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[Taricus]

"Of course. My brother and I aren't her bodyguards for no reason. My name is unimportant Kathos, and I sincerly doubt we'd be speaking again anytime soon, so you wouldn't need it anyway. As for what we can speak about, we are the queen's right hands, thus just about anything can be discussed with me."

[Shootandrun]

"Names are knowledge and knowledge is power, young man. You know mine, and by knowing you have the power to learn everything I ever did in my entire life. I think it would be polite to give me yours, so that we are on equal grounds during this discussion, and any further discussion."

[Taricus]

"Thus, my name would be worthless as it would hold no power over me. So, if you have something to discuss, we may as well stop carrying on about something that wouldn't affect the conversation to the conversation itself, agreed?"

[Shootandrun]

"Agreed."

I'll have to find out who you are by myself.

"As you know, I am leaving for Polca. The journey will take a season if not more, since I have no ships to carry my troops across. Now, as Laythe will know if she did her homework..."

And I know she didn't, since she failed to question either me or William about it...

"Someone has hired the Black Company to take Polca. Previously I thought about eliminating them using military force, but since my armed power will be crippled for a long time, I started checking for alternatives. I am nearly absolutely certain that the Black Company was hired by the previous Lord of Polca. Since the man is dead, I do believe I can turn them to an advantage. Few men in the Storm Coast can bid higher than me - this is even truer since nobody taxes my business. A dead man certainly won't. I plan to hire the Company, and turn them against my target. Of course, I know Laythe is a very careful woman..."

His tone said she was paranoid, and that he thought her recent decisions were funny.

"...Thus I do not know if she will allow me to hire them. She will know, doubtlessly, that they are professional mercenaries, probably more professional than her wise laws allow me to have. So, I wanted to know if I could hire them legally..."

He resisted the temptation to say "or if I will have to hide my records for a few months", but he wondered if the man had saw the look in his eyes. Probably.

[Taricus]

Epilogue

[6,6] Ligoria makes great gains on the political stage, after its surpise conquest of the old Motavi empire, a new one is born from a coalition of Ligoria, Galam, Shola and Vasir: The Tempest Empire. Using the political power gained from the formation of the empire, and from the conquest of Motavi Laythe has contacts secure her an artifact of great value to her: one that could grant immortality. Both, however, turn out to be bittersweet: Shadow wars plague the empire, and every so often a major vassal erupts in a fountain of revolution. The empire, at it's best is unstable. unified in name only, it would take a great political mind to truly unite the nations of the Tempest empire into a functioning entity, and a power to be reckoned with

Laythe fids out that the "Gift" of immortality, is far from what she had in mind. While she was in effect, immortal, she wound up learning the hard way that the easiest way to be granted immortality, is through undeath. Laythe slowly goes down the path of the lich, steadily being changed into a creature only found in fairy tales, becoming more reclusive with each year. The artifact itself was powered on by souls of other living beings; hundreds of slaves and prisoners being sacrificed to grant the lich-queen more time on Itu. The queen herself changes over time due to the artifact's presence. In ten years time, there would be a far different person on the throne compared to the queen that ascended it originally after the rebellion. Never again would someone see her face though, with the procurement of a steel mask, none would be able to see the monster behind it...

((I'm going to assume everyone else will post their epilogues...))

[Shootandrun]

Kathos served the Queen for years and years, as Ligoria rose to become the greatest empire the Storm Coast had ever known. He became the queen's general, and served her during the invasion of the motavi empire and many other battles, notably the conquest of Lechem and Dalannor. He ended his career after the Siege of Fiumefurt, which lasted four years; by then he was an old man, a shadow of the warrior he had been in the years of his youth. In his retirement years, he saw the Queen grow evil and corrupted, and at first he stood by, torn between a loyalty that he had promised he would never break again, and the sense of justice that had lead him to Ligoria.

When at last he made his choice, it was too late. The first and the greatest of all rebellions was led by him, but in the end, he could not kill the Lich Queen. Many stories speak of his death, and no one knows for sure how he died; some say he was pierced by arrows during the siege of Talama, and did not witness the ultimate defeat of his rebels, who managed to take the walls but not the city; others whisper that he is one of the few who managed to get inside, and that he even met the Lich Queen in battle as his forces were being pushed back out of the city. In his earlier years, Kathos had been the finest swordsman of the kingdom, never defeated in single combat; however, now he was an old man, and his last task proved to be too much for him, and he died at the end of the Lich Queen's sword. A more rational man would have fled the city to lead the rebellion, but as he liked to say, "Kathos Thunderblade does not run."

He left behind him a strange legacy; in his young years he created a genocide in a mad quest for vengeance, then created a kingdom led by his nephew. While he grew older, he served the Lich Queen as she conquered the west of the Storm Coast, and as she grew crazy in her immortality... And finally, in his old age, he rose in rebellion against her, but in the end he failed to stop her. In the south, he would be forever be remembered as a monster and a destroyer of nations, the Black Knight of the Seventh City; in the north, his legacy would be that of an hero and a martyr, the Storm Lord of the Islands. He was buried far away from his homeland and his family, but at last in peace.

Dalannor and Lechem, which had been his lands, remained independent of the empire after the rebellion, thanks to their fleet, but they failed to threaten the Lich Queen's rule.

Kathos' sword was never found, neither in his tomb or in the Queen's possession. An urban legend states that his second in command, Adrian, took it from his commander's body and brought it back to his kin.

[Ardas]

[6] Gavin's experiment was more than succesful, and the half-crazy wizard obtained the artifact of his dreams, anhiliating all living life in Mileth in the process. Nonetheless, the experimment left him addicted to the power of the staff. During Laythe's conquests he used his power to the fullest, indulging himself in a hedonistic lifestyle he so much desired his whole life.

The situation changed however once Laythe started to use souls for her own purposes, and the Tempest Empire came to be. Threatened by her magic and threated in his way of life, Gavin with his powers became one of the unseen forces fighting with Laythe, driving rebellions and fuelling Shadow wars, engaging in clandestine arcane operations trying to undermine the undead ruler. After all, he was the only one with power capable of doing that. But he fared no bettter than her, also dependent on constant stream of slaves and defeated people to power him and his staff.