The Domestik's Council

Gathering / Conference

Syres meets John's family and all throw a banquet welcoming Domestik Kourkouas back from the frontier in Armenia and Syria. Domestik Kourkouas and Syres get along quite well from the moment they meet and they speak about many aspects of warfare and strategy. Here, Syres learned much about leading troops, different styles of fighting, and the importance of siegecraft. He also sees something that brings back an emotion he hasn't felt since he was mortal.

When they enter Trebizond, the capital of the region, Syres is introduced to Strategos Theophilos who calls the young Droungarios, John, his son. Theophilos thanks Syres for saving his son, whose wife, the familiar name of Anne Phokai, is the niece of Syres' former commander, Leo Phokas. He meets their young toddler son, John Tzimiskes, and becomes familiar with the small family before Theophilos and Syres leave to meet up with Domestikos John (Theophilos' brother) upon his return from the hinterland. At the feast, he and Syres hit it off and over the next several months, they hunt, train, and plan out the upcoming campaign in Armenia and Syria. It is here that Syres becomes interested in real military command. During a hunt in the highlands of Pontus, Syres comes upon a reflecting pool and in it he sees a vision of a frightening creature and he becomes unconscious, found and returned to the palace in Trapezus. He spends a few days passed out and then wakes to find Anne watching over him. He doesn't know why he passed out but remembers the vision in the reflecting pool. Anne asks him what happened and he decides to tell her the truth, unable to reconcile with the emotions that sprang up because of what he saw. He hadn't felt like that since he was mortal and his family was taken from him and it was frightening to feel that way again after so long.