Michael
Michael watched as the room emptied and pretended to not notice the inquisitive stare of the merchant who stayed behind. After everyone but the man and the council had left, the dark-skinned man spoke up.
“How can I be of service, milord,” he said with the same polite smile he had worn the whole time.
“You are quite the unique sight in these lands,” Michael said and tried to mirror the smile of the merchant, but he didn’t quite manage it.
“We have that in common from what I have been told,” Grur replied.
Michael inspected the man for a moment longer. “I have a question for you. What do you think would a trade route with the Dwarven Kingdom Garekha be worth.”
Surprise fell on the merchant's face, and he looked at the ceiling while thinking about it.
“The dwarfs make remarkable goods that are being sold at high prices all over the kingdom due to their quality and more prevalently their rarity. The dwarfs don’t trust us humans so only few are even permitted to enter their kingdom and even if they would let us in then you still had to navigate a caravan through beastmen clan territory.”
He paused for a moment while pondering about his next words, but Michael stayed silent, feeling that the man wasn’t done with his explanation.
Grur resolved himself a moment later and said with determination, “A safe trade route with the dwarves would be invaluable. Having access to their markets would give unimaginable wealth to anyone who could reliably bring their goods here. If there was a place that allowed for this, I would probably move most of my business there.”
“I see.”
“Are you perhaps planning on establishing such a trade route,” the interest in Grur’s voice was unmistakable as him smelling opportunity.
“I am playing with the thought, but what could we even offer them,” Michael said.
“High-quality wood, animal and agricultural products are hard to come by in the mountains and have a much higher price associated with them in Garekha than here,” Solon interjected.
“That still leaves the problem with the clan territory between us and the dwarven kingdom,” Geron added.
“We still have no news about any raids or attacks from the wolf clan right,” Michael asked to which Geron shook his head. “Something is going on with them and we might be able to leverage that to strike a deal for free passage and a formal peace.”
“You plan to make deals with the beasts,” Commander Stanes said with a deep frown.
“Solon, could we trust a deal with the beastmen?”
“I have traveled through the clan territory multiple times already, so I have some experience with the different clans. The wolves are hunters and fighters, they have a strong sense of honor, and I don’t believe that they would break a deal but they are also very cunning so we need to be careful how to word the deal or they might use a loophole against us.”
Michael nodded to the explanation of his Master of Knowledge and asked his Constable, “Is that enough for you?”
“Yes, milord. Lord Cedric always spoke highly of your wisdom, Solon, so I shall trust your word,” the man answered. Michael smiled; he liked the pragmatism of the commander.
“I will go myself,” Michael said. “I will go to the Kingdom of Garekha and try to negotiate with them to open up trade to us. I will also try to negotiate free passage through the clan territory.”
“Milord, you can’t actually plan to do this. You would be gone for weeks maybe even months. It would make us look leaderless,” Eckbert said concerned.
“Not to mention that this is way too dangerous for you to travel through clan territory,” Sola added.
“First of all, I am a child, so our neighbors will be more careful in dealing with us if there is an experienced leader like Viscount Telp in charge. Secondly, I won’t be much needed here in the next couple of weeks as Geron will prepare the cleansing of the Ereic Mountains, and we don’t have the means to afford much else anyway. And thirdly, I will of course travel with a sufficient guard.” Michael looked at the different council members, none of them but Solon seemed convinced.
“As you said, I will be organizing the raid. So, I won’t be able to protect you, as your guardian knight I can’t accept this,” Geron said and looked determined to stand his ground.
Michael smiled weakly, he didn’t want to do this now, but it seemed he had no choice. “Geron, I wanted to talk about this with you. You won’t be able to always be by my side when you are acting as the commander of the knights and even though you will always be my knight, I have decided to form a personal guard whose charge it will be to protect me.”
Geron looked hurt as he argued, “It worked with Sir Pyke and your father.”
“There is a big difference between my father and me, Geron. Everything that my father couldn’t handle wouldn’t have been helped much by a guard. I am not as strong and you saw in the raid that even two people can’t guard me the whole day, much less when one of them has another assignment that can fill a whole day's work.” He didn’t want to hurt Geron, but he knew that he would understand, and he did.
Geron clenched his fists and slowly nodded, “You are right. I apologize for my selfishness; I should put your safety above my own pride. Who will oversee this guard?”
Michael was sure that Geron already knew the answer, but he said it anyway, “Eydis will. The selected knights will have to learn sign language though, so I will also take Sir Zeke Tomp as an interim leader.”
“We still have another problem at hand though. Will the dwarves even let you pass to negotiate or take you seriously,” Lord Telp noted. “Not even every noble in your service understands that you are not to be regarded as a child so how will the dwarves react?”
“The Kingdom of Garekha is my home so we will be able to enter without much difficulty,” Solon explained, “I also have some connections in the kingdom that will be able to get us an audience at least with the council if not even with the king himself. I believe that my testimony will be able to convince them to treat us with due respect in our negotiations and if not then they will quickly learn themselves while negotiating with our lord.”
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“If you allow, milord, I would like to accompany you. I think I can offer valuable insights into the realm’s trade and help with my experience in negotiating trade deals,” Grur Parak suddenly spoke up; multiple council members had apparently forgotten that he was still there and jumped a little.
This was what Michael had hoped for and was the prime reason he had let the man stay for the discussion. He planned to use the merchant’s expertise and at the same time evaluate the man.
“I would be happy to have you tag along.”
- A day later in the courtyard –
It had taken a whole day to prepare for the venture into the beastwoods; Michael would have appreciated leaving as early as possible to avoid all the arguing and annoyance from the nobility he had to endure the whole time. Grur had insisted on gathering goods that could be used as gifts and samples of what the counties could offer, and Michael couldn’t argue against that logic so here they were.
“If we delay by a week I could get more and better goods prepared,” Grur said while standing next to Michael. “These are only what I already had in my warehouse and what I could organize in the short time that I had.”
Michael shook his head at this. “We can’t delay much longer. The journey will take us over a week one trip, and I don’t want to be away from my lands this long. The cleansing of the mountains also can’t proceed without the knights I am taking with me, so we need to make this a short affair.”
“We mustn’t rush things though,” Solon interjected at this point, “Dwarves like to take things slow, which probably stems from our longer lifespan, so give it time.”
“Yes, we won't,” Michael replied and looked at his little caravan. It consisted of a carriage, two horse-pulled carts, and a detachment of four knights, twenty guards on horse, and ten more guards that Grur had hired. Additionally, Kiran and Eydis were also present and increased their combat capability by a lot. It was massive overkill for a normal venture but for this one, it was the bare minimum.
As Michael stood there, Sir Zeke Tomp approached him, he looked nervous, and Michael could guess why. He had been the guardian knight of his brother Matthias and was one of the few knights of Rowan that had survived the attack on the house in Emall. “Milord, preparations are complete. We are ready to head out on your command.”
Michael could feel the uneasiness in the mannerisms of the normally stoic knight. He probably didn’t agree with being granted the honor of being part of the lord’s bodyguard much less the interim leader but was too strict with himself to voice his objections to the command.
“Good,” Michael said and turned to his council which had assembled with many others in the courtyard. “Lord Telp, I hereby leave my lands in your care. Geron, continue the preparations, I want everything to be ready once I return.”
Lord Telp bowed to his liege, “We wish you good fortune on your mission and safe travels.”
Michael turned around, ignoring the glances of Sola, and climbed into the carriage together with Solon, Kiran, and Grur.
----------------------------------------
Geron
“Let's finish for today,” Geron said and rose from the table. The knights followed his example and began filtering out of the room. They had been brainstorming different tactics for the expedition into the mountains for hours now and Geron was burned out.
He could feel resentment and anger from many of the knights who didn't support his appointment to knight commander, and it was draining to work with them.
“Sir Pyke, a word,” he said to the former commander. The hulking man stopped and turned to him, his thoughts veiled behind his hard expression.
“What can I help you with, commander?”
“Do you have any advice on how to deal with the knights or just in total for the position of knight commander,” Geron asked the veteran, he was determined to get a grip on his new charge because if he couldn't then Michael would have problems.
Sir Pyke looked at him for a few seconds, his eyes focused on Geron's as if he was trying to peer into his mind. He then sighed and raised his hand holding up three fingers.
“There are three things you need in your position. First: Respect, giving it and receiving it. There is nothing worse than a knight who feels he is being disrespected and a commander who isn’t respected by his men. Second: Strength, you don't need to be the strongest knight in the house - even though that would help - but you need to be strong enough to appear deserving of your position. And lastly: confidence, the knights will doubt you, they will talk behind your back, and they might even openly challenge you but if you show that you are unsure of your own decisions, you will lose their confidence.”
“Not sure if I have their confidence,” Geron said with a dry chuckle.
“Of course, you don't. You are a lowborn, you are young, and you haven't proven yourself in any larger conflict,” the older knight said with his typical harsh tone. “Lord Rowan put you in a difficult position and you won't be able to afford any mistakes, or you will never recover as knight commander. This cleansing of the mountains will be your branding, if you succeed you will have taken the first step toward the respect you need and if you fail then you will never reach it.”
“Great,” Geron said and then saw the raised eyebrow of the former commander.
“Self-pity won't help you, Geron. Lord Cedric saw something in you; he saw himself in you. So, stop lamenting that the other knights are mean to you and get to work,” the last words nearly had a humorous tone as the knight grabbed Geron's shoulder with his remaining hand for a moment before also leaving the chamber.
- A while later in Geron's chambers -
Geron sat at his table struggling with the written reports of supplies and soldiers from different towns.
“I wish I could have gone with Michael. I don't want to start having to do sermons in the castle and be the moral support for everyone,” Sola groaned while lying on his bed.
“You know that priests of Idas are not welcome in many non-human countries,” Geron remarked absent-mindedly. “Your presence would definitely harm his negotiations with the beastmen and might also upset the dwarves.”
“Yeah, I know. I would still prefer to be out of here,” she said while playing with her Idas sun.
“Yeah.”
She then sat up and looked over to him. “What are you doing?”
“Going through reports. I gotta know how much manpower and supplies we can gather from the surrounding area and what we need to buy,” his voice sounded a little more agitated than he would have liked, a fact that Sola instantly caught up on.
She stood up and wrapped her arms around his neck from behind and asked gently, “What's wrong?”
“It is nothing,” he answered and faked a smile.
“Geron, we won't start lying to each other, got it,” her voice was strict all the sudden and Geron relented. “I am bad at reading and writing, okay?”
“What?”
“I am slow and often make mistakes, which isn't helpful if I am being buried in paper and have to search for relevant information in a pile of garbage,” he growled and threw the piece of paper he was holding onto the pile.
“I didn't know that you had problems with that,” Sola said, back to her softer tone.
“Yeah, I don't tend to run around flaunting my weaknesses. I didn't need to be fast before, I could take my time reading the rare written order or something of a news board but now I waste so much time that could be used better.” He was annoyed at his own flaws and especially hated to show them to Sola.
She let go of him and a cold shudder went down his spine for a moment until she pulled a stool closer and sat down beside him.
“Oh darling, there is no shame in admitting that you are not good at something and definitely no shame in asking for help.”
He avoided her gaze until she lightly punched him in the side. He turned toward her, and their eyes met. He lost himself in her shining blue eyes for a moment until she leaned forward and gave him a small kiss.
“Okay, I am gonna help you with these reports and also help you train reading and writing,” she said and picked up the piece of paper he had thrown down.
Geron watched her as she quickly skimmed over the paper and put it to the side. “Nothing important in this one.” She then picked up the next but before she started reading, she looked at Geron. “I am not gonna do all your work for you. Repetition makes proficient, so chop chop,” her voice had a playful tone in it that forced him to smile.
“Thank you, Sola,” he said which she only answered with a cheeky wink.