§
“Her Grace, Tiana, Duchess of Pendor and Bride of the Southern Viceroy, is entering!”
I managed not to roll my eyes at the overly formal declaration as I approached the formal dining room of the Ducal Residence. This would be the first ‘official’ time that I entered since this chamber ceased to be the temporary War Room, so the voice of Mr. Makit, the castle steward, carried an extra level of pride as he said it.
This is the ‘private’ dining room, but that implies something more fitting for dining nooks inside my ducal apartments or Rod or Mireia’s suites. It’s ‘private’ only in the sense that it is the dining room for the duchess rather than a dining room for state dinners and other large events. In other words, I entertain my personal guests in this place.
Since the dining room constitutes the opposite end from my office of the Solar, the top floor of the Keep that constitutes the actual family residence, I beheld at the far end of the room a mirror image of my office, an all-glass apse. Enchantments render the windows one-way and the rooms magically shielded, so that a hovering spirit or other spy tool outside cannot peer in, but that all-glass space at the end was Mother’s cocoon of sunlight or moonlight, the natural light that a fairy craves.
In my office, my desk occupied that space, at the end of a room lined with bookcases and file cabinets. Here, the round window wall and half-dome glass ceiling lay at the end of parallel lines of windows, draping all seats at the dining table in that natural light.
Very fairy-like. Not very vampire-like. Obviously, this floor underwent massive renovation after Mother took over as duchess.
Formality needed to reign here. While the double doors swung open and everyone inside stood for me, I grew my wings just as Mother would have done, and made my way the length of the room to my seat, giving a nod of acknowledgement to each of my dinner guests as I walked.
My husband, because subjects of his viceroyalty were involved. Diur and Pasrue, Amana and Serera. For some reason, Ryuu and Laylin, too. Gyges because I wanted an Immortal opinion in the room.
Mireia felt her presence wasn’t appropriate. Neither my husband nor I agreed, but we respected her choice. She was still growing accustomed to her role. She didn’t grasp yet that she was, for all practical purposes, the second wife of a royal, not his mistress.
Finally, the people in question, a group of Diur’s new servants. One man and three women, who looked like they also felt out of place in this setting.
Actually, one of the three women could not possibly be a Servant, but she was clearly together with them.
And the ‘man’ was barely more than a boy, only just old enough to hold a sword or a job in this world. The oldest of the women was the right age to be his mother, the other two, elder sisters. Not that I saw anything to suggest they were actually related. One of the elder sisters, the definite non-Servant, probably was not.
I took my seat, a backless stool that allowed me to keep my wings as I sat, then gestured for everyone else to do the same.
“Thank you all for joining me this evening,” I said with a smile as they sat, more or less as a unit. I did my best not to shake my head at the profound silliness of it all. What’s the point of making everyone stand as I enter and sit after I sit?
<Every power structure requires a certain degree of ritual to maintain order,> Fan Li advised me, with a tinge of disapproval for my attitude.
She’d been the chief adviser to an emperor, and she rightfully saw my position as similar. I accepted the scolding without retort. I already understood that I must accept this role without cynicism, and perform it with dignity.
“Your Royal Highness the Viceroy,” I addressed my husband. “Some here are new to me. Have they been introduced?”
“No, Your Grace,” he stated, “As I permitted them to wait for your presence.”
I nodded, and glanced at my sister, “Your Highness, your delegation has brought them to me, so I will rely on you for introductions.”
Princess Amana gave me a twinkling-eyed fairy smile, but nodded serenely. “Yes, Your Grace, I suppose we should do this according to Mortal etiquette, after all.”
“My deepest gratitude for your understanding,” I replied. “And thus…”
“The mortal seated beside Sir Diurhimath,” she said while extending her hand palm-up toward the older of the two women I designated the ‘big sisters’ previously, “Is Lady Ansri, the rightful heir of the County of Lower Pendor, whom Sir Diurhimath retrieved from behind enemy lines.”
Indicating the young man next to her, “Beside her is Lord Tagit, who is probably now Baron of Gohen. I understand the position of Ansri’s fiancé now falls to him, as his elder foster brother also died in battle.”
I raised my eyebrow slightly. This fellow was easily five years younger than his future bride.
Having a spare fiancé would be an unusual arrangement for a woman, but it would be a gender-reversal of what some southern Orestanian families do for their male heirs. The only difference would be that the ‘spare’ fiancées of a male heir would have assured places as concubines, but there is no legal provision for women to have male concubines. This young man had been a literal spare. His only future with her was if something happened to the lead candidate. Which was now apparently the case.
“He is probably now Baron?” I echoed, mostly to come up with a better explanation for my expression.
As I guessed, the answer was, “Whether his father lives or not is currently unknown, but he is presumed dead.”
“Another battle casualty?” I wondered.
Almost as a unit, the four guests tensed. A shared trauma?
The young man answered, “It was… a sudden onslaught of demons during a recent battle. He and his knights seem to have perished together. We were not close enough to tell for certain.”
“The events at Brigdion?” I guessed.
When Ryuu destroyed the demon lord’s triplication spell, a lot of demons suddenly turned up on the battlefield at Brigdion, creating chaos. In the process, quite a number of mortals on both sides of the battle perished.
Amana nodded. “Indeed.”
I gave the young baron a sympathetic nod. “My condolences, My Lord.”
“Th… thank you, Your Grace,” the young man said, staring down at his folded hands.
And to the countess, I quoted Amana. “The ‘rightful heir’, my sister said. Do you not claim the title?”
Unlike the baron, we already knew the Earl of Lower Pendor was, after all, no longer in this world. He fell during our invasion of his county.
She pressed her lips together, then admitted, “As my homeland is now your occupied territory, I would be quite arrogant to assert that claim to your face, Your Grace. In the current setting, I shall declare no more than the position I held in my father’s house.”
I nodded, with a smile. “Fair enough.”
My sister continued, gesturing to the woman I tentatively tagged the ‘mother’ earlier. “The next person after our probable baron is the former captain of the remaining Lower Pendorian mages, Colonel Dalil. Her surviving subordinates make up a large part of the townspeople. Childe Ansri and the young baron were serving under her as well.”
That was the first time I heard that the townspeople were mages, or a military unit! I turned annoyed eyes to Diur.
“Sir Diurhimath, do I understand correctly that you transported an entire rebel military unit onto my duchy’s territorial soil?”
His face was a completely unrepentant mask. “They have all sworn loyalty to your king and your side, Your Grace. Regardless of whether you support Childe Ansri’s claim to her county, they are your soldiers.”
The part left unsaid, ‘and they are all my Servants, and will not oppose my ally.’
“If I may be permitted, Your Grace,” the young heiress ventured.
I considered her, saw her discomfort, and pinched the bridge of my nose.
“I already have Sir Diurhimath’s assurances, My Lady. You need not say it. Please be at ease.”
And to him, “Sir Diur, I appreciate your point and I trust your judgment. I just want you to recognize what an awkward position you’ve just put me in. I have to explain this to my subordinates.”
My husband let out a chuckle, probably calculated to put people at ease… no, he’s not that sly. Actions like that are just instinctive for him.
“I think you have enough credibility with your people to make them accept it, Your Grace. And I recognize that you trust Sir Diurhimath.”
I pursed my lips while glancing over at him. He was giving me an easy smile. A Relax,Ti, smile.
I admitted, “I do. Given what we know about the rebel leadership, I’m aware he would never side with them.”
“Then I’ll trust it, too.” But he turned his eyes to Diur and added, “You presume too much, however, Sir Diurhimath. Consult and communicate in the future before acting, please.”
Diur inclined his head. “I understand, Your Highness.”
I sighed, then nodded. “Right. So we have one guest remaining to introduce?”
My gaze turned to the other ‘big sister”, a dark-eyed beauty with natural grace. This one held my genuine curiosity, because, among other things, she absolutely could not be Diur’s Servant.
And the second thing was, this was not our first meeting. That was when she acted as one of Lady Josannah’s sidekicks, while ganging up together to harass Mireia at the school dance.
And the third thing was, she was either a vampire, or a related monster species.
By appearance, the woman was Rod’s age, which, as a human, would make her a bit younger than the young heiress. As a non-human, guessing her age was dicey without knowing her species, though.
She inclined her head to me as Princess Amana introduced her.
“This is Lady Ilni, also of the Lower Pendor household.”
The introduction made the woman look a trifle pained, but she kept her lips tight.
“Um, if I may,” Lady Ansri ventured once again.
“I did notice that my sister’s introduction was problematic in some way,” I said with a smile.
“I would not call it problematic, Your Grace,” the noblewoman replied with a shake of the head. “I absolutely consider my sister my family. But for certain reasons, she cannot claim membership in the comital household. Our father obtained for her a life baronetcy rather than granting her a place in the line of succession.”
I easily parsed and reassembled those words as, my sister is not my father’s legitimate daughter, but he provided for her future in another way. Likely, the legal wife wouldn’t accept her mother as a concubine and did not permit her legitimization.
Well, Ilni’s biological mother was definitely some type of monster, and provincial attitudes can be pretty harsh on us monster types. The father had to bend to his wife’s prejudice, no doubt. But, obtaining a noble status for the child made him a considerably better father than most nobles with illegitimate daughters. Such a thing is rare, and usually only done for a son.
I wondered why the Earl of Lower Pendor sided with the rebels. He was sounding a lot more progressive than I would have expected.
“Well, then, Lady Ilni, I take it you are here in support of your sister and brother-in-law?” I asked.
“Yes, Your Grace,” she replied, her chin raising slightly. “As a knight of Lower Pendor, I am My Lady’s sword and shield.”
I folded my hands in front of me. In my [Spirit Sense], I saw that the servers were using the dumbwaiter to bring the food up, just outside the doors, so I went ahead and broached the most important question now, before they entered.
“I assume your Lady knows what those certain reasons are, regarding you. Although I am not sure about your precise nature, I can see it in general.”
Her mouth twisted, then she held up her wrist to display the bracelet there. I’ve seen them many times before. On Bruna’s wrist, for example.
“My father enslaved a feral monster on the Southern Continent and brought her back with him, Your Grace. I am that monster’s daughter.”
I pursed my lips. “Your appearance puts me in mind of a vampire, but I do believe that you are not one, after all?”
She shook her head, while putting her hand down, then pursed her lips for a moment before answering.
“I’m a gorgon, Your Grace.”
“Ilni?!” Childe Ansri immediately cried out in alarm. She gave me a wide-eyed look.
She was in fear of my response, not her sister’s species. Which told me the vital information I needed to know. My hand shot out to stop my husband’s reaction before his hand could reach his weapon. Before speaking to him, I gave the sisters a reassuring nod and smile.
“Let’s calmly hear their story, Your Highness. She poses no threat to anyone while Diur and I are in the room, after all.”
