“These must be your children. They are adorable.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you Grandmother.” I replied with a polite bow customary to the region, or at least it had been last time I was here over two hundred years ago.

I heard Charly mutter a response, but he was obviously uncomfortable, and did not know how to act.

“You taught her the traditional greeting? What a well behaved and polite girl.” My grandmother said, earning a stifled laugh from my father. She raised her eyebrow. “The men, on the other hand, could use a lesson in manners.”

“Mom this is my husband Renald Ventus, he is also a knight of the land, and these are my two children, Charles and Wren.”

“Yes, yes, you know you could have married a senator of the Free Cities or even maybe a chancellor if you had stayed.”

“That is not the life I wanted.”

My grandmother sighed. “I know. You were always obsessed with stories of great adventures and heroes. So many times, I wished your father never told you those bedtime stories. Tell me. Did you find your great adventure? Make a legend of your own.”

Mom smiled as she looked at me. “Yes, though it was not in the way I expected.” She paused for a moment. “Where is Dad anyway? Shouldn’t he be here to greet us by now?”

She cast her eyes downwards, not looking my mother in the eye. “Your father… he… passed away. It happened about a year after you ran away. He was fine one day, then just gone the next.”

Tears formed in my mother’s eyes. Silence sunk into the room. She fell backwards onto the couch, cradling her head. “I… didn’t know.”

“He looked for you after you left. We had no idea where you had gone. Thirteen years old and a runaway. We half though you would end up dead in a ditch somewhere.”

“I was so angry. I never said goodbye.” my mother whispered. “I never thought…”

My grandmother walked over and place her arm around my mom’s shoulders. “I know the three of us never saw eye to eye, but I believe that if he could see you now, he would be proud.”

Tears began to flow freely. For the next few hours, the two of them reminisced about what used to be. My father, brother and I tried to console her, but I knew from experience, only time could dull the pain of loss. Even then, the pain would never truly be gone. A scar forever on the heart. Aching with every beat.

“Now tell me. Why have you come all the way to the Free Cities.” My grandmother asked. “Based on your appearance, I know it was not simply to see me. With the borders to the Novus kingdom closed, you would not come here for a simple vacation.”

“We have information about an extremely large scale Demonkin attack.” My father replied. “It will be an invasion on a scale not seen in our lifetime. I was hoping we could meet with the council and negotiate an alliance on the behalf of General Arthur.”

“General? Not on behalf of King Sebastion?” Asked my grandmother, thoughtfully.

My father nodded. “Tia and I have full diplomatic powers as the general’s Silver Blades. While I am sure the king has learned about the invasion by now, we have our own goals beyond just uniting the two powers.”

“What goals?”

“We need an item in the king’s possession. A book belonging to the late Immortal Empress. It will be the key to defending against the Demonkin, but I doubt the king will simply give it willingly.”

“The Immortal Empress… I have not heard that name since I was a child. Most people call her the Undead Queen nowadays. She was a terrible ruler, but incredibly powerful. Any object of hers will be highly coveted.”

“You were alive back then, was she really that bad an Empress?” Charly asked curiously, as he gazed sidelong at me.

I looked down, cheeks turning red.

“That is a difficult question.” My grandmother mused. “It really depends on where you lived. You see, the Empress was a very absentee ruler. You could even argue that she never really ruled anything at all. According to the church, she departed to fight in the Endless War. She left all the management of her empire to her chancellors. Even they were lucky if they could see the empress more than a few times a decade. Without any oversight, these chancellors fell into corruption. Things were mostly the same in the Free Cities as they are now, but I hear in the west where the corruption was the worst, many people suffered.”

“So, it was never the Empress’s fault?” asked Charly in a soft voice.

“It is responsibility to the people that makes a ruler. While the Empress did not commit the acts directly, she is no less responsible.” Replied my grandmother with a stately manor.

My head hung low, hair covering my face as I frowned. I should have burned my Chancellors sooner.

You should have taken responsibility, not just burned everything.

There was never time…

You could have made time.

I was better than the Corvus empire.

A three-legged rabbit would be a better ruler than the Corvus family.

“Wren are you ok? My mother asked.

I shook away my doubts and forced a smile on my face. “of course, I was just lost in thought.” I turned to my grandmother. “Are you able to get an audience with the council? That book is very important.”

“I can try.” She replied. “My influence has declined after my husband’s death, but I still have a few friends in high places. I cannot promise they will help you negotiate with the king though.”

“Just getting people who will listen is more than we can do by ourselves.” My father replied.

“You will not be able to meet them looking like that though.”

“Huh?”

“If you want the council to listen to you, first you must play their games. Tomorrow, we will make you look presentable. If that is possible… Then we will start a few introductions to some of the more open-minded senators. If all goes well, we can meet with the full council in a week.” Said my grandmother as her eyes moved up and down his body in judgment. “Maybe two. The way you hold yourself just screams lowborn soldier. It will be hard to cover that up.”

“Mother…” my mom said with a scowl.

“Yes, I know, respected knights and all that, but you know as well as I do how people in this city think. If you do not have wealth or political power, you are useless.”