Someone Else's Kingdom

Queen Aglaia Fetterina Fiorina Maquella stepped up to the lectern in the House of Elders. The lone woman in a room of perhaps four hundred men. The sense of gloom was palpable, and the ragtag assortment of statesmen that now waited on her speech sat with shoulders hunched, clutching and shuffling their papers. Fretting over the way things had so quickly escalated. It was very late in the evening, which only added to the sense of dangerous tension. Usually the house sat during the afternoon, but in rare occasions of emergency sessions could run into the early morning hours. Some of the very elderly members looked ghostlike under the pull of night, but their lively eyes showed no concern for bodily demands, as the wider body of the state consumed all thought and concern. The Maiden Land navy had just, without provocation or warning, decimated almost the entire fleet of the Eastern Kingdom. Every harbour torched, every ocean going vessel, large or small, burnt or boarded. The unsuspecting...