The Royal Council

[The Celtic Viking]

Hilarion, who had been left to represent Sarpedon in the Council while he was away, stood up.

"I believe I can answer that, Aratos. During the session that ended just now, Arrhenides, after agreeing with Sarpedon that his Royal Army should also get involved, proposed that he and the Syrian army would go and take Nikaia, while Sarpedon moves on to take Byzantion. Sarpedon agreed to this, because he thought you had allowed him to speak for you, especially seeing as you did not intervene or object. Is this not so? Should I bring him back for you?

I think I can answer your question about retraining as well. If you are stationed in Sinope right now, the only possible place for you to retrain your army that lies somewhat between you and Nikaia would be Sarpedon's satrapy. Unfortunately, no retraining outside of Sarpedon's Royal Army is allowed in Ipsos due to manpower shortages, and the only units you can retrain in Sardis are the peltastai and, perhaps, the sphendonetai. The hippakontistai should be retrainable in Pergamon, but as for the rest, there's no way. I doubt the prodromoi could be retrained there anyway, even if we had enough men to conquer the world.

So your only choice is, regrettably, Antiocheia. Trust me when I say that Sarpedon isn't doing this out of choice, but out of necessity, and has been working actively to fix this problem. I hope you understand."