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Benedetta is a sensible woman. Although she remained apologetic, when I made it clear we needed to get on with business, she went right to work.
By which I mean, she practically took over. In response to my request to move our discussion to a better location than a dusty store room in the basement (dungeon) of the castle, she curtseyed and replied quite formally.
“Your Royal Highness, My Lady, I apologize for the inconvenience, but the most suitable location for our business is somewhat far from here. Please follow me.”
She then proceeded to lead us upstairs to the ground floor, then straight out of the Main Keep entirely. Although, because I realized where we were headed in time, I did dismiss Terese and Genette before we exited.
Narses Castle began as a fortress built to house an entire Imperial Garrison, long before the Upper Town existed and long before Narses grew to dominate Pendorian commerce. The original structures, including the almost megalithic foundation of the outer wall, were some of the first large-scale human constructions in the region, erected once the camps for the construction workers and the first port facilities were set up, during the reign of the Dorian emperor who founded the city.
The fortress had crumbled into an unoccupied ruin during the Kingdom era of Pendor, when Mother and Father built the Royal Palace on a much broader hill nearby, building Upper Town around it. But after they lost control of the kingdom and it dissolved into chaos, Father led Orestanian forces southward to re-conquer it as a duchy (probably so that the massive, empire-sized kingdom to the north would help stabilize it and prevent further chaos.) Pendor at that time was in an almost constant state of war, between the other Dorians to the west attacking and the ongoing threat of rebellion from the not-yet-fully-conquered countryside. In response, Father decided to build a castle, physically separated from Upper Town, to house his most loyal retainers and troops. The old Imperial ruin was a natural choice.
Only those massive foundation stones still exist, but they now hold up a grand curtain wall with high towers, which form the South Bailey and surround the Main Keep. But Father also built huge retaining walls on the more gentle incline of the northern slope of what was now Castle Hill, and had all the rubble from the old fortress pushed into the space within them as landfill. He built additional, even higher curtain walls on top of the retaining walls, thus creating the North Bailey.
Here, he built the Tower Keep, with its north wall blended into the curtain wall, where it and the retaining wall it sat upon now replaced the former gentle slope with a towering straight vertical drop. The tower and bailey became a second fortification within the castle, a secure refuge for his people to fall back into, if enemies somehow cracked the first line of defense.
It’s too small to serve as a Ducal palace in modern Pendor. It lacks a proper grand ballroom and the banquet hall is too small. Plus there are no proper meeting chambers for the governing council. Instead, it now serves as an annex, providing housing and offices for administrative personnel.
Benedetta led us across the North Yard of the South Bailey, through the North Bailey Gate House, across the Inner Yard and on into the Tower Keep entrance, while guards and others snapped to attention everywhere along the way.
Inside the Main Keep, many individuals had been doing this upon seeing Rod, and to a lesser extent when seeing me, but everyone reacted instantly to this woman. Perhaps our faces were not yet known to everyone, but it became crystal clear as we walked that the person who didn’t recognize Benedetta in this castle didn’t exist. She might be pretending to be a mere Head Maid in Atianus, but she plainly wasn’t doing so here.
When I glanced over at Rod, I saw a momentary wry smile. He had also noticed it.
In a different frame of mind, we might have chatted on the way, but Benedetta was tight-lipped and quiet, loudly advertising her anger without any words at all. After a brief conversation in which I informed her about my instructions to everyone on how to address me, we didn’t speak at all.
Since Rod and I were also quiet, Gyges was the only one who spoke much at all, and she did it in spiritual voice, asking me questions about Mother’s current state and my plans. I answered as succinctly as I could, since I wasn’t in much of a mood to talk. Catching on fairly soon, she stopped sending me questions and just tagged along quietly.
Benedetta must have sent her orders to the staff before she came, because about a dozen people dressed like the court ladies and clerks in the Palace in Atius had already gathered in the meeting room at the end of our walk when we arrived. Their chairs were arranged like a classroom, facing an empty set of chairs at the front, facing back. They all rose and bowed deeply, Dorian-style, as we entered.
The good viscountess leading the way still had that ‘in charge’ atmosphere, so I stayed back and let her carry on. Rod looked like he wanted to go step in, but I grabbed his hand and caught his eye, giving a quick shake of my head. Leaving matters to her for the time being, we took seats together with Gyges in the row facing the room from the front. Our choice to sit seems to have been taken as a signal for them to sit as well.
“Good Afternoon, everyone,” Benedetta greeted them, but her tone was dark, and the response from the room was muted. After she’d paused long enough for them to make their contrite greetings, she held her hand out toward me.
“Allow me to introduce to you My Lady Tiana, the First Daughter of Pendor, who is the Acting Duchess of our land. I would like for her to hear your explanations for how this fact somehow escaped your notice.”
The already pale faces of her audience seemed to lose even more color as their eyes turned as one toward me.
I’m not going to give a detailed description of the meeting. I will only say that within the first fifteen minutes, I was already honestly feeling terrible for these people. I very quickly saw how things had come to this. Frankly, I suspect that, within one more day, they would have realized the problem and fixed it themselves. Reality simply hadn’t granted them the luxury of that one extra day.
It had started with the two aides in charge of keeping Mother and Benedetta informed. Because they needed to be able to communicate long distance, Mother always had Light mages filling this role. And naturally, she had some very good ones working for her.
One of them was the point woman for Benedetta’s staff (the Ducal government side) and the other was the point woman for Carson’s staff (Mother’s business interests.) They could cover for each other in the event one of them was temporarily unavailable, and of course, they had subordinates designated to fill in for them in the case of longer absences.
Once the war broke out, Mother began working out of an office at Army Headquarters, so naturally, her aides stayed by her side. And thus, when Inda was there, acting as the Duchess while Mother suddenly flew off toward Atianus, determined to protect Owen, they had been next to her, and the attack came…
They were mages, and Mother tended to hire mages who could take care of themselves in an emergency, so they were both ex-military. Both had combat experience, so neither sought cover like civilians probably should have. Although, from eyewitness reports, the attack was so sudden and severe, they might not have had time to seek cover.
After the attack, chaos ensued. The reports that came in were confusing. Witnesses first reported that the Duchess had died, then became contradictory, as some members of the staff knew that she had a body double. But the person in question had made a powerful attempt to defend herself, and ended up revealing herself as some form of fairy or half-fairy, creating doubt that it had been a body double and not Mother herself. From there, matters only became more confused.
Mother had recently given Amana emergency deputy powers in the case that she was publicly gone from the capital, so my sister was able to take charge and bring an end to the chaos. The staff was able to confirm the death of both of Mother’s aides, and so their designated subordinates stepped in, but because of all the trouble causing a rapid increase in workload, Amana had told them to stay at their normal offices and she would come to them for briefings. She did leave them a spirit stone they could contact her with, in case of emergencies.
I had covered my face with my palm when I heard that. The stone probably communicated with spirits that traveled with her, since Amana, like Dilorè, was a spirit trainer. If it had been a normal communication stone, she probably would have handed the matching stone she was carrying over to me. Instead, she forgot about the vital link when she left.
“Well,” I suggested, “My sister likely thought you would start communicating with me after the announcement that I was now Acting Duchess.”
Benedetta didn’t buy it. “They already knew you were the heir, My Lady. They should have contacted you as soon as they knew you were in the Castle. So I would like to know why they did not. A delegation should have been sent to meet with you in person, yesterday!”
Reluctant eyes looked among themselves, and expressions turned extra dark in the process. I was looking at senior staffers, with ages averaging between forty and fifty, and yet the atmosphere was more like a roomful of scolded elementary students.
It felt off. It wasn’t the normal behavior of people their age at their level of responsibility. That thought caused me to start looking at them more closely.
As the seniormost staffer, a woman on the verge of middle age in the front row who was covering her clenched fist with her other hand, spoke in a trembling voice, “My Lady, we were still reporting to Fairy Amana and we did begin sending detailed reports to His Royal Highness’s staff. We understood that Her Ladyship was with him.”
The tight grip she had on her fist attracted my fairy sight to her left wrist. I quickly began looking around the room, recognizing a disturbing trend.
Benedetta looked like she was going to retort with barely suppressed anger, so I quickly spoke before she could.
“My Lady, forgive me for interrupting,” I said from my seat. “I would like to have the floor for a bit.”
Her eyebrows raised slightly as she turned my way, then she nodded. “Of course, My Lady. The floor belongs to you in the first place.”
“Everyone please stay seated,” I said before I rose. Then I walked forward, passing a curious Benedetta as she stepped back to make way for me, until I stood in front of the seniormost staffer. She looked close to passing out as she looked up at me, and I could see she was actually trembling. She gave me the distinct image of a rabbit looking up at a wolf.
I reached down and took her left hand, holding it gently as she shivered, then asked her as kindly as I could, while touching my fingers to the bracelet on her wrist, “Madam, is it possible that you and your colleagues are my father’s former blood slaves?”
