Galen
The great hall of Lord Sargon was filled with the lords and nobles of Kingsgard. Kingsgard was almost as populous as the Worthgard System, and the second most populous in the sector. Six billion called the system home, spread out over the two main settled worlds, Star Fortress of Stormgate, and the massive shipyard complex. Like all system there were people scatters over the system in small stations, asteroid mines, or on planets that supported little to no life, but had one resource or another to make it worth living there.
Lord Sargon hosted a feast big enough for a king, and Galen knew that his father was a king in all but name. He might only control half of Highpass, and that was in the name of King Harwyn Lynch of the Kingdom of Fist, but his sister Merdith held the other half in loyalty to the King of the Wanes. The agreement had been made before the removal of King Rodger Ash Dawn, and it did not seem to his father, nor his aunt, as far as he could tell.
The last king of Kingsgard had been slain by Galen’s ancestors. It was the last world of that minor kingdom to fall, and there were still tales of it. It had been a fierce battle, the King’s last stand, and where the world had gotten it’s name from. Galen wondered what that king had been called, but shook off the thought.
“Must be glad to be done with the Jom eh boy?” System-lord Sargon asked as he bit into the flesh of some beast that had been roasted.
“Glad?” Galen asked, and ignored the insult of boy. His father had told him to expect such insults until he had proven himself. In truth it didn’t bother him at all, he had been called worse as a ward to the Jom.
“The Jom, fierce warriors,” The lord went on. “Fierce and deadly, and the last traces of the Old Empire, but they are not what they once were,” he said and took another bite and chewed on it for a moment. “The Jom once served the Furse, kept the ideals of the Empire alive,” Lord Sargon said and wiped greased from his chin. “And now they are more likely to kill Furse and depose lords or kings as they are to take contracts outside Furse Space.”
“There was a time the Old Ruins was infested with Skoll,” Galen replied as he finished his own bite of food. “And I never fought inside Furse Space, but in Bolgar Space in my short time with them.”
“Oh they played a major role,” Lord Sargon said. “But so did a dozen kings throughout the thousands of years since the fall of the Old Ruins,” he said and bite into his chunk of meat again.
“King Auda the Black Fathom, and King Rothgar the Lost King to say but two of those great kings of the past,” Highlord Sargon said, a cousin to the System-lord, and Lord of the world of Kingsgard itself.
Galen nodded. He couldn’t deny the role that those two had played, and both without much if any help from the Jom. Auda had launched campaign after campaign into the Old Ruins, conquered much of Furse Space, and it was even said made High King shortly before her death, while her great great great grandson likewise conquered much of Furse Space but was killed in Drala before he could reforge the Empire. His sons avenged him when they launched the Great Savage Host into Drala and brought down all Old Blood Kingdoms. Daxholm had risen back up, and would later form the Commonwealth, but the Furse had never been so strong since the defeat of the Empire and the loss of Old Furia and the creation of the Old Ruins.
“Besides,” System-lord Sargon said. “Look at the Old Ruins now. As deadly as ever.”
“Pirates and raiders mostly,” Galen countered. “Mostly Furse, a few Bolgar pirates, but the Bolgar are mostly fools, the ones that don’t run that is,” he said and bite into his fun as both lords laughed in agreement.
