Annan returned to the treehouses satisfied. He had not made it to the World Tree, but he had visited plenty of other places.
That was not the only good news. Soon after he returned, the first visitor since Minister Ollie broke the deadlock came calling.
"Prince Aidan?"
Annan remembered the High King's son with his brilliant blond hair.
"I hope I'm not disturbing you?" Prince Aidan said with a smile.
"I just got back. I have time."
"It's nothing official. I'm just curious what it's like outside Wilhelm."
"You've never been?"
Prince Aidan shook his head. "Wilhelm is vast enough. I couldn't see all of it in a lifetime."
"But the world outside is bigger."
"The world outside is bigger..." Prince Aidan murmured.
With his Olmedo-like golden hair and none of the usual noble affectations, Prince Aidan had made a good impression on Annan. Since he was curious, Annan told him about the lands and customs of the Northern Frontier and Middle Earth.
Prince Aidan did not just listen. Now and then, he shared amusing stories about Wilhelm and the Paem Kingdom.
The Paem Kingdom was an ancient nation with thousands of years of history... but that was nothing remarkable. Spill a cup of wine in any tavern, and nine out of ten people there could trace their ancestry back a thousand years. The tenth belonged to an Ancient Family that had existed for ten thousand.
As a realm ruled by the Thirteen High Kings, the Paem Kingdom naturally had its defining trait—not necessarily a virtue, but certainly something distinctive.
In the Paem Kingdom, that trait was rules.
In Paem, rules governed every word, every gesture, every action.
Wilhelmites had a joke mocking the Paem people's rigidity: a Tatuun native, an Ogagel native, and a Paem native formed a party