Sadly Sings Destiny

8

Queen Andretti the Silver sat in her office with one of Verona’s pamphlets in her hand. She had read it dozens of times since she had received it four days earlier. It was the first original piece of literature she had received from the growing movement in the east. The particular one she held in her hand was the one that detailed her visit to the bank in Albion. Andretti knew that for a loan the size that Verona had requested, Valerian would have to personally approve it. She also knew that Verona wouldn’t have been coy about what she wanted the money for. She knew and trusted Valerian, she had known him for the better part of a decade. She believed that he wouldn’t abandon her in her time of need. A knock at the door caused her to jump, and she told the intruder to enter, expecting Vixen.

“Nikki, we have a problem,” Valerian said, entering the office with a stack of papers in his hand. Andretti jumped to her feet in genuine shock at the unexpected guest.

“Valerian? What are you doing here? I thought you were in Tyrsere?” she asked, watching him as he walked to stand in front of her desk.

“I was.” he said, looking up from the papers, “Charley loaned me his wyvern so I could fly down here.”

“And would he do that if he knew you were still calling him Charley?” Andretti teased, crossing her arms.

“Probably,” Valerian shrugged, “but I’m not here to talk about him. I came here to give you a warning and see what you want to do about a certain situation. You are aware of this Varona kid, right? She took out a loan to lead a revolution.”

“Took out? You didn’t block it?” Andretti said, letting ice creep into her voice. She wanted to feel anger, she wanted to feel a fury burning in her stomach like she had on the day she had her general murdered, but it didn’t come. She felt like she had been betrayed by her closest friend. He seemed to gather that impression before she was able to voice her emotions, if she even chose to express those emotions.

“I had no legal right to block the loan.” Valerian shrugged, “And I can’t keep her from hiring mercenaries. You know that the military operates outside of the bank’s control.”

“What am I going to do Val?” she asked, collapsing into her chair, “I’ve done so much to be a good queen, I’ve done so much to try and prevent this very thing when I saw the issues coming.” She leaned back, limp and defeated.

“Nikki,” Valerian said with pain in his voice. The professionalism he had going into the meeting had gone away as he watched his friend and occasional romantic interest falter, “It might be time to take a holiday. Come with me on my airship and rule from Yastern for a while and let this blow over one way or another. You’ll be safe there.” If she wasn’t mistaken, Andretti could hear a note of pleading in his voice. She opened an eye and looked at him. There was something about the Grandmaster. He seemed now to look as young as the day she had met him ten years ago, and his suggestion seemed just as childish as she was when they met.

“Val,” she sighed, meeting his eyes, “you know as well as anyone I can’t do that.”

“Nikki, please,” he said softly.

“I opened this can of worms, its time for me to lie in it.” she said with a soft smile, “That’s what your people would say? Right?” Valerian couldn’t help but laugh.

“No, no one in the history of ever has said that.” he said, smiling, “But I think I know what you mean. By your leave King Andretti the Silver.” he said with the first bow he had ever offered her in the course of their professional relationship.

“As you will, Grandmaster,” she said, raising her right hand in the salute standard in his home nation. He gave her one last mournful look as he left her office for the last time, his bank papers in his hand. Andretti stepped out of her office after she had given enough time to let the Grandmaster leave. She ordered Vixen to gather her Cabinet and the interim members serving until a new Welfare Minister and Defense Minister could be elected. It took less than ten minutes for the cabinet members to be assembled. One of the unexpected side-effects of the deaths of the two ministers was that the others were too frightened to question her orders and seemed to fully support her.

She outlined the situation that her nation was facing and that Valerian had informed her that he had approved the loan to Verona. Silence fell over the room as the various ministers exchanged uneasy glances. She told them that she intended to fight for her throne and that any finances she required would be redirected from the welfare agencies that had been giving her so much trouble. She spoke with a fury that she had been unable to muster in the meeting with Valerian, and she spoke of her impending victory with such conviction that she was able to win over the members of the Cabinet who had spent their entire career by her side. The next day, she told them, she would take to her balcony over the Rachedale city square and read her challenge to Verona for all of her people to hear.

The sun rose in a red flamed inferno over the city. Andretti woke up early to prepare herself in her usual gallium-coated manner. Vixen assisted her, as was normal. The halfbreed was beyond excited to see her Queen regain the strength and confidence she had held for so many years, years stretching back even before she was queen. Andretti’s hair was combed with the gallium alloy, and in place of the flowers was a coat of traditional war paint in the silver metal, and in place of her dress was the polished steel armor made from hundreds of leaf-shaped scales over chainmail with the large wing sculptures on her back that the ancient warriors had worn. For the first time in her long life of emulating the Tylmathri Angel Warriors, she had dressed fully like one, and when the ceremonial battle-ax was on her back, and the Queen’s Sabre was on her hip, she looked like she belonged in the ancient armor. When she took the balcony under the red skies of the morning, she could hear the gasp from the gathered crowd as she spoke with a magically amplified voice.

“Good morning, Rachedale, Lotherania, all of the world.” She said above her subjects, “And good morning to one specific girl in Albion, Verona Conroy. I know much about you, Ms. Conroy. I know what you have been doing, and I have to say I cannot disagree with the foundations of your movement. I understand the frustrations you are feeling, I understand how it must be to live with the promise of help so close, but only to have it stolen away from you by those you thought you could trust. I’m sorry that those I considered to be loyal subjects and servants of the people have robbed you and ruined your family. The anger you feel for that, I can forgive. What I cannot condone if the violence you brought to Lotherania.” she smiled now, she had planned this part all night, all that mattered was the execution.

“Ms. Conroy, I know about your violence in Albion. I know you’re responsible for lynching my Agents in Albion. I might even be able to forgive your actions given your past. But, what I cannot forgive are the ongoing deaths. I have it on good authority from my own personal investigators that you have been contracting the deaths of welfare agents around the nation.” there was an audible gasp and a sea of murmurs from the crowd below her. Still, Andretti plowed on knowing she had to shift suspicion to her rival, “Ms. Conroy, your ongoing violence against the good people of this country is beyond unacceptable, it is detestable. Now, I have received word from the Grandmaster of the Sabbistahn Credit Union that you have taken out a loan in order to take my throne by force.” The gasps and murmurs were doubled at that point, and Andretti had to wait for the people to settle enough for her to continue.

“I ask you this, Ms. Conroy, how much blood do you need to spill before you can let your father rest in peace? Is this what he would have wanted? Would he look down on your actions, on your blood-red hands and your hate blackened heart and be proud of your actions?” She paused as if expecting an answer, and when it didn’t come, she went on, “Ms. Conroy, I’ve reviewed everything my agents have on your case. A tragedy to be sure. But that does not give you the authority to kill dozens of other agents and arrange the death of my defense minister in preparation for your attack. Especially when my Welfare Minister was driven to suicide by the issues in her division and the shame it brought her.

“I promise you this, Ms. Conroy, no one in Lotherania, or even on this continent of Tylmath or the world of Yaz, have the authority to kill as many as you have. No one has the authority to start a war. I don’t even have the power to sentence thousands, dozens of thousands of good women and men to death on the battlefield. Ms. Conroy, you may think you are part of the solution. You may think that you are going to be able to change the world, the garden of peace cannot be watered by the blood of the innocents. The garden of peace will wilt at the taste of the blood of soldiers. Verona Conroy, I promise you that if you and your band of villains and your hired foreign guns march on Rachedale, that the good people of this city, of this nation, will unite together and stop you. We will fight you in the streets, we will fight you day or night, and we will capture you and your henchmen. And we will give you the basic humanity that you have denied to every one of the seventy-two agents you had killed. We will give you a trial, an honest trail with unbiased judges, and only then will we punish your crimes. Because unlike you and your villains, the good people of Lotherania are just that. Good people. And you will not terrorize us.”

Andretti’s speech ended, and her eyes scanned the roaring crowd under her in the golden morning light. The people below were cheering and chanting their support to her. Andretti smiled and turned to look at the shocked women of her Cabinet, all of which bowed submissively to her as she walked past with faithful, little Vixen trailing behind her. The Silver Queen returned to her room, and her loyal servant helped her out of her armor and into a more traditional dress for the day. Once dressed, she signed a written copy of the speech she had given and instructed Vixen to post it directly to Verona Conroy in Albion, sent forth by her fastest runners. Vixen disappeared through the keep as Andretti strode proudly through the Swallow’s Nest to her cabinet room.

Her elected and interim advisors stood when the door opened to let her in. All of them were silent and stood with straight backs and kept their eyes locked forward, not turning to face her or even glance at her. She had to suppress her smile as she took her seat, followed by the others sitting around the table. They all remained silent, waiting for her to direct the meeting. After she let them sit through an uncomfortable amount of time, she directed them to give her a briefing on the state of the nation. She knew that each of the advisors had suspected that she was behind many of the deaths around the country of welfare agents, and a couple of the braver members suspected that Thatcher was killed by the Queen. But now, Andretti had gotten the people on her side again. They were all there to see the reaction she was able to evoke from her people, to feel the energy of the city’s population. It didn’t matter what the cabinet members thought about her guilt, nor if they were for or against her, the people were for her, and those people would eat them alive if given the order from the Silver Queen.

Over the next few days, Andretti was able to continue to grow the power she had over her people, and by extent, the control she had over those who wished to oppose her from within her own administration. The day soon came when she was to meet with the Butterfly in the hollowed-out passages that honeycombed the bluff her castle stood on. Usually, the Butterfly loved the hollowed out and abandoned passages that she could use to sneak all over the castle, but after her business partner had rallied her subjects, it just seemed unsafe to be inside of the city limits in Rachedale, let alone to be an assassin in the palace propper. She may have dressed as a servant, but if anyone suspected who she was, she knew she would be in for a fight at the least.

“Thank you for meeting with me, Butterfly,” Andretti said, now lacking in her gallium decorations. The assassin jumped, visibly shocked by the sound of another voice in the dark corridor.

“Don’t do that!” the other girl quietly snapped, well aware of how the echoes could betray the meeting, “It’s getting dangerous for me to be around Rachedale, around any city. For me, it is anyway.”

“Don’t worry, my little friend.” Andretti said ruffling the other girl’s hair as if she was a small child, something she would usually never have the confidence to do, and even now something she hesitated to do, “Once this matter comes to a head, I’ll get you on a boat to any country you want until everything blows over here.”

“Touch me like that again, and I’ll kill you.” the assassin growled in a low voice, and Andretti felt at chill at the threat she knew to be all too real, “And you better believe I’ll be on the first ship to Verdempt the instant a war breaks out or the instant you have that Conroy girl in chains.” Andretti nodded and silently handed the assassin a new list of names for her to hunt down.

“It won’t be much more.” Andretti said, “I appreciate your help, you may not gain fame for your work, but you are a hero to the nation.”

“Just make sure that things don’t change. I’ll hunt you just as easily.” the nameless girl said as she walked away with her new shopping list.