Book 4 - Interlude - Gurthcid
When Cid opened his orders, he couldn’t believe his eyes. The day he’d been dreaming of for years had finally arrived: He was to be promoted to Prime of a new Lance, but when he read the names of those serving under him, all thoughts of celebration fled in favor of disappointment and dread.
His second was to be his best friend Hedrek, a fellow [Knight]. And while Hedrek had many of the qualities he would wish for in a Second, the problem remained that Hedrek was the one person in the world who never listened to him. Hedrek had a boisterous energy that couldn't be contained, but it had never been Cid's job to contain it before. Could their friendship survive this? Ideally, they both would have made Prime at the same time on different Lances.
The other names were worse. Him, Hedrek, and then eight nobodies from Prinnash. No [Knights], and none were even [Squires]. He had two [Warriors], two [Hunters], a [Rogue], a [Porter], an [Armsman], and a [Page].
This couldn’t stand! A Lance wasn’t meant to be a group of random misfits taken off the street. It should’ve been the sons of lords bolstered by the very best and brightest among the common stock.
Perhaps if he were anyone else, he would have gritted his teeth and obeyed. Even now, that’s what he wished to do, but he couldn’t. He was the son of a Count, and he had standing to speak directly to command if he wished, even to Commander Galan himself, if necessary. Since he was one of the only men in this camp that could complain, that also meant that he had to, else the problem would go unaddressed.
Cid had half a mind to march straight up to Galan and demand that he give him ten good Ollandish men or remove him from command altogether. Yes, that’s what he should do. What he would do. If this was happening to him, it was certainly happening to others. He had a duty to Olland to bring an end to this travesty.
Cid left his rooms to stalk through the halls of the fortress, if it could even be called that. Galan and the other commanders seemed to love it here, but all he could see was an old castle in ruins.
Leadership likely had never heard a word of complaint. Soon after they’d arrived, one of the older [Knights] had asked rather loudly at mess what sort of true man would ever complain about something like a change in the weather, and now all the new recruits were climbing over themselves to prove that they didn’t mind the terrible accommodations at all. True, as a level 30 [Knight], Cid had long since moved past the point where a chill morning or a hot afternoon could bother him, but there was no amount of points in Vitality or Strength that could make his clothes stop smelling like mold because rain had soaked his wardrobe.
The fortress bothered him on a deeper level, though. It was a perfect example of the way this war was going, one where Prinnash ripped them off in a hundred different ways and they all pretended not to notice. Or maybe Galan really didn’t notice at all? He was a straightforward sort of fellow.