River crossing at the Antioch/Aleppo border: 1318

Refugees were streaming across the river. The war between the Byzantines and the Reich was heating up now. Count Matthias had just won a major victory on the bridge to Antioch and now Antioch itself was surrounded by three Imperial Armies. Ordinary citizens were fleeing the region to escape the bloodshed.

King Jan strolled among the refugee column overseeing the vast movement of people. He had deployed his army to assist the refugees. Some soldiers stood guard so the refugee column would not be preyed upon by bandits. Others passed out food from their own limited supply. Another group set up an aid station to help the injured. It was towards this last, that the King strode towards.

This particular refugee column was from Antioch. They had fled when the city was handed over to the Byzantines. There were rumors that the Byzantines had not exactly been kind in their rule over their new city. The groups of injured gave those rumors some substance. Among the healers and nuns tending to the injured, was one woman clearly in civilian clothing. Middle aged and a little heavyset, she tended to a child's bandaged arm. The child was clearly in pain and struggled.

Jan ran over and held onto the child as the woman bandaged him. The child calmed down a little and the woman was able to finish tending to him. She looked up and noticed the King for the first time. "Thank you my King, he was getting restless."

"Please, call me Jan. And your name?"

The woman smiled in a way that melted Jan's heart, "Alfgarda. Pleased to meet you Jan, I have heard so much about you." She got up and curtsied. While hardly graceful, to Jan the movement was the very picture of litheness.

The group of injured were being tended to at the moment and all were resting. The two people got up and went for a walk as Jan's retinue followed respectfully at a distance.

"Alfgarda, that is a beautiful name. Are you from 'up north'?" Jan asked in the universal question that meant Franconia.

She grinned, "Ah, very astute of you. I am originally from Hamburg. Aren't you from there?"

Jan chuckled, "I haven't been there since I was a child. My father took myself and my two sisters with him when he went on the Second Crusade. I came of age on the way to Damascus. I have been out here ever since."

Alfgarda lit up, "The Crusades? That sounds amazing. I've read everything I could get my hands on about them. Weren't you on the Third Crusade as well?"

Jan answered with pride, "Yup, we retook Jerusalem from the Saracens. But enough about me, what brought you out here?"

Alfgarda brushed a lock of blond hair from her face and replied, "My family came here years ago to start up a business. My parents died a while ago and I have been running it ever since by myself."

"Don't you have a husband to help you with that?" Jan asked in a not-so-subtle attempt to see if she was married.

Alfgarda laughed a little, "No, I have never been married. I'm not a nun or anything. I just have always been busy working. That and I never met the right man." She said this last as she looked at Jan with a twinkle in her eye.

Jan blushed. But he returned her look with one of his own that told her all she needed to know. The two walked off into the desert blissfully enjoying each other's company in silence.

Max and Gunther looked at each other and smiled. They had always hoped that the King would find a companion. They believed he deserved to be happy. The small group stayed farther behind to give the new couple some privacy. Azim didn't know what was going on but was polite enough to be quiet.