“I should be mindful of that when I’m around your folk,” Gabriel said, emerging from the darkness and standing next to him.

“Well many of my people tend to stay within the land of their birth. Few indulging the adventures they conjured up in their youth.”

“And you did?”

“Almost had to,” Cid replied, taking another inhale from his pipe. “For my sanity’s sake.”

“Oh, that sounds like a story.”

“Perhaps,” Cid replied. “But now is not the time or place to indulge in such long and woeful tales.”

“It didn’t take you to be of a character in such a story,” Gabriel said, looking up to the glittering lights of the heavens above them.

“It is much a desire to forget and leave into the mists of time where all is lost.”

“Seems odd that a man so well spoken would be a leader of a motley crew, calling themselves a lancer band of mercenaries.”

“I can’t imagine of all the winters you’ve experienced in their world, you have yet to find someone wishing to be cut from their burdensome past.”

“Only when there was something they found shame in. Whether it existed only within themselves or for others to see, that is a different matter entirely.”

Cid lifted an eyebrow up. “Sometimes they are one and the same, for those to realize the truth only when any good that’d come of it are mere flights of fancy.”

“Must’ve been quite the event to stir you away from where you called home.”

Cid nodded. “It was.”

“How did your family take your departure?”

“There wasn’t much of my family left to consider their thoughts on the matter.”

Cid looked down, a dark mood coming over him.

“I’m sorry to hear,” Gabriel said. “I know it easy to lose a loved one, regardless of the circumstance.”

“I take it you know that pain.”

Gabriel nodded. “Sadly. I lost my sister to a pogrom a five centuries ago. During one of the many hunts for my kind where we used to call home.”

“I heard of those out in the eastern Vallach Mountains.”

“If anyone so much as sneezed in a way deemed unnatural people would assume they were afflicted by one of the undead. Scouring their own dead kin, digging up their remains and performing whatever superstitious nonsense they’d conjure up to try to find some miracle cure for a common cold.”

“Not unheard of, unfortunately. People will believe a fantasy they can control before they’d admit to something real beyond their grasp. But I am sorry for what happened to your sister. For what that’s worth.”

“Thank you,” Gabriel said, letting out a sorrowful sigh. “It’s hard not to miss her on nights like this.”

“There’s something about the heavens which me make look back to things long since past.”

“Certainly is.”

“So, what made you join the Crimson Blades, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Well, for a long time I was in the military. Served our king and fought in enough wars to fill one’s desire for such things for many lifetimes. But when all you do is spend your time fighting to the glory of someone undeserving, and denying other a peace you wish your people to have, you begin to reconsider what you’re doing. And after the diaspora, I was invited to join the Crimson Blades to help bridge peaceful relations between my people and those of the Prydainlands.”

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“I’m surprised the high king would be so accommodating.”

“In all fairness, I think it was as much to consolidate his reign with a new crop of subjects than anything resembling magnanimity.”

“True,” Cid said, looking out over the sea. “I’d be surprised if a noble acted strictly outside of their own self-interests.”

“Lady Allianna appears to be someone who cares more for her people than for herself.”

“Very true, but she’s one of those rare exceptions to the rule.”

“But what about you, Master Cid? What led you into the profession of a sell-sword?”

Cid chortled. “Oh where to begin with that wonderful ode.” He paused taking a deep breath and thinking to days he wanted to leave behind. “My father was the count for one of the biggest provinces in my homeland, Yispalis. As you can imagine, being a lord he had many children, proper and improper. And as with many families of our ilk, affection was not considered a trait becoming in our class. Marriage, a tool to combine houses and consolidate power and loyalty. Children were guaranteeing your house’s fortunes stayed in the family. Anything akin to affection was seen as superfluous, even a weakness to some.

“And since our family was not bound by some modicum of fellowship aside from shared paternity, once many of my siblings came of age … things became complicated.”

“How many siblings were there?”

“Around twenty-five, if my count is accurate.”

“By the gods!”

“He was a busy man. A very busy man.”

“Busy is an understatement,” Gabriel said, trying to hold in her laughter.

“Unfortunately, his sons were eager to out shine the other to wins our father’s favor. Competition turned into rivalry, rivalries turned into hatred, and soon a small civil war. Bands of noble born brigands sacking towns of their rivals. Slaughtering any who they came upon, paying no heed to gender, age, or condition. Even the king decreed the fighting to stop and threaten to confiscate lands as recompense to the crown, the fighting wouldn’t stop.”

“What brought it to an end?”

“Most of my brothers didn’t see the end of the war. Some died in battle, others by a nightblade and poisoned brew, some were ended by more torturous means.”

“How did you make it out?”

“Simple, I stayed away.”

“You had no desire to rise above your brothers?”

“My father and I had a less than ideal relationship. One of the wonderful boons from being among his youngest progenies. And by the time I could have thrown my lot with one side, the other, or my own, I had not the want to do so. My father cared not for his children, but for his legacy. And when it was all said and done, he had neither to keep him company.”

“Who rules the province now?”

“I couldn’t tell you. More than likely the king claimed the lands as his own before my father could do more harm. Shame, too.”

“How so?”

“I can still recall when his supporters spoke of him with reverence and pride. A flower of nobles and knights, they used to say. Then, as the years wore on and the land was turned to ash and dust, those same people would not consider holding back their disgust. As if we had become the very thing they strove never to be. A tapestry left unseen. A song no one would sing. A story none would tell. We were spoken to only for the ancient splendor that demanded respect. And much of that treasure hoard was spent with the blood of my kin. No, once I came of age, there was no fire in my heart to find any glory in that travesty I once called a family. If I was to find my fame and fortune, it would be on my own terms. Not theirs. Not his.”

“I can’t say my family didn’t have its dysfunctions. But that I that almost seems unreal.”

“I wish it was,” Cid said somberly, “It would’ve been easier for my dear mother.”

“Oh no,” Gabriel said in a weak voice.

“Seeing her children tear at each other, as if we had regressed into becoming animals, it … it took its toil on her. More than she could bear.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” she said to him putting a hand on his shoulder.

“I think it was for the best. Now she’s with her children, and away from the madness.”

“And being a mercenary is any less chaotic?”

“Surprisingly so. And should I not enjoy my employment, there’s always some lord or rich merchant willing to pay a fee.”

“Was that how you procured this arrangement with Allianna?”

“No, this was entirely by pure luck. It was supposed to be a simply bandit bounty and escalated well past my wildest imagination. Though it is nice not being overly paid thugs to some pompous windbag, or having to set fire to a village for the sole reason of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Did you ever have to do that?”

“No,” Cid said shaking his head. “And I thank every god there is that I haven’t had that blood on my hands. Or having to put it on theirs.”

“Not everyday you find a captain caring for the people serving under them so much.”

“They don’t serve under me,” Cid said to her. “I serve with them.”

“I don’t see the difference.”

“Neither did I at first,” Cid said, turning back to see Leonidas retching over the side as Jeanne patted his back and looking uncomfortable. “But you see what it means as you see those you entrust with your life more than a wielder of a blade or conjuring a spell.”

“How do you see them?”

Cid had a soft smile on his face as said one word. “Kin.”