It had been eleven months since Rumil and I had our now infamous throw down in the main hall, and I was getting worried. It takes four months to get from the new lands to the capital territory through the port city of Letharen, factor in the two weeks for Rumil to get healthy enough to travel and the three weeks it took for him to go from Rost town to the harbor, it would have taken just over five months for Rumil to reach the capital territory, after reporting the entire incident to the second war minister it would take them one to two months to get the political backing they would need to write a letter signed by the people with enough authority to summon a house head to the capital to stand before the elfin high council, then the letter would have to be sent back to the new lands all in all around eleven months, but I heard nothing.
News from mother was nothing but admonition for my rash behavior and her tripling the intensity of the sword katas she had me doing. The spies I had managed to plant in Vanlathriel’s envoy on her banishment to the capital had sent no messages about unusual movements. The lack of reaction from the second war minister had me nervous since the fifth month and I was sure I was developing an ulcer.
Immediately after Rumil and Vanlathriel had departed for the capital territory I had launched my campaign to renovate the entire Rost territory, the first month had been dedicated to two things, eradicating Vanlathriel’s extensive spy network, which Felina took to with disturbing gusto, converting agents where she could and delivering the ones she couldn’t or mistrusted to me for interrogation and exile or execution. The second was the ejection of the black sword clan from the Rost territory, because they had harbored me during my ten year exile I allowed them safe passage till Letharen under heavy guard but still placed a kill on sight order if any member of the black sword clan was caught on house territory.
The second month was dedicated to finding a merchant clan to support the house financially and also a mercenary clan to bear the house name in battle. The various noble houses of the elves didn’t often ride to war themselves, whether they thought their soldiers t o valuable or their royal lineage to noble to be spilled in battle I don’t know, but most noble houses usually had two or three mercenary clans in their employ to bear the house sigil and ride to war for them, I found it a quick and easy way to acquire soldiers , but I didn’t want the pay as you go package, I wanted a mercenary clan who were going to cater to only house Rost, this proved to be difficult.
When the various un-affiliated mercenary clans heard of the black sword clan’s fall from glory they immediately sent representatives down to Rost town, but when they heard I was seeking to assimilate the mercenary clan into house Rost and not on a job by job basis, their interest quickly waned, I ended up picking three mercenary clans, the king snake clan, the wind wolf clan and the red sun clan who I picked because their emblem reminded me of the Japanese national flag. Of the three mercenary clans the king snake clan was the most prominent and were to be the mercenaries used by all the Rost territories for requests and bandit or rampaging magical beast subjugation, the lower acclaimed wind wolf clan was there for support while the even less acknowledged red sun clan sole duty was the protection of the Rost town and Rost castle.
Picking of the merchant clans on the other hand was an enjoyable affair, all Felina had to do was hint at the port city that Lord Tal Van Rost was looking for merchant clans and houses to nurture under the house Van Rost banner and a bidding war erupted among the merchant houses present. Giving preference to the unaffiliated merchant houses that attended my announcement feast I selected the blue curtain merchant house as the main supplier to the clans of the house of Van Rost but also picked up a new merchant clan called the silver ship merchant house to cater exclusively to the Rost castle.
On the third month the new clan heads had finally been selected and their first order of business had been to send the hostages, I mean children that I had instructed their predecessors to hand over into the care of the Rost castle, all under the age of five and all the direct descendant of the current clan head, the terrified children on arrival had stared at me with fearful eyes their heads , I am sure, been previously filled with tales of the golden eyed demon who would steal their souls and their chastity the moment they let their guard down, I immediately promised to not steal their souls.
The third month was also when I launched my construction phase, I began recruiting black smiths, stone workers, architects, anybody who had anything to do with construction and had a reputation was pulled in, the blue curtain and the silver ship with their new found political backing were instructed to gather construction material in bulk and then we started building.
First was the arena, I intended to have the tournament take place this year in an arena to maximize seating profits, it would be able to handle thirty seven thousand in the standard seats, eight hundred in the exclusive seats and would have nineteen VIP boots that would sit ten comfortably, the arena would also serve to draw in people to patronize the various businesses in Rost town making me a rich elf.
As construction began on the arena, I also had them begin with a wall around Rost town, the it would be the outer wall for now, I planned to build three more walls as the town expanded, turning it into a four layered city. As the construction commenced and the town became extremely busy, I designated the next set of workers into three teams, they were each to build a road, one would extend from town Rost to the harbor city, and the other two would build roads to the boarders shared by Van Flotina and Van Fin respectively, assigning a thousand elves as their guards I detailed five of my mages to each battalion and they swiftly set of.
The construction carried well into the fourth month so I had Felina reach out to the farming villages within the Rost territory and propose a deal, financial aid for first pick of their crops at a reduced ten percent rate, if they had apples they would offer to sell it to us first at a certain price, if we didn’t want it then they could sell it for themselves, some refused but we got a decent amount of them to agree to it and instantly provided them with a enough seeds and manual labor to ensure a good crop the next year.
When the fifth month came about I began to worry, Mablung had been put in charge of one of the road crew and was half way to the border between Van Flotina and Van Rost territory, Felina was of convincing farmers about the high profit low risk opportunity I was offering them, right now was when I was most vulnerable as all my trusted agents were in the field, yet no attack or provocation came, no whisper of a conspiracy or rumbles of rebellion, no movement in the neighboring territories or warnings in mothers letters, all was silent.
Not wanting my nervousness to make me unproductive I began a pet project to take my mind of things. Felina had constantly complained about my chamber, she had called the yawning cavern a desolate cave, my attempts to appease her by filling the stadium sized room with balls of light had instead made it seem more sinister.
Procuring the necessary ingredients I divided the roof of the chamber into tiles and inscribed in each tile a magic circle encasing a square, within the square were runes of correspondence, relativity and transparency. At the end of the fifth month I had completely enchanted the entire ceiling and on evoking the runes, the ceiling became transparent and began to reflect the sky above, this of course was a big hit with the kids and served to go a long way in breaking the ice between us, but my plans were not yet done, contacting the head of the silver ship merchant clan I told him I would like to turn my chamber into some sort of indoor garden, expecting him to be shocked or impressed he simply bowed and asked me to leave the matter in his hands.
Now living in the guest wing and having my pet project hijacked, with no word of movements from the capital, I was forced to associate with the children to reduce my boredom. Elvin children, especially those under the age of ten are universally cute, with bright eyes, chubby cheeks and an endless amount of energy, they had a black and white view of the world, either they hated you or they liked you, there was no in-between. By the beginning of the sixth month their boredom had tempered the hate they had towards me, instilled in them by their parents I am sure and it was more now a feeling of curiosity they had, I had not tortured them or interrogated them for information as they were told I would, in fact since they had arrived I had thoroughly ignored their existence only reading the monthly reports from their various tutors about their progress, this all changed on the second week of the sixth month.
Sitting on a window seat in one of the corridors of the guest wing, I had been reading a journal of a famous mage who was studying the effects of replacing the rune responsible for strengthening in a shielding ward with one for repelling, his writings were broken down so a novice enchanter could easily grasp it and he didn’t take himself too seriously, he was fast becoming my favorite author on this planet, when from the corner of my eye I saw a yellow haired, blue eyed female elf child skipping along the hall towards me, when the poor thing realized who I was she simply froze staring at me, after a full minute of her starring and me ignoring her, she asked what I was reading, on hearing the complex title of the book and guessing the pile of books beside me were equally boring she requested a story, and so it began.
The first time a modified the tale of Rapunzel a bit and told it to her, immediately after she had snorted and declared she would have cut of her hair and climbed down by herself before slipping away, me thinking this would be the last of our interactions continued to read my journals in peace. The next day while I was in the great hall supervising the installment of a new throne, said girl showed up with a brown haired elf boy with black eyes in tow demanding another story, this time it was a modified tale of Cinderella, when I was done the boy coldly stated he would have had the step mother and sisters executed on the spot before him and his friend left, by the end of the week a pattern was beginning to emerge as now I had all nine children seeking me out for a story before declaring what they would have done different, so I arranged for a period to be cleared in my schedule once a week where in the great hall I would tell them a story.
Two months later the wall of Rost town was almost completed, all that remained was the three gates that would be the starting point for the three major roads but that was vastly over shadowed by the completion of the arena. Elves from far and near flocked to see the massive building, even the members of groups under my house that had whispered about how the young lord was wasting money suddenly emerged emphasizing on how they had whole heartedly supported their lord’s decision.
As soon as the arena was completed it was announced that this years tournament would be held in four months time, fast riders were sent to all the corners of Rost territory and I diverted the workers that had been working in the stadium to start building inns and shops along the road leading to the arena.
All this came to an end around the eight month, by this time my worry was beginning to turn into frustration, I had predicted that Rumil would return to the capital to inform the second minister of my actions, he would then have me summoned to the high council accusing me of treason or some other crime, my well laid plans had been constructed to counter that particular scenario but nothing was going as I wished it.
The ninth month was when everyone returned back from their various assignments, the road construction crews had only been able to extend the road a week’s journey by horse ride in all directions with the materials they were given, anymore and even the mighty vaults of the Van Rost clan would begin to feel it. I offered those among the construction workers permanent jobs in Rost town and a good chunk of them accepted, they would be needed for all the plans I had.
Felina returned shortly after with a mountain of documents and contracts from all the farmers who had agreed to my offer, that alone promised to keep me behind a desk for at least two weeks, then the secret assignment that I had given Mablung, to observe the captains of the king snake’s mercenary clan that I had assigned to his construction crew had yielded its own small hill of reports, the killing blow was when clans started sending formal request to have some of their acknowledged captains or promising youths to be allowed into the tournament.
A room at the back of the castle was cleared and a chair and desk were placed within to become my office, there Felina, Mablung, Galfin and I worked to hurriedly reply to the various request and also finalize the contracts with the contracts between the farmers and Town Rost, by the time we emerged from our self imposed exile, the road leading up to the arena had been lined with shops and inns and people had already started requesting for permission to use them, it slowly dawned on me that I would need to expand my inner circle if I was to keep up with the demands of running house Rost the way I planned to, I instructed Mablung, Felina and Galfin to find an aid that they could trust and begin to train them , while they would be the A team their under studies would be team B.
It was also around this period that Raijin decided to have his growth spurt, having finally clocked a year old he had reached the age of maturity of his species, the distance from the ground to his shoulder had increased by a foot and his length from nose to rump was now an impressive twenty one feet in length, this planted the thought for me to get in contact with Lairden to figure out where he obtained Raijin from so I could procure more for my mages tower.
As the last two of the eleven months came to an end I had to accept that the second minister though arrogant and over bearing was intelligent and tactical, instead of responding in rage to the actions of the young upstart lord who had insulted him not just once but twice, he had withdrawn and gathered his forces instead, I would have to put more effort into leading this matter into a quick conclusion because I was falling behind in my cultivation.
The reason I had fought Vanlathriel and Glander for the house seat, the reason I put up with the schemes and plots of the associate clans wasn’t for the glory of house Van Rost as I had convinced some of the house members to believe, it was because as head of a strong house I had access to manuscripts, documents, elixirs, weapons and information that would aid me greatly in my quest for power, after all I had not forgotten how I came to be on this planet.
As I developed as an elf mage I began to realize just how much potential this body had, the more convinced I became that Shikubu and his comrades would come back to demand something in return for it. The elfin body by itself was already amazing as it was but they had gone ahead to give me two powerful gifts, a vast amount of magical knowledge that put the combined wisdom of our elfin empire that had been in existence for over forty nine thousand years to shame and I haven’t even yet opened the black sphere that had been a present from the one they called Tsuburu, what mind knumbing ability or forbidden knowledge would be bestowed on me I had no idea.
“My lord?”
I lifted my head to see Felina and Mablung standing in front of me, I gazed back down at the document in my hand that told me Lamlen of house Flotina and Glander had been communicating secretly for the past three months , I was not bothered by the fact that my ex-fiancée and my cousin who she broke of our engagement to marry had seemingly repaired their relationship as the look on Felina’s face indicated, but something at the back of my mind was telling me there was more to this than met the eye, but convincing Felina and Mablung that this was out of genuine concern and not hidden jealousy seemed more trouble than it was worth .
“Sorry children, it seems we will have to cut our story time short” the cries of discontent were instant.
“Lord Tal you promised this evening was for us, the whole evening, you said, as long as we left you alone during the week” the originator of my current obligation spoke out, I had finally gotten her name, Darneth of clan Anarion, the blonde elf child was currently pouting at me with her arms folded across her chest and the other children littered on the floor of the office quickly followed suit
“it’s not my fault, mean Felina and Mablung won’t let me finish the story”, Mablung who it seemed wasn’t good with children quickly paled as nine young faces swung round to face him and Felina, eyes filled with accusation, Felina however was un-phased.
“The lord will be able to finish the current tale he is telling but after that it would be time for bed everyone” Felina said bowing slightly.
They all cried out in joy and quickly settled back down, “*sigh*, where was i?” I asked my young audience.
“The hero and the black night were fighting in front of the evil emperor and the hero seemed to be losing” Darneth responded breaking down my tale of the last two hours into a single sentence.
“Yes, as our hero fought the black knight, anger filled his eyes and his hatred towards the black knight grew by leaps and bounds making him take risks in his swordsmanship that he would not normally take, it was one of these risks that backfired on our hero. As they fought on, the hero pressed for an advantage where he had none and instantly the black knight mad him pay, with a strike of his sword the black knight severed the heroes hand causing him to fall to the floor in pain and defeat, as our hero lay on the ground, grasping the stump that was his hand, the black knight stepped towards him and as the black knight gazed into our fallen heroes eyes he issued one sentence, one sentence that shook the hero to his very core”.
At this point the entire room was completely silent, from the children on the floor to the soldiers who were pretending to guard the door so that they could listen in on my stories I had everyone waiting with bathed breaths, and it was to this audience that I delivered the line that was arguably the greatest cinematic shocker of its age. “Luke, I am your father”.
Pandemonium ensued.
The children let out horrified shrieks as they leapt to their feat, “lies” Felina whispered placing a hand on her stomach like she would suddenly faint, Mablung’s eye had widened to the size of saucers and one of the soldiers had abandoned all pretenses of guarding the door and had sprinted out to go and inform the rest of the barracks of the ending of my latest tale.
When I had started telling stories to the children I had used the normal classics, Rapunzel, goldilocks, snow white and such, the children had torn through the plots of this tales like a hot knife through butter. Why did the children follow the old woman into the house made of sweets, why did t he young girl stay with seven strange men was she addled, how did the queen know the mirror wasn’t just lying when it said she was the fairest of them all. These sort of questions were what would follow as soon as I was done telling a tale.
I moved on to telling the original stories of the grim brothers, like the version of little mermaid where they did not live happily ever after and instead the female protagonist unable to kill her unfaithful lover chose to fling herself into the ocean sinking to the bottom and turning into foam, even though one of the children expressed his displeasure of Ariel going to such a shady character for help, these were more readily accepted by the children. My current dilemma began when I ran out of fairy tales to tell, after all been abandoned by my earth mother at a young age I had not exactly experienced many myself.
On earth I was found in a hospital waiting room at the age of six, three years after my father’s death, my mother had told me that she was here for a doctor’s appointment and I should wait quietly for her. At that point in time I was aware that my earth mother was under a great deal of pressure so I had obediently sat at a corner waiting for her return, I was there for eighteen hours. A nurse eventually walked up to me ask if I needed assistance, when I said I was waiting for my mother the nurse took me in hand and we searched the hospital from top to bottom looking for my mother, after two hours the nurse was beginning to look worried.
We soon returned to the front desk where the nurse used my last name to search his in-patient list were he found a medical form that was not filled up but instead had a long note written at the back in my mother’s hand writing. In hind sight I should have known something was wrong when the male nurse came round the desk and crushed me in a bear hug while sobbing into my hair, the only thought that crossed my mind however was how he smelled like mint, when I told Matthias this story later in the future he claimed he know realized where my love of mint sweets and fetish for medical scrubs came from.
At the orphanage with over three hundred and fifty children to take care of there wasn’t time to read fairy tales to kids, our orphanage though in a rough part of town had a dedicated staff that took personal pride in their wards, we were clean, healthy and well fed and quite frankly I felt sister Margaret deserved an award for that, but she had to split her time between so many children so she raised enough money to buy a wide screen TV and a DVD player, soon it came to be that at any point in time a movie could be found playing on the big screen, and it was to this media I turned to.
It began with the Lord of the Rings, being the only movie that I had watched that had elves in it I felt it was a natural choice given the circumstances, the children were spell bound from the get go, as I narrated tales from the shire to the mines of Moria they listened in raptured silence once every week to my tale, it was then I caught the attention of the adults in the castle. A maid had brought in some snacks because the story time had gone on longer than usual, and she was instantly drawn in, loitering around under the pretense she was waiting to return with the dishes she stayed till the end. Soon word spread and I found something that elves adored above respect, stories.
Soon the position of guarding my office door on the evenings I told stories to the children became a coveted one, soldiers bent over backwards to please their captains so that they would be assigned this position, they stopped standing outside the door and instead stood within the room claiming it was to ensure a greater level of protection for me and the children.
As Frodo’s tale came to an end, I turned to my personal favorite movie franchise, Star Wars. Now the concept of light sabers and space ships proved a bit difficult to explain to the kids (and covertly listening adults) but with a bit of modification and the infringement of multiple copy right laws I managed to get my point across leading to the chaos before me.
“Okay children this is where we will end our tale this week” I laughingly said rising from my seat and heading towards Felina and Mablung, “report”.
“the farmers and hunters are more than willing to join in your plans Lord Tal, even though they are skeptical on your true intentions they have more to gain and little to lose, but some of the noble clans have caught wind of this and may cause trouble out of spite in the future” Felina started as we all strode out of the office, the children protesting the sudden ending of the tale in the background.
“As expected, they are a petty lot aren’t they, but I have given them sufficient warning, if they hinder my plans only death awaits them, my patience has run dry” I replied then turned to face Mablung.
“The creation of the roads went as we expected, if your aunt had not drained our coffers so badly we would have been able to finish it in one go. The enchanting part slowed us down a bit but they should add durability to the roads reducing the amount we would spend in the future for maintenance” he quickly replied.
Recently Mablung had began to behave oddly around me, he had always been respectful to me despite my age, but now he was like a robot, if I said jump he asked how high, it was a bit unnerving to be honest.
“And you sure there were no assassination attempts, sabotage or spies the entire time?” I asked hopefully but as they both shook their heads in the negative the unease in my stomach grew once more. Even if the second war minister was a benevolent individual, which he was not, the fact that I had harmed an individual sent to do his bidding was an act he could not let go unpunished or it would be seen as a sign of weakness by those who coveted his position, and weakness was not tolerated amongst the elfish elite.
I paused in the middle of the hallway head bent in thought, where would they strike from, and why was it taking so long for them to respond, I thought to myself. If they were gathering a subjugation force the first war minister would squash their attempts as this would be the second minister infringing on his territory, but if it were just mages he was bringing I was unworried this also been the reason why I had been more than willing to insult the second minister in the first place.
“Increase the number of guards on patrol duty with emphasis on the port city, also add individuals to monitor the communication between the clan leaders, something is off “I said to the two beside and me and continued my journey to find Galfin.
After the other clan heads had risen to oppress Galfin’s influence while I escorted Linterg to the port city, all thoughts of working together with them had left the elf’s head, he had become more firm in his decisions and did not hesitate to punish all those who obstructed him from carrying out his duties. He worked closely with the head of the rising sun mercenary clan and the silver ship merchant clan, using the attention drawn to town Rost by the completion of the arena he had established shops and businesses across the entire town and slowly gold was beginning to flow back into the house vaults, it was for this very reason I was currently seeking him out.
We eventually found Galfin at the entrance of the castle beside him was the head of the red sun, wind wolf and king snake mercenary clans, the two other captains of the house guards and a haunted looking female elf who it appeared had seen better days. On my approach their already grim faces hardened, I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like whatever was happening.
“adviser Galfin greets the house leader” Galfin said bowing slightly to me, he in particular had been firm in observing protocols in the hopes that the leaders in the newly recruited clans would not treat me like a child but as the a house head, what most did not know was he did not do this in difference to me but he was terrified I would go on a beheading spree and we would lose the few allies we had managed to gather making his job infinitely harder than it already was.
“My lord we have a problem, a small town north-east of us has been sacked and occupied by bandits, she managed to escape during the attack two weeks ago and made her way here for aid” Galfin said but his frown told me there was more to the story than it seemed.
“I thank you for your effort fair lady, for your service to the house of Van Rost for alerting us to this event I will prepare a house and work if you desire it here in Rost town or anywhere in our territory” I said bowing slightly towards the female elf, but not before noticing the look of shock on the faces of all present.
“my lord please do not bow to one so lowly as i!” the elf woman exclaimed in a panicky voice, hurriedly dropping to a low curtsey as if somehow her more exaggerated show of difference would make up for the fact a lord had bowed to her.
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“Let us not argue about what praise you deserve, you must be weary from the harsh trek you endured to warn us of this hidden threat. Come, I will entrust you to the capable hands of my maid, Felina, who will see you bathed, fed and rested. You will be the guest of castle Rost while I take some soldiers to liberate your town”, on cue Felina strode forward and ushered her into the depths of the castle.
As soon as they were well out of ear shot my false smile vanished and I turned to face the captains of my guard and the head of the mercenary guilds I had put the safety of my territory in.
“How did this happen?” I asked in barely repressed fury, we had over twenty-seven squads of elves randomly patrolling the entire territory on fixed routes, fifty squads patrolling on random routes, and three battalions of elves, each assigned to supervise and protect the newly constructed roads but also geared to investigate any large scale confrontations, this was asides from the three mercenary clans who were told that at every point in time a certain number of their soldiers must be patrolling our province. If a band of bandits somehow managed to get all the way up to a town, siege it and then taken control somebody had to be deliberately looking the other way.
“We do not understand what the young lord is trying to imply” the leader of the King Snake mercenary clan, Edwandis, indifferently said, not bothering to look in my direction. Of the three mercenary clan heads he was the most vocal about his displeasure in taken orders from a child, he had assumed that the rumors of a sixteen year old elf being the head of an entire house and given orders was a ruse of the Van Rost house and Galfin was who was secretly controlling the house from the shadows. on integrating into the clan he had discovered that nothing happened without my personal approval and Galfin had very little leeway in matters of the house, since this discovery he had gone out of his way to make it known he did not approve of me, me ignoring him only seemed to infuriate him more but the prestige of his mercenary clan was needed for the house during this shaky times.
“Edwandis does not speak for the Wind Wolf clan, none crossed through the sector we were in charge off” Rodwen the leader of the wind wolf clan spoke out, throwing a dirty glance at Edwandis who paid him no mind. Rodwin was below five hundred which by elf standard was a man in his youth, so even though his mercenary clan rivaled the King Snake’s in size they were not taken seriously and had suffered because of it. He appeared amicable and listened to opinions of others before he made a decision, he however reminded me of those students who would convince their friends to party before a test and then stay up late into the night studying, hiding under a blanket torch in hand.
I turned towards Ardreth the leader of the Red Sun mercenary clan who as usual remained silent. He had been recommended by mother, which had gotten his unrecognized mercenary clan a meeting, with me already leaning heavily towards acquiring them, when I had seen they’re emblem I had hired them on the spot. Ardreth was a stoic individual who did not speak unless spoken to, he and Mablung seemed to get along often standing side by side in silence for long periods of time.
“I’m guessing you have nothing to add since I had your entire force stationed here” I rhetorically said rubbing the bridge of my nose in frustration. “Edwandis and Rodwen gather two thousand soldiers each by this evening and have them equipped and horsed so we can leave at first light, we will liberate this town, you are dismissed” I instructed, Edwandis snorted and stalked off while Rodwen bowed and left. Who to thrust, the openly hostile individual or the quietly conniving one, I thought to myself.
“Captain Mablung and adviser Galfin will remain in Rost town to ensure the smooth running of the house while Felina, captain Ena and captain Tlerist along with my personal squad of three hundred will go with the soldiers to eradicate these bandits” I declared.
“my lord are you sure it is wise to personally oversee this expedition” Ena, the only captain of the guard that had managed to keep her position from before I was appointed house head, she was petite in size and was soft spoken which often made her opponents underestimate her, it was the last mistake they ever made. It was only after I closely observed her that I realized that the fragile image she portrayed was one she had painstakingly cultivated, her swordsmanship was based on speed and all she really needed to strike a fatal blow was a moment of weakness from her opponent and the fight would be over.
“I agree with Captain Ena, the mercenaries and our house soldiers are more than sufficient to see to this bandit problem” captain Tlerist said stepping forward, he had been a vice captain that Mablung had recommended for promotion based on his skill, his attitude on the other hand left much to be desired, the fact that he was a member of one of the two clans that I had exiled didn’t help matters.
“I will take your words under advisement, you may leave”, from the corner of my eye I could see Tlerist face spasm in outrage at a child dismissing him but he marshaled his emotions, dipped his head in a tiny bow and left.
“My lord” Galfin called to me, his expressionless face now filled with worry now that we were alone, I raised my hand to silence him, casting a gaze across the busy courtyard before motioning him to follow as I headed towards the rose garden.
I could understand his cause for worry, the size of the forces described by the survivor didn’t seem to be that of a bandit group, it was more like a mercenary clan. Mercenary clans in the elfish community were created in two ways, a group of commoners with varying degree of skill, that banded together to form a sort of community, usually started by a group of friends who wished to better themselves they earned their money by being hired swords or merchant escorts, after a certain amount of time and jobs carried out they would gain enough trust and respect to be noticed by the lower noble clans or even the noble houses.
The second way was if a clan had committed a crime in a noble house they were exiled, to proud to beg other clans to take them in so they operated independently of any house, this was what the two clans that try to flee from the house of van Rost were aiming for before I stripped them of their last name relegating them to commoners and making their claim to royalty null and void.
Mercenary clans rarely lowered themselves to outright burglary, usually relying on pressuring independent elfish villages for protection money in hard times but the problem was these weren’t hard times, there was currently a war being waged on the eastern border of the new lands and Van Fin and Van Flotina had hired five mercenary clans each, the capital had also issued a bounty for every human officer above the rank of lieutenant, so why was a mercenary clan attacking a village under the protection of a major, even though declining noble house.
As we strolled through the rose garden, I let a suppressed aura roll out from me, spreading to every corner, seeking out spies and eaves droppers, to cast a privacy spell would be to draw attention to me so I settled for just being super attentive.
“I am more worried about how they entered my territory without our forces knowledge”, cutting in before Galfin had a chance to start I stated the fact that bothered me, it was apparent that he had already realized these were not ordinary bandits.
“I will immediately look into it my lord” with that I dismissed him as well and sank onto a nearby bench. This lord thing was turn out to be very annoying , it was a thankless job that painted a big target and your back and with mothers new exercise regiment, it was turning out to be a bother.
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The next day started early. As I stood in front of Rost manor, I watched as three stable hands and two soldiers struggled to put on Raijin’s travelling equipment and his saddle, the fact that the big cat refused to stand up making it infinitely more difficult than it had to be, further down the road my private squad of three hundred soldiers and twenty five mages loitered around, their horses saddled and provisions packed, they had been informed that we were on a mission to liberate a town slightly outside our eastern borders from bandits and they should expect some complications.
“my lord, the king snakes and the wind wolfs along with the house captains have gathered their forces outside the town walls and are ready to move, they wait for your command” Felina said as she rode up to me. She had abandoned her maid outfit for riding clothes and road on a brown horse.
I nodded in acknowledgement towards her, I strode towards where the stable hands and the soldiers had finally secured Raijin’s saddle, walking round him once to make sure everything was firmly in place; I leapt onto the big cat and secured myself. As soon as Raijin felt my weight on him I felt a slight magical aura wash over me before he rose to his feet, this was his method to check that it was me on his back and not someone else, some youths from the Loft clan had tried to mount Raijin and let’s just say we had to invite a highly ranked healer to re-attach his arm.
I nodded towards the two soldiers and the stable hands in thanks, after bowing in acknowledgment the three stable hands raced off to fulfill other duties while the soldiers mounted their horses and took in hand the house banners that were been held by maids in waiting. These two were my flag bearers, they rode beside me bearing the house emblem raised high on poles along with my personal emblem.
I urged Raijin forward, and we began to move towards the central street that led out of town Rost falling in behind me was Felina, then Ena and Tlerist the two captains of my house guards who would follow me on this mission along with fifty of their personal soldiers each, then came my three hundred .
I had offered the soldiers that followed Linterg and i to the port city a position in my personal squad, answering only to me, most of them had jumped at the opportunity while the remaining spots had been taken by people Mablung had recommended. These three hundred soldiers had been personally groomed by me, I had handpicked their blades, armor, horses and even training regimens, I often took them out into the hills on my rare free occasions and drilled military formations into them, but in exchange for this boos tin prestige I had warned them all, any offence they committed would be punished three folds in comparison to a normal soldier, if they were caught fighting in public instead of the normal ten lashes they would get thirty, crimes that would require time in the isolation caves would be extended three folds as well, this was what drove of the few that did not join from the original three hundred.
As we moved through the town, many of the local people came to the streets to see the commotion, some of them had seen the standing army outside the walls and had guessed something was a foot, but most had just risen from bed and were greeted with the impressive sigh of over four hundred soldiers fully armored marching through their street.
As we exited Rost town I was greeted with the view of an immense army, half of them had a blue cloth belt around their waste, in front of the belt draped a cloth that covered their groin area on it was a white wolf, head raised in a howling motion. The other half of them wore a red belt with a cloth also draped over their groin, on it was a snake coiled around a dagger, in front of each half were Edwandis and Rodwen mounted on magnificent war horses.
I heard Felina let out a hiss beside me and a small smile appeared on my face, normally the moment I exited the city, the two clan leaders were meant to come forward and greet me, but them staying at the front of their respective army was a slight aimed at me.
I raised a fist in the air, and the reaction was instant, instead of integrating into the two armies as I had planned my three hundred formed ranks of fives with the supply wagons in the middle and we began to move round the Wind wolves and the King snakes. The look of surprise on the two clan leaders faces wasn’t lost on me, but it was way to early in the morning for me to get into a pissing contest with people who were meant to be in my employ.
For two weeks we traveled south like this, a clear distinction between the two mercenary armies and my squad always present, at night when we set up camp we did so away from them, we did not share supplies nor did I call to the two mercenary leaders to my side, all present realized something was wrong and Ena and Tlerist wisely decided to stay out of it. A day before we arrived at the outskirt town I called my two captains to me.
“we will arrive at the town tomorrow afternoon, give or take a few hours, however we will not be assisting the mercenaries in liberating the town”, the two captains within my tent glanced at each other then at me, “instead the moment we arrive your job is to find an easily defendable position that can contain our squad in its entirety along with carts and”.
The first part of my statement had been understandable since, the mercenary clan leaders and I haven’t met even once in our two week journey but the second part was what had caught the attention of my two captains.
“Do you think that they would turn on us my lord” Ena asked me making the obvious assumption, asking for a defendable location was already saying I expected an attack.
“No, I want to show these mercenaries the power of the house of Van Rost so that the next time they feel like been arrogant they will rethink it”, I simply said and began outlining plans for the next day.
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As we crested a hill the next day, the town we were seeking came into view and at first glance one could tell something was wrong. The fields were empty, the roads to and from the town were devoid of traffic, the gate to the town itself was shut tight and there were no guards on the wall of it.
With a nod from me Ena and Tlerist took their private guards and headed west and east on their assignment while I sent word for the rest of the soldiers to begin setting up camp, this didn’t go unnoticed however and soon a soldier rode up to me indicating that the two mercenary leaders wished to have an audience with me, I informed the soldier to tell them I would come to them instead.
As I rode towards the soldiers of the wind wolfs and the king snakes, Edwandis and Rodwin trotted their steeds forward to stand in front of their men, it was a repeat of the day we departed from town Rost but unfortunately for them this time I was prepared for them.
“I was informed you wished to see me” I said, bringing Raijin to a halt in between the two mercenary clan leaders.
“We have already agreed on a plan of assault and wanted to inform you of your place”, it did not escape my notice the words used by Edwandis in his sentence but i stamped down my anger and instead placed a mask of confusion on my face.
“Why would I have a place in your plans? You speak as if you wish for me to participate in the upcoming battle” I said pretending to misunderstand the entire situation. While Edwandis openly smirked at my apparent naivety but Rodwin eyes had already narrowed in suspicion.
“In a town of this size it is best if all force co-ordinate so the walls can be more easily breeched, do not worry just hand over your captains and forces and we will take care of it, no need to worry yourself about the issue”, it once again did not escape my notice the wordings used by Edwandis or the fact that Rodwin was remaining silent to escape any backlash that might occur if this power play fell through. I widened my eyes suddenly as if I suddenly realized something and let loose a long peel of laughter.
“Forgive me, I have just realized there has been a misunderstanding” I said while a wipe nonexistent tears of laughter from the corner of my eyes. “The forces of the house of Van Rost are not here to assist you in the liberation of the elves in this town. The town even though within the border of the Rost territory does not pay taxes or has not openly declared its loyalty to the house of van Rost, no this is a test”.
The looks of confusion on their faces were almost worth the two weeks of snubbing I had endured from these two mercenaries.
“Your two mercenary clans will lay siege, breach, and capture this town, you will take into custody all the bandits within and offer aid to the citizens, when all is said and done, the house of van Rost will, based on your performance, decide which one of the two clans present here it will show the most favor to in postings and resource designation”.
I could see the collective sphincters of the two mercenary clan leaders and their nearby advisers clench violently. They weren’t fools; everyone present knew that this topic had come about due to their recent behavior.
“One thing has me upset though, the fact that either of you thought you had the right to order my captains is disturbing, even more so to dispense orders to me” I said letting a frown grace my face.
Fury radiated from Edwandis, here he was a war veteran of five hundred years been reprimanded by a child of sixteen, his hand griped the hilt of his sword and he gently urged his sword towards me, a vicious glint in his eye, but the moment his horse took its third step Raijin’s massive head swung in its direction and he let lose a low rumbling growl. The horse reared in fear and Edwandis struggled to bring it under control, war horse or not it was still prey in front of Raijin.
As all this was going on I quickly weaved a flashy yet dangerous fire spell all the while cursing myself for coming alone, they’re anger I expected, but the thought they would try to attack me never crossed my mind, was I becoming complacent, or was the fact everyone called me lord beginning to cloud my judgment and inflate my ego.
As Edwandis brought his horse under control, two large pillars of fire erupted in the air above me, the blue flames that had become somewhat of an identifier for me began to twist and turn becoming more solid and taking a more definitive shape until two snakes made of blue flames stretching fifty meters long slowly swam through the air floating down gently until they circled me lazily.
“Did you just try to attack me?” the question though a simple one carried the weight of the future of his entire clan, after all it was public knowledge that the last mercenary clan leader that attacked me had stayed in the care of the Rost town healer for two weeks before the entire clan was expelled from the Rost territory and that was my grandfather.
“My lord please do not take offense, Edwandis just worried about the welfare of his men” Rodwin spurred his horse forward trying to intercede, but the flame snake on the lefts head snapped in his direction and coiled up prepared to strike all the while letting out a vicious hiss. The tier five fire spell, flame serpent, was a particularly powerful spell not because of its destructive ability, even though it was very destructive, it was its adaptability that made it a frequently used spell amongst mages who favored the school of fire, it could be used defensively by having the snakes circled the mage, it could be sent in as a kamikaze attack and its apparent sentience made it seem like the snake was indeed alive.
“Do you think that remaining silent through all that has occurred will somehow spear you from the backlash Rodwin? For the two weeks we rode here none of you once came to meet me to plan for this liberation, in your two forces not a single flag of the house of Van Rost has been raised even though you are meant to be carrying this mission out in the name of the house as well as on the house territory, I might be young but I am no fool, the house has already decided to focus our resources on the red sun mercenary guild, the reason you are both been giving a chance is because we already have a hundred year agreement or else I would have had you ousted from my lands”
My statement along with my cold gaze sweeping both forces were met with silence, Edwandis and Rodwin’s faces had turned pale, understandably who would have expected the young lord to notice the insult that none of my house flags had been hoisted throughout this military march, or me making it the fault of their mercenary leaders for not planning ahead for the assault on the so called bandits in the town, their inadequacies and foolishness had been publicly laid bare and the fact that one of them had wanted to attack me was still pending.
“You are mercenaries, hired swords” I said urging Raijin forward past the mercenary leaders so that I could speak to their soldiers directly, “you are a weapon for the house of Van Rost nothing more nothing less, during the hundred years that you have bound yourself to this house, banish all thoughts of glory from your mind, you live at the behest of the house and if the need is sufficient will die by it, this was what was agreed upon by your leaders this was the oath that was sworn, if you cannot live up to it the house will discard you like a rusted blade”.
The speech was brutal but honest, the mercenaries believed because the house of Van Rost was declining their leaders could coerce a strong position for their clans in it, their attitude from the get go had been demeaning and condescending but because I had been carrying out multiple projects at the same time I had swallowed my anger and borne with it, now even though the house still needed them it wasn’t to the point that I would tolerate such blatant disregard from my own employees.
The soldiers from both sides were silent, a variety of emotions played across all their faces, anger, shame, outrage, hate, they had watched a child cut down the collective pride of both their clans and there was nothing they could do, I swung Raijin round and began to make my exit but the route I had chosen would take me in between the mercenary leaders. I brought Raijin to halt between the both of them and they struggled to marshal their warhorses as Raijin was letting out Growls every now and then.
“I had initially wanted to foster both of your clans to become long term members of the house of Van Rost, with the same rights as the clans already within our house, but once again the arrogance of elves has shown me how naïve I still am. From now on you two are to report to captain Mablung and seek his approval for any military activity that requires over five hundred soldiers to move, failure to do so will be seen as a violation of the contract between our two houses and will lead to the eradication of your two clans and its associates as agreed in our contract”.
As I delivered this final proclamation even the usually calm Rodwin’s face became a shade lighter. I urged Raijin forward and we trotted back towards my squad not letting my guard down until the crest of the hill carried me out of their direct line of sight.
I rode back into the camp set up by the squad in a furious mood, why were elves so arrogant and stubborn, give them an inch and they would try to steal the entire rope from you. I let out a sigh as slid of Raijin in front of a massive tent that bore the emblem of the house of Van Rost but as I was about to enter I noticed all eye were on me, in particular twenty five eyes which had a particularly covetous nature to them.
“What is it?” I asked the group of twenty five mages that were staring at me from across the clearing that housed my personal tent. They were the mages that I was currently nurturing in my mages tower, three were spies from other houses, five had been approached by various clans for them to leak information of the training methods I used for the mages, and one had started initiating talks among the younger elves to band together and abandon the mages tower to form an independent group with him as the leader, all in all a hot mess.
“Forgive us my lord we shocked by the sight of the spell none of us had seen or heard of before” the spy from Van Malrin an elfish noble house from the main land stepped forward and spoke for the group while bowing, her name did not readily come to mind and to be honest I didn’t really care however on glancing back I realized I had two massive snakes made entirely of fire were hovering behind me, lazily coiling through the air and sometimes flicking out a flame tongue to seemingly taste the air. The part I had not missed however was the accusatory tone the spy had taken with her statement, as if every single spell in my arsenal should immediately be accessible to them just because they decided to cultivate under the protection of my tower.
“*sigh* Seriously you fucking elves, and so what if I know spells that you do not, will you require me to hand over my cultivation techniques next or how about unrestrained access to the house of Van Rost archives, will that satisfy you?”, I was perfectly aware that my heated response was disproportionate to the statement of the female spy before me but I was having a really bad day and she just so happened to have made herself an easy target.
Three sets of eyes, two artificial and one organic swung to face the lone elf mage standing in front of the group from the tower, the fire snakes behind me let out a bone chilling hiss as they went into a tight coil an began to rattle their tails in warning. Raijin beside me let loose a piercing growl beside me and a beastly aura raged out from him engulfing the poor elf spy.
So there we were, me taking out my frustration on a partially innocent elf when I heard the thundering of hooves coming in my direction, as we all waited for the rider to come into view, the terrified elf still firmly in the view of Raijin and the fire snakes, Felina burst round the corner of a tent, handling the horse with surprising skill, what gave me pause however was the look of fury on her face.
“My lord I have just received news from Town Rost” she proclaimed as she leapt of the horse and slid into the elfish formal salute in one motion, I gestured for her to continue while applauding the particularly difficult stunt internally. “Lord Glander has gone to interrupt Lady Lamlen’s engagement ceremony and demand she be married to him”.
This was problematic but it did not give cause for the amount of anger Felina was clearly displaying. Glander upon reaching the location of the celebration would be given a trashing and sent back that would be that, to kill him would be tantamount to declaring war between the two houses, a situation that the capital would not stand for, the reason Felina was furious must be linked to something else.
“He took one of the house emblems and left as your representative to the event my lord” Felina said and an explosion went off in my head. Him going and getting trashed was well and okay, even favorable to me as it would cause the branch family to lose face, but if he was my representative it would not be Glander taken a beating it would be me.
“Oh come on!”
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Author: this chapter was difficult to write because i was trying to apply all the sound advice you guys gave me all at once, i think that threw me off my non existent game.
I have decided to slowly incorporate all the new pointers i got from my helpful readers over a long period of time, with that said i am already five pages into the next chapter and i believe it would be significantly better that this one writing wise.
Please bear with me as i develop.