• March 5, 2012 /  Uncategorized

    Marisa dul Damassande, portrait by Jia Flynn! 

     

  • February 25, 2012 /  Uncategorized

    I like to think that even if she had never noticed me, I would still hold her as the ideal queen.  I remember still the first I saw her, Her Royal Majesty, Queen Charmaine ab Harmon in all her regal splendor.  I was yet Grand Magnate then, newly arrived to the city, and she held a reception at the palace.  Dignified, she seemed to demand respect by her very presence, receiving my cousin, Lassider, Bretagne – even Chettle in those days.  She offered each boons and each tried to outdo the other in the way in which acceptance of her magnanimous offer ingratiated themselves to her – to provide her wise suggestions as to a bride, to keep them in mind for a suitable position at court, to be allowed to count himself among Her Majesty’s friends.  I don’t believe anything came of it, but that is the way of court.  Well chosen words serve better than but one boon.  Offer to give and they will fall over themselves to give you all the more.  She was a master at statescraft.

    And there was dancing.  I remember asking Prince Enakai to dance.  He had just stepped into the role of Royal Seneschal, receiving the honorary title of Duke of Bren created for him.  I don’t think Charmaine was terribly pleased at it. She offered to the Lord Chettle that he might ask me for the next dance.  We didn’t know then how black his heart was, and he was surprisingly light on his feet for a man of his size.  Perhaps his eyes might rove, but I have never been a one to object to being appreciated.  There is a far cry between that and entertaining the notion.  It is strange to think how much, even in the times before they all died, favor has shifted since.  Enakai disinherited, Chettle stripped of his title, and myself in great favor.

    And the favor I enjoyed was great indeed.  I think sometimes there is no way to earn greater loyalty than to recognize and reward talent where others have not.  I believe I still have the letter in which she asked me to step down as Grand Magnate and be her Chancellor of the Exchequer.  How could I not rise to the occasion?  Proud at the trust placed in me, I suddenly found my success measured in the success of the kingdom, in Charmaine’s success.  She was glad to leave the kingdom’s finances in my hands and I was just as glad to make them thrive.

    The Royal Council in which we prepared the assault on Daravi proved an early chance to prove myself. Others went into it with their own goals, but I had in mind just for Charmaine to achieve hers.  And for her to know that I helped to make it happen.  And so we would go to war, as long as it would not mean I would later have to explain to her why the kingdom was broke.  I brought her the mercenaries, and I arranged a good deal for supplies from the merchants – better than what she had asked of me.  I engaged the other notables on their own level.  Dukes and Duchesses from each land, emissaries from the lesser lands, guild representatives.  Why should I not, after all?  I was the hand at the Queen’s purse strings and it was all on her behalf.  Wholeheartedly to her goals.

  • Protected: At Once Pride and Loss

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    February 9, 2012 /  Uncategorized

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