Disclaimer: I DO NOT own the recognizable and/or canon characters herein. Nor do I own the recognizable/canon places, events, or timelines. Anything outside of that scope is my own creation. I endeavor to be as close to canon as possible on recognizable place, event, and character descriptions- so please feel free to let me know I am wrong if I am wrong. Thank you.
Alanna and Kel took the chairs in the open area with Raoul, who had to squeeze his legs towards his body to accommodate the two Lady Knights. Kel would have smiled at her old Knight master but she felt that now wasn't the time for smiles and her sense of foreboding deepened.
"Lady Knights," Jonathan started as he took a seat behind Raoul's desk. His eyes were dark in a way that didn't hurt his handsome features, though Kel would always think his eyes cold. She didn't like him though she would give him her loyalty and give his realm what was due. "You both have done some wondrous things for the realm in your own times. You have both surpassed the trials that faced each of you- and though those trials were different in nature they have created two of the finest Knights- male or female- that Tortall has seen in a century."
"This news must be terrible for you to open your pitch with flattery Jon." Alanna interrupted angrily. Her temper was short already due to Nealan's idiocy and her former lover now King was not helping with his skipping about whatever problem was created. "Quit with the diplomacy and say what you wish, my liege. All three of us here have sworn our fealty to you and are but mere vassals to your will."
"Alanna, please." Raoul began as he leaned forward to place his large hand on the Lioness' shoulder. "Let our King talk."
"Raoul it is rather unlike you to step in between Jon and I." Alanna's eyes narrowed as she looked at her friends back and forth. One her king and the other her greatest friend. "What is going on?"
"All in due time, Alanna." Raoul said as he leaned back and looked towards Jon for him to continue. "Please, sire, at least hurry it along. Our disappearance from camp won't go unnoticed for long."
Heaving a large and very un-Kingly sigh, Jonathan closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Alanna, if you will I must ignore you for a moment." Alanna huffed and attempted to reply but Raoul covered her mouth fast. Jon turned to face the youngest Knight in the room. A Knight who, much to Jonathan's chagrin, was sitting and watching the spectacle with no emotions to show for it. She'd always been a hard one to read and that was never good for a king.
"Keladry," the King began as he clasped his hands in front of him on the desk and leaned forward onto them. "I know that we have, thus far, been trying to set it in motion that a new mage had taken out Blayce and Kingslayer. A plan which, up until recent events, was working smoothly."
"Was working, your highness?" Kel asked, her curiosity showing in voice if not face.
"Unfortunately, much against my and my spymaster's intuitions, King Maggur has released information about what ended the reign of his metal monstrosities." Jon paused for a moment to drink from a glas that Raoul had placed on the desk before the meeting had even started. "Your name, home fief, and other information was released to the Scanran ranks as of a few days ago."
"That's not a terrible thing, though, Jon. It gives a face and a name to the act. The soldiers have been quite timid all fall- and knowing Scanrans as I do the idea that a girl with no Gift and no ties to the gods managed to sneak hundreds of miles behind their borders and murder a necromancer and Stenum Kinslayer in cold blood and make it back out of their country alive will cause quite a stir among the rank and file of his armies." Alanna was being practical as she lounged in her chair with a half-smile tugging at her lips. "So the military knows that Keladry exists, that there is a force to be reckoned with in Tortall and it has nothing to do with magic, gods, or even spying."
"Alanna," Jon held his hand up as his Champion attempted to continue. Turning back to Keladry he heaved another large sigh. "Keladry, upon the advice of my spy master I have decided to publicly announce your trip to Scanra. The whole thing. The battle and fall of Haven, the orders from Lord Wyldon to bury your dead and return, the breaking of laws and oaths, the reclamation of the adult refugees, continuing to follow the children, the battle at Rathhausak, and your return to Tortall with children and adults."
There was silence following this, so Jon waited another short beat and continued to the hardest part of what he had travelled north to say.
"Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan- you have served your realm and king well in this first year of your knighthood. You accepted an assignment on the front lines of war with few resources and fewer troops; you took charge of that responsibility unto pain of death." Alanna's eyes narrowed as Jon continued, Raoul reached forward again and clasped his hand back over her mouth with his other hand holding Alanna in her chair. "Unfortunately however well you have served this realm, you broke your oaths to your king and to Tortall. And under the advisement of my council and the petition of many in court I am here to collect you after the weddings and take you back to Corus."
"Mmmph! You- mmpph!" Alanna tried to break Raoul's hold on her, her struggles causing a small moment of interruption. Kel knew this moment was coming- somehow she knew. She had known what she risked upon breaking orders, but now she also knew that all of those who helped her out would go down with her.
Before Jon could continue after Alanna was quieted by Raoul, who was now all but choking her, Keladry jumped into the conversation as diplomatically as possible.
"I understand your political positioning, sire. I also understand the position under the law." Kel studied the man before her. He was tired, that was obvious. He had seen many things for a man of his age, and it was obvious that the weight of being King was something that she would never understand and was rather happy to be spared the experience of having an entire realm on her shoulders. "However I respectfully request that those who followed me are granted leniency and pardons, if required. Had I not broken my own oaths none of them would have broken theirs. The convict soldiers who have made such progress will also continue to be allowed their hard-earned freedom. I will submit to the arrest and to the will of your council and the courts peacefully provided that none of my friends will follow me to Traitor's Hill. You will also swear this to me, here and now."
Alanna screamed and thrashed beneath Raoul's firm hand. Raoul himself looked very much like he wished he could scream and thrash and fight- but he also looked like he knew something that maybe the King's Champion did not and was keeping that secret under wraps. His face was wooden, his demeanor icy. He looked from his former squire, a squire in whom he held more pride than anything, to his king, a king who he truly wished he could brain with the flat edge of Keladry's glaive.
"I, Jonathan of Conte, do so swear that none of the knights, squire, or military soldiers who followed you into Scanra against orders will come to harm or arrest and will receive and keep full pardons as required under this oath. Alanna, Raoul, will you two be witnesses to this oath between myself and Keladry?" Jon asked as he looked up at his King's Own Commander and Champion.
"We will." Raoul's voice was forced as Alanna attempted to bite his finger off to protest. Jon turned back to Kel with a somber face. He waited.
"And I, Keladry of Mindelan, to hereby swear to peacefully submit to the arrest of my person, the stripping of my birthright nobility, my shield, and the judgement of my King whose orders I disobeyed and whose realm I have shamed with my disobedience." Kel's voice was a bland as she could make it as she ripped the badge that was her shield from her chest and lay it on the desk in front of Jon. "Shall I go in irons now, or am I allowed the luxury of seeing my former Knight Master and friend at their weddings?"
"Now." Jon replied as he stood and opened the door to waiting soldiers. Their eyes were dark and hidden as they moved forward to place the cuffs on Kel. "You will remain here for the weddings, as I am a guest to both, but when they are over you will return to Corus as a traitor to face a Traitor's judgement."
"Yes, sire." Kel held her head high as she allowed herself to be led down the stairs. She felt no shame and would show no shame.