I should like to take a moment to touch on some of the finer points of our courtly intrigue. Namely, the Solhart family was not one of our co-conspirators. This should be obvious to any reader with wit. Had they been on our side, the young Lucius could have simply been adopted and made genuine. There would have been some necessary fratricide, but such things are common in all eras, all kingdoms.

One of the aspects that made the Solharts appealing was their small size. A mere two children, one boy and one girl, and so little territory they were in effect vassals of the Raymi family. They existed on the fringe of respectability, given their blue blood status, but lived lives akin to merchants. Some might find that life enviable, but it was precisely the level of clout we needed. Any more and they would have been expected to attend the king’s court in some degree. But, with the real Lucius assigned to the war effort, the family couldn’t be compelled to send their daughter off as well.

As such, the Solhart matriarch learned of Lucius’ stunt by way of mail. There were very few ways of instantaneously sending messages, so she only learned of it a month after the fact. I very nearly hired brigands to intercept such news to their estate, but the complexity was beyond the value.

The beauty of the Misty Isles, for our purposes, was the isolation of it. Even if Mrs. Solhart wanted to recall her son–countermanding the king–she had very little ability to send a letter to him, and first she would have to contact Raymi to confirm the details of the war.

To be certain, it was a problem we would have to solve in the future, but there was always the chance that time would solve the problem for us. The Solhart mother was not of good health and might take sick at any time. Her girth was like prison bonds and Lucius had ample justification to not respond in a timely manner to her.

Of course, this balance wouldn’t last forever, but he was able to get to the Misty Isles without a familial mishap.