>>5189248>>5189311>>5189332>>5189451You signed your title, Lord Uilleam Campbell, and then your life was forever changed. The next few years were a whirlwind of new experiences, you found yourself thrust into a circle of bright rising leaders from across the Althimuran Empire. There was Sir Elpest, a childhood boon companion of Alkaign and nearly as fine a warrior as yourself, possessing boldness in as much quantity as you held cunning. The Honored Xia Chen, a woman from a far off land who had found a home in the Heir's confidence, a true prodigy at numbers, money, and the manipulation thereof. Old Sir Graven, slowing in his old age but of unshakable loyalty and of a paramount tactical skill even you were unable to match. Lastly the Lady Alys, Alkaign's sister by blood. Women do not inherit in the Empire of course, but she was not a mere heiress to be married off for political cause. At her own insistence, she was trained in the subtle arts of assassination, poison, and interrogation.
Together you continued on Alkaign's task before you met him, traveling across the Empire as mundane if well armed travelers. The Tundra of your home, the green heartlands of Althimura itself, the dust of the eastern Khana scrublands, the craggy canyons of western Bolo and it's sparse but hardy people, and finally the southern deserts and their vast oasis cities, the jewels of the sand. It was to be the culmination of Alkaign's long upbringing as heir, finally putting a face to the people he had read and studied all his life in preparation to rule. You watched in comradely satisfaction as he rose to the occasion, respecting every esoteric tradition, a true friend to the people who he would be tasked to protect and guide. You only knew the reality of your own smallhold; a tiny motte and bailey overlooking a humble town by a frozen river, but you judged him up to the task.
Over the years the Heir grew to trust you implicitly and care for you as a friend as he did all of his retinue. You returned his esteem humbly. But there was one you would call a closer friend than the others, one you found yourself in a shoddy tavern in the Althimur City on the night the Heir returned to report to their father. A fateful night, indeed.
