The Royal Council

[The Celtic Viking]

Hilarion addressed "the Greek" with a tired expression in his face.

"Please, you do not need to tell us how great Arrhenides is everytime you open your mouth. Just keep to the point and things will go much smoother, and things can be settled much quicker. From how I take it, you are getting reinforcements from the satrapy. That's good. Lord Sarpedon had suggested that."

Hilarion now turned to Mardakou.

"Mardakou, Arrhenides is fully to blame for it, and that cannot be disputed. It's not as if the hypaspistai forced him to take them with him, and then make up a story where they didn't. He took them, and that's enough for the first offence. He refused to send them back when told to do so immediately. That was ignoring a direct command, and refusing to send away lord Sarpedon's men regardless of how they came to be there - and that's enough for the second offence. It's thus got nothing to do with the policy that all enemy settlements are fair game, because I have not punished Arrhenides for taking that settlement. No one has to support any such campaign though, and this has never been so.

But for what it's worth, the majority aren't hellenes there - they're Aigyptians, and if they riot and kill each other, then that blood is on Arrhenides, not lord Sarpedon. Thus you should take your objections and pleadings to this Greek he sent, not with me."