Valamar had awoken in his bed. His wife was still sleeping facing his way. Her beautiful face was so peaceful and calming. He had moved his hand to caress her sleeping face, her cheeks feeling so soft to his touch. Valamar then noticed that the room was still a little dark, so he moved to turn on the candle on top of the bedside table next to his side of the bed. He looked at his watch which he had put there and saw it was only a few minutes past five, still moments away from the sunrise.

He gave his wife's cheek another caress as he kissed it. He was feeling the need to go to the privy, so he got out of bed with the intention to not disturb the sleeping Cassandra. He was still unclothed from last night when he got up. Last night... he thought again of that, how wonderful it felt. He smiled as he got excited thinking of it again. He quickly shook his head off those kinds of thoughts as he wrestled his way gently out of Cassandra's sleeping embrace. Even when sleeping her strength was still extraordinary.

Only when Valamar was sitting at the edge of the bed preparing to stand up and dress himself did he realize that he felt an extraordinary pain in his nether regions and his crotch. He groaned a little and recalled he might have been a little too excited last night and only now did he feel the repercussions. He hoped Cassandra would feel better than him when waking up.

And so he had dressed himself, however difficult it was, and made his way to the privy, limping his way there. It was honestly an embarrassing sight for him, though luckily no one was there to mock him. He could only imagine what his father and brother would say seeing him in this state, though they didn't have a wife like Cassandra.

After concluding his business, he had arrived back at the door to his room, however from inside he could hear his wife shouting something incoherently. He immediately rushed inside to see what was transpiring. He saw his wife restless on the bed, tugging and turning left and right, though she was still clearly asleep. Her expression was uneasy and she was muttering something.

"No! No, my lord! Don't leave me!" She was murmuring to herself, talking in her sleep "Don't leave me like this! Our child! Don't let our child grow up fatherless! You promised...!"

'I'm not dead yet. I'm still here.' Valamar thought to himself as he saw his wife was having a nightmare.

Valamar did not like the scene he was witnessing as he rushed to his wife's side and immediately embraced her, holding her head to his chest to calm her down. Soon after, Cassandra awakened, breathing heavily on the verge of tears as she looked at Valamar with a sad and worried expression.

"My lord...!" She said as she realised she was awake and her breathing calmed "...My lord is here... healthy and alive."

"Of course I'm here..." Valamar said in a gentle voice "And God willing will be here with you for another seventy years." he joked a little which prompted a glad expression from Cassandra as she returned his embrace tightly.

"Another millennia at the very least." Cassandra replied

"I can try a century, but I don't think I would last a thousand years." Valamar chuckled "Razyan blood isn't as predictable as elven blood."

"Don't ever leave me! Not even as a joke...!" Cassandra said again with a sad pout

"What was this nightmare of yours about?" Valamar asked while caressing the side of his wife's face "Besides the part about me apparently dying."

"You were leaving me, going off on a campaign while leaving me alone... then I saw a vision of you dying, shot through the chest by an arquebus... We already had a child... please, my lord, I don't want to talk about it... by the way, you're dressed already?"

"I needed to go to the privy, and I also wanted to catch a breath of fresh air outside. I want to check up on the guards that have been stationed outside."

"My lord has already tried to leave me alone...?" Cassandra said with watering eyes

"What? No, I was just-..." Valamar was confused and searching for an excuse when all of a sudden he saw his wife laugh and giggled instead

"My lord, I was only jesting." Cassandra said as she hugged her husband tightly "I'm not going to be that annoying... though, would it be bad if I were to be a little possessive?"

"Of course not. It shows that you love me, at least..."

"Speaking of which..." Cassandra got up as she searched inside the wardrobe in the room for some clothes to wear "I think I also need to do my business."

Valamar looked on at his wife intently, seeing her flawlessly put on her clothes - a simple yellow dress made for everyday activities - and moving about without any difficulty. Cassandra soon noticed her husband staring at her and she blushed a bit.

"Is there something wrong, my lord?" she asked gently with a smile "Are you meaning to make my heart flutter with how lovely I look in this dress? If so then thank you."

"Oh, that goes without saying, dear." Valamar answered but he was still looking intently at her while resting his head on the palm of his hand "But if you mind me asking dear, do you feel alright? Any trouble or difficulty walking or moving about?"

"Not really, no. In fact I feel pleasantly wonderful..." Cassandra had already donned her clothes and was sitting back "Why do you ask, my lord?"

"It's nothing, dear. Please go on. The sun should be up by now and trust me, the sunrise is a wonderful view."

"Then I'll meet you at the front porch... Oh, and, do you want me to make you tea, my lord?"

"If it doesn't inconvenience you, Cassandra."

"If it did, I wouldn't have offered, my lord."

When Cassandra had left, Valamar immediately limped to the front porch. He didn't really want to explain anything to his wife. When he reached the porch, he had sat himself down on a long chair and there he waited for his wife. It was astounding how she was carrying on as if nothing had happened while he sat there with a sore crotch.

He absorbed the cool atmosphere of the area. Rumasil stood on highlands and so the air was especially cool in the mornings and at night as the windows were wet from the haze. The waters of the lake were going back and forth in waves, as if in a rhythm. From afar Valamar could see fishing boats from the villages by the coast of the lake already sailing out to catch fish which were then to be eaten or sold to the markets in the city. It was a simple life for the fishermen.

"Here's your tea, my lord." Cassandra had entered the porch while holding a tray with a glass of tea on it. She put the tray on the table in front of the chair as she took her seat next to her husband.

"Thank you, dear." Valamar took a sip out of the still hot tea as he enjoyed the flavour and the aroma "This is... marvelously made, my dear!"

"Thank you for the compliment, my lord."

"No, I'm serious, this is better than most tea I've had."

"You should thank the ones who prepared the tea leaves then, my lord. They are an especially grown commodity only found in Hindan. I have no idea how you would come across this."

"Probably a wedding gift from the Aerlish."

Cassandra had leaned her head on Valamar's shoulder as she liked to do when they were sitting together.

"This view is utterly serene, my lord..." Cassandra said "The fishermen are throwing their nets, children are playing by the coasts, and that sunrise! The beautiful orange it paints on the surface of the lake..."

"Take a ferry and just go straight while going downstream through one of the rivers and you'll eventually reach Tanotimur. A few miles after that and you'll be back home in Florentia."

"This is my home now, my lord. With you." Cassandra had given Valamar a little peck on his cheek

"You know, back in the beginnings of the Halak peoples - when we first arrived in these lands from faraway Santara eight thousand years ago - life was very much like this. We were just mainly farmers and fishermen. life was hard but simple."

"I'm pretty sure all peoples were like that back then."

"That may be true, but we lacked a central government at the time. It was pretty much each little village for themselves and maybe several more decent-sized towns and communes, though nothing grand. Though the Halak were always known as fierce warriors. But ferocity, as you may realise, is not worth much without discipline and organisation. The Halak learned that the hard way when the Latinites came barging in and summarily defeated us. But we are a very rebellious lot, I'll give you that. It was because of this tendency that we were kicked out of the area and exiled by the Latinites to Destairos - which we call Tanodao... I hope I'm not boring you, my dear."

"Please go on, my lord. You know how much I love hearing and learning about all these histories! If not from you, I would be excited to read about it for myself."

"If only my sisters shared your passion for the arts, literature, and history, but nope. It's always been only the boys who are. Lately, the Valamen family has been filled with willful little princesses. It honestly gives the more conservative lords and noblemen heart attacks..." Valamar was chuckling to himself "Anyways, after living in exile for more or less a century, The Halak managed to return with a fleet so large and massive, I could hardly believe how they managed to pull off their invasion."

"How did they get past the Latinites' zone of control and head straight back here?" Cassandra asked "And even before that, how did these very diverse and fractured people even get such a massive amount of boats, arms, and armors, when previously they had only been simple farmers and fishermen."

"There are lots of points in your question that even the most learned of Rumasilian scholars bicker amongst themselves in the halls of colleges. But if you're asking for my humble opinion, I would say it was a combined effort of militarization as well as a new combined aspiration, the will of the people, so to speak. Before the exile, the Halak were a splintered and fractured peoples, but after the exile, they had a renewed sense of purpose. The purpose of returning to the land which they had so wrongfully been evicted out of... And the one to lead them was none other than the one of greatest leaders the Halak had ever seen. The great Rajahalak, my direct ancestor, first king of the Halak, Almar, whom to this day, we name our lands and our people after him..."

Cassandra only clapped her hands with excitement at Valamar's passionate notions.

"...Though most scholars would consider what you just heard as an overblown simplification of the real events to further our national pride as a people. But if I continue talking about old Almar, we'd be here all day... Is anything in your mind?"

"Not much really..." Cassandra said "Well, the part where you say you are a direct descendant of Almar, is that really true?"

"It is true and it is an undisputed fact amongst Rumasilian scholars. We have reliable records from the Latinites themselves chronicling the 'Rex Almarius' or Almarian Kings since the reign of Almar's grandson and heir, Sora. We Halak are also very meticulous when it comes to recording genealogies, most especially the male line. If we're talking about generations, we are the three-hundred-and-forty-ninth generation from Almar..."

"Straight descendants?"

"Yes. Though we've changed names around four times. First we were the Hagogoan Dynasty ( you could still call us that now, even ), then Almar's grandson changed it to the Sialmar or Almarmen, then Sora's son changed it to the Sisora or Soramen, then Ruma's son changed it to the Siruma, then finally King Vala I had declared himself the head of the Valamen clan. Which we are until now. All our names are derived from his, as you can imagine..."

"Unbelievable... that puts a lot of pressure on me to give you an heir, my lord..."

"Don't worry about that, my dear..." Valamar comforted his wife "You will have a child and that baby will be my heir..."

"You sound so sure that it's a boy."

"The firstborn of firstborns are always male... well except for like a few times... but let's not talk about those..."

"Well, I'll have to make extra prayers then..."

"Again, there's no need to worry about that. We're still young. Even if we reach the age of fourty until we have our first child - though we pray not - we will have a child."

"Well, if I turn out to be barren, then my lord may annul our marriage then..."

"Cassandra, what are these words coming from your mouth?" Valamar had held his wife's chin so he could look her gently in the eyes "Don't say such things... and it appears you've forgotten. Marriage in the Valamen family is 'till death do us part' either yours or mine. And even if the rules didn't exist, may God strike me down if I ever even think of leaving you and annulling our vows. So take back those words and I'll hear no more of it."

"Then, what we should talk about now is the name of our future son. Since it's your family's tradition that the father chooses the boy's first name, what would it be?"

"Hmmm... that is a surprisingly hard decision. Give me a moment to think about it... What about... Valadar?"

"After your great-great-grandfather?"

"Yes. I would like for him to be fair and just in his rule like his namesake... is that a problem?"

"Not at all, my lord, well, if he doesn't hang me after you die, at least." Cassandra had joked to which Valamar shook his head and laughed as well "... then for his middle name, I will go with Rafael after my own grandfather..."

"Rafael... I like the name... 'Valadar Rafael si Valamen... upon his ascension, he'll be Valadar VII. Look at us, already planning the name of a yet unborn child."

"Nothing wrong with that..."

Just as Valamar was sipping on his tea, he heard footsteps coming in from inside his house. He saw it was Valantine and his brother Vald.

"Just as I was enjoying my stay at this place, you two had to come barging in." Valamar said

"Brother, this is serious and important. I wouldn't trouble myself to come here personally if it wasn't. And for the record, you've ruined far more moments between me and my wife than..." Vald said

"Alright, fine, what is it?"

"Both of your presences are required immediately back at the palace. Father needs you both."

"This must be important, my lord." Cassandra said to her husband then turned to Vald "We'll be there at once..."

"Alright, alright... But brother, did you bring a carriage with you?"

"Yes I did."

"Oh, praise be to the Lord for that." Valamar expressed in relief "Then you two can go ahead."

"Why?" Valantine asked "It would be rude to-..."

"We understand." Vald said as he nodded with a smile as he saw his brother massaging his nether regions "Come now, bang Valantine. They new couple need time to prepare."

As the two left, Cassandra only looked at Valamar with confusion. Finally he sighed and explained.

"You might've been a little too excited last night, dear..." Valamar said "I've been having difficulties since the morning."

Cassandra was mixed with worry as well as amusement at the sight of her husband, but she helped him walk nonetheless. The two were headed to the palace to answer their summons.