Hakon
“You ever think about it?” Frea asked Hakon.
“Think about what?” Hakon asked in return.
Frea let out a sigh. “Home,” she said. “Highpass I mean.”
Hakon let out his own sigh. “All the time.” He told her. “Mostly I miss Highgard, but I miss the people of the Kingdom of Highpass.”
“I don’t remember my homeworld,” Frea told him. “My father was dead before my birth, and he ruled as System-lord of both Strongholm, and Redstone. Sometimes I remember things before I came to Jom, but I can never remember if it was from Redstone or Strongholm.” She gave a shrug. “Or Stalwarts rise,” she added. “My mother married the System-lord of Stalwart’s Rise.”
Hakon nodded. He knew the story well, as many knew of Hakon ‘Branch’ Ash Dawn, the man who had left his pregant wife to try and woo the widow of King Alfred ‘The Victorious’ Ironside Aegis, only to be killed by her. She would later marry King Harwyn Lynch Aegis of Fist.
“He is kin to my father. They had several children,” Frea continued. “I get messages from them from time to time, along with from my mother.” She let out another sigh. “I’ve never met them though. I have sent by to become a ward to the Jom to become a ward when I was eight. After King Rodger had reclaimed Highpass, and been crowned king.”
Hakon nodded again.
“My so-called blood claim was better than his, and so my mother wished me gone somewhere safe, as though there weren’t a dozen more without a better claim than mine, or that we elect kings on blood claim.” Frea Said.
“King Rodger would not have sought you harm,” Hakon said. “He had his faults, but he was a good man.”
Frea nodded in turn. “He was a Fabian though was he not?”
“Yes,” Hakon replied. “And in the end that likely was his undoing, as he tried to push the Fabian Faith on Highpass, against the wishes of it’s people.”
“Are you a believer of the Fabian Faith?” Frea asked him.
Hakon shook his head. “No, I follow the ways of our ancestors,” he told him.
Frea nodded. “I would have loved to meet him, to serve under him as you did.” She let out a long drawn out sigh. “My father aided King Roderick of Fist, and Lord Darwyn Worth in expelling the siblings of King Frea ‘Greycloak’ from Highpass Space. He was granted lordships, and yet sought the throne for himself. Highpass would have been better off without him.”
“You do not know that.” Hakon said.
“No?” Frea asked
“Frea ‘Greycloak’ is not known as a kind king. The Worth’s had cause against her, as did half of Clan Dawn, and even most of House Ash. Her death would have always led to civil war,” Hakon said.
“Maybe,” Frea countered. “But maybe the damn Lynch’s would have been prevented from gaining their hands on Highpass.” She let out a long drawn sigh again. “The Lynch’s have always tried to claim Highpass, but the kingdom was created by my great great grandfather Hakon the First, Hakon ‘Fairhair’. I bet you are even named for him,” she said but did not let him answer. “It should be a Dawn that rules it, and more importantly an Ash, but above all, never an Aegis, not a Worth, An Ironsides, or a damn Lynch.” She said with a huff.
“Perhaps you are right,” Hakon said. He was an Ashworth though. A cadet branch of the houses of Ash and Worth, and by extension the clans of Dawn, and Aegis.
“I will return home one day Hakon,” she swore to him. “I will return with a fleet, and I will remove the Lynch’s and their puppets, and maybe one day I will rule as King of my ancestors kingdom.”
