The King scribbled things down in his notebook but didn't respond to them instead changing the nature of the conversation as they made a turn to begin sailing parallel to the old town walls. "You know this was once, according to legend, the site at which our God of War, Jekar, made his home. The story tells of how he used an axe larger than any man who has ever lived to clear huge swatches of forest, and then he built a fort out of the biggest thickest oaks. Right up there." he pointed to where the more modern stone castle was. "As a child I remember standing on the old ramparts trying to see any place where the trees looked newer than those around it, I guess even at age 6 I was a history geek, I still am" he mused. The boat began entering a series of locks. "You ever used one" David asked as he scrambled to the toe path, "Amazing engineering for its time, takes the water from where we are now, lets it flow into that bit after the gate. We then open them and sail in" he was turning a wheel to release the water. "We then repeat it at the other end and one lock at a time we climb the hill" David waited for the water levels to equalise and then unlocked the giant wooden gate allowing the boat to sail in. "They keep saying we should replace it with something more modern, but I think its rather cool having a piece of historical technology still working" Four locks later they were at the foot of the castle and a short walk later in the courtyard. It was a nice summer day and the King had arranged a table outside.
"Now I've had chance to think about what you said on the boat." The King turned things back to business as he swung his jacket off his shoulders and placed it across the back of the chair continuing to talk as he rolled up his sleeves. "As you probably know, my nation has a rather militaristic culture, service to the military is mandatory for everyone during their life and our religions highest instruction is to protect those who can not protect themselves. This has lead us to be rather active globally because of the inaction of others. Having friends around Mundus is therefore useful but I have to say I worry when people discuss militaristic connections before others. When nations form military alliances what you are doing is in effect asking if I would be willing to send Morelanders to fight and die alongside your people with no questions asked. Clearly that is something I am not going to do. Nations like Seaforth or Ui Cenneslaig then yes, we've a long history of co-operation and friendship built up along the lines of mutual trust, those existed long before military ties. Now that being said there is still things we can do, I for one would be interested in forming some cultural, academic and trade links between our nations. Any agreement could of course include officer secondments but not on a large scale. How does that sound as a starting point?"
