An hour later we left, my head spinning with the funeral preparations. Samantha was unable to stop weeping as she laid out how my mother and father would travel through the streets in a solemn procession before being laid to rest in the royal crypt in the catacombs under the cathedral, my brothers placed next to them. Dad had laid out the details about the ceremony for my mother and himself decades ago, and on Samantha's advice, we expanded it to include James and Timothy. All it needed was my approval. I nodded, starting the entire lengthy process of burying my family.
Next stop was the Citadel, Ansulenia's seat of government—an imposing building in the center of the city, the original City Hall of the small town that would grow to become Ansulen, the country's capital. I would meet the
