The sun was almost fully risen over the Valley of Shadows but Richard stood staring out the window like he had done throughout the night. His emotions were in a thousand different forms, ranging from self-beration at having left Aegan behind the way he had, to anger of having let himself foolishly be found in that position to begin with.
Thing is, the king felt he should have done better; known better even. It was no secret that Elveria was a formidable enemy and not just because of her seemly endless power. She was a being who had lived for very long who was extremely good at manipulating people and events to her advantage. He should have considered the possibility that she already deduced that he would return to the Capital at some point and prepared it.
But Richard hadn’t and Aegan a
