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The sun is setting, and the Tartarus rumbles off - south to Engeve, Kaitzur, and, hopefully, permission to dock in Baticul.
You watch from the top of the Theor Forest gates, and wish that you didn't spend so much time sending your best friend off to fight your battles.
Hopefully, this time it won't be literal.
Even more than that, you hope he comes home.
----
Not even a week later, you're in your office doing paperwork when an aide comes in carrying a bird. It's mostly grey and white, with Saint Binah markings on the message holster.
"An update from Colonel Curtiss, Your Majesty," the aide says. You blink in surprise; it's not like Jade to update you every little step of the journey. From Kaitzur, maybe, you would have expected a letter updating you on his progress, but not Saint Binah.
"Give it here, then," you say, extending your hand for the rolled slip of paper. Even sealed, you can tell it's crammed full of Jade's writing.
The aide hands it to you and bows back out through the door, taking the softly cooing pigeon with him. You unceremoniously crack the seal and start reading, slowly, putting your brain through the loops of childhood code shared only between the two of you. Even beyond that, it's dense with references that only you would understand.
Grumbling, you reach for a pen and a blank sheet of paper. You're going to have to break this down bit by bit, then think about what it means.
As usual, Jade hasn't bothered with a greeting.
T in Order Engeve south. Lost all in assault save terror child and company. Escaped with 100G debt.
A hundred gald - Oh. You groan slightly, and not just because of the news. The Tartarus, attacked by Oracle Knights? You hadn't expected that Mohs would go that far to keep Ion in line.
At least Jade managed to get the Fon Master and the letter out safely. Still, there were a lot of good men on board that ship. You close your eyes and take a moment to offer a prayer for their souls, because even if you aren't traditionally pious, someone should do it. You'll have many nights of painful letters to their families ahead.
And exactly who is 'company' anyway? That's not a term Jade would use for just Anise Tatlin, and you doubt it's including Asch if he aided the escape.
Damn it all, you wish he wasn't so vague. What on earth could be more important than losing the most advanced dreadnaught in the fleet to the Oracle Knights?
You read on.
100G NOT bastard - 3rd in Kline. Fomicry, Saphir & V Grants.
Asch is not...?
Oh. Oh, Lorelei. The third in line apparent for the Kimlascan throne is a replica. A replica of Asch the Bloody.
"What have you done, Saphir?" you demand, in a whisper, of the paper in front of you. It doesn't answer. You stand up from your desk, pacing, wishing, feeling guilt. Maybe if you had done more, had stopped him from leaving, had punched him in the jaw like you did Jade...
No. You can't let yourself be responsible for this. Saphir was an adult and made his decisions. You'll just have to deal with the fact that they're terrible ones.
At least if you're the one writing his warrant, you can wriggle him into a life sentence, instead of death. The Kimlascans wouldn't be so gentle, if they knew - assuming, of course, that they didn't arrange it themselves, but with the name Van Grants in conjunction, you have to assume it was an Order plot, not theirs.
Score, no wonder Asch had been so quick to change the subject away from his homeland. You can't even imagine.
It's a few circles of your chair before you can settle down enough to transcribe the next line.
To Kaitzur on foot, dragging 200G, T Grants, G Gardios, & terror.
"Jade," you admonish the paper, "you can't just spring on me that you have both Fabre sons and a Gardios heir in custody! How did you even - "
Breathe, emperor. Calming breaths. You force yourself to stop talking as though Jade can hear you, because this is sensitive information that you don't want overheard.
Still. A Gardios? You thought the entire family died out with Hod! How the hell did -
Fabre. Crimson Fabre led the assault on Hod. You'd bet your whole palace that's why, one way or another.
What a tangled mess.
Score promisd K THE prosperity for war, 100G.
The emphasis makes explicit something you had hoped wasn't true; the prosperity promised by the Score is for Kimlasca alone. You'd theorized for years that the Order was on their side because they would be the victors whenever war did break out, but this...
This is Closed Score, it has to be, and so it came straight from the mouths of either Asch or Ion himself. From a political standpoint, both, since they're travelling together, and if one told Jade such you can't imagine that he would not have gone to the other to confirm it.
Kimlascan prosperity... For the cost of a war and an heir to the throne. Your gaze goes back up the page.
No wonder Asch was willing to throw them under the cart and come to you, personally, seeking peace. It was completely fair, when they were going to do the same to him.
A family prepared to sacrifice him to the Score, and the pain that you know comes with putting a human through fomicry... And yet, the one time you've met him, he didn't live up at all to his bloodthirsty reputation. Angry and bitter, certainly, but to still strive for peace, to still even believe it was worth the effort after all that...
You are all too aware that extreme circumstances can give people a resiliency that seems impossible to an outsider. The fact that Jade and Saphir are even alive is testament to that. But you of all people know that neither of them was well, for more than a decade after, and by all indications, Saphir is the furthest thing from well now.
You are far from qualified to judge if Asch is well or not, but he smiled at jokes that didn't involve giving dead puppies to dead babies, which is doing a hell of a lot better than Jade was at sixteen.
Inciting target Akzeriuth; 100G forgery to ~destroy himself and city.~ Town falls as Hod.
There's no comment on the action you should take, but you know it well enough. And yet... Town falls as Hod. Combined with the line before, containing a fragment of Score about Akzeriuth's destruction...
Evacuation will have to be your priority, then, not combat. With luck, the fact that Luke is outside of Baticul now will be enough of a delay to buy you the time you need. Your letter, hopefully, will delay them a few days further.
You have no time to waste, but you finish the message, first.
K unlikely to seek peace. Proceeding as planned anyway.
Yours, Jade.
The sentimental closure is another clear message - one you don't need, because of course you're going to destroy a letter blatantly containing Closed Score information that you shouldn't have - but you let yourself savor it for a moment anyway. If Kimlasca truly wants war, then as much as you hate to think anything could genuinely hurt someone like Jade Curtiss -
You're all too aware that you may not hear from him again.
----
Two days later, word arrives from the south that the bridge to Akzeriuth is collapsed. You are fortunate indeed for Jade's warning, because if you hadn't already had an eye turned there - there, instead of Kaitzur, where Kimlasca has been making plays for your military attention - you wouldn't have known in time to do anything.
As it is, you still may not get all the civilians out in time, but at the very least, Kimlasca will find a cold welcome when they arrive at the mining town. Your people won't be caught unprepared.
You get another report by bird when the group arrives at Kaitzur, though not from Jade himself. It seems they've made it over the border, for all the good it does.
You wish you had more to do than to sit back and wait.
----
Another two days, and the palace Scorer, a woman named Ledia from near Kaitzur herself, arrives to tell you what a grave mistake you're making in sending men to Akzeriuth. By some magnificent twist of fate, just as she's really getting going about how sending a force to the border town will only provoke Kimlasca, the first report comes in.
Miasma. Welling up from deep in the mines - the thickest the poison mist has yet been seen on the surface, save for the immediate aftermath of the fall of Hod.
(Before Hod, it was so rarely seen that only the Order even had a name for it. You wish you could believe in coincidence, but not ever again, where Daath is concerned.)
Ledia looks suitably horrified and shuts her mouth. You give her a vague gesture of dismissal and turn your attention back to military matters as she scurries out of the room.
It isn't that she's a bad person. You've just never had any reason to be particularly fond of Scorers, and now more than ever, you're not inclined to put up with half-clear prophecies that have never had particularly good things to say about you and your country.
At least it's considerate of Mohs to give you so blatant a signal about who's in his pocket.
----
That night, a report from Chesedonia's garrison. Jade is through. For all intents and purposes, the border closes up after him.
----
At least the miasma is convincing to the people of Akzeriuth in a way that soldiers alone wouldn't be. Of the 10,280 people living in the mining town and surrounding area, 9,752 are successfully evacuated to the river, which at least has cleaner air while they wait to be ferried across as quickly as possible.
Of those who don't manage to make it out, most are the very old or very young who already succumbed to the poison. Only about three dozen insist on remaining, and by what's said in the report, they're there specifically to stick it to the Kimlascans. They aren't soldiers, but they're ready to fight anyway.
Your heart swells with pride, even though you know many of them won't survive. Others, in the evacuation itself, intend to apply to the military as well.
One more troubling thing in the report;
Shortly before the miasma appeared, Van Grants was reported as sighted descending into the mines. A handful of the townsfolk who risked investigating discovered evidence of explosives near the very bottom of several of the mines, from which the miasma flowed, thick and deadly.
Similar evidence of explosives was found at the bridge. It looks like Grants was rather busy before he arrived at Kaitzur to pick up his lost pupil.
You keep that report, for if Jade ever returns. You have no doubt he suspected as much, even if word never made its way to you, and you know how much he appreciates a good confirmation.
----
The Kimlascans attempt to send their force through Chesedonia - just a small one, one that speaks of not expecting resistance. Van Grants is with them, and from reports, seems to expect a small party - no doubt containing Luke, Jade, and whoever else the Kimlascans consider expendable enough to send - to join them from across the desert.
They find their path barred, under your direct orders. It won't do that much good, since the Kimlascans have their own port on the east side of the Chesedonian landbridge, but it makes the point. They'll have to find their own way to Kaitzur, unless they have an actual letter from King Ingobert agreeing to peace.
Such a letter never comes, not that you are surprised. Instead, Kimlascans and Oracle Knights come through the Deo Pass, just in time to find a deserted town and a small division of Malkuth soldiers.
You dreaded reading that report, but it was a rout, by any standard. The Kimlascans were not prepared for armed resistance and didn't know the ground; even assistance from the Oracle Knights wasn't enough to save them.
It's war, anyway. Once the battle is over, you let them have Akzeriuth and your men retreat to the river. The mining town doesn't hold any value as a resource, not when any miners sent into it would die in days from the increasing miasma exposure.
Of the thirty-eight civilians who remained to fight, only nine do not come back.
You're willing to count that as a victory.
----
Even so - you do not wish to declare war. Inevitable as it is at this point, you put off writing any declarations. The last news you got of Jade was that he had left Baticul; you dare to hope -
Kimlasca saves you the trouble. A proclamation is delivered to the garrison at Chesedonia.
Following the assault upon the aid party sent to Akzeriuth, and the disappearance of Her Royal Highness, Crown Princess Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvaldear, and tertiary heir Luke fon Fabre, His Glorious Majesty, King Ingobert VI, charges the Malkuth Empire with kidnapping of a royal diplomatic party with intent to harm.
Unless Malkuth restores the Crown Princess and Luke fon Fabre, as well as ceding all lands south of the Fubras River or equivalent in reparations, Kimlasca-Lanvaldear declares war upon the Malkuth Empire. Three weeks from this date (Remday, Gnome-Decan 45) will be granted for Malkuth to submit to these requests.
Three weeks. It's not a lot of preparation before the war. You can't help the hiss of breath that escapes you, like you've been punched in the gut.
You were expecting Luke's disappearance. But Princess Natalia as well? What the hell was Ingobert thinking? Did he seriously send both his heirs to Akzeriuth, or is Natalia's disappearance something else that he's simply taking advantage of?
At least Jade was able to warn you. You've had everything ready for almost a month, waiting for this message. You allow yourself a moment to close your eyes, and wish that things had been different.
"Your Majesty?" Sesemann's voice calls you out of your reprieve. You exhale, slowly, and open your eyes.
"Sorry," you say. "Just needed a minute. Is there any word from Jade?"
Your aides glance at each other, then start shaking their heads one by one. "No, Your Majesty."
You sigh. "Very well, then. Send word to the border force at Kaitzur, and the Akzeriuth evacuation force. If Kimlasca wants a war, then we'll damn well give them one."
It's not like you have any other options. You can't exactly produce Kimlascan heirs on command when they aren't here.
Jade, Asch, Ion... I sure hope you guys know what you're doing.