“Come in, come in, the more, the merrier. Come and see my son, the soon to be Sir Judd LaMogre!”


    “Father, I am not a sideshow attraction.”


    “Of course not! You’re the main event! Come in, come in…is that your delicious fish stew I smell, Aunt Curlis?”


    “Only the best for Edmen’s boy!”


    “Take a whiff, Judd! It’ll remind you of all you missed while travelling the wilds.”


    “Mmmm…fish stew. That’ll go great with the fish pie mother made, the oysters, raw and marinated my sister brought and grandmother’s ‘octopus surprise’.”


    “Uncle Judd? Is it true you killed a sea serpent?”


    “Uh…no.”


    “Awwwww…”


    “But we did attack a swamp monster.”


    “Oooh!”


    “And barely survived a channel full of sirens.”


    “What do they do?”


    “They…well…they trying to seduce men…”


    “What does seduce mean?”


    “Hey…why don’t you go have something fishy to eat?”


    “Yay!”


    “Judd, I brought you some food. I noticed you haven’t had a chance to eat.”


    “Mother…”


    “Your father’s got you standing here like a trophy and you need to eat. You’ve lost so much weight!”


    “I really haven’t…”


    “Leesha, I’m just being proud of my son and he’ll become overweight the way you’re force feeding him.”


    “How can you get fat on fish? Oh Judd, look who it is! The Rushavers. You know their eldest daughter always had her eye on you and now her sister has reached marrying age as well.”


    “I just need to step outside for some fresh air…”


    Judd escaped the ever decreasing space of his parent’s house’s living and dining rooms and the foyer. There were people everywhere, primarily family but now neighbours and business contacts were arriving, most of whom Judd had only been aware of at the very edges of his consciousness before he’d left on his quest, let alone now when his world had expanded but the capacity of his mind had not. There was only so much room in his head for all the names of people coming to congratulate him and praise his parents on his success.


    He managed to reach the courtyard without being waylaid by anyone else, discovering that he was not the only one in need of some space. Giordi and Verne sat on the delicate chairs around a table, the courtyard almost completely consumed by climbing vines with sharp thorns and flowers in pink and purple hues, so thin that they rustled when brushed and sounded like paper.


    Judd sank onto one of the chairs, leaned back and put his hands over his face.


    “Starting to regret your knighthood?” Verne asked around a mouthful of fish cake.


    “That’s not a knighthood…that’s a nightmare!” Judd groaned, feeling a smile tweak at the corners of his mouth.


    “They’re just proud of you. Especially your father.” Giordi held up something called a shrimp and eyed it suspiciously before putting it back on his plate.


    “I know. It’s quite a different tune to the one he was singing before I left.”


    “Was it called ‘Breaking father’s heart with a dream of your own’?”


    Judd chuckled and nodded. “With a chorus of fish singing ‘it was good enough for me, why not you?’.”


    “Don’t be stupid,” Giordi tilted his head, “fish can’t sing.”


    Judd shook his head and glanced back into the house that was so full of energetic and enthusiastic souls that they had completely missed the fact that their guest of honour had fled. It was a familiar sight for Judd, however. His family loved having everyone to their home for social suppers and delicious dinners, usually with a fish theme as there was always plenty to be had. Children ran about, ducking beneath elbows, narrowly avoiding colliding numerous times while babies slumbered in their mother’s arms and adolescent cousins huddled in corners or sprawled on the stairs in ways that would have the nobility horrified by their casualness.


    It was his home and he loved it…


    …but it felt a great deal smaller now.


    His eyes caught sight of his father speaking animatedly with his uncles, roaring with laughter, his father’s brothers slapping him on the back, congratulating him for raising such a standout son.


    “Truth is, even though I didn’t mean to hurt him…I know I did.” Judd said softly.


    “Doesn’t seem too bitter about it.” Verne observed.


    Judd smiled. “That’s my father. All or nothing.”


    “Your mother is lovely too. And your sisters.”


    Judd turned sharp eyes onto the minstrel. “Giordi…”


    “An innocent observation!”


    “Oh, so they’re not good enough for you?”


    Giordi gaped at Judd then turned to Verne. “Help me out here!”


    “Why? Any minute now Judd will break your nose.” Verne folded his arms and sighed. “All double talk aside, it seems like a nice place to grow up.”


    “It was.”


    “Was?”


    Judd cringed. “I think my mother half expects me to move back in.”


    “And marry you off by the sounds of things.”


    “That too.”


    “Judd! Judd!”


    “Dael! Come here!” Judd waved a young lad, tanned by the sun with dark curls just like Judd’s, out to the courtyard. “Verne, Giordi, this is my youngest brother.” The boy was about ten years old and gave Giordi and Verne an idea of what Judd must have looked like at that age. He was bare foot and bright eyed, clutching a hastily rolled up piece of parchment in his hands. “What do you have there?”


    “This was the list posted outside the place where you trained to be a knight!” He declared, holding it out.


    “For all of two weeks.” Judd was still astonished he had been allowed to leave Astaril at all.


    Giordi and Verne leaned forward to study the parchment. “It’s covered in names.” Verne said, confused.


    “I recognise some of these…” Judd confessed.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    “They were the other middle class first borns who tried to do what you did. See how they’re all struck out except for your name!”


    Judd’s eyes saddened slightly. “Some gave up before the end of the two weeks and most of the others returned to Astaril before a month was over…but some died on this quest. I am one name out of dozens…”


    Dael, ten years old and brimming with pride, missed the sombre tone to Judd’s voice. “My brother is famous!”


    Giordi, seeing Judd was distracted and melancholy, ruffled Dael’s hair. “You bet he is.”


    “Hey Judd? Can I see your Maul?”


    Judd blinked and looked at his brother. “He’s not a pet!”


    “Please!” Dael’s eyes were filled with unrelenting adoration.


    Judd sighed and stood up. “Alright, but you’re going to meet him as a person.”


    “Yes sir!” Judd chuckled and waved to the other two then led Dael inside, past the groups of relatives, hiding from his mother who was speaking animatedly with two young women who were pinching their cheeks and fluffing their hair, up the stairs, around the cousins who were so consumed with their own conversations that they missed him entirely and along the landing to Judd’s old room. He knocked then entered, Dael hovering behind.


    “Suvau?” Judd opened the door wide. “I would like you to meet Dael, my youngest brother. Dael, this is Suvau.”


    Suvau stood up then squatted down, diminishing his impressive height. “Pleased to meet you.”


    Dael’s eyes went as round as saucers, his mouth opened and he yelled in fright, bolting from the room, across the landing and down the stairs. Judd watched him go, straight into the skirts of their mother and sighed, looking back at Suvau who pushed himself upright.


    “Sorry Suvau…” Judd gestured helplessly.


    “I’m the one who frightened him.”


    “It’s not just that.” Judd moved into his old room and sat on his bed, the motion sending dozens of papers pinned to the wall fluttering. “I’m sorry for their reactions and how you have to be hidden up here.”


    “Judd, when I first arrived, I made your niece cry.”


    “You didn’t. Our ignorance did.”


    Suvau nodded, appreciating Judd’s candour. “The kindness of your family still shows. Your mother brought me food. She knocked, handed it to me, backed away and left but I appreciate her willingness to try. This is a tribute to your influence.”


    Judd leaned back on his bed, picked up a dislodged paper, shook his head at what was written there then sighed. “One family at a time, huh?”


    “Exactly.”


    “I promise to get you back to yours as soon as possible.” He crumpled the paper, tossing it in the air and catching it. As he did so he studied the big man who stood near the window, gazing at the lights of the city. “You must be missing Yolana.”


    “It is more Emeri I am concerned about.”


    Judd frowned, surprised at the seriousness in Suvau’s tone. He sat up, perplexed. “How so?”


    “There was a sudden increase in Mauls in the nomad camp…all of whom are male.”


    “And you think some of them have their eye on her?”


    “Perhaps,” Suvau sat on the floor, “she was coming to terms with a possibly lonely life and now she has a great deal of male company, some quite close to her age with wounds that need care and attention…”


    “Not to mention those lads probably haven’t seen a woman up close for many months…” Judd added then caught Suvau’s slightly panicked glare. “Sorry…but I can’t see Yolana being an absentminded mother. She’ll keep an eye on Emeri.”


    “She can be downright terrifying,” Suvau chuckled and Judd could feel the bass through the floor, “I suppose I simply don’t want to miss seeing love bloom for her.” He paused, his eyes studying Judd. “You seem to be handling the loss of certain company members better today.”


    Judd shrugged. “Not really. Just too overwhelmed by everything not to realise she’s not beside me or behind me, always watching my back and healing it when the occasion called for it.”


    Suvau raised an eyebrow. “I was talking about Caste.” He said, deathly serious then smiled, showing his bright white teeth when Judd looked stricken. “You have lost two companions in three days. It cannot be easy.”


    “The loss of Aalis is something I can only hope lessens with time,” Judd admitted quietly, “but Caste…it hurt that he washed his hands of us so quickly but in a way I feel like I deserved it.”


    “How so? You didn’t assign him to your quest.”


    “No,” Judd swallowed, “he…I put him in a position that contradicted his training when I asked for his help to rescue you and your people.” Suvau blinked, not having heard this part of the tale before. Judd rubbed his hands together, his fingers already smelling like fish after only a few hours in the home of his family. “He helped me ‘steal’ you from Donimede. Nothing else I’ve asked of him ever did that before. It didn’t have to do with Maul and Terra but with the trust we had begrudgingly cobbled together over months in each other’s company and how I broke it.”


    Suvau nodded. “Out of all of your companions, the little cleric was the one who did not want to be there. While it pains me that law trumps compassion for my people in his heart, it could not have been an easy journey for him.”


    Judd breathed out in a great huff and nodded. “He is happy where he is.” He stood with purpose and strode to the door. “Now, if you will excuse me…I have to inform my mother that neither of the Rushavers daughters are quite right for me and attempt to swallow some of my grandmother’s octopus surprise.”


    Suvau went to the door to watch him go. “What’s the surprise?”


    Judd paused at the top of the stairs. “One year she forgot to cook it…and the damn thing climbed out of the tureen and made a break for the door.”


    Suvau leaned towards him, deeply curious. “What happened to it?”


    “I caught it and let it go in the bay,” Judd looked back at Suvau, “if it survived my grandmother’s kitchen, it deserved to go free.”


    Giordi whistled, hands behind his head, admiring the view from the staggered pathways that led down to the wide boardwalk that wound along the Bay of Italea.


    “I’d forgotten just how beautiful this place is.” He nodded.


    “Yeah,” Verne folded his arms, “you poor little first born son of a middle class family.”


    Judd laughed and waved them forward, insisting on taking his friends down to the bay where they could see where he had spent much of his time. Giordi and Verne walked easily, enjoying the sunshine and admiring the view. Suvau was less bold in his presence although nothing was ever going to obscure the darkness of his skin and abnormal presence in Astaril. However, with Judd beside him, acting as both guide and guardian, the inhabitants of Astaril they passed, men with their ladies shaded with lace parasols and children wearing clothes without blemish, stared but did not reproach. Some tipped their hat to Judd while others stopped to congratulate him on his knighthood quest success.


    “I didn’t think I’d become quite so recognisable.” Judd admitted as they continued to stride towards the boardwalk.


    “I think it has less to do with you and more to do with…” Giordi gestured to Suvau. “After all, hundreds saw Suvau ride into Astaril with you yesterday. They’d only have to see him to know that you must be Judd LaMogre.”


    Judd turned to Suvau. “You are quite distinctive.”


    “I blend in better in the dark grey of the southern forts,” Suvau said with a grimace, “than here where it is white and sandstone and light grey. But it is no wonder that the people of Astaril and much of Terra believe everything they are told about themselves.”


    “How so?”


    “I see no lack. There is nothing here that would make a citizen not believe that they rule and reign over all.” Suvau explained.


    “It’s true,” Giordi leapt over the wall at the lowest end of the slope that led to the boardwalk, landing nimbly on the boards and stretching his arms, “and yet so untrue at the same time.”


    “How true.” Judd followed him and beamed. “This is where I lost many days, fishing pole in hand, feet in the water…swimming to the island out there and back again, skin tasting like salt…”


    “You know, when I think of fisherman and the docks of Astaril, this is not what I had in mind.” Verne admitted. “It’s very…clean. Where are the tattered boats and smelly ships? Where are the barrels of pongy fish and lurking octopi?”


    “That’s the northern Astaril docks,” Judd pulled off his shoes and socks, Giordi and Verne doing the same, “they’re closer to the open waters where the fish are plentiful and it’s where the shipyards are based. My family used to live up there for several generations but moved here because of its ‘better’ location.” He looked at his fingers when he used them to emphasis the word and groaned. “Bloody Caste…”


    “He left a lasting impression, that’s for sure.” Giordi laughed.


    “Where are we heading?” Suvau asked in a soft voice.


    “Well my mother made me promise I’d have you all back for a late breakfast,” Judd shook his head, “which will probably turn into a smorgasbord of food stuffs in quantities that could feed half of Astaril.”


    “And half of Astaril will probably turn up if last night’s turnout is anything to go by.”


    “We’ll walk until the island is on our left, not right, then head home back up the slope.” Judd paused and looked at Suvau who hovered behind them. “Suvau?”


    “Would it be alright if I caught up with you at your home?”


    “Uh…you sure?” Giordi looked around. “Without Judd to validate your presence…”


    “I will be sure to tell any who inquire I am here under the good graces of Judd LaMogre, champion of Astaril.”


    “Don’t you start.” Judd snorted. “Come on then you two…”


    Giordi jogged to fall into step with Judd. “Do you think Suvau will be safe?”


    “Are you making merry?” Verne said dryly. “No one would dare touch Suvau. Have you seen the way they skirt around him? They’re afraid that the colour of his skin might rub off on theirs.”


    “I also don’t want him to feel like a prisoner,” Judd admitted softly, “at the home of my parents, he has to be confined to my old room because of the way visitors and guests react to him. Suvau will be fine. I want him to enjoy the fresh air…and beat you two in a race.”


    “Yeah…wait, what?”


    “One, two…go!” Verne yelled and sprinted ahead, Judd roaring and taking off after him while Giordi scrambled to keep up.


    Suvau watched them run up the boardwalk, sensing that Judd was trying to give him some space, trusting him to take care of himself on his own in Astaril. For that Suvau was grateful but he suspected he wouldn’t be on his own for long. As he had stepped onto the boardwalk, he had spotted a familiar tuft of red, giving off copper and gold hues in the effulgent sunshine. The others had missed it owing to a parasol of peach and cream blocking their lower line of sight.


    Once Judd, Verne and Giordi were scampering up the boardwalk, acting like three tearaways and not a knight, an archer and a minstrel…which seemed to be the beginning of a humorous story, Suvau turned and walked past the woman with the parasol. She gasped at the sight of him, darting away as if he could molest her with his very gaze. She might have been peeved to have looked back and realised he hadn’t given her a second glance as he walked to where a cleric, out of place in his dark red cappa clausa and heavy robes, stood on the very edge of the boardwalk, staring at the water.