OvidLemma
The duchess and the queen*! To date, Duchess Aleida Eatherfine (below) had been friendly to Val (also below) and considers them friends - after all, Val and Niko once saved her life! However, in the time that has passed since last they spoke, the duchess's mother, the Dowager Duchess Hyacinth Eatherfine, has conspired behind the young duchess's back and fed her a steady diet of lies about Val. Now the dowager duchess has pinned sedition charges against Val and sentence her to death - a sentence that only the duchess herself can countermand. While the truth is on Val's side, it's her word against that of Aleida's mother - how will can she possibly get the duchess to countermand the order? Fortunately, Aleida is not the sort of ruler her brother was. Not content to sit back and let her mother run the duchy, she will at least speak to Val. Whether she can be convinced of Val's innocence is an entirely different matter.
It's worth noting that, in the world of Orphan Queen Valkyrie, the typical racial features of our world do not hold. The Eatherfines, along with roughly half of the people in Aurilicht and Boleares, including the Vinzennos, are primarily of Genoshen heritage. Genoshens have typically European features, but almost always have dark eyes - when a person of Genoshen descent has blue or green eyes (like Niko, Ginn Vinzenno, or Hyacinth Eatherfine), that almost always indicates a small amount of Sudren heritage. Genosha is a continent to the northeast of Sudria that's home to a loose confederation of small nations - during times when the confederacy is strong, Genosha becomes a mighty military threat and a colonial power. Currently, the confederation is unstable and there is little Genoshen intervention in Sudren politics - while plenty of people have Genoshen heritage, most identify more closely as citizens of whichever nation they live in.
Val is half Genoshen and half Sudren - the native Sudren people, who make up about 25% of Sudria's current population, have typically Asiatic features, light brown skin, wavy or curly red hair, and green or blue eyes. And the Khasun people, who make up about 10% of the populace, come from Caphria, a land separated from Sudria by a large mountain range. They have typically African features, with light brown to very dark skin, curly or tightly-coiled hair, and hazel or pale eyes. Characters with Khasun ancestry include Sabine, Levin (Val's magic teacher in Verdenlecht), and Sir Andrat.
*coronation pending
45. Queen and Duchess
Violet meowed, which meant, What's wrong, Val?
She'd been crying for a while, alternating between sobbing and just sitting there feeling miserable for herself. But Violet had asked a question and deserved an answer. Val stopped crying for long enough to explain what had happened. Then she asked for updates on the Vinzennos - Ginn and Ette were still being detained in two of the palace's secure gest rooms. Niko, Izzy, and Galvan were still at the Uddy's place. Patrols from the ducal guard were staking it out from across the street - their location was very much known.
Even if Val broke out - and there was no guarantee that she could - if she couldn't get Ginn and Ette out, too, then they'd be in danger. Earl Gunthald had threatened her family and Mrs. Eatherfine was even more cutthroat than him. Maybe she could send a message out… Ette was surely capable of escape and Ginn was Gifted. She had a chance of understanding Violet. But they were in separate rooms, and Violet had indicated they were some distance apart. Violet could warn Niko, at least.
She meowed, which meant, Niko understands me, but not like you. Whether Val was just attuned to her familiar or because she was perhaps uniquely gifted with natural magic, she could understand Violet far better than anybody else. Niko could get the gist, but not well enough for complex messages. Violet head-butted Val and hopped onto her lap, purring as Val stroked her soft calico fur. It was a pretty good way to comfort a human.
Val whispered to Violet: "I'm not just going to sit in this cell and let Mrs. Eatherfine kill me. Tell Niko that I'm breaking out in two hours and they should make themselves scarce. Try to tell Ginn, too… I just have to hope she'll figure something out."
Meow? Are you sure that's wise?
"No, obviously not. But if I let the threats of evil people dictate my life, then pretty soon I won't have any life to dictate. I'm going to make offerings to Valkyrie and Oestel and hope I'm as blessed as people seem to think I am."
Having made up her mind, an odd sense of tranquility overcame Val. She was going to break out. She'd break the lock, venture out into the hallway, kill whatever few guards she saw first, take their weapons, and work her way out, killing everybody in her path. If she found the keys, she'd free the other prisoners as a distraction. She meditated in front of her little shrine, sacrificing little slices of apricot to the goddesses and pooling her physical and magical energy for a hard battle. Violet warned her when an hour and fifty-eight minutes had passed. She'd managed to get the messages out.
"Okay…" Val paced over to the door. She held out her hand, trying to sense the locking mechanism within the door and whatever bars or bolts held it in place. It was sturdy, but she could break it in a try or two. "Here goes noth…"
The door open and strong arms grabbed Val, hauling her off down the corridor. She kicked and screamed, stunning one of the guards when she stomped on his foot. One arm free, she punched his nose, headbutted him in the mouth, and kneed him in the groin before the first guard dragged her off of him and two more rushed in to take the injured man's place. She screamed some more, and the prisoners in the cells either cheered her on or shouted at her to be quiet. It didn't matter either way - Val screamed all the way to the interrogation room, where she was chained to the table twice, with heavy shackles.
+++++
Val tried to break the locks on the shackles, but they were too close to her wrists. Whenever she tried to pulse them with magic, the metal buckled and pushed into her wrists, hurting them and making concentration difficult. She pulled at them, pulled at the table with all her might, but only managed to scrape herself and hurt her stocking-clad feet. They'd taken her shoes, so all she had were the mussy dress she'd been wearing for the past… was it nine days?
It was Val's thirteenth birthday and she was going to die. She cried. She pulled at her shackles. She tried to use magical fire to burn the table to a crisp, but she was too close to it and only managed to burn the bottom of her already-dirty dress. She wasn't used to directing her magic without her hands - that was something she should have been practicing. She was so stupid. Stupid and weak and useless. She'd trained for months and months, had thought she'd made herself strong, but she was just a stupid kid… a stupid teenager now, she supposed. And now she was going to die.
The door behind Val opened and somebody entered the room. Somebody with soft footsteps and no clink of guard's armor. An assassin perhaps? Did they still use a headsman to kill people? Tears swam in her vision.
"Please don't kill me!" Val sobbed. Tears dribbled down her cheeks and blood dripped from her wrists. They sparkled with pain - she was pretty sure she'd sprained them from the force of her pulling.
"I'll do what I can, but you haven't made it easy," a soft voice said.
The Duchess Aleida swished into view, the scent of honey and lavender wafting with her. She stood in front of Val, lips pursed, brow wavering, coal-dark eyes regarding her carefully. She put her fingertips on the table and leaned forward.
"I want to know why you did it, Val. I thought we were friends… I saw you sign your oath. How could you betray me like that?"
"I never betrayed you," Val said. "Never. Not once."
"I've read Gunthald's report. You've been telling everybody that you're the queen, that my reign is illegitimate, and that the people of Aurilicht need to rise against me while I’m weak. The moment you left Verdenlecht, you started poisoning people against me." There was genuine anguish in Aleida's eyes. Tears - tears just like the ones Val was weeping. "You convinced your father not to come back… we lost Verdenlecht, Val. We were so close… so close… but without Mrs. Bonnikin and Mr. Vinzenno to give them training and advice, our citizen soldiers broke and routed and our ducal guard weren't enough to hold them off. If we lose this war, it may well be your poison that weakened us enough to do it. So… please help me understand… please give me any excuse to belay Gunthald's order to have you killed. Please, Val, help me understand."
Val laughed, but it wasn't a cruel laugh, and she certainly didn't find anything funny. A strange giddy energy filled her, shivering in her chest and along her spine, making her brow bead with cold sweat. It was so absurd, so incredibly ironic that she couldn't keep herself quiet. "Aleida… since you think my life is yours to spare or take, I think we can spare the formalities. I'm going to give you the best advice anybody has ever given you, and I want you to consider it carefully: your mother is an evil woman and you cannot trust a damn thing she says."
The duchess laughed back - a laugh full of scorn, a melodic barking of derision. "Is your life a joke to you? You think japes and insolence will somehow save you?"
"No, Aleida, I don't. But I hope the truth will. Please listen before you judge anything, because my uncle, my parents, my friends, they can all attest to this. Leftenant Bassa will attest to it - I think she's an honest woman, even if she's too taken to blind obedience."
"Your parents and friends tried to escape… one of them was successful. That hardly inspires confidence. For all I know, you have this leftenant under your sway…"
"My sway? I have no sway. Today is my thirteenth birthday and my political sway is about equal to any other common girl's my age. So here's what happened, Aleida: I, a perfectly ordinary twelve-year-old, arrived in Port Rumm with my friends and family after we left Verdenlecht. We camped at night and didn't talk to a single soul, aside from buying some archery equipment. And when I arrived in Port Rumm six days later, I was immediately detained under suspicion of sedition with a writ signed by your own hand. Do you remember signing that?"
"I never signed such a writ…"
"Leftenant Bassa and a dozen guards served it to my Uncle Wuldie. My parents and friends can confirm that - and, I imagine, my dad thought his obligation to Verdenlecht was concluded when you had his daughter detained on trumped-up charges. Most of the earl's guards and ducal guards know about it. Sir Andrat, the earl's weaponsmater… he's a friend of mine and he knows about it. My friend Jasil… a Sheore girl at the Port Bazaar.. she knows about it. And if you think I have all of them under my thumb, then I'm not sure how I found myself so easily imprisoned. The writ was signed with your name, but it was signed by your mother. Gunthald knew this but chose to keep me detained for his political advantage - he wanted me to wed his brat of a son and claim queenship for myself and for himself to supplant you. And, when I refused, he decided to acquiesce to your mother and have me arrested. My parents and I sent petitions to you every day asking to lift my detainment… I kept copies of a few in my desk. I'm guessing you didn't get those either…"
Aleida's expression became icy. "I did not."
"Please… please, your grace. Please look into it. I like you… I think you're a good duchess… but some very bad people have been scheming against me behind your back…"
"That's my mother and a duchess whom you're accusing…"
Val nodded. "I imagine it's very important to make sure she's not guilty, then. Please look into it."
Aleida balled her slim hands into fists and looked at the floor, suddenly unable to meet Val's eyes. "I will," she said. She pounded on the door and summoned the warden. "Please return her to her cell… no harm is to befall her unless I say otherwise. If she suffers so much as a hangnail, I'll be calling for the hangman. Do you understand."
"I do, your grace," the warden said. He sounded… relieved?
+++++
Val stewed in her cell for most of another day before Aleida came to call on her. This time, she arrived not with icy anger, but with… uncertainty? The guards unlocked Val's cell and she stepped in, eyes downcast. When she spotted the vines and roots upon the floor, though, she glanced up and took in all of Val's cell - all six-by-eight of it, by ten feet tall, which is what afforded Val her loft. Val peered down from her vine-hammock-seat from atop the loft, her mouth drawn straight. She was even more in the dark about what might be about to transpire than the duchess was.
"Your grace," Val said softly.
"So we're back to honorifics now?"
"I'm not mere seconds from thinking I was about to be murdered," Val said. "I wasn't at my best."
"Nor was I at mine… Val… I don't know what to do." She looked up at Val, her earnest eyes close to tears. "The people I talked to… they all vouch for you. They all confirm your account. But it's their word against the word of an earl and a duchess - my mother! How can I possibly rule against her."
Val climbed down from her perch and took Aleida's hand. It was the same size as Val's hand and warm and soft… she hadn't been up to many fighting exercises. "May I give you some very bad news if it will help my case?"
Aleida sighed. "I suppose I’m obligated to hear it now. What news?"
"That night that Niko and I saved your life? That was no random attack by religious fanatics. Your mother orchestrated that, Aleida. She did it to give your brother just cause to declare war… the attempt was brazen enough that he declared war anyway, but they didn't want to risk the uncertainty. She intended to have you killed to advance her dream of a Wuhricht upon a united Sudren throne. As far as she's concerned, everybody is expendable."
"My mother would not have me killed," Aleida stated.
"Not now, no," Val agreed. "Now her hopes for the future of the country lie on you and she won't have some upstart common girl gallivanting around and proclaiming herself future queen, however quietly or privately, or the fact that I'm so godsdamned uncertain about it even though I got a vision from the goddess herself. I'm the one currently on Hyacinth Eatherfine's altar, being offered up to serve her cause."
"You have proof of this audacious plot?"
"No…" Val said. But something occurred to her, and she recalled her dream, in which her mother had directed her to uncover the duchess's eyes… they'd been in the crypt… "Actually… Aleida, have you got the Gift?"
The duchess nodded uncertainly. "My mother insisted I keep quiet about it… I've hardly had time to be trained, in any case…"
"That's fine - too many practice-honed defenses would only block the spirits. And… I know this will sound crazy, but you've got to spend the night in the palace crypt, or at least go to sleep there. Have as many guards down there watching over you as you like. But I have a feeling you'll see what you need to see…"
"Sleep in the crypt?" Aleida sputtered.
"Afraid of ghosts?"
"I don't believe in ghosts…"
"Well… this will probably change that," Val said. "My dead mother showed me in a vision that I was supposed to help you see what was going on. I've never lied to you, Aleida, and this will prove it."
Aleida frowned, staring into nothing, her carmine lips trembling as she wrestled with a thousand thoughts. "All right… and… Val…"
"Your grace?"
"I'm sorry if this has ruined our friendship. I… I was so angry at what they told me. I was honestly on the fence about whether to let them kill you. Now… I'm not sure what to believe, but if you're a liar, you're far better at it than even my mother. Part of me hopes you're wrong or working some angle… but my instincts say you aren't."
"I'm not," Val said. "And I'll be privileged to consider us friends… when I'm free and safely with my family. Until then, you're the duchess dangling a blade over all our heads and I'm going to act as if my life is in mortal peril, because it is."
"I understand," Aleida said eventually. "And thank you."
"For what?"
"For being honest with me. Not many people are honest with me. I hope it will be under happier circumstances when we see one another next."
OvidLemma
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-Ovid
OvidLemma
The duchess and the queen*! To date, Duchess Aleida Eatherfine (below) had been friendly to Val (also below) and considers them friends - after all, Val and Niko once saved her life! However, in the time that has passed since last they spoke, the duchess's mother, the Dowager Duchess Hyacinth Eatherfine, has conspired behind the young duchess's back and fed her a steady diet of lies about Val. Now the dowager duchess has pinned sedition charges against Val and sentence her to death - a sentence that only the duchess herself can countermand. While the truth is on Val's side, it's her word against that of Aleida's mother - how will can she possibly get the duchess to countermand the order? Fortunately, Aleida is not the sort of ruler her brother was. Not content to sit back and let her mother run the duchy, she will at least speak to Val. Whether she can be convinced of Val's innocence is an entirely different matter.
It's worth noting that, in the world of Orphan Queen Valkyrie, the typical racial features of our world do not hold. The Eatherfines, along with roughly half of the people in Aurilicht and Boleares, including the Vinzennos, are primarily of Genoshen heritage. Genoshens have typically European features, but almost always have dark eyes - when a person of Genoshen descent has blue or green eyes (like Niko, Ginn Vinzenno, or Hyacinth Eatherfine), that almost always indicates a small amount of Sudren heritage. Genosha is a continent to the northeast of Sudria that's home to a loose confederation of small nations - during times when the confederacy is strong, Genosha becomes a mighty military threat and a colonial power. Currently, the confederation is unstable and there is little Genoshen intervention in Sudren politics - while plenty of people have Genoshen heritage, most identify more closely as citizens of whichever nation they live in.
Val is half Genoshen and half Sudren - the native Sudren people, who make up about 25% of Sudria's current population, have typically Asiatic features, light brown skin, wavy or curly red hair, and green or blue eyes. And the Khasun people, who make up about 10% of the populace, come from Caphria, a land separated from Sudria by a large mountain range. They have typically African features, with light brown to very dark skin, curly or tightly-coiled hair, and hazel or pale eyes. Characters with Khasun ancestry include Sabine, Levin (Val's magic teacher in Verdenlecht), and Sir Andrat.
*coronation pending
45. Queen and Duchess
Violet meowed, which meant, What's wrong, Val?
She'd been crying for a while, alternating between sobbing and just sitting there feeling miserable for herself. But Violet had asked a question and deserved an answer. Val stopped crying for long enough to explain what had happened. Then she asked for updates on the Vinzennos - Ginn and Ette were still being detained in two of the palace's secure gest rooms. Niko, Izzy, and Galvan were still at the Uddy's place. Patrols from the ducal guard were staking it out from across the street - their location was very much known.
Even if Val broke out - and there was no guarantee that she could - if she couldn't get Ginn and Ette out, too, then they'd be in danger. Earl Gunthald had threatened her family and Mrs. Eatherfine was even more cutthroat than him. Maybe she could send a message out… Ette was surely capable of escape and Ginn was Gifted. She had a chance of understanding Violet. But they were in separate rooms, and Violet had indicated they were some distance apart. Violet could warn Niko, at least.
She meowed, which meant, Niko understands me, but not like you. Whether Val was just attuned to her familiar or because she was perhaps uniquely gifted with natural magic, she could understand Violet far better than anybody else. Niko could get the gist, but not well enough for complex messages. Violet head-butted Val and hopped onto her lap, purring as Val stroked her soft calico fur. It was a pretty good way to comfort a human.
Val whispered to Violet: "I'm not just going to sit in this cell and let Mrs. Eatherfine kill me. Tell Niko that I'm breaking out in two hours and they should make themselves scarce. Try to tell Ginn, too… I just have to hope she'll figure something out."
Meow? Are you sure that's wise?
"No, obviously not. But if I let the threats of evil people dictate my life, then pretty soon I won't have any life to dictate. I'm going to make offerings to Valkyrie and Oestel and hope I'm as blessed as people seem to think I am."
Having made up her mind, an odd sense of tranquility overcame Val. She was going to break out. She'd break the lock, venture out into the hallway, kill whatever few guards she saw first, take their weapons, and work her way out, killing everybody in her path. If she found the keys, she'd free the other prisoners as a distraction. She meditated in front of her little shrine, sacrificing little slices of apricot to the goddesses and pooling her physical and magical energy for a hard battle. Violet warned her when an hour and fifty-eight minutes had passed. She'd managed to get the messages out.
"Okay…" Val paced over to the door. She held out her hand, trying to sense the locking mechanism within the door and whatever bars or bolts held it in place. It was sturdy, but she could break it in a try or two. "Here goes noth…"
The door open and strong arms grabbed Val, hauling her off down the corridor. She kicked and screamed, stunning one of the guards when she stomped on his foot. One arm free, she punched his nose, headbutted him in the mouth, and kneed him in the groin before the first guard dragged her off of him and two more rushed in to take the injured man's place. She screamed some more, and the prisoners in the cells either cheered her on or shouted at her to be quiet. It didn't matter either way - Val screamed all the way to the interrogation room, where she was chained to the table twice, with heavy shackles.
+++++
Val tried to break the locks on the shackles, but they were too close to her wrists. Whenever she tried to pulse them with magic, the metal buckled and pushed into her wrists, hurting them and making concentration difficult. She pulled at them, pulled at the table with all her might, but only managed to scrape herself and hurt her stocking-clad feet. They'd taken her shoes, so all she had were the mussy dress she'd been wearing for the past… was it nine days?
It was Val's thirteenth birthday and she was going to die. She cried. She pulled at her shackles. She tried to use magical fire to burn the table to a crisp, but she was too close to it and only managed to burn the bottom of her already-dirty dress. She wasn't used to directing her magic without her hands - that was something she should have been practicing. She was so stupid. Stupid and weak and useless. She'd trained for months and months, had thought she'd made herself strong, but she was just a stupid kid… a stupid teenager now, she supposed. And now she was going to die.
The door behind Val opened and somebody entered the room. Somebody with soft footsteps and no clink of guard's armor. An assassin perhaps? Did they still use a headsman to kill people? Tears swam in her vision.
"Please don't kill me!" Val sobbed. Tears dribbled down her cheeks and blood dripped from her wrists. They sparkled with pain - she was pretty sure she'd sprained them from the force of her pulling.
"I'll do what I can, but you haven't made it easy," a soft voice said.
The Duchess Aleida swished into view, the scent of honey and lavender wafting with her. She stood in front of Val, lips pursed, brow wavering, coal-dark eyes regarding her carefully. She put her fingertips on the table and leaned forward.
"I want to know why you did it, Val. I thought we were friends… I saw you sign your oath. How could you betray me like that?"
"I never betrayed you," Val said. "Never. Not once."
"I've read Gunthald's report. You've been telling everybody that you're the queen, that my reign is illegitimate, and that the people of Aurilicht need to rise against me while I’m weak. The moment you left Verdenlecht, you started poisoning people against me." There was genuine anguish in Aleida's eyes. Tears - tears just like the ones Val was weeping. "You convinced your father not to come back… we lost Verdenlecht, Val. We were so close… so close… but without Mrs. Bonnikin and Mr. Vinzenno to give them training and advice, our citizen soldiers broke and routed and our ducal guard weren't enough to hold them off. If we lose this war, it may well be your poison that weakened us enough to do it. So… please help me understand… please give me any excuse to belay Gunthald's order to have you killed. Please, Val, help me understand."
Val laughed, but it wasn't a cruel laugh, and she certainly didn't find anything funny. A strange giddy energy filled her, shivering in her chest and along her spine, making her brow bead with cold sweat. It was so absurd, so incredibly ironic that she couldn't keep herself quiet. "Aleida… since you think my life is yours to spare or take, I think we can spare the formalities. I'm going to give you the best advice anybody has ever given you, and I want you to consider it carefully: your mother is an evil woman and you cannot trust a damn thing she says."
The duchess laughed back - a laugh full of scorn, a melodic barking of derision. "Is your life a joke to you? You think japes and insolence will somehow save you?"
"No, Aleida, I don't. But I hope the truth will. Please listen before you judge anything, because my uncle, my parents, my friends, they can all attest to this. Leftenant Bassa will attest to it - I think she's an honest woman, even if she's too taken to blind obedience."
"Your parents and friends tried to escape… one of them was successful. That hardly inspires confidence. For all I know, you have this leftenant under your sway…"
"My sway? I have no sway. Today is my thirteenth birthday and my political sway is about equal to any other common girl's my age. So here's what happened, Aleida: I, a perfectly ordinary twelve-year-old, arrived in Port Rumm with my friends and family after we left Verdenlecht. We camped at night and didn't talk to a single soul, aside from buying some archery equipment. And when I arrived in Port Rumm six days later, I was immediately detained under suspicion of sedition with a writ signed by your own hand. Do you remember signing that?"
"I never signed such a writ…"
"Leftenant Bassa and a dozen guards served it to my Uncle Wuldie. My parents and friends can confirm that - and, I imagine, my dad thought his obligation to Verdenlecht was concluded when you had his daughter detained on trumped-up charges. Most of the earl's guards and ducal guards know about it. Sir Andrat, the earl's weaponsmater… he's a friend of mine and he knows about it. My friend Jasil… a Sheore girl at the Port Bazaar.. she knows about it. And if you think I have all of them under my thumb, then I'm not sure how I found myself so easily imprisoned. The writ was signed with your name, but it was signed by your mother. Gunthald knew this but chose to keep me detained for his political advantage - he wanted me to wed his brat of a son and claim queenship for myself and for himself to supplant you. And, when I refused, he decided to acquiesce to your mother and have me arrested. My parents and I sent petitions to you every day asking to lift my detainment… I kept copies of a few in my desk. I'm guessing you didn't get those either…"
Aleida's expression became icy. "I did not."
"Please… please, your grace. Please look into it. I like you… I think you're a good duchess… but some very bad people have been scheming against me behind your back…"
"That's my mother and a duchess whom you're accusing…"
Val nodded. "I imagine it's very important to make sure she's not guilty, then. Please look into it."
Aleida balled her slim hands into fists and looked at the floor, suddenly unable to meet Val's eyes. "I will," she said. She pounded on the door and summoned the warden. "Please return her to her cell… no harm is to befall her unless I say otherwise. If she suffers so much as a hangnail, I'll be calling for the hangman. Do you understand."
"I do, your grace," the warden said. He sounded… relieved?
+++++
Val stewed in her cell for most of another day before Aleida came to call on her. This time, she arrived not with icy anger, but with… uncertainty? The guards unlocked Val's cell and she stepped in, eyes downcast. When she spotted the vines and roots upon the floor, though, she glanced up and took in all of Val's cell - all six-by-eight of it, by ten feet tall, which is what afforded Val her loft. Val peered down from her vine-hammock-seat from atop the loft, her mouth drawn straight. She was even more in the dark about what might be about to transpire than the duchess was.
"Your grace," Val said softly.
"So we're back to honorifics now?"
"I'm not mere seconds from thinking I was about to be murdered," Val said. "I wasn't at my best."
"Nor was I at mine… Val… I don't know what to do." She looked up at Val, her earnest eyes close to tears. "The people I talked to… they all vouch for you. They all confirm your account. But it's their word against the word of an earl and a duchess - my mother! How can I possibly rule against her."
Val climbed down from her perch and took Aleida's hand. It was the same size as Val's hand and warm and soft… she hadn't been up to many fighting exercises. "May I give you some very bad news if it will help my case?"
Aleida sighed. "I suppose I’m obligated to hear it now. What news?"
"That night that Niko and I saved your life? That was no random attack by religious fanatics. Your mother orchestrated that, Aleida. She did it to give your brother just cause to declare war… the attempt was brazen enough that he declared war anyway, but they didn't want to risk the uncertainty. She intended to have you killed to advance her dream of a Wuhricht upon a united Sudren throne. As far as she's concerned, everybody is expendable."
"My mother would not have me killed," Aleida stated.
"Not now, no," Val agreed. "Now her hopes for the future of the country lie on you and she won't have some upstart common girl gallivanting around and proclaiming herself future queen, however quietly or privately, or the fact that I'm so godsdamned uncertain about it even though I got a vision from the goddess herself. I'm the one currently on Hyacinth Eatherfine's altar, being offered up to serve her cause."
"You have proof of this audacious plot?"
"No…" Val said. But something occurred to her, and she recalled her dream, in which her mother had directed her to uncover the duchess's eyes… they'd been in the crypt… "Actually… Aleida, have you got the Gift?"
The duchess nodded uncertainly. "My mother insisted I keep quiet about it… I've hardly had time to be trained, in any case…"
"That's fine - too many practice-honed defenses would only block the spirits. And… I know this will sound crazy, but you've got to spend the night in the palace crypt, or at least go to sleep there. Have as many guards down there watching over you as you like. But I have a feeling you'll see what you need to see…"
"Sleep in the crypt?" Aleida sputtered.
"Afraid of ghosts?"
"I don't believe in ghosts…"
"Well… this will probably change that," Val said. "My dead mother showed me in a vision that I was supposed to help you see what was going on. I've never lied to you, Aleida, and this will prove it."
Aleida frowned, staring into nothing, her carmine lips trembling as she wrestled with a thousand thoughts. "All right… and… Val…"
"Your grace?"
"I'm sorry if this has ruined our friendship. I… I was so angry at what they told me. I was honestly on the fence about whether to let them kill you. Now… I'm not sure what to believe, but if you're a liar, you're far better at it than even my mother. Part of me hopes you're wrong or working some angle… but my instincts say you aren't."
"I'm not," Val said. "And I'll be privileged to consider us friends… when I'm free and safely with my family. Until then, you're the duchess dangling a blade over all our heads and I'm going to act as if my life is in mortal peril, because it is."
"I understand," Aleida said eventually. "And thank you."
"For what?"
"For being honest with me. Not many people are honest with me. I hope it will be under happier circumstances when we see one another next."
OvidLemma
An Obligatory Message from the Author
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-Ovid
