Aftermath
sander093
Well-known member
Aftermath
“So how is she.” Duke De La Valliere stood just behind Princess Henrietta De Tristain as they stood a few feet away from the bed where Agnes De Milan lay.
“Recovering from what the healers tell me. The worst of it is behind her. They managed to remove the wooden splinter without any complications, or smaller splinters being left behind.”
“....I just wish I could have been of help. All these years of study, and when the chance to use what I've learnt came to pass..... There was nothing for me to do. I... she was my responsibility and I failed her.” The princess lifted up her arm, bandages wrapped around the stump where her hand once was. “That's always how it's been, all that I am, and I can change nothing..... Agnes, she put herself in danger for my sake without a second thought, and I couldn't do a thing for her in return.”
“She was your guard, she knew what was required of her and discharged her duty with honour and courage.” On top of the actions of her two 'weapons', they had provided invaluable assistance to the defence of the palace during the attack. KOS-MOS was standing over her incapacitated master, while Herald's core had been placed on a nearby table while her body slowly grew back from said core.
“Louise... She was a better friend than I ever deserved....” He stood dispassionately as his daughter was brought up, even now it was still hard memory for him. “She didn't even hesitate.... When I called she came, took up the task entrusted to her with nary a pause. And she died for it.”
“She took after Karin far more than either would admit.” A musketeer came into the room and handed him a letter, she gave a salute before heading off. “General Garmont is ready.”
“....Let us be off then....” The Musketeer who had taken up Agnes position due to her incapacitation, fell in behind the princess.
Centurion let out a sigh. The princess hadn't been in the best of states since the wedding attack, loosing her mother, and nearly loosing a woman who was for all intents her confidant... And now she was queen in all but name, seeing as most of the regency council was dead, either by the attack itself or having turned traitor and become part of the attack. Outside of the Captain of the Gryphon Knights and the minister of Farming, all of them were gone.
In some ways it was for the best, as it mean that Henrietta would be unopposed while exercising her power.... In others.... She was now in charge of it all at once, outside of the two who survived. And he supposed himself and Garmont, as acting Minister of War and the Interior respectively.
He hoped Garmont had some good news.
A soldier garbed in Garmont colours waited outside the door, and saluted the three of them as they arrived. “He's waiting inside.” The soldier opened the door and waved them inside.
Inside the room Garmont was sitting on a sofa with a table in front of him, on one side of the table was some tea and tea cups alongside a platter of snacks. On the other was a map of Tristain with several markers set upon it. “Princess, Valliere.” Garmont gave a curt nod to the two of them, while gesturing to the sofa set up on the far side of the table from him. “I took the liberty of having refreshments prepared. This may take some time to go through.”
“I do hope you have better tidings than what we have been able to provide from the palace.” The princess stated as she took a seat on the sofa with the aid of the Musketeer. Centurion took the other seat on the sofa facing Garmont.
“Some good, ....some bad.”
“...The bad first.” Henrietta asked. He poured the princess some tea before seeing to his own cup.
“Well, Reconquista has us outnumbered in terms of ships and total troop numbers. And given that they managed to take the Albion fleet mostly intact, an advantage in strategic manoeuvrability, with better ships mind you. Best shipwrights on the continent working for them, all of our best ships were purchased from Albion over the years. Add to that most of them have gotten a least a little bit of combat experience during the civil war. I doubt it's evenly spread out, but most of them have had a taste of battle compared to our troops, who are almost all green outside of a few pockets.”
“And there's nothing we can do to remedy this?”
“In the time before they invade, no. The alliance with Germania was supposed to give us at least a numerical advantage..... We know how that turned out.....” Yes they did.... The emperor and queen dead along a few dozen others of import.... The heads of both nations effectively gone, Germania was even now teetering on the brink of civil war, perhaps it had even begun given how long news took to reach the Tristain capital.
“You have ideas, I hope.”
“Some, I do have good news, however little. While Reconquista has their advantages, we have our own. Mages for one, Tristain has more mages than any other Blessed realm. And not only that while most Albion mages are of the wind element, we have a greater diversity in elements amongst our mages. Meaning that we will not only be deploying more mages, we have a greater variety of tactics available, while Reconquista will mostly be limited to wind spells.”
“Then there are 'weapons', Reconquista had publicly renounced them, though given Captain Agnes experience, they still make use of them. We know that several were captured in the fall of Londiminum, but we don't know if they've have since been reawakened. I'm making our plans on the assumption that they have full use of them. For us, we have fifty-one attached to various soldiers in the army itself, and further eight in the naval arm. That number does not include those who've been bonded into various households nor the Palace, Valliere.”
“Three from the Musketeer corps, and eighteen scattered about various royal houses. Plus the one unawakened one the Captain recovered. Of those we can count on the Musketeer corps and about half of the household ones. I will try and convince Karin to come out of retirement and lend us her support, alongside the 'weapon' she awakened. So we are likely to have 'weapon' superiority, though how much good that will do us is questionable.”
“From what information we got from the battle of Londominum, they can interdict ships if they fly close enough. Another thing was just how much of an overmatch a single 'weapon' is for any dot or line mage, even most triangle mages struggle in a fight.”
“And from the fight in the palace, a 'weapon' of KOS-MOS or Herald's calibre can cut a swath through lesser mages and commoners with relative ease. Even if they were untrained and uncoordinated, none managed to provide any challenge for Herald. All information leads me to believe we have an advantage in numbers of higher calibre 'weapons' as well.”
“So in short we lose the conventional battle, but win the mage and 'weapon' battle.”
“A short summary, yes Princess.” Garmont picked up a letter that had been set on the table. “This also came this morning.” The letter made it's way into the hands of the Princess. “It seems our neighbours have fallen into a civil war of their own, some duchy's are vying for the imperial throne, others are looking to secede. One of the latter approached us, the Von Zerbst's are looking for an alliance of sorts.”
“What kind of an alliance....” Just what was Zerbst planning.
“He appears to be looking to forge his own path.... The alliance he proposes would be of benefit to both of us. We get a secure border on the east, which will free up some troops, on don't give me that face Valliere. We will need every soldier we can get, and most of those are already trained. Zerbst will get much the same, as long as we can provide his eldest daughter and heir a good match.” If it wasn't from a Zerbst it would be very reasonable request.
“A pity we can't have her pick from the courtiers who normally pack the court.” Yes, that would have been one of the better ways to handle Zerbst's proposal.
“Yes, that would have been for the best..... How have the families of the deceased reacted to the deaths of those second, third and fourth sons who were part of the mob.” Garmont asked.
“I have made it clear that they were useful fools for Reconquista's plot, that has soothed over most of the public complaints. From those we questioned afterwords it seems as most were told that Reconquista had taken the Palace.... So it seems only a small number were actual Reconquista agents... But we have no idea as to who was, and if any survived Herald's attacks. Though that does bring up something else. The question of Herald herself.”
“Powerful, but if she did indeed go wild on her own....” The general trailed off.
“That is a question that will have to wait until both Agnes and Herald are well and whole again. It is an issue that will affect a lot of what we doing going forwards, I will however note that this is the first case of something like this happening. So it probably does not affect all 'weapons'.” Henreitta affirmed.
“As you wish your highness. I just pray it does not bode for the ill.”
“As do I general. For Zerbst's proposal, I propose we accept. At minimum it means we won't have to be looking for an invasion from the east while we fight Reconquista. Any disagreements.” The Princess looked at Garmont than himself, both shook their heads. “Then we best be looking for a suitable match then.” The Princess let her words hang in the air as she sipped her tea. “Reconquista's invasion. I assume you have a plan.”
“Several, but that all depends on what they do....” Garmont gestured to the map and began to lay out several routes the war could take.
..........................................
Captain Desain looked out the window onto the courtyard of the palace, it had been just over a week since the wedding and Reconquista's attack upon it. On paper it had been a Reconquista victory, the alliance with Germania was no more, as was the country from the latest news to reach the capital. And a large portion of the Tristainian upper nobility lie dead.......
In truth, as far as he could tell it had cost them practically all their agents in the capital to pull it off, and all of their assets within the walls save himself. And the only reason he survived is that he had been near the gates when the attack took place and had no chance to aid the attack. He certainly hadn't been able to contact any of them through what channels he knew of. And while the attack had in theory killed off a large number Tristainian nobles..... Most of those were almost more use alive, pulling upon and otherwise hinder the Princess response to Reconquista, some could have perhaps even been subverted.... Now they were dead, and the Princess was free to put people loyal to her in their place.
Valliere, Garmont, Mott...... All had been spared from perishing at the wedding, whether by virtue of not being present, such as Mott and Garmont, or sheer luck in the case of Valliere..... They were alive and well, would be near impossible to subvert and were at least competent.
And to top it all the whole country was slowly being united around the Princess after what was being called a 'cowardly' attack by Reconquista. Which was turning into an influx of volunteers even after their numbers had been thinned during the attack, though at least it would mean the reserves would deplete faster.
He would have to get into contact with the rest of Reconquista to lend aid to the invasion.
A part of him wondered if just maybe he should quietly back out while he could..... The rest reminded him of what the Princess was turning this country into.
...........................................
Henrietta stood in her late mothers study.... Late Mother, that was something she was going to have to get used to wasn't it. The study itself was well kept, not that she expected that to be any different, she just hadn't been in here in a long time. And it was soon to be her study when she was officially coronation, when she became Queen.... Crowned by the Duke de la Valliere.... Something that should have been done by her parents.....
She shook her head. There was no use dwelling on things she couldn't change.
Instead she looked around the room. It was fairly similar to her current, now old study. A single desk sat opposite the door under a rather large window, with a small side table, a quartet of chairs had been set around them. The two walls on either side were obscured by mostly full bookshelfs, she couldn't even guess at how many priceless tomes sat amongst those shelves. And all of it covered in a visible layer of dust.
“Nui, it appears as though we will need some maids in here eventually.”
“Figured as much, the Queen rarely left her rooms these past few years.” Sergeant Nui was serving as Agnes replacement while the latter was laid up in the medical ward. She walked up to the desk and ran a finger of her remaining across it, coming away in a layer of dust.
“We should catalogue what's in here first before the maids come in to clean up.” She knew there were plenty of people who would gladly make of with her mothers books, and none of them were above slipping a maid a few coins to make it happen. Such as the book she spied on the desk. “Bring the books over to the desk one shelf at a time and make a note of where you found them.”
Moving over to the desk she picked up the book, leaving the dried out ink and quill for later, there was nothing on the front or back indicating what exactly was inside. There was however a piece of paper slipped into the middle of it, like a bookmark of sorts..... She contemplated whether to start at the beginning of the book or the where the bookmark was.....
Setting the book down she decided to see what was at the bookmark. Holding the book itself down with her stump, she used her good hand to open the book and began to read. It looked to be a water spell formula of sorts..... Complete with crude but diagrams...... All in what she recognized as her mothers handwriting......
Ohh..... Her face began to heat up as she read on. Why, why would her mother have been working on something like this....
“Princess?” Nui dropped the first set of books on the table beside her, along with a some papers detailing where the books had been removed from. Henrietta was however to busy looking over just what her mother had been working on, as a blush began to form on her cheeks. Nui moved to her side and looked down at what she was reading. “Oh my....”
“So how is she.” Duke De La Valliere stood just behind Princess Henrietta De Tristain as they stood a few feet away from the bed where Agnes De Milan lay.
“Recovering from what the healers tell me. The worst of it is behind her. They managed to remove the wooden splinter without any complications, or smaller splinters being left behind.”
“....I just wish I could have been of help. All these years of study, and when the chance to use what I've learnt came to pass..... There was nothing for me to do. I... she was my responsibility and I failed her.” The princess lifted up her arm, bandages wrapped around the stump where her hand once was. “That's always how it's been, all that I am, and I can change nothing..... Agnes, she put herself in danger for my sake without a second thought, and I couldn't do a thing for her in return.”
“She was your guard, she knew what was required of her and discharged her duty with honour and courage.” On top of the actions of her two 'weapons', they had provided invaluable assistance to the defence of the palace during the attack. KOS-MOS was standing over her incapacitated master, while Herald's core had been placed on a nearby table while her body slowly grew back from said core.
“Louise... She was a better friend than I ever deserved....” He stood dispassionately as his daughter was brought up, even now it was still hard memory for him. “She didn't even hesitate.... When I called she came, took up the task entrusted to her with nary a pause. And she died for it.”
“She took after Karin far more than either would admit.” A musketeer came into the room and handed him a letter, she gave a salute before heading off. “General Garmont is ready.”
“....Let us be off then....” The Musketeer who had taken up Agnes position due to her incapacitation, fell in behind the princess.
Centurion let out a sigh. The princess hadn't been in the best of states since the wedding attack, loosing her mother, and nearly loosing a woman who was for all intents her confidant... And now she was queen in all but name, seeing as most of the regency council was dead, either by the attack itself or having turned traitor and become part of the attack. Outside of the Captain of the Gryphon Knights and the minister of Farming, all of them were gone.
In some ways it was for the best, as it mean that Henrietta would be unopposed while exercising her power.... In others.... She was now in charge of it all at once, outside of the two who survived. And he supposed himself and Garmont, as acting Minister of War and the Interior respectively.
He hoped Garmont had some good news.
A soldier garbed in Garmont colours waited outside the door, and saluted the three of them as they arrived. “He's waiting inside.” The soldier opened the door and waved them inside.
Inside the room Garmont was sitting on a sofa with a table in front of him, on one side of the table was some tea and tea cups alongside a platter of snacks. On the other was a map of Tristain with several markers set upon it. “Princess, Valliere.” Garmont gave a curt nod to the two of them, while gesturing to the sofa set up on the far side of the table from him. “I took the liberty of having refreshments prepared. This may take some time to go through.”
“I do hope you have better tidings than what we have been able to provide from the palace.” The princess stated as she took a seat on the sofa with the aid of the Musketeer. Centurion took the other seat on the sofa facing Garmont.
“Some good, ....some bad.”
“...The bad first.” Henrietta asked. He poured the princess some tea before seeing to his own cup.
“Well, Reconquista has us outnumbered in terms of ships and total troop numbers. And given that they managed to take the Albion fleet mostly intact, an advantage in strategic manoeuvrability, with better ships mind you. Best shipwrights on the continent working for them, all of our best ships were purchased from Albion over the years. Add to that most of them have gotten a least a little bit of combat experience during the civil war. I doubt it's evenly spread out, but most of them have had a taste of battle compared to our troops, who are almost all green outside of a few pockets.”
“And there's nothing we can do to remedy this?”
“In the time before they invade, no. The alliance with Germania was supposed to give us at least a numerical advantage..... We know how that turned out.....” Yes they did.... The emperor and queen dead along a few dozen others of import.... The heads of both nations effectively gone, Germania was even now teetering on the brink of civil war, perhaps it had even begun given how long news took to reach the Tristain capital.
“You have ideas, I hope.”
“Some, I do have good news, however little. While Reconquista has their advantages, we have our own. Mages for one, Tristain has more mages than any other Blessed realm. And not only that while most Albion mages are of the wind element, we have a greater diversity in elements amongst our mages. Meaning that we will not only be deploying more mages, we have a greater variety of tactics available, while Reconquista will mostly be limited to wind spells.”
“Then there are 'weapons', Reconquista had publicly renounced them, though given Captain Agnes experience, they still make use of them. We know that several were captured in the fall of Londiminum, but we don't know if they've have since been reawakened. I'm making our plans on the assumption that they have full use of them. For us, we have fifty-one attached to various soldiers in the army itself, and further eight in the naval arm. That number does not include those who've been bonded into various households nor the Palace, Valliere.”
“Three from the Musketeer corps, and eighteen scattered about various royal houses. Plus the one unawakened one the Captain recovered. Of those we can count on the Musketeer corps and about half of the household ones. I will try and convince Karin to come out of retirement and lend us her support, alongside the 'weapon' she awakened. So we are likely to have 'weapon' superiority, though how much good that will do us is questionable.”
“From what information we got from the battle of Londominum, they can interdict ships if they fly close enough. Another thing was just how much of an overmatch a single 'weapon' is for any dot or line mage, even most triangle mages struggle in a fight.”
“And from the fight in the palace, a 'weapon' of KOS-MOS or Herald's calibre can cut a swath through lesser mages and commoners with relative ease. Even if they were untrained and uncoordinated, none managed to provide any challenge for Herald. All information leads me to believe we have an advantage in numbers of higher calibre 'weapons' as well.”
“So in short we lose the conventional battle, but win the mage and 'weapon' battle.”
“A short summary, yes Princess.” Garmont picked up a letter that had been set on the table. “This also came this morning.” The letter made it's way into the hands of the Princess. “It seems our neighbours have fallen into a civil war of their own, some duchy's are vying for the imperial throne, others are looking to secede. One of the latter approached us, the Von Zerbst's are looking for an alliance of sorts.”
“What kind of an alliance....” Just what was Zerbst planning.
“He appears to be looking to forge his own path.... The alliance he proposes would be of benefit to both of us. We get a secure border on the east, which will free up some troops, on don't give me that face Valliere. We will need every soldier we can get, and most of those are already trained. Zerbst will get much the same, as long as we can provide his eldest daughter and heir a good match.” If it wasn't from a Zerbst it would be very reasonable request.
“A pity we can't have her pick from the courtiers who normally pack the court.” Yes, that would have been one of the better ways to handle Zerbst's proposal.
“Yes, that would have been for the best..... How have the families of the deceased reacted to the deaths of those second, third and fourth sons who were part of the mob.” Garmont asked.
“I have made it clear that they were useful fools for Reconquista's plot, that has soothed over most of the public complaints. From those we questioned afterwords it seems as most were told that Reconquista had taken the Palace.... So it seems only a small number were actual Reconquista agents... But we have no idea as to who was, and if any survived Herald's attacks. Though that does bring up something else. The question of Herald herself.”
“Powerful, but if she did indeed go wild on her own....” The general trailed off.
“That is a question that will have to wait until both Agnes and Herald are well and whole again. It is an issue that will affect a lot of what we doing going forwards, I will however note that this is the first case of something like this happening. So it probably does not affect all 'weapons'.” Henreitta affirmed.
“As you wish your highness. I just pray it does not bode for the ill.”
“As do I general. For Zerbst's proposal, I propose we accept. At minimum it means we won't have to be looking for an invasion from the east while we fight Reconquista. Any disagreements.” The Princess looked at Garmont than himself, both shook their heads. “Then we best be looking for a suitable match then.” The Princess let her words hang in the air as she sipped her tea. “Reconquista's invasion. I assume you have a plan.”
“Several, but that all depends on what they do....” Garmont gestured to the map and began to lay out several routes the war could take.
..........................................
Captain Desain looked out the window onto the courtyard of the palace, it had been just over a week since the wedding and Reconquista's attack upon it. On paper it had been a Reconquista victory, the alliance with Germania was no more, as was the country from the latest news to reach the capital. And a large portion of the Tristainian upper nobility lie dead.......
In truth, as far as he could tell it had cost them practically all their agents in the capital to pull it off, and all of their assets within the walls save himself. And the only reason he survived is that he had been near the gates when the attack took place and had no chance to aid the attack. He certainly hadn't been able to contact any of them through what channels he knew of. And while the attack had in theory killed off a large number Tristainian nobles..... Most of those were almost more use alive, pulling upon and otherwise hinder the Princess response to Reconquista, some could have perhaps even been subverted.... Now they were dead, and the Princess was free to put people loyal to her in their place.
Valliere, Garmont, Mott...... All had been spared from perishing at the wedding, whether by virtue of not being present, such as Mott and Garmont, or sheer luck in the case of Valliere..... They were alive and well, would be near impossible to subvert and were at least competent.
And to top it all the whole country was slowly being united around the Princess after what was being called a 'cowardly' attack by Reconquista. Which was turning into an influx of volunteers even after their numbers had been thinned during the attack, though at least it would mean the reserves would deplete faster.
He would have to get into contact with the rest of Reconquista to lend aid to the invasion.
A part of him wondered if just maybe he should quietly back out while he could..... The rest reminded him of what the Princess was turning this country into.
...........................................
Henrietta stood in her late mothers study.... Late Mother, that was something she was going to have to get used to wasn't it. The study itself was well kept, not that she expected that to be any different, she just hadn't been in here in a long time. And it was soon to be her study when she was officially coronation, when she became Queen.... Crowned by the Duke de la Valliere.... Something that should have been done by her parents.....
She shook her head. There was no use dwelling on things she couldn't change.
Instead she looked around the room. It was fairly similar to her current, now old study. A single desk sat opposite the door under a rather large window, with a small side table, a quartet of chairs had been set around them. The two walls on either side were obscured by mostly full bookshelfs, she couldn't even guess at how many priceless tomes sat amongst those shelves. And all of it covered in a visible layer of dust.
“Nui, it appears as though we will need some maids in here eventually.”
“Figured as much, the Queen rarely left her rooms these past few years.” Sergeant Nui was serving as Agnes replacement while the latter was laid up in the medical ward. She walked up to the desk and ran a finger of her remaining across it, coming away in a layer of dust.
“We should catalogue what's in here first before the maids come in to clean up.” She knew there were plenty of people who would gladly make of with her mothers books, and none of them were above slipping a maid a few coins to make it happen. Such as the book she spied on the desk. “Bring the books over to the desk one shelf at a time and make a note of where you found them.”
Moving over to the desk she picked up the book, leaving the dried out ink and quill for later, there was nothing on the front or back indicating what exactly was inside. There was however a piece of paper slipped into the middle of it, like a bookmark of sorts..... She contemplated whether to start at the beginning of the book or the where the bookmark was.....
Setting the book down she decided to see what was at the bookmark. Holding the book itself down with her stump, she used her good hand to open the book and began to read. It looked to be a water spell formula of sorts..... Complete with crude but diagrams...... All in what she recognized as her mothers handwriting......
Ohh..... Her face began to heat up as she read on. Why, why would her mother have been working on something like this....
“Princess?” Nui dropped the first set of books on the table beside her, along with a some papers detailing where the books had been removed from. Henrietta was however to busy looking over just what her mother had been working on, as a blush began to form on her cheeks. Nui moved to her side and looked down at what she was reading. “Oh my....”