Initium novum [Completed - being edited/rewritten]

Chapter 53

From the place where I stood, I looked at my Father. His face was a bit pale, his eyes showed signs of tiredness and stress.

The air in war room was not fresh, the air was filled with smell of sweat and various perfumes. Father stood by the round table and was looking at me, following my every move.

"Thank you, Lord Strategos," I said to him. Watching as he takes two glasses, which are on
the table and fills them with red wine.

I walked slowly to the table, looking onto the glass and my Father. "Hope you don't mind the
red wine, it is the only one I found here at the moment," he said while handing me over one of the glasses.

From looking at his hand in which he had mine glass, I noticed the shaking. If he wasn't
controlling himself, the shaking would be much stronger than it was. I figured that it must had been caused by his age or some kind of illness which he got.

"No, the Red is just fine. Thank
you," I said to him and took the glass. "You were not on the celebration of Imperator's
birthday yesterday."

He first took a sip from the glass, before answering my statement. "That is correct," he
confirmed, "But I had sent a message for you, which I see you had been given. I am glad for
that. You made a great impression, when we met for a first time, on the banquet of Victor
Maximus. I am very glad that you are alright and well recovered from the accident, which had happened to you there."

In his voice I didn't hear any sarcasm, only pure honesty. That surprised me and caught me off guard a bit. "Thank you, the wounds had healed well, though scars had not disappeared,
they probably never will," I said with a stone face. "To be fair, you made a big impression
yourself."

He gave me a slight smile, which gave me nothing less than chills all over my body and then turned his eyes to Cladius who stood silently at the door of the war room. "Is that vigilant guard really necessary?"

"Safety of the Wanderer, is a safety of the faith. And the knightly order of Black Knights is
here to protect both me and the faith," I answered simply, to make it clear that Cladius
wouldn't leave the post until I told him to. My answer did seem to satisfy my Father enough.

"I am sure of that," he confirmed. "And from what I have seen on the banquet, your safety is a matter of the Secret Police as well. And that young woman with you, she seemed to be very
protective about as well"

"What can I say," I stated and took a sip of wine because my throat was too sore, "from what I have heard, not everyone recognizes the title and privileges of the Wanderer, and so the
secret police had secured my safety on a public level. With all due respect, Lord Strategos,
who that young woman is to me, is not a business of Imperial Strategos, but mine only."

"Fair enough," Father said and took a sip as well.

After few more sips of the red wine, its delicious taste was gone completely and instead it there was just dry and bitter taste which was absolutely disgusting.

Meanwhile, Father explained me that he was gone on an inspection of military and forge cities of both Erira and Oros, to see how the training of soldiers and production of the equipment is going. That was the reason why he wasn't present on the celebration yesterday. To keep the conversation going, I was asking him all kind of question to learn as much as I could from him about the state of the world, before I would reveal myself to him.

He told me that around two hundred thousand soldiers are being prepared for an invasion of
one of the Isles held by the Icarian Freedom Confederation. I was explained that until that
time, no one was able to get through any of the Confederation's defenses on any of the
islands, which had caused an endless stalemate in the war which has been lasting for one
hundred years. But now my Father believed that he had found a possible breakpoint. With a help of maps and hologram of Admonitrix, which he apparently possessed as well as
Imperator, he was explaining to me how he planned a massive offensive onto one of the
Islands. While explaining of strategies, we were drinking more and more wine, which I kept on drinking only to not offend him.