Confident that they were not here to raid, I gave permission for Jarl Injeborg's crew to disembark and make camp. Outside the walls of course. Whatever their intentions, if they could see how weak were our defences, they might well be tempted to sack the town. I took Carradock's comment on their piratical nature perfectly seriously.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFfl4PJOKWr
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Back among my people, I organised a rota of pretend guards to face the Vikings, sent Carradock off to separate the prisoners and bring back the ones from Southway, then took Figus and Carlena with me to the keep.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbSZaeoSR0u
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There, in privacy, I explained the food situation and how important those 30 units of food in the ship were to us. We were up to 6 units of meat daily, with consumption at 15 (hopefully 14 when I got rid of the prisoners). Reserves were at 38. That gave us 4 days and then people would be on short rations. If we had the fish in the longship, that would give us 8 days before the stores were empty. Even then, we'd have plenty of iron but I had no idea how long it would take to build a ship, crew it and make a return journey to the Kingdom of Lost Souls. More than 8 days surely?529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkDYR8GObGC
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'Which is why,' I concluded, 'I think Figus will have to go to the Necromancer and ask for an advance.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKnJBPaeMJG
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'Tonight sire?' Figus looked carefully at me.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr1wuwmU3FH
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'Right away.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ2ZBLE8S9X
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'Perhaps the morning would be better, it is Moon Day and I have been working on entertainment that might raise the morale of the people.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpidJNYMIVo
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'What's the significance of Moon Day?' I wondered aloud.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGaFqEavRJb
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Immediately Figus turned to Carlena with a face of pure suspicion. 'What's going on?'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkNNZTwOHT4
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Feeling a flush of embarrassment, I realised I'd asked a question that King Carlos would not have raised. I had been too caught up in the menus and had dropped my concentration.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUy72jpaPYK
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'Well?' now the Bard turned his startling blue eyes on mine, expression hard and suspicious.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsoAVxqFZBG
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'Well what?'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEWkSYIqlEz
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'You're not King Carlos, are you?'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnOZk7DkSG8
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'What do you mean?'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrtprPyYq0N
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'You don't talk like him. You don't think like him. And you don't know that on Moon Day the burghers of the town attend you in the evening.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzFVood0LDz
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'Listen carefully, Figus,' Carlena didn't move but her sharp, clipped words leaned over the Bard. 'If you go around talking like that, you'll bring ruin on us all. If his popularity gets any lower, no one will work or fight. And they'll abandon the realm.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeNIukh1clv
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'I'm no fool Carlena, even though you think me one. Just tell me.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1kFDLwoDsp
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'My real name is Sean de Courcy,' I said quietly, 'I was summoned here by Carlena to replace King Carlos.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL5JiCKjup2
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'Summoned?' Figus looked at the sorceress.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVa367ybYWm
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'That ignorant slob was a fool. All he cared about was his dinner menu. And he thought we could do nothing about his ruin of the kingdom. That we couldn't lift a hand against him without the realm losing its menus.' Carlena was becoming impassioned, her normal pale face flushed and her words coming fast. 'He underestimated me though, and Miya, our goddess. She didn't want her realm to be destroyed. She came to me in a dream and guided me in a ritual to replace King Carlos with a hero from another plane.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAnCkfoG8ZG
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This was the first time I'd heard that a goddess had been involved in the summons. The role of gods and goddesses was clearly another aspect of this world that I needed to understand better.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1alxIAvMC4
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'Pause there, please Carlena. Can you tell me more about Miya and the other gods? Can we get her help? Does everyone have the help of a god? How can I talk to her?'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYJcu3Retz5
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'I'm a Sorcerer. All I can tell you is what everyone knows, that the gods created this world to play out their game. Each has one kingdom and they are all rivals to each other.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpv3QJu0GZj
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'But how much do they intervene? How can we – or our enemies – draw on the powers of our gods?'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5fizkfJvAL
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'They provide divine spells to their priests daily: Clerics, Druids, Paladins and Bards.' The Sorceress waved a hand towards Figus. 'Otherwise, hardly at all. I had never seen or heard from Miya before my dream.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHeNr5Giv0y
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Figus nodded, then spoke, still with a tense and clipped voice. 'I believe… Sean de Courcy… that if you were to build the church up to a cathedral, and have very large numbers of worshippers for her, that Miya might be able to intervene more and provide significant benefits to the realm. Her attributes being those of fertility and renewal, they would most likely involve crops and healing.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdQpSgmTy4m
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'Interesting.' And it really was. I was already thinking that upgrading the church was an attractive option and this information reinforced that idea. 'There you have it, Figus. I'm a newcomer. I don't know the name of the days of the week here, let alone the rituals around them. But I'm confident I can save the kingdom and, in time, go on the offensive.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLo7vC7MUGJ
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'This makes sense of everything that's happened in the last four days.' After my last words, the tension in Figus seemed to melt and all at once he was his usual devil-may-care self. 'Hello Sean,' he offered his hand. 'Welcome to our world. I'm sincerely glad you are here. We need someone like you.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHrQNvzEmsd
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'Thank you.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZJ2IJ8P8E1
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'This is exciting news. I feel hope again. And you know what? I think most of the people of the town would too, knowing the old King Carlos has gone...' Figus gave the Sorceress a rueful expression, as though apologising in advance for what he was about to say. 'You might consider telling them all. Especially if the goddess approves.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrIxRdPsXYE
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'It's too soon. He's doing well but we need to come on a lot more before we can risk a collapse in authority. I think his popularity has to be able to take a much bigger drop than it currently can.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAhKtJLeeL0
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'I might be able to help with that.' Figus grinned and turned to me. 'If I have permission not to depart until morning.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr4CkODfpfZ
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'Permission granted.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmJoNCur39V
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'In that case,' he stood up and bowed to us both. 'I'll take my leave and make my preparations.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAz90Gnl0Pa
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When he had left, I looked over at Carlena. 'I like him.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiyhcs0fT4V
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'I am a difficult person, Sean, because I'm uncompromising. Figus was at King Carlos's right hand most of the time. I understand that he had to play the lackey to avoid punishment. But still, he used his skills to mock other people for the king's entertainment.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1H3c3p8bU0
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'I see. Including yourself, no doubt. But you can still work with him in our joint enterprise?'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCRHC9oCUuM
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'Of course.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7GgqjcGOkO
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'What's the Moon Day event he's planning for?'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrV86utWRnQ
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Carlena looked tired at the thought. 'The town has burghers.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyEle9yme5C
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'Burgers?'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4XZqFxZkr1
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'Yes. Each guild has a representative: the chief baker, the chief butcher, the supervisor of the mines and so on…. These are the burghers of the town, they have a committee to govern all matters in Carrick that are outside of your menus, such as holding court on property disputes, and they have the right to a seating with the king on Moon Day.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT7Vjb0dRmd
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'A seating?'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMSnItQ4lGc
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'They come to a grim and dull evening meal in the castle. Where you sit at the top of the table, hear any complaints they have and resist the urge to hang the lot of them. At least, that's what I think King Carlos usually does, to judge from his expressions.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpliEXuproC
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'I see.' I didn't really but I could manage to sit at the table and listen. It might even be useful, teaching me something about the way in which the orders I made through the menus resulted in changes in the town.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWDPa2xA6Nc
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'Carlena.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTGR211sHFi
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'Yes?'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMC1JlAxFj7
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'Are you happy?'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2IxMkxmyHD
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'Happy? Of course not. We are on the cusp of destruction. I'm a Sorceress with the minimum number of spells and few prospects to change that…' she shot me a penetrating glance. 'Worse, this is a miserable kingdom with a cultural level not much higher than that of the barbarians outside the walls. My existence is incredibly boring.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡye1s7Y0LpU
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'What would make you happy?'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5m0BEwZQHB
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'I'll be honest with you Sean, although many would feel revulsion at my answer. It's power. Power over magic. Power over the other kingdoms. Power not for the sake of it, but to live free from the fear of capture or death.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmFqm09yTCB
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'I understand.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡewvyEhk408
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'Do you though?' Again that appraising look. 'I think you do, Sean. I think you understand everything.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoMUsYiPdpL
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There was a weight on the word everything that was important, as though she were letting me in on a conspiracy. I couldn't grasp her meaning though, nor did I want to reveal my ignorance by asking.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx8rvOpM3Xe
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'What about you Sean, are you happy?'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDy4ac02IG7
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'Very. Before you summoned me, I needed a purpose to my life. A cause. And that moment when I thundered down on the enemy as a rhino?'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1zCfeVyd5w
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'Yes?'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIeOFlNFlFb
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'I've never been happier in my life.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5CN7ZHZ2mU
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Carlena laughed. 'I think you share something with the old King Carlos then. He would have been content to live his whole life as a rhino.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcL6IYhi3M2
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***529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoaDQxB9bZm
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That afternoon I'd made sure to keep on top of all my town management choices, namely, assigning the completed steel pickaxes to the mines and deciding what to build, now that hunting lodge 3 had been completed.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV3nVB8PBlc
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Barracks 2 had its appeal, as it unlocked ballista crew training, and with just one more ballista on the large tower (therefore covering the bridge at the same time as the first ballista stopped groups of archers from congregating under the tower), I could hold Three Ways even against much larger armies. A scriptorium was attractive too. When I had stood before the Vikings and made my bluff about Fireball, it had really struck home to me how disproportionately important was magic here. If we had a research option that led to the discovery of more spells and really did obtain Fireball, Carlena would make our army ten times more threatening.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsjhHrbq6jt
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Upgrading the mine to level 3 would work as well. Given how important iron was becoming to our trading and diplomatic negotiations, I obviously couldn't have too much of it. Also, the description of the level 3 mine said that I would have a chance at discovering seams of silver and gold. Yet while I certainly would push up mining production as a priority, I'd run into the problem that I had no unassigned people after putting the last into the new hunting lodge.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnu3Sbrezlz
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It was during my investigation of the question of how quickly new people would become available that I discovered to my dismay that this was proportional to the realm's happiness score. Greyland's happiness had to be above 25 to even attract one new adult a week.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Km7PpZZht
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Which is why I used 110 planks of wood to set about the upgrade of the church. A bigger, more noteable church increased overall happiness, improved healing rates and attracted a new cleric to the town. Then too, it strengthened Miya, our goddess, and even though I wasn't sure how to quantify this, it was surely an important consideration? The timer on the upgrade was 2 days and 14 hours.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKeYEMvqrwz
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During the afternoon, I'd also worked on my core muscles, although training wasn't at all the same on my own as when Carradock had been present. In the evening, I'd bathed and, on dressing for dinner, had been provided with furs and impressive jewelled rings to wear for the Moon Day dinner.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF31dM5BSiw
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The castle hall looked splendid, with silver places laid out for a dozen guests, glittering in the light of candles and a huge open fire. Banners and tapestries covered large areas of the stone walls and again I saw one of a white rhino on a green background. The people present included the chief carpenter, to whom I had promised the role of shipbuilder, and a dozen other men and women, wearing their finest clothes and bronze chains of office clasping emblems with the symbols of their guilds. These were middle-aged people; there was a dull emptiness in their eyes that made me wonder at first whether they were fully human or some kind of limited NPC.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlkqraiU5TS
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It soon became clear to me that the dullness of their faces was a reflection of their interests rather than their intellect. Insofar as it was fair to generalise across them all, the issue was that their horizons were narrow. One after the other, they made the same kind of speech when their opportunity came to address me: the need to upgrade their factories or premises or equipment.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡceRt4Aaa8e
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The 'factor' of the hunters, as she called herself, was rather less given to whinging, after all, she'd had two upgrades recently and twelve new hunters to lead. But even she wanted upgraded bows and knives.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcMuGjdhV19
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I couldn't ask directly about how my choices in the menu options affected their work: it would reveal me to be an imposter. But I did get the impression from their remarks that they had free will, that they had ambition, rivalry, and passion even, somewhere beneath their solid exteriors. It also became clear that my instructions appeared to them as menus that the office holders could open and close, albeit that they couldn't make any amendments. Once or twice the burghers expressed thanks to our goddess, Miya, in a way that indicated that the divine power of the gods lay behind the menu system.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡENNDo4lVv7
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One question I thought would not be entirely out of character was that of reallocating workers. 'Ladies' – the baker, the brewer, the huntress, the seamstress and the scholar were female – 'and gentlemen. Today, we reached the maximum capacity of workforce in our town. Until such time as we attract new residents or the young come of age, I can only reassign workers. Tell me, is there any penalty for doing so?'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdDOj88Ox2w
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All their faces were turned towards me, orange tinted in the light of the large fire. Then factor of the hunters spoke. 'I believe sire, that while the gods allow this and the workers will immediately know the relevant skill, those reassigned are very likely to be discontented and that will reflect in the overall happiness score for our community.'529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyXWHjzVeUg
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Something to be avoided then. Raising the population had become a problem almost as urgent as that of the food supply.529Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS8Gx19QWQV
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When the meal was done and all the goblets refilled, Figus took the floor. His dress, as always, was smart. Tonight a leather waistcoat lay on a silk shirt, unbuttoned at the neck, that appeared purple in the candlelight but which may well have been blue by day...
I've published Summoned! To an RPG World on Amazon. And I've enrolled it with their Kindle Unlimited. One of the terms of the KU scheme is that I can only make public 10% of the book. So my apologies if you've been enjoying the story, I can't go any further with it here. I hope you understand.
I'm currently writing two other stories you might like and which are free to read.
Summoned! To Grimworld is another isekai LitRPG.
Planet Earth's greatest - but unrecognised - artist, Marcus Korol, is mind swapped into a crashing spacecraft. Ejected to the surface of Grimworld, a planet with a base-building system, Marcus has to master the system in order to survive and prosper. Even if he can cope with the monsters and environmental dangers, there are warlike tribes to consider, twenty of them, in a complex arrangements of alliances. Staying alive, let alone prospering, is a daunting challenge that even a battle-hardened general would find daunting. Yet Marcus treats the situation with relish.
Marcus's one companion is another person summoned from Earth, a former princess, Duchess Sina Koskina: Sina is a young woman who has never done a serious day's work in her life. Having previously had servants for every task, Sina has no idea of her real abilities or talents, but she is keen to find out.
Marcus and Sina must find a way to work together, build a settlement, and master the strange system of the planet. If they can do so, they might even find and solve the Ultima quest that Grimworld is reputed to be host to.
The White Dragon is a metaphor for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It is the year 472 and the Roman empire is still strong in an alternative Earth where magic exists. The Roman authorities hate and suppress the use of magic, which by its nature is wild and uncontrollable.
Unknown to the empress and her brother, rulers of the mighty empire, they have an enemy, one that is inexorable; destructive; remorseless; a conduit for elemental forces. By driving magic away, the Romans did not make it weaker, only wilder and darker. And now the White Dragon is back, the empire is at her mercy.
From a remote village in north Wales comes Arthyr, a beautiful young man of nineteen, who is the antithesis of Roman values. Yet the empress and her officers need his power over magic to assist their armies and face the White Dragon.
Sent to train in Roman boot camp, Arthyr is the most difficult, insubordinate recruit the Roman sergeant-majors have ever had to deal with.
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