Jackal Among Snakes

Margrave Reinhardt of House Parbon was diligently reading through all of the reports that he’d gotten this morning. Undead attacks had become more prevalent, and so he was much more proactive in looking for anomalies. Abominations from the Order of the Rose were more common everywhere, and the nearby Low Way of the Rose was proving particularly problematic. Indeed, he had a meeting with someone from the Stonepetal Sentinels today.

A knock disturbed him from his reading, and the margrave looked up. His aide entered, and he fixed his ruby eyes on the man.

“Eh… margrave, there’s…” the man began hesitantly. “The king, queen, and princess are here. Their knight-commander Galamon acts as escort.”

Margrave Reinhardt leaned back in his chair, flabbergasted. “You mean… they’re coming here, soon,” he sought to confirm.

“No, sir. They’re here,” the aide insisted. “I… have them in a guest room, but…”

The margrave ran his hand through his rich, red hair, completely caught off balance. “I’ll…” he set down his papers. “I suppose I have to… greet them, then.” He shook his head, trying to dispel the daze. “Are you certain this is…? Never mind,” he dismissed before his aide could answer. He rose to his feet, preparing to head out to entertain the royalty’s whim.

#####

Argrave looked at all of the members of House Parbon, three of whom sat on a couch while the last stood behind. There was Reinhardt—he was brawny, and had red hair and eyes. There was Elias just beside him. The man looked like a younger version of his father, and had two working eyes—that hadn’t always been the case. Elias sat with a young woman that had gray hair and dark orange eyes: his wife, Ridia of Parbon, née Jast.

And standing behind them all was Rose of Parbon. Indeed, standing: her legs had been fully healed.

House Parbon had once been rather earnest in their animosity toward Argrave. Margrave Reinhardt had kidnapped him on sight. But despite a few… unwanted borrowings… he’d helped them at many turns. He’d aided them politically in both Jast and the civil war, and he’d supported them physically by curing their ails. Now, their earnest animosity had become earnest devotion.

“How long will you be staying, Your Majesty?” Margrave Reinhardt asked after they’d exchanged greetings. “I can prepare the best room in my castle immediately. And whatever it is you need help with, I’m sure that I can provide. You need only ask.”

“Not sure how long I’ll be staying. Ideally it won’t be long, but… a certain situation has come up,” he smiled bitterly. “Just need to check things out, do a survey. If I’m right, everything will fall into place rather quickly.” He looked between them. “But enough about me: how’s the whole family?”

“Without your forewarning, we would’ve been hit hard, Your Majesty,” Elias nodded his head. “The undead attacks have been brutal, but we’ve had rapid responses ready. Lost a lot of good men, but much less than we would have.”

“And… Your Majesty, I can never thank you enough,” Rose of Parbon said, walking out from behind the couch. “You… you don’t know what it means to me. Being able to walk again…”

“Just fixing a problem I caused,” Argrave dismissed.

“No. It was much more than that,” Rose disagreed, smiling widely. She wiped at her eyes as tears came. “I feel like I have my life back in my hands. And my family remains whole because of your actions. So… thank you, Your Majesty.”

Argrave turned his gaze away from Rose, but found Elias. The once-dour man beamed at Argrave and said, “She speaks truly. What you did for my sister alone was more than I ever hoped, but… even for me, and my eye.” He turned his head to the right. “And you helped me find love.”

in his seat a little as Elias and Ridia held hands. The shy

the hard work,” Argrave dismissed. “But besides all of that… anything

for something, Your Majesty?”

“No, just… catching

I suppose there

does sound interesting.” He looked off to the side, then focused back on Reinhardt. “Listen—I’m going to be spending time on the walls, mostly. When this meeting with the sentinel happens… please, come get me.” He smiled. “I think

#####

Castle, Argrave stood on the walls of the massive fortification, peering out at the endless expanse of black sand in the Burnt Desert. Ever since Anneliese had learned the shamanic spell [Worldstrider], the whole world seemed to have opened up to them. Nothing felt out of reach. Perhaps that was why it earned that name. Though the spell consumed more magic than it did spirits, Anneliese had still expended fifty percent of what she’d gained from Chiteng’s sacrifice. It was

looking out across the land just beside Argrave. She said quietly, “In times like this, when I see something new and beautiful with my own two eyes, I

said, “Good. That’s why I did it. I wanted to get you indebted, make

is merely embarrassed, Elenore. He has a great deal of difficulty accepting it when people

down, then squinted her eyes to stare out at the distance. “Do you really think he’ll

hesitating a beat. “Because

blinked in confusion, then stared at the ground with greater intensity. “Is he joking again, Anneliese? All I see is black. The three of you

help you see.” he said in annoyance, then placed his hand atop her head and attempted to orient her vision. She tensed up

astronomically unhelp—” Elenore began, though

think they were small. As they grew closer, however, it

push forward by the wyverns stopped at a distance close enough to cause concern, but too far for arrows or magic to reach

up to the castle walls, looking out with caution. He’d already put on his

yes and no,” Argrave shook his head. “I think they’re going to call

funnily. “In all my days

among the guardsmen present. Just as the margrave had

white,” Argrave told him. “Might

them, Your Majesty?”

them,” Anneliese

to signal them in turn. With parley promised, a lone rider broke off from the flying horde of wyverns. The rest of them took to the ground, that they might ease tensions and rest their beasts while the parley happened. The messenger, a huge gray wyvern, came closer second by second. Its flight path seemed wrong,

reptile landed as the last of the men came away from the wall. Argrave realized why he’d been struggling to make out the count—this wyvern wore armor etched with

leave their weapons in their scabbards, but Argrave was sure the rider wouldn’t mind either which way. The man atop the wyvern’s neck wore gray wyvern scale armor, and hefted a glaive as he dismounted nimbly. As Argrave studied the man’s magic, he

Argrave scrutinized the man as he came closer. He couldn’t see any features beyond the helmet,

do you view me as an