Siblings and Politics
Rufure woke up earlier than he does and hurriedly got ready. He looked at his notes, recited what he wanted to say to her and made his way to her room. The hallways were silent save for the guards and servants. He neared her room, both guards bowed to him and knocked on the door to announce his presence. There was no reply for a bit and then a low, confused noise asked them who it was. He blinked and flushed slightly, he had totally forgotten to inform her what time he was arriving today so that she can have time for preparing. He feels bad as they tell her about him and he hears her hurried voice as she says him to wait for a few minutes. They look at him for an answer and he nods. They wait there in silence as the guards take their positions, a bit tensed and he doesn't give too much thought to it. The palace people though don't consider him enemy, they are not so warm about him and now with the whole debacle with Robin must be worrying them. He needs to tell Emmeryn later to properly release an unofficial statement about the whole situation so all of them can calm down a bit and no wild rumours start spreading in the court or the capital. As he formulates her statements, he hears silence fall and she calls him in. He takes a slightly breathe, they open the door and he walks in.
"Good morning Robin, I am sorry for hurrying you." He starts as he takes her in. She looked far better than now, refreshed and far more cleaner. She was wearing a simple dress, his guess they were of Lissa, they do have similar stature; the coat was obviously. He fingers his own and tries to smile more naturally. He has many things to ask her, but the coat has been on his forefront. It didn't seem like a normal coat, with his attachment to it and her own. She smiles back as she gets up and bows slightly.
"Good morning, um" she stumbles, "prince Rufure. It is quite alright. I am sorry for making you wait for me." She says naturally and he hides his hurt in her obvious way to put distance between them. He shakes his head and takes a seat on her tea table and rings the bell for a maid. A maid appears in a few seconds and he orders her to bring them tea and breakfast, he knows this conversation was going to be quite long. She sits straight as she smiles pleasantly, a formal smile and he smiles too. This was hard and he knows it has to be him who breaks the ice. He knows she won't appreciate small talk but he won't let go of even one opportunity.
"How did you sleep?" He asks pleasantly.
"It was good thanks to your hospitality." She smiles back, way too stiff.
He smiles back though, "Please eat your breakfast freely I don't plan to get you stumped."
Her smile tightens as she looks down at the plates and slowly picks up the fork and knife as she glances at him and takes a bite, the silence stretches for a minute as he tries to get her to relax by eating. He feels a bit better as he notices her taking bites more frequently,
"How is the food?"
She looks up, wipes her lips and answers "It is quite good."
He catches on immediately, "You are not being honest," he accuses, "was it bad?"
She frowns as she looks down, "No it is not, it is just I am not used to these kinds of flavours."
He looks at the food, it was the usual eggs and bacon with orange juice and some fruit, it was a typical ylissean breakfast. But, she probably prefers pelgian food more rather than ylissean. He beats himself silently, he should have considered that. He mentally notes to consider the cultural differences so he can make things more comfortable for her. He looks guilty as he apologises,
"I apologise I had not thought of asking you what you would prefer for food."
She shakes her head "I am not used to it but I do not mind it. I am fine with this food."
He shakes his head too "No no I wish to make you comfortable please tell me or Frederick what you would like to have for your meals."
She frowns "I am fine – "
He cuts her off, "No." He says quite forcefully and though he doesn't say the words she probably understood that he was going to become closer to her or try his best whether she likes to or not.
The silence falls, tense and pricking as they both stare at each other with different feelings in their eyes. The silence is like ice but he sighs knowing he needs to give up because she won't be warmed about the whole thing.
"I know you are not keen about the whole idea but I want to make it work, I want to at least try for it."
She doesn't respond but her eyes dart away and stays silent, neither agreeing nor rejecting the idea. He takes it, he can't be too selfish. They let the silence linger more, to wash out the negative feelings and he takes position again as he clears up her plates and pours them both tea hoping at least tea would be to her liking. He makes a mental note to ask her for lunch today and inform the head chef in person so he will agree to make it. For now, he believes the topic should change so that he doesn't overwhelm her with his own selfishness.
"So, let's get on with the inquiry if that's ok?" she nods and he continues, "I want you to first elaborate on what you said to Emm and us before, about how Gangrel has his war?"
She nods, her posture straighter as she meets his eyes confidently, looks like politics and planning was something she felt comfortable talking about. "I don't have the exact details but from various sources, I was able to find out that Gangrel and his advisor were planning something which they believe will definitely result in instigating war."
He looks confused, obviously worried about the lack of details since she sounded so confident. She explains herself, "The reason I too am confident is that they were very hard on hiding the details from me, even going as far as killing my informants and even correspond in codes to keep it all wrapped up and not reach my ears."
He is worried now for another reason. She was supposed to be their taction and yet they seemed to have no trust for her, he needed to understand how the power struggle went in the pelgian castle. She understood his thoughts as she nodded,
"Yes, there was not any trust between us and I believe Gangrel may have been in on Aversa's plan because he had been acting quite different for few weeks as if he was trying to avoid me. He gave me holidays and also ordered me to hand over all my plans to Aversa. At first, I thought it was just his way to reduce my power in the council but later when I heard about the plan I realised they were trying something else. I well didn't expect Aversa to launch such a bold attack though, almost all the castle people were aware that night that I was being assassinated."
He is shocked and she looks smiles pitifully, "I am not that liked, actually I was hated because I was the only sane person in there who didn't wish for war or more bloodshed. Normally, they could just throw me out and that would be it but considering my position they can't do something like that so easily without getting everyone against me."
His heart squeezes in pain, he can't imagine that. Emm's council were not the biggest fan of him but they didn't hate him to the point they all wanted to kill him so desperately. They all just resorted to giving him dirty looks whenever they thought Emm was not looking. He looks at her, she doesn't seem to be too disturbed by the idea that literally everyone in her own home wanted her dead, she just smiling pitifully as she stares at the bed. He wants to know more about this.
"Can I ask about why the relationships between you are so sored?"
She is silent thinking mostly as she stares at him and then at her hand, looks around the room then settles her gaze back to him. He feels she won't answer but to his surprise she does,
"I guess the best way to answer is that I was never given the right to inherit the throne and the royal family was hated by the citizens so I can't even reveal myself but if I wish for," Her face turns dark, "If I wish to sit on the throne I can but that would involve a bloody mess and could result in a civil war at the most."
He is staring, he has many questions but first of all, "Do you have any wish to inherit the throne?"
"No; but the fear is there - the what-if. What if I become selfish, what if I wish for more?" She wretches her fingers around, "They have that inescapable fear and it only makes them more scared as I have shown my power of planning and politics and the fact my views are so conflicting to them so if I wish to take the throne I could easily kill all of them in one move without batting one eyelash."
She says it rater placidly but he shivers silently. The thought was definitely scary, he had no right to succession to the Ylissean throne so the council didn't think of him doing anything crazy because the only ones who can sit on the Ylissean throne are the children of Naga and he definitely is not one. He will have to become a tyrant if he wishes for such and even then people will probably revolt and overthrow him in an instant. Robin's on other hand is definitely a problem - one she can prove her right to succession and two the civilians though hostile first can be easily won over by that, he knows she probably has enough ideas on how to get around that. She silently smiles agreeing to his assessment.
"Do you really wish to not take the throne?" He asks carefully not wanting to offend her but he was really curious because their paranoia can't is so intense without any reason.
"No. I never had and never will." She answers resolutely and he is taken back he was sure that she had expressed such intention because of which things turned so drastic. He wants to ask her reasons for such a decisive answer but her eyes are slightly glaring at he knows this is the line, this is the point he can ask and beyond this is something she won't show until he gets her to open up a bit. He decides to steer the topic away before things get sour.
"I see then can I ask why you so readily offered your help to stop the war?"
She tenses a bit, taking her time before settling on an answer, "I have no intentions of taking the crown but that doesn't mean I wish to see the war rage again on the lands. And," she pauses completing and then her eyes dull, "I have a desire to fulfil and stoping the war is the first step to that."
He is surprised, she doesn't seem too patriotic but he stopped himself from judging her on that. Her thoughts and ideas are hers to decide and express. He still wonders what is her desire but he doesn't step further instead he nods and says,
"Well then it seems so far we are on the same side, that should make things peaceful for both of us."
She nods as she smiles diplomatically, "Yes it shall. We should start the interview now haven't we spent quite a lot of time talking about others?"
She asks pleasantly but he can hear the silent warning under it, that she is done with talking about personal things with him and wants to stop. He sighs and assures himself that he still has time and he has gotten quite a lot this time, he should be proud of that.
"Do you have any ideas about what the plan might be?"
"I have some but I do not know how many will actually apply. So for starters, I tried to put myself in Aversa's place and thought about what she might do and I can say she will do anything." Her tone turns dark, "She is capable of anything unlike me who only tried to maintain appearances, she will go all the way. You saw how her people attacked the village the other day. You can expect such attacks to come from now on usual bases."
He shivers and writes down, 'Inform Emmeryn and all the lords to strengthen their militia and be ready for any attacks and try to quell them.'
"Can you tell me more about this Aversa I have never actually heard or seen her?"
She nods, "Understandably Gangrel has been keeping tight wraps on that. The reason is Aversa belongs to the Grimmelal cult and the involvement of them in the council at such a high up power level is not well-liked by many people especially the army so he has been posing her off as a mage graduate that climbed up to her position." She doesn't hide her hate as her face turns to a deep frown and she slightly clicks her tongue in the end as she looks away, slightly glaring.
"It seems like you have a very sour relationship with this lady." He comments lightly but she snaps back to him staring.
She thinks, 'Obviously he wouldn't remember her. If he doesn't even remember me then there are no ways he could remember that meat sack.'
She doesn't tell him that as she rolls her eyes at his dry humour, "That's putting it very lightly. She didn't want to kill me just for politics, she hates me to the point if she can she would personally come here and pull out my heart by her hands." He frowns deep at her quite graphical statement, he doesn't think he will like this person at all. She sighs, "well the sentiment is the same though. If I can put my hands on her I will kill her too." That worries him, she didn't seem the type to hold such deep personal grudges.
"That seems quite deep, why do you have such a deep grudge."
She looks away, "We have a past." She is keeping secrets he gets that as he silently sighs and decides once again to file this point away from later. He has been putting away many things for later.
"Well then are you feeling the same towards Gangrel?"
He feels she would say yes but surprisingly she shakes her head, "I don't hate him but I don't like him too. I just pity him and," She cuts off going silent and it stays that way. another thing he needs to put away for later.
He lets the silence linger a bit longer to try to find another tangent to work on, he decides to go back on the plan briefing, "Are there any other concrete ideas as to what they might use to break Emm's will."
She answers immediately, like she had already rehearsed this talk, "I can't say concretely one plan but I believe they will attack Emmeryn in such a way that it will force her hand. They probably will attack her weakness," she looks at him, "and I can list quite many, but the main ones are you people. Her siblings, her only loved ones. If you were taken away or attacked then Emmeryn will have no choice but to bend her will."
He nods, he doesn't feel too disturbed by that thought, somewhere or the other they all knew that they were Emm's weakness, her only weakness but what Robin didn't probably fathom was that Emm had another weakness that is her other people. She won't tolerate if they were hurt, the brigand's attacks were that's why so effective because Emm can't put it off as a normal danger of living in the countryside. No, she wants to protect every single life and that's why if anyone is endangered whether they be commoner or noble, Emm will definitely act. They cant protect so many at the same time though so he needs to prepare to get Emm to make the hard choice. He writes it down but he knows the danger still looms on them.
He looks up to her again, "Do you want to add anything else?"
"No."
He glances up at the clock, it was time. He doesn't have anything else to hold onto anyways, "Ok then for today we will stop here. I will take my leave now." He gets up and she does too but before he leaves he turns back, as he remembers and reminds her,
"Please do tell Frederick what you would like for this week's meals. Our head chef likes to prepare the menu a week prior so it will be helpful if you can do that."
She is ready to protest but he silences her as he turns back and leaves not letting her have the last word. She sighs as she lets her head fall after the closed door and takes a deep breath to cool down her rising emotions. She can't get frustrated, she should have expected his stubbornness but the positivity, it strikes her, it fills her with anger. His image and 'his' image are dissociating and it leaves her angered and hurt. She feels a scream lodged in her throat as she falls down to sit,
"What kind of torture is this?" she whispers to no one as she tries to silence her heart.
She has to be calm, she has to be always calm.
'A taction always stays calm under any situation, Robin.' Her mother's rules softly whisper in her mind, her calm and yet gentle voice. The voice that has become more of a curse now for her.
She will stay calm, just like mother and Rufure were.
Rufure lets go of a deep sigh as he walks down the hallways to the dining room. He was able to assimilate her information, and their known information quiet in calm but now as he walks down in silence his mind is twisting and screaming the thoughts at him, repeating her words like a water wheel. He tries to calm his mind down by rationalising them but he knows his gloominess won't disappear. He wished her walls were not so high and he wishes he could figure out an easier and faster way to scale them. His thinking silences as he enters the dining hall and all his siblings look up to him, waiting.
He sighs, he wishes he could give them a bit happier news. He takes his seat and Chrom immediately comes onto him,
"How did it go?"
He looks down, hiding away from their expecting eyes, "We only talked about politics," he refrains from telling that she blatantly refused to talk about anything else and how she controlled the whole conversation and directed it the way she wanted it to. They all look down disappointed but Emmeryn tries to find the silver lining in it.
"She is still adjusting, give her some time Rufure."
He nods as he starts eating his food.
"Well how did the talk go, how much did you find out."
He feels a bit comfortable as he looks up and speaks, politics and tactics were always comfortable, "She told me a bit more about Gangrel's new advisor, Aversa and also what they might be planning."
"Oh, what did she say?" Lissa asks curious but Rufure shakes his head, he cants divulge such sensitive information so openly.
"I will tell you about it all in the small council." He slightly nods to Emm ad Chrom who agrees back and Lissa pouts but falls back knowing arguing was a losing war. She would never be allowed in the small council.
They stir the topic to other things and have their dinner in relative peace, and after the dinner ends the three head to Emm's small council and Lissa heads back to her room. They head to her office and head inside as both Philia and Frederick trail behind. Emm's small council consisted only of them, the ones she trusted more than her life. She trusted others too like the head priest of the church, certain Dukes and Earls of the council but she didn't trust them enough to tell them everything. People may think otherwise but Emm was cautious and only truly trusted a few people. It was a quality that no one normally guessed from her usual actions and personality and people misunderstand and think she is a foolish and dainty head but she was anything but that. She was their exalt and she knew how to work according to her title.
They sit down as he pulls out his files, notes and other official documents regarding the topics they were going to discuss today. He stands up as he addresses the council as he pulls out his earlier notes and starts on their first topic of the day,
"I will give a basic summary of my interview with Robin," he pauses. "First, the new taction for Pelgian army will be Aversa, a woman we sadly don't have too much information about. But Robin did give a basic idea about her, first, the attack we observed in south town will probably become the standard attacks we will get from Pelgia from now on, alongside depending on the importance of the city it might be fiercer or a bit lax. The towns close to the Pelgian border need to straighten up and I want to send a bit more militia over there. The southern border though strong seemed to have a bit of gap and problems that need to be reviewed. I have made a summary and we can go through them later with the council." He pauses and passes around the summarised sheet he had made about the problems he had observed in the southern border and the towns near the border.
They all look through it and Chrom frown, "Our militia is going to spread thinner if we go with this Rufure."
"I am aware Chrom but if we are to trust Robin's information then we need to strengthen our border or else what she predicts might come true."
He nods and then Philia speaks up a bit worried, "Maybe my lord we might want to start enlisting people."
Chrom is already frowning but Emm steps in, "Philia we do not have a war yet we can't give our people a doubt that it might start again."
Philia bows at the response, "I understand your concern but as Lord Chrom stated our people will be stretched thin if we employ this and though the borders need strengthening, we otherwise create a weakness in our other borders and we never know that they can go around and attack us from our weaker points. I just want to highlight my concern about it. Ylisstol too seems to be very weak now and though I pride in my group to keep you safe the capital needs to be protected under any circumstances."
Philia is right and he sighs, he had an inlikign that someone might bring this point and he would be honest he had no counter plan for that, "Sadly Emm, Philia is right the capital and the other two borders are weakly protected and can easily breach at any time, we had seen this happen in the previous war too. Their fabled taction had circled the pelgian troops around with their warships and broke through the Eastern border. And if they follow those footsteps I don't have any counter plan for it at the current time." He looks at both his siblings, hardened look, "We might want to think about wanting to increase our troops."
They both frown not fond at all of this plan but they knew, the current army was no longer mighty and though none of them wants war they will have to plan for it whether they like it or not. Emm slowly nods,
"I shall give a think about it and discuss with you all on a later day."
He nods and sits down, his turn done. Chrom gets up next and starts his turn,
"Our rations have been recently running dry since harvest season is approaching I wish to appeal that our militia will get an increased portion than last time" He gives her a paper of his proposed rations and Emm gives a read through, picks her quill up, write a bit on it and hands it back to him.
"These are all I can promise right now Chrom."
He nods as he signs it and she does it too and he brings other things up that he had yet to discuss with Rufure too, "I want to also get permission to buy some weapons and repair them."
Emm gives a glance to them with an eyebrow raised, "I have looked through our budget and weaponry," Cjhrom hands all of them the report, "With the increased attacks we need to fill our weaponry more and increase our budget for repairing weapons whenever we can instead of buying new ones," He looks away, "I know you don't want for us to make preparations but getting weapons can take quite a long time. I don't want our troops to be caught off guard without even the basic weapons."
Emm looks at the report and her brother, she knows he hates this as much as she does but as the military commander, he is still trying to get the necessary preparations done so they don't lose any of their men. She nods, her eyes hardened, even if she hates it this was her duty and she needs to see through this.
"I understand I will sanction this but I won't allow the surplus intake of weapons, only buy the amount required and I need to get proper reports on how much each troop are getting and spending on weapons and resources." She orders all of them and they all nod in acknowledgement.
Chrom sits down and Emm glances at her other advisors to see if they need to talk about anything. Frederick puts his hands up and she gives him the go-to talk.
"Lord Rufure talked to me about Miss Robin's living conditions. I was hoping to get permission to allow some pelgian merchants in the castle and stock up our food and other necessities for her."
Emm nods without any pause and he brightens up as Frederick bows and sits down. Emm looks at all of them then puts her hand together, "If no one has anything to add," she pauses, "Then I will conclude today's meeting."
They all nod as they relax and their loyal knights, bowing and taking their leave. Rufure smiles as he gathers his stuff up and gets up but Emm stops him and he sits back down, eyebrow raised,
"Tell us how exactly the talk went with her Rufure, did she open up to you?"
He sighs, he should have known they would ask him that, "No Emm she was quite closed off, and whenever I tried to ask about her she stayed silent or tried to turn around the conversation."
They both look sad as they comfort him and he tries to smiles, stay strong, "It's ok, it's our first talk. I knew it will take time but one day I will get her to open up to me." He says them, confidently and they smile at him, supportive.
"I am glad Rufure but don't push yourself, you can always come to us for anything." He nods, thankful for them, gets up and says his goodbyes as he takes his leave and heads back to his office.
He knows Robin might be hateful towards them but he still, after everything yesterday can't let go of his siblings, they had been there for his whole life, they had loved him for his whole life and he loves them. He wants to protect them and he wants to protect her too. He wonders if it was hypocritical of him for choosing both of them but he wanted to be with all of them. Both were his family now and he wanted to care for all of them and be there for each one of them. But he gets why Robin doesn't want it, for her this all is too sudden and he knows suddenly getting your dead brother back in your life, is hard enough and he had no memories of her whatsoever so only she had proof that they were really siblings and that can be lonely, he knows.
But he won't give up, he can't give up after everything that happened. He wants to know everything that she had to go through for all these years, he wants to know everything that happened in his past, and if possible he wants to remember them all one day.
For now, he has other works that he needs to focus on, like how to get the council to accept her presence and give her more freedom. He has some ideas but he doesn't know how to work them, his best idea he thinks is getting Robin to have achievements on the field alongside the shepherds and thus making them accept that Robin has defected to Ylisse and it has her loyalty now. He has a feeling that Robin herself won't like that but he wants to be able to talk more freely without worrying about someone listening in and using it to build a conspiracy against them or any of his other siblings. His first objective for this week's meeting is getting them to sanction her to be put alongside shepherds.
He immediately gets an opportunity for this when two days later Emm announces her plan on their problem of a thinly spread army. She wants them to head over to Regna forex and gain their alliance, it will be hard but she cant head there because the people have been getting more restless especially since's Robin's presence has become known by even common folk. Emm needs to remain here to calm the populace down and close down all the ill rumours about Robin. So, she has asked them along with shepherds to head there so they can ask for an alliance. The rest of the royal family going there can compensate for the Exalt not showing herself.
He knew this was the change, if Robin was able to show herself helping them gain this alliance then the council will have no choice but accept her alliance with them. But for that to happen, he needs all the weapons he can get for tomorrow council, where all these matters will be discussed. He tells them of his plans, and they agree immediately. He then brainstorms alongside them on how they can get them to accept when Chrom, surprisingly gives them the best idea.
His idea is, the shepherds are very sparse and the only mobile army of theirs that can move around the handloom and take care of all their enemies, the bandits, the new fear of risen and pelagian spies. But the shepherds are very less and are hardly getting through each battle, which is true and reported for quite a while, they need all the men they can get. And there is also the fear Robin can be planning something while in the castle, better than keeping her at their most important place, they can instead get her to travel around with shepherds who can always keep an eye on her and finish her if she shows one bit of suspicious activity. It was a good idea and the council would be hard press to agree since Robin's abilities were quite strong and the mere guards can't contain her if she tries something, considering Emm even refuses to keep her in the prison. There he can get Chrom to present this, making it seem he was being the only rational sibling among them and they will accept it. He knows Chrom hates playing the part of a merciless military commander but right now they need to show that one sibling is on their side.
Chrom reluctantly accepts his position and they get ready for the council meeting tomorrow.
A/N - Hey guys here is another chapter, this chapter obviously I tried to add and explain certain political elements that were required to govern a city. I know it might not be perfect, it's my first time writing politics in a story but I hope I did a good first job. I know it might be a bit of for them all to prepare for the war but seriously army can't in any way gather in just a week, you need to do all these preparations especially in the middle ages. As I am keeping the story realistic I used what I learned in rome history and tried to add it to fit them more naturally. So please review how it was.
The drafts for chapter 7 is ready I will just edit it once and post it soon, thanks guys for your patience as always.
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