Someone Else's Kingdom, BOOK II - Scene LXVI

Prince Reach stood there in his full regalia as the funeral procession took place. He was now Commander of the Maiden Lands - the people and the house elders had demanded it, there could be no other man to lead. Man being the defining word.

There had been no male ruler on the Maiden Lands in recorded memory, but the switch from perpetual diplomacy to total war had flipped a primal dial. With no obvious heir to fill the hollow, the choice had been obvious. The queen's one distant niece thought to have been cruelly cast off with the other maidens on the now infamous ship. Another aspect of the drama that had poisoned so heavily the queen's image. So, Prince Reach - his sword in hand, and a simple, but brutal message - united in his person the Tunidan and Maiden Land war effort. Their two peoples symbolically wed against the barbarous forces of the mainland horde.

The sudden and shocking death of Queen Aglaia Fetterina Fiorina Maquella had already exonerated her a touch in the public eye, but the suffering they'd seen, along with the cruel theft of their innocent daughters, hadn't stifled the rage and bloodlust. The call of war ever-present even amongst the crowds that watched the procession of carriages that led her aged body to the tomb. This pageantry was equally lost on Prince Reach, who, distracted in the moment, watched on vacantly as he remembered her words. Her remark that she was, "Older, wiser, and crueller," than both he and his brothers. As he stood poised to lead her people in one final charge he couldn't help but reflect that his family had failed. It had been their duty to preserve the world, to keep some sense of order, even if not a perfect peace. They certainly hadn't done so, and with his men and ships arrayed, ready for battle, he felt desperate to put this right. To repel the great tide that threatened to overturn everything in its wake.

Barely a few miles north his troops - her troops - were fighting hard on land to hold back the Eastern Kingdom advance. Whilst, out at sea, more Tunidan ships, cannon ready, spilled out from the still un-assailed south to help the cause. He felt eager to lead from the front - the queen's funeral the starting pistol for his burst of aggression - but he was also mindful that it would be selfish to indulge his ego and need for redemption. He had a role to fill, as Queen Aglaia had had hers, and he needed to stand as the focus of her people's war lust. To cast off the flowers of ambivalence and stand in defiance.

As the long procession slowly dwindled into the distance, the clouds in the sky opened up, and the orange sun burst its rays. A rare moment of clemency amidst the tempers and the gales.