Betrayal and the rise of another

I was summoned early.  As I passed the portcullis of my liege I knew something to be amiss.  Not just for the simple fact that I was rarely beckoned.   My liege knowing me to be capable allowed for my independence.  No there was something else that forced me into cautious paranoia, forced me to begin devising plans and counter-plans, to anticipate my lord's demands before they left his mouth.  It was as if there was an unnatural crispness to the air now, every strangers face a mask of someone that knew a great secret.  I could not pin down where the feeling came from but in it I knew one truth.   Something in my world was about to change.

My liege greeted me warmly.  Any other person and I would have remained on guard looking for any falsehood, but I had known him many years and while his whims could sometimes be fanciful, his actions were not.  His demand was simple and to the point.

"I am taking your Lieutenant."

The smile on my face never wavered but in my mind I reeled as if hit.  I had no plan for this, no stratagem by which to use this to my advantage.  This could only be construed as a loss.  The hard season had barely begun and already a defection.  He continued speaking but my mind was already whirling in other directions looking for the best way to salvage this situation.  We spoke at length, or to be more precise he spoke at length, while I continued to nod and plot.  When the gathering was over I had come to the only solution I could manage.  I would need a second Lieutenant.  I would need someone I could trust.  It was time to elevate another of our band to a station of importance.  The Barbarian could not be trusted with power, the Ronin had no long term stake in our affairs, the Giant while capable would be leaving our lands before the end of the hard season.  Only one person had the experience I needed, had the wisdom to get our tasks finished, and had the loyalty to ensure my will was done.  It was the Mage's time to lead.
There was much uncertainty in this route.  Enough so that even a strategist like myself, one who preferred the riskier path for greater glory, was having doubts.   While capable, the Mage had never been tested.   He had survived the machinations of his dark arts but would he be tempted by the trappings of power that too often plague those of the flesh?  Would this absolute power corrupt him?
Every plan leaves dangling questions as if yarn from a tattered shirt.  Loose ends which once set in motion would be answered in time.  I had already decided my position so I determined not to dwell on them.  A second more immediate problem lay on the horizon that overshadowed the first.  The Lieutenant was not leaving for a far off kingdom, he was not sailing across the ocean.  He was merely serving another for our liege.  Would our secrets be safe?  I had underestimated his ambition, perhaps his loyalty as well.  His move while not upward was still strategic.  It had given him an ability to showcase his particular talents where as before I had used those talents to bolster my own.  Perhaps this was a play for my position.  Perhaps this was a move worthy of a counter move.