“I had heard that you had returned, Sire. So how did things go back at the castle?” Rhydian asked when Braydon went to find him. Braydon wondered how Rhydian still seemed to be able to keep track of him whilst managing the army and planning for war. It was not like Braydon going to meet guests should have been one of the first things on his mind.

“Next time, never tell me that the guests are good news.” Braydon had many things that he could have said about the Serheshi visitors but good news was not one of them. Not by a long shot.

“So they were not merchants then.” Rhydian looked slightly surprised at Braydon’s negative reaction. He had heard about Braydon’s return but had obviously not heard about the contents of the meeting. Though, if he had, that would have truly surprised Braydon. He had only talked about it with Nela after all, and that was earlier that day.

“And they were not representatives of anybody in Serhesh, that was for sure. Not even close. They were more like people who were paid to do someone else’s bidding. At least that part of them was Serheshi.” Braydon did not want to go over the whole thing again and Rhydian would likely not want unrelated things to cloud his thinking when planning.

“Are they likely to be a threat to the war?” Rhydian asked. He had heard stories of Serheshi sellswords being prevalent in conflicts in the east, but they rarely did intervene in fights west of the Brimstones.

“No, just a right headache for me, they may be working for someone’s gold but those two were by no means sellswords.” Braydon sincerely doubted that the pair that had come to visit him even knew which end of a sword to hold, let alone how to stick the pointy end in someone else.

“I am sure that you will manage to deal with it, have you heard about Duke Burn’s antics?” Rhydian moved the conversation onto what he had been thinking about before Braydon’s arrival.

“Nela did mention it but she did not know much more than the Twin Duchies decided to help Duke Burn.” Braydon responded, curious if Rhydian knew any more about it. If anyone were to know then it would be him.

“Well, she is not wrong, but that is not all there is to the story.” Rhydian started elaborating, it was clear that he wanted Braydon’s input on the matter otherwise he would have already brought up the King in such an important matter. He seemed to want another opinion before he mentioned it to King Aled.

“I doubted that that would be all to it. What do the Dukes want out of their interference? Even if they are on good terms with Duke Burn, I doubt that that would be enough to convince them to help him.” This was what chiefly concerned Braydon, the Dukes must want something if they were getting involved but it was a matter of what exactly that they wanted.

“There are probably many things that the Dukes want out of this but all I can tell you is what they have agreed upon.” When he heard what Rhydian said, Braydon took a pause. Being able to hear anything from a meeting that Duke Burn took part in was almost unheard of.

Burn was an extremely cautious man about spies, that the King had managed to get someone in his tent to hear about Duke Ryder’s betrayal was already impressive. That man had already been removed from Duke Burn’s circles not long after. Braydon had heard from the King that there had been a ‘hunting accident’. He believed it as much as the King did.

“How did we manage that?” Braydon was curious. If the King had managed to put another spy among the Duke’s men he would really have to tip his hat to him.

“This was not because we have a man in Duke Burn’s inner circle. Instead, the King has a few men in the inner circle of Duke Rotleach. From what I hear, he is less on guard to infiltration compared to either Duke Burn or Duke Tetland.” Rhydian had not had much interaction with people from the Twin Duchies, so he was going off of what the King had told him about the country. Being one of two nations bordering Fiveria that Fiveria had never gone to war with, Rhydian had little knowledge of it. He was first and foremost a man of war.

“That would explain it.” Braydon nodded, having to take Rhydian’s word for it. He did not know much about the Twin Duchies either.

“Apparently, Duke Burn promised them that if they helped him in his efforts then he would give them parts of the lands currently owned by Duke Ryder’s faction. In return, they would lend him aid in the next war with Leigh and sell him ships at half the normal cost for the next five years.” Rhydian’s words gave Braydon some thoughts.

It was clear that should Duke Burn become King, he wanted to start another war with Leigh. He guessed it was because defeating an enemy that previous Fiverian Kings had never beaten in a war would grant him a lot of legitimacy. Something that a usurper would badly need. Though, Braydon wondered what the Duke wanted with an even larger navy. If he managed to beat Duke Ryder, a significant number of the ships that the latter controlled would then be under himself. He would already have one of the largest navies in Ezaes, bested only by Leigh and Barakhil, and the Leighian navy had no realistic way of reaching Fiverian shores.

“Never mind his plans for after he becomes King, but handing over the Kingdom’s best land to the Dukes? What is Burn thinking?” This was the thing that Braydon could not get his head around. If there were to be one part of the Kingdom that Fiverian Kings would keep to the bitter end, it was the south. It had the most fertile land, the vast majority of Fiverian trade passed through the southern port cities, not to mention that the largest towns and cities. Only the capital could surpass them, but Boshil was just one city. And one city could not compare with a third of the entire Kingdom.

“From what I hear, the agreement did not specify how much land and I am guessing that that will be a point of contention in the future. And will probably be settled after the throne is secured.” Rhydian did not put much stock in what the terms of the agreement were, just that it had been signed. After all, if they lost, they would not live to see it come to fruition. Or at least it was highly unlikely that they would.