Chapter 43: Another War
*****
Even the passage of time did little to heal the wounds of the heart.
It had been three weeks since the arrival of the Javan envoy and Jack was still having nightmares about it. He would awake from a dead sleep full of sweat, bolting upright as if there was still some way he could save them.
Try as he might, he couldn't picture Jocelyn's face. Even though he had a thousand memories of all the time spent with her while growing up, the only thing he could picture was the gruesome sight within that box.
It made for many restless nights. Quite often, Jack would find himself leaving the bedroom and finding an empty balcony. He would watch over the city of Kalmar, listening to the sounds of the city below. The lack of rest was preferable to the nightmares that visited him when he tried to sleep.
The hardest thing for him to accept was the failure to rescue them, despite his efforts. If there was one thing he understood lately, it was failure. This was the kind that stung more than the temporary failures he had on Swabia. Even when he lost the battles of Sepolz and Murgullah, there was still hope that the situation could be turned around, and it was eventually.
This was a type of failure that was permanent. He would never see Jocelyn again. He would always have to live with the fact that he couldn't save her in time, and there was nothing that could console him about that fact.
Despite the tragedies of their deaths, Jocelyn and her family deserved proper burials. Jack knew just the place where he could intern them. The small grove cemetery where Art and his family were now buried was the perfect spot. It was peaceful and lush, and it had a perfect view of the city in the distance.
Even though Jack couldn't have Jocelyn spend the rest of her days in Kalmar, she would at least get to spend eternity buried on friendly soil under the careful watch of her brother. If there could be any silver lining to the situation, that was it.
On the day that Jocelyn's family was buried, Jack had ample company with him. Evelyn, Vera, Kat, Abigail, and John were there by his side as they were lowered into the ground. The Calland family was there as well, all four of them, to show solidarity with their king. The service was solemn but brief, and as they were buried, he couldn't help but shed tears at the thought of never seeing any of them again.
Over the next few weeks, he was a frequent visitor to the site of their graves. Usually, Jack made that trip alone, but today, he had a special visitor with him.
Vera held his hand as Jack stopped in front of the headstone that proudly displayed the name "Hutton" across the front. He knelt before it and used his fingers to brush across the names of all five of them.
"It will get easier someday, Jack."
Vera's soft voice from just behind him caused him to let out a deep breath.
"When will that be, Vera? Because it's certainly not right now."
Vera helped him to his feet. "It's still going to take time. Nobody expects you to get over this quickly but it will continue to get easier. Every day, little by little."
"Even when I feel responsible for their deaths?"
Jack centered his eyes on his sister. Vera gave him a sympathetic look.
"It wasn't your fault, Jack. You did everything you could to save them. You're the one that sent the ship to pick them up."
"And in the process, I alerted Bancroft to their importance to me," whispered Jack hollowly. "If I hadn't done that, would they still be alive today?"
Vera shook his head. "With how vindictive and evil this Bancroft person is, I don't believe they would have ever escaped his notice. I don't believe there was anything that could've been done."
Those were tough words for him to swallow. In Jack's mind, there was always something that could have been done to alleviate the situation. Part of him wondered if he should have smuggled Jocelyn out of Java over a year ago, right after the Battle of Aberdeen. By that point, tension had already started with Bancroft, and it seemed to have been, in retrospect, the best time to extract them.
"Jack, no one could have predicted things would have turned out this way," said Vera, likely reading his emotions by the expression on his face. "You can play the what-if game all day, but it doesn't change anything. You can't keep blaming yourself for their deaths. There is one person, and one person only, who is responsible for this. That person is Bancroft."
"And he will pay for this," vowed Jack. "If it's the last thing I do, I'll make him pay for this. He couldn't have just left it alone. There was no reason to bring the hatred to this level. We're separated by a large ocean and he could have stayed in his half without interfering in ours. But his lust for power, his madness, have made it impossible for us to think that we can keep the peace. We have to take the war to him."
Vera said nothing but nodded as he finished speaking. Despite the seeming righteousness of his cause, no one was thrilled about the prospect of another war so soon on the heels of another one. Dagobern had just about finished smoking, and now the Galician armed forces would soon be asked to answer another threat when they should be enjoying a measure of peace.
It was going to be hard for Jack to ask them to be the guardians of the state once more but they had no choice in the matter. Bancroft had shown his hand. There was going to be no chance of any possibility of living in peace as long as he was still alive.
"Is that why I saw the flurry of dispatches go out this morning?" asked Vera. "One to each head of state of every member of our Western alliance?"
Jack nodded. "That's right. I need to have the backing of everyone in the West for another conflict. That's going to be our toughest battle. There's no way we can face Bancroft alone. Not with the resources of Java, especially with having recently conquered Occitania and Ruthenia. The only way we'll stand a chance is if we do so united together."
Vera raised an eyebrow. "And does that include Swabia?"
That was an excellent question. A dispatch had been sent to Dagobern for the eyes of Greg and Ferberg alone. The pair had done an excellent job in keeping the peace in Swabia so far, and there had been no reports of any uprisings or disgruntled lords looking to take power for themselves. But Vera had touched on a subject that would be hard to ignore.
In order for Jack to confront Javan power, he would need the help of all the major powers in the West. That would include Swabia.
How that would look was still to be determined. Jack hadn't decided yet what kind of commitment the Swabians would be asked to make. At this point in time, he only had a vague idea of leadership for the Swabians, and even that would be a tough pill to swallow for the rest of the Allied leadership.
In short order, Jack had his work cut out for him. The first step on that long road was gathering everyone together to discuss the matter.
