There are those times which seem to turn your life upon its head. Everything changes in a moment. They can be good, and they can be bad. But rarely is one moment so successfully both.
I stood in the courier’s office, newly received letter in hand, not knowing what to think. Her Majesty’s words. I was at once profoundly honored by her words and fighting off panic at their tone.
I read through it once again.
M’Lady Chancellor of the Exchequer,
I have decided to appoint you to the vacant barony of Lyndale, if you are willing to take up the mantle of Baroness in Lithmore. Your dedication as Chancellor of the Exchequer has been noted, and appreciated, and I wish to make you more integral to the state, and to reward you and your bloodline.
You have my full confidence to remain as Chancellor of the Exchequer for as long as you should wish it. Please see to the realm and to her finances and well-being, and if you could see to the census, that would be greatly regarded- I have not had the time to see to and guide it in the manner that I would have wished.
Charmaine.*Stamped with an Eagle*
*Sealed with a Chalice*
I have decided to appoint you to the vacant barony of Lyndale.
It is not that I never aspired to the nobility. Vavardi ambition is legendary after all. But I did not expect it would just happen. And here it was, out of nowhere, in my hand, Charmaine’s words. Through no action of my own. Not the culmination of any great plan. Not bought through any great action. Just handed to me by this simple courier.
And she was saying goodbye.
I refused to believe it. She was not that ill. No matter that she used that dreadful doctor to help her to sleep. She was not that ill. Not that old. She was to be married again, whenever the arrangements were made. To a Vavardi princeling half her age. I had made her the gown already, a regal affair worthy of her majesty.
And the kingdom needed her still. We were in the midst of a war in Edessa. Her war. Just a few years, she and Caria had promised us, and Daravi would be ours. She wouldn’t leave us now.
The price of my barony wouldn’t be the life of my queen, the woman I respected above all others in the kingdom, my friend.
But even while I did not want to think it, I knew. A comet streaked across the sky, and I knew. All around me, the bells cried out her death, the criers shouted it out from the corners. And there I stood in the courier, allowing myself those few moments of it feeling like a dream, because I knew.
These would be hard times and Lithmore would need me. It would need me to be strong, stronger than I had ever been. I could step up or despair, and it wasn’t really any choice.
And I would not let her down.
