Her dark copper sword scared hand looked odd in his pail soft one. He had once taken sword lessons but they had never allowed him in the middle of war. Ehsan on the other hand had been in war all her life, the scars that crisscrossed her hands, body and face told of the hard life of a merc. She stood and looked closely at her king trying to find the reason he had called her in those eyes.

“My king you would never need to send someone to look for me when you yourself had sent a summon. The Dark King himself” she made the sign againted death and ill luck on her chest as she spoke. “would not be able to hold me if you had summoned me.”

“Ah always the faithful servant Ehsan. My father did well when he hired your family, a pity they were killed off so completely. We could have used more like them at this venture.” He looked down at a table covered in a map. Acrossed the map was placed little figuring that represented all the groups of shoulders and important people in the kingdom. She looked around the room to see what new had been added to the other map on the wall. Tiny little colored pins stuck out of spots on many of the maps hanging. Here was one of the capital city covered in red and blue dots. There a map of the country with red points scattered acrossed the map in what seemed to be lines, and amongst them were black dots, where people had died. “the Dark King has taken his toll on us has he not?” his voice was soft calling her back to him and the map on the table. She knew he mourned for those that had died in the earthshakings that now ripped acrossed the land.

“What is it that I can do for you my king?” she looked over the map on the table, what she had thought of as only the kingdom of Malagii was in fact a map of both Malagii and Sciencia. There was the figure they had decided on for her counterpart in Sciencia, Collin Delario the queens best.

“Both I and the queen have agreed that we must find what is tearing our world apart, and so to that end we are sending a questing party out.” He looked up from the map and turned to her his hands gently lying on her shoulders. “I am sending you.” He raised his hand to silence her before she could protest. “Your second in command will do well and it is about time you cut him from your apron strings. I need you where you can do the most good, and the seers say that without you the quest is most certainly doomed to fail.” He gently turned her back to looking at the table.

“But my King is it wise to trust them again.” She had not trusted the seers since they had last predicted his father to win a great victory only for the King to be killed and the armies running away in defeat.

“Just because you do not like them does not mean that they do not have their uses. You are to meet the group from the Queen here.” His finger landed on a small bit of land called Rutacia, where the peace talks had been being held for the last few months. “Pack as soon as you may, the sooner we get this solved the sooner we can make headway with the talks.” With that he turned her and pushed her towards the door.