The Dream Vision

Dare to dream - you never know when they will come true.

“You have to dream before your dreams can come true” – Abdul Kalam

School reports often labelled me as “a daydreamer”. To them, it was a bad thing, as it meant that I was not giving the teachers 100% of my focus, but to me it was to become a badge of pride. During these times, my mind was never blank – instead I was off creating worlds in my imagination, populating them with all kinds of weird and wonderful people and places.

Often, these worlds were related to the games I played, and there are countless examples on the internet of my dreams being made manifest as short stories on various forums. One of these dreams – a meeting between Leif Erikson and Christopher Columbus at sea was to become the basis for my earliest concepts for the Vinland books and games.

Dreams are I believe, one of the most important assets that a designer can have, and this is the philosophy that I embrace when creating new things. When I was young it was only fantastic worlds that sprang forth, but now it can be anything from game mechanics to mentally play-testing and discovering new nuances that I would perhaps have missed. I will lay awake at night, often for hours mentally going through my experiences of the day, filtering through anything valuable and locking it away. I always sleep with a notebook by the bed in case something very important or inspirational pops up, and write it down.

When working on Prophesy of Pendor and Vinland: Arctic Assault I used to lay out the “Dream Game”. For this I used to write out my plans on the development forum, purposefully ignoring all limitations of budget, manpower and resources. This was the very best design that I could come up with, and the sheer scope of this used to drive our programmers mad when they first read it.

Note the highlighted “I” there. My dreams are just that – mine, and while I may once have believed that I was some sort of genius, experience has taught me that the insight of others is often extremely valuable. I will frequently discuss my “Dream Visions” with friends at the pub, or post them in full on our development forums. I want, no need input from others – this is the only way to improve them.

This is where the evolution part of the design process comes in. With the initial concepts aired in public, I then encourage a discussion of the elements, including most importantly a reality check from more cynical members of the team. It is during this that the ideas are refined; the possible expanded upon, and the implausible rejected (or put aside). The dreams will evolve with each iteration, becoming less a vision and more a design, being polished and developed during each pass until it is in a form most suitable for implementation.

A great example of this process in action is in Prophesy of Pendor, when we were working on the Order of Dawn. At first there was a very black and white relationship between them and their arch rivals, the Eventide. One was good, one was evil. Very simple... very boring.

During discussions it was then questioned whether the very principles underpinning the Dawn could be corrupted in such a way as to make them possibly even more evil than the reviled Eventide – and if so, how to include the Eventide into this story. This is where the fanaticism of the Dawn came into play, their very dedication to good and justice to the exclusion of all else led them to becoming fanatics blind to any other outcomes.

A branch of the Order awoke to the danger and decried the zeal of their brethren, pushing for a more pragmatic approach – resulting in a massive schism and the formation of the Eventide. Unfortunately this very pragmatism would then go on to corrupt the Eventide in its own way, but the outcome for both orders was vastly more complex and interesting than the initial dream. The design evolution had done its job.

Ironically it was a programmer who called me out on this process, tired of the continual conceptualisation and evolution of the ideas. He demanded that we designers only present fully formed ideas, straight from our minds. While it is entirely possible to personally polish the vision I have; this was a problem I struggled with during work on Vinland: Arctic Assault, as the dreams I had underwent far less refinement than they do on say, Starium with its much larger team. I am under no illusions that it is the input of others that allow it to reach their full potential and thankfully the other designers on my team backed me on this and the programmer conceded on how things were developed over time.

I would encourage fellow designers, to post / air / discuss / debate their Dream Vision, and then collectively revise it until it shines. Restrictions of the internet, and the nature of much of my work being virtual means that much of this must be done online (though this means there is automatically a log of any suggestions), though some of the most fun discussions I have are with friends at the pub, hammering out the concepts over a beer. The more relaxed the environment, the better it is for this. There is never a “right” answer to this exercise, but the more angles it is explored from, the more refined the dream will become.

It can be useful to have a thick skin for this, because sometimes it behoves the project throw it out as impractical. Even then, it should never be deleted, as in my experience a rejected idea would become the basis for some of our most important and popular features.

So don’t stop dreaming, and never stop sharing them because you never know; it could be the next Big Thing.

Image courtesy of http://www.worth1000.com/entries/488412/fantasy-planet

Playing games to making them – how perspectives change

Once long, long ago, I was just a gamer and I simply consumed the digital entertainment provided by others. Explosions? Awesome. New guns? Sweet! At that time I put most of my energy into thinking about how great the experience was, and that I wanted more of it.

After a time I became curious though... was this the best that could be made? Those little areas that irritated me, could they be improved? If I had unlimited time and incredible skills, what could I make myself? What would be the perfect game?

The answer this would change on a daily basis depending on what I was doing at the time. Warcraft II made me convinced that the “perfect” game was a real time strategy. Shadowbane determined that the true path lay in an MMO. Mount and Blade led me to believing that the future lay in medieval simulations. Now I am sure that this is not an experience unique to me – I’ll bet that many other gamers will spend the rainy days at the office dreaming of their perfect game. Playing scenarios through their head of each awesome scene, shaped always by their own experiences.

My version of Warcraft II had no unit caps and a more expansive tech tree. Gareth’s Shadowbane, removed the money farming grind, and replaced it with automated farms and peasants who provided an hourly income. Battlefield 1943 introduced factories and an upgrade tree for unlocking new items and tanks.

I then started working as a game designer, first for the Mount and Blade mod, Prophesy of Pendor, and then later as the lead designer of my own studio, Zatobo, and now most recently as a freelance game design contractor.

This collective experience changed everything.

Just playing games changed my perspective of imagining my perfect game to analysing those products and working out precisely what I liked and disliked about them as I played. I took them to pieces in my mind, bemoaning bad design decisions (I cannot play Diablo III anymore, its core design simply ticks me off too much now), working out how they solved problems, and rarely getting excited by clever mechanics. Some games left me wondering about the future of the industry (the aforementioned Diablo III), and declaring its imminent demise, while others left me with a sense of wonder at what they had achieved (Mount and Blade).

Over the weekend I had something of a unique opportunity. I found myself playing “Game Dev Tycoon” by Greenheart Games, with some friends. While the game itself is good fun, it isn’t revolutionary, nor does it do much that is truly innovative but its subject matter is fascinating. A game about making games (with an achievement for making the game, in the game...).

This made my think about my own process of making games – how did I do it? Why did I do it this way? What had I learned during my three years as a part of the industry?

Well this is a subject for next time. Stay tuned! 

Image courtesy of; deborahtindle - http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/change%20perspective

Game Dev Tycoon - http://www.greenheartgames.com/

Pirating pirates pirating pirates... or something like that.

Yo ho ho... and a free game?

A couple of days ago, I saw Eurogamer running an article about a company, Greenheart Games,  which made pirates pirate their own games...

It actually makes a whole lot more sense than you would think. Game Dev Tycoon is a game about making games – a game development simulator, and the change they made was to introduce piracy in pirated copies of the game. Essentially this takes the form of a random event, whereby sales will begin to decline eventually making it impossible to run a profit.

Even more amusing is the fact that Greenheart Games have revealed forum posts of people asking how to combat the piracy in their games, with questions like "Guys I reached some point where if I make a decent game with score 9-10 it gets pirated and I can't make any profit”, and even asking if it is possible to research DRM with which to combat this piracy. While the irony here is of course amusing, more important is whether people understand that a mirror is being held up to their own actions, and start to realise that copying games (and other media) really is hurting the content creators out there, and small companies like Greenheat Games in particular.

Whether this will have any impact on piracy remains yet to be seen, however I fully applaud the attempts here, and I do not think that there could have been a better platform from which to do it. I can only wish I had come up with the idea first!

You can read the full article here; http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-04-29-game-dev-tycoon-forces-those-who-pirate-the-game-to-unwittingly-fail-from-piracy

And the company’s blog where they talk about it here; http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-when-pirates-play-a-game-development-simulator-and-then-go-bankrupt-because-of-piracy/

Hell, its about time!

One of my all time favourite game trailers ended with the line “Hell, it’s about time!” a phrase that I have come to rather appreciate. I realise that it has been a while since my last blog post, and this is something which has been playing on my mind for a while now, but it just kind of fell by the wayside as a number of other projects have engrossed me.

Initially this blog was set up to cover my work as a writer, but since embarking on this two and a bit years ago, I have dabbled in a number of different areas, and I struggled about whether to catalogue everything I do on here, or just focus on the writing articles.

Decision time; what do I use this space for? Answer; this is my blog, about my interests, my aspirations and dreams – brought down to earth from time to time with news about what is going on, and other random thoughts.

As such, I now find myself;

- Working as a writer on Vinland. The big news here is that my first full draft of the novel is DONE, I am currently working on editing ready to find a publisher. Leif has successfully traversed the North Atlantic and set foot for the first time in America. I’ve made some copies available to those who are interested in the project. Please do get in touch if you want to help provide feedback.

- Working as a writer / designer at my own company, Zatobo. The PC version of our debut title, Vinland: Arctic Assault was released last year, and we are working on an Android version to be released soon. Actually, its already available, it’s just not working on the google play store for some reason. Stay tuned!

- Working as a writer / designer with American company Gwythdarian on a new browser-based space strategy game called StariumXCV. It’s a really ambitious project, and I am responsible for much of the background lore. I cannot say much on it yet due to an active Non-Disclosure Agreement, however as and when I can, I will release more here.

So you can see things are moving quite quickly at the moment, and that I am involved in a number of different projects at the moment, so this blog is likely to cover articles from writing, to gaming, to design and everything in between.

P.S That trailer was the announcement for Starcraft II, Wings of Liberty. I didn’t actually end up getting the game, partly because it wasn’t available on Steam, and more recently because I’ve taken the painful decision to boycott Blizzard products after their repeated failure to secure my account from hackers. Still a nice piece of video though! You can find the full trailer here; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=r7d5XheWiBk. All credit for the awesome video go of course, to Blizzard!

Eurogamer Expo Highlights - The Rest

So it has been a while since my last update, and while I have some rather major news to share, I promised to finish my coverage of the Eurogamer expo first so here goes for that; the other article will have to wait a little longer.

While for me the biggest hit of the Eurogamer expo were the people I met, there were of course the games too! The variety of electronic entertainment on hand was startling, and I have to say I love the policy of Eurogamer where a studio may only showcase their product if customers can actually play it, an important distinction over simply showing off a cinematic trailer or worse just a concept. The games then, were for most of the attendees the most important element, and there was certainly no lack of choice of what to try, though some were near impossible to play because of the outstanding queues leading up to them. Thankfully, I tried most of the games I was interested in early on, knowing from Rezzed that it would really get busy over the weekend.

Now, Eurogamer is big, really big and I do not have the space here to comment on each and every game, so instead I will bring up what were for me, the three highlights. Being primarily a PC gamer, I will concentrate mostly on those and it is here that we start with Company of Heroes II. Ever since it was announced that it was in development, I have been looking forward to having the chance to give it a go, and I was pleased to see it amply represented at Eurogamer. Thankfully it lived up to expectations; a definite sequel to the first (great) game, with upgrades such as the impact of the weather which had such a great impact to the Eastern Front. I even got a T-shirt out of it, though I am not sure just how my American father likes me wandering around with a hammer and sickle on my shirt! Still it is worth remembering that this game seeks to commemorate the many men and women who gave their lives on these far less appreciated battlefields, regardless of ideology.

I think this is actually one of the most important aspects to many of the games that I enjoy; that they are not simply a mindless action-fest (though those are fun), but rather they strive for something deeper. Some try to instil a sense of leadership or provide soft skills such as in Football Manager, while others give a historic overview. My current love of history was not brought through reeling off dates in dry history lessons, but through the little clips that really made Age of Empires alive, or the snippets of colonial background offered in Colonisation. That said, I am well aware that history is often added after the core game play, Sid Meier (Civilisation / Colonisation / Pirates) famously stated that they wrote implemented the history that fit the setting. As such I am not asking games to become the new educational tool, but instead that they can make the user interested enough in a subject to delve more into it themselves. Europa Universalis covers the Reformation very well for instance, and since then I have begun to read up about it because it was an interesting period of history which is only touched on (if at all) in schools.

Next up was Farcry III, which I had high hopes for having been an avid fan of both the previous titles. I am pleased that it is taking a similar route as Farcry 2, with a large open map that basically invites you to just come in and play. There is some deeper gameplay to it, for instance collecting items and craftables, plus fighting the hostile bandit faction to clear bases for friendly native fighters to move in. I don’t yet know much about how all this works together (I spent far too much time just crashing cars into trees, running from tigers and paragliding around the island), but I have a feeling that it will deliver something special.

Finally was a game which surprised me; Assassins Creed. I’ve spent a little time on the very first game, but not enough to call myself properly attached or even a fan but what I saw of Assassins Creed III was really very cool. Now, it has to be said I have a soft spot for the Colonial era which the game is set in, however it was the detail which went into the demo that I especially appreciated. Basically it was showing off the naval combat element (I know, naval combat in a stealth assassination game! Firing a broadside is hardly the epitome of sneakiness!) but what I saw looked like really good fun. Starting out, you hug the coast in the bright sunshine of the Caribbean, but as you venture out to sea the storm clouds come in as fast as the enemy warships. Now normally this would sound extremely cliché, but actually they pulled the transition off really nicely so that you probably wouldn’t even notice until you lobbed a volley of chain shot into the increasingly sizable waves instead of your enemies’ hull.

The last (but by no means least) paragraph goes for a very honourable mention to the Indie Games Meetup organised by Zero Dependency and others. This was an event for small developers like myself to essentially get together and swap stories, and meet with other people including industry professionals and journalists. It was a really cool experience actually, being able to speak about things that we are passionate about with others who share the same interests. At this event we were allowed to bring along laptops / tablets, etc in order to showcase what we were working on, and Vinland received quite a bit of interest, and I actually ran out of fliers to give to people. 

Image courtesy of; http://www.eurogamer.net/expo/

Eurogamer Expo Highlights - The Personalities

Well that was one of the busiest and most tiring weekends of my life, but what a weekend it was! I had been eagerly anticipating the Eurogamer Expo for a number of weeks now, virtually counting down the days until it happened. Finally though, the moment was upon me and I was on the train up to London, and found myself standing before Earls Court, the majestic blue banner waving in the wind, seemingly welcoming the thousands of eager gamers, developers, and journalists.

I plan to do a series of articles to cover all of my experiences at the Expo, however it is the people I met which stuck out the most, and as such shall be the subject of the first article. Over the course of my adventures at the Expo, I would get to meet all kinds of interesting people, from the gamers themselves to a varied breed of developers (one of whom has earned “Legendary Status”... read on to find out who, and why!), while trying out a large number of interesting games and listening to the best of the business discussing how they make the magic on our screens.

But first, there was a queue. A really, really long queue, and this would unfortunately serve only as a warning for how much waiting one would have to do before the weekend was out. I was one of the lucky ones, with an early entry “Super Pass”, giving me the chance to arrive on the first day (Thursday) and to get in early to the expo (I never did, it takes me about an hour to get there, and I *hate* mornings). It amused me to no end however that the usher was patrolling up and down the line shouting “Ten O’Clock Entry only!” despite it being past eleven before I got even remotely close to the entry.

Eventually, I did get inside however and while I had been prepared for something big (I had been to the London Book Fair held in the same venue), I was not quite steeled for the sheer amount of noise, both from the rat a tat tat of distant machine gun fire, to the continuous chatter of many excited gamers. Writers are after all known for being quite a quiet bunch, gamers... not so much!  

The first booth I visited was Dust514, a game I had been watching despite my dislike of console games, for one primary reason; it had the really interesting concept of merging two separate genres, on two separate platforms, to link players together to work towards a single goal. Basically the console gamers work as the soldiers battling it out on the planets of Eve Online, with the Eve players providing orbital support from above, by bombarding the surface of the planet with targeted strikes, and by shipping in new equipment produced in Eve Online itself. I immediately flagged one of their representatives down, unfortunately he was less than helpful, even rolling his eyes when I asked about the connections between Eve and Dust... this impression would change later however when I re-visited the booth on Friday with a friend.

We got talking another developer who seemed more versed in how Dust and Eve worked together, however when we began asking more queries about the planned scope of the game (would Dust battles take place on space stations, and other scenarios like that), he admitted he didn’t know. Just then, another man ducked into the conversation wearing a very cheeky grin and clasping half a pint of beer in his hand.

“Maybe I can help?” he offered.

“Err, maybe. Who are you?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m Jonathan, the executive producer of Eve Online, I basically run it all...”

This led to a very informative discussion about Eve, about Dust, about CCP and their plans for the Eve Universe in general. During this we also talked about how CCP interacts with the Council of Stellar Management (or CSM for short; a group of players elected by the players to converse directly with the developers to air grievances and to make suggestions);

"We basically fly them out to Iceland and lock ourselves in a room with them for three days and argue like mad men, often throwing insults and swearing at each other. Afterwards we all go to the pub and become best friends again." (slightly paraphrased as I cannot remember the precise wording, it was something like that though.)

So yeah, legendary status awarded!

Anyway, back to the topic! One of the developer talks I had missed at Rezzed was the Creative Assembly talk on Rome Total War II, so I made absolutely sure I got to see it at Eurogamer, and I was not disappointed. Seeing the newly released gameplay trailer displayed on a cinematic screen was incredible, and the speaker was a shining example of how to do one of these sessions, talking first about how the game was made.

This included a run down of all the different roles, and how each interacts with the others and what precisely they contribute to the game. These went from designers (and how they have to think), artists (and a quick time helm being made), animators (showing off the very snazzy motion capture studio), sound creators (and a guy suffering for his art by being belted with a broom while wearing Roman Segmenta armour, and being recorded while they did it).

I deeply regret not staying behind to have a word with him afterwards, but I did immediately make my way down to the Creative Assembly recruitment booth to have a word with their staff there, and found them to be just as engaging as their speaker had been. If you ever have a chance to hear Creative Assembly speak, I very highly recommend attending it.

Still to come is an overview of the different games on offer, and my perception of them, and an article on the Indie Game meet-up that occurred on Saturday evening (and the personalities met there, too many to list in this article too). Stay tuned for more! 

Image courtesy of; http://www.eurogamer.net/expo/

A personal challenge

Well things have slowed a little this month at Zatobo, with the programmer having other commitments for several weeks, and the business guy out of the country, the decision was taken to halt development work for two months.

Of course I am sad not to be hurtling forward with our new project(s), but the big upside is that I can get back to working on the book full time for that period. My plan is basically to undertake the National Novel Writing Month (but in September), and challenge myself to write 50,000 words, and hopefully bring Vinland to a conclusion in the process.

Things have been fairly slow so far (but then for me, the beginning always is) as I try to dive back into the fascinating world of the Vikings. Thankfully my reams of notes have served me well in reminding me just what was happening, and what is to be occur in the future. The book is currently in two parts, the early stuff in Greenland and then their sailing to Vinland without anything really connecting the two events. My ambition therefore is to fill this in, introducing another character or two and filling those who already exist in.

Throughout work on Vinland, there has always been one major antagonist, but without spoiling too much, they are at some distance to events directly going on with the people in Vinland. I have therefore created another character (or rather re-written one) to full fill a more direct conflict with Leif and his crew who I hope will spice things up rather more. It’s been a while since I have shown things off, so here is a little slip that I have recently been working on. Please bear in mind that this is still very much a part of the manuscript and as such has not been treated with the spit and polish of a published work;

“Citizens of Hvalsey!” Thorstein began, a warm smile on his face which Iva immediately hated.

“I come here before you today, not to complain about injuries received during my duties as an enforcer of peace in the town, but rather to ensure that this man is never again allowed to perpetrate such violence. I am a fighter, a man well used to taking blows from my foes, but next time we may not be so lucky. Imagine, if then it was your wife, or your son, or even gods be so cruel, your daughter.” As he said this, Iva noticed her father sitting on the other side of the room, watching the proceedings with a frown on his face. He was so intent on the words of the young noble, that she was sure he had no idea that she was present.

“My mother and I were doing our rounds of the town, but hearing a commotion in Gorran’s home decided to investigate. On arrival, we encountered a brawl going on between two strangers to the town. We managed to stop this in short order, and determined that the cause had been women, not just any women but a mere thrall and a wayward girl.”Again Iva looked over to her father, and saw that now his fists were balled up, and a vein was throbbing in his neck. Clearly he had understood whom Thorstein was talking about.

“I am sorry to inform you all that this girl, a daughter of Hvalsey no less, was the spark that caused an argument to descend into violence, with her misguided attack on our guest...” Iva tried to shrink further into the shadows, but it seemed that still no one had noticed her, all were intent on Thorstein’s words. She observed however that Thjodhilde threw her another glance from her place at the table, but she made no indication that she had recognised the young woman. While she was watching Thjodhilde, she felt another pair of eyes on her, and looking up the table saw Gorran was also watching at her, and as their eyes met, his widened in recognition. Meanwhile Thorstein had continued his speech.

“Perhaps we are wrong to lament so about her actions however. How can we hope to protect the young when there are all these foreign interferences coming to Greenland, there seem to be more strangers in town at the moment than citizens, and this my friends worries me greatly.” Thorstein said, beginning to pace in front of the table, using his hands to articulate his points. He had dressed this up in such a way that the audience failed to realise that he was of the same age as the girl he was chastising. At these words, the massive thrall lifted his head to regard his accuser, moving for the first time.

“It is not on this lady’s misdeeds however, that we are here in deliberation about, but rather on the aftermath of her actions. I was busily restraining her, prepared to make her put things right like a good citizen of this fair settlement should, when this barbarian launched himself from the shadows and went at me like a savage animal.” Thorstein observed, watching as the captive began to struggle against his bonds, clearly becoming more agitated. From the audience there were a number of jeers, which only incensed the thrall more, much to Thorstein’s obvious satisfaction.

“With such influences as this, how can we expect better from our children? It is clear that this creature here before us has no morals, no conception of good or evil. He is an animal and deserves to be treated as such. When a dog bites its owner, we put it down, and so it should be here. Put this mad beast down!”Thorstein instructed.

The thrall began making moaning sounds, his jaw working furiously but unable to make any comprehensible sound. The attempt just made the calls from the crowd worse, a sentiment that Thorstein was quick to seize upon.

“Rruf! Down boy!” he called out, making a growling noise and snapping his teeth together like the jaws of a dog. The crowd responded wildly, many barking at the thrall, making him twist and bend with fury.

“And what if you kicked the dog, and it bit you then?” Leif interjected, rising from his place. Thorstein turned to face him, but said nothing. The thrall seemed to calm a little, but continued to make whimpering noises.

“On whom would the fault fall? Surely then, the dog has been provoked, and is only then acting in a manner that is natural. Are we so different? Many fights begin because one party feels threatened, can they then be held accountable for the attack? On whom does the blame lie?” he continued, rounding the table to join his brother. Iva raised her head on hearing this, pleased that the man was putting up such an eloquent defence.

“The blame brother, lies with the one to strikes first. Words are bandied around like ale, men like banter it keeps their minds sharp, but only rarely does it descend into violence as we are describing here.” Thorstein responded, clearly warming to the intellectual cut and thrust. Iva felt sickened, it was clear he was doing this for the sheer pleasure of watching his victim writhe. The difference between the brothers could not be more pronounced.

“You ask many questions brother, but answer few questions. Riddle me this; what separates us from the animals?” Thorstein continued, his smile still fixed, but the warmth in it was gone. When Leif did not immediately reply, he answered for himself.

“The difference, lies in that we can separate words and actions. You accuse me of being a liar...” Thorstein began, then seeing Leif was finally about to rally continued, purposefully cutting him off, holding his palms up to his brother.

“...yet here I stand, my hands are empty of weapons, neither have they formed a fist with which to strike you. You come before us to defend this animal, why? Can he not defend himself? Father said we were both to speak our parts, yet instead he struggles against his bonds. Is that the mark of a civilised person, or a beast? ” Thorstein exclaimed, his argument hammering home, his smile had faded, replaced by a look of expectation, smugness even. Leif remained silent, his face stony.

“Your arguments seem to claim that he was provoked to violence, why then did he not call out a warning first? Viking law states, does it not, that the difference between a sanctioned killing and that of murder is that a killing requires both parties to be willing combatants, on an equal footing when neither man’s back is turned. Otherwise, it is murder. Could we not apply the same logic to assault?” Thorstein continued to press his advantage. Turning, he had addressed Rhuntyr directly, as if to get confirmation. The lawspeaker was quiet for a while, considering the implications, and Iva watched the man closely, trying to read some kind of emotion from his flat face.

The room fell silent, waiting for the decision.

After a pause, he gave a nod. Iva felt her chest seize up at the judgement, knowing in her heart that the priest had just issued the brave thrall’s death warrant. The room erupted in shouts, men calling to their neighbours about the outcome, while others yelled for the slave’s head.

Leif, his face still like rock, walked down to the thrall and the voices in the room fell quiet, waiting to see what the heir would do. He crouched down in front of the German, and the slave raised his head to regard his defender. Iva could only imagine the anguish on the poor man’s face, and was touched to see Leif’s own cool exterior shed some of its ice at what he must have seen in the thrall’s eyes.

“Can you understand me?” he asked softly. The big man was still for a moment, then slowly inclined his head.

“I know you have a secret, it may save your life. Can I share it?” Leif continued, his voice still gentle.

Image courtesy of; http://www.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-4122434587