Talon closed his eyes and let the words pass through.
"Lord..."
He felt a swirling sense of despair creeping into his heart as he asked.
Would he be rejected once more?
Would the strongest within the empire be polite?
Or would the strongest within the empire be slighted by his request and kill him on the spot?
"...there are intruders in the empire..."
Talon couldn't help but think of his little sister. She held a special place in his heart over his parents. This was because their parents were rather strict. They spent the majority of the time lecturing on how to become either a better maid or a stronger guard.
It got to the point that Talon felt his parents were more like machines, programmed to issue him and his sister tasks to complete.
In fact, it was hard for Talon to even register them as living beings. At one point, he believed that they were pretending to breathe just to appear more life-like.
