- WARS OF THE ROSES -
Hello! I hope you had a Merry Christmas, and I wish you a most Happy New Year! \(^o^)/ Thank you for reading my story and I hope you enjoy it.
With a hasty alliance forged between the ruling Roses of Lillian's three royal houses, the tide has turned slightly in the monarchy's favour as the lady knights defend their home from the Hanadera Republic's barrage of advanced weapons and disciplined fighting conscripts. Despite the Roses' personal joy at having a reason to join together (ending centuries of estrangement), the final outcome of this unexpected war is still open.
The brutal invasion moves on to a battle of wills, cunning, and diplomacy as both factions dig in against each other. The ruthless, seasonal Fimbulwinter has begun to ravage Lillian. Now is the time for the Roses to act. They must neutralize the enemy's colonization of their isles, to force them to trade with them gunpowder, to ensure that these men forever regret landing on the shores of the Lillian continent. Amidst the open war, intrigue and backstabbing, however, Sachiko struggles with a terrifying question: should she reveal the truth, unveil the revelation? Should she confess to her peers and sisters that her own squire is struggling against the onslaught of three spirits? And no merely ordinary spirits - the deified ghosts of the legendary Rose saints, the prime Rose goddesses.
But Sachiko is not the only one struggling. The President of the Hanadera Republic, Yuki, has not led his modernized armies to this gothic continent due to any hatred of monarchy, or any desire to conquer the territories of the Roses. His target is his sister, the sister he grew up with and is now bearing three divinities.
The tragic war between Fukuzawa Yumi - or more accurately, the Rose saints inside - and Fukuzawa Yuki continues.
How long will it be before the Lillian Houses discovers the primal power in their midst?
- Act VI -
- The Lillian Revolution -
The Royal Chapel. Capital of the Kingdom of Lillian, "Thorntree"
The men seemed subdued, bowed, humbled. They should have held their heads high - after all, they were ambassadors, high-ranking diplomats of the Hanadera Republic - except that they had come to negotiate a settlement. What should have been a lightning-fast conquest of an inferior, backwater kingdom had stalemated into a war of attrition against their well-disciplined musketeers and magical forces they never expected to be matched with. The man who led the entourage looked considerably more confident. Tall and handsome, dark eyes glittering with secret mischief, his sweeping black cassock cast a proud silhouette that bolstered his already formidable height. The man towered over his negotiating adversaries - the three Roses of the Lillian Kingdom - but they were not intimidated, equally striking in their red, white, and yellow robes and armour. After all, they were the victorious ones for now.
Behind them stood the short, frail High Queen Shiori, decked in thick polar bears' fur and emerald-dyed silk.
The women stared at him impassively, and he returned the expressionlessness with his own.
"Chancellor Kashiwagi, your quill," said Youko, nodding triumphantly. "Do not keep Her Majesty waiting."
"Very well, very well. I am honour-bound as Chancellor to fulfil my President - and your Queen's - wishes." The black-haired gentleman raised his hand, preparing to sign the thick, elaborate parchment that rolled out before him on the wooden table. He glanced at Youko and Eriko, who smirked, waiting for him to act.
He sighed, smiling in resignation. He brought down his hand and pressed the quill's tip on the parchment, giving the document of trade his seal of approval.
"The treaty of concessions, agreed and signed in the capital of Thorntree, is now in effect," proclaimed Sei, spreading her arms. "This is the Treaty of Lillian-Hanaderian Trade! In return for permission for the United States of Hanadera to establish a colony on our shores, we shall begin exchange - our wood and stones, generous natural resources, for their black powder and arms." Sei's eyes glinted. "And their maps, which have proved so useful to your commanders and commodores, will be of great benefit to us Roses and our generals too."
Kashiwagi glanced at Sei, their eyes meeting. It was a huge gamble for the two countries. In return for a guaranteed presence on this mystic continent, Kashiwagi had no choice but to share Hanadera's wartime technology with the Roses - a potentially fatal mistake that could cost his President, Fukuzawa Yuki, any chance of maintaining an advantage. But what choice did he have? They had no resources to fight off Goronta, the voracious World Serpent that the White Rose had unleashed on them. They needed time to regroup, to wait for reinforcements. And then, then they would strike back, before the Lillian knights had time to master firearms, which was very clearly Sei's strategy.
The Red Rose hadn't agreed with her White peer. The Chinensis House favoured an all-out push, a final assault against the buckling invasion force of Hanadera. But the moment Shiori decided to give her Royal Assent to Sei, the White Rose's strategy won out. This was going to be a carefully calculated war of attrition, one which the Lillian Kingdom would bet on winning with its home ground advantage, superior resources, and brave Lady Knights.
"I still haven't had the honour of meeting the Republic's supreme commander, your head of state," said Shiori, as polite as her royal protocol dictated. "When shall I be able to host your president?"
"Very soon," affirmed Kashiwagi, taking a short bow. "I will ensure he is ready to meet with Your Majesty." His mysterious eyes glittered. "I beg to take my leave, esteemed Roses of the Lillian houses. But remember this," he added, his warning a cryptic one. "My President has thrown everything he has against his enemy. And he will find his enemy. He will defeat them. No treaty can prevent that."
"May I obtain Your Majesty's royal consent for this treaty?" asked Sei, turning to the High Queen behind her and kneeling. Her left leg slowly descended to the ground even as her right knee bent.
Shiori nodded, her golden crown glimmering. "Proceed. You have my approval."
Standing behind Shiori, looming over her right shoulder, was the supreme knight of the realm, the greatest warrior of them all, Hasekura Rei. Clad in her slimmer suit of armour, she turned as Kashiwagi backed away from the White Rose, her eyes meeting the silent Sachiko. As the atmosphere's severity began to lift after Kashiwagi's signing of the treaty, Rei strode over to the Red Baroness, putting a firm hand on her shoulder. "Rosa Gigantea is a good negotiator," muttered Rei. "Her strategy will pay off, I assure you."
"I don't understand," said Sachiko bitterly. "I don't understand why Her Majesty, Rosa Gigantea, and Rosa Foetida would all adopt a plan that runs contrary to onee-sama's. The Chinensis knights offered a straightforward tactic: ride the wave of victory, and drive those brutes forever into the sea. Why do you even wish to keep them on the island? Soon, they will begin building settlements and strongholds. We are going to see our land carved up and divided."
Rei's eyes glinted. "Don't you understand, Sachiko? Rosa Gigantea timed this perfectly. Fimbulwinter approaches. The Hanaderians will find themselves stranded on these isles, crushed by a winter beyond their imagining. We have all the time in the world as they scrummage for food while their horses freeze and starve. This is the beginning of my reforms for my house's armies. I strongly suggest you stop living in the past. Despicable as the Hanaderians may be, they have woken us from our sleep. Arquebuses. Muskets. Cannons. Imagine how they will fold when confronted with our knights, our Goronta, and their own weapons."
Rei squeezed Sachiko's shoulder harder, whispering her revolutionary plans in the Red Baroness's reddening ear. This thrill from the Yellow Duchess was beginning to grow familiar.
"I'm going to train my knights in these superior weapons. I will have my new knights ravage those men the same way they ravaged mine."
The modernization of the Foetida clan's - no, the entire continent's - armies had begun.
With the signing of the Treaty of Lillian-Hanaderian Trade, the monarchy and its dominions were going to transform and blossom.
History was in the making, and Sachiko was witnessing it unfold before her very eyes.
The crestfallen men had left, bowing out with Chancellor Kashiwagi. For now, Hanadera had been humbled by the combined power of the three houses. But men were persistent. They would return, baying for blood again. But this treaty forced them on the back foot. No longer did they have the element of surprise. Next time, they would be facing hardened, prepared knights.
Back on her seat of office, Shiori looked down from her high throne at the three kneeling Roses, their red, yellow, and white capes draping around them. "I was wrong about you three." Her voice was soft, welcoming. Her smile was broad, unusually strong for the frail sovereign. "You have all redeemed yourself before our gracious Virgin, and honoured the spirits of our ancestral prime Roses."
"No," said Sei softly, looking at the ground. "You were right all along, Your Majesty. The Kingdom cannot be three houses, only one. For now, we will do our utmost to stay true to the ancient tradition, before the schism which tore our lines apart. The first priority now, when the first shipments of black powder arrive, is to equip and train your royal guards with these new weapons. In the meantime, Your Majesty, I beg that you replace your elite women's cumbersome armour with rank and file uniforms that will allow easier handling of firearms. Suits of armour than once defended against halberds and polearms won't be of use against Hanadera. Geographers! Engineers! Our knights are about to enjoy a renaissance, Your Majesty."
Shiori nodded. "I defer to your strategic authority, Rosa Gigantea."
Eriko turned her head. "You do realize this strategy will require more than merely military reform?" she asked, peering pointedly at Sei. "Not that it matters since the Hanaderians apparently massacred the entirety of your boyar nobility, but eventually your serfs, who fear and despise you, will need more than even Goronta to keep them in line."
"Indeed," laughed Sei. "I don't think 'President Sei' sounds ideal, although I recognize Hanaderian influence will inevitably force us to ask questions about our old ways."
"There is no doubt we must build a more efficient nation-state that can compete with the meritocratic innovation of Hanadera," said Shiori. "But let us discuss the devolution of royal powers later." Sachiko, Rei, and Shimako stood behind the kneeling Roses. Staring unseeingly at the voluminous, embroidered capes of her superiors, Sachiko felt a chill run down her spine. They still did not know. They still did not know what was inside Yumi's head. What was manifesting inside her body.
The Rose saints had been prophesied to return. But never did Sachiko imagine that they would return like this, into the body of an innocent girl, and worse yet, into her petite soeur's tender form. How in the valkyries' name was she supposed to tell them. Would anyone believe her? How were they supposed to defeat goddesses inside a human body?
Could they bring themselves to? Dare they confront the very women that founded the Kingdom of Lillian, assuming Yumi was telling the truth and those spirits weren't some trickster demons?
"This deserves a celebration," declared the White Rose. "May I rise, Your Majesty?"
"Yes," came the quiet reply.
"Entertain Her Majesty, Rosa Canina!" commanded Sei, lifting herself up and snapping her fingers. "This diplomatic settlement deserves a celebration. Let's have the royal chefs prepare a proper feast for us tonight, exclusive only to our three houses and heirs!"
A harp's tinkling melody began to lilt through the air, and from the darkness emerged the shapely form of a short-haired, ebony-locked woman, her feline, mysterious yellow eyes caressing Sei's smile while her long fingers strummed the strings of her instrument. Garbed in thick robes lined with wolves' fur, similar to Shimako's Gigantea garments, Shizuka Kanina opened her luscious mouth, parting her delicious lips, and began to sing a bardic song of adulation for the Lillian Royal House, an ancient anthem that once served, centuries ago, to rally the noble houses around the High Queen's single banner:
"O High Queen of Lillian!
Scion of the Great Spirits,
Heir to the prime Roses,
Beloved of this green land's glades,
Empress of our sceptred isles."
"O High Queen of Lillian!
Command our ladies with wisdom and resolve,
Defend our empire with passion and courage,
Punish our enemies with imperial cruelty,
And bless our devotion with the Virgin's affection."
Sachiko swallowed nervously as she listened to the chorus, throat dry. She stepped forward, heart pounding, palms sweating.
"Onee-sama. Roses. Please listen to me. I have something to confess - "
"Another!" cried Sei, clapping. "Sing until the words have dried on your tongue, Shizuka. sing loudly and proudly for our High Queen."
Shiori smiled shyly as the Royal Bard bowed, and her fingers began to strum the harp again. "Another poem, dedicated to the Roses' bravery," said Shizuka quietly.
Once more, the mesmeric song drowned Sachiko's stuttering words in a sea of tinkling decadence, and her chance was gone. Youko and Eriko made their way over to Sei, their faces beaming. Sachiko's face fell, her heart sinking. For now, she would have to wait. There was a time and place for everything.
She tried not to let her lip tremble in plain sight.
Because for each moment wasted, her petite soeur died a little more.
Yumi's life, so briefly in her lonely hands, was already slipping from her fingers. And she was helpless to stop it.
Chinensis Palace. Bedchamber of the Red Baroness
She was getting more feverish. She could hide it when she was in public, amongst the boutons and the Roses, but here, inside Sachiko's warm room and on her humongous bed, she twisted and turned, gasping for some fresh air, for a brief taste of the cold, frosty mist that descended on Chinensis Palace in the mornings. Rosa Chinensis en bouton drew down, pressing the goblet against her petite soeur's lips. "How do you feel, Yumi?" she asked mournfully, adjusting Yumi's pallid, sweating head against the purple satin pillow. She gazed at the rosary, the cross that Yumi still wore, and it was stained by the grime and perspiration on the girl's chest.
In a gossamer white dress, Yumi's voice was hoarse but strong. Her brown eyes remained strong, and most of all, fixated on Sachiko. "I'm fighting."
The Red Baroness bit her lip. "I feel so powerless. But I won't send you away. I won't abandon you. I can't."
Yumi smiled sadly. "Even if you did send me away, the spirits inside me would simply bring me back here again. We sealed a pact. They would have their way with this world, and I would protect you from their wrath. Whether they betray our deal is another story."
"What do they want with us? Can I talk to them?" The Red bouton's face turned dark. "I would have words with these goddesses? What quarrel could they have with us? They're supposed to support us. We're defending their land against an invasion!"
For the first time in a while, Yumi laughed (much to Sachiko's surprise). "Onee-sama... I can barely keep them from suffocating me. Soon, they will be speaking from my ruined throat. But not yet. Not..." She gasped as the familiar whirlpool of Northern Lights ignited in her pupils, a sea of stars shimmering in her eyes. Sachiko couldn't react in time as Yumi's hand shot upwards, grabbing her collar and pulling her down. Instinctively, Sachiko's hand whipped down her belt and drew her dagger, but Yumi's strength was no longer her own, but that of three vengeful divinities. Yumi's eyes glowed as she overpowered the struggling Sachiko, kissing her, pressing against the Baroness with a supernatural force and passion. The older woman cried out in pain and pleasure, her voice muffled by Yumi's possessed lips, lip bleeding slightly from the ferocious kiss. Panting, she pulled away briefly, if only to catch a meagre breath, before she was pulled in again by Yumi's passionate arms, her superhuman grip nearly crushing Sachiko's elbows. Struggling, wriggling, her senses surrendered as her hand relaxed enough for the dagger to slip from her drooping fingers. Breathing heavily onto her soeur's wet tongue, Sachiko felt her lips singed by Yumi's warmth and saliva. Her arms couldn't move.
She was helpless.
"You taste of loneliness," taunted a haunting, ancient voice quietly. Sachiko could barely piece it together thanks to its dead dialect, but she more or less understood the basic words. "Loneliness, and incompetence."
"You're cruel," cackled Yumi suddenly, and this time it was another's voice. She pulled the trembled Sachiko away, throwing her onto the edge of the bed. Hair mussed and dishevelled, the manhandled Baroness moaned as she turned to see Yumi talking to herself, like a madwoman. She was anything but insane. The chorus of the merciless dialogue continued. "Stop mocking your own daughters, Saint Chinensis." Yumi's face turned serious, scornful. She glared down at the trembling Sachiko. "She is no daughter of mine, Saint Foetida. None of them are. They insult the offices we established."
Even though Sachiko was not entirely sure what was happening within Yumi's body, her heart broke. She wanted to cry. But even the liberty to let out a pitiful whimper was taken away from her as Yumi crawled over, straddling her senior's writhing, bruised and battered body between her skinny legs. She screamed as she felt her raven-black hair yanked sharply back, her head bending painfully at Yumi's rough abuse. Those goddess-hands clamped around the back of her sore neck, and the vessel of the prime Roses drew down, baring her lips, blood running from her gums and dripping onto the already red bedsheets, eyes swimming with divine hate. "Stupid girl. Stupid girl!" Shutting tight her eyes, choking and sputtering in terror, Sachiko screamed again in despair as she felt her face slapped painfully and repeatedly. Face stinging red as well as suffocating blue, she wanted to yell for the guards, but Yumi was fighting; she knew in her heart of hearts that Yumi was fighting. She knew because the grip around her throat had loosened, and Yumi was hissing, her damp lip trembling. Suddenly, her bouton scrabbled off her bucking form and crashed against the decadent drapes covering the wall.
"Begone," she seethed, human pupils emerging from the pools of aqua. "You won't overpower me! Not yet. Not until you've fulfilled your vengeance and spared onee-sama!"
Sachiko felt her world emerging from powerless blackness back to colour. Back to Yumi's struggling form. "Away from me!" screeched the petite soeur again. "We had a deal!" She fell back, pressing her hands against her bleeding mouth. Choking on her own blood, she stared at the terrified Baroness, before skirting away her eyes.
"I'm sorry, onee-sama," she bawled, heaving in agony and regret. "I'm sorry. Please believe me. Why would I dare to raise a hand against you?"
Sachiko suddenly realized her shoulders were shaking uncontrollably. Her hand rubbed her pounding neck, wheezing desperately to make up for the momentary deprivation of cold Nordic breeze. She blinked, wildly, adjusting back to the normal intake of air she needed. "You cannot lose yourself in the maddening embrace of these goddesses. I forbid it," she groaned. She had no energy left to be angry, or even afraid. She just wanted to sleep, to be held by a Yumi who wouldn't batter or hit or choke her. "You must fight them, fight them until I find a way to exorcise them."
"You don't understand, do you? Onee-sama. My heart has already rotted away, its bloody remains kept beating only by the magical power of these women. They stitch my body together. If they leave, they leave behind destroyed organs, frayed vessels, decaying bones." Yumi's eyes were welling with tears. "I just want you and my brother to live through this storm, to survive the wrath of these goddesses."
Sachiko's despairing expression reflected the heartbreak in her aching chest. "You can't rob me of hope like this. You're my squire. I don't want to fail you."
"You are guiltless," whispered the recovering Yumi lovingly. "You always will be guiltless."
She took a deep breath as Yumi gazed apologetically at her. Would she regret the choices she made from hereon? Would she be willing to bet Yumi's life against the survival of the House of Chinensis and the kingdom she loved? What deserved her loyalty - Yumi's fraying, decaying life or the modernization of Lillian and the annihilation of Hanadera?
"Perhaps I should host an audience with your brother."
NEXT ACT: YUKI'S DESPERATE GAMBLE?
OR THE ROSE SAINTS' DEATH SENTENCE?
SACHIKO MUST CHOOSE...