Everyone present in the court rose from their seats and bowed as the king walked towards his high seat. He climbed the black steps and sat on his white throne. And as he was sitting down on the throne, he gestured to all his officials to seat themselves as well, and so they did, but only after the king had seated himself.
Ayden, who for one wasn't very considerate of the white throne, somehow found the throne's seat strangely comforting. All these years that he had ever had the chance of sitting on the throne, he complained about how he didn't find the seat very comforting. Maybe it wasn't the seat that was so discomforting, but his thoughts that led him to believe so. But today, perhaps after the harsh day he had had so far, the discomforting seat felt better than anything else. He adjusted into the seat and finally stopped moving.
One of the guards, who stood at either side of the throne, held a long staff in his hand. Its upper tip was crowned with a shiny golden ball, bearing intricate carving of beautiful patterns, while the long body was made up of brown wood, coated and finished with a shiny wax, also bearing carvings of texts and patterns. The lower tip of the staff was naked but wider than the rest of its length. The guard handed it over to the king with utmost care. He wore gloves on his hand to hand it to him and bowed while doing so. The king held it with his naked right hand and put his left hand on the throne's rest.
He raised it high in the air vertically, kept it up for a few seconds, while every eye in the room looked at him. He brought it down, straight as he had held it, and hit the hard ground as forcefully as he could. There was a loud sound that was enough to cut-off any of the chitter-chatters in the room and assert the king's absolute authority.
The guard, with his still gloved hand, took the staff back from the king and kept it on the cushioned tray it previously laid on. By now, everything and everyone in the hall had fallen silent and not a single disturbance remained.
Master Johr III rose from his seat and said in a loud voice, "In god's sight, and so the 'Norden staff' has decreed, let us begin this session of his majesty's royal court without further ado…His highness, Ayden Norr, son of Lisa and Gregor Norr, the king who holds god's own authority, shall be the first one to address this assembly, and the last one as well. Gods be gracious." Everyone nodded in agreement as the master finished his words.
Then everyone looked at the king, waiting for him to open with his words, they could not say anything until the king himself did.
Ayden looked at them back. He had thought he was ready to speak, and there was a lot to be spoken honestly, but when the moment finally arrived, the king's thoughts went numb, and he couldn't think of anything to say. But he also could not let anyone see this side of him, for it would harm his reputation as the king. And so, he thought to open by saying words of greeting.
"Master Johr, thank you for saying the words of the gods, and to each and every one of you, thank you for attending this gathering on such a short notice." said Ayden with a faint smile and emotions that almost felt real.
"We are here but to serve you and the realm, your grace. You need not thank us." Said the old 'Master of Scrolls', in a loud enough voice for everyone to hear and nod in agreement. The king nodded too.
"Master Fey, would you be so kind as to conduct this session in an orderly manner?" asked the king, looking at the master being addressed.
"It'd be my pleasure, your majesty." Master Fey replied, standing up from his seat in the south-facing steps. He walked towards the king, gave him a courteous bow, and then seated himself in a chair that lay right beneath the king's throne. In front of the chair, laid a long desk with some paper, ink, and a quill, and a dagger of gold. The master took the dagger, unsheathed it, and then cut his right hand's index finger ever so slightly as to make just one drop of blood. He let the blood drop on a paper and picked up the quill in his left hand. He dipped the quill's tip in the blood and wrote with it, "King Ayden Norr's six hundred seventeenth." Indicating that, it was the 617th time that the king had held his court session. The master then dipped the quill in the black ink, and wrote, "fifty first of his private courts", right below the previous text. "You may address the cause of the meeting as you like, your majesty", the master said after writing.
The king nodded while looking at the Master. He then looked away at the others and took a deep breath in. He knew he had to use his words very wisely. He took a few seconds, then opened his mouth and started speaking, "A hundred and ten years…that is how long it has been since the 'Old Norden King' snatched his victory from the Redblades in the 'Visotrain' war, a hundred and ten years. No doubt none of you have forgotten that. But the 'Greys' seem to have forgotten…" he took a pause, looked around a bit, meeting some people's eyes. His were wide and confident in speaking, while the others' seemed to be intrigued, listening carefully. "They think a century changes things, but they think wrong!" he said, his voice a bit louder than before. He had thought that everyone sitting in the hall must be aware of the news by now, but to his surprise, some old masters and fools from his family seemed as clueless as a newborn. So, just to clear the confusion, the king addressed, "Ser Nome Fey, would you be kind enough to fill in the air with the terrible news that you broke to me on the morrow?"
"As you command, your majesty", replied Ser Nome Fey, rising from his seat and clearing his throat. He looked around, then looked at his father, Master Fey, sitting below the king at a desk. "There is no way to say this but one, the Redblades have attacked one of our fronts." Though most of the people already knew about it, there were still some gasps and exclaims of shock from the hall. "Our southernmost post near the Cill River had been destroyed by the enemy in a surprise attack. They must've attacked in the night, and there had to be more than 50 of them to do the damage that was done. They massacred our good men, looted our supplies, and all that they left behind was the chief of the squadron, Ser Venas Kirp's, head impaled and pierced. They mocked us and shamed us gravely." Ser Nome Fey's voice was filled with a rage he had not shown in front of the king. It was clear that he was starting to lose his calm, and give in his thoughts to anger, he raised his voice even louder and spoke, "For us to let the Redblades get away with this would be an utter shame, we shall make them pay with their-
"That will be all, Ser Nome Fey, you may sit down now." Interrupted his own father, Master Fey. He didn't have any anger in his voice, but he had to shut his son up before he went on and said more than he had been asked to. The king looked at Master Fey with an approving look, maybe the king would have interrupted the knight himself if his father hadn't.
But the king felt the need to say something anyway. "I thank you for the information you provided Ser Nome Fey, but I had not asked you for a way to make anyone 'pay'." He shifted his looks from just the knight to everyone in the room, and then lastly to Master Fey, expecting him to add to his statement.
The old master spoke up, "Be mindful of what you might utter in this court, my lords, and knights, for this is a civil court. When you speak more than what has been asked of you, you disrespect the King and every one that came before him. Let not your personal emotions drive you into saying something that disrespects this holy court and the sacred nation it stands for. That is all I ask of all of you." The master finished with a polite tone, making his words sound extremely professional, and almost request-like, as expected from a master of his experience.
"Truly said, Master Fey." Said the Lord Willder Horn. Even though the master had called for an understanding more than a vocal response, he gave Lord Willder a nod anyway.
"Now, if anyone wishes to give his opinions on the matter, please stand one by one and do so. The king shall be open to all resolutions and suggestions." Said Master Fey.
A young lad, sitting in the row where the royalties sat, stood up before anyone else and raised his voice, "And what is there to suggest Master Fey? We shall make the Greyians pay with blood!"
"Sit down Hayden, you know nothing." The king put the lad down, he was none other than his own younger brother.
"But brother…"
"There will be plenty of time to shout and rant, Hayden. But right now, what the kingdom needs are good plans for our steps forward. Now speak if you have something like that or sit down."
Hayden sat down, looking down. Though he liked to call himself, and play as, a knight, he still was too young to understand reasoning beyond aggression.
And now that Hayden had spoken up, the order of the speakers had to start from him. All the way until the row's end, and then from the end of the next row down the steps, and so on until the other side of the steps was finished.
Sitting one seat from Hayden was his sister, Hilda. She kept sitting and nodded sideways, implying that she would not like to speak anything on the matter. The king understood and moved on.
Next in the row was Ayden's cousin, Jroff, he stood up from his seat to put his thoughts forward. "I believe we should strike back at the Redblades, I swear on my life that your father would have done the same. We attack from the southern border itself, they'd be expecting that, but it shall give us a direct fight, and we shall be victorious for there is no army as great as that of Nordencia." He seemed to have both pride and confidence in his words, yet it sounded funny coming from a mere boy, who didn't know much about any army, let alone Nordencia's. "I say we do it without wasting any time!" he finished and sat back down.
'I'm not my father,' Ayden whispered to himself with a slight show of anger, he couldn't say it out loud. He simply nodded at Jroff's words, only pretending to take them into consideration.
The next in line was Ayden's second uncle, Ser Daimen Norr, he had gotten up as soon as Jroff had sat down, perhaps to counter his words as soon as he could.
....
To be continued.