A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

"What was this advice you were set to give?" Oliver asked, suddenly curious. The conversation had made him uncomfortable to degrees that he would struggle to express, but his curiosity still won out.

"I have forgotten it. It is now irrelevant, after all," Hod said, as strange a man as he ever was.

"…Still, as out of place as this topic was, I think the Minister, for once, gives some semblance of good counsel – that is, if we simply reduce his counsel down to something better. If you are indeed thinking of marriage, Patrick, you would do well to choose wisely. There have been… instances, where marriages have caused more problems than they had anticipated.

Or when affairs of the heart have brought about wars that could best have been avoided," Tavar said. He refused to meet Oliver's gaze as he said that. Something about the way he said it made Oliver so sure about his conclusion that he said it aloud.

"You knew," he said.

The General looked up suddenly stiff. "Knew what, Ser Patrick?"

"The High King. My father. Something to do with a woman," Oliver said.

Tavar glanced at Hod, as if for reassurance, but Hod was looking at Oliver, wearing that same studious look that he always wore on his face. It was impossible to tell what emotion he was feeling.

"Who told you such a thing?" Tavar asked, more quietly than a man with his powerful voice ever reasonably could.

"Talon," Oliver said. "Three years ago."

"..." The General breathed out a long breath, and sank down into his chair, looking suddenly much smaller than he was. Oliver turned to Hod instead.

"I have no place for intrigues," the Minister of Logic replied, deflecting the accusations that Oliver's eyes wrought. "I was a youngling when it occurred. I know enough of the matter to be of interest to you – but I refuse to share it."

"Why!?" Oliver stood up, unable to hold back the shout. "Why are you all so secretive? Why did it take a General on his deathbed before I finally knew for what reason the High King pursues me?"

"My reasons should be obvious," Hod said, not in the least bit flustered by Oliver's outburst. "I do not believe it to be advantageous to share such information with you. You will find out for yourself, in time, just as you already have, and when you find out, you ought to have the emotional capacity and the resources to deal with it.

"Who are you to say?" Oliver said.

"What would it change?" Hod replied. "You're working towards the same goal. The only thing the information would do is make you more emotional. Your emotions are your strength, but you would allow them to guide you in this, and it would be the end of you. You cannot win against the High King as you are."

Frustrated, Oliver practically growled as he turned away from the man. Minister Hod was far too strange for him to get any answers out for. He looked at Tavar accusingly instead. "Surely you won't shoot me down for such inane reasons?"

"…There was an order," Tavar said. "From the High King. Preventing the spread of such information, with the pain of more than death. You would be declared an enemy of the crown and your House would be vanquished."

Oliver ground his teeth.

"Yet I do not blame him for giving them order," Tavar said, meeting Oliver's gaze. "Whatever side you are on, that information would have brought about civil war. It would have been the death of the Stormfront. At the time, as well, so close to Arthur's death… The Kingdom would have burned."

"Maybe it ought to have," Oliver said.

"That, I do not agree with," Tavar said steadily. "No matter your anger, you should not inflict your destruction on the likes of the masses. You have a fondness for the peasantry far beyond what your fellow nobles do. You ought to understand. They would have suffered for our noble grievances. The number of innocents would be untold."

"…" Oliver could not deny that. If he had not met Dominus, such politics would never have been his care. He would have resented the nobles for bringing war to his lands. Nevertheless, he was where he was now. So he said it again. "Tell me, Tavar.

I have a right to know. I shall not do anything drastic."

Tavar considered it for a good few long moments, but eventually, he shook his head.

"Why?" Oliver said, quietly now, but there was rage in that voice.

"I do not deny you out of any lacking," Tavar said. "The opposite. I believe you to be righteous and individualistic enough that you would hear it, and you would be unable to do anything about it. Especially given the fact that it concerns your own family.

You're a student of this Academy, and I have watched you throughout your time here, as interesting as you have been, I believe you to be fundamentally good. I think your morals are strong. Your character is strong. A lesser man, I might have told, but I can not tell you. Not yet."

"When will you tell me? Will you ever?" Oliver asked. "What must I do?"

"Have the power to do something about it," Tavar said. "Take the power to rival the High King."

Oliver's anger dissipated in an instant. It was not at all the response that he was expecting. The intensity from Tavar had come suddenly. He let loose a wave of Command with his words, seemingly unconsciously, but it was enough to make Oliver feel like he was suffocating. The old General's fury was palpable. It was a terrifying thing.

The man clung to the arms of his chair with shaking hands.

For the first time since meeting Tavar, Oliver felt as if he'd finally caught a glimpse of the man below the surface, beneath the title. Even Hod seemed surprised to see the General lose his cool, and to hear him say what he did, but that surprise quickly turned into a self-satisfied smile, as he tossed up the core of his apple in his hand.