Warin
Warin shouldn’t have been surprised that System-lord Rodney Bloodworth of Axehom was a member of the Fabian Order of Drala. WHil the Axeholm System had strong ties to the alliance of Eight Systems within the Commonwealth, they had always been a split and reluctant member. The world of Axeholm itself might have stayed clear of the Eight Systems as much as possible, but the world of Grimm Field was a strong supporter of it, along with the Highlords of the Star Fortress of Tatter Bourne Station, and the minor world of Arch Outpost.
Even still, the five billion of Axeholm outnumbered the two billion of Grimm Field, and more than billion that called Tatter Bourne Station, and Arch Outpost home.
Warin wondered how much support the people of Axeholm had for the Eight Systems. The System-lord, Highlord, and minor lords might, but Axeholm had been settled by large populations of Furse, and even Lord Bloodworth himself came from Furse Stock which had conquered the world before bending the knee to the last indepenent Furse King of the north before the founding of the Commonwealth.
Lord Bloodworth was a Fabian Faith convert though. He had, like almost all in the Commonwealth of Drala, forsaken the ways of his ancestors, and accepted the Fabian Faith. Warin wondered how many there were of people like him left. Those who still followed the Old Ways. He knew there weren’t many at all, not truly, not openly. Maybe there were more in hiding, but those days were coming to an end, as they had when his own ancestors converted to the Fabian Faith while they ruled as kings in Drala.
Warin wondered if Thane Underwood had chosen to meet on Axehom for that very reason. It wasn’t luck that the two had met, and yet Bloom seemed like a more lkely choice, but Bloom by all accounts was infested with the Order, where as Axeholm had the presence of the Order in the System, and the world of Axeholm itself, it was not fully under it’s control, and yet because of it’s presences, it would not seem as though the Thane were acting in private or hiding.
The Eight Systems weren’t just an alliance of Furse Worlds seeking to presrve their way of life, Warin had realized as he read more and more of the files of the Crown Prince. The Eight Systems was the only true challenge to the Order in Drala at all. A handful of other systems might stand against the Order, but they stood alone, and were easy prey for the Order, while the Eight Systems could stand up to them, and he had realized that Thane Underwood, and the Crown Prince were not only allied, but that they wanted him, or more important, Holderness to join that alliance.
If the lord of Holderness, or more important, the sector itself were to embrace the Eight Systems, and stand against the Order, it would create a power base that were likely stronger than even the King’s own power base. Further, he knew, that alliance would draw in other Systesms, if not whole sectors, and Warin feared what they could mean. He had his issues with the Commonwealth, and the King, but he did not wish for civil war.
“Landing in a minute my lord,” a voice brought him out of his thoughts, and Warin grimanced at the thought of eating once again with Lord Bloodworth, who he now knew to be a member of the Order, and in truth was now his enemy, because no matter what, he still stood against the Order for all they had done to Holderness.
