I was awoken from my deep slumber early the next day by my mother and father knocking on the door.

"Where were you yesterday Zer?" Mother asked the moment I opened the door, sweeping past me and planting herself firmly in my desk chair. Father was a bit more restrained and just invited himself to sit on my recently vacated bed, bouncing on it slightly.

"I was a bit overwhelmed with all of the people at the castle, so I left to go hunting by myself and clear my head," I said, the lie coming easily to my lips. It was not like I could explain my apparent hallucinations to anyone. Even if I had skills to show them, I would just be accused of practicing sorcery in secret - an offense that would see me stripped of every noble title I possessed.

"Well, thanks to your wanderings, we missed your birthday!" He cried out, pointing an accusatory finger at me. I looked at my father bemusedly, and he just shrugged his shoulders.

"Uhg. Men! You try squeezing a child out of your body and see if you don't develop any sentimental attachments!" She said in disgust, while my father and I winced.

"I'm sorry, I had no clue how much it would mean to you. My birthdays have usually been celebrated, but I have missed them on occasion and it was not a remarkable event," I said, finally coming up with an excuse I was sure she would accept. I was wrong.

"Well that's too damn bad. Now that your father and I are back in touch with you, you will have to celebrate such silly little things with me! You deprived me of my chance yesterday, but today you will be stuck with me!" She finished the sentence by crossing her arms and scrunching her nose at me.

"I guess I will have to suffer through this grave indignity," I said lightly, throwing my head back and covering my eyes with an arm while sighing dramatically every few seconds. Mother couldn't maintain the stern facade and began to laugh. My father shot me a thumbs up when she turned around to rustle through her bag, which she had carried with her today. Turning back around, she pulled out a present wrapped in fine silk with a neat green bow on top. I was beginning to think that the green of Hexenguard was not as fetching as I previously thought it was. Did they have to plaster it EVERYWHERE?

"Happy birthday Zer!" She said brightly, and I reached out to grab the package. Unwrapping it gently, I revealed a handsome wooden jewelry box made from a beautiful onyx wood that as far as I knew only grew in the Greenward and was husbanded jealously by that duchy. After marveling at the box, which in and of itself was extremely durable, I opened it and revealed a heavyset ring and a pendant. Both possessed the personal ducal crest of House Hexenguard, and were objects only legally able to be worn by direct family members or those who received permission directly from the duke. My adoptive father had this exact same pendant and ring combination, and it showed all important people in the duchy immediately that you had strong personal ties to the duke and duchess themselves.

I took the ring and immediately slipped it onto my right ring finger, smiling lightly as the ring resized itself to fit perfectly on my finger. Magic was great for stuff like that, and it would be unable to be removed except by my own hand, that of the Duke or Duchess, or a mage strong enough to overcome the enchantment. The pendant went on next, and I positioned it so that our house crest faced outward from my chest.

Rare Items acquired: Ducal Seal, Ducal Crest (Authority in local territories modified. Authority in regional Pervalian territories modified. You will find it easier to give orders and be taken seriously while wearing these items where they can be seen, and take increased levels of hostility from those who are enemies to Hexenguard)

Err. Well thanks, system, but that much was obvious to me already. It was literally what these two items were designed for.

"Well? Do you like them?" mother asked me expectantly.

"Yes, I do like them. Thank you very much," I bowed low to her and my father and she beamed at us both.

"Good! Now get dressed, we are going to have breakfast together!" She said, getting up and shooing Jarrod out of the room.

"Happy Birthday Son," Jarrod said behind his shoulder as he was escorted out of the room.

I sat and considered my two biological parents for a few minutes. I was surprised at how easily I had fallen into a rhythm of calling them my parents in my head. I examined my feelings for a few minutes before deciding that while I was still pretty angry at them, it was overall just easier to live with that anger and set it aside. After spending a few days with them, I saw that they were trying really hard to make up for lost time, and I didn't have the heart to deny that to them. It was obvious they cared greatly for me, even if my feeling's weren't quite there yet. I would continue to just try and act like a reserved version of the son they wanted, and see where that gets us. Maybe over time it would not feel like talking to strangers who had an unhealthy interest in my life.

Besides... They were the Duke and Duchess, and it was not like I could stop them from doing whatever they wanted to. I figured that as long as I gave them the respect due their station and the consideration due my parents, they would be willing to bend when I needed them to. That type of emotional manipulation made me slightly uncomfortable, but I didn't ask for the situation in the first place. Sighing at the complicated situation I found myself in, I went about getting dressed for the day.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Aurelia

"The mage relay has just finished transmitting" said Duke Modarch Hesse, the Aurelian Duke responsible for the southeastern border facing Hexenguard. He was currently observing the dimming glow of the Mage Spire, which had just lit up with eldritch energies - a sure sign that a long-range message had just been delivered. Over his families history they had clashed many times in border disputes, raids, and all-out-warfare. He had a healthy respect for that the stalwart knights of the Hex Mountain's were capable of - a lesson that he learned from his father's father who had lost the border fortresses once to his counter part until their reclamation ten years after. That war had been particularly bloody.

Duke Hesse came away from his window and sat at a desk, waiting patiently for the expected missive to make it's way into his hands. He did not have to wait for long, as the Mage Spire was only a mile away. Thirty minutes after the Mage Spire had powered down Duke Hesse was reading the transported missive. It came, as he had expected, from his mage spies in Hexenguard - a very risky place to be for any mage not of the Pervalian Kingdom.

The Pervalian armed forces have reached 100,000 total combat forces, 35,000 total support forces and it is rumored that there are 500 mages present. They will be marching in as little as a week, but not longer than three. The Duke and Duchess of Hexenguard are present in Agile Valley. Further, it has been revealed that they have had a Heir for the past fourteen years, and have been hiding and training him in secret in Agile Valley. He is to go with Knight Commander Gerald Hart on the Pervalian Offensive against Aurelia. It is rumored that the Heir, named Zerial Hart Hexenguard, slew two full-grown knights in one-on-one combat this past week, and that he did it with ease. These rumors are as of yet unconfirmed. Military plans are kept tightly at the level of high noble, and all attempts to scry the more private areas of Castle Heart, or any active attempts to scry within twenty feet of the Duke, Duchess, or primary military commanders have been foiled. This is assumed to be the work of one Master War Mage Dorman, who is permanently attached to the ducal party.

Duke Hesse considered the missive. Not much of it was a surprise, and he was sure his counter part in the north had been receiving similar intelligence. The Pervalian army was not a joke, as it had been a few times in past wars. More, they had a strong core of blooded veterans from their conquests of Huura and Dather. They had managed to stand up a strong professional military in the past fourteen years, and Hesse blamed a large part of his current problems on King Eddard's. If the damn assassins had managed to finish poisoning the man, Aurelia would be in Pervalian shoes by now, preparing for a conquest of their heart-lands and expanding their borders. This is what happens when you don't account for the power of an Archmage, since it was rumored that Pervalia had two, and that one had managed to not only discover the plot, but cure King Eddard with the Sacred Arts and track down the operatives that Hesse himself had ordered into the country.

Now he was facing half of one of the largest land army invasions in the history of his continent, and his head was on the chopping block. He believed his professional corps of soldiers to be just as professional and tough as the Pervalian counterparts, he had the defensive posture, his queen had ordered his mage corps reinforced, and once those bastards in Pervalia managed to break past the border fortresses they would be in his territory, on the open plains - a place the Aurelian Cavalry excelled in above all others.

"I have to bleed them at the pass, and again when they reach the fortress. We'll launch raids into the small passes of Hexenguard from our side to draw some of their reserves away and harry their supply lines every chance we get. If I leave a force here, they'll be able to disrupt any supply lines and operate off of the goods... And once they get onto the plains proper I can maneuver.." Duke Hesse continued to talk to himself as he moved wooden figurines around on a massive map, talking to himself and jotting down the occasional plan or note so that he could review them with his commanders in the morning.

Pervalia, King Hold

"Your Majesty," Eddard's steward came in and bowed low. Eddard waved his hand lazily.

"No need Tom. Please, tell me what you've got," Eddard said idly while peering at a very detailed map of the Hexenguard-Aurelia border.

"We were able to recently confirm with 100% confidence that the man responsible for your poisoning is in fact Duke Hesse," Tom informed Eddard solemnly, holding out the letter in his hand from Archmage Theresa and Archmage Tika. Eddard turned his sharp gave on Tom, who stood as if he had not a care in the world, before calming himself and grabbing the letter.

It is with a 100% certainty that the mage operative in our custody has finally cracked. The operative managed to withstand 13 years of our most insidious magical devices designed to extract secrets and truth, but this evening Archmage Tika and Archmage Theresa have managed to break the man's mind open for reading. They had a narrow window of opportunity, and so we were not able to extract much else, but Archmage Tika skillfully extracted the memories from the operative before the operatives suicidal countermeasures activated and his mind shattered completely. The operative is now functionally a vegetable in terms of mental capacity, and is being cared in the event that someone can manage to extract more information from the operatives head. Archmage Tika says that the likelihood of success is less than a percentage. We await word from the Crown and Throne on what His Majesty wishes for the Pervalian Secret Mage Corps to do.

Eddard read and reread the letter over and over before breaking out into a cruel grin. This bastard had poisoned him, ruined his reputation, alienated his family from him, and strained his personal relationships in every aspect of his life. And now he was the equivalent of a carrot. That brought no small measure of joy to Eddard, augmented by the fact that soon his brother Jarrod would be marching directly into the Hesse Duchy with one of the deadliest armies and mage corps ever assembled on this small continent.

"Ensure that Jarrod receives a copy of this missive," Eddard ordered Tom, who bowed and left the King to his thoughts. Eddard was furious since this was a personal attack on his own self, and his brother Jarrod was no less angry. Jarrod could be counted upon to lay the blame squarely at the feet of the perpetrator, and would then transfer his resentment of having to hide his son from Eddard onto the shoulders of the Duke of Hesse - someone he already disliked with an intense passion.

With Jarrod and Gerald heading that army, Eddard worried more about if there would be territory left to claim. He would have to ensure that Jarrod did not salt the earth and burn everything in front of him. For all of his brothers patience, kindness, and understanding... Eddard knew that between the two of them, Jarrod could be far, far more ruthless when it came to his family. Luckily for Eddard, Jarrod still considered him family.

Eddard laughed to himself and poured a glass of expensive Dather red.