Reborn: Flames of War by D. W. Jackson Page A

of Tamerial. “When in Rome,” Ash said quietly under his breath.
    Hunching over his desk, Ash had to squint to see in the dim candlelight. Rubbing his temples, Ash tried to force the headache that was threating to rip his head apart away. The papers in front of him currently detailed everything that Lath had learned. Since it was far more than the spy could say quickly and discreetly, he had instead brought it in the form of reports, leaving Ash to read over them at his leisure.
    Currently the capital was still under martial law, but the soldiers and knights patrolling the streets had reduced since they had raided the inn the night before to find it mostly empty.
    Ash was happy to learn that only two of Emelia’s knight had died during the fight while both of his demon guards had been killed. The knights had been arrested and Ash guessed that they would be ransomed back as long as the king followed procedure. The people he had captured had long since been returned since the ransom was paid before they even reached the capital, but Ash could only hope that the king followed his example. It was something that made Ash slightly worried.
    If the king refused to follow the standard war rules against the demons then Ash would have to think of a response. One way of thinking said that he should just follow suite and respond in kind, but that could have negative consequences with the other kingdoms. The current rules of war had been agreed upon countless years ago when the five major kingdoms at the time gathered together and signed a large treaty.
    Currently only three of those kingdoms remained, but if kingdoms started to ignore the rules of engagement that had been set, war would once again return to a very ugly state. Thinking of this, Ash decided that he would follow the rules. Not for the people of the kingdom but for his own people and what may happen in the future.
    “Something on your mind my lord?” Mia asked as she gently started to rub his shoulders.
    Mia was the shortest of his wives at just a little over five feet tall, though she was anything but childish, even given the way she looked. Mia had a natural affinity to nature and in a lot of ways resembled elves in her general nature though not in her looks. She also had a very keen sense of order and could easily tell when Ash’s mind was troubled, so he found it hard to hide anything from her.
    “I was just looking over the reports,” Ash said handing Mia the paper he had just been reading. “It seems that the king is going to force all non-humans who are in the general army to wear the slave brand to ensure their fealty.”
    “I see,” Mia said as she looked over the paper. “I can understand the reasoning behind it,” Mia remarked after a few moments. “I think it should be done with everyone in the army though. If he was to make everyone get the brand for someone who owes a debt, then it could be removed at the end of their service. With that he could have each soldier branded to a sergeant, then each sergeant branded to an officer and so on and so on.”
    “True and if that was the case I would agree it would be a decent idea, though I would still find it distasteful,” Ash agreed though not happily. “But he is just targeting those who are not full blood humans.”
    “This might work to our advantage,” Eun said coming up on the other side of Ash.
    “How so?” Ash asked not understanding the meaning behind Eun’s words.
    “If the king pushes aside those that are not full blooded humans, it will sow distrust within the kingdom,” Eun said. “More than a fifth of the people living today are non-human or have mixed blood. It is hard to keep any bloodline pure as time passes unless you are like the demons who hid ourselves away from the world. Even in the few centuries that we lived alongside humans and the beast tribe, our bloodlines comingled leaving behind a number of decedents that litter the countryside now. With the news of how the