Dressed in a dark, form-fitting robe with golden trimmings around the edges, the grey-haired man halted a short distance from the quarantine and looked over us with a scornful eye as he ground a crystal-topped walking stick into the dirt.
“Baxter,” the sharply dressed man greeted the Scoutmaster with a curt tone. “Samuel, Quincy and I were just discussing the events that led up to the Expedition’s loss, along with the seizure of a Nafarrian Ruin and Irovian Tower. We will need your statement to provide to the Justicar.”
“Stanton.” Bax’s voice took on a very flat tone as he cast a glance towards me. “As I’ve told both Quincy and Samuel, the Expedition’s loss was beyond our control, and as far as I’m concerned there was no seizure of anything, both the ruins were legally claimed by Lyrian and his guild, Virtus.”
“There are matters of Kingdom security that have arisen that put those claims into question.” Stanton’s voice took on a noticeably hard tone. “And I would remind you not to forget your contract with the Expedition.”
Bax waved a hand dismissively, “What Expedition? Out of the twenty of us that left Eberia, there are only five us still breathing, and even then, it’s a miracle that we’re alive. Far as I’m concerned, I’ve fulfilled my end of our agreement and the Expedition is dissolved.”
“I disagree,” the man’s eyes narrowed. “Our contract is in force until the dates specified.”
“I don’t want to work for you anymore, Stanton. Nor do I feel safe doing so. If you have any complaints with that, take it up with the Justicar,” Bax spat, pointing at Samuel and Quincy. “Because I’m sure once I tell him how your two men there disregarded or overruled every single one of my basic security precautions, and brought about the end of the Expedition, he’ll side in my favor.”
“You are not privy to all—”
“Hold up.” I’d been caught off guard by how quickly the conversation had unfolded, but I really didn’t like what I was hearing. “What’s going on—”
“I do not like being interrupted,” the older man said flatly, shifting his dark grey eyes onto me.
“And I don’t like what I’m hearing.” I stared back at the man as Amaranth interposed himself between me and Stanton, a low growl echoing from his throat. “We claimed those ruins through blood and sweat. If it weren’t for us, the Expedition would have been lost with all hands.”
“You and your guild’s effort in rescuing the remaining members of the Expedition is acknowledged,” Stanton stated emotionlessly. “However, those ruins cannot remain in your possession.”
“Why the hell not?” I asked angrily. “We intervened to prevent two major catastrophes that your Expedition indirectly caused while poking around in those ruins! I’m going to need one hell of a good reason to even consider releasing them to someone!”
“You will not speak to Lord Stanton with such disrespect!” Quincy barked, moving to flank the older man, “He—”
“Enough, Quincy!” Stanton raised a hand, cutting off the red-haired mage’s tirade. “As much as it pains me to admit… he is correct, and his guild has proven itself to be competent. We will require their cooperation if we are to succeed in our mission.”
“Wait. I am? You do?” I frowned at the man, not having expected his sudden change of heart. A small notification appeared in the corner of my vision informed me why.
Your Renown in the region has greatly affected your standing with [Lord Adrian Stanton]!
Your skill in Wordplay has increased to Level 12!
So that’s what Renown does! My heart leapt as I read the notification.
“I have arranged a meeting with the Justicar and Sir Aldwin to explain the situation, and to inform them of events that have transpired in Eberia,” Stanton continued, completely oblivious to my discovery. “You will make yourself available to attend.”
“Meeting?” I felt off balance with how fast the conversation had moved. In seconds, we’d gone from having our claims stripped from us to now being involved in whatever was going on. “I’m sorry, but just who are you exactly?”
The man fixed me with an unreadable expression. “My name is Lord Adrian Stanton of House Denarius. I am here representing the Dowager Queen, Emilia Denarius in a matter regarding the Kingdom’s security.”
He motioned to the Town Hall. “The meeting begins in ten minutes. Don’t be late.”
Chapter 8
“Lyr, we’ve barely been logged in for longer than twenty minutes, and the rest of the group just left to go hunting for food!” Sierra exclaimed in disbelief as she entered the room and circled the massive table in the center, sitting down beside me. “What did you do?”
“I’m still trying to figure that out,” I told Sierra, shaking my head slowly. “I was just ambushed by a ‘Lord Stanton’ from House Denarius just right outside of the Town Hall. He’s said that he’s here due to a matter of Kingdom security, which would trump our claim to the Hub and the Tower. I talked fast and somehow managed to get an invite to the meeting.”
“Kingdom security?” Sierra repeated, looking at me with a confused expression, “Aldford is independent. Anything to do with Eberia doesn’t concern us. What do you think is going on?”
“Not even the faintest idea,” I said with a shrug. “He did say he was representing the Dowager Queen though, and not the King.”
“I wonder what that means.” Sierra shifted in her seat, clearly unsettled. “I don’t know how much power an ex-queen retains… especially based on what you’ve told me about her.”
“There has to be something that we’re missing,” I whispered as the door burst open and a pale looking Aldwin rushed in, slamming the door behind him.
“Lyrian, Sierra!” Aldwin exclaimed while scanning the room, finding that we were the only two people inside it. “Stanton just told me that he invited you to the meeting.”
“What’s happening, Aldwin?” I asked, having never seen him so worked up. “You don’t look that great.”
“Eberia is not doing well,” he replied gravely. “I’ve only spoken once with Stanton since his arrival, and what he has told me so far has me greatly worried.”
“Who is he exactly?” Sierra whispered, lowering her voice as footsteps began echoing through the hallway outside.
“He’s the Que—” Aldwin’s mouth shut with an audible snap as the door opened, and Stanton walked in, followed closely behind by Samuel and Quincy.
“Ah good, Fredric. You’re already here.” Stanton inclined his head in greeting to the Knight, his stoic expression at odds with the stress lining Aldwin’s face. “The Commander and the Justicar are just moments behind us, along with Donovan and the Scoutmaster.”
“Hold on. There’s a Commander here too?” I couldn’t help but ask as the trio took their seats at the table. Aldwin taking a seat on my left-hand side, sudden confusion blooming on his face as well.
“Yes, I’ve asked her to join us,” Stanton replied, as the door swung open once more, revealing a tall, brown-haired Eberian woman and Dyre half a step behind her. “Ah, here she is now.”
“Lord Stanton,” the sharp-faced woman greeted the noble with a curt nod as she strode into the room, the heavy scale armor she wore jingling as she moved. As she sat down at the table, I noticed that her eyes had fixated on Aldwin, not even bothering to glance in Sierra or my direction. “Sir Aldwin.”
“V-Veronia? I didn’t know you were here! I-I—” An unsteady look crossed Aldwin’s face as the woman stared intently at him. “Erm, excuse my informality, Commander Tarius. Allow me to introduce Lyrian Rastler, the Guild Leader of Virtus, and his guildmate, Sierra Rain.”
“I am aware of them.” The woman’s green eyes momentarily shifted to glance at Sierra and me, before settling back onto Aldwin. “Introductions are not necessary.”
Who is this woman? Is there something between her and Aldwin? I glanced at Sierra, raising an eyebrow at her in silent question, only to have her nod ever so slightly in response. What the hell have we ju
st been dragged into?
“Please be seated, gentlemen,” Dyre spoke from the head of the table, having once again displayed his uncanny ability to move silently despite the heavy armor he wore, his eyeless gaze looking towards Donovan and Bax who had just entered the room.
Once the pair were finally seated, Dyre shifted his head towards Stanton. “This is your meeting, Lord Stanton. Please proceed.”
“Thank you, Justicar.” The older man stood as he looked around the table, making eye contact with everyone as he spoke. “This information is considered privileged, and I would ask that you not disseminate it without the approval of the Commander or myself.”
Stanton paused, his stony demeanor landing on me as he continued. “I am afraid that I must inform you all that the Kingdom of Eberia is not well. We have been faced with numerous challenges over the last six weeks that have only served to intensify tensions already existing within both the nobility and military. As of right now, Queen Emilia considers Eberia to be in the first stages of Civil War.”
I heard a collective gasp echo around the table as everyone absorbed Stanton’s statement.
“The majority of these complications have arisen due to King Swain’s actions… or lack of them,” Stanton continued. “He has begun shirking his duties in the extreme, and he has not been seen publicly in over three weeks. Nor has he been accepting visitors.”
“What is he doing with all his time then?” Sierra asked hesitantly.
“As far as we can tell… he has been spending the majority of his time in prayer and isolation with a favored priest,” Stanton replied with a frown, the first sign of emotion that I had seen cross his face. “A priest belonging to a new sect that has recently splintered off from Nil, the God of Vengeance.”
“I’m not familiar with that god,” I said, casting a quick glance around the table to see that I was not the only one.
“I am not surprised,” Bax spoke, leaning heavily on the table so that he could see everyone. “Nil is not the temple sort of god, with grand structures reaching into the sky. He’s a god commonly worshiped by the poorest of the poor, or those who have been wronged by people with malice in their hearts.”
“Nil works without regard to Law and Order, focusing simply on vengeance,” Dyre stated from the head of the table. “Would all follow his teachings; the world would quickly become blind. His work often makes Mithus’s harder.”
“Be that as it may, Justicar, I would welcome the original teachings of Nil with open arms over the perverted teachings that this new… cult is filling the King’s head with,” Stanton said brusquely. “These new teachings no longer enshrine vengeance for actual wrongs, but now encourage active, violent, revenge, even for perceived slights. A trait grossly unbefitting any King, let alone one like Swain.”
“Why the sudden interest in faith?” Aldwin asked. “I watched the boy grow up his entire life without giving a priest the time of day. What changed?”
“What else could cause a man to change so drastically?” Stanton shook his head with a bitter scowl. “The King has found a woman he wishes to wed. However, she requires him to share the same faith as her before considering his proposal. To that end, she has granted him access to her own personal priest, and he now spends almost every waking moment studying the tenants of this perverted faith in order to please his bride-to-be.”
“And, of course, the King takes no counsel but his own,” Aldwin grunted matching Stanton’s scowl.
“In the King’s best interest, we tried to have a detachment of knights remove both the priest and his mistress,” Veronia spoke up for the first time, turning to look at Stanton as she spoke. “However, the King ordered the Royal Guard to intervene. It was nearly a bloodbath.”
“After that, we lost all visibility into the palace,” Stanton explained. “Swain has forbidden all but the Royal Guard to be present in the palace, and has ordered nearly the entire military out of the city, likely fearing that a coup was imminent.”
“He’s left Eberia undefended?” I couldn’t help but blurt out in surprise.
“Not entirely,” Veronia declared in what I was beginning to learn was her only tone of voice.
“The King is clearly not in the right mind to be making decisions at the moment.” Sierra chopped a hand through the air with frustration. “Why did the military obey that order?”
“It didn’t,” Stanton answered with a grimace on his face. “At least not until Queen Emilia endorsed it.”
“The Queen is not in the chain of command,” Aldwin cut in, his expression one of concern as he scanned both Veronia and Stanton’s faces for cues. “The military, the Commander’s father, should not have obeyed any command she gave.”
Veronia’s father is in the Military? I exchanged a quick glance of surprise with Sierra. Sounds like he’s pretty high up too.
“You begin to understand the scope of our problems then,” Stanton replied as Veronia simply stared at Aldwin silently. “The Queen has no interest or right to rule in Eberia, yet she and Marshal Tarius find themselves holding the reins of power until Swain comes to his senses.”
“You can’t be serious!” I exclaimed, not believing what I was hearing. “You’d give Swain back control? He’s clearly shown that he can’t handle the responsibility of actually running the Kingdom! Why don’t you just elect another Noble to be King?”
“And fully invite the Civil War we are trying to avoid?” Stanton asked rhetorically, his expression one of frustration. “Events in Eberia have already escalated to the point where the Noble Houses are killing one another in the streets as they brutally trim one another’s family trees of excess sons or daughters. Attempting to get them to agree on a candidate to replace Swain would require a small ocean of blood, and would almost certainly ensure Eberia’s destruction when the Holy Ascendancy of Eligos comes calling at our door, again.”
The room fell completely silent at Stanton’s last words. Everyone, including myself, too stunned to reply.
“If our problems were not serious enough, negotiations with the Ascendancy have deteriorated beyond repair. Our latest terms were rejected with such vehemence that we feared military action was likely to follow,” Stanton went on to explain after his words had a moment to sink in. “Which is why Marshal Tarius was forced to approach the Queen to clarify the scope of his orders after the King ordered him out of the city.
“Unfortunately for us, we had assumed that any attack by the Ascendancy would have begun through Coldscar and sought to reinforce it as soon as possible,” Stanton said, pausing for a moment to look at all of us. “However, we were wrong.”
“Wait, Eberia was attacked?” Aldwin exclaimed, glancing between Stanton and Veronia as he waited for an answer.
“Nearly,” Stanton replied with a curt nod. “The invasion was thwarted by the slimmest of margins, thanks to a group of Adventurers that were caught up in the midst of a conspiracy designed to sow chaos in Eberia.”
“A conspiracy?” I echoed in disbelief. “What happened?”
“The details of the event would take some time to recall, and only the Adventurers involved know the true extent of what happened,” Stanton told me as his face turned into grimace. “I would advise you to ask them directly, but I do not anticipate that they will be forthcoming with many details.”
“The Adventurers came with you?” Sierra perked up in surprise as she looked around the room. “Why aren’t they here now?”
“They…declined to join the meeting,” Stanton answered in clipped tones. “The terms of their service have made them rather difficult to work with, even if they have agreed to aid the Queen in this matter.”
“And what matter is this exactly?” Aldwin asked pointedly, glancing between Stanton and Ronia. “I cannot begin to understand why Aldford would be anyone’s concern, given the scope of the problems back in Eberia.”
“That is far from correct,” Stanton replied while leaning forward and focusing intently at Aldwin. “At the moment, t
he Queen considers Aldford one of the most, if not the most important strategic asset in the region.”
“She does?” the Knight asked, clearly dumbfounded.
“Because of the ruins?” I queried, remembering how I had been dragged into this conversation.
“After a fashion, yes, but also no,” the silver-haired noble replied while motioning to the Expedition members sitting at the table. “It is because of what was found within those ruins specifically.”
“Æther,” Donovan spoke up with a tinge of anger coloring his voice, carefully looking at the expressions of Stanton and the other two mages. “You three already knew that the ruins out here were likely Nafarrian in origin, didn’t you?”
“We had strong evidence to believe that was the case,” Samuel replied quietly, reminding me that I had rarely heard the dark-skinned mage’s voice over the last month. “But we weren’t certain until the events in the Tower.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Donovan demanded, staring directly at Stanton. “I was in charge of the expedition! I should have known! I would have done things differently!”
“You were not fully informed because your political reliability was unknown.” Stanton returned Donovan’s stare without even blinking. “You have risen through the Mages Guild ranks bereft of any patron guiding your path, and you are not affiliated with any of the Houses, nor have you ever shown any inclination to ever be involved with one. Should the Expedition have successfully discovered Æther in one of the ruins, Samuel and Quincy would have briefed you accordingly.”
“Nearly the entire Expedition died because you withheld that knowledge from me!” Donovan practically shouted.
“A decision that the Queen and I were forced to make based on the political situation back in Eberia when we first organized the expedition,” Stanton replied stoically. “It may not have been a good one, but it was the least bad one available to us.”
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