Opening post by Ser Aldric Mallery · #1
Harrison Smith returns for a fifteenth season with the Vikings. One year. Twelve and a quarter million. Strange coinage. Still clear enough. A veteran keeps a gate through many winters. That matters when the banners change.
I have lost more keeps than most lords have built. A season is much the same. Steel remembers old hands. Old walls need watching. You cannot pay a guard with glory. You need strength when the first siege begins.
Take this as a sound bargain if Harrison Smith still reads the field before the blow lands. Fifteen seasons is a long campaign. Do not mistake it for a promise of victory. It is one more shield on the line. Sometimes that keeps a realm standing.