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His relationship with the other councilmen felt strained from both ends. They were displeased with how he had gone against them in order to aid the Rainlords and subsequently jeopardize their relationship with the Vanguard; and he was displeased with how they didn't seem to realize that they would be in a much better position to fight this war now if they had just done as he had requested and supported the Rainlords against the Vanguard, at least politically if not militarily.

The Vanguard was not supposed to be a political organization. Even if some of the Rainlords were members, the Vanguard simply didn't have the right to remove them from their own territory--not without the support of the rest of the government. If the Sandlords had made clear their opposition to the Vanguard's actions, this whole thing might have been resolved peacefully.

At least, that was Asad's opinion. The rest of the Council clearly did not share it.

They seemed to be under the impression that the Vanguard would have pulled out of Sair entirely--or worse, attacked the Drylands, too.

Which was an absurd notion to Asad; but of course, explaining as much had not proved easy.

The Vanguard wanted their alliance with the Sandlords to continue. Never was that more clear than now. Sair was far too important geographically, and the Sandlords knew this land better than anyone. And with the Sunsmith finally stepping onto the world stage as a powerful enough figure to truly oppose the other juggernauts, the Vanguard would have even less reason to pick a fight with them.

How he wished Zeff had accepted his proposal a year and a half ago. Perhaps a very public marriage between Emiliana Elroy and Midhat Najir would have been enough to prevent all of these problems from growing so out of control.

Or maybe he was just deluding himself.