Question Cylsteth 1: Longing (Part 1)

For those trying to find this weeks "release" its a little bit buried.

You can find it here . Due to how long its been in the system, its on the last page of the unique fantasy section of the Library.

Thanks

Just read this, and it was a great tale. Or maybe re read... was this up at BC? Anywise thanks for the story.

Hi Wrayth,

Thanks for the comment.

No this hasn't been up on any other site, it has been sitting in the WhatIF section of this site for months though getting feedback before being released.

Alternatively, I got inspired to write this while Morpheus was releasing his 'among the Val Kyr' stories, so you may see some similarities there too.

Just as good as the first time I read it.

still want to see more of this story.

There is more, a lot more written actually, but I need to knuckle down and complete the first two stories and get them ready.

On the bright side, I was blocked by needing to go dark and not knowing how to do it, but I've recently got a lot of practice with that

Any word on whether progress has been made on the continuation of this one? I really enjoyed it and periodically reread on the off chance part two comes out soonish >_>

Not soonish, but I still do work on it and the three follow up stories I've started for it.

I know I keep saying I’m working on this and there is a lot of stuff, but I never seem to get closer to posting the next part.

So to tide you over (and show that I do have more material) here’s the Prologue from what’s looking like the fourth book.

---

Prologue
Laurette entered a room from her treasured childhood memories. Moving to the bookshelf she ran her fingers along the familiar titles, pausing to look at some new ones that had been added, smiling at the well worn treasured ones.

Drifting, she approached the large adult sized desk at the apex of the room, touched to see that it was now Urich’s personal desk, covered in his own personal correspondences. Under the window to the side of the desk, two piles of papers were neatly stacked. The first pile, written in the hand of a woman, caused Laurette to smile, reaching forward in delight. Letters in his wife’s neat, precise hand. Carefully arranged, obviously still read frequently. She laid a finger on them, heart fluttering in joy. She’d of course heard it said that it was a match of love, but to see confirmation in such a mundane way, see that even after these years since his wife’s death Urich still missed the sound of her voice enough to read through her old letters touched her heart.

Turning at the sound of the door opening again she watched Urich enter the room. “Your Majesty,” she begun, smiling wickedly at his startled pause and incredulous stare.

“Shia,” he whispered in wonderment.

Laurette laughed, “Oh your Majesty, you had my name tracked down ages ago, why not use it?” she challenged him.

“I tracked down your new name the hour after you were given it," he smiled, resuming his advance towards his desk. Towards Laurette. "An itinerant fortune teller I have made very sure stayed happy and content within my kingdom has the gift of Foresight, and I persuaded him to lend it to me. I have also made sure ever since that any of his kin that come through are also happy and stay.” Pausing just out of reach he stared at her, like a thirsty man staring at a mirage. A starving man eyeing the food on a lords table. Deliberately he took a step back. Relaxed his hands. Let them drop to his side.

Oblivious, eyes only for his face, Laurette smiled. “I’ve noticed the number of Travellers who have skills in entertainment and occasionally wondering hands, though only ever for fun, has been increasing through the years.”

“Those Travellers are a godsend," Urich smiled to her. "They keep the Steaders happy and healthy, and they wander from end to end of my kingdom making sure that the farmers keep the roads in good repair, bringing tales of any injustices they see. They are my little birds of good health, flittering around my Kingdom, and all I need to do is look to where they will not go to know where I should be concentrating. My nobles believe I have a spy in every wall because of how fast I can crush one that misbehaves, but all I really have is my little Travellers, flitting here and there and talking not to me, but to each other. And I? I simply watch. My poor poor nobles, trying so very hard to hear the words that are not spoken so that they can silence them.”

Laurette laughed and teased the King, “And where did your Majesty learn such a neat trick?”

“A little boy was given the wisdom of servants, and it has stood me in good stead ever since.” Laughing, both of them quoted together, “'It is not who the great and mighty clammer to, but who the poor run away from that matters.'”

“And were all your Majesty's children similarly educated?” Laurette asked with a smile.

“All my children had the good sense to strike up friendships with servant children of not just the same age, but also the same sex. They have lifelong friends for maids or menservants.”

Sighing Laurette quietly murmured, “In all honesty Majesty, if you'd had a sister you would never have seen me either.”

The King smiled wryly, giving Laurette a sad smile, again almost reaching out to her before he remembered himself and letting his hands fall back to his side. Finally he turned for the door. “That reminds me. Come, time to relive history some.” Beckoning the King stepped back through the door he had recently entered.

Laurette followed the King and found herself taking the servants corridors around the Family Tower again. She had grown up running through these corridors, hiding and spying on the young Prince as she stalked him through the Palace.

“What are you thinking?” the King asked softly, noticing the happy smile Laurette had.

“How many hours I spent in these corridors, spying on you,” Laurette replied absently.

The King gave a small chuckle, “I’ll let you in on a secret. Once I knew you were doing it, some of my fondest memories were trying to catch sight of you.”

“Really?" Laurette blinked. "Why?”

“Because you were the only person who spied on me to see what I was doing, not to see what the people who were with me were doing. You didn’t know I was going to be King, you just though I was doing cool things and wanted to do them too. And you were creeping around and doing what you wanted and spying on people and I thought that was just the grandest thing.”

More then perhaps anyone, Laurette knew how lonely the King had been as a little Princeling, it was after all the thing that had prompted her to seek him out in person and start playing with him when nobody else was around, and for a Princeling, that had been a surprising amount of hours everyday.

Suddenly the King came to a door and put his finger to his lips as he shielded the lamp he carried, then he quietly opened the door and signalled Laurette to follow him. He crept to a window and opened it soundlessly, gesturing Laurette to look through.

Leaning out carefully and looking down, Laurette saw two little girls laying on a lower roof in moonlight. She quickly glanced down and checked, yep they were most of the way up the Kings tower, and the two girls were laying on the roof above an at least 100 foot drop. She looked back at the two girls and saw one was a blond girl, clean in silk nighty with a tightly woven woollen dressing-gown over it. The other was a quite dirty girl in what looked like a too large hand-me-down boys pyjama pants and linen shirt set. It looked like she was basically sleeping in clothes her older brother had grown out off.

After she had pulled her head in the King closed the window and stood looking down at them fondly. “She’s not a daughter of the servants, nor of the trades, nor even of the lesser nobility that are quite often less well off then the trades. She’s not a daughter of the middle nobility not even the upper nobility. She is not a daughter of any of my soldiers, nor in fact of anyone else who lives on the grounds.”

“Who is she then?” Laurette asked with a smile.

“She is from the King’s orphanage, and she snuck into the palace grounds to taste an apple. My youngest granddaughter found her climbing a plum tree looking for her apple, and when she confronted her was told she’d not run or make a fuss, but please let her eat an apple before turning her over to the guards, so that she could know the taste. Then my honest granddaughter, who had never told a lie, explained that she couldn't, because that was a plum tree, not an apple tree, and further more the plums were not ripe yet and would give her a tummy ache. Then my granddaughter took her by the hand, led her to the kitchen and stole her an apple. Then my honest granddaughter lead her new friend right up to the privy gate and lied to the guard to get the gate opened and her new friend freed. They have been sneaking back and forth to each other ever since.”

“Ohh I want her,” Laurette enthused.

“You can’t have either my granddaughter or her confidant!" the King snapped, surprising Laurette. "Not now! Not when they are sixteen! I cried for a solid month, every hour I was alone, when your Order took you away from me," the King whispered before taking a deep, calming breath. "Shia there is about to get an adopted cousin who will be staying with her to learn to be a maid. The paperwork is already underway and her parents are so looking forward to surprising the pair with it tomorrow.”

Laurette blinked at the emotion still in the King’s voice from remembering her leaving so many years ago. “You know I had to go right? Your father?”

“When I became King I checked the records," the King stated staring out the window vacantly. "I was going to punish the one who talked you into leaving me. Imagine my surprise to find even my father, the King, had been looking for you! Then I found the original order he wrote.”

“I was to disappear and my heart was to be returned as proof,” Laurette whispered woodenly.

The King nodded slowly. “I sat down and I remembered the wisdom of servants. Except for you, no servant had ever willingly entered in to sight of any of my family, not even me. Furthermore, I had never seen a tradesman, nor had I seen a freeman except, again, when I had been with you.”

“I noticed by the time I came back with your betrothed that had all changed.”

“I had you to thank for that," the King said turning to Laurette. "After finding my father’s order to kill you I sat down and wrote my invitation to you to find me a betrothed, sent it off to your Order that very night.”

“Why did you write that invitation?" Laurette asked softly. "It came out of the blue, an offer to help choose the wife of the King was something no Order was ever going to refuse, even if it was directly asking for a particular member of their Order. I had to come clean and admit that I was tutored with you, that I believed that you might love me.”

“Oh, so you did know that then?” the King murmured, studying Laurette's face, searching for understanding.

“Why did you write it?” Laurette asked softly, the one question she’d been unable to ask the King before.

Turning back to the window the King continued his story. “On the day before my coronation I got word of an itinerant Fortune Teller telling fortunes in the Travellers park. The nobles were upset that the Travellers were once again using the park and had wanted me to ban them from the city. I instead wrote the Travellers Freedom laws and signed them into law. Then I went to my favourite group of guards, the ones you’d guided me to when I was young. Guards I had finagled into my guard duty by being a royal little shit so that the duty to guard me become a punishment duty, something my favourite group of honest guards were always getting, because they refused to look the other way for their corrupt officers. I marched with them to the Travellers park and watched them nail the new laws to a board at the entrance of the park.

“Then a group of city guards wondered up to see what the fuss was about and came and looked at the board incredulously, demanding to know if this was a joke. I stumped up, explained that no, it wasn’t a joke and they they were free to enforce the laws. They laughed themselves silly and sent off for about half the city guard, who turned up presently and included the Captain of the Guard, your father.

“I all but jumped into his arms to give him a hug, as I had not had a chance to look up what happened to him and was delighted that he was not only still alive but in a position that was making use of his talents. He was a bit stiff with me, and I enquired why.

"He explained that it wasn’t me, but rather my fathers involvement in your death. I replied ‘What death? She passed her Trials to Clysteth’ and he’d replied, 'Not to speak ill of the dead, but the story my father had told me had been a pack of lies'. And I’d said I know that, but I’d still been at the Trials and seen you pass and watched you Gate to start your training.

“He’d looked incredulously into my eyes, saw the truth in them, he’d always had that trick, and I got to see the sun rise in his eyes as he found out you weren’t dead." Smiling the King turned back to Laurette. "By the way, did you get to visit with him?”

Laurette laughed, “Well, after you blew away my cover in both my Order and the Palace, there wasn’t much point in not visiting him. So yes, I got to have a very pleasant afternoon touring Palacegate with the Captain of the Guard before I got onto a ship to go fetch your betrothed.”

“He always was proud of Palacegate,” the King murmured softly, turning once more back to the window.

“Yes, especially after you let him clean up the Nobility. I’ve never been sure how you managed to do that, though I do remember him mentioning your coronation.”

“Lucky for you its almost the same story I’m telling." The King turned back to Laurette. "Anyway your father then hugged me in thanks for telling what had happened to you and then we’d sat down to watch the fun as the Nobility found out the new laws for Travellers Park.

“While we were waiting, some of the more courageous members of the Travellers in the park had realised that while there was great number of guards there, looking very happy with new laws posted, nobody was trying to bother them. So they found someone who could read and he read out loud the laws to the others. Admittedly one of the guards had to help him with some of the bigger words. I did learn after that, I always got someone to read my laws back to me and get commentary from some of the guards about how understandable they were.

“Anyway, the Travellers looked at the new laws, basically returning them all the rights that had been slowly stripped away from them, and they looked at the happy guards standing around waiting to enforce them, with an obviously very happy to-be-King chatting to his just as happy Captain of the Guards sitting there to watch it all unfold.

“I got talking to your father about how un-happy I was with the security for the next days coronation, and wondering if I merged the City Guard with the Palace Guards how long it would take them before they could do something to help with my security. And your father and the Captain of my personal guard both said “two hours”. And I’d replied I want it totally legal, with no bloodshed and all the honest guards to keep their jobs and they’d replied ‘two hours’ again. So I asked them to explain how it would go.

“Basically, said your father, the City Guard and the Palace Guard aren’t actually separate anyway, they just have different command structures. The Captain of the Palace Guard is a good man, but he doesn’t have any good commanders under him, they are all political appointments and either corrupt or only there to do what their patron decides they should do. All I needed to do was promote Captain Rechard to a higher post, say “Commander of the Guard” and then promote the Captain of my Guard to the post of Captain of the Palace Guard. Everyone would see it for the political move it was, me removing an obstacle so that I could manoeuvre a loyal lieutenant into the position, and they would laugh at my naivety: because the post of “Captain of the Palace Guard” has no power at all, each of the subordinates to the post do not do what the Captain of the Palace Guard tells them to do, but rather what their patrons tell them to do.

“Now meantime, the real power move was raising Captain Rechard to the post of “Commander of the Guard”, because this would unify the command structures of the two guards. It would also allow the “Captain of the Palace Guard” to apply for help from the “Command of the Guards” who could authorise the “Captain of the City Guards” to supply men to provide the “Captain of the Palace Guards” the required assistance. These men would, of course, do what the Captain of the Palace Guard wanted them to do, neatly sidestepping the “lack of power” problem of the position. Then it was just a matter of housekeeping and redoing the guard schedules.

“I reiterated that “housekeeping” was to obey the laws, not physically hurt anyone and to keep any guards that just wanted to do their job but were stuck working for officers who had no interest in letting that happen. They assured me of all that and I sent for my scribe and Captain Rechard. A short time later Captain Rechard arrived and I realised I been had. Captain Rechard was the first officer your father had served under when he joined the guard and your father was the first office my Captain had served under when he joined the guard and the scenario they’d just sold me on had been developed over years during their weekly card game.

“I got my scribe to write up the papers they wanted and set the ball rolling on their little coup of the Palace Guard, then I took my anger out on them by insisting that they deal me into their weekly card game and that we play it then and there. I cleaned out their wallets in short order, I’m sorry, but for people that had being playing cards together for years they were just woeful card players and I was upset and not in the mood to hold back like I usually do.”

Laurette laughed, “Letting him clean out the Palace Guard alone would have gotten you my Father's undying support, but it doesn’t explain the letter nor the Nobility.”

“Cleaning out the Palace Guard and getting it uncorrupted and competently run were near and dear to my heart too. As in, I wanted to keep my heart, and a guard not at the beck and call of the Nobles might actually stop them trying to rip it out.

“Your letter and the palace servants happened next. While we were sitting down thinking what to do next since my brave guard captains and commander no longer wanted to play cards with me, the Travellers came up to me with an invitation to visit the fortune teller. I shrugged, said ‘why not’ and went to the fortune tellers caravan to have a cup of tea with him. Surprisingly all the guards weren’t happy with the idea of me going alone into a Travellers tent and drinking tea with a fortune teller. I told them to relax, he was an old friend and not to worry, then I wondered off in a pack of Travellers all alone without a worry.

“I knew my problem wasn’t random common people, they were much more interested in getting out of my sight, not attacking me. My problem was all the Nobility back in the Palace that were about to start realising that I wasn’t my father and while they had been sucking up to my father and ignoring me, I hadn’t been ignoring them. I knew where some of the skeletons were buried and unfortunately for them I most certainly wanted to dig up the skeletons, because some of them were my friends, and I now had the power to do something about it. Further the skeletons they were holding over my father didn’t matter to me. I wasn’t too happy with him anyway and I would be damned if I was going to do anything to try and prop up his reputation. Sing it from the rooftops, I don’t care.

“Anyway, the fortune teller was my old friend the Foreseer and because of what I had done and what I was going to do, he was willing to break his usual rule and allow me to ask for my heart’s desire. I of course asked how could you and I both be loved and happy. He looked at me, smiled and said 'look into your friend’s disappearance in the archives and then do what your heart tells you to do.” I thanked him, finished my tea and left.

“While I had been talking to the fortune teller the fact that the King-to-be was sitting in the Travellers park had spread around the city and a group of desperate merchants had shown up. They were about to go bankrupt because the Nobles had stopped paying their bills, but never stopped demanding more credit and their orders be shipped and had been using the Palace Guard as thugs to ensure they got both.

“I looked at your father and said surely there is a law against this, why haven’t they been arrested? He replied that of course it is, but that the King needs to sign the writ against a Noble and even then there isn’t much point because no guard is going to arrest his own Noble, so Nobles are for all intense and purposes invulnerable on their own land unless they commit treason.

“I looked at the captain of the City Guard and I asked if the City Guard would object to arresting Nobles and he said of course not. Then I pointed out that all the Nobles are not on their own land, they are all in the City or the Palace for my Coronation. I’ll be happy to sign the writs and they can go arrest anyone that is more then thirty days in arrears.

“He pointed out that as soon as he started doing that Nobles would start fleeing to their estates again, to which point I grinned evilly and reminded him that any Noble that didn't swear alliance to me tomorrow would be guilty of treason and not safe on their estates either.

“Realising that they had a once in a lifetime opportunity, my guard captains and new commander got their heads together and sent for all the clerks and scribes they could find and then sent guards to all the merchants in the city to get the full list of all the overdue debts for my Nobles. By the time they finished they had in effect bankrupted the Nobles I was afraid of and in most cases legally stripped them of their assets too, so they stayed too poor to cause me big issues.

“We even managed to clean out some real monsters by the simple expedient of arresting them for what we could prove and then using the excuse of investigating those cases to send in teams to the Noble’s estates and finding the rest of the proof we needed. Once again the Travellers were invaluable, supplying the evidence needed to get the ball rolling so that we could hammer the scum.

"One thing this did was make regicide even more unthinkable for the Nobles, the nightmare of another coronation and great cleansing of their ranks is worse then anything else I have ever been able to do to them since.”

Laurette laughed “Oh that’s too rich. The poor Nobles, they either come off their estates to the coronation and get arrested for their crimes, or they stay away and they get branded treasonous and get hauled off their estates anyway. Better yet, you get to do this each coronation! Still, how did this help you with the servants?”

“Ah yes, the original story. Well I went home that night and looked in the archive and found my fathers death warrant for you. I wanted to see you again, but you were protected by your Order, then I remembered the stalled negotiations for my foreign bride. I knew no Order would give up the chance to help choose the bride for a King, so I sent my letter to the Mother House of your Order and asked for you by name and by date of Trial and admission, just to let them know I knew exactly who I was asking for. Then I tricked up the negotiations for the bride by giving you veto rights on the Bride and sat back and waited for you to appear.”

“OK, that explains the letter, but the servants?”

“Simple, the scribes that write the letters and file the documents are servants too. They noticed that the first thing I’d done was look for my old servant friend, then after finding out about her had sent a very weird letter, basically extorting an Order to cough up a member they couldn’t help but notice had joined right in the period you disappeared. They didn’t know the name, but they assumed it was someone I thought was a witness to what had happened. Imagine their surprise when you turn up and everyone realised I’d never not known what happened to you, further my letter wasn't to get the Order to cough up a witness, but to cough you up so I could try and get you to marry me. Whatever else it proved, it showed how strongly I valued my friendship with a servant.”

“OK, what about today," Laurette pressed. "This letter was much more polite, just a request to see me privately tonight.”

The King sighed, “That’s to do with my wife’s last letter.”

“What does it say?”

“I don’t know, it was addressed to you. Whatever else, I do love my wife, I would not dream of opening her private correspondence, especially to you. Something happened between you and my wife before she become my betrothed, she never explained that.” The King looked a Laurette with raised eyebrow.

“Don’t look at me, I never knew why she said yes. She came here, said she had one question to ask you, disappeared into your study for half an hour, came out and said she agreed to the marriage, then marched back to the boat and we sailed back to her brother to tell him the wedding was on.” This time Laurette got to look at the King with raised eyebrow.

“She asked about you," the King admitted softly.

“Pardon?!” Laurette exclaimed.

“She asked me what my relationship with you was," the King repeated.

Laurette was honestly shocked. “What did you say?” she whispered.

“The truth," the King said softly, looking the shocked Laurette straight in the eye. "You were my first friend, and unrequited love. That my father had signed a secret death warrant for you, and that you’d run away to Orders to hide from my father’s killers. I then explained that I’d tricked your Order into sending you to negotiate for my bride in the hopes that you would choose yourself.”

“How did she react to that?”

“She asked what now that you had chosen her instead to be my bride. I told her it meant that you were telling me that you would not marry me, as was proper, even though I really didn’t care. Also that by choosing her you wanted me to be happy. She asked me how I knew that and I said because she was the first woman besides you I had ever felt stirrings for. You know me better then I know myself and she was chosen by my one and only friend so that I could love her.”

“How did she respond to that?”

“She walked up and kissed me, on my mouth. I admit I responded enthusiastically to that.”

Laurette laughed uproariously, she'd always wondered what it would take to get Urich to kiss a girl, she had certainly tried hard enough to get him to do it to her before she had been forced to leave Palacegate, though she had to admit it never occurred to do it herself, not even on that night of tearful farewells, when he still hadn't kissed her.

Urich looked at the laughing Laurette and finally asked, “Why did you never visit me all these years? I knew when you came to Palacegate, was it too much to ask for you to come to the palace? I mean, you didn't even stay for the wedding, and my wife had designs on you for an attendant. You came back, delivered my betrothed to me and by the time we thought to look, you had disappeared from the palace and nobody saw you leave either it or the city."

"Your wife," Laurette explained looking away in shame.

"I find it hard to believe that she banned you from the palace, nor even that she asked you to stay away," the King scoffed. "Actually I know for a fact she regretted never getting a chance to talk to you again, and my daughters weren't called ‘Laurette’ and 'Shia' without her strong encouragement."

"That was not it," Laurette explained shaking her head. "She was everything I could have hoped for you, and if you had strayed from her it would have broken her heart."

"You were afraid I would force my affections on you?" The King pressed softly.

"No, never force," Laurette denied, turning to look at the King, her heart in her eyes.

"It would then have taken two to stray," the King murmured. "And you have been very good at resisting my charms until now."

"I've never been able to say ‘no’ to you," Laurette whispered. "From as far back as I can remember, I'd have done anything you'd asked me to."

"Then why aren't we married?” The King asked in honest confusion.

Laurette laughed, before sighing. “Because you never asked me to, and therefore I've never actually been required to try and say ‘no'." This time Laurette turned and stared out the window. "Oh I'm not stupid, I know full well your purpose in asking me to find your bride was to get me to offer myself, but there is a great deal of difference between not offering to be your bride and actually having to say ‘no’ to your face after you asked me to marry you." Looking down at her clenched fists, Laurette deliberately calmed herself and turned to the King. "For all the right reasons, and you know they were the right reasons, I found that I could give up my dreams."

The King stood there shocked at discovering that the girl of his dreams had always been his, if he had only ever made the move to claim her. Then she once again showed that she could read him like a book, “And now your Majesty," Laurette stated. "I must take my leave before you recover from shock and utilise that weakness of mine. Plus, I have a letter to read.” Laurette called up a gate and stepped through to the Training House, quickly closing it behind her before the King recovered enough to chase her.

Shia, still dressed in her pyjamas and dressing gown, kept to the shade of the trees in King’s Park as she watched Sar scale the wall in the corner between the main Palace wall and the Old Guard Tower. Shia was keeping an eye out to make sure none of the guards decided to look back over the wall and into the Royal Garden.

As Sar reached the hight of the Archer’s Run along the top of the wall, she looked back down to Shia, who quickly scanned the walls, looking to see where the patrolling guards were. When they were all looking away she signalled Sar, who scampered onto the run and quickly moved to cross it. Right when Sar was in the middle of the run the door to the tower opened and the Officer of the Wall stepped out seeing her and immediately calling out the alarm.

Sar looked desperately around, but there were two guards with the officer who quickly stepped up and grabbed Sar’s arms before she could even decide to run. When Shia saw the guards grab Sar she whispered “no” in horror and set off running for the tower door.

Shia burst into the bottom floor of the tower, surprising the Guards there who were in the middle of a meal. She took off running for the stairs before they could do more then shout for her to stop. She quickly ran up the stairs and through the bunks of sleeping guards to the next set of stairs and was half way up those before the shouting guards from the first room came running through the bunks, causing the guards in them to wake up and pile out into the way between the bunks, slowing down the pursuers even more.

Shia ran through the third floor of the tower past the archers posted there even at night, watching out their windows. She burst through the door and ran up to the Officer screaming. “Please don’t hurt her, she’s a friend, she means no harm. Please!”

Turning in surprise the Officer saw the youngest daughter of the Heir running out of the guard tower, soon followed by about half the archers and then even more men, some of them still only in trousers, though clutching their weapons the Officer was pleased to note.

“Halt!” he called. His men stopped running, but the Princess kept going till she was between him and the girl he had just caught. Looking back at the girl he noticed that her stubborn and resigned look was replaced with one of real concern for the Princess. He filed that away carefully, there was a standing order for the guards about what to do about a girl that was known to frequent the Palace in Shia’s company. “Alright, now what is your name and what are you doing on my wall in the middle of the night?” The girl went stubborn again, so he turned to the Princess. “What about you? Why are you running through my tower?” The Princess opened and closed her mouth a few times, then looked back at the other girl who shook her head, at which the Princess turned back and stood there looking at the ground. “Then we'll just take you to your father and let him ask the questions."

Shia nodded miserably and reached back to take Sar's hand, turning to lead her away.

"What do you think you're doing?" the Officer of the Wall growled. "Princesses get sent to their father, intruders get sent to the dungeon, you two escort her!"

"No!" Shia cried. "She's a friend, not an intruder! She comes with me!"

Grinning as he watched the eight year old darling of the palace face down two armed guards over a commoner orphan, the Officer worked his face back into a stern expression before he barked at them, causing the Princess to turn back his way. “There is no way that I am letting an intruder enter the Royal Quarters. Now you just march yourself back there and I'll follow later to let your father know what you have been doing, in the mean time we'll take this one down and interrogate her on what she's doing in the palace."

"You are not interrogating Sar!" Shia cried. "I'm not leaving her side. You can either take us both to my father, or you can tell my father that you've thrown a Princess in the dungeon!"

Staring her in the eye the Office of the Wall walked up, lent down and coldly glared at the Princess. “Done,” was all he said. Standing up, he gestured for a squad to take them away.

The Princess swallowed and looked scared, firmly interlinked her fingers with the other girl's, Shia squeezing so hard both hands went white. Standing tall, she marched off in front of her escorting guards, with the dirty common girl held tightly to her side.

Once they were out of sight the Officer of the Wall quickly went over to the inside wall and looked down with a whistle. “I didn't believe it when they told me, but she climbed it like a monkey!"

"You're not really going to put the Princess in the dungeon right?” his second in command asked him. “She's only eight. They're both only eight!"

"It's alright, her father went down there and organised it earlier. There is a very artistic cell for them to stay in that is not in the dungeon proper. The Heir thinks she'll defend her friend past all reason, and that the other will defend her too. He wants to see how far they are willing to go for each other."

"What's going on?" his second asked confused.

The Office of the Wall turned to him and chuckled, "Shia hasn't really bonded well with others, she's a bit of a thinker, a bit of a loner. Her youngest brother is the only one to which she expresses herself. But those two have been spotted a hundred feet up lying on the roof of the Royal Quarters after midnight, with the Princess chatting animatedly."

"He's going to scare them into being more careful?" the second guessed.

Laughing the Officer responded, “Good God no, he's got something much more interesting in mind for them. Come, time to inform the doting father where his precious Princess is."

Looking back over his shoulder, the Heir entered the cells under the Palace courts. “So she insisted on staying with her?" he demanded.

"Marched off clutching her hand and staring down the guards. I'd be surprised if they've let go yet,” the Officer of the Wall confirmed.

"Let's see how willing she is to stay.” He went through to the cells and up to the barred cage in the middle of a room his daughter and her friend had been placed in.

As he approached a female sergeant from the City Guards turned to him and signalled him to be quiet, then gestured him close. Coming up to the cage he looked down and smiled, the two girls were hugging each other and had fallen asleep like that, each trying to protect and comfort the other with their backs pressed up into the corner of the cage.

Nodding to the room's entry the Sergeant lead the Heir over and whispered, “I have never seen two so scared nor so determined. They were chalk white, from the tops of their heads to their toes. They clung to each other so hard we'd have needed to break their fingers to get them to let go. Took about thirty minutes for the determination to leave, then only another fifteen minutes for sleep to claim them. What shall we do now?"

The Heir thought for a while. “What time do the courts start?" he asked.

"These ones are busy," the Sergeant replied. "Sunup they'll start bringing criminals in from the guard houses to face trial. Judges start arriving about then to get a feel for the numbers and to divvy up the work."

The Heir nodded and thought for a while. "Can you ask the Chief Justice to be ready for me in his courtroom an hour after sunup? Would that cause problems with the courts schedule?"

The Sergeant shook her head. "No, we'll use the formal King's Court. It's only used for special trials anyway, so it won't cause problems for you to be using it."

The Heir smiled and turned back to his sleeping daughter and her friend. “Let's leave them asleep. I'm sure the rest of her family will love to get in on the act tomorrow too.” He once more carefully checked the cell and the room they were in, as well as inspecting the carefully chosen group of guards, all female and all mothers who had daughters about the same age as the Princess. Assured again, he once more stood looking down at his peacefully sleeping daughter and her friend when with a sigh he turned away, striding back through the cells to inform his wife why her youngest would not be returning to their quarters tonight.

The metallic clang of the cage door slamming open woke Shia to the unfamiliar surrounds of the cell. A single sight of the pasty white, scared expression on Sar's face was enough for the Princess to remember the night before, and the serious trouble her friend was in.

"Wakey wakey Princess, your Mother has demanded your presence in the Officer of the Watch's office right now,” a female Sergeant of the Guards announced from the door she had opened into the cage.

"What about Sar?” replied Shia as the two of them stood up.

"Well it's morning, we'll have her in front of a Judge soon enough. Pretty cut an’ dry, we caught her on the palace wall after midnight. The punishment for illegally entering the Palace grounds is well know after all."

Shia turned pale and instinctively stepped in front of Sar. “No, please. Let me bring her with me to my Mother!"

"Your mother is displeased enough as it is. She wishes you bought to her, not the common occupants of this place, certainly not a dirty girl caught climbing the Palace walls at night."

"I won't leave Sar!” Shia declared, tightly gripping the hand of the terrified girl with her.

"So then, you want me to go back to your mother and tell her you refused her order to present yourself?" the Sergeant enquired with a raised eyebrow.

Shia could get no whiter, but she trembled a bit before she straightened up, tightening her grip on Sar's hand and whispered, “Yes.” It was all she could manage through a parched throat.

"Rather you then me,” the female guard finished, before closing and locking the door to their cage and marching off to the exit, leaving Shia to contemplate the anger of her mother.

So long later that both girls had taken the time to relieve themselves in the chamber pot provided, and attempt to clean themselves as best they could with the water in the basin, the same female Sergeant, this time with a four person squad of female guards, again opened the cage.

"Judge is ready for you,” she stated looking to Sar.

"What about my mother?” Shia demanded.

"Orders are to escort you to your mother in the Family Tower whenever you are prepared to go."

"Fine, lets go Sar."

"Uh uh ah,” the Sergeant interrupted. “She has an appointment with the Judge, you're the one your parents want to see."

"I'm not going without Sar!” exclaimed the Princess, almost shouting.

"Suit yourself, the Judge is this way," the Sergeant said pointing.

"Like this,” exclaimed Shia gesturing to her now very dirty dressing gown and slippers.

"I imagine you have any number of dresses in your room if you wish me to take you to your mother, but if you are seeing the Judge, we are escorting this one there right now."

Shia looked to Sar, once again seeing her fear. Facing the guards again Shia calmly nodded. Gathering Sar's hand in hers, Shia stepped from the cage and nodded to the guards to lead off.

They were marched through the corridors before being finally led into an imposing room. The two girls found themselves looking up from the floor to wooden boxes on platforms above their heads. To their right there was two tables, each with two seats behind them, on a platform with tiered rows of benched seating behind. The only person in any of the seating was Shai's father standing behind one of the tables. Before them across the room was a presently empty wooden box with a steel cage enclosing three quarters of the wooden benches in it. To the left was an imposing wooden box they could not currently see into.

Shia and Sar were lead to the centre of the room, between the two platforms the tables were on and directed to turn and face the tall wooden box. Looking up they could now see that all along the wall was a single wooden box on a high platform with a table going along it the whole width of the room. Two doors led into the high box, with an elderly gentleman the only occupant, seated at the centre of the imposing table.

Shia tried to catch the eye of her father as she was led over, but his gaze remained steadfastly towards the elderly gentleman, patiently waiting while the gentleman read through some documents, shuffling them occasionally on the table before him.

Shia too looked towards the elderly gentleman and waited quietly holding onto Sar's hand both for Sar's comfort, and also her own. Finally looking up and apparently taking notice of the two girls and their guards for the first time he addressed them. “Sar, age eight. Foundling of City of Palacegate, currently residing in the King's orphanage for girls, this is you?” The elderly gentleman demanded looking at Sar with a withering gaze.

Scared white and clutching Shia's hand, Sar managed to stumble out a “Yes."

"Address the Judge as ‘Your honour,” snapped one of the guards.

Sar just looked at the guard petrified, until Shia whispered to her, “They want you to say ‘Yes your Honour.'"

"Yyes your Honour,” Sar stumbled out.

Fixing a gimlet glare on Sar, the judge just grunted and then looked back down at the papers and shuffled them some more. Looking up at Shia's father the Judge queried, “You understand that with a Princess and a member of the Royal Family, the King's Seal and Signature is required? You will need to seek an audience?"

"It is being arranged as we speak," Shia's father calmly replied. "We wish this handled as fast as possible, there is a King's audience for today assembling soon we hope to make."

"Today you say?” the judge asked, then looked down towards the two cowering girls. “More appropriate attire is planned I assume?” he questioned in the tones of a statement, obviously unimpressed with either the Princess's dirty dressing gown nor her companions obviously too large and exceedingly dirty boy's pants and shirt.

"My wife, her mother, is organising it now," the Heir assured him.

Grunting the Judge again looked down and kept reading until he appeared to reach the end of the papers. “This all seems straight forward.” Looking up again he addressed Shia, “I assume if you and your companion are placed in the care of your mother, you will follow her orders and present yourselves to your Grandfather, the King, for the audience?"

"Yes your Honour,” Shia promised solemnly.

"And you?” the judge once more fixed Sar with a fierce gaze. “You will stay with her and follow her example?"

"Yes your honour,” Sar quavered.

Grunting the Judge addressed the guards, “Return the Princess to her mother, inform her that she is responsible for both of them until the appropriate time."

The female Sargent came to attention and barked, “Your Honour!” then turned to her two charges and their escort and jerked her head towards the door.

Shia tried once more as she was escorted to the door to grab the attention of her father, but as the door closed behind them her father was still resolutely looking only towards the Judge's box.

"Finally! It seems I need a Judge and an escort of guards to have my daughter delivered to me!” exclaimed Shia's mother exasperatedly as Shia and Sar was escorted into her presence. They had been escorted through the Palace complex and to the Family Tower by the female guards, who had gestured them into her Mother's Day rooms and then all but the Sergeant had waited outside. “Thank you Sergeant," Shia's mother politely dismissed her. "I'll look after them from here, they'll be at the King's Audience presently.” Bowing the Sergeant acknowledged the Crown Princess and left the room, closing the doors behind her, leaving the girls alone with Shia's mother.

Her mother just looked at Shia with a scowl, then turned to Sar and if anything scowled harder. Finally she simply stated “Come!” and turned and left the room without the slightest doubt her daughter would follow.

Scampering after her, Shia turned to make sure Sar was following before turning back and seeing her mother standing at the door to the bathing room, impatiently gesturing to her.

"Hurry up Shia, we have an audience to attend, and unlike your performance at the Palace Courts you will be properly attired for your Grandfather's Court.” Shia grabbed Sar's hand and half ran the remaining distance to her mother. “So you can move fast when you feel like it?" her mother enquired with a raised eyebrow and a frown. "I want you in there and both of you in the large tub. Scrub yourselves head to toe, get all the dirt, even under your fingernails and toenails. Then wash and brush your hair and show Sar how to do it too, fifty strokes a side. Chop chop!” she said clapping for emphasis. “We are already running late, I'll be back with your dresses and I expect you to be ready!"

Shia dragged Sar into the bathing room and started undressing quickly. As she took off her dressing gown she looked over at Sar to see her looking around in awe and stopped, reaching out and forced Sar to look at her. “I'm sorry Sar," she explained urgently. "I know you'd love to look, but please get undressed. Mum's furious with me, we need to get cleaned!"

Sar looked to Shia and saw the panic in her face and quickly nodded. She took off her shirt without bothering to undo the buttons, and quickly untied the cord holding up her pants, allowing them to drop. Shia was surprised to see Sar was wearing no underthings, but just quickly pushed Sar into the already full and steaming hot tub, before she finished undressing and jumped in too. Quickly submerging herself, Shia bobbing back up and gesturing Sar to do the same as she grabbed two bars of soap, held one out to Sar and then as Sar took it, proceeded to start washing herself as quickly and as thoroughly as she could, every so often glancing over to Sar and instructed her in doing the same.

Standing outside the bathing room, Shia's mother examined the two court dresses in royal blue silk, then hugged them to her as she listened to the sounds from the bathing room with a huge smile and tears of happiness in her eye.

Unlike Shia's father, who had been petrified at the sight of his youngest calmly lying on the roof a hundred feet up the Family Tower, she had cried in joy at seeing the happy animated pair, and had lost her heart immediately to the orphan girl in her too large, dirty male cloths. She was overjoyed that she had been able to convince the King and her husband to change today's proclamation. Sighing, she schooled her expression once more to a stern matron's face, rushed through the door and proceeded to inspect the two girls. She was determined that they would be perfect for today's events.

Shia and Sar were waiting in an antechamber to the Kings Court with her mother, who was serenely standing in front of the doors waiting for them to be opened. Shia looked around and was startled to see that Sar had cupped the front of her royal blue silk dress in her hands and was blissfully rubbing her checks on it with her eyes closed.

"Sar stop that! You're showing your intimates!” Shia whispered furiously, glancing nervously towards her mother.

"But it's so soft, I've never felt anything so soft before," Sar whispered, lost in bliss.

Shia looked around and guided Sar to the chairs against the wall and sat down, then pulled Sar's head to lean on her shoulder, and the silken sleeve there. Sar again closed her eyes smiling in delight at the feel of the silk on her cheek. Presently the soft rhythmic stroking of Sar's cheek on her shoulder had an effect and Shia too closed her eyes and laid her head on her friends and went to sleep with a smile.

The soft click of the door lock disturbed the silence in the room, Shia's father stepped through the door to see his wife with a huge smile on her face and tears in her eyes, standing with hands cupped to her breast looking away to his left. Glancing that way he saw the two girls asleep on the chairs, their heads supported by the other’s shoulder and smiles on their faces.

The Heir quickly stepped across to his wife and put an arm around her, hugging her to him, smiling down at her as she looked up at him. “It's time," he said softly. "The family has gathered and the work of the Court is finished."

Nodding his wife stepped across to wake the girls as the Heir quickly left the room via the same door he'd entered.

Shia and Sar were led by her mother down the sides of the Royal Hall, until they came even with the Throne. Once there, a glare caused Shia to stop fiddling and stand straight, Sar quickly copying her.

At a signal from a footman the three of them proceeded to the centre of the room to stand in front of the Throne. Shia's mother started to curtsey and Shia quickly followed. Not knowing what to do Sar desperately tried to copy Shia. Unknowingly Sar gave the King the curtsey of a Princess, not a commoner, and the Court was astonished to see not displeasure on the King's face, but a half hidden smile of delight.

"You have the documents?” The King intoned.

Quickly Shia's Father presented the documents to a clerk who passed them to the King. Taking his time the King read through the documents, containing a smirk as he looked down at the two white faced girls who had surreptitiously grabbed each other's hands. Signing the documents and waiting while the seal was affixed, the King made sure of his composure, then turned to the herald with a murmured, “Please announce this to the court."

Taking the documents the herald strode to the edge of the dais, accepting his staff of office from a footman hestruck it on the ground three time before handing it back and arranging the documents for reading.

"In this year thirty ninth of his reign, King Urich does announce that his son and Heir adopts into his care Sar, orphan girl of the city of Palacegate, as daughter of his heart and Princess of the realm. Let the banners be placed and the realm rejoice. Hip hip!"

"Hooray!” shouted the court as with a glad cry of joy Shia's mother knelt down and swept her new daughter into her arms, not caring who saw the tears of joy in her eyes.

Dear Laurette,

First I thank you, for what you did for me and mostly for what you did not do, that you also did for me. Urich was every thing you promised and everything I dreamed.

I fell in love with Urich during my conversations with you and by now he's told you that my only reservation in marrying him was you. Oh how you intimidated the women of my brother's court!

I was with my brother when Urich's ambassador informed him that a delegation was coming to conclude the treaty negotiations, and that it would include a member from Clysteth who would have veto power over the bride. My brother agreed, of course, assuming that the Clysteth would be there to make sure the bride would not cause future problems. Since we also wished no future problems an outside check would cause us no concerns.

And then you arrived. You are a devastatingly beautiful woman, I don't think any of us expected that. You did none of the normal beauty steps the court girls insist on, yet you outshone us all. Oh how we hated you! Then there was the mandated trip to view the armies pledged to the defence of our two kingdoms as part of the treaty.

That armour you wore! Everyone could see that it was the workwear of an extremely competent fighter, not a single thing on it was designed for anything else other then doing the job of protecting its wearer, but oh how it hugged your figure like a glove. When you came out in that armour your stance changed, your stride flowed and suddenly all who had been engaging you in the subtle female battles, and losing I must add, realised how completely you outclassed them. They who had measured their victories with the hearts of young men, maybe the occasional group of small boys, watched a master who defeated an entire army, grown and experienced men all, in a single afternoon.

After that my brother's court ladies woke up and stopped skirmishing with you. It was obvious already that you were winning, but that demonstration rammed home that it wasn't a contest, you were a master, they were apprentices. It was only in their own minds that they were engaging you, you were just ignoring them and slapping them down as needed to make sure they didn't interfere with your goals.

You'll notice I talk about “them” and not “us". I saw myself as above them. I had my brother's promise never to offer me in a marriage of state, and I had intimidated all the schemers in my brothers court by proving to them that I would not be used in their battles against my family, so I was safe from my brother's court. I had settled down in my safe life accepting of my unmarried status and keeping just enough of an eye on things to not get caught off guard in a power shift.

I will admit that watching the girls of the court skirmish with you was amusing. And I was more then intrigued in how you handled my father's army, that was a skill I was envious of. And then you wandered into my sanctum and I was not amused. I was not the plaything of international politics. I was not a commodity to be traded for armies and access.

The more I resisted, the more you smiled. The angrier I got the happier you become, and then even I saw when you decided. In a single glance your posture changed from amused superior to experienced hunter and I was the prey. And you won the hunt with a single arrow.

A story of your Prince and his description of the perfect Queen. You woke up dreams I had suppressed, then you paraded your Prince through them, in and out until my very heart betrayed me in the battle I fought with you. You promised me with your words, you promised me with your stories, but most of all, you promised me with your love. You were the perfect women, with skills and looks I was envious off, a presence I couldn't hope to match, and yet your love for your Prince shone though in every word you said, every story you told and most importantly, your very posture and voice as you thought of him. Yes, by the end I only had to look at you to know if it was your Prince you were thinking about.

Both you and I love Urich, so I have a request that will break our hearts. I could say that all I am offering you is a final chance to have what was so rightfully yours, but that would be a lie, and I am selfish enough to have wanted Urich to have been all mine, so I will tell you the truth.

I have Foresight. Not trained and certainly not under my control, but I have been gifted Foresight of an event and also how to prevent it. I wish my family saved and I know exactly how to manipulate you to do so, and to my shame, I have already started doing it. My only consolation is that you love my family too and would do this anyway, and that I can gift to you my grand-daughter and her new sister.

Yes, the invitation tonight was at my instructions, the viewing of my grand-daughter and the girl she will never think of as anything other then as her sister was deliberate. Only by you following my instructions will they reach their seventeenth birthdays and, like you, it will only be because they Oath to Clysteth that they do so. Do not be sad, as for you it will be good for them. Also as for you they are required in the Order for the sakes of us all. But they will be loved and will love, they will have as much joy and happiness as any of us, even though this future is without their choosing.

And so I have trapped you. My grand-daughter is a joy and her sister is a hellion. They are both open of heart and easy to love and already they have wrapped their lives through your heart like strands of spider's silk. I know once seen you cannot know that you have the means to save them and not do so. So onto your heart’s break and my punishment for this act of entrapment.

On the sixteenth birthday of my grand-daughter I want you to seduce Urich and invite him to your chamber. He will want to consummate in his own chamber, but I need you to make an excuse, there is an obvious one, and then gate to your own chamber and finish there.

You will gate out moments before intruders break in to kill Urich in the attempt of killing my whole family, but I cannot say that you will save Urich, for he is fated to die. Your only choice is to either allow assassins to kill him, or to gate him to your chamber and have him die peacefully in your arms knowing his family is safe.

And the final twist of the knife. You cannot tell anyone about this plot, nor attempt to stop it. I have been gifted only this vision of the future and it must play out as I foresaw or the steps I have taken to save my family will be for nought. It is either this vision and my chosen ending of it, or no vision and all is to chance.

And so farewell dear Laurette, you who have bought me such happiness out of the bitter ashes of your own dreams. For all my skills, for all my wealth, for all my rank, my greatest, indeed only regret is that I have been unable to find anyway I can bring you even a single day of joy or of happiness in return. Instead, from beyond my grave I reach out to turn the very last of your dreams into yet more ashes and bittersweet memories.

Know then Laurette one last thing. I love you, as does Urich and our children and our children's children. You have the complete love of the Royal family, freely given from our hearts to your's. Know simply that you are indeed worthy of it.

Laurette didn't know how many times she had taken out and read this letter since Urich gave it to her. In the eight years that had passed, she had many times tried to think of ways to save Urich without sacrificing the rest of his family, but she could not. Now the year of the Princess' sixteenth birthday was here and finally it was time for her to act.

With tears in her eyes Laurette kissed the letter, put it back in its envelope and the envelope back in her desk drawer. Locking the drawer Laurette absently pulled on her gloves, checked the weapons at her hips and crossed to the bed to shoulder her pack and saddlebags before leaving her room to gather up the similarly equiped Leansey for their journey to Whiteford and its new Clysteth Training House being built around the Lady Chapel on the hill overlooking the town.

---

I hope you enjoy this teaser, I’ve had it written for almost as long as the part I’ve already published, ever since I imagined Laurette’s backstory. One day, if I ever finish the books I’ve already got planned, I might go back and fully write Laurette’s story too.

Still dying for more of this. I think this world is grand and would love to learn more about it. But I'm sure all things I am curious to know would constitute spoilers so I will wait happily lol.

I’m still slowly creeping forward writing this, just need to do the last 10% which seems to be taking 90% of the time (as usual )

This seems to be the case with everything in life.