The sun had reached the zenith , when the king hurriedly rushed through the green door into the small, hot council chamber with its long narrow windows and gloomy black stone walls. He found that his six advisors had preceded him there as always, taking their usual seats at the long wooden table. The seated stood to greet him with a slight nod of their heads, while he took his place at the head of the table with his bulging green eyes , blonde hair , and clean-shaven face. He felt suffocated when he saw that the table was filled with scattered papers and maps, covering the delightful decorations and carvings that were pleasing to the eye. His discomfort was compounded by the frequency of these meetings and their long durations, especially since most of them carried nothing but bad news, making his frown evident on his face due to the worries he bore.
The debate was intense among the six advisors: the senior minister, the eye, the hand, the word, the sedition, and... the witch. The council was not a suitable place for a woman among a dozen men, let alone a witch, which the other advisors unanimously tried, wich was unusually for them , to convince the king of. But it seemed that the queen's methods were more persuasive . Voices rose either condemning or warning of the danger coming from afar, and everyone remained firm in their opinion regarding the siege... the only issue occupying the tongues of the elite and the rabble lately . The Kingdom of Riverspears, which shares a border with them to the east, had imposed a siege on Lord Henry Bershield's castle, the protector of the east, after successfully breaching several fortresses , in the border areas , and destroying others entirely. The fear now is that the armies will continue their triumphal march westward toward the 'Blue King's' castle , where they are sheltered behind its walls. Towards their necks!
The discussion turned into an exchange of insults and accusations after Lord Ellis kriegmann , who holds the position of "the Eye" - the king's ever-awake eye - responsible for espionage and gathering news about both enemies and allies alike, threw an insult into the air while mumbling something and gesturing with his hands as usual. The senior Minister - the king's deputy and protector of the kingdom - Lord Barham sunheld , the sixty-one-year-old, assumed he was the one being referred to , causing his face to flush and turn red as the sun, and he retorted with something uglier, banging his fist on the table violently. Then, the other advisors intervened, some calming the situation and others fueling the conflict, turning the discussion about the fate of the realm unexpectedly into a defense of honor, family, and status. They remained in this state of shouting and arguing, within sight and hearing of their king, until one voice rose above all others. A deep voice, hoarse and breaking through the cacophony, pierced the king's wandering thoughts like a sword: "O King! What is to be done?"
The king lifted his eyes to recognize his interlocutor, and saw " the hand " - the king's hand that he strikes with - Sir Marwin Freimann; he is the captain of the royal guard and in charge of the army... and more importantly, a childhood friend. " The hand ", a forty-year-old man with gray hair and a distinctive mustache, had stood up from his chair and leaned his hands on the table, revealing his bulging belly that hung down, although his tall stature concealed it. He wore no armor except for the sword attached to his belt in its sheath. The " hand's " looks at the king were sharp, filled with sadness and helplessness, and he had been in this state since the last messages from the east. The king, upon recommendation from the grieving father, appointed the hand's eldest son, Noah, as the commander of the army he sent to confront the invader and repel his advance, consisting of three thousand fighters from the west alone, divided into a thousand cavalry, among them two hundred knights , while the rest were spearmen, while the remaining two thousand were infantry. The northern and southern armies were to send their forces and join him near the " Blue " Road that links east of the realm with its west, to confront the enemy army, which was estimated - according to letters - to be around six thousand fighters, two thousand of whom were cavalry or more, and to lift the siege that had lasted six full months, during which letters from the east continuously sought the king's help. However, the 23 years old youth, although he had inherited a formidable figure from his father, with a strong and powerful build that matched his towering height, surpassed him in swordplay, as he was able to match the best knights of the kingdom equally.
However, he did not inherit his patience, and his experiences in war and its strategies were not mature enough to allow him to lead an army, which the senior minister pointed out one day, asking the king to give the command to someone more deserving and capable, but the king was obstinate in his decision. The young man, clad in his gold-plated armor with the kraken , the symbol of his family, engraved on it while the lion was etched on his right pauldron , was the first to arrive as planned. But with foolish bravery, he feared that the enemy would notice his arrival and prepare for him while he awaited the forces coming from the north and south, so he hurriedly advanced with his army to confront them, attempting to catch them off guard and attack unexpectedly.