Extra's Survival: Raising SSS-Rank Characters Is My Only Option

The Council chamber was located in the central bastion, one floor below the Lord Commander’s rooms.

Encrid arrived early.

He was not surprised when the guard outside the chamber told him to wait.

The Council did not allow petitioners to enter before they were called. A man who had come to ask for something stood outside until the people who would decide his request had taken their seats. Only then was he brought in.

Encrid was directed to a narrow stretch of wall beside the door.

There was no chair.

Encrid did not mind.

He leaned against the stone and waited.

It gave him time to watch them.

The Council of the Wall consisted of fifteen seats, although the number of votes was not fifteen.

Encrid had spent the past several weeks trying to understand the men and women who held those votes.

Now they passed him one by one.

Lord Commander was already inside when he arrived. The next to arrive was Garrick Dane.

The First Watch commander saw Encrid standing outside the chamber, gave him a brief glance, and continued inside without saying anything.

Encrid had expected that.

Halvic Ostrand arrived next. He looked at Encrid for a moment and gave him a small, almost apologetic nod before entering.

Serapha Lund stopped long enough to acknowledge him properly.

”Lord Gannon.”

”Commander Lund.”

She nodded and went inside.

Neriah Fold walked past without even looking at him.

Bastian Ryn was more obvious. He caught Encrid’s eye and gave him a look that said he was sorry.

Encrid found that he did not mind.

At least Ryn had been honest about his decision.

Ysolde Marr arrived without ceremony. She glanced at Encrid once before entering.

Tolm Bree came carrying three ledgers under one arm.

”I wish you luck,” Bree remarked.

”Thank you, commander.”

Bree grunted and went inside.

Erol Vask followed.

Encrid watched him carefully.

Nothing.

Vask’s expression revealed absolutely nothing.

Vice-Commander Coris Danel arrived a few minutes later, followed by Iolan Vire and Steward Vess.

One seat remained empty.

The Chief Healer’s.

Encrid looked at it through the open doorway.

He had visited the healers every day since Ansel Corr had been brought back from the forest, but he had never managed to meet Elder Wode.

The old healer had remained unconscious throughout.

Encrid regretted that.

Not simply because Wode possessed two votes, although that certainly mattered. Elder Wode had personally saved Corr’s life and had then collapsed from exhaustion himself. Encrid had not wanted to stand over an unconscious old man thinking about Council votes.

But the opportunity was gone.

At least for now.

The council chamber was quieter than he had expected. Through the closed doors, he could occasionally hear footsteps, the movement of chairs, and the muffled voices of men already inside discussing matters that had nothing to do with him.

That was the Council of the Wall.

Fifteen seats.

Fifteen people entrusted with decisions that could affect every soldier, worker, healer, scout, and merchant living behind those walls.

Eventually, Vice-Commander Danel came back outside.

”Lord Gannon.”

Encrid straightened.

”The Commander will see you now.”

Encrid nodded and entered.

The chamber was smaller than he had expected.

A long table of unfinished northern oak occupied most of the room, surrounded by fifteen chairs. A hearth burned at the far end, and the only decoration on the walls was a large slate containing the Wall’s roster strength.

Several figures on it had not been erased for months.

Encrid took his place beside the door.

He was not offered a chair.

Lord Commander Ulrich Vance sat at the head of the table.

He looked at Encrid for several seconds before speaking.

”Encrid Gannon. Clerk of the Third Office.”

Every person at the table already knew that.

The introduction was simply part of the Council’s procedure.

”Yes, my lord.”

Vance nodded.

”By now, I assume everyone here knows why I have called him.”

There were several nods.

Vance continued.

”The proposal before this Council is the creation of a sixteenth seat for the chief strategist of the Wall, with Encrid Gannon as its first holder.”

He looked around the table.

”Before we decide whether that seat should exist, I want to hear the council’s opinions.”

Steward Vess was the first to speak. He adjusted the papers in front of him.

”I will keep mine simple.”

Vess looked at Encrid.

”Before Encrid took control of the Third Office’s allocation records, we had supply discrepancies every winter. Not always theft. Not always incompetence. Sometimes it was simply bad accounting. Food went to the wrong stores. Equipment was requested twice. Other requests disappeared because nobody could determine who was responsible for them.”

He tapped the papers.

”That changed after he took over.”

Dane leaned back.

”That makes him a good clerk.”

Vess looked at him.

”Yes. It does.”

Dane frowned, and Vess continued.

”And a good clerk is not necessarily a Council member. I understand the distinction.”

He looked around the table.

”My argument is that we have been treating the Quartermastery as though it were separate from the survival of this Wall. It is not. Men freeze when supplies are late. Men die when equipment is missing. Patrols fail when provisions are miscounted.”

He turned toward Encrid.

”This man understands that.”

Dane folded his arms.

”He understands numbers and calculation, if that was all it required for a seat in the Council, then I have thirty men under me who should be considered first.”

The council went silent, and Vess broke it again.

”He doesn’t merely understand the numbers; he understands what the numbers mean, and you, as a commander, should already know this Dane -that counting numbers and understanding their meaning is very different.”

Vess stopped there.

Kass spoke next.

He had two votes as captain of the Far Watch, and everyone at the table knew those votes mattered.

”I have a different reason.”

Kass looked directly at Encrid.

”For nineteen years I have sent reports to this Council.”

He paused.

”I have watched men return from the forest with information nobody wanted to hear because it was inconvenient. I have watched reports get buried because there was no number attached to them. I have watched warnings get dismissed because the person giving them did not have enough rank.”

Dane’s expression tightened.

Kass ignored it.

”This young man reads reports differently.”

”And that qualifies him for a seat?” Dane asked.

”No.”

Kass looked at him straight in the eye.

”It qualifies him for my votes.”

The room went quiet.

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