The deep voice resounded in Tyros bones. The butler opened the door and entered first, while pulling the door for Tyros and Neza he made a sign for them to follow him inside. Neza bowed her head and Tyros imitated her with a few seconds of delay. He had no idea how to behave near nobles. There were two men in the office. One of them, sitting on his chair behind a wooden desk, probably Lord Grudal, had an even more impressive mustache than his butler. He looked athletic and had dark hair with intense eyes. It looks like they could penetrate deep into your soul. The second man had a similar appearance, but he was more muscular. His clothes looked less expensive than the lord, but they looked tight on him.

The main difference came from facial hair as he had no mustache but a clean shaved beard.

Before they could settle in the room, Lord Grudal spoke:

“Aldwin, would please find a room for Miss Neza and guide her there.”

Panic flashed in Tyros eyes, he didn’t want to be left alone with strangers. He felt Neza gently squeezed his shoulder and when he looked at her he saw her gently smile at him, it was reassuring. A little bit.

While Tyros was invited to sit and settle in the office, he looked around the room. There were a lot of trinkets, some looked artistic but others looked more like souvenirs. There was an impressive library protected by glass windows.

One more the silence was broken by Lord Grudal:

“Hello Tyros, I am Lord Grudal and here is my brother, Glem.” The man’s voice resounded in the whole room, it felt like you were compelled to listen to the man when he spoke. The boy stuttered a bit but managed to answer:

“Ni..nice to meet you sir, I am Tyros” He felt stupid, the man already knew his name.

The man looked at Tyros’ eyes intensely and after a few seconds resumed the discussion:

“I heard that you come from Sunhaven, that you fled from the attack ?”

“Ye..yes sir”

Could you tell us about what happened and how you ended up behind the mountain and into my estate ?”

Once more Tyros told the tale, he managed to build momentum as he was speaking and by the end, the nervousness was almost gone.

When he was finished, the two men sat in silence once again before the silence was interrupted by Glem:

“It looks like they were after the kids, and from the boy's words it looks like the village got overwhelmed swiftly. They were thoroughly prepared, they even had teams to pick up the people fleeing.”

“Yes, it corroborates the reports we got and if they went through the village this fast, I don’t think Budres made it out alive. That fool would probably be the last one of his men leaving.

“You know it means war. This attack was way to open, I know we don’t have the death number yet, but they broke the peace.”

“Hum.. Yes, Chalintis got us good there but you know as well as I do that we can’t simply walk through them to fight. We won’t make it into their territory, and they know it, both tunnels are way too easy to defend. The main consequences will come from the other nobles. They will blame us.”

“Of course they will blame us, that’s all they ever do”

“Yes, but a defeat like that, even if we got caught by surprise without any declaration of war… We will have to make concessions.”

Tyros was following the conversation and felt like they forgot about him. Which was good with him. But he still had to ask about his mom:

“Excuse me…Sir… But do you know if my mom was rescued ?”

Noticing the boy still in the room Lord Grudal answered:

“We don’t know if your mother was rescued specifically. Many villagers were rescued and led to an outpost near the tunnel entrance, in Waedor territory. We will have to check, what’s her name ?

- Cierra, her name is Cierra” the kid answered with hope in his eyes, which didn’t escape Lord Grudal notice:

“I am sure she made it, kid, we’ll make sure you are reunited as soon as possible. In the meantime, you will be able to stay here for the night, and we will see how we operate tomorrow.”

Tyros could hear the final point in his voice and so, he was led outside where a maid escorted him toward the room in which he would stay for the night.

Once the kid was out of the room, the discussion between the two brothers kept on as Glem, the youngest of the two, asked:

“What do you mean by concessions ?

- Well I don’t know yet, it depends on how the news is received in the capital. But progenitors are involved. There were four of them in Sunhaven. We’ll need to figure out how many we managed to rescue before anything else. Also if Budres died, we lost a capable captain, and he had a good reputation. The situation is dire, you and I should have prepared for something like that. Chalintis are snakes and we should have known better.

- I find the timing a bit odd. You know as well as I do that one more year and they would have been twelve, we would have recruited them to pursue their education in Waedor. And from what the kid and the reports said, the attack was extremely quick and decisive.

- Where are you going with that line of thoughts ?

- You know where I am going.

- Hum.. It’s never good to suspect our fellow countrymen. But you are right. They had to have inside information. The only question is where did it come from. Was it from Sunhaven, from Hillshire, or from another noble house?

- Well I wasn’t thinking that far. Someone from Sunhaven was my first thought, we will have to watch for anyone leaving the village before the attack. The only issue is that we won’t know if they fled to Chalintis and never came back to Waedor.

- Yes, records are only kept at the frontier. If he was a villager, he probably cut a deal to be extracted to Chalindis. And if they are nobles from our country, they probably prepared that months ago if not more. It will be hard to track a possible traitor. The worst is that without any proof of anything, investigating won’t be easy.

- So we will have to grit our teeth and deal with the consequences. As your military advisor I guess this will fall on my shoulders…”

- It might… This will once again depend on the final reports and of what exactly happened. In the meantime we have to bid our time. Prepare for the worst, you might have to step down.

- This is the worst for you” Glem replied with a grin and added: “ You know as well as I do that stepping down from the political part of my job is far from an issue for me.

Toman Grudal, the elder brother grumbled as he refilled his glass and his brother’s with some wine.

While the two old men were discussing, Tyros entered his room. He explored it and went on the balcony, this was exciting for him, no building had balconies in Sunhaven.

The view was breathtaking. The castle was built on the side of the mountain and from this balcony, Tyros could see the whole city of Hillshire. It was big, really big. There were not a lot of high buildings, some of them were three stories but nothing higher. The thing he noticed first was the clear demarcation between the first part of the city and the second. It was made clear which part of the city was for richer people and which one was for commoners.

He wished his mom could see the view, she would be thrilled.

As he thought about his mother, he went back inside to sit on the bed. He didn’t appreciate the soft mattress and blankets. He couldn't, he had this ball of anxiety building inside his abdomen for the past few days. This anxiety was slowly settling in his every thought and Tyros became unable to think about anything else but his mother.

When he was invited to head downstairs to share a meal, he even refused, feeling unwell he simply laid on his bed and contemplated the ceiling as different scenarios played in his head. Tormenting him. And after what felt like hours, his brain shut down and he finally fell into deep slumber.