Kvendar (Prologue) by Matthew Parsons

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It just never goes away. Still, it isn't all over yet."

"You know what you are?"

Mikael wasted no time in answering. "An aging veteran with a dramatic past."

Barnabas scoffed. "No--you're an old man stuck in the past--get your head with today. It's not too late to find yourself a wife, settle down, raise some kids, and build a legacy of Mikael Fuldamoore 'The One Who Slew The Crafty Sul'Tal Mragdnar Warrior'."

Mikael shook his head. "A wife? Take one lok at me Barnabas." He took another drink, leaned back in the seat, and pointed at his face. "I'm crawling over the hill. Men at age forty can't find a partner. Besides, fighting all those beastly mragdnar has really left quite a few scars on my face. I'm just an ugly old veteran now."

Barnabas laughed, slapping him on the back. "Just go ahead and admit you want to stay a loner--I would tell you that you're not ugly, but that would be just weird coming from me."

"Good idea, keep that thought to yourself. I remember though, you were quite the ladies' man."

A flash of mischievous nostalgia rushed in the younger Supreme Vizier's eyes, making him appear much younger for a brief moment. He then scoffed. "You know I've settled down already."

"Speaking of which, won't Heather get upset if you're out this late?"

"She's on duty, remember?" Barnabas emptied the rest of the bottle in the glass. "She won't get back until the fourth morning hour. I couldn't get much sleep so I'd thought I'd rather be somewhere to myself."

"Good idea, with all this business going on, a little quiet time would be useful," Mikael muttered. "don't forget that we have to attend that council at the second night hour and listen to those Senators bicker about how to stop the sudden grayskin uprising below on Medio."

"Ah well--that might be interesting. That one senator, Rythien Menlos, really knows his stuff. I think he's nearly gotten the whole entire High Fathers' Council to go ahead and use full force to eliminate those grayskin orcs."

Mikael nodded slowly, wondering if the threat would ever call him forth back into combat. He doubted that only grayskins would invoke such a treath to call forth Supreme Viziers let alone a subordinate Captain Vizier. "Did you hear that they've found where Sul'Tal's son is?"

A frown formed on Barnabs's face. "What of Phaeris Travix?"

"The traitor? Yes, she's with him too. Supposedly they're both under cover in the city of Ulbourne running a small shop. Amazing how we couldn't find them for years, but now they're right there in our grasps."

"Only the two of them?"

Mikael tightened his grip around the his glass. He hadn't expected all of them to stay at the same place. They weren't foolish enough to make that mistake. "I could finish what they started and take care of the boy myself. I could--"

"--leave it alone Mikael," Barnabas rose his voice and added a hint of aggressiveness. "They'll be arrested and brought back here for trial. We don't need you being rash and killing anybody."

Mikael scowled deeply.