LogFAQs > #884099288

The thick of the battle was definitely the more exciting place to be.
However, he quickly learned that Lighthouse had not been a fluke.
The more time he spent off of the battlefield, the better his forces tended to do.
Teswalt and North Yarston were even more decisive victories than the ones leading him here.
He'd chosen to leave Ser Arti back there to deal with the situation in Geris.
Art was loyal but he was more valuable because of his ability to make his own decisions.
Martin could trust that man to handle the siege when the Lighthouse forces arrived.
It was better to keep men like Stein with him who could be trusted but who were better suited to following orders than command.
Blackwater, who didn't particularly like fighting in the melee anyway, decided to stay with Martin.
Maybe he wanted to see it for himself too.
Back then, at Lighthouse, he had doubted Martin because Martin was young.
By staying near Martin, then, Blackwater was able to see him lead the battle first hand.
He was always the type who found it easier to accept something if he saw it with his own eyes.

North Yarston had a theater house which made a convenient base of operations.
Martin called Sen and Jess to meet with him here. Blackwater and Stein had followed him.
The captain of the mercenary group, a man named Cutler, also attended their meeting.
It felt odd, Martin realized in that moment, that he had developed his own war council.
Back in Esland, and even back at Lighthouse, Brezwicz had brought people together.
Martin was one of the pieces that was under her command.
But now Martin was off all on his own. These were the pieces under his command.

"The Northern Rock Knights finally arrived," Martin announced.
"They're moving up the river so it shouldn't take them long to catch up with us."
"Given your experience on the field and familiarity, I think it's a good idea for you to lead them, Sen."

"Well, I was never much of a commander, you know," Sen told him earnestly.

"I'll be using them as a strike force anyway," Martain replied.
"I won't need you to do any clever tactics. Just be ready to receive my orders."
"You'll just need to go where I tell you to go and smash everything that gets in your way."

That seemed more like something Sen of Northern Rock was capable of doing.
Stein was going to take the role that Arti had once filled,
His job was to stay with Martin and help to relay orders to different groups on the field.
It was important because this prevented Martin from having to ride around too much.
It was better for him to stay in one location and keep a birds-eye view on things.
And, with his wound still not recovered, it was too risky for Martin to get close to the battle anyway.

"We could develop a system of flares or command flags," Stein suggested.
"Similar to the ones that Admiral Brezwicz used while we were at sea."
"My commander in the Disputed Kingdoms wars also used command flags."

It was a good idea for long range communication, but Martin was worried about all of the commanders needing to learn them quickly.
This could absolutely cause mistakes during battle if even one person messed up.
For that reason he decided that he and Stein would use the flags for now to communicate while separated.
And, along the way, they'd begin teaching their code to a few select individuals.
This kept the pool of people who needed to learn the new code to a minimum.
It made the impact far less wide-reaching but also reduced the chance of error.
Martin trusted that neither he nor Stein would mess up, so it wouldn't cause problems.
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