“As they say, there will always be time to pick up the weapons once more, even if it might be for the last time in your life.” - Ferric Kerson, retired mercenary, served forty years in the Darrel’s Dervishes mercenary company, prior to fighting to the death against bandits that raided his home village.

Mercenary Encampment outside Zephirous

City of Zephirous, Knallzog

Western Alcidea

4th Day of the 3rd Week of the 7th Month, Year 20 FP.

“Boss, we got a visitor you will want to see,” said Lars with a rather flustered look when he barged into Reinhardt’s tent that afternoon. Reinhardt was rather idle that afternoon and was reading a book in the comfort of his tent when Lars arrived. He had just enough time to lower his feet from where he rested them on his desk and assume a proper seated position before the guest Lars brought entered the tent behind him.

To his surprise, it was a face he recognized. Miriam Levan-Tovmund was cousin to Duke Werner Tovmund of Jonkver who doubled as the acting head of the Duchy’s armed forces when Reinhardt and his company still worked for the Coalition of the Border Duchies five years ago. He certainly had not expected to see her all the way in Zephirous given the distance between the city and Jonkver, though.

It had been several months since Guillaume came to Zephirous to ransom his son and left for Algenverr once more, and during those months the Free Lances mostly idled away the time while keeping up their conditioning with rigorous training. They had yet to see any offered contract that interested them, but seeing Miriam personally look for them made Reinhardt think that said lack of contracts might end very soon.

The main reason for such a thinking was Miriam’s position in Jonkver.

While Bernd Adenauer also came in person in order to recruit the mercenaries on Levain’s behalf and later rose to the Chairwoman’s right-hand man, back when he came for them, he was just one senator amongst many. His position was high, certainly, but it was one that was not all that important in the larger picture. It was relatively common for larger nations to send people in such positions to hire mercenaries if they deemed the company deserving enough.

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On the other hand, Miriam Levan-Tovmund was the head of Jonkver’s military. While Jonkver was by far the weakest out of the three border duchies, Miriam’s position meant that she was one of the ten most powerful people in the coalition, just behind the Dukes and Duchesses as well as the other heads of armed forces for the other duchies.

People of that sort of position did not usually get sent to do things like hiring mercenaries, unless the nation in question was either really picky, or it was an emergency situation.

In an emergency situation such a person might be sent out because the nation they served needed someone who could judge the qualities of the mercenaries to be hired in a short period of time, as just getting more warm bodies on the battlefield was pointless against more organized opponents. Under that logic, Miriam was indeed the best choice to send out for the Border Duchies, as Jonkver had the weakest military and the other two duchies could take up the slack while she was gone easily enough.

Since Lars brought her to camp, he probably met her while he was visiting the guild that day. The Free Lances had their encampment on the north side of Zephirous, which meant that they were on the far side of the city for anyone traveling there from the south, like Miriam would have done ig she came from the Border Duchies to Knallzog.

“Miss Tovmund,” greeted Reinhardt as he stood up behind his desk and gave Miriam a firm handshake. “Please have a seat.”

“Thank you, Captain Edelstein,” replied Miriam with a smile that tugged at the old scar that ran over her left eye and down to near her lips. Miriam was young for her position, just in her early thirties, and as far as Reinhardt knew, while she was “acting head” during his time in Posuin, that position had pretty much transitioned straight to the real one over the years. “Good to see your company doing well after all these years.”

It was not like youthful officers were an uncommon thing, to be fair, especially since the next generation of the Duchies’ leaders were stepping up and taking over as well. Reinhardt knew that all three of the current Dukes and Duchesses – Nestor Ambroglio da Nunez of Algenverr, Werner Tovmund of Jonkver, and Andrea Utghwes of Dvergarder – were around the same age range as Miriam.

“Pleasantries first or would you prefer to get down to business right away, Ma’am?” asked Reinhardt half in jest. He knew that whatever brought someone in Miriam’s position all this way while recruiting mercenaries would likely be serious enough that they would like to get down to business immediately, but sometimes you never know with nobles.

“Business, please. The situation was pretty urgent as it was,” said Miriam with a shake of her head. “I came to Knallzog to recruit mercenaries on behalf of the Border Duchies and the others I recruited are already making their way to Posuin, but I caught wind that the Free Lances were recuperating in Zephirous and had yet to sign a contract of late, so I came here instead of heading home.”

“I presume you must have heard at least some rumors about attacks from pirates or some unknown forces along the western coastline by now, Captain?” asked Miriam without preamble. Reinhardt nodded in reply to her question. The rumors had been going around for months now, though with little detail. “Those rumors are real, and it’s not pirates. Whoever these invaders are, they have a large, organized army in a style we have never seen before.”

“Wanarua is gone, Bostvan had lost a third of their territory, and Gestis is fighting for its existence when I left a couple weeks ago. While there are some hopes that the invaders will stop before they go too far east, the Dukes and Duchess chose not to take chances.”