Hometown Politics

'Who are all the soldiers outside the chapel?' Ellen grips onto me as I direct Trifinne to the ground. Twenty or so foot soldiers stand behind a cavalier who faces Father Renault at the steps.

'Ellen, I'll take you to the orphanage.' I avert my gaze as Father Renault cast a light spell, knowing it could blind me given that he fought in the war against the Black Fang 20 years ago, 'Father Renault would rather you stay out of the conflict. If needed, evacuate the children.'

'No, I'm coming with you Miledy,' Ellen clasps a charm around her neck, 'I may not be able to fight but I can heal you and Father Renault.'

Below, I glimpse a head of long dark hair atop an umber wyvern. It is Gale holding a steel lance at the cavalier. I swoop down, displacing twigs and dust around us.

'Gale!' I unsheathe my lance, 'what brings you here, to my hometown?'

'Miledy— apologies, Lady Miledy,' Gale nods respectfully, 'I understand that your father and grandfather were renowned wyvern knights, and your mother a tactician.'

'Yes but please call me Miledy,' the calluses in my hands ache as I grip onto Triffine's reins, 'we are peers in battle. Now, what has happened?'

'Miledy,' the shadow of his headband and nose cloaks his eyes. I cannot tell if he is mocking me, 'there seems to have been a little altercation at the church.'

'Father Renault,' Ellen scurries towards the bishop, 'are you injured?' The blue orb of her heal staff reflects sunlight.

'My dear child, Ellen, this is bad timing,' Father Renault kisses her on the head and gestures for her to go inside the church, 'tell the other monks and clerics to pack their belongings. These men from the Bern army inform us that we Elimineans are not welcome.' He folds a ring inside her hands, 'take this guiding ring. When you are ready to wield light spells, a day I believe will be soon, wear this.'

'Enough,' Gale points his lance at the offending cavalier, 'General Murdock has made an announcement regarding the treatment of Eliminean followers in Bern. Regardless of their faith, all Bern citizens are to be treated with respect and afforded the right to own property.'

'General Murdock's orders?! What's he got to do with a rookie captain like you?' The cavalier's horse brays. The rider's sword shakes in an unsteady grasp when Gale's stance becomes firmer, more combative, 'these Elimineans will collude with the Etrurians! Anyone who knows history would be a fool to overlook that possibility!'

'I will say it one last time,' Gale's eyes brim with anger, creasing the muscles at his temples and corners of his lips, 'General Murdock has ordered all Bern citizens be protected under this country's law. If you insist on causing trouble, I am legally obliged to deal with you... In any way necessary.'

'U-Understood, Captain,' the cavalier spits on the ground before leading his pedantry away from the chapel like hopeless donkeys.

Gale dismounts from his wyvern, whispering something to it while firmly patting its neck. Reflexively, I do the same, dismounting from Trifinne.

'Is it true? I prop my lance over one shoulder, 'General Murdock gave you direct orders?' I have only occasionally sighted the giant armoured knight at military examinations and standing beside King Zephiel during palace assemblies. Even then, he rarely speaks, only whispering to the king or fellow Wyvern Generals before stamping off on paperwork.

'General Murdock instructed I deliver notices to Elimine churches around Bern,' Gale opens a satchel of scrolls indicating the churches' protection under Bern law, validated with General Murdock's stamp, 'as you can imagine, there has been hostility towards Saint Elimine's followers due to their connections with Etruria.'

'Thank you for your help, Gale,' so Gale is merely serving as a messenger. Still, I am envious: to have direct contact with General Murdock must speak to the trust placed in Gale. I remember Mother's hypothesis about Gale being a spy. Would General Murdock fall for such a trick? He once protected a young King Zephiel from assassins, 'though I am not a believer myself, the church is a central part of this community in aiding the poor and managing the orphanage where my friend Ellen works.'

'The young lady there?' Gale and I glance at Ellen and three other orphans spying on us from behind a column. They dart off into the church as soon as our eyes meet.

'Yes— she's quite scared of men but I'm sure she is grateful for your intervention,' I study Gale's face for any treacherous twitches or an insincere look. Gale's deep violet eyes stare straight at me. Nothing suspicious but he is an Etrurian after all, the country of nobles who paper over their underhanded mistreatment of peasants with polite talk.

'It was a strategic decision more than anything.' If Gale is a threat, even General Murdock has overlooked it. Gale certainly resembles the visiting Etrurians, mostly pilgrims who give prayers and supplies to Father Renault or noblemen attending wyvern auctions. His long jaw appears meticulously sandpapered like those in the portraits of Etrurian nobles. Were it not for the drab military uniform and worn headband, Gale could have passed for one of them. His eyes flicker to Ellen and the children running down the steps to chase a ball, 'Etruria and Bern are the two countries with the greatest numbers of Eliminean followers. Shunning those in Bern would essentially be driving our own citizens into our rival hands.'

'Manipulative political games bore me,' I scratch the back of Trifinne's ears. He sounded serious when referring to Etrurians as the rival, 'my job is to train and fight with Trifinne. Leaders' whims are irrelevant when a hand axe is flying at you in battle.'

'How fortunate that you can be ignorant of such issues,' Gale grumbles, 'Lady Miledy.'

'I asked you to call me "Miledy".' How irritating: I did not discriminate against his background or breeding, yet he chooses to lecture me on my own country. Etrurians love to play tactician and philosopher: perhaps he should meet Mother, who would expose him as the spy he is within seconds!

'Sir Gale, Lady Miledy,' Father Renault's robe billows behind him as he strides towards us. Unlike other monks, his shoulders are bulky like a mercenary, the only shadow of his life before joining the clergy, 'thank you for your aid today. I thought we'd be driven out of Bern.'

'My pleasure, Father Renault,' Gale bows with one hand over his heart, 'but you look unscathed.'

'It'll take more than a few runts to knock me over,' Father Renault hits the end of his healing staff against his hand like an axe handle, 'I fought the Black Fang alongside the Lycian Army.' So Father Renault and Gale both have Etrurian alliances. I had spent history lectures from Mother trying to kick Zeiss under the table but remembered that Lycia and Etruria had sought to leave Bern in ruins out of spite. I search for conspiratorial sparks between Gale and Father Renault.

'Lady Miledy,' Father Renault nods in my direction, 'I must thank you for bringing Ellen with you. The children were lonely without her. I am too old to be playing ball games.' And yet he was prepared to blast a cavalier and several soldiers in the Bern army just earlier, 'I trust you are here to visit your brother and parents.'

'Yes, Father,' I hear Ellen's sandals pattering faraway behind me.

'I must continue delivering the notices,' Gale hauls himself back onto his wyvern, 'or else there may be another incident like today's.'

'Before you leave, Sir Gale,' Father Renault shouts over the wyvern's grumbling as Gale's boots thrust themselves into the stirrups, 'I must ask: do you have any likes or dislikes?'

'With respect to what?' Gale tugs on the reins to delay his wyvern's lift-off. Ellen and the orphans giggle behind me.

'It's an open-ended question,' Father Renault shrugs his shoulders, 'not everything needs to be answered with a "yes, sir" or "no, sir."'

'I'm afraid it's a little too open,' Gale's hair looks like black thread against the sun when a gust blows through it, 'but I once saw a very fine spear at an armoury tucked away in the mountains. I knew it would be wasted on a beginner like me. Someday, I would like to be skilled enough to use it in battle. Anyway, I must be leaving now. Good day to you, Father. And to you, Miledy.'

Father Renault and I shield our eyes from the debris flying in the wake of his wyvern's flapping wings.

'I'm sorry, Lady Miledy,' Father Renault squints at Gale's disappearing shape in against the sky, 'I'm not sure if that was the answer you were seeking.'

'I'm not sure why you think I would care,' I rub the hay-like ends of my braid while spinning around to glare at Ellen. She and the children have already disappeared.


'I thought politics bored you,' Mother sharpens the end of a javelin against a flint stone in our yard. We sit under a large tree in our estate. Zeiss and I had always called this the wing tree because the branches stretching out resembled a wyvern's wing.

'Mother, I just wanted to know your thoughts about the altercation at Father Renault's chapel this morning,' I bite into a lamb and spinach bun my grandfather made. Upon his retirement from the Bern army, he found a passion for hunting and cooking fresh meat. Juice spills out of the doughy casing and over my fingers, dripping onto the soil between my feet, 'and Gale insists that only a certain kind of person is ignorant of politics.'

'Captain Gale intervened, did he?' Creases tighten at the corners of Mother's ruby eyes, 'he stopped by to send his regards just earlier.'

'He did?!' I almost burst the bun between my hands, only halting when hot soup spurts against my face, 'did you speak? What was your impression?'

'He didn't stay for long but I did ask him about his former training,' Mother watches my and Zeiss' wyverns, Trifinne and Rubley, swirl about the sky together. They take turns swooping about grandfather's wyvern who bats them away with his tail, 'how an Etrurian boy acquainted himself with wyvern-back combat and ascended to become one of the most competent captains in the Bern army.

'And?!' I take a vicious bite out of the bun and sidle up to her, 'do tell!'

'Patience, Miledy,' Mother backs away. She sticks the javelin through half a chicken and hurls it into the air. Rubley and Trifinne dive straight for it, with Rubley emerging as victorious, 'he says he was trained by a deserter from Bern named Heath who spent some time as an exiled mercenary before fighting alongside the Lycian army. Heath and his commander had been scapegoated for one of Bern's failures during the war against the Black Fang.'

'And?' A meatball clogs my throat, almost pushing itself back up were it not for some vigorous swallowing, 'what did you think?'

'It's possible- the way anything is possible,' Mother hooks her foot around basket handle and drags a basket full of potatoes towards herself, 'although, I find his story raises more questions than answers.'

I inhale a mouthful of dirt as Trifinne lands beside Mother, nosing the potatoes. Mother feeds her two, 'you're the only wyvern I know that fancies raw potatoes. Strange, just like my daughter. Now, where was I—? Yes, the story is just a little too... Convenient, won't you agree? A wyvern rider happens to relocate to a poor Etrurian village where Gale is living and becomes his mentor.' Mother waves away Trifinne's snout from the potato basket, 'even if all that were true, the circumstances are still troubling. A deserter like Heath might be resentful of his homeland, influencing Gale's attitudes. And why hasn't Gale join the Etrurian army, who would appreciate an inhouse expert on wyvern-back combat? Perhaps because he's already part of it!.'

'So you really believe Gale is an Etrurian spy?' The next bite of the bun is tasteless.

'I've given you my evidence and hypothesis,' Mother deftly rotates a potato in one hand while running her peeling knife in the other, 'now, it's your turn to think logically about the issue yourself. Ascension through military ranks is as much conceptual thinking as it is combat skill. You need to understand your position in any battle given the terrain, your allies' talents, factors like that…'

'I spoke with him briefly outside the church,' my soles draw arcs in the soil beneath them, 'I just didn't have that feeling about him.'

'So you will attack my argument with a feeling?' Mother scoffs, releasing a dress of uncoiling skin from the potato. The inside is a creamy white shade, 'you'll need to better than that.'

'I-If he was really conspiring against the Bern state,' I grip the grass beneath me in one hand, 'surely he would dissociate from the Elimine church, given their Etrurian origins. He would try to shed any traces of Etrurian sympathy.'

'Not necessarily, given the substantial Eliminean following in Bern,' Mother inspects the potato at eye level, picking off any dark spots as she finds them, 'but it's a valid notion. In any case, I'd just encourage you to be mindful around Captain Gale.'

'Yes, Mother.' Deep down, I wish that my argument could have blown away her suspicions so she would approve of my comrade, so that I wouldn't need to fear that behind his sincere and stoic expression was a liar.

'And under no circumstances should you discuss any of this with your brother.'

'But Zeiss is directly under his command,' I unravel my braid, trying to relieve the headache that has been worsening since the confrontation at the chapel.

'It's for his own safety. That boy cannot hide his feelings,' Mother shields her eyes to watch Trifinne backflip in the sky, 'if Captain Gale is truly an Etrurian spy, he will do everything in his power to maintain cover. That includes destroying anyone who might expose him.'

'Yes, Mother.' I carry a basket of tomatoes and nod to Mother before heading back to the house. An invisible weight presses against my shoulders as I rehearse an easy greeting to Zeiss.