Land of the King
Chapter 61: Nymeria of the Rhoynar
4394 E.L
The sun was rising over the city of Ny Sar. Like all the Rhoynish cities, Ny Sar straddled Mother Rhoyne and her daughters and was said to be a city of fountains, alive with song and joy.
Yet for Nymeria, Ruling Princess of Ny Sar, the sight of her beloved city no longer comforted her like it once did. As she looked down at the message in her hands, Nymeria could not help but fear for what was to come.
To Her Royal And Serene Highness, Princess Nymeria of Ny Sar.
As you no doubt have heard, the dispute between Sarhoy and Volantis escalated beyond our worst fears. Three Valyrian dragonlords and an accompanying Volantene army razed the city to the ground and slaughtered and enslaved its people. This atrocity cannot go unanswered.
Muster your forces Princess Nymeria and lead them to join the rest of us assembling in Chroyane. There, the Council of Princes will determine what the proper course of action will be. Make no mistake however, war is inevitable.
Signed, His Royal and Most Grand Highness, Prince Garin of Chroyane, Grand Prince of the Rhoynar.
"Princess, what are your orders?" her general asked, almost pleadingly. By the agreements that formed the League, the individual armies of each principality were no longer solely at the command of their sovereign prince but also the formally elected and chosen grand prince to reflect the unity of their state.
General Lewyn of Ny Sar could very well march without Nymeria's leave in a situation like this, but Nymeria knew full well that he, a native of Ny Sar, begged her for her permission so that he may fulfil both his loyalties without showing disrespect to one or the other.
"The Grand Prince has given his orders. See to your preparations General, I will see to my own. I have a meeting to attend."
The loyal general bowed before taking his leave, "As you command, Princess."
Perhaps the greatest and most important meeting in the history of the Rhoynar Grand Council had been called. As the reigning Princess of Ny Sar, Nymeria had a seat at the table.
Traditionally, ever since the establishment of the League, the Thirteen Rulers would sit at a round table to reflect their status as equals. Their Grand Prince, chosen and elected such that each principality's ruler would serve at least once every sixty years, was the first among equals and the nominal liege of the other Princes and Princesses. As such, the reigning Grand Prince, Garin of Chroyane sat a slightly more exalted position at the 'head' of the table.
As she took her seat, Nymeria noted the empty chair. Thirteen seats, but only twelve Princes. The Princess of Sarhoy and her entire family had all died when Sarhoy had been destroyed. For all intents and purposes, an entire Rhoynish city and state had been wiped clean from existence.
"Clever Garin," Nymeria thought to herself grudgingly. By purposely placing a thirteenth seat that would inevitably be left empty, the Grand Prince had subtly reminded all of them of the reason for their meeting before he even spoke a single word.
"My fellow Princes and Princesses," Garin began, "I have summoned you here so that we may properly redress the grievance done to us. All of you have, I'm sure, noted the empty seat, meant to represent Sarhoy. That the seat is empty is an affront and a grave sin through no fault of the Princess of Sarhoy, may Mother Rhoyne rest her soul and that of her family and people who are being enslaved and massacred as we speak.
The utter destruction of Sarhoy was a disgusting and unprovoked massacre by the Valyrians, nothing short of an act of war. I hereby formally request that this council recognise the state of war between the Rhoynar League and the Valyrian Freehold. All in favour?"
All in favour raised their hands. The vote was unanimous, all twelve of them voted to declare war on Valyria, even Nymeria, with her own concerns, knew full well that the rape and slaughter of a Rhoynish city could not go unanswered.
"Aide, write out the declaration and have it sent to the Valyrian Senate," Garin ordered to a scribe before turning back to the rest of the Council.
"I am truly glad that we all agreed that Valyria must pay. The question is how? What shall be our plan of war?"
Nymeria interjected then, "Is it not obvious? Word has no doubt reached Arnor by now, surely they will give us aid? With our strength joined to theirs, Valyria will not be able to seize the rest of our cities and destroy them like they did Sarhoy. All we need to do is wait, hold out and defend our remaining territories until our allies come to our defense."
Some of her peers nodded approvingly before Garin, ever the war hawk, made his disapproval clear.
"Bah! We shall all be slaves to Valyria unless we join together to end this threat now!You would have us wait and depend on Arnor for our protection!? Where is your pride Nymeria!?"
"Pride means nothing when the lives of our people are at stake! If we march against the Valyrians now, we would surely lose!"
"A rather defeatist attitude to take is it not Princess Nymeria?" asked Prince Oberyn of Ghoyan Drohe, "I do not fully agree with the Grand Prince but neither do I agree with your statement either. The warriors and water mages of the Rhoynar are mighty indeed, and even dragons have fallen to us before in the past."
"This is a war we cannot hope to win alone. We have lost to Valyria in the past and paid dearly for our resistance. Has history taught us nothing? Our ancestors thought that they could stand against the dragons and they were wrong," Nymeria retorted.
Garin spoke again then, "Our ancestors squabbled amongst each other rather than uniting their forces together. We have already proven their better. I bear no ill will to the Arnorians, they are our trusted friends and allies, but we are not their servants nor are they our betters.
Arnor proved to the world that Valyria could be defeated when they triumphed over them in the War for the Stepstones. They did it with anti-dragon weaponry they have armed us with and water magic that they learned from us. If they could do it, why not us?
Should Arnor join us later in this war, their help would be welcome, necessary even perhaps, so that we may hold the Rhoyne against the Valyrians' counterattack, but we must attack now, with or without them.
Nymeria, you ask us to wait for Arnor's reinforcements but it will take a month at least before Arnorian armies can reach us overland from Myr and Pentos, or for a fleet from Lys to moor in Sarhoy or Volantis. By then it will already be too late for us.
A dragon can reach us here from Volantis in less than a day. For all we know the Valyrians could have already burned down Sar Mell and be flying for us as we speak. If we wait for Arnor to save us, their armies will arrive to find that there is nothing to save.
No. We must strike now, and we must strike hard. The best defense is a good offense after all. With the full power of the Rhoynar united, I know we can win this war. We will take Volantis and drive the Valyrians and their taint from Mother Rhoyne and then the Arnorians can join their forces to ours to crush Valyria once and for all. Together we are unstoppable! All in favour!?"
As one, ten princes and princesses rose from the table to cheer, chanting, "Aye!"
Nymeria and Garin alone were left seated and Garin's eyes stared into hers as he too rose slowly before joining the others. All eyes turned on Nymeria then.
With the expectations of her fellow princes upon her, Nymeria rose to stand and address them.
"It seems the Council has made its decision clear. No matter my vote, we will continue with this plan. I can only hope we are not making the wrong decision," she said as she stared into Garin's eyes.
For a fraction of a second, Nymeria saw Garin mouth something in silence.
So do I.
It was late that night when Nymeria heard a knock on the doors of her chambers.
"What is it Cletus?" she asked the captain of her guards.
"Forgive me for disturbing you Princess, but the Grand Prince is here to speak with you."
Nymeria sighed, "Very well. Let him in then Cletus and you can take your leave after."
When Garin opened the door and walked in, Nymeria was honestly stunned by how tired he looked. Nothing at all like the overconfident and hotheaded Grand Prince who had spoken before the Princes that morning.
"Nymeria…" he began to say.
"Garin, what are you doing here?" Nymeria asked.
"Is it too wrong to want to see an old friend?" he replied.
"That reason hasn't been valid for many years now, and you are married Garin. It's not proper for you to be visiting another woman's quarters this late at night."
"It would simply be the Grand Prince speaking with his vassal in private over sensitive matters of state then," he smirked, but the smile did not truly reach his eyes.
She knew she shouldn't even be considering it, but Nymeria felt her resolve weaken and reluctantly conceded, "Fine, for old times' sake."
"Thank you. I wanted to say that your words were not wrong this morning, but they weren't quite right either…"
"If you came here just to lecture me for having opposing views Garin, you can step right out and go back to whatever it is you do when you aren't irritating me."
"No, wait. What I'm trying to say Nymeria, is that I'm not sure if my decision was the right one."
Despite the serious topic, Nymeria couldn't help but tease him a little, "Should the Grand Prince be showing such indecision and weakness in front of his vassal?"
Garin glared at her before continuing, "I'm serious Nymeria. Your duties are to Ny Sar only, you have no idea what the burden of responsibility is like for me. As the Grand Prince, my duties are not just to Chroyane but to the Rhoynar people as a whole. They look to me as their leader and the other Princes often follow my lead. You were one of the few people I could trust would tell me no when I'm doing something you felt was wrong, it helps keep me grounded and this morning you were vehemently opposed my plan, even more so than usual."
"Then abort it if you feel so uncomfortable with it!"
"You know I can't. The Council has voted already. And even then I can't really bring myself to think that I made the wrong decision. I want to know, need to know why you don't want to attack, why you think we're going to lose. Do you not want vengeance from the Valyrians? Do you not think we can win?"
The proud patriot in her demanded war and vengeance, but the pragmatist, the princess knew that they could not hope to win such a war, not alone. Somewhere deep down, Nymeria wondered if they could win even if Arnor gave them aid.
"Garin… you ride to war but not to victory. The Valyria we fight now is not the Valyria the Arnorians defeated a hundred years ago. Their armies are skilled and elite, their logistics and economy are efficient and well built, their dragons are more armoured and their riders are heavily trained. The Valyria that stands against us is nothing short of a war machine rather than the paper tiger the Arnorians defeated."
"I see. I will endeavour to prove you wrong then. On the morrow I go south with the army. You will not be joining us will you?"
"No. General Lewyn will command Ny Sar's army in my stead. My people need me back home."
"Is that the reason or are you simply afraid?"
She slapped him then.
"I deserved that I suppose. Forgive me Nymeria. Rhoyne's sake, everything is so complicated now isn't it? Things were so much simpler when we were two little children running after each other in the festivals of Chroyane."
"Those times are gone Garin."
"I know," he said, before he laid a tender kiss on her lips, leaving her stunned.
"For old times' sake," he answered the unspoken question in her eyes before he left her alone to her thoughts.
Years ago, Nymeria had fostered in Chroyane and had met and befriended the young Prince Garin, long before either of them came to the thrones of their cities. They had been the best of friends, getting into mischief together.
As the years passed and both of them approached adulthood, Garin grew more and more infatuated with her but Nymeria had not returned his feelings. At long last when the suit was finally officially presented, many had expected her to accept but Nymeria had refused.
Despite Garin's growing love for her, Nymeria had never once thought of him in that way. He was her closest friend and confidant, nothing more and nothing less. Nevertheless, perhaps if she hadn't been the heir, she could have found happiness as Garin's consort, but as it had been Nymeria would have had to surrender Ny Sar to marry Garin.
A custom dating back to the founding of the League stipulated that the heirs of the principalities could not wed, as the internal balance of power in the League would be too drastically affected should two principalities unite.
Nymeria had loved Garin as a friend, but she had loved Ny Sar more. She would never have given it up, even for him.
Devastated, Garin had told her to leave Chroyane and never return. Garin had had no legal power to do so, he had not yet been the Ruling Prince, but Nymeria had acknowledged her former friend's wishes and stayed clear of the city until she became a Ruling Princess.
When she had become the Ruling Princess of Ny Sar, Nymeria began visiting Chroyane again for matters of state and business, but Garin had been cold and distant to her for the most part. Time healed most wounds but Nymeria and Garin's relationship never mended and even as a Ruling Princess, Chroyane never again felt as warm and homely as it had been when she been a girl.
Their disagreements no longer restrained by the trappings of friendship, Nymeria and Garin began disagreeing vehemently and arguing constantly, often finding each other on the opposite side of an issue. Many outsiders considered them rivals and enemies and Nymeria could not deny it.
Yet for the sake of the friendship they had once shared, the friendship that Garin had almost rekindled the night prior, Nymeria had decided to see him off one last time. When the morrow came and the sun rose, Nymeria rode to see off Garin before she turned back north to Ny Sar.
"Come to see me off have you Princess Nymeria?" Garin asked with an insufferable smirk.
"Yes Grand Prince. As much as we have disagreed in the past, I wish you no ill will and I sincerely hope and pray that your campaign will be successful."
"It's good to hear that your thoughts and prayers will be with us Princess Nymeria."
They waited there for a while, locked into their awkwardly formal conversation by the expectations placed upon by them by their statuses. It lasted almost until the very end when Garin cracked.
"Nymeria… before I go, I need to know. Was there ever a chance between you and I?"
"Yes," she lied. There was little use in torturing a dead man walking with the hard truth. Garin smiled happily, making her heart constrict in pain, before he rode off to join his army. Somewhere deep down, Nymeria sensed that it would be the last time she ever saw Garin.
