At Ashwell, the Horde watched the kingdom bleed.

The Verakh network’s reports arrived daily, each one describing the same pattern: the barbarians advancing because their dwarven thundermakers breached every position the king’s army established, the king’s army retreating because the retreating was the only alternative to the destruction that staying produced, the territory lost measured in miles per day.

Khao’khen read the reports at the command table with the attention he applied to all intelligence.

"The pinkskin king lost four thousand in the valley engagement," Sakh’arran said. "Six thousand wounded. He withdrew to Brennan’s Ford. The barbarians followed. Their ammunition supply remains unlimited. The dwarven resupply wagons arrive every three days through the mountain routes. The pinkskin king’s ammunition is finite and decreasing with every engagement. His thundermaker batteries expended eighteen percent of his remaining total stockpile in one battle."

"Eighteen percent in one engagement," Khao’khen said. "Five more engagements at that rate and his thundermakers are empty."

"Fewer. The rate increases as the engagements grow more desperate. Commanders who know their ammunition is finite fire faster when the situation deteriorates, which causes the situation to deteriorate faster. The spiral accelerates."

"And the barbarian shamans?"

"Turning the pinkskin mages’ spells against them. The Verakh reports describe fire spells redirected into Threian cavalry formations. Frost spells freezing Threian soldiers instead of barbarian ones. The battlemages are, in effect, supplying the barbarians with magical ammunition alongside the physical ammunition the dwarves provide."

Khao’khen looked at the map. Twenty thousand barbarians advancing with unlimited supply against a kingdom whose ammunition was running out and whose mages were arming the enemy. The arithmetic was the arithmetic of a force that was being ground down on every dimension simultaneously.

"The pinkskin king has lost eight thousand soldiers in two engagements. His force of thirty thousand is now twenty-two thousand effective. The barbarians have lost approximately three thousand. The exchange ratio is nearly three to one in the barbarians’ favor, and the barbarians’ losses are being replenished by highland warriors who continue descending from the mountains while the king’s losses are permanent."

"How long before the barbarians reach the Snowe dominion?"

"At current advance rates, three weeks. General Snowe’s family territory is directly in the barbarians’ path."

The pattern that the reports described was the pattern that finite resources produced when the finite resources were being consumed against an enemy whose resources were infinite. The kingdom’s thundermaker ammunition decreased with each engagement. The kingdom’s boomstick ammunition decreased. The kingdom’s effective soldiers decreased. The barbarians’ thundermaker ammunition was replenished by each dwarven supply wagon. The barbarians’ boomstick ammunition was replenished. The barbarians’ warriors were replenished by the highland reinforcements that continued descending from the mountains.

The pattern’s terminus was calculable. Sakh’arran calculated it with the specific precision that the campaign’s analytical officer applied to every quantifiable aspect of the strategic picture. At current expenditure and loss rates, the kingdom’s thundermaker capability would be exhausted within six additional engagements. The boomstick capability within eight. The effective fighting strength would reach the threshold where the king’s army could no longer sustain defensive operations within four. The first threshold reached would determine the campaign’s outcome, and all three thresholds were converging toward the same approximate timeframe: six to eight weeks.

* * * * *

General Snowe received the intelligence at the combined force’s camp and the reports produced the expression that commanders produced when the threat was not to the army in front of them but to the thing behind them.

His family was in the path. His estates. The settlements where his name was carved above the gates. The people who had looked to the Snowe family for protection for six generations. The barbarians were coming south at five miles per day and the king’s army had not stopped them because the king’s army’s ammunition was running out while the barbarians’ was not.

"I must go," Snowe said to Aldrath.

"The orcish campaign," Aldrath said.

"The Horde sits at Ashwell and waits. They are not advancing. They are not attacking. They are watching us fight the barbarians and waiting to see who wins. The orcish campaign is the act of watching, and watching does not require my presence. My family requires my presence."

"Your assessment of the Horde’s intentions?" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"They will negotiate with whoever survives. If we survive, they negotiate with us. If the barbarians win, they negotiate with the barbarians. If neither side will negotiate, the Horde will take what it wants by force. They have demonstrated, over four months, that they can. The orcish commander does not care which faction controls the kingdom. He cares about Yohan’s security. He will work with whoever provides it and destroy whoever threatens it."

Aldrath granted the departure. Snowe rode north with fifty cavalry, the old general leaving the campaign that had defined his career to defend the thing his career had been built to protect.

The Snarling Wolf at Ashwell watched the departure. The wolf did not comment. The wolf simply noted that the combined force’s most experienced commander had left because a different threat was more urgent than the wolf, and the wolf’s patience had been validated by the departure of the man who had been fighting the wolf longest.

Snowe was gone. The barbarians advanced. The kingdom bled. The wolf waited, indifferent to the bleeding, patient in its position, ready to negotiate with the winner or conquer the winner if the winner refused what the wolf required. The wolf did not have preferences about which pinkskins survived. The wolf had requirements. The requirements would be met, one way or another.

"And his ammunition?"

"Eighteen percent of thundermaker stockpile expended in the valley engagement alone. The boomstick expenditure is proportionally less but the trajectory is the same. Five to six more engagements at current rates and the thundermakers are silent. The kingdom will be fighting with swords against dwarven boomsticks."

"The dwarves cut the trade because of the elven alliance," Khao’khen said. "The pinkskins made a diplomatic decision and the consequence is that their weapons supplier now arms their enemies exclusively. Every decision has a system. Every system has a consequence. The pinkskins are living inside the consequence."

Khao’khen looked at the map. Twenty thousand barbarians with unlimited supply against a kingdom whose ammunition was running out and whose mages were arming the enemy.

"The pinkskin king has lost eight thousand in two engagements. His force is now twenty-two thousand effective. The barbarians have lost three thousand. The exchange ratio is nearly three to one and the barbarians’ losses are replenished while the king’s are permanent."

"How long before the barbarians reach the Snowe dominion?" he asked.

The Verakh network maintained its surveillance of both the northeastern theater and the combined force under Aldrath, the comprehensive intelligence architecture that allowed Sakh’arran to track both threats simultaneously and to identify the specific moment when the threats’ interaction produced the conditions that the Horde’s waiting strategy was designed to exploit. The moment had not yet arrived. The kingdom’s ammunition was declining but not yet exhausted. The king’s army was retreating but not yet broken. The barbarians were advancing but not yet at the Snowe dominion. The convergence of all three timelines toward their respective thresholds was the convergence that the Horde’s patience was waiting for, and the convergence was approaching at the rate that the daily reports documented.