The Union

He could have ended the civil war right there. He could have ordered his cavalry to attack King Leopold. With one gesture of his hand, he could have become the King of all Castonia. He could have.

But he couldn"t. At first he thought about it. But after seeing his father again, his emotions won. King Leopold"s appearance had changed. His hair which only had specks of white hair was now fully white. His face which was still tight a few months ago had sagged. His posture which was once br.i.m.m.i.n.g with Kingly pride was reduced into that of a slouching old man.

In the corner of Timothy"s eyes he saw Henry staring at him.

"We couldn"t have won earlier. They have formed a tight perimeter around King Leopold. They would have slaughtered us." Timothy reasoned before Henry asked.

"Pardon me for saying this but between the two of us, I am more experienced when it comes to the intricacies of mounted warfare. And I say one charge could have toppled their defenses. And yet you ordered a retreat" Henry said with a smile.

Timothy inhaled deeply. The scent of mud invaded his nostrils. He couldn"t lie to this knight.

"He"s broken. King Leopold, the great king Leopold of Castonia is broken. I felt pity and that"s why I ordered a retreat. It won"t happen again."

Henry c.o.c.ked his head towards Timothy and again smiled "While that"s part of your reason, I don"t think that"s it"

Timothy felt slightly annoyed because he realized that Henry had already seen through him.

"Fine! I still love my father okay!?" He said hoa.r.s.ely all the while maintaining the volume of his voice "I thought I could turn my sword against him. I envisioned the scene several times already in my mind. Me, leading my soldiers to attack him, making him pay for all the things he had done to me. I thought I could do it. I really absolutely thought I could, but I can"t! There. Are you satisfied now!?"

"You once asked me whether you are evil" Henry took a deep breath and cheerfully shook his head. "But I dare say that a son who can love his father as much as you do is not evil"

The next few thousand paces of silence belonged to Timothy. He was still annoyed that he wasted the opportunity to end the civil war. Even though Henry was kind of happy because of his actions, the truth is, he just doomed an unknown number of Castonians by prolonging this war.

When they reached their camp, Timothy went directly to Lucia"s tent. She was sitting and reading a book when he went inside. He let his knees fall on the ground in front of her and kept his head lowered.

"Let me guess, you"re disappointed with yourself because you didn"t have it in you to attack your father" she said as she closed the book.

Timothy lifted his head. Lucia really knows him well. Also she already had a solid grasp of what happened by looking only at his expression.

Lucia pinched both of his cheeks and smiled. She then put a kiss on his forehead.

"Strategically, that was a mistake. But people who only think strategically are fools" she said.

"A self-contradictory sentence"

"Not if you look at the bigger picture. Isn"t that the field you excel at?"

"Explain it to me. My head and my heart are both in pieces right now"

Lucia rose and pulled him up. She patted the dirt off his knees before wrapping her thin arms around his waist.

"People are more than plans and schemes and strength Tim. You were the one who taught me that. Humans are emotional beings. We get angry, we feel happy, we laugh, we gloom, we cry..." she met eyes with him and gave a small smile "we love..."

"...because we are humans" Timothy continued.

"Exactly" She said "And you, Timothy Castonia, is just being human. So don"t feel disappointed just because you couldn"t attack your father. Instead, be glad. Be glad that you are still human despite the cruelty of our situation. Even though your decision might cause us problems in the future, I"m pretty sure it will be worth it"

The raging storm in Timothy"s heart had been ceased by her words. The earlier heartache caused by his conflict with his father and his disappointed in himself were gone.

He couldn"t express how thankful he is to her. He couldn"t imagine how hard it would be for him if she wasn"t by his side. He wanted it to stay that way.

"Lucia?"

"Hmmm?"

Timothy pulled her closer and put his forehead onto hers. He could feel her warm breaths. He could see the deepness in her eyes.

"Will you marry me?"

Lucia laughed. "Why are you asking me now? We are already betrothed to each other"

"But we were forced at first. I want to hear it from you. I want to hear that you are choosing me to be your life-long partner"

"Let me hear it from you first" she said.

"I want you to be my wife. After all of this is over, we should go through with the original plan before the invasion and get married in the grand cathedral of Nirvana. I want you Lucia. I really do. Will you be mine?"

She nodded and her eyes became teary "With you looking sincerely at me like that, how could I say no?" She wiped the wetness of her eyes "Yes. Yes, I will Tim. I will be yours"

Their lips grew closer which ended in a kiss. At that moment, a promise was sealed between them. A promise of happiness after this storm.

**********

The past two weeks had been a stalemate between King Leopold, King Timothy and Rickard. Neither of the three fought each other for fear that the other one who did not join the battle would just swoop in and defeat the victor.

This should have been beneficial to Rickard. He was the one who had the closest refuge which was Knightsend. With the snow season coming, he would be the only one who will not suffer from attrition if this stalemate continues.

But that was not really the case. For the past two weeks, Timothy had emerged the victor among them. King Leopold"s Castonians and Rickard"s knights were slowly deserting to Timothy"s side. That traitor Henry had been preaching about how Rickard"s ways were shameful to the Knights. Henry dubbed him as "the fake knight" and he had heard many of his own knights call him as such behind his back. Hundreds of knights had already defected. Rickard tried his best to prevent the desertions, even publicly executing caught deserters, but in the end he couldn"t.

This must stop. Timothy was getting stronger while he was getting weaker. He had become desperate and that"s why he was currently riding under the cover of the night towards a small forest to the north.

"You still haven"t told me where we are going General" Luther said who was beside him.

"Just follow Luther. This is important" Rickard answered

"More important that guarding the camp for deserters? We are losing the knights General. The Whistlers need me in their patrols"

"I know. That"s why we are going to that forest. Listen..." Rickard wetted his lips for the cold night wind had cracked it "It took me a long time to accept that I cannot defeat Timothy in the field. It was hard and my pride was shattered. But I know now. We are hopeless if we fight him fairly. That"s why we must think outside the box"

"Outside the box? I"m confused General. What exactly do you have in mind?"

"Just wait Luther. You"ll see"

The forest was truly far. It took the two of them quite long to reach the place. Also it wasn"t really a forest after Rickard had a closer look at it. It was more like a band of trees. The Westermost part of Castonia really is inhabitable, Rickard thought.

They halted and dismounted after reaching the first of the trees. There were already four horses tied nearby, implying that their friends had arrived.

With Rickard leading Luther, they went deeper into the trees and spotted several torches illuminating a certain spot. As expected, there were four people sitting around the torches.

"You"re late" said one of them. He pointed at Luther "And you"re bringing a companion. Our deal was to go alone."

"Let"s just get on with this. I"m getting anxious" another man said. His accent betrayed his Wismarine blood.

Rickard went to them and squatted on the ground. Luther followed and sat beside him.

As he looked at the four men, he was relieved. At first he was worried that this was a trap but it seemed these men also hated Timothy"s growing power.

Rickard cleared his throat before speaking. He then smiled. "So. The four of you are the greatest allies in the world huh?"