Viscount's Rise

“We will have to see, but hopefully this is not Duke Burn inviting the wolves in.” Braydon could quite easily see a future in which the Dukes, having been invited into the conflict, decided to ‘advance’ their own positions. He just hoped that Duke Burn would be able to deal with it at the time. And preferably without getting the royal faction involved.

“Well that is what we have been informed of. I am sure that Rhydian is already thinking of ways to act in light of this. And say, who was such an important guest that you made the trip back to the castle to see them?” Nela was slightly curious. They were obviously foreign, having come from the east, but that did not always mean that they were someone of great importance.

“They were certainly an odd pair, Serheshis. And that was not what made them odd.” When Braydon had told Nela that he was going to see some guests at the castle, she had thought that they would be someone from Shuluk. After all, that they were sending iron to Narabun was not going to be kept a secret forever. She had been worried that it was the other side coming to demand that they stop. Now that Fiveria was also in a civil war, it was a much more likely thing.

“That would have been too obvious. I am sure that they would have just attacked us rather than say anything. But Serheshi visiting at all was what drove my curiosity. I had thought that I might have been able to come to some kind of agreement on trade with Serheshi merchants, what other Serheshi would come this far south?” Braydon hoped that the Duchess Regent in Shuluk would keep her enemies too busy for them to find the time to attack his mines, or make any demands of him. It was not a problem that he wanted to be dealing with along with his other myriad of issues.

“And they were not.” Nela could easily have guessed as much from the way Braydon spoke, and it drove her curiosity. Having stayed in the capital for some time, she had heard of the occasional Serheshi merchant visiting. But even in the capital, that was extremely rare. But almost nobody in Fiveria had heard of a Serheshi coming for anything else, other than to visit the King in official meetings. Something that had not happened in many years.

“Exactly, and they were not. And I doubt that they were representing anyone from Serhesh either. They were after a young, red haired woman that should have passed through about 9 or so months ago. For what and for whom, I still have no clue.” As Braydon described what the Serheshi men were after in more detail, Nela’s look of curiosity turned to one of suspicion. And then to one of deep contemplation.

“Are you saying?” After such an exact description, there was only one person that Nela could think of that would fit such a description. And when she looked at Braydon, Nela recognised that he had thought of exactly the same thing.

“According to Lani, they took a keen interest in Mireille’s appearance. Though it seemed that they themselves did not know what their target looks like exactly. I suspect that someone who does will probably come for a visit in the near future.” If Braydon were to guess, he would get a visit from someone who both knew about the affairs of Fiveria better than the men from Serhesh and someone who had met the object of their search.

“And what did you tell them?” Nela was unsure what to make of the situation. If what they thought was true, it would be something completely out of the blue for them. Mireille herself could not remember her past, how could they know if the people that were searching for her were good news. And that was only if they were searching for her. For all they knew, the men could be looking for someone else entirely.

“I told them that there was no such person who had passed through. And that if they insisted on staying for long, that I would have no problem letting the King know that there were spies hanging around my lands.” Braydon still did not regret his decision at all. There were not many Leighians who had enough influence to make him regret his decisions. And almost all of those who did lived too far away for him to take any threats made seriously.

“They wanted to hang around Mireille didn’t they?” Nela could already guess why Braydon had made such a threat. And she probably would have done something similar. She was just surprised that they had annoyed Braydon enough for him to threaten that openly. After having become a lord, Braydon had toned back his more impulsive side considerably. At least that is what Rhydian had told her. Nela did not want to think what Braydon was like when he was not a lord. The scar on his face did not help her gain any confidence that he used to restrain himself.

“And stay the night in my castle.” Braydon added with a straight face.

“Truly scum of the earth.” Nela jabbed at Braydon, she knew that he did not mean it like she had taken it, but she had to let off steam at some point.

“You would think so too if they wasted 3 hours of your time before they even got onto the very thing that they came to see you about.” Braydon hated social gatherings with most nobles for similar reasons. The difference was that he could leave such gatherings early with a small excuse. 

“So how did Mireille react to their interest?” Nela was sure that Mireille would have noticed the men taking an interest in her presence. For her silence, Mireille made up for it with observation. There was no way that she would not have noticed attention being directed at her. Especially when it came from such different visitors.

“She thought that they came with some kind of bad intentions towards her. She asked me to make sure that they left even before I met with the pair.” Braydon wondered how the men had looked at her for her to make a judgement call so quickly. From his knowledge, they had not even spoken to her.

“They were offered a lot in compensation for finding their mark.” Nela made a guess and Braydon was inclined to agree. He could only imagine what it would feel like for two weird foreigners to look at him as if he were a sack of gold.

Darkwood

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