The end of the short war between the Camelia and the United Tribes under Beng Shai was anticlimactic compared to its start. There were no shocking betrayals or surprising twists since everyone on both sides seemed truly sick of them.
Beng Shen, who revealed she was Beng Shai's older sister, took leadership of the Bandri in a quiet ceremony with very little contesting from her other surviving siblings. She apparently also had custody of Beng Shai's children, who didn't look anything like either of them, and declared the oldest boy, an angry little thing with a permanent scowl, her heir.
None of the tribes wanted to continue fighting, not even the Southern tribes who'd admitted to being the first contacted by Song and Snow during the previous ten-year war. They maintained there'd been no mention of a world-destroying wildfire, and for the most part, everyone believed them. The Southern tribes had been as devastated by the fire as the rest of them, and while the tribes were often shortsighted, they were never outright self-sabotaging.
Units of the strongest, which were just the least injured and tired at this point, had chased the Army of Song and Snow all the way back to the borders and set up camps to ensure they stayed on their side of the border.
There wasn't much of a chance that they wouldn't. Eirian's stopping of the wildfire had been a surprise and happened much earlier than Song and Snow had planned on. The tribes and civilians had ended up in far worse condition than the Camelia, which was the actual threat to Song and Snow's forces in the borderland. Those forces had also confirmed their worst expectations.
None of the villages or camps in the eastern half of the borderlands had survived. Which meant Song and Snow had killed hundreds of thousands in their attempt to take the borderlands. Reinforcements were being sent to the forces along the border every day, both Crimson Army and tribesmen who were still fit enough to fight.
No one was willing to be taken by surprise again.
Eirian had sent Vitali and Wayland to lead her forces that were there, and Mingzhe had sent all his sub-commanders except Yang Hikari, whom he'd taken the time to introduce to Eirian as his best friend since childhood. The Yang heir had shown no hesitation in greeting Eirian, barely batting an eye at her current state. His mother had come by one evening to pay her respects as well, sitting for tea and sharing her side of the events since they left the Camelia.
Like Chenzhou, she was also unsure who had fired the arrow that started the battle that had killed Beng Shai, but she was less concerned about finding out and carried no guilt over it.
"It is the way of war," she'd said and shrugged. "Lord Ye will have to learn that sometimes people die in battle, and we are a military estate; we are meant to be at war."
Eirian didn't necessarily agree, but she didn't completely disagree either, so she held her tongue. Lady Yang had been one of the most consistent members of the Camelia's court since her arrival. She didn't always agree with Chenzhou, but she seemed to always keep what was best for the Camelia at the forefront, which was why Chenzhou respected her so much. Even when she was arguing with him.
At the very least, Lady Yang could always be relied on to put what she thought was best for the Camelia before all else.
Her son shared her pragmatism, but looked on Mingzhe with enough fondness that Eirian decided she liked him, and he promised to tell her all the embarrassing stories of teenage Mingzhe when everything had calmed down and they were back at the Camelia.
Beng Shen and the Bandri had taken the lead among the tribes, which wasn't surprising, given that they were still the largest despite their losses. They sat down with Chenzhou, Eirian, and Mingzhe to hammer out the details of what would happen next. Most of the tribes had nowhere to go with their camps burned, and would have to rebuild everything they had from nothing. Thankfully, their nomadic lifestyle meant they didn't need to rebuild cities, just herds and tents, and Chenzhou was eager to help.
So eager it seemed to put off Beng Shen, Kai Low, and the other tribal leaders, who were still unsure whether or not they could completely trust the Camelia. Since Chenzhou was the first foreign leader to actually want to help anyone on either side that anyone could remember, it was natural that there would be a few hangups.
Eirian wrote to Eric, well, she dictated to Chenzhou, who wrote her letter and then added his own pages that he read aloud to Eirian as he wrote. Eric would send what aid he could, Eirian knew. Eager to display his power. Eirian had made sure Chenzhou wrote to ask how things were going in the capital. With the time now to think about it, she realized the silence from the Aontacht and Eric was unnerving, even if it wasn't totally unexpected. There had still been no contact from her father, but at this point, Eirian expected to hear from Eric that he'd ordered him jailed before her father ever thought to reach out himself.
~ tbc