Alienord had given him precise instructions. How strange they were. Johan did not like it at all but, despite their amicality, he knew he was in no position to argue with a noble lady.
Before we continue with Alienord we must go back a few months in time in order to understand wat happened up to this point.
Brabant +/-1300 AD A manor somewhere along the river Maas.
Early in the morning, a dense fog is laid over the marshes as Augustine and Johan silently saddle their horses. Both absorbed by the gravity of the moment. The Lord of the manor, Augustine’s older brother, has died leaving a mountain of debts. The estate is sold and they are the last ones to leave the house in which they were born and raised. Augustine, a priest, has decided to retire in a French monastery where the Abbot is his life long frend. Johan, the son of a maid who died during childbirth and an unknown father, having nowhere else to go has agreed to join him as his servant.
They went to the nearby town of Den Bosch and stayed at the inn where travelers wait until a sufficiently large group can be formed. Augustine was painfully aware that he entered the last phase of his life and found no joy in looking forward to it. Young, brilliant and rich, his life had started a lot more promising than what it eventually turned out to be. A a doctors title from Paris University and ordained as priest. From there on everything had slowly gone downhill and he knew it was his own fault. Enthusiastically absorbing the advanced science of astronomy and astrology as it was taught in the quadrivium years, he had become ever more involved, far beyond the point of a healthy interest. He tried to become a canon but discovered that he did not like the other canons. Then he joined the Duke of Brabant’s court to learn that he had no talent for politics. For a long time he was as an ordinary priest in a parish small enough to allow him the time to follow his passion. Later in life his older brother asked him to handle the education of his two sons, allowing him even more time. At the manor he had met Johan who became his only hope to accomplish something meaningful. Johan had no idea. Augustine’s mood turned dark by the thought that this, too, would, in all likelihood, fail.
A few days later they came through the Ardennes. Chilly and rainy mountains where few people live. The green color of the pine trees dominate and there are fast running rivers everywhere. The sun, occasionally, broke through the dark clouds and turned an already beautiful place into a paradise. Johan, who had never been further from home than Den Bosch, absorbed the multitude of new impressions intensely. Their company had changed too. Most people in the group now spoke the French language. This was no problem since he was raised together with the two sons of the Lord of the manor and noble people speak French. Whenever Augustine taught the two boys, Johan had been there as well. In the small community of the manor house his humble background did not matter much although it was always present. The fact that he was the same age as the two boys, and their friend, was more important. Since he was so eager to learn, Augustine had taught him much extra. He had been able to persuade the young boy to join him with the promise to continue these lessons in France.