Emid gets caught up and Eba wants to unwind

His oldest sister, Eba, approached Emid and waved him toward the tavern. “Our guards can take care of your guests from here. We have more fortification than we need.” Emid closed the distance as they both walked in the general direction of the tavern. Eba had always been tall and imposing, but with the time, Emid must have made her a little smaller in his mind. Between her mother’s understanding of organizing a guard and her size and strength, it was natural she would become a commander of a town guard. Emid had always heard about how beautiful his sisters were and he couldn’t disagree. As they met, his sister embraced him and lifted him slightly off the ground. The travel guard departed to try to make it back to the Inn they occupied last night before heading home. Eba whispered to Emid while they were close “I hate that bitch Fari and the prefect is no better”. Emid suggested Eba review the layout of the guard so he would know. Eba said “Emid, don’t worry so much. I will guarantee safety for you and your guests while you are here. My word actually is actually more valuable than the alderman or the prefect since the royals declared the border towns as martial districts.” Emid couldn’t argue with that. They went on to the Tavern and discussed how life in Enor had been.

Eba wasn’t impressed with Enor. She thought it was boring and full of busy bodies. The alderman had basically just inherited his post from his family since peasant representation was typically selected by semi-democratic processes. Such an inheritance may have been a scandal in other times. The local nobles had walled-in estates outside the immediate town and had a private guard. However, they strongly supported enhanced royal guard presence since many of the villagers worked their estates or produced crops close enough the noble pantries would never go empty. In fact, the peasants weren’t short on food either. It must have been somewhat idyllic when they weren’t afraid of the Nantian army crossing the river and flowing from the forest at any moment.

The Folks were always snooping about the guard and noble drama since the guard had come to power and the potential conflict was always a topic at the border. The prefect of Enor seemed to be doing exceptionally well. A few years back, he might counsel a couple dealing with a bout of infidelity. The chapel had stayed mostly empty except as a place to sleep off hangovers as the prefect was preaching. However, these days, it seemed folks were either at work or at the chapel, even if they mostly just went there to gossip. The prefect had commissioned an expansion of the chapel and build small chapel wings at the estates of both royal families. The prefect had always been revered, but now his influence outshined that of the alderman. Folks went to the prefect to represent them to the nobles and to settle disputes. The nobles had the prefect over for dinner at least once a week each and saw him as another connection to seats of power in Banpa and Nantia so they would have a route to land on the winning side no matter who took the land they occupied. Sure, the peasants were sure to suffer losses, but if they made their gates hard to breach, armies would probably consider them locked in place and move on to more worthwhile areas.

Eba relayed all this local information to Emid and he was having trouble absorbing it. He knew how to defend a single castle, but had spent little time considering border towns that were almost certain to change hands at least once during the brewing conflict. Her time in this town had weighed on Eba. When she left home, she was happy and seemingly care-free. She was still tall, strong, and beautiful, but her face revealed the weight she was carrying. Emid assumed she was out here supervising patrols and probably pulling pranks and flashing a smile to avert any consequences as she had done in Banpa and then the castle. She even got along with Fani and Hana as ill-tempered as that duo could be.

Anyways Eba wanted to unwind. Running a tight ship with guards as her inferiors and villagers as her responsibility and the weaselly alderman and ambitious prefect complicating things had left her looking to relax as soon as some family showed up.