Tyros was woken up by a light knock on the door of his room. He was still in night clothes, borrowed from the room, so when the door opened before he could answer, he was a bit surprised. Neza walked in with a tray full of food. Another maid followed with a little chest and left it on a table, without a word she curtsied and left the room.

“Hello Tyros, I am sorry for intruding but you need to eat if you want to be strong. Afterwards we will head outside and we’ll tour the castle while we wait for the good news.” As a maid, being this forceful wasn’t easy for her, but she saw Tyros as a rescued puppy. He was not in a position to rebuke her and so, she could try her best to make him feel better.

Tyros Got out of his bed begrudgingly and sat down in front of his breakfast. That was not the case in the room he used in the country mansion, but in the castle the bedrooms were also designed to receive. That is why there was a lounge part not far from the night section of the room. After eating silently for a few minutes, Tyros couldn’t tame his curiosity anymore and asked what was in the chest brought by the second maid.

Neza's eyes sparkled a grinned, she went to retrieve the chest and opened it for the kid to see what was inside.

“Ah.. it’s clothes... I thought it would be…something else” The boy moderated what he was about to say when he noticed the enthusiasm of the maid.

“Those clothes are probably worth more that your entire wardrobe”

Tyros blinked twice and answered: “ It wouldn’t be too hard, even if I still had one I only had three outfits.”

Neza winced, she forgot he was only a commoner from a village lost in the woods. “Still, they are of good quality, and we’ll make you look nice before we get out and take advantage of the good weather.”

Almost half an hour later Tyros got out of his room feeling like he spent the whole morning getting prepared to leave. He followed Neza and met Aldwin and another servant waiting for them in the lobby. The servant was tasked with guiding them wherever they wanted to go and they were even given some pocket money to spend the day agreeably.

They went out of the castle and this time, Tyros took his time to gaze at the environment. Past the imposing stairs was a plaza and on his left was the stables. From this perspective, the building looked bigger than you might think from the front. On his right was a massive complex of buildings, when he asked the servant, whose name was Odrel, he answered that it was the training area for the city guards. More than a training area, some of the buildings were dormitories for guards. It was mandatory as some task assignment required them to stay on duty for several days. This way they were always available. Moreover some of the guards simply didn’t have a place to stay out of the military complex. When he heard it was a training area Tyros’ eyes lit up, it was the first time Neza saw him excited like this. The boy asked if he could go inside and watch the soldiers training. Odrel, the servant, looked a bit reserved, he wasn’t sure if they would be authorized to watch the training but at the same time Adwin told him to try his best to please the boy.

They went to the entrance of the complex and were met by a clerk, at least someone as close to a clerk as a soldier could be. The soldier didn’t recognize them as nobles or authorized people so he was about to deny them access when the servant guiding the group made a sign toward the boy’s eyes. The soldier noticed those amber eyes and winced. The man on duty hated this kind of situation, he didn’t sign in for this, managing people with potential political background was always more trouble than necessary. He made the easiest decision possible and simply asked for a superior to take the decision for him.

Surprisingly, a few minutes after asking for a superior opinion, Glem Grudal showed up with a grin on his face. Technically he was a superior, but it seems a bit overkill. Colonel Grudal was only second to his brother, the lord, in rank. At least in the province. Which meant that in military ranks, above him were only his brother the lord of the province , the General of the army in the capital and the king of Waedor. The soldier regained his composure quickly and saluted the man who answered with a hand gesture allowing the man to be at ease. Afterwards, he grinned in Tyros’ direction and addressed him:

“I see that you seem eager to watch some action kid. Did you get any training related to fighting in your village?

- I was supposed to. Captain Budres told me he would teach me a bit of swordsmanship... but it never happened” tyros expression darkened a bit when he recalled the whole mess that drove him here.

“I see…” Glem's mood followed the kid’s own. Nevertheless he regained his grin quickly and kept the discussion going: “Come then, you’ll see some proper soldiers in here, we won’t train you but you can at least gain some insight about how we do things.”

The group happily followed behind the colonel. Quickly they accessed an open room with covered corridors on each side and an open area in the middle. The ground was made of thin gravel and sand, which were divided in different areas. A part of the court was reserved for duels while others were for three against three or even five against five.

“The soldiers present here are trained in smaller groups than usual. Their goal is not to fight as an army but as elite groups. They are trained to patrol the city or for protection missions. From time to time they are also sent to handle specific tasks such as the hunts. The more traditional training is in another compound located on the commoner part of the city.” Glem was acting as a tour guide for the group which was probably a first for him. It didn’t go unnoticed, but as there were only soldiers in the training area, it didn’t raise any questions. They knew better than to question their superior.

Tyros could not believe what he was seeing, those soldiers looked so cool. The group battles were especially interesting as the coordination between the soldiers were breathtaking. Especially the combination of different kind of weapons in the same team. The duals where only between soldiers using similar weapons. Sword against sword, with or without shields, spear against spear or hand to hand fighting. Duels were also breathtaking, but for different reasons: the soldiers were simply too strong, Tyros was barely able to follow their movements. Further away some men were training with bows or javelin, it was interesting but not as much as the close quarter fights.

“I can see that you look interested, Tyros. Would you like to be a soldier when you are grown up ?

Startled by the sudden interruption, Tyros took a few seconds to consider Grem’s words:

“I’ve always wanted to know how to fight, but my mom said I was too young or that I should focus on something else

- She is right, you know, you are still too young to train. But one day you’ll be old enough.

- Well then, I’ll see what I do when I am old enough. First I’ll need to talk to my mom.

- By next year you shall be twelve. If you ever want to learn how to fight and protect what you hold dear, send someone to let me know and we’ll see if we can train you.”

After a few more minutes Glem left them to their own devices, and soon after him, they left the training compound. They spent the rest of their morning leisurely strolling in the alley of the noble district looking at the big houses and the charming shops. They decided to visit a restaurant at noon and even if the food was an eye opener for Tyros as he didn’t know food could be this good, their meal was not as enjoyable as he would have liked. He noticed that he was gathering a lot of attention, which he didn’t like very much. Hence, they decided to spend the rest of the day in the garden of lord Grudal’s castle.

They were enjoying the end of the afternoon playing cards in the shade of trees when Aldwin himself came walking toward them. He looked determined, his face didn’t betray any emotion and his hands were behind his back. He stopped a few feet away from the group and said:

“Young Tyros, We have received news concerning the group of survivors from Sunhaven.