You begin to list off the likely consequences of the scenario as the Kaiser appears to have envisioned it - he arrives at court, takes his daughter, puts her on a boat back to Vesperlund, and what does he think will happen then? Will she come along quietly? You both know that this will not be case. Will the Queen agree to being treated this way, to be humiliated before her court? Does the Kaiser envision that, were she to refuse, that he would storm the walls of the castle and take his daughter back by force? Come back later with an army, by which time the Princess will be long gone to Jovanast or worse, the Free Isles? None of this is going to end well for anyone involved if matters are permitted to escalate. This is why you are here - to defuse the situation, for which the establishment of a consulate is the clear and obvious solution.
5
The Kaiser narrows his eyes, grumbling for a second, and you hear him rustle within his ceremonial dress. There is the clinking sound of clasps being undone and curtains of jewelry and armor parting as hands travel through them. Silk cloaks separate, and finally the front of the robe opens. The Kaiser takes off his three-tiered crown of Vesperlund, Malahest and the Teeth Inimical, passing it off to the side as he struggles to get out of the topmost layers. Nervous ladies-in-waiting crowd around and fuss with the airs of people who are seeing the work of many hours carelessly destroyed. The monarch wrenches off the false beard, scratches his face and breathes a little more easily as he steps forward after unlocking the braces on his legs and stepping toward you barefoot.
Understand this, the Kaiser says: when he speaks to you now, he speaks not as the Kaiser of Vesperlund, but as Annika's mother - if anything happens to her daughter while within your dinky little fiefdom, she will personally ensure that your entire realm is turned to dust, the very notion of its existence is forever erased from history, and each and every one of its citizens without the good fortune to die in the process subjected to tortures they could not even begin to comprehend. Is this clear?
You nod slowly. Very clear. Szabo appears to be taking note of the Kaiser's exact words. Very good, she says to you with a smile on her lined face. In that case, the consulate is a sound plan - she will handpick the Princess' diplomatic team, of course.
At this point the spymaster herds you out, the ladies-in-waiting moving in to salvage the Kaiser's grand outfit. Later that day, after you've briefed the Queen and the Princess on the agreement reached, the Vesperlund delegation moves through the streets in a grand procession that is talked about for months to come, and is warmly welcomed in the castle to effectively talk about exactly the same things you've already discussed, but with more pomp and circumstance. Arrangements are made for a new Vesperlund Consulate, with Princess Annika made the first Vesperlund consul in Ortfast in a move some of her contemporaries characterize as blatant nepotism, and some altogether more astute ones in court call an ingenious move that they laud as a brave new turn in Vesperlund foreign policy and that only further proves the Kaiser's inestimable greatness in all matters of earth and heaven.
The Princess, for her part, seems to like the idea of being a consul, or at least she does until the "diplomatic team" turn out to all be card-carrying members of the Order of the Astral Dragon. At least they don't talk back much, she later shares over tea, and she supposes she could get used to pointing at people and making them suffer tragic and all-too-preventable accidents within a few days' time.
257 S.I., Fall
It's during one of your increasingly routine lunches at the Vesperlund Consulate, which under Princess Annika's guidance has grown into something of a party place, that you are introduced to a few guests rather more interesting than the usual fare of expatriates, would-be spies (as opposed to actual ones, which steer well the fuck away from the Astral Dragons barring special diplomatic status like your own) and noble-born gawkers.
The guests in question are three women dressed in unfamiliar colors and highly revealing fashions - one's quite young, another is perhaps charitably described as middle-aged, and the final seems ancient and half-deaf. Princess Annika introduces them as sorceresses, and the youngest one handily corrects this - they're witches from far to the south, she says. Kudu-Kai, you say immediately. No, the middle-aged one says, bit further south than that. What, says the ancient one, what did that man just say? Sorry about her, the younger one says, she's a little distracted - she's still having her vision. Started having it and it wouldn't stop, and now they're looking for a cure.
A) Oh, you fancy yourself something of an enthusiast on these matters. Inherited something of a library from your predecessor, as it happens. Would they like to stay in town for a bit? You're sure you could find something in the collection.
B) Distinguished travelers such as yourselves shouldn't slum it with all of these miscellaneous miscreants (no offense to the Princess). Would they care to come to the castle? The Vizier is something of an expert in matters of sorcery, and you're sure the Queen would love to meet some interesting foreigners.
C) Fascinating! Absolutely fascinating! Best of luck with that!
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Topic: SPAMMASTER: Spymistress Kalja the Bewitched (Read 36467 times)