Much to Ludger’s relief, they didn’t head for the castle gates.
Rufas turned left instead, guiding them along a wide avenue that skirted the outer walls. The stone ramparts lood close enough to feel oppressive, high, pale, and scarred with centuries of reinforcent, but they remained just that: walls. Not a destination.
The street they entered was different.
Quiet. Clean. Too orderly.
Large mansions lined both sides, each set back behind wrought-iron fences and carefully trimd hedges. Marble columns, enchanted glass windows, crests worked subtly into gates and archways. These weren’t rchants’ hos or guild halls.
These were families with blood ties. Or favors owed. Or secrets shared.
Close to the imperial family.
The twins leaned forward on Ludger’s shoulders, eyes wide as they took it all in.
“Pretty,” Elle said.
“Big houses,” Arash added, impressed.
Rufas slowed near one of the mansions and ca to a stop. Inside the garden, a man was sparring with three kids.
He was tall, broad-shouldered, with half his head filled with gray hair that contrasted sharply with the darker strands still holding their ground. His movents were relaxed, almost lazy, but every ti one of the kids lunged, he was already there.
A wooden sword snapped out, blocking an overcommitted strike.
“Too stiff,” the man said calmly, twisting the weapon just enough to send the child stumbling onto the grass. “You’re thinking about power instead of balance.”
Another kid rushed in from the side.
The man stepped into the attack, turned his shoulder, and let the montum carry the child past him before tapping their ankle lightly with his foot. The kid yelped and landed on their back, staring up at the sky.
“Watch your feet,” he added. “Your arms don’t matter if the ground betrays you.”
The third hesitated.
The man smiled faintly. “Good. Hesitation ans you’re learning.”
He lowered his sword and turned as if he’d known they were there all along.
His eyes t Ludger’s. For a brief mont, the world seed to narrow, not with pressure, but with attention. The man took in the twins on Ludger’s shoulders, the posture, the scars that hadn’t fully faded, the way Ludger stood without standing at all.
Then he inclined his head slightly.
“Rufas,” he said. “You’re late.”
Rufas smiled. “He insisted on bringing an escort.”
The man chuckled, then looked back at the kids. “That’s enough for today. Go wash up.”
The children scattered, grumbling but obedient. The man rested the wooden sword against his shoulder and walked closer, boots crunching softly on gravel.
Up close, Ludger could tell, this wasn’t just a noble indulging in exercise.
This was soone who had earned every lesson he gave.
And whatever conversation Rufas’s uncle wanted to have… It wasn’t going to be ceremonial.
Rufas stepped forward and gestured lightly.
“Uncle,” he said, “this is Ludger.”
The man shifted the wooden sword to rest against the fence and turned fully toward him. “I know who he is,” he replied calmly. Then he nodded once, simple, asured. “Ludger.”
Rufas glanced back. “And Ludger, this is my uncle, Julius.”
The man offered his na without ceremony, like it was sothing you took note of rather than reacted to. His presence was steady, unassuming in the way only people with nothing left to prove ever managed.
His eyes flicked upward. To the twins. He paused.
Brows rose slightly, genuine surprise breaking through his composed expression. “Huh,” he said. “I’ve heard a few things about you.”
Elle sat up straighter, clearly taking that as praise. Arash waved enthusiastically.
“But,” the man continued, eyes narrowing just a touch in curiosity, “not that you were particularly close to your siblings. Or that you enjoyed walking around with them like that.”
Ludger shrugged, careful not to jostle the twins.
“When it cos to ,” he said evenly, “only the worst rumors tend to spread.”
The man studied him for another second, then let out a quiet huff of amusent.
“That tracks,” he said.
The twins grinned, pleased with themselves, and Ludger adjusted his grip as if this were the most normal thing in the world.
Whatever reputation preceded him… It clearly hadn’t included this.
The man rested the wooden sword against the fence and folded his arms, gaze returning to Ludger, assessing now, not sparring.
“I heard,” he said calmly, “that you want to beco better at leading a guild.”
Ludger didn’t deny it.
The man nodded, as if that answer alone was enough. “That’s a harder goal than most people realize. Especially for soone like you.”
Ludger raised an eyebrow.
“You chose to face every challenger yourself,” the man continued. “When your guild was put on trial, you stepped forward and carried the entire burden. You didn’t delegate. You didn’t rotate fighters. You didn’t let others share the risk.”
His eyes flicked briefly to the twins, then back. “That works when you’re strong enough to endure it. And you are. Strong enough that it probably felt efficient.”
Ludger exhaled quietly.
“But leadership,” the man went on, voice steady, “isn’t about efficiency in battle. It’s about building structures that survive when you aren’t standing in front of them.”
He stepped closer, boots crunching on gravel. “By fighting alone, you protected your people. That’s admirable. But you also denied them sothing.”
Ludger frowned slightly. “What?”
“Ownership,” the man replied. “Responsibility. Growth.”
He gestured lightly with one hand. “You taught the capital that Lionsguard wins because you stand there. Not because your guild stands together.”
The words weren’t harsh. They were precise.
“For a guild leader,” he continued, “that’s a dangerous lesson to teach your enemies, and your allies.”
The twins shifted on Ludger’s shoulders, sensing the seriousness in the tone.
“You’re not wrong to act,” the man finished. “But if you truly want to lead, you’ll have to learn when not to step forward.”
The garden was quiet again. Not accusatory. Just honest. And Ludger had the distinct feeling that this conversation wasn’t about the arena anymore.
It was about the future. Ludger didn’t answer right away. He shifted slightly, adjusting the twins on his shoulders, then looked back at the man with steady eyes.
“I did it to stop this from happening again,” he said. His voice was calm, but there was weight behind it. “If I spread the fights out, if I treated it like a normal contest, then this would just beco how things are done.”
He shook his head once. “Guilds bleeding each other dry in public. Politics hiding behind rules. People learning that they can keep pushing as long as they’re patient enough.”
The man listened without interrupting.
“So I stepped in,” Ludger continued. “All the way in. I wanted to make it clear that this kind of challenge cos with a cost. A visible one.”
He glanced toward the street they’d co from, then back. “Not just for Ashbound. For anyone watching. For anyone thinking about trying the sa thing later.”
The man’s eyes narrowed slightly, not in disagreent, but focus.
“At the sa ti,” Ludger added, “it was also a ssage to future mbers of Lionsguard.”
He rested his hands briefly against the twins’ legs, grounding himself. “If sothing like this happens again, sothing political, sothing ant to crush us through attrition or manipulation, I’ll be the one to step forward.”
Not because they’re weak, he didn’t say. But because they shouldn’t have to.
“I don’t expect my people to pay for gas they didn’t choose,” Ludger finished. “They train. They work. They protect routes and towns. I won’t turn them into shields for soone else’s ambition.”
Silence settled in the garden. The man studied him for a long mont, expression unreadable. Ludger t his gaze evenly.
“I know it’s not the perfect answer,” he said. “But it’s the one I chose.”
The twins shifted again, completely unaware of the weight of the conversation, and Ludger straightened instinctively to keep them steady.
Whatever lesson the man intended to teach… Ludger wasn’t rejecting it. He was just making sure his own reasons were understood first.
Julius nodded slowly at Ludger’s words.
“I can understand the logic behind that,” he said. “And I won’t pretend it’s wrong. You wanted to draw a hard line. Make it costly enough that people think twice before repeating it.”
He shifted his stance slightly, weight settling evenly. “That kind of clarity has value. Especially in politics.”
Then his gaze sharpened, not accusing, but perceptive.
“But,” Julius continued, “you probably noticed sothing else during all of this.”
Ludger didn’t answer, but he didn’t deny it either.
“So of your people wanted to shoulder that burden with you,” Julius said. “Maybe not in the arena itself. Maybe not in the sa way. But they wanted to stand with you.”
He gestured lightly toward Ludger’s chest. “And when you take everything on yourself, no matter how noble the reason, you take that choice away from them.”
Julius folded his arms. “Leadership isn’t about sparing your people from danger entirely. It’s about deciding which dangers are worth sharing.”
He let that sink in.
“It’s your job to spread the weight,” he went on. “Even when it’s inefficient. Even when it complicates things. Even when it increases short-term risk.”
His voice remained calm, steady. “Because shared risk builds trust. And trust prevents fractures.”
He looked past Ludger for a mont, toward the high walls in the distance, then back again.
“Guilds don’t usually fall apart because of external enemies,” Julius said. “They fracture from the inside. From resentnt. From an unspoken distance. From people feeling like they’re replaceable, or worse, unnecessary.”
The twins fidgeted on Ludger’s shoulders. Ludger adjusted them automatically.
“If you keep carrying everything alone,” Julius finished, “you’ll win battles. But you may lose sothing more important later.”
The garden was quiet again. Not judgntal.
Just honest advice from soone who had seen too many strong leaders fail for reasons that had nothing to do with strength.
Julius paused, then spoke again, his tone shifting, less corrective, more foundational.
“Despite everything I just said,” he began, “there’s one part of leadership that never changes. Not for guilds. Not for armies. Not for nations.”
He looked directly at Ludger.
“A leader has to be a rock.”
He let the word sit there.
“When things go wrong, when plans fail, when fear spreads faster than reason—your people look for sothing solid. Sothing that doesn’t crack just because pressure increases.” His voice was calm, certain. “That’s you. Stability. Reliability. The sense that no matter how bad it gets, soone is still standing.”
Ludger didn’t argue. He understood that much instinctively.
“But in a guild,” Julius continued, “being a rock isn’t enough.”
He raised a finger, emphasizing the point. “A rock that never moves eventually becos sothing people walk around instead of follow.”
He gestured lightly, as if shaping the idea in the air. “A guild leader has to be adaptable. Able to bend without breaking. To change tactics, tone, even priorities when the situation demands it. Strength that can’t adjust becos brittle.”
Julius’s eyes softened slightly.
“And you have to be more than a commander,” he said. “You have to be soone your mbers can talk to. Soone they can laugh with. Argue with. Trust with things that don’t fit neatly into reports or battle plans.”
He glanced at the twins, then back at Ludger. “A guild isn’t just an organization. It’s a collection of people betting parts of their lives on the sa banner.”
Then his expression grew serious again.
“At the sa ti,” Julius said, “you must be a symbol.”
He tapped his chest once. “Not an idol. Not sothing unreachable. But a standard. When they ask themselves how to act, how to fight, how to endure, they should find the answer by looking at you.”
He t Ludger’s gaze steadily.
“You don’t just lead by orders,” Julius finished. “You lead by example. By giving them sothing worth mirroring.”
A rock when they need certainty. A guide when they need direction. A peer when they need understanding. A symbol when they need purpose. Julius let the silence stretch after that.
“You already are so of those things,” he said at last. “The challenge isn’t becoming them.”
It was learning when to be each one.
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