Elaina sat at the side of the bed where Vincent had been laid out. Ezra had, as was characteristic of him, already left to get a doctor before she and Mira had even begun their plan, and had returned within minutes of Vincent slumping forward onto her. She tried to gently catch him, but his weight surprised her and he wound up half sprawled on top of her, much to her chagrin and Ezra's amusement when he finally arrived.
The doctor's had come in and quickly stabilized Vincent, though they waved off all of the potions that were brought as emergency supplies, as the first doctor on scene immediately diagnosed him with the beginnings of potion overdose, or potion poisoning, as they seemed to refer to it interchangeably.
“Any change?” Ezra said as he came in, coming to sit on the chair on the opposite side of the bed.
“The doctor's removed the bolt, it didn't penetrate far through his armor, but they're worried about his spine. She suggested I tie him to the bed to keep him from injuring it more... I think she was only half joking.”
“Oh if I know her she was not joking at all.” Said a woman with long flowing black hair. Elaina belatedly realised that this was the maid from her visions, without the bonnet keeping her hair at bay. She looked significantly more haggard, her clothes stained with blood as she wiped her hands on a towel that was rapidly itself becoming stained with blood.
Elaina and Ezra fixed her with quizzical looks.
“I'm Zoey, your highnesses. I am currently Vincent's head maid. As an aside, I was also his caretaker when he was a baby, as his mother and most of his close family was far too busy with affairs of state to take care of him.”
Zoey pulled a chair up beside Vincent's bed, opposite where Elaina sat and up closer to the head of the bed from where Ezra was seated.
Zoey brushed a lock of Vincent's hair that had fallen onto his face off and smooths out his hair.
“So, this is not exactly the welcome we had planned for you two when you arrived.” Zoey said, a smile tugging at the edges of her mouth.
“It was admittedly a bit more exciting than I was expecting.” Elaina replied.
“We were planning on using your engagement, and subsequently a 'tour' of the realm you were marrying into, as a legitimate excuse to get Vincent off the front lines without the old guard, and some of the more power hungry nobles, from getting riled up.”
“Why?” Ezra asked.
Both Elaina and Zoey turned to look at him.
“Why would you need an excuse like that? I mean, I know your country places a lot of prestige on personal combat excellence and accomplishments on the battlefield, but it sounds like Vincent has earned more than enough. He's barely older than us! And he's been fighting this war for a year? More?”
Zoey held up a placating hand. “You are right. Normally there would be no problem, and the queen would regularly rotate out nobles and her children to lead the fights. Having any one person involved in constant conflict has a tendency to exhaust them, and exhausted warriors tend to be short lived warriors. However, just before the war began, suspiciously near it in fact, a faction of nobles in our country began pressing for a more hardline traditional stance. All Nobles must fight or they can no longer be Nobles. This was originally thought to be a reaction to some of the proposed changes the Queen, and most notably her eldest daughter Diana, had been pushing, to remove some of the stipulations to being noble, allowing Nobles to duel in areas not just involving combat, so that nobles with skills that could benefit the kingdom could still rule by showing competence in those areas. It was actually largely well received in the more developed areas of the country.”
“But not in the rural areas.” Elaina responded.
Zoey shook her head. “No, those areas still see large concentrations of monsters, and the locals do not wish to completely destroy that environment with urbanization as the magical components from that area are extremely valuable. Truth be told the rest of the country is loath to try and develop such areas as well, whether for religious reasons or due to the fact that most of our countries export, or the raw materials for our primary exports, one way or another, comes from such wild places. There is even some speculation that in the more developed areas the magic has not been destroyed, but forced underground to fester and manifest as the creatures we are constantly having to clear out of abandoned homes and basements. Anyways, getting off topic.”
Zoey sat up straighter in her chair as Ezra and Elaina shared a look before turning back to Zoey.
“You're a history teacher aren't you.”
Zoey smiled. “I actually teach multiple subjects, but yes, history, particularly political history, was my first love”
Elaina grinned “I guess that's why you were chosen to raise the royal children, I'm sure you instilled a very pointed grasp of history into them.”
Zoey nodded. “Most likely that, though the Queen has told me it is due to my ability to discover the individual talents of my charges and nurture them. I helped Vincent here get started with spatial magic, for example.”
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“Anyways, Vincent's own holdings are largely in such rural areas, and many of his younger subjects have bought in to this more traditional hardline stance. So Vincent has... Well he was always aggressive, but he has been downright rash, rushing to be the first into battles. And the enemy has noticed. They have started to deploy hunter killer squads specifically to target Vincent. The other's have a less vulnerable fighting style, but... Anyways, your engagement should give him some time to recuperate, while you tour his lands. The faction that was giving him trouble is based on tradition, so they don't have a leg to stand on if they oppose him taking some time to show his wife to be her new home.”
Elaina and Ezran paused and looked thoughtful at that.
Ezra piped up. “If this conservative faction you speak of was engineered by your enemies, don't you think they might be waiting for something like this? Get him away from the front lines to kill him?”
Zoey shrugged. “We think the start of it may have been our enemies, but I don't think they control the conservative faction. They are actually the most vocal proponents of the war, and have been the queen's greatest backers when it comes to raising taxes for war assets and similar things. I really doubt they would be doing that if our enemies were actually puppeting them.”
Ezra rocked back and forth in his chair, his face pensive and thoughtful.
“So... how do you think these conservative individuals are going to react... to... me...” Elaina said, concern apparent in her voice.
Zoey made a dismissive motion with her hand. “We have had other nobles marry into the nation before, most know to give them time before they begin upholding our traditions. That being said, yes you will eventually be expected to fight for this country in some way. There is only so much leeway being foreign will buy you with the people.”
Elaina shrank into her seat at that. She had never liked to fight, and her father had never forced her to try like he had Ezra.
“Don't be too discouraged. If what I heard of your divination abilities is at all true I am sure you will be able to find some way to use that to your advantage if anyone ever challenges you. Also, I should note, you shouldn't expect any of this to happen until sometime after you are married. I am sure if you prod Vincent enough he would happily train you how to fight, at least with what he is good at. That goes for the rest of the family, I would think. They are all very supportive of each other, something the queen insisted on reinforcing in their upbringing. Most likely due to the tragedy that resulted from how her father raised her and her brothers...”
“How did he raise them?” Ezra asked.
“There can be only one.” Zoey responded. The looks on the twins faces both turned to one of horror.
“Yes, she was forced to kill her brothers before they killed her, which culminated in a massive civil war between her and her two younger brothers. At the end of which her father tried to kill her, and she had to lay siege to this very castle.”
“That's awful...” Elaina whispered in a weak voice. Ezra was just speechless.
Though, only for a moment. “But... I've never heard of that. I thought I had covered the recent history of all of the countries local to us. Unless.... how long ago was this?”
“Mmm, just about a hundred years now or so.” Zoey said nonchalantly.
Both of the twins eyes opened wide. “ How... How old is the queen then?” Elaina asked, her bewilderment growing.
Zoey smirked back. “Now, you should know better by now than to ask about a woman's age.”
“The royal family all have a talent for healing magic, a passive use of this prevents them from aging once they reach a certain level of competency with it. They also tend to share such blessings with their favored retainers, of which I am glad to be one. I actually served the queen's father before her.”
“I think my ability to become surprised is being exhausted, can we hold off on any more revelations?” Elaina asked, but Ezra raised his hand.
“Just one more. So if the queen is more than a century old... why have we only heard about her children recently?”
Zoey replied.”Because after she was forced to kill her own father, she swore she would not perpetuate the insanity that her father put her through, and she avoided any relationships or sex in general for a very long time. And then she met someone special...”
“Please tell me it's not father.” Ezra spoke.
“I mean, I know it's for political reasons, but I really hope I have not been affianced to my half-brother.” Elaina said, growing horror dawning on her face.
Zoey let out a sly little chuckle. “No. She loosened up after she met him and had more dalliances. That being said, Prince Alex and Princess Mira are most likely your half siblings. As far as I know none of the others are, particularly not Vincent, as I knew his father. Unfortunately he is long dead.”
Elaina and Ezra both looked shell shocked from this latest deluge of information.
“That's probably enough for now, Why don't you two come with me and we'll get something to eat. Maybe we can bring something back for Vincent when he wakes up.”