Alliances Offered, Part Thirteen

"Sacha!"

They had been back at the Temple of Amun for all of two minutes, and Leira was already back in her husband's arms. Tavros smiled as he watched them: they were so completely caught up in each other, so wrapped in joy that everything around them faded away. 

He turned away, suddenly tired. Their assault had been successful, at least, but that was about the best that could be said for it. Giles Bouvier was still alive, and still the Grand Marshall of the Eastern Army, and Tavros wasn't entirely certain how he felt about that. The man was certainly a competent commander, but he was definitely a political creature; his attempts to press for advantage while still disoriented from having been under the control of a Mind Flayer had been clumsy and easily recognizable and more than a little infuriating. 

So Jacqueline's impressions of him as a father were almost certainly correct.

Still, he hadn't attempted to claim the throne of Sol Povos of his own free will, and he was a more than competent commander. He could be left in charge of Welfort and what remained of the Eastern army. It wasn't what Tavros would have preferred, but then Tavros had nobody more trustworthy to promote to that position. Had he grown up in the Court, he might have known someone... 

He sighed as he made his way down the corridor. If he'd grown up in the Court, likely he wouldn't have seen Giles Bouvier as an undesirable candidate for such a position. The man's ambitions and expectations would have seemed perfectly normal. And likely he'd have accepted Vigo's insistence on agreeing to whatever offered the most value as simple common sense, no how disastrous that approach had proven in the past. 

He ducked into his cell, and grabbed the bottle of gnomish whiskey that he'd left on his desk. After the things he'd fought -- and nearly been killed by -- he desperately needed a bath. 

He wasn't ready for that yet. He wasn't ready to remove his armor, or to set his sword aside. Instead he let his steps take him to the stairs, and then to the long passage that led to the western balcony. The day was still young, too early to watch the sunset, but at least he could sit in the shadow of the temple and have a moment to himself. 

He stepped out through the archway, and crossed to the stone bench. 

"Your Majesty?" asked a woman's voice, cautious and polite. 

"Jacqueline," said Tavros, by way of acknowledgement. He glanced back, and noted that another of the junior priestesses -- Anmara, he thought her name was -- was standing beside Bouvier's daughter. Well, too bad if she overheard; he was done with pretending at things. "Call me Tavros, please. Anywhere else, I might be heir to the throne. Here, I'd prefer to be just another paladin."

He looked down at the simple stone bench, then settled into it. 

A single set of footsteps approached, and then Jacqueline asked, "May I join you?" 

Tavros motioned towards the far side of the bench. "Be my guest. I have news, as I'm sure you suspected."

"I'm sorry," she said, but she seated herself on the far end of the bench, leaving room enough between them for another person to sit. Two, if they were all especially comfortable with each other. "I was waiting for you to come back, and I thought you might come here first. Aesa said it was one of your favorite places."

Tavros nodded at that. Leave it to Jacqueline to learn my ways in self-defense. He pulled the cork from the bottle, poured three full swallows down his throat, and then offered it across to her. "Sip," he cautioned her.

After a moment, she took it. After another moment, he looked over at her and found her looking back at him. She looked down at the bottle, looked back at him again, and then tilted her head back and poured a bit of the whiskey into her mouth. 

To her credit, she didn't drop the bottle -- though she did slap the base of it down onto her thigh. She sat for a heartbeat with her mouth closed around the whiskey and her eyes wide. 

Then she swallowed, shook her head, and handed the bottle back as if it had all been nothing worth remarking on. "I nearly killed Tarric," she said, and her voice was only slightly raw from the whiskey. "I suppose this is my penance?"

Tavros poured more whiskey down his throat, then shook his head. "This is what I'm doing to recover from meeting your father. I take it you didn't actually kill Tarric. Did you kill Thesean?"

Jacqueline Bouvier was silent for a long moment. Then she said, "I didn't kill Tarric, but it was close enough that I had to call Aesa back to help. I did kill Thesean, and it was..." She held a hand out, and Tavros passed her the bottle. 

She took a swallow, this time making it look effortless. "It was possibly the most satisfying thing I've done in years," she said. She handed the bottle back. "Did you kill-- did you execute my father?"

Tavros took another long swallow and then shook his head. "No."

"No?"

"No." He handed her the bottle. "He was being controlled by a Mind Flayer, an ancient and powerful one. That was why he'd declared himself king, and why he was willing to let the Tarrasque run loose. He's... I think as a person that he's every bit as awful as you say, but he was the commander of the Eastern Army. I couldn't kill him once the Mind Flayer was dead."

Jacqueline took a drink, thought about it, and then took another, longer drink. "My ladies made it to safety," she said. "There's that, at least. The wizards brought them here, and your mother took them in." She raised the bottle again, reconsidered, and then handed it back. "I wish you'd killed him." She hesitated. "And I don't."

Tavros nodded. He wasn't entirely certain that he understood completely, but he understood being conflicted well enough. "You're more than welcome to remain here, and your coterie as well."

"Tavros..." She let his name trail off. "You look rough. How can I help?"

That... might have been the first time weeks that anybody had asked after his needs. He had advice aplenty, and more demands than he knew what to do with, but actual help? ...No, he didn't have anywhere the amount of help he needed. He looked at the bottle, but didn't drink from it. 

"...Honestly?" he asked after a moment. "The Abbess said you've been helping Sister Tiva with the accounts. Could you meet with Demeter's bean counters and see what we'd actually need to build their portion of a temple for the Covenant of Amun? We'll likely need something similar for Helios and Amun. Vigo thinks that we'd need to at least double what the kingdom formerly donated to Helios alone, but temples bring in their own money and I'm not sure we need that much of commitment once the temples are built. I'd prefer to take the support that Sol Povos was giving Helios, and divide it among the Covenant instead."

Jacqueline was silent for a breath, and then another, and then another. "You're asking me to shape the future of the kingdom, you know," she said. 

"If you don't want to--"

"No." she replied firmly. "I have to live here too. I'll do it. I'll see how close we can get to the former commitment -- and if it has to be more, I'll make sure you know why. The Orders will want a stake here. I can use that. I've seen how it's done."

"Thank you," said Tavros, and settled back. He was profoundly relieved to have someone besides Vigo looking at the issue. Vigo was extremely smart and incredibly good at gathering information, but so many of his assumptions were still grounded in how things have always been done. Tavros meant to change that, as much as he could, and Jacqueline Bouvier sounded ready to help him. 

"Tavros--" He had his eyes closed, but he heard her shift her weight on the far side of the stone bench. "Thank you. You took me in. You trusted me." He felt her lips brush the side of his snout. "You don't even mind that I nearly killed your friend." She drew away, and Tavros felt suddenly, unexpectedly empty. "I'll make this work for you if I can."

Then her footsteps were crossing the balcony, heading back towards the archway. "Tabitha," she said, to remind the priestess Anmari. "I don't care what you heard, for a little bit longer I need to be Tabitha."