Shadows in the East [Private]

[TheDarkDM]

The skies above the grand tower of the Xiuhtlatokalis burned red in setting sun. Below it, a cathedral of black marble and dark magics had been carved into the living flesh of the mountain, and it was to that towering threshold that King Torre was escorted on his arrival to Tzalteclan. Massive doors of wrought gold thirty feet tall swept open at his approach, revealing the crimson and black robes of the blood acolytes of Nezetkhamun beyond. They bowed in deference to the king of the north, before leading him up the winding stairs that led to Nezetkhamun's lair. It was a cavern of worked stone, the vaulted ceiling rising almost one hundred feet from the mosaic floor, the walls arrayed in scrollcases and bookshelves containing the combined knowledge of all the world. And at the center of it all, a still pool of carmine liquid thirty feet in diameter, before which Nezetkhamun stood in his human guise. Alongside him, held by a delicate chain of adamantine affixed to her ankle, was Queen Loris of Faedas.

As King Torre entered the hall, Neztkhamun turned from his brooding stare into the heart of the blood pool and smiled.

"Ah, King Torre, excellent. It is good to see you again after so long a time apart. The situation in Faedas spirals towards chaos, in no small part due to the oath I swore to Kyria, and it demands swift resolution."

[Reggiejam]

Queen Lorisanth, bereft her full royal regalia though still dressed well at the behest of Nezetkhamun had watched the entrance of the tower where King Torre entered while the Xiuhtlatec stared into the blood fountain. Despite her efforts she looked healthier than she had while in Faedas. The free flowing blood had overtempted her palate despite her repose and its presence without flesh to deter her draining a living being directly had led to her glutting on its bounty on a few unfortunate occasions during her imprisonment here. Even with a healthier form she was thin, thinner ever than her sister had appeared with sharply elven features and the faintly glowing dull red eyes of Yorukuni heritage accented by the Mother's Blessing. A simple elegant dress flowed loose over her body with her dark batlike wings folded neatly at her back, a closer inspection revealing a delicate but secure lacing of leather bracing her wings in folded form to match her chained feet.

"Remind myself and King Torre of this oath, Xiuhtlatec. I never tire hearing you balm your bruised ego with lies of loyalty to my sister," Loris's face was impassive and her eyes met neither the Tzaltec nor the Frosten present as she spoke, staring into the middle distance.

[BladeofObliviom]

King Torre of Glazfell did not come draped in his traditional regalia due to the distance of his travel and the circumstances, but nevertheless he stood tall and proud as ever. Notoriously insular, the King did not often travel outside of Glazfell, but this matter demanded a personal touch. That's not to say he never appeared in public, of course: He often spoke before crowds in Glazkopf on some matter or another, and he held a dominating presence in his own court. This place, though, demanded some humility.

The king entered the hall, flanked by the pair of Nothokhua Reapers that composed his most trusted guard. His face was blue like most Frosten, and shaven clean. Glazfell's traveling crown (so forged after the tragic loss of King Khyne at sea) sat atop his short white hair, a simple circlet of electrum inlaid with a single sapphire. It was uncharacteristic of a diplomat of Glazfell to come armed and armored, even ceremonially, but Torre wore a breastplate of finely-engraved mithril and a loop of leather hat the King's hip held his favored mace, though both were half-hidden under the king's travelling shroud. Under normal circumstances he might not have bothered with the weapons or the Reapers, but nothing about this situation was safe or certain.

He looked forth to Nezetkhamun as he stepped through the doors, but soon his eyes drifted over the various features of the room, stopping briefly upon Loris as his expression grew grim.

"Xiuhtlatec, I would also hear of this bargain with Queen Kyria, and know why this has happened."

The King of Glazfell's tone was tired, and deeply on edge. Almost as if by instinct his arms retreated underneath the cloak, as if to hide as much of himself from the palpable threat here as possible. He had hoped that Metzli had acted without the permission or knowledge of her family in Tzalteclan, but Loris' presence seemed to indicate that they had been a direct part of this whole affair after all.

[TheDarkDM]

Nezetkhamun sighed at both questions, returning his eyes to the hypnotic glow of the sanguine pool as he replied.

"You reproach is well deserved, Queen Loris, and King Torre is no less deserving of an answer. Though you may not believe it, in the years of her reign Kyria often sought my counsel, and came to mean as much to me as any of my natural children. And I feared for her, she who had endured so much pain in her quest to forge a kingdom. In the last years before she returned to the place of your mother's sacrifice and your Mother's blessing, she called me to her side once more. For while she had built a mighty empire and girded it with mighty allies, she feared that your temperment, Queen Loris, would send it all to ruin. And so she asked of me two things, not as one ruler to another, but as family."

Nezetkhamun turned back to Loris and Torre, his burning eyes clouded.

"She asked me to protect you from harm, Loris, to the utmost of my strength. But she also asked me to protect the Faedas she had raised from the ashes of Huroshan servitude, to prevent you from endangering it. She appointed Meztli as regent for the same reason, and left you her writings by means of explanation. With that foundation in place, I vowed to honor both her requests. And in so doing, I have betrayed her utterly."

Nezetkhamun's voice caught, but after a pause he continued.

"I am an old man. I have seen near two centuries on this world, served as the vessel of my god since I assumed the throne. Yet I am still capable of a young man's foolishness. When you threatened my unborn grandchild, Queen Loris, it woke in me a fury I had long thought cooled by time. In your conviction, so contrary to my own, I saw ruin. In my foolish intemperance, I believed the dissolution Kyria had seen was on the horizon, and so I compelled my son to act. Your clashes with Meztli, my granddaughter and Kyria's protege, had already sent tremors of chaos through the Freehold, and I hoped that by removing the conflict Faedas might be strengthened for Kyrias return. And that in the intervening time, we might find some common ground that you might not so thoroughly despise us. But I was wrong. So very wrong."

Nezetkhamun bowed his head.

"The dream of the Concordat, my dream, has always been one of free cooperation, of mighty kingdoms standing united before the contempt of unworthy rivals. It is a dream Faedas joined, a pillar of strength to replace the rotted beam of Guilder's treachery. You might not believe it, Queen Loris, for I have given you scant cause to, but I never wished to suborn Faedas. I did not seek to devour it, to wrest it from Kina's grasp and forge it into another province under Tzaltec dominion. And had my granddaughter, in some fit of theatric flair sought to gift it to me, I would have denied her. Your sister's dream, her dream that is Faedas, is more precious to me than any fleeting temporal power. For Tzalteclan has never stood alone, will never stand alone. No one voice can hold back the tides of chaos - a chorus is required. Yet in trying to preserve that chorus, I have betrayed it, thrown it into discord."

[Reggiejam]

"You speak noble words Xiuhtlatec. Honoring your promises, preserving stability, cooperation. Yet your actions speak far louder than your words do now," Loris at last turned to look at Nezetkhamun, her captor.

"If you feared for the stability of Faedas because I banished your incestual grandchild lest he create abominations with his abominable sister perhaps you should have spoken to them about their defiance of my reign rather than plot to overthrow me and install her on my and my sister's Throne?"

"I am a direct servant of the Great Deceiver, I know lies and twists of truth well for they are our Mother's greatest tools when testing the souls of her Children. You grew scared in the face of my judgment for the sins of Meztli and Aahotepre knowing their sin was true. That fear turned to anger but anger is a brief and fleeting thing, stoked by passion. It was not anger that drove your coup against me, it was love for your blood above all else, above any other, that pushed you forward. Your sin is vanity Xiuhtlatec, vanity and pride and no vain and prideful man is ever pleased while another voice sounds against them. You would silence an ally bound by treaty for slighting your blood as it commits heinous crimes in my land. Mother only knows what next might offend the mighty Xiuhtlatec and prompt the eradication of some sovereign somewhere to sate his bruised and swollen ego."

"I see why my sister would call you family. For all that she may be distant from the scripture of the goddess she knows our Mother well. She saw as I do your obsession with family above all and used it to deceive you, to test you. Is the blood of the Concordat thicker than the blood of the Dragon? It seems we have our answer."

Loris stared into Nezetkhamun's eyes as she finished, her face deathly still.

[BladeofObliviom]

"Hmph", muttered King Torre, listening as both of the rulers before him spoke in turn. How did things ever go this far, under his very nose? Both had arguments, and parts of both rang hollow to an outside ear. The King of Glazfell sighed. This situation was already far beyond his worst fears.

Then he turned toward Nezetkhamun, narrowing his eyes slightly. "Tell me, Great Xiuhtlatec. You say that you realize your actions have not kept Faedas stable, nor were they necessary for its stability. At what point did you realize this? Before or after you sent your assassins to murder Queen Loris' most obvious successors?" Taking a deep breath, as if daring somebody to interrupt him, he continued speaking. "What's stopping you from murdering my sons to install some peon of yours on Glazfell's throne whenever it suits your fancy? You have no right, Nezetkhamun. This will not be forgiven by mere apology; you have interfered with a supposed ally's crown in the most despicable and traitorous of ways; you have spit upon the sanctity of the Throne of Thorns and all Kings that dare to call themselves legitimate along with it! What say you?"

[TheDarkDM]

Nezetkhamun sighed at the responses of the two monarchs, and bowed his head uncharacteristically.

"Perhaps it was folly to promise Kyria what I did. Perhaps it was nothing but my shortsightedness that brought us to this point. But everything I have done was done for love and for honor, not for gain. You ask what would keep me from supporting a coup against your dynasty, King Torre? Many things, not least among them Tzalteclan's continued debt to Glazfell for supporting us in the early days of our emergence. I should hope he fact we took no action against Marvella despite her increasingly erratic attacks against us would support my claims. And were it simply a matter of feelings Queen Loris would never have been taken from the throne in the first place. Aahotepre was, after all, in defiance of his father's orders when found with Meztli, and I have always trusted my children to make their own way. But I swore an oath."

Nezetkhamun's voice rose with the last sentence, and he returned his gaze to Torre's eyes.

"After our long friendship you must know what it means in Tzalteclan to swear an oath, to tie one's blood to a promise. Perhaps Queen Loris is right, and my love for my granddaughter blinded me to my other obligations in judging the manifestation of Kyria's fears. But I swore to the Throne of Thorns to safeguard it for Kyria Varinel's designs. Would that I had known that Queen Loris would differ so radically from her sister, I may have chosen my promises more carefully."

He turned back to Loris.

"You are correct, Queen Loris, that I am proud. And perhaps you are correct that I am vain, for the successes of Tzalteclan and the Concordat have been many. It is true I love my family, my blood, above all other things. But they are not all that I love, and no matter your loathing for me I do hold some affection for you as sister to my darling Kyria. Were my actions driven by scorn, would such care have been taken to ensure your safety and your comfort? You protest justly that your rights as monarch have not been respected, yet it was not my agents that carried you from the Throne of Thorns but the Faedic Order, your sister's chosen. It was not my will that saw Meztli appointed as regent, but Kyria's. Yes, love may have blinded me to the repercussions of this undertaking, but the undertaking itself was of your sister's design, not mine."

Before he could be interrupted, Nezetkhamun turned once more to Torre.

"You ask me, King Torre, what is to stop me from attempting foul treachery against your children? The selfsame honor that drove us to this precipice in the first place. I vow to you now, by my blood and the blood of all of Tzalteclan, that no plot exists, has existed, or will ever exist to move you or your descendants from the throne of the Hegemony. No act shall be taken to meddle in your affairs, nor intrude on your sovereignty. And I also vow from this moment on that Tzalteclan will no longer interfere in the internal politics of Faedas. For it is the house of Varinel who must decide the destiny of the Throne of Thorns."

His vow given, Nezetkhamun seemed to deflate, his energy fled from him.

"Please, my friend, please understand. Had you come to me, and asked that I promise to remove your sons from power if I judged them unworthy, would you not expect me to keep my word? Though you might rightly question my judgement, please do not question my motives. There is no greater proponent to the divine right than Tzalteclan, and she who held the Throne of Thorns asked such a promise of me. Perhaps I should have refused..."

He turned one last time to Loris.

"But I acquiesced to my blind, beautiful Kyria. And so have led us to the edge of ruin."

[Reggiejam]

"You throw around my sister's name as a shield against responsibility for your crimes and sins against me Xiuhtlatec and while my sister shall pay her own penance to the Mother for her actions it is you who acted. The Faedic Order was put under the control of your granddaughter, you held sway with her and with the Order by proxy. They would not have dared to act against me if their Grand Master had not assured them of your coming aid."

"Your actions in the face of your pledge are not the fault of the one you swore the pledge to. My sister is many things but she is not the hand that bound my feet and wings in chains nor is she the old and desperate dragon professing that his actions were not his own. Your pledge of non-interference now is nothing more than would be expected of a child when caught doing wrong. You have wronged me, disparaged the memory of my sister, and brought chaos to my nation and the Concordat you apparently hold in such high esteem. This doesn't surprise me, I suspected upon reading of you from my sister's writings you were a foul beast bathed in a sea of sin that stained you to your very soul and when I saw you and your progeny I knew it. So what will it be sinner? Will you continue down your doomed path set before you by Khaditna to meet Khadi or will you seek repentance and the embrace of Kina?"

Loris was shaking now with fervor as she spoke and stared into the Tzaltec's burning eyes.

[BladeofObliviom]

King Torre's rage softened slightly as Nezetkhamun apologized once more and appealed to their past friendship, to some shared conception of honor, but his frown grew deep as the Dragon spoke of his own restraint in not acting against her holiness. He expects praise for that?, thought Torre. Gratitude?

The rest of the words washed over him, half-listening. He heard talk of oaths, of honor, but it meant little to him now. His stare grew dead, his mouth still as more meaningless platitudes spilled from the dragon's maw. Drawing himself from the heat of the moment, he began to simply consider the words as he heard them. As the old dragon swore to never again interfere with Faedas' throne, all that the King of Glazfell could think was that the promise should have never needed to be made, were the Dragon as honorable as it claimed. Not an apology for the deed; an apology for its failure.

Loris' words had little effect on him either, only serving to reinforce the sense that the dragon had played him for a fool for so long. A chill ran down the King's spine.

"This is apocalypse then - a revelation like none I've had before." His voice sputtered, shaken to the core by the sheer shock of what he was saying. "All your words of friendship, of honor...you were never a friend of mine, were you? I was merely a piece in your game; one of the black rooks."

"I would never have asked you to betray my kin; they are of my blood, and I trust the Frozen Lady to lead me and mine to the right path in the end, even if you do not. And now I see, feel the uncanny chill in my bones, and know that I am righteous in saying so.

I had brought gift for Senusret, the King I had expected to see, as per tradition when meeting with a friend and host in a faraway land."

With one slow motion, King Torre drew a long, jeweled dagger from the folds of his cloak, holding it outstretched, with the point facing down into the sanguine pool before him.

"I shall require it no longer."

His fingers loosened, and the ceremonial weapon fell.

"This is my oath, Xiuhtlatec Nezetkhamun. I can feel the icy hand of the Goddess guiding me."


Sorry Dark, but bringing Marvella into this was...a terrible, terrible mistake. King Torre has always backed her unconditionally, and bringing up Nezetkhamun's inaction with regards to her is basically damning himself with faint praise in Torre's eyes.

This is of course in addition to insulting Torre's religion by implying that there was something wrong with its head anyway.

[TheDarkDM]

Nezetkhamun met Loris' eyes unblinkingly, and responded with a stillness all the more striking for Loris' fervor.

"Of course the responsibility is mine, Queen Loris, that was never in doubt. And Tzalteclan and I will gladly face whatever sanction you and King Torre judge as fitting penance. I simply wish to dispel the notion that your abduction was undertaken for Tzalteclan's gain. And while I respect your devotion to the Dragon Kina, do not ask me to submit to her. Our Concordat has long managed friendship despite our disparate faiths-"

The Xiuhtlatec seemed set to continue, but was interrupted by King Torre's proclamation. He watched in surprise as the dagger fell from Torre's grip, and the impact of the jeweled blade echoed in the sudden silence. A silence broken by a new voice.

"I am here, my friend."

Senusret stepped from an alcove between the towering bookcases, wrapped in a simple black robe similar to Nezetkhamun's.

"It was my father's word that wrought this tragedy, and so I thought it best to allow him to address you. But I see he has done so poorly."

Nezetkhamun's eyes snapped to meet Senusret's, who held his father's gaze proudly.

"He has perhaps forgotten how to speak with one who does not share our ideals, but do not let one slip of the tongue condemn us to apocalypse. Though this folly may have strained our communion, I beg you not to let it break our bonds of fellowship. If you have come to believe our friendship false, that is the greatest tragedy yet to occur in this sordid affair. For to me, Torre, our three nations are not simple friends, but a family. Perhaps not one of lineage, but one of shared history. Of blood spilled alongside each other in wars spanning decades. It is a family we might have betrayed in attempting to protect, but do not doubt that it means near as much to me as my own flesh and blood."

Senusret stepped closer to Torre, kneeling slowly to take up the fallen dagger.

"And I am willing to pay any price to make it whole again."

[BladeofObliviom]

Torre almost turned to leave before a new voice arrived. Senusret? Had he been waiting in the shadows this whole time? The younger Dragon spoke many words, appealed once more to past friendship, all but begged for the knowledge and strength necessary to make things right, and yet...

"You are right, Teotlkan, and that shared history is all that keeps me from declaring war on the spot. But this treachery is as great as what kinship we had; my mother worked hard to sponsor Queen Kyria's freedom from the Huroshan yoke; I fought alongside Kyria at Duskeye's Hold, and the selfsame assassin's blade that struck out her eyes grazed my cheek before the fool was slain. I would have sworn then to safeguard her throne and that of her sister then, had she asked, and I hold myself to that unspoken oath now.

Send her home, and the damage will have been done. I cannot trust your father's lies, but the trust of my children and children's children might be earned where mine has caught flame. Do not, and you will never be forgiven."

His face stiff, his gait shocked and disconcerted, he turned back to the doors.