Vulpine hated manipulating people. Well, he hated manipulating friends, at least. But Adamant had gained power in Wéa because of his failures, and he had failed again in trying to remove him from power. Adamant's tyranny was his fault, and he would do whatever was necessary to remove him from power.
The last revolt had failed because no earl had been willing to accept another as king, but could they be rallied behind a former king? Of course, Sage had grown to hate kingship in the end―even before the attempt on his life―and probably would not return to it willingly. But it shouldn't be too hard to convince him Adamant's reign of terror was actually his fault.
Vulpine truly hated manipulating friends.
Sage welcomed Vulpine into his home, sat him down at his table. They each remarked on how old the other had gotten while Sage put a kettle over the hearth, and as he recounted his life since his abdication Vulpine tried to think up a way to steer the conversation to Wéa. Sage ended up giving him an opening as the tea came to a boil.
"So, what brings you out to Bría?" he asked, setting a cup of black tea before each of them. "And in such a...state?" Sage's eyes flitted from Vulpine's dirty, tangled beard to his ragged traveling cloak. A grin tugged at his lips. "Did Earnest banish you? I told you he didn't like you as much as―"
"Earnest was assassinated within a week of your abdication."
Sage fell silent, smile fading. "I figured he was dead by now, but I thought he lasted longer than that." He hadn't been close with his cousin; he didn't seem saddened by the death so much as shocked by the timing. "Well then, how has Constant fared?"
"His son didn't outlive him by long, I'm afraid. Your cousin Jubilant―" Marcher Lord of the North, of the Northern branch of the royal clan "―contested the succession on the grounds of Constant being fifteen at the time, and they killed each other in battle. With your disappearance, Constant's death was the end of Eastern Solaris―at least in the male line―so Jubilant's son Vernal became king. Only he was seven years old, so Adamant became his regent."
Sage's expression had grown darker as Vulpine spoke, but at that he groaned aloud. "Why did it have to be him? Didn't I leave you as regent?"
"Constant and I had a few disagreements over the winter, and his first act on turning sixteen in spring―before even arranging his own coronation―was to revoke the title of designated regent from me."
"And whoever he gave the title didn't contest Adamant?"
"He didn't give anyone the title. Earl Hale did contest the regency, but Adamant had the largest army in the realm, and with the Solar War such a recent memory. no one else wanted to escalate what came to be known as the Summer War. Hale didn't have the numbers to go on the offensive, but he sat his army on the road between Adamant and Solopolis. I think he expected Adamant to try and take the royal capital, but he just moved the court to his capital at Earlham."
Sage nodded, a reminiscent look in his eye; towards the end of the Solar War, when the Northern Solaris armies in Northmarch had surrendered, he and Adamant had tried to march on the royal capital from the north. In the forested hill country north of the capital, then held by Hale's father, they had suffered their last major defeat of the war.
"This was nearly two decades ago," he said eventually. "Vernal was a child, but Adamant can't have been regent for much more than a decade. How much trouble did he get up to?"
"...He's still in power. He married Jubilant's sister, and they had a son back in 499. Then in 504, within a month of Vernal turning sixteen, he died and Adamant had his wife coronated in Earlham."
"How convenient," Sage said dryly.
"Yeah, everyone saw through that. No earl attended the ceremony, and not even all his thanes. But he had made Xanthic governor of the crownlands, and put Tenacious in charge of Northmarch―" two former Knights who had stayed at court after the Solar War "―and they did attend.
"Earl Hale was the first to denounce Adamant, and proclaim *his* wife queen. Max, the new head of clan Penance―Dogged's son, you remember him?―he only claimed the title Marcher Lord of the East at first, but then Earl Brisk denounced Adamant and proclaimed your sister Serene queen, and we found Earnest's twelve-year-old daughter Justice in Dawnhowe, and Max's wife convinced him to proclaim Justice queen."
Sage sat in stunned silence. "Seven kings." He stared into the hardly-touched cup of tea before him. "Since I abdicated there have been seven."
"Three kings, four queens, two civil wars, and a war with a foreign kingdom," Vulpine counted off, meaning each total as a stab at Sage's guilt and hating himself for doing so. "But only two of those ruled uncontested; it was really just two monarchs and five pretenders." Categorizing Max as a pretender hurt Vulpine, but also twisted the knife in Sage's guilt.
'Shéus forgive me,' he prayed as he moved on. "Brisk tried to form a coalition against Adamant, who still had the largest army. I was in the court of Max, and I *implored* him to agree to such a coalition. But Max's wife was against it, and I couldn't out-influence her with her pillow talk, so Max marched against Brisk while Hale and his allies fought Adamant in the west. Max killed Brisk at Nanhill―" Vulpine had eventually learned the name of that abandoned village "―but lost half his army in doing so. Then Adamant beat back Hale's invasion of the Midlands, and Hale's wife and Serene renounced their claims to the throne in exchange for pardons.
"With all other claimants dealt with, Adamant turned on Max. Max had already given up his claim to the throne, but he was still trying to make an independent country out of Eastmarch. He only surrendered after his army was destroyed, so he didn't have the leverage for a pardon; he was executed for treason."
"And this is when you fled the country." Sage nodded, thinking he had it pieced together.
"Actually I had already...been sent out." Vulpine averted his gaze. "Max wanted alliances or non-aggression pacts with the Brían kingdoms, and he sent me as an ambassador. I got a pledge from Suffix to raid the Wéan border and take some pressure off, and I got a pledge from Dunia to send an expeditionary force, but Max surrendered before either pledge could be fulfilled."
Vulpine took a deep breath before continuing. With that pensive look on his face, Sage seemed to be in the position Vulpine wanted. Now to commence the attack.
"If they had worked together, the rebels in the Year of Four Kings could have beaten Adamant. Even fighting each other, it was a near thing. Unfortunately, while all were married to Solaris wives, none were Solaris themselves, so none had a greater claim than anyone else."
Sage sighed. "I see where you're going with this. It's terrible that Adamant is king, but it's not my problem anymore. It never should have been my problem."
Vulpine looked again at his old friend, and saw a tiredness in him. A haggardness. He often felt that himself, but he hadn't given up yet.
"Maybe it shouldn't have been your problem, but it is your fault, and it's your responsibility to see it fixed."
"I won't be king again."
As Vulpine had expected. "You wouldn't have to rule for long; you could come back, rally the discontented nobility, overthrow Adamant, then abdicate."
"And force that hell on my son?" Sage shook his head.
Vulpine hadn't considered the possibility that he would be opposed to that, which seemed an obvious oversight now. "Then name one of your supporters your heir before abdicating."
Again, Sage shook his head. "Hale―it would probably be Hale; he has the best army―he'd never trust me to not come out of retirement again. He'd kill me and Rowan as soon as I gave him the crown."
Vulpine sighed. "I suppose he would at that. So would any other earl, except maybe Brilliant, being your niece and all. Even under her, you'd probably spend the rest of your life under house arrest in all but name."
Sage nodded, sipping his tea with a thoughtful look.
"Alright, how's this: overthrow Adamant and stay on the throne, but delegate all real power."
Sage choked. "Excuse me?"
"Appoint a regent."
"I can't trust any of them to not overthrow me."
"Call a perpetual witanmoot, and empower it to rule. Prevent any one man from gaining the power to kill you."
"I won't become king and take no part in ruling my kingdom; I wouldn't respect myself."
Vulpine brought his fist down on the table with a sharp crack. Out of ideas, anger took the reins. "You left us in this mess, and now you shoot down my every suggestion to fix it!"
"I left you in charge!" Sage shot back, his own temper flaring. "It's your fault as much as mine!"
"All my mistakes are your fault for leaving me in charge!"
A better argument might have been that coming here was the latest in a long line of attempts to fix his mistakes, but putting the blame on Sage was more satisfying.
Two decades' frustration poured out of Vulpine as the argument devolved into shouting insults. Sage called Vulpine a bastard, Vulpine called Sage a coward. Untrue things were said as well.
Vulpine eventually took his leave when―after saying Sage's parents sent him to the Knights Insularis because they didn't love him―Sage went for the sword over the mantle. Threats and obscenities chased him out the door.