“Welcome to Cliforge. You may call me Braydon.” Braydon spoke once the scribe had left his carriage. “Geir Asche.” A curt response with a small nod. He was neither old nor young for a scribe and dressed as any typical scholar would but wore a face that said far more than his words. Braydon suspected it was a permanent feature …

“So you are saying that the person who hired the plurality of mercenaries in the past month was Earl Braydon Fiton?” One thing that the King had not thought about when elevating Braydon’s title was that there would now be two Earl Fitons in Fiveria. It was easy enough when talking to Braydon since he preferred to be called by …

“Welcome back Roan, how have things gone?” Braydon greeted Roan who had finished up with hiring mercenaries to be a part of his upcoming campaign. Rhydian had accepted the last batch of locally recruited men the week before and had been training them ever since. All that Braydon was waiting on was a batch of weapons that he had made …

“Your Highness.” One of the King’s clerks greeted him as he entered Aled’s study. “Is there something to report? Perhaps Duke Burn finally feels like showing up?” The King was having second thoughts about not pursuing Duke Burn when he had the chance. Even if he knew that it might not have been successful and few of the north-eastern lords …

“For someone preparing for war, you look surprisingly not busy.” Nela commented as she and Mireille entered the great hall to see Braydon already sitting down and waiting for the servants to bring food. “I have done everything that I can do at the moment. Roan is slowly sending mercenaries my way and Rhydian is training the new recruits, but …

“So, Rhydian. Any clues on which of my men should be the first to be educated?” Braydon had decided that it would be wise to ask the person most knowledgeable about his men and had made it a part of his day to go and ask him in between running around the villages to discuss with the village elders. “Currently …

“You requested my presence, Sire?” Karim asked as he entered Braydon’s study. After the months of serving Braydon, he looked much more sure of himself than when they had first been ‘introduced’. Meeting each other after your former employer just died on the battlefield would do that. In spite of their first meeting, spending so much time running around cleaning …

“I presume that we have the money to actually do all of this?” Nela asked. It was not something that was often brought up after Braydon got his mine working but mercenaries were not cheap. Braydon and Collin were aware of his finances but Nela did not really care to look into Braydon’s money. It would have been extremely rude …

“How long will that leave us to hire mercenaries and train our men?” Rhydian was rightly concerned. Their forces were not that great in number when put on the scale of nations. Even in a deeply fractured place like Shuluk there were going to be larger armies than Braydon could muster. Especially since this was meant to be kept as …

“It is about time you woke up.” Nela greeted Braydon as he entered his own study.  “It is late morning, I usually wake up about now. Steven makes sure of it.” He knew that if it were up to him, he would have stayed asleep for much longer. Even if he was not already tired. “And you slept from late …