A Bargain Made: a House Fallen

This is a continuation of the story and world found here:

A Bargain Made

*****

Neral walked with her queen through the palace garden, easily keeping the leisurely pace as her shined black boots and the queen's glossy, white shoes clicked the stone pathway. It was, as one might expect from a royal garden, a beautiful, well-manicured masterpiece. One could tell the seasons based solely on what bloomed on the acreage at any given time of the year. Winter tended to linger as long as possible, and so did the tiny yellow flowerings of the Lasha plants which were often the last to give up their season. But, in a matter of weeks, the various wildflowers that were tamed only here and places like it would explode with color and fragrance, carried by a breeze that would keep its cool bite until deep into summer.

Queen Evaline was a plump woman a few years younger than Neral herself with cascading blonde hair that ran down her back and makeup that set off her sea blue eyes and lips painted a soft red. Her dress and robes were a pristine white with gold trim. She eschewed the crown, save for when occasion demanded it in favor of a bejeweled necklace that displayed the royal seal of her House. Neral had witnessed the morning primping and preening that Evaline's handmaidens put her through daily on more than one occasion and was supremely grateful that she had been born into a family that demanded that she trudge through mud, draw her sword, and go to war instead; it was far simpler. The two were very different all around, with Neral being tall, brown-eyed, with hair only slightly lighter, and a body built to fight. Her own cloaks were dark and adorned with various brooches denoting her position.

The handmaidens and personal guards were sent away, though Neral knew neither were so far from them that a gesture from the queen wouldn't bring them to her. As commander of the kingdom's armed forces, she was one of few that were allowed this level of privacy with her. It was acknowledgment of her position as much as acknowledgment of the genuine friendship that existed between the two and had been there since they were children. Such meetings were generally the way Neral kept her up to date on more sensitive issues.

That part of the meeting over, Evaline took on a more playful attitude,"Your mother looked well when I saw her yesterday."

Neral looked to the sky, perhaps in silent prayer to the Goddess, "How are the two of them?" When Evaline looked at her quizzically regarding her word choice, Neral spared herself a small smile. "Mother has been beside herself since I married."

She nodded in understanding, her grin broadening a touch. "You can't blame her, can you? It's not often that one of her daughters marries so far below her station."

At any other time and place, uttering those words aloud would have been as cutting as the sharpest blade. People from the noble Houses did not marry those born in the south quarter. They rarely even spoke, save for the most unique circumstances. Indeed, most nobles had never seen that part of the city with their own eyes. Any business done there was handled by staff and, if the noble's preference for bedpets went to men or women from that part of the world, they met in the middle and parted again. But they did not marry. "He's a good man, Majesty. He is a fine healer and a good man. And I do love him."

"She hopes still that it is a phase, as though you have ever been prone to them. She had hoped that I would influence you to end it and then extend that to be certain an annulment was granted."

"So that it never happened."

Evaline nodded smoothly, "I told her that I would do such a thing only if it were you that asked, but that she should learn to accept the situation as it stands because the leader of the kingdom's forces has given her heart to him and, as I see it, that's the end of the matter. I saw how you looked at that man. There is a light and softness in your eyes that I have seen for no other and he looks at you as though his life's goal is to see you happy."

Neral gave a deep nod that was its own little bow, "Thank you, Majesty." Both were true. That he had come to her as far more than a healing mage and offered to use his skill to help foil a plot to use Neral herself to kill her queen and open her kingdom to attack was another story.

That she agreed to marry him in return for that and willingly subjected herself to a spell to bind her to him in love and devotion to fill needs and desires in herself that she could barely admit to was another one still. In the end, she loved him and that was all that mattered. "I know that your meeting with him caused its own scandal, and I appreciate your doing so."

"A small and amusing one, yes," she agreed with an added spring in her step as she thought about it. She loved sparring with the nobles as, one way or another, she would always win. "Some questioned me for doing it, and your fitness for even having married the man in the first place."

Neral bristled at the thought, knowing immediately which House most likely chose to try to undermine her, "May I know how you responded?"

The question came out a little emotionless in tone, but if Evaline noticed, she gave no sign. "I told them clearly that my schedule was my affair and that their queen did not appreciate the attempt to dictate it."

She was then conspicuously silent for long moments and Neral realized that the queen was gently gaming her, wanting her to ask if she wanted to know. Neral, of course, ached to do so and it was only her military training and deference to her queen that kept the anxiousness out of her voice, "As for my choice?"

"That if they have evidence that her military judgment is or has been flawed they should present it, though if they had such it would be a surprise to me as well as my other advisers. Otherwise, if, in return for a lifetime of service and devotion to this kingdom and its people without complaint, she silently asks for the indulgence of marrying someone of lesser birth than herself, then it's an indulgence that we should grant silently and as equally without complaint."

Neral thought that such would be her response, but, once she heard it, she realized she'd been holding her breath. "Thank you, Majesty."

They looked at one another and their years of affection passed between them as the queen gently took her hand. "There is something good to be said for marrying purely for love."

"Yes, Majesty."

A wry grin played at the queen's features, "Though if you attempt to attribute those words to me, I will deny them."

Her head bowed slightly yet again, "Of course, Majesty."

She realized as her head servant, Tessa, took her cloak upon arriving home as she'd always done that even this felt different. Prior to the events that led her to marry, her nights at home had a sameness that one could rely upon as certainly as the rise of the sun. Tessa would brief her on the events of the day and anything that might need taking care of by Neral personally, she'd take her dinner shortly thereafter, then a bath, then reading before blowing out her lamp for the evening.

Certainly there would be things to occasionally break that routine, from visits with her sisters and their families, or taking dinner with Tessa, but that sameness was there and, in retrospect, it was a lonely time for her, occasional lover notwithstanding. Now there was a husband awaiting her that was as excited to see her at the end of the day as she was to see him and that felt good. How it came to be mattered less than what it was.

Tessa left her side as Neral entered the living room to find Deres sitting in one of the high-backed leather chairs before the roaring fire. Her heart sped up at the sight of him. There was a gentleness to him that defied that broad chest, those powerful arms, and body able to throw itself into physical work or a fight with equal skill. It was his skill as a mage, however, that made him most formidable. Skilled in magic that knowledge of was punishable by death in all the lands save where he was adopted and raised, if he'd had a mind to be, he could be one of the most dangerous men in the known world.

She saw the fatigue in those blue eyes and her heart went out to him. For his part, he smiled broadly at the sight of her, rising to take her into his arms. She took a deep breath and let the contentment wash over her before touching his cheek, letting her thumb brush the dark circle under his eye, "A long day."

"It's much better now," he told her before kissing her deeply, pulling her into a pool of love and lust. As she kissed him, she ran her hand through his close-cut, slightly spiky black hair. She eventually pulled herself from that pool of emotion, though he didn't quite want to let her, "but, yes, long enough. I spent the afternoon in the southern quarter doing what I could."

Neral was sympathetic, "As you often do. You know, many a noble balks over you spending so much time there. It's a sign of your poor upbringing, so they say."

He actually managed a smile. "Is that why they look at me as though they hope I boiled myself before touching them? Another mystery solved. I wonder why they tolerate me?"

He didn't really wonder, but she played along anyway. "It might be that you are among the most gifted healers the kingdom has."

His tone turned just slightly bitter, "So as long as I cure them and extend their lives when potions and poultices can't, they are willing to overlook the social crime that is slumming it in the south quarter?"

"You were old enough to know how the world here works before you left and little has changed that way." She took his hand, clasping it to hers tightly, almost as if to will her strength to him, "but don't dismiss their tolerance, Deres."

"I understand why it angers you, but it's a positive sign as well. They know where you came from, yet even as they snicker within earshot of me and not, they often grudgingly admit your skill because they cannot deny it. If one such as you can come from a part of the city they loathe even talking about, there must be others. If there are others that have value, maybe that part of the city and every other place like it in the kingdom has value, too."

The bitterness faded and he relished the touch of her, "Must you be right?"

She turned from him, intent on getting herself small glass of Lakaberry wine from the bottle on the table before dinner. "Being right so often is one of my many skills. You did not know that when you trapped me with your magic, but you'll just have to get used to it."

"You *chose* the spell, remember?"

She poured the amber liquid into the stemless glass and swirled it just a bit before answering with a smirk, "I shall not be troubled by your facts, husband."

She took a sip as he spoke, seeing him become more somber, his smile fading, "That lead has borne fruit."

She paused a moment before swallowing, feeling nothing for several seconds before the burn made itself known in her throat in a way that let the taste of the sweet berries linger, "You're certain?"

He nodded, "She wouldn't be going after him if we weren't."

One of the first things to happen after after the plot was uncovered, and its agent turned was the search for the conspirators. Deres believed the royal House of a rival kingdom instigated the plot and, thus far, he'd been proven correct. The response of Neral and her others had been slow, methodical, and merciless in moving up the chain. Even though the House of Kressin had to expect retaliation once the plot failed it still sent some of the higher nobles into hiding until it, hopefully, blew over.

Neral wasn't inclined to call it over until those members of the House most responsible paid the price. She didn't like this proxy vengeance for several reasons, not the least of which was simply that she was a warrior and a leader of men. Unlike some others throughout history, she did not lead from the safety of her tent. Sending others to do that work was a hard lump in her throat and it was so when it was a new recruit on the line who began to stammer at the sight of her, much less when those taking risks on her behalf were people she cared for. She accepted though that this was simply how it was done. Neral couldn't confront them directly, however. It was bad form and, given her official position it could be considered an act of war, though there would be great debate over which of these would be the greater error: triggering a war or violating the largely unwritten but universally understood rules of House politics.

But she didn't have to like it. "Did she leave already?"

"Downstairs."

She downed the rest of the glass and blew outward as the fire scorched her insides. Setting the heavy glass down with a thunk Neral made her way briskly out of the room, down the hall, and down into the deepest recesses of the home, into the hidden places that all of the manor homes in this quarter had. Small castles by themselves, they were full of passages and spaces designed to thwart intruders and provide routes of escape in the times that war was common and sacking one another's cities happened with at least generational regularity.

Great care went into creating a sense of sameness in each passage, from the width of the path to the cut of each stone. Add to that many passages that led back into themselves in long, circuitous paths designed to create the illusion of progress and they were layered mazes that, at best, delayed attackers and, at worst, became deathtraps for them. One learned to navigate them only through years of doing so. Neral wound her way more and more deeply underground to the room that Bryana had claimed as a work and study area. She opened the heavy wood and metal door. Well-balanced and maintained, it opened outward with minimal effort or sound.

Bryana sat at the large, lacquered, wooden desk that took up the center of the space, lamp to her left, poring over tomes that Deres brought with him on his journey home. When she wasn't helping him in the clinics or learning what he had to teach, she was here looking for more to know. Neral watched with no small bit of amusement as her fingers traced the runes on the written page to build muscle memory for when the time came to try to do the spell herself. There was no small bit of awe mixed in with the amusement for the story that got them to this point in the first place.

A mage versed in forbidden arts herself, and part of one of many secret guilds that dotted the known world and virtually unknown to everyone else, she had actually been the one hired by the House of Kressin to use her magic to manipulate the general and wreak havoc. Deres intercepted her and turned her with a mix of magic and science that was almost unfathomable to Neral. The one thing that made her feel less ignorant in the face of that was the fact that she knew it would be just as unfathomable to almost everyone else. Now remade and surrendered in body and spirit to the woman she'd harmed, Bryana had set herself to uncovering the plot and being an instrument of Neral's revenge.

"You never seem to pick your head up from your books," she observed, arms folded across her chest, amusement dripping from every word.

Blonde curls dangled in the air as Bryana didn't look up, intent on finishing the passage she was studying, "Who in their right mind would wish to stop learning?"

"I would never ask you to stop," Neral answered, closing the distance between herself and the table, "only that you look up now and then."

She did, her light blue eyes that always seemed to sparkle, filled with excitement, "The more I learn of what Deres knows...the more I understand how blind I was when it came to magic. I was, and technically still am very accomplished within my guild, but I know nothing by comparison. He was the equal to anyone in my guild when he was still a teenager and there was still more and more and more to know. It comes together in ways that I and others only dreamed it could in 'what if' conversations in the dark of night. It's wondrous."

The exuberance from her was palpable and Neral couldn't help but be excited for her. She was like a child with the perfect toy, but it reminded the general of something else, "Does my spymaster have anything new to report?"

Bryana glanced down just long enough to drape the red silk bookmark on the page. "Nothing of import. Things go slowly, as you might guess, but very, very well." The three of them decided very early on that the mage guilds could no longer be allowed to do as they pleased while the world chose to pretend they were myth, so Bryana had stayed within her own and had spent the last months building a network of informants throughout all of them. "I did leave something on our progress and the latest whispers in your library."

"That I have yet to read," Neral admitted, chastising herself internally for hedging even as she did it. She loathed subordinates who simply didn't speak their minds for whatever reason. It wasted time and delayed proper action. "I was simply looking for a general summary now."

"Perhaps you should read it before you come down to ask about it rather than what you really came down here to discuss. That way you could speak at length on the topic and further delay the inevitable."

Neral sighed slowly, exhaling through her nose. "Perhaps so."

Bryana closed her book to rise to her full height. It matched Neral's, though she carried it differently. Where the former was built to face other warriors on the battlefield with power and agility, the latter was no less fit, but more willowy. Neral turned to her and just took her in, from the gentle roundness of her cheeks, to that proud jawline, to her her ever so soft skin. Bryana's hands touched her cheeks and the mistress of the house sighed again.

"I can touch you now," she whispered. "You have no idea what it means to me."

That was its own story as well. Before Deres' magic turned her, the mage had essentially written the enthrallment spell on Neral's body as she went. The trauma caused by that, while completely understandable, had caused Bryana pain as well. The need to make amends and be of service to the person she had wronged placed at the core of her being had turned to love, so to have Neral reflexively recoil at the touch of her was like the twisting of a knife into her heart.

But that had changed. It wasn't something the general had expected, but it was so. Perhaps it started as a reaction. As one tends to dislike those that one knows dislike them, perhaps, Neral admitted to herself, she liked the adoration. Now it was undeniably more. Bryana's intelligence and wit alone were intoxicating. Her touch was now even more so. As she loved her husband, so it was now with Bryana. She put her hands over Bryana's and just let the moment be.

"You know this must be done."

Neral's fear came out as frustration at the statement of the obvious, "Of course I do. Doing nothing invites more, and more dangerous attacks on a House that is seen as weak." There was very little that a rival kingdom could do to gain ground directly, but once word got out, it would embolden rivals far closer to her. "I just...need for you to be careful."

"I am always careful, General."

"This could simply be bait with which to trap you."

Bryana caressed that skin with long, delicate fingers, "Rest assured that I would see and that I'm prepared."

"You say that now, but if *I* can trap you..."

Bryana smiled at the other's attempt to use humor to release the tension "*You* trapped no one, Neral, it was that man of yours."

"Ours," Neral corrected.

Bryana looked thoughtful and grinned,"It has become that, hasn't it? Tessa seemed somewhat...shocked...by three in a bed as I recall."