Erhan put on the new black silk cloak he’d bought over a new red linen shirt. Various designs birds and beasts embroidered with gold threads decorated both articles of clothing. Especially the design of the national insignia, the threatening figure of a voros, with golden flames entwining its feet and mane was stood out from the back of the dark cloak like the sun in the night sky.

Garish, Erhan had said, but Sena refused to listen to him. It was a gift of gratitude for rescuing her and she had personally hired the royal tailor to design it for him. Now she stood outside his door in Morgan’s house, waiting for him to put it on. She’d vowed not to budge from the spot until he did. That trait of hers was exactly like Arya’s.

He looked at the body-sized mirror on the wall. He wouldn’t mind the silk if it was only black, but the rest of it… so gaudy. Definitely not for him. Even when he was young, he never wore anything like this. Especially the voros. He didn’t like it. He was a free man. He didn’t belong to any country or kingdom.

“Just for today,” he whispered and fastened Markreath. He picked up his staff leaning beside the door and headed out.

Erhan stood and looked around the empty hallway outside his door. Where was Sena?

“Yes, I’ve heard about it, the cherry buns with cream filling. They’re from Brigsar aren’t they?” Mila’s voice brimming with excitement reached him from downstairs. “I’ve wanted to try them for a long time.”

“Then do you want to come home with me?” Sena’s voice accompanied her. “There’s also strawberry scones, banana cookies and so much more there. Valar’s sweets aren’t bad, but you won’t find the authentic Brigsar stuff here.”

“Well,” Erhan headed for the stairs as he muttered to himself. “didn’t take long for her break her vow.”

Arban spotted him coming down first. He hurried up to him and said. “My ears and my teeth both would rot if I have to listen to anymore sweet talk.”

Erhan chuckled and asked, “you haven’t gone with your uncle today?”

“He’s a traitor.” Arban looked away in annoyance as they came down the stairs. “He escaped alone and left me here to entertain the noble girl.” he looked towards Mila and Sena sitting around the dining table in the room next door and said, “At least she’s found a better candidate for that. But man, that sweet talk is sickening.”

Erhan asked as his eyes ran over the rest of the house. Going by the sound coming from the kitchen, Arva must be there. “Where are the knights?” he asked.

“In the garden,” Arban said, pointing his thumb towards outside. “They’re a bunch of selfish people too. Always giving me weird glares whenever I step outside to get away from the noise.”

“Erhan!” noticing him coming towards them, Sena took the last sip from her teacup and stood up. “You’re ready I see,” she said looking him up and down. “Not bad. You look splendid. Are you sure you don’t want to…” she made a slicing motion before her neck, “lose the beard? Maybe you’d look more presentable that way?”

Erhan gave a curt nod.“I’m sure.”

“We’ll head out then,” she turned and said to Mila. “I’ll bring you some good Brigsar sweets next time. Say farewell to your mother for us.” she nodded towards Arban and stepped towards the door.

As he went out, Erhan’s sharp ears picked up Arban’s words, “that wasn’t a sign of shaving the beard. Did the girl want him to chop his head off?”

Erhan stumbled a step. The boy was obsessed with ‘chopping heads’.

The four knights fell in line around them as they stepped towards the carriage outside. It’s been a week and a half since Sena’s rescue, and Gorge was already back on his feet. The internal injury had been a little difficult to heal just like the crushed bones of Erhan’s arm. But Erhan had still managed both in exchange for a headache and two more days of bed rest.

As they reached the carriage the knights climbed up on their horses. They had learnt a lesson that night and now wanted to keep an eye on everything. Though it was just before midday, who knows what trick this city might play on them.

“you still haven’t mentioned where we’re heading to,” Erhan said as she boarded the carriage with him.

“To the Sergel mansion. Arakan Sergel has invited us for lunch. He had been wanting to see you for a while.” she said with a smile. “You too need to thank him. It’d have been very hard or me alone to get those three men’s family off the hook otherwise.”

His demand that day had been quite unreasonable. Especially, since it involved potential traitors and the queendom’s law. Erhan had rescued her, so she had taken on the responsibility of seeing through the matter, much to Dorian’s discontent. But even though Sena was the victim herself, her words held little sway over such matters.

Unable to accomplish much she had demanded Arakan to help since her abduction was half his responsibility and all. His help worked out better than she’d hoped. After all, she may be a child of the heir of a major warrior house, but she was no heir.

Though part of the reason the families could avoid the punishment was that the other two men were dead and bruce wasn’t the instigator and instead had wanted to let her go.

But what shocked everyone was that man, Paul the mouse. The investigation revealed he had quite deep ties with the criminal world. He was from the Autumn groves, where the pirates attacked Erhan’s boat. He was involved in many slave trading and looting incidents. He came to Valar after Erhan and the crocodiles nearly destroyed one of their biggest pirate groups.

His presence had taken most of the burden away from Bruce, who didn’t have any significant criminal past. Though he was still going to serve prison time for the rest of his life, at least his and his families lives were spared.

“I must also thank you for rescuing lady Moras, sir Erhan,” Arakan said as they sat down on the cushioned chairs placed around the lawn. The morning breeze from the river Russet brought along with it the scent of flowers and fresh greenery from the surrounding garden as it ruffled his silver hair.

Jeff led the maids around, bringing plates and jugs goblets, filling the table before them with fruits, pieces of bread, salads and various other dishes. Some filled their goblets with sparkling red wine. four servants brought a whole roast boar on a tray on their shoulders. Quite a banquet for only seven people.

Erhan also took his seat beside Sena as he watched all this hubbub. He raised a hand in dismissal as he heard Arakan’s words. “Don’t worry about it,” he said, looking at the young man. “Instead, I must thank you for helping Sena out with the case.”

“No, no, it was nothing major.” Arakan shook his head. “But your kindness for mere strangers did impress me.”

“Now that’s enough of thanking and stuff,” Sena said. “You told me that day you’ve something to tell me about the quest.”

Arakan nodded, “yes, I do. We’ll discuss that after we dine. We can’t risk the food getting cold now can we?” he took a glass of red wine from the mahogany table in front of him and extended it. “But first let us have a toast of good health for sir Erhan.”

Erhan ran his fingers through his hair. Arakan had met him once the day after Sena’s rescue. His sickly appearance had left quite an impression on the young man.

“Yeah, I’ll toast to that.” Sena also raised her glass along with the knights who were sitting a few seats away down the long mahogany table capable of sitting at least twenty people, giving the three of them some privacy.

The banquet ended and the servants began to clean the table. The seven of them walked through the red brick pathway leading through two rows of cherry trees and arrived at an open pavilion in the middle of the garden. Bushes of a wild rose surrounded it and green Ivy climbed up four white stone pillars, covering its arching rooftop with a green net occasionally dotted with small red flowers. Plates full of fruits, wine jugs and goblets stood ready on a table in the middle of the construct. Erhan gave a wry smile. So much food everywhere.

“By the way, sir Erhan,” Arakan said, swirling a goblet of wine in his fingers, “from what Lady Moras told me, you’ve lived for quite a while, haven't you?”

Erhan gave Sena a quick glare of displeasure. Sena ignored that as she continued nibbling on a piece of pear. “Why do you ask?” he asked Arakan.

“Well, from what I know of druids, those that can achieve that are different than the druids we occasionally see.” he said. “they usually live away from society.”

“You know about druids, do you?” Erhan gave him a judging look.

“His father is the head of the ministry of information,” Sena said from the side as she listened in on the conversation. With a voice full of curiosity she asked Erhan, “but there are different kinds of druids? You never told me that.”

Arakan nodded with the expression of a great, knowledgeable Expert. “Yes there are—”

“You can leave that topic for later.” Erhan expressed mild annoyance. “We are here for a different discussion.”

“Ok,” Arakan shrugged. “It just seemed odd to me since someone like you shouldn't be interested in the prize her majesty is offering for the quest.”

Erhan stared calmly at Arakan’s eyes. “I have my own reasons,” he said with an unquestionable voice, “and I don’t want to talk about them.”

“Well, if Erhan doesn’t like the topic, then leave it that,” Sena picked up another fruit and popped it into her mouth. She had a growing appreciation for food after starving for a day. “Let’s talk about the quest. What information do you have?” she asked, looking at Arakan.

Arakan smiled at her, but then his expression turned serious. “Although you’d probably receive the news from your house later, I want to dissuade you from going on this quest.”

Sena frowned “why?”

Arakan stood up from the chair and walked towards the edge of the pavilion, gazing at the garden with a thoughtful look.“the Book of Dreams.” he said and turned to look at Sena. “how much do you know about it?”

“I know it’s an artefact for answering questions, not granting wishes as most people think,” she said.

“So you know about that.” Arakan nodded, somewhat sad. He really wanted to show off his amazing treasury full of knowledge, but every chance got someone thwarted him. His luck wasn’t usually so bad.

He sat down with a sigh. “The thing is, although it’s quite useful, there’s no immediate use of it. You still have to do what you can do after you get your answer.” Arakan looked at their faces one by one. Then he nonchalantly said, “And I think that’s why her majesty isn’t really interested in the artefact.”

Following his words, a few moments of silence covered the pavilion. Only the warbling sound of flowing water came from a nearby fountain and the twittering of birds kept company with the changing faces slowly trying to figure out if something was wrong with their ears.

Arakan looked at them with interest. As expected, their expressions were quite funny. The only disappointment was Erhan. Only his eyebrows wrinkled a little with a look of consideration.

“What?” Gregor was the first one to break the silence. He and the other knights had been quiet until now as per etiquette, letting the other three important people continue their discussion. But now he couldn’t help it.

“Are you… kidding or something?” Sena’s eyes narrowed as she asked.

“Nope,” Arakan said with a satisfied smile.

“Then why? What’s the reason for calling in the warriors from all over the queendom?” Sena frowned, the incident of her abduction still fresh in her mind. Her voice slowly sharpened as she said, “So many crimes are happening in the city. The place is full of bandits and robbers. Even the citizens are rioting. If she isn't interested in the Book Of Dreams, then why is she allowing all this.”

“Sena!” Arakan warned her. Talking that way about the queen was a very dangerous thing.

Sena caught herself. “Pardon me.” she dipped her head towards no one in particular. Then she turned towards Erhan and said, “What are her majesty’s intentions?”

Arakan leaned back in his chair. “As most people have been guessing, it’s to stop the war. That much at least, is true.” he gave a rueful shake of his head, “The Fade hit our queendom the heaviest out of the four kingdoms. Our army’s in shambles. If the three kingdoms launch a war on us now, it’s going to be—”

A cracking sound interrupted him. Erhan clenched his teeth. He still didn’t like to hear about the plague. He sighed and relaxed his body. “Sorry, continue,” he said dropping the crumpled silver goblet onto the table. His hand and the new cloak both were wet with wine. He started wiping it with his handkerchief. It’s been three years. He had a goal now. He ought to concentrate on that and… let it go.

“Anyway,” Arakan slowly said as he looked at Erhan for a while, “I can’t fathom her Majesty’s true intentions, but from what I heard from my father, the Book of Dreams is supposed to be impossible to retrieve. it’s in a part of the dreaming mountains that’s so perilous that even the sadhus living in caves deep within those mountains don’t go there.” he ended with a speculative look at Erhan.

Erhan drew a deep breath and looked up at Arakan. “The Hungry mountains?” he asked with caution in his voice.

“Yeah, exactly,” Arakan snapped his fingers. “Her Majesty issued the quest and enticed all the criminals and warriors because she wanted to send them away in an impossible journey.” he chuckled. “Her intention is to curb most of the unrest within the queendom so she can put all her effort into defending it against outsiders,” he said with a shrug, “at least that’s what I think.”

Sena frowned and said, “so this quest…”

“Is impossible,” Arakan finished for her. He quite enjoyed the dumbfounded looks the knights were giving him.

“I have one question.” Erhan looked up at the white, arching ceiling. “How did the queen know about the location of the artefact?” he asked. He lived in those mountains. His teachers were one of the wisest people in the world. How did he not know something that even a queen of a country that might disappear any day knew. It kind of hurt his pride.

“Sir Giraldi told her,” Arakan said. “I don’t know where he got it though, but he is sir Giraldi, the wisest man in the queendom, no, in entire Clover. this kingdom alone has been able to survive against the rest of Clover for half a century only due to him.”

“Giraldi, huh…” Erhan tapped his fingers on the table. “He sounds like a capable person,” he said. But the question remained. If the man was so wise and stood behind the previous kingdom, then how did the queen come into power? Did he give up on the kingdom and support the queen. Well, he’d ask if he ever intended to enjoy political gossips. But that wasn’t now.

“Well, if you still intend to go out for the experience, like some of the other nobles would do, then I suggest you get ready,” Arakan drowned the rest of his goblet and stood up. “the initiation day for the quest is round the corner.”