I rose the next morning with my head in a fog. The dinner had lasted from the afternoon, long into the night. The king regaled us with stories of my father's heroics during the Blind War. I could see a dark mood starting to fall over my father's face. He would nod and smile when it seemed appropriate, but it didn't seem like he enjoyed hearing his story told.
We rode out of the gates from the kingdom after a very quiet breakfast. My new sword was strapped to my saddle. The King had given me permission to have a weapon, and my father permission to forge weapons for me. He renewed his promise that he would sponsor me for the Knights Academy in one year. My journey to being a Knight would take longer, but I was going to train as hard as I could until then.
When we stopped for lunch at midday, my father broke his silence.
"There's something I need to tell you boy. Those stories from last night, that is all that they are. Yes, I did everything they said I did, but there should be no congratulations for my actions. I only did what I needed to do to help us win. Battling in war is nothing you should strive to do. It is ugly and tears a part of your soul from you. Only kill when you have to, to defend your life or the people you love. Never kill for fun, profit or heroics."
"Yes papa." The look in his eyes was one that I'd never seen before. They were full of malice, torture and pain. After I responded, he dropped his head and just started at the ground for a long moment.
"I hope that you never had to fight in a war. When the Blind War was over, the King asked me to be the head of the Targen Knights. Even though I had never been a Knight to begin with. He said my skills with a sword were second to none, and that I had been the reason that we had won the war. I wanted no part of that life. I had seen enough deaths and only wanted a peaceful life with my wife and future family. I stayed in the village because I knew that the King wouldn't send his Knights to search for me there. They would have their own problems keeping the borders calm. The mountains are a natural barrier protecting the realm, so there was no need for them to patrol there."
"Was the war really that bad?"
"It was my son. I don't want to stop you from your dream, but it was my deepest hope that you would stay safe in the village and become the blacksmith when I walked on to meet the ancestors. I will train you in everything I know to keep you safe as a Knight of the realm, because that is the only way I know how to keep you safe now."
My father got up and began packing his horse. We rode the rest of the way home in silence again. I was torn between my joy of getting what I wanted for the past year, and the weight that the war put on my father's shoulders. I will train even harder than I did before. I would honor my father in the only way I knew that I could, and that would be the best Knight of the Targen realm that had ever lived. I would protect him and everyone else in the realm. War would never all upon the Targen realm again. How foolish I was.
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