The King and Queen of Oglivarch were enjoying their dinner. Rather than use one of the many dining rooms, they typically ate outside after the sun had set. They both enjoyed the stars. In his youth, the King had even developed a method to tune the palace’s wards to remove the light pollution from the capital.
Hurrying into the courtyard, the king’s aid came to a stop. He waited for the king to notice him, but it was the queen who addressed him.
“What is it Walter?” The queen asked, while sipping her wine.
The king looked over from his side of the table, with a smile on his face.
Walter realized the king probably already knew, but he had to be certain. “Your Majesty, I came to inform the king of an unauthorized departure of a sky ship. However, based on his smile, it seems he might already be aware of the situation.”
The queen looked over at her husband. He had the look of a prankster enjoying the moment his prank landed.
“What did you do?” She asked in exasperation.
“I didn’t do anything,” he replied.
With a sniff, she ignored him. Turning to Walter, she said, “Tell me what we know. Have pursuit craft already been deployed?”
“No Your Majesty, not at this time. It seems that Arch-Mage Jennings attempted to requisition a direct transport to Dorchester. Naturally the request of such a transport raised some eyebrows, but the reason for the request was what caused Lord Hastings to report the incident to the crown. Apparently, after receiving word that his request was denied, he went straight to the sky docks. He stole the royal pleasure yacht. He sent a ping to the crown’s public inbox with a receipt of sale. He says he rightfully owns the sky ship because, and I quote ‘that brat said he owed me one a couple hundred years ago, and if he didn’t, he should have’. As Jennings is the head of the council of mages, no one disputed his claim that he had purchased the sky ship. Without even filing a flight plan, he took the ship. By the time I heard of it, he was already outside the city and in the wilds of Oglivarch,” Walter finished with a sigh.
The queen looked back at the king. He was stifling his laughter with his hand. The king said, “Tell her what his reason was for the transport.”
Walter sighed at the kings antics and said, “The wording was rather crass. He said he had to immediately go to Dorchester because, and I quote, ‘Some little bitch of a noble is masquerading as a mage and playing games. He was put in Dorchester because if he stayed in Hennings, someone would have killed him. He managed to piss me off from the other side of the kingdom, so I’m making good on my threat.’ Obviously, when the Lord Hastings read this, he alerted the Council of Leadership. I wanted to make sure that the information wasn’t being kept from the king. Hence, why I am here, interrupting your dinner.”
The queen turned to the king and said, “Really Oliver? You’re just going to let him go murder the man? You know the Cranstons in Cranpool will be livid.”
The king nodded with a smile. “I’ve already sent word to them. Specifically, the reason Jennings is heading there. Lord Cranston was justifiably angry. So, I sent him the memory of the meeting that was logged in the Tower of Mages. As a result, he not only understands, but offered an apology for petitioning for royal intervention all those years ago. You don’t need to worry, the poor man ‘masquerading as a mage’ has been dead for a while, Jennings was just waiting for an excuse to make it official. The man was an idiot and gave him one,” the king said, then sipped his wine while grinning.
Narrowing her eyes, the queen said, “You wouldn’t let this play out like this unless you had a reason. What is it?”
The king looked at his wife, and she didn’t seem to want to let it be. “Fine,” he said. “That anomaly in Dorchester is interesting. I didn’t want to affect his path, but Jennings wasn’t going to let the kid be in danger. This way, I let Dorchester gain a new noble house, Jennings gets out of his tower and gets his revenge, a mage who let a noble house hide troops is dealt with, and I put a sky ship above Dorchester in case I need it there. There were other reasons, but those were the main ones.”
The queen looked pleased, and said, “I always love the way you play. As far as I know you’re still the only person who has beaten the matrix of fate in the game. But is the boy that important?”
The king shook his head and said, “Not at all. The boy is interesting, but the events he sets in motion are much more interesting. Think about what would have happened if the Dorchens had won the city seat. They were arming the Islangurs as a noble house, what do you think they would have done when they gained real power. I can’t predict what the kid will do, and I find that fascinating. Who knows? They might not even have to evacuate the city during the coming essence shift.”
-----
Captain Angelton waited at the entrance to the Center for Nero to show up. He hoped the young man was on time. While reviewing his orders through his link, he nervously paced at the foot of the steps. This was not the time for Nero’s mischief.
He let out a relieved sigh when he saw Nero walk up with the Salvatores. At least they got Nero presentable.
“You two did a great job. He looks almost respectable. I’ll be sure to let you know what happens. So expect a late night ping,” he said.
Mrs. Salvatore responded, “That won’t be necessary. We’ve procured invitations. You didn’t think the Center would allow a young associate to face such a change in their path without their advisor present, did you?”
Surprised, Captain Angelton could only nod and say, “Of course, well, let’s get going then.”
As they started walking, Nero followed along as best he could. Everyone was taller than him, and he found it annoying. Their immediate destination turned out to be a carriage station. It was like a really efficient taxi station. The moment they arrived, a carriage pulled up and Captain Angelton provided the destination, “Lower 7 transport hub 1.”
During the ride, Nick and Angelton provided the majority of conversation. Nick was demanding a recounting of Nero’s meeting with Champion Charity. Nero wasn’t really paying attention, as he was just enjoying his first experience in a carriage.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Nero was surprised how smooth the ride was. He assumed there were magic shock absorbers that went along with the magical internal-lighting in the cab. They passed through Dorchester’s Lower 7 district at a relatively quick pace. As the ride progressed, Nero could see the buildings becoming fancier and taller with every block.
Soon, people could be seen wearing more robes than regular clothes, and Nero figured that robes were the suits of this world. He looked over at Captain Angelton who was dressed in chain-mail and his hauberk, and said, “Sorry to interrupt your riveting conversation, but why aren’t you dressed up like us?”
The captain turned to Nero and said, “I’m a knight Nero. My oaths require me to always be ready to defend the realm. I made the choice to forgo the niceties of life, and dedicate myself to a purpose. I have 43 years before I will wear anything other than armor. That’s when my tour is up. Although I’ll probably re-enlist, and being an officer in the army requires one to swear themselves to the code. You’ll probably never see me in anything but armor.”
The Salvatores both looked like they respected the decision, but Nero had some questions. The cab was pulling to a stop, and Nero bit his tongue to stop his interrogation. He was going to have to stifle his urge to know everything, because he knew that tonight he was going to be introduced to a lot of things that would tickle his curiosity.
The teleport station was a large building with a ticket booth, and benches for waiting. It reminded Nero of what he thought Grand Central station looked like. He had only seen it in movies, but the grand ceiling and busy atmosphere was exactly like he remembered.
Instead of getting tickets, Angelton led them to a private area with a small guard station. The captain offered the guards a nod, and then led Nero and the Salvatores to a private teleportation room. It was a large room with two people sitting at a desk, monitoring some holograms. There was a large platform which was circular, and near the ceiling was an equally large glowing ring hanging above it. The stone platform was lit up like it was under a spotlight. Nero could hardly see the walls of the room. The whole room looked familiar, he’d seen something like this in old science fictions shows.
“So this is exactly like a medieval version of a teleport room,” Nero muttered.
Nick apparently heard him, and responded with a smile, “You think we’re unenlightened? How did you expect to cross half the city in a reasonable time frame?”
Following them up onto the platform, Nero paid close attention to the symbols etched into the floor. He said, “I don’t think you’re unenlightened, I said medieval, which probably translated weird or something. I just meant that a wood room with a futuristic teleporter struck me as odd. Don’t worry about it. So how do we do this?”
Before Nero finished speaking, his senses blanked, and then quickly returned. It was like getting hit in the face with the flash from a camera. Looking around, he could already see the Salvatores and the captain stepping down from the platform.
Examining his new surroundings, Nero realized that this wasn’t the same room. Hurrying to catch up, he shouted, “That’s it? We already did it? Don’t they warn people or something?”
Nick gave Nero a look over his shoulder. “Everyone scheduled for transport was ready. If we weren’t ready, why would we have gotten onto the astra-platform. Stop talking nonsense. Just stay close, and keep your mouth shut.”
With a ‘hmmph’, Nero shut up and promised himself that he wasn’t going to act like a noob anymore. He would keep his eyes open, but hold any and all questions until he was somewhere private.
Soon they were taking another cab. This part of the city had really tall stone buildings, and had a very different atmosphere than lower 7. The people all had their noses in the air, and walked with purpose. Nero watched the people along the sidewalks interact, and could tell he was in the upper class area of the city. The smiles were gone, but the courtesy remained. ‘This is what New York would look like if the style section said that ‘Kindness was all the rage’ this season,’ Nero thought to himself.
Nero wondered how a city full of socialites like these functioned. Did they have auctions where they fought to be outbid? How did charities work here? If service was what you were supposed to do, how did people prove that they were better than everyone else?
The cab finally arrived near the keep walls. They were tall and wide, with large gates every couple blocks. Nero estimated that the keep must be 10 square blocks at least. He could see towers and wide rooftops with crenelations behind the walls. There seemed to be a lot of buildings inside the keep.
While they were waiting for their turn to be checked in at the gate, Nero couldn’t hold in his questions.
“I thought the keep was a building, how is this ALL considered the keep?” Nero asked Nick.
“Originally, the keep was just the large central building which could serve as a retreat position and center of government. Over time, keeps grew as cities grew. Now a keep is defined as the central governing position of the city. As you can see, there are still walls to provide a fall back position. However, now it mostly serves to keep out unauthorized people. After all, if an invading beast wave got this far into the city, there would be no point in falling back. The buildings in the keep are the administrative centers for all city services and orders,” he said.
Captain Angelton chimed in, “The local chapter of the Knights of Oglivarch is here as well. I stayed there for a while after I was promoted to captain. It is in what used to be a church of Serine, before they moved to the temple district.”
While their carriage moved through the gate, Nero watched as the inner keep was revealed. There were towering buildings along with a great deal of open spaces and gardens. Every building had courtyards and fountains. There were statues and walkways, benches and awnings. Nero thought it looked like a landscaping catalog threw up; it was overdone to the point of being ridiculous.
Eventually they reached what Nero thought was the castle. It was a huge building with towers and ramparts. It even had a drawbridge and a moat. The moat had floating flowers and looked well maintained, it didn’t look like it was for defense at all. The entire castle seemed like a parody of what a castle looked like. Then Nero took another look, and tried to think about WHY he thought castles looked a certain way.
He was used to seeing ruins. A building that was ancient but well maintained would actually look like this. There was no reason to let the walls fall to disrepair, or for the landscaping to be purely functional. Why couldn’t they do both? Nero reminded himself to take things as they come, and not to judge things without information. He refused to act like a tourist.
Pulling up to the keep, they got out and were met by the staff. It wasn’t exactly a private affair. There were people coming in and out of the castle, and it was more like a servant and butler waiting at the airport with a sign that said ‘Nero Walker’, than a special honor that welcomed him as a guest. Once their identity was confirmed, they were ushered into the castle and put in a room off to the side. As expected, they were told to wait, and they would be called for ‘soon’.
Checking out the room, Nero thought it was a typical fancy-person waiting room. Yet, he was disappointed to find that there weren’t any cookies or anything. Plopping himself down on the couch, he said, “Well, at least the couch is comfy.”
Mrs. Salvatore sat opposite him, while Nick and the captain looked around the room and made appraising remarks about the art.
“So, is this your first time at the castle or whatever this place is called?” Nero asked.
Sighing, Mrs. Salvatore said, “Nero, I need you to listen to me. If you insult someone here, they can invoke the right of duel. Refusing to duel is shameful, and can have economic and social consequences that you can’t afford. You have some protection as a new noble, but if a case can be made that YOU started it, then you are on your own. I haven’t had time to go over the relevant laws, so just watch your words.”
Nodding, Nero said, “No problem. I’m the picture of a well behaved young master. But seriously, what’s this place called?”
“This building is either called the castle, or the central keep,” she replied.
Nick chimed in, “Also, make sure you don’t make any promises, or agree to anything without checking with us first. And this is important, do not accept any challenges to a game. Bet nothing, accept nothing. Do you understand?”
Nero replied, “Yup. I got it. Trust no one. Everyone here will smile at me while trying to stab me in the back.” He turned to Captain Angelton, and continued, “The captain knows what I think about rich assholes. I wouldn’t trust them with a butter knife.”
Nick asked Vera, “So do you have any plans on what to do about his noble trials?”
Vera nodded and replied, “Yes, I have a few ideas. We’ll have to see how Lord Cosgrave wants to play it. I’m also interested in why the court mage and the general are at this dinner, instead of the royal heirs. From the reports of Nero saving them, I figured they’d offer a formal thank you. This would have been the perfect venue for that. This is unusual, even for an unusual situation like this. We’ll just have to play it by ear, and make sure Nero doesn’t get himself killed.”
Nero had his feet up on the table, and was leaning back into the couch. “Hey, I’m not completely without…” he trailed off, like he couldn’t think of the word. “Guile!” he shouted. “Yeah, I’m not completely without guile. I can be all noble and whatnot. You don’t have to worry, I got this.”
He was met with blank stares. The door to the room opened into the silence, and the butler said, “Dinner is served, please follow me to the dining hall.”