The man who held the title of Lord of Arms was weary down to his bones. He had aged significantly in the last fifteen years despite only being in his mid-thirties he could easily pass for another dozen years older.

This meeting had likely added a few more years despite the briefness of it. He had come up with a problem which he thought had been solved some time ago.

The brashness and stupidity of youth. How old is he now? Sixteen? No. Eighteen. Wants an adventure and asks too many questions. Intelligent and sharp just like his mother though. Also, just as good looking. That’ll get him into trouble.

A voice brought Henerik out of his personal musings as he stood up and kept a straight face as the meeting was formally ended and all discussion had finished. The cups on the table had been removed by servants only moments before and the spillage cleaned up.

‘The Lord of Arms is departing. The meeting of the Six Lords and Ladies has come to an end. Praise the Goddess Aliza and the Queen!’ said the herald as Henerik had taken his turn to leave the room and its wooden table and fancy drinks of their own personal choice behind.

Nodding his head and giving a customary gift to the herald of a handful of noble scrip with the understanding that it would be evenly divided up between the servants who served and had to tidy up the meeting room he ignored the chatter of the other Lords and Ladies behind him.

He heard brief snatches of conversation as he waited for the meeting room door to open and his two personal guards to leave their own waiting room and attend him on his way out of the palace corridors.

‘….Celestial Empire? A myth I believe, they can’t be real.’

‘One of them wasn’t a man. No, not in that way, I mean he’s literally not a man but he looks like one. I’m trying to explain but…’

‘Love, peace of mind through lessened inhibitions. Why the Goddess herself can strike me down if she thinks I’m hurting the city. People need an outlet, you try and kill all the criminals and they’ll just hide. Always have, always will.’

‘We need to speak in private. My sister agrees with me and I agree with her.’

‘Yes, speak in private. My brother agrees and I agree with him.’

Henerik shook his head at the gossip and talks which always accompanied the end of each meeting. The herald opened the doors himself and bowed down deeply with the bundle of noble scrip vanishing into a hidden pocket in his servants clothing.

If the man had chosen to simply pocket it as he did with the various other gifts handed over by the Lords and Ladies then he would need to have stronger words with him at their next meeting. The profit in which Henerik made forging, shipping in and selling weapons and armour to the kingdom and various groups within was mostly funnelled back into the business itself.

‘Thank you. I will wait for my guards before leaving. Just a precaution of course, the palace is as safe a place in the kingdom as any. Bless the Goddess Aliza.’ said Henerik when the man had gestured for him to enter through the open doorway.

After waiting for a brief period in which he knew that his personal guards enjoyed their time chatting with the others of the Six Lords and Ladies both of them appeared. A man and a woman both armoured but not carrying any visible weapons beyond daggers at their waists, obviously sheathed appeared and gave the herald a deep look before they took their positions. Their metal armour was reasonably plain but had the shine removed from it on purpose to disguise the quality. Both wore helmets covering their heads but left their faces bare as one of them smiled at Henerik.

Henerik had little reason to talk openly in this place, his guards would only relax when off duty and he had no interest in mindless small talk but he would ask them to talk to him of the words shared inside the waiting room.

While not in direct competition with each other, there were overlapping boundaries which were clearly shared by the Six Lords and Ladies. Authority and power came from the Goddess Aliza, the Queen and fell onto them.

Any information he could put to good use or even prepare for the next meeting would be beneficial. He wasn’t looking for profit though. Money for him wasn’t an immediate priority nor was leverage over the others in the same level of power as him.

He had inherited enough from his parents, his grandparents and down the lineage of nobility which had developed in the kingdom over the last few hundred years that wealth for him had eventually become a secondary consideration.

Weapons, armour and tools of war were always in demand, even if the situation remained relatively peaceful. He never gave out anything without payment in kind though. The King-Consort and his precious sorties largely lived on charitable donations from the few nobles who supported his cause and the stipend provided by his wife.

A brave if foolish man. One of these days he simply won’t come back, even with that fancy suit of goddess imbued armour protecting him. Good luck to him.

There were others richer than him he knew, especially the Lord Merchant. He believed in accumulating assets, both legally and physically and his control of the trade routes and connections with the three previous vassal kingdoms would make it easy for most to believe that he was a greedy, corrupt and feckless fool.

Not many would believe that he was in fact a truly faithful man who cared for the orphans who had been left astray and he had even taken in more protecting them from the hidden experiments which the Church of Light and Purity had run behind closed doors until the Queen had found out.

In truth the fat man, was one of his closest allies out of all the Six Lords and Ladies and regularly came to his household for meals and conversation. They all wore masks during meetings and public appearances, even if they weren’t on their faces as the Lordess of Culture wore.

Out of all of them, she kept herself the variable. The one who would switch sides and instil a little bit of chaos to keep them fresh and interested in their conversation. Henerik truly didn’t know what to make of her despite the rumours surrounding her which he had no interest in paying attention to.

After each formal meeting had finished, they would drop their pretences and roles and simply chat, some were old friends, others wanted to share gossip and information that would benefit both sides. For Henerik, he simply wanted to see his family. His family would be waiting for him and he had news to share, especially for his wife.

She would be both saddened to hear the news and likely concerned but in a sense she was a far stronger person than he was. Her potential and ability had made up for her initially lacking social status and resources in the city but she had both captivated him and tamed him in a sense.

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The simple roughly hewn tunic he wore and empty knife sheath on his studded belt

His rough footsteps were muffled by the rich carpeted floors that made up the standard meeting room inside the royal palace. Servants bowed as he walked past but he kept his back straight and made a point to thank each one for their service.

His two personal guards fell into footstep behind him, their armour wasn’t shiny or polished but darkened on purpose and thoroughly cleaned. Each one held a single dagger on their sides but he knew that the reinforced gauntlets on their hands would do far more damage when they released the sharp spikes hidden within.

Neither of them scowled at the servants but simply kept their eyes forward and their ears open. Assassination of one of the Six Lords and Ladies had been a target for the cultists which had infiltrated the city or those who were simply hiding deep below in the forgotten sewers and other barren areas.

Not a single one of them had been hurt yet as there were usually softer targets but they chose to be careful as a matter of precaution. Despite more than a decade of the Church of Light and Purity either killing off, cleansing or even sending those corrupted to the Asylum there continued to be minor cults who continued to worship the Dark Lord and the corruption magic he unleashed.

‘Eyes forward you two. I expect a recount of your talk with the other guards when we return. My wife will literally have both of you shot from a ballista if I die walking through the palace. Remember, in this place and at this time I am the Lord of Arms. You can stop that smirk as well. I don’t have to turn back to see it on either of your faces.’

Henerik had been acting in his appointed role as one of the ruling Lords of the Kingdom of Nurburg despite his noble position remaining as a Baron. In a way he held dual-authority, he was able to maintain his own estate in his name and that of his wife and children, have his own private soldiers and a fine house in the noble sector of the city but he also held vast political power and influence.

None of the nobles left in the city had dared to rise further, mostly out of fear, after the Queen herself had conducted a political purge on the city, removing those from power who had supported the insane experiments of those in the Church of Light and Purity a few short years after the war had finally ended.

Then she had turned her attention to those who remained and consolidated her power even further. When the young sole princess had risen to the rank of ruling monarch after nearly her entire family, cousins, uncles and aunts who had chosen to participate in the final battle against the Dark Lord she had first grieved but her inner strength and the support from her betrothed prince.

After a single month of mourning she had declared the establishment of both the Church of Purity and Light and then the creation of the positions of Six Lords and Ladies who would be chosen from the surviving nobility to create both a counter-balance for her and also to protect and serve the interests of the Kingdom.

Corrupt. Well, not exactly. Subsumed more like.

The meeting with the Six Lords and Ladies who acted as a counterpart to the Queen in her dual role as sole ruling monarch and Head of the Church of Purity and Light hadn’t gone as he planned.

As always they started each weekly meeting with a prayer to the Goddess Aliza and despite not being a firm believer there wasn’t a single one of them who could deny her existence when her power shone brightly over the city protected them daily as it had for the last fifteen years.

The main issue for him hadn’t been the discussion as such but the content that had been involved. He knew that the Lady Joanne Dee Mawr was going to try and recruit and assemble another band of would-be heroes to try an attempt to cross the hazardous areas where the corruption magic remained strong enough and only bandits, monsters and transformed humans survived in.

In truth, she would have been good for business if she simply hadn’t chosen to requisition arms and armour without payment in kind. Henerik was responsible for providing, importing a few and selling weapons and tools of war but it didn’t mean that he held absolute authority.

The other Lords and Ladies could overrule and encroach on his decisions and purchases as he could with their territory and assets where authority overlapped and crossed lines.

Henerik was pleased with the fact that none of them during this meeting had supported the Lady Dee Mawrs objectives, not obviously at least. Then they had wanted to know the single individual whom the band of adventurers was going to follow. That had been a serious error on his part for not listening to briefings regarding Cristiano.

There was the matter of him leaving the academy for asking too many questions and having a strong personal opinion of the authority of the Church, some of his ideas about the existence of the Fallen Angels and the nature of light and purity magic were close to heretical.

All news and information of the experiments which had gone on had been entirely suppressed and the records destroyed as far as Henerik knew but he also was aware that Cristiano was a highly intelligent young man looking for his place in the world.

He had tried to protect the young fool, even though he wasn’t his natural born son his wife loved him deeply and in turn he respected her wishes. He had wanted to form connections with him when he had been a young boy but once Gerdene had explained who her father had been and how his reach was long and could even extend to the Kingdom he had been forced to leave the boy alone.

An anger deep within filled his stomach but Henerik tried hard to keep it from his face but both of his hands clenched and unclenched as his stomach ached when he considered how he was going to have to explain the matter to his wife Gerdene.

She hadn’t aged like he had, at least not in appearance and still appeared as a young woman in her early twenties despite giving birth to three children when she had married him and left her original son behind to be raised by their House Servant Alessandro

‘My Lord, may we have a word regarding the distribution of arms to the Reclaimer Movement? We have many sponsors and would appreciate a moment of your ti-’ said a man who had been waiting along a corridor looking for an opportunity to talk to one of the Lords and Ladies as they departed their meeting room from the palace.

Rather than have each one directly petitioned in individual audience chambers the Queen had allowed individuals and representatives of key groups within the capital city and the larger kingdom to maintain a presence in the corridors of the palace.

The man looked and smelled like he had just arrived from the countryside but Henerik knew his face. Despite his lowly position, he was one of the main leaders of the Reclaimer Movement which had petitioned the Church of Light and Purity and the Six Lords and Ladies.

A political and social force to be considered and he caught me in a bad mood. Reign it in Henerik, he doesn’t deserve your aggression. Not a single person does.

The entire purpose of the social movement was to enable a larger force to literally take back land in the countryside and beyond for use for cultivation and the establishment of larger settlements outside of the city.

In that sense they wanted to purchase arms and training for farmers, religious zealots and the dispossessed who wanted opportunity beyond the walls of the city. They recalled parents and grandparents who had fled the countryside during and after the final war with the Dark Lord.

A good excuse for me to delay talking to Gerdene and breaking the news to her. Unless that is, she already knows and is simply waiting for me outside. She always was more intelligent than me.

‘Hold. One of you stay with me while another finds us a suitable room to have a discussion. I think I can help you if you do me a favour in return. A discount for such a worthy cause of the blessed Goddess Aliza could be achieved but I’d like to have an honest and worthwhile discussion. Are we in agreement Master Bosques? I know your name and profession well enough.’ said Henerik as he crossed his arms over his tunic and glared at the man with a wry smile.

Any excuse indeed.