Two Kingdoms 25: Entrevue

[DoctorM]

TWO KINGDOMS 25: ENTREVUE

Author's Note: This is the twenty-third part of an AU construction about a very different post-1120 Gwynedd where the coronation challenge at Kelson's coronation went rather differently--- very differently. This episode falls at the same time as "Spyglass". As always, input and comments are very much appreciated.

***

THE QUEEN TO THE BISHOP OF BRECHLIN: SUCH GREETINGS AS ARE DUE YOU.

You are requested and required to attend upon Us at Our palace at Valoret on or before the Feast of St. Kieran in this third year of Our reign.

VALORET, given under Our seal,

CHARISSA REGINA

***

The bishop walks down the long corridor with the Shadow Queen at his side. It's all been very courtly so far: perfectly poised greetings one to the other, long-prescribed etiquette and ritual flowing smoothly. Aides and attendants follow along behind at a respectful distance.

"Do you find it answers?" the bishop asks. His Latin is crisp and perfect. "The palace, I mean. Big enough for a government?"

"Oh, I think it does." The Shadow Queen is almost smiling. "We'll be adding on, but it's big enough for the moment. The last resident thought well of himself."

The bishop smiles back. "Oh, he did. My late brother-in-Christ Edmund had an eye for architecture. Liked letting everyone know he was Primate of All Gwynedd, too."

Charissa gestures at the rows of arched windows. "That's one thing I can't fault Edmund Loris for. He knew how to build." Her own Latin is as good as his.

The bishop nods. "He did love glass, Edmund did. Loved stained glass more than anything. He could talk for hours about how it's made."

Charissa slides a glance at the bishop. "Did you talk a lot, you and Edmund Loris?"

The bishop shrugs. "We talked about one another a lot. Never said much to one another, though. Or not much that was pleasant."

"I know the story. I'm taking it you don't miss him."

The bishop sighs. "I find myself sadly lacking in Christian charity about the late Archbishop. A failing, I'm sure."

She smiles at him. "No episcopal solidarity, then?"

The bishop raises one ringed hand and vaguely waves it toward her with a grin. "You may consider this a grave remonstrance for your sins, Your Grace." He turns toward her. "I'm old enough to have seen wars from one end of the Eleven Kingdoms to the other, and I've seen governments and princes come and go from the Connait to Orsal country. If you choose to play the political game, you win or you die. My late brother-in-Christ should've spent more time building fine palaces and less time trying to dictate to kings."

"Less time persecuting my kind, too."

"I agree. This is a modern age. We're civilized people. Persecuting Deryni is something from a rougher time. And persecutions breed disorder."

"He was no friend of yours, I know."

"Edmund Loris disagreed with how I run the business of being a bishop."

"Simoniac. Isn't that what he called you? Guilty of simony?"

The bishop nods. "That's what he said. He was a rigid man, Loris was. He wanted me out of my see."

The bishop looks along the corridor. The carefully-spaced guardsmen in Tolan Guard livery have become crimson-sashed fedayin of the Queen's Moors.  "I wonder what he'd have said, Edmund Loris— about a Deryni queen living in his palace and about Moors standing watch in it."

Charissa laughs. "Words an archbishop shouldn't be using, I'd think. Though I'm pretty sure he used them about me."

The corridor ends at a guarded double door. The fedayin standing guard swing the doors open and bow.  Charissa turns back to the gaggle of courtiers and clerks. Her voice is clear and crisp. "My lord bishop and I have things to discuss. Everyone else— out." Four of the Queen's Moors step away from the wall and begin herding the crowd back down the hall.

In the room there's  a table and two high-backed chairs. A flagon of wine, two cups, two bowls of peeled almonds,  No windows. The Shadow Queen turns and looks at her guest. "So— my lord bishop FitzAlan of Brechlin.  Please sit,"

The bishop looks at her.  She's all in blue dark as midnight. Her dress is a high-collared khilat robe in silk, and it must have cost a year's income for a minor lord. Unbound blonde hair falls onto her shoulders. He takes in the white line of the scar across her nose to her left cheekbone.  He bows himself into a chair.

Charissa looks at the closed doors and then at the wine. She pours out two cups.  "This is from Autun," she says. "My husband's lands at Veira. Very light— lighter than what you get out of the Rheljans, Fine taste— it's got cherry and raspberry to it."

FitzAlan is smiling. "A queen serving me— I'm not used to that."

Charissa lifts her own wine cup. "We're a new kingdom here. We do a lot of things differently. Or I do."

She's looking at Brechlin. He's a big man, as big as her father had been. Six foot four, she guesses. Taller than she is, and that's rare enough. Steel-grey hair, eyes as blue as her own. A hard face, and an outdoor one. He's served kings at Rhemuth all his life, at court and in the field. He's run governments and commanded armies. Somehow he makes bishop's vestments look like a riding habit. He can wield a pen, a crozier, or a longsword. He can even, her husband has told her, say a Mass.

The Queen folds herself into her chair.  She puts her wine cup on the table. "Let's have some silence," she says. She points at the four corners of the room and closes her eyes for a moment.

Brechlin starts a bit. He's seen Deryni magic done, but never so close. There are four warding cubes in the corners, and they're glowing. A greyish light comes off them and rises to the ceiling. The light bends inward into a canopy above them.

The bishop is sitting up straight. He understands what she's doing, invoking Deryni magic with a bishop of the Church across the table.

Charissa looks up at the grey light.  "This gives us some privacy," she says. Her voice is quiet and pleasant. "It's not completely impenetrable, but it's good enough."

"And not heretical at all, of course."

Charissa smiles. "Well, it's effective. That's all I ask for."

The bishop sips at his wine. "Your invitation was effective. Brusque enough, but I'm used to summonses from kings."

"I wondered if you'd come."

He lifts his wine cup to her. "I worked for King Malcolm," he says. "Malcolm thought nothing of running his ministers across half Gwynedd for any reason at all. King Donal at least would only get you out of bed in the middle of the night and drag you across Rhemuth."

"You've spent your life working for Haldanes."

Brechlin grins. "I wondered when we'd get there. That's what I've done, Queen Charissa. I've  worked for the Haldanes most of my life. There's no secret about it."

"And yet you came when a Festillic queen called."

He shrugs. "I'm trusting this isn't an arrest," he says. "And if it's not an arrest, then it's a job interview. And that interests me.  Why would you call for me?"

Charissa tops off her wine cup. "You're the last bishop left inside my kingdom," she says. "The others are all down south with the Haldane boy or hiding with Duke Jared."

"Well, you did hang a few, There is that."

"That's what happens to traitors. The ones I hanged were all Haldane loyalists who called for rebellion against me. Incite rebellion, you end up on the gallows. But you never left Brechlin. You weren't at Kelson Haldane's coronation and you didn't run off to Concaradine or Cassan."

Brechlin opens one hand. "Edmund Loris wanted my diocese off me. He wanted me marched off for simony to some monastery no one would ever find.  There were a few of the others who agreed with him. And King Brion... King Brion thought I was a holdover from his grandfather's day. He and I didn't agree when I was his chancellor. I resigned and went back to Brechlin. I didn't dislike the man, but I wasn't needed in Rhemuth. Or wanted much."

Charissa watches him while she sips at her wine. "By the way... The simony accusation— just how much did you hand out in bribes for Brechlin?"

The bishop holds up six fingers. He's meeting her gaze with his own.

A slow grins spreads over the Queen's face. "Really?  That's...impressive. Why Brechlin? You were at...Transha before, weren't you." She's done her research.

"I was born by St. Jarlath's. I have people there, and in Brechlin itself.  Kinneddar in Brechlin is the cathedral I grew up around. And I was wasting my life as bishop at Transha...where our late Archbishop was behind my appointment.  It's a poor place, Transha. He liked the idea that I'd be stuck out there." He laughs. "I met your father, you know. He came to Kinneddar once with a pack of Tigre clergy to settle some issues about monastery lands in the mountains. He knew how to argue, your father did."

Charissa slides her cup onto the table. "You were Malcolm Haldane's chancellor when you were very young, and then his justiciar for years. You were supposed to be a  fine canon lawyer. Then you were Donal Blaine Haldane's justiciar for six  years more. Brion Haldane's chancellor for two. You led expeditions into Meara in Malcolm's day. So tell me why I should trust you at all."

Brechlin looks hard at her. "I didn't serve them because they were Haldanes. I served the crown. I served the crown of Gwynedd. I served the state, not the man."

"This isn't Gwynedd."

"No, Queen Charissa— it's your new kingdom. All these months and you haven't named a chancellor. You have Tolan and Marluk staff as temporary heads of secretariats. You haven't been able to attract clergy to the bureaucracy, This new kingdom needs a real government."

"With you running it."

"I haven't said I'd work for you yet," Brechlin says. "And you haven't asked me to work for you."

Charissa picks up her wine cup again. "You could be Primate. The Church is in disarray, you've been a bishop in one place or another for decades. You've got administrative experience, God knows."

Brechlin shakes his head, "The simony accusation will stick. And, anyway, I'm too close to the Church in Tigre. The other bishops will say I'm too Eastern. It won't be me. It'll be Denis Arilan— he was  auxiliary at Rhemuth, and he's at Dhassa now. If the rumors aren't true, it'll be Arilan."

Charissa holds up her wine cup. "Now you're fishing. But...the rumors about Arilan, those are all true. He's my kind— he's Deryni. An enemy of my kingdom, but Deryni. Call that a bit of information from the Shadow Queen."

"It could still be Arilan. Or maybe Cardiel."

"Or maybe you're wasted in the Church. You've always held secular posts. Led armies, too. If you want a government to run, if you want to put a kingdom together, you need to be at Valoret."

"Are you asking?"

Charissa stands and faces Brechlin. "My lord Berengar FitzAlan, Bishop of Brechlin— will you swear to serve me and my House as Justiciar of Tolan and the West?"

He looks hard at her. "Queen Charissa, tell me first how you intend to rule."

The Shadow Queen is looking into his eyes. "The first job of a government," she says, "is to govern. I intend to do just that. I ran Tolan and Marluk and I did it well. I'll do that here. I've always had a hard hand at justice, but I'm not unjust. I want a kingdom that works. I want no violence against Deryni, and I don't want heresy that turns political. Those things I'll punish, and I'll punish them hard. I have wars with Torenth and the Haldanes to win, and my kingdom will be supporting those. But when it's all done, I want a kingdom that's better run than Haldane Gwynedd or Wencit's Torenth. I want order and I want the economy functioning. Give me order and stability— that's what I'm asking you. Tyranny isn't order. You and I both know that. It'll be a Festillic kingdom, mind you. My House rules. But I'm not looking to grind the peasants or the merchant class down. We'll re-stock the aristocracy. And I will stay on the throne.  Whatever I have to do to win, I'll do. And you'll be enforcing the laws. My lord Berengar— will you take up your old job again?"

FitzAlan puts his wine cup down. "And I keep Brechlin."

"Goes without saying. Though I'll confirm it in writing."

"Queen Charissa... I'll be your justiciar." FitzAlan stands and bows to her. "I'll enforce the laws and I'll keep order. And we agree— tyranny isn't order.  I'm an old man now, but I've been keeping governments running and keeping princes on thrones since I was younger than you are now.  So I'll do it— justiciar again."

She looks up into the grey light above them.  "Good man. Welcome to Tolan and the West, my lord Berengar.  Welcome to the House of Festil."

[Nezz]

Mmmmmm... order and a functioning economy... I wouldn't mind living under her rule...

[drakensis]

Charissa is no fool.

Of course, neither are Nigel and Wencit.

She controls Kheldour, Eastmarch,  the northern half of Gwynedd proper (Purple Marches, Valoret, etc) but perhaps not Cassan or the other western regions. Add Tolan and that's a fairly impressive swathe of the northern end of the Eleven Kingdoms.

Marluk is not contiguous with that so I doubt Charissa holds that, which is a point of conflict with Wencit - I'm guessing her war goals there are to settle a new border that separates Tolan from Torenth as her new kingdom but tacitly accepts her losing Marluk.

As for the south and west of Gwynedd, while I doubt Charissa would turn down control of it, she'd probably accept them as separate from her current rule if it meant a generation of stability to consolidate her new kingdom. On the other hand, that'd be the exactly the sort of thing Nigel would desperately want to avoid.

[DoctorM]

Mmmmmm... order and a functioning economy... I wouldn't mind living under her rule...

She's a cold lady, but she likes things that work. She likes putting her hand to things.

[DoctorM]

Charissa is no fool.

Of course, neither are Nigel and Wencit.

She controls Kheldour, Eastmarch,  the northern half of Gwynedd proper (Purple Marches, Valoret, etc) but perhaps not Cassan or the other western regions. Add Tolan and that's a fairly impressive swathe of the northern end of the Eleven Kingdoms.

Marluk is not contiguous with that so I doubt Charissa holds that, which is a point of conflict with Wencit - I'm guessing her war goals there are to settle a new border that separates Tolan from Torenth as her new kingdom but tacitly accepts her losing Marluk.

As for the south and west of Gwynedd, while I doubt Charissa would turn down control of it, she'd probably accept them as separate from her current rule if it meant a generation of stability to consolidate her new kingdom. On the other hand, that'd be the exactly the sort of thing Nigel would desperately want to avoid.

And *that* is a very, very good analysis. She wants a northern kingdom that will give her stability and strategic depth, and wants Wencit driven back from the borders in the east and northeast-- which Marley seems to be working on, as is Lionel, who's promoting disaffection against Wencit. She's finding men like Brechlin who know how to govern, and can buy her time. (She does still hold Marluk, though. It's a source of men-- Marluk Horse --and officers. She'll be visiting Tolan soon, so we'll more of the East)

[Jerusha]

A nice game of cat and cat (Brechlin is certainly no mouse.)  Well done!

[DoctorM]

A nice game of cat and cat (Brechlin is certainly no mouse.)  Well done!

"Cat and cat"--- I love that!

[DerynifanK]

Very interesting. The bishop has agreed to govern for her but, with his long history of serving the Haldanes, I would just wonder how much loyalty he would have to a Festil although he seems unfazed by Deryni magic. Would like to know more of his history. He definitely did not care for Loris but hardly anyone other than Gorony did. Can't wait to see where this goes. Do you suppose it is possible that Nigel has managed to introduce a spy into Charissa's court?

[DoctorM]

Very interesting. The bishop has agreed to govern for her but, with his long history of serving the Haldanes, I would just wonder how much loyalty he would have to a Festil although he seems unfazed by Deryni magic. Would like to know more of his history. He definitely did not care for Loris but hardly anyone other than Gorony did. Can't wait to see where this goes. Do you suppose it is possible that Nigel has managed to introduce a spy into Charissa's court?

Brechlin I think is a man who serves the state rather than the king, and I think he may carry a grudge against at least Brion-- feeling a bit like an older racehorse put out to pasture. And he does dislike Loris-- who wanted him stripped of his bishopric on a simony charge (paying bribes for a Church position). I think he likes running a government and likes the perks and authority he's had. He's a professional who likes his work. He's willing to serve Charissa so long as what she wants is his skills. In that, he's a lot like a great many medieval bishops.

[Laurna]

My interested point was about Denis Arilan. Dhassa, even though it is independent, must be part of the South and not included in the Talon and West. Would Arilan take Archbishop under a Festil? He is CC. they follow the guidance of Camber.  I just do not see Arilan ever following a Festil. I do hope Denis is talking to the Haldanes

[DerynifanK]

Still a spy would have been a neat twist.

[DoctorM]

My interested point was about Denis Arilan. Dhassa, even though it is independent, must be part of the South and not included in the Talon and West. Would Arilan take Archbishop under a Festil? He is CC. they follow the guidance of Camber.  I just do not see Arilan ever following a Festil. I do hope Denis is talking to the Haldanes

I think that there's a large exile community of churchmen in the Haldane South, and (as Charissa says) another in Cassan and Kierney. Arilan may (may!) not be physically anywhere near Dhassa-- but appointed so that the see isn't officially vacant and continuity is maintained. After all-- both the Church and the Council are deeply opposed to Charissa's regime. If someone doesn't become Primate, that would give the Queen the opportunity to start bringing in higher clergy of her own...maybe even (horrors!) Easterners. 

[DoctorM]

Still a spy would have been a neat twist.

Oh, there'll be lots of intrigue here. I'm wondering how Brechlin and Aurelian will get along.

[Jerusha]

Still a spy would have been a neat twist.

Oh, there'll be lots of intrigue here. I'm wondering how Brechlin and Aurelian will get along.

Now THAT will be interesting!

[DoctorM]

Still a spy would have been a neat twist.

Oh, there'll be lots of intrigue here. I'm wondering how Brechlin and Aurelian will get along.

Now THAT will be interesting!

I'm thinking that it will be!