Upon walking into the into the castle walls the first thing I notice is a little boy in fancy clothes playing with two wooden knights pretending they were fighting. when we got closer the boy looked up at us and asked "are you knights?" a question to which James answered before I could "No we we are much better, now do you mind telling us who you are?" the kid looked at him with star filled eyes "My name is Roderick and what is better than a knight?" 'that name sounds familiar' I was going to say something but then James interrupted by saying "So you're the one who Maria is always writing to us about." Roderick looked at James "You know my sister." "Our sister." James responded and to that Roderick ran into the castle and came back out with a girl who appeared to be a couple years younger than me. when the Girl saw us she ran up to hug us and with tears streaming down her face "Henry, James I thought i'd never see you again." We both hugged her back although James did so stiffly "Follow me, I'm sure father will be happy with your return."

We followed Maria in the castle with the walls made of black granite with tapestries of wars battles and previous kings. The ceiling and floors were made of wood sometimes they would have rugs or carpet. every once in a while we would see some servants who would say things like "look at how big you two got" or "which one is Henry and which one is James". Maria stopped in front of a large wooden double door "Please don't forget the manners you were taught, OK?" we both nodded as the doors swung open an old man sat upon a stone block which I assume is the throne. the man sitting on the throne looked old with wrinkled skin that is a sickly pale color and long white beard that is surprisingly well kempt. When the man tried to get up he coughed up what looked to be blood. Seeing this Maria ran up to him and told him to take it easy. The old king regained his bearing and said "Henry, James I know you two just got home and that's good but I need you two to lead an expedition. He gets up and walks to a nearby table with a map on top. "there are six known continents on Veil's green and blue globe."

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"Veil?" I asked

"Veil is the god of the night and the patron god of Thessians and our family ancestor. What has your tutor taught you when you were younger?!" He asked and said upset

"Father, Henry was wounded during the campaign, perhaps he still hasn't recovered fully." James said to diffuse the situation'

"Now that is out of the way what is it that you want us to do Father?"

"Two vassals one in the north and the other is an Island chain to the south have both refused to pay tribute for the past few years and will probably continue unless we apply military pressure since the two nobles are probably cowards who only act brave."

"So how many men will we receive to achieve this Father?" James asked

"That depends on you." He responded

'!?!?' Both me and James were confused as by what he meant.

"Father what do you mean?" I asked

"You will have to recruit volunteers and equip them yourselves." he said

James started arguing how it was unfair it was for us for some reason about royalty while our father brought up our excessive womanizing and his heavy drinking as well as that we needed to be more disciplined, while all I received was an annoying headache as they argued. Eventually our father won the argument and gave us our assignments and kicked us out of the room I was supposed to go south to the Vine Island chain by sea while James goes to a mountainous region known for it's wine production so probably wasn't the best place to send him but then again neither was the coin toss used to decide where we would go. Because I didn't receive many memories of the layout of this place I had a maid take me to my room.

My room was a lot more basic than you would think It was a wooden bed with a blanket made of fur and wool with a wooden chest in front of it in the corner of the room and a wooden table and chair on a wooden floor other than that the room was bare. I laid down in the bed and slowly drifted to sleep.