A white-haired man enters the chambers. The lines on his face show the years and cares he carries on his shoulders, but his stature is erect and there is even a hint of spring in his step. He stops before the Basileus, bowing awkwardly, as if he hadn't practiced the gesture for some decades.

My Lord! I shall join you in your crusade and make it mine! What few years I have left I will dedicate to hunting down the that wretched spawn of Komneni! I do not pretend to do this out of any great idea of imperial unity or some such noble cause, but out of revenge! YES, REVENGE! Theo was my vassal and they butchered him like a pig after trapping him between the Turks and the river.

My Lord, give me an army and I will hunt Andronikos back to the dirty mountain cave he chooses to call his home and castle nowadays!

Vartholomaios Ksiros bows again, looks around the mostly empty benches of the Magnaura, finds the Order's customary seats and proceeds to sit at the Grandmasters place that so great men have previously occupied.