"Her Regency, Queen Rael, presiding." Rael walked into the small meeting room as the herald finished her announcement.
She watched the men and women around the table stand and bow. She smiled grimly, her expression cold, as it had often been as of late. It was her only defense against the world, even this closed council. She moved to her seat, glancing around the table for a moment, before sitting down.
"I know you are all very busy, so I will get to the point." She sat down, waiting for them to settle themselves before letting out a slow breath. "Right now, we have the luxury of peace and time, but I do not know how long this will last. I will be issuing direction to limit Royal spending and infrastructure development on unnecessary projects. There will be no decrees that leave this room for the present moment but we will begin to work towards being prepared for a possible war, financially."
Her councillor of trade leaned back and frowned. "Do we have an enemy? Any declarations of war? A battle front? What indications do we have that these measures are even needed? We have entered into a period of Peace and Alliance unknown for several centuries, and you want to brace for war?" After a skeptical, knowing pause, the older woman shook her head. "Is it possible that we are jumping at shadows?"
Queen Rael clenched her jaw at the condescension in the woman's tone before shaking her head. "Anticipating your questions, I am introducing Lord Kannein's second in command to this Prive Council, who will act as Commander of the Aupanan forces and security in his absence."
The table went still, expectant, before the clerk returned, opening the door and announcing. "Lady Ocia of Xaranth Provinces,"
The tall woman strode into the room, wearing her formal suit of armour, decorated in the motif of a bull that was her family's and estates sigil. Her armour was a deep red colour, as if coated in blood, the cloak behind her a ruddy brown. Her hair was long, black, and braided down her back and she had brown eyes that looked harder than ice at the moment. Her movements were precise and crisp as she presented herself to the Queen, then bowed before taking the empty seat at the table.
"She has information on the security situation of Aupana, our allies and projected weaknesses within our defences. I do not need to mention that her words stay within this room, until I authorize information to be spread by Royal decree." Rael said, nodding to the woman who glanced around the table for a long moment, almost as if looking for someone to object to her presence. Ocia's expression and posture were a clear challenge to the older nobles who merely inclined their heads before she started talking.
"Aupana has received notification that enemy agents have already been dispersed within our borders and started to begin a campaign of sedition and terror, aimed at weakening our abilities and desires to fight back. The enemy is employing highly aggressive war-time habits of keeping itself concealed while attacking us unexpectedly on multiple fronts, preventing us from forming or maintaining a solid single front in which to properly respond." She said formally, then paused at the reaction it caused. There were looks of surprise and scoffs from the nobles, though it was only the trade minister who felt the need to speak up again.
"You speak in riddles and terms that don't answer any questions, Lady Ocia." Winfried said stubbornly, tapping the table with one long finger. "Where's your proof that this has happened? Who's been attacked? Who is our enemy?"
Rael nodded at her war commander, giving her permission to answer the queries that had been kept quiet until now. She braced for the next words, having known far longer than even Ocia about the revelation that she had taken pains to conceal until this moment.
Ocia cleared her throat and leaned forward, hard eyes on Lady Winfried. "Though we do not have specific information as of yet, Lord Kannein and his guards have been missing for several weeks and currently there is no indication of their condition or location. They are presumed attacked and possibly captured within our borders. Several agents of our enemy have been found in various levels and departments within our nation's government as well as the general population. All are employed to cause damage to Aupana in one way or another. All either kill themselves or are killed shortly after capture. The enemy is taking pains to not be known."
At the news of Kannein, everyone at the table glanced towards the Queen but her features were a cold mask, unreadable of any emotion or reaction. It caused a gaping hole inside of her every time she acknowledged the fact but she remained as a statue, merely inclining her head and motioning for Ocia to continue.
"In addition to our problems, we have received intelligence that the High Lord commander of Sellexu's military has been..." Ocia paused and shook her head carefully. "They aren't sure. He's currently in serious condition from some form of poison that was administered by a courtier from another of our Allies. He is thus incapacitated. Cleandria has been destroyed as you know but a couple dozen survivors have been found and transported to Alliance to maintain a library of our histories."
"What's being done for Lord Kannein? We should be rousing a guard and chasing after his attackers and finding him. Surely, we've received notification of him being a hostage? A request for ransom?" Lord Clarence asked painfully, the man had been close to Kannein, tutoring him at court after Lord Eli had died. "He would be the first one to do the same for any one of us, and we sit here for weeks? I shouldn't have to remind anyone here that he is also our Regent Consort and betrothed to be our King beside our Regent Queen."
Queen Rael let out a slow breath, forcing herself to meet the man's gaze."And that is what our enemy most likely expects of us, to send out a hasty force against an unknown amount of enemy, wasting our resources and possibly reducing our security even more. The nearest Royal guard has been conducting searches with no success. We are currently sending intelligence assets to find out answers without drawing so much attention. I am the last person you need to remind about Lord Kannein's worth to us. However, I will not risk further weakening Aupana for my own emotional concerns."
Ocia nodded at her words and picked up where Rael left off. "It is my theory that they are trying to draw us out, scatter us and reduce our forces piece by piece, to prevent a united front from being formed. Even if they are not, we must keep our heads about us and have a concerted, informed effort to rescue Lord Kannein and his men."
"And what about the security here? If they are so brazen to attack within our borders, what stops them from going after any one of us?" Lady Sylva queried, raising her brow and looking more pointedly at Real.
Ocia nodded again, glancing at Rael for a moment, then to those around the table."I have a proposition that I have yet to run past our Regency."
Rael let out a slow breath, nodding. "Your Regency is still in this room, and is not a delicate piece of glass that needs to be protected from the dark."
"Understood, Regency. However, I think you are the next logical target. Or a possible one, and without an Heir, you are a very tempting target to destabilize our country. Now, I know you have your Foxes, but they're stretched thin with both of their tasks. I propose expanding their ranks, as well as removing their intelligence duties, so they can focus solely on your personal security."
"And what would we do for intelligence?" Rael said slowly, crossing her arms over her chest.
Ocia leaned back in her chair. "We would need to contact the people who our Foxes work with at times, the networks that are already in place and set up and convince them to work for us, instead of merely with us."
Lady Winfried laughed disdainfully, looking at the younger woman with slightly veiled scorn. "You want to employ a bunch of street runners who break most of our laws, steal and work against us as much as with us, to help secure our country? They have no loyalty except to money and chaos. They are assassins and thieves not to mention that they are low born and selfishly dedicated to their own set of rules and not the values of Aupana as a whole."
"Those are our hurdles, yes." Ocia said slowly, her expression still confident. "But our foxes can't keep wearing brown or grey or whatever colour helps them blend in and we don't have the time to expand their ranks sufficiently. The facts are, these low born assassins and thieves are our resources. And we need to make the attempt to use them to properly consolidate our forces."
Rael let out a slow breath, as she watched the rest of the council nodding carefully. "What would this entail?"
There was reservation here, but on short notice the plan could work. Or leave them open to the enemies own spies and assassins. It was a gamble, but Rael knew that she had to make a choice.
Ocia shook her head, "Our best contact with them is Lady Nerini. She would be able to provide a better report of what it would cost but I believe that we would need a way to buy loyalty of one particular group. The loyalty would have to be more valuable than money, they need to be dedicated to us, not their own profit. But we should expect to budget for an initial big pay-out and then a regular fund for their salaries and expenses."
Lord Clarence let out a slow breath and shook his head. "I will start tallying what we can put together for assets and provide a couple figures."
"The Royal guard is going to be reinforced, though I'm not going to rush through this and hire just anyone. We will be going through a strict vetting system to ensure we can entrust who we're surrounding ourselves with. The same with the Foxes, once Nerini can return, she will be assigned to expand their ranks in their protectorate role for the Queen." Ocia continued.
"I will also redesign the budget to allow for that, but we will have to meet to get more accurate numbers as soon as we can. " Clarence said slowly, scribbling quickly on his papers.
"I'm sure that myself and Lady Winfried can work together to create some more sources of revenue or at least reduce some of the drains on it." Sylva said thoughtfully as the other woman nodded, though Winfried's expression was still displeased.
Rael let out a slow, thoughtful breath and forced herself to ignore the woman's stubbornness. "We are presenting a joint front. But we aren't going to be launching into full war preparations yet, I don't want our people unduly panicked. We will build while we have the opportunity to do so. I know you are all busy and I have made you busier. You can go."
The council rose, bowed and left easily enough, though Lady Ocia paused behind her chair, looking to Rael who had remained sitting. "We will find him."
Rael forced herself to nod as she looked over to the other woman. "I worry that Nerini is walking into a trap, herself. I feel we're playing into their hands no matter what we do. And the ambiguity as to who 'they' are is really frustrating."
"You said Nerini has been hunting this for as long as she's been able to. I think she's got the best chance out of any of us in finding anything. I would like to have a whole support team with her, but we don't have the training for that, and she's the only one who can make contacts to support her while she's working like this." Ocia said calmly, rolling her shoulders in a shrug before giving Rael an appraising look.
Rael stood as she nodded, meeting Ocia's firm gaze to help steady her own resolve. "You did well, but you will have to push with every step you take. The rest of the council mean well but they are old blood, they still believe they are working with my mother."
Ocia smirked ruefully. "Oh, Regency, don't ever think that I am nothing if not a bull in the china shop of this diplomatic capital. I don't play games when it comes to getting my job done. I know Kannein's priorities and we had discussed a lot of our concerns while working together. If I hurt feelings, it won't stop me from doing my task."
Rael allowed the woman a flicker of a smile before turning and making her way out of the room. She forced herself not to think of Wyn, dealing with the Sellxun court or Nerini hunting whatever enemy was festering within Aupana. Inevitably, it led to her imagination trying to explain Kannein's disappearance and the crippling fear that accompanied being so helpless.