Lina awoke the next morning strangely at peace, the crazy emotions of the past weeks having been purged by the events of yesterday. Still, it was not a day to be relaxed in, for, by the end of their second dinner the previous night Naga, er, Gracia, had told her father there was real trouble brewing in the east and that she needed to try and explain it to him, and as many ambassadors of the other kingdoms and principalities as he could get to come and listen to her. Prince Phil had stated after some thought that he could have them all over by lunch, and that she could speak after the meal. So Lina was now anticipating that something big was to be revealed. And just when she thought she was going to be free to look for Gourry again. She had a momentary doubt wondering if higher powers were trying to tell her that she wasn't meant to be Mrs. Yoghurt Brain after all. Sigh...
She had a small, by Lina standards, breakfast and went to see what or who she could see. Gracia had locked herself away to prepare for the meeting, and Amilia and Zel were taking some needed "alone" time with each other, Phil was of course busy getting ready to receive the guests and so Lina basically found herself cooling her heels in the magic library of the castle. She didn't feel like studying anything intense and ended up with a volume of magical myths. It was rather amusing in a way. There were so many strange tales about what magic was and could do, everything from how to turn gold into lead to how to fly to the moon. "As if that'll ever happen!" Lina thought rather scornfully. Then there were the tales of lost magic treasures that could never have existed in reality, golden rings that would shed five copies of themselves every night, a flying boat that could carry an army, then, when you didn't need it you could fold it up into your pocket, or, her favourite, the emerald tablets of Thoth, an ancient seeker of knowledge, said to have complied all that was known of magic in the universe, or at least the world, and to have sealed it into tablets of crystal to be recalled at will. "That would be so nice..." thought Lina, imagining a tablet that would have even more information in it than famous Claire bible, but she also remembered the Clair Bible shown to her by Xellos the Mazoku priest. It had taken literally acres to store the thing. And a crystal tablet, or two as some thought, was going to hold as much or more information. Yeah, right!
Finally the summons came for the luncheon. Lina was set at a side table where she had a good view of the proceedings. The meal itself was smooth enough with a lot of diplomatic back and forth between the officials. Food and drink flowed like water from a tap. Finally all were satisfied and the little dainties for after were brought out and the tables cleared. Then Prince Phil rose up and introduced his long lost daughter to the dignitaries. There was a general round of polite applause which was quickly silenced as he went on to explain she was going to address them on a matter of gravest importance from the Kingdom of Westhold. With that Gracia took the stage.
Lina thought she looked nervous at first, but figured she would be alright once she got going. And with that Gracia started to speak. At first she extended the usual greetings and good will as from one ambassador to another to the group as a whole. She explained briefly who she was and then she went into her topic. It seemed she had been busy drawing if nothing else. She was quite talented artistically when she put her mind to it, as Lina had found out more than once in her travels with her. Of course, when she didn't put her mind to it the results were something else...
Anyway, the first drawing Gracia put up was a map of the world as it had been known under the isolation of the Mazoku shield. She then revealed a map of the world as it was. Much of what had been taken as fact, the vast world ocean, the large un-crossable desert even the exact shape of the continents had changed. Oh the familiar parts were still there, of course, but now it was plain that the part of the world where Seirune was located was just a part of a much larger continent, and instead of an eastern ocean there were two walls of mountains with a large valley between them and on the other side was an absolutely huge land mass stretching into the east for thousands of miles. In fact it looked as if the inner and outer continents were some sort of a disk that had been thrown into the vast ocean, and their part of the world was just a western finger of the eastern continent. Actually, the mountains made it appear as if the "finger" had actually moves from somewhere else, and had ended up bashing against the bigger continent with enough force to scrunch up the land into mountains. It looked that way, but of course, as everyone knew, continents didn't actually move. Did they?
Gracia explained that for many hundreds of generations the peoples of the east had lived under the heel of a dictatorial Khan and that Westhold had long been the only nation on the continent outside of the Mazoku imposed barrier to hold out against them. It had seemed almost a yearly occurrence from as far back as they had records, that some sort of army from the east would attempt to take over Westhold and it was looked on as just one of the evils summer brought, along with things like mosquitoes, heat, and the like. However, a few years ago a new and reportedly very vicious Khan had ascended the throne in the far east, and had immediately started on a pogrom to remove all his rivals and bring the continent under his boot. As a result, there were no more incursions to the west for quite a number of years.
An attempt had been made to open diplomatic ties with the new ruler, but it was politely spurned on the excuse he was too busy. So a watchful peace had settled in. And in the midst of that, lo and behold an unlooked for yet miraculous occurrence! The Mazoku shield was removed! And the fabled "True West" was restored to the world! Great wonder and joy, and fear attended this happening, for no one knew what this might mean. But, no hordes of homicidal mercenaries poured eastward to crush the continent under boot, and trade and diplomacy were started. And more wonderful, the people in the west were revealed to be long sundered kindred to the people of Westhold. But now came a great and terrible confession. So great had the joy been that they in Westhold had let their guard slip! News of this happening had of course been noticed in the east, and only the gods had any idea how it was received, but, only a short month ago, the price of their joy turned to folly was revealed to the kingdom. The Khan, either sensing an opportunity, or fearing an invasion, or both, had launched an invasion force of his own towards the west. It was unlike any force ever sent before.
By virtue of his pogroms and purges, there were no more dissenters in the Khanate, and the Supreme Khan was free to use his armies as he saw fit. Gracia hesitated then, with fear obvious in her voice she went on. "Men of the west, we have had only a short time to gather intelligence and confirm reports, but all reports say the same thing without fail. Having no internal enemies to guard against anymore, the Khan has gathered every recruit he could and unleashed the whole mass of his army towards us. We have great trouble believing the size of the reports, but even trying to be conservative, we estimate the smallest his force can be is around five hundred thousand men!"
A gasp and several mutterings of "impossible!" were heard around the room. Gracia held her hand up and when silence was returned she went on. "The other end of the scale puts his army at about one million. And before you say impossible again, I assure you, they have the land and population base that they could do this. It means they have stripped their countries and vassal states of nearly every available man or boy of fighting age, and maybe even recruited many able fighting women, but yes, alas, they could make an army as big as a million men at arms. And our mission was to be the bulwark against them. Yet, even though we have not given up our training, or our preparedness, we could not muster more than one hundred thousand men at arms in all of Westhold. That muster has already begun, and that is why you have reports of us going onto a war footing, but not against the west."
Gracia sighed and looked as if all the weight of the world were on her shoulders. "We realise that this information is scanty and that there is no basis for you to believe us. Therefore we do not presume to ask for help. We ask only one thing. Put your defences in order. If they get through us, the only way you will stop them is to be organised at the gate at the narrow pass." There were more murmurings and buzzing in the room, and the ambassadors clearly didn't know what to make of it. Some had looks of outright disbelief on their faces, others seemed afraid, or confused. Someone asked "What do you mean, "the gate at the narrow pass"?" Gracia looked up and said "Let me show you."
She now revealed a third map, of Westhold itself. It revealed a sort of oblong shaped country entirely rimmed with mountains, a great valley between two ranges. It ran roughly from the northwest to the south east, and was easily some 500 miles from tip to tip, where the mountains came together at top and bottom. Below it was the great desert, above it were the high northern regions of ice and snow. By anyone's standards it was huge. Phil was privately impressed! His daughter, Queen of all that? Ha, good for her, if anything, she had traded up, from even the glorious Seirune! Well, well.
On the map were three areas circled with red. Gracia pointed to the northern most one first, high up in the mountains, near the top of the country. "This is the high pass" she said. "High, not only because it is at the top of the country, but also because it crosses the mountains at a considerable altitude. It is narrow and treacherous, and in places a party of men can cross it only in single file where it is only wide enough for a man leading a horse to walk. It is plagued at all times with avalanches and snow storms are a threat even in the height of summer, the time of year that is hard upon us. It is at this time that the pass is open, for two to four weeks a year, depending on the weather. All the rest of the year it is too cold, windy, and snowy for a military unit to pass. We calculate that at best maybe 10,000 men could make it across between the opening and the closing, under the most favourable conditions possible. And once in, they won't get back for at least a year. So, no major invasion that way, yet a harassment force could get in behind our backs. We have dispatched a contingency force of the best fighters we could get, alas only about 500 strong, so great was our need for speed. Yet, if they can get into the strategic narrow ways of the pass they can hold off an army of ten times ten thousand men. So that pass is taken care of. That leaves the lower two."
"Now this one here", she went on to tap a lower part of the map, "is the narrow pass I spoke of. It is the passage between our country and the west. Here it is we built a high wall anticipating an invasion from the west. Happily we were wrong, but we felt it prudent to leave it up, but we did modify it somewhat. It now has carefully placed supports on both sides of the wall, and the lock on the gate can be reversed. Thus, with a bit of work it can be used by troops on your side of the gate to resist the hoards trying to get through the gate. We will leave it unguarded. I suggest you bring up your troops and man it and await the outcome of the war..." She sighed a deep sigh that left no one in doubt as to what the feared outcome would be. Lina looked over to Zel. He too understood now, those strange holes at the top of the wall were to allow a walkway to be suspended on the west side of the gate, and the holes in the gate were where the locking bars went...
After a minute Gracia went on, pointing now to the right side of the map a bit lower down from the narrow pass. "This is what we call the bottle neck pass." she said. "So called because, as you see, it narrows and makes a bottle neck, here, a little less than a mile across, and it is here that we usually have been able to halt the flow of any invaders. The ground rises steeply here, like there had been an old waterfall or rapids there at one time. Along the top we have built a wall and it had served well enough. But against one million men? For every ten thousand we repulse they can launch one hundred thousand in replacement. We will be swamped. Well, we will do as we can, I can do no more than warn you. I hope I have been able to let you know what's coming, thank you for your time." With that an emotionally exhausted Gracia sat down.
There was dead silence in the room for many seconds, followed by some quiet whispers among the ambassadors and their staff. Then there was a slight rustle at the back and a distinguished military looking man stood up. "My name is Ivan." he began, very simply and to the point. "I am military attache to the embassy of Zoana here in Seirune. We have recently received some disturbing news from our spies, and let us not kid ourselves, we all have them." he said, glaring around the room at some who were protesting his acknowledgement of the use of spies. The protesters looked away guiltily, and even Prince Phil seemed a little uncomfortable. "I will come to the point!" announced Ivan. We have received reports Westhold was arming, so we looked into it. We determined independently, not without great difficulty I might add, your kingdom runs nice tight security I must say Your Majesty," he said to Gracia as an aside, "anyway, we determined that the threat came from the east and that the west was not in danger, at least not from Westhold. Naturally we sent our spies east too. They didn't get far, but they were able to tell us that there were rumours of a massive army moving west to crush Westhold and possibly beyond. We were at a loss as to what to make of these reports frankly, for they were few and sketchy and we had no way to confirm them. Until now. After this, I think I can say the Zoana will believe you, Queen Gracia."
There was a buzzing the room now as all the ambassadors started to take up the prospect of the threat being very real. Ivan went on. "I will send my report as soon as may be to my Queen, Martina, and I am sure Zoana will man your wall for you. But I wish to take this opportunity to state to our fellow ambassadors, we should consider the other option. The option of aid for Westhold. For three reasons. One, that bottle necked pass our Lady spoke of is a far better defensive barrier if properly manned, than the narrow pass will be. I have seen this narrow pass, attacking it in either direction will be very, very hard, but it is easier to attack the wall from the east, and if the enemy brings pre-built great war machines such as collosal battering rams, and trebuchets it will only be a matter of time before the wall is down. And then, with a massive army, they will eventually break out. The second reason is that there is safety in numbers, and I calculate that the west can muster a good one hundred thousand men. Add that to Westhold's muster of one hundred thousand and the odds are much better in our favour. Two hundred thousand men against even one million, along a wall on top of a hill, with no chance of the enemy flanking us, and we can stand very firm indeed. My final reason, if Westhold is being false, better to have our army, possibly even bigger in number than theirs, deep in their country and ready to fight, than to try and muster at the last second." The room went silent again, thoughtful at the attache's words, and shocked at the bald accusation flung at Westhold's Queen.
Gracia looked up from her slump and said, tears standing in her eyes, "I can give no absolute assurances, you all know that. Help would be most welcome, but is not looked for, just be ready as best you can." With that she slumped again. Prince Phil stood up and said somewhat forcefully "This is my daughter, I recognise her beyond all doubt. I believe her report and her assurances of friendship. Seirune will send help, and if Zoana will come I will send even more from my own troops. It is time we all ended the unjust restlessness between us and found a common cause to unite us in friendship, truth, and justice for all!"
"No Daddy, please, just be ready to defend yourselves here, you can't leave Seirune unguarded!" said a worried Gracia with a sob. Lina shook her head, leave it to Prince Phil to warm up into a justice speech at a council of war. And indeed he did just that. With a verbal flip of the wrist he brushed aside Gracia's advice and launched into one of his infamous speeches, but for all his bombast he was skilful enough that he made reasoned and sound arguments for sending at least some forces from the west in a combined army to aid the Kingdom of Westhold. Lina got up and motioned Zel to follow her. As she walked past Amilia, who was sitting there with her eyes shining as she listened to her daddy speak, Lina snagged her and said quietly "I know Naga well enough to know she hasn't told us everything, yet. Come on!"
The three companions walked over to the still slumped Queen and sat down. Amilia hugged her sister and Lina put her hand on Gracia's shoulder, and said "Come on Naga, you haven't said everything have you?" Gracia looked up, a picture of misery and said "No..." She sighed and shook her head. "Listen to him." she said to her sister. Amilia, for the love of the gods! Don't let him leave Seirune defenceless! He may well rush to save me and leave nothing for you to come into! Not that you wouldn't all be welcome forever with much love and joy in Westhold. But you are meant to be a queen in your own right someday!" Amilia replied in a sprite tone "You have been gone a long time if you think Daddy that simple my dearest and silliest sister! Some of this is just for effect. And if you didn't want him to come to your aid you should not have come back." "You don't get it." replied Gracia. "What I need is a safe place to send Arthur if, if..., we..., fail...," She sank back down in genuine tears this time as a mother's fear for her child rose to the surface.
The two women sighed and hugged the distraught Queen. "Hush, hush, dear sister" said Amilia gently. "No, no" said Lina. "She won't have time for this when battle is upon them, she needs to get this out of her system now, while she can." Gracia sobbed for another couple of minutes then slowed to the hiccough stage. "Thanks." she said quietly to the little group. "I don't know why I am so emotional lately, it's like I haven't been the same since Arthur was born." "Well, that's it then." said Lina. "You know some women get moody after having a baby!" Gracia gave her a puzzled look and said "I was rather under the impression that that only happened a few days after the birth of the child." "Yup, normally!" said Lina brightly!But you are, after all, Naga the White Serpent! And you have to over do and over act everything, it's you mission in life!"
Amilia looked startled, even Zel raised an eyebrow. Gracia turned and looked Lina square in the face, then, without batting a still teary eye raised her hands like she was drawing a bow and said "Freeze Arrow!" Of course nothing happened, but Lina laughed and pointed a finger responding "Fire Ball!" in her turn. The two women looked at each other, sighed, and then broke out laughing, Gracia still hiccoughing as she did so. "When I get my powers back..." she said. "Oh yes, we have some unfinished business." responded Lina, with a smile. "You're going to fight?" asked an incredulous Amilia. "What kind of silly question is that?" asked Gracia? "Oh, er, well, I wasn't thinking..." sputtered Amilia. "Well of course we are!" replied Lina. "You think we'd let a little thing like friendship get in the way of what's important? Like deciding once and for all that I'm clearly the best and most beautiful of the two of us?" she went on. "Clear as the inside of a cave on a moonless, stormy night you mean!" came back Gracia or more like it was Naga surfacing again. "Oh well, as long as you have your ego integrity..." put in Zel, obviously taking a dim view of the proceedings.
Naga turned to Zel and fixed him with a thin, dangerous smile. "So, stone boy, did anyone ever tell you golem magic is a specialty of mine?" Zel suddenly affected an innocent expression and asked "Say, did anyone else hear that strange voice just now?" as a big drop of sweat rolled down his forehead. "Oooo" said Amilia, amazed. "It takes a lot to make Zel sweat..." "Thanks, Beloved." said Zel with a sarcastic tone of voice. "That might work for your little friends here," went on Naga, as she turned back to Lina, "but you aren't putting anything over on me that easily. Why the height advantage I have alone..." "Waddya mean, little!" snapped Lina. "You bringing size into this again, oh "Great Goddess?" Suddenly she snapped her hand over her mouth and went "oops!"
Naga laughed. "Oh, Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho! Well, and why shouldn't the Great Goddess bring size into it, Piku-piku Lina-chan? OH, HO, Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho. Such a big powerful magic user, couldn't even win that little contest without cheating and leaving her golem so she could cast the Dragon Slave and wreck half the town! Ha, but you have been revenged upon! That crater you left is now the Piku-piku Lina-chan lake and theme park!" "What?" yelped Lina. "No way! You're making that up!" "Er, no she's not Lina" muttered Zel. "I've been to that village in my travels, and alas it's true. I thought that big round pink and white statue in the middle of the park looked um, strangely familiar, er, in a caricature like way of course... but the real, er, horror, was the dancing redheaded golem with the strangely curvy and bouncy body. I wondered what was going on, I think I'm beginning to piece the strange tale together now..." Lina looked at Zel and gave him a thin, dangerous smile. "So, stone boy did anyone ever tell you rendering golems inactive is a specialty of mine?" Zel slid behind Amilia and said "Um dear, would you like to take a walk with me?" Amilia smiled and said "Oh Zelly, you know where the short piers are, I think you can take a long walk off of one of them without my help..."
The three women broke in to gales of laughter at that and Zel felt himself rather under a cloud. "Well," he thought to himself, "in the end I did go and open my big mouth." "Oh, the tales we have to tell." said a smiling Gracia, now back in the forefront. "And not tell." added Lina with a big smile too. "Ah well," went on Gracia, "I guess I better get on with answering your question." She then reached over and pointed to a spot on the map above the Bottleneck Pass. "Here" she said, "is a long ridge of sandstone in the otherwise solid granite of the mountains. It is probably the remains of an old river bottom. It is soft and inviting, and a good team of engineers could level a pass through it, or make a ramp of some sort. We believe such a team is moving with the main force, Lina. If Westhold had a Royal Sorceress, she could summon up an army of golem workers to dig out the soft rock and replace it with huge blocks of hard granite that no men could dig through. As it is the country only has a silly woman who fell in love and had a baby, thus sealing up her powers for several months when they were most needed." A tear trickled down Gracia's cheek. "Damn." she said silently. "Just when I thought I was all cried out..."
"What?" said Lina with a bit of anger. She grabbed Gracia's chin and turned her till she looked Lina in the face. "Now you listen here!" the redhead began. "There is nothing silly about being in love or becoming a mother. They are among the most beautiful things a woman can do in her life, and we both know it! Don't even think like that! Okay, so life threw you a curve. It also gave you what you need to straighten it out again. After all, you are sitting next to the most powerful and beautiful Sorceress in the whole world! And she's coming to help, even if you don't want her to!" Gracia started to laugh and for a second Naga flashed in her eyes again. "We shall see about that Lina Inverse, oh yes we shall!" she said through her mirth and her tears. "In the mean time, your offer to volunteer your help is gratefully accepted!" "Who said anything about volunteering?" shot back Lina, chuckling herself. "This is gonna cost you plenty big!" The two old friends bickered good naturedly back and forth for a few minutes, relieving stress and having fun. Zel rolled his eyes. Amilia remarked "I think my big sister makes a better negotiator than daddy does..."
Zel then said "Not to interrupt your fun ladies, but it seems to me that what Your Majesty is saying it that you look for war on three fronts, yes?" "Uh, yes" said Gracia coming back to reality with Lina right behind her. "Okay," went on Zel, "so what is going to happen is this, right? At the high pass your expeditionary force will be engaging any force of sappers and sabotage agents they might meet, and will be doing so about now. So there is no help for them. The main battle is here at the bottle neck, and will come later this summer when the main force of the enemy gets here. At that time you expect an attempt to be made to cut a pass north of the main battle area, possibly in a flanking move?" "Yes again." said Gracia. "And you have defensive works on the pass at a narrow ridge that forces the enemy to charge uphill?" "Right" said Gracia. "Hmm," said Zel, "I see what you are up against. Every available force must man the walls, and that will leave none for the engineers attempting to dig a tunnel or what ever." "Pretty much it..." acknowledged Gracia. "The idea was that the Sorceress would tackle the dig, but alas..."
"Yeah, alas!" said Lina. "Alas for them, Lina Inverse will be there, and what ever little chance they hoped to have against the Sorceress of Westhold will now be dashed!" Gracia snickered and said to Amilia, as if trying to recruit her against Lina, "See what I had to put up with?" Amilia replied "Ah Gracia, Lina is my friend too, and I'm sure Zel would like some company on his long walk from that short pier." She smiled prettily as she said so. Gracia leaned into her and with the same thin, dangerous smile from before stared deeply into Amilia's eyes. With out missing a beat, but unable to avoid a sweat drop of her own Amilia added "So, I, um, think I'll go with him when he goes..." "Yeah right!" muttered Zel. "Like that time with the lake dragon..."
"Ohhh, I wonder if he ever got it cooked?" whined Lina hungrily. Gracia cocked a questioning eye at Lina. "Um better tell that tale later, girls, here comes Prince Phillionel" interjected Zel. And indeed, as they turned, Prince Phil came up to the table where they were seated. They suddenly noticed too that the meeting was over and the various embassies were hastily making their ways out to their own buildings, obviously to file the various and sundry reports this news would generate.
"Well, well, well, my beloved Gracia!" he boomed. "That was some bit of news no doubt about it! By the gods! Now I understand what all this silly sneaking about business has been for! I think you were right, from the sounds of things, those Shadow Warriors were likely looking for an armed party, not some helpless travellers. The ones Zelgadiss tells me you fought were likely just lucky, so to speak, to have encountered you. And that bit of going into the woods, then flying! Wow! That's probably what put them off, eh? It would have taken that Mazoku you defeated time to recoup and tell anyone what was up, and the watchers were not aware of their target. Sneaking around was really your best option, even if it seemed the craziest. I think a good job was done all around!"
"Thanks Daddy!" replied a slightly happier Gracia. "Well, there will be no option of sneaking back, so now I have to beg you a favour and ask you to lend me a guard to return with. And I must go soon, I'm so sorry, there is a major war to prepare for and I have duties." "I figured as much my Princess." replied Phil. "Oh, duties, that reminds me!" said Gracia suddenly and she fished around her gown until she produced "A ring?" said Lina, curiously. "Yes, here take a look!" Gracia replied, handing it over to Lina. It was a signet ring, one used to impress a seal into sealing wax on a letter. It was heavy with gold and a large black stone into which was set a Cameo of a, well, White Serpent. "Oh, your crest!" said Lina. "Of course, Naga, the White Serpent!" "The White Serpent is our family emblem." Gracia explained. "Now different configurations mean different things. This one tells anyone reading a letter sealed by it that the crowned Heir to Seirune has sealed the letter. It is mine because of my being the Crowned Princess. Before that it was my daddy's, then his, and so on all the way back. It is only unofficial, but the bearer of this ring is ocasionally called "The White Serpent" as a title, thus my inspiration."
"He, he, it came in handy about eleven months back. You see, I had told my King much about my past, my mother's murder and the rest, but I never let on I was a princess. He thought I was an exceptionally gifted commoner that had won his heart. It was only on our wedding night I revealed myself to him. I was holding this ring and looking at it as he put his arm around me when we had finally made it to bed after our wedding. He said "Alone at last, my Princess!" I said "I think it's time you knew the rest of the story about me, Beloved!" He cocked an eye in his way, and made a joke about this ring belonging to some former beau, or worse, and I laughed and handed it to him, asking what he thought of it. He studied it for a minute and declared it to be a signet ring of some import, but he knew not what. He asked if that meant I had a rich family somewhere. I laughed again and told him to hang on to it until he could get it confirmed that the ring was what I said it was. I then told him my full name, he had only known me to be Naga before then. Of course the family name of Seyruun meant nothing to him, then. He looked impressed and asked "And where does your family live, Naga? I mean, Gracia?" So I told him, and he asked if my family was a rich and powerful part of society, and I said "Dear, we are the richest and most powerful. You see, I am the crowned Princess, the Heiress apparent to the throne of Seirune, and that ring is the signet ring carried by the heir as token of their right to inherit the throne. So, you see, your Princess really IS a Princess."
"Well needless to say he was stunned, but he recovered well, oh very well indeed! He said all he had to counter with was the fact he was a virgin too, as I was. And I know him well enough to know he meant it. So, there you have it! If anyone says anything, you know the truth! Arthur was conceived, in wedlock, of two royal parents, who are very much in love, and who were both virgins on their wedding night. And now I have a happy duty to perform." With that she received the cunning ring back from Lina and said "This is the property of the Heiress apparent to the Throne of Seirune. Obviously, I, as Queen of Westhold and mother of the heir, cannot fulfill that duty for Seirune any more. So I must resign my position in favour of my little sister Amilia, who I know was acting the part for a long time anyway, but now it is official. And to show this, I hereby surrender the ring to it's rightful owner." With that she handed the ring to Amilia, and said "In a real sense, Naga the White Serpent is gone. All Hail! Behold the successor, Amilia the White Serpent! OH, Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. This is so rich!" she concluded, beaming a big smile and giving Amilia a kiss on the cheek as the younger girl looked down in wonder at the ring. Lina sat there looking rather stunned. Finally she said "Well, I guess everything starts to fit once you know the rest of the story..."
"I'm the White Serpent?" said Amilia, rather stunned herself. "Yup, love, looks that way!" replied Zel with a smile. "Um, a bit of advice, don't emulate your immediate predecessor to the title, go back one more..." Prince Phil laughed and Amilia, after taking a second to do the math giggled too. Gracia fixed Zel with a Naga like look and said "Again with the smart remarks, stone boy?" This time however Zel fixed her with his own strange look and, with an esoteric little smile replied "Well, if half the rumours are true..." There was a stand off for a minute then suddenly Gracia blushed and looked away, at the same time going "HMPH! Well, don't believe everything you hear!" as Zel's smile widened to a grin and he held his fingers up in a "V" while mouthing "Victory!" at Lina. Lina guffawed at this and said "Well, it seems things are back to normal around here now! Say, Gracia, I never saw Naga wear that ring, and her costume wasn't really capable of hiding such a trinket unseen, so, where did you keep it all these years? Gracia smiled and pointed just below her neck. Lina stared for a second then went "click!" "Ah, the skull thing..." Gracia nodded.
Lina then went on "So, I suppose we have to do another wretchedly early start tomorrow?" "Oh I hope not!" interjected Phil. "I just got my daughter back and my first grandson arrives with her, and a huge pile of news, and, well, one day to visit at least?" he said, looking hopefully at Gracia. "Hey even I need a rest after traveling with Lina for nearly a week!" smiled Gracia. "Yup. Just keep digging it deeper Naga, queen or not, your time is coming!" Lina smiled back. "Not this again..." sighed Amilia who then was perplexed as the other two women burst into laughter.
By now Phil was playing gently with Arthur and had a smile on his face to suggest life didn't get much better than this. "Gracia," he said gently, without his usual bombast, "Your mother would have been in love..." He held his grandson up and the boy smiled back. "I know Daddy!" Gracia smiled at her father. "Well, I like to think that somehow she does know, Well, at least I will carry on what she showed me with her life as a loving mother." she added. "I've noticed." replied Phil. "Even the breast feeding, something not common among royal women, yet how like her." "Ahh, nothing but the best for my children!" replied Gracia with a smile. Phil chuckled "That's what she said too..."
Grace looked a bit perplexed then said "I thought that was MY line!" "Well, it's yours now," he replied, "and I believe it was your grandmother's before it was your mother's, it's probably one of those inherited things. You can give it to your daughter in her turn." "Oh absolutely I will!" returned Gracia.
And so the afternoon wore on, with family ties being renewed and friendships rekindled. Finally after another major meal, plans were made for a picnic the next day. It wasn't spoken but it was understood that the morning after was to be the big departure, so the little group set itself to the task of getting as much alone time as possible. The guards were out early, the picnic area was secured, and a frivolous day was enjoyed by all. Phil put the day to day business in the hands of some of his more trusted ministers, and managed to enjoy himself without a worry in the world. They saw, and ate, and someone brought a little boat which Zel found himself in charge of rowing, without so much as a by your leave either, they ate some more and ran around or told stories and generally caught up with news and "stuff."
Lina got taken a bit by surprise, twice in fact, the first was that she was invited at all, not being family, the second was at supper when the two sisters presented an outlandish plan they had obviously been working on to have Lina adopted as their middle sister, which seemed like an honour at first, until it was revealed that other two felt they needed someone to keep their house for them, and make sure that they were dressed up properly when they went out to fancy balls with princes and the like, and a servant would need money but a sister could be fed scraps and given the hearth to sleep in. Gracia piped up at one point saying "I think there could be a story in that, I'll have to see what I can come up with..." Lina contributed "Don't forget the part where this sister of yours turns into a big, orange, round, fireball at midnight and blasts the two of you into next week..." The two dark haired sisters sweat dropped and giggled, then Gracia grabbed Lina and while holding her in a headlock rubbed her knuckled into Lina's scalp while the smaller girl yelled and carried on as only Lina could. Lina managed to pull free and rocked backwards, only to find Amilia a of all people grabbing her from behind and doing the same while saying "Us sisters have to stick together!" She then let the squawking red head go and said, with a bright smile "There, now it's official, welcome to the family sis!"
"Oooohhhhhh! And do you know what your new sister says to you about that!" Lina yelled. "Something grateful I expect!" replied Gracia, innocently. "Yeah, or daddy might have to withhold your allowance!" responded Amilia in turn. "Wha...? Allowance!" said Lina who then turned to Phil with an avaricious smile. Phil however had anticipated this and was ready. "Since this was your idea, girls, I think it only fair she be your responsibility. You have to feed her and water her, and take her for walks and play with her everyday." "Oh we will, daddy, we will!" Gracia and Amilia said together, smiling nastily at Lina. Naga added "And Amilia will change the litter in her cage every day!" "I'll what?" asked a startled Amilia. "Good then!" said Phil. "In that case I'll talk to the financial ministers about splitting your allowances with your new sister! It's only just!"
Of course, this opinion wasn't shared by the rest and in short order Zelgadiss found himself taking little Prince Arthur for a walk to get him away from the mayhem as the three women, sometimes sisters, sometimes rivals, ganged up on Prince Phil about money, only to find he really could be a tough nut to crack when the mood took him. Eventually he found a shady spot to sit and watch the sunset as the little boy slept in his arms. He looked down at Arthur and found himself smiling. "I hate to break it to you kid, but your days as the perfect grandchild of Seyruun are numbered, oh yes they are. One of these days I WILL find a cure, and I will marry your aunt Amilia, and we will make little cousins for you who will be so beautiful you just won't have a chance! Not that their father will be any great heck, but their mom will be so pretty she will make up for any short comings! You just wait!" Suddenly a familiar pair of arms were around his neck, it seemed that Amilia had had enough of the negotiating, the bickering, and especially the laughing, Gracia was in fine form after all, and had quietly slipped off to join Zel. "Don't be so silly!" she whispered in his ear as she kissed him. "Their daddy to be is an altogether handsome man, and just because he's temporarily under a chimera curse at the moment doesn't mean he always will be." Zel smiled. "Well, I am glad you believe that too Amilia." he replied.
"Listen you! I have a plan." she went on. "We are going to win this war, find a cure, and fill the palace with so many babies every room is full, just to show them! What do you think of that?" she giggled. "Well, let's leave our bedroom a kid free place..." Zel mumbled back. "Silly, that's how we know when it's time to stop!" Amilia replied. "Right..." replied Zel, feeling like he obviously had little choice in the matter.
"Oh don't worry, I know what you're thinking." Amilia went on. "You are worried about how long it might take to find a cure. Well, it seems to me that any cure for you would be a cure for our children too! So, what we will do is this. We will convince daddy and the council that there is nothing wrong with chimeras and then we'll get married and then you can still look, and we will be together! Oh my Zelgadiss, listen, I know who you are on the inside! You're a man, a beautiful, beautiful man! And there is nothing wrong with the outside either. It takes a bit of getting used to when someone first meets you because it is unexpected, but you aren't ugly, no, you are so beautiful! And what is most wonderful to me, you are mine!" Amilia sighed happily. "Listen love, let's just pretend for a few minutes okay? Little Arthur there is our son, and you are holding him as proud as any daddy could, and I'll be the mommy, and well, we'll just be a family, sort of, for a minute or two!" With that, she gave a happy little sigh and settled down, snuggling into Zelgadiss. Zel said nothing, he just snuggled back, a big smile on his face. However, in his eyes there was a worried look.
A short time later, Gracia, smiling like the cat that ate the canary, wandered over to the happy tableau and said "My, Lord Zel, Prince Arthur doesn't sleep for just anyone, he seems to like you! Would you like a job?" "He's hired already." said Amilia in a dreamy voice. The two sisters exchanged chuckles, and then Amilia popped up and asked "Where's daddy?" "Oh" replied Gracia, "He's back at the picnic site watching Lina gorge her sorrows because she actually didn't get any money out of him for once, Ho, ho, ho..." Amilia popped up and said "I want to ask him something! Be right back!" She took off running to her father.
Zel started to hand Arthur back but Gracia said "Oh, he's so comfy with you, why don't you hold him for a bit longer?" Zel looked a bit uncomfortable, but settled back down with the young prince. "So," Gracia went on, "Unless my eyes deceive me, as if that would ever happen, I take it that my sister, shall we say, likes you? I have the impression I may be in the presence of my future brother-in-law? Perhaps we should get to know one another a bit better?" Zel turned sorrow filled eyes to the Queen and said "Up to a few minutes ago you would have been right, but, now I do need to talk to you!" "Huh?" said a puzzled Gracia. "Uh, your sister and I were just talking about our future. I'm afraid she's getting to the point I always feared would come, she's getting tired of waiting. You see, as the Heiress to Seirune she has to have an Heir of her own, and Prince Phil fears for her safety if the child is a chimera. I can't guarantee that at any children I ever make while I'm like this will be normal, so, we can't have any babies or get married until I get cured."
"See, I started out trying to be a famous swordsman, then one day I foolishly wished to be stronger and faster in the presence of my great-grandfather, who happened to be the famous Rezo the Red Priest." "Yes, I have heard of him." said Gracia, somewhat impressed with Zel's lineage. Zel went on "I don't know if he thought he was helping, or being spiteful, but, this is the result of his spell to grant my wish. I am living proof you must always be careful what you wish for. Now all I wish for is to become normal and resume a normal life. Until a few minutes ago, that included marrying your sister, but now, well, she's getting impatient. She wants to convince the council and your daddy to let us get married on the vain hope that any children we have can be cured if my cure is found. My fear is this. We won't find one. In fact, the more I look, the more I'm convinced that there isn't one. If there is one, then the secret died with Rezo when Lina destroyed the part of Shabradnigdo that emerged from his eyes. Look, I'm not made of stone on the inside. If she really tried I'd give in, I know I would, and I wouldn't put it past her to try a crazy scheme like confronting everyone when it's obvious she's carrying my baby under her heart. Then what? It wouldn't matter to me if she wasn't who she was, but this isn't just me, her, and our possibly mixed baby we are dealing with here, it is also the succession of the royal house of Seirune!" Zel shook his head. "Oog!" said Gracia helpfully. Zel took a deep breath and went on. "So, I've had to make a quick and painful decision, Lady Gracia, and I think I will need your help. I need to go and not return, perhaps forever. I don't have any more hope for a cure, not really. And with this war coming there will be too much to do to look for one even if I still wanted to. I wonder if I can just slip away and pretend to die in battle?"
Gracia looked serious for a minute then said "I do see your point, but I don't think your solution is the right one. I can only council you this, wait till the war is over and see what the outcome is. It maybe that the whole issue is rendered academic as the west falls before an invader. I don't know. Don't be hasty is all I can say. And we have some magic resources in Westhold that weren't available to those of us that were raised under the Mazoku shield. For example, the magic of the gods wasn't cut off from the people like it was here, and, well, there are a few other resources too..."
"I thank you for your encouragement, but no, I think I must just go." said a sad Zel. "Okay, I will do nothing before the war. But if we win, I will tell her what I have decided and take the pain with me for the rest of my life. Please, Your Majesty, I want to do the right thing, will you help me?" Gracia nodded and said "Okay, but the first thing will be to decide what really is the right thing... Take this next while to think on this, Lord Zel, and let us talk once more, after all that must be done is done. Things may look different afterwards." "I will wait, lady, but my mind is made up on this, I will leave. I can't have her carry on waiting for what will never be." Gracia sighed, then looked up and said "Oh, here she comes. Look cheery." She then took Arthur back as Zel affected a smile on his face.
"Weee! We have such a wonderful daddy!" Amilia said as she bounded over and gave Gracia a quick hug. "Well, naturally." replied her sister. "You don't think I'd have let just anyone be my father do you? OH HO, Ho, ho." "Silly, but I can't argue with that I suppose, Ha, ha, ha." replied Amilia, wincing only slightly at Gracia's laugh. "So, what has the all giving one done now?" asked Gracia. "Simple, he twisted around my finger, like a good daddy should, and agreed that since there wasn't going to be any battle for at least a couple of weeks I could ride back to Westhold with you so I could have a chance to get to know you better! I did have to promise to go back at the first sign of trouble or when he sent for me, but we get to spend a few days together at least!"
Gracia smiled and congratulated her sister on her little triumph, but inwardly she was disturbed, Amilia was welcome, but a big responsibility if things started to go wrong. Yet, if trouble did come, who better to send Arthur back to Seirune with? At that point her father and a grumpy looking Lina also shuffled up. "Well, my dears, natural and adopted," Phil said, taking a slight verbal dig at Lina who only looked grumpier, "it is getting dark out. We have had one glorious day of forgetting about the outside world. Alas, it is over now, and with a breaking heart I must bid us all return and prepare for tomorrow's departures." With that the family prepared to leave. Lina was going back with Gracia to make sure she arrived safely and collect her reward, or at least that was her official reason for going. Gracia of course had to go and her baby went with her, and Amilia was going too.
As the girls went on ahead Phil managed to privately talk to Zelgadiss. "My heart trembles at sending Amilia into a war zone, indeed it wishes I could hold both my girls here in safety, but there is no real safety anywhere against the horror Gracia has spoken of. So, I am letting Amilia go, because if worse comes to worse, she never shall see Gracia again, and I want her to have had some time, however short, to be with her sister." He sighed a deep and bitter sigh. "Lord Zelgadiss," he said, being unusually formal, "I beg a favour of you. Go with Amilia tomorrow and be her especial guard? Make sure she is safe. I am sure Lina will help you in this, but she may have other duties to perform too, so I need you to do this for me, I can think of no one I'd personally trust more in this. I leave the ordering of the troops or any other resource you may want to you." "I will make sure she is safe." was Zel's simple but heart felt reply.
The family finally loaded into their carriages, the servants who had been very discreet in the back ground for the whole day were either loaded with them, or were walking back, a last one or two were finishing the clean up of the site, and they were off, back to the castle and tomorrow's early start.
