_______________________________________________________________________________

POV Aron Brightcloud

Finished with my morning exercise, I sat at the table and enjoyed a relaxed lunch with my mother and Lea. After some small-talk we had lapsed into content silence, everybody too engrossed in eating to talk with each other. Only after the plates had been emptied, did we continue our conversation.

“Aron, you will have to take a break from your training for the next few days. The annual renegotiation of our trade deal with the Northclouds is due and I want you to join me. In the future you will have to deal with other nobles and I want you to be prepared.”

Hearing her words, my interest was piqued. Although I had enjoyed the training it had been repetitive. The Visit to another barony would make for a welcome change.

“Sure mum. I am looking forward to it. Do I need to prepare myself?”

“No, this time I simply want you to join me. I will do all the talking. Your only goal is to watch and learn. We will depart in the early afternoon, so take care of the things you want to bring.”

Nodding my head I answered, “Okay, I will do that.”

Lea having heard that naturally couldn’t stay silent and joined the conversation. “Mum I want to come too!”

“No, Lea, you are still too young. You can join when your are older.”

“But mum, I will be all alone, it will be boring here.”

My mother shook her head. “ No Lea, my decision is final. Stay here and focus on your skills. I want to see significant progress in your writing when we return.”

Lea visibly deflated at that. She hated writing. Some positive support was needed.

“Sis, I will bring you a little surprise from the Northclouds, so learn diligently, okay?”

She nodded and smiled, much happier already.

Finished with lunch, I stood up and took my leave. I had to prepare. Back in my chambers, I turned to my silent guard.

“Sephiroth, I expect your best behavior during this journey. No jokes and schemes this time. As I have said before, I allow you a certain freedom while nobody is watching, but outside of the manor you will behave. Understood?”

“Yes, young master, I will. I won’t endanger you again.”

Observing her, I felt assured by her seriousness. There would be no repeat of the situation at the market.

“Young master, I had time to think and I would like to propose something.”

Finished with her sentence, she walked over to a wooden cabinet and opened one of the drawers. Having found the thing she was looking for, she turned back to me.

“Big part of the problem at the market was my beauty, to stop that from happening again I plan to wear this mask during our stays outside. It should forestall many problems that would arise otherwise.”

I grabbed the dull silver mask. It would cover her entire face. Completely hiding her gorgeous appearance. The only thing others would see, were her eyes. The mask had no expression or embellishment on it. Nobody would ever think that a beauty was hidden behind such a mask.

She meant it. It looked like my until now playful guard had decided to be serious for once.

“Okay, thank you. That should help.” Now I only had to take care of my things. What should I wear?

The armor wouldn’t fit for this sort of occasion. Leather clothes had to be enough. Still, I didn’t like to go outside without weapons. The sword should be doable, I can sell it to my mother as an accessory and the daggers could be hidden.

_______

We met up at the entrance to the manor. The servants had prepared a white carriage. Most of the to be transported luggage already safely secured on top and in the back of the carriage. Four magnificent white horses stood patiently in front of it. Not moving at all.

My mother winked me over, while Sandra stowed my luggage in the back compartment.

“How do you feel Aron, ready for your first formal visit?”

“Yes, mum, I am looking forward to it.”

She smiled, “Good, it will be a great experience for you. Just remember, always listen and think before you talk. It is better to stay quiet than to talk without clear understanding of the situation.”

I nodded earnestly. My mum was right.

“Good, lets go, the journey will take some time. The Northclouds have invited us to dinner, we mustn’t be late. Second lesson, always keep your promises and agreements. Only like this will you be able to built genuine connections and relationships.”

We entered the couch. Sephiroth joined as well. The other guards stayed outside and would accompany us on horses. Sandra and my mother’s personal servant would take care of the carriage. All in all our group would include nine people. The rest of the guards would stay back and protect my little sister.

The carriage moved and we made our way out through the manor gates into the city. We drove down the main street towards the suburbs. As we passed the populated areas many vendors and people waved at us. They recognized their leaders. I felt warm, knowing that my family was in such high regard. The people adored us. We had built this city and the surrounding lands into a happy thriving community. The people knew us as just, strict but yet giving rulers and respected us for that.

Soon we had left the city. The horses sped up, much faster than a normal horse would have ever been able to. Right, they were magical beasts. Naturally they were way stronger than the ones I knew from my home planet.

I gazed through the windows and took in the well-cared farmlands that rushed by our fast rolling carriage. The barony of Brightcloud was truly a beautiful place.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

At some point farmland changed to forest and soon our group was all alone, surrounded by the green of the trees. A small part of me felt uncomfortable at that. I still remembered my time flying above an endless forest with no signs of civilization too vividly for my liking. Going hunting was different. There I had a clear purpose, a target to hunt down. Now I simply sat and watched the surroundings pass by, giving me much too much time for introspection.

A change of focus was needed. I observed my mother, who had taken out a book and was fully engrossed in it. She had been behaving differently during the last few days. Or at least it felt that way. She had stopped trying to push for a conversation. Giving me more space than I had been used to during the last few weeks. That was welcome, I had too many secrets to hide. The closer we were, the harder it had been to hide them. Yet I missed her caring attitude.

Having nothing to do, I recalled the information about the Northclouds. They were a barony in the southern parts of Targos, quite far from our own lands. They lived in the Northcloud mountains, the tallest and most widespread mountainrange in the south of Targos. They were famous for their iron mines. A big part of it went to the capitol, yet due to the glorious past of our barony a trade deal had been established. My mother had an amiable relationship with them, at least for trading-partners. The baron of Northcloud was a stalwart and just man, known for his impartiality. I looked forward to meet them.

The air cooled down as we got higher up, slowly green changed to white and the sun sunk farther and farther. The carriage rose above the forest boundry, giving us a gorgeous view on the far away evening sun and the shined on mountain range in the opposite direction.

We had reached the barony of Northcloud.

Scattered hamlets and herders could be seen from my seat at the window. Further up, Northridge stood tall and proud. The seat of Barak Northcloud, Baron of Northcloud. The City was build half into the mountain, an ancient yet still intact stonewall surrounded it. Atop the gatehouse, the banners of Northcloud waved in the wind. They gave off an isolated yet strong feeling of Pride. Here atop the mountains nobody else lived apart from the stalwart Northclouds.

The guards protecting the gates recognized us as guests and let us through quickly. Not long later we had passed the checkpoints and entered the actual city. Everything was built from metal and stone. No wooden shacks could be seen. The productive mines had elevated the whole city into prosperity. Naturally that was only possible due to their lord, who invested a big part of his earnings into it.

We came by a market and countless taverns, as usual for a mining town, they were well visited. The people laughed and enjoyed the evening. I liked the vibes I got from here.

At last we had reached Northcloud manor. As we drove through the entrance gate servants already stood ready to greet us. In response to our arrival, the manor’s door opened and a tall man in his fifties strode out. Our carriage had come to a halt, and we exited the comfy interior.

“Amanda, it is good to see you again! I hope the journey was not too arduous.”

My mother smiled. “Barak! Thank you. No, everything went fine. I am happy to see you are still as vigorous and healthy as ever.”

“Always!” The head of Northcloud laughed.

“Come in, come in. It is already getting late. I hope you are hungry, dinner is ready.” Finished with his sentence, he turned his attention to me. “And that must be your son, Aron. The young master of Brightcloud, right? He looks healthy!”

I bowed my head in greeting, “Thank you, it is nice to meet you Lord Northcloud. Yes, I am Aron, son of Amanda Brightcloud.”

He grinned, “Don’t be too formal, you can call me Barak. I know your mother since long.”

“Thank you Barak, I will do that.” I liked his type of person, direct, just, fair. Mum got herself a good business partner there.

He let us into the manor. Compared to ours it was quite a bit bigger, built solely from stone. The corridor we passed through had stone warriors on each side, flanking us and “protecting” the corridor from possible intruders.

We had reached the dining room. There we were greeted by a little surprise, and my gut was telling me it was not a good one. At the dining table two other guests were already sitting there and making small-talk with the lady of the house. Their crest identified them as people from the house of Silveroak. Thanks to my recent studies, I recognised them as the lord Soran Silveroak and his son Balus. He was a year older than my new body. He had his first forming already behind him and was now a recruit warrior.

They looked up as we entered. The wife of Barak was honestly happy to see us. Soran and Balus smiled as well, but I easily saw through their deception. This trip was going to be more eventful than I had thought.

“Amanda, it is great to see you, and you must be Aron. It is so nice to get to know your son, Amanda! Come and join us for dinner. This is Soran and his Son Balus from the Silveroak Barony. They have helped us out with certain resources during the past year and have become good friends.”

We smiled and greeted them as well. I didn’t show any of my misgivings.

“Lets first eat and then talk about the deals we want to renegotiate.” Barak happily told us.

Following his lead, we seated ourself on the other side of the table while Barak sat down next to his wife, giving her a quick loving kiss. I used the time to observe the Silveroaks. Soran had the build of a slim yet dangerous fighter, more used to speed than strength. His son clearly followed in his father’s footsteps. Sephiroth silently placed herself behind my chair. Standing like a guardian-statue, not moving an inch. I had to give her that, for all her playful quirks she knew how to be a professional.

The dinner went by uneventful. I kept mostly quiet and let my mother do the talking. I only answered if I was specifically questioned, otherwise I observed and learned.

“That was tasty! Helen really knows how to cook!” Finished with the dinner, Barak leaned back and enjoyed his full belly.

“Good, let's start the real talk. Amanda, you know that I appreciate you a great deal, and I am always happy to trade with you, but I have a problem now. Due to increased demand of the capital most of the iron we produce is already reserved. So I have only your share to trade with. Normally I wouldn’t want to change that, but Soran has helped me a greatly in the past year and now needs iron as well. So I hope that you two can come to an arrangement on how you want to split the iron I will sell to you.”

My mum was not happy at that, I could tell. We needed all the iron for our barony.

“I understand that Barak, but we need all the iron we can get. Surely Soran can get his iron from somewhere else. His barony is stationed far more north, there are other places to get Iron from.” Amanda said.

“That is theoretically true, but they have not enough iron for my barony. It is essential for its growth to get the Iron from Barak.” Soran cut in before Barak could answer.

From then on the discussion devolved. My mother and Soran insisted on their needs. I used the time to check on their guardians, who stood behind their chairs. They were two gruff looking warriors. One had a shield and sword while the other used two short swords. Could Sephiroth and mum’s guard take them?

The discussion suddenly halted, when Soran’s son spoke.

“We can’t seem to come to an understanding. So why not let this by solved by trial by combat? Me and Aron are of similar age. The family who wins will get the rights to the ore?”

My mum and Soran replied at the same time. “Thats a great Idea!” “No, absolutely not!”

I regarded Balus. Should I agree to it? He had the edge body wise, yet it shouldn’t make that much of a difference. If used correctly it would even be his downfall. I knew I had more battle experience and a more callous mind. It would solve my mother’s problem. Why not.

“I agree.” My tense voice interrupted the renewed discussion. All the grown up looked surprised at me. Although the idea seemed fair at first glance, it wasn’t fair at all as Balus had already started on his way as a warrior.

“Aron, what are you doing?!” Amanda demanded immediately. Her voice filled with worry.

“Aron, are you sure?” Barak looked surprised as well.

“Yes, it will put a stop to this not ending discussion. Let’s do it.” I let some fear flow into my words. It would give me an edge in the upcoming battle. Let them think I agreed to it because of some misguided youthful honor or need to prove myself. They would find out the truth soon enough.

Before my mother could intervene Barak decreed, “in that case this is official. The two youths Aron and Balus will fight until one surrenders or first blood is drawn. The fight will happen tomorrow morning in the dueling arena. Go to bed now, you have to be fit for tomorrow.”

We nodded and said goodbye to the Northclouds. The servants lead us to our quarters for the night.