Florian

After Romulus killed Noah, the trio of Florian, Smith, and Romulus were all called back to Gatherstorm. They arrived late in the afternoon, and they met up with the king in the throne room. He sat in his chair, patiently waiting for their arrival, and when they all walked up the stairs that led up to the Griffin Throne, the king asked where Noah’s head was.

Romulus held a box in his head the entire time, and when his father asked for proof, Romulus opened the box, kneeled, and presented it to the king. Maximus took one look at the head and when he saw the scar told them to put it on a spike and display it in front of the palace. But that would come later as the king told them; he had a very important announcement for all of them and asked them to kneel.

When they did, Maximus walked up to the three of them, one by one, and promoted them. Florian watched as Romulus tried to keep still as his father said the words that he had been waiting for his entire life. Smith remained as still as a rock, and Florian didn’t know what to do when the king came to him, so his eyes darted around the room, not knowing what to look at.

The king told them to stand back up and asked if they had any requests. “Yes,” responded Romulus. “I would like to head south and help with the hunt down there.”

“Granted,” said the king, sitting back on the throne. “Anyone else?” The king’s eyes swayed from Romulus to Smith, and when he did not answer, the king ordered him to return to Gala’s service in Wailing Wind. When the king’s eyes swayed to Florian, he felt as if a clock was rapidly falling apart. He didn’t think too hard about what he was going to do after so he said what instinctively came to him. “Two things. First, I would like to be stationed at Alington. It is my home city, and I want to do what I can there.”

“Granted, Captain Kosta, and the second thing?”

“I would like to have General Smith stripped of his honors and locked up for the murder of a captain in the military.”

Romulus and Smith turned their heads toward Florian. Romulus’s eyes tried to warn him to stop before he dug his grave further, while Smith looked at him with pity. “You realize what you are accusing the general of?” the king asked.

“Yes, I do,” responded Florian. “I have no concrete proof, only a suspicious series of actions.” Florian continued to explain what had happened to him back in the military academy and said that the king had no reason to believe him, but he would also have no reason to believe that he would lie.

“I cannot grant you such a motion,” explained the king once Florian ended his plea. “However, I do hope that time shall bring us the truth. Nonetheless, you shall be thousands of kilometers away from each other, so I see no reason to act on these accusations. Unless, of course, General Smith actually did commit them,” he said as he turned toward General Smith.

“I absolutely deny them,” calmly said, Smith.

“In that case, I dismiss all of you.”

After the meeting, Romulus stopped Florian and demanded an explanation. “You must be stupid to do that in front of my father! God, do you have any idea what type of shit you realize you got yourself into?”

“You told me that we would discuss this after we got Noah, and now it’s done. If the king is going to promote someone to a generalship position, he should know what that person has done.”

Romulus took a deep breath and looked around the hallway. “What if he didn’t take it well back there? What if he punished you because you dared accuse a general who helped kill a terrorist, why you were accusing him of murder and punished you for it?”

“Then, I would have done what I am about to do. Pack my bags to Alington and enjoy some time away from the action and handle the crumbs while you do the rest.” Florian turned around to get away from Romulus, but before he could get too far, Romulus called out to him. “Kosta.”

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“Yeah?” Florian said, turning back around.

“Do you think that you only deserve to handle the crumbs?”

“No one’s stabbed anyone over crumbs.”

“Then why are you in the military?”

There was a pause. “To be honest, it was the only place where I could get a hot meal.” Florian nodded before turning back to get an early night’s sleep.

#

It took a little under a month to get to Alington. He didn’t take a carriage and didn’t take many supplies. It was only Florian and his horse for most of the trip. He would stay in the smallest towns that he could find so he could get a cheap price, and when he wasn’t close enough to a town, he would make camp on the rolling hills of the plains. Sometimes he would sit there and look at the horse. Maybe it was time to buy a horse. All of his life, he only rented horses as he didn’t need them for extended periods of time, but now that it seemed that he might have a stable job where he could ride out into the plains east of Alington, he should share the experience with a horse.

However, that decision would come later, and as Florian rode across the rolling hills, he admired the stillness. Spring was always a beautiful time of year as it wasn’t too hot or cold, and their plains would spring flowers, and the bison would roam the grasslands looking for food. Sometimes, the bison saved Florian from panic as he followed them to the nearest water source and would fill up his water bottle and bath in a river or lake after the bison left.

Alington seemed to be the same as it was during Florian’s childhood. The further west you went, the worse it got. Florian was lucky that he grew up on the east side of the city, but when his family died of cholera, he was forced to move out of the city entirely and a couple of years later, would join the military.

After reporting to the army camp and getting settled into his position, he found the residence he was given. It was a small apartment in the center of the city on the third floor of a damp, loud, and cramped complex. Florian never spent more than an hour inside that building during daylight hours as Florian’s first couple of days were full of work and walks along the eastern edge of the city.

There wasn’t much action in Alington. Yes, a couple of reports of People’s Lord action, but most of them were dead ends or red herrings. The days drew on sometimes, and though Florian wanted to shake off the thought, the memory of his family’s burial site called to him. Florian didn’t want to relive the memories, but it would be an insult not to go to their graves, even if there was no afterlife.

So, a week after he arrived, he forced himself to a small graveyard on the northeastern side of the city. It was a bright and sunny day with children playing on the street and people going to work, but Florian silently stared at his parents, older brother, and aunt’s graves. If they didn’t die, Florian would most likely be in a university studying law, medicine, or any other field that would make them proud.

Florian didn’t tear up or cry. All of the tears that could flow were already gone, and all that remained was a man with nothing to lose or gain. Most of the time, anger filled the hole that sadness once occupied. Florian asked himself why a god would allow this. Why would he punish a family that did nothing wrong by giving them a disease they couldn’t cure?

But the longer he stood there. A scarier thought occupied his mind. The worst thing that could happen to his family and the rest of the world was that there was no god. That there was no heaven that Mydrazan or Cayo looked over, and when they died, there was nothing. No righteous path for one to live on, no bad people to punish in hell, and no justice for his family.

This didn’t change Florian's opinion that there was no God, but he realized that he wanted there to be a God. His family did not sin, and though they died an undeserving death, they would have a spot in the heavens.

More weeks passed, and when May became June, Florian was sitting on a bench on the western docks. There was a tip-off near the docks, but as usual, nothing came of it. He sat there breathing in the cold air as the sun began its fall below the horizon.

Two men in armor walked up in front of Florian. They were covered in blood, and it seemed they had never emoted in their entire lives. One of the men through a letter onto Florian’s lap. “Are you guys okay?” Florian asked.

“Just read the letter,” responded one of the men.

Florian obliged and broke the seal. It was a letter from Romulus. He reported that People’s Lord forces stormed nine castles, successfully taking eight of them. All of the earls whose castles were taken were murdered on sight. Florian stared silently at the letter with his mouth hinged open.

“Alington was also attacked,” said one of the men. “Fifteen castles were stormed, and it seems that eight of them have succeeded.”

“Why did you give me this letter, then?” asked Florian. “If you already know everything, why didn’t you just tell me?”

“There’s a backside.”

Florian turned the letter over and found a postscript from Romulus. When he read it, he simply covered his mouth and imagined what could become of Alington.