theories. Folios and counter-folios and a nation full of very happy, very rich printers. [She grins.] That depends on exactly what way he is an ass, though. Maybe it would only be you without your careful diplomacy and restraints?
[Something she knows about only too well herself!]