Hey, happy Mammoth Monday(though not for some of my characters, since they, well, took some damage in the previous chapter...)
A feast of shattered hopes
Loivissa POV
The current situation was precarious to say the least. Ever since the failed ambush two weeks ago, Aiedail's situation had kept changing from bad to worse to horrible far too fast for Loivissa to counter all but the worst effects.
At the moment, all of the surviving members that were left of Aiedail had gathered in their new headquarters, which Evandar and Dweyrn had discovered shortly before Loivissa had told them about the ambush opportunity.
It was an old fort hidden deep within the southern half of the Spine, in the spot roughly halfway between Kuasta and the upper tip of Leona Lake. It was far enough out of the way from any roads and towns that you would never come across it unless you knew exactly where it was, which made it perfect for their new HQ.
All but a few of the rooms were decrepit and overgrown with weeds, and only a handful of the furniture was still even usable, but with a fair amount of work, this place might just become liveable.
Still, the miserable state of their headquarters was a concern for later, if there even would be a later for Aiedail as a group. It was far from certain that they would keep going after the disastrous ambush attempt, which was actually the primary reason for all of them gathering here in person today; to discuss whether they should throw in the towel and abolish Aiedail, or keep fighting to whatever fate had in store for them.
"No one needs to be told how dire the situation is, I presume?", Loivissa started the meeting off by saying.
Around the old mouldy table, which was the only usable one left in the entire fort, the faces of her remaining fellow members fell into grimaces at the reminder. No one spoke a word, not even a grunt of confirmation was heard.
It is worse than I thought, Loivissa realized, as she studied each of them, most of them looks like they have already given up. I cannot allow this to continue.
"Despite of our recent…setback…our cause is still as important as ever, and it is even more important that we not give up now, when so many others have-", Loivissa started to say, before she was interrupted.
"By 'recent setback', do you mean how all of our allies have left us, like rats clamouring to get off a sinking ship?", Dweyrn questioned sourly, "or perhaps how we lost a third of our core members during that butchery of a battle?"
What the female dragon rider said was true, as word had quickly spread from village to village of how anyone that aided them ended up dead, or worse, and so, virtually all of the tentative alliances that they had formed before had been dissolved.
Nari's death had also meant the loss of their communications with the elven group, and since the elves had not tried to re-establish it yet, Loivissa had clearly gotten the message that that alliance was well and over with as well.
"I admit that things are looking rather bleak at the moment", Loivissa admitted, "but one defeat is not the equivalent of a lost war. We can still win this one".
"He took out a dragon! On his own! A mere twelve of his bodyguards mowed over all of our ground forces, including my brother and Nari!", Garth exclaimed, "how in all of Alagaësia are we supposed to beat that?!"
"So are we supposed to just give up because our enemy managed to outfight this once?", Loivissa argued, "doing so would be beyond disrespectful to those that have already died. We must succeed, or else their deaths will have been for nothing".
"She is right, son, we have already given up too much to quit now", Earl Karl finally seemed to come around, and she knew that Garth would follow his father's wishes.
Loivissa sent a thankful and sympathetic look towards the earl. As if it was not enough that he had lost two sons to Mercury within half a year, he had also had to publically disown Aaron shortly after the ambush fiasco.
The reason for the disownment was to avoid having the rest of his family charged with treason for the attempted killing of Mercury and his guards, as Aaron's body had after all been left behind when they had fled the slaughter.
The cover-story behind the disownment was that Aaron had run off with a harlot and had taken several family heirlooms with him, including the Stronghammer ancestral weapon. The Stronghammer family truly had given up more than most in the pursuit of their common goal, but they were nonetheless committed to continue on. Now she just needed to convince the rest of them.
"Vanir", she said and directed her gaze solely upon the elf, "what do you think Blödhgarm would have done in your stead? Would he have given up on his duty when it seemed hard, or would he have kept doing what he had to until the very end?"
"…He would, and did, continue to do his duty no matter the circumstances", Vanir answered with a glint in his eyes that spoke of sadness, "…and so will I. My sword is at your disposal, now and forever, Lady Loivissa".
It might have been a bit too manipulative for Loivissa's taste to use Vanir's obvious survivor's guilt to her advantage, but she needed him on their side if she were to have any hopes of re-establishing connections with their former elven allies, whose resources, influence and information were desperately needed.
There were after all limits to how much of his treasury that Earl Karl could afford to spend before people began asking questions as to where the money went, let alone before he started bankrupting himself.
"Thank you, Vanir", Loivissa gratefully said with a nod in his direction, "then now that we are all in agreement that we should continue-"
"Hold on", Dweyrn interrupted again, "neither I, nor Augms, ever agreed that this was the best course of action".
"No, you did not, but I assumed that since you chose to come back to us, you also wanted to continue fighting for what is true and good, instead of cowering in a hole like so many others", Loivissa told her sternly.
It was a little known fact to the rest of the group, but after dropping Loivissa and Evandar off shortly after the ambush, Dweyrn and Augms had taken off without another word as to where they were going or whether they were intending to come back again.
It had been almost a week and a half before Loivissa had finally heard from the pair again, and just like what had happened when they had fled Estildirin, the pair had refused to say a single word as to where they had been or what they had done.
At the time, Loivissa had ascribed their behaviour to the fact that the slaughter of the ambush had to have reminded the pair of the slaughter that they had witnessed in Estildirin, and they had therefore needed some time alone to distance themselves from the event before they could resume their duties.
Now however, Loivissa was questioning whether enough time had passed for the two to fully recover from the experience of losing close friends right in front of their eyes yet again. Still, even if the pair was traumatized, she could not allow them to leave. She needed their last remaining intact dragon rider pair.
"…We had not fully decided what to do before this meeting, but we have now", Dweyrn said with a grave voice, as if she was announcing her own death sentence, "we will stay".
"Good, then everyone is agreed that we must continue on for the memory of those that have fallen", Loivissa tried to say again, but she was yet again cut off, though this time, it was not by Dweyrn.
"But Evandar is still not in attendance?", Earl Karl pointed out the fact that her brother was not among the ones seated at the table, "should we be making decisions without his consent? He is after all still our leader".
"My brother gave me his permission to act in his stead while he is away on other business", Loivissa lied to ease their worries, "he told me that he trusted my judgement".
The lie seemed to ease the concerns of those at the table, as it was supposed to. It was best that they did not know that Evandar had become so depressed after losing Adûn that he would no longer leave his room, and he was not in any state of mind to issue any kind of orders at the moment. The heavy drinking certainly did not help either.
Loivissa had initially feared that he would try to follow his dragon into the void, but with a breath that was foul with the stench of liqueur, he had grimly laughed that he could not, as he had made a vow in the Ancient language to free Alagaësia from Mercury, no matter what it took.
It had been her only comfort to know that at least he would not leave her alone as well, and so, she had locked the door to his room from the outside and had placed a ward of concealment over it to prevent anyone on the outside from learning what was happening on the inside, both by mundane and arcane means.
He would come around eventually, hopefully, and when he did, he would thank her for having taken care of Aiedail's affairs and kept it as intact as possible in his absence.
"Are there any other concerns that needs to be addressed before we continue?", Loivissa asked around the table, not wanting to be interrupted a third time, before she finally got to finish her sentence, "then, now that we are all in agreement that we cannot allow the butcher to get away with everything that he has done, we will begin planning for how to beat him the next time".
"Again, how are we supposed to beat that thing after he wiped the floor with us, even when we had the moment of surprise on our side and outnumbered his guards three to one?", Garth voiced his argument again.
"Anyone can be killed", Loivissa said with emphasis, "Mercury has not even shown a fraction of the power that Galbatorix possessed at the time of his death, and like Galbatorix, the means to killing him might not be obvious to all, but all it takes is some work to find it".
She deliberately left out that part of the mad king's demise could be contributed to their current enemy, as it was best not to remind them of that.
"Until we have acquired the means to finally kill the usurper, we will remain hidden in the shadows", Loivissa continued, "for now, all we will do is continue to rebuild what we have lost and gather intelligence about our enemy. Everyone, with the exception of Earl Karl, is to avoid any and all contact with Mercury and his guards at all costs. The next time we engage him again, Mercury is to not even know that we were there until we are already gone".
"Why was I made an exemption?", Earl Karl asked confused.
"You must continue trying to infiltrate the court in Ilirea", Loivissa answered, "changing plans so soon after your son was killed as a renegade would indicate that you were an accomplice to his plans".
"But would sending father to Ilirea not be like sending the lamb into the lion's den?", Garth objected concerned.
"I admit that it is not without risks, but we need to know what is going on if we are to succeed", Loivissa argued, "besides, if Mercury wanted your father's head, do you really think that hiding behind the walls of Stronghammer Keep would be enough to stop him? No, your family's best defence is to act like there is nothing wrong".
"I understand", Earl Karl nodded his head with a grave expression, like a man going to face his executioner.
"Remember that no matter what, you must not show how much you despise him openly. He will test you when you get there, and you have to pass that test, both for your own and your family's sake", Loivissa warned the earl, before she turned to Vanir, "and in the meantime, I want you to try and restore relations with Nari's group. Use whatever means that you deem necessary to accomplish that goal".
"Your wish is my command, my lady", Vanir said and dipped his head.
"Good, then Garth, you are to return to Carvahall with your father and stay there. For the moment, you will not be involved in any of our further activities", Loivissa ordered him, but before he could protest, she said, "this is not done as a punishment, but because your family already looks suspicious enough as it is, and the only son and heir sneaking off in secret every now and then will quickly have people beginning to gossip about it".
As Loivissa continued to outline the assignments of everyone, she could not help but think, Aiedail is safe from fracturing from within…for now.
Mercury POV
Mercury bent down and chastely kissed the bride's hand, as he said, "allow me to be the first to congratulate you on this joyous occasion".
Across from him, Ilumëo rolled her eyes at his antics, as she sarcastically replied, "thank you, it means so much to the both of us that you were able to find the time to come here".
"Well, normally I would not have, but my aide de camp nagged me that I had to go", Mercury joked, before he turned his attention towards the groom, "she can be rather persistent when she wants to, but I suppose that it is too late to warn you of that".
"Uhhh, I suppose that it is", the groom, a dökkálfar member of Mercury's Varangian Guard, said ineloquently. He still had not figured out how he should act around Mercury, now that he was married to his aide de camp, and Mercury enjoyed toying with his uncertainty.
"If you keep tormenting my husband, I might just invite your wife to the Child-Party", Ilumëo threatened jokingly.
"Alright, I will leave you to receive the other guests then", Mercury relented, but before he made way for the rest of the well-wishers, he said, "enjoy my wedding gifts".
For their wedding, Mercury had given Ilumëo a finely crafted green dress made of elven lámarae that had rubies imbedded along the neckline and silvery threads flowing down from the back of the neckline and to the hem of the dress, which, while in motion, would make it look like there were two layers atop of one another in the back.
For Kolrka, as the groom was named, Mercury had given him a dragon rider sword that he had had modified to fit Kolrka's hand and fighting style. It was a green one, emerald actually, with an emerald imbedded in the pommel and a two-handed grip with a wide blade that was blunt and rounded at the end. There had also been engravings adorned upon the cross-guard, but Mercury had had them removed.
As he walked along the banquet, which held many delicacies from both the local cuisine and from abroad, Mercury snagged a glass of bourbon with a few ice-cubes in it from a waiter, before he moved on to the main hall and dancing floor.
A band was playing on gilded instruments, to the great amusement of the many couples that danced to their tune. Dancing held no interest to Mercury any longer, having long since lost any interest in it since his partners always ended up dead or worse, so he barely spared them a glance before moving on.
Still, it was a far more pleasing scenery than what he had experienced just a few weeks ago. Who could have known that dragon blood was so much harder to get out of your clothes than ordinary human blood? The killing of Delvaria did however bring Mercury full circle in having killed at least one of every sentient species on the planet.
To be honest, Mercury had been quite surprised by the ambush, as he had thought that no human villagers would have dared to go against him so soon after what he had done to the grand army, and he absolutely loathed how he had had to actually INTERVENE in order to not screw up his future plans.
It was always a risk whenever he drew upon the power of It, which was why he generally preferred to plan and counter his way out of overcoming odds that were stacked against him, but they had forced his hand during that rainy day, and now it would happen sooner than Mercury would have liked.
After the battle, Mercury had had the bodies searched and had then burned them all, but he had not made an example of them. In fact, he had told every one of his Varangian guards that if they were ever asked, then they knew nothing of any ambush.
It was much easier to deny something when he had not lost any men to it, not that it would have been particularly difficult to deny it if he had, but it was always so much easier to do when he had not.
His reasoning for denying that there had even been a battle was simply because it did not serve in his best interests to officially say that it had happened. If he had made an announcement about it when he had returned to Ilirea, then Loivissa's group, Aiedail, would have gained a fair amount of publicity, and with publicity came varying degrees of public support, but if he said that it had never even happened, then the amount of publicity would decrease drastically.
Word of what had happened would still spread, as it in fact already had, but that would be from mouth to mouth, and if there was one thing that Mercury knew about unconfirmed gossip, then it was that everything got exaggerated over time, and the more exaggerated the story got, the less people there were that were inclined to line up to rebel against him.
After all, when there were no casualties amongst his own guards, then there was only one direction that it could exaggerate into, and according to the latest rumour, Mercury was now up on killing not only two dragons on his own, but also levelling an entire infantry division of 100 men, while his guards each were supposed to have cut out the hearts of 10 enemies.
Still, what Mercury needed for the next while, until the next phase of his plan was ready, was not for his subjects to live in fear, but simply for them to live their normal everyday lives. As long as they kept doing that, then Mercury would have the peace and quiet to actually begin stabilizing this country.
Well, at least I removed a few pawns from the game, Mercury mused, and I got confirmation that the Stronghammer clan are conspiring against me.
The body of the second eldest son of the Stronghammer clan had been discovered as one of the corpses, but the earl of Carvahall had been quick in disowning said son shortly after the battle, so even if Mercury had not denied that the ambush had taken place, which made it impossible to charge anyone for a treasonous act that had supposedly never happened, then he still would not have been able to charge the earl for aiding the conspiracy.
And to top it all off, the earl had continued trying to get a place at court even after the incident. Mercury had given the go ahead to give him one only yesterday; mainly because it would be amusing to have the earl having to cooperate with enacting legislations that he was clearly against.
It will certainly be entertaining to see how he copes with having to keep up the act and enact all of his duties to the best of his abilities, so as to not arouse suspicion, Mercury mused with a faint smile tugging at his lips, well, it will hardly be the first person that I have working for me which wants me dead. Yet, somehow, they always seem to produce such good results during the time that they are not conspiring to kill me.
Mercury was not overly fond of killing each and every one of his enemies, as it would have left him with quite a few empty governments and generally seemed to attract more disapproval from the local populace than it solved, and as long as he could get them to keep doing their jobs, then he really could not care less about them wishing him dead and gone.
Speaking of which, Atanalcar had been strangely quiet ever since he got that seat in the Tribunal. It was not like the man could actually do anything to hurt him, as Mercury still possessed the solid evidence that linked him to a crime worthy of quite a bit of jail-time, but Mercury was still against the betrayal of their agreement on pure principle, especially now that Atanalcar had finally become so incredibly useful.
Still, his wild and ambitious nature was one of the primary attributes that Mercury actually liked about the man, as it was always so enjoyable to find ways to counter or tame them, so he supposed that he could give the man some leash for now.
Speaking of which, Ilumëo had said that Mercury's mandatory two-year psychiatric check was coming up soon. It was a requirement for all commanders and above that they undergo a psychiatric check by a certified member of the Psychological Order in order to make sure that none of them went completely crazy.
The Psychological Order was an association of people that studied the human mind, which Mercury had founded a long time ago under a pseudonym, and though it was almost exclusively used by the military for various purposes, their services could also be hired privately if you had the necessary funds.
Mercury wondered what his new psychiatrist would be like, seeing as how his previous one had realized during their last interview that he had gotten into the field because he had a subconscious wish to patch things up with his father, and he had subsequently left the order to do just that.
His decision may or may not have been influenced by something that Mercury had said during the course of the interviews that they had had over the years. Toying with the minds of people trained to understand the mind was always so much more challenging, and therefore more enjoyable, than simply doing it with someone easily manipulated.
"Scheming already? My daughter has not even been wed for half an hour yet", a familiar voice said from behind him, and when Mercury turned around, it was to see his old aide de camp, Arucane, who was also the mother of his current one, standing with a nostalgic smile on her heavily wrinkled face.
"Nope, just thought about my upcoming psychiatric interview", Mercury revealed, as this woman was one of the two people that he actually trusted entirely in this entire world.
"I already feel bad for the poor sod that took the job", she said, "it has to be a new one, considering that all of the veterans know better than taking your case, and the new ones are the only ones that just see the opportunity that it might bring".
"It probably is", Mercury agreed with a shrug, "so, was your trip satisfactory?"
"A month and a half at sea just to get here, and then this is all that they wanted for a wedding", she huffed, "in my day, the Uluth weddings were talked about for decades afterwards".
"I did tell your daughter that she could have anything that she wanted for her wedding, and this was what she wanted", Mercury shrugged, "though I think that you will be pleased to know that your first grandchild will be sent to you in about half a year, so you have that to look forward to".
"Hrmph, I thought that she looked a little puffed out, but it was about time that I got some", Arucane said, "it is not like my other two boys are going to get me any for a while, what with both of them being too busy playing respectively sailor and experimental scholar", she then turned her head and raised her voice, as she said, "though it is not like my sister's kids are doing any better".
"Nice to see you too, aunt", Datia, Ilumëo's cousin and the leader of the Grey Organization said as she joined them, "and for your information, I have been plenty busy here in Albion to even consider such things".
"Yes, I actually meant to discuss that with you", Mercury cut in, "you see, the Grey Organization has outlived its usefulness and are now causing more trouble than it is solving, so I want you to dismantle it".
"Any preferences, or do I get to use whatever resources that I deem necessary?", Datia asked with a vicious gleam in her eyes. Everyone close to her knew that she was quite dangerous if she was allowed to do things entirely in her own way.
The primary reason for Ilumëo having been chosen to be Mercury's aide de camp over Datia some 22 years ago, despite Datia being more cunning, older and better at almost anything than Ilumëo, was because Datia had a tendency to be rather sadistic about it whenever she was told that something had to be taken care of.
It was a trait that was not attractive in an aide de camp, as that job required you to be able to act with more finesse on your own accord, and it was also not comforting for Mercury to have to constantly keep watch over his aide de camp's actions to ensure that they were in line with his policies.
Still, Datia still had her uses whenever something particularly dirty had to be done, as she was exceptional in making sure that things were kept under wraps, and generally had less scruples about doing something that might be considered amoral.
"I will have your cousin send you a list of the candidates that have talents that might be of particular use to the Alliance", Mercury answered her, "the rest are to simply be given the choice of giving up their life of crime or give up their life. I would suggest that you give out the offers in turns, so that you can use the rest of the Grey Organization to hunt down those that do not comply. The less we have to use regular army resources to deal with them, the less we risk exposure of the operation".
"And here I was hoping that you would lend me a couple of Centurions and then just let me wipe them out in one blow", Datia pouted, "but I guess that you are right that the other way has a lesser chance of exposure, and it would be kind of fun to do that as well".
"I will leave the details to you", Mercury said and dismissed her.
"She never changes, does she?", Arucane commented, "I am now more convinced than ever that my father made the right choice when he choice Ilumëo over her, even though they were both his grandchildren".
"Yes, your daughter has served me well", Mercury agreed with her. Datia was useful…on a leash. A tight leash.
"And now, you are crying blood on her wedding night", Arucane commented and handed Mercury a handkerchief.
"I had an unfortunate encounter a few weeks ago that forced me to draw upon It", Mercury explained as he gratefully accepted the handkerchief and used it to remove the blood before anyone else noticed, "the incident has accelerated the process more than I would have liked. I am afraid that it is now questionable whether I will manage to accomplish a couple of the key aspects of the plan before it happens".
"I see", Arucane nodded, "I must admit that I wish that I could have spared my daughter from having to witness this, but I guess that she will have to find her own way to cope with it".
"I am sure that she will do fine", Mercury confidently said, "she was raised by the best, after all".
Aurcane smiled at his statement, despite not knowing herself whether her father truly had been good at raising children or not. It was not the Uluth way for parents to raise their own children, after all. No, that right was reserved for whatever grandparent had been the aide de camp before the current one.
A tune played up, and together, Mercury and Arucane turned to watch as the bride and groom began their dance. Mercury took another long sip from his drink, knowing that tonight would be a long one. It was best to prepare himself for it, though not too much, or he might lose the necessary focus needed to maintain equilibrium.
So...quite a bit of contrast between the two's situations, eh?
Also, morales and ideals aside, I love how Mercury is willing to try to find a use for everyone, even sadists(like Datia) and murderers(like Edmure), while also being perfectly fine with disposing of unwanted elements that no longer has any usefulness(like the Grey Organization).