The Storm King

That Saturday was a bright and beautiful day, perfect for exploring the city and seeing the sights. The weather in the capital was perfect and the forums, pools, and bathhouses were crowded with the city’s occupants. The many parks, bars, and restaurants were just as packed.

Most of the third-tier trainees who had taken their time off to venture into the city didn’t see any of this, though. A few of the nobles had estates in the capital, so that was where they spent their time, but Gaius and Tiberias—though possessing large estates—weren’t among them. They and about twenty other third-tier trainees were relaxing in the lavish lounge on the first floor of the Heaven’s Eye Tower.

There were a couple hundred other nobles, knights, and public officials who were in the lounge as well, so none of the trainees stood out.

Gaius and one of the other nobles in his and Leon’s cycle, a young man named Tiberias, were sitting in a private booth together, though the curtains were pulled back to let everyone else in the lounge see the two young noblemen talking. Gaius had come here alone, but when he’d arrived, Tiberias had already been there, so he’d gone over to chat with his fellow nobleman. Tiberias was, like him, a son of a Duke, but unlike Gaius, he was his father’s heir, meaning that someday, he’d be one of the most powerful and influential nobles in the entire realm. Gaius would probably be relegated to managing some of his family’s affairs or a career in the Royal Legions since he had two older brothers.

Still, Tiberias warmly welcomed him when he walked over, and the two spent a significant amount of time chatting away. Tiberias was the leader of the Black Vipers, and with Gaius as the leader of the Deathbringers, they were technically opposed to each other, but they didn’t let that stop them from being friendly to each other. The game at the Knight Academy would end at the conclusion of their training cycle, while their relationship as nobles could last their entire lives.

“… and then he woke up with his entire face covered in it! I think he still smells like her to this day!” Gaius narrated, a wide smile on his face as he told a story from his childhood in his family’s home Duchy of Lentia. “Let me tell you, my brother was furious. Many of his personal magical accessories had been stolen while he’d slept, and he wanted them back. He searched Lentia up and down for that woman, but he never found her again.”

Tiberias politely chuckled and said, “I can’t believe Gratian did something like that! Surely he knew that that woman only wanted him for his money! That’s what all commoners want from us!”

“I know, but my father understood why he couldn’t resist. He bemoaned the tendency for young men to chase a pretty face without thought for station, but Gratian wasn’t even punished. My father even hired a new pretty maid to replace the one that stole from Gratian, and to my knowledge, Gratian never touched her.”

Tiberias chuckled again, his noble and handsome face turned up in a genuine smile, his brown hair styled to perfection—not too long, not too short, with a slight parting in the center—and his clothes pulled tight across his lithe and densely-muscled body. He wasn’t nearly as muscular as many other mages, but he still had a body that hinted at a great deal of physical power contained within him.

“These commoners, I swear,” he said. “I suppose they’re good for a little bit of fun now and then, but it’s always frustrating when they get ideas about what’s rightfully ours… Speaking of which, you have your own business with that one barbarian, don’t you?”

Gaius’ smile froze on his face, but he carefully kept it up, unwilling to show any weakness here, in the lounge of the Heaven’s Eye Tower, where all the most powerful men and women of the realm could see him and Tiberias. He then took a second to force himself to relax enough to reply, and said, “Yes, I have some business with him. In fact, I’ve gotten some of the weaker trainees in my unit to take care of a little bit of that business today, and all it took was a handful of silvers each. The barbarian may think himself invincible, and he’s certainly skilled enough with the blade and strong enough in the magical arts to make retaliation… problematic without tarnishing my reputation, but his friends are not.”

“Ahh, a good strategy,” Tiberias whispered in thought. “Commoners and peasants will always sell each other out for the promise of a few coins. If those baseborn bastards have even half a brain in their skulls—a dangerous assumption on my part to make, but for the sake of argument…—this should show them exactly why being friends with such an uncouth savage is such a bad idea. Friends of savages tend not to live long…”

Tiberias trailed off as he finished his statement, his eyes drawn by something over by the door. When Gaius turned his head to look, he saw that one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen had just walked in. Her hair was long and fire red; her body tall, athletic, and bearing a perfect hourglass shape; her piercing green eyes glittering with intelligence on her flawless heart-shaped face; her bearing proud and commanding, causing nearly every eye in the lounge to follow Gaius and Tiberias’ example as she confidently strode toward the back of the lounge where the magical lifts awaited her. She barely looked at anyone, but those she did spare a glance received a warm smile and a nod of appreciation.

“Who… is that?” Gaius wondered aloud, being unfamiliar with the local nobility—and from the way she carried herself and the black silkgrass dress that hugged her body in all the right places, he knew that she was noble in every sense of the word. She was gorgeous, though she didn’t move his heart the way that Valeria did.

Tiberias grinned possessively, his eyes following her across the room even long after Gaius had turned back to him. “Elise, the daughter of Emilie, the local Tower Lord, and the mother of my future children,” he growled.

---

Henry and Alain spent most of their day walking around the various merchant forums in the city. They never bought anything, but they did stop for a bite to eat at a rotisserie stall. Charles had split with them about an hour before, saying something about needing to train, which both other men accepted even as it took them completely off-guard.

“So what now?” asked a bored Alain. The one hundred silver coins they received as a stipend couldn’t buy them very much, so there wasn’t a whole lot for them to do.

“Hmmm…” thought Henry. “Maybe we could hit up the beach. Might be some cute girls there to talk to.”

“As tempting as that is, I’d better not.”

“… Right, you already have three kids on the way. Best not to add to that number until you graduate, at least,” responded Henry while throwing his friend a mocking look.

Alain, for his part, ignored it. “Want to go hang out with Charles?” he asked. “Training isn’t really how I envisioned spending most of today, but it’s better than wandering around bored outta my gourd.”

“Sure. Not a lot else to do without more coin, anyway.”

The two started walking east, toward the lower end districts. They exchanged a few jokes and jabs at each other’s expense, but before they had even left the western districts that bordered the Knight Academy, they rounded a corner and almost ran into another first-tier trainee from their cycle, someone they kind-of recognized, though which unit he was in escaped their immediate recollection. This startled trainee almost jumped out of his skin when he saw these two and immediately turned around and ran off.

“Whoa, what the hell was that?” asked Alain.

“Not a clue…” said Henry. “But that was rude as fuck, just running off like that soon’s you see someone! If we get a chance to spar with that guy, I’m going to knock his block off!”

Henry and Alain put this seemingly minor incident out of their minds, turning their attention back to their wandering of the streets. They didn’t notice when that trainees started following them a few minutes later, a small group of other trainees at his back.

“Man, I would literally kill for some of Old Salem’s mead,” said Henry as they turned down a fairly deserted street on their way toward the park where Charles said he was going to train.

Alain was about to mutter his agreement, but four young men—who they also recognized from the Academy—ran up from behind them, grabbed their arms, and started quite roughly hauling them into a nearby alley.

“What the hell are you doing?! Let go of me!” shouted Henry while wildly attempting to shake his arms free and having no success. He also hoped that the sound of his loud yell would attract some attention their way, perhaps even enough to get these people to let him and his friend go, but his luck wasn’t so great; not a single person appeared in the seconds after he raised his voice, and certainly none of the local Legion forces that enforced the law in the capital.

Alain didn’t say anything, preferring instead to use his prodigious strength to try and break the hold the two fellow trainees had on him. He managed to throw one of them off of him, but the original trainee they’d ran into sprang out from the alley and swung his fist into the side of Alain’s head. The young man he’d managed to throw off wasted no time grabbing his arm again and the two Snow Lions were dragged into the alley.

The other trainees didn’t say a single word to them, only taking turns kicking and punching the two, ensuring that while neither suffered any broken bones that might to missed training and awkward questions, Henry and Alain were still bloodied and inflicted with a great deal of pain.

In a few seconds that felt more like a few minutes to the two Snow Lions, they were brutally beaten, then left on the filthy ground in the alley as the other trainees finished up and scattered before they were seen by anyone else. One of them spared a kick for both Henry and Alain, driving all the air from their lungs before all five trainees vanished into the city.

“Ugggh…” Henry groaned, one of his eyes already starting to swell shut, blood pouring from his nose, and a few marks on his face that promised to become shiny bruises—and that was just his face. The rest of his body ached in a way that he’d never experienced before, and he knew that he’d be black and blue just about everywhere in a few hours.

Alain could only cough and retch, his body and countenance similarly brutalized. There wasn’t likely any permanent damage, but that didn’t dull the pain.

It took the two Snow Lions half an hour for the pain to die down long enough for them to struggle to their feet. They were battered, bruised, and bleeding. Their faces were swelling in several places and Alain walked with a noticeable limp. They scrapped all plans to meet with Charles and instead made their way back to the Snow Lion’s tower.

Despite their injuries, they were still first-tier mages, so there was no question in their minds about whether they would make it, but they still kept on a constant look-out for any other trainees they might encounter on the way that could promise a second round of what they’d just suffered.

---

“Listen,” Gaius said as he and Tiberias prepared to part ways, “I won’t be satisfied with this little bit of petty revenge. I want to humiliate that inbred savage at least as much as he humiliated me! And I think a good way to do that is to target the Snow Lions as a whole.”

“Are you not already doing that?” Tiberias asked, pausing as he rose from their table.

“Yes, but a few beatings aren’t enough. I want something a little more… official… Something that will hopefully, if he isn’t the brainless brute the rest of his race are, teach him the folly of reaching above his station…”

“I’m going to need specifics, Gaius,” Tiberias responded, though the pleasant way he smiled made it seem like they were only talking about the weather.

“I want their banner, and I would like to ask for your help in seizing it. My unit was one of those that drew the short stick and only has three third-tier nobles. Fortunately, the Snow Lions also drew that short straw, so we’re about even. But I want to be a little uneven. I’m not asking for the young nobles from your family’s vassals that accompanied you to the academy, and I’m not asking for your unit as a whole. I’m only asking for you. Will you accompany me to discipline this filthy savage?”

Tiberias took a moment to think, but when his noble gaze drifted back in Gaius’ direction, he smiled and said, “I suppose I can make some time for that. Just let me know when, and I’ll storm their tower with you.”