Rise of the Horde

Chapter 831 - 830

The dwarven response arrived at Yohan on the fifteenth day after the Horde’s return.

The response was not delivered by a dwarven envoy. The response was delivered by a Verakh scout whose intelligence network’s mountain surveillance had intercepted the communication that the response’s source had dispatched through the channels that the source’s operational network employed. The communication was a letter from Thane Borin Ironbeard to the highland clans’ surviving leadership, and the letter’s content was the content that the Verakh network’s interception capability had extracted from the communication’s route and that the network’s translation capability had converted from the dwarven script to the orcish and Threian languages that the letter’s content’s analysis required.

The letter’s content was the content that Sakh’arran presented to Khao’khen at the command post with the specific weight that the content’s strategic implications demanded.

"The Thane is displeased," Sakh’arran said. "The letter’s content addresses the supply column’s interception. The hundred thundermakers and the fifteen thousand reinforcements that the Horde intercepted on the mountain road. The Thane’s displeasure is the displeasure that the interception’s financial cost produces in the dwarven economy that the interception’s destruction of dwarven-manufactured goods represents."

"The Thane’s displeasure is financial."

"The Thane’s displeasure is primarily financial. The Ironbeard Clan’s foundries produced the hundred thundermakers at the production cost that the foundries’ operations required. The thundermakers’ destruction on the mountain road is the destruction that the production cost’s investment represents. The Thane’s letter demands compensation from the highland clans for the destroyed goods."

"Compensation from the highland clans. Not from the Horde."

"Not from the Horde. The Thane’s letter does not mention the Horde. The letter addresses the highland clans as the purchasers whose purchased goods were destroyed during the delivery that the purchase’s terms required. The Thane holds the purchasers responsible for the delivery route’s security that the purchasers’ military control of the route was supposed to provide."

"The dwarves blame the barbarians for not protecting their own supply route."

"The dwarves blame the purchasers for the loss that occurred on the route that the purchasers controlled. The dwarves do not blame the force that performed the interception because the dwarves’ commercial doctrine does not assign blame to third parties whose military actions disrupt commercial deliveries. The dwarves’ commercial doctrine assigns blame to the party whose contractual obligation included the delivery’s security."

The analysis was the analysis that the analysis’s strategic implications produced when the implications’ content was the content that the dwarven question’s resolution required. The dwarven question was the question that the Story Bible’s open threads had identified as the thread whose resolution would determine the Horde’s relationship with the dwarven stronghold of Khaz-Dorum and the Ironbeard Clan whose foundries produced the weapons that had armed both the Threian kingdom and the barbarian highland clans.

"The dwarves sell to anyone who pays," Khao’khen said. "The dwarves’ commercial doctrine is the doctrine that payment determines and that payment’s source does not influence. The dwarves armed the Threians. The dwarves armed the barbarians. The dwarves would arm the Horde if the Horde paid."

"The dwarves would arm the Horde. The question is whether the Horde wants the dwarves’ arms."

"The Horde has Zul’jinn. The Horde’s weapons are the Horde’s weapons. The Horde’s weapons’ development does not depend on the dwarves’ foundries. The Roarers are the Horde’s design. The Roarers’ improvement is the Horde’s engineering. The dependence on external weapons supply is the dependence that the Threian kingdom’s boomstick ammunition’s depletion demonstrated was the vulnerability that external dependence produced."

"The Horde does not purchase dwarven weapons."

"The Horde does not purchase dwarven weapons. The Horde develops the Horde’s weapons. The Horde’s weapons’ capability is the capability that the Horde’s engineering produces. The capability’s improvement is the improvement that Zul’jinn’s continuous development provides. The Horde’s weapons are the Horde’s. The Horde’s weapons do not depend on the supply that a third party controls and that a third party can sever."

"Then the dwarven question’s resolution is the resolution that independence provides."

"The dwarven question’s resolution is the resolution that the Horde’s self-sufficiency determines. The dwarves are traders. The dwarves trade with parties who pay. The Horde is not a party that the dwarves trade with and the Horde is not a party that the dwarves trade against. The Horde is the party that the Horde’s self-sufficiency makes independent of the dwarves’ commercial network."

"And if the Thane approaches the Horde?"

"If the Thane approaches the Horde, the Horde receives the approach with the approach’s content’s assessment. The Horde does not seek the dwarves’ trade. The Horde does not refuse the dwarves’ trade. The Horde’s position is the position that self-sufficiency provides: the position of the party whose needs are met internally and whose external trade is the trade that the external party’s approach initiates rather than the trade that the Horde’s need demands."

Sakh’arran recorded the assessment. The recording was the recording that the assessment’s strategic significance required for the files that the Horde’s intelligence archive maintained and that the archive’s future reference would access when the dwarven question’s future developments required the reference’s context.

"The Ironbeard Clan’s foundries produce the finest weapons on the continent," Sakh’arran said. "The finest weapons’ availability to the Horde’s enemies is the availability that the Horde’s strategic assessment must account for."

"The availability is the availability that payment determines. The Threian kingdom’s payment has been severed by the dwarves’ decision to discontinue the Threian trade. The barbarian clans’ payment continues through the mountain trade routes. The barbarians’ access to dwarven weapons is the access that the barbarians’ silver and iron purchase. The Horde’s strategic assessment accounts for the access."

"The access’s implications."

"The access’s implications are the implications that the mutual non-aggression’s framework addresses. The barbarians’ access to dwarven thundermakers is the access that the barbarians’ valley ambitions drive. The barbarians’ valley ambitions are the ambitions that the Threian kingdom contests. The contest between the barbarians and the kingdom is the contest that the barbarians and the kingdom resolve between themselves. The Horde’s position is the position that the mutual non-aggression provides: the position outside the contest."

The dwarven question’s resolution was the resolution that independence and non-involvement combined to produce. The Horde did not depend on the dwarves. The Horde did not contest the dwarves. The Horde occupied the position that self-sufficiency provided and that the mutual non-aggression’s geographic separation maintained.

The resolution was not permanent. The resolution was the resolution that the current situation’s variables produced. The variables could change. The dwarves could approach the Horde. The barbarians could violate the non-aggression. The Threian kingdom could fail to honor the treaty. The variables’ potential changes were the changes that the Horde’s strategic assessment monitored and that the assessment’s contingency planning addressed.

The wolf watched. The wolf waited. The wolf built.

The method that lasted.