Two Kingdoms 48 - Dancers

[DoctorM]

Her marriage is a sham; her father has just pledged himself to a queen Richenda sees as the enemy; she has to deal with being outed as Deryni; and she's worried for her son, since she doesn't want him to be like his father...or lose her son to Charissa and Christian's influence. She doesn't know Morgan yet in this AU, and I'm thinking about who might be there for her support. 

Poor Richenda. Her losses, problems and pain just seem to multiply

[DerynifanK]

I feel so very sorry for her. I don't think she deserves this situation. I hope you can find someone to support her but at Charissa's court I can't imagine who it would be. Charissa's attitude toward her has never been kind.

[DoctorM]

I think I'm beginning to envision someone who might offer Richenda something that might not exactly be support, but would at least be a sense that she's not alone as everything shifts and shatters.

I feel so very sorry for her. I don't think she deserves this situation. I hope you can find someone to support her but at Charissa's court I can't imagine who it would be. Charissa's attitude toward her has never been kind.

[tmcd]

Somehow I misread or missed a reply from @DoctorM. Ow! Awkward!

Since it's Word of God that Kelson is suffering a self-inflicted cranial-rectal insertion, it blows some of my thinking out of the water.

'Cause I was just thinking that one other card that Kelson can play is honesty and honor. Few sane people will trust Wencit, I suspect. Charissa -- has she appeared honest to her supporters in the recent years? I don't know.

So if Kelson wanted to be a schemer, he might have tried to get a message to Rheljan in the deepest secrecy, offering insurance. If Rheljan is trying to protect his family, and if Rheljan can produce a severe enough backstab against Charissa, then Kelson would reluctantly pay the price and let him and his family keep their winnings. With a reputation for honesty, Kelson might well be believed. Then Rheljan might try to do like Our Time Line's Lord Stanley at Bosworth, or Kobayakawa Hideaki at Sekigahara: at a crucial moment, switch sides and hand decisive victory to his erstwhile enemies. OTL had "Paris is worth a Mass"; Kelson might follow Donal's example when he let himself be flogged by the monks of Saint George's to end the interdict.

But if Kelson hates Rheljan and his entire family, that won't happen. Pity.

From the previous DoctorM note, it sounds like things were shaping up to an implicit pseudo-alliance between Kelson and Wencit: each attacking on their own fronts and not approaching each other (much). Making an enemy of Rheljan definitely seems like a blunder in this case. It would have been wiser, I think, to let Wencit and Rheljan hammer on each other, weakening & distracting two enemies with no exertion on Kelson's part.

Feh.

[tmcd]

As for Truvorsk: in OTL early Plantagenet English, and probably elsewhere/elsewhen, a conqueror had some claim to what he had taken, and an overlord seeking to deprive a vassal of something that had been taken from outside the overlord's lordships would have been seen as a gross injustice. (For example, the Marcher Lords on the Welsh borders could conquer as much as they could from the Welsh, (usually) without hindrance from Henry II and certainly without granting any rights of governance to Henry II.) I don't know that there's ever been anything in canon pro or con about an attitude in the Deryniverse, but it wouldn't be implausible if it were so.