The War (All Chapters + Synopsis)

Chapter 3.4 - Amalia

"So, you are my nephew's mortal enemy, the infamous Amalia Crestman,"a woman I don't recognize says loudly from across the table. "You didn't tell me she was so pretty, Lues."

I can feel my cheeks warming at her comment, and the king seems to be uncomfortable with the comment as well. Seeing his discomfort makes me gleeful for a moment, before I remember why he's uncomfortable.

He waves his hand and red clad servants come in bearing silver platters.

The platters are piled full with sausages, pancakes, eggs, and other delicious breakfast items. I take small amounts of everything, in hopes that at least something is edible. To my surprise I find that I actually like all of the food.

"Lues, are you going to hold court today?" The strange woman asks Lues, his aunt apparently.

"I don't see why not. How many petitioners can we expect today?" King Lues directs this query to Lauria.

"More than usual, but it still shouldn't take too long. Most of them seem to be people who just want to wish you a happy name-day in person and offer gifts to the crown," Lauria responds after inhaling a stack of pancakes swimming in syrup.

"Why would they want to give presents to their king?" I ask very seriously puzzled. No one in Nitens or Spero would ever think of giving gifts to Queen Raverna. She's better off than everyone else and has no need for the meager belongings of common folk.

"The people of Feralis wish to thank their king for protecting them, don't tell me they don't appreciate all the hard work Queen Raverna does for her kingdom?" Lues' Aunt exclaims in mock shock.

"Of course we appreciate the work Her Majesty does!" I exclaim, standing up. The guards draw their swords and point them at me.

"Sit down," Lues orders me, and waves his soldiers back. I seethe at his nerve to order me, but sit despite myself.

"What her highness means is that many of those coming with gifts are trying to garner favor with the crown. They want their children to be safe, to get good work that isn't in the military," Carber Thnitos says. "Princess Avery, you shouldn't taunt the poor girl."

"What I meant is exactly what I said. Raverna Opes does nothing but sit in the castle with her generals and has never graced the front lines with her presence. The people respect a leader who fights alongside their people, not an untouchable figurehead," Princess Avery rebukes Carber's attempt at intervention.

"Says the woman who's never fought on the front lines," Lauria teases.

"Lauria, you forget that Aunt Avery has fought on the front lines before," Ilena interrupts, "She fought in the midwinter battle of Chioni."

"That was a small scale rebellion, not a war," Lauria rebuttals.

"Still counts as a battle," Ilena responds. Her auburn hair is pulled back into a braid, and she's dressed in the usual military garb.

"Thank you Ilena," Princess Avery says to her niece.

"There was a rebellion?" I say suddenly. I hadn't known that, ha, this proves that Lues is a bad king. If there was a rebellion, it's possible his people don't like him.

"Yeah, when was the midwinter rebellion? Sixty, seventy years ago?" One of the king's advisors asks crushing my dreams. Lues Conclamata wasn't even a sparkle in his mother's eye sixty years ago. His mother was still queen so she might have been a bad queen, but it doesn't mean Lues is a bad king.

"Give or take, but it wasn't so much a rebellion against the crown than against the lord who was castellan of Chioni at the time," Ilena inputs her knowledge of the event, even further disrupting whatever fantasies I had about turning Lues' people against him.

"I remember, what was his name, Sir Bravin Bander. What ever did happen to him?" Carber Thnitos directs this question to Ilena.

"He was put to the sword by the rebels," Ilena says after a brief pause.

"Enough talk of rebels, I have a kingdom to run so that I can avoid any rebellions," Lues halts the conversation in its tracks and stands. His advisors rise with him, my escorts make me wait until he and the Royal Council have exited. Ilena stays behind to join my escort.

"So now I get to watch your brother play house with his subjects. What am I going to be seeing, how he tortures his people?" I ask skeptical of what holding court entails.

"No, you're going to watch why our people love him," Ilena responds without a moments hesitation.

The sky is clear outside, so I pray to Salivan god of rain and the season of blooming that it rains on the King's parade, and not figuratively either. The sound of my escorts footsteps on the stone floor echoes through the empty halls. Sometimes servants scurry past, and all of them seem to be perfectly fine, none of them look starved nor beaten.

If the rumors about the Devil King torturing his people are false, what else might be? I grew up my whole life thinking he was a monster, I never even questioned the stories because I saw what he could do in battle. It was and still is impossible for me to see him as anything but the person who murdered my parents, but maybe he's not so bad as everyone thinks. I shake those thoughts out of my head as the guards shove me through another door into the great hall from before.