Blair
Blair had waited for weeks for the courier boat to return to Goldenfields from the Commonwealth of Drala. Eight long weeks it had been, but the courier boat, and diplomats had finally returned. She had started to allow herself to believe that the King had changed his mind on the matter of marriage.
It took twelve days for a starship to travel from the world of Goldenfield to the world of Bastion across the Dralan Trade Route in the Commonwealth of Drala. Without the Fabian Gateways it would have taken more than twice that time, but the courier boat had taken the Fabian Gateways, and the diplomats had been on the old Fabian world of Bastion for weeks.
Messengers were dispatched to keep herself and her brother, Lord Duncan Tusk informed of those negotiations as they waited day after day for King Oswald Gisking to accept the offer before him. Lord Tusk had agreed to several minor changes from one such messenger. Changes which had to do with trade, and amendments to the treaty of Weyburn.
Once Blair had learned of the changes she knew that she had been wrong. If anything the amendments had favored the Furmann Sector as much as they did the Commonwealth. It would increase trade and income for both parties, but above all it showed that the King had not changed his mind. King Gisking continued to give Lord Abbey, and the diplomatic party a cold shoulder even when his terms had been agreed to.
For more than a week the messengers Lord Abbey had sent back to Goldenfields had little to report other than that the lord continued to push for a meeting with the King personally, and was determined to see the treaty formally signed with the marriage pact.
Blair couldn’t understand the delay. The King was on Bastion, and they had agreed to all their demands. Had the king not thought she would pick him and get cold feet? Had it all been some ploy to a game she didn’t understand. It had been his idea to add himself to the list of suitors, unless someone had done that without his consent. She had been forced to push the thoughts from her mind too many times to count, and she was forced to once again.
With the return of the courier boat from Bastion without so much as a messenger sent to inform them of their planned departure meant that something had either been agreed to or went wrong. Either way, Blair would learn her fate today, she knew.
Blair looked in the mirror as she fixed her outfit and her Handmaidens Ansel, Flower, and Yordana worked on her hair, and makeup. The time had finally come, and she had to be seen as though she had no doubt about what was to come, no matter what Lord Abbey had to say.
Lord Abbey must have had good news. He would have sent word otherwise. Even if he had been expelled by the king, he would have sent word. He would have sent word the moment they jumped into the system. There could be only one reason that Lord Abbey had arrived himself, and why her brother had summoned her to the throne room of Goldenfield.
“Lord Abbey has land,” Yordana whispered to Blair as Flower finished the triple tied back braid that looked almost like a crown.
“Is it a bit much?” Blair asked as she watched her handmaidens in the mirror in front of them.
“Non-sense my lady,” Ansel said. “You are about to be named a queen,” he said without doubt in his voice. “You are the most beautiful woman in the Sector, the whole damn Kingdom of the Salians, and in time you will be the most beautiful queen of the Commonwealth of Drala.”
Blair smiled. She loved Ansel. He had served as her handmaiden since her father had brought him home when they were children, and he had been by her side ever since, and she trusted him almost as much as her own brother.
“All eyes will be on you,” Flower added.
A chime at the door came, and Ansel walked over and hit the small button beside it to open it.
“Lord Tusk requests that his sister come to the throne room. Lord Abbey’s shuttle has landed,” Blair heard from the staff of the estate inform Ansel.
“Inform my brother we shall be there shortly,” Blair called out, and stood against the protests of Flower and Yordana.
Blair had gone through every piece of clothing that was in the estate after her brother had summoned her to the throne room to greet and hear Lord Abbey when news of his arrival had come. There wasn’t much more her handmaidens could do that they had already done. They were fixing a strand of her hair, shifting a piece of her dress here, and then putting it back, and they would continue to do that all day if given the chance.
Blair looked at herself as her handmaidens continued to puff about her. She looked great, she knew it, and she wasn’t going to look better. Her outfit displayed both power, and a modest desire. She would be on display for the whole court when Lord Abbey arrived, and video of the event would no doubt spread throughout the whole system, and even the sector itself.
“Alright alright,” Blair said as she waved off her handmaidens at the thought of Lord Abbey once again. He was already on route to the estate. “It’s time to go.”
“One second,” Ansel protested and moved several locks of her long hair until Blair pushed him out of the way.
“Lets go,” she said firmly, and pushed past them, and out of her room in the hall of the great estate of the System-lords of Goldenfield, and Lord of the Furmann Sector. The ancient home of her own ancestors who had sworn loyalty to the King’s of the Salians to defend their borders from attacks by other Furse raiders.
Blair controlled her breathing as she walked through her childhood home. She walked by servants, and staff who she had known all her life, and smiled at each of them as they bowed their heads to her. By the time she reached the throne room it was already full, and all eyes fell on her. She held her head high as walked through the crowded throne room to where her brother, surrounded by his wife, while others members stood below the raised throne.
Blair stopped before the steps, and looked up at her brother, and gave a respectful bow. “Brother,” She said. “My lord, as requested, I have arrived.”
“Come sister, you almost missed it,” the sector-lord of the Furmann Sector said with a cheerful voice, and waved to the empty seat beside him.
“Thank you my lord,” she said with another short bow before she climbed the steps to the seat, and kept her head held high. Her handmaidens joined her, and fell in behind the raised chair along with the other members of the households gathered behind the lord.
Her brother took her hand as she sat. “You must be a wreck,” Lord Tusk whispered.
Blair looked at her brother and smiled. “I have never been more focused, more clear in all my life Duncan.” She smiled again, and looked forward as the main doors to the throne room opened. “Today is the first day of the rest of my life,” she said, and kept her eyes forward.
“The Lord Abbey,” the lord was introduced with a loud shout as the man walked through the large doors, and through the gathered crowd of the throne room. The room was filled with lords from the world of Goldenfield as well as lords from throughout the Furmann Sector who swore loyalty to Lord Tusk.
“Lord Tusk,” Lord Abbey said, and slammed his closed fist against his chest in a salute, and fell to one knee.
“Rise Lord Abbey,” Lord Tusk said. “Welcome home. Allow me to be the first to welcome you home, and say that I am gladdened by your safe arrival.”
“Thank you lord,” Lord Abbey replied, and looked up at Lord Tusk. “My lord, I return from the Commonwealth of Drala with good news.” He said and lowered his head again, and Blair tried not to react with more than the small smile that was already on her face.
“Good, good,” Lord Duncan Tusk said. “Let us all hear what you have to say.” Blair knew her brother already knew what the man had to say. He would have been informed as soon as the starship made it’s jump into the system through the Fabian Gateway, but she could tell he was enjoying the display.
Lord Abbey stood. “Lord, King Oswald has agreed to take the hand of your sister, Lady Blair in marriage.” Lord Abbey said, and looked to Blair.
Blair felt herself straighten in her chair but tried to maintain control over her face. It had never been so hard for her to maintain control, but she fought the urge to grin, to stand, to yell out in triumph.
“The King of the Commonwealth,” Lord Abbey continued, and looked to her brother, Lord Tusk. “Would like to invite you, and your sister to join him on Bastion so that you may discuss the matters of the wedding in person.”
“We should leave at once,” Duncan spoke softly to Blair. It was almost a question instead of a statement.
“No,” Blair replied. “We should invite all the lords of the sector to a great feast before we leave. What better way to raise wealth for Goldenfields?” she asked her brother at the thought of hundreds of lords spending their credits along with their followers.
Her brother smiled. “You will not be easy to replace,” he said with a smirk which vanished in a moment. “But, you would have the King of the Commonwealth wait?”
Blair smirked in return. “If he can make us wait, we can make him wait so that I may say my good-byes to my many friends throughout the sector,” she said and looked out over the crowd, and tried to maintain herself with a gentle smile.
