After the queen left I sat there for a while, observing the drunken king. He made me think of Calista and her father, Lord Cronos, and how their fate and the fate of their people was unjustly bound to that fool. I decided I needed some air, so I stood up and walked out to the courtyard. It was a clear night with a full moon. Autumn was upon was. You could feel it in the evening air. Except for the guards up on their red walls I was alone. They were chatting with low voices. I pulled out my wooden box, stacked with already rolled tobacco sticks, then walked to a torch to light the stick. I inhaled the white smoke and immediately I felt better, lighter.
“May I have one of those?”
I turned around and saw a young guard, standing approximately fifteen steps away from me. His head was protected by an iron helmet that covered his skull and partly his ears. It didn’t look well made. He didn’t wear any armor, only a dark red tunic with a Porosian sigil covering the chest – a golden crown with blue gems. At his waist rested a lengthy and unpractical sword. Much longer than short stabbing swords of Vetulonian legionaries. He appeared to be approximately of my age.
“Of course,” I replied, although for a moment I doubted his true intentions. Porosians didn’t like us and one can never be too careful. He came closer and I extended my hand in which I held the wooden box. He took the stick and like me, lit it with the nearby torch.
“Good, it’s good” he nodded, blowing the smoke into the night sky.
“Glad you like it,” I responded and smiled.
“Better than ours, I must say… I love smoking, but the guard’s salary isn’t much… So I can’t afford to smoke as much as I’d like. My mother grows the plant in her garden for me, so there’s that. But it’s not as good as yours. You always use paper?”
“Yes, back home it isn’t that expensive.”
“How nice for you, Vetulonian. I have to use a pipe! So, how do you like Porosia?”
I shrugged my shoulders, but said nothing.
“Hah! Everybody keeps talking about the League, the League, the League… And of invasion, war. Well, between you and me… I hope they will. Invade, that is,” he whispered the last part.
“How so?”
He looked around, his eyes twitching, then whispered again:
“People there have more freedoms. Live better lives!”
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“How do you know they do?” I asked with a cynical smile he didn’t acknowledge.
“Well, I’ve talked with their merchants on a few occasions. Every few months a caravan from Abydos arrives to the city, bringing all sorts of goods. So, what do you think of the League?”
Before I could answer, the door that led to the dining hall opened and out came Tiberius. The guard threw the stick to the ground, bowed to our Lord and trotted away.
“What was that about?” Tiberius asked with an impatient voice. I figured he was worn out by the king’s antics.
“Nothing, empty talk.”
“Give me one of those. You have one as well, I’d like some company.”
We both lit the sticks – second one for me – and stood there for a while in silence, observing the night sky above us. Then I remembered the queen and of her request and everything that she told me.
“I have to tell you something,” I said to Tiberius with a tone that stirred his curiosity.
“Yes?”
I explained to him everything about the queen and the king and what happened. When I finished talking, Tiberius sighed and said:
“A bad marriage that echoes through decades, impacting nations across the whole continent. How absurd! And now here we are, foreigners, trying to make sense of this mess. Tell me, young Antonius, what do you think happens next?”
“What do you mean?”
“What will happen with Porosia?”
“Well, the king is incompetent. Even more so, he’s delusional and surrounded by people who feed his idiocy. Nobody can get through to him, not even his mother. Porosia will stagnate under him. No – is stagnating under him. So…”
I went quiet and emptied my mind and an answer came.
“He should marry Lord Cronos’s daughter, that’s the only way Porosia has a chance. She appears to be very competent. She should get pregnant as soon as possible. After she gives birth, hopefully to a male, she’d have to have the king assassinated. That way she could rule in the heir’s name until he comes of age. With our support she could drastically reform Porosia in a short time span. Of course there would be some resistance with the clerics and Lords... But with smart and effective propaganda – and a few assassinations – that could be contained. The main issue is time. Do we have time for such schemes? How would the League react to changes in her sibling? The only reason they haven’t invaded yet is because they don’t have to. Porosia isn’t going anywhere, neither are her northern silver mines. In fact, it’s getting sicklier with each passing day, due to that fool of a king. No, no… There’s too many ifs in this plan... You were right from the start. Invasion. We invade Lord Cronos’s province and the Dwarves take the northern province and we let the League have the rest. It’s ill of us to be a collaborator in dismantling a whole realm, but I see no other way. At least that way we can salvage two provinces.”
“Some Captains will oppose.”
“Well, good thing you have ultimate authority over them.”
“That I do,” said Tiberius with a cold, malicious voice that took me by surprise. He sighed and threw the stick to the ground, tapped my shoulder and went back inside. I decided I’d had enough of Porosia and its problems for one day. I went to my chamber, urinated in the pot, then climbed to bed and went to sleep.