Raising a Dynasty (IC| Meillur Only)

[Les Etats Connuriste]

And now Fontainebleau was back to being miserable and upsetting again, as it had been a minute or so ago. But this was worse. Far worse.

Connor had obviously been very well aware that Charlotte's time imprisoned had changed her, broken her, and he had very much known that it had to have changed Jean somehow too. But this difference in the way he was beginning to act now, the Emperor of Connuriste knew not how to describe it, but something profoundly not right at all, something damn-near unholy that did not sit right with him in the pit of his stomach. Charlotte was still the same woman in so many ways, but this shift, this change in Jean he had just seen, was not recognizable as the same man.

Connor II had no words to say and he didn't even know what to think. Normally, he was half-decent at being able to read people and their thought processes, but he was drawing blank, no intuitive comments springing to mind.

There were few things that could make Connor feel sick whilst being in perfect health, and there were few things that could intensify his hatred for the Tsarina. Whatever had been done to his friend, the King of Romania, was a thing that achieved both.

[Great Hyruke]

Charlotte gasped, her hand rising to cover her mouth. She let go of Connor and stepped back, coming dangerously close to the steps. She didn't care or even realise. Charlotte was to upset over the fact that what she had witness was just plain wrong.

She felt sick to her stomach and light headed as if her body couldn't decide to be sick or to faint. Whatever than had been, she never wanted to see it happen again. Whatever, whoever it was standing in front of her, it wasn't her Jean. Not the man she knew. This was someone different, something different. Something bad.

She was unsettled. Worse of all, Charlotte couldn't help but feel that this was her fault.

Charlotte:"J..Jean?"

She said it quietly, her voice failing to mask her horror.

[Russlande]

King Ferdinand II frowned a bit, looking at the Empress of Connuriste. She was acting in a way that he did not quite like. It was terribly inappropriate for her to refer to him in such an informal way. He was the King of Romania, etiquette demanded proper addressing of sovereigns.

Ferdinand II: "Your Majesty, You are mistaken. You must refer to me as 'Your Majesty'."

He paused, his cold indifferent eyes looking as if through her, not at her.

Ferdinand II: "It is proper."

His words were short and without emotion, almost mechanical. Part of him was aware that this was not usually how he acted, that perhaps he should be understanding. It can not be mistaken to say that it was like part of him was trapped. It was more like part of him was numb. He was neither acting against his self nor was he acting as he wanted, but he instead tread a neutral and cold middle ground that left his emotions and soul numb.

[Great Hyruke]

Charlotte felt like she had been hit with a frying pan and the painful vibrations were still cutting through her body. This wasn't normal. This wasn't Jean, Jean didn't care about etiquette and formality or anything that was proper. She was left almost speechless.

Charlotte: "Oh."

That was all she could say. Oh. She wanted to snap at him to knock it off. But she could tell this wasn't a joke. Whatever had just happened had been real and very serious. And she needed to investigate. So she said oh. That was all she said.

[Great Hyruke]

Vanessa, Derita
May 21, 2071

Charlotte needed a break.

The famed Empress of Connuriste was walking through the beautiful avenues of Vanessa, a city of art, progress and romance. Couples walked around the sidewalks and strolled across the boulevards (Vanessa was truly a city of walking for the rich) many locked arm in arm. And here she was alone, carrying files from the Palais du Montporre were she had just finished a meeting with her great-grandfather (who was still recovering from his heart attack earlier this year) and Josiah Wayland who was determined to replace her great-grandfather as Consul of the Amperiale Alliance. As a person, Mr. Wayland was quite agreeable, but as a political rival, he was a force to be reckoned with.

Consul LeCastle was old and at the moment unwell. Charlotte was worried to say the least about his present condition. He wasn't even able to walk and his already weak eyesight was turning into full on blindness. Charlotte had taken over for him in the day to day as Consul, though not officially and only in the privacy of the Palais du Montporre with Wayland. However already there were those who sought to see her promoted to the position of Chairperson of the Council. Charlotte was considering running for it, though she was sure that the dreadful West Asbury and the formidable Josiah Wayland both wanted the position since they couldn't be Consul. Though Mr. Asbury was in Amsterdam, that didn't mean he didn't have a voice in Vanessa.

All the while, Charlotte was suffering a personal crisis. It appeared to her that her husband was no longer in love with her. Charlotte had arrived in Vanessa with Connor when Consul LeCastle suffered from his heartattack, and she had left with him to attend the coronation of the King and Queen of Espana and she had returned with him for the King-Emperor's Golden Jubliee. And yet, now she was alone, Connor having returned to Lausanne with the children. Her excuse for staying was to make sure her great-grandfather was alright, but that was only part true. He had nurses of his own and she was not his only family member willing to help. But Charlotte had sensed a subtle difference in Connor and she had felt so stricken by it that she decided to first stay and collect herself.

So now she walked to her rented apartment on the North Bank alone.

[Northe Scotland]

Also heading north from the south was a black luxury car, a Calhoun Chambord 70 compact limousine. Inside of this limo ride Anthony Reyes, Regent and Prime Minister of Northe Scotland on behalf of Her Majesty, the young Queen Adelaide II of Scotland. Prime Minister Reyes had just been visiting Her Majesty at her adoptive home of the Palais du Fontainebleau and was making his way home to his rented mansion, or rather the mansion the Scottish Government held for him. The manison, tiny by Deritain or royal standards, but it was comfortable enough for Prime Minister Reyes.

The Scottish Prime Minister's car had just crossed over the river when he noticed a woman in white walking who looked quite familiar. Bloody hell, was that the Empress of Connuriste walking? He had only meet her once or twice, during the meetings of the Alliance, but he had caught glances of her for years. He ordered his driver, Pierre, to stop the car. It pulled to the side of the boulevard and stopped. Prime Minister Reyes was out of the car before it came to a full stop.

Reyes: "Your Majesty?"

[Great Hyruke]

Charlotte spun around, her knee length white dress twirling around her. She pushed a strand of her famous blond hair out of her even more famous face with a white glove covered hand. She was shocked to see this man jump, for he had quite practically jumped out of the limousine. Even more shocking was the fact that she actually recognised this man.

Charlotte: "Mon Dieu! Wait, Prime Minister Reyes?"

[Northe Scotland]

Prime Minister Reyes smiled pleasantly and findled with the buttons on his blazer and his dark red tie. He was caught off by her own change in demeanour from the fact that he himself had caught her off guard. Reyes was once again struck by her beauty, no wonder the world was entranced by her. She looked for a moment not like an empress but instead like a woman, a woman who was normal, who felt emotions and was shy, who was imperfect. Perhaps that was what made her so attractive.

There were only a few empresses left in the world. Joséphine and her mother were Saints, touched by heaven and morally unapproachable. The Tsarina was most of force of nature, like a hurricane or a blizzard, deadly, uncaring and beautifully destructive. Even the Empress of the Dutch was like Stone mother, perfect and kind and almost inhumanly flawless that it made her unrealistic.

Charlotte however, was quite different. She didn't strike him as a woman who would spend her days in prays, or could decide the fate of millions swiftly and cruelly, or would be prem and proper at everything. She was something entirely different. She was an engima. Reyes took a subconscious step forward.

Reyes: "Yes, I was riding by and I saw you walking alone. Would you like a ride home?"

[Great Hyruke]

Charlotte gave a small shake of her head and took a step backwards without even thinking about it. She had been deep in thought and she wished to return to them.

Charlotte: "I am sorry Prime Minister, but there is no need. I prefer to walk anyway. Sorry to cause you concern."

Charlotte smiled and waved at him in fair well. She returned to her walking.

[Northe Scotland]

Reyes nodded and went over to the passenger door of the limousine. Pierre lowered the darkly tinted window and leaned forward.

Pierre: "Yes Sir?"

Reyes: "Go on to the house Pierre. I think I shall walk."

Pierre: "Are you sure Sir?"

Prime Minister Reyes looked over to the walking Charlotte and a small smirk went across his face. He looked back to his driver.

Reyes: "Quite sure. Go on."

Pierre: "Very well Sir."

Reyes closed his door and hit the top of the limousine twice and hoped back onto the sidewalk as Pierre and the limousine pulled off down the boulevard. Reyes meanwhile walked over to Charlotte until he was by her side and he then looped his arm around her own. He did it all quite casually.

[Great Hyruke]

Charlotte gasped and looked to her left up at Prime Minister Reyes. Her blue eyes were wide with absolute shock, such shock that she quite nearly dropped her files. Only by tightening her group very suddenly did they stay in her hands.

Charlotte: "Mister Prime Minister! What are you doing?"

[Northe Scotland]

Prime Minister Reyes chuckled and his eyes lit up as, instead of meeting the beautiful young Empress' eyes, glance around at the lovely buildings of the city of love. He watched as some aristocratic eyed came their way, glancing confused and then looking away embarrassed or even more confused.

Reyes: "Ma'am, I have no intention of leaving you to walk the streets of Vanessa alone, no proper gentleman would ever be able to sleep at night knowing that he left a woman, an empress no less to make her way home without escorting her. And before you have the chance, I shall not take no for an answer."

[Great Hyruke]

Charlotte had her mouth open to speak, to respond, to throw off the Prime Minister. Instead there was only silence and she was stunned into speechlessness. In a single burst of words, the Scotsman had quite expertly destroyed all her other possible options for movement. She had no other choice but to follow. She closed her mouth and smiled, impressed. Very few men knew how to do skilfully command a woman without offending her, and even fewer men knew how to do this with a woman of her status and station and a man who could do it with a Hyrukian born woman was among only a handful.

Charlotte: "Very well Mister Prime Minister."

[Northe Scotland]

Prime Minister Reyes looked to the Empress of Connuriste and his smirk flashed across his face once again. He had wondered how she would respond. She had done as he would have hoped she would.

Reyes: "Tell me, if you would like to, how are you Ma'am?"

[Great Hyruke]

Charlotte chuckled coldly.

Charlotte: "Well enough I suppose Mister Prime Minister. Though I am worried about a great number of things. I for one and quite worried about these recent developments in South America. It is incredibly sensitive you know, and the situation is so delicate. And I am very much worried for the Consul's health. And that dreadful man Mister Wayland. Oh dear. Don't repeat a word of that last part."

[Northe Scotland]

Reyes laughed as they walked down the wide walk.

Reyes: "Ma'am, you need not worry. I would never tell a woman's secret,especially about or to a dreadfully horrible man like Mister Wayland. I meet the man once, and while he isn't as bad as that elderly oaf known as Chancellor Bossën, but he is little more than a waterdown version of him. A proud and arrogant man. Queen Caroline enjoyed his company, though only when not speaking on serious business."

[Great Hyruke]

Charlotte: "My cousin Caroline. The Queen of Great Hyruke? I do not believe the woman could ever be anything other than serious."

Charlotte found the Prime Minister's words quite interesting. She remembered now, Reyes had been an ambassador to Queen Caroline before he had risen to the high office of Prime Minister of Scotland. She had heard that he had had quite good relations with the famously stony and cold Queen Caroline.

[Northe Scotland]

Reyes: "Oh yes, Her Majesty can be quite fun when she isn't trying to run the whole of the Hyruke Isles by herself or looking back on the dark history of her family's time on the throne. You actually remind me of her in her younger days, a young woman, beautiful and charming. Though you admittedly are far less broken and defensive than she was. But in any case, I can assure you that I find Mister Wayland just as dreadful as you do and I can keep a empress' secret."

[Great Hyruke]

Charlotte couldn't help but playfully roll her eyes.

Charlotte: "Never trust a man with another's secret."

[Northe Scotland]

Reyes locked eyes with Empress Charlotte for the briefest of moments, though not offended in the very least by her quoting of Lady Mary Lensingly, a Hyrukian author and philosopher. Instead he completed the quote.

Reyes: "- And never trust a woman with her own."

[Great Hyruke]

Charlotte's eyes widen again for the second time in only a few minutes.

Charlotte: "Well Mister Prime Minister. I am both impressed and shocked. I would never have thought you to read Lady Lensingly. I wasn't aware she would appeal to you."

[Northe Scotland]

Reyes: "I for one am neither shocked nor impressed by my knowledge of her. Though I must say that I am impressed but not surprised to see you able to handle so many worries. Perhaps you deserve an evening of rest from the worries of the world."

[Great Hyruke]

Charlotte: "Whatever do you mean Mister Prime Minister?"

Charlotte noticed as they made a turn that they were incredibly close to her rented apartment now. It was there, only three building down, only one away the corner of Caudiéne Boulevard and Altraiyes Avenue.

[Northe Scotland]

Reyes: "Well Ma'am, perhaps you would like to have a dinner with me, as we are after all both colleagues in the ever so exciting world of politics. We could discuss the far more pleasant side of things."

[Great Hyruke]

Charlotte stopped in front of her building, an upper class building of only six stories. She unwrapped her arm from its tanglement with Prime Minister Reyes and looked back at him. She stepped towards the door.

Charlotte: "A dinner, between the two of us?"