Ambrose was used to sleeping on the ground, he had been doing it for years since he left the orphanage, so the fact he had slept on a soft bundle of skins had actually been one of the more comfortable night sleeps he'd had in a while. Yet for some reason no matter how many times he told this to Arlon, it didn't stop her repeated apologies.

  "Honestly, if my mother found out I let a guest sleep on the floor."

  She was currently darting around her kitchen preparing what he had to admit smelt like a delicious breakfast.

  "Arlon it's fine, it was honestly quite comfy."

  She cracked two eggs into a pan of bubbling fat.

  "I had a bed roll and pillows and a blanket, but what good are they if I don't bloody give them to you."

  She waited a moment before putting a spatula under the eggs to move them.

  "How do you want your eggs?" She asked, only slightly turning her head to him.

  "Cooked is fine." He replied, flatly.

  She turned her head more to look at him. "You're lucky your..." She trailed off before turning back to the stove.

  The breakfast consisted of the forementioned eggs, venison sausages, blood pudding and fried bread. It tasted as good as it smelt.

  Once he had eaten his fill, which included seconds and at his hosts insistence, thirds, he sat back in his chair rubbing his full stomach.

  "Well, I will personally tell you mother that you have made up for any wrong doings."

  Arlon sat opposite him smiling at his comment, a steaming cup of tea in her hand. "Have you considered what you are going to say to the council?"

  Ambrose sighed and sat forward, picking up and blowing on his own cup. "Not a clue, I have been making it up as I go along so far, why change that plan now?" He did have some idea on what he was going to say, or more accurately on what he was not going to say. He would mention that he had a family living with him, but felt that unless he really needed to mentioning they were goblins was probably best unsaid. If the topic if how he got his land came up, his current plan was to be as vague as possible. The magics of the forest where a mystery to most in the city and so he hoped that like most in the city of high authority that he had met, they wouldn't dig too deep into something they didn't understand, just in case it made they look stupid.

  After making use of Arlon's wet room, Ambrose got dressed in his new cloths and he and his hosts began making their way to council building.

  "Are you sure its ok for you to close the shop again today? I can go on my own."

  Arlon waved away his concerns. "I have got most of the orders finished, plus." She looked around before she continued. "From the money I have saved from doing my own skinning, I can afford a few days off."

  He nodded. While Ambrose did still feel a bit guilty that he was taking up so much of her time, the fact that Arlon had agreed to be the one to second his request did make him feel less nervous.

  They walked mostly in silence through the city, making their way towards the building that was once Castle Tarus. It sat in the center of the city, towering above the rest of the building, meaning it could be seen from nearly any point where the view of the sky was visible. It was made from three different stones, which he had been built during three different periods of expansion in the city's history. The main tower was built of the same grey stone that made up most of the ground that could be seen once the dirt was cleared away from anywhere around the city, he had been taught that it had been over a thousand years since the first king Tarus had settled the city, and the castle had been one of the first things he had ordered his subjects to build, even before they had homes themselves. The east tower was made of the same white stone that a lot of the buildings in the city was made from. Imported from Nortok it was built three hundred years ago to honor the, at the time, new treaty of cooperation between the city and the kingdom of Deepstone. The west tower was the most recent to be built. Beginning construction only sixty years ago, it was taught too Ambrose at the orphanage as one of the final factors that eventually led to the rebellion that removed house Tarus from power. A vanity project from the recently crowned king, the importation of the fine red stone that it was built from, as well as its construction, was so perilous that the number of workers that where maimed, killed or simply vanished, was so high that only estimates to the closest hundred has been made.

  It was this tower that the council held court, and so was the one the two where currently approaching. The small bridge that crossed the moat that surrounded the castle was a more recent addition to the city. Since each tower of the castle was now used for a different civil purpose, it made sense that each one had dedicated access.

  Ambrose stopped half way across and looked up. He had been seeing the castle his hold life and had wondered what it would be liked inside more times than he could count.

  "You sure you want to do this?" Arlon asked looked back to him.

  He looked down, nodded and they made their way across the bridge. The large door that was seemed to be the main entrance to the building was closed and instead Ambrose's companion led him to a smaller one to the right of the court yard.

  Once they entered, the thick stone walls of building caused the air to be significantly cooler than it was outside. The smell of smoke was strong in the air and the sounds of foots steps on the bricks resonated around them.

  Walking further in they came to a desk with a small line of people leading to it. After a few minutes of waiting they made it to the front, and was greeted by a woman who raised one finger in a gesture of patience while she finished writing in a book that sat on the desk. After a moment she put down her quill and looked up at them.

  "Name and guild?" She asked, curtly but politely.

  She was a small woman, not much taller than Arlon but based on her build he assumed she was human.

  "Um Ambrose, no-no guild." He stuttered.

  The women went to write down his response but paused as her mind seemingly caught up to it. She looked back as him, confusion clear on her face as she looked him up and down. "Are you… not from the city?"

  "No, I am." He replied slowly.

  The women nodded slowly. "Ok. Address?"

  Luckily before the panic could fully form on his face, Arlon spoke up.

  "Currently residing at the Tip Top Tanner, East Gate, section one."

  The women looked from her to Ambrose and when he didn’t correct the address, she jotted it down. "Ok then, what are you hear to petition to the council?"

  "I want to request settlement status." He blurted, slightly excited he knew the answer to this question.

  The women gave a small huff at his answer. "We don't get many of those requests." She finished writing and gestured to a door behind her. "The Council will begin session soon. There are fourteen before you, please wait in the docks until you are called."

  The two thanked her and began to walk to the door she had gestured to.

  "So, I am living with you now?" Ambrose said with a small smirk to his companion.

  "You wanted to explain to her that you’re currently living in the magic forest outside the city?"

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  "…Good point."

  Once through the door it opened into a grand chamber. Close to the back of it where five raised chairs Infront of a large red banner emblazoned with the cities crest, the joined hands of house Brampton. Before the chairs stood a small podium, that while raised from the ground was still significantly lower the seats where he assumed the counsel sat.

  On the left and right walls of the room where wooden stands of seats, staircasing down. He and Arlon went and sat on the third row up on the right, shuffling along until they were in the center of the long wooden bench.

  As he sat, Ambrose looked around at the rest of the people on the stands. There was at least forty he could see. "Is everyone here to ask for something?"

  "Some will be here to support other requests; some will just be here to observe."

  "Observe?"

  Arlon looked at him and then back towards the stands, she made a small movement, gesturing towards one of the people opposite them. "That is a representative of the tool smith’s guild. There has been talk that the lumberjacks are planning on moving to using runes to fell trees." She said with a smirk.

  Rea is really planning on working Gro-Lag to death. He thought with a frustrated sigh.

  "If they did, they would want to break their contract for their regular orders on axes and saws, which they would need council permission to do."

  “So, they are keeping watch to see if anyone from the lumberjacks show up." Ambrose finished.

  Arlon nodded. "And if they do, the representative can object."

  Just as she finished speaking, there was movement as everyone in the room stood, both of them quickly following.

  The council members made their way in and sat. They all wore long satin robes emblazoned with the same crest as the banner behind them. Three of them were women, two of them older but one surprisingly to Ambrose didn't seem much older than himself. The rest where men, the one who sat on the left from center seat was a small man, who due to his age Ambrose felt might struggle climbing the steps to his seat, a worry that was quickly dispelled when with a glow of his hands he gently levitated up to it.

  "Can you do that?" Arlon whispered.

  "I wish."

  The final person was surprisingly someone that he recognised. The tall, well-built man, with short cropped black hair, and piercing blue eyes.

  "I didn't know Cedric Brampton was on the council?" He whispered to his companion.

  "He leads the council." She whispered back. "How do you know him?"

  "He came to my orphanage a few times, brought gifts and told us how much his mother cared about the children of the city." Didn't care enough to keep it open though. He finished in thought.

  The room went quiet as Cedric Brampton climbed and sat in the center most chair. After a few moments of silence, he spoke. "You all may sit. Will the first petitioner." He looked at a piece of paper in his hand. "Master Mahon of the combat guild please approach the stand"

  The first few times Ambrose watched the process of the council hearing a petition was fascinating to him. The representative from the combat guild request to open a new chapter focusing on combat magic. A tool smith asked to build an extension on to his work shop and a member of the hunter’s guild appealed for what seemed to not be the first time for the guards to widen their enforcement around the perimeter of the forest to reduce the amount of non-guild hunters. A comment that elicited a joint side eye between Arlon and himself. After the fifth or sixth petitioner he was starting to grow bored, by the tenth he was struggling to stay awake.

  He thought from the taste in his mouth that he had fallen asleep when Arlon nudged his to say he was next. The sudden rush of anxiety of what he was about to do leaving him more than awake.

  As the council dismissed the previous petitioner the sudden need to be anywhere but here suddenly became very important to Ambrose. He looked down at himself in his recently acquired finery, feeling like child playing a king. "I can't do this." He said through shaky breaths.

  Arlon looked at him for a moment, before placing her hand on his arm and looked into his eyes. "Ambrose, you have managed to build something wonderful based entirely on you and your kindness. Just do what you always do and I am sure it will be fine."

  Before he could find a response to her words, his attention was taken by Lord Brampton speaking. "Can the next partitioner, Ambrose..." He paused looking at the list, seemingly confused at the name he was calling. "Yes Ambrose, please come to the stand."

  On mildly wobbly legs, he stood and made his way down and then up to the raised wooden platform.

  "Tha-thank you for hearing my request today." He stuttered.

  Cedric smiled at him and gave a small nod. "So, you wish to make an application for a settlement?"

  Ambrose took a breath and tried to calm him nerves. "Yes, I recently... acquired a section of land."

  "Are you currently residing on the land?" One of the older women on the council asked.

  "Yes, along with a few others."

  "Are they residents of the city."

  Ambrose froze for a moment, considered how to respond. "...No."

  Silence hung in the air after his response. He felt he was probably meant to elaborate but he thought it best to only answer questions with as little detail as possible.

  Cedric Brampton cleared his throat drawing the rooms attention to him. "Ok, so where on the approximately on boundaries is this section of land? its Distance from a road, or other settlements?"

  Ambrose swallowed hard, this was the moment he had been dreading. "It's not on the boundaries." He said, a lot quite then he meant to.

  "Sorry, did you say it's not on the boundary?"

  He nodded, meekly.

  Cedric paused for a moment and turned to look at the other members confused. "Well, I'm sorry, if the land if not in the bounds of the city we can't-"

  "It's in the forest." Ambrose blurted.

  The room once again fell silent, and he could feel the blood rushing to his face as the eyes of all the people in the room bore into him.

  "The forest? You have land... in the forest?"

  Ambrose staired blankly at the council, but nodded at the question.

  "My lord if I may?"

  He turned and saw Arlon making her way down from the stands. "I know that what Ambrose claims seems impossible but I can attest to his honesty, I have visited his land."

  "And you are?" The man sitting next to Cedric asked.

  "Arlon Tanner, I and Ambrose have been doing business, he had been selling me some of the deer he had been hurting."

  A soft wave of sound washed round the room at the admission.

  "You can hunt in the forest?" Cedric asked, a mix of amazement and curiosity in his voice.

  Ambrose nodded. "Yes, my lord." He quickly glanced up at the hunter’s guild representative, trying to gauge their reaction, but they seemed as confused as everyone else.

  “This is ridiculous.” One of the older women said.

  “I swear to you it is true.” Arlon pleaded.

  The women went to protest again before Cedric raised his hand to quell her. The head of the council sat back in his chair. "I believed, we should perhaps speak in private.”