Author's Note:

Additional content! Edited as of 17/5/16

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            King Tiranious smiled briefly, "A poor joke I see." His smile faded and his eyes drifted off toward one of the large stained glass windows, which should have had curtains. The window he seemed to be looking at depicted a knight fighting a troll it had set on fire.

            The chancellor cleared his throat, his tall hat bobbing with effort, "My king, these are Sir Wilbur's delegation."

            The king's eyes lit up and a smile spilled across his face as he turned his face back toward the group. "Sir Wilbur? That would make one of you ladies his granddaughter."

            Lizzy opened her mouth to replay, but Kegar beat her to it, "Yes, my king, this is Lady Elizabeth and I am her fiancé Kegar of the Frozenpine. Representative of Sir Wilbur."

            "Fiancé?" The king's brow furrowed looking at Kegar, "I knew Sir Wilbur was progressive, but a dwarf? Has it been so long that he forgot the Dwarf Wars or his son's death?"

            Kegar shook his head, "My folk are woodland people. We had nothing to do with the Dwarf Wars."

            The king eyed him suspiciously for a moment before murmuring too quietly for the youths to hear, "Well, there is still time for him to die before they marry... or her to fall for someone else." The King turned his eyes to Lizzy, "Well, my dear, my friend had told me of your interest in music. I was going to send this as a gift, but I suppose I can give you it now as an early wedding present." He gestured and a guard stepped forward. They consulted for a moment and then the guard left. "It will be brought for you before you leave."

            Lizzy's thank you was drowned out by the bellowing thanks of Kegar.

            The king frowned. He was finding he didn't care for Kegar. His distaste was shifting from Kegar's dwarven heritage to his personality.

            Percival stepped forward, his movement too unexpected for Kegar to protest. "King Tiranious, Sir Wilbur requested that I deliver a letter to you." He pulled a sealed scroll from a pouch that clearly shouldn't have fit the scroll.

            The king motioned and a guard took the scroll from Percival and gave it to the king. Tiranious read the letter from Sir Wilbur, his brow furrowing more and more as his eyes scanned the letter.

            Kegar leaned over to Percival and whispered, "What's in the letter?"

            Percival hadn't read the letter, but Sir Wilbur had told him the contents. He'd said it was in case the letter was lost, but Percival had a feeling it was because Sir Wilbur wanted someone in the group to know. There is no way I'm telling you, Kegar. He shrugged.

            "Why did he give you the letter instead of me?" Even though he was trying to stay quiet, his voice was growing louder with his impatience.

            The king looked up from his letter, then glanced back down. He handed the letter to his chancellor. "It is always good to hear from my old friend. Thank you for delivering this letter."

            The chancellor handed the king a scroll, which the king read quietly. "Ah, yes." His eyes rose back to the group, "You may or may not know, but the kingdom has been plagued by orcs to the south for generations. Now, normally this is not a problem. The orcs are always so busy killing each other that while the kingdom loses a few head of cattle the amount of loses are minimal. There was even a stipend set aside to assist farmers who took losses. The raids were neither dangerous nor often enough to justify the expense of a military campaign against the orcs."

            The king sighed wearily, as his shoulders sagged, "All that changed this year." The silence stretched out as the king stared out one of the stained glass windows depicting a knight cleaving the head of a large orc.

            Katrina spoke up bringing the king back to the present, "Why?"

            The girl is from Pode, she probably doesn't know how to address a king. The king thought ignoring the lack of appropriate address. He continued, "The orcs have been united behind a single chieftain. Now that they are no longer fighting each other, they have begun sacking the southern and western towns in earnest. I would like you to find and assassinate the orc chieftain, if he is dead the rest will fall back to their usual chaos."

            The group nodded. No one liked the savage orcs. Not that anyone from Pode had a real reason to dislike them, there were no orcs near Pode, but Percival had a run in or two with them traveling with his father and had regaled the youths of Pode with his exaggerated stories of heroism.

            Katrina asked, "Where is your army?"

            The king's eyes fell again, "There are lizard men and frog people pouring out of the eastern swamp. I must keep the army on that boarder, simply to stop us from being overrun."

            Lady Elizabeth stepped forward, "My lord king," Kegar grabbed her arm and attempted to pull her back, but she shifted out of his grip and took another step forward, "I know that times are dire. The kingdom is beset on all sides it seems, but I bring news of another peril."

            The king nodded for her to continue. There seemed to be no end to his perils.

            "There is a bone spire that is the spawning grounds of undead. Some of our group slew all inside and defeated the corruption, but when the sun cleric who was with them tried to bless the ground and remove the desolation from the soil but he could not. Without a more highly trained cleric the spire will rise again and bring hordes of undead on your lands."

            The king smiled, looked up at his guards and waved them out of the room. Once all the guards were gone he replied to Lizzy, "This is excellent news!"

            "What?" Lizzy was caught completely off guard.

            The king waved his hand in a dismissive manner, "Clearly this is terrible. No one wants the undead running about. However, this may be just what I need." He lowered his voice, "There is a group of nobles seeking to rebel. I know they have bribed many of my officials and I suspect some of my own personal guard. I believe they are in the pay of the swamp dargon. That creature, I believe, is instigating all of this. I have no way to prove it, of course, but this could be just what I need to bring them to heel and deal with some of the unrest in the city." He was quiet for a time. It was evident from his face the wheels were turning, "Where is this spire?"

            Kegar answered, "North of Pode."

            The hope froze and then shattered from the king's countenance. "I'm afraid I cannot help you."

            Katrina spoke up, sparks began racing across her skin, "You mean to say that we'll be risking our lives for you and yours but our taxes haven't bought our families a second thought?"

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            A weary sigh blew out from the king. "I wish I could help, I do. But the army has its hands full with the swamp. If it were closer I could order the nobles to tend to it and public support would be such they would dare not refuse. However, the people of Capita cannot see far enough ahead to care about Pode. Without public support the nobles will refuse and if they realize they can refuse the king's order then they will not bother to pay the throne even lip service. They will rebel and the kingdom will fall." Silence fell. Hopelessness spread out from the king, smothering Katrina's anger.

            The chancellor cleared his throat and stood up. He was a shriveled, pale man who appeared to be even older than Sir Wilbur. "Your highness if I may propose a solution?"

            The king nodded.

            The chancellor continued, "If you kill the orc chieftain and scatter the orcs in a timely manner then we may be able to gather the support we need. Sending the nobles to aid the Heroes of Pode is more likely to happen then just sending the nobles to Pode."

            The king nodded, "That could very well work."

            Kegar nodded, "Very well. We shall hasten to slay the orc chieftain."

            The king steepled his fingers. His eyes resting heavily on Lizzy. "Lady Elizabeth, if this mission were not of the utmost importance, I would request you dine with me tonight. Unfortunately, it is and so I must ask that you and your companions leave post haste. I hope that you can return soon. I would love to speak with you, regarding a few important matters."

            As Lizzy was about to reply, Kegar bowed and spoke, "We would be honored to accept your invitation."

            Lizzy blanched, glancing from Kegar to the king, whose eyes had narrowed dangerously, "I would be honored your majesty."

            The king nodded to Lizzy before turning his ire on Kegar. Kegar, impressed with how he had cleverly insinuated himself into attending the dinner, did not see the anger in the king's face, though it was evident to everyone else in the room. The king, however, decided not to respond. I need the fool to carry out the mission and Sir Wilbur is right, the nobles wouldn't allow Lady Elizabeth to lead the levee… but after these Heroes of Pode return victorious, they may say that it was not the dwarf that led them, but instead Elizabeth, the daughter of the famous Sir Wilbur. Of course, they will try to court her and convince her to side against me…

            The chancellor called for the guards to escort the group to the city gates. One of the king's personal guards, given the amount of gold on his shoulder he was fairly high ranking, brought with him a harp. The harp looked like it had been grown into the shape rather than carved. The wood had been polished so that it shone like gold in the light.

            The guard smiled at Lizzy, "This would be-" He glared at Kegar when he reached for the harp, "for you Lady Elizabeth. It was grown from honeywood and its tones reflect that sweetness."

            Lizzy smiled gratefully at the guard. "Please, thank the king again for me. I had no idea of the beauty I would receive."

            The guard chuckled. "He didn't either, I assure you, but I will convey your gratitude. I am something of an amateur musician myself so the king dispatched me to pick it out. You see this? The wood comes from..."

            The guard - "please call me Frank" - and Lizzy began a vigorous discussion of woods, the benefits of one over another and their the effects on sound, tone and the like. Kegar was furious. As a druid, I have a great deal to add about wood! I have so much I could add, they wouldn't even understand the half of it! But the guard prevented him from adding more than a few comments.

            Katrina and Percival walked a bit behind. Percival was, even in Capita, keeping a wary eye out for danger to Lizzy. Currently he was watching Kegar with trepidation as Kegar frantically tried to take control of the conversation. Frank was impressively good at defusing Kegar's comments without being rude, though with each of Kegar's attempts to intrude he was making it more and more obvious how self-centered he was.

            "I got to say, I wonder."

            "Wonder what?" Percival didn’t know exactly what rank "Frank" was, but that itself told him how high a rank the young man was. He has to be a noble. The only way someone only a few years older than us could be a high ranking officer in the king's personal guard is if he is a noble. His eyes flicked to the gold on the guard's shoulder again, He must be a noble and very, very dangerous. All the other guards the king had some grey in their beard, but not this one.

            "What Sir Wilbur was thinking with those two." Katrina nodded in Kegar and Lizzy's direction, "She is going to lose Pode to him."

            Percival studied Frank, who was smiling freely, with a practiced eye for a moment, "I think Sir Wilbur was playing a long game. He knows better than to tell his granddaughter she can't have something." He was quiet for a few paces, "I think he was hoping desperately to convince Lizzy to stay home... but she didn't so she got a body guard."

            They reached the city gates. Frank wrapped up his conversation with Lizzy, bowing over her hand before returning to the castle with his men. Kegar looked like he had been pole axed. Percival smiled into his glove, he always loved it when someone's tail got pulled. He was the only one to notice the note the guardsman had slipped into her hand.

            Kegar began stomping off toward camp. "When we get back to camp I'm burning that harp!"

            Surprise whipped through them. "What? You can't! It was a gift from the king!"

            "No it wasn't! It was a gift from" his voice dripped with disdain, "Frank."

            Percival stepped forward, placing himself between Kegar and Lizzy, "Now Kegar, I can't let you do that."

            For a moment Kegar's eyes widened in shock. "What?" His eyes quickly narrowed suspiciously, "I am the leader of this group and you must obey me on Sir Wilbur's order!"

            Lizzy stared wide eyed at Kegar. She had never seen this side of Kegar before. It was frightening.

            Percival shook his head, "No. I was hired directly by Sir Wilbur to look after Lizzy and her possessions. I am not beholden to your authority."

            Kegar turned to Lizzy, "This matter isn't settled." Then he stomped off.

            Lizzy watched him go. "Percy? I think I don't want to sleep in that tent with Kegar tonight."