As I write this, it has become feasible to send a message faster than a ship. Some stigmata directly facilitate the transfer of knowledge, while most places rely on trained birds or a robust series of stables and fresh horses. None of these were an option when the Sea Bird’s Rest arrived at Hearth Bay. When we rowed through the harbor and past the great idol, so too were we the first to arrive with tidings of the siege of Rackvidd.

The port master hardly even believed us.

We had managed to shave Lucius and clean his clothes of the blood, but he didn’t have the noble air about him. The men who stood nearby were sailors that worked for Captain Bodin, not an entourage of guards and servants. It wasn’t until we began unloading the crates of gifts and trophies that the portly portmaster smiled and said, “I shall arrange a carriage for the king.”

As he watched the civil officer bustle away, eager to invoice the royal treasury, Lucius crossed his arms. “This is never going to stop, is it?”

I nodded my head. “Oh, it will. Eventually you’ll have such an entourage, and an honor guard and so on, that you won’t even have to introduce yourself. Until then, best to keep humble, yes?” Then, I attempted to leave.

“Where are you going?”

“Away,” I answered. “I used more of my magic than I would have liked, and I’ve no desire to catch up with old acquaintances just yet. Go on, you don’t need me for this. The smiling and hand shaking was never my specialty anyway.”

Disgruntled but once more in the swing of the act, Lucius returned to the small group we had traveled with. Captain Bodin’s crew stayed with him sending him off with a hearty, “And please keep your chaos to yourself. The sea is harsh enough.” Unfortunately for him, that would not be the last the two of them met.

In mere moments, the traveling party had been reduced to nothing but Lucius, Sammy, and Aisha, both of which played the roles of his attendants. The portmaster delivered them a cart and a driver, the goods were loaded, and they set off to the Arandall castle. The city itself, Hearth Bay, was built into the river delta of the Pelagus River, each mud island built into a foundation for the city. Rivers and canals beneath ferried goods, while bridges linked the high walls together for people and carts. Every island was bulwarked against siege and flood both, which had the unfortunate consequence of funneling wind between them. The everflowing Pelagus River was the city’s sanitation system, and the smells would whip across the bridges.

“How do people live like this?” Aisha asked, plugging her nose and holding down a gag.

Lucius inhaled and nodded. “You get used to it. This is just what happens when a city gets big enough.”

“A city like this has more to worry about plague and fire than about a bad stench,” Sammy said.

Just then, another scent reached them. A food stall was frying a curious concoction of honey and flower, the treat foaming and fizzling into sticky spirals that infused the air with the sweet allure like nectar. It had Aisha nearly falling out of the cart, looking up and down the street, trying to spot it. “What was that?”

“Fried sweets or something. We can get some later. There, look up. The castle,” Lucius said as the cart crested one of the great drawbridges. They had been able to see the tower peaks, like distant giants among smoking chimneys, but only then did they come face to face with the tower granite walls. Twice again as sturdy as any city burrough, Castle Arandall made the other fortifications seem like mere dykes for the storm floods.

“There are people on the walls,” Aisha said, almost crawling into the front seat with the driver.

Lucius shrugged. “Of course there are. What else would you have a standing army do?”

“Patrol the city?” Sammy asked.

“Then the king wouldn’t seem important,” Lucius said, and rose in the cart. Just as he moved to the back, they were directed to one corner of the keep’s courtyard and one of the castle steward’s undersecretaries walked over to meet them. Lucius smiled and dismounted. “I’ve come for an audience with the king.”

“And you are?” the shrewd man asked, jotting down shorthand notes about the three of them.

Lucius produced a sealed letter from Rackvidd. “Lucius von Solhart, here on orders of Felix von Raymi to report on the southern expedition.”

The under secretary pursed his lips and took the letter. He snapped the seal and read over the contents, which contained a description of Lucius. I later confirmed that it also stated he was missing an eye, which made us quite relieved we went to the bloody effort. “Well,” the man said, stuffing the letter back in the envelope. “The king is a very busy man, I can’t make you any promises about when–”

“Tell him I have his first shipment of ley,” Lucius said, and banged his fist on one of the barrels he had brought with him. The barrel banged back, nearly breaking the shock absorbers in the cart.

The undersecretary’s eyebrows went up, and his pursed lips became a smile. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Could you send a maid or someone as well? For more trivial matters?” Lucius asked.

The undersecretary bowed and walked off, saying, “I’ll see what I can do. Just wait here for the time being.”

Aisha sat down on the back of the cart, her feet dangling as she looked around the castle. She kept looking at the different knights and soldiers,a t the nobles and women in dresses. “They leave nobles to wait?”

“For the king, everyone waits,” Lucius said, and helped the cart driver unload the goods they had brought. The poor man eyed the ley barrel uneasily, refusing to touch it himself, then wasted no time in leaving them in the courtyard to return to his duties.

They weren’t alone in the courtyard however. The small park within the walls and outside the keep had found new life as a small point of public gathering. A man in commoner clothes, little more than a rough tunic and trousers, had taken a stand atop a tree stump to say what was on his mind to any who would listen. It made Sammy sneer, but a dozen people of all stripes listened and nodded.

He was a revolutionary. “The divine right of kings is at an end. It is clear for all with reason in their minds. It may have once been appropriate, but like children leaving their mothers, we must step out from behind the goddesses. Think about it! If the nobles were preordained to rule over us, then they would be well fit for the job, they would be sovereigns and embody the will of the people. They would be supernaturally wise and just, as history says our first king and queen were. But! The blood and grown thin. They have interbred with common lords, no better than anyone here. They no longer have the stigmata of wisdom. The gods have revoked their sign and left nothing but a tacit assumption of rulership!”

Aisha crossed her arms and frowned. The man’s speech could be heard all the way across the courtyard, and most of the guards glared at him like they did. “The king let’s people do this?”

Lucius nodded. “People have been doing this for at least the last ten years, since the last time I was here. He lets them because they don’t have the power to do anything, and if he stops them then he’d be called a tyrant and maybe they would have the power to do something.”

She arched an inquisitive eyebrow. “So, better to let him insult him in his own home?”

He laughed. “I think he’d have another matter if they were at his home, this castle is government property. Any citizen of Vassermark is allowed at least this far in.” Then, one of the castle servants arrived, and he began a discussion on baths, and a change of clothes for proper presentation before the king.

Aisha shook her head. “You have an interesting king, Lucius.”

“It’s not often you find a king who’s a liberal.”

“Thank you,” King Arandall said, though no one present had realized he had approached. He had but a pair of knights to escort him, no royal cape or crown, or even his scepter. He merely had the white and blue of his house colors dyed to his doublet, itself a luxurious thing of quilted goose down. “I hear you have my ley!”

Lucius was slow to react, but faster enough after the maid bowed to him. “My liege, I was not expecting you so soon.” He thumped his fist to his heart and dropped to a knee.

“And you were told correctly. I should have finished up properly, but I couldn’t contain myself,” King Arandall said as he smiled and waved Lucius back to his feet. “Show me what you’ve brought, young Solhart. The bad news can wait until later.”

“Yes,” Lucius said, and wasted to further time in opening the barrel. He pulled the lid free and extracted the first bundle. Wrapped again and again in rags, a freshly manufactured cannon rod was laid out before him.

King Arandall picked up one piece and then the next, turning them over in his hands without saying a word.

Then Lucius unwrapped the next gift, which I had played a small part in helping. It looked exactly the same as the cannon rod, but in miniature. As slender as an arrow, it had been manufactured small enough to fit a footsoldier. A slight refinement on the weapon Ezra had used so many years prior.

“Does this work? Do the forces not destroy it?” the king asked, holding the assemblage like an infant. The king was no fool in scientific regards, he knew what he was looking at immediately.

Lucius grinned and made a show of cocking his head. In his hand was the last gift, blueprints to construct the hand-cannon. “I would be happy to attest to it working, but it would surely be more convincing to prove it to you. I would have waited for the construction of the stock and barrel in Rackvidd, but circumstances forced my journey north. Provide this to your blacksmith and let us see if it works.”

Impudent perhaps; but, it made King Arandall laugh and clap him on the shoulder. “I like that attitude, young Solhart,” he said, peering in to see the many bricks of raw ley that filled the bottom of the barrel, to be used in his other projects. It made him grin and hum and almost dance as he said, “Come, let us get you into a bath and arrange some food. Do you need to see my physician? You seem to have been quite injured.”

“No need for that. A bath to freshen myself up and then I can tell you all about the southern expedition,” Lucius said, taking a half step to the keep.

The king paused before sending him off to be situated by the servants. “And who’s this? She doesn’t look to be from Vassermark.”

“Aisha Canta, she was of great help ending the conflict, and is a very skilled bardic performer. She has made for… excellent company on the trip.”

The king grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. “Oh? Is that so?” he asked with a laugh. “Well, if she’s such a good bard, perhaps she would make good company for my daughter. You don’t mind, do you?”

In no way could he defy the king, not this early on. “Not at all,” Lucius said, turning his attention to Aisha.

“I’m sorry, what?” the dumb founded bard asked. “I’m not prepared to entertain–”

“You should be honored, Aisha,” Lucius cut in. “Your talent was recognized at first glance. Enjoy the bath while you can, and try to not eat too many cookies.”

Lucius and the king walked off with his guards, leaving Aisha and Sammy with the maid. For as much as his heart drummed with excitement, with duper’s delight at marching brazenly past the crowd of commoners and into the main hall, it was Aisha who could hardly contain herself.