Ascension of the elder

"Oh hi."

Kyle was looking down at the sleepy young face looking back at him, he was expecting Elena to be curled up on top of him as she'd done it before but today's culprit was surprisingly Clara. She was quickly taking the first place as the calmest of his girls but then she did this.

Rubbing her eyes Clara greeted Kyle with a smile before making her way up him and kissed him.

"Good morning Kyle did you sleep well."

Kyle was trying to distract himself so he quickly asked the first question that entered his brain.

"Morning Clara why are you on me and not Elena."

Clara smiled and looked to Kyle's left. Kyle felt his eyes drawn to where Clara's eye line directed him, there was Elena lying on her front fully Elena spreading and drooling on the pillows.

"No pickles on my toast please."

Kyle heard Elena mumble in her sleep with a smile on her face. Who has dreams about pickles on toast Kyle thought with a bemused expression on his face before looking back to Clara who wore an equally bemused expression before shrugging as she was used to her friends odd antics. Turning her attention back to Kyle she answered his question.

"Elena has been hogging your attention so we decided that we would rotate our time with you to make it fair."

"Okay so how was the schedule decided?"

"Straws with the shortest straw going last."

"So why were you sleeping on top of me?"

"Well we agreed that whoever was lead on that day would get to be closest to you."

"Okay so by what you just said you won't cut each other out on your days but one of you would take the lead."

"Pretty much, we think this would be the best way to prevent jealousy."

Kyle sighed and realised how difficult having multiple girlfriends or lovers could be he turned his head to the right and saw Miranda curled up next to him and Kyle suddenly remembered something.

"Wait didn't you all go back to your rooms last night why are you here?"

���We didn't want to be apart so we came back when you were asleep."

Clara responded simply and Kyle couldn't find any way to respond to this again so he simply decided to ignore it. Sitting up he moved Clara around him and deposited her on his bed before getting up and having a shower.

By the time he was changed and ready the girls had all woken up and when he exited the bathroom they all entered together. Thankfully the shower and bath were large enough to accommodate all three and Kyle simply waited for them to exit.

Shortly the girls were ready and had already brought a change of clothes with them so they headed down to have breakfast. There was a new addition to their table in the form of Harris who joined them for their meal before he was to join in with his training.

During the meal Landon spoke with both Kyle and Harris while the others listened in on their conversation.

"I received word Leonard and Lord Tor will be coming today to begin our war planning. The miles family and their allies pulled back last night but even though we are more powerful they outnumber us and we want to prevent them attacking a single group so we are proposing a mutual defence pact."

"That makes sense how are they going to be guarded during this trip?"

Harris asked as he knew that if they were attacked during these negotiations the alliance probably wouldn't collapse but leadership may become a problem.

"We'll deal with security, Ash, Faye I want you on this."

Ash was only sitting a couple of spaces down and gave a quick salute while Faye appeared from Harris's shadow which almost gave him a heart attack again.

"Why do you do that can you like wear a bell or something?"

"That would defeat the purpose of my skills. Kyle my sister wishes to speak with you when you get a chance she will be here in about thirty minutes."

"Thanks Faye and I'll see your sister as soon as she gets here."

Faye moved over and began discussing with Ash about the security they would need to provide with her girls scouting ahead and Ash's men providing a wall of weapons around the delegates.

Kyle was wondering what Lady Sparrow wanted to discuss with him, he didn't think it was anything desperate as she had a signal stone to get his immediate attention if needed but as she was heading up his intelligence division so she probably had something to help with the current situation.

During breakfast he received multiple reports about what had happened during the night. There were a few raids maid by both sides but overwhelmingly his and his family's forces won these confrontations with minimal casualties.

Kyle worried about the way this fight was happening as he knew the enemy was marshalling their forces to strike out in one fast movement. If Kyle was in their situation he would lash out at a single target lowering the number of opponents and freeing up resources for elsewhere.

Luckily with the three of the families working together this would become incredibly hard but this may make the Miles family do something unexpected and that was where people could get hurt or killed.

While Kyle was musing over this Susan plonked down in a seat next to him. She was looking at his girls and friends who were sitting a little away from him while he was speaking with Landon and Harris.

"Yo brat give you a pickle for your thoughts."

"Why a pickle and that's the second time today someone has been speaking about pickles?"

"Nothing wrong with a pickle. Now tell me what's up?"

"Just thinking about the Mile's next move just wondering where they'll hit and when."

"Rather than just waiting for them to make a move keep them on the defensive. My advice is kick em in the balls and run like hell."

"Not a bad idea but I'll wait for Lady Sparrow to arrive before I decide what to do."

"Cool want some senior company I don't have anywhere I need to be."

"It would be my pleasure."

As Kyle and Susan were speaking Landon and Harris had moved away with Landon taking his brother to his first lesson with a grin on his face as he couldn't wait to see what would happen. The war could wait for an hour or two while he watched his brother get beaten by some kids.

It didn't take long until Lady Sparrow arrived and sat next to Kyle, his girls and Bruno with Alena had returned and were sitting opposite him now. Lady Sparrow looked over them and once again felt the connection she felt with most of those who were part of Kyle's forces.

"Kyle I've managed to get some details of the enemies plans but the sources are....dubious I think would be the way to describe it."

"What do you mean dubious?"

Asked Clara clearly interested in the reason behind this choice of words.

"Well we have contact with thieves within the city. One of these thieves was looting corpses from some of the earlier battle and managed to find battle plans on one of these bodies. I trust the thief as strange as that may sound but why was a soldier on the front lines with the plans?"

Kyle thought about this and agreed this sounded strange but if this could help them he needed to hear the details.

"Okay how about you tell us the details and we'll decide from that what to do."

"Yes that's probably best. The details laid out in the plan show the route the enemy forces will be using and their target will be the Tor family as they are the weakest of the houses. The forces will be split into several smaller teams to move through the alley before they rendezvous near the Tor's territory ready to attack."

Kyle was digesting this information along with the others. This was a believable tactic given the current situation the problem was that to prove it they would need to look into themselves. The alleyways in question were to narrow and overhung to use the falcons to do proper reconnaissance and with 'steel lotus', 'death watch' and 'shadow hand' currently already fully engaged they couldn't spare the main forces to look.

It was Miranda who spoke at this time.

"We can't leave this unchecked. If they are going to attack the Tor's this would be problematic so why don't we look into it ourselves?"

Kyle thought this was actually their only option at this point and so readily agreed.

"Yay road trip."