“We thank you for your great generosity in listening to our ramblings.” One of the two men said in a thick Serheshi accent. Braydon may have thought this to be a pleasantry if it had been said at the start of the conversation, but they were already 3 hours in and he had yet to hear anything of substance from the men. It was not that they had talked about things that he had not found interesting, they had not even tried. But it was clear to both sides that they had never come to discuss any normal business in the first place.

“That is fine, but I am still unclear about what you have come to see me for.” Braydon almost wanted to shout ‘So you are self aware!’ but realised that he had sunk too much time into this meeting to just abandon it. He at least had to hear what the men wanted. Even if he shoved them out of the door immediately afterwards.

“We have been speaking for a while, good Lord, I apologise if we did not make ourselves clear…” Before the man could continue on, Braydon lifted his hand up to stop the man. For all he knew the man planned to recite everything that he had just taken 3 hours to say. He was not about to let that happen.

“Forgive me, but I do not believe for a second that anybody in Serhesh has the free time to send envoys to a random lord from a country that they have almost no connections in. Let alone to start a several hour long discussion without a very good idea of what they want.” Braydon hardly even believed that the men were who they said they were. Combine that with their lack of a clear goal made him very suspicious that they wanted something equally odd.

“We do not know what you are talking about, Sire. We have been very clear…” Before they could continue, Braydon interrupted once again. If their goal was to test his patience, then the men before him had succeeded spectacularly. If it was anything else, then they were on the verge of failing just as spectacularly.

“Then let me be very clear. If you do not get onto the main topic of what you want from our meeting, then I will have my men personally escort you back from whence you came.” Braydon knew one thing, if these men truly had something that they wanted, they had to want it badly. There was no other reason for them to pour so much time down the drain. At least not when all of that time was unproductive.

“We are looking for a person. We have reason to believe that they should have passed through your walls.” The man, who until this point had been trying to use all sorts of flowery language, immediately changed his tone. ‘As I expected.’ Braydon knew that they had to be after something odd. There was no reason to waste his time in a normal discussion. And he was sure that he had been most uncooperative in the past 3 hours.

There had been many times where the men had asked minor questions that he did not know the meaning behind, but the tactic that they had chosen to try and get information from him had backfired. Many nobles would answer any question out habit, even if it was only a partially true response. If it was not something that they thought of as a great secret, they would not really be on guard to minor questions. Especially when they were disguised as minor pleasantries like asking how things had been going recently. But Braydon, he had been bored long before any such probing questions had been asked. And he did not share any such habit with his fellow nobles. He would much rather answer with as few words as possible to get his interlocutor to guess that he was not interested in small talk. And it had accidentally worked in his favour here.

“And what makes you think that I remember every person that requests passage through my walls?” Braydon knew that the answer was a poor one. Almost nobody passed through his castle. There had been a war with his direct neighbour, then that same neighbour entered into a civil war. And to top it off, his own country was in the midst of its own civil war. If there was anybody passing though his lands, he would be one of the first to know about it.

“Because this person should have been particularly easy to remember the appearance of.” It was clear that neither of the Serheshi men were convinced of Braydon’s answer. They may not have a deep understanding of Fiveria in particular but they at least knew about the wars and civil wars happening in the region. They knew that travellers were few and far between.

“Oh, and what should I be trying to recall? You are the first Serheshi that have ever visited my lands if that is what you are after.” Braydon could guess that they were not looking for a Serheshi in Fiveria but he was not going to play nice after all of the time they had wasted.

“It is not a Serheshi that we are looking for but one of red hair.” The other man started talking once again. It was clear that of the two men he was the one with more authority. Whenever he had spoken the more talkative man had been quiet. Braydon suspected that he knew more about the person that they were looking for too.

“Then I suggest that you are looking in the wrong places, there are many Leighian merchants that travel in Fiveria. But in the east? Most Leighian merchants are in the west. What does a Serheshi want with a Leighian anyway?” Braydon realised why Lani and Mireille said that they took an odd interest in Mireille’s appearance. They were looking for someone with red hair and one just so happened to be staying in the very castle that they came to ask questions in.

“Not a merchant, my friend. A woman. Young.” The quieter man spoke once again, not satisfied with the answer that Braydon gave. And it was obvious why. They had just said that they were certain that the person they were after had passed through his lands. It was obviously not going to be a merchant. He also conveniently forgot to mention what they wanted with someone who should have had nothing to do with them. It was not an answer that he could give lightly.

“If you did not notice, there is a fair bit of chaos in the region. Do you honestly think that there are women who decide that now is the best time to go for a long walk?” The men had not offered Braydon anything in exchange, he was not about to be forthcoming with answers. So he decided to take out his frustration with the men further by being as sarcastic as possible.