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Court was… different. [[Melkin]] felt like a pheasant among peacocks and knew that this was how the court perceived him as well, if not worse. His clothes were out of fashion, the customs were different, and the language strange and unfamiliar. Having been told by count Roderick’s manservant, Attilio, that his modesty was even more out of place here in Bretagne, [[Melkin]] couldn’t but wonder if he would be able to follow his count’s orders and find out king Idre’s political standing points. “Avoid speaking directly to the king, at all cost!” Attilio had told him. “And if you ever are forced to do it none the less, you must act like a proud man pretending to be to be modest in front of the king. You must never seem weak in from of him!” Gornerius, Melkin’s second cousin, had agreed with this. “You should try to humor the king, but it would be for the best if you did it indirectly. You should also try to befriend someone close to him, his wife, courtesan, friends or his son… I mean, if you truly are hopeless at feasts you should learn from the bests here.” [[Melkin]] had not told Gornerius his true reason for being at the court. How could he? Count [[Roderick]] had made him promise not to tell anyone. Thus he had been forced to lie to Gornerius about his reasons, and had retold a couple of stories from feasts in [[Britain]] when he had been mistaken as a squire, arrived in an awful attire and the like. [[Melkin]] was a bit surprised how easy the lie was accepted by Gornerius though. Probably, [[Melkin]] thought wryly, because claiming to be worthless at feasts wasn’t a lie in itself. However, the lie had not seemed to have fooled king [[Idres]]. When arriving to court [[Melkin]] had been granted all the perks the hospitality of the court could give, but not the liberty of leaving court. This was not too uncommon, [[Melkin]] later heard, but still a strange omission which indicated that the king suspected that [[Melkin]] had doubtful reasons. Not being at liberty to leave court, [[Melkin]] had realised just what that meant: he was currently a prisoner at court. --------------------- A couple of months had passed an [[Melkin]] was still wondering how on earth he would be capable of amusing the king without speaking to him. The task seemed impossible for someone without any considerable skill in orate, dancing or singing being typical activities at court. Gaining the friendship someone of the king’s friends also seemed like no small endeavor. [[Melkin]] knew that he was playing at some type of strategies, and that if he knew the rules he could probably play the game, but it was easier said than done. He had started to gain the trust of some of the lesser knights at court, if only for being fairly good at drinking. One of them, Aemilius, certainly liked his wine and had taken a liking to Melking after a drinking game between them that [[Melkin]] had won. This was both advantageous, since Aemilius was fairly outspoken and knew many things about court, but also a bit of a headache since [[Melkin]] was forced to drink heavily every single night. “… and I said no-one speaks to me in that manner and I will cut your throat before you ever do it again you asine!” Aemilius was standing now almost shouting in triumph as the other knights cheered him on. [[Melkin]] was laughing as well, but had drunk a bit more than he probably should. Looking for his son he saw [[Brynach]] playing with a pair of copper coins at the far end of the table. [[Melkin]] had taken to play board games with the four-year-old every night just to fend of some of the drinks around the table with the excuse that he couldn’t be too drunk when he trained his boy in gaming. “What if I would lose fair and square?” he had said to Aemilius as the knight had tried to shove a glass of wine into his hand. “I could hardly stand that!” The truth was that [[Melkin]] often lost to [[Brynach]], but that was mostly due to the fact that he let the boy cheat from time to time. It kept [[Melkin]] on his toes, and they would laugh about [[Brynach]] playing like a [[saxon]]. Tonight was no different, and [[Melkin]] stared intently at the board thinking hard. [[Brynach]] was smiling broadly. “Don’t you give me that smile,” [[Melkin]] said with one of his own and moved one of the pieces shielding the king from one attacker in a way that made it impossible for [[Brynach]] to win. Brynach’s smile disappeared and he set his brow in a deep frown mumbling to himself. He then shrugged and lifted one of his pieces and put it far away from its original position suddenly cornering the king. “That’s cheating,” came suddenly a boy’s voice from behind Melkin’s back. [[Melkin]] didn’t turn. He was trying to think, but he too drunk for the task. “Yes…” he said slowly trying to gather his thoughts. “Yes it is…” “I am playing the [[saxons]]!” explained [[Brynach]] helpfully with a broad smile. “Because they always cheat”. “That’s stupid, why would you want to do that?” [[Melkin]] turned frowning and suddenly was face to face with [[prince]] [[Mark]] himself. The boy looking somewhat irritated at the board between them. “It’s not stupid,” argued [[Brynach]] and pointed to his head making the same gesture as [[Melkin]] had done many a time before. “If you want to beat the [[saxons]], you have to think like a saxon”. “It’s stupid anyhow,” said the [[prince]] as if to go. “Well, a great commander once told me,” said [[Melkin]] looking the [[prince]] directly in the eye trying not to blink, “that if you do not understand the mind if the enemies, there is really no way of actually beating them. I would therefore argue, my [[prince]], that a strategist has to find reason to learn from his enemies”. [[Prince]] [[Mark]], eyed [[Melkin]] suspiciously. “Why do you let him beat you?” “Why, my [[prince]], I let [[Brynach]] beat me now so that when I fight the enemy in reality I will in fact not lose”. The [[prince]] made a “hmpf” sound and walked off. [[Brynach]] made a face after the boy, but [[Melkin]] sat thinking. It seemed like [[prince]] [[Mark]] actually knew the rules of [[Hnefatafl]] which did say a number of things. The game was fairly new, at least in [[Britain]], probably brought by some of the seafaring peoples, some even said that it came from the [[saxons]]. [[Melkin]] had also realised that few knew the game here in Bretagne and thus [[prince]] [[Mark]] must have stumbled across the game recently himself, and the [[prince]] knew it well enough to have picked up on the rules of the game. “Stupid [[prince]],” muttered [[Brynach]] and went back to playing like a [[saxon]] putting a new piece in a forbidden spot. [[Melkin]] reached out over the board and slapped his son over the face. “If you ever say that again,” [[Melkin]] said to the surprised and sobbing boy. “I will take this board and beat you with it until it breaks”. --------------------- The following months [[Melkin]] continued to play [[Brynach]] even more frequently. More often [[Melkin]] made [[Brynach]] actually play by the rules, instead of cheating his way towards victory. [[Melkin]] took time to play teach [[Brynach]] both about the game in itself but also the combat strategies that it represented. It happened once or twice that the [[prince]] came down and watched them play, but he never engaged in much conversation until one evening when [[Melkin]] indeed had drunk too much. “That’s cheating!” said [[Brynach]] his eyes wide as [[Melkin]] moved his piece in a forbidden angle to attack the king on the board. He was now playing the game attacker and [[Brynach]] the defender. “Well, this is [[Sigeberht]] the [[saxon]] [[warrior]] who my father, your namesake [[Bryn]], fought during the Battle of Bath. And that,” [[Melkin]] pointed at the king in the middle, “is Ulfric of [[Silchester]]. Do you know what happened to him?” [[Brynach]] shook his head uncomfortably. “He died,” [[Melkin]] said flatly. “But, I can’t win if you play the [[saxon]]!” argued [[Brynach]] pouting his lip. “No?” [[Melkin]] laughed. “Too bad for you. This,” he gestured at the game, “was a real battle. If you cannot win, you will die.” “But…” [[Brynach]] looked at the game with big eyes, “I can’t win… and I don’t wanna die.” “Well true… you need help,” [[Melkin]] continued thinking. “[[Bryn]] wasn’t alone in the fight and neither should you be,” and then he continued without thinking. “Why don’t you go and ask [[prince]] [[Mark]] if he want’s to play one of the bannermen who killed Sigeberth?” [[Melkin]] stared down in his empty glass for what seemed like a second and when he looked up he suddenly felt a lot more sober as both [[Brynach]] and [[prince]] [[Mark]] sat down opposite him. “So, which one am I?” asked [[prince]] [[Mark]] and stared at the board. [[Melkin]] looked from [[Brynach]] to the [[prince]], and had the odd feeling that [[Brynach]] must have gone up to the high table a flatly asked [[Mark]] to play. [[Brynach]] was looking eager though: “Well, I’m going to be my grandfather [[Bryn]], so you can be you grand uncle [[Cadwallon]].” [[Mark]] looked confused. “I don’t know of any [[Cadwallon]], who was he?” “He was a Cellidon,” continued [[Brynach]] matter of factly. “They live in a magic [[forest]] and can hunt and eat redcaps if they’re really hungry”. “Well,” interrupted [[Melkin]] seeing the doubtful look on [[prince]] Mark’s face, “maybe not eat the [[redcap]], but sir [[Cadwallon]] was the [[warrior]] who slew Sigeberth in this fight.” He started to retell the story of the battle at Bath as he had heard it from lord [[Amig]], and explained where they were in the battle. And they started to play. [[Prince]] [[Mark]] was surprisingly sharp at the game being only ten years old. The two boys discussed different ways to take the enemies down especially Sigeberth. [[Melkin]] let them replay the story, roughly according to what he knew. When the token that [[Melkin]] had proclaimed to be Sigeberth ‘died’ and only one round of the game was left [[Melkin]] took one of the boys’ pieces. “Your king is dead.” He proclaimed and placed the token next to the king. Both of the boys gaped at him. “You can’t do that!” said [[Brynach]] in utter shock. “That man was on our side!” protested [[prince]] [[Mark]]. “I told you that Ulfric died in this battle.” [[Melkin]] pointed at the token on the table that had so brutally ‘betrayed’ the others. “One man within Ulfric’s own ranks cut him in the back with a knife and there was nothing the bannermen could do about it. So you won the battle, but you lost the king”. The boys were still looking stunned. “And how do you plan against betrayal?” [[Melkin]] asked them both. “It is possible or course, but hard,” and he pointed at the so called ‘bannermen’ on the table. “Without trust or honour we cannot win, which is why we cannot make strategies like the [[saxons]]. Somehow we have to beat the ones who cheats, by playing according to the rules”. “But how do you do that?” asked [[prince]] [[Mark]] now staring outright at [[Melkin]]. [[Melkin]] gave the [[prince]] a tired smile. “By understanding what it means to be cheated”, he said simply. --------------------- After that evening [[prince]] [[Mark]] would start playing [[Hnefatafl]] with them from time to time. Being a child still [[Melkin]] was reluctant to ask the [[prince]] about the king, but [[Melkin]] slowly started to find out small things about king [[Idres]] which he himself could puzzle together. It was not nearly enough yet, but he was finally getting somewhere on count Roderick’s behalf. One day the [[prince]] decided to challenge one of the knights at their table at the game, and quickly beat him. [[Brynach]], of course, followed in the [[prince]] steps and did the same thing. When the two boys started winning all their games, people really started to gather round. [[Melkin]] knew that the boys mostly won since the game was still so unheard of that no-one else was trained in the rules, and [[Brynach]] and [[Mark]] did not particularly explain exactly what the rules meant to their opponents. A few weeks later he did however find out that king [[Idres]] had been highly amused by the situation of the two boys slaughtering his knights in the new strategy game.
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