Everyone was brought onto the palace grounds a few minutes later once the guards finished validating their identity. They were escorted to a private dining hall where food was being made available as rooms were being prepared. As soon as Ollie and Michael had greeted them they were honored as royal guests by King Marlo. They were surprised, but grateful.Before he could get updates on what everyone had been doing he decided to tackle the most awkward reunion first and approached Finn and Kai. To their credit, they didn’t shuffle their feet or avert their eyes from his as he approached.“I wasn’t expecting to see you both here.”Kai sighed. “Well, when more than half of your company has been converted to fight some damned holy war you can either deal with scraps or join them. Cantalia is a lost cause anyway. Their army is scattered through the swamps focused on hit and runs, but their capital’s been taken and their king captured.” He shook his head. “Even if we’d stayed we wouldn’t have been paid, and the land we wanted was no longer theirs to give.”“Why did you want the land anyway?”Finn raised his head. “For Gemini. For the takers. Cantalia allows landholders a lot of freedom, even when it comes to takers. A place for them to retire, to not have to worry. Cantalia wasn’t the ideal location, but it’s a chance we wanted to take.”That gave Michael some context for why they were upset with him, but at the same time he wasn’t so sure his being in Cantalia would’ve made a difference. He couldn’t be in every battle on every front after all, and if they’d already lost their capital he couldn’t imagine Burndan being slowed too badly by just his and Ollie’s presence.There were a number of questions he could ask them, but he decided to keep things simple.“Are we going to have a problem?”Finn and Kai exchanged a look and shook their heads in unison. “No.”“Good. In that case I’m glad to have you here. (...)