<h4>Chapter 43: Borrowing the art of war.</h4>


    An already long day became even longer with the news Cosmos delivered. Immediately upon her return to the vale, Sigrid summoned her family, the immediate ones only.


    While she was taking a bath, her grandparents, parents, brothers and Deanna arrived at the vale. They joined Sigrid for dinner and dismissed everyone with the exception of Cosmos and Lanai.


    The doors leading into the dining room were heavily guarded by ten knights, allowing the family to discuss openly without holding back.


    As soon as they started digging into their food, the questioning started.


    "Why did you summon us?" her father, Paxton started.


    "Is it rted to you special abilities?" Duchess M followed up with a question of her own.


    "Rnd returns tomorrow." Sigrid said, she wanted to get straight to the point and move things along as quickly as possible.


    Time had moved fast, it was already approaching eleven, and her body was weary.


    Five seconds of silence passed and then conversation picked up but every face at the table was rather ashen, they knew what Rnd’s return meant for their family. It spelled the beginning of their troubles.


    "Is he bringing Emmah?" Nathaniel asked.


    "Of course he is," Duke Thorin mmed a hand on the table. "I sent five of the retired soldiers to keep an eye on Rnd, they did not make it to thend of mist, they found the knights and Rnd’s army on its way back. They were victorious but Rnd was injured by a Nemorian sword mage, a sword almost removed his arm but a woman appeared and threw herself on him and the sword cut her instead."


    They all looked at Sigrid, she was their wise woman who had predicted all this.


    "After saving his life, she treated his wounds but passed out because she herself lost a lot of blood. She has been traveling inside Rnd’s carriage or riding his horse, getting princess treatment." he sneered.


    The duke had learned the words princess treatment from Sigrid.


    "I know that I should be grateful that she saved his life and saved you from widowhood and probably death but I hate her already." Iryne clenched a fist.


    Duchess M who also had her fists clenched and eyes narrowed shook her head. "I have doubts about this life saving grace, what was Emmah doing in thend of mist in the first ce? Everybody knows that the territory is dangerous, on top of Nemorian soldiers and bandits lurking in there, you also have dangerous wild beasts that live in the mountains and trees.


    What was a young woman doing there on her own, even if she has magic, it’s too suspicious. Also, of all the soldiers that went off on the expedition, was Rnd the only one injured?


    Why did she save him and not any other random soldier?"


    Deanna put down the ss of lemonade, one of her hands was caressing her round stomach that had only just started to show physical signs of pregnancy.


    "Grandmother, do you think that she deliberately saved the crown prince?"


    The duchess nodded, the others started to share her belief as well, it was just too unbelievable to be considered a coincidence.


    "If indeed it was a plot and we can prove it, she will have no way out." John said.


    "It won’t work." Sigrid shared.


    The little hope that has risen in the hearts of the Thorin’s came down and they turned to Sigrid, waiting for her to borate.


    "Rnd is a man that was raised to put duty and responsibility above everything else, she took a sword for him and it almost prated her heart. Every time she coughs, some bloodes out of her mouth, am I right grandfather?"


    "Yes, my men confirmed this." The duke nodded.


    "Nobody will believe that she plotted to save him and voluntarily put herself in ce to be stabbed near the heart almost losing her life in the process. Of course what they don’t know is that her body has the ability to repair itself.


    Every time she coughs up blood, real or fake, Rnd’s mind will start to panic, the responsibility will kick in and be mixed with guilt. Together, these these two emotions will bring out the urge in him to protect her. No matter what we say, all she has to do is cough a little blood and we will be the bad guys who are out to ruin her reputation because I am jealous."


    "st it all!" Elowin muttered.


    "Damned if we do, damned if we don’t." John said.


    The two brothers were cursing but nobody tried to encourage them to veil their words, the situation made them all want to curse using strongernguage.


    "So we don’t." Sigrid told them. "In fact, we should help her and make sure that she coughs up blood more often. Sun Tzu said we should engage people with what they expect, it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response.


    We can borrow other people’s hands to provoke her a little, she will be expecting it and she will react as expected. The more she coughs up blood at every single slight, the more people will begin to predict it and use it to ridicule her. Eventually, it will be an annoyance even to Rnd."


    She watched as their eyes lit up as they came to realize what she meant.


    "Is it like your story about the boy who cried wolf?" Deanna asked.


    "Yes," Duchess M conformed in Sigrid’s ce. "If she coughs up blood one too many times eventually people will begin to question it and doubt it."


    Sigrid wanted to p, she loved working with smart people and the Thorin’s were sharp bulbs that quickly caught on.


    "Who is this Sun Tzu and what is the art of war?" her father asked.


    "Somebody I have never met but heard about in passing." Sigrid replied. "Father, I implore you not to share Sun Tzu’s words of wisdom with your friends, we do not want others learning and borrowing or else they will use this wisdom against us." She cautioned him, not just her father but everybody else.


    "I would like to hire this Sun Tzu, from whom...." The duke started and stopped because Sigrid was shaking her head.


    "He died, a very long time ago," She lied.


    She could not exactly tell the truth that he was a military general, strategist, philosopher and writer from another world.


    "But even though he is dead, we can use his knowledge to dig ourselves out of this hole. Elowin, have you seeded in makingrge sized crystal viewing orbs?" she stretched her neck to look at her only brother that was born with magic.


    The crystal viewing orbs she had asked him to make where magical devices that were simr to televisions on earth.


    Sigrid’s goal was to produce and spread short dramas and movies directly aimed at exposing Emmah’s coquettish green tea kind of behavior.


    She nned to shoot harem and spy dramas first showing why such a woman could not be trusted. The more simr the female leads were to Emmah or Rina, the better.


    Soon, Emmah would not be able to cough without Eldorian’s rolling their eyes.


    Ironically, Emmah was the one that came up with the idea of crystal viewing orbs, Sigrid was determined to steal that from her as well.