A few key locations, but that's not all there is to talk about.

As I returned from my thoughts, I found Norman staring at me with a raised eyebrow, along with a somewhat impatient expression. He cleared his throat before relaxing and continuing the meeting as if nothing had happened.

He re-straightened his vest and hair before speaking once again, "Yes, well. I believed it would be beneficial to discuss the contents of his words with you. If, you have the time to spare, of course." He looked at me with an expression that put doubt to this truly being a choice. Regardless, I had no reason to refuse.

I gave a polite smile before responding, "Why of course! As the church is not yet built and shall not begin until tomorrow, I am quite available for the moment." I gave a cheerful nod to top off my words.

He let out a strong exhale, seemingly caring little for my upbeat mask at the moment. "Indeed, well then. Let us simply go in order of when I learned the information, yes?" He opened a drawer on his side of the desk, pulling out a small journal that he opened and went to the first page of.

He looked up to me expectantly, and I simply gestured for him to continue. "First, when asked how he knew the location of my daughter's carriage, he said that he wasn't the one who organized the attack, and therefore didn't know. When asked who was in charge of the attack, he responded that he was unaware of their name, but that it was the leader of their camp. When asked for the location of the camp, he demarked the following area."

He pulled out a separate paper from the same drawer, passing it over. I grabbed it, finding it to be a folded-up map of the immediate area. Somewhat close to the edge of the map, a somewhat sizable area of the forest had been circled. I folded it up again and passed it back, him wordlessly returning it to the drawer.

After clearing his throat once more, he continued. "When he was asked the purpose of this attack, he at first responded in a similar way to the first question. He then hesitated before speaking again, saying he believed it to be an attempt to gain favor with a member of the darkness known as 'Orchid'. When asked why this would grant favor, he responded that 'Orchid' had recently acquired a new general, who had connections to my daughter."

He stopped there, and exhaled heavily. After a moment, he returned the journal to the drawer before opening another one. He took out a medium sized box from it, setting it on his desk to the side of the game board before opening it and inspecting its contents. Seemingly satisfied, he began to remove a few items.

He placed what appeared to be decorated chess pieces around the board, though the board itself was much too large to be a chess board. He placed on the two sides to my right and left the white and black king and queen, as well as a bishop, knight, and rook. After examining them and placing them in two distinct formations, he nodded to himself before reaching back into the box. This time he took out far less pieces, being a red king, and six pawns which he placed at the center of the board, and a green king and knight which he placed on the side in front of me.

At last done, he spoke once more. "Sorry for not explaining myself, but I like to use these pieces as a model of sorts. I know this is not how these pieces are used in a game, but they make quite good wargame tools." I nodded in agreement, and he continued. "These, represent the forces of light," He gestured to the white pieces, "And of course these are the darkness," he waved his hand at the black pieces, seemingly disgusted to mention them. He then pointed to the green pieces, "Those, represent you and your church. See the king as you as your lord as you see fit, you are simply the embodiment of his power at the moment. The knight is Oliver." I felt satisfied with this, and allowed him to finish. He glared at the red pieces for a moment before gesturing somewhat tiredly, "And this, is house Normn."

After letting out a sigh and sitting up a bit more, he continued his explanation, "Now, as you can see the light and dark are of course opposed, while you are indifferent to either as it lies. Then, my family is equidistant from all forces, being closer than you are to the light and darkness both, but otherwise no more aligned to either." His views on it were making sense for the most part, and I had no reason to interrupt.

He grabbed some pieces in his hand from the box before looking back to the red pieces, "now then, of my six children, there are three you have met that are of note. Nathaniel, my son with quite high aspirations as well as an immense pride." He replaced one of the red pawns with a knight, then adjusted it slightly away from me while pushing it slightly towards the light. "Then, Lana. A quite gifted priestess who seems to possess immense potential, which has rather gone to her head." He swapped another pawn for a bishop, moving it until it was halfway between the other red pieces and the white pieces. He let out a sigh, "Do you see a pattern? While Kyle might be greedy, he doesn't have the type of utter arrogance that makes these two perform acts that are quite ill advised." While mentioning Kyle, he rests his finger on one of the remaining pawns, before simply removing it off the board. "Such as challenging an opponent of unknown capability." He gave me a slight glare before continuing. "My last child who strays is Norma, who stands with most nobility. Commonly, this has caused her to stray to the light," He replaced a red pawn with a rook and moved it to the white pieces, not removing his finger from it. "However, she has been acting somewhat strange as of late, seemingly favoring yourself in her plans." He readjusted the rook, still being closer to the light than darkness, but being closer to the green pieces than the white ones.

He looked up at me skeptically as he finished, to which I simply shrugged. "She came by yesterday to discuss a deal with my lord. I was given permission to let them speak, I know not what occurred." If I had truly been just Mathew Kiegan, that would have been a true statement, for the most part. I of course was not going to mention to Norman's face that I placed a mark of submission upon his daughter.

He gave an annoyed shake of head before returning his attention to the board. "Now, Millana is of course throwing in her lot with you for the most part as well, "He pushed one of the two remaining pawns up to me, resting beside the rook. "And of course, that leaves only one." He tapped his finger on the board a few times in thought, before picking up the final unmoved pawn and looking at it. "Norman Normn the sixth. The one who was meant to actually take my position, as was his birthright. As was his purpose." He whispered the last sentence somewhat under his breath, though I heard it far better than a normal man. "Regardless, he fell to the temptations of those who follow the pouting sister gods, who have taken the name of 'darkness'." There was clearly something more to what he had just said, but I felt it was inopportune to question it right now. He put the pawn back down beside the black pieces, studying them carefully.

After a few moments, he nodded, seemingly having decided upon something. "I have a proposition for you."