September, 1st 1992
The late afternoon sun shone brightly over the marble façade of Laubenhugel palace. The tones of the sky slowly shifting from bright blue to the burnt sienna common of sunsets. The warm, late summer air would soon give way to the crisp cool of fall, though not for a few weeks yet. However, the beauty of the afternoon sky was lost to those in the palace. Deep within its depths, assistants, servants, bureaucrats and other officials scurried. This was ofcourse, far below the prying public eyes, beneath the ornamental halls, bedrooms and throne room of the palace. Here, in the stark white stucco halls and fluorescent lights, was where the true business of the matriarchy was done.
Weaving their way through the mess of people in business attire, carrying folders and briefcases, was a young girl. Her golden locks a blur as she zipped in between the lumbering adults. Those around seemed aware but otherwise uninterested in her presence in the corridors. The girl continued through the halls, til she reached a door on the far north side of the complex.
Unlike the rest of the underground hallways and rooms, this door was vibrant, its cherry wood panels inscribed with various crests belonging to the Ruling Strauss family. These were difficult to see behind the two large women standing at attention in front of the door. Clad in suits and matching shades, the women were expressionless. The young girl approached the women and politely tugged on ones pant leg, to get her attention. The women looked down.
“Ah, Lady Elise, are you here to see the Kaiserin?” The child nodded silently. The women moved away from the door. “Please go on ahead”. The girl quickly rushed through the door into the room.
This was the private office of the Kaiserin of the Matriarchy of Lunderfrau. Bookshelves lined the cherry wood walls, filled with some of the matriarchy’s most rare books and written documents. A lovely, buordot rug stretched over the hard wood floors. On the right side wall, a small fireplace cackled as flames licked upwards from the logs resting within. In the North Left side corner sat the Kaiserins desk, behind which sat the Kaiserin.
The Kaiserin was an older women, 60 years of age, her short brunette hair had slowly been greying over the past few years. She did not notice the child burst in, as her nose was buried in some official document. The child however was quick to let her presence be known.
“Grandma Kass, I’m back from School!” the child ran over to her desk. The Kaiserin, brought her eyes up from document she was reading and adjusted her spectacles.
“Well, if it isn’t little Elise!” She motioned to her side, “Come tell your grandmother about school”. Elise moved to her Grandmothers side. Once there she quickly shuffled through her bag for something.
“Actually Grandma, I have a question I need you to answer” She pulled a social studies book from her bag. Flipping through the pages, she found the one she wanted and slammed it down on the table. The book had been turned to the world map page. Elise quickly pointed her finger to Lira, specifically the Plutocratic Republic Winst. “Why isn’t this Lunderfrau like on your globe” She motioned to a Globe tucked away across the room by the fire place. “And whats the Plutocratic Republic of Winst”. The Kaiserin sat for a minute preparing her response, then let out a small sigh.
“Well, that globe over there is very old. It was made in 1820 and was gifted to my Namesake, Kassandra the first. At that time this place”, she motioned to winst on the books map, “Belonged to the Matriarchy. However, not long after, the people living there decided they didn’t want to be apart of the Matriarchy any longer, so they rebelled and won their independence. Today we know that country as Winst” Elise pondered this information for a good while then asked.
“Why don’t they want to be apart of Lunderfrau, Grandma?” Without missing a beat, the Kaiserin responded “It’s complicated”.
Laubenhugel Palace, Laubenhugel, Lunderfrau
November 6th 2019
Nearly 28 years had passed Since Elise had first heard those words. In that time, her Grandmother and Mother had passed on, making her Kaiserin of the Matriarchy of Lunderfrau. Since day one of her reign, she had tried to simplify the “complicated relationship” between her country and Winst. At first she was making excellence progress, having gotten as far as to visiting Winst for diplomatic discussions in 2017, making her the first Kaiserin to do so since the revolt nearly 200 years prior. However, since then things seemed to have returned to their traditional icy stalemate. The people of Winst voted out their moderate government for a hardline faction shortly after her visit, erecting the revolutionary flag in the process. The rhetoric against Monarchies ramped up once again, and any diplomatic progress that had been made was obliterated in a matter of weeks. That was 3 years ago. Today the Kaiserin found herself sitting at the same desk her Grandmother and Mother had occupied, staring across the same room at the same globe she had stared at so many times in her youth. The winds of Lira we’re changing once again, she thought, she and the leader of Winst had found some common ground on issues such as climate on SignPost and both seemed to have a general distrust of the new regime in Parthonopia. Perhaps it was time to try again. She quickly drafted a memo to be sent to the Plutos of Winst.
To: The Office of the Plutos of the Plutocratic Republic of Winst
From: The Office of Her Majesty the Kaiserin of the Matriarchy of Lunderfrau
Subject: Meeting
Madame Plutos,
Changing times calls for a changing of our nations dynamic with one another. I wish to discuss these maters with you in person, preferable at a neutral site to avoid a replay of our last attempt. Name a time and a place and I as well as my advisors shall be there.
Respectfully,
Elise Von Strauss