Upon reaching the gates of the palace, one of the palace guards approached Walter with his hand on the scabbard of his sword. Judging by the poor quality of the kings royal crest on the guards tabard, and the lack of any mail or plate over his gambeson, the guard was of lower ranking; being on guard against Walter was understandable, as he would have no knowledge of the court mages.
Soon after hearing of the purpose for the vistors approach, the guard left the mage to seek the approval of a superior. Left with nothing to do but wait, Walter's eyes wandered over the palace walls.
To the untrained eye, this palace would indeed seem like nothing more than a castle - tall stone walls patrolled constantly by polearm wielding guards, iron portculis and high towers dotting the wall. To those in the know, though, this was much different. To them...it still looked exactly like a castle, but why would anybody refer to it as a palace?
Thats right, the palace was a palace in name only - the residence of the king, though the king just happened to live in a castle. But, one question remains unasked; why are the walls so low? Anybody with a common ladder could climb the 5 meter walls. Furthermore, the amount of towers is unproportional to the length of the wall. Every 20 meters lay another 15 meters tall tower, yet the towers have no arrowslits or open battlements. These towers are completely closed off, round stone structures with odd frustrum shaped tops.
Seemingly, these defences are just for show but nevertheless here they stand. Perhaps the architect never truly expected anybody to reach this far into the city. Perhaps the builders were working on a minimal budget with strict plans, or even the opposite; a large budget yet no clear way forward.
Either way, right now they were managing to keep Walter out, though with his thinning patience maybe the king will be forced to redesign the castle in case of rampaging mages.
A short while later, the guard returned to escort the disgruntled mage to a small side-room within the palace. Inside the room was an elderly man dressed entirely in black fur. The elder, with great difficulty, raised himself from the wooden chair on which he was seated.
"Chancellor Degrough, you needn't have come all the way here to greet me"
The elderly chancellor shook his head and gruflly responded "Nonsense! You've only been under the kings employ for 5 years, yet he gladly accepted this meeting. The king clearly values your talents, so how could I not take the oppurtunity to escort you?"
Degrough paused. Evidently, the mage standing in front of him hadn't quite grasped the meaning of his speach. The chancellor stroked his long white beard and continued, "I may be old, but it doesn't mean im willing to let go of my position any time soon. A few upstarts with their younger, quicker minds are already crawling out of the woodworks, attempting to make me look senile! Well, it may take me a few moments to remember quarterly reports, but i've not yet forgotten politics! Having a few...uh...strong allies is never a bad thing to have, you understand?"
"Im quite oppossed to setting fire to powerful nobles children, if that is what you are implying" Degroughs laughter was not exactly the reply Walter was expecting to his statement; he was certainly not joking, as he would not set fire to noble children without proper compensation.
"I will never get used to you mages. I'll sell my wife the day I meet a normal mage who DOESN'T instantly jump to burning nobles! At least drown them, much less mess..."
Noticing Walters curious gaze, the chancellor quickly coughed to stop himself, realising what he had just said. He glanced around the room and sighed in relief "Well, lets ignore that little joke, ay? Too be honest,It wasn't as if I was being entirely serious... I'd actually sell my wife as long as I could find a buyer!"
One awkward period of silence later, the chancellor ushered Walter to follow him. They arrived in front of the kings office. As before, Degrough slammed down the knocker three times and a short time later came a sharp "Enter". Degrough then stepped back, and gestured for the mage to step into the room.
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Walter entered the small study, and immediatly bowed to the Strawberry blonde haired man sitting behind the desk in front of him. "Greetings, your highness"
King Lorenz slowly raised his brown eyes from the parchment laying on the desk in front of him in response to Walters greeting. One eyebrow raised, as if deep in thought, the king reached towards a drawer within the desk and took out a spherical iron object, with a finger sized hole in the center.
Around the perimeter of the sphere lay evenly space numbers, increasing from 1 to 12.
The king inserted his right hands index finger into the hole. He closed his eyes, then slowly exhaled.
A faint orange light radiated from the edges of the hole, and two small dots appeared on the white perimeter. A large black circle formed around the 12, while a black line that slowly proceeded around the sphere formed just next to the 5. Then, the king pulled his finger from out of the hole, observed the object and gently placed it back into the desk. After which, he hastily straighted his back and sat with one hand over the other on the desk in front of him. Fervidly, the king explained,
"Marvelous new device, invented by one of your colleagues, Peter. He calls it a Time Cipher. Apparently, its an application of your magical storage crystals - something to do with recording a magical formula that calculates the time. Shame it requires someone with a precise control of the elements, or anybody may be able to use one".
The kings rant completely threw Walter off. He was unable to even process a reply before the king continued, "Just then, it told me you were 5 minutes late. Let me guess, you forgot to purchase a customary gift and got held up at the market attempting to purchase one?"
"I apologise, your highness. I've been completely absorbed in my research as of late, and the gift completely escaped my mind"
"Oh don't worry, its fine. I can't say I am a lover of tradition myself - but I won't say no to the brooch you've bought. Stop looking so shocked, I have eyes everywhere, though it does seem I will have to thank Lady deRose when I see her next"
Walter unhesitatingly opened the pouch hanging from his belt, knelt on one knee and presented a 10cm squared box. King lorenz reached over the table, took the box from Walters hands and carefully opened the top. Using 2 fingers, he proceeded to take out the large purple brooch. He examined the brooch and passionatly uttered "Marvelous". With one swift movement, the king then placed the brooch back inside its contained, then moved the container onto a pile of parchment ontop of the desk. Then, he continued,
"Now that all the formalities are out of the way...for what exactly have you called this meeting, Walter?"
As he was speaking, the king signalled for Walter to bring over and sit on one of the wooden chairs. Walter did as requested, then answered the king.
"I will be quite blunt with you, your highness, as there is little I wish to negotiate. I wish for you give me control over the Brightland forest as I believe, and I hope you do agree, that I am the best equipt to utilise the land to the highest standard. If you provide me with a medium sized village of farmers, smiths and builders, I guarantee it will be your most prosperous lands!"
The king remained completely motionless while Walter presented his request, as if he were not aware of the mages presence.
A 10 second period of complete silence later, the kings eyes shifted to meet Walters. His reply was certainly not what Walter expected.
"Walter, you want me to send an Archmage to an isolated, verdant, forest abound with resources. You wish for me to send such an intelligent, talented man to undeveloped land right at the border between us and our most powerful neighbour? Mage, do you really despise my employ that much? What you are requesting...its almost as if you intend on forming your own nation!"
Forming his own nation? With a village worth of people, how could the king ever come to such a conclussion. Its absurd. As Walter was about to protest, the king held out his hand to stop the mage, then swiftly pulled out a large, thick parchment with intricate purple, metallic, borders.
"This is the deed to the Brightland forest and surrounding territories. I've kept it here, hoping some trustworthy, competent and loyal retainer would request control of the land so...sign here".
King Lorenz handed Walter a feather quill with a strange crystal nib and pointed towards a line at the bottom of the deed. Walter infused the quill with magic and continued to write his name. As he did, without ink, strange red glowing letters formed along where he wrote. Soon after, the glow dissapated leaving only ink-black writting. The mage then reread the deed, and checked over the last line:
"I, King Lorenz II, Ruler of the Kingdom of Wesamont, archduke of the eastern lands and all its territories, prince sovereign of the region of tescant, hereby give ownership and control of the Brightstone Forest, Brightcove Mountains and its constituent lands to the holder of this signature, and all their descendent"
The mage glanced over the final line, and there lay his signature.
"Walter deWissen"