Rook Talark

I sighed as he fell back behind my desk in the study. My muscles ached and my head throbbed. All normal pain for a hard day’s work. Sadly, I hadn’t worked a whole day. It was only noon and I already felt like I couldn’t go on. I really needed to work on my stamina. But I could do that in time. No, I held off on this long enough. It has been three weeks sense I gained this new body and life. To say I finally felt comfortable in my skin wasn’t too accurate. But I was at the point I no longer felt like an alien to myself. 

My arms moved like I wanted, I walked like I wanted. I was finally acclimating to this new physic. That and I was filling out properly now. no longer a twig of a man, but still a little too thin for my liking. So, while I wanted to keep working on my body, I knew it wouldn’t be the only thing to help me in the long run. I needed to solve the river problem for the village. From what I could tell from the times I read through the records my body’s previous owner kept about the villages affairs the river had run dry a week before he was assassinated. 

No storms had passed in the last month so the river being caught in a rockslide that dammed wasn’t too likely. However, were someone to dam the river themselves in hopes of sowing turmoil in the village and turning the people on the Lord of the land. That seemed more likely to me. it was just too coincidental that the assassination came to pass so quickly after the village was struck with draught. 

After all, where the Lord killed after failing to solve the draught anyone seeking to take this territory as their own would only need to swoop in and undam the river and come out as the village’s savior. Especially if the provided aid to all those affected by the draught. Say wait two to three months before swooping in with rations, water, and medical aid to make the villagers love them before spending time trying to rebuild the town. 

While in a mountainous regain like this, the idea wasn’t the best. There was too much greenery for such a strategy to work. This territory was known for its rainy seasons which lasted longer than most. Which struck me as odd that a draught could even hit the regain. Sure, draughts could appear anywhere if the circumstances were right. But that wasn’t the case here.

No, the rainy season had just passed Cal’sar little over a month back. There should be no draught. Yet the village had no river and the wells which should never have been affected by the river reseeding were running low. Not after rains that had damaged the villages farms. Something was going on, and it wasn’t just a draught. I huffed as I went through document after document trying to find anything that could hint to what was going on. I want to say it was easy, but no it wasn’t. Here I was reading through document after document trying to find anything connected to the draught that may run parallel to the assassination. It was really had to find a connection. But thankfully after three weeks of hard work I think I finally found it. “Lord Jase Clay, request for territorial expanse.”

I read aloud as I flipped through the documents. This Lord Clay seemed to be the neighboring villages Lord just past my territory to the south. Mount Sleight acting as a proxy border to our territory. The same mountain Bartak had his men run up on their daily course. Seems the mountain was supposed to act as neutral territory between the Clay and Talark Fiefdoms. Yet here Lord Clay wanted to expand some of his own land onto the side of the mountain claiming that it could favor both Fief’s if they mined the mountain. It was an odd request to say the least seeing as all record pertaining to Mount Sleight claiming it had no mining value. The Tirith Kingdom already scouting the area once before in hopes of finding ore veins. So why would Lord Clay ever consider such a misguided endeavor. I drew forth a map of the territory and examined it.

Cal’sar stood as one of the farthest southeastern territories of the Kingdom of Tirith alongside the Blamar territory that Lord Clay governed. Blamar was larger than Cal’sar seeing as on the southern side of Mount Sleight stood the southern plains which stretched out for miles. The territory of Blamar didn’t even reach out into those plains as they acted as part of the border for the whole kingdom separating us from the Kingdom of Vesper. A kingdom which had many skirmishes with Tirith over the years. I hummed as I looked over the map. The plains to the south stretched out for miles and all counted as the border of the Kingdom. There seemed to be no obstructions across those plains whatsoever. It was nothing but flat land stretching from Blamar all the way to Vesper’s own border town of Vame.

I wondered why Lord Clay wanted to expand into the mountain instead of the plains. If he expanded into the plains, I see no reason why Vesper would be threatened by that. after all there were so many miles between them that it shouldn’t have been a problem for either Vesper’s town of Vame or Tiriths village of Blamar to take a small section of plain to used. Unless like with Mount Sleight there was some sort of unspoken treaty preventing any expansion into the plains keeping it as neutral territory as a show of peace between the two sides. But that couldn’t be true seeing how Vesper’s town of Vame was inside the plains themselves. A few hundred miles splitting it from Blamar. So why not expand into them, unless there was something of more value in the mountains. Or of more value beyond the mountains.

Cal’sar was a small village compared to others, but even I could see the value of the land. It was set against one natural barrier being the Mountain which cut it off from the Kingdom of Vesper and to the west of Cal’sar stretched the river Trow which fed out towards the Lake of dawns. A massive Lake which connected countless rivers across the kingdom of Tirith reaching out to the ocean in the north. The river Trow having its own little branch rivers like the river Slip that passed right through the middle of Cal’sar and was fed from the mountain Sleight. If Vesper were able to cross the plains and take Blamar they would have a beach head of sorts to then invade into Cal’sar which would then connect them to the River Trow where they could then invade any of the territories across Tirith by river alone.

Only, that would require the Vesper forces to cross Mount Sleight which would take a full month of mountainous climbing and squeezing through Fort Burn at the top of the Mountain pass before even being able to descend the mountain towards Cal’sar. All of which relied on them taking Blamar. But what if there was a way to get around that, a way where they could bypass Fort Burn. Well, the best way would be to pass through the mountain instead of over or around it. but that required them mining through a whole mountain. Something that would take years. No nation would risk that, unless they knew they could do it in only a few months. Cal’sar was only a few weeks southeast from the city of Silverside which ferried people across the River Trow and farther into the kingdom of Tirith.

After all, Tirith may be a centralized nation it was still well equip navally seeing as the Lake of Dawns was a massive water mass that had rivers massive enough for travel across the whole continent. These standing connections painted a dark picture. Could Lord Clay have made some sort of deal with the Vesper Kingdom? I thought as I began to connect the dots. Lord Clay was only a Baron, and his territory was only that of Blamar. If he agreed to aid Vesper for a greater title and more territory, I don’t see why he wouldn’t. all that land from the southern plains as well as a proper connection to Cal’sar and the river Trow. Cal’sar was only recently acknowledged by the kingdom and left to the Talark Duchy by the king of Tirith as favor for their loyalty in service to the crown. The village was supposed to act as a sort of figure head for the Talark Duchy, to make people think twice about attacking one of the most powerful families in Tirith. So why someone tried to assassinate Rook begged the question.

Were they suicidal or did they have a sort of plan to dill with his family? Seiran Talark was described as a god in human form so if someone thought they could brave his furry they must have been powerful.  That or they had a plan to keep him at bay. Even Duke Jamar was no slouch from what Bartak told me. My body’s biological father seemed to have not risen to the rank of Duke by sitting idle. “Bartak!” I called out to the loyal guardian. He always stood diligently nearby ready to help me whenever I called for him. I felt bad about it at first. Taking advantage of the loyalty he held to this body. But I came to cherish the man’s company. He was just so fatherly to me I couldn’t help but want to try and repay him every chance I had. The studies door opened, and the bear of a man came in. He stood at attention before my desk.

“Yes, my Lord.” The man took in the sight of all the paperwork before. His eyes tracing from the map to the single wax sealed parchment with the Clay family crest on it. His eyes held the seal for a second longer than the rest before they locked in on me. his gaze told me he knew what I was going to ask, but he held his tongue seeming to want me to do the talking. “What is our relationship to Baron Clay?” I leaned back as Bartak slowly leaned down and pointed out the village of Blamar on the map.

“As you no doubt know Baron Clay is our ruling neighbor.” He said tracing the village and drawing a line around the mountain towards Cal’sar. “As to our relationship I would say it is nonexistent. The Baron seems to hold a poor opinion of your father if any of the gossip that has been spread across the noble circles is to be believed. He sees your father high Lord Jamar as a bully who only has value in war.” Bartak chuckled disdainfully at that. I shouldn’t have been surprised by the opinion. I honestly felt like it was an apt description of Duke Jamar. But then again, I didn’t truly know him even if I was now his son. I rapped a knuckle along the map over the kingdom of Vesper. “What of our connections to Vesper. From what I know they aren’t the nicest of neighbors.”

I said before tracing the whole length of the southern border of Tirith, the full length of those plains reaching all the way down to the western Border of Tirith. The plains grew wider the farther west they went making Blamar and Vame the closest connections for the two kingdoms. Bartak seemed surprised by my question but collected himself quickly. “To say we had any relationship with them would be a lie if only a small one.” Bartak scratched his chin as he said this. “The best way to describe the Talark family’s relationship to Vesper would be tumultuous. You father having faced Vesper in the last plain’s war thirty odd years ago. Your brother having faced the Vesper army in small skirmishes across the border. To say Vesper hated the Talark name would be no understatement.”

I hummed at that. With this new information I felt confident in saying that my territories problems may all stem from this turmoil between both Baron Clay and a likely grudge from Vesper. But it still begged the question, how did they cause the draught if they truly were in valued and why would Baron Clay risk reprisal from Duke Jamar. If he failed to get through the mountain. “Tell me something. Do you think it would be possible to mine a road straight through Mount Sleight?” Bartak stared at me quizzically before cupping his chin in contemplation. “I see no reason why not; the idea has been thrown around before by your father. He did once claim to want to expand Cal’sar’s reach into the southern plains. And with the current mining equipment I heard of being developed it shouldn’t be impossible.”

The news was shocking to me. back in my past life the idea of mining through a whole mountain would have been laughed off unless the man doing it was a Mage. Even then it was still an almost unheard-of thing for someone to try. If the technology of this world so greatly out exceeded my previous worlds, I wondered what other things they could have developed. Maybe there is something that was also used to cause this draught. I thought as I stood up. “Fetch my coat and collect all the guards. I want to head into the village and speak with the people.” Bartak jumped at my words. He looked lost for a second before turning to stare down his second in command who stood listening in from the door. “Tame! Bring all the men together before the mansions gates!”

The smaller man nodded and shot off. Bartak moved to go and find me a coat only to pause as he looked back at me. “May I ask my Lord, but why do you want to speak with the villagers?” I smiled at his question. If I were a true noble, I may have been offended by him questioning me, however I knew that this man was not going to disobey me. in fact, he likely was questioning me to understand what was going on.

“I have an idea as to what may be causing the draught in the village. I want to tell the people, to finally start fixing past mistakes.” Bartaks eyes widened at my words before a look of determination fell over him as he nodded and took off. My work was only just beginning as was my new life. I was not going to hide away from what was happening around me. I was going to face this challenge head on. After all, I was Deacon Crown. Overcoming adversity was my specialty.