Ancient Kings(2)

Her skin was a nice tan color, and her rust red hair was cute enough, but her face was a little thin at the moment. Like she hadn't been eating, or was growing just a bit too fast.

Tim stared at the Count, his eyes dead. It really seemed like he was about to suggest something rude to the man, but he didn't. His words were polite enough even, considering everything.

"It won't be Tiera that dies for this." It was a statement. A simple thing that didn't give even a nod to pleading for his sisters continued existence. "She isn't the most easygoing person in the world all the time, but she's still my sister and really, in noble terms she isn't in the wrong here. The whole thing lands on Morris, at every turn."

Those last words got a strange reaction from the room, since everyone except Tor nodded at them.

The Queen, Connie, actually closed her eyes.

"Can you imagine what anyone else would be doing in the same place? A lover slaughtered before their own eyes like that? I expected to wake with the palace falling around our ears that night. Then taking in Sandra like we had to... I understand the reasons, but it's such a poor plan." She glared at her husband a bit. "I don't see a good way out of this, do you?"

Huge shoulders hunched and the man shook his giant head slowly.

"No. If we turn on Morris now it will serve to drive too much of our support away. After all, those on the fence are just looking for an excuse to not participate in the coming war. We need their troops and support though. If we do nothing... we may well have the same reaction, if from a different quarter. Tiera has some friends already, some of whom have pointed out that allowing Count Morris to act dishonorably during that farce of a duel is a sign that my reign is... less than perfect." Rich leaned forward and picked up the large metal goblet that sat on the low wooden table in front of him. "Those are my supporters too. Nothing I can do will fix this. Nothing at all."

The room was silent for a few moments. Finally Tor spoke, his voice somber, trying to think out loud.

"I can try to talk to Tiera again. Explain it all..."

That got a snort from Timon that was derisive enough Connie glared at him a bit. She did soften after a few seconds though, and glanced at the boy as he spoke instead of staring daggers.

"That won't really work. Sandra Morris is dead, Tor. She doesn't know it yet, but it's coming. Her father too. Probably her mother and younger sister as well in the end. We might be able to save those last two, if we do it right. I don't know if that's possible. On the good side we can take them out of the kingdom for a bit, since they're scheduled to go to Soam for the trip there in a few days anyway. I..." It wasn't his habit to just stop talking like that, but it was clear that his mind was working through a thousand different possibilities at once, and he just didn't have room for anything else for a few seconds. "Really we should have someone with her all the time now. We do have to explain it all, but just because it was an accident, well, that won't save anyone, will it? I suppose we could strand Tiera in Vagus or Tellerand for a while, but she'd find her way back eventually."

Tor was almost certain that last part was supposed to be a joke, but at the moment it sounded like a plan to him. If they took her Fast Craft and flying gear away and set her up somewhere else like that... Well, it would just be cruel. She needed her friends and family right then, having suffered a huge loss like she had. It was frustrating though, since it didn't seem like they could just count on her to be reasonable.

"I wish this were someone else. Then we could just explain things and get them to calm down, at least for long enough to get through this war." It was a stupid thing to say, he knew, but no one called him on it directly. Connie smiled at him sadly, and shook her head.

"I don't think that's really the case. Most nobles would be plotting right now. Making ready to destroy us all for our parts in this. To her grief stricken mind we did this to her, stole her love from her. In many very real ways that's just the case. If it were some other time we'd simply have a trial and allow the Council of Counts to deal with it..."

She stopped and made a hard and slightly sour face that didn't fit with how she normally looked at all. Not around Tor at least. There were a few new lines there though, that hadn't been in place before he'd left. Vertical ones around the mouth that seemed like she'd been frowning a lot. Worried about something. Possibly him? They were very close after all. He'd been fine though, just hiding in the wilds, away from everyone so that he could work. His original plan had been to hunt down the Larval Assassins and kill them all, but then it occurred to him that he could use magic to cause them to all flee back to their homeland. It didn't even hurt them, the magical field just made it so they couldn't help but go there, interfacing with the nano systems that were built into them. True, he could kill them too still, with a simple device that he'd built that would cause their bodies to just stop working for a while, but this was better, for now. Kinder.