Foreword,

The years following the death of King Arandall were among the darkest in all of Vassermark’s history. A bloody strife between countrymen whose body count would later be surpassed but whose suffering would not. While it is a lament to be cut down by the blades of war, the years of 760 to 765 were filled with cycles of starvation, like a plague of locusts moving from one region to the next and it is a truly onerous burden for the strong to bear when they must watch the young and the old wither and die.

Alas, even though these times left such a mark upon so many, this period of Lucius’ life I must approach with a more traditional study. I attended none of these events and examined none of the bodies. Like any regular scholar I have testimonies, court records, newspapers and other such trivialities of the written word. I considered skipping over it entirely and continuing on with the Aillish war, but there were a number of problems created by such an omission.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Chiefly, it would have omitted the context to how Lucius was given command of the armies headed east to the lands of the fae and it would ring hollow to say that they marched to plow fertile fields if the reader is given no grounding in the hunger that Vassermark faced. As I intend for this text to persist in publication for the foreseeable future, I cannot take it for granted that even the reader’s great grandparents will have lived through the famines.

I would also be negligent in my historical duties if I skipped over the reign of Fredrich von Arandall the Bloody. Although the events herein occurred primarily in the city home to the Eastern Academy of Science, more commonly known as Forum, the king’s policies did much to control Lucius’ life at this time and to constrain him for the king’s advantage.

Lastly and most personally, I enjoy the events between him and the Warden Blades. A new father, the boy had never before had the blade of death kept so keenly to his throat for so long and it presages the Census Hunts of his grey years.

For these reasons I will do my best to breathe life into the memory of the years Lucius was forced to attend the kingdom’s academy while bearing the mantle of the king’s own hunt dog.