Enderal I Lords and Mages
Chapter 2 Unstable Monarch
8th Era, 479 5th of Weeping Widow
Mordurel Continent, Riverlands Region, Unholy Alcazar
Jazeera Point of View
I momentarily wondered how much time a day I spent in my study. Certainly it was many hours a day. Perhaps too many, too much work perhaps. This thought left my mind when I opened the parchment in my hands. It was the answer to my request placed upon the Mage Circle on orders of the king. It was not the Archmage answering though as I had expected. It was signed by the High Inquisitor. The man in charge of keeping mages from going rogue and if they did, hunt them down. Most of his job was to keep the mages in place and hunt down those dabbling with the dark arts, like Black Magic and Blood Magic. Blood Magic was the most easy to prove since those that use it too much have their eyes turn to have a red glow.
I swallowed nervously. If the matter had gone to the High Inquisitor it probably meant it was suspected that I was in truth the one desiring the volumes. Likely they didn’t buy my assurances that the king was the one requesting this alone, which was the truth all the same.
“Damn it,” I cursed. “This isn’t good. I’ll have to write back and bluntly assure them I have no interests in those dark forbidden volumes.”
I placed the parchment on my desk and headed over to the balcony and opened the glass doors to it. I was met by the warm breeze of summer. After sucking in the fresh air I went back to her desk. I brought out a parchment and prepared my quill and ink to answer the High Inquisitor’s decline.
“As if I don’t have a lot of work already,” I mumbled displeased. Now I had to worry about this dung. Searching for a Witch Coven in the marshes, assign an expedition to search for a magical artifact on orders on his majesty, revisit the Riverlands laws on magic, solve a dispute between local mages and the Church of the Paragon Pantheon and the likes. As quickly as I had sat down I got up and walked out onto my balcony.
From my tower I could see the courtyard. I saw a few Landsknechts on guard duty and the queen. She was sitting down on a bench with her son Arnon, the heir to the throne. Her daughter wasn’t present though. The Princess was elsewhere at the moment. I pondered what the teenagers thought about their old father the king. A man who was nicknamed Berwyn the Cruel and Crazy, by most.
“Jazeera?” I heard his majesty’s voice.
I turned on her heels, took a deep breath in anticipation, and marched back into my study. I found my majesty studying the paper maps in one of my bookshelves. It took a lot to avoid looking surprised at his appearance. It was the same receding grey hair but his beard had been colored blue. Of all colors to desire, had he sought a blue beard?
I bowed her upper body.
“Your Majesty, what gives me the honor of your presence?” She inquired.
“Jazeera! I heard you had word from the mages in that tower,” he said, his voice that of an old man.
“Aye, your majesty,” I confirmed.
I walked over to my desk and grabbed the parchment. The king followed me and grabbed it himself. He put it on the desk as he started reading. While he read through the parchment I received the same day, he stood half behind me, his right hand on my back and the left on the sturdy wooden desk. I flinched uncomfortably when his hand found its way into my red summer robe and fondled my bum. My mind races as I stood there uncomfortably and tried to figure out what to do. Could I tell his majesty to stop? I was scared of how he would react. There was no way to know how a man that appeared to lose his mind would react. A part of me feared that he might just take me and and sire a unwelcome child in my belly. The feeling of his fingers practically made me feel ill and disgusted.
“I’ve been thinking of hiring a mercenary company,” King Berwyn suddenly said.
I swallowed hard. “Oh, f-for wh-what purpose?” My unsteady voice managed to ask.
“What should I pay them?” He asked me for advice.
“Oh…I th-think that i-is a question for the Master of Treasury. Sh-should I send for him?”
He shook his head dismissively.
“Think I should pay them with gold or should I make them lords and give them some land,” he pondered. She presumed he had finished with the message from the High Inquisitor. “Maybe I should marry the Captain to someone, like my daughter…” he trailed off.
I hoped he was anything but serious on the topic. He couldn’t seriously be thinking to marry his daughter off to come lowly mercenary captain. I decided to assume he would change his mind within the hour as usually. Or Queen Faena would change his mind when they went to bed together. I shivered at the thought of being in Queen Faena’s position, marrying a man about thirty years her elder. Or maybe it was the old wrinkly hand squeezing my left bum cheek that made me shiver.
Than the king finally let her go, allowing her to sigh in relief and just stroll out of her study saying, “That will be all Jazeera. I have pain to cause.”
The door was slammed close behind him and I sank to me trembling knees.
8th Era, 479, 5th of Weeping Widow
Mordurel Continent, Dawa Mountains Region
Town of Blackbough, Blackhall Castle
Selene Costayne Point of View
I met with Naeryan in the castle’s library. The old keeper of my House’s history was a knowledgeable man and I sought his knowledge again. bastard of my great grandfather or not, he was family to me and it made me feel less lonely. I had put on a pretty plain gown of velvet. I was hoping that Naeryan could teach me about the Houses and politics of the Easterlands and which Houses was more likely to support the reinstatement of a Costayne monarch, like centuries ago. I had traveled the Easterlands and Reikland as an adventurer and sword for hire but I never bothered with the political mess between the noble Houses.
The old man placed a thick red book on the table before he sat down beside me. This was not the first time I met with him to learn about the subject.
“There are a dozen families that don’t like the Silverstags, many that does. Storm, Montelyn, Orkwood and so on. A lot of small Houses that was raised from being landed knights,” Naeryan explained.
“I remember,” I said. “In her day Queen Lionella raised like a dozen landed knights to lordlings and she made over a hundred knights into landed knights. She liked doing stuff like that, so the stories say at least.”
“Stories the commoners tell are less accurate with every generation,” the old man said with a warm amused smile. “Luckily Lionella was not that long ago so its accurate according to history. All stories and myths rise from some truth before they are molded by the generations that tell it.”
He opened the large book. The title on the front had been ‘Noble Houses of the Easterlands’. I admitted it surprised me that someone had filled a book of one thousand six hundred pages on the subject. There wasn’t that many Houses, what, forty or so? But I had skimmed through the first pages a few days ago and the book contained the Houses histories and whether any other Houses originated from them and the like.
“If I intend to reclaim my family’s kingship of the Easterlands I need allies. I know I can count of House Carstein since they’re married to Princess Jhaenera. But, I know that I may have a possible ally there. The House that helped my uncle find me and bring me here to take over. Clatton told me it was Lady Dawn Oakenshield.”
“Hmm,” Naeryan said. “The Oakenshields is an ancient House, strong and wealthy from trade brought by Oakenport, similar to how the Davens of Davenport are wealthy for the same reasons. Same with the Ashwoods of Ressenholm.”
I nodded thoughtfully. In the past weeks I had thought mostly on my family’s place in the world. From great kings to mere lordlings in the distant Dawa Mountains and subordinates of the Templar Order. If I sought to reclaim my family’s crown I would travel with a good host already at me back. Mercenaries and loyal followers from Blackbough and the villages around it. A few hundred trainable peasants and twelve or so nights sworn to my. There was one landed knight with a family in each village and my Steward Clatton had told my some of them had sons they had knighted, so around fifteen or so perhaps.846Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEIh4V8j1vH
