In Service to the Prince

The Lost Sons have spent five years in service to Crown Prince Malik of Sitaar. In that time, the company has gone from just another mercenary group to the soul security force for the Prince. The first year of their service was spent settling old scores, as the Prince would put it. Finally, he had the means to rid himself of many of his rivals. Whether they were plump and overreaching merchants styling themselves as princes or Malik's own cousins with designs for the throne, the Lost Sons dealt with them all. Though these types of missions were not particularly tasteful, the company was used to these common power struggles. Things took a different turn when the Twin Empress arrived.   She first presented herself as a powerful sorceress. Which was, in fact, true. She pulled secrets from the wind, numerous as the stars, and planted each one deep in the ear of Prince Malik. The young Prince had always been ambitious, as all princes tend to be. Yet he worked hard to unite the powers of Sitaar and built strong bonds with many of the fractious organizations within his borders. The so-called sorceress amplified his ambitions and promised not only one throne but two; Gehnnia.   Prince Malik soon shifted his focus from solidifying power to preparing for an invasion. He grew more and more suspicious of the "old guard" as he called them. The traditional Muhafiz who had been the personal guardians of the Crown Princes of Sitaar for a thousand years were sent to man Sitaar's most distant fortress instead. This caused quite a stir in Sitaarian society but the prince grew to suspect the ancient houses and traditionalists of plotting treason. So he shut them all out, allowing only the Sons and the sorceress near him.   Eventually, the sorceress would reveal herself as the Twin Empress. Abandoned at birth by her concubine mother, she claimed to be the secret sister of the Empress of Gehnnia. She possessed the ability to part the mists said to protect the borders of the Sleeping Empire and that if only Prince Malik turned his Sons to war, they would rule the two empires together.   It was true this sorceress could part the mists. That was the only truth she had told.