"Kephale, are you ready?" asks Nepotian
"Yes, I am ready, tell the men we set sail at once towards Morea," replies Constantine
The men had been delayed by one day after the battle of Selymbria, which would see victory at the cost of many dead. A prayer would be held, and changes made to those who would leave out to aid the campaign in Morea. It would be decided by Domianus and Constantine that they would leave out with 200 men and leave the rest to ensure Selymbria doesn't fall to any Turkish raiders.
After the reorganization, they would finally set sail
"Constantine!" yells out Domianus,
"My friend, I see you thinking of something serious again, what is it now?"
"Before leaving, I had read a message from my brother, he informs us that as soon as we arrive, we will be going to battle against the Latins in Morea, we will be marching on Glarentza. It's expected that we will immediately engage in battle against them, i'm trying to think of how we will do so, they are better armed than us and have the support of the Venetians," responds Constantine
"I don't know my friend, I only pray that we will see victory, for if we don't this will have been all for nothing."
The two friends sit together and drink weak wine on the ship as they continue to look outwards towards the night sky. For the next week at sea, they would wait anticipating what is to come next, sometimes planning potential strategies, but they would come to a problem as they had never faced battle against Latin knights, only against Turkish raiders. The two quietly begin to wonder if it would even be possible to take on these Latin knights due to how difficult it would be to take them out, there was few any Roman soldiers could do against them, as it would mostly reflect off of them. Before they knew it, they had already reached Morea and had begun their journey towards Mystras.
"Where are we heading towards again?" asked Domianus
"Towards Mystras, the capital of Morea, I've heard a lot of great things about the city," responds Constantine while on horseback.
"Ahhhh yes I have heard much about it," speaks out Alexios as he comes riding up towards the pair
"The city has seen a sort of growth in arts, architecture, and learning unseen throughout the empire. Some even say it's growing to rival Constantinople, though that's not too surprising with all that has happened in the city and region. I have not had the chance to come to the city either, however my brother works here as a minor official for your brother Theodore and talks much about the city being wonderful."
Domianus and Constantine look at each other and grin in anticipation for what they await to see. They had grown used to the dull and sad life in the capital and Selymbria and had wished to see a more vibrant place as Alexios had described. They would soon reach the outskirts of Mystras, and see huge walls unseen by any other Roman city other than in Constantinople and larger buildings towering over the walls from inside the city, the men would look towards each other in amazement of what they were seeing and look in awe of what was infront of them. Then, a man would come outside of the city on horseback followed by a small retinue of men. He had black long hair that would come down to his shoulders and wore red and gold royal garbs. His eyes would scan across the force that lay infront of him, and then his eyes would hook upon Constantine.
"Brother, you have come!" yells the man
The man smiles and then rides up to Constantine with a smile on his face,
"I have been awaiting your journey here to help fight off the Latins, I am happy to see you here!"
The brothers then get off of their steeds and begin to hug, Constantine would respond saying,
"I have missed you Theodore, I haven't seen you since you were last in the capital! I have brought around 200 men to aid us in this campaign, John had informed me that you plan to march on Glarentza right? I don't know much about the operation."
"Yes brother, we will be marching on Glarentza, but we will discuss this later, first we must celebrate your arrival! You all must be hungry, invite your men into the city, we must enjoy the evening together!" exclaims Theodore excitedly
Constantine would motion for his men to follow him into the city, which would see them all pass through the city's gates into a city seeing many massive churches, housing, libraries, public works, and much more within the city. The men would look amazed at the churches covered with magnificent frescos. The city life was vibrant with men, women, and children moving around gleefully and intellectuals moving about through the city and teaching to groups of people. The kephale and most of the men there looked amazed at all that had been accomplished there and didn't even notice when they had reached the garrison quarters of the city to begin settling down at. Constantine, Domianus, and Alexios would then follow Theodore over to the imperial palace within the city. On the way there, while still looking in awe of what had been accomplished, Constantine begins talking to his brother,
"Brother! This city is magnificent! I have not seen any cities in my life to ever rival Constantinople in its beauty! You have done great here!"
"Thank you brother, though it wasn't by me truly, I've been too preoccupied with war against the Latins to really focus on the city. You have our uncle Theodore to thank for how wonderful this city is. A bit of our father also helped with running the region as well, but most of this is due to them. I have accomplished a few things however, we have taken a few settlements back from the Latins, though we find difficulty with the Latins, Venetians, and Epirus now." responds Theodore.
"Really? I had heard our uncle had done well here, but I had no idea he had accomplished all of this!" remarks Constantine
"I honestly had no idea about all of what he did until my advisor had informed me of all of his accomplishments, which speaking of, you may be interested in meeting him! He is a scholar and is quite expressive in his ideas of Roman restoration, his name is Gemistos Plethon, he has taught me quite a lot regarding Hellenism and all that has become of Rome currently. But yes, our uncle practically turned Morea into what it is today. We have him to thank for our current position." responds Theodore
The group continues forth into the imperial palace and each man into their own room.
"If any of you need anything, be sure to let one of my servants know and they'll bring you whatever you need! Boy, bring my brother and his retinue some wine and food! commands Theodore
"After you all eat, we can begin discussing why you all are here."
The group of men retreat to their rooms and await a nice feast for each of them, Constantine looks out of the window into the flourishing city. Thinking of how beautiful the scenery is, he gets an urge to meet the Hellenic scholar. He makes his way down the large imperial palace, looking from room to room until eventually asking for the quarters of the scholar Plethon.
"The scholar is in the library of Mystras Kephale" responds the servant while bowing.
"Thank you, I will look for him there" responds Constantine
He then moves outside into the city of Mystras, still amazed by how beautiful it was, being at least triple the size of Selymbria. He quickly makes his way towards the library which he sees as being immense in size and beautiful with grand arches. Soon he hears a scholar speaking in an area of the library with many students around him.
"We must shift our focus towards recreating a Hellenic civilization here in Mystras! One in which we begin relying on ourselves and our people for strength, look at where relying on the Latin's and the Turks have led us to! A core of professional Rhomaioi soldiers should be created in which is supported by the working people to help protect our country, if we can't do this we won't be saved, we must follow in this example. Look at the Spartans! They had this figured out! They could fight wars against many others with their small population using a base of professional soldiers and Helots, though these Helots of today would just be those working and providing for the defense of the country. Things must change if we wish to change the course of the Empire, we need to look towards a restoration of our roots!"
Constantine would listen carefully to what the man had said, and agreed with much of it, many of the people listening to him as well would applaud in response to his speech. The old scholar would then look towards the back to Constantine.
"You there, come, sit down and join us, you must be new here yes? You are dressed well, either you're a noble from Italy or from Constantinople correct? Or actually, you look similar to my old friend Manuel, are you by chance one of his sons?"
"My name is Constantine wise scholar, son of Manuel Palaiologos, I've come to listen to your words as my brother did, he spoke well of you and I wanted to see what he meant." spoke Constantine
"Ah! That is wonderful to hear! Come come, sit down, feel free to engage in discussion, this is the purpose of the library here, to learn!" gleefully spoke the scholar
Very quickly an hour would pass by in which discussions on religion, the schism, ancient Greece, Rome, and politics would occur which would fascinate Constantine, as he would be taught many things he had not thought of before. The discussion would soon end and the old scholar would clasp his hands together and speak saying,
"Thank you all for coming to the discussion, we will meet again in a week my pupils. You, Constantine, come with me, I'm sure we will be walking the same way towards the imperial palace, it is almost time for dinner!"
The two begin walking towards the imperial palace, with the old scholar walking with his hands behind his back. He begins conversation by saying,
"I'm assuming this is your first time here correct? And that you have arrived recently? You look in awe of the architecture, many who come here for the first time do the same. I also usually am informed as soon as an important outsider comes to the city so I may meet with them. Though I guess with my lecture they bothered not to inform me. Anyways, how did you feel about the lecture? I saw you spoke with excitement during it."
"Yes! They were different compared to what I was expecting, I enjoyed it quite a bit, I assume you are the Scholar Plethon right? I haven't had this much fun discussing these things since I had been in Constantinople, I must say, you are very intelligent and i agree with many of your ideas, Rome needs a professional army of Rhomaioi men, not an army of mercenaries, we can't trust them to aid us as they themselves are selfish and only wish to support themselves and will betray us whenever wanted." responds the kephale
The scholar smiles a bit and puts his hand on the young man's shoulder, he then opens his mouth to say,
"I would be happy to have you attend more lectures with me and my pupils, Theodore isn't as fond of such as he already is bugged by me all day!" laughs the old scholar
"Though I am pleased to hear you agree with me on certain things, your father Manuel talked to me about needing the West, and yes, we need their support, but to rely on them to save us won't truly bring progress here, it won't bring back the glory of the empire. We must start reinventing ourselves, we must be reborn into something great! And that is what I speak of here and continue to push for, the architecture and culture here is similar to that of what I am talking of, some even called it a Renaissance, but anyways, I would be happy for you to continue to attend, I'm sure your father would be proud to see how bright you've grown to be."
The two eventually make their way into the imperial palace of Mystras and see everyone gathering to prepare for dinner, many different types of fish, meat, vegetables, and fruits, much more food than any of them had truly been used to, they would all take a seat and begin feasting. They would drink savory aged wine and celebrate the arrival of Constantine and his men. Eventually, Theodore would cough loudly and begin speaking,
"I'm happy to see you here now my brother, it's truly a relief, I believe it is about time we talk about our plans. First of all, I don't know if John told you, but he's gathering a navy, so it is taking him some time to bring one together. I'm unsure of how successful he will be, but he said after he gathers one, he will join us in battle. John requested you here to command the army's of Morea to defeat our enemies, I have accompanied men on small captures of towns, but I have no combat experience compared to you brother. I'm unsure if he has told you but you've also been named my partner here in Morea, we will both rule as Despot."
"You are saying I will be Despot of Morea with you? I am honored to be given this position," responds Constantine
"Yes yes, John has informed me we will work together regarding affairs here, i'll mostly be focused here in the south, while you will focus up north, but overall we will rule together to ensure things progress smoothly."
Theodore takes a sip of wine and then continues,
"Also, regarding Glarentza, I expect there to be a sizable army that will meet us before we make battle there, I had sent a force a year earlier, however the size of the enemy was a surprise, I didn't expect Epirus to field so many men, I have used the time to begin building up the army, we have a few mercenaries helping us as well."
"I see, hm, so how many men do we have in total including my 200 men?" asks Constantine
"With your 200.... that is about 3,400 soldiers in Morea, but we can only use about 5 Droungoi (2,000 men) to help us fight against the enemy in Glarentza, we need garrisons to stop Turkish raids and the Latins from taking advantage of the situation." responds Theodore
"And the enemy?" asks Constantine
"Last year, it was around 1,200... However, there have been reports of more men coming to aid them. The issue is that they have some soldiers that are quite heavily armed that we see issue fighting against, swords don't kill these men unless you're truly skilled."
The men sit together and continue to discuss details and potential plans regarding the campaign until eventually they would decide on marching in a week's time to engage against the enemy's army
"My brother will be leading the entire army, I think Domianus could do well leading the kataphraktoi, and the current captain of the army here, Demetrios Leontares, would be a good advisor and leader of the skoutotai, as for the toxotai.... I'm unsure truly." issues out Theodore
"I nominate Alexios then, he has done well in leading men before, he's a bodyguard of mine. I would also like to place a boy named Nepotian to work under him as an officer. He did well leading in my last battle." responds Constantine
"Perfect! I'm glad we have this figured out, I will begin preparing supplies for your journey up north, I should be ready in a week brother," speaks Theodore before getting up from his chair
"Now, it's a bit late for me, I will be heading back to my room, brother, and friends, enjoy your time, I will see you all tomorrow."
The despot returns back towards his room while celebrations continue down in the palace's hall. Time would pass quickly as the men would continue celebrating and preparing for the coming battle, in just a blink of an eye, a week would pass, and the time to set off would come. Hundreds of men would be rushing to gather supplies needed for the campaign, some in chainmail, some in lamellar armor, and those in simple garments as well, with many also holding a variety of weapons, swords, spears, maces, bows, javelins, crossbows, etc. Soon, a loud sound would be blown from a horn outside of the city walls, calling for the soldiers to form up, in which almost 2,000 men would form up in a line as thin as the road and in different segments. The Kataphraktoi, toxotai, and skoutotai being in their own segment ready to move out. Soon a man fully outfitted in heavy armor with a long red cape creeping down to his knees begins to speak.
"My men, my friends, my brothers in war, soon, we will bring glory to Rome through the conquest of Glarentza! Soon we will take back OUR land! God is with us, do not fear the enemy, only fear what comes to us if we don't win! March forth, we will make haste to Glarentza, expect a battle, though also expect victory!"
This speech would be followed by cheers and the clashing of weapons against each soldier's shield with men in unison beginning a march up the road towards the fort.