Aub Dunkelfelger shortly after events of Herald
I glanced at the board on my desk for what had to be the hundredth time since it's arrival two bells ago. On it was my eldest daughter's neat script requesting a meeting conveyed through usual veiled euphuisms. And at the base of the wooden board were two symbols. One was basically her signature. A dragon. Though unlike the usual sleeping one, this one had an eye open. Her way of conveying an emergency. The last symbol had made my blood run cold. It was an eye with a tear.
What does Sehweit wish to convey? Truthfully, I wouldn't even be able to guess until my daughter was before me. So, I summoned her back for a meeting. I just prayed that it wasn't like the last time. A chill went down my spine. Last time. Even now I remember it like it was this morning.
An Ordonnanz from my first wife had summoned me to my daughter's room in the north tower in the dead of night. She requested only my knight commander to be present. More foreboding was that it is and was a rare event that my fine wife was unsettled, but she sounded extremely off. I had gone to my wife and child as swiftly Steiferise. I found my wife, her guard, my eldest daughter, and her young nanny all in the chamber off my younger daughter's room. The room was a blood bath. Red spattered on all the walls and across the crisp cold white floors. It gleamed still fresh and warm. And freshly baptized Minerva was positively coated in spray. At first, horror washed through me at the thought she had killed Magdalina. Before my rage and grief could spiral out of control, my wife quickly assured me that she was safe and asleep. Then I turned to my daughter who had been oddly quiet. Her nanny was trembling like a leaf behind her.
My guard Bosphoramus gasped as he came in behind me. However, the first thing I noticed was after the initial shock of so much blood was my daughter. Instead of being stunned; like many knights were fresh from the battle field, or high from the kill, she was calm. Her head slightly moving about like she was trying to peer at many things passing by her that we couldn't see. But also, the silver in her eyes had bled into the whites of her eyes. It had consumed all of the white. Mana swirled around her head not unlike a crushing, though there was no attack. Whatever was happening she was not afraid or hurt at the least. I reached out to touch her and she startled like a shumil when I touched her.
"(*Who-?*)." That strange language again. Normally she didn't fall back onto that unless she wasn't feeling herself. She had learned to hide it a year before, now she quickly corrected herself. "My apologies for my appearance and the mess. It seems," she struggled to recall the proper god. "Sehweit has stolen me. It will clear shortly once everything is clean."
So, the visions would not release until we cleaned the blood. But we couldn't do that until I knew more.
"What happened?" My voice boomed, but Minerva did not shrink from it. Instead, she used it to find about where my face was. Though she gazed a little down and to the left.
"Today Magadena and I were having a tea party. She didn't look well. Her tea cup slipped from her grasp and broke, before the maid could clean it up Magadena cut herself on one of the shards. I saw it. Her attendant was slowly poisoning her. Tonight, she planned on (*smothering*) my sister. I stopped her." Quick and to the point with none of the embellishments most nobles used. However, when she said my sister, there was a sudden fierceness in my daughter. Like a Riesefalke protecting its nest. The mana that was already buzzing around her head roiled with her anger, but did not crush anyone. Perhaps because she couldn't see, but I thought it might be because my warrior daughter was holding it in.
I looked to my wife and the nanny. The former looked thoughtful. The latter was trying hard not to look at Minerva. Her lip trembled in fright and her whole body leaned away from my daughter.
"(*Smother*)?" I repeated the strange word.
"She was going to press a pillow to her face until she couldn't breathe." Anger ripped through the room. Mine, my wife's, and Minerva's.
I looked to the nanny.
"What did you see?" She looked at me and cringed. "Speak!" I commanded, my voice booming in the silence. The nanny shrank from me and made a small fearful noise.
Minerva stepped more to the side to put herself between me and her nanny, drawing herself up as large as her small body would allow. She turned her face to left, but didn't try turning all the way around. "Maeve, if you no longer wish to serve me after this, I will ask a contract be drawn up so you may safely leave my services. Please tell our esteemed Aub what you saw and heard." Minerva was signaling to her nanny that she would protect her and that nothing she said here would be held against her.
The purple haired, green-eyed attendant had looked at my daughter's back, then quickly looked away. Fear and revolution flickered there briefly. I took one angry step toward her only to have my daughter's stance widen as she prepared for an attack. Her silver eyes came flicking back towards my general location. My brave and foolish child.
"I-it is as my lady says. Lady Magdalena invited her to a tea party, Aub. The other lady looked a little pale. Nothing that would raise alarm." She hurriedly defended. Again, her greens eyes slid to my daughter and she shuddered, quickly looking away. "Lady Minerva, expressed her concern when Lady Magdalena's hands shook with the effort of lifting her cup. The result was as my lady." Her voice wobbled on my lady. "The tea party ended and we returned to my lady's chamber. Then tonight, when I went to check on my lady, I saw her slip out of her room and come here. I heard her confront Caitlin about the poisoning. Magdalena's attendant said they were cursed and twins." She bit her lip, a small sound still escaped from behind her teeth. "Lady Minerva said, 'Chaoscipher dance with me and take what you will.' I heard a scuffle and went to intervene. I saw-." Her skin paled and her hand dropped to her stomach as if she was about to be sick.
"With respect father, may I speak?"
I looked to my daughter who was holding her head high and shoulders back. All of her usual swagger gone. Instead, she was almost gentle. As if she was trying not to startled a shumil she found hiding in the brush.
"You may speak."
"It is clear I killed Caitlin. Nor do I deny it. Do not make her continue."
It was moments like this that reminded me that for all the blessings of Leidenschaft, Angriff, and Schlageziel that my eldest daughter clearly held, she was most like Schutzaria, shielding that which is precious to her. A difficult path to walk, the thought came unbidden to mind as if Sehweit had whispered it in my ear.
"Alright," I looked to my wife who was watching our daughter with a keen eye. "Take Lady Maeve to my office, I will be there shortly." I did not need to tell my wife that this woman was not to leave her sight. She merely smiled, crossed her arms in respect and lead the shaking nanny from the room. Once they were gone, I cleaned both the room and my daughter then handed her a sound blocking tool. Already the silver in her eyes was pulling back from the edges. It wouldn't be long.
"What did you see?"
"Many things. There are three more among our staff who would see us dead." She gave me the names including a knight in my entourage. "They planned to kill me in a hunting accident." I grit my teeth against my rage. "We have very little time left to prepare. The Lord of Summer is coming soon. And if we don't prepare now it we will lose much of the outer villages and towns as will as many knights." Her gaze shifted subtly Rhoam who was also my knight commander. I felt a thrum of shock. She saw him dead. Bosphoramus held my daughter's gaze and I knew he smiled at her, reassuring her the only way he could. He had always been soft on her. Especially after he caught her mimicking us that one time during training.
"What else?" This time there seemed to be a lot more than the usual one or two 'snippets' she called them.
"Little things that don't make sense. Our black shield turned to gold dust. A child with silver hair and purple eyes was bleeding out on some steps." The stress seemed to be starting to get to her as her words quickened to get everything out. "A pink haired girl with red eyes leading some of our knights into battle." She bit her lip, her eyes betraying fear for the first time. "Magdalena was killed. She was older, someone sta-." Her breathing was ragged the tears that threatened to spill over did cutting off the rest of her words. Now I was panicking.
"When? Where?"
Helplessly she spread her hands. "I don't know. It was years from now. She wore two cloaks. A black one and a blue."
I sighed deeply. That meant Magdalena would marry into royalty. Then it was years off. "We will worry about that later. In the meantime, I think it is time you went to bed."
"Don't tell."
"Hmm?"
"Don't tell Magadena what happened. Here or what I saw." Those silver eyes were pleading.
"Father?"
I jerked out of my musings from the past to face my daughter once again. She looked tired and worn. Those bright silver eyes guarded by the tool her scholar had made. Ever since then she had not had any visions. But that did not mean the boy was worthy of standing beside her.
"Minerva, come, sit." I gestured to the chair on the other side of my desk. My attendant poured us both a cup of tea and I did the usual song and dance to show there was no poison. Minerva gracefully sat down and drank. We discussed the issues at the academy before I gave her the ease dropping tool. She took it.
"Neither of us dance with Grammalatur well, so what did you see?"
My daughter's face was contemplative. "Many things. It was easier this time to direct the flow. First and most importantly, war will soon break out in Yurgenschmidt. I cannot say when exactly, but it will be soon a year, maybe two, and it will be bloody. More so than it should. You will need to prepare."
"As the Sword, my duty is to Yurgenschmidt, and Dunkelfelger."
She nodded, my answer not surprising her in the least. "Regardless be prepared just in case." Now she hesitated. Which was something of a rarity for my warrior daughter. Then I remembered all the reports I had been receiving from all my children and the one person who kept seeming to pop up. I wondered if a certain Ehrenfest archduke candidate was the reason for this hesitation. She sipped her tea.
"Are you going to tell me you are going to marry the Ehrenfest boy?"
She inhaled her tea, coughed, and quickly set the cup down while she tried to gain her composure. In that time, I saw surprise, horror, revulsion, and guilt all run across her face. For all her training she was still an open book. She coughed and sputtered a few more times before glaring at me. I felt myself chuckle despite her rudeness, something I would over look because her reaction told me all I needed to know. The boy was more like a student to her.
"Have you been adding Vize to your tea?"
I barked out laughter. Thanks to the fact that we were holding the sound blocking tools I could afford to let her rudeness rest without punishing her. Her glare helped to stifle the laughter. "Have to admit you all talk about the boy in your reports."
Her lip twitched a sign that she was displeased.
"If it isn't about the talented Ehrenfest boy, what is it about?"
She took a deep breath. She looked at me for a long moment, and I was struck again by something Bosphoramus had once said, 'Your daughter has an old warrior in her'. Yes, I thought looking into those eyes that looked far older than her meager thirteen years.
"I would like to make a request."
"That will depend on the request."
She wasn't surprised. "If something were to happen to me and Peter while are at the academy. I want our medals tucked away safely. No one can know. And my entourage should not be punished for whatever happens. They are to be protected."
My gut churned. Taking in everything my daughter said and everything she didn't. She would die, but not. That is what she implied. "What have you seen?"
This time she glowered at my desk. Clearly very dissatisfied. With my answer, with herself as well. "Two conflicting images. One Peter is incased in an amber feystone his body broken. The he paces beside a similar giant amber feystone, he holds my name in his hand."
I had to fight the urge to stand and bellow, 'you did what?' Instead, I tapped my desk and held her gaze. She was telling me in no uncertain terms that she not only would complete her bride task, but that Peter would defeat her in turn. And she would give him her name. "That boy isn't even a knight; how could he defeat you in combat?"
She smiled. "I under estimated him once. I will never do it again." Now there was a feminine amusement about her. It made her look exactly like her mother who was quite cunning. It was this more than anything that made me consider her request.
"I will consider your request, but only if you can make it clear that none of them were at fault for what happened, even negligence." She nodded and sighed with relief then went to hand back the device. Intuition stirred. She had given that last morsel too quickly. My eldest daughter was renowned for her warrior spirit and blunt open nature. Something she was more than aware of. I saw my wife flicker briefly in place of my daughter.
"What else?"
She froze ever so briefly; she couldn't get her smile in place fast enough and she knew it. She swore in the odd language.
"What else did you see."
"It was brief. Nothing really."
"Minerva." My tone was enough to inform her that I would decide if it was noting.
After a moment she reluctantly admitted, "I saw a sea of white sand."