The day was sunny and cloudless; and it made Gorbach pitied the thousands of teens gathering over the plaza, for they would likely be baked by the shining sun for the entire ceremony. All while their supreme leader sat in a shade of the gate castle, sipping a glass of wine and resting his behind on his ornate cushioned chair.

Gorbach shifted his black trench coat to make his sitting more comfortable and then contemplated his current position. He was seated over the large balcony, alone at the very front but royal guards standing by both sides; behind him was a row of similar seats, ranking by the importance of their position.

Directly behind him were his council members, the three old lords and then Howland, whose seat was empty. Behind them seated their relatives, Lord Rubos’s eight years old son and wife, Lord Corlius’s nine offsprings along with his young fourth wife, next to all of them was the homely Jaque Machina, whose belly was steadily growing, then Lord Ptis’s nobody, since he had no children nor wife.

Behind them, all were the less ornate seats of other nobles, all cladded in their best finery, in attendants with their supreme leader to watch the ceremony commenced. Most of their seats were empty, for they preferred to socialize and dined on the luxurious food that was cooked by the servants in the royal kitchen and served all along the side of the hall instead of simply sat and waited.

As Gorbach glanced down into the plaza below, watching as guards arranged a thousand of recruits into their spot, he took a sip from his wine goblet but found it empty. He was about to hand it to a servant to have it refilled when Sophia snatched the glass from his hand.

“Here, I will get it for you.” She told Gorbach, her other hand holded an empty platter “I’m going to get some more food for myself too anyway.”

“Fill mine too, if that the case.” Lord Ptis told Sophia and handed her his own empty glass “2980 red, if you don’t mind.”

Sophia ignored the lord and spun away, striding deep into the hall. So Ptis handed the glass to a passing servant instead, a small humorous smile formed on his face.

“The girl is growing more and more defiant every day.” Lord Corlius observed, openly and quite rudely “She will benefit from a good spanking.”

Gorbach frowned at that “She is simply retaliating against us, my lord.” He explained, “I’m sure she will get better after a while.”

“But still…”

“Do not worry.” Gorbach tried to defuse the situation “I am having her educated on our history. She will open up in time, and make an excellent advisor as well.” Of course, Sophia was actually educating herself on that, but there was no need to mention that.

“Very well then, the supreme leader.” Lord Corlius said, his voice still had some defiant, but less now, so that should suffice. Then as Gorbach was about to return to watching the gathering of his people, the bald man spoke up once again.

“Supreme leader, it has come to our attention that you do not have an heir of your body.”

“I am the last of my line,” Gorbach told him, putting a dismissive tone into his voice to cut away the conversation, the hint that his advisors did not seem to get.

“Having a designated heir stabilize your rule, your leadership.” Lord Rubos joined in “You must marry and sire a child at once.”

‘And then you can assassinate me and rule through my child.’ Gorbach thought, quite bitterly, it was always the possibility.

“I have five daughters, four of them riped for marriage.” Corlius told Gorbach and waved his hand behind him “Your leadership can take a look at them if you like.”

Gorbach turned to meet them, Lord Corlius’s girls blushed prettily when he met their eyes, even the one who was but nine years old. All had shared their father dim grey eyes, though luckily not his baldness. That much, Gorbach could said about them.

“I shall take it into consideration.” He promised them, it was the best he could give, avoiding the subject as much as possible.

“As the supreme leader said,” Corlius replied, though, from his voice, Gorbach knew he was expecting more than that.

Sophia chose that moment to return, which Gorbach couldn’t be more glad of. She handed him his refilled glass, and then after noticeably avoiding lord Ptis, returned to her seat with a plate of modest food, sitting down on the fourth row.

Gorbach sniffed, with Sophia’s new position, she should be seated on the same level as his other advisors, but they raised concerned over that so much so that he had no choice but to have her sit two rows down, according to Howland’s advice that he should probably stop favoring Sophia too much, or it would anger the other advisors.

Gorbach took another glance at the ceremony’s preparation and saw that it had barely moved. He gave out a sigh and rose from his seat “I’m going for a stroll.” He declared.

Sophia eyed him, slightly annoyed as he passed by “Just after I grab something for you, you decide to move yourself?”

Gorbach let himself smiled “I have my own leave to go.”

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He strode away to take a breath of air from all of the politics, which though was important, he sometimes found it quite troublesome. In any case, he would very much like a break from his work as a supreme leader.

Gorbach took a moment to observed his surroundings, nobles were chattering and eating their food, that one remained the same, all of them stopped to bow when he passed by, but what interested him was the hall they were all in though. A lace carpet of vivid lining laid upon the floor, and all along the polished stone wall hung tapestries of the previous supreme leader’s deed, with his father’s unsurprisingly missing. The hall was on the top floor of the gate castle, used once per year just for this picking ceremony. Gorbach had remembered that the last few days were filled with servants running around the stronghold’s storage and kitchen to make this all possible.

‘Mayhap a praise was in order.’ He mused and he made himself off with a plate of olives and slices of roasted ham ‘Ten points for every servant perhaps, I had to speak of it to the head servant about it.’

Gorbach took a quick glance around the hall ‘There they are.’ The royal guards who always accompanied him were standing the side of the wall, still as stone and solar guns in hands.

“Here,” He said as he approached them, handing the two the plate “You can have it.”

They glanced at each other, not knowing what to do.

“Have it.” Gorbach repeated himself, in a tone too hard than he intended “Your supreme leader commanded it.”

They nodded stiffly and took the plate, so he took his leave ‘That’s a decent enough start.’

After he left the two royals guard to their own work, he still had some more time before the ceremony started. So when he noticed a pair of familiar young nobles chatting nearby, he decided to go and greeted them.

“Fill, Leaf.” He called them when he closed by.

One of them turned to meet Gorbach, a small smile on her lips “Gorbach” she called his name “Or should it be your leadership now?”

“Gorbach is fine.” He told her.

The other person turned, his dim grey eyes sparkled with mischief “What’s the ideas, not bothering to talk to us for the pass month or so.”

Gorbach shrugged “I had been busy of late, ruling and all that.”

“In any case, we are all here now.” Leaf said, “So a catching up seemed to be in order.”

Gorbach smiled “I suppose it is.”

Beside of Howland, these two were the only true friends he had in the last stronghold. One was Fillius, or Fill, as to reduce the seriousness of his name, a man of Gorbach’s age with non-muscular built and short light hair; his smiling and unserious face contradicted his neat outfit of suit and tie, linen with gold. The second was a woman of twenty-two, closer to his sister age if she was alive till this day than his own, her long auburn hair was partly dyed green and braid to let it slide over her shoulder, she also dressed in the same color of orange and light green gown, enchanted with emerald and fire opal jewelry, her face decorated with light makeup.

“You are looking very sharp, impressive someone?” Leaf complimented him, her real name was Churchier Twotower, but since the color of her hair was similar to autumn leaves in the front garden and the forest far away from the city wall, his sister nicknamed her that, and it had stuck with her ever since.

“If you called all of the nobles population ‘someone’, then sure.” Gorbach gave out a sigh; he often found distaste in putting on a uniform to simply look proper when he needed to be a supreme leader. Sometimes he wished he could attend to his business in t-shirt and jeans.

“Is my lord father bothering you again?” Fillius Rivergate, the second son of lord Corlius asked.

Gorbach gave him a powerless shrugged “Just another marriage proposal, so nothing worse than usual.”

“Do not be concerned; he should be dead by 20 years.” Fill told him with a joking smile “And then it will be my older brother who will be bothering you.”

Gorbach gave out a soft chuckle, only Fillius could make that sort of jest, and that was what Gorbach found fun about him. Leaf had taken it differently, however, she frowned for a moment and turned to address him “Why haven’t you just tell them that you did not wish to marry?”

“Because that is simply political suicide” Gorbach complaint to her “Speaking of marriage, where is your husband, I haven’t seen him yet.”

Leaf puffed up in sudden annoyance “Still in bed if I remember correctly. He is whining and being a brat again.”

Fillius started to break into a fit of laughter “Did he wet the bed like last time again?”

“Thankfully, no.” She answered grimly and turned to face Gorbach “I am still mad about this forced marriage, Gorbach. Sure, I’m fine with marrying greybeard, at least they knew how to treat women and is going die anyway, but why did I have to marry a fucking eight years old!?”

“He is the last of his line, preserving his family is a must.” Gorbach told her with a shrug “Besides, it was my father who planned your unwanted marriage, so take it up with him.”

“He’s already dead.” Leaf pointed out.

“I was meaning to visit his tomb later this week; You can come with me if you want.”

“Shitting on his tomb you mean.” Fill added, grinning.

“I hated my father, but not that much.” Gorbach countered back with a small smile.

“Fillius” Leaf told him, her hand on her shaking face “Your banter is likely the worst traits of you.”

“It depends on the matter of perspective, woman. At least I’m not stuck in a loveless marriage with a little boy.”

Leaf’s faces redden “You try sharing a bed with twelve years old for a few years and you will see how I feel.”

“Woman, a girl that age is cute and cuddly, the predicament with your boy is likely much worst.”

“You rotten…”

“Both of you, in the name of the supreme leader, stop!” Gorbach broke their discussion as he felt like it was going into a very unlawful direction, and also the fact that Fill rarely knew what he was actually talking about. Having friends was troublesome from time to time, but Gorbach let himself a faded smile, it was worth it, mostly.

“Gorbach” A different person called him, when he turned to meet the voice, he found that it was Sophia, coming toward his direction “The ceremony is going to start soon.”

“Did the other advisors send you to fetch me?” Gorbach asked, slightly curious.

“I sent myself.” She replied, closing in to the three.

Then suddenly, something flashed by his eyes and a moment later, Fill was crouching over Sophia, his hands stretching her cheeks, his eyes staring intensely and a smile of pure joy on his face.

“You’re so cute!” Fillius exclaimed, moving his hands side by side, pulling Sophia’s face with it, all the while screaming in slight agony. She tried to tell him to release her, but when he didn’t, Sophia kicked him in the groin and finally, he backed away.

“You know…” Leaf started to say, as they watched Fill holding on to a spot between his legs and Sophia laughing at him for it “When I heard that you make this girl into your constant companion, I was confused as to why. But now that I had a good look at her, I finally know.”

Gorbach simply nodded.

After a short moment, Sophia managed to contain herself “You should go back right about now, Gorbach.”

“It would seem so.” He told her then shifted to his two friends “Duty call.”

“It’s good catching up, I suppose.” Leaf responded.

“Smell you later then, supreme Gorber.” Fill said, and with another sigh from Leaf, they parted away.

“Another of your friends?” Sophia asked after they were alone.

“The last two” Gorbach responded, “Let’s move then, it seems that I must attend to my business.”