Broken Soul

Michael

Michael smiled politely while a baron out of the north-eastern duchy told a story of battle against the boar tribe that inhabited vast parts of the northern beastwoods. It was a good story. The man had a good mind for tactics and storytelling and knew which parts were interesting and which he should gloss over, but Michael was tired.

He got his way out when he spotted Duke Wallsten sitting with Duke Greeich a few tables over. After excusing himself, he quickly made his way over to the two old dukes, consciously trying to evade any possibility of getting drawn into yet another conversation.

Michael fell into a chair and said, "Please protect me."

"I assume wife hunting has been going well?" Duke Greeich asked with an amused expression. "Say, did Lady Fathenwoth find you? Her daughter is a smart one."

Michael stared at the old duke in disbelief. "Have you been sending people my way ... uhh milord?" He quickly remembered proper manners, but the duke didn't seem to mind as he laughed again.

"Oh, not only me. Arthur here has been quite busy," the duke shamelessly threw his comrade under the wagon.

Duke Wallsten didn't seem ashamed a single bit, though. "You are at the age where you should start planning for your marriage, and now is the best time with a grand victory and great riches in your hands."

"You could have warned me, you know? At least my uncle warned Tara. And I don't think that I have to worry about that yet," Michael grumbled as a servant placed a cup of tea in front of him. He had no clue how the man knew which one he wanted, but he had hit the spot. Maybe they had a list of which nobles liked which tea?

"Michael. We both know that if I had told you, then you would have slunk away like your cousin did. I warned Duncan that you and she are too alike, but he didn't want to believe me," Duke Wallsten said with a sigh. "Also, remember that King Zenial was already considering his options at your age."

"So, have you found anyone that strikes your interest?" Duke Greeich interrupted Michael's grumbling.

There were promising candidates, at least Michael thought so. He had never spent any amount of time thinking about what made a marriage prospect a promising one. Right now, he wished that his mother were here. She had a good hand for stuff like that, at least that was what his father had said.

"I have spent the last hours talking about marriage and alliances. Could we please talk about anything else?" Michael pleaded.

The two elders snickered like teenagers before Duke Wallsten spoke again. "Fine. Have you heard that some magical ore vein has been discovered in Regia? Also, I think I heard something about magical wood out of Duke Wulfen's North Mark."

Michael nodded. "I have heard about that, and with the rate the mana is rising, it was only a question of time. It is good news for the kingdom at least."

"You don't seem too upset," Duke Greeich noted.

Michael shrugged. "We got a nice head start. That was about all I could expect. I knew that everyone would start looking for their own treasure the moment it became clear how much money could be made with magical resources and gear. Don't think I haven't heard about your own efforts."

Duke Greeich smiled, but they both knew that his efforts hadn't been very successful yet. It wasn't like he needed it, though. Wyrt was rather rich due to its vast agriculture and position as the breadbasket of the kingdom.

"Either way," Michael continued. "I doubt anyone will be able to match the volume we produce any time soon, but I have to say that I wish I could get my hands on some of that magical wood."

"I doubt Duke Wulfen will be very forthcoming with that," Duke Wallsten scoffed.

"Oh, I have an idea about that already," Michael replied with a mischievous grin.

That seemed to amuse the two dukes, but Michael was already not paying attention anymore. As if summoned, he had spotted Duke Wulfen in the crowd, and the man was looking over to them.

"Seems like I am not the only one who wishes to talk," Michael said and rose from his seat. "Please excuse me, milords."

"Don't make more trouble, please," Duke Wallsten said before refocusing on a nice piece of apple pie.

Michael approached the group of nobles containing Duke Wulfen and Count Gretten casually. They had all exchanged greetings at the caravan's arrival, so Michael only bowed slightly toward the duke.

"Lord Rowan, please join us," Duke Wulfen said in his usual manner. He really was a hard man to read. "I wanted to congratulate you personally again for the great victory you have won for the kingdom. We owe you a great debt."

"You honor me, milord. But most of the praise should be directed at my lord uncle," Michael replied, trying as so often to mirror the duke's attitude but never quite reaching the nonchalant but still formal aura that the duke wore.

"Hmm, your family does have a penchant for being humble, it seems. Lord Grim said nearly the same and pressed that his lands would have certainly been devastated without your efforts," the duke replied. "Whatever the case may be, I am grateful for your effort in keeping the kingdom safe."

"All I did was my duty, but I am grateful for the praise nonetheless," Michael said and then added, "May I ask for a small favor, milord?"

The duke nodded.

"May we talk in private for a moment. There is a matter, I wish to hear your advice on, if you would be so gracious."

That got the attention of the rest of the group, and Count Gretten especially seemed annoyed by Michael's request. Duke Wulfen, on the other hand, looked intrigued, the first genuine emotion he had shown in their short conversation.

It took only a casual move to disperse the group around them. Count Gretten gave Michael a last suspicious look before joining a few counts three tables over.

"So, I am curious. What kind of conundrum would bring you to me for advice?" Duke Wulfen asked.

"It is about the nobles I had to cull," Michael started.

Duke Wulfen nodded. "I assumed so. It is outrageous what they tried to do."

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Michael smiled at the middle-aged man. He never quite knew if he should be impressed or abhorred by the duke's ability to lie and act without even a twitch betraying him.

"There was something curious we found in the estate of the leader of the conspiracy, Baron Redric Plon. It appears that he was receiving outside help. We found a bunch of letters, like this one, containing ideas about how to harm my reform efforts and large quantities of money, well, at least for our frontier standards." Michael handed the man one of the letters they had found.

Duke Wulfen looked at the piece of paper like he saw it for the first time, and did the appropriate frown when he read the contents.

"The letters all had a clause about destroying them after reading, but it appears that Redric wanted to keep them as leverage or something. Now the question that I am considering is what I should do with this knowledge that someone is pushing my own people to work against me."

Michael obviously wouldn't accuse the Duke of anything. He had no real proof, and even if he had, it wouldn't be in the realm's best interest to press the matter. What he was quite overtly doing was telling Duke Wulfen that he knew and had at least circumstantial evidence to tarnish his reputation with even if it was far from enough to invoke any legal consequences.

Unsurprisingly, Michael saw nothing in the face of Duke Wulfen that would give him any indication of what the man thought about this.

"That does sound like a troublesome situation, but I am not sure what it is that you are asking of me. I can't help you find out who the culprit is with just this. You have a great number of enemies since you began shifting the status quo," Duke Wulfen explained.

"Oh, I am not asking for that. The advice I need is whether I should leave it alone and expect that the person or group in question to refrain from such activities, or if I should dig into it and share my findings with the rest of the kingdom. I really don't want to make a big fuss out of this if I don't have to, and you know the political landscape of the kingdom better than I do. Would you say that the party in question will continue making trouble?" Michael made sure to phrase everything as a question and not even hint that the duke could be complicit. They both knew what he meant, but it was a part of the dance and gave both of them plausible deniability.

Duke Wulfen stayed silent while holding Michael's gaze, the letter in his hand forgotten. Michael could virtually feel the man's brain working. After a minute, he finally seemed to return to the present.

"I will see what I can find out, but I doubt you will have any more trouble after you dealt with the renegade parts of your nobility. I don't see that anyone would waste their effort anymore on a lost cause like trying to stop the South from ascending," Duke Wulfen said.

"That is good to hear," Michael said with fake enthusiasm. "I thank you for your advice, milord."

Michael hesitated for a moment for theatrical effect. "There is one more thing. I heard that some magical resources have been discovered in North Mark. I was wondering if you are selling?"

Duke Wulfen looked at him in a weird way that Michael couldn't place. Michael was tense waiting; the answer could throw a few of his plans in disarray, in a good way. He was hoping for his own supply of magical wood and herbs out of Emall, but for now, they had only found those very, very sparingly.

After what felt like a few minutes but was really only a few seconds, the Duke spoke. "We have only recently made that discovery, so we are still surveying and getting the work started. The lumber has proven very resistant to many of our tools, so there is some trouble. I am sure we can get to a mutually beneficial agreement, but that is a subject for a less busy day and less exhausted minds."

Michael smiled politely and agreed, but internally, he was already celebrating. He didn't mind selling magical tools to the duke. They might be political enemies many times, and Duke Wulfen's interference in his affairs wouldn't be forgotten anytime soon, but his main goal was always to get the kingdom to prosper. Hording his riches and advantages wouldn't help there, not to mention that getting a couple of wagonloads of quality magical wood would open so many doors for him.

With their business postponed to another day, the two nobles split off from each other and went their own way.

Duke Leopold Wulfen

Leopold was lost in thought as he returned to where Count Gretten was waiting for him. Lord Rowan was playing a dangerous game again, and again the young count had caught him off-guard, a fact that Leopold didn't appreciate.

He couldn't tell why, but somehow the boy unnerved him, and Leopold too often failed in predicting what he would do next. Like this time, he wasn't too surprised that Baron Plon hadn't destroyed the letters. It didn't matter much. Leopold had already decided that with the downfall of the noble faction that there wasn't much point in trying to interfere in Reen or Emall anymore. That Michael came to him to flaunt the letters around wasn't too strange either, even if it was a bit aggressive considering their status difference.

What really shocked him was that the young lord had suggested trading their most valuable resources and even indicated that he wouldn't mind selling them the tools to harvest theirs better.

Leopold couldn't discern the reasoning behind any of that. There were simply so many reasons not to enable his own efforts. Like stalling the introduction of competing magical equipment, personal animosity against him due to the whole affair with the noble faction, or simply arming a rival with magical tools that can easily be repurposed as weapons. He didn't doubt the sincerity of Lord Rowan, though. The boy usually meant what he said.

Count Gretten was watching him as Leopold came to a halt next to him. Leopold knew that the count didn't like Michael for the simple reason that he hadn't liked his father, Cedric. Leopold thought that that was quite regrettable, because while the young lord of the south was rising faster than Leopold would like, he could also be a quite competent ally, just as the Steward of the crown was.

"What are our next steps?" Uther Gretten asked. "We could still hire those bandits, or lean into the bad rumors that are spreading about the count."

"No." Silence fell again for a few moments before Leopold looked at his old ally. "We are not going to interfere with the South anymore. That opportunity has passed."

"What? Why? We have to prevent him from winning his bet with the king, or he will retain that ridiculous amount of resources the mountains hold. They are finding more every day, it seems," Uther exclaimed.

"You are right, we have to make him lose the bet, but not in a way that we go down with him," Leopold replied calmly. Uther always had a dramatic personality, which one would expect to clash with the calm Leopold, but strangely didn't.

"We could try to lean on him subtly like we have been, but I doubt that would have any more effect than what we have done till this point, even less probably. While we did definitely delay his projects in Emall, all that effort will be washed away now that he has direct control. Not to mention that he knows and is already hinting at publishing our involvement. It is not overly dangerous, but I would like to avoid having such rumors drown out the ones regarding Lord Rowan.

"While subtlety won't work, we could get more aggressive. Trade wars, bandits, assassinations, or war by everything but name. That option is even more risky. I would give it a very low chance that Lord Rowan would emerge victorious, but there is a very high chance that both we and Praanen would go out of a conflict like that majorly diminished, while the other three duchies will ascend. Not a very favorable outcome for us, even if it would ensure the failure of the bet."

Uther nodded along thoughtfully. He was a good steward, but Leopold had often found that the man lacked imagination for anything but creative stances on tax law.

"With interfering leading to such unfavorable outcomes, we will have to do what Wyrt and Regia are doing. We will start copying the south and try to stay ahead of them. The bet said that the South would pull up to equal the rest of us, but if we manage to keep pace, then that will become an impossibility. We will pick out the reforms that benefit us and those that we can push through. That is the best way I can think of to reach our goal without plunging the kingdom into chaos."

"You will give him legitimacy if you start copying him," Uther argued.

"That ship has already left the harbour. Duke Greeich and the king have already started implementing some of the reforms, so legitimacy is no longer in question," Leopold dismissed the concern.

He probably would have chosen this path regardless of the current situation. The reforms were good, and he would be damned if he let North Mark decline just because of some misguided clinginess to tradition. He would, of course, have to be careful and weave a shroud of deception over his actions to confuse his more conservative supporters, but that wasn't anything new.

Uther chewed on that for a while and then finally relented. "What is gonna be my role in this then? I am a count in Regia, not North Mark."

"You will watch, you will listen, and you will report what you hear from the nobles of Regia. I need to know what they think of certain reforms in truth and not the nonsense that they spew at court."

"I can do that," the count replied.

Leopold looked at the filled hall. "I also need your thoughts about a trade agreement I am considering."