“What’ll you have?”
Aldiss jumped and looked at old lady standing next to his table in confusion, “Pardon?”
“What, are you stupid?” said the old lady looking at him appraisingly. “With looks like that, I guess I can excuse that,” as she eyed him suggestively. Speaking slowly this time, “I said, what will you have? We have stewed goat and fowl pie. Though I would stay away from the goat, it’s a bit…strong today.”
Blushing furiously, Aldiss stammered out, “I guess I’ll have the fowl pie.”
“That comes with bread, cheese, and beer. It’ll be a silver…up front.”
“Oh, right.” Muttered Aldiss as he pulled a bulging coin purse out and started looking for a silver coin. Every eye in the room was fixed on the pile of gold and silver coins he spilled out on the table and several of the more disreputable men started urgently whispering together. Finally noticing the reaction, he quickly scooped the coins back into the purse and handed a single silver to the old lady. “Great,” he thought to himself. “ Way to keep inconspicuous.” He squared his shoulders and placed his scabbarded sword on the table in front of him. Seeing the size of those shoulders and the well-worn sword on the table, most looked away.
“You won’t need that here, dearie. Jarl keeps a nice place.” She said gesturing to a large, heavily muscled man behind the bar. “Isn’t that right?” She said to the rest of the room, meeting everybody’s eyes in turn. “Besides,” she said into his ear as she placed a hand on his heavily muscled arm, “ I wouldn’t want anything to happen to that delicious body of yours, regardless of what little is between your ears!” , she finished with a laugh.
Trying to avoid the urge to cut and run, Aldiss tried to figure out what he was doing here. Other than the times that he snuck off with the Iron Guard, this was the farthest he had ever been from Society, and he hadn’t a clue on how to act, or what to do. As a prince, even if he wasn’t from the two kingdoms, he had never had to pay for a meal in his life. He was well educated and familiar with the nobility and wealthy in three kingdoms and even with what passed for nobility in this independent city. But neither that, nor the guard training that he finally wheedled his father, Roderick IX into allowing, prepared him for being amongst the common society. Not that he minded, he tended to get along with everybody, but how was he supposed to stay hidden from the agents from Eisen Tal that his father has inevitably sent to find him, to say nothing of whatever hostile agents that are after him.
It seemed like such a good plan when his friend, Duke Nigel the king’s right hand, found him fighting with his brother Calden in the garden. His brother was always jealous of him, through no fault of his own. He had always loved his brother; carrying him around during his frequent bouts of illness, entertaining him with games and swordplay, and defending him against those few bullies brave enough to pick on the crown prince. Everything was fine until they both became interested in girls. In spite of being the crown prince, the girls tended to favor Aldiss’ good looks and muscular body over Calden’s darker, willowy looks. All of their past good relations seemed to evaporate overnight. Calden took great pains to embarrass Aldiss, or lord it over him at every opportunity.
It was good thing that Nigel had convinced his father to let his second son to spend so much time with the Iron Guard. The distance helped keep the peace, even if it did fan the flames of his brother’s jealousy. Calden, due to his childhood injuries, is a barely passably swordsman, while Aldiss had always been fascinated by the sword. That didn’t keep Calden from attacking him with sword drawn after being rebuffed by a noble’s daughter he was interested in, so that she could dance with Aldiss. The only grace was that he waited to do it in a more private setting. Aldiss quickly disarmed his brother and managed to knock him unconscious. Luckily one of Nigel’s men oversaw the whole thing and managed to sneak Aldiss and his unconscious brother into Nigel’s office.
Nigel had become suspicious that some foreign agents were attempting to sew discord in Eisen Tal by turning Calden against his brother. A civil war in Eisen Tal would be the only way that an outside force could take the valley kingdom. Hoping to avoid an escalation in tension, or outright fighting, Nigel decided that it would be best if Aldiss were to disappear for a while. So he arranged for Aldiss to be smuggled out of the Kingdom into the only other somewhat neutral civilization, the city. It may even be a way for them to figure out who is playing games with Calden’s head and Eisen Tal’s politics.
Oh well, Aldiss thought, trying not to gag as he ate the fowl pie, he always wanted an adventure…
The details…
Aldiss was born the second son to King Roderick IX. As a second son, he should have been free to pursue his own destiny. However the Crown Prince, Caldan, was always a sickly child, so Aldiss was kept close and protected. As children, Aldiss and Caldan got along well together, with Aldiss providing the muscle for whatever endeavors that Caldan could dream up.
Aldiss was always cheerful and optimistic about life while Caldan tended to be dark and brooding. When Caldan became a teenager and realized that Aldiss was being kept in the wings to replace him if he became too sickly, or died, he became hateful of Aldiss and went out of his way to make him miserable. Aldiss, who was already being kept pretty isolated, took this estrangement very hard. Duke Nigel, a trusted advisor to the King took pity on young Aldiss, and took him under his wing. Since Nigel was in charge of the King’s guard, Aldiss was able to spend time with them during their daily training regimen. Aldiss loved the guard, and wished more than anything that he could be a member, of course, being the one of the primary objects of the guard, that was not meant to be. However he spent all of his free time watching and, eventually, practicing with them.
This went on for many years, with an uneasy truce between the two brothers, until Aldiss’ eighteenth birthday. It is tradition to have a ceremony marking the transition between child and man. With the nobility, this is an all-day event culminating in a dance. At the dance, a young woman that Caldan was interested in spurned him in favor of the much more good natured and handsome Aldiss. Caldan was infuriated and stormed away. Aldiss, in a last attempt to make peace with his brother, had gone looking for him. Caldan was so enraged with his brother, that he attacked him as soon as his brother found him. Aldiss being a much better swordsman, quickly disarmed his brother, but not before Duke Nigel came upon them. Seeing a witness to his humiliating defeat his brother fled. Nigel and Aldiss decided that Aldiss needed to disappear for a while before things could escalate anymore, so they came up with a plan to hide Aldiss in the “city”. Duke Nigel was just assigned to the city to manage the safety of the Ambassador and to run the intelligence efforts there, so he smuggled Aldiss into the city and placed him at an inn.
An enemy agent, watching the “City”, recognized the Prince and, realizing the potential usefulness of capturing a prince, set about planning to kidnap him.
Meanwhile, Aldiss has never lived outside of the Palace, save for a few times that he was allowed to accompany the guard, and is sticking out like a sore thumb.