“How did you call the black wyvern again? Vermin?”, Helvallia asked her mother’s henchman.

“Shut up, it’s your fault in the first place! Why didn’t you take him to a room or something?”, he shouted at the princess and raised one of his hands. He looked overwhelmed with how the event had played out.

“I did as mother instructed! The location would not have changed anything either. The black wyvern, with abilities no black wyvern should have, was the problem. No matter where we attacked, as long as it was near our attempt would have failed”, she said. “Put that hand down. Mother is going to kill you for the failure. No need to extend the punishment to your family.”

The man let down his hand and stared at the wall. He didn’t say anything else as his future played out before his eyes. Any thought about defecting or resisting squashed by his family’s ‘safety’ in Dacia.

“Now that you have calmed down, how did the governor react to the events?”, she said and ignored the lost expression of the elf in front of her.

“He blames the queen for interfering in the affairs of Aegyptus. Still, the other houses are not going to drop this matter anytime soon. He tried to arrest us, but didn’t anticipate our quick reaction”, he said and continued to stare at the wall.

Helvallia looked at the outline of Alexandria on the horizon. The governor didn’t try to pursue them overseas. At least one good thing about the utter failure their operation had become. She pulled something out of her bag.

The crossbow she had shot Lucius with. She still remembered his expression at that moment. The look of confusion, anger and fear. His scream echoed in her mind and it brought a smile to her face. Would he be broken the next time they meet? Would he be full of hatred for her? Would he forgive her?

“Mother won’t be happy about the news. Aegyptus might turn hostile to our provinces, even if house Caesar keeps their position. The province of Syria also banned me from returning to my business”, she sighed at the losses she incurred.

“See the bright side of things Helvallia. Mother has lost a lot of influence and power with the defeat in Italia and Alexandria. The council of the elders might even name me as the heir officially if the peace terms are as unfavourable as I imagine them to be”, she said to herself and ignored the presence of the elf in the room. The next weeks would be interesting to watch. Nothing better than seeing her ‘oh so perfect’ mother lose to the ‘simple’ humans.

“Now, now, Niloticus I assure you I had nothing to do with the attempted abduction of prince Lucius. My government is trying to find the traitors in our own rows as we speak”, Caesarion said to a not so overly convinced me.

“You know the houses won’t let the matter go so easy. House Vespasianus won’t let the matter go, I will not let the matter go”, I said to the strangely enough relaxed governor.

“We will work together with house Vespasianus to find the culprits. We will also formally apologize for our inability to stop the traitors in time”, Caesarion said.

“That won't be enough. I and the houses want an independent investigation on the matter”, I said and looked up in frustration. What a beautiful ceiling for such an ugly man. The meeting had lasted for an hour and the governor wasn’t ready to make any kind of significant reparation for his crime. Instead, pleading his innocence on their matter.

“An investigation from our experts is the only way to solve this if we want to find out the truth. House Bilibin and house Ptolemy would manipulate an independent procedure”, Caesarion stressed his point again.

“I think I had heard enough. I will contact you again when I hear how Serenity has reacted to the matter”, I finished the fruitless conservation with the governor.

The governor exchanged pleasantries with me again and assures me I will get satisfying answers in a short time frame.

When I left the building the aide of Lucius, Alaric as I recall was waiting for me. The boy had gotten the task to arrange a meeting with the other houses. The governor won’t cooperate, but his enemies might be more willing to help us.

“And?”, I asked him as we left the district.

“House Ptolemy has agreed to a meeting. They have sent a representative to our mansion for further discussions. House Bilibin also sent one to our house”, Alaric reported.

“Did they say something about the egg? I imagine they gathered the information, that Quintus is not a normal black wyvern”, I reminded the vampire. His little stunt with the egg and Lucius decision to keep it may cost us the cooperation with the house.

“They didn’t seem to care. An egg worth a few thousand ducats is nothing if they get the support of a foreign country in return”, he summarized and looked up to me.

“What? Do you want something?”, I said a bit defensively. Those red eyes were just unsettling to look at. It felt like a predator was looking at me. An inexperienced and young one, but one nonetheless.

“You wanted to do a bit of research about Quintus. What have you found out?”, Alaric asked me.

“There were some hints of what he could be. The ability to teleport others is a draconic one. So our little black pet has some part of dragon heritage inside him. It must be only a small part because he doesn’t show outer features typical for dragons”, I noticed the look in the vampires' eyes. He wanted me to get to the point.

“The conclusion is, the wyvern is part dragon and somehow managed to activate his ability to teleport others. He is only part dragon, so I think the location for such an ability should be fixed”, I explained my findings to him. Also, dragon hybrids were dangerous, but that talk would have to wait for when we find Lucius.

“So you have no idea where Lucius could be?”, Alaric asked me in a nearly accusing tone.

“Mind your tone, young one. I have found several places which breed or tame black wyverns, but I don’t know to which Quintus could belong. He could be in Hispania for all I knew. Did you get something useful out of the seller from the egg?”, I asked him.

“No, they said their wyvern eggs are all wild ones captured in the eastern mountains. Either they are lying or Quintus’ ancestors managed to escape their captors”, he said.

“Oh, gods you might be right. There are several places in Aegyptus, which used to be associated with wyverns. We need to check them as well”, I said as I put a hand on my face. More places to check and search for my pupil.

“We can at least sent search parties to the locations in Aegyptus. The houses would be delighted to gain a favour from house Vespasianus”, Alaric said rightly.

“I agree, it's a good idea. Let us hope they put in enough effort to actually find him”, I said. Lucius, please be safe wherever you are, I don’t want to explain your death to your family.

We reached our mansion after 10 minutes of walking. A servant informed us that two persons from the houses are here to talk with us.

Two persons were sitting in the corner of the lobby. The area was designated for guests. A table out of glass and wood stood between two long sofas. Both persons moved to greet us the moment they noticed our presence.

The first with the head of a bull and hooves was from house Ptolemy. His demi-human blood must be strong because he can manage his transformation fully. The minotaur transformed into a purely human form to greet us.

“My name is Pyrrhus Ptolemy. It is my honour to assist you and house Vespasianus in solving this crisis”, he said and bowed lightly to me. More for formality, than for my non-existing status.

The vodyanoies was a female, as her clothes told me, she as well transformed from her full transformed appearance to a completely human one. She looked like a normal human with the usual green hair and frog eyes.

“I am Elddis Bilibin. As the heir to our house, I offer our assistance in this matter as well”, she said and performed a small curtsey.

“My name is Niloticus. Current guardian of Lucius Vespasianus. This is Alaric Dracula. A close aide of Lucius. We thank you for your help in this matter in advance”, I said and bowed lightly with Alaric to our guests.

We moved to another room for the upcoming meeting. In the end, I and Alaric sat on one side of a table and the two others across from us.

“You know that Lucius Vespasianus succeeded in preventing an attempted kidnapping by the elves from the east. He escaped, but we don’t know where he is currently. We suspect the elven court and current governor of Aegyptus are behind this and would like to have your help in confirming those facts. Should they hold true, we would support further actions against house Caesar. In return, we want your support against the elven court as soon as you gained control over Aegyptus”, I put our offer on the table.

“Is that a promise from you or house Vespasianus?”, Elddis asked. I suppressed my remark about such a question.

“No, the house has yet to receive the news and respond, but you know as good as I, that they will want revenge for such actions”, I said. The next time Lucius parents see me is going to be a hassle. They will definitely blame me for this incident. So much injustice in our world.

“Shouldn’t we be speaking about finding the prince”, Alaric asked and got a cold glance from both of our guests in return.

“We can’t promise military support for a coup. What we offer instead is political and diplomatic support. Furthermore, we offer easier access to the markets of Neapoli. This should allow you to get the guilds on your side. Small financial support is also an option”, I explained to them what we could offer them.

“That is all good and fine, but not enough to go against the elven court itself. A civil war between the provinces in the east is not in our favour”, Pyrrhus said.

“We don’t want that. Just support us in the coming peace talks. The more the peace deal is in our favour the more you get out from this deal”, I said to assure him.

“In that case, we are happy to offer you our support”, he said with a smile and outstretched hand.

“We will also help our friends in Italia”, said the lady with green hair and outstretched her hand as well.

“Then the deal is sealed. Now let’s talk about our next steps”, I said and Alaric wrote the agreement down, while we discussed further details.

The houses agreed to sent out parts of their guards in small numbers to check some of the most likely places and routes Lucius would be using. He would try to return to Alexandria, if possible. House Vespasianus would support house Bilibin for the governorship of Alexandria and house Ptolemy for the governorship of Aegyptus. We also put out a reward for anybody who brings back the boy or finds clues about his position.

Further details would be discussed the moment Lucius returns and a communication line with house Vespasianus is established. I am just hoping the boy will manage to hold out until we find him.

“Marcena do you have the damage report for southern Italia?”, I asked her. The woman looked up from the report she was currently reading.

“Yes and no Serenity. There is an overall report, but a lot of numbers are unconfirmed. The southern lords are less than cooperative with the war being shifted to middle Italia. We have one complete report about Napule and its surroundings”, she pulled out a document from a pile of papers. The monument of documents swayed because of the motion but didn’t collapse, much to my relief.

“Tell the steward to find a new way to organize the documents. We can’t keep them here. The room for it is getting exhausted”, I said and focused on the report from our old home.

“I have already told him to find a solution. He is just inefficient. Why do we keep inefficient people in our government again?”, Marcena asked me with annoyance audible in her voice.

“Because they have their families backing and are fine hostages should the family in question try something”, I answered her with a smile. This method had its downside, but at least we could bind key cities to us. The realm would collapse without control over those cities.

“It should, but the ‘governor’ of Panormus just declared independence from us”, she said and put the report to the other rebellious subjects.

“What? Panormus! Are you sure?”, I said and scrambled to her desk to see for myself.

“You know what that means. Panormus was our key city in western Sicillia. With her lost, our control over half the island is threatened”, Marcena rubbed her temples at the coming troubles. Trouble always meant more paperwork.

“Oh by the gods. We have enough trouble as it is. Send a warning to Panormus. Rebellion will be answered with death”, I said and Marcena put another three papers on the report from Panormus.

“The Carthaginian Republic, the duchy of Sardinia and the duchy of Corsica are supporting Panormus in their actions. Troops from all three of them secured some cities in the western half without resistance. They are not claiming or making any effort to pressure the east”, she said and tried to give me an encouraging smile.

“Fuck, that was the last thing we needed. We are not ready to fight an offensive war, and they know it”, I put the reports down and sank into my chair.

The steward entered the study and gave us curious glances. The respect he held when interacting with Duran or my husband was absent as always.

“A report from our grand ruler”, he said and the dwarf dropped it on the floor and tried to leave the room.

“Have you opened the report?”, Marcena asked him and I also noticed the condition of the sealed letters.

“I have ensured to the trueness of the content and made sure it is understandable for the ladies”, he explained and left. I wondered if he knew how many laws and customs he broke with his actions just now.

“I hate him. It would be nice to get evidence for traitorous activities on him or his family, but I fear they are even too dumb to accomplish something like that”, Marcena said and picked the letters up from the ground.

“One word to Duran, and he would be dead for the way he treated you. One way to my husband, and he would tell me to endure this idiot until we no longer need his family. Sometimes I am jealous of you Marcena”, I said and Marcena gave me her answer with a small laugh attached.

“Why, thank you. But I’m well aware we can’t kill our supporters just for this much. We need all the support we can get. We will have our revenge on these assholes later”, she said.

“Who is an asshole”, a voice spoke and Silas entered the study with a plushie in hand, followed by Ivy and Iris.

“Don’t use that word Silas”, I said with a strict tone, but the boy seemed to ignore my remark. I have been too soft on my youngest, but is it hard for me to be as strict as I was with Lucius. Silas moved to me and I pulled him up on my lap.

“What are you reading aunt Marcena?”, Ivy asked as Iris pulled two chairs to Marcena’s table with great effort. I smiled when she settled on pulling just one chair at a time. They settled down to their aunts right and left.

“We have got news from your father and uncle”, she said and read the document. Ivy and Iris copied her but it was obvious they had difficulties with reading the official document. The few years of learning to read were not enough to comprehend an official document.

“So what does the paper say”, Iris asked after her own attempt at reading and comprehending the piece of paper failed. I and Marcena smiled at their defeated expressions. They would learn to read and write better with time.

“Your father and uncle beat the bad guys and won the war”, Marcena said and both girls jumped in excitement from their seats and ran through the room.

“Yeah, daddy is coming back! Daddy is coming back!”, they screamed and Silas joined them and moved up and down on my lap. I let him down to continue my work without his interruption. My son joined his sisters.

“What about the evil Valens? Have they captured him”, Ivy asked her aunt.

“Oh the enemy general … uh … yes he was captured”, she shot me a pleading look for help.

“Children, would you move ahead with Galonius to the dining room? I will follow shortly after”, I said, and they left with the servant, but only after protesting shortly.

“Valens was beheaded”, Marcena said.

“By Duran's or Jagu’s order?”, I asked her.

“No, it seems to be that his own troops killed him”, she answered.

“His own troops killed him? What a pity. He might have been more valuable for us alive”, I said and moved to sit next to Marcena.

We read through the report. Duran and Jagu explained to us, that the enemy legions were defeated. The city of Roma was now a ghost town and all the cities on the way to Roma had been conquered and secured by Duran and Jagu on their way to the old capital. A small garrison stayed behind in Roma to secure it as a military outpost.

“An entire city depopulated. That is just sad to think about. At least Napule’s residents managed to escape and resettle somewhere else but this is just awful”, she said and I agreed.

“There is nothing we could have done to prevent that. Our own supplies would have run out with so many refugees, and we couldn't have managed those people while fighting a pitched battle”, I said reassuring myself and her of the pointlessness of pity in an invasion.

The rest of the cities in middle Italia were still hostile to us, but they wouldn’t be able to form a real legion or even legions. Any amount of local troops would fail to even take back the cities occupied by our units of veteran legionaries.

Jagu and Duran decided to head south and resupply and reorganize the legions. It would be accurate to speak of one legion. Both legions were at half strength if you count the injured legionaries as well. The rest were used as garrisons in middle Italia or were dead or unable to continue serving our nation.

We should also send an entourage of envoys to the east for peace negotiations. The legion in the south would stop the southern lord from having any further stupid ideas about seceding the realm. Not that some haven't already done exactly that.

The war on land had come to an end, but the sea blockade would have to continue until an agreement is reached. The remaining legionaries of the enemy present in Italia, which fled or deserted after losing the battles, are turning into bandits and have to be dealt with soon.

“The war against the Eastern Confederacy is over, but our work to rebuilt and solidify the realm has just begun”, Marcena said and I had agreed with her.

Alone the damage report of Napule shows, that it will be hard to restore our former heartland to its old importance. The struggle to keep everything together would continue.

I looked up to the painting of my family in the room.

“I hope Lucius is well and is making progress and friends in Alexandria”, I said a bit unsure of his condition. Marcena took my hand and pressed it reassuringly.

“Don’t worry he is fine. He told you in his letters, didn’t he? The next one should arrive soon and everything will be okay”, she said and I nodded at her.

Her words calmed me down and I went out of the study to eat with my children. Marcena joined us after some minutes.