Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction (Closed)

[Les Etats Connuriste]

On board the Golden Girl
Lake Geneva
Connuriste

Theme

Emperor Connor II of Connuriste leant against the railings on the deck of the yacht, his eyes looking across the waters of Lake Geneva and scanning the skies above. In his hand was a lit cigarette, smoking silently as his mind was still processing the revelations of recent days. The cigarettes were his first port of call when he found himself under stress, when he was struggling to find his next course of action, and the boat one of many places he could retreat to to think about such things in peace. The boat was almost two decades old now and its recent usage had been rare, save for the few times he had let one of his sons or daughters borrow the vessel to throw a party or have a summer's day out on the waters. Its main purpose now was to act as a private sanctuary, he could even run the country from the office within if he really wanted to.

The role it was set to play today was to welcome a special guest to Connuriste, the stage it provided today was far more accessible than his homes deep in the countryside or even abroad, and he felt it was more appropriate than indeed hosting his guest inside a house. It was dignified and refined without being near the public, large and spacious without being cavernous, a place where his family and his colleagues who helped him run the nation would leave him to have his space without thinking he was up to anything in particular. He felt it was for the best to keep this encounter under wraps as much as he could without arising suspicion, and Connor felt that the yacht was indeed the most fitting location that straddled all these factors satisfactorily. He would be the only person here except for a small handful of his most trusted security personnel, and even they would be keeping their distance - any such people worthy of guarding royalty had proven talent in keeping one safe without being seen or heard.

You see, the revelations that had prompted this encounter were so striking that he wondered if Connuriste and indeed the wider world were ready for them yet. They had brought him great joy yet also they had simultaneously created stress and anxiety, such was the magnitude of what had been disclosed and the nature of who these revelations involved.

Connor, his family and even the country as a whole had long had hatred in their hearts for Marie of Wied - who had been given the moniker 'The She-Wolf of Wied' by some - firstly for her marriage to the tyrant Charles II of Espana and her assumed complicity in his terrible acts, and more recently (and less significantly) the role she played in Hyruke, where the state and society juxtaposed strongly with the principles that the citizens of Connuriste had come to take for granted across recent decades. Her reputation as a terrible villain devoid of remorse, who was perceived to be avoiding justice for acts she was considered culpable, meant that the common man or woman of Connuriste immediately jumped to the worst possible conclusions about anything at all she could ever do. It was an attitude that could not be simply changed overnight, even now a small part of Connor harboured suspicion that the woman had a specific agenda even in the face of evidence that proved contrary to the foundation of what all these aforementioned beliefs had been built upon. He was still adjusting to looking at her in a completely different light, but by God he was trying his hardest.

The truth was that the terrible fate that had befell his son Prince Julian had never been his fate all along. Connor and his wife Charlotte had tried for years and years to get Marie to answer for what had happened to him, and just as the League of Harmony's international trial on the matter was to take place, Marie had at long last disclosed her side of the story.

Marie had said that she played no part in the kidnapping of Julian. She had said that she tried to help Julian by hiding his identity so that Charles would not murder him. She had claimed that she had entrusted his safety with Francine Blackthorn. She had sworn that the tale of her wearing a jacket stained with his blood was nothing but a vicious lie.

The problem that had remained had been that of evidence. Otherwise it could have just been merely a tall tale designed to hurt the Imperial Family of Connuriste more than she already had. But of course Connor could never have been so dismissive. And when Julian Blackthorn had been captured after a long manhunt, for an alleged murder in Hyruke, all the Emperor had to do was ask the right person to request a DNA sample of Julian from the Anglo-Dutch tribunal that was due to put him on trial. That person had asked the tribunal for that sample 'in relation to a domestic investigation where he was a person of interest'. Julian Blackthorn had never been wanted or suspected of anything in Connuriste, that was a total lie, but they had still technically been telling the truth. He was certainly a person of interest when it came to determining whether Marie was telling the truth or not. It had certainly been a shock to the system when it turned out that the proof backed up all of Marie's claims.

Connor was overjoyed that his son was not dead and in fact alive, but he still had the issue of getting Julian unstuck from the mess that he had gotten himself into. It was partly why there had been no official public statement yet as he didn't wish to complicate the case any more before he had figured out how best to play his hand. Whilst his gratitude to Marie was indeed immense, he was still deeply curious as to why it had taken her the better part of two decades to come forward with this truth. Though Julian had been safe and well looked after, had Julian - and of course himself as his father, as well as his mother and all his siblings - been robbed of their right to have been a united family all together? He hoped that Marie had good reason for keeping the truth concealed for so long, and if she did there was yet another reason for him to not have gone public with the news and Marie's subsequent exoneration. It was clear that Connor had far from the full picture of the situation and the last thing he would want is to put Julian or indeed his saviour Marie into any mess that she could have been protecting him from. There was also still a bit of nervousness about what if Marie truly did have an ulterior motive for picking this moment right now to come clean, but the fact of the matter was that Prince Julian was still alive and he had to risk playing into her hands in order to get to the bottom of it all and have the best chance of bringing his son home to Connuriste. There was a lot of possibilities for Connor to be anxious about, which he hoped Marie may be able to alleviate or at least better inform him about, as she clearly knew more about this complex situation than he did. Even in the worst case scenario, he had to be incredibly thankful that Marie had spared Julian from the evil clutches of the Mad King, and he had to be sorry for all his efforts to unjustly drag her reputation through the dirt that he had made in the past.

The Emperor, having long finished his cigarette, retreated back inside the yacht briefly to prepare himself for Marie's arrival. It would not be respectable for him to host a royal woman with whom he had so much to discuss whilst he smelled of smoke, for instance. He had freshly trimmed his hair which had been starting to get a bit long in certain places and had only light stubble adorning his face. He wore a white shirt with black trousers, black oxford shoes on his feet and his father's brown leather watch on his wrist, which had belonged to his father's father before him. It was a timeless look, professional and respectable without being over the top. The Emperor of Connuriste had never been hugely fond of ceremonial outfits, as he felt they largely came across as ridiculous, uppity, or both.

He had no idea how the day would unfold as he waited, Marie was due to arrive here by helicopter any time from now onwards. Connor hoped it would be sooner rather than later. It gave him less time to wonder about all the scenarios that could happen.

[Dutch-Empire]

Marie of Wied sat in a slick non-descript helicopter as it cut through the sky over Lake Geneva like a buzzing bird. She was nervous. Part of her believed that this was a trap. She was not loved in Connuriste, for reasons that were entirely false, but reasons that to millions felt real and felt justified. Marie had never been one to unnecessarily place herself in danger, regardless of whatever people liked to think of her. Yes, Marie had taken bold steps in times, but historians tended to forget how those bold steps had been because she'd had to leap over a chasm. And the same thing always sat at the bottom of those chasms, though the size and depth had changed depending on the scenario, death had always awaited at the bottom. She felt she had escaped death in many cases, she was starting to treat it as an exercise. Even now as she neared the yacht of the Emperor of Connuriste she repaired to leap out of the helicopter or the yacht into the lack and swim for her life. She'd sailed from Zaandam to Espana in a raft, she could certainly cross a lake in the Alps.

Marie, like the Connuriste people, had reason to fear the other, though unlike Connuriste and its people, Marie had a good reason. She'd escaped one assassin sent by the Emperor of Connuriste once before. But once again Marie had to be bold. Marie had to leap over a chasm of death. Marie had agreed, even come up with the idea of going before the League of Harmony and cast down the accusations laid before her. Marie had listened to the whispers of Elisabeth d'Aurelians into hers and Charlotte's ears, and she had been confident that she could win, she knew that she would win. But, winning didn't always mean victory. Marie had never been universally loved, and she had no desire to be, it was an unrealistic goal. But she'd always managed to maintain a high opinion of a select few people, monarchs who she managed to charm or prove indispensable to. But she could sense that being pulled in front of a court would weaken and shake those connections, even when she won. She feared that even with winning she would lose, either from her loss of connections or from some unhappy person acting as a better assassin than the one that Connor II had sent after her. And when she thought back on it she decided to eject herself from the elaborate schemes of the Aurelian matriarch for a peaceful regrouping and consolidation of her own power. Marie would pick which chasm she was willing to jump over.

So she'd decided to make peace with Connor II, with whom she had little concern for except for that type he sent an assassin after her, yes, Marie was still not over that, but she was pragmatic when she had to be. Informing Caroline, the Queen of Great Hyruke just in case, she knew that if anything did happen to her, at the very least her death would spark a war and she would drag Connor down with her. Hopefull of course that wouldn't be necessary. She was here to tell her story, painful as it had been in regards to her time as Queen of Espana and what had happen with the royal child that she had sent to live the life of a commoner. Marie had considered bringing her friend Francine, who knew Julian and what had happened better than she did, as Francine had actually been in Espana and Russlande when events had unfolded whilst Marie had been in Batavia, but Francine had refused, the first time Francine had ever refused her best friend. Francine loved Julian as her own child and didn't wish to have to face the man who was actually Julian's flesh and blood. Francine's family was also, for the second time in her life, imprisoned at the whim of a Queen and she refused to abandon them, even for a short trip to Lausanne. So Marie had promised to come here on Francine's behalf and to tell her story as well, as well as devise a plan to save both Julian and Cece and the other Blackthorns.

The death of Prince Arthur had been a horrible tragedy, one, surprisingly, Marie had had nothing to do with. As much as Marie loathed Anna Charlotte, she knew better than to openly antagonize her without an army to back her up. Marie was certain in her heart that Julian, Cece and Charles too had had nothing to do with Arthur's death, which Marie found mysterious and darker than even what the media made it. Cece had not the vision, Charles, not the ambition and Julian, not the means. So Marie hoped that she might appeal to Connor that Julian, his son, was innocent and hold off Anna Charlotte's wrath from his son, as well as her own.

The helicopter touched down on the helipad with a buzzing thump of metal onto metal. As the blades slowed, Marie ducked her head, stepping onto the deck of the yacht. Escaping their radius, the Duchess, the infamous She-Wolf of Wied stood tall, at least as tall as her 5'6" height would allow, her dyed blond hair fluttering from the slowing blades behind her. She wore a black blouse with fluttering bell-shaped cuffs with form-fitting crimson red trousers the same color as her pursed lips, her feet in red bottom heels. A former Queen, Marie looked more like a young Hyrukian socialite than a former Dutch monarch entering the first years of middle age. Marie of Wied pulled off her sunglasses and put her hands on her hips, as if to say: I'm here, impress me.

[Les Etats Connuriste]

Connor II was already out on the deck by the time that the helicopter thudded against the helipad. He had been listening out for its approach and had quickly made his way outside as soon as he had heard it, almost like a young child expectantly waiting for a friend to knock on the door and rushing to greet them. Of course, it was too soon to be calling Marie a friend of his. It was true that they meant to make peace with one another, though it was hardly official just yet. He could feel his heart pound rapidly in his chest, but it was too late now to turn back on this situation, not that he would have wished to do so anyway. Only a small handful of times previously had the Emperor of Connuriste felt nerves on a similar scale, all of them when he had sensed a life changing event around the corner. For better or for worse, he knew that everything appeared to be leading up to another one of these moments. It was a matter of making the first few steps of being reunited with his son after all this time, or being powerless to prevent whatever sentence he may face. It was a matter of making peace with Marie, or... well, he wasn't quite sure what the alternative to that was.

What if she sought revenge for his effort to have her killed? What if he was to become a pawn in a twisted plot she was concocting? It wasn't hard to read between the lines and figure out who may have sent an assassin after her ; thankfully one that turned out to be incompetent.

Those questions would have likely been the first thoughts of many of his countrymen. The Emperor himself, he found it difficult to take either of those scenarios entirely seriously. He had hope that his admiration of her courage was not misplaced. And even if it was, Connor felt that it was worth such a risk. He was willing to give anything to have the best chance of achieving his goal of securing Julian's release. He considered that she was likely as nervous as he was - she certainly had better reason to be so. It was not him stepping foot into a country where he was thought of poorly, where the political leaders had plotted against him.

As his guest alighted from her transport and set foot onto the yacht itself, it occurred to Connor II that in all this time, he had never actually set his own two eyes on her before. Upon reflection, it was incredible the things that people believed about one another whilst never having met or having had direct contact. There was a definitely a sense of thinking that he should have known better than being like that - judging a book by its cover (or more fittingly in this case, judging a book by its reviews) - but on the other hand it was understandable why he might have held such a bias. Not that it made him right for having it, but he was willing to concede that it was partially (and only partially) justified. Connor suspected that not a great deal of people were willing to give the benefit of the doubt to someone who was strongly suspected in a terrible and cruel crime. Regardless, now that he wasn't overtly seeking to view Marie and her actions in the worst of lights, he hoped that it was going to be refreshing to notice all the positives that he'd been unwilling to perceive previously.

These were not the only things that the Emperor had noted either. For one, his mental image of Marie had always been taller. The former Queen was not short, but she was not tall either. Connor could not quite put a finger on what exactly had given him that idea in the first place. Perhaps it was the aura of confidence that she radiated, even now, and the strength of character that she displayed by overcoming the many challenges that had been placed in her path. Those capabilities made Marie that kind of larger than life character, so maybe it was no wonder that he had expected her to stand tall literally in addition to figuratively.

Connor II slowly approached the infamous She-Wolf of Wied, glad that she was here at last. As the helicopter's engine spooled down after being turned off, the only thing preventing silence was the click of his shoes against the hard surface of the deck as he walked towards her. A half smile on his face betrayed his optimism that the two of them would make progress on putting things right, and attempted to conceal the anxiety within.

"Thank you for coming." he began. "We have much to discuss. But first, is there anything I can get for you? A drink perhaps?"

The Emperor of Connuriste wished to be a polite host. He often had a drink next to him at all times, especially after arriving somewhere he had travelled to. It gave you a buffer between turning up somewhere and jumping right into the crux of any given matter, which he felt may be a good thing here. It could easily come across as uncaring if he launched straight forward to the difficult conversation immediately, more so when the atmosphere was tense between two people each wary of the other. And of course, there was few things worse than having a dry throat in the middle of speaking.

[Dutch-Empire]

Marie let her eyes fall on the Emperor of Connuriste and found herself surprised at how tall he was. Connor was so often made to seem like the most interesting shade of gray, left in the shadows of his wife, Charlotte's more dazzling bright white light. She had expected him to be a small man, left literally in the shadow of his wife. Marie relaxed her hands, letting them fall from her hips, her left hand sat lowly at her side whilst her right arm was half limp as if she was holding an invisible basket in the crook of her wrist. Marie, the infamous She-Wolf of Wied had, quite surprisingly, had, and has met very few of her enemies. Of all the people who have tried to kill her, Connor II was the first she had ever come face to face to. She and her greatest archrival, Anna Charlotte, had, which never ceased to surprise people, never met one another. The closest the two female monarchs whose rivalry had caused millions of people to fight in wars, had caused so much bloodshed that it had flooded her home country and overflowed their borders and ripped through the last three decades was being in the same city as it was destroyed by battle.

There were two reasons why she was so rarely able to meet with her adversaries. The first was, naturally, most would wish to kill her on sight, and thus it was too dangerous for her to come near them. She noticed that the emperor was alone. The ever-present pair, Charlotte and Connor were split. Where exactly was his other half? Marie, of course, preferred to speak with Connor alone, for she had feared that the empress would prove to be the type of enemy who wished to kill her on the spot. Marie seemed to naturally have worse relationships with empresses, women in power were often just as much slaves to their emotions as women who tended to simple civilian lives filled with cats. Men too.

There was also the second reason that Marie had so rarely meet with her enemies. Because they feared to meet her. The Duchess of Wied was not known to be but was extremely charismatic. She had a natural skill at developing re par with people. Many thought that she used her body to bend people to her will, but that couldn't be further from the truth. She had mastered seduction through being a conversationalist. Marie had stepped into foreign countries where she hadn't spoken the language, hadn't known anything, hadn't had anything and seized control in a mere fortnight. She had mesmerized her first husband, charmed the Mad King, had enthralled the King of Portugal, entertained the Bavarian monarch, won over the Deritain crown prince, assisted the King of Beliany, empowered the Scottish Queen and befriended the Queen of Great Hyruke. She had twisted adversaries into allies with the ease of a few syllables. It was why she had been refused an audience with the Tsarina. The old woman had been afraid she might start liking Marie.

"I think I shall take a drink," Marie said with a relaxed gaze, her imposing display falling away like a curtain to reveal a pleasant surprise expression. "On one condition."

Marie took a step across the deck of the yacht, her steps carefully, placed at a strategic angle as not to click loudly in the silence that unfurled between them, instead, making her steps soft like a cat's. But she did not walk towards Connor, instead, she walked in a curved to her left, swinging around so she stood at Connor's right side. Friends did not talk face to face, they chatted by one another's side. Marie patted Connor's arm, smiling up at him as if they were not two monarchs who'd only just met after twenty years of playing the most dangerous game of cat and mouse, but instead, she looked at him as if they were old friends, catching up with one another about their days.

"Only if you drink with me."

[Les Etats Connuriste]

Connor's eyes dared not to look away from Marie, tracking her like a hawk as she walked away from him only to end up by his side. It appeared that she was not on guard to the same degree he was, but at least that meant that she was not going to be standoffish with him. Her pleasant expression and her response to him tempted him to relax, but the voice in his head told him not to do so completely. The way she had done this in a way that seemed so nonchalant, it was not what he had expected. Not that there was an established precedent for meeting your adversaries.

The Emperor doubted that she would have done such a thing were he not alone, but he had decided that alone was the best way to do this. It was him that Marie had written to, it was him that had invited her. The only other person who he would ever have included in this was Charlotte, but he had not yet told her a thing. It would have been difficult for him to explain when he was still in the dark about so much of the story, without the clearer picture he wanted Marie to provide him with. It did his wife no harm to be out of the loop for now. What was a few more days of covering up the truth when it had been covered up for twenty years? Having Charlotte by his side right now would not have offered him any real benefit, and should the worst case scenario actually happen, Marie would have been able to bring harm to the Emperor and the Empress of Connuriste at the same time.

Connor looked down to the woman by his side smiling up at him, trying fruitlessly to read her.

"I can agree to that." said Connor, turning around towards the door which he held open for Marie, leading her down a corridor past bedrooms and his personal office all the way down to the other side of the vessel where the bar and lounge area was. There was a varied selection of expensive spirits on the back bar, which was decorated with simple woodwork, as well as sets of glasses and softer drinks.

"What are you having?" he asked, walking round behind the unstaffed counter.

[Dutch-Empire]

Marie followed the Emperor of Connuriste through the corridors of the yacht, taking note of the rooms they passed, silently mapping out the potential escape route that she could take if the need arose. Marie smiled up at Connor, nodding her thanks silently as she stepped into the lounge area of the yacht. It was a nice area to sit and talk to one another. Marie picked her way through the room, walking over a couch, but not sitting, instead looking around. She turned to look back at Connor as he walked around the bar, slightly surprised to see him intending to pour their drinks himself. Marie had never been particularly imperious, her time as Queen of the Netherlands had been too short, and after so many years living so humbly, whether by force, such as the years that she'd been imprisoned she knew well the life of having to do things yourself. It was in part what made her so popular in Great Hyruke, where the idea of a stratospheric aristocracy was left to only lounge whilst armies of servants tended to them was one that had been brought over by Deritain conquerors and thus firmly rejected a foreign patriarchal system. Yet such things seemed to be ignored by the household of Queen's nephews and even her niece. Marie, however, had expected the Connor, who would have been Emperor from birth if not for his mother, would be less inclined to do something generally seemed as trivial like pour his own drink.

Marie pondered what Connor preferred as his drink of choice. She could ask him to make whatever he would take, but that would make it seem as if she were trying to befriend him, to follow his lead and learn his taste so that she knew how he ticked in case she find some use to it in their talk. Which was true. But Marie wasn't going to be obvious about it. She looked at him, studying him, trying to imagine what he enjoyed. The idea of him enjoying bourbon seemed ironic. Surely not wine, this was a man said to still smoke cigarettes, she couldn't imagine him doing so with a glass of D'Auxy. No, he wanted something more traditionally manly, an emperor in a country controlled by women perhaps subconsciously had to. And what would he drink with a friend, to have a casual conversation, not carefully balance dance with words with hesitation like a man locked in a cage with a wolf? Scotch, or perhaps whiskey, though she couldn't tell exactly which one, so she decided to guess. Marie was clever and intelligent, but she wasn't all-knowing. Sometimes even she simply had to guess.

"Whiskey," Marie said, remaining standing, looking away from the Emperor behind the bar, which was a unique site to say the least, back to the lounge, admiring its choice of decoration. "Did you choose this style yourself?"

[Les Etats Connuriste]

Whiskey seemed a strange choice, in that he only knew very few women who liked the stuff. But one thing he could have been certain of, even before he had met Marie, was that she was no average woman, that she was not one who conformed to expectations but rather defied them. Connor hadn't planned on something alcoholic but if that was what his guest desired then he would have one too. In fairness, it could be a great aid to a conversation, especially one that had the possibilities of being difficult, as long as they drank responsibly and did not get carried away.

"Sort of," said the Emperor as he began to answer her question in the midst of pouring two whiskies. He had looked at a lot of boats and this is the one he had chosen, but he hadn't commissioned this from scratch. When he had been in the market for this vessel, he wanted something right there and then, not something that would take months to be ready.

"I did not design this myself. I liked it as it was, so I saw little need to alter it." Connor was mildly curious whether or not Marie was a fan of the open space with natural light, though he assumed that it was more likely just small talk. This was useful for breaking the ice, and for trying to gauge what made each other tick, which ultimately would be useful for forging a mutual understanding.

"Do you take yours with ice or not?" he asked, the only thing that he needed to address before he could bring the drinks over and get started with the real meat of the discussion.

[Dutch-Empire]

"Ice," Marie provided simply.

She had never been one to care too much about interiors or architecture, a pastime that she knew many of her fellow monarchs and royals enjoy, marking it as a way to express their contribution to history and what now. Marie, however, had never really gotten a chance for such projects, jumping from country to country meant that there were no great palaces, or long last parks or grand monuments of her, whether at her own direction or others. Well, there had been. A massive statue of her had been placed in the Queen's Garden in Espana, and whilst it had managed to survive the devasting Battle of Madrid (which yes admittedly Marie had in part caused and directed) that had destroyed most of the city and had been a crowning moment in the Carnage, the Spanish civil war between the Carlists and Henrians, her statue had not managed to survive the reign of Antonio I and his wife. Adela, Connor's daughter had destroyed the one monument in the world of Marie. Marie was amused by the thought. What would the petty little Queen of Espana think if she knew that Marie was having drinks with her father?

That being said, whilst Marie had no particular interest in interior designs and the like, she could recognize something that was aesthetically pleasing, and so she could say, in her amateur opinion, that the design of the lounge was quite pretty and that she enjoyed it. She would have to consider if she should have someone redesign her estate in Great Hyruke.

"I believe you made a wise choice." Marie thought over his words of how the current design had come to be and she thought of Francine, with her family locked away. Francine was like an older sister to Marie, (Marie of course did have an older sister, Louise, and whilst they loved one another, Louise had a tendency to regard her little sister as reckless, causing shenanigans) and had been a faithful companion to her through all her journeys and misadventures. Such companionship had cost Francine much. Francine had been imprisoned alongside Marie, had fled countries alongside her, and even when she had been given the glance to leave Marie's company for good and make a new life in Great Hyruke, Francine had refused to live a life without Marie's friendship. Marie perhaps have been right to hand that small vulnerable child that had incurred the Mad King's wrath over to Francine. She had trusted no one else to care for his safety, and Marie had even entrusted her own son in Francine's care. But Marie had also made a mistake giving the boy who would've been a prince to Francine.

"Sometimes there is little need to alter things that we come upon. No matter how much a feel it could be better."

[Les Etats Connuriste]

Connor considered what Marie had to say as he finished preparing the two identical drinks and brought them over to where she still remained standing, handing one off to her casually. She was right in the sense that she had started her sentence with 'sometimes'. There was little point in altering something just for the sake of doing so, less point still when modifications took something iconic and rendered it devoid of character, such as those tasteless people who took classic cars and ripped the soul out of them by changing every single component that made them great in the first place.

However, if something was legitimately and measurably improved by making changes, it was more often than not worth trying to do so. Indeed, making changes for the better was one of the foundations of successful civilisations that stood the test of time. This was a process that Marie herself would surely have been familiar with given the role she played in Hyruke, even if the prevailing opinion in Connuriste was eager to question how much good these changes that she had overseen had accomplished. They had done little to prevent the terrible crime that had Julian and Cece in a sticky situation, and done little to provide any cold, hard evidence for the benefits of the justice system. Perhaps if Marie hadn't been tied to it, people would have seen it in more shades of grey, rather than the black and white that often came with emotional responses. Whilst Connor intended to fully exonerate her, he knew he couldn't change every last persons opinion overnight. Plenty would still analyse it, searching for how she could have possibly manipulated the circumstances to turn in her favour.

Either way, making changes - for better or for worse - was important because it meant you had the autonomy to do so. Even if you had little control over the things in life there were always a few things you could alter that could make a difference. Without alterations, there would be no such thing as progress or advancement.

"Maybe," began Connor, sipping his drink and trying to steer the conversation back to something slightly more on topic. "But then you and I wouldn't be here, working on our relationship. I do hope that proves to be another wise choice, not just for me but for you as well."

[Dutch-Empire]

Marie couldn't argue with that. Well, she could, but not particularly confidently to victory. He was right. Opening up channels of communication between the two of them had meant changing the status quo. Set that also made any potential deadlock all the more dreadful. To have risked and opened up only to be faced with a wall, it was a harsh awaking. Marie did not wish to provide Connor who had, she figured had been just as uneasy about this as she.

"I suppose it is up to us to make it a wise one then."

Marie mirrored Connor and took a sip of her drink, letting the liquid dance across her tongue before it slid down her throat, the glass slight cold against her fingers. She focused on that coldness, remembering doing secret dealings in Moskva in the midnight breeze. She had made enemies into allies in the midst of a Russen blizzard. Surely she could do the same in the comfort of a yacht. Marie lowered her glass, swirling it slow so the ice just almost, but never quite touched the glass as it whirled in it.

"You love your children," Marie said after a pause. It was not a question. More of an observation. "Most of the time people think only mothers love their children, that fathers are simply there, but you defy such stereotypes. You love your children, and that I understand. I love all of my children, though they may not think it. I'm sure you are aware of what my daughters think of me. But nonetheless, I love all. I have never been the greatest mother, and often I was or am too far away to be there for them. I know how horrible, how unfair it is to have your children ripped away from you..."

The Duchess of Wied's eyes glistened slightly from tears, thinking of how Nicolaas had saved their son and daughters only to leave her behind. How she had been forced to send her sons to live abroad for their own safety. How Luis had banished her and pulled Lisandro out of her arms. She thought of how her daughters had been turned against her, her sons made into strangers, and yet still she loved them all. And for a moment she was jealous of Connor and his arrogance, his entitlement. He had lost one son, and Marie had at one point lost all of her children. But the thought was quickly dashed. One child did not outweigh two or three or eight, each was a parent's life. And Marie had never had to bury a child.

"We as parents, we..." she stopped and changed her words, "it is our duty to make sure our children are safe, even when they are out of our control. And as monarchs we are used to having things, all things in our control."

Marie took in a breath.

"That being said, I wish for one hundred percent honesty between us before we open up this coffin. The tale I have to tell, the facts that we must face now, the reasons for why events unfolded and happen now must be truthful, for both sides, in all their beauty and all their horror, understand?"

[Les Etats Connuriste]

The Emperor of Connuriste listened carefully as Marie spoke to him about parenthood. It was true that Connor loved his children, less so that he had always been the best father to them. He had been unable to protect Julian from being taken, unable to protect Alexia from what the Scots had done to her - he would even go as far to say that he was deserving of blame in that instance - unable to be a properly counterbalancing force to her fiery and impulsive nature, unable to help her heal and recover from whatever she had been subjected to. He had not always been able to spend as much time with his children as he would have liked, whether from the weight and number of his legitimate responsibilities or through the times he had been in dark places, doing anything and everything to distract him from the realities he faced, which included the numerous parties he had hosted on this very yacht, all the many days he had spent with the late and wonderful Angelette. He was certainly guilty of spending more time with some over the others, naturally his eldest and his inevitable successor Emily, and more recently the resourceful yet ever distant Charlotte, who was gradually thawing out to become a more mature and much happier and sociable young woman. He was definitely no expert, even after all this time, at judging where to draw the border between letting them to be free to make their own decisions, forging their own paths in life, and making sure he was always on hand to provide guidance when it was required, even when they did not actively seek it out themselves. Marie and him had very different circumstances when it came to being able to nurture their sons and daughters, yet they shared several of the same issues.

He also didn't necessarily agree that he was used to having things under his control. Being a monarch came attached to the expectation that one was ought to have everything under their control, in reality anyone but a fool knew you could never be in direct control of every single factor. Kings and Queens, Emperors and Empresses, they were still only mortal, hardly omnipotent and absolutely not omniscient. Connor had never exactly had his country wholly under his control, what with the Imperial Council, and indeed it was him who had established the precedent of giving them greater powers - for one of the things that came with power was the need to delegate responsibilities. Him nor Marie had ever had their families completely under control, nor had they ever been in true control of their marriages. What Connor was used to was maintaining the illusion that he did have control, there was only ever a specific amount he had at any given time.

He had more of the drink as these things crossed his mind, dulling the senses as he contemplated the fate that had befallen his second daughter who he had loved so much more than she had ever known. Connor always strived to remember Alexia as the independent young woman who always spoke her mind and never let anyone tell her what to do, how she danced on tabletops and crashed fast cars, how happy he had been to see her at what had been the last time she had dinner with the family in Lausanne. Those memories could always make him smile, not like the ones he had of what had been the next morning at Belmont House... he turned away from the Duchess of Wied briefly before he was confident that he would not crack in front of her.

"Of course," he told Marie sincerely. "I did not bring you all this way to lie to you about anything. Ever since we exchanged correspondence I wished for nothing but the full truth from you about what has happened. How could I hope for that if I wasn't willing to give you the same?"

[Dutch-Empire]

Marie nodded, deciding to sit, gesturing for Connor to join her. She held her glass in her hand tightly, but she was otherwise relaxed. She feared that she might frighten the Emperor with her warning. She had noticed how he'd had to advert his gaze and she wondered what had made him done so. Had he too been thinking of his children? Strange how fragile parents could become once the matter of their children was laid before them.

"Very well. Then I shall be honest. I came her not for you nor for Julian. I came here for me. I do not wish to cause any unnecessary hard, but this, I must admit, is not out of the kindness of my heart. I do not wish to be hunted by you or your family. And I wish for my son Joao to be released from your daughter's custody."

Marie took a sip of her drink.

"That being said, I do wish to ensure Julian's freedom. He is my son, Charles' friend and I am confident that he was not involved in the murder of Prince Arthur, and before you ask, no, I did not kill the prince. I believe we can save him and Cece from the gallows. But..."

Marie shook her head.

"Perhaps I should start from the beginning, of why these events took place. As for why... Twenty-three years ago, I was a young woman and a Queen, regent of Espana, left with all the powers of a monarch, something that I enjoyed, having lost my throne in the Netherlands several years prior. Whilst I was in Espana and you were here, preparing for the birth of your son, Julian, the man I called my husband, Charles, the 'Mad King' as you call him, was galavanting across the globe in a horrid spree. Now, something you must understand about Charles is that whatever illness that corrupted him, it came from the horrors of his childhood from watching his nation burn around him. It festered, quietly at first, in him. And eventually, he snapped. Or rather... He was snapped. His erratic behavior, it was, I believe the influence of two types of madness, the natural one that turn him into a child, albeit a violent one. This one was alarming but easy to deal with. And then there was the second madness, the one caused by whispers. This one was terrifying and capable of inflicting great suffering."

"Someone, I believe, was controlling Charles, whispering thoughts into his broken brain, directing him. And I believe that person wished to take their fury out on you. Charles kidnapping Julian was their tool. I did not know this at the time, but looking back, I believe that Julian was the tool that was to act as your destruction. There was some dark plan set in motion. At first, I believed it to be the Tsarina, but now, I am not sure. As Queen, once Charles returned, I could see my power slipping. Catherine Montrose still held great sway over him, and I knew eventually I would become one of his next victims. Julian was placed in my care, and I took pity on the child. I didn't wish to see him turned into whatever it was he was destined to be for some shadowy figure's dark plan. And thus destiny gave me answer, my dearest friend Francine, she had been married and was pregnant, and she lost the child. I thought... she could recover by caring for Julian. I thought that I should help her and save Julian by twitching him out.

"It was not meant to be permanent, but... events overtook me. My days in Espana were numbered and I had to leave. It was the midst of the Second Spanish-Dutch War and I divorced Charles, leaving my own son behind and fled to Munich. Francine went to Saint Petersburg where Charles had had the boy and... grew attached. She had just lost her son and now she had a second chance. She adopted him, presenting him as her own. He was so young... not even Andrew, Francine's husband knew the truth. Not even now. I was in Batavia when events unfolded in Madrid. Whoever was whispering into Charles' ear, I, I think they lose control of him. He was too far gone. When he decided to execute Julian, Francine in her panic, loving Julian as her own son, brought to Charles an orphan near death anyway. By the time Charles died, my own situation was unraveling and Francine and Andrew and our sons were going to Great Hyruke. By the time I lost Batavia, it had been four years and by then I was Queen of Portugal. I, in a moment of coldness, decided that if others had used Julian than at least I could as well. You and Anna Charlotte were brother and sister at this point, and I figured if I could not strike at her directly, I might get to her through you. I decided to stay silent and prepare myself to spring Julian;'s state of being alive on the world as a final bargaining chip to undercut Anna Charlotte's greatest ally."

"As the years went by, however, I too started to see Julian as Francine and Andrew's son. And I realized how cruel it might be to make you and your wife relive such pain and be presented with a child who would not recognize you, who would have grown up in an enemy camp. I resolved not to do anything, to let the secrets and the plots be left in the past and I returned to Atmora. And for a time I was content, but slowly I grew stifled, restless, and then learned of my son Adrian's relationship with the Duke of Alencon. I decided to go to Derita. And then everything changed."

Marie took a breath, and took another sip of her drink, trying to let all that she had said sink in, and let Connor respond if he needed to.

[Les Etats Connuriste]

Connor was glad that Marie had at long last decided to take a seat. He was much more comfortable and relaxed when he was seated, as with his privileged life and upbringing he had never been particularly one to spend his working days on his feet, not even when he had been a young man. He completely understood that she was here out of self-interest - it was the same thing that motivated him and ultimately was the driving cause behind almost all human actions. Investing time and effort often came tied to the expectation that one could make gains by doing so. It was as true for royalty as it was for commoners and the working classes. He was unsurprised that she didn't wish to be hounded everywhere she went in everything that she did, let alone when the basis for that hounding was founded upon falsehoods. It must be exhausting always having to look over your shoulder so that you could anticipate the blade or the bullet in your back. He was also unsurprised that she wanted her son released, but from his daughters custody did manage to be some words that he had not anticipated. The Emperor of Connuriste was of the impression that the suspects for his kidnapping were the Cinyroites, and that the general lack of interest from Espana to do anything about the embassy in Aranjuez as they had been asked he had attributed to a likely mixture of firstly not being particular bothered by the wellbeing of Marie's son, that and an unwillingness to interfere with the precedent for respecting the diplomatic space of others. That Antonio and Adela were in league with the Cinyroites instead of generally considering it not their problem was news to him. Indeed, if he wished to put pressure on Cinyras, that was easily done - it was his country and Atmora that were helping them maintain the supply of food given the shortage, and they could certainly withhold that supply. He was even relatively confident that should he ask the Atmorans, they would back him up without really thinking twice about it. Given the proximity of Connuriste to Cinyras, he could also set up a blockade. The fact that the Atmoran naval fleet now resided primarily at the base in Portstock only guaranteed that he had a sufficient number of vessels to do such a thing. The locations of the two nations even meant that it was probably possible that he could try and blockade them aerially too - they had radar that covered such distances easily, and his batteries of anti-air lasers - known as D.E.A.D (Directed Energy Air Defense) - would theoretically be able to down any conventional aircraft that sought to come into or leave Cinyras, even if that would be quite the drastic measure to take. If he could confirm that it was indeed the Spaniards who were the driving force behind such a plot it called for a different plan of action, but not one that was necessarily easier. It was more so Antonio that he had to convince more so than Adela, and even Adela was far from a genius, a Queen who had questionable priorities. The Emperor of Connuriste at least had the fact that it was his daughter to work with there, and hope that she had enough influence over her King, but this was making the assumption that she and her husband had not had some 'amazing' idea about what to do with the young Joao. Connor decided that for now he wasn't going to interrupt Marie and listened.

Connor was no stranger to the idea that the Mad King had been quite unwell, it was of course relatively easy to assume such a thing. That had always done very little to ameliorate his opinion of Charles, such a thing hardly excused the horrors that he had unleashed on the world. Connor had also long believed, quite like Marie, that there was someone influencing Charles and acting as his puppetmaster. Marie herself had been quite the suspect for this, not just because she had been his wife but also because it had been Connor's troops who had helped to thwart her and Charles' bid to reinstate her to the throne of the Dutch. He had also been one hundred percent confident that the Tsarina had been one of his puppetmasters at times too - it was surely how Charles had known where his wife and child had been in Russlande, why the Russlandains had been so unwilling to co-operate with any investigations, why they had imprisoned Charlotte on that island with Jean and why they had lied to Charlotte at every turn. The Tsarina had always hated him anyway, even more when it had been him to marry Charlotte and not her son despite the fact that Jean and her were cousins. It still made him angry even now. It made him angry that it had changed his marriage forever. It made him angry that his supposed best friend had not only done what he had done, but had refused to condemn his mother for the terrible things she had done to the Charlotte he supposedly cared so much about. It made him angry that the Tsarina was more or less untouchable, because even without what she had done to his family, she was quite objectively the most evil person to still draw breath. He supposed that now he was going to make peace with Marie, the Tsarina was firmly unrivalled right at the top of his list of enemies.

Connor was at least glad that he was so captivated by Marie's tale that these thoughts were firmly in the back of his mind as he continued to pay attention, keen to better understand the events from the Duchess' perspective. He was further glad still that Julian had grown up loved, even if it was not by him and his wife. He could see the reasoning behind Julian being a bargaining chip should she ever need to call upon it, and to be fair, it was not too far from what she was doing right now. She may not be undercutting Anna Charlotte's 'greatest ally' (as she had put it herself) to the fullest potential, but Connor was quite sure that Anna Charlotte would still be very unimpressed whenever his co-operation with Marie went public. It would certainly undermine the strength and depth of trust that Connuriste and the Dutch Empire had. But there wasn't a bridge that he was unwilling to burn as long as the final result was a happy and healthy Julian in Connuriste. Morality was not an obstacle for parents if they needed to do away with it to protect their offspring.

As his conversational partner took a pause, taking a breath and having some of her drink, he took it as his opportunity to interject.

"About your son, Joao. I was operating on the understanding that it was the Cinyroites who had him in custody. I can certainly put the pressure on them. No-one will question me particularly strongly when I say that we in Connuriste take the issue of royal kidnappings very seriously. And should I be subverting the plans of my daughter and son-in-law, perhaps they will inform me that I am working against them. I would be very eager to learn more about this situation, why you speak of him as being in my daughters custody. If you know anything more than I on that matter I would appreciate being in the loop. It can only help me in my efforts to have him found."

He smiled, not at the fact that Marie's own son was in a situation not dissimilar to his own, but rather that he could feel the fire and passion stir within as plots and plans of action took form in his mind. Aside from the very first years of his reign and the Spanish-Dutch War, Connor had not the interest or willingness to be a hands on autocrat, dictating his nations course by leading from the front. It was a big reason of why he had been perfectly content to let democracy take more of a center stage, with him in the background subtly influencing it. But now, with all these goals he had to achieve, and the true motivations behind them remaining a secret beyond the confines of this room at the present moment, he was looking forward to getting back into the game of trying his hardest to get what he wanted - no, needed - on the international stage.

[Dutch-Empire]

Marie gave Connor a small smile. She was, if not happy, satisfied to finally get her account of events off of her chest. She tilted her head slightly and Connor and resisted the urge to purse her lips as if she were looking at a dog who’d she sent to fetch a stick and had instead returned with a boot.

“I do believe you forget that I helped develop and direct one of the most advance surveillance systems in the world. Caroline may care only for what happens within the borders of her realm, but I have interests that go beyond those lines on a map. João is my son. I would naturally use all my resources to find him. I know exactly where he is and who he is being held by. The only reason he is not yet been freed is that I lack the resources necessary to secure his safe release. I’ve run the simulations and tested the best of the Hyrukian Special Forces, and I have been apart of rescue missions before, and they can very easily become bloody affairs.”

Marie considered the time that Atmoran forces had been either stupid enough to leave her behind in Wied or, more likely, had intentionally left her. She considered the time that she had been asked to help in the rescue of the present Queen of Kegara, which had resulted in several dead, including the Prince of Racraigua. Marie continued casually, as if she were discussing the various types of meals she’d had over the last two days.

“The chance of João being killed, either in the process or in spite as to prevent his freedom is too high for me. I have considered starting a war in order to free him, but contrary to popular belief I do not particularly like starting wars, and they could have the same potential outcome, with João dying long before my forces reached Aranjuez. I have even considered assassinating the King and Queen of Espana, though I am afraid I had to put a halt on such plans once Arthur died. I was already suspected in the death of one of Anna Charlotte’s brat, two would certainly look like a fourth attempt for her throne, and thus once again spark a war. So I have decided that peaceful means are my best bet at getting as I wish.”

[Les Etats Connuriste]

Connor had not forgotten that Marie played a crucial part in her systems of surveillance, but he could hardly have been expected to have a truly accurate understanding of its exact power and scope, given his lack of access to such a resource. It was clearly something that he had underestimated and God only knew how much he had underestimated it by. He was intrigued as to how precisely she had uncovered such information, and how exact the location was that she knew 'exactly' of. He noticed how composed Marie was as she explained her thought process to him, and pondered how much Joao's ordeal truly fazed her. How many walls had she constructed around her emotions to be so calm, or at least maintain the facade?

Nevertheless, the Emperor of Connuriste admired her honesty, regardless of the fact she had promised it one hundred percent. It was almost quite blunt in the sense that she talked about starting wars and having his daughter and her husband killed, and that the only obstacle in her doing such a thing was her doubt that it would actually accomplish anything, how it seemed that this peaceful approach was only an afterthought to the prior ideas of conflicts and killings. Of course, it had to be remembered that the conventional peaceful approach had long been tried and failed with her and Caroline's diplomatic efforts. He could also sympathise with the lengths she was willing to go and the measures she was willing to take to be reunited with her son. It was growing in clarity that the two of them in this lounge shared plenty in common.

Connor had another sip as he processed all of this and worked on constructing his sentence in the most coherent fashion. "So you are counting on me to persuade Adela and Antonio to rethink the choices that they have made," he said, more of an observation than a question. "I am more than happy to discuss that with you, although it is up to you whether we do that right now. I feel that you left your story on a bit of a cliffhanger, about how everything changed when you went to Derita."

It was not his intention to be rude, or to completely dictate the flow of the conversation. He wished not for Marie to lose where she was up to in her and Julian's tale, but it would not surprise him in the slightest if her own son was a topic with which she wished to continue with for now. The Emperor had hoped to give a choice in which direction this went, whether it continued chronologically, detailing her version of history, or whether they continued their detour into the disappearance of the Portuguese King.

[Dutch-Empire]

“Ah yes,” Marie said. She hadn’t meant to go off on that slight conversational detour anymore than Connor had, but she’d had felt it necessary that the topic be discussed. At least now one could see that it was not solely Connor who had a vested interest in cooperation. The Duchess of Wied recollected her thoughts.

“Derita. Well. As I had returned to Atmora, and remarried by first husband, cut me twice shame on me, he had been appointed to be governor of some planet, and whilst at first it was lovely, it quickly grew tedious and boring. When I caught wind of my son, Adrian’s relationship with the Duke of Alençon, I was surprised but happy for him. I decided to return to earth and meet my future in-laws. Every family protects their own, but I found my new son-in-law’s to be... uniquely abrasive to me. The same feeling of something being off that I’d felt in Espana returned to me. I decided to do some digging, to watch and observe. I simply didn’t realize at the time that I too was being watched and observed. And then I made my discovery. Who ever had been whispering into King Charles’ ear, was now in Derita, whispering into the Volonté’s. I do not believe they were, or are aware of it, but I believe they’d been convinced that their puppeteer’s mission was their own. And now the puppeteers goal wasn’t simply to take out petty vengeance. They’d grown in their tastes. Now they wanted the world.”

Marie shrugged her shoulders. “So naturally I decided to join them. I still wanted my throne back, and with Adrian and Alexandre in love, and the fact that Derita and Anna Charlotte had become enemies in my absence meant that they valuable allies. I befriended Crown Prince Andeja and promised Adrian and Alexandre the throne of the Netherlands, after I was done with it of course. All was going well. But then two things happened, the former may be my fault and the latter out of my control. First. I think it angered Alexandre, who has never liked me, for why I can’t imagine, at the idea that I was a bloodthirsty power grasping Queen, especially one who murdered children and when I was approached on the subject, I admitted to not being cruel enough to intentionally let an innocent child die. This opened a door, and relieve that the puppetmaster, who’d had such dark plans for him and had abandoned their plans began to consider if he was alive. That I believe, was not confirmed till the second thing happened.”

Marie pursed her lips tightly and shot a glare at Connor. She’d not realized just how much this memory made her angry until just now. Marie had escaped several assassination attempts, but this one had never nearly been the end of her. It was made even worse knowing what happened after being shot.

“When you sent an assassin after me, who then proceeded to shoot me at my son’s wedding. I’ve done some messed up things, but that, that is just cold. I do intend to collect an apology for that. Anyway, for better or for worse, poor girl wasn’t quite as skilled as she thought yet. She found I was much harder to kill than that Blier-Labonté girl. I attempted to beg for her life, offering her any, promised her power, wealth, information, but she was not increased and she shot me. But she made the mistake of leaving before I was actually dead. I surely would have died if, as I said before, I was not being closely monitored by my most gracious hosts. The Crown Prince rescued me,” Marie said bitterly, “if you can call it that, more like maintained my usefulness. They’d heard I had information, and they wanted it. I,” Marie gestured at Connor with her glass, “and you I suppose, had inadvertently brought life back to the puppetmaster’s long dead dark plans, and now they were grander than ever.”

“The Crown Prince placed new in a fucking catacomb,” Marie was not one for cursing usually, come on, she had been locked away in a secret underground prison. “where I was draped in absolute darkness with only the dead to keep me company and given barely enough food to survive. And I was lucky. The Crown Prince, in his gentlemanly way, didn’t believe in torturing a monarch, enthroned or not. But I assure you being in that prison was torture enough. Do you know what is like to live in absolute darkness in solitude, to not see the sun, or anyone, or anything, motto breath fresh air, so much as move for over half a decade? It does not simply drive one insane. It turns you feral, but only just enough that your consciousness becomes trapped in the body of an animal.”

Marie tossed her head and her drink back, downing it in its entirety. She resisted the urge to simply toss it aside. Her rage, which was something that had plagued her entire life had started to boil out. She tried to remember her anger management therapy. She gave Connor a sly smirk.

“I assure you, any crimes I’ve committed have been paid in full with that unpleasant experience.” Well, she thought, her crimes before that experience. “Luckily for Francine, Julian and Charles my will is stronger than my mind. And then, as if by the hand of God herself, one day, quite randomly my prison was quite literally obliterated around me. Even I don’t know that full story, but I am inclined to believe it was coincidence. Or perhaps destiny. Whatever the case, as the Berlin catacombs collapsed around me, I quickly found myself hunted. By several forces, though most pressing Alexandre. I’ve heard of men not getting along with their mother-in-laws, but that was just ridiculous.”

Marie joked about it now, but at the time it had been quite terrifying. Not even the She-Wolf of Wied should have taken being hunted the Celestial Empire’s Panther lightly.

“I’ll spare you the details, I had a misadventures in Russlande, Beliany, Gênes and a few other places, and several bombings, trips to terrorist dens, an engagement and a high-speed boat chase later I found my way to Great Hyruke. But of course Alexandre tracked me there at the Blackthorn’s home. I attempted to have them flee, to escape whilst I dealt with Alexandre, though that didn’t go as planned. He invaded the home before I and Julian could escape and well,”

Marie furrowed her brow. “I don’t really know. Alexandre I believe cornered Julian, and based on Julian’s account, they spoke briefly, about what, I do not know, but then he simply let him go. Julian joined me and we fled the building. Alexandre burned down the house and return to Derita. And after than the Deritain’s ceased their hunt for me, and Julian as well I presume. Julian has never elaborated for me on what they spoke of. I knew the matter had been dropped when I had tea with my son-in-law and he didn’t poison me. As for Julian, I found him healthy and happy. He and my dear Charles are the best of friends, and had several Blackthorn siblings, actual products of Francine and Andrew’s marriage.”

Marie paused. She was a blunt woman when it came to discussing assassinations, wars, diplomacy and the like, especially about herself, but she was, or at least, she wished to be more sensitive when discussing Julian Blackthorn’s life. She did not wish to stir an anger in Connor by recounting the life he had had as the middle child of a Hyrukian diplomat as opposed to the life that should have been his as a Prince of Connuriste.

“Do you, wish to hear the details of Julian’s life as a Blackthorn? I assure you it is all good things, but...” Marie trailed off not sure of what to say. “I know it can be strange to learn of your child growing up without you.”

[Les Etats Connuriste]

Connor had known that Marie was going to bring up the time he nearly had her killed at some point, very much expecting it to be mentioned when she continued about what happened when she was in Derita. He looked at her sheepishly as she began to recount the story of him sending that assassin, Frederica of course. In fairness, he had only instructed her to do one thing, having not specified methods or a time or a place. So having Marie shot at the wedding of her own son was his doing, yes, but he had not known or intended for it to be at such a family event. Not that he was particularly bothered by that fact at the time, at first he did not care how the job was done as long as it was done, and later he was of course much more bothered that his incompetent assassin had not fully confirmed the kill when Marie resurfaced some time later. Now, in the present, he was happy that he had not got the outcome he sought at the time. He would never have known the truth about Julian should she have succeeded in that murder, and never have just found out that Frederica had killed "that Blier-Labonté girl" as his guest had put it. In that moment, eyes widening with realisation, it dawned on him that the culprit behind Angelette's murder had to be none other than Charlotte, who even had the cheek to represent Elizabeth Percy as her lawyer when she had been accused of such a crime. It meant that Charlotte had known about him and her before he had actually told Charlotte about it. Of course, he was no angel in that particular saga... but it would have been him that deserved the Empress's fury, not Angelette. That was without considering that murder, especially the brutal manner of how it had been carried out, was such a needless overreaction. Her and Connor's story had concluded some time earlier, yet that had done nothing to spare her from paying the ultimate price.

Then again, Marie's fate had also been awful and unfair, shot for something she hadn't done and then imprisoned in solitary confinement underground for years. It was a perfectly good excuse for the first time that either of them had resorted to swearing, in fact what had happened to her would have been a perfectly good excuse for her to have come here and kill him, or worse. It was difficult to face her and actually make eye contact, he instead looked down as guilt wrapped a few knots around his stomach. Connor knew he'd fucked up anyway, but that was before he heard that his actions had only been the start of a long path of what more or less amounted to torture, a path which had ended only when a plane crash directly above freed her from that prison. She finished her drink, clearly stressed, yet smirked at him instead of the glare he had been shot when she first started recounting this particular incident.

Whilst the Emperor of Connuriste had all of this to be already concerned about, as well as resolving the King of Portugal's circumstances, he was also worried to see that his suspicions that Julian was wanted as a tool in plots that went beyond just those of Marie were quite accurate. It reassured him that making the decision to delay going public was the right one, that and the fact that Alexandre had seemed to drop any Deritain plans for him was also another source of alleviating a few nerves.

He got up out of his seat, his own glass in one hand and taking Marie's now empty glass in his other hand, making his way back over to the bar. He assumed that she would advise him otherwise if she did not want another one, but anyway even if she didn't the worst thing that could happen was bringing her a refill wish she could just leave untouched. He placed the glasses down on the tabletop, finishing his own which he followed with a large sigh.

"Knowing what I know now, I would never have sent an assassin for you." he told her, although he hoped that was something which would have been relatively clear without saying it aloud. "And all I told her was to do a specific job. Location and method were not my concern. I have never been shot or imprisoned, both of which I imagine are infuriating enough without the added factor of spoiling a special day you were supposed to share with your son."

The closest experience of his own to something like that was when his daughter Emily had been poisoned at his anniversary celebrations ; a bottle that had been sent to him as a gift had made its way into the hands of the Crown Princess and her friends during the festivities. That had happened a few months after Adrian and Alexandre had been married, so Marie had never been suspected in making such a thing happen, though the true culprit remained a mystery to this day. The Duchess of Wied had enlightened him on so much already, but with the knowledge that she had been imprisoned at this time he decided it wasn't a pressing matter to bring up right this second. He doubted it was appropriate to try and say he could relate to what he had done to Marie, to stir up any sympathy for him.

"You know, for years I was convinced that I was good and that you were the villain. I'm aware how wrong I was about that. Naturally, I want Julian and you want Joao. But beyond that, there's still some way to go before I have made amends, before you and I are even."

He hoped that would satisfy her intention to collect an apology, at least for the time being. Apologies alone could still be sincere, but making amends was going one step further in the sense that it was making a real effort to mitigate the damaging consequences of actions that led to the need to apologise in the first place. As he returned to where they had been sitting he placed down the drinks before continuing.

"As for details about Julian... I would wish to hear them. Strange as it might be to hear of his experiences without me and my family in the picture, it would be stranger still to know little or nothing at all about them."

[Dutch-Empire]

Marie considered Connor’s words. She personally did not blame him for her imprisonment, he had had no way of knowing the machinations of the various enemies she’d made. The attempted assassination though was a sore spot. Quite literally. Marie still had the scar of where the bullet had ripped through her. She decided to let the statement hang there with silent acceptance. She would remember to collect on Connor’s debt when the time came.

But sticking to he current topic, Marie found herself a bit more detached, her emotional outburst sinking back to nothingness. Marie had not played witness to Julian’s life till a few years ago, something rather ironic she thought. Marie, aside from a few brief months, had had every little contact with the lost prince around which at least three secret plots had revolves around. Instead it had been Francine who had been there. And as Francine had refused to meet with Connor, Marie was giving him a second hand account of events.

“Well, all I know is from Francine, the woman who has been,” Marie searches for the proper words . Posing sounded so false. Francine cared for Julian as much as Connor did she suspected. Some love was not limited to the ones we call family yet do not share blood with. “Acting as his mother. Julian, and the rest of the world believes he was born in Russlande, and this roughly a year younger than he actually is. He has several siblings, uh, half siblings, Uh, step-siblings.” Marié waved her hand in mild frustration. “You know what I mean. In any case Julian is very close with his younger sister Helena, they grew up like two peas in a pod. He went to the very best academies in Great Hyruke, and was a well enough student. You’ll find it funny enough that he and my son Charles are the best of friends. I believe he played the violin, or perhaps the piano?”

Marie never realized before how awkward this might feel, trying to sum up a person’s child’s life to them. She decided to skip ahead to the Julian she was more familiar with.

“Since I’ve been in Hyruke, I can say that he is a very intelligent young man, though a bit on the shy side. Well. A lot on the shy side. Apparently he and Charles meet Cece when she went out on a excursion through Londres, and Julian instantly had a crush on her. Of course they didn’t know at the time she was the Princess. And then the next day I brought the two to Wattingham Palace,” Marie chuckled at the memory. “I’ve never seen such red faces. We had to pick Charles’ jaw off the floor, and Julian was so shocked he became a mute for a week. And poor Cece, she was horrified that her aunt knew she’d been sneaking out of the palace.”

“I believe the three developed a very deep friendship with one another. It was something of a love triangle at first. Cece liking Charles, Charles caring about Julian’s feelings and Julian liking Cece. All the trappings of young love. Eventually I suppose feelings changed and they rearranged themselves. I’ll admit I didn’t particularly approve. I think Charles and Cece were a perfect pair. Rays of perky sunshine the two of them. Julian is a more, how you say? Punk rock? Leather jackets and lots of black outfits. White dyed hair.” Marie paused. “Well, it is dyed brown at the moment, though his natural blond is returning.” The Duchess of Wied decided not to mention that it was dyed because he’d been in hiding and only because of his imprisonment was his true hair color making a reappearance.

“Eventually I relented and found that my son’s happiness and from Julian’s. The Blackthorns as a whole are a very respectable family in Great Hyruke, aristocrats in all but name. I think this may have caused Julian to develop a slight insecurity, ironic consider,” Marie again waved her as if to say ‘your know’. “He has grown into a good young man.”

Marie bit her lip. “That being said, whilst Julian and Cece were interested in one another, they never public came out about their relationship, and when that Wessex brat showed up the both of them were heartbroken. Don’t be fulled by the news, there was no love in Cece and Arthur’s marriage. Arthur was an entitled and domineering boy, high on his military victories and sadistic I don’t believe he cared for women, or people in general, let alone the Princess. Cece was horrified, but Caroline and I,” Marie spread her hands in defeat. “We had no choice. Anna Charlotte has backed us into a corner. The Dutch Fury was bright and hot back then, and we would have lost a conflict with her. Still probably would. Cece and Julian... they intended to run away together, to elope in secret and flee the country. Charles of course would have done with them. They thought themselves the three musketeers. All for one and one for all. But...”

“But as I have said before. I do direct one of the most advanced surveillance systems in the galaxy. Of course I discovered their plans. I could not bare the thought of having my son follow whatever destructive of good natured path Cece and Julian were prepared to run down. There was also the matter of what would happen if Cece left Arthur standing at the alter...” Marie shook her head. “Who knows what he might have done. That is after he killed us all. Probably would have seized the throne with his mommy’s forces to support him. It is a disgrace. The people loved him, even more now that he is dead, and he very well could have been the worst tyrant they would’ve had sense, well, ever. Determined to not lose my son and to maintain some semblance of control, convinced Cece to marry Arthur, with the hope at she could at the very least hold the worst of him back.”

“It was a harsh decision I know, and for a while I questioned of it was the right one. And despite all that’s happened, I still stand by it. The alternative would have been so much worse. Poor Cece, she cried the entire way down the aisle and sobbed through the ceremony. Julian grew even more reserved afterwards. I suppose I should have expected that a broken young man’s heart left to fester would lead to trouble. But the people adored Cece and Arthur, and the cameras loved them. And for a time it even seemed that all was well, that they’d grown to love one another, they managed to have a child together, and sadistic and controlling as he was I don’t think he would have forced himself on her. But it was a boy, and in Hyruke it’s a girl or bust. Perhaps that put a strain on their relationship, or perhaps it had all been a pharse, but sometime after Julian became Cece’s lover.”

The two were clever, and they managed to use some of the blind spots of Cercle to keep it hidden from me and others. Cece’s old habits of sneaking out came back with avengance. Charles would find himself suddenly very busy at odd hours of the day, which I now realize was him organizing their Clandestine meetings, but eventually I caught them via camera. By the time I and the system caught wind however, it was too late. Before I, or anyone could do anything, suddenly Arthur was dead and the world was falling apart. I’ll admit, all the evidence points to Cece and Julian, and maybe even Charles being behind his murder. But in my gut I do not believe it. It is almost suspicious how all the evidence points to them. And what scares me is who the real culprit is. They somehow not only managed to find blindspots, they didn’t just simply stay in them to his for a few hours like Cece and Julian had. They’d somehow managed to entirely exist in those blindspots in the heart of the country with some of the most important figures and murder one and frame the other.”

“Julian and Cece admitted to the affair, but deny anything to do with murder. As I said, I don’t believe them capable. But then, you, as I was, are probably wondering why Julian and Charles ran. Anna Charlotte was looking for anyone to blame yes, but disappearing like they did only made them look all the more guilty. But it wasn’t a simply escape.” Marié leaned forward, conspiratorially. “When Julian and Charles fled Londres, they disappeared. As in, were whipped off the face of the Earth, without a trace. Their plan landed in Russlande, but they weren’t on it. My tracking devices on Charles stopped working and no matter how I searched for them, satellites, drones, reconstructed heat signature paths, spies, nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing worked. And then weeks later Julian turns up, after an international manhunt in Gênes, posing as a servant for the future Queen of Gênes? Strange no? What is stranger? We interrogated him, humanely of course, but the Dutch insisted, and Julian has no recollection of anything from the time he was gone.”

“Thus, I believe something is afoot. I believe the puppetmaster who has been the bane of our mutual existences for the last twenty odd years is still out there, and I don’t believe he is done with us, or Julian yet. And they still have Charles. Thus it is with that in mind that I complete my explanation of why I did the things I did, and what I know of the mysterious dangers that still seem to swirl around us.”

[Les Etats Connuriste]

Connor was well practised at doing his best to conceal his emotions, or at least the true extent of them. It was not in his nature, but a skill developed over a lifetime of encountering setback after setback, which more or less accurately described many of his experiences after sitting upon the throne of Connuriste. He was capable of stoically putting up a strong enough barrier to hold back how he really felt, even if concealing them entirely was not always possible. Children, however, were always a soft spot for parents. The pain of losing Alexia was always difficult to lock away in its entirety, but with Julian it was not loss, rather hope. Hope was much more dangerous than loss, for it meant that there was a possibility of gaining, or regaining something. Hope had caused the destruction of much more than pure rage or misery had, it made people take risks and gamble. With hopeless situations, the rational mind tended to accept and move on. But with hope, this wasn't the case, and there still remained the chance that if unfulfilled, should opportunity not work in your favour, you could still experience a massive loss regardless.

With Connor, he not only had the anxiety from wanting so much to achieve what he hoped for, but the odd mixture of wistfulness and happiness from hearing about the life that Julian had led so far. He was glad that his son was a bright young man, curious to see what musical talent he possessed, and proud that true to his real royal nature, the boy had a talent for seducing Princesses. Hope, pride and happiness were already a strong mix, and with the longing to play a part in that life of Julian's added to the mix, he had to momentarily dry his eyes for a few seconds as he listened. He hadn't wanted to show weakness of any kind to Marie, but alas, he was only human. There was already a lot of serious things on his mind before he had considered how the mental image he had of Cece, Charles and Julian corresponded to his own past experience of the infamous Charlotte, Connor and Jean triangle, how he could relate to their young idealism and naivety of thinking that they could take on the world. It was going to be tough to unravel all the many threads that Julian and his friends had got themselves tangled up in, but hey, it was probably better than if he had grown up in the working or middle classes, the Emperor of Connuriste could at least relate to the lives of aristocrats in a much more personal way than he could any commoner.

He reflected briefly on something Marie had said earlier about using his son as a weapon to undermine one of Anna Charlotte's closest allies, and whether or not Marie's intentions were malicious, they would almost certainly have that effect. The Empress of the Dutch was already offended that Marie's daughter had been present at the wedding of Emily and Rafie, and he could only imagine how offended she might be when she learned of the co-operation between him and Marie herself. How bad would the Dutch fury be when he worked to release the King of Portugal from her sons captivity? How much worse would it get when with his blessing, he would place Marie's daughter on the throne of Atmora? What then, when he worked so hard to have the two lovers Julian and Cece released and acquitted for the murder of Anna Charlotte's son? When he not only acquitted but exonerated the She-Wolf of Wied herself? God, to think that Anna Charlotte might already be a little pissed off with him. It was going to get so much more strained. And should she write to him with more choice words about her own opinion, it would take every ounce of his willpower to resist advising her that she shouldn't have forced her son upon Cece and expected everything to be fine. If wedging a divide between Connuriste and the Dutch Empire was Marie's original goal, then he was quite confident that she would succeed. Already he found himself with a great deal of respect and admiration for the Empress's greatest rival, already concerned about how the Dutch had and were continuing to strong-arm Great Hyruke into doing their will. He would cross the Dutch every single day of the week if that meant he got what he wanted.

"Let's talk about this evidence that points to them. All I have heard myself is merely circumstantial so far, though of course I am not privy to the innermost workings of this tribunal that has been established. I had hoped that you would have a clearer picture than I. Then, we shall discuss how we can hunt down the puppetmasters."

He knew Marie would be as eager to discuss that last part as much as he was, certainly if they still have Charles. And even if they hadn't had him anyway, the clever (which Marie more than deserved to be counted amongst) always sought to uncover what was being hidden from them, address the frustrations that came with not having the full picture. The Emperor himself, he would have put a lot of money on those pulling the strings being either Deritains or Russens - if not both. The King-Emperor of course was the greatest manipulator of all, and the Tsarina had the sheer force of will and intimidating capabilities to accomplish any goal, even if it meant delegating these responsibilities to capable pairs of hands.

[Dutch-Empire]

Marie took in a breath and nodded. This was a conversation, the discussion of the crime around Prince Arthur’s death, that’d she’d had several times before over the last few months.

“First and foremost, at least in the eyes of the Dutch, Cece conducting an extramarital affair is motive for assassinating her husband, and Julian being the center of said affair also gives him motive. Second is opportunity. Apparently the servants at the Princess’ home had been sent away by Arthur after witness a fight between the Arthur and Julian, meaning that they would have been the only ones in the living section of the home aside from their son and the nurse, who claims she was asleep but may have heard some sort of tussle at some point in the night, but can’t remember if it was a memory or a dream. Finally there is means. The mysterious poison that was used to kill Arthur has yet to be identified as any known substance, but its sample matches with those at other mysterious Royal death scenes. There is no record of Cece or Julian purchasing such a poison, but since Julian did manage to disappeared for several months, it seems it is very possible he could have orchestrated some sort of meeting to get ahold of the poison.”

“Cece and Julian have nothing the worse and perfect alibi. Cece left the house and meet up with Julian and Charles after her fight with Arthur. Unfortunately there is a logged entry of the home, there was a day by day logging of entry and exit by the prince and princess to home, not too long after she left, suggesting that she met with Julian and came back to kill Arthur. Worse still the two witnesses to Julian and Cece’s claim of being out all night are either missing,” Marie said referring to her own son, “or dead, as Cece’s driver was found dead in his home from cardiac arrest.”

[Les Etats Connuriste]

"It's all supposition, then." concluded Connor, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. "Even if all the circumstances seem to align I don't see how anything can be proven beyond reasonable doubt. That tends to be pretty important when it comes to carrying out justice."

He resisted the temptation to reach into his pocket for his lighter and spark up a cigarette. They even had that extra satisfaction when you had been consuming alcohol, but he could wait - if only because it would be all the more satisfying when his willpower caved in and he relented. And even if this was his space, somewhere where he should feel more comfortable than anywhere else, he would rather have one outside in the fresh air, instead of polluting the room with smoke that would hang around, unable to escape. The Emperor was unconvinced by the possible motivations - which of course was a lot easier when he already had a preconceived notion of what he wanted to think. Royal murder was quite clearly a bad idea if you wanted the best chances of maintaining your extramarital affair of course, but on the other hand love was often a motivator behind poorly thought out crimes of passion.

"With that said, I understand why the Dutch are pushing so hard for what they want. I fear that in their minds they are already certain. It is a mistake I have already made with you in the past."

It was a mistake that he hoped was possible to dissuade Anna Charlotte from making, but he was worried that she had long grown used to getting exactly what she wanted and bending people to conform to her will, entitled to receiving the outcome that she desired. He started on the second drink that he had recently refilled as he pondered how best to move the conversation forward. Connor was normally used to making one glass last for hours, but these were far from normal times.

"If we find Charles, he could back up their alibi. If the Dutch are willing to listen to him."

He sighed exasperatedly, that was quite a big if. They would have every reason to believe that he was in on the conspiracy of Cece and Julian's creation, and being Marie's son... Connor knew that the Empress of the Dutch would not take kindly to any testimony he had. He knew first hand how poorly she regarded Marie and her family. But finding Charles would be helpful regardless. It could tie in to tracking down those who orchestrated this conspiracy in the first place. If the situation was not so serious, it would have been amusing that he now had two of her sons to work on tracking down and returning to her.

The task that faced him and Marie seemed to be becoming a case of him and her against the world. If things were shaping up as they appeared to do so, needing to defy the Dutch, his daughter in Espana, the puppetmasters wherever they were - in Derita or Russlande or somewhere else entirely - in addition to all of the various allies just one of these nations could call upon - standing against and taking on essentially the rest of the world wouldn't even seem to be too much of an overstatement. It was an interesting vision to think that the unlikely duo could prove to be dependent on one another in order to get what each so desperately desired, and he had no doubt that Marie would be a strong asset to have on his side. She was capable, resourceful, a charming conversationalist who had her own assets such as Cercle, her own connections and links such as the Queen of Great Hyruke. The Duchess of Wied was also experienced - or at least much more so than he was - in operating within the shadowy underworld of plots and plans, the face of international politics that did its best to remain hidden from public view. And though he would never have entertained such an idea previously, it was difficult to argue that she wasn't quite the alluring woman as well. They were a combination of traits that made it all possible that she was the one orchestrating all these plots in the first place, but he dismissed that as paranoia. He did believe what she was telling him, and he was trusting her judgement. His inner sceptic told him that he didn't really have another choice and that he was choosing to be optimistic, that he was believing what he wanted to... but deep down, he really was convinced by her words, and there was no talking himself out of that.

[Dutch-Empire]

Marie nodded her head. She knew from experience that the Dutch States-General was difficult to dissuade when they had their mind set on something. Anna Charlotte was even worse no doubt. Marie did not blame the empress, at least not in this case. To lose her son, in such a horrible way, it was something that would drive any mother into a ramage. Anna Charlotte was looking for blood and she felt she had it in Cece and Julian. Never mind the fact that Cece was the mother of Anna Charlotte’s own grandchild.

“I do believe that the my fellow countrymen ad -women are determined to see their guilt. I’d like to think that Charles’ testimony could sway the decision. I think Charles would be able to sway the Hyrukians to Cece and Julian’s innocence, but his word would mean nothing to Anna Charlotte simply because my blood runs through his veins. We must act quickly. Anna Charlotte’s Asbury dog is an old friend and favorite of Queen Caroline and while the Queen doesn’t wish to give into Anna Charlotte’s demands, she can only push back so much.”

Marie took a slip of her drink, the first time since Connor had refilled hers.

“Thus I have a crazy plan that may work. But I fear it may lead to much sadness and confusion, but that confusion may at least delay a verdict till Charles can be located and more evidence gathered. We could... announce to the world Julian’s true identity.”

Marie didn’t bother to mention that this would also exonerate her from the crimes that she’d been accused of by Connuriste. It was a plan that Marie didn’t particularly like, she was concerned what affect it may have on Julian, and she knew Francine would act such a plan. But it would make the Dutch hesitate condemning two foreign royals.

[Les Etats Connuriste]

Connor nodded his head in understanding, for a moment considering whether it was a matter of won't rather than can't when it came to the limits of what Queen Caroline could do. Cece was of course her heir, and no-one in Hyruke wanted the alternative which was Philip, if he remembered correctly. Should Caroline not be as willing to go as far as she need to secure Cece's future given that the evidence had her nor Julian dead to rights? It was a thought process he cast off to one side, if he was going to reconsider his whole opinion of Marie, his attitude towards Caroline required adjustment as well. Especially as much of the animosity that had characterised his attitude towards Caroline was her affiliation with Marie herself.

"You know, the only reason I hadn't done that already was because I was worried that doing so might only bring further danger to him." he said, referring to the conspiracy that surrounded his long-lost son and his concern that doing such a thing before he had a clearer picture might end up working against his plans to retrieve Julian. "I felt like there had to be a reason that the truth had been covered up for so long, to be an effort to keep Julian safe and protected. I see now that feeling was right, but what must be done now is to do anything to make the Dutch stop and think twice. I still wish that I had known this truth earlier, for perhaps he wouldn't have been in a mess like this, and we needn't have been enemies for so long, you and I."

He paused for thought, seeking the clarity of thinking straight which was not easy to find when it felt like your insides were swirling around and wrapping themselves in knots. There were so many trains of thoughts headed in all different directions - which in itself wasn't strange for the man sitting at top of the hierarchy in Connuriste - but they were typically not so strong, not so personal. He had known for a while that he would at some point have to make the public aware of this news, but actually doing it and writing the script for doing so was still a daunting task.

"But I do understand that it's much more complex than that. As much as I may not be hugely fond of it, the fact is that telling me all of this means letting one more person in on the secret. And the best way to keep the secret safe is to of course never tell unless absolutely necessary. I also know that once you commit to living a lie, it gets more and more difficult to untangle with each passing day."

He hoped Marie didn't interpret that the opposite way that he had meant. It was not his intention to call her a liar, but rather that maintaining the story she had done so for so long in her interest to keep him safe was ultimately based on deception. Choosing the right exact words were much easier when you could be emotionally detached from something and rational, the former of which he certainly wasn't and the latter of which he was trying his hardest to remain.

"And of course, to see your friend Francine so happy with him, love him like he was her own... that has to be pretty significant too. My point is, I understand why now is the right time for you to enlighten me, as much I might have wanted that to happen earlier."

He laughed anxiously, glancing back at the woman who sat across from him.

"You'll have to forgive my monologuing." he explained, quite aware that he had gotten slightly caught up in his stream of consciousness and exposed it at length.

"I could quite literally walk into my office and be on every screen in the country in five minutes, and I'd be surprised if it took that long after that for the international media to pounce on it too. Though perhaps it would be a good idea to have a proper think about what exactly needs to be said before I actually say it to millions of people."