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| ===Chapter 1 - Strategy for Legitimacy===
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| "Where is Elspeth? I had hoped you would bring her."
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| Kaede heard Pascal inquire as the four of them made their way towards the nearby Garrison Headquarters. It had been the most heavily-warded building in Nordkreuz, and despite Skagen's focused bombardment the fortified stone structure managed to remain intact.
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| "She's out helping the townsfolk while running a few errands for me; Sir Robert is with her," replied Sylviane. "In fact, I told all my armigers to go out and make themselves useful. Mari too -- not that she would leave even if I had my meteor around her throat."
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| The Princess walked besides her fiancé, her sapphire-blue phoenix Hauteclaire standing regally upon the left shoulder. Her right arm held level and steady, supporting the Samaran familiar who shuffled along her other side.
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| Kaede felt as though she was being escorted to a dance. But for the moment, she was just glad their destination was close enough that the Princess didn't try to carry her again.
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| Glad and... sort of disappointed as well.
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| "I would be negligent in my duties if I allowed you to rid of me that easily," a calm voice added from behind just as Pascal began casting a ''Farspeak'' spell.
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| Glancing back at the armiger and lady's maid, Kaede estimated that Mari appeared somewhere in her early twenties, which for a Hyperien mage meant anywhere between actually twenty to over half a century old. She stood only a hint taller than the Princess at one-seventy-two (5'8"), with chestnut-brown hair barely draped over her narrow shoulders. Her eyes were a cloudy gray, and while her face held the ideal 'almond' shape, her features were just proportional enough to not be homely.
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| Mari wore the heavier half-plate armor, although Kaede had never heard it clink. The armored maid also carried a towering kite shield shrunken to buckler-size on her back. Her armament was a classic Lotharin flail -- steel links ran from the rod on her side to the heavy flail-head carried behind her waist; it had vicious, spring-loaded spikes folded into the side-grooves, and the weighted head could be affixed onto the rod to use as a morningstar.
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| "Lady Mari, were you Her Highness' governess?" Kaede spoke out in curiosity.
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| The maid's expressions ranged from serious to stern, which left the smaller girl convinced she was a disciplinarian of sorts.
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| But the reply came instant if not outright terse:
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| "I'm not that old."
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| "I'm sorry!" Kaede almost squeaked out, which only pulled down an amused smile from Sylviane.
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| "Mari is a childhood friend, only four years older than me," the Princess explained. "She's been my guard since I was seven, albeit still in training back then."
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| "I started only a few months before ''that'' incident."
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| Despite her level voice, there was a strong sense of guilt and shame buried beneath Mari's words, which Sylviane certainly did not miss:
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| "There's hardly any need for you to remember that every time Mari," came a soothing, if not forgiving voice. "You were eleven, facing off against Weichsel's best. It would be unrealistic to expect any more of yourself back then."
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| '''That incident' must refer to the raid on Silverglen Castle,'' Kaede concluded.
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| That was when the Knights Phantom marauding deep inside Rhin-Lotharingie territory captured the young Sylviane. They took her to Nordkreuz to be held as a prisoner and hostage, where she soon met Pascal for the first time.
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| "It would be the greatest disgrace upon me if I ever forgot such a deed Your Highness," Mari retorted. "I should have died there with your other guards..."
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| "--And how would that have helped me?"
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| Sylviane sighed after interjecting against her stubborn maid. She then stopped and turned to face Mari:
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| "I was going to be captured one way or another; von Mackensen had a far superior force and caught us with total surprise. What I should of done was surrender as soon as they broke through the defenses to barter for your lives. But I was just a kid back then! I didn't even realize what was happening until only you and Sir Robert were left from my entourage!"
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| ''But she did surrender in the end in exchange for Mari and Robert's lives.''
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| Kaede couldn't help but smile as she remembered her conversation with Sir Robert the other day. It was no wonder that the young knight cared so much for the Princess' well being. A liege willing to go that far for her subjects was a ruler to die for.
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| "Your Highness..."
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| "Remember Mari," Sylviane cut her maid off, never even leaving the opportunity to interject. "You're no good to anyone dead, me least of all. If you have to feel like you owe me something, then repay it by continuing to stay at my side!"
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| Swiveling back to keep walking, the Princess' cheeks colored as she squeezed out her final words:
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| "I won't forgive you if anything should happen to you because you were reckless!"
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| Kaede never saw Mari's expression as Sylviane led her on, but she hardly needed to as the stern maid replied in the most gentle voice yet.
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| "Understood, Your Highness."
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| For several moments afterwards, only an comfortable silence lingered between the four of them. Then...
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| "Annnnd done," Pascal noted as he ended the communication spell. "Elspeth and Robert will be with us in five minutes."
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| "They must be close by," Sylviane commented, her eyes glancing about as they made their final approach to the small keep that was the Garrison Headquarters building.
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| "And it looks like we might as well wait outside," he finished with a sigh.
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| Before anyone could ask why, Pascal strode away towards a group of five locals who were running in. They began bombarding him with loud questions as soon as they came close, their rowdiness eliciting a subdued chuckle from Sylviane.
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| ''Why is that funny?''
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| Kaede raised her eyebrows as she looked to the Princess.
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| "Don't let the sigh fool you," Sylviane grinned back. "Pascal loves the stuff, though perhaps not all at once."
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| Looking back to her fiancé, the nostalgic smile soon spread across her countenance:
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| "That man is a born architect. If he wasn't the son of a Marshal, he'd have been an urban planner or industrial organizer as his choice career."
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| <nowiki>----- * * * -----</nowiki>
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| Pascal ended up commandeering the Garrison Headquarters' map room -- a conference hall designed for dozens of officers, now occupied by only the six of them.
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| In addition to Pascal, Sylviane, Kaede herself, Mari, and the ever-dashing Sir Robert, they were also joined by the young Elspeth de Martel.
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| Elspeth had been the one who brought news of Gabriel's treachery. She was the younger sister of Lindsay de Martel, the Highland Guard commander who fought to the end as Emperor Geoffroi's personal bodyguard. Covered by her comrades, Elspeth had been the only one who broke out of the encirclement, dodging patrols as she fled Alis Avern to bring the dire news to Sylviane overnight.
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| Even now, she was still recovering from a broken arm that went untreated for too long.
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| The petite armiger seemed no older than a cute, ninth-grader girl in Kaede's eyes. She was about the same height as Kaede herself at one-fifty-five (5'1"), with fluffy orange-brown tresses flowing like caramel to just beyond her shoulders. Below them lay a pair of inquisitive, apple-green eyes and baby-fat cheeks that made her look too young to be a knight. Yet her most beaming feature was that like Sir Robert, her childish smile -- as forced as it was -- was still positively infectious.
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| Kaede did not find it surprising that Sylviane already made Elspeth her armiger. The Princess would have loved to do so, even if she wasn't four cohorts short after the Air Battle of Nordkreuz.
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| ''Besides, those things look vicious...''
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| The familiar girl held no doubts about Elspeth's worth as a fighter either. Sylviane had described Elspeth as 'charming, sweet, and outright sadistic in battle' to Pascal. As a result Kaede found her eyes drawn to the two dagger-like blades sheathed at the waist. Each had a bladed hook exposed to the side, as well as an attached steel rope that trailed up to bracelets around the wrists. They reminded her strongly of the Japanese Ninja's kyoketsu-shoge, except with narrower but thicker blades designed to pierce armor.
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| ''I wonder how she uses them without losing fingers...''
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