A Warrior's Redemption (The Warrior Kind)

"Ahh, the intrigues of court life such as they are. You'll learn my boy, if you live to be too old for anything physically useful that there's always the intellectual pursuits of a fine game of chess or cat and mouse if you will for the sure minded. When I lose the ability to play the game of intrigue you have my permission to bury me." He slurred out drunkenly.

I took the cup of wine from his hand and placed it on a passing servant's tray as deftly as Thaddeus had snatched it from one earlier. Turning back to Thaddeus I was surprised to already see another goblet of wine in his hand.

He smiled and said, "Roric I only allow myself excess when excess is manageable."

He said it without any hint of the slurring I had detected before. My already considerable respect for my grand sire only increased. It was a valuable lesson to learn. Affectation of a condition of weakness can often deceive a confidant opponent into dismissing an individual's worthiness and threat as a possible opponent.

"Rolf said the spy was of our own people and not a Zoarinian."

A dark look came over Thaddeus's formerly cheerful face. It was a look of tired but determined tenacity.

He looked back at me and said, "Roric, there are many secrets that I keep and many would like to know them. Some of the secrets I keep are as old as our time on this world. I promise I will tell you what you need to know when you need to know it, but I pray that your consciousness remains free of what I and those before me have known and protected our people from for so long. There are those within our own people who would use the secrets that I and others like me protect for their own benefit. Secrets that if unveiled would likely bring about the fall of our people and even perhaps our world."

There was a faraway look in his eyes, as he said that and then his eyes refocused on me.

"You have made me very proud today my boy. All will be well now I'm sure of it."

He walked away then suddenly looking very old and I wondered what kind of secrets there could be, as to have such an effect like that on a person.