1 The Letter
It was early morning the 12th of may 396 in the new imperial calendar, I heard a knock on my door.
"My lord" It came from behind the door, I sounded solemn and sad. I turned around and looked at the door, it had engravings of magic that sprouted everywhere on the door, like a spider web that would encase insects like they were nothing.
*"Come in"* I said as the door slowly opened and revealed a sad face with a letter in hand, he walked in and handed me the letter while he was bowing.
"My lord, a letter has arrived for you"
I took the letter and sent him away with a wave of my hand. I looked at the letter and there was the crest of the imperial household. I slowly opened the letter because I knew that the imperial family never sent out a formal letter except if something grave happened.
The letter read:
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To: The lord of Dawnstar, Micheal Longflower.
I Emperor Laepo Zeribrene am sorry to inform you of the death of the late lord Jackson Longflower, his death is a sad thing for all. We are also informing you his firstborn son and heir that you are to be immediately given the title of count as is your right by birth. Our condolences.
Signed: Emperor Laepo "The Golden Sun" Zeribrene, the sole sun of the empire, the head of the imperial family Zeribrene.
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I knew as I read the first line, that something must have happened to my father. But as I continued down the letter, tears started forming in the corner of my eyes. When I finished I put down the letter and cried my heart out, my father may not have been the most loving but he was still my father, the one that trained me, for this role that I am now thrust unto, the one that helped me with everything... He was gone. They didn't even write the cause for his death! A few hours later I called out for a servant.
*"Servant! Come here"* I yelled out
"Yes my lord?" A servant came rushing in and bowed before me, all the servants were already informed of the change in position.
*"Call for an urgent family meeting, I want everyone present! Not a single excuse is allowed!"*
"Yes my lord, right away, but your sisters will first arrive in 3 days, even if they leave immediately."
"Right, then we will wait for them," I said as I remembered that they were both in the capital to study. I looked out the window, it was pouring down I contemplated how to say that father died. The servant left the room to inform the family and send out letters to my sisters about the family meeting in 3 days.
I left my room to go find my mother, it took me 10 minutes to find her.
*"Mother?"* I asked while going into her study
"Yes, son?" She responded warmly while looking up from her work.
"I have some news that I wanted you to know first," I said as I handed out the letter that I had received earlier.
She slowly read through it as tears started forming, and a little while later she started crying her eyes out, it made her once light golden eyes, become darker, and lose some color.
"When did you get this?" She looked at my face with tears flowing down her once beautiful face.
*"I got it a couple of hours ago, I couldn't bring it as I was crying too much."*
"I see, I see. Can I get some time alone?"
*"Of course, Mother."* I left the room and called the council.
They all arrived 10 minutes later
"My lord," They all said as the bowed and then sat at their respective seat.
*"Welcome Advisors, you all served my father through his years, but today I got some news my father time has come, and it is now my turn to rule Dawnstar and the Longflower family"*
"Indeed it is" They all looked down and gave a minute of silence for their late lord's death.
As I looked up so did they. They all looked at me expectingly
*"Advisors, I need to understand the state of affairs."*
"Of course" The steward responded. He took out a pile of papers, with different numbers on them and handed them to me
"Here are the expenses and incomes of your house since the beginning of your father's rule, he ordered us to list every expense and income."
*"Great it'll make it much easier to understand where the money is coming and going."*
I started to look through the income first, the best income we have is from fishing, farming, and trade. We didn't have any special resources but our fishing and farming were good enough to sustain the domain. The expenses looked rough, a lot was going to maintenance of the castle, but also the wages of the castle staff. But even after paying all that we still had an abundance of 1000 gold coins, which is enough to sustain a normal household of 4 for 5-10 years depending on how much they ate.
After I read a little more I looked up *"Thank you, Court Steward, it is a great help, I will need to have a closer look at it, so I will be borrowing it for a couple of days if that is fine?"*
"Of course my lord, no need to ask."
*"Very well, on to the next."* I said while looking at the General Commander
"Of course, my lord" He waved his hand and a servant came in and handed him a report, he then handed it to me.
I looked over it while he spoke to me "My lord, we have approximately 10,000 Well trained soldiers, and only around 5 elite soldiers, all in all, we have around 15,000 thousand soldiers, including the untrained or in training."
"Very well, and will we be needing them anytime soon?"
The Chancellor then spoke "Not yet, my lord, we have good relations with our neighboring county, and as of yet the Kingdom and the Empire are not at war."
*"Very good, very good."* I continued to look over the reports that were handed to me.
*"Well then anything else?"* I waited a bit before looking into a dark corner and said. *"Well then, any reports for me?"* Someone came out of the shadow and approached me with a piece of paper.
"My lord, rumors are traveling about your father's death." I looked over the report and opened my eyes wide. *"Are you sure about this"* I looked at him, trying to get confirmation, he slowly nodded
*"THAT DAMN KINGDOM! THEY DARE... THEY DARE TO KILL MY FATHER!"* A sudden burst of element exploded from my body, my hands were burning with a yellowish fire, an aura of ice came out of my body, vines began to crack through the castle floor, and electricity formed around the room.
"My lord, calm down."
*"CALM DOWN! ARE YOU TELLING ME TO CALM DOWN?!"*
"My lord, the castle cant hold."
After I heard that I started to calm down I didn't want to destroy the sole thing I had to remember my father.
*"How could the empire do this? How could they not protect my father, he was a damn Imperial General, he had served in the military since he was 16!"*
"My lord, my condolences."
*"Thank you, General Commander but the Emperor didn't even write down the cause of death, nor did he write any sort of personal letter."*
"I get it my lord, but the Emperor is a very busy man, he has millions of people to worry about."
"Your right, he is a busy man. But that doesn't excuse the Kingdom, for my father's death." The ice and electric aura was slowly coming back when I was thinking about the kingdom.
"My lord, calm down... You will get your revenge."
*"Yes, yes revenge, I will get my revenge. But now I need to forge a stable foundation for my house to build upon... Chancellor contact Lord Lightving for a private conversation."*
"Right away, my lord." The chancellor then left to write a letter to Lord Lightving.
*"Anyways the meeting is adjourned since we've been through everything"*
They all got up and left one after the other.
