This is another commission done for EnsanguinedBirdy on tumblr as part of my Aseliacon Commissions. It was supposed to be 200 words, but since I've been taking so long with their pieces I sort of let it get out of control... all the way to over 3000 words. They asked for Estelle being awesome at politics. I can only hope I've pleased them.
This fic would not have been possible without the help of the wonderful Amavi, who has thankfully played more of Tales of Vesperia than I have. Any mistakes in here are due to my misunderstanding of the game, not hers.
"En ma fin gît mon commencement."
- Mary, Queen of Scots
Estellise Sidos Heurassein dressed that morning for court the way a knight might dress for battle. She stared herself down in the floor length mirror grimly, not even wincing when Mietta, her maid, pulled her stays as tight as she could. She would not show the anxiety that coiled in her belly, made her heart thud uncomfortably against her ribs, and made her feel as if at any moment she might be sick. For too long she had done nothing. What was the point of being a princess if one did nothing with the power such a title granted?
Her lips thinned to a narrow line, she thanked Mietta as she always did and set off from her chambers at a brisk walk. Less than ten steps down the hall her stride faltered. What if she couldn't remember any of the laws she'd spent so long reading about? What if they laughed at her, or worse, were too polite to do so to her face?
Estellise swallowed hard, as if doing so might make her nerves subside. She forced herself to recall the pair of bright blue eyes that had regarded her so honestly, so frankly. Flynn Scifo, one of the Imperial Knights, had been the one to inspire this so many months before.
It hadn't been difficult to speak to the open, friendly knight who'd come across her in the library. He'd politely inquired about her reading, and seemed pleased when she'd told him she'd been reading up on the laws of the empire.
"To better aid plaintiffs in your court?" Flynn had asked, encouraging the conversation along as Estellise faltered, all too used to trying to discuss everything she'd read with uninterested people.
She'd smiled, trying to keep the hint of bitterness she felt out of her expression, and replied lightly, "Oh, my advisors encourage me not to come to court."
It was shocking how swiftly the pleasant expression of his features changed. His brows drew down, his eyes narrowed, and his mouth clamped shut, as if biting back something he wanted to say and knew he shouldn't. After a moment, he said carefully, with the air of one turning over a rock that might very well have poisonous creatures hiding beneath it, "How will anything get better if those of us with just hearts choose not to act?"
Over a year from now, it will be that memory that sends her to seek him out at the side of Yuri Lowell, knowing she can trust him. Today, his words goaded her onward. Estellise took the next step, then forced herself to resume her pace.
Court had already begun its session by the time she reached the balcony of the gallery, where both nobles and commoners alike might gather to see the governing of the empire. Only a few children were up there with her this morning, supervised by a harried looking governess. Of the three, one was asleep and the other two appeared more focused on some sort of secret slap and tickle game. The governess was too busy hissing at them to pay attention to be paying attention herself. From her unnoticed vantage point behind them, Estellise let out a soft sigh. Should she humiliate herself, no one would witness her shame besides her advisors and the common folk below.
The wide room below was tiled with square gray stones. Large white pillars lined the walls on either side, running alongside wooden benches that led all the way to the front of the room, where atop a dais rested a long table. The wood of the table was unornamented, heavy and stained a dark, somber color. The four men and two women who sat behind the table wore formal, dark clothing. They sat three to each side of an elaborate, velvet draped chair that remained empty. It was supposed to be her seat, Estellise knew, and had again to gulp.
She should be angry rather than anxious that this had been kept from her, she knew. And yet, what if her advisors had been correct? What if she was too foolish, too naïve, too ignorant to properly judge any of the cases that came before her today? A sixteen year old girl could not rule an empire. Yet Estellise thought again of Flynn's words. How could she expect to help people later if she failed to learn now? There were so many books in the library: she could read them all and still be ignorant. At some point she simply had to act.
The plaint her advisors were currently dealing with was one of taxation. Estellise closed her eyes, the better to listen, and tried to sort out the various sides of it. By the time the council, acting as judges, made their vote and opinion known, she still hadn't sorted through it all. If they're all taxation, she told herself, you can always come back tomorrow and try again.
"The Imperial Court will now hear the words of Plaintiff Three," came the ringing voice of the herald down below, who pounded his staff a few times to emphasize the changing of cases. Estellise's heart began to thud louder as she leaned forward, trying to catch a better glimpse of the woman walking up toward the long table.
She wore the long skirt and vest of a modest woman, one who likely worked a trade. In one hand she held a paper, in the other the hand of a small, silent child. Their clothes were stained though not threadbare, patched in several places. The woman came to a halt at the last row of benches, bobbing her head swiftly in a sort of bow before speaking.
"My husband, he was a guard," the woman began haltingly. "He died on duty. And now I'm to be evicted from my home because I can no longer pay the rent."
"And what does this matter to the court?" That bored drawl could only have come from Lord Auden, a longtime member of the court. From beneath salt and pepper bushy eyebrows came a look of disdain that shocked even Estellise, for all that she'd seen his behavior before. "Take it up with your landlord, woman."
"I've been told that us wives ought to receive something," the woman pressed gamely on as her child hid their face in her skirt. "Seeing as my husband died on behalf of the empire. But the Guard says no."
"Then take it up with someone else at the Guard," Auden replied sharply. It was somehow worse that not a single one of her other advisors interrupted him, or tried to ask more questions of the woman, or anything. This, Estellise knew instantly, was something she could do, something she could fix. Whirling on her heel, she hastened back toward the small, circular staircase that, albeit meant for servants, provided the most direct route to the lower floor.
Taking the steps swiftly, she paused only at the bottom to pat her hair once before opening the door. It was a side door set so cunningly into the wall and covered perfectly with wallpaper that one wouldn't know it existed had they not watched it open. As such, it wasn't until she emerged beyond the row of pillars that anyone noticed her, and not until the common folk lined up on the benches began whispering excitedly that her advisors realized she was there.
"Could that be her?"
"Is that the princess?"
Estellise kept her eyes on the woman before her advisors' seat, ignoring the whispers for all that they gratified her. That they should even begin to recognize her, when she hadn't emerged from the palace in years, was simultaneously touching and horribly damning.
"Excuse me, mistress," Estellise told the woman, pitching her voice to reach all corners of the hall as she maneuvered around the table, heading for her long unoccupied seat. Though her heart was pounding in her chest, her voice remained steady. Perhaps it was wrong of her to relish the shocked and slightly outraged expressions on the faces of her so-called advisors. "You were right and correct to bring this issue before My court," she said, emphasizing the personal pronoun as she'd been taught long ago when speaking on official business. Of course, her tutor back then had thought she would become Empress with ease, had never predicted the years of power plays and backroom dealings to come when her parents were killed.
"Your Highness," Lord Auden recovered quickly. "Surely this good woman might be better served by taking her issue to the Guard itself."
"I have!" the woman interjected, then shut her mouth with an audible snap, as if realizing just what she'd said and to whom. "Begging your pardon, Highness," she added with a whisper.
"Of course you have," Estellise reassured her, sweeping her skirts out with one elegant gesture before taking her royal seat. She wet her lips and decided that if she did indeed dare to do this, she ought to give it her all. "Lord Auden is well learned, but it seems he has forgotten the survivor's benefits enshrined in The Royal Code of the Guard. You are right, mistress. Article 11 ensures that all guards' families are entitled to an annual stipend should their spouse or parent die in service to the Empire."
Lord Auden shot her a glare from his seat to her left that was so scorching Estellise thought she could feel its heat. "There's no proof he died on duty, now is there?" he asked in a tone too careful and ruthless to be called snide. "Which means this mistress," he paused after the word, as if to imply the typical title for a married common woman meant something else entirely, "Ought to take her issue up with the Guard, as they would be able to settle this once and for all."
Estellise hadn't considered what she would do when her own council disagreed with her on a point she knew to be true. She'd thought they might inform her that she was outright wrong, or that a plaintiff's issue might be too complicated to solve. An attempt to undermine her, though... Estellise paused, trying to gather her racing thoughts as the woman eyed her hopefully. She pressed her hands flat to the table to keep them from shaking; Auden smirked, and the rest of her council tried and failed to pretend they weren't watching her every move. Had it been a simple clarification of the law, she might have asked one of the pages to fetch down to the archives and bring up the appropriate tome...
That was it! As coolly as she could manage, Estellise redirected her gaze to the page who had begun standing stiffly at attention ever since she'd entered the room. "Page," she called, "Run down to the archives and fetch the records of Guard service from last year."
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Auden's face sour. Why was he so invested in going against her on this? Her other advisors had instantly cowed in the face of her surprise, though she couldn't guarantee they wouldn't rally later and begin insisting she return to her own pursuits again.
Less than ten minutes later, for the pages and the archivists worked fast at the rare order from their Princess, the page returned at a dash, a logbook held outstretched in their hands. They passed over all the other council members at the table to deliver the book straight into her hands. With a bow that sent the ends of their short, bobbed hair swinging, they retreated to the corridor, another page entering to take their place by the pillars and await the Princess's command.
"Your husband's name?" Estellise requested politely, along with the month of his passing. When the women gave it, she thumbed through the pages and found his listing.
"Your husband is recorded as having died in the line of duty," Estellise announced, before passing the record down toward Auden's side, knowing he would insist upon viewing it himself. "You are indeed entitled to a stipend for the rest of your days." It was time to give the proclamation, and for a moment the words slipped her mind. Panicked, Estellise licked her lips and struggled to think. Now was not the time to fail, to have to be carried by one of her advisors. She tried to remember the way it looked on the page, when she'd read the old court records. "By order of Princess Estellise Sidos Heurassein, and in the name of the Empire, this page will accompany you to the Purser of the Guard and will explain the situation to them."
"Thank you," the woman began babbling as Estellise finished. "Thank you, Your Highness. Thank you so much. You do care. I always knew it."
Reaching over to the place before the advisor at her right hand, Estellise took a sheaf of parchment, a quill, and ink. The paper shook as her hand trembled, forcing her to quickly set it down lest anyone notice her weakness. She wrote her instructions in a neat, even hand, then blew on the ink to dry it. When she looked up, the page was standing before her holding a piece of warm red wax. Of course; they had been trained to support this council. She folded the instructions, then placed the wax across the overlap of the parchment before pressing it firmly with the signet ring she wore on her right hand, sealing her instructions and officially ending her first court ruling.
As the page took her instructions and guided the woman away, Estellise resisted the urge to sag back into her seat with a sigh of relief. She'd done it. She'd come to court, and actually done something for the empire. As Lady Tatiana, a short, authoritative brunette down at the end of the right side of the table signaled the herald to announce the next plaintiff, Lord Auden leaned over from the left and whispered, "In your haste to play royal you forgot that the council must always vote."
"Only on matters of interpretation of the law," Estellise replied, knowing she would never have dared disagree with him so boldly before this moment. "On matters the law can solve alone, no vote is necessary."
The lord sat back, lips pursed. Estellise had the sudden, ugly feeling that she would pay for this day later. Trying to ignore the disquiet in her heart, she turned her attention to the next plaintiff.
The full council had listened to four more matters before adjourning for the day. For the most part Estellise had remained quiet and listened, letting the other advisors take the lead as they would on any other day. She was shocked to realize that there were several times as many commoners in the hall waiting for a chance to speak as there were plaints heard. She and the council exited the hall before they did, though all stood when she did as a matter of etiquette.
The advisors began to disperse, heading to their chambers or to the dining hall for a sumptuous luncheon. Estellise watched their retreating backs before letting out a deep sigh and returning to her own pursuits.
She turned down the hall that would eventually lead her to the library, only to stop at the sight of an Imperial Knight, standing still in the middle with his back to her. Besides a mass of shaggy dark hair, she could see little else of this person.
"Princess," he said in a low voice, so quietly she dared not attempt to move closer otherwise she might miss his words. There was something in his posture that told her not to take another step. "Not everyone will be so thrilled to see you in the council's royal seat… or in any royal seat at all."
Her eyes widened. She'd always heard the whispers; after all, a regency was a fragile thing. Anything could happen to a young princess, she'd remembered her own governess fretting with her bodyguards when she was a child. But to have it suggested so easily, and by this complete stranger, was terrifying.
"Your Lord Auden supports another for the throne, as do most of your council," the stranger continued. "You are untried and untested." She found it odd how he was carefully enunciating his words, as if trying to hide a certain manner of speaking. Flynn had certainly had no such difficulty. Was this knight afraid to give offense, for all that his bluntness suggested otherwise, or did he change his way of speaking for another reason?
"Then I will have to become those things," Estellise replied with a bravery she did not truly feel. She wanted to walk forward, to confront this knight head on, but something kept her rooted in place. Her hands were shaking again; she clenched them into fists.
"If you wish to survive to adulthood, little bird, I strongly suggest you not try to spread your wings so wide. Return to your books. Hide away. Let them think you're harmless."
"Then nothing will change!" she exclaimed in reply, and was surprised to find passion there, for all that what this man said frightened her. "Nothing will get better!"
"And nothing will get better if you're dead," her knight replied bluntly. "Be careful. I would hate to be ordered..." He paused, and then shook his head. Before Estellise could move a muscle he swiftly strode away, and was gone. She stood there frozen, utterly horrified. Of course there were some of her court who wished for someone else to inherit, but she'd always assumed that would simply mean passing over her. What he suggested was regicide, was it not? Estellise shuddered.
She'd just made progress for the first time in years. How could she give up now?
The next morning, when Estellise once more rose and dressed for battle, she was surprised to discover a note stamped with Lord Auden's personal seal waiting for her at her dressing table.
"'Court has been canceled indefinitely'?" she read aloud in shock, unable to help herself.
"Yes, Your Highness," Mietta replied somberly as she began to comb gently through Estellise's hair. "The Guard received word of threats made to Your Royal Person. You're to have a bodyguard at all times, and to stay inside the palace until further notice, my Lord says. For your safety."
"For my safety," Estellise repeated, lips twisting. Her shock had been quickly replaced with fury. Perhaps the knight was correct, and her safety was truly in jeopardy. Or perhaps Lord Auden and the rest of her advisors had not been so thrilled to be upstaged and reminded that they were merely regents to for her. She grimaced at her reflection in the mirror, and was pleased to see how un-Princess-like it was.
She was sixteen years old. There was time yet, she tried to reassure herself, to learn about her empire, to gather information about its people and laws, and to discover who her enemies were. Though the thought of it exhausted her, there was a feeling of determination burning low in her heart, goading her on. It sounded something like Flynn Scifo's voice, and looked something like the grateful woman whose life she had changed for the better only yesterday. This Empire could change for the better, she was sure of it. Now she only had to find a way... and do her best to stay alive in the process.