Special Event: A Scarlet Wedding IV
There's so many things you want to know more about, but unfortunately as always time is the limiting factor, so it looks like you'll have to delegate. You turn to Asya, "Can you follow Elita? Make sure nothing happens to her?"
She nods, "I can do that, make sure our disappearing assassin does not make a second attempt. But what are you going to do?"
You picture a certain fiance you would dearly like to punch right in his smug face. "I'm going to have...a talk with Brice."
"Are you sure that is a good idea? You remember he hates you right?"
"No one hates me for long!" Asya just stares at you, but you wave your hand, "And besides, that's not the only thing I'm going to do. Look into his history and stuff, see if he has any connection to our assassin." Asya still looks at you dubiously, but she also stretches and begins gathering her stuff.
"Just be careful alright?"
"I always am!"
"We both know that is the furthest thing from the truth."
"...fine, I'll stay safe." You sulk. But Asya nods happily and heads out the door. Leaving you alone to try and figure out how you're going to squeeze information out of someone who hates you. Wonderful.
Your first attempt to talk to Brice ended in tears and flaming failure. Well not tears, at least not your tears. You did accidentally light a serving girls shirt on fire. You might have gotten just a little bit peeved when he called you an abomination and lost your temper. Which in hindsight probably wasn't the best move for reassuring him that you weren't a threat.
The second attempt wasn't much better, you tried to talk to him in public...well more public than before. He was actually polite to you this time, though still incredibly icy. Well, he was until you got into an argument with him when you said he should respect Elita more. Which ok, probably shouldn't have called him a pompous windbag only interested in power. Hm, well, you'll give it one more shot, maybe in private would be better. Probably not, but maybe the third time is the charm?
No...no it wasn't. In fact there was no third attempt. That never happened, you only tried to talk to him twice. Nothing happened, and you certainly didn't try to talk to him in his chambers...you hope he's not injured.
With that fiasco behind you, you decide that maybe trying to get information out of Brice through talking with him isn't the best strategy. No, it looks like you'll have to find out the information you seek from other sources. Well...you hope your Aherit is up for the task.
As it turns out it is. If just barely. Not that many of the rumors you manage to gather make much sense. Brice? Humble? Not on your life. So either the serving staff and the other guests at the wedding are lying to each other or Brice is what passes for humble and conscientious among the former Straydor nobility. Which is honestly terrifying to you.
But that still doesn't absolve him in your eyes. You just know he's planning something. So you got to the next place you can think of to get information. The palace library. Among those ancient tomes perhaps you can find some semblance of history for Brice and his House.
Reading Aherit makes your head hurt, especially given the prose some of these books are written in. It is slow going, paging through the library to find what you're looking for, and perhaps it would be faster to just ask Elita to help you but you refuse. Eventually however, you manage to find just what your looking for. A book on the genealogy and history of various noble houses of the Straydor Kingdom.
It is old, and far out of date, written decades before the Ash Maiden's conquest. But it does manage to fill in some gaps in your knowledge. The House of Landric isn't united. Like many of the largest noble houses in Straydor it is made of up numerous family lines, each their own unit. According to the book the House of Landric-Streyltiz was the largest and most powerful, owing to their close relationship with the Straydor Dynasty. You can't imagine that's still the case though, but the details on the other Landric lines are sparse. The only thing you can find is the one thing they share. A house crest of a soaring raven in flight.
You snap the book closed. Well...that certainly complicates things.
You wander around in a daze, unsure of what to do. You have suspicions that the betrothed house is actually attempting to kill your sister, and evidence to back it up. But if you're wrong you could jeopardize the first real chance Elita has to secure power in her own right, or worse. You think back to Elita's reaction earlier, is it possible she made this connection too? What if she's already working on something, but what if you're wrong, does that mean she's wrong? You feel sick to your stomach with worry, in a way you haven't felt in years. So you do the thing that always manages to calm you down. You head to the Palace Church.
The Church of the First Flame in this palace is converted. It was once a place of worship to the Starred Ones, the Ancient Gods of the Straydor. It still maintains echoes of that, the architecture completely different from any other church you had seen. But now in the center lies the eternal pyre, and the statues of the Ash Maiden and Syllus. Just the sight of them brings you comfort. This late at the night the massive space is silent, even the Priests are asleep, the only sign of life the flickering of the fires lighting the room.
Or so you think, as you cross the rows of pews to the center of the room, whispered prayer catches your ear. A lone figure kneels in front of the altar hands clasped above their head in front of the sacred flame. Cautiously you approach, you doubt your missing assassin would be praying in this church but you can never be too careful. When you catch sight of black hair your breath catches in your throat, but the man's blue and gold robes give away his identity. Silently you lean against the front rows of pews waiting for Brice to finish his prayer.
Eventually he rises, only to jump slightly when he sees you behind him. Then his eyes narrows as he glares at you, "What do you want?" he hisses, acid dripping off his voice,
"To pray." You reply simply
He steps aside, "Well, I guess I will leave you to that." Then he begins to walk out of the church.
Hesitantly you call out, "Wait."
He stops, and slowly turns back around, "What? Are you going to kick me again?"
You blush, trying not to think of the unfortunate sequence of events that led to you kicking him...there. "No! ...no. I...I just...I wanted to say that it is good to see someone seek comfort in the warmth of the First Flame."
He blinks in surprise, "Oh...you're welcome I suppose. Now, if you'll excuse me my lady." He once again turns to leave, but already questions are swirling in your mind. You finally have a chance to talk to him, you're not going to let it go to waste.
"Why do you want to marry my sister?" You call out. Once again he stops and turns, this time you can see a hard look in his eyes.
"Didn't you make your belief about why I want to marry your sister quite clear already?"
"Yes...but throughout that whole thing you never did say why you wanted to."
"If I say 'for power' will that make you stop talking to me?"
You shake you head, "No, that much is obvious, but what I want to know is why you and why now? Why did the foremost ally of the Straydor suddenly decide to throw their lot in with us?"
Brice laughs bitterly at that, "My, 'foremost ally of the Straydor' you praise us highly Your highness, but you surely have us confused with someone else. We have not been friends of the Straydor for many years."
You blink owlishly at that, "But...I thought the Landric-Streylitz were closely tied to the Dynasty."
"My illustrious cousins were indeed yes, of course they've fallen far from where they were. I'm afraid your information is quite outdated."
"Wait, you mean you're not a member of Landric-Streylitz?"
He taps his robes, "No, Landric-Suern. Blue and Gold. The Streylitz are red and black. Now, if the lady would excuse me."
You nod slowly, "Thank you Brice, you may go."
He bows slightly, "Thank you" He pauses slightly, "Illona."
You watch him as he walks away, new questions swirling in your mind. But at least that settled some questions. You still don't know if you can trust Brice, but now you know he keeps the Faith in private. So many pieces to the puzzle and no idea how they all fit together. You wonder if Asya has had better luck following Elita.
You head back to your chambers, having just enough time to begin cataloging your thoughts when Asya barges in. You open your mouth to say something, but she quickly overrides you. "Elita is planning on arresting the entirety of House Landric at the wedding."
You gape, "What?"
"You heard me, she is planning on using the wedding as a cover to arrest them. And from what I can tell she is not going to be particularly conscientious about taking them alive." Asya sighs and collapses on the bed, "I overheard her giving orders to the head of the Flame Guard. She didn't see me."
Your jaw works as you try to process this new information. "Does House Landric suspect anything?"
She shakes her head, "No, as best I can tell they don't suspect a thing."
Suddenly a puzzle piece fits together in your mind, bits and pieces coming together. "Asya? Do you remember by chance what colors the heraldry you saw in the assassins headquarters were?"
She thinks for a moment, "Red and Black? Why?"
"And were those they only colors you saw?"
She thinks again, then nods resolutely, "Yes. Definitely, but why?"
You quickly relay the information you managed to gather from and about Brice. Which causes her to work her jaw in thought as well. "So...you think it is just the one part of House Landric that is responsible?"
"Maybe?" You shrug your shoulders, "My gut is telling me yes, but I'm not confident...and if I am wrong it could mean we tip our hand."
"But what if you aren't wrong, and Elita arrests or kills several loyalists houses?"
You bite your lip and think back over the various spy reports Lilita gave you to consume. "It'd be bad...possibly even civil war."
You both sit there for a moment, lost in your own thoughts. As usual it is Asya who breaks the silence. "So what do we do?"
[ ] Confront Elita about what she's doing. - Gives Elit information she may have missed, but risks tipping your hand.
[ ] Let her continue with her plan - Risks Elita being wrong, but ensures the plan as is goes off without a hitch.
At that moment, you both are interrupted by a knock on your door. Carefully you open to find...Alina. "Alina, what are you doing here?"
The young noble girl pouts, "You completely forgot I came with you didn't you Illona."
"What? Noooo." You did in fact completely forget that Alina accompanied you. In your defense, you've been having a very intensive couple of days.
She rolls her eyes, "Right, should have seen that coming. However, it is good you're up. While you and Asya were off doing whatever it is the two of you do. I've talking with the other guests. Such fascinating conversation."
"Look Alina, that sounds great, but me and Asya have something we need to-"
"You have a suitor!"
"What." Alina's exclamation sends everything in your mind to a screeching halt and you hear a choking sound from inside the room. "Are you sure?"
"Well..." The pretty noble rolls a curl of her hair in her hand.
"Alina..." You narrow your eyes at you friend.
"Alright, so maybe he didn't come out and say he wants to marry you. But come on, attractive young noble suddenly starts talking to me about you at every chance he gets since he figured out I was on you council."
You sigh, "Alright, I'll grant you that sounds promising. But it doesn't sound that urgent."
"Well..."
"Alina, what did you do?"
"I'll tell you if you promise you won't be mad."
"Alina-"
"Promise."
You sigh, "Fine, whatever it is, I promise I won't be mad at you."
"Alright, so I may have sort of set-up a romantic meeting under the moonlight between you...and it's right now."
You take a few deep breaths, "Alina, I can't stress enough how much of a bad time this is for that. We really need to-" Oh dead lord she's doing the puppy eyes, no. Illona you shall not fall for that this time. This is important, you need to-...not the lip quiver. Anything but the lip quiver. Your resistance crumbles. "Fine. I'll go. But no promises." The wedding isn't for another two days, so you have some time at least.
Alina cheers and you follow her out of the room. Asya following close behind. "Alright, so I have it set up so the you'll surprise him on the eastern terrece and-"
You stop dead, "Wait...he doesn't even know he's meeting me?"
Alina swats you on the shoulder, "No silly, this is a surprise, he thinks he's meeting me to talk more about you. So I thought I'd surprise him with the real thing. It'll be so romantic I promise."
"Who even is he?" You briefly consider this being some plot by the assassin to get you, but dismiss that. Alina is...not good under pressure like that. No, this is another flight of fancy from your friend. And besides, you have Asya close behind you. Or more like several yard behind you in the shadows. Since this is supposed to be romantic or somesuch.
"Oh you'll see. He's quite a catch though." She pauses, "Oh but word of warning. He suffered a nasty fall of his horse the other day. Almost had to cancel this, but he should be fine."
You nod slowly. The things you'll do for your friends.
The two of you leave the interior of the Palace, into the moonlight of the eastern terrace that runs through the massive gardens. Up ahead you see a single figure looking out over one of the overhangs, clad in a black cloak.
As you close he turns around, "Ah, Manquer Alina so good for you to arri-" He stops when he sees you, eyes widening slightly. You get your first good glance at him. Clad in fine robes of red and black, a crutch is under on arm. A pair of sapphire blue eyes stare back at you from beneath curled black hair. His nose is discolored, and with your eyesight its clear its from a partially healed break, and his lip also shows sign of a recent split. A brilliant golden broach hangs from his neck. You're struck by a similarity to Brice, really their only difference in feature is a neatly trimmed mustache on the man in front of you.
Alina proudly gestures between the two of you. "Hans, Illona; Heiress-Queen of Väljad. Illona, Hans. Heir-Presumptive of the House of Landric-Streylitz Surprise!"
You mouth goes dry, you think you know who this is, and if it is you don't know if you should kiss Alina or throttle her. Assuming you make it out of her alive.
What do you do?
[ ] Play dumb until Asya gets in range.
[ ] He's surprised. Go for the amulet.
[ ] Leg it
[ ] He's injured, finish the job.
A/N: Alina wut r u doing. Alina stahp.
