Familial Conversation
Stirland was near silent. The people had all turned out to the streets and to the walls and to the sidewalks, to get a glimpse of what was coming; and yet they dared not to speak. The soldiers watched in armor polished to a mirror shine, halberds and pikes and guns gripped in gauntleted hand; and yet they were so still as to be silent. Dogs sat still, concerned for men.
And yet it was not silent. For the rain came down, in torrents. Spouts of water fell like hammer blows. Black clouds choked out the sun, and in Wurtbad all was darkness. Puddles choked newly paved streets, worked by fine Imperial Engineers to exacting standards-- a matter of contention, to these people, this salt of the earth. Rains overflowed gutters.
And yet still the people watched. It was not often, after all, that an Empress might visit. And there was more, as well.
For the first time since her marriage, years ago, Amalia Franz of the House Holswig Schliestein was returning to Stirland. And not alone, either.
Her carriage, of purple and gold, fine crafted by human hands, was filled with a cargo precious to her.
She stepped out first. Ever a tall woman, her hair was a fine blond-- garbed in purple, and with a diadem finished of blue sapphire, she was a queenly woman. The sun of Reikland had tanned her, and she was lined, now, with more wrinkles than she had before.
Next, one child stepped out. Small and pale, he was clad in a fine red jacket and breeches, and his hair was worked into a pony-tail. Delicate he was, and the scent of medicine and illness followed-- perhaps the curse of Nurgle, for his father's crimes against the Plague-lord's favored people? Many had sympathy for him, but few respect; and he seemed near to his mother. This was Artur-- not the most inspiring, but then in a land like Stirland, "not the most inspiring" is, perhaps, not that great a sin. He bore signs to Sigmar, the War-God, and many approved.
The next was his brother, and it was as night and day between the two. He was taller; his hair, darker, and he larger. A training blade hung at his side, and his hair was a wild mane of black curls already. Only eleven, the boy came near to the chest of his uncle already.
Gretel and Gudrun still were in Altdorf, and the college.
Before that train of thought might go anywhere, though, the guards parted. Kin was reunited as brother and sister saw each other again.
The two embraced, Kurt and Amalia, an Empress and Elector. Behind them, at a respectful distance, Justine and their children.
"Brother!" Amalia smiled, bright and happy. "You've gotten fat!"
"Sister, I heard the reports of your pregnancy. That poor halfling!"
The two embraced once more. "Is Mattheus coming?"
"No, for which he apologizes-- but the Tileans wished to speak with him."
Kurt nodded, then looked to his nephews. "Hello."
"Hello, uncle."
"Hello." They bowed, offered respect to him. He nodded, and two cases were brought out.
"I have missed several birthdays, as my sister is fond of reminding me; thus I would like to make amends."
One case was opened, and a text in Bretonnian was pulled out, on its second side Reikspiel. "A gift, from the Most Holy Matriarch."
The second was filled with armor. It was black, and Kurt seemed to frown at this. Crafted in a classical style it had red plumes and many bronze skulls. "I would swear I told Michelangela not to make it pitch..."
"Uncle, do not worry." The boy held the box close. "I like it."
"If you're sure, then... Still, come, come, you surely all are hungry and thirsty!"
--
The halls were filled with drinking and laughing. Clouds of steaming ale rose up in great heights, filling the room with the stink of alcohol, the taste catching on the throat. Chefs expertly cooked meat in many fine sauces and with a great many seasons; beef, tender and fine, sizzled on open flames as warriors and old comrades chatted.
And yet this was little comfort to the boy. He sat in the dark, pondering his new helm. He ran his fingers through its red plum, silent and in thought-- perhaps too much thought, for a boy of eleven.
"If you're worried about how it will fit, don't. Cranks and harnesses-- and yet it's still easier to put on than that merde the quartermaster keeps insisting I make my soldiers wear." He turned around and saw his aunt shaking her head. "Bah, any armor that requires assistance to put on is bad armor. Give me Bretonnian any day."
"Are you only here to insult the work of my nation, aunt?"
"Hardly-- and I've been sworn to the Empire longer than you've been alive. No, Kurt is asking after his nephews, and would like to speak more than vague hellos with him."
"Very well. Tell him I will be over in a moment."
"No can do, I do that and he'll keep giving me the cub eyes until you get over. We leave together-- and soon."
Etzel put down the helm. "Tell me, Aunt. What did you do when your father came home, missing an eye, from the crusades? How did you feel?" Blunt the question, but not cruel intent.
"Oh boy, now there is a conversation I really did not feel like having today." She sat down next to him, seeming then greater. "Very well. Tell me: Do you want the comforting answer, or the encouraging one? Because I am fully willing to spend the next minute telling you how to deal with the dreams."
Etzel drew back. "...You too?"
She snorted. "Oh yes, I as well. So I'm going to take as wanting the encouragement, then." She leaned back. "When I saw what the Vampires had made of my father, when heard the tale...I hated them. I wanted their blood on my lance, and their bones broken on my blade. I spent every night falling asleep to images of their depravities of my father-- and I dreamed of the two of us taking vengeance together, for what they did to him."
"Fire and death."
"Sun and sword, but yes, nephew." She stands up, and she seems darker then than any whispered tale of Bretonnian brutality-- and the boy knows the truth then, that Bretonnia must not be so like her, for if they were then they would have strangled the Empire for Parravon.
"I turned it into fuel. The hate I felt for them moved me into glory, and every day I go into Sylvania it is with thoughts of how I can have just a little revenge. But then, time has dulled it, and there have been few crimes so terrible as to call to me once more like that." She began to move back to the feast, looking back over her shoulder and finishing with, "I would hate to see the person who did not dull."