You do not need to remember this, but if you are curious…

The warlord in Sapphire was suffering constant raids from over the spine. He pulled his troops from the high hills, probably to avoid the cost.

While the warlord struggled to push back the raiders, the king’s tribe traded with them. This prevented any attacks on themselves. Though this is likely because unlike the king’s tribe, the area around Sapphire actually had things worth stealing.

Abandoned by their liege, the hill clans suffered badly a the hands of the raiders. A northern clan leader was on friendly terms with the king’s tribe. This eventually ended with the clan leader swearing fealty to the king’s ancestor.

This would have just been a small matter to the warlord, but the increasing raids meant he could not spare the troops to stop it.

Once the spine refroze, the warlord gathered his army to make an example of his disloyal vassals. The warlord was killed by a highlander seeking to settle a blood debt, half way to the disloyal vassal’s lands.

The warlord died without an heir and his army fell to infighting. The few battles that occurred as the king’s tribe marched south were woefully one sided.

Or as Prof. Ollian describes it. A glorious hard fought campaign.

-Tack’s notes on first year history

The ink smeared as Orn drooled on it. The best idea Orn and Kao had was to stay up after he finished tutoring. Their talks were usually just gossiping as they sparred in the open space north of the barracks. They did not do this frequently, since it left Orn tired the next day. Between the physical exhaustion and Prof. Ollian’s monotone lecture Orn was out cold before five minutes had passed.

Ollian was less than pleased to see the troublesome student fall asleep at the begging of his class. He is always distracting the other students bey passing notes but now he is just sleeping though my class. There is always one troublesome student but this one is the worst!

He placed his papers on the podium and began walking down the aisle toward the troublemaker. I will make it clear that this behavior is unacceptable. I deal with enough of this in the noble classes, but they at least have heard the main points before.

To his left a student a student tugged on his sleeve and whispered urgently, “Professor wait.”

“What?” he asked the student feeling the annoyance growing as the young man tried to stop him.

The boy flinched under his gaze but continued, “You should not bother him.”

“Bother? He is sleeping through my class, and I am a bother?” he managed to keep an even tone if only just. How dare he? I clearly need to deal with more than one trouble some student.

“He is a noble,” the boy replied quickly.

“You are all knight students,” he replied exasperated. “You are all technically of noble paths, even if it is the least of them. But you are not knights yet, here you are just students.”

The boy tightened his grip on the sleeve, and shook his head. “I know but Orn is different. His father is a Count.”

He blinked in confusion. There was no way a count’s son would be in… his eyes grew wide. He knew the headmaster had canceled some of the electives over a fight the first day. He heard rumors it was a duel but he ignored them because it had nothing to do with him. He did not teach such frivolous classes so why would it matter?

The rumors of a highborn boy in a knight’s uniform he had dismissed suddenly seemed very real. He cleared his throat and nodded to the boy next to him. “There is no need to disrupt the class over a matter like this. He will have to prove his knowledge o the test anyway.”

The boy let go with a look of relief on his face. Ollian made a mental note to learn the boy’s name. Blood, or Bloom or something of that nature, he thought walking back to the podium. The noble on the other hand, well he needs a test for someone of his rank. I am sure the one I will give the rest of the students would be too easy for someone, so confident as to sleep through this class…

{Queen’s POV}

What am I to do with this? she wondered as she walked through the long corridor. As she walked through the empty corridors of the royal residence she reviewed what her husband had told her. Years of working with magic made her doubt the goddesses themselves were involved, but the power of the church had sided with the empire in the last war. In a country like this a rumor like that could cause chaos.

The head of that faction in the church is now dead and the successor is more malleable, she reminder herself. Best to let that issue alone until I need to do something about it. The knight could be an issue since he was there, but he actually killed the priest. I doubt he will come forward about that except under the most dire circumstances. That should keep him silent.

She tried to imagine a scenario where the benefits would outweigh the costs to the Count but could not find any. I cannot see any immediate threat there so it to can weight. He should be removed, but as long as he stays ostracized by the court I see no need to hasten his demise.

Although I doubt my husband would take it well if he learned I had something to do with it. Yet another reason when removing the Count would need to wait, she sighed and thought back to her husband’s explanation. He trusts the man, more than he should and he knows it. He tried to sound critical and dispassionate about the facts as they went on, but his original description said it all. All these years and he still has blind spots for certain people.

All these yeas and he never said a word about this to me, she forced herself to slow her steps as she walked. On the one hand she could see why he wanted this hidden. He was a young king and the less who knew the better. Telling her, effectively a stranger at the time of their marriage, would have been foolish. She knew that keeping this close to his chest was one of the most pragmatic things he had ever done. On the other hand, she could not completely put aside her feelings. He had hidden something from her, and it hurt. Not as much for the fact he did it, but that it had taken her so long to find out. And then he just tells me as if it was never a secret to begin with. Are their other things I need to check? He is incapable of the most simple deceptions but then manages to hide this from me for over a decade!

Reaching the door to her private room she waived away the maid following her, still mulling the thoughts over. Before walking to the bed she see a scrap of paper on the table beside it. The carries it to the window to better view the tiny writing she knows will be inside.

Things settled until after holiday.

Already observing.

The second sentence gave her pause. Already observing? The only student he should be observing is the knight student he… Realization of who Tetric had set up hit her, and she swore. The one man I want to stay as far from here as possible, and his son is a pawn in the growing conflict between political factions.