Nero
Nero thought that he would spend more time in the library when he came back to Gatherstorm, but the civil war made him too busy to entertain the idea of getting some leisure reading done. Even when he had the time to read, he felt too guilty to enjoy himself. He had a country to manage, and taking time to himself felt like an insult to all the slaves, servants, and peasants working fields, sweating in the hot sun, or dying of hypothermia in the freezing cold during the winters.
Most of the time, instead of reading, Nero would simply sit in the library to have a short break from the action. Even if it was only ten or fifteen minutes, the relaxation he got from sitting still in the library made it seem like hours. It was nothing like the outside world with its prejudices, corruption, and most importantly dirtiness. Nero placed a small mat at every entrance of the library and enforced that anyone who stepped foot into the library wrapped a cloth around their shoes. No mud or dirt was to be brought into the library. Though Nero didn’t tolerate mud, he didn’t mind dust that much. No matter what one did, it would always be there, and in Nero’s experience and according to the doctors, it held no ill effect on health.
He was enjoying himself in the library when a knock came at the door. Nero answered what it was, and Gala stood there with bags under her eyes. She asked Nero to step out into the hall, to which Nero obliged. He became concerned as Gala was overly quiet in her request. “What’s going on?” Nero asked.
“Did you know?” she asked. “That people are accusing me of being the People’s Lord?”
Nero fell silent at the question, but a long answered. “No, where did you hear that from?”
“The maids. They were whispering it behind my back.”
The two talked about what they were going to do but before long decided that a response was necessary. Gala was to make a speech to the people convincing them that she was not the People’s Lord, that Benito was colluding with Romulus, and that if the people wanted to be free of foreign influence, they needed to support her, but more importantly sign up for military service against Romulus. Nero stopped Gala when she mentioned Benito. “How do you know they are colluding?”
“Who else would it be?” she asked. “We told him to fuck off so that only leaves him and Dicon with Romulus. If they can sway Romulus to their side, we have to bring that information to the people. You know, when they hear that a claimant to the throne is working with Dicon, there is no way the people or the military will stay loyal to them.”
“But Romulus wants reunification,” Nero rebutted. “Why would Dicon support a royal that wants to destroy their country.”
“Dicon realizes that Romulus is under the same illusion that Dad was. He goes around claiming that he is going to reform the empire but is either never presented with the opportunity, or when it does come, folds to reality like dad did after Titus died,” Gala concluded.
“He folded after you talked him down. You’re sure Romulus is going to allow someone like you into his inner circle?”
“It’s more likely than not.”
#
Gala made a speech the same day with Nero by her side. In front of the docks, Gala asked the people if they believed that she was the People’s Lord. Most people stayed silent. All of them looked around at the many guards that surrounded the queen. It was understandable since they were in a civil war, but Nero perceived a sense of fear in the crowd as their mouths opened, but no sound came out. Gala asked again, and this time was met with a loud no.
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She continued with the rest of the speech. Touching on Romulus would become a tyrant before moving on to how the war affected them personally. “They march north with men who know nothing of your lives. War is an ugly business and is the failure of diplomacy or the result of greed. King Maximus made it very clear that I was to be his heir, and here I stand as the rightful leader of the country, but I understand that whoever sits on the throne doesn’t affect your lives as much as royals like to believe. However, what does matter is if an army marches on Gatherstorm and destroys your homes. You shall suddenly find yourself off of the fence and cursing the people raping your wives, killing your children, and shooting arrows into your homes.”
Gala paused as the crowd’s energy slowly increased. It was like a pot over a low fire. It didn’t grow exponentially or die down but rather sat there waiting for a spark. At long, she continued. “We are not like our neighbors. We don’t possess the expertise of the Expert’s Commonwealth, the political involvement in citizens in the Griffin Republic, or the scheming that Dicon has. Though, what we do have is resilience. A queen, king, two griffins, eight earls, and the soul of the kingdom but yet we remain. We stand still in faith that Mydrazan is looking down upon us in good faith. Our county fell from grace 500 years ago, but yet we remain!”
The crowd silently nodded along, and some even vocally expressed their support. “Mydrazan wouldn’t just let something terrible happen without a reason,” Gala said. “He is trying to send us a message, and if we don’t understand, we don’t deserve his guidance. However, if you look for just a second you shall understand. The message is that there is something wrong with the Qar line. Something in their blood passing down from eldest son to eldest son has contaminated their judgment. King Maximus was lucky enough to realize this and appointed me an heir. Now it comes for you to decide who you think is in the right. The queen who sits on the blessing of his father and God, or a man who smashed open the walls of Birdmouth, spreads lies about even his siblings, and marches up to destroy your homes?”
Though Gala’s tone was relatively calm, the message was enough to light the spark that erupted in the crowd, and together they answered the question. “You! The Queen!” they answered. “Hail Mydrazan and the Queen! Hail Mydrazan and the Queen!”
Nero felt relieved that the crowd responded positively to the speech and waited for Gala to head back to the palace, but before she could, a man approached Nero. It was a guard who held a letter in his hand. “It’s a letter for you. It’s from Godmouth.”
Nero looked down at the blank letter. There was no seal on it. “How do you know it for me? It’s not addressed to anyone, and why is it open he asked?”
“It isn’t a secret. The man who opened it already read it, and thought you should know before the public announcer got news of it.”
Nero took the letter and unfolded it. It was from Keon McGrath and only contained one sentence. “Prince Nero, the president has been assassinated, and I have taken over the presidency.”
Nero thanked the man before losing all mental capacity to think. He would have felt sad or mad, but there was too much going on around him. He and Gala were immediately escorted back to the palace before any chance an assassin getting a clean shot with an arrow or running up with a knife.
Questions circled Nero’s head. Why didn’t Keon say more in the letter? Was he poisoned, shot, or stabbed? What was going to happen with the reforms? Nero figured that Keon would try to pass them, but based on his interaction with him, he did not indicate that he would fight even half as hard as Wagner did. He described politics as a game, and who would expect a man like that to pursue something that didn’t benefit his career? Though he was the running mate for Wagner, and that must have meant something. He must have believed in some of the reforms that Wagner believed in.
Only time would tell as all of Wagner’s reforms remained unpassed or ineffective. After the end of the civil war, Nero would meet back up with Keon to get a read on him. He could send letters in the meantime, but it’s easy enough to fake an impression in writing.
When he got back into the palace, Nero told Gala the news, and she seemed unaffected by the news. Though Nero was a little insulted by the apathy as they both entered the throne room to deal with the rest of the day’s agenda, it was understandable that she wouldn’t be that sad about it. The republic would still stand, and the monarchy’s relationship with the country would stay the same. Nero thought about suggesting that if they put out a strong enough message about Wagner’s death, they could court the Griffin Republic into becoming the first country to formally recognize Gala’s claim to the throne. If they did that, maybe the rest of the world would follow suit and abandon neutrality in favor of Gala, but it was too unlikely, so he didn’t speak his mind.