3rd Era, 845, 8th of Last Nightingale
Sepheran Kingdom
Skyhail Province, Sepheran Imperial Capital of Sephera, Royal Palace
Elisabeth was used to servants helping her with everyday things. It had been a way of life since she was born. She had servants fetching her things, dressing her and occasional others things. Being the next Queen was very different. She had servant girls around her all the time. Before she had a handful of girls clothe her, now she had over a dozen swarming her. Everyone handling a small part. Bathing was awkward, but she was getting somewhat used to it. She had never had servants there before. But now she had women cleaning and washing her. Apparently someone in her position shouldn’t be bothered to do anything for herself.
She was sitting in the library of the palace. A half read book in her hands and a chess board set up, though unused. The piece was made out of the finest of glass. No wood pieces like commoners had. A chess for nobility, certainly extremely expensive. Probably costed more than buying an entire farmstead.
“You play Lady Elisabeth?” Tiberius asked. “Looking stunning as ever.”
Elisabeth looked up from her book.
“Oh. Duke Tiberius. Hello.” She looked at the board on the table in front of her couch. “A bit. My dad taught me. He’s into strategy and all that.”
Tiberius gestured to the couch opposite her. She nodded and he sat down.
“He fought against the Orcs and wild beasts alike in the Forsaken Lands in his youth, did he not?”
Elisabeth nodded.
“That’s right.” She put the book down. “He led an artillery Regiment back when canons was new. Was Lord Commander for a good sum of years. Fought the uncivilized peoples in the Forsaken Lands and even the Northmen.”
Tiberius smiled intrigued.
“Can I ask something more personal about him?”
“Ah…you may, but I may not answer if it’s too personal,” she answered hesitantly.
“Of course. I was wondering about the old rumors between him and Lord Praetor Augustus II. A lot of rumors from back then claimed that Augustus always kept his army smaller than the opposition.”
“It’s more than a rumor,” Elisabeth said, gripping the book tighter in rising anger. “He couldn’t outright kill my father without risking an open uprising and outrage from the other powerful Houses. House Gail wasn’t as powerful back than as the want everyone to believe.”
“Another reason to hope Duke Cantillon fell in battle against a superior foe,” Tiberius said. “Luckily, Victus is not his father. In fact the former King was outraged that Victus chose you to marry. A young woman of House Cantillon.”
“Serves him right,” Elisabeth muttered.
Tiberius smirked and moved a pawn two squares. It was the Pawn right in front of the Rook.
“Just don’t tell him that.”
“W-well of course not,” Elisabeth said.
“Have you met him yet? Her the Lady Praetoress?”
Elisabeth shook her head.
“It’s been five days. Mhm. Suppose that isn’t so weird since he doesn’t approve of you.”
Elisabeth shrugged and moved one of her Pawns two squares forward.
“He’s fault. Shouldn’t have betrothed his son before he came of age.”
“Too true,” Tiberius agreed. He moved his Rook two squares up. “Augustus was a great general, but a shitty King otherwise,” he whispered.
Elisabeth suppressed the wish to snicker. It wasn’t proper behavior. In public anyway. Then she noticed a new face. A man in his fifties, fat, bald with a small yellow cape and clothes of a low ranked noble.
Tiberius noticed her noticing him.
“Duke of House Ambrose,” he told her. “His family governs the Storm Coast province, bordering the Forsaken Lands. He’s here to speak to Lord Colton and other members of the Elder Council. Lots of trouble in Storm Coast.”
“How’s that?”
He moved another Pawn up.
“A lot of local farmsteads and villagers has been put to the torch with a handful of survivors each time.”
Elisabeth’s eyes widened at the horrific news.
“A pack of raiders from the Forsaken Lands,” he continued explaining. “With Victus military policy the border provinces are stretched thin.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know that our beloved King is pushing through an education program for children of all classes.”
She nodded.
“That coin has to come from somewhere. The army. Less soldiers sponsored by the Kingdom in the provinces. So Duke Ambrose has to be satisfied with his local recruits. It’s a good peacetime policy, but not when you risk being raided every day. Neither is letting border castles go without maintenance.”
“What do you mean?” Elisabeth inquired concerned. She didn’t like where this conversation had gone, but at the same time if it was true she couldn’t hide from it. “He can’t be letting forts on the borders fall into disrepair?”
Tiberius raised his arms in front of him.
“Oh no. Not at all. It’s an effect from his new economic decisions, to help the school system he’s working on. One of the policy changes was that the province governors-such as myself, your father and Duke Ambrose-has to pay to maintain our own forts and castles. That’s coin some provinces do not have. And with diminishing army garrisons we have to supply our own troops for all matters. Town guardsman aren’t fit to garrison a border fort.”
When he spoke of the diminishing army garrisons he referred to a full Sepheran army of men from all over the Kingdom, recruited by Lords and given to the King to station as he pleased instantly. It was faster to respond to a threat that way then wait for the King to call upon his Lords and await their troops.
“What’s the book about?” Tiberius then asked casually.
She threw a glance at the book she had been reading.
“An old family saga, nothing more.”
But Tiberius arched an interested eyebrow.
“Oh? May I inquire details?”
“Well, it’s about Enderwolf I, the first and only King of House Cantillon. It’s about his early life when he claimed the throne. Do you know of him?”
Tiberius nodded.
“Well…the name I know. Very little about the person. With almost 3,000 years’ worth of Kings and the occasional Queenes can you blame me?” he had a grin of his face. “I can’t even recite the Kings in my own House history.”
Elisabeth snickered at that.
“True. To be fair you’ve had well over a thousand years with an unbroken line.”
“Yeah. Before House Gail. My parents demanded I knew of ever King in our line when I was little.”
“Yeah, mine to. But I had an easier time.”
3rd Era, 845, 8th of Nightingale
Sepheran Kingdom
Storm Coast Province, Province capital Dragonhelm, Dragon Keep
Lord Commander Benjamin Gazer’s Army
Ilia’s mood had improved when the Lord Commander ordered the army to stop in Dragonhelm. She had been born and grew up behind these walls. They were eight meters thick and twenty-five meters in height, making the walls some of the strongest in the whole Kingdom. Adding in that the city had four sets of those walls, it made it almost impossible to capture the city in an assault. There was also 100 cannons placed on the walls, ready to fire at any attackers.
The city was supposedly better defended than Sephera itself. Or so rumors claimed. Ilia had never actually been there.
She passed a few Legates and a Knight Commander in the stone corridors. She had been summoned by Lord Commander Gazer to the Dragon Keep’s map room. He had sent a messenger to the Army’s camp outside the first walls. They had stopped in Dragonhelm to recruit Provincial soldiers on a temporary basis. Lord Commander Gazer had authorization to recruit soldiers from the different provinces into his army, as long as it didn’t demonish the provinces ability to defend itself.
The Lord Commander looked up from a map when Ilia walked into the room. He had his Adjutant, his second in Command, Knight Commander Rupert Kent and the oldest son of Duke Ambrose. He was in charge in his father’s absence.
“Legate, approach,” Lord Commander Gazer told her.
He wore armor steel plated armor with a large fur cloak. It was a more fancy and polished version of the Knight armor used by most upper class nobles and some House guards.
Ilia Wolfbane wore the armor of a Knight with a cape with House Ambrose Coat of Arms. The cape was purple with a black dragon across. Under her arm she held a steel Barbute helmet. The steel helmet had a T shape visor. Her armor consisted of chainmail with a steel cuirass chest plate and steel boots and gauntlets. She had cuisses protecting her thighs and dark gambeson trousers covering the legs between her chainmail’s end and her steel boots.
Ilia herself had her ebony black hair fixed into a ponytail. Her tan skin was soft. Her orange colored eyes shifted between the individuals in the room.
“My lord,” she bowed her head.
“Legate,” Lord Commander Gazer said in his husky voice. “I’m sending your Cavalry Regiment ahead of the army to scout towards the border and a few villages there.” He pointed on a point on a map and handed it to her. “It’s close to where the resent raids have crossed. This region could be next.”
“I’ll depart immediately, sir,” Ilia assured. Finally.
“This is a perfect time to see why these recent raids have been so successful,” he added plainly.
Ilia avoided frowning. She didn’t like how the people from provinces in the center of the Kingdom constantly frowned upon the abilities of the men and women defending the borders. They were as good soldiers as they were, possibly better since they fight Orcs, Goblins, Minotaurs and Wild elves whenever they crossed the border.
With a salute Ilia left the room. A breeze from the window gripped her purple cape momentarily.
Outside the Dragon Keep she got on her horse and rode out of the city to the encampment. Dragonhelm was divided by walls into three sections. When she rode through the third sector she thought about her family. Her family owned property close to the Keep in the Inner sector, aka third sector. House Wolfbane was one of the most powerful families in Storm Coast, but not outside. In the Kingdom as a whole Wolfbane was a small insignificant House.
3rd Era, 845, 5th of Last Nightingale
Lands of the Sepheran Kingdom
Tundra Island, Caer Nora Castle
As night overtook the Castle Victus had withdrawn to his chambers. But sense he couldn’t sleep he decided to read a book. He was waiting for word on the orders he gave yesterday. The army was moving to finish the rebellion. The commanders in the field was working hard to encircle the rebellious Northmen to finish them off.
He would freely admit he didn’t understand why they revolted. He could understand why they revolted against his father, since he took away their rights to carry arms-which had been an accent tradition for them-but he had restored that right, even lowered taxes but they still rebelled. He just didn’t get it. After centuries within the Kingdom they should settle down. Yet they never seemed to get over their hatred for House Gail.
He sighed as he thought about it. Maybe his advisers had been right. Maybe the Northmen was little more than the beasts in the Forsaken Lands. He didn’t want to think so, but it started sounding like it.
He tried getting back to reading the book.
There was a knock on the door.
“Enter,” he called.
One of the Knights from his guard opened the thick wooden door.
“Pardon your highness,” he apologized with a strong and smooth voice. “The servants want to know if you want the fireplace filled.”
Victus glanced at the chambers fireplace. The fire was slowly growing smaller.
“Very well.”
The Knight let two servants inside. An elderly man and a young girl in her teens came inside and filled the fireplace with wood so it would continue to warm the room.
That was one thing Victus hadn’t counted on. The northern islands was so much damn colder than the worst winter in the beautiful capital of Sephera. He wished to return their quickly, as soon this was over. Then he could meet Elisabeth for the first time and see if her beauty and looks was as perfect as she had been described to him.
After they filled the fireplace the servants bowed to him and left. The Knight closed the door behind them.
Victus returned to reading the book before he’d try to sleep.743Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGZH4YCkQww
