Vangelis had felt himself split into two internal individuals on the ride.

Waking himself early, performing his daily ablutions before the sun was up and setting out on a ride that would take him nearly seven hours, Vangelis had not informed his family of what he was doing or where he was going. He had simply left an instruction with a servant to alert his mother to his lack of presence in the manor and that he would return very late that same evening.

He had no intention of staying Eubocris - no matter the length of the journey it took him.

The other thing he did not travel with - besides the knowledge of his relatives - was a bodyguard. Were she to find out, Vangelis knew that Nike would likely wish to skin him alive for leaving without her knowledge but this was something that was important to do alone. The exposure this meeting would place on the Kotas family needed to be limited to just himself. He would not involve anyone else.

From a security standpoint it made sense anyway. Few people bothered a lone rider on back roads over a formal royal carriage with a garrison of guards.

Plus, this was not a formal visit. This was personal.

And also the reason Vangelis felt like he had two minds in his head instead of one.

One side of him - the brother within him - wanted to storm into Eubocris, with deadly calm and leave with the head of Silanos of Valaoritis under his arm.

Settled. Done.

He would then head back home, dump the head in his brother's lap and inform him of the truth of the matter involving his wife, removing all forms of secrecy and deception between the two of them.

The second side of him - the voice that calmed his familial rage - was that of the Crown Prince. A man who was aware that the House of Valaoritis had been a loyal barony to the Kotas name. They had fought alongside Kotas men in battle, they had always met their trade and economy targets. They voted sportingly in the Senate. This was not a House that Vangelis wanted to lose the loyalty of.

And killing the brother of the baron was likely to risk just such a change in attitude.

As such, Vangelis had to be more creative. He would have to, on the journey, comprise a plan that was as much punishing to Silanos as it would be lenient on Timaeus and such a plan was finally starting to come together as Vangelis rode over the border that identified the Valaoritis lands.

The province of Eubocris was one of the most mountainous in Colchis, and certainly the highest in the Kirakles range. The roads were thin but not impassable for a cart and perfectly safe for a lone rider and horse, but the view gave it the impression of highly treacherous.

Sheer cliff-faces and steep drops down the sides of the mountains seemed to offer little impact or effect on the livestock that grazed on that, seemingly unconcerned that a misplaced hoof would send them falling to their deaths some leagues below.

The area of foggy too, where the mountains had pierced the sky and unleashed the mists of Olympus down around their peaks.

After five hours of riding, Vangelis had dismounted and sat at the side of the road for a time, enjoying the cool winds and the soft dampness to the air. It had felt refreshing and helped to clear his mind some, allowing his two personas to gel.

By the time he had remounted, ridden the last few hours of his journey and arrived at the manor-house gates of the Eubocris barony, Vangelis had, at least, a plan for how to proceed. He would just have to wait and see if the sons of Valaoritis would be of the same favourable opinion of the plan as he.