“We should probably head out soon. With this many men, long distance travel at night is not an option.” Braydon, wearing in his full armour, said to Rhydian. They were both on their horses watching his men get in formation lower down the slope from Cliforge Castle. 

“Are you sure that you don’t want any more hugs before you go?” Rhydian joked, over the past week, Mireille had always stayed near him. To the point that even Rhydian was now teasing him about it. Braydon was just glad that she wasn't gripping onto his clothes to prevent him from going off to war.

“No need to be jealous of the attention, I am sure that you have a number of admirers in Heimron who tried even harder to stop you from leaving.” When Braydon said that, a look of repulsion quickly showed on Rhydian’s face before disappearing as fast as it appeared. When news that Rhydian would be accompanying Braydon to Cliforge, a number of the maids were distraught. They tried many means to keep Rhydian there, the stories had been quite the entertainment for Braydon when he heard them from Gerald. He knew that Rhydian was the most popular knight amongst the maids there, but not to that extent.

“Agreed, we should probably leave soon.” Rhydian replied with a neutral expression, but Braydon still smiled a little, it was not often that he got to make jokes at Rhydian’s expense.

As they started moving down the hill, Braydon looked back up to see Nela standing on the castle walls, watching them leave. At first he didn’t see anyone else, if the garrison didn't count as anyone else, but soon noticed a small head poking out from behind Nela. As he waved, Mireille's head quickly shrunk back behind Nela. Even if she did not want to see him go off to war, Mireille still came to see him off, if begrudgingly.

“And you say I’m popular.” Rhydian remarked as Braydon turned back around.

“You are. But who said I wasn’t?” 

“How has Steven managed to deal with you for all these years?” Rhydian shook his head at Braydon’s immodesty.

“I pay him.” Braydon said with a smirk, getting another sigh in response to his jokes.

“Travelling with an army is much slower than I remember.” Braydon commented as he and Braydon arrived at the meeting place for the Fiverian armies, seeing several large camps already set up.

“We weren’t exactly rushing to get here, not to mention the Casburland border is pretty far away from your land.” Rhydian was right, travelling with an army was always slower than travelling on their own. The distance was not much further than travelling to the capital from his lands, but even by carriage he could make it to Boshil and back in the same time. Though the roads were definitely better going to the capital than to the northern border. Trade from the north was just not a thing in Fiveria, there were no rivers going directly north and the border was almost completely shared with Casburland. The Leighian league lay to the north west, but they also controlled a significant portion of the land to the west of Fiveria. That western land contained the source of the other major river flowing through Fiveria, so most trade with Leigh still came from the west.

The lack of interaction with Fiveria’s northern rival showed, for the past day there had been no roads to speak of at all. They had been travelling through farmland since morning. ‘At least my territory has roa... Oh, right, I had to have them rebuilt.’ Even after two full generations of neglect, there had been some traces of roads in Cliforge, but there had almost never been a time in Fiverian history where trade was allowed with Casburland, at least nothing long enough to even think of building roads to the northern border. 

“Still, isn’t there a lack of men for a war with our nation’s greatest rival?” Although Braydon saw several large camps, most of them flew banners of nobles under Duke Oakley’s faction. There was the occasional camp flying the banner of a neutral noble or someone in the royal faction around the edges, but Braydon was sure that there should be more.

“Don’t underestimate the pettiness of factional disputes. Earl Blake might not even send anyone.” Rhydian replied, not at all shocked at the lack of three of the five major factions.

“Is he stupid? If the line is not held here, it’s his faction that takes the next largest hit from this war.” Even if he could understand Earl Blake not wanting to help either Duke Oakley or King Aled’s factions, the man should have had at least some semblance of survival instincts.

“He probably has already prepared his men but is just not moving them out. The only way I think that you will see his men on the battlefield is if we are losing a pyrrhic battle and he comes to clean up the Casburland forces. So long as everyone else loses out and he is secure, he will be happy.” Rhydian evidently did not have the greatest opinion of Earl Blake, though Braydon could understand that sentiment somewhat. Anyone who could have a son that bad either was an equally bad person or had no part in his upbringing. As they were talking a soldier made his way towards them from one of the camps on the edge of the gathering, just too far for them to see whose banner flew above it.

“Sire, Marquess Burgess has invited you to join him.” The man said, revealing to whom the camp belonged. Braydon could see the King’s camp in the centre of all of the other encampments, but that was out of tradition. The King would always have his camp in the centre of everyone else’s. And in a fight with Fiveria’s biggest rival, Duke Oakley was not going to challenge that now.

“Well, it seems that I finally get to meet the man who managed to have such a brilliant daughter. Rhydian, let’s set up camp over there too. No need for my men to stand around for nothing.” Braydon commented as he motioned for the soldier to lead the way. Rhydian complied, less curious than Braydon about the Marquess. In his time serving Braydon’s father he had met almost every Fiverian noble.

Darkwood

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