Alliances Offered: An Aside

Lady Tabitha Andiras shifted on cushion and turned her head to look at her mistress. She was supposed to be stitching, as they were currently working on something that would either be an ornate robe or an extremely fancy dress, cut from some pearlescent cloth that their host had provided, but she couldn't help wondering...

Lady Jacqueline Bouvier was humming as she worked, looking cheerier than she looked or sounded in... well, months, really. Possibly for as long as Tabitha had known her. And this was despite the fact that she'd rejoined her ladies to help with this project after a full day at the temple. 

There were other things, too: the fact that this cloth, this magnificent cloth, had arrived this morning from the bald chief servant of the lady Emiliana Fontaine, in whose manor they were currently housed; the fact that Jacqueline had not, so far as Tabitha knew, made any effort to contact her father; the news from Welfort, which seemed to indicate that everything there had changed with the arrival of the True Heir, Tavros Fontaine. Changes were afoot, and a good lady watched for them and was ready when they arrived. 

A good lady did not let them distract her from her sewing, of course, but nobody was perfect. Lady Jacqueline would understand."Mistress..." she said, putting a touch of inquiry into her tone. 

Lady Jacqueline Bouvier looked up from her work. "Oh?" She looked around. "Oh, it's late, isn't it? Cawthi, would you go and fetch us a night-tea from the kitchens. Lissia, go with her and help her manage the trays and the doors." 

The two women exchanged a momentary glance, then set their sewing aside and rose together. "A night-tea does sound good," said Lissia, but Cawthi glanced speculatively at Tabitha before they departed. 

When they'd had time to get well out of earshot, Tabitha said: "I take it things went well." 

Jacqueline made no effort to deflect her. Tabitha hadn't expected her to; her mistress had left her to impersonate her and watch her father's movements; if there was a higher trust than that, Tabitha couldn't imagine it. "Things went... yes." She hesitated, and Tabitha thought she was skipping over some things, but that was fine. "Are you worried? The three of you will become the first of our household, and you foremost among them."

Tabitha smiled shyly. "I am concerned, but not for that. Supporting you in your father's court -- even being  you in your father's court -- was not so difficult, especially with things so unsettled. But being a lady-in-waiting to a possible princess is... I suspect it will be very different from being foremost among the ladies-in-waiting to a queen."

Lady Jacqueline's expression suggested that she didn't think that Tabitha's impersonation of her to the court at Welfort had been as easy as all that, which was encouraging. She considered for a long moment, then said: "Go on."

"You know I don't have your talent for magic," Tabitha said. "I was only able to make the scroll work and get the three of us out of there because I'd studied it for so long trying to see how it all fit together. So... I would like to pursue further studies with someone who could help expand my skills. I'd thought perhaps Vigo himself, if he could be bothered or persuaded; if not him, then perhaps the lady Martini D’wintlither might be willing."

Her mistress raised her eyebrows. "You'd study under an elf?" 

Tabitha shrugged, and Lady Jacqueline smiled. Even with that reassurance, Tabitha continued: "I'd study under this elf. Lady Martini D’wintlither is a legend. She has -- and I have confirmed this with three different people -- assassinated a pit fiend, among other things. And while I doubt I'll ever be doing anything like that for you, she could teach me much about gathering information, determining people's true goals and beliefs, and all the messier sides of life at court. All the things that I might do to help you, Mistress."

Lady Jacqueline looked up, clearly expecting her other ladies to return with tea at any moment. "If that's what you want to pursue, and if you can do it without compromising yourself, I'll see what I can do to help. You're not so much seeking an advantageous marriage, then?"

Tabitha let herself smile, and spoke honestly. "If something comes along, I won't ignore it. But even with a household of my own, I would be loyal to you... and I would like to have options, if a hypothetical husband proved less than worthy." She hesitated, then added: "Not all of us can have a paladin who seems somewhat smitten with us."

Her mistress swallowed, her expression a mix of happiness and hope and worry, and said: "I hope we all can, or something very like it."

Alliances Offered, Part Seventeen

Evening had finally come, and despite everything that was still unresolved, Tavros was glad of it. He could spend a few minutes in peace and quiet, watch the sunset, and gather his wits...

Anica nodded to him as he stepped out onto the balcony. The stone bench was already occupied; lady Jacqueline Bouvier was seated at one end, leaving the rest of it open. Tavros glanced at Anica, but she just shrugged and said, "I'm pretty sure she didn't come here to murder you, Your Majesty."

Tavros rolled his eyes and started forward again. He seated himself on the bench. "Rough day?"

Jacqueline looked over at him. "You didn't happen to bring that bottle along, did you?"

Tavros shook his head. No, but maybe I should have. 

She swore, in Dwarvish of all things. It wasn't a language Tavros spoke; he only recognized it because he'd heard Sister Tiva use that particular phrase in that particular tone before. "Maybe we should just keep one out here."

"That bad?" asked Tavros. Between Dante being an ass and the inescapable fact that they were not going to be able to drive the demons out of Sol Povos without even more loss of life, he thought his own day had been rough. But Jacqueline looked... drained. 

"Not..." She hesitated. "Not bad, exactly. But I am absolutely prepared to believe that the devotees of Demeter really do count every single bean that gets harvested, that they number every single grain of wheat, and that they keep thorough, years-long records of their worshipers so that they can calculate exactly the best way to distribute the goddess' largesse."

"I'm sorry," Tavros said immediately. "I've asked you to--"

"No," said Jacqueline. "Don't. You asked me to do something important. If it wasn't work, you wouldn't need me for it. And I... I like being needed. I like being valued." She hesitated. "Tavros... would you consider--"

Tavros glanced at her, and was just in time to see the masked figure walk up over the stone balcony, crossbow in hand. Snarling, he threw himself forward and yanked Jacqueline down, half-shoving her under the bench. 

Three crossbow bolts slammed into him; a fourth one skipped off his shoulder and shattered against the stone of the ledge. They burned where they struck -- probably poisoned -- but he shook it off and drew his blade. 

To his right, Anica had her sword out and was charging the figure on the balcony. It turned, surprised, trying to fumble another bolt into its crossbow; Anica buried her sword in its thigh and raised her shield. Tavros spun. He knew from the impacts whence the attacks had come: two from above, one from behind, and one from the assassin that Anica was about to take apart. 

A quick glance up confirmed it: two of the would-be regicides were standing easily on the stone wall of the temple, held in place by magic. The last was on the balcony opposite the first; both of them had been positioned to come up just outside of his peripheral vision. If he hadn't been looking at Jacqueline...

He reached the balcony. His blade met the assassin and cut her in half. 

The other assassin had drawn a blade and was dueling with Anica despite the wound in his or her leg. Good, thought Tavros. I hope that hurts. But the two on the wall above them... They were going to be a problem. If he retreated inside, the assassins would likely escape; but if he remained out here, they would continue to shoot at him and sooner or later something would connect. 

Then Jacqueline shoved her head and arms out from under the bench. Her face was frozen with concentration, and her hands moved with a studied precision. The chunk of ice that formed in front of her open palms catapulted upwards, struck the stone wall, and erupted into a burst of cold that staggered one of the assassins and sent the other one tumbling loose to land hard on the balcony. 

Tavros swallowed and reversed direction, moving to put himself between her and the remaining assassin. He was distantly aware of Anica punching her blade up through her opponent's ribcage before dumping him onto the balcony. He got there just in time: the bolt slammed into him as he threw himself in front of Jacqueline. It nicked him through his scales, and again the wound burned; but again he ignored it. 

Jacqueline came to her feet behind him, raised a hand, and spoke three incomprehensible words. 

This time, Tavros didn't see what happened. He only saw that the remaining assassin jerked, and then fell. It was hard to tell, but Tavros thought this one was a man and he was dead before he struck the stone of the balcony. 

He stopped, sword still raised, then lowered it and turned back to face Jacqueline. Jacqueline Bouvier, daughter of one of the few men he truly, instinctively disliked. Jacqueline Bouvier, who'd just destroyed two assassins without a hint of hesitation, and hadn't taken the world's best chance to stab him in the back. Impressed didn't even begin to cover it. "Marry me?" he asked, tentatively. 

She whuffed a graceless laugh. "I was about to say the same thing."

"It's..." Tavros swallowed. "It's not going to be easy."

"Tavros..." Jacqueline shook her head. "You know I would have been willing, just to escape my father. But this... I want this. Let me be part of this."

"Dearest Amun, yes, please be part of this." He was all too aware of Anica moving around the edges of the balcony, looking up and then back down, casually hunting for more assassins. "I'll give you a proper proposal, something even Vigo and my mother will approve of, but please tell me you'll say yes when I do."

Jacqueline stood still for just a moment. Then she reached up, curled a hand around the side of his head, and kissed him.She didn't say I'll say yes, but by then she didn't have to.

Alliances Offered, Part Sixteen

"You should consider marriage, Your Majesty," said Dante Alighieri, and Tavros sighed. He needed assistance and support; instead, he received more demands. 

Nobody should wish to be king. It should fall to the person who draws the unlucky stick. Which I suppose is me, at this point. "You have suggestions, I presume?" asked Tavros, regarding the famed bard flatly across the wooden table where he was trying to study Vigo's map of the kingdom and its travails and loyalties. He needed to know this, rather more than he needed a wife to help cement his rule.

"Not as many as I might wish," Dante admitted, spreading his hands reluctantly. "There is some difficulty in determining who survived the approach of the dark army and the solari hunters."

Tavros sighed. "Do you have any suggestions at all, or is this advice of yours more in the nature of 'You need to be married and producing heirs, but I know not with whom'? Because if that's all you need, put Ruin on the throne."

The bard hesitated. "You have, I think, a very strong possibility in the young lady Bouvier, though such an alliance is less advantageous now that her father is once again in your service. Her lady, Tabitha Andiras, is also of noble birth and well-established... and I believe her aunt corresponds with your mother. And, of course, there is always the possibility that you could marry this so-called Warbear Queen, and settle--"

"What?" Tavros stopped himself with his claws halfway to Dante's throat. "No," he said. "Are you mad? I need to marry someone who will work with me, not against me."

Dante Alighieri had gone pale. "Of course, your majesty." 

"Leave me," Tavros said abruptly. "Now." 

The bard hesitated for a brief moment, then pushed his chair back and stood. 

"I will find a noble bride," Tavros said, managing not to grind his fangs together by an act of will. "I will do as the Kingdom requires. But I will not compromise us in a short-sighted quest for immediate stability."

Dante was still standing there. 

"Get out."

Dante went.

Tavros took a deep breath, and then another, and then another. He made himself remain still in his chair until the rage inside him had passed, and his head was clear again. Dante meant to provoke me, he concluded. The poet -- and likely Vigo the Whisperer as well -- felt that they needed a royal marriage, and heirs soon after. They would only have suggested a marriage with the Solari Hunter Jenny as a prod to get him to accede to something more acceptable. And the gods alone knew what sorts of pressures they might be bringing to bear on any likely noble daughters... and there were still some around, no few of them here in Caristhium.

I could still ask Martini to murder them both, he thought. The elvish assassin would likely do it just for fun, and ultimately the kingdom might even be better for it... or else it might be a disastrous mistake. And it wasn't as if they were wrong, exactly. He didn't intend to have anybody executed just because their good advice was unwelcome.

Damn it. Caught again. He needed to talk to the likeliest candidates, but before that he needed to decide just how much of this he was willing to put up with.

Alliances Offered, Part Fifteen

They were outside the manor when Aesa said, "So... you and Tavros?"

Jacqueline snapped back to attention. Aesa was Tavros' friend, and her opinion was important. "I don't know. I hope so. Maybe I'll just embarrass myself." She paused. "I could live with that, I think. It's not too late to go into hiding, after all."

Aesa laughed. "I don't think it'll come to that," she said easily. "I think that just by doing what you're doing -- being here, and helping as best you can -- you've shown your quality. I mean, maybe you're just earning our trust so you can betray us later. Vigo could do that, I think." She glanced at Jacqueline, sidelong. "Most people couldn't, though, and I don't think you are."

Jacqueline considered. "I don't think I could," she said after a moment, "but in any case I'm definitely not. You have no idea how much better I like it here." She shook her head, because actually shuddering was unbecoming for a lady of noble birth. "All of you can just... help each other out. Be nice to each other. Say what you mean and expect to be understood. Honestly, the foremost disadvantage to making an offer of marriage to Tavros is that I'll end up having to deal with the court again."

Aesa was silent for a long, thoughtful moment. Then she said, "He'll need someone to help him with that, though." She paused, still thinking. "And the court under Tavros may be somewhat different from what you remember."

"I hold to the hope," Jacqueline said fervently.  

"Well," said Aesa, "for whatever it's worth: I won't advise him against it, either. Marrying you, I mean."

Jacqueline hesitated, but she would never have a better time to ask and she wanted to know. "What was it like for you and Vendril?"

"Strange," Aesa said immediately. "I wouldn't call it a proper courtship. I was already raising a daughter, and her father had finally returned, but this presence kept showing up out of nowhere to talk to me and ask me questions. We'd heard of the Silver Fox even out here; he was a legend. He was a ghost. I still don't know what he saw in me, and when I ask he says it was just me. But eventually he asked if he could meet my daughter, and I told him he'd have to take off his mask for that... and he did, and Rose seemed to like him. It was a while after that before he asked if he could kiss me, and by then I was... comfortable, having him around. He kept doing little things for me: collecting Rose from the nursery, leaving small gifts, interceding to make sure that Anica and I didn't end up in a death battle with a bunch of elven bandits in the hills. He was there, and... concerned? ...when Ruin couldn't be. And he needed my support, too. He'd lost most of his companions, and finally been driven out of the city where he'd chosen to make his stand. I don't think he entirely knows who he is if he doesn't have somebody to protect. It was... I don't know. We just fit."

"And Ruin?" asked Jacqueline. "Don't answer if it's an indelicate question. It's just that Tavros seems to have a surprising number of elves around him, and Ruin and Martini are the closest to his concerns. Is Ruin... Is Ruin a problem?"

Aesa offered a reassuring smile, though there was a hint of sadness there as well. "Ruin is Ruin," she said. "I don't know how to describe it any better than that, and that won't make any sense if you don't know Ruin. He's... he's loyal, but also a little self-destructive and a lot angry. I don't think I can properly explain how we ended up having a child together -- it was a very fraught couple of days -- but he didn't deceive me or take advantage of me. If anything, he was trying to help me and things just..." She gestured. "...got out of hand."

"Vendril seems like someone I could trust," Jacqueline observed carefully. "You're saying Ruin might be too."

"You can trust him," Aesa said. "Honestly, I'd be more worried about Martini. But given what the kingdom is facing, Tavros needs someone murderous and scheming on his side too." 

Jacqueline nodded as she digested that. "Then I should trust Tavros' friends the way he trusts his friends."

Aesa shrugged. "Caution is never a bad idea," she said, "but ultimately I think... yes."

Alliances Offered, Part Fourteen

"M'lady Fontaine?" asked Jacqueline Bouvier, as the bald-headed servant led her into the wizard's study. The room was almost a cliche: bookshelves around the outside walls, and a pair of tables in the center, one loaded with alchemical apparatus and the other covered in a sheet of paper peppered with scrawled calculations and a sketch of a tower at its center. 

Emiliana Fontaine looked up from where she'd apparently been pacing back and forth while reading from a scroll. "What? Yes?" She focused on Jacqueline, and the priestess Aesa who had accompanied her. "What is it, child?"

Jacqueline swallowed. "You know who I am. You said I could ask you anything. I'd like to know... would you support me if I asked Tavros to marry me?"

The lady Fontaine blinked, then blinked again, and finally again. After a moment she she asked, "Would you permit me a question first?"

"Of course."

"Why?"

"Why would I ask him, or why would I openly ask for your support?"

"Yes," said Lady Emiliana Fontaine. "Both. You're scheming, obviously, but you want me to know it and be part of it. So... what's your angle?"

Jacqueline sighed. "This would all be so much simpler if Tavros had simply executed my father for treason," she said. 

"Yes," agreed Lady Fontaine, "but try telling him that."

Jacqueline chuckled. "No, I know. I even think I understand. In any case, it's too late now." She paused, sorting her thoughts. "I want... I want, more than anything, to be free of my father. He is... I don't even know how to explain it. But... if he isn't dead, then I want him not to have any more control over me."

Lady Emiliana regarded her for a long, silent time. "I can sympathize with that," she said at last. "Tavros was, in his way, my own form of protest -- though there was more to it than that, of course."

"Of course," answered Jacqueline. She knew something of the court gossip around Lady Emiliana, and she knew better than to trust that gossip. "The way I see it now, I have two options. I can disappear: change my name, go somewhere else, and try to live a life as someone who is not the daughter of Giles Bouvier. Or, alternatively, I can make an alliance with someone who elevates me above my father's station. That would be your son. And... if I'm telling you all... I like your son. I think... I think I would actually enjoy being a partner to him."

"All well for you," said the lady Emiliana, "but what is it that you would offer him?"

Stability. Heirs. The thought of being taken by someone so strong, so fierce, so utterly loyal overwhelmed her for a moment. Support. "I know how the Court works," she said. "I've seen its intrigues and its finances. And I'm not afraid to stand beside him. I know what he wants, or at least I hope I do. I could help show him how to get it, and my advice wouldn't be tainted by other loyalties."

Lady Emiliana set the book in the corner of the table. "Do you wish me to petition him on your behalf?"

"No!" Jacqueline covered her mouth, feeling slightly horrified. "No, I only hope you won't object when I petition him myself."

The Lady Emiliana Fontaine took a moment to consider. Then she smiled. "Very well. I will leave it entirely to the two of you, and if Tavros sees fit to ask me I will give my endorsement." She paused, then added: "I know you are helping my son with the petitions from the Order of Demeter, and I know that he is grateful. I do not know if he has thought of marriage, but I know that he appreciates you, and the help you have offered."

Jacqueline felt her cheeks burning. "I just hope I'm worthy of it."

Emiliana's smile widened. "Don't just hope. Be worthy of it. It always takes work. Always."

Jacqueline swallowed. "Do you know... when I first arrived here, the paladin Anica advised me to be Tavros' friend. Not just because he trusts his friends, but because his friends make him stronger than he would be alone. That's what I want from this. I want to be part of something like that. I want to belong to it."

Lady Emiliana hesitated, then approached her. For a moment, she studied Jacqueline's face; then she kissed her twice, once on each cheek. "Trust is not an easy thing to learn," she said quietly. Then: "But I know my son. If you are loyal to him, he will be loyal to you. It will take more than that, of course. But you can find the way if you seek it."

"I... Thank you," said Jacqueline Bouvier. "I... I will..." She swallowed. "Thank you."

She barely remembered leaving the room.

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 near 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."

Alliances Offered, Part Twelve

"Ah, lady Andiras." The Abbess Hilda Sturmgart looked up from her desk, then sat back in her chair. The halfling priest Birno backed quietly out the door; he would wait in the antechamber until Jacqueline emerged. "Welcome."

Lady Jacqueline Bouvier, still pretending to be her own maiden companion lady Tabitha Andiras, offered a delicate curtsey, and the Abbess motioned for her to take a seat in one of the comfortably-padded chairs in front of the desk. That was yet another unreality, a lack of formality that would never have happened at court, but Jacqueline found that she was growing used to such things now. She seated herself without any fuss. 

"What brings you to my office?" asked the Abbess, kindly enough. 

"I don't--" she began, and then twenty years of deportment lessons fell on her head all at once. Be precise. Be definite. A noble daughter knows exactly what she wants and what is expected of her. She stopped, and began again. "You said I should come and speak with you."

"So I did," answered the Abbess. "Let's begin more simply, then. How do you find life here in the Temple?"

Jacqueline hesitated, then reminded herself that honesty had brought her farther in this place than anything else had. "If I were given gills and sent to live among the merfolk," she said slowly, "I don't believe I'd find it much more strange than this."

The Abbess laughed. "No, I suppose not. I have little experience with the High Court myself, since the priesthood of Helios always held pride of place there, but I know that the court is in many ways its own small, isolated world. You feel out of place, here?" 

She nodded. "Very much so."

"Well," said Abbess Hilda in a considering tone, "for whatever it's worth, nobody would know it to look at you. Sister Tiva tells me you have a surprisingly good understanding of finances for a lady's companion, and that your help with her books is most welcome. The others reported your success in stopping the assassin Thesean. And, of course, His Majesty is grateful that you brought him warning."

"Abbess..." Jacqueline swallowed. "I do have some questions." 

"Ask, then." 

She thought for a moment, but one question -- one incredibly stupid question -- was pressing to get in line in front of the others, and for all that she didn't want to ask it she couldn't seem to let it go. "Is it true that you sleep in one of those tiny little cells?" 

Abbess Hilda didn't laugh; instead, she tilted her head thoughtfully. "Yes," she said after a moment. "It's true. I can show you, if you like. But it's fair to say that that's also somewhat misleading, as all I do there is sleep. Most of my work is done in this office, which..." She gestured around at the well-crafted desk, the comfortable chairs, the paintings hung on the walls. 

"I mean... there's no shame in sleeping in a small room, here, is there? No... loss of status?" 

"Ah." The Abbess shook her head. "No. None. Anyone who sleeps alone, sleeps in one of the small cells. Those who sleep together have larger cells, but only enough larger to be comfortable. The Temple was built to be a citadel as well as a place of worship, and the sleeping-rooms are a matter of practicality rather than status."

Jacqueline nodded slowly as she took that in. Anica had explained and she'd believed, but... it was still a relief to have it confirmed by the Abbess. She considered for a long moment, then asked: "When we killed Thesean... everyone keeps saying it was good work, it was a good job, I did well. Abbess... I dropped a Freezing Sphere in that room and very nearly killed Tarric. And they all know it. Why... Why aren't they angry? Why doesn't Tarric hate me? Why do they keep saying I did well? I didn't do well. I was as much a danger to my allies as our enemies were."

The Abbess was silent for a long, long moment. Finally she said, "That is really something you should ask them, but I'll tell you what I think: I think it's because they're used to it. Magic is dangerous. Divine magic, arcane magic, it's all dangerous. It takes some practice to learn how to use it to harm enemies without hurting friends. You're surprisingly powerful for a mage who's never seen battle, but your mistake was exactly the sort of miscalculation they'd expect from a mage who had never seen battle before." She paused, then leaned forward. "And you're allowed to make mistakes. That's how you learn. That's how everybody learns."

Jacqueline swallowed. She was surprised by just how close to tears that absolution brought her, and she took a moment to compose herself before she asked her last question. "The last time we met... when the two of you identified me... His Majesty handed you some gold after I tried to teleport out. I think I understand that. It was some sort of bet, right? That I wouldn't trust you. And you were right, I didn't. So you won." 

The Abbess nodded. 

"But after I explained about my father, you handed two gold back to His Majesty. What did that mean?"

Abbess Hilda sighed. "I told Tavros that you'd grown up in the court, and that you'd never trust us. He said you'd at least be willing to listen, and I bet him five gold that he was wrong. Then I pointed out that we'd never be able to trust you either, and he bet me two gold that we could." The Abbess offered a warm smile. "And... well... after what you told us, I thought he was right." She leaned forward again. "I still do."

Jacqueline gaped at her. "You think I-- What--?" She stilled herself, drew a deep breath and released it, then drew another and released it as well. Finally, she said: "You trust me?" Why would you do that? 

"Yes," said the Abbess Hilda Sturmgart. "Because you've shown yourself worthy of it. We took you in; you didn't try to spy on us. The warnings you brought us have all proven true. You stopped one of your father's-- one of your lady's father's assassins yourself, and you worked with Tavros' friends to do it, and you didn't take advantage of what I'm sure was a wonderful opportunity to stage a tragic accident for one of my paladins. You could have made any amount of mischief in working with Sister Tiva's accounts, but you didn't do that either." The Abbess took a long, slow breath. "At some point you just have to accept that people are who they show you they are. And what you've shown to us... merits our trust."

For a moment, Jacqueline couldn't breathe, her chest was so tight. And then everything inside her came loose, so suddenly that she almost fell out of the chair. Her mind was blank; she couldn't think of anything to say. The idea that somebody might just trust her... more, that she might deserve that trust... she didn't know whether to scream or cry. 

The Abbess waited patiently, giving her time and silence to try to work through those thoughts, these feelings, this revelation. 

No, whatever happened, she was not going back to her father's court. And Tavros was already on his way there, if he hadn't done the deed already. So long as she does not forget her faithful servant, lady Fontaine had reminded her, and it was past time to get lady Tabitha and the others out of the path of the storm. 

She reached into her pouch, set the stone on the Abbess' desk in plain sight, and laid her hand over it. "Tabitha, tell the others to scatter. Then use the scroll hidden behind your headboard. Do not wait. I want everybody out now."

The reply came immediately: They're here already. I'll do what I can.

"It seems," said lady Jacqueline Bouvier, "that Tavros and his friends have arrived in Wellfort."

Alliances Offered, Part Eleven

Jacqueline Bouvier followed the smiling servant into the elegantly-appointed room, and bowed courteously to lady Emiliana Fontaine. The steel-haired woman was still in her dressing gown, black silk patterned with silver butterflies, but looked no less regal for that. 

"Come, sit," said the lady Fontaine, gesturing to the low table in front of her; she set the example by seating herself on the floor behind it. "The servants will bring what we need for this, and then we can speak frankly."

Jacqueline moved forward and seated herself opposite her host. "You honor me, lady."

Lady Fontaine held up a hand, and Jacqueline fell silent, waiting as the servants loaded the table with a variety of breads on trays, then an equal variety of cheeses, then sweetmeats and fresh-cut fruits. There was more here than the two of them could eat; more than than all the servants together could eat. Several pitchers were carefully placed as well, and Jacqueline found a hammered silver goblet in front of her, twin to the one in front of her host. 

When everything was in place, the lady Fontaine looked up and said, "Clear the room." As the servants departed, she glanced at another woman whose shaven head made her age difficult to determine and added, "And make sure it stays clear."

"It will be," acknowledged the woman with a grin, and slipped out through a doorway that Jacqueline hadn't noticed until now. 

Lady Fontaine waited for a long moment, possibly for dramatic effect and possibly to give the servants time to get completely out of earshot. Then she said, "I did not expect to find the lady Bouvier in my home, even -- or perhaps especially -- at my son's invitation."

Jacqueline Bouvier met her eyes and said, very clearly, "You mistake me, my lady. I am lady Tabitha Andiras, here in service to my lady Bouvier." 

The lady Fontaine nodded graciously. "Of course. You must forgive me; your aunt Semira writes to me of how proud she is that you have found a place at court. But in her recent letters, she worries that with the current strife even your place as a favored servant of the firstborn daughter of Giles Bouvier, the self-proclaimed King in the East, might not be safe."

"My mistress fears the same, which is why I am here." 

"She shows an admirable protectiveness for her loyal servant," observed lady Fontaine. 

No I didn't. I left her in danger and went off here. I thought I was going into danger myself, but these people... they continue not being the sorts of people I expected. Hesitantly, she said: "But she is also using me to prepare her own escape."

"So long as she does not forget her faithful servant," said lady Fontaine, leaning across the table to pour wine into Jacqueline's goblet. The emphasis there said plainly that she hadn't missed any of the subtext, and that she expected Jacqueline to take damned good care of Tabitha. Which she'd intended anyway, but...

"I shall of course remind her to do so." Jacqueline shook her head, then decided to change the subject. "I have met your son. He is a credit to your line."

The lady Fontaine offered a brief smile. "I am his mother; of course I would think so." She paused and tilted her head, studying Jacqueline closely. "You wish to marry him?"

Jacqueline shook her head immediately. "I wouldn't presume..."

Lady Fontaine blew air out between her lips, a dismissive sound. "But you've thought of it." 

"To spite my father," Jacqueline said. Then, to cover the slip: "So my lady says. It is an alliance my lady has considered, to spite her father. But His Majesty -- Tavros -- intends to execute Giles Bouvier, and with that done there will be no need."

"No?" asked the lady Fontaine. "Well, then. Let us not dwell on such unpleasant thoughts. Your aunt never indicated that you were such an accomplished mage. Who taught you?"

With no ready lies prepared, Jacqueline Bouvier answered honestly; and from there, the conversation fell into a discussion of wizardry and spellcraft and magical traditions... and food. It was early in the day and Jacqueline wasn't usually much for wine, but before long she was finishing her second glass and glad of it.

When they finished, the lady Fontaine rose and came around the table; Jacqueline rose to meet her. 

"You have fought your first battle this day," lady Fontaine said, "and done so on behalf of my son, albeit for your own reasons. Speaking as someone who was raised in the High Court, there must be many things here that you find strange. You have my leave to come and speak to me, to ask me anything you wish, and to know that I will answer you as honestly as I can." She paused, then added: "Food and drink and their attendant distractions should have helped, but the first kill takes everyone differently. You may have nightmares; you may find yourself suddenly shaking and cold; you might be stricken with guilt... however it comes, be gentle with yourself over the next few days, lady."

That was almost more than Jacqueline could digest; she made her courtesies and stumbled out of the room, walking almost at random until she encountered a servant who led her to a bedchamber. 

She barely remembered falling into the bed.

Alliances Offered, Part Ten

Tarric gasped and tried to struggle to his feet, finding his shield and longsword along the way. "Easy," said Aesa, as Jacqueline looked on. "They're dead. You're not." 

Tarric slowed, looked around, and then nodded and sheathed his blade. "That was Thesean?" he asked, twisting around to try to look at his own left kidney, where Thesean's blade had first been planted. 

"No," said Jacqueline. "That was me. You were fighting Thesean, and I was fighting his helper, and I panicked and dropped a Freezing Sphere. It... I... I nearly killed you." 

"Oh," said Tarric. "Well that's okay, then." He glanced at Aesa. "Good thing you called Aesa instead of Anica to pull me back, though. Anica... might have stabbed you."

"In all fairness, I'd have had to let her."

Tarric shook his head. "No... We should have been better prepared, that's all. You have spells to prevent elemental damage? We should have had them in place before the assassins snuck in here. Next time we'll know better."

"...Next time?" asked Jacqueline. There wasn't going to be a next time. If Anica didn't kill her, Tavros was going to have her expelled from the Temple and possibly exiled from Sol Povos as soon as he got back. She'd very nearly killed his friend. 

The others appeared in the doorway, and Jacqueline flinched away. But lady Fontaine, elegant even in a simple dressing gown, stood in front of the paladins and looked the room over. 

It was a ridiculously large room for a bedroom, outfitted with a ridiculously large bed. Vigo The Whisperer's idea, Jacqueline knew, and wondered what it would be like to watch the future king prepare to rest. And how could he sleep, in a room such as this, with an audience such as that? Small wonder that he preferred to spend his time at the temple. 

Lady Fontaine was looking at her, and Jacqueline swallowed. "Your work?" asked Tavros' mother. 

Jacqueline managed to nod. "Mine and Tarric's."

"Well done. Your first battle?" 

Jacqueline nodded again, this time more decisively.

"You must join me in my chambers, then. There's a certain decorum to be observed after such an event. I'll send a servant." She turned and swept from the doorway, and Anica and Werendril stepped inside. 

"How'd it go?" asked Werendril, looking at Tarric. 

"As well as it could," Tarric said. "Thesean brought friends, but we handled them."

Anica looked suspicious. "And Aesa came running back here because...?" 

Jacqueline drew breath to speak, but Aesa glared at her and Tarric cut her off. "Collateral damage," he said. "I was injured, and lady Andiras grew worried and summoned help."

Why is he covering for me? I almost killed him. Jacqueline managed to stop herself from gaping in disbelief, but it was a near thing. Werendril was saying, "You still look pretty rough," and stepping forward to embrace Tarric; but Anica had turned her head back to study Jacqueline. 

She held herself still and waited. 

"You're new to battle," said the paladin, after a long moment. "You carry yourself well, and I keep forgetting. But you didn't intend to harm him; otherwise you would have finished him."

"I'm not sure it matters--" Jacqueline cut herself off as Anica shook her head sharply. 

"No. It does matter. You took them down, then called for help to keep my husband from dying."

I guess? Jacqueline considered that for a long moment, then nodded hesitantly. This was not, in her experience, how things were supposed to work. 

"Anica," said Aesa softly, and then nodded towards Thesean's corpse, with his own knife still in its throat. 

Werendril had stepped back, and Tarric looked stronger: his bruises shrunken, his frostburn faded. Anica nodded, then turned to Tarric and embraced him in turn. He straightened further, looking healthier even from that brief contact. 

The true elf paladin turned and looked down, saw the dagger, and then looked up at Jacqueline. "You stabbed him?"

She nodded again, more hesitant than ever. What in the Nine Hells was going on here?

"That was well placed," he said. "If this lady of yours is half the wizard you are, I think we'll be glad of her help."

Alliances Offered, Part Nine

Aesa slid an axeblade aside and stepped forward, cutting on the pass; the would-be raider collapsed behind her, losing axe and torch alike. The falchion should have been too big for her, but its enchantments made it responsive and easy to handle. To her right, Anica slapped a raider's hand with her shield, driving the woman's torch into her own hair; Anica stabbed her in the gut as her hair caught fire. Two more were closing in on her, but she had the situation well under control. Beyond her, Werendril was dancing through their attackers, leaving deep slashes as he passed. More raiders were moving towards him, too, but for the moment Aesa was... 

Oh. The man in front of her was big, broad-shouldered and heavy; he moved like a bull, and was carrying a two-handed axe. Oh, that has to be the leader... They were an oddly mixed bag, these raiders, but then based on what Lady Andiras had told them, this Thesean fellow had probably hired whatever ruffians he could find to create this distraction. 

The man smiled, showing the semi-tusks that indicated orcish ancestry, and shifted his grip on the axe. "Oh, little girl," he said, "I am going to rip you in half and you are going to thank me for it." 

Amun save me from overconfident men, she thought, and started forward. 

Whoever he was, he wasn't subtle. Aesa dodged back from a powerful horizontal swing of the axe, then came in behind it, calling on Amun for strength. The god's blessing flowed through her, and the curved blade of the falchion came down like a stroke of lightning, cleaving through rough armor, collarbone, ribs... It caught for a moment in his spine, and she followed through with a movement that Ruin had drilled into her until it was automatic: step forward, and then kick and yank the blade back at the same time. Her falchion came loose, and the body tumbled away onto the ground as she stepped back to catch her balance.

As the corpse hit the grass, a voice came into her head: Aesa, I need you back in the bedroom. Thesean brought friends, and Tarric needs healing. She focused on the magic there, and thought as loudly as she could manage: Coming. 

"Anica! Werendril! I'm falling back!" she called. 

"We've got this!" Werendril called back, spinning through a movement that brought his blade around like a scythe and dropping another raider.

Then the garden turned suddenly bright as day as lightning struck one of the raiders and leapt to the next and the next and... Those who didn't fall turned and fled. They didn't get far; a second bolt followed the first. 

Lady Emiliana Fontaine had arrived.

Aesa saluted her with her sword, then turned to race back to the bedroom.

Alliances Offered, Part Eight

It was only a couple of hours before the dawn when the hound began baying, before the sound was abruptly cut off. Jacqueline Bouvier snapped awake, and turned her head in time to see the human paladin Anica give her a nod and then start shaking her husband Tarric awake. She did it by grabbing his foot, which seemed odd until Jacqueline realized that doing it that way kept her out of reach of fists or daggers as he flailed his way into consciousness. 

Following her example, Jacqueline reached over and shook Aesa's foot. The half-elf priestess came awake immediately, reached for her armor, and started pulling it on. "Direction?" she asked, almost breathlessly. 

"North wall," said Anica, almost as quietly. 

Tarric groaned, rolled over, and started grabbing for bits of armor. Like Anica, he was a human paladin. Their husband, the true elf paladin Werendril, was already on his feet and slipping into his armor; he wore a suit of enchanted elvish chainmail, and was ready to go almost immediately. 

"It's a raid," Jacqueline said quietly. "Thesean won't be leading it; he'll use it for a distraction. Anica, Aesa, and Werendril, will you go and meet them, so they don't do too much damage? I need Tarric here."

Anica nodded. "We'll handle it. You're sure you can handle this Thesean?" 

Jacqueline nodded back. "With Tarric's help." She'd spent a full day watching them spar; Tarric wasn't the best, but he had a solid defense. Not as untouchable as Werendril's, but Jacqueline wasn't quite prepared to put that much trust in an elf just yet. 

Outside the window, someone screamed. It didn't sound like it was close by, but it was still a call to battle. 

Tarric took a moment to check the arrangement of the cushions on the bed that were supposed to be mistaken for Tavros, then stepped back into his corner, just beside the bed and opposite the door, on the same side of the room as Jacqueline. Jacqueline took her own place behind the door. Anica, Aesa, and Werendril rushed out, pulling the door closed behind them. As they departed, Jacqueline heard Anica mutter, "His Majesty will be safe here. Let him sleep. Protect the walls."

Several long, nervous breaths passed before the door eased open and a pair of cloaked, hooded, masked figures slipped into the room. They paused, eyeing the bed suspiciously, and then moved closer... 

One of them shook his head, leaned down, and shook the pile of cushions beneath the blanket. Tarric stepped out from behind the dressing screen and cut that one down with a two-handed blow of his longsword... then shuddered as a broad-shouldered figure appeared from nowhere behind him, and plunged a dagger into his back. He stumbled forward, hit the bed, and twisted around. 

Thesean. Despite her determination to end him, Jacqueline Bouvier targeted his remaining assistant instead. Searing Rays slammed into that one's back, and it spun around and charged her instead of climbing across the bed to flank Tarric.

Tarric got his sword up and laid a line of blood across the front of Thesean's thighs, then took a precise step back with his shield raised. Jacqueline lost track at that point, because Thesean's flanker had reached her, and was trying to stab her, and it took every bit of technique she could remember as well as the magical protections she'd laid on earlier to avoid being cut. 

That's more than enough. She touched the small crystal sphere in her pouch, spoke the words, and worked the necessary gestures into her dodges. A Freezing Sphere engulfed most of the room, just far enough away to catch her attacker but not her. The shrouded figure shuddered and collapsed; unfortunately, so did Tarric. Thesean turned to her... and then stopped and gaped. "My lady?"

"So not yours," she told him, and fired off another set of Searing Rays. 

He staggered, but didn't go down. "You... Your father..." He came at her then, dropping his dagger, hands extended to grab her. 

She met him with Shocking Grasp, and he gasped and collapsed. She stepped past his helpless form, picked up his dagger, and regarded it. She knew how to use such a weapon; any noble lady worth her bloodline did. She turned back to him, approached him, knelt down beside him. "You should have learned how to take 'No' for an answer," she told him, and delivered the coup de grâce. 

It was possibly the most satisfying thing she had ever said. Her father might never hear it, but this ridiculous servant of his had. She straightened... and then remembered Tarric, fallen on the far side of the True Heir's bed. 

He wasn't dead, at least, but he wasn't far from it. My fault. Sweet Helios, my fault. She had no spells for healing, no knowledge of how to bind his wounds. But she had readied Message, and she spoke it now. "Aesa, I need you back in the bedroom. Thesean brought friends, and Tarric needs healing."

The half-elf priestess responded with a single word: "Coming."

Alliances Offered, Part Seven

"Here," said the priestess Aesa, and turned to step out through a stone archway and onto a balcony on the western wall of the citadel that was the Temple of Amun. Tavros, as promised, was standing beside the stone rail, watching the sun set. Orange-red light silhouetted his figure, and he didn't appear to have noticed their arrival. 

It was perfect. She'd asked Aesa to arrange for them to meet privately, but to make it look like an accident; the word that had gone around the temple suggested that she was a noble-born refugee from Wellfort, so if she was seen to offer counsel to the Fontaine Heir it would attract unwelcome attention. A chance meeting, though, would be easy enough to dismiss, and if anyone thought it was deliberate they were more likely to think she was courting him than anything else. A noble daughter seeking the attention of a prince was hardly noteworthy, after all.

"I'll wait," said Aesa, and stepped to the side, leaning back against the stone wall beside the doorway.

"Thank you," said Jacqueline Bouvier. 

She crossed the ledge slowly, coming up beside Tavros and pausing for a long moment to look out at the sunset. No wonder he likes this place. The view was amazing. 

He glanced over at her after a moment, then turned his attention back to the view. "Lady Andiras."

"Your Majesty." 

"Sister Tiva tells me you've been helping her with her accounts," he said. "She says you have a good eye for detail."

"I needed something to occupy my time," Jacqueline said, honestly, "and it pleases me to be able to assist the ones who took me in." She placed just a little emphasis on the word assist, and Tavros glanced at her. 

"Oh?"

"It seems that Giles Bouvier received your package," she said quietly. "He was much displeased, and one of his lieutenants has taken it upon himself to dispatch you. The pretender-king Bouvier was pleased by this offer; he promised my lady's hand in marriage if the man succeeded."

"I take it your lady objects to such a match?" asked Tavros, his voice wry.

"Strenuously." Jacqueline shifted her weight and met his eyes for moment. "His name is Thesean."

Tavros nodded. "How dangerous is he?"

"With the advantage of surprise, very dangerous." She tilted her head, still meeting His Majesty's eyes. "With me to identify him and express my lady's displeasure with him, not so much. He'll likely seek you at your mother's estate; Vigo has done a good job of shifting public attention there, and Thesean is cunning but not especially bright. I'd give even odds on whether he attempts an infiltration, or whether he simply brings help and stages a raid."

"I see," said Tavros, and took a moment to look at the sunset, which was rapidly disappearing. 

"Your Majesty," she said, "this is important to me."

"Eh? Oh, I wasn't going to cut you out. I was just thinking about how to arrange it so that you can get your piece of him without giving away the larger game."

Jacqueline Bouvier felt her shoulders relax. "The easiest way is to do what you already intend," she said. "Execute my father while Thesean makes his way here. Let me deal with him when he arrives."

"If he stages a raid, you'll need others with you," Tavros observed. "Otherwise, you might be overwhelmed, even with my mother on the premises."

Jacqueline nodded slowly. She'd never gone into battle before; he had. He was probably right. "Anica, Aesa, Tarric, and Werendril," she suggested. "Your friends."

Tavros nodded slowly. "Those are... good choices. And it wouldn't seem especially strange for them to visit my estate." He nodded again, this time more firmly. "Very well. I'll make the arrangements. And lady Andiras? I'm grateful. Even if you're doing this for your own reasons, I'm grateful."

Alliances Offered, Part Six

Alone in her small, comfortable cell, Jacqueline Bouvier -- who was pretending to be her own lady Tabitha Andiras -- touched the stone she had carried to Caristhium, and attempted to contact lady Tabitha Andiras, who was pretending to be her. Any news?

There was a brief pause, and then: Your father knows his assassins failed. Furious. Demands someone rid him of upstart. Thesean swears to kill Fontaine, will leave tonight. Father promised your hand.

Jacqueline nodded and sat back on the edge of the bed. She knew another attempt would be coming, especially once she'd learned that Tavros had sent the Solari Sorceress Reina's head back to her father in a box. Her father would demand blood in return, and if he couldn't have that then he would take it out on everyone around him. 

So it was no wonder at all that Thesean had offered to undertake the task, especially if her father was willing to offer her hand in marriage if he succeeded. The Solari was as ambitious as her father, just not so well positioned. Marrying her would put him in place to challenge her younger brother Charles for the role of Heir-Apparent... and departing the court at Wellfort to slay the Fontaine Heir would carry him out of reach of her father's current spite. Charles would have no such cover. And Thesean had wanted her for his own for years; her disdain for him only seemed to encourage him. Coming here himself would be a risk, yes, but one he couldn't resist.

So she needed to inform Tavros -- to tell His Majesty that an assassination attempt was coming -- but almost equally importantly, she need to position herself to spoil the attempt. It wasn't even a matter of continuing their plan or assisting the rightful king to gain his trust. No, this was Thesean, and Jacqueline Bouvier fully intended to kill him herself -- and for herself.

Alliances Offered, Part Five

Tavros rose from his chair in the sitting room as lady Tabitha entered. He offered a bow, and she made a very proper curtsy in return. Vigo the Whisperer was nowhere in evidence, but that -- her father had once warned her -- was when the spymaster was at his most attentive. And the Fontaine Heir wasn't alone; an elderly gnome sat in a chair at the same table, smiling cheerfully at her. A human woman, older but still spry, occupied the third chair at the table.

"You wanted to speak with me, Your Majesty?" Tabitha asked. 

His Majesty nodded. "Come, sit. Or stand, as you would. You've been here for most of a week, now. You aren't a spy, unless you're either far more restrained or far more skilled than any of us believe possible. Still, I can't imagine that lady Jacqueline Bouvier sent you here without the intent to gather some information, at least."

Lady Tabitha studied the gnome but didn't recognize him. The Abbess Hilda she'd seen in the halls a few times, and the woman worried her: she was far too cunning and canny to be avoided for long. Still... "Could we speak privately, Your Majesty?" 

Tavros shook he head. "I will not have it said that we spent time together unchaperoned. But if you wish it, I will have Geddy and Eva step outside, and the Abbess can bear witness to our meeting." 

Tabitha hadn't known the human woman who had come to fetch her, though Anica evidently had; the paladin had surrendered her into Eva's care without a moment's hesitation, and Eva had brought her here. Having the Abbess listen in wasn't her preference, but then Eva had a certain... presence... as well, and maybe this was better. "I wish it, yes."

"A moment, then," said the Abbess, rising. "Eva, would you be so kind as to go to the hall of learning and ask Brother Claudius to attend us?"

Eva nodded graciously, and the gnome said, "Later, Your Majesty." He was humming something as he went out the door, and Tavros grimaced. 

"Who is Brother Claudius?" asked Tabitha, as much to break the silence as anything else.

The Abbess smiled kindly. "He is our chief inquisitor," she said. 

Lady Tabitha felt herself flinch, but Tavros shook his head. "Not like the last king's Archons. The Inquisitors of Amun investigate magical crimes. Brother Claudius is a mystic theurge, both a priest of Amun and a wizard. He can do much to ward this room against eavesdropping, if it's privacy you want."

"Ah," said Tabitha, as a feeling of profound relief flowed through her. "Yes."

It took perhaps a quarter of an hour before the mystic theurge arrived and secured the room. She recognized most of the spells he used; they were a good selection. When he announced that it was done and departed, Tabitha turned to look at Tavros. "Would you have me tell you of my lady? Or of the Solari who guard Giles Bouvier? I have no further news of his plans for you as yet."

Tavros nodded. "Let's start with your lady," he said. "What is it that motivates her to help me?"

Lady Tabitha considered that. "She believes that Giles Bouvier has lost the mandate of heaven," she said. "She was raised to be loyal to the throne of Sol Povos, and her father's actions are treason."

"I see," said Tavros, in a neutral tone that might have meant anything. "She is loyal to me over her father?"

"Is that so hard to believe?" asked Tabitha.

"I don't know," he admitted. "In this, I have absolutely no basis for comparison. Very well, then, what of yourself? Have you informed your own father that I'm coming to execute him?"

"No, Your Majesty," she answered automatically, and then froze. Oh, shit. Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck fuck fuckity fuck shit-damn. She knew, at that moment, that she was doomed. They know. And it had been such a simple trap to catch her in, too.

Tavros sighed. "Lady Bouvier, why are you here?"

She looked at the Abbess, who was watching her curiously, then back at Tavros. The round table between them was simultaneously too much distance, and not enough, but she didn't trust herself to stand. Not now. Not if she was going to have to attempt a last-minute escape. "Because I want my father dead," she said, and tried to teleport. 

The spell hit another magic, rebounded, and left her reeling in her chair. Tavros sighed again, then reached down to his belt and pulled out five gold coins. He stacked them in front of the Abbess. 

"I told you," she said. "Nobody from the Court ever expects kindness. She is never going to believe that we might actually just want to help her. There always has to be an angle."

Tavros tilted his head, then turned back to look at Jacqueline. "If I offer you your freedom, will you tell me what your plan was?" He hesitated, then added: "I will tell you freely that we're all very confused as to why you're here and not Lady Tabitha."

And lady Jacqueline Bouvier, sitting there in the wreckage of her stupid, doomed, useless plan... decided to speak plainly. "That's because you don't know my father," she said. She drew a long, deep breath. 

"I wanted to spite him," she said. "I wanted to sabotage his plans the way he's always accused me of doing. Lady Tabitha agreed to stay at his court, and I gave her my face so he wouldn't know I was gone. She would learn what I should know, and I would pass it on to you, and my father would drive himself half-mad with trying to root out spies."

She paused, but Tavros remained silent. Unwillingly, she continued: "Then you told me that you planned to execute him, and... May Helios forgive me, I wanted that." 

She shook her head and sighed, then looked down at the floor. "I had thought that once I had helped you enough to prove myself trustworthy, I might reveal my true identity and perhaps even convince you to marry me. That would have done it -- Father would have been furious, and I would have been out of his reach at last. But helping you to execute him? That's even better, even if he'll never understand why he deserves it."

Tavros sighed. "You must hate him very much."

"Hate barely begins to cover it," Jacqueline told him. Honesty, it seemed, was addictive -- now that she'd begun, she couldn't seem to stop herself. And she had wanted someone to say these things to for a very long time now, she realized. "My father is ambitious, and he plays favorites -- not just with his supporters, but with his children. I was twelve years old when I realized he was doing it: the golden child of one week was the enemy of the next month. He expected us to be extensions of himself, slaves to his whims, anticipating his needs, aiding him in pursuing his goals. So he played favorites, to keep us divided against each other and desperate to please him."

The Abbess narrowed her eyes, looking thoughtful. "Why not kill him yourself, then?" she asked. "Vigo tells me you're quite the accomplished wizard."

Because I'm weak. Jacqueline clenched her teeth and looked away. "The gods know I've dreamed of it." She shook her head, laughing bitterly. "Do you really want to know why I never tried to kill him? This will make you laugh. I never tried to kill him because -- may the Three Covenants help me -- I still want his approval."

Tavros sat back and his face smoothed; the Abbess nodded slowly, her eyes sympathetic. 

Well, I've done it. I've given up any possible advantage I might have had and utterly destroyed my bargaining position. They'll never trust me now: they know exactly what a monster I am. Jacqueline sat there and watched them, feeling tired and empty and strangely relieved. At least it was over, now. And, really, there wasn't anything they could do to her that would be worse than what her father had done already.

The Abbess plucked two coins off the top of the stack in front of her, and placed them in front of Tavros. Tabitha had no idea what that signaled, but Tavros nodded. Then he looked back at her, studied her for another moment, and said, "It's not a bad plan."

"What isn't?" she asked, badly startled. 

"You stay here, pretending to be lady Tabitha, and pass along the information that lady Tabitha gathers, pretending to be you. I don't believe there are any spies in the temple, but we maintain the pretense as an extra precaution. Unless you'd prefer to return to your father's court, or flee somewhere else entirely. I won't hold you here against your will."

"You'd... let me stay?" she asked, dumbfounded. It took her a long, slow breath, but it made a sort of sense: nothing had changed, not really, it was just that His Majesty and the Abbess -- and no doubt Vigo the Whisperer -- would know who she really was. "Are you certain? I'm not... I'm not a very good person. And I can't prove to you that I'm on your side. You really don't have any reason to trust me."

"I'm not so sure of that," said Tavros, and the Abbess nodded:

"Neither am I, now." She was studying Jacqueline closely, but her study seemed born out of kindness rather than hostility. "We should talk, child, when you have a moment -- just you and I. But for now, we all have much to think on. Eva and Geddy will take you back to Anica."

Jacqueline recognized that as a dismissal, and rose from her chair. "I--" No, she really didn't know what she wanted to say. "Until later, then."

"A moment more, lady," said Tavros gently, and she hesitated. "You still have the opportunity to prove yourself trustworthy. You've conducted yourself well so far, and I am willing to offer trust to someone who might return it."

Jacqueline Bouvier, in the guise of Tabitha Andiras, swallowed and then, for lack of any better response, simply said, "Your Majesty," curtsied, and left the room.

Alliances Offered, Part Four

There was another elf in the library, this one seated at a table and looking at a book with an elderly human woman. This was the sort of elf she was familiar with, slender and graceful, but not so ridiculously swift as the one in the courtyard had been. A Grey Elf, Tabitha thought, though she hadn't met enough elves to be sure. She just remembered being told that the most dangerous of them were True Elves, the wildest were Sylvan Elves, and the most elegant were Grey Elves. This one looked very elegant indeed. The human woman beside her...

A court lady of that age would have spent her life treating her skin with balms and oils to keep it smooth, and might show a touch of wrinkles at the corners of her mouth, a few more around the eyes. This woman looked up and smiled sweetly through a face that seemed entirely made of wrinkles... but unlike much of the peasantry, she showed strong, white teeth when she did. She wore a simple cloth robe, bronze in color, and looked shockingly out of place sitting so casually beside the elf woman.

"Priestess," said the old woman warmly, just as the elf woman said, "Aesa." The old woman immediately turned her attention to Tabitha. "And who is this you've brought with you?"

"Lady Tabitha Andiras," Aesa told them. "Lady Tabitha, this is the Lady Martini Dwint’lithar, and this is Mother Mia."

Tabitha nodded. "An honor, I'm sure," she said, though at this point she was sure of precious little. None of this was going the way she'd expected.

The elf looked her over coldly, as if deciding which cuts of her meat would cook up the best. "The one in service to Bouvier," she said. 

"In service to Jacqueline Bouvier," Aesa said, before Tabitha could respond. She raised her eyebrows reproachfully. "And therefore a possible ally."

Martini made a noise that wasn't exactly agreement, but Mother Mia's smile widened. "Oh, marvelous! You've come quite a long and difficult way, I imagine."

Martini frowned at her, but the old woman met her eyes and said, "What? I'm old, I can hope for the chance to play matchmaker between Tavros and a noble daughter if I like."

Tabitha felt herself starting to blush and said, "You know the-- know Tavros, then?"

"Ha!" The old woman leaned forward, fixing her with one eye. "That child saved my life! Got us out the cage, out of the goblin village, kept us from the cookpots. Fought a giant to do it, too. If your lady isn't looking to ally with him, she should be." 

"She is," Tabitha said firmly. Again with the giant... but... "You were one of the ones he rescued?" 

The old woman laughed. "You should have seen it! He doomed the giant, then broke the back of that wicked priest, and then he had a bit of a talk with the hobgoblin chieftain. Meanwhile his friends were leading us away and covering our escape. Off into the night, just like old times..." 

Martini said, "Mother..." and the old woman glanced at her. 

"All right, all right," she grumbled. "Best we get back to this. But that Tavros, young as he is... He knows how to take advice, and who to take it from. You tell your lady that."

"I... I see," answered Tabitha, and threw Aesa a slightly desperate look. Get me out of here... 

Aesa nodded. "The sacred teachings are this way," she said, and moved towards an aisle between the shelves. "Unless you'd like something less edifying, in which case we should take a right at the end of these shelves."

"To the right," said Tabitha, "Please."

Alliances Offered, Part Three

Lady Tabitha Andiras thought she had understood just how different the Temple of Amun was from the Court where her father had made his name, with its traditional focus on the worship of Helios. That was until she followed a young but powerful priestess named Aesa out to the edge of the training yard in the center of the temple... and found the Fontaine Heir Tavros sparring with an elf... and not just any elf, a true elf. 

This one was obviously a warrior, and while his blade was slightly smaller it mirrored the Heir's own in form and function. The two of them were a curious juxtaposition, Tavros massive and powerful, the elf slender and fleet. 

He... let an elf come close to him with a blade? She thought, wondering, but then she remembered what Anica had told her. What makes him truly dangerous is his willingness to trust his friends. Still... the Fontaine Heir had elves for friends? 

Tabitha had little experience with weapons, but watching the two of them position themselves and exchange their blows, she had two thoughts. The first was that despite the differences in their strengths, they were surprisingly evenly matched. 

The second was that either one of them alone would tear right through Giles Bouvier's Royal Guard without breaking a sweat. They were fast, precise, deadly: murderous poetry in motion. The outcome of such a confrontation would never be in doubt. Of course, the would-be King in the East had other defenses, most of them Solari, and she would have to detail them to the half-dragon before he went to execute Giles Bouvier. But it was telling that Tavros himself didn't seem to keep any such guards around. 

What makes him truly dangerous is his willingness to trust his friends, Anica had said. And, Be his friends. Anyone trying to harm him here in the temple would quickly find the entire temple allied against them. 

"How well do you know Tavros?" she found herself asking. 

The cleric Aesa shrugged. "Fairly well. Not as well as Tarric and Anica, but fairly well. Well enough to give him advice, or accept it from him."

"Is he..." Tabitha hesitated, feeling that she was about to say something that sounded perfectly sensible to her, and would be taken without question at Court, but was going to sound strange and possibly insulting here. "Is he an elf-lover?" 

Aesa actually laughed. "Tavros loves who he loves, in the way that he loves them." She shook her head. "He and Ruin met in some sort of Otherworld called Fanaxia, and they've been friends ever since."

Sacred Helios, I'm an idiot child. Aesa's ears were slightly pointed, and her eyes sharp; she had some elvish blood herself. Tabitha braced herself for whatever punishment would follow, since obviously the Fontaine Heir and the Temple of Amun considered at least some elves to be allies. That felt like it should be treason, but... Duendewood was supposed to be part of Sol Povos, so maybe not? And Caristhium was not so far from Duendewood itself.

"Would you guide me on to the library?" asked lady Tabitha Andiras. "I need some time to..." She trailed off, uncertain of how to finish.

"...Digest?" suggested the cleric Aesa.  

Lady Tabitha nodded. "If you please."

"Of course," said the cleric, and led her away.

Alliances Offered, Part Two

Lady Tabitha followed the paladin Anica into the stone room. It was about what she'd expected from a temple: stone walls, floor, and ceiling, all of them well-polished but otherwise undecorated. The furnishings were simple: a bed, a desk, and a wardrobe; someone had set a candle-lamp on the desk. 

She nodded graciously. "This will be fine." 

Anica chuckled softly. "Not quite, lady Andiras. For tonight, I'll be sleeping out here, and you may have either of those two rooms." She gestured at a pair of doors on the far wall, and after a moment lady Tabitha crossed to the one on the left and pulled it open. It was similarly appointed, but the bed was smaller and entire room small and narrow, half the size of the outer room. "You would have me take the servant's room?" she asked, momentarily puzzled. 

"It's not a--" For a moment, the paladin looked thoughtful. "I suppose I can see why you might think so, but no. This is a family cell. The smaller rooms were intended for children, while the parents would share the main room. This is the Temple of Amun: we don't have servants here, but we do have married couples, and sometimes those couples have children."

What? "Paladins can't--" She cut herself off by an act of will. Well-bred young ladies did not have outbursts. "I did not know that paladins could marry. I thought your vows prohibited that."

"Ah," said Anica, and colored slightly. "That is true of the priests and paladins of Helios. Amun bids us to be part of the community, and that includes marriage and children should such opportunities be desired and found." She paused for a moment, then added: "If you like, you can meet my son tomorrow."

"You're married?" Tabitha devoutly hoped that she managed not to sound shocked.

"Yes," said Anica, and Tabitha was suddenly certain that there was more there. Anica wasn't lying to her, but she was definitely leaving some things out. 

"And Tavros?" Tabitha asked. "We understood that he wasn't married, despite considerable attention at Court when he was first raised to the Solari."

"Tavros isn't married," said Anica, and there was nothing indefinite in that statement. 

She didn't add anything else, and for a moment Tabitha was at a loss for how to continue. Finally she said, "So, I am to have the child's room?" 

Anica sighed, sounding genuinely exasperated. "Lady Andiras... Yes. You are to sleep in the child's room, so that you will have another room -- this room, with me in it -- between you and the rest of the temple. But that's to protect you, in case someone decides that you're a spy for the pretender Bouvier and tries to do you harm. It's also to protect us, in case you actually are a spy for the pretender Bouvier. It also allows you to be properly chaperoned during your stay here, so that nobody can try to claim that any other sort of impropriety might have occurred."

Well, when you put it that way... "I... I see," said Tabitha, pulling herself together. "I have been rude. You are trying to protect us both, while I am still behaving as if I am at Court. There, to be placed in the smaller room is, well..." She searched for the words to express how it felt. "...It is to actually be lesser."

Anica nodded, looking uncomfortable. "It's not at all that way here. Most of us sleep in cells like the one you'll be staying in -- even the Abbess herself. Your cell isn't small; this one is large, because it was intended for two people instead of one. And your cell isn't subordinate to this one; it's guarded by it. I swear on my honor, nobody here will be laughing because we tricked you into sleeping in the smaller room. Nobody here cares."

"I see that," said Tabitha. "Truly." Nobody here cares. The difference in perspective was almost incomprehensible, but also strangely liberating. If nobody cared, then she didn't have to care either. If it was possible not to care, maybe these things weren't truly important. If nobody cared... "Is that why His Majesty was so... informal?"

"Tavros?" Anica shook her head. "Tavros is just about as direct and honest as you can get. I once watched him kill a hill giant in hand-to-hand combat, and his idea of threatening the hobgoblin chieftain into leaving was still just to tell him what would happen if he didn't."

Tabitha drew back. "That... Did that actually happen?"

Anica nodded. "I was there. One of the tribes moved in and raided a nameless village on the shores of Lago Gota. The priests were busy organizing supplies and other assistance, so they sent Tavros, me, and Tarric -- he's my husband and a paladin, you'll probably meet him later -- on ahead. We found a tracker there, investigating, and learned that the attackers had departed with prisoners. So we followed, but we were captured. A simple net trap, but none of us saw it until it was too late." She paused to draw breath."They had a whole ritual arranged, including a contest. If one of us could defeat their champion, we would all go free; if our champion was defeated, they would eat us."

She paused, but Tabitha gestured for her to continue. 

"Tavros volunteered to face their champion, then told us to find ways to get ourselves and the prisoners out of there regardless. I honestly thought he was going to die. I thought he was sacrificing himself; we're paladins, we do that kind of thing. But Tavros went out into the clearing in the middle of their village, and he fought that thing, and he killed it. And while he was fighting it, we were killing our guards and taking their weapons, and trying to move everyone out of the village. But the moment the hill giant was out of the way, Tavros went after their priest and killed him, and then he walked up to their chieftain and just... explained that one way or another his tribe was going to end up annihilated if they didn't go back to their traditional hunting practices."

Anica swallowed and said, "The chief agreed. We haven't had any trouble from them since. Occasionally one of the goblins comes to the temple to report that they're still subsisting off the wilderness. Sometimes they report that they're having trouble, and we send food or other supplies. Tarric and I have gone out there twice, to help them deal with things that were just a little beyond their immediate abilities."

She paused, then shook her head. "It's not that they're loyal to Sol Povos. They don't need to be. It's not even that they're so terrified of Tavros that they don't dare attack. That isn't true at all. It's that he saw that the human who was giving them new ideas for rituals and traditions was corrupting them, and the moment he had the chance he killed that guy, and then reminded the tribe of what they should be. They did the rest on their own."

Tabitha took a moment to digest that, then said: "So what we were told at Court was true. Tavros Fontaine really did slay a hill giant to rescue the survivors of a goblin attack. That was why he was chosen to join the Solari." She tried to look apologetic. "We don't... didn't... always trust the King's pronouncements, and Tavros was the King's nephew."

Anica actually laughed. "You thought it was an exaggeration to cover nepotism?"

"It might have been," Tabitha replied defensively. 

"No," said Anica firmly. "It happened. But what you might not have been told, and what you might want to tell your Mistress, is how Tavros defeated the hill giant."

Tabitha frowned. "I mean, he is half-dragon..."

"You've never run into giants before, I take it. In full armor, with a blade, he might have been evenly matched against a hill giant. Bare-handed? He should have died. He knew it, I knew it, Tarric knew it."

"I take it that it wasn't luck, or the will of Amun," observed Tabitha. 

Anica shrugged. "Perhaps some of that as well," she conceded. "But mostly, it was an elderly herbwife from the village, who was able to mix up a particularly virulent poison that Tavros could coat his claws with. Once he'd made contact, he just had to survive long enough for it to take effect." She paused and drew a breath. "What I want you -- and your Mistress -- to know... is this: Tavros is strong by himself. But what makes him truly dangerous is his willingness to trust his friends." She paused again, fixing Tabitha with her gaze. "Be his friends."

Tabitha nodded back. "I assure you again, we are." She drew a long, slow breath. She didn't think Anica had been exaggerating anything she'd just told, let alone lying outright, and that alone was enough to set her mind reeling. Someone like that... a king like that... She shook her head. "Of course I'll tell my Mistress."

Anica nodded. "Are you ready for some rest?" she asked. "Or would you like to tour the temple? I could show you some of the places where you could occupy yourself while you're here." 

Helios protect me, not yet. None of that yet. She was suddenly very tired. "I think... I think I would prefer to sleep. It has been a very long day. A very long series of very long days." 

"There's a bathing room at the end of the hall," said Anica. "I'll have to accompany you, of course." 

"That won't be a problem," Tabitha told her. Noble ladies were permitted privacy only in limited ways, and in any case she was determined to adapt. "A thorough bath and a full night's sleep will put a great many things to rights." She paused, then added: "Thank you for talking to me, and for your..." She hesitated. "...care."

Anica sniffed. "Life at Court sounds very unpleasant. I'm glad I never had to be part of it."

Tabitha managed not to gasp at that unexpected heresy, but it was a near thing.

Tavros: Alliances Offered, Part One

"I still think a Kingsmoot would--"

"No," answered Tavros in a tone of absolute finality. "He would have prevented us from stopping the Tarrasque, and left the beast to continue its rampage. He is a traitor to the people he wishes to rule, unworthy of land and title, and he needs to be deposed. Now."

Vigo paused. "You plan to take care of it yourself, then, Majesty?"

"Yes," said Tavros. "We wouldn't want to risk any lèse-majesté, and if we take him out ourselves we can spare his armies. I suspect we're going to need them before this is all over."

Vigo fell silent, and Tavros could almost see the loom spinning in his head, tracing out plans, contingencies, possibilities...

"And after him, Lamont?" Vigo frowned. "That will be dangerous, Majesty; if Bouvier falls, Lamont will be warned."

"Not after," Tavros said. "At the same time. Martini will organize that expedition."

"I see," said Vigo. "And your concerns of lèse-majesté?"

Tavros was quiet for a moment. "You know Lamont's reputation. Bouvier, at least, can claim that he was trying to restore order and rebuild the kingdom. Lamont took his troops into Duendewood to try to carve out an independent kingdom for himself at the expense of the elves. Bouvier may be permitted to die with some small dignity... but for Lamont, nothing."

"We may make a proper king of you yet, Majesty." Vigo bowed and started to turn away. 

"Your Majesty!" called another voice, and Tavros suppressed a groan as Vigo stopped and turned back. 

Werendril was coming down the hallway, moving lightly with long, easy strides. He stopped and offered a bow, with just a hint of a mischievous smile to let Tavros know that he was doing this even though he knew that the half-dragon hated it. "You have a messenger, your highness."

Tavros turned his head slightly to the side. "From whom?"

"A young woman just arrived," said Werendril. "Human, neatly dressed. She claims to be the lady Tabitha Andiras, in the service of Jacqueline Bouvier."

"And where is she now?" asked Vigo, cutting in automatically. 

The true elf paladin studied Vigo the Whisperer for a long moment, then turned his attention back to Tavros. "Tarric and Anica took her down to the dining hall, Majesty. They sent me to find you."

Tavros motioned for Werendril to lead the way, and Vigo fell in beside him as he followed. "Slow down," Vigo whispered. "You must keep a dignified pace." 

"Later," said Tavros. "Tell me about Jacqueline Bouvier."

Vigo fell silent for a long moment. Then he said, "Jacqueline Bouvier is the eldest daughter of Giles Bouvier. She would be... twenty-four now, I believe. She's said to be well-educated, skilled in the courtly graces, and not unattractive -- though I have not had the privilege of meeting her myself."

"Any idea why she would send a messenger to me?" 

"Many," answered Vigo, "but none that I would care to place money on. Perhaps once we have heard the message, Majesty."

Ahead of them, Werendril reached the wide doorway of the dining hall and passed through. Tavros slowed, and Vigo slowed with him. With dignified steps, he entered the hall.

There was indeed a human woman sitting with Tarric and Anica, plates of food in front of all three of them. The woman looked up, saw him, and started to rise -- but Tavros shook his head and gestured, and she settled herself again. It would have been awkward to have her trying to bow or curtsy while trapped between the table and one of the long, wooden benches. 

The room wasn't terribly full, but it wasn't empty either. A handful of novices and acolytes were clustered at one of the round tables in the back corner, and the Abbess and Sister Tiva had managed to settle in to eat within easy earshot of the new arrival. Brother Alaric was chatting with a couple of the newer clerics over near the serving area, and one of the other paladins was having a quick meal alone; his spear leaned against the wall beside him. 

Tavros crossed directly to the bench opposite the young woman, and seated himself. 

"You-- Your Majesty," she said, catching herself neatly. 

"I'm told you carry a message for me," Tavros said, as Vigo slid onto the bench beside him. 

Lady Tabitha Andiras glanced around. "Would you have me speak of it here, Majesty?"

Tavros considered that briefly, because that had been exactly what he intended. Still... "I could arrange an audience at my mother's estate," he offered, "if you would prefer that."

The lady clicked her tongue once, then shook her head. "No, better here. I only thought..."

"These are my people," said Tavros, glancing around. "I do not care what they hear. But if the message is particularly sensitive, I will arrange for a smaller and less haphazard audience."

The young woman studied him for a long moment, then said: "I suppose it matters not. I am lady Tabitha Andiras, in the service of lady Jacqueline Bouvier. My lady sent me to bring you warning."

Vigo opened his mouth and drew breath to speak, then closed it again and exhaled when Tavros looked at him. "What sort of warning?" asked the half-dragon. 

"Lady Jacqueline warns that her father intends your death. He has sent some of his Solari to ambush you should you try to destroy the great beast in Summerwind; he has hired assassins to find you at your mother's estate; and he is considering mounting an attack to conquer Caristhium itself."

"He's going to be badly surprised," muttered Anica. Tabitha glanced at her, but she shook her head. 

"They failed in Summerwind," Tavros observed. 

"Already?" asked Tabitha. "May I ask how you managed that? The Sorceress Reina was very strong, one of lord Bouvier's best."

"Ours proved better."

"And the great beast? It is slain?"

"Turned to a statue in the town square," said Tavros. 

"A great victory for Your Majesty," said Tabitha, looking down at the table. 

"I would credit my friends," Tavros observed wryly. "Though I suppose that choosing the right allies is the mark of a good king." He had changed that much, he thought. He had begun to think that he might have the makings of a king.

Lady Tabitha looked back up, studying him while trying to look like that wasn't what she was doing. He wasn't sure what she read on his face -- being a half-dragon gave him a very different bone structure, and his expressions weren't easy for most people to read. He'd long ago learned not to show his teeth when he smiled; his fangs were sharp, and made it look like he was snarling even when he was nearly helpless with laughter. 

"As to the assassins," she continued a full breath later, "my lady says not to fear a night attack, but rather to check and re-check anyone recently taken into service."

Tavros glanced at Vigo, who nodded. "I will speak to the lady Emiliana."

"As far as my lady knows," Tabitha said, as Tavros returned his attention to her, "her father has not gathered forces for an assault. He has merely made plans, perhaps only as a contingency."

Tavros nodded slowly. 

Anica said, "Good. Any force marching on Caristhium is in for a nasty shock."

"How do you mean?" asked Tabitha. 

Anica shook her head, and Vigo said: "It is good for you know that we have forces prepared to defend this place, but not their nature, disposition, or capabilities."

Tabitha nodded. "Lady Jacqueline said you would think me a spy, and all this a trap. I do not know how to convince you otherwise, but... she would be your ally."

"Why?" asked Tavros, because it seemed that someone needed to.

"Giles Bouvier," she replied, "has lost the Mandate of Heaven; such were my lady's words. She says that her father might be forgiven for trying to murder the last remaining Fontaine heir, were you a fool or a madman; but it is obvious that you are neither. And I was there when she begged him not to kill you before you had a chance to slay the great beast, but he insisted that the best opportunity would be while you were busy fighting it. He would have left it alive to destroy what it would, just to be rid of you."

Tavros frowned thoughtfully. "Does your lady seek shelter?" he asked. "I am willing to provide it, even to the firstborn child of Giles Bouvier."

"She dares not leave the court at Wellfort," said the lady in waiting, "at least not yet. That is why she sent me."

Vigo's eyes narrowed, but he said nothing. "Very well," he said. "What of you? Would you prefer to remain here, or return to your lady?"

The young woman who had introduced herself as Tabitha Andiras swallowed, then said: "I would prefer to remain here. I am sorry; I know that makes me look even more like a spy. But it would be even more of a risk to try to return than it was to leave." She hesitated, then added: "Lady Jacqueline bade me tell you that she can still speak to me while I am here, and hear my replies. I know how that sounds, but she said that we must begin with honesty to avoid misunderstandings later."

"I see," said Tavros slowly. "She too is a sorceress?"

"A wizard," lady Tabitha replied.

"Then in honesty, your lady should know that I am going to have to execute her father."

Lady Tabitha paled. "She would hate that," she said, but then after a heartbeat she added: "But I think she would understand."

"Very well." Tavros looked at Vigo, then rose. "You may stay. We will assign someone to watch over you, to serve as guard, bodyguard, and guide."

"I'll do it myself, for tonight," said Anica, and Tavros nodded. "No doubt the Abbess can arrange things for tomorrow."

Tavros met the Abbess' eye as he stood, and she winked at him. Yes, someone will definitely be keeping an eye on lady Tabitha. He stepped out from the bench, turned, and departed again; Vigo followed slightly behind him. 

"It's her," said Vigo, when they were out in the hall and safely out of earshot. 

"What?" said Tavros. "No, that's insane. Why would Jacqueline Bouvier come here herself when she actually could send one of her ladies to spy for her?"

"I don't know," muttered Vigo darkly, as if the admission pained him. "But I'd swear to it. There was a moment there when she very nearly said 'my father', and her reaction when you told her you planned to murder Giles Bouvier--"

"Execute," corrected Tavros. 

"--execute Giles Bouvier," Vigo restated. "It was too firm, too definite. She knows that Jacqueline Bouvier would understand because she understands, and she is Jacqueline Bouvier."

Tavros took a moment to weigh that and try to find a measure for it. Finally he said, "You may be right, but it's still utterly ridiculous. And regardless, for now we treat her like the lady-in-waiting and possible spy that she appears to be." 

Vigo nodded. "I hear and obey, but also -- I concur, Your Majesty."