Sir Tiran Greyson

I awoke to a soft touch on my chest and a weight on my shoulder. I smiled as I looked over at Nire’s sleeping face. It was almost time for her to leave and us as well. Ereneya had been satisfied with her preparations and now the time was almost upon us. We would be heading to the southwest before the week was out to deposit Nire at Port where her Father was finishing the preparations for their expedition.

The last few months had been a blur. Father’s Funeral, the aftermath with the Church, Dealing with all the politics surrounding everything after that. Irand and I had been running ourselves ragged and Naravie had made infrequent stops into the city since she had awoken from her Slumber. The people responded to her with either fear and wariness after the battle or idolizing her for the defense of the Kingdom. I think it had turned her off to being around people in the intervening months and I knew for a fact that she was meeting with her “Friend” Odessa the Weaver.

I had yet to meet her but from what I had heard from Naravie and Ereneya she seemed pleasant enough. Naravie had had no shortage of new clothes since she had been spending more time with Odessa and she looked happy, or at least as happy as any of us were since Sir Greyson had fallen. I… it was a little painful to admit but I think I had accepted it faster that the others, Sir Greyson had given me everything I had hoped for but he had also taught me to not dwell in the past. I had taken that lesson to heart, it was after all the way I had coped after my birth parents had beat me half to death and cast me out of their home. Irand I think had been distracting himself in his own work and Naravie… She was taking it the hardest I think. Ereneya had mentioned that she believed Naravie’s mind had fully settled following the battle and now she was dealing with far more turbulent emotions on top of her mind regressing a few years. As Someone who had been through that maelstrom of emotion, and still occasionally did if I forget to get my monthly potion from Gaty, I did not envy her.

Not only that but she had been closest to Sir Greyson, she had been his child and it was an unspoken agreement that she had been his favorite. When Lady Greyson had passed away the two of them had grieved her together in a way that Irand and I hadn’t. They had spent so many years molding Naravie into the Knight that had made the family proud. When she had bested me in our duel for the Title of Royal Champion, I had been so proud of her. She was the more skilled fighter between us and she had proven it that day.

I pulled Nire closer to me and she buried her face in my shoulder. I felt her hands slide under my arms and rest on my back. She was always one to resist getting out of bed as long as possible. I let out a small laugh as her hair brushed against my bare skin. She was soft and comforting in a way I never had been. Beautiful, Elegant, and she could and would challenge anyone to a duel. I had been worried when Ereneya had called me from my post on the battlements during the Battle but I had left Nire in charge of the Knights and she had risen to the challenge. All of them knew of her skill with a blade, honed from years of seafaring expeditions with her Father, and she proved a capable commander. I had even seen her strike down one of their battlemages. A Fierce and Beautiful Warrior, and yet here she was curled up against me under soft blankets and looking as if she were the most delicate thing in the world.

Our agreement would last until she left on her expedition. We would play the part of the happily betrothed couple but once she left that was it. We were free to find others but if I succeeded in my quest, we wouldn’t be compatible anymore. That had been the thing we had talked about at length. She had been assaulted by one of the Sailors in a port when she was younger and while she had overcome most of that fear through years of struggle she still could not stand that particular part of men. But we had resolved to remain friends when she returned from her expedition, and that was enough for me. I pressed a kiss to her forehead and she stirred and she looked up to return it.

“We should get up. Or else Irand will come and drag me out of here again.” I said, a soft laugh in my voice remembering the day he had done that.

“You mean I could have all these wonderful pillows and blankets to myself? That sounds divine.” She laughed as she pressed her body to mine. “But we have a few minutes still, yes?”

I nodded and she disappeared beneath the blankets. Gods, on mornings like these I almost second guessed myself on our journey. Almost.

A few minutes turned into over an hour before Nire and I even crawled out of bed and by the time I was dressed and headed downstairs Irand was halfway through breakfast. Looking over reports and setting up a chain of command for while we were absent, he had been planning for the past few months but now he kept finding new potential problems that kept his attention.

“What do you need me to do today, Lord Greyson?” I asked as I slid into my seat next to his and Nire waved as she slipped out the front door.

He twitched with annoyance as I called him that. Friendly sibling ribbing. I gave him a smile and he rolled his eyes.

“I need you to go meet with House Nashin. They are defecting from House Tarand but they want to talk to the Hero of House Greyson first. I’d go with you but I have to meet with Ruhn and Raya about the Missing Dragon Plan. We have most everything set up but Mother came and gave me a few final vital pieces this morning.” He said, smirking as he used the title the people had given me.

I hated being called a Hero. All I had done was beat Argan half to Death in a duel and helped Ereneya keep my Sister safe. I hadn’t done anything worthy of being called a Hero. The only reason we had one the Battle was because Father’s Sacrifice had triggered Naravie’s Wrath. Without that… I didn’t dwell on what could have been.

But my ears did perk up at his mention of his plan. It was something he had been working on for the past three months with the Royals. A way to defend themselves from another larger force if Ereneya and Naravie weren’t here to protect them. We had our defenses and they were adequate for a mild invasion but if the Church deigned to send an army of Paladins and Priests, without the aid of the Dragons they wouldn’t stand a chance. Of course that was on the off chance that they did send any force at all. Ruhn had been surprisingly cordial to the Church’s representative’s after the battle and he had been smoothing relations with the Kingdoms where they held much of their power. I doubted they would attack but… better to be prepared than not.

“Alright. What can I expect from House Nashin?” I asked, unfamiliar with them by name.

“They are angry with House Tarand. The High Priest found their son lying with a farmer boy and he had them both flogged for ‘Sins against nature’. The Boy is still recovering and the farm boy didn’t make it. The Church refused to heal him. They are going to want reassurances that their son will be safe under the Greyson banner. I would give them all the reassurances you feel comfortable giving and then see if they are willing to have their son relocated to Riverstone. He's a bright kid, excellent bargaining skills, would do well as a merchant.” Ireland said, half informing me of his ideas and half lost in his thoughts.

Irand had become the brains of House Greyson with Naravie’s absence and Father’s passing and while I had always known he was smarter than either of us, this was new to see him like this. I liked it. He wasn’t drowning his sorrows and he was being productive. He had also turned Riverstone into his own pet project with some help from Ereneya. She had told him that she could carve a path through the mountains to form a new trade route. He had been trying to start getting Riverstone ready for that eventuality. I nodded to him as one of the servants set a plate in front of me. I gave her a smile and she returned it.

She was one of the newer servants who had fled to us after the Duel. We had had many who were in relationships the church forbid come to ask us for our protection and we had granted it to all we could. Several of the houses who had flocked to our banner had been in need of help and we had sent those we couldn't take in directly to their service instead. So far it had been going well but I was worried about the long term. The one who had brought my food out had come to us with her Daughter who was all of eight years old and very vocal about how she didn’t like boys. The Church's agents had made vague threats to the two of them and they had come running to us. She was a strong girl and after a bit of debate we had actually had her train as a knight beneath one of the Royal Guard. So far she had excelled and despite the Church’s anger over it, she was proving their arguments wrong.

We had had a few other women who had applied to train as Knights following Ruhn’s Decree at the Duel and while they were not being trained by the Royal Guard, they were proving capable indeed. Most of the ones who had started training later in their teens wouldn’t be able to enter the Royal Guard but they would make excellent House Champions. Few things were so useful as a lifetime of rage and being treated as lesser.

“Are they expecting me?”

“I just told them you would meet them before noon. Head over when you are ready. I don’t think it will take you too long to convince them, they definitely won’t stay under House Tarand regardless of how this meeting goes.” He said as he finished his breakfast and got up to leave, tucking an old wooden box under his arm.

I quickly ate my breakfast and dressed myself in more formal wear and headed outside. It was a cold and sunny winter morning. Only a few weeks prior we had had the Dark Moon Celebration. It was a time to remember the fallen and the lost and to honor their memory with small gatherings in the home. Many toasts were made during the three days of Celebration and it culminated in a large gathering within the center of the city where all were invited to bring food and drink in one final celebration of those we had lost and for the beginning of the new year as the festival took place on the darkest and final day of the year.

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

I breathed into my hands and smiled as I kindled a flame in my palm with naught but my breath. I felt as though I had been a good student in the ways of magic these past few months. Ereneya had had little time to teach me but she gave me lessons and the means to practice when time allowed. I could now conjure small flames in my hand and maintain them for hours. Quite a useful skill in the middle of winter. A few children walked past with their parents and I could see them watching the flames dance around my palms and I gave them a quick smile and made the flames leap and spiral around my fingers. Most people in the Kingdom were still wary of magic, especially after Naravie’s merciless display but the looks on children’s faces when they saw me performing small tricks was always worth it.

It took me longer than usual to reach the district with House Nashin’s small estate due to a small problem with a runaway wagon but when I did I was ushered in even before I could knock on the door. It was unusual for a Noble to directly answer the door but Lady Nashin hurried me inside and into their parlour where Lord Nashin and their son were sitting.

The boy looked rough. While flogging generally was limited to the back it wasn’t unheard of for the whip to reach the victim’s face. I could see a long gash on his cheek where the whip had cut into the soft skin. His eyes were dark and distant and I wasn’t sure he even knew I was there. I took my seat across from them as Lady Nashin took a seat next to her son.

“Lord and Lady Nashin, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, even if it is under such grim circumstances.” I said with a slight bow to them.

Lord Nashin gave me a nod while his wife rubbed her thumb along her son’s hand. Lord Nashin was a well built man. If he wasn’t a soldier then I imagined he was accustomed to manual labour. I could see calloused hands and his gaze was every bit as Stern and steely as Father’s had been.

His wife was no less fragile. While she wasn’t muscular, she was clearly not the simple housewife that many of the nobility preferred in the kingdom. Her eyes were sharp and I could feel her gaze boring holes in me, studying me, as she comforted her son.

“I will not bandy words Sir Greyson, I want to know that my Son will be safe should we align ourselves with House Greyson. Doing so will cost us our land outside the city and we have little else to rely upon to keep our position within the nobility. I have spoken to a few of the other Major Houses and I would like to hear what House Greyson can offer.” Lord Nashin said, his voice confident but I could see past the false bravado.

He claimed it was about keeping their status but he really just wanted his son to be safe. They would be willing to lose their status among the nobility to make that happen. I placed my hands together as I flicked my gaze between the two of them. I had Dragon eyes now and that made people unnerved and I had found it a useful tool in the past few months. It made people nervous when I started too long but to their credit the both of them remained resolved and stalwart.

“My Brother is planning on transforming a small settlement on the eastern side of the valley into a trading town. I cannot promise security of status but if you are willing to put in the work to aid my Brother’s plans then you could establish yourselves as the ones leading that trade. You would be safe there, so far into our territory. Under our banner we wouldn’t allow the Church to reach you.” I explained, gears turning in my mind as I spoke.

Lord Nashin looked surprised as I spoke. He glanced to his wife and she nodded though her gaze did not leave me.

“I must admit I expected posturing and some manner of extortion. I did not expect such… bluntness.” He said, relaxing just a hair.

“You can thank my Father for that. He hated politics and the sooner an agreement could be reached the better. I don't like to draw things out anymore than he did.”

“And I thank you for that. Now then…” The rest of the meeting passed as we discussed the finer points of their situation and I took down the information that I knew Irand would want about their finances and their staff. The staff question was the easiest as they had dismissed nearly all of their house servants after they had found a group of them discussing the young Lord’s “Crimes against the Church”. The few that remained were the oldest and loyalist to the house.

It took a few hours to finish our talks and my head was swimming with numbers and figures by the end. I still didn't understand how Irand kept everything in his head. As I left I saw their Son looking up after me, still lost in the darkness of his mind but he met my gaze before I left. I'm not sure if he could understand the look on my face but I tried to let him know that I had been where he had been before and that it could get better.

They ushered me out the door quickly and I found myself in the mid afternoon streets. It was sparse and I had no desire to stay in the cool afternoon air. I took off at a jog back towards the Greyson Estate, faster and with longer strides than any normal person could do. I was only a moment from home when a cloaked figure stepped onto the path in front of me and I crashed into them at full speed, sending both of us sprawling on the cobblestone street.

I sprang back to my feet almost immediately and rushed over to the cloaked figure. They held up a hand as I tried to assist them and they kept their head low as they climbed to their feet. It was apparent that they were older, not an elder but easily as old as Father had been, they rose on stiff legs and picked up a… a Cane carved in the shape of a Wolf’s Head. The same cane that my Birth Father had… I peered under the hood to see a familiar face staring back at me. Not familiar in the usual sense, I hadn’t seen him in nearly thirteen years. Since he had beat me half to death with that Cane and tossed me out into the snows. No, his face was familiar because each day over the past decade I had seen my own become more and more like it.

Sun Kissed Skin and Bright Green Eyes shrouded by thick Black Hair. My distaste must have been apparent because he lowered his gaze and his free hand trembled and fell to his side.

“What are you doing here?” I growled, mimicking the same tone Sir Greyson had scolded us for years with.

It took him a moment to respond. He kept opening his mouth to speak but he said nothing as I stood before him and glared. Eventually he let out a long sigh and spoke, softly and deliberately.

“I wished to speak with You, Tiran.”

That… that caught me off guard. He had never used my name before. Always I had been Ivali Nalthair. I hated my old name, and he knew that. He was trying to get under my skin, lower my guard.

“And Why would that be? Its been nearly thirteen years since you beat me black and blue and tossed me out to die in the cold!” I wasn’t bothering to keep my anger in check and flames danced around on the cobblestones at my feet.

He didn’t even try to avoid the flames, they licked at his boots and flicked about his cloak. He just stared, a haunted look on his face. There was something else there too, Pride, ever so faint but definitely there. He was silent for a few moments before he spoke, waiting for my rage to quiet ever so slightly.

“I wished to apologize to you. I… I can never undo what I did. I can never take back what I did. I cannot mend the rift I tore between us. But I wanted you to know that I saw what you did in the arena. I saw how great a Knight you have become, How wondrous a person you have become. You… I saw how wonderful a man you have become. And I wanted you to know how you inspired me to leave the ways of the church behind.” He said, his tone going from quiet speech to a shaky rambling as he raised his eyes to meet mine from beneath his hood.

I stared as I listened. I didn’t believe it. Not a word. He was lying. It was a trick. A ploy. A Plot. My lips curled back into a snarl. It was something I had seen Ereneya do dozens of times and something I had been copying her in.

“You think I would believe that? You nearly Killed Me! Your own Child! I would have died were it not for Sir Artur Greyson! You did not raise me to be the Man I am! My Father did! He was the example I followed! He was the one who made me into the Knight I am today! You were nothing but the one who-” I stopped as I realized that a crowd was forming around us.

None of them were too close but they were watching us. No. Not us. I turned behind me to see a Fireball twice as tall as me hovering behind me. The roar of the flames would have made it impossible for anyone to hear me but I growled at the thought and held up a hand into the flame and willed it back into me. I could hear Ereneya now… ‘Temper Temper. Control your rage Tiran.’ I turned to leave after the fire had faded but I felt a tugging on my coat. My head whipped around to see Lord Nalthair holding on to my sleeve with a pained look in his eye. I felt my heart twinge just a hair at the sight. No. He was the one who did this. Not me.

He held up his free hand and I saw the small flicker of a flame dancing upon his palm. For a moment I thought I had caught him on fire and my heart raced but as I looked I saw the differences. It was lighter, fainter. It wasn’t my flames. He was holding a small flame of his own in his palm.

“I am many things. A Wretch of a Father. A Poor Husband. An Old Man with too many regrets. But I am not lying to you Tiran. I saw what you did in the arena. And I resolved to learn, even if it was only a fraction of what you could muster. I wanted to come tell you that Lady Nalthair and I have split. And that if you ever needed my aid for anything, It is yours. Anything.” He said weakly, letting the hand holding my sleeve fall to his side.

I stared for a moment before I turned and ran. I reached the doors of the Greyson Estate and tore through them, running straight for the courtyard where we had spent hours and hours training. I summoned my sword and I screamed as I slashed at the training dummy, again and again and again. I don’t know how long I was out there but by the time I had finished the Sun had set and I was drenched in sweat. The Dummy was little more than an Iron Pole with knicks and cuts running up and down its length. The frost and snow around me was water that flowed around my feet as steam curled off the stones. I fell to my knees and I felt the tears start.

Why? Why couldn't he have just stayed gone? It was perfect to imagine him as the angry old man who would always hate me. The one who had said I wasn’t his child anymore. The one who had sent my teeth rolling across the floor into the fireplace. The one who had told me that my place was to lie next to the husband that he and my mother chose and to grit my teeth and bear it. Why couldn't he be that person? Why? Why? I pressed my forehead to the ruined dummy as I felt a firm hand on my shoulder. I looked over to see Ereneya, Golden eyes filled with worry as she held me there.

She said nothing as she scooped me up into her arms and carried me into the house. I didn’t remember anything past the door as my vision faded.