This is more or less a collection of many short blurbs I've had in my head for a while. It's not meant to be anything grand or epic, just a quick telling of my version of how Albert and Lavitz became friends. A King and his Knight.

-----

There were some days his father would take him around the castle, instead of insisting that he stayed and trained with the other squires. It was part of his training just as much as learning to wield a weapon. But a different sort of training. Learning how to coordinate the actions between the fourteen Knighthoods, how to deal with the various officials and nobles in the castle, how to act around people of higher status, and most importantly of all, how to work with the king.

The other squires might get some of this training, especially if they were thought to show promise as a future officer. But he had to do this at least once a week, because he was being trained to eventually replace his father as First Knight.

That didn't mean he always enjoyed such days, but after a few years of it, he was finally beginning to understand how things worked. He found that if he really concentrated on being quiet and listening to people, he could start to understand hidden meanings behind their words. He often asked his father about such things when they were alone, and his father would always get the same strange smile on his face as he explained.

By some stroke of luck, he hadn't been in Indels Schloss that one fateful day. He hadn't even been at the training grounds. To him it had just been another day of running around the city with his friends. He was actually at home when he first heard the news. His father had come home late, his steps heavy and slow. Lavitz had stayed still in his bed, trying to listen to what was being said. It wasn't easy, with the thick walls of the house, but he found that if he turned his head just so, he could make out conversations from the first floor.

His mother had said something. At first his father didn't answer. And then, he heard his father's low voice, saying a simple statement: "The king is dead."

-----

Everything had changed since that night. The king had no queen; she had died some years before, for a reason Lavitz couldn't remember. Without royalty to lead the country, the responsibility fell on a three-member Council until a suitable ruler could be found. Eran, the king's chief Minister; Ralto, a man who respresented both the Church and nobles of Serdio; and Servi, First Knight of Serdio, Lavitz's father. That was what the law stated should happen in such a situation, but no one could remember it ever happening before, and as a result there was a brief period in which most people, including the three members of the new Council, were at a loss of what exactly to do.

Lavitz saw very little of his father during the following week. But at the end of that week, Servi, looking rather tired from the unexpected gain of new tasks, returned to the knights' training grounds to oversee the men, as usual. A few days after that, Lavitz was once again following his father around and learning the ways of the First Knight. More often than not now, it involved sitting through countless discussions among the Council and other persons of importance in the country, including the king's brother Doel.

Doel scared Lavitz more than anything this particular day. The man never stopped glowering at Servi through his stormy eyes. Something was wrong, Lavitz knew that much. Doel should be the new king.

But he isn't. And he's mad about it. Why? Lavitz simply continued standing along the wall of the room, too afraid of Doel to move closer to better hear what was being said.

"This is all they do lately. Gets tiresome after a while, don't you think?"

Startled back to reality, Lavitz looked around for the speaker.

To his left stood a small boy, maybe five or six years old, who watched the continuing debate with an tired expression. Though he wore simple clothes, they were made of rich fabrics Lavitz couldn't name.

Did he just say that? No way...no kid uses that kind of language. I don't use it. Lavitz stared.

"Enough of this." The boy turned to look up at the squire. "Would you like to go somewhere else?"

Lavitz was still in shock.

The child, oblivious to Lavitz's strange expression, motioned for him to follow as he walked towards the door to the room. "It's fine. I do know my way around, after all."

Lavitz glanced once at the men in front of him, at Doel and his dark eyes and his father Servi, tensed like a cat ready to spring but remaining silent. Then he followed the boy out of the room.

"You're Servi's son, aren't you?"

At first, Lavitz was irritated that a mere child didn't address his father with his proper title, but he decided not to mention it. This child had given him an excuse to leave the raging debate, after all. "Yeah. My name's Lavitz."

"I'm glad to meet you. And I do mean that, not just because that's what people say when they meet someone."

Lavitz was still trying to wrap his mind around the boy who talked better than most adults he knew.

"There's no one close to my age here in Indels. None of the squires are allowed in, except yourself of course, and none of the nobles will bring their children either." He sighed.

"Then why don't you go out and meet them instead?"

The boy gave Lavitz a look of wide-eyed disbelief. "I can't. Noish and I go for walks inside the castle grounds, but I can't go outside the gate."

Why not? You just walk through them like any other normal person. Something about the kid irritated Lavitz.

"Here, why don't we go to the library? It's quiet there."

-----

Lavitz lost track of time. He floated between being bored, being aggravated at the boy who never shut up, and being constantly astounded at the things he knew. In the times when Lavitz wasn't paying attention to what the child was saying, he tried to figure out who exactly the stranger was. Someone of noble birth, obviously. No commoner would ever be able to learn the things he knew, unless they spent everything they had on education. Which very few people did; eating was usually higher on the list of things to spend money on.

But before he knew it, someone had entered the room. It was Servi, looking even more exhausted than before. Lavitz hated that look.

The knight surveyed the scene in the library quickly, then bowed shortly to the boy who sat under the great window. "Your Majesty."

The boy frowned, but nodded his head in reply.

Once again, Lavitz stared at him. He's... HE is the king of Serdio? Things were starting to make sense to him.

"I've been looking for you everywhere, Lavitz," Servi was saying. "The last place I expected to find you was here." Lavitz's dislike of being in school when he was younger, and by extension, books, was something even he had often laughed about. "Come on. We're done for the day."

Numbly, Lavitz walked past the boy-king, following his father. He's younger than I am...and we have to obey him?

As they passed through the door, the child called out, "I'm glad we met today, Lavitz."

-----

The next week, as always, Lavitz was once more in Indels, although his father had allowed him to wander the castle on his own this time. There were more discussions to be had with Doel, and they were getting ugly enough that Servi felt no child should hear them.

So Lavitz wandered through the great hall, looking at the tapestries that hung on the walls. They mostly depicted either past rulers or mythological and religious scenes. There was even one with a great battle scene, with angels flying around men who rode on monstrous beasts. It was hard to tell which army was being depicted as 'evil'.

"You're back!"

Lavitz glared in the direction of the voice. Sure enough, the boy-king was walking across the room toward him. But he hesitated when he saw the poisonous look the squire had given him.

"Is something wrong?"

"Why didn't you tell me who you were?"

The child looked truly ashamed. "I thought you knew. Everyone who's come to Indels knows who I am. It didn't occur to me that you might not."

Lavitz turned his attention back to the tapestry.

"Well...if I may offer a belated introduction...I'm Albert...King of Serdio."

Lavitz noted the slight quaver in Albert's voice as he had said 'king'. And then he became angry at himself. You shouldn't have spoken to him like that. King Carlo was his father. Albert's just a kid, and he's lost his dad.

"What are you thinking about?"

He almost said 'the tapestry', but somehow he knew that if he did, Albert would not stop talking again for several hours. "I was thinking...we should get out of here."

"And go where?"

"I don't know. Down to the training grounds maybe." He risked a glance at Albert. The boy looked petrified at the thought of leaving the safety of the castle proper, but at the same time, excited beyond words.

He may be the king, but I still have some power over him: I know what's beyond the castle walls. This realization made him grin slightly.

-----

He had just meant to go to the training grounds to get away from the silence of Indels, but even leaving the castle proved to be an adventure. While walking around indoors with the king was nothing to be concerned about, the guards did give him curious looks when he tried to leave by the main doors--where did this boy think he was going with the king?. Not wanting to attract attention, Lavitz instead led him down into the lower levels of the castle itself. There was a way to get outside by going down the various sets of stairs in the center of the castle. It was rarely used, except by the knights that had business inside the castle.

"Noish says Indels was built over one branch of the river that flows through the Bale," Albert said. "The branch that goes underground. I can hear it at night sometimes, if I'm really quiet..more like feeling it, actually..."

He was rambling again. Lavitz tuned him out.

"Can you really see the river if you go down far enough?"

"It's nothing exciting," Lavitz replied.

"How far down is it?"

"Farther than we're going." He risked a glance back at the king; he was keeping pace with Lavitz, although he had to walk rather quickly to keep up with the older boy's longer strides. "Don't you know what your own house is like? I find it hard to believe that any kid who lives here hasn't taken the chance to explore a little."

Albert shook his head. "There's not much for me down here, besides the knights' quarters. The ministers say it's not right for me to be around the knights and always kept me from going down here. So I gave up after a few tries."

"Hmm." Lavitz pushed open a door, and they walked out into one of the training rooms. No one was there, so he continued through the room and down one of the halls until they were outside.

And then he was tackled from the side. The next thing he knew, he was pinned against the ground, unable to move.

"I knew you'd be comin' through here!"

"What...?"

"Castle guards told me. Well, I asked them about why they were looking around so funny, and they wouldn't tell me, so I told them I could very easily beat the crap out of them, and then they reminded me that they were trained just like us knights, so...anyway, long story short, they told me."

Lavitz squirmed. "Kynan! Let...me...up!"

The dark-haired knight simply grinned at him.

Lavitz managed to get an arm free and swung at him. But Kynan had already rolled out of the way and was waiting for Lavitz's next move. Then he noticed Albert. "Who's your little friend?"

"Albert."

"You mean, like, Carlo's boy?"

"Yes."

"As in, now the King of Serdio?"

"Yes."

"Oh. Okay." The knight strode forward to shake Albert's hand. "I'm Kynan. First Kninghthood. Friend of Lavitz's."

"Friend? All you ever do is beat me up like you just did."

Kynan cocked his head arrogantly. "Well, you just need to grow up faster so we're more evenly matched."

Albert was giggling.

The knight smiled at him. "Anyway, as much fun as it is to show up Servi's son every chance I get, I have things I'm supposed to be doing right now. See you around later, half-pint."

"Bye," Lavitz said.

Kynan was already walking away. He only waved in reply, picking up his sword from where he had leaned it against the castle's outer wall, and walked off, idly swinging his sword around every so often.

"Is he really your friend?" Albert seemed amused by this.

"Yeah. S'pose so."

The young king trotted after Lavitz as he strode across the field. "You talk strangely."

"I talk weird? Have you listened to yourself lately?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

-----

They got back from their expedition around the training grounds several hours later, Albert's clothes a little worse for the wear, smudged with light brown dirt and torn in a few places from when he had an unpleasant encounter with some trees roots that arched above the ground. Lavitz had been both irritated and amazed that someone would not know to watch for such things when walking around trees. But Albert himself had not minded his tumble, and it was quickly forgotten.

Until they returned to Indels. As they came up through the lower levels to the great hall, they were accosted by several of the high-ranking nobles who frequented the castle, who were none too pleased at the situation. They all spoke at the same time, their attention on the boy-king.

"Your Majesty, we've been looking all over for you! Where have you been? And your clothes! What happened? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Albert said at last, his voice silencing the others. "I was just out in the training grounds with Lavitz."

And then, as one, their ire turned to Lavitz. The squire was trained to carry himself calmly, even when he was afraid, but he was sure that if someone didn't say something soon, he would curl up on the floor like a frightened puppy.

"What in Soa's name do you think you were doing?" one of the men hissed.

"We were just walking," Albert said, but this time he was ignored.

"How dare you--!"

"Gentlemen, please." Another man strode forward. He wore a cloak of silver and blue, and a minister's hat sat neatly on his head. Despite his obvious status, he had a young face; he smiled knowingly at Lavitz. "This is Servi's son you're shouting at."

The men were silenced once more, although they still appeared absolutely enraged at what had happened. The minister motioned to the two boys, who gratefully accepted the escape from the nobles. Before the yelling could start again, they had left the great hall behind.

Albert let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness you showed up when you did, Noish."

"That's what I'm here for," the man said softly. "So, what were you two up to? It's not every day Albert gets his clothes muddied."

"We were just outside," Lavitz mumbled.

"I tripped on a tree root," Albert added. He sounded proud of himself.

"You shouldn't just leave without telling anyone," Noish said. "It's not safe. Not now."

"I know."

Lavitz glanced at Albert. "This has to do with Doel, doesn't it?" He realized immediately that it was not something he should have brought up.

Albert stiffened; Noish put a comforting hand on his shoulder. Neither said anything in answer to the squire's question.

I guess that's a 'yes'.

"Lavitz, I believe your father is waiting for you at the front gate," Noish said.

-----

As both a royal minister and Albert's tutor, Noish held a unique position in the court. While he was not part of the new governing Council, he in effect spoke for the king, and therefore could wield as much power as all the Council members combined if he so desired.

But he had little desire to do so. That was not why he had accepted his appointment as Albert's tutor when Carlo had been alive. He was there to teach and guide the young king, so that he would hopefully be a good ruler one day. A simple goal, and one he was respected for.

That didn't mean he was without enemies. And one was walking straight for him as he walking through the upper halls of Indels.

Eran, the chief minister, had not taken kindly to Noish's acceptance by Carlo, and he never let Noish forget it. Any chance he found to berate the younger man, he would take with a vengeance. Tonight looked to be no different.

"Your job," Eran stated, as if talking to a child, "is to make sure His Majesty Albert stays safe."

"He is safe," Noish replied calmly.

"He wasn't today."

"He was."

"He was running around outside the castle walls with a boy!"

"He was," Noish said, leveling an icy gaze at Eran,"in the knights' training grounds, with a squire who so happens to be the son of the First Knight. I can't think of a safer place he could be."

For a moment, it appeared Eran would drop the subject. But the chief minister rarely backed down so easily. "Do you think it is wise," he said, neatly sidestepping the previous topic, "for our king, as young as he is, to be spending time around the knights, making friends with a boy who isn't...a boy who..."

"Who what, Eran?" A low, threatening voice came from somewhere nearby. "Who's a mere commoner?" A few heavy steps toward them, and Servi had joined the conversation.

Noish relaxed slightly. He was no longer alone in this debate.

Eran opened and closed his mouth a few times, not knowing what to say. He was outnumbered now. And while Servi was a few inches shorter than him, the knight could very easily cause him serious harm. Servi looked ready to do so, and although Eran knew he wouldn't, it was still a real enough threat that the chief minister finally left his mouth shut.

"If I ever hear you speak of my son that way again..." Servi didn't finish his sentence. He didn't need to.

Giving the two of them one last glare, Eran quickly turned and walked away, trying to regain at least some bit of dignity as he swept across the stone floor.

"Don't let him get to you so," Noish said.

A muscle in Servi's jaw twitched, a movement visible even through his short beard.

"He has Albert's best interests in mind. Whatever those may be." Noish attempted a smile.

"He has no one's interests in mind except his own." A few moments of silence hung between them. "Nobody has the right to talk of my family like that."

If there was one thing Servi couldn't stand, it was being singled out in Indels because he was not from a noble family. Carlo had once offered to make him a nobleman, due to him being a second-generation knight and a First Knight who actually did his job, did it well to boot, but Servi had declined. He felt that greatness and social status should never be connected--an odd sentiment, seeing as he served the royal family. He worked hard at what he did, and for that reason alone he had gained his position. That other people would look down on him because of that was something of a sore spot for him.

Noish was the only person in Indels who understood that, because it was almost exactly what he himself had been through. "Don't worry," he said to Servi. "There'll come a time when he'll regret the things he's said to us."

"I'll be ready for it."

-----

While Lavitz had left school a long time ago in favor of becoming a squire, his father still insisted that he do some schoolwork like other boys his age might. It was mostly reading about history and politics, and by Soa Lavitz loathed it. He did it only because he father told him too, but he still dragged his heels about it every bit as much as he had when he was younger.

He had spent every night for the past several weeks doing this. He would try to read some of his assignment for an hour before dinner, sitting at the kitchen table and constantly being distracted by his mother's movements through the kitchen. Not to mention the wonderful smell of whatever she was cooking that night.

Boar tonight, Lavitz thought to himself and he drudged through another page of the book. He stuck his legs out under the table, resting his feet on the furry back of Hero, his father's old dog.

But just then, Hero moved, taking away the comfortable footrest. She wormed her way out from under the table, no small feat for the huge Liraine bearhound, and barked once. The sound shook the air briefly, making Lavitz jump. No matter how many he had heard the dog bark before, it always startled him. The only time she ever barked, rather than made her normal soft 'rff' noise, was when Lavitz's father was coming.

As if on cue, the front door opened, and Servi stepped inside. Lavitz's mother was there to greet him, but the smile on her face quickly faded when she saw her husband's expression. "What now?"

"Someone tried to kill Albert. Doel disappeared soon afterwards, so I have a good idea who..."

Lavitz listened with rapt attention. Hero was still standing beside the table, not moving.

Then Lavitz noticed something behind his father. The something moved...and revealed itself to be Albert, wrapped in a plain cloak, looking terribly frightened.

His mother had noticed the boy as well. "Why is he here then?" she whispered, as if Albert wouldn't be able to hear her from mere feet away.

"Indels needs to be searched before it's safe for him again. He's too scared to sleep there now anyway."

"Why here?"

"Because I said so. No one in their right mind is going to try to attack the First Knight in his own home." Servi smiled slightly then. "Don't worry so much, Maeja. I know what I'm doing."

Lavitz's mother ignored that last statement, purposely or not, and crouched in front of Albert. "Dinner's almost ready, if you're up for it."

Albert nodded shakily. "Yes...please." He started to follow Maeja to the table, but stopped when he saw Hero. The dog stared back; her height meant her eyes were level with Albert's. Albert remained frozen where he was.

"Haven't you ever seen a dog before?" Lavitz asked at last.

"That's a dog?"

"Of course she's a dog. Her name's Hero."

"But...she's like...as big as a pony."

"That's because she's a bearhound. Bearhounds are big because they have to be able to take down bears." It was painfully obvious knowledge to Lavitz. How can he be so smart and yet not know things like this?

Albert had picked up on his frustration. "You don't have to be so short with me."

Lavitz snorted, trying to repress a laugh.

"What?"

"You're the one who's short around here. Even Hero's bigger than you!"

Albert's face went through several expressions before he decided to just glare at Lavitz. It was quite apparent that nobody had ever said such things to him before, and he wasn't sure if it was meant to be humorous or insulting.

How long does he have to stay here again?

-----

For the next two weeks, Albert stayed at the Slambert's house, doing whatever lessons Noish had dropped off that day. Unlike Lavitz, he finished them quickly, and would spend an hour or two each day following the older boy around the city. While such expeditions were sure to ruffle the feathers of the nobles back at Indels when they heard of them, Albert enjoyed them immensely (or maybe, as Lavitz liked to think, he enjoyed them exactly because it would annoy the nobles). He asked Lavitz to take him everywhere. While Lavitz couldn't do that, as he was still restricted by his parents on where he was allowed to go, he allowed the boy-king to tag along with him when he did go out. At first it was something of a chore, but then he and Albert began to gain a quiet respect for one another. Albert could rattle off any number of historical facts for almost any building or landmark in Bale, but Lavitz knew how to get to those places. The king was able to talk his way into and out of situations, but for those times he couldn't, his squire was there to protect him. And Albert tended to be very good at talking himself into trouble, but not out of it. Lavitz knew that if his father ever found out how many fights he had gotten into with the neighboring children because of some stupid thing Albert had said, he would never hear the end of it. But he still enjoyed it, in some twisted way.

However, at the end of those two weeks, Albert was made to return to Indels. They were sure they would never see one another again. After all, Albert was still the king, and Lavitz was still just a common boy.