"Your Highness" I heard as I was tapped on my shoulder "a letter came from Chrysia" she said, it was that girl that had to have her hair cut off. "thank you" I smile at her, she turned around and walked away slowly, with her head down, I remember when she held her head high and walked with energy, guess he really did break her. I break the seal which had, the Ristikos Sun, embedded in it, I open it
Dear Provira
I'm writing to inform you, that our partnership is meant to be based on mutual loyalty and benefit, the actions of your King, have shown us otherwise so, we won't be sending gold to Kentrikos or Sevalia, if you wish for these donations to continue then show us that you're loyal to your business partners. So we'll cease giving you resources to help your citizens in your name
Sincerely Marquess Mother Maléna
I knew that it would take a long time a long time to convince Claudvius, it would probably turn him against Ristikos even more, but I had to risk that, their gold paid for weapons, armour, soldiers. I feel someone kiss me on my cheek, I turn around to see Claudvius, "what's got you so lifted?" I asked "a city was recovered from the Cult" he laughed
"Oh" I didn't want to ruin his good mood, he's not exactly the most sound when not pleased,
"Claudvius," I say, he paused "Ristikos is pulling their gold from us," I say, his facial was one of repressed anger, "I think we need to omit the anti-mercenary law" I suggest
"we can't do that we'll lose the favour of the Barons"
"we have to, okay, you have to get the Bouvachian Army into Sevalia to save it and to quell the growing rebellion or else we lose the throne," I say trying to keep my voice as to not attract unwanted attention "I'll fix it" he responds "how?" I questioned
"I will" he placed both his hands on my shoulder "trust me" he walked away. I walked the opposite direction, I wasn't going to leave the ruling of this continent to him, he's not capable and lashes out when questioned or worse proven wrong. He can't be trusted, there's a reason that the letter was sent to me after all. I wondered what Claudvius could do to fix anything. There were a lot of problems to fix: overpopulation in the prisons, Sevalia being taken over, The brewing war. The only one of them that could be fixed independently from Dachou. The overpopulation. Panic sets in once I figure out what he's about to do. I stop a servant "where's the King?"
"Sorry, Your Highness, I do-" I walk away from him knowing that he knew nothing, I had to find him quickly before he could do anything that could get our head put on pikes. I hear screams coming from outside the castle. I start running, to see Aranese "hey! Aranese, stop, where is he?" I asked, he looked at me with sad eyes "the podium" my heart sinks, it's already started. I keep running now knowing where I'm meant to go, I run out seeing heads littering the ground and a massive line of people waiting for their execution "Claudvius, stop!" I run towards hoping that I could talk some sense into him but the guards block my entrance, I try to push through but their too strong more heads are cut off from their bodies, the crowd is in awe and fear, this is what he wanted for them to be afraid, to be in fear of what he might do if they were to disobey him in any way, he was so short-sighted, people eventually lash out at their fears.
I remember when my family was trying to find me a marriage alliance, I was about to be betrothed to one of the Barons of Sevalia, I dreamt bigger, I was at a Sevalian Banquet, I managed to make Claudvius fall in love with me. This is what my big dream brought me, trying to keep a King in line so that all that I've reached for, climbed for wouldn't be dissolved. I could tell that Claudvius was hiding something from me, he was going off to more meetings than usual instead of telling me what it was about he'd just say "nothing to worry yourself with" or "a few unimportant things". I wait for him to go to one of these meetings and I lock the door, get the Clericatoire from a hidden compartment in the wardrobe, I grab my dagger and then slice into the palm of my hand, the mark revealed itself then, I chanted as I dripped the blood into my eyes, I focused on Claudvius, I followed him into the council room "so what do we do about the Right of Dissolving?" he leaned against the table with both his hands.
"All we know is that if the two Houses are in support of it then it'll go through to the public"
"And then?"
"You lose the throne," The Valier said,
"then what happens to me?" I flew around the table to see the panic in Claudvius' eyes "best case: they make a council of all the Marquis" Lyle spoke, I looked at him, he seemed nervous, I saw his leg shake, as I observed him, he acted well, I noticed Aranese's absence, this was his replacement, "worst case, another House replaces you" he finished. I look at the King and The Hands of the King. Claudvius is clenching his fist. I keep observing. "what can I do?" he asks
"curry favour with the people, in case there are two Houses that support it or you find out what Marquis Dachou wants" The Valier suggest
"You know I can't do that or I lose the support of The Barons they have a lot more approval from the people"
"it's either that or have the chance of somebody taking the throne from you,"
"Dachou is only one house though," the boy says
"Dachou wouldn't think to do this unless they had someone backing them," The Valier said,
"Who could be backing them?" Claudvius asks
"Elyeria is betrothed to Davin," Valier Delilah says "Kasfi could be backing Dachou"
"Where is Davin?"Claudvius asked
"The Spire Inn" Delilah tucking a blonde hair behind her ear, Claudvius turned around and left seemingly to meet with him, the boy left with him. The Valier looked at me. I blink the blood out of my eyes, she saw me, how did she do that? This was an unexpected development.
I went for a walk. I walked along the cliff, waiting for the boy he arrives, "so anything that you found out with the Dissolving?"
"I heard that a Chrysian ship that was leaving Esior is coming here probably with food," he said
"so it's Ristikos that are backing Dachou trying to gain favour from the people so they could step in as replacements"
"possibly, why couldn't you just get food here?" he questioned
"Claudvius doesn't have the funds and with my family's plans they can't afford to lose out on a profit, we need it to create backups and armies" I explain "anything with the King?" Of course I knew, what was going on but this was a test, I wanted to make sure that he wasn't going to use me to climb "yes, there's something, he's going to meet with the Bouvachian Marquis" he said "he thinks that Kasfi is backing Dachou, what he doesn't know is that Maléna has her in Chrysia" he says
"How did you find that out?" I ask
"I have my connections, you have yours," he says, that fact that he divulges nothing is understandable but it annoys me nonetheless. I walk as the boy, I think his name was Lyle or something of the sort.
I get back to the castle, to see that Davin and Maléna walk the halls, I walk up to them "what may bring you here?" I look at the Marquis and Marquess, forcing a smile
"we heard about the condition that Kentrikos was in decided that, we should step in" she smiles, knowing that I knew what she really meant but I couldn't call her out on it "how do you plan on helping?" I ask the Marquis
"I heard about the chaos, I thought it'd make the Barons feel safer to have my army around, and the people of course," he says.