Chapter 6: The Husband
Munster District, Ulster, 766
For the next year and a half, Bloom dedicated himself to subduing the growing discontent in Leinster. It continued to be the one province that refused to accept Grannvalian rule. Although outright riots and uprising were nonexistent, the people frequently disobeyed the orders of his generals and in the streets, it wasn't at all uncommon for children to throw stones at Friege Soldiers or vendors to refuse service. The occupying Friege forces were steadily growing more and more irritated by the populace's lack of respect. It was only a matter of time before a soldier ended up dead, and a general ordered a massacre as revenge.
The Solstice Festival was approaching. What had once been a time of celebration and joy to him, had now become a time of stress and worry. The people of Munster and Grannvale both celebrated the Solstice, it should have been a symbol of union, but to him, all it symbolized was large crowds and the potential for things to go awry. The only thing that he had to look forward to was Hilda and the children coming to visit.
He met them at the castle gate. Hilda arrived in an ornate carriage, covered in silver and gold. She emerged wearing a large and gaudy dress. She had previously worn attractive, revealing outfits. This dress was something different. It was eye catching in a whole different way. Even if she only had the title by marriage to him, she wore the regalia of a queen.
She stepped down out of the carriage and kissed him on either cheek. "Welcome to your kingdom, Queen of Munster." Bloom had returned to Friege a handful of times since becoming king of Munster, but this was Hilda's first time visiting him in Ulster. "So happy to be here, darling," she said.
Out of the carriage stepped Bloom's children, Ishtar and Ishtore. "Daddy," they cried as they ambled into his arms. He laughed and pulled them into a large embrace. It was the first time they'd spoken to him with familiarity. He picked them up, one each hand.
"Look how big you've gotten!" he said. He was filled with joy, but he also had to hide the sadness in his words. Each time he saw the twins, they had changed. He felt like he was missing their entire lives. He looked to Ishtar. "How old are you now?"
"Three!" she said, holding up three tiny fingers to show him.
He turned back to Ishtore. "And how old are you?"
"Three and a half," he proudly declared.
"I'm three and a half too," Ishtar cried, not wanting to be outdone by her brother.
He knew perfectly well how old they were, down to the very day, but he wanted to hear them say it. To show him how brilliant and intelligent they were for understanding the concept of numbers and age. He closed his eyes and kissed them, one after the other. "I missed you," he whispered.
He looked up as someone else emerged from the carriage, Tailtyu, holding the hand of her own daughter. Bloom was surprised by how pale she looked, but he didn't have much opportunity to examine her, she walked past him, intentionally avoiding eye contact with him. At her side, the child, Tinny, stared up at Bloom with great, big, curious pupils.
Bloom's eyes followed after Tinny as she vanished into the castle courtyard. He turned back to Hilda and handed her Ishtore. "Is she doing alright?" he asked, indicating with his head towards the courtyard.
"You mean your sister?" Hilda asked with some mild distaste. "I think she's stopped eating, just so her brat can get more food."
"There's no need for that," Bloom said. "Give her more food. There's enough for everyone. Are we not royalty?"
Hilda scoffed. "She gets as much as anyone else at dinner. If she wants more, then she can ask the chef herself. I'm her sister in law, not her mother."
Bloom frowned. He wasn't sure what to do. He wanted to help Tailtyu, but she still refused to open up to him. "How's Ethnia?" he asked, in a bid to change the subject.
"More capable than that one," Hilda nodded in Tailtyu's direction, "but not by much. She's meant to be the one in charge of Friege, but I'm the one who ends up running most things."
"Ethnia's personality isn't as strong as yours," Bloom said. "But you shouldn't underestimate her. She did a fine job when I was conquering this place."
"I should hope so," Hilda said. "She needs to keep the place running until I get back."
"G-Greetings, Queen Hilda," said a voice behind them. They turned to see King Conor approaching them from the castle. Holding his hand was his daughter, Miranda.
"Who is this?" Hilda asked.
Bloom placed Ishtar on the ground, who eagerly began talking to Conor's daughter. "This is King Conor."
"King Conor," Hilda said, icily. "My husband is the only king around here."
Conor smiled weakly and shrugged. "I agree, but they've allowed me to keep my former home and title, and I'm very much grateful for that." He looked down at his daughter, who seemed to be less talkative than Ishtar. "I wanted to introduce our children. I think they should become friends. If they like each other, perhaps one day we could arrange a marriage. It would do a great deal to solidify-"
"That's not possible," Hilda interrupted, she held their son closer to her breast. "Ishtore is to marry Princess Julia someday."
"Ah!" cried Conor. "Forgive me. I was not informed."
"That's because it isn't true," Bloom said. "We've talked about it, but Alvis has never agreed to such a thing."
Hilda turned her nose up at Conor. "It might not be official yet, but the emperor's children and ours are good friends. I'm confident Alvis will one day accept my proposal."
"Ah. Well perhaps our children might still play, just for the sake of it. There are not many children Miranda's age in the castle."
Hilda pushed passed Conor and headed towards the castle. "Ishtar can play with her, but Ishtore is staying with me. Come along, Bloom."
Conor turned to Bloom with a pleading look on his face. Bloom shrugged. "It's not going to happen, Conor. If I was going to use one of my children as a political tool, it would be to stabilize Leinster. Everything here is fine, I don't think it would achieve much."
Conor looked down. "Of, of course. This was rash of me. I should have brought the matter to you earlier, instead of ambushing you like this."
Munster District, Ulster, 766
"Why do you want Ishtore to marry Julia so much?" Bloom asked Hilda. They were in his private quarters. Bloom sat waiting on the bed, while Hilda applied makeup in front of the mirror.
"Isn't it obvious?" she said, without looking at him. "He's a prince, he should marry a princess."
"No, that's not what I mean. Why Ishtore and Julia? Why not Ishtar and Julius?"
"Oh, that's because Ishtar is to marry Prince Areone."
"Travant's son? How are you going to manage that?"
"I'm not sure. Travant has turned down all my offers to meet. But I'm relentless," she smiled at her reflection, "once he meets me in person, I might be able to change his mind."
Bloom rotated his wedding ring along his finger. "That would make Ishtar's children the heirs to Thracia. Ishtore would become the heir to Friege, what then of Munster? We'd need a third child to take up my mantle here."
"Unite all of Thracia and you'll solve that problem. Honestly, I think you should have pushed the advantage and killed Travant when he was still weakened from battling Munster."
"I didn't want to risk any more lives."
Hilda rolled her eyes. "You've just delayed that battle. We both know what kind of man Travant is; he won't stay idle in the south forever."
"He wouldn't dare attack. He couldn't dare. Not with how powerful Grannvale is."
"That's only if Grannvale continues to support you. The whole kingdom knows about that fight you had with the Emperor."
"Do they know what it's about?"
"No. Just that you haven't spoken to him in over a year."
"You've seen Alvis since then. How is he?"
"Same as ever. He's ignoring the entire thing." Hilda finished powdering herself, and joined Bloom on the bed.
Bloom kissed her on the neck. "Are you curious to know what we fought about?"
"I don't care in the slightest," she said, "so long as it doesn't interfere with my plans to marry Ishtore and Julia."
"I'll have to make it up to him then," he whispered in her ear. "Just to make it up to you." He slid his hand along her abdomen and reached lower.
Hilda began to sigh, but suddenly slapped his hand away. "I've told you before, Bloom. I'm not having another child."
Bloom broke away from her and rubbed his hand. "But it's your duty. You're my wife."
Hilda laughed. "I don't care."
"I've stayed faithful to you. All this time I've stayed faithful to you. Do you know how hard that is for a man?"
Hilda slipped under the covers and smiled nonchalantly. "Then don't. Go fuck a whore if you need to satisfy yourself."
"I don't want a whore," Bloom growled. "I want you." There was a knock on the door, but they both ignored it.
"Well you can't have me," Hilda said. "Unless your man enough to take me by force."
"I should. Gods know I should. I have every right to."
"But you won't. Because if you do, I'll slit your throat while you sleep." Bloom liked Hilda's willful personality. It was one of the things that had attracted him to her in the first place, but sometimes she frustrated him to no end on her utter refusal to yield to any opinion but her own.
"What do you expect me to do?" he asked.
"Wait, until a safe day."
"When will that be?"
"Not until after the New Year."
There was another knock on the door. "Who the hell is it?" Bloom asked, in no mood for yet another trivial errand that demanded his attention.
Instead of a response, there was only another knock.
Bloom got off the bed and made his way to the door. Perhaps it was better to have something to distract him from how angry he was at Hilda. How did she expect him to restrain himself when they shared a bed? When she puts so much effort into looking beautiful at every moment of the day.
He opened the door to see a figure wrapped in a black cloak. "What the devil do you want?" he asked.
The figure was wearing a hood, but beneath it he could just make out some feminine features. "Justice," she said. She removed a knife from her sleeve and stabbed him in the chest. He let out a cry and stumbled backwards. She slashed at him again, this time he managed to raise an arm in defense. The knife bit through muscles and tendons. He stumbled and fell to the ground. She leapt on top of him and continued to stab. A surge of adrenaline gave him the energy to throw her off him, but he faltered soon afterwards and collapsed again. She scrambled back on top of him and went for his throat. He grabbed her arm and tried to restrain her, but already he was growing weak. She swapped to her left hand, he tried to restrain her there too, but only his injured arm was free.
Suddenly, his attacker was engulfed in flames. She dropped the knife and rolled off him, desperately trying to put the fire out and screaming all the while. Bloom glanced up to see Hilda, with a fire tome in hand. She shot another blast of magic at the assailant, who was now convulsing and thrashing around from the pain. Her screams brought more people to the room, but by then, Bloom found himself unable to care. Torrents of dizziness assaulted his mind. He kept thinking the same thing, over and over again. My mother called me Bloom, I was meant to flourish.
He was lying in a pool of his own blood, and despite the roaring fire beside him, the world felt cold.