I had to admit, his answer perplexed me. Adam, the founder of the Numerenai Guild, had died nearly hundreds of years ago. He claims to have no family name, which is fair for an organization that serves no nation and house. A group that answers to no politics, that has never been bought, and has no say. The Lawless Isle of the north has no natural resources to warrant interest, and this invisibility gave rise to people that want absolute anarchy and independence. The perfect place for a guild to be built by a founder written to have held as much interest in the world as the world held in him.

It was at this time that the servants were becoming particurally disgruntled, to the point of bringing in the aid of the head butler. He was a gangly man who I remembered as having an endless smile and a mustache that extended equally far. He grew it to weave into his ears because the children found it comical. He was pleased to see me again but requested we turn inside so they could finish the preperations for the feast.

Adam and I entered the mansion, and, wanting to continue to further myself in his eyes, looked for something to do together. I noted that Izthark was keeping his distance from me, but also ensuring I was in sight. Good, I wasn't in the mood for him right now, but it was good to see he was taking his job seriously, when he wasn't flirting with some girl in a white robe with horn symbols on the back of it. In the library I found a board game and began setting it up. Adam frowned at it, like it had insulted his father.

"You are not fond of games?"

"Games, yes. Games with rules, no."

I snorted. I observed, "You REALLY don't like rules."

"Rules in society create crime where it wouldn't exist otherwise. Anyone who knows the rules of games well enough can never lose so long as everyone else abides by them. Wars are made for something so insignificant as upholding rules they made up. How ironic that the game board with nothing but rules was made to replace war to which was also created to enforce rules or claim ownership of anything as if it is an extension of the self."

"Or maybe you just are afraid of losing."

Adam narrowed his eyes at me slightly, and I smiled innocently. Without saying a word he sat down, pulled the chair up opposite of me, and motioned for me to make the first move.

I began the game.

"Is Adam a form of rank or title?" I wondered. "Or were you named after the founder?"

Adam blinked, surprised by the query. His eyes briefly took off a faroff quality before returning to me in the present. He answered, "I am unsure. Though, from my understanding, it is perhaps both."

"Needless to say, Adam, you were named after a great man. I have, like many youths, dreamed of being a Numerenai. No, not for prestige or power, but to be rid of restraint to do something good where I find the oppurtunity."

Adam smiled. He leaned forward, saying, "We aren't partial to a man's reasons, I don't find any motivation inherantly wrong, but I like the ones like yours. They're uncommon. If you truly wish to be a Numer then I can make the transition safe."

"Don't tempt me!" I laugh. "I just might take you up on it! But no, I was born a prince. I was born with a power no Numer can claim and a responsibility I will not throw to the wayside just because my dream can come true."

"The offer is always on the table."

I saw my chance, and went for it. I favored Adam despite the short time, but I felt a connection with him that, at the very least, offered a basic friendship. If it could be to our advantage, all the better. I moved a strong piece forward along his flank.

"Thank you, but, if you will, I would like to propose a different offer."

"Oh?" Adam leaned back, roped his arms together, and asked with a smirk, "What might that be?"

"Join me in my fight against the Aeterna."

For a long moment, Adam stared at me. While the friendly and jovial mood stayed, it seemed to freeze a moment in the heavy request. Adam's smile dimmed, and he looked at me more firmly.

"Why?" He asked.

"Because your guild has-"

"You mistake my question. Why do you fight the Aeterna? I do not ask this as your ally or enemy, though we have a common enemy in him. The Aeterna Emperor has laid claim to Dyson and my neutrality spits in the face of this absolute entitlement. I am anarchy and he is order, whether you judge his means justified or not."

"You dont think that being his enemy is enough reason to fight him?"

"It is, but if that is your sole reason, then my answer to your question will be swift and disappointing."

What further reason must I need against him? The Aeterna has become my nightmare and he taunts me with each passing day. The sun is our god and he turned it against us to writhe beneath its eye. We fear the night for monsters but have always felt safeguarded in the light, but that light now brings fear and wrath instead of comfort. There is no haven. There is no hope.

"He took our god from us," I answer. "We are now like sons who have been told by our father that we weren't good enough and abandoned so the father may start a new family with a cheating mistress. We are left hunted at night and forced to submit in day, with no reprieve, as if we were but slaves tied to a flour mill. My people will crumble and die to such a fate."

Adam took my words in silence, contemplating them and turning them around. I could see it work in his mind as a turning of pages in study.

Taking a gambit, I moved my most valuable piece forward. It was the one with the least strength but also the most value because removing it was the winning condition. Now it was unprotected. It also succeeded in changing the nature of the battlefield compeltely.

Adam blinked in surprise. I answered the unspoken question, "A king who doesn't lead the way isn't much of a king. It may be premature, my coming here, but I intend to leave a long path behind me for others to follow. I will find everyone abandoned by the sun and reclaim our father, our diety, to us. And kill the mistress."

"Is it truly worthy of being called 'father' if he abandons you though? If the sun has thoughts as a man and chooses a mistresses, then is the sun is no less playing a part in this than the priest. You asume the sun is doing this unwillingly, yet with awareness. A slave."

"Then we will free it."

Taking the advantage, while all of his attention was on my most valuable piece, I took his. Adam blinked twice, looked between me and the board, and burst out laughing. "Good! Very good! It has been years since I have been bested. Though it has also been years since I have played so there is that."

"There is that!" I agreed, laughing with him.

"Ah, well... Valspear, though your name be cursed, I cannot deny your resolve or purpose. It is neither the ways of men to go after that which has abandoned them, nor the ways of kings to think of anything beyond their station. You throw off conventional reason and set it apart to enter the realm of the holy. Righteous or self-righteous, time will tell. But, my friend, if I may be so bold as to think you one-"

"You may."

"To enter into the realm of thought that is holy is to go beyond man. I fear you will fail because no man will follow your thought. No man will follow you. Men think within the realm of their power, and it is limited. Men are selfish even when trying not to be by that limitation. They cannot extend their power and reach. Anything further is but wishing."

"That is the role of the king, to step into the realm of holiness. We are symbolic, but it is our power to take that which is symbolic and make it tangible. If they but extend their power, though limited, to me, I will take it further and fulfill the wish."

Adam laughed again, leaning back until the chair stood on only two legs. He collapsed forward a bit on his return, jostling the pieces across the floor. "Yes! Yes, that is so! Oh, very well! You have bought me! I will aid you."

Before I could jump for joy, or any other emberassing reactions, he continued in a dower tone, "Though it cannot be in how you think."

"What do you mean?" I ask. "Is there a matter you need my aid with?"

"I fight the Aeterna every day. Ours is a symbolic battle of thought and resolve and will. I am a part of the old world, and so long as there is yet an old world to speak out for, I live and fight. But if there should come a day that there is no longer resistance and the world dies, then I will die with it."

I say, "I don't understand. If you fight then let me aid you. I will not abandon my allies to die even if we just met."

"You left Abhdan." He answers, and its a blow to my stomach. I shut my mouth. "I hold no more malice to the throught than he would have. It is what must be done. Every day I grow weaker. With each step he takes forward my power wanes. If the Aeterna wins, I will die, but there is a chance you may live to continue the fight. Mine is not a battlefield you can enter, but it aids me to know that even after me some will be ready to test him."

I didn't know how to answer that. He spoke in perplexing riddles and of a vague conflict. Were the Numerenai sabataging the Empire or what was he referring to?

An armored person entered the room. He... she... it? With how the Soran look this could very well be a Soran for all I knew. It wore all black armor and beneath black coverings and within the helmet was a black veil. Not one hint of skin was visible. It was just under my height.

Taking one look at me, it lowered its helmet and I had the sensation of being glared at.

"That's enough. This is an honored guest." Adam refuted it. He stood, adjusted his pants where it had rode up his legs, and headed to the door. "I take it the feast is almost ready?"

The armored soldier nodded, glanced at me again, turned sharply, and headed out. Adam sighed at it, rubbed his temples, and remembering himself, looked to me with an apologetic smile. "I am sorry for her. That was rude."

"You know her?" I asked. So the soldier was a female. Does that mean Soran have females or was this another Blood?

"Yes, I raised her, as I did Izthark. They are both of the guild. I sent her to safeguard and judge the king of Ire, and I sent Izthark to the king of Kes."

"Then I must thank you many times over, he saved my life."

"Good. Good." Adam acknowledged. Clearing his throat, he said, "I cannot promise to aid you in battle, but if the Aeterna has not won yet, then you need only call and I will come. And if the Aeterna should win... well, I will come if I can, but I can make no promise. Who knows. We may both we dead."

"And Izthark tells me I am pessimistic."

"He isn't very good at holding his judgements back, I apologize for that." I exit the door with him, and Adam briefly glanced around. "Speaking of, where is he?"

"Probably off hiding in the shade to curb his headache or flirting with a girl." I sigh and shake my head. For being raised and trained by such a great man, his disciple is rather disappointing. "Tell me, has he always been like this?"

"Oh yes, even before I met him!" Adam admitted. "And it has many reasons, but i shant break his trust with revealing personal matters. But something even he may not know in the pursuit, yet suspect in the reward, is that, shall we say, an amerous congress is the greatest antidote to a throbbing mind."

We decided to part ways there for the time being. Now that I had eaten, collaborated with a new friend, and gained an ally, of sorts, my spirits were lifted and I needed to move on to the next thing. Namely a bath. This reflection made us both laugh, and Adam returned to the party promising to tell my bodyguard to do his job. My old room in the manor still had the old key hidden in the same place, the lock remained unchanged, and everything was where I had left it. The only sign anyone had been here was the lack of dust. Books of theology, philsophy, language studies, and history sat on the cloth cabinet. A few love poems I had attempted, and promptly crumpled, remained forever sealed behind the furniture where only vermin may vomit at the quality craftsmanship. Random nicknacs from my journeys across Ire were given their ornamental places in the corner, mostly swords. Ire-Blood liked to give out swords or shields as gifts with the sigil of their house. Beyond this, most things I either didn't bother cluttering my limited space or took with me when I left. But my destination was for two things. The tub by the fireplace and the writing desk.

Is there anything so heavenly as a good soak in warm water after a strenuous journey?

While allowing myself this brief moment, I observed out the window a number of amusing scenes. Izthark was given a tongue lashing for trying to walk off with a woman. The woman in particular was in white robes bearing the emblem of twin horns like a bull. I didn't recall the emblem, it was of no house or holding. The duke finished giving the Soran a tour and confronted Adam briefly on his unkempt appearance if he was to be at the party. Ire are not as strict of appearances as the Kes may be, but it can't have passed his inspection for Adam to wear, quite literally, nothing but white pants. Then there was the black armored woman, she kept a distance from everyone else in the shade much like Izthark and watched the Duke. My beloved made an appearance to taste test a few dishes, Izthark made another pass at her, and Adam smacked him upside the back of the head. The butler wondered who had snuck a vial of cherry poison beneath a towellete, and caused a minor spill in the process, and Adam conveniently found some place more interesting to be. Izthark returned inside to find me.

"Weird people." I chuckled. I leaned back, closed my eyes, and found the song I wanted to hum from before. Izthark inevitably found me and decided the bed was the best place to guard me from. I find his tactics interesting, to say the least.

After allowing myself to prune beyond reason, I clothed myself in attire I was more accustomed to during my stay as an honored hostage. I sat at the desk and started the work. Just because this holding wouldn't resist, didn't mean others would not. And just because they may not do it now, doesn't mean they may not in the future when they feel the Aeterna's boot on their neck. I want to fight to stop the Aeterna, but a horrible part of Adam's logic makes sense. The Aeterna may win. He may lay claim to everything and extend his borders to the end. But that won't mean he will be rid of enemies.

I have never met the Aeterna, but already I have observed one rule of his. He is like me, in a sense. He lacks absolute conviction to the extent of executing rivals. He accepts surrender. Just as I lost Kes because I was too weak to have my brother killed from the start, the Aeterna may lose for not killing us all.

So I will see where this game goes.

I wrote letters. I wrote letters to each and every person I knew across North Ire, and a few in South Ire. Whether they be small or high, with holdings or shops.

I sent them a simple message: To surrender unconditionally, and prepare to rise with me at my signal. And if I should fail to rise, to all rise on the same day, five years later, from when the sun was taken.

I did not mention the rebels of Kes who are hiding north, nor who else i had sent these letters to, incase by accident or treachery it should come to the wrong hands.

In the distance a dust cloud appeared and if the banners and sudden hysterics of the Ire was any sign, their honored guests had arrived.

"The Aeterna," I concluded. He had come to claim his prize. I better hurry.

Finishing the last letter I put them in a bag and handed them to a servant with explicit instructions to have each sent at the Duke's expense. I made an excuse that Amelia requested it, and that alone brought the servant to work with no further questions asked.

"What'll she do if she finds out you just sent out a hundred letters in your name but at her father's expense?" Izthark questioned, albeit amused.

"She will think nothing of it, compared to most of her requests this is the least odd or expensive."

Speaking of my beloved, there was unfortunately no time for amerous congress despite her clinging, but there were many promises made as Izthark and I hurried northward again.

Now lets see if the Ancestors will make me a liar.