A young man is sitting in a large room in front of his desk. There are large windows all around letting in lots of natural light. This man, Liri, has shoulder length, dark brown hair, with slight curls. His skin is tan with freckles on his face. His body is well trained and muscular.

His eyes are purple, a sign of nobility. He is wearing a collarless, lavender dress shirt with its sleeves rolled up. His pants are black, waist-high, and extend to his dark blue shoes. On his right hand are two rings, one on his middle finger and one on his ring finger. On his left hand is a chain bracelet, each link made of pure diamond. He is also wearing a necklace, an important family heirloom.

Liri is looking thoughtfully at something on his desk.

He is the young Baron in charge of ruling the city of Tritol. He has been working on a complex project for a while now. It is a new crystal art piece. While he does enjoy holding absolute power over this city, everybody has their hobby. His way of relaxing is making crystal sculptures.

The current one he’s already built is for his wife. On his desk is a flower blossom in a vase. This flower is his wife’s favorite kind, and he is using it as a model. The only problem he is running into is using his magic for something this complex. He is staring intently at the crystal flower he made, sitting to the right of the original.

Baron Liri is a crystal mage. It is a rare specialization, the only one of this generation of nobles as far as he knows. He is very proficient as well, able to pull solid diamond out of thin air. This flower is made of diamond, but he can produce crystals out of salt, sugar, and gems. So long as he has a material that can turn crystalline, he can produce a crystal. With diamond for example, he merely strips the air of its natural carbon. If he wants to be quick about it, he makes use of graphite or ash.

“Hm. It doesn’t look right… I don’t know if Aethel will like it. What do you think, Deidri?”

“Honestly, Liri, it’s made of diamond, do you think Aethel will care if it’s just slightly off? It looks fine to me, a pretty good mimic of that flower.”

“I know, I know, I shouldn’t be so particular about it. But, I don’t want to half ass it either, right? The spark is lost in a relationship once you stop putting in the effort.” Liri picks up a magnifying glass to better inspect the imperfections in his crystal flower.

Deidri scoffs. “Just because it took you a half hour to make it, doesn’t make it half assed. It just speaks of your talent and years of hard training to get that good. You can build one of those faster than a pack of land dragons can skin a shelled orda…”

“I really didn’t need that image, you know… No, if I spend only a half hour on a gift for her, I won’t feel good about it. *Sigh* I guess I’ll keep working on it. What a pain.”

“Self-inflicted, brother.”

Deidri has been sitting in front of Liri for five minutes now. Liri was carefully inspecting his own sculpture. Deidri had dropped his girls off at his floor of his family home. He told his personal servants what to feed them and what to have ready for him when he finishes talking to Liri.

Those children were raised to adore Deidri, so it takes only basic decency from him to satisfy them. It is because they are young. Their innocent and easy love is his preference. There is no effort involved, no reason to treat them as people. He does love them, but maybe more as pets. Pets he can use to satisfy his lust.

The commoners would see perversion with his current life, if they were told the truth. But, Deidri is far removed from the virtues of those with lower status. The only commoners he talks to are his servants and his girls. They may talk to him, but they do not talk back. 

Unlike his brother, he has light brown hair, dark red eyes and a thinner physique. His dark red eyes are also high-born. Only eye colors distinct from brown, green, hazel and blue are carried by those of noble-birth.

As soon as Deidri entered the room, he took off his long blue jacket and sat in front of his brother’s desk. He currently has on a light blue dress shirt, spotless white pants, and dark red shoes.

He is currently wearing a chain diamond bracelet on his left wrist, a gift from his brother. He stares at it, waiting for his brother to finish evaluating his piece. They need to get down to business.

“So… Deidri. How was your time at the capital? I assume you spent time with your girls there?”

“Yes, Liri, the atmosphere was tense, but luckily, the sacred city was under close guard. There were no incidents. The battle never reached there.”

“That’s good, little brother.”

“You don’t need to call me that, you know, I’m an adult…”

“So, I think it’s time we get to the point. You have their letter I assume?”

“Yes, brother.”

Deidri rushes to his jacket, hanging on a coat rack nearby. He searches his coat pockets and carefully hands the letter over to Liri. Liri holds onto the letter, but doesn’t open it.

“Before I read this, tell me everything you can say in your own words.”

“A test of my comprehension? I’m not an idiot, you know, I understood their goals well enough.”

“More like the word of an unbiased source. You know how the church likes to embellish things.”

“...Fine, I get it. Alright, Liri, the first thing is that the timeline of war has moved forward by a full year.”

“...Are you sure? You’re not trying to play a prank on me, are you?”

“A full. Year. This is something the church was very clear about, the letter will tell you as well.”

Liri thinks this new information over. As soon as Semjaza declared war, the church was planning the final crusade after things were settled. The Semjazan Empire was a tree that had never been plucked of its fruit. It remained unconquered for ten thousand years. However, with Semjaza dead, a war for land and resources is inevitable.

There are seven months in a year, ten weeks in a month and seven days in a week. It is currently the second week, fourth month of this calendar year. To move the original timeline up by one year, the invasion date will be the first week of the seventh month. In other words, in 29 weeks, the Baron and his forces will have to join the invasion effort.