Wicked Steps

Chapter 4

The last of the Traimorian States fell, Father victorious at last. But it felt so hollow. Mother's death had hit Father hard, the pair had been dedicated to each other and her passing in his absence only made his guilt over it all the more wrenching. Of course, given the death rate of the flu epidemic it was all too likely that if Father had been home he would have died trying to nurse Mother back to life.

He wrote letters, one a week sent by falcon to mourn with her and help guide her in maintaining the March. The King's war of Expansion had been won, Xutia claimed the farthest border of once Traimore and that should have been the end of it.
But like the Ortaga's, Traimorian rebels had also targeted the Lindquist family. Their States were gone, the peoples to be amalgamated, and none of their actions would save doomed Traimore, but the rebels hidden in the refugees still sent a killer after a Queen. Her Royal Majesty, Queen Oriel Lindquist, fell victim to an assassin's blade during one of her visits to a capital shelter as part of her humanitarian outreach. She'd arrived with Guards and volunteers, supplies to help and heal the masses of unfortunates that gathered, only to be struck down by an assassin on a rooftop.

Emberlee tried not to feel like it was a little fitting, as if after all her losses the King would suffer too. Although she felt empathy for the now adult Crown Prince Damien, he was enduring at seventeen what she had spent a year adjusting to; the loss of their Mother. Unfortunately for the Crown Prince though, his Father had no such dedication as Emberlee's did.

The entire Court was declared in mourning for the loss of its Queen, traditionally an entire year should have passed before it could be lifted. But as Emberlee's birthday passed without fanfare or celebration, the King declared the period of mourning lifted.

Less than a week later, Uncle Albert arrived at the March and he came bearing news and gossip.

"Little firecracker," unlike everyone else, Uncle Albert still refused to treat her with the deference due a Marchioness, "Shall we retire to your study and have a conversation over tea?"

Since he never drank anything less strong than table wine, it was a subtle way of getting rid of the servants for absolute privacy. Ironically, the King's war had stripped the March of so many people that Emberlee had actually identified the few remaining spies lurking. She didn't begrudge them their work, especially not when she shamelessly used Uncle Albert and the Ivy House to her own benefit. Spies simply kept tabs and did their best to infiltrate for information, they made great servants because they worked hard to blend in and keep their covers safe. She simply kept track of who was watching, and more importantly, who they worked for. More often than not, Emberlee would use those watching eyes and listening ears to carefully guide the masters they reported to into believing what she wanted. But with Spies came the more dangerous assassins, and after the Queen's murder there was a shift in the Power of the Court to match the radically changed Map.

Uncle Albert was here to warn her about some of it. "The King sent me here to deliver a request to Marchioness Ortaga," he slipped the golden sealed letter onto her desk and sipped the brandy from his glass.

Emberlee had received enough letters from the King in the past year. His deepest apologies for the loss of her Mother. His gratitude for Ortaga's soldiers and her Father's efforts. His sorrow over the death of her brother. When the Queen died Emberlee expected the mourning period to mean they'd finally have peace. Apparently that had been too childishly naïve. The golden seal of the Royal family broke under her efforts and she unrolled this latest missive while her Uncle watched dispassionately. Like the legal documents naming her Marchioness, these were the official Authorities being gifted her by the Royal family. Unlike her inherited title, this missive was an unexpected appointment.

"I'm being titled as the Xutian Ambassador to the Adaba Empire. He wants me to initiate Correspondence with them as a pre-emptive step to declaring Xutia an Empire," she tried to match her Uncle's irreverence but there was still too much distaste in her tone.

The Empire has already sent a missive through Ortaga and it'd cost Mother her life. Although it'd been a year since her passing, it was in slightly poor taste to task her with this responsibility especially with Father still away. Right now he was simply granting her the sight authority to tentatively communicate, but part of alliance building would include sending and receiving Envoys. It would make sense to send her there in person eventually as an Envoy sent by Xutia would have to pass through Ortaga on the way to Adaba. Thankfully she still hadn't come of age, so it be socially prohibitive for him to send her before she turned seventeen.

"You've heard that the King has lifted official Mourning," Uncle Albert saluted her, still gowned in her own shroud since Mother and Aubin had passed, "but what hasn't been widely announced yet is why."

"Traditional Royal Mourning lasts an entire year, during which there are no marriages and all Blessings are delayed until it is lifted," Mother's voice echoed the Courtly etiquette lesson inside her head as she dryly recited it to Uncle. "If I had to hazard a guess as to why it was lifted only five months later, I would have to say the Crown Prince had a Bride that needed to be wed." Emberlee had only briefly met the Crown Prince at Aubin's Blessing, too brief to claim any kind of familiarity with him, and yet Emberlee doubted he was the type. More likely it could be a political marriage since Xutia was expanding.

"So very close little firecracker," Uncle Albert seemed pleased with her deductions, and the ghost of her Mother lived in the shared smile on his face. "The King is taking a  Bride." Emberlee's teacup hovered a feather's breadth from her lips as she stared at her Uncle in stock.

"That's a bold move, I presume she's a foreign Bride?" No Xutian Family would dare offer a Bride during Mourning.

"Third Imperial Princess Clara of Stussica will be wed to His Majesty at the height of summer, after which Stussica will recognize Xutia as its sister Empire." Uncle albert filled in the missing information needed for Emberlee to make sense of it.