A New Chapter: The Art of War

The pack set out from the Breakwater sept. Each member seemingly lost in their own thoughts given the decision that had been reached.

As if the shift in Leadership were not enough of an abrupt change, added to this was the seemingly potent change in the pack Ahroun regarding the current sept alpha Robert as well as the news of the Trinity river sept having disappeared.

The pack Philodox mind was occupied to say the least. However, he noticed as the Shadowlord striding ahead of him had seemed to come to a momentary stop in the pathway to allow the others to catch up.

Zas B'ul approached quietly. Were Kefka to look at the Silent Strider's facial features, he could see a troubled expression, but this was not reflected in the tone given.
"I think we should talk for a moment. I gave Rends a similar talk when he first became Alpha, and as such feel it doubly important to provide you with the same opportunity...granted last time having an interpreter may have helped, I am willing to chance it without one now."

The Apache by this point now stood at Mocks side as he continued, his facial features more neutral. "You have seen first hand how Rends acted as Alpha in our travels thus far-maybe more than any one else as his beta. You seem to have proven yourself more than capable of taking care of the pack in Rends and I's absence, so in at least that regard I know for certain that you understand a portion of what it means to be Alpha."

The Silent Strider nods to his packmate. "I am not asking what you will do differently from him. I feel that answer will be made evident as time goes by. However, I am asking now-what traits our new Ragabash Shadowlord alpha feel are important and needed in order to lead?"

Almost as an afterthought, Zas adds "I do not mean what traits your tribe or auspice values. I mean what traits does Mocks the Night himself, personally, find are important to lead our pack?"

Mocks slightly slowed his stride as he considered the question posed to him. After a moment or two he turned to Zas and answered.

"Strategic. Cautious. Precise. Relentless. Swift."

He turned to face back to forward speaking loud enough for Zas to hear him.

"We need to be strategic. Make plans. Make contingencies. Follow through with them. As a pack we must act separately but also as one."

"We are trusted by the King. Our image good or ill reflects upon him. We must be cautious in every action."

"We must strike at the Wyrm and our enemies while minimizing collateral damage. Our attacks must hit their marks and nothing else."

"When we attack the room we must leave no survivors. The Wyrm must be utterly destroyed every fight."

"When we attack it must be fast. Leave no chance for our enemies to respond."

He turned back to Zas.

"My success as Alpha is based on the success of our pack. If we all do our parts we shall succeed. As Alpha it is my job to put us each in a position to succeed."

Zas nods approvingly at each concept, and when Kefka finished speaking grew quiet for a moment before verbalizing his thought to insure he was understanding correctly, "You believe that success comes from the pack, and seek to position us to excel. This sounds good."

The Apache looks to him and says, "Rends displayed strength by leading us from the front lines of battle. You seek to display it from behind the scenes. The benefit to him being Alpha was that if it came down to it, he died before us leaving us on our own to figure out how to react. This was the expectation and we all either knowingly or silently accepted this. With you as alpha, if you die first we are all left more or less defenseless as you will have set us up to operate with you calling the shots...unless you have a plan for this too."

Zas stares at his feet, "I am not trying to discourage you or mock you. I seek merely to figure out my role in serving this pack and how it relates to how you see your new role."

The Silent Strider then looks back up, "So tell me, what do you see? Where do we go from here?"

Mocks nodded and scratched his beard as Zas spoke.

"Not to speak too highly of myself... But if I fall either I heavily miscalculated the enemies strengths and the four of you should retreat...or the enemy got lucky and you follow through with my plan. It should be plainly evident which event has taken place. After the immediate threat is taken care of with Eaton as Beta I suppose he will temporarily be Alpha until a new one is decided upon."

He turned to Zas.

"You ask what you can do? Call me out. Keep me faithful to Gaia. Watch my actions as if I am your enemy. Argue against our actions so that you may defend them if the need arises."

He stopped walking, turned away, and sighed.

"Don't do for me what you did for Rends... If I make a mistake only I need to pay the price. There is no need to make the pack suffer as we recently did."

He began walking forward again.

"First priority is solving the mystery of the Tri River Sept. We have to figure out what happened and spin it in such a way they land on Robert's good side, or at least on his not wanting to kill them side. We need to help Robert in Galveston as much as we can. Get him to owe us a favor or two. We could have used some Get in Houston...maybe we wouldn't have had to seal the cavern away if they answered the call to War. We will help them clean Galveston so when we need their aid they cannot stand idly by and refuse."

He paused to pop his neck and straighten his hat.

"Then we head West."

Zas actually gives a small smile, "I will watch you like a hawk. Don't worry about that. I intend to make certain the Litany is enforced-for everyone. The spirit of the law will be upheld as much as the words--." He sighs, "Though this may go without saying, I will ask anyway-Please don't give me reason to call you or any of the pack out for violating any of the litany. Things just would not end well."

At the comment about causing the pack to suffer, Zas clenches his jaw. He takes a moment, before asking, "What is it that you think I did for Rends that you would not want me to do for you?"

Mocks muttered under his breath about wishing for a drink before he responded.

"Your act of loyalty to Rends while honorable...was unnecessary."

He paused.

"We acted foolishly. Not even we can deny that. Was the litany broken? From my perspective... Yeah. There's a good chance some humans in that alley had no knowledge about what we were. However, lucky for me I ain't a Philadox so I ain't got to interpret it. My perspective on the litany is neither here nor there. Salts The Wound is a philadox though. She said it was broken."

Mocks stopped walking again and turned to face Zas squarely.

"You though offered no counter argument, no different interpretation of the litany. You simply said "I stand with my alpha". Loyal...but unwise. The Get have mistrusted us as a pack for a long time, but in particular they have mistrusted your views on the litany...Ever since we didn't kill Penelope. You could have redeemed yourself here had you argued your interpretation of the litany... But instead I fear your actions have made them doubt you even more."

Zas nodded once, his expression one of pain and sadness, "I could see why you think that."

He pauses, "I disagreed with Salts the Wounds assesment of the situation because she, like many others assumed that every person there who was not Garou and "saw" Rends in the dark-did not know about our kind despite what the priest said. She was basing her entire judgement on assumption-not pure fact. Was she wrong to think this? Was she right? Noone knows for certain. But her accusation of Rends violating the Litany required in my mind more proof. The reason that I did not offer up this point, is due to the fact that as you know-our reputation among the Get...is not as good as it could have been, and Rends history with Robert made the entire idea of Robert ruling on a decision unjust. Nothing I said would have changed Roberts mind because he already saw us as needing to get taken down a peg."

He gestures to Rends. "What I do know is that the tribe as a whole tends to respects strength and honor. By my refusing to back down from Salts the wounds and Robert-I believe I actually earned some modicrum of Respect. My staying at Rends side regardless of the possibility of punishment may be seen by some as foolish, but it also may be seen as honorable."

The Silent Strider grits his teeth, "But my ruling of the litany is not and cannot be based on whats popular. The law is just or it is not our law."

The philodox turned to look at Mocks, "I'm sorry you felt what i did was pointless, but given similar circumstances I could and likely would act the same way. I am not going to ever agree to punish a garou if the proof of their crimes does not convince me of their guilt."

He pauses, "No matter who I recognize as Alpha."

Mocks was silent for multiple minutes before responding. When he did respond his voice was low and he had stopped walking and turned to face Zas.

"So you gave up? You didn't bother to defend Rends with every doubt because you didn't think you could convince Salts the Wounds or Robert? You had it set in your mind how Robert would react so you thought it pointless to give it your all?"

He shook his head.

"Let me be perfectly clear. Robert is not our enemy. Until we have proof he has broken the litany he is one of our strongest allies who is loyal to Gaia. He is flawed, yes. We have different methods of serving Gaia, yes. But that does not an enemy make. Nightclaw was not an enemy until we had proof he broke the litany."

He paused to brush his hair out of his face with his right hand.

"He follows the same litany we follow. Even if the trial was unfairly set against us...that is more reason to defend with everything we have. You can't expect for your interpretation of the litany to be valued and taken into consideration if you hold back."

Kefka spat on the ground.

"Gaia forbid we find ourselves in a similar situation but if we do...I expect you to act differently. I expect you to do your job as Philadox and defend us with everything on your arsenal. I know you are a capable Philadox. Prove it to the nation."

Zas jaw opens wide. He is left nearly completely speechless for the briefest of moments. He waits to hear out all of his alphas words before responding, but it is abundantly clear that he has been shaken.

When he speaks, his words are seemingly directed more to himself than Mocks. His voice is soft, "What in the hell happened? I was buried alive for three days and in my absence Robert seems to have mentally tore us apart-First Rends and now you. Are we just supposed to forget what he did to Roaring jack? And now you wish to call him an ally?"

The Silent Strider shakes his head, his words returning to normal volume, "Maybe I just need time to clear my head. Maybe the shock of everything thats happened has gotten to me. Hell-maybe none of this is real and Im stuck in some form of Spectral nightmare. I don't know. What I do know is that neither you nor Rends are yourselves."

Zas takes a step back away from Mocks and turns to look around at the caern before then turning again to look at Galveston, "We should have never come to this wretched place."

Zas looks over to Mocks, his eyes gave off a far away, empty look, "The last thing you told me was to believe in you. To trust you. You told me to keep fighting. Thats what I intend to do. Until this ends-I will not stop."

"I remember Roaring Jack."

Kefka touched his right arm where Roaring Jack's name was tattooed.

"I know he died at the hands of Robert. I also know that they had a duel to the death. Either Garou could have been victorious... disliking the results of the challenge and wishing Jack had won does not mean Robert is our enemy. He is doing what he thinks has to be done for Gaia. Nightclaw's journal has taught me the struggles of leadership. Everything that Nightclaw did he did for Gaia. I can only imagine the same of Robert... and hope others will view me with the same mercy."

He paused.

"I'm not saying forget about Jack. I'm not saying like Robert. I'm saying he is a strong Garou and we have no reason besides personal to not work with him. You wish to unite the tribes do you not? We must work with Robert when and where he fights the Wyrm so that when we fight the Wyrm he comes to our aid unlike in Houston. If we assist him and then he ignores our calls for aid...then we have reasons beyond personal to hold against him and use against him. Reasons other Garou and possibly other Get will be able join our cause against him."

Mocks walked up to Zas and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry this is hard for you... but this is how I lead. I am playing the long game. I have to make risky moves I don't quite like at the beginning in order to receive a big payoff. I will do this with every tribe that we come across. If they are a useful tool I will appease them so that I may put them work later. I am not saying what I am doing is right...that is yet to be seen. It is what I will do however until I am proven it is wrong."

Zas empty gaze seems to remain until Kefka touches his shoulder.

His focus then recenters and the life slowly begins to return to his eyes. "Now you sound like you."

He considers the words for a moment before saying, "You are right to consider forging an alliance with Robert to be risky. You are wagering on him acting like a garou with honor when all other evidence seems to point to the contrary."

The Silent Strider pops his neck once as he says, "I made the mistake of trusting Hanging Maw and it nearly got the pack killed. Lesson learned."

He stares at Mocks for a long moment, "I meant what I said. I think you have a grand destiny ahead of you, and I think Grandfather Thunder has given you this opportunity to test you. My calling to unite the tribes, you redeeming bat, us all staving off the end times-will happen in Gaia's timing"

Theres a long pause, "But, as it relates to this situation with Robert: You do what you must as Alpha."

Zas sighs, "I trust you-You and you alone...but Robert; I can't. I just can't. I respectfully think he is a mistake, but I will say nothing further that would undermine your efforts."