The Trouble with Treaties

[ChocolateStrawberry]

Hasglow stepped between Eloran and the Loidites. "I think, it would be best if their highnesses went on their day. It's near lunch time, and I am sure our cooks will be happy to serve some of our deliscious foods. Plus, there are meetings this afternoon, and I know that delegates often have notes or past treaties to go over before bringing up new business," he said. Gently, he placed a hand on the Loidites' shoulders, pushing them toward the doors. "It would be best if the king were only open to the meetings he had placed for the day, and their highnesses have already met with him."

He propelled the Loidites to the hall and helped them out of the chambers. On his way, he motioned to one of his loyal men to keep an eye on Eloran. He found it very suspicious that the Ritter Hex had a change of heart so fast, especially around the sick king.

On their way down the hall, they ran into Gavin. He had found out that Martinez was having lunch with his sister and that Honore had just left for a ride. He was planning on seeing his father, but running into the Loidites surprised him.

"Prince Tansen, Prince Deston, what are you doing back here?"

 

[Raiden]

After being shunted aside by the activities going on around the castle, Masako found herself on her own yet again. This was starting to get frustrating, it seemed like some kind of stupid conspiracy to keep her from having any real contact with the other delegates and it was starting to rightly piss her off. She'd tried everything she could think of to ingratiate herself from sucking down her pride and accomodating the Anstarian dress style to toning down her bold or even brazen force of personality. She didn't like the subtlety of being demure and quietly seductive; she had a body made for sin (literally) and Masako enjoyed flaunting it; considering herself (perhaps arrogantly) to be one of the greatest beauties on the face of the planet.

In her agigtation she'd undo her personal limitor and began to let her demonic power seep out to infect anyone who was nearby with it's supernatural charming effect. She was done playiing stupid little games, if she wanted the attention she was going to force people to pay it.

 

[ChocolateStrawberry]

Hasglow suddenly straightned by his prince's side. He motioned for two of the guards in the hall to stay with the princes while he went to investigate. He had the itch between his shoulders, something he only felt when he was around magic. It wasn't around the Loidites, so he knew they weren't doing anything. But someone was. Someone was using magic and it was causing his skin to crawl. He kept his ability a secret, even from the Ritter Hex, but it served Anstaria well.

He searched the castle, moving towards any direction that made the itch stronger. He was only mildly surprised to see it lead him to Baroness Masako. His hand on his sword, he approached her. "My lady, I believe you were warned about magic in Anstaria. I must insist you cease your activity at once."

 

[Raiden]

Masako glanced at Hasglow with a faint glowing to her eyes as she smirked. "Oh but Sir Hasglow. I'm not doing anything; I'm just relaxing for a change." She said. "Demonic power tends to cause you pain if you bundle it in for too long." She purred with the smirk still on her face. "I'm sick of playing nice only to get ignored by everyone, if you don't like it; that's too bad. It's part of my nature, I'm not conscientiously doing anything wrong other than simply relaxing my own inhibitors." she said offhandly. "If you don't want me to do it then put your sword away." she said. "How's that? You put it away and I'll go back to being boringly demure which is so against my nature it turns me fucking stomach."

 

[ChocolateStrawberry]

Hasglow growled as the power pushed at him. "I will do nothing of the sort," he said. "You, however, will control yourself." He grabbed her arm roughly. "YOu are coming with me and you will be peaceful. Your diplomatic immunity is over for the crime of doing magic in Anstaria after being warned not to. If you knew that you had to do magic in our lands, then you should have had the sense to decline the mission. YOu will stay in your room until we can escort you to the boarder, along with your little shadowy bodyguard. And you'd best pray that the magic you just released doesn't have a bad effect on this kingdom."

 

[Raiden]

She went willingly with him and sighed some. Not even the supernatural powers of a succubus would pull at the men of Anstaria, that proved to her that they were all closet gay. "Fine if you say so." She huffed. "I'll be glad to get out of here." she growled. "You persecute people for having abilties that they sometimes can't control. I was born like this Hasglow. half demon, half human I suppose I am a true monster to you aren't I?" Masako asked in a cool tone of voice. "Not like my being here did anything useful anyway. I can jus tslaughter my way to the goldsparite throne."

 

[ArcturusV]

Diane leaned forward, her lips brushing his ear. "All I want is to travel, see the world," she said. "I want the freedom to read what I wish and not be restricted to silly poems." Taking a chance, she kissed him softly underneath his ear before sitting back. "I can be whoever you want me to be in public. As your wife, I can be as meek as you desire, as long as I can see the world."

She smiled, running a finger down her neck and the little exposed flesh at her throat. "My requests aren't so demanding. As your wife, I would gather that I'd be traveling with you anyway. I just ask that I'm not locked in my room all the time."

The Lord's skin was warm under Diane's lips, his blood pumping heavily, her kiss able to feel his pulse beneath the skin. He was leaning forward, his eyes drawn to her delicate finger at her neck. He reached out across the table, the back of his right hand reaching up towards her face, his fingers brushing her from cheekbone to chin. His hand lowered back to his edge of the table, forearm up upon it, his hand still pointed her way, index and middle finger rubbing against his thumb in a slow circle.

"You can have all of that, and more," he whispered towards her. He pushed his book out towards her side of the table, the worn leather bound volume. "A token of my word," he promised, as the cracked, heavily marked book stopped near her place.

 

[Lost Legacy]

Deston and Tansen went compliantly with Hasglow. They were beginning to become used to the Ritter Hex ushering them all around the castle. Seeing Gavin, Tansen took a quick look at Hasglow to see if it would be wise to mention what it was that had just happened. Hasglow seemed to have been very disturbed by Eloran's motion to use magic and Tansen could understand why. Even he was confused at Eloran's change of heart.

Instead of finding the large man face he saw him going towards Masako, and all Tansen could do was shake his head. All this castle needed was more friction between the delegates. "Well since you got the question out first, we were just finishing a meeting with Ritter Eloran. I must say it was very interesting to say the least. And may I ask how your search for the assassin is coming?"

Deston sighed. He wished his brother would just flat out say that Eloran wished the use of magic on the king but he could see how that may cause problems. From what he knew the Ritter Hex were virtually a second government in this society, and starting large amounts of friction between the crown and the Ritter would be unwise while your in the middle of it.

 

[ChocolateStrawberry]

Gavin started to open his mouth to answer Tansen's question, but paused. Would it be prudent to just blurt all this out? For all he knew, by sundown he'd be king. He had to act like one.

"The investigation is coming along well," Gavin said after Hasglow ran off. "There will be a brief delay in the meetings. Why don't the two of you take the time to see some the sights of Anstaria. We have a beautiful garden in the palace, as well as a lovely city beyond our gates. Not to mention that you can use the horses to go for a ride in the woods. Why not familiarize yourselves before tomorrow's hunt?"

********************

Diane slowly picked up the book and her eyes lit up with wonder. "A journal of travels," she said softly. She opened the book, eagerly reading a few lines. "Oh, thank you, Lord Martinez! You don't know what this means to me." Dropping her seductive act, she impulsively reached over and hugged him, placing a kiss on his cheek.

"This is the best gift I could have hoped for," she said, her fingers lovingly stroking the leather binding.

*************************

Hasglow escorted Masako to her rooms and roughly pushed her inside. "If I were you," he said, "I'd be careful of what I say. Prince Gavin will hear of this, and you had better hope nothing happens to His Majesty because of your little tricks. If it weren't for the position you just previously held, I would be under authority to execute you. We tolerate demons less then we do magic-users. I suggest you remember that."

With that, he had the door locked and walked away. Unfortunately for all involved, Masako's impulsive magic had already triggered a set of events. The power flowed through the palace, putting many of the Ritter Hex at unease as it brushed by them. As the trendils of power touched the king's room, it set off a well-placed trap. Eloran may or may not have felt the ring given to him heat up - A warning? A trap? A coincidence? - mere seconds before the air above the king's bed burst into flames.

The startled men in the room barely had time to draw their swords before a demon dropped from the fire and ripped open the old king's chest. The assassin had struck.

 

[Raiden]

"Hey watch it you bastard." She snarled flatly. "Instead of just doing all this, why not just let me leave huh?" she grumbled and looked about the room for a way out. She didn't like being caged up like this with everyone against her; Masako would get out even i fshe had to make even more use of flagrant magic. There was no point in concealng it now, she'd cast yet another spell as she felt the infernal energy rising n the castle, using it to conceal what she was doing. In a few moments, a dimensional gate would open leading to a predetermined spot miles outside of the castle, just outside of Anstaria as a matter of fact. Just like the Loidites, she too could travel great distances by magical means. The necklace she was wearing allowed herh to use this particular spell one time a day for situations just like this. When she stepped through the door, she'd automatically step out into the spot she'd set the receiving end a few weeks before. Upon the moment of the portal closng it'd explode with hellfire, scorching the room and blackening the walls to make it look like a suicide instead.

(As of this point it seems I'm out of the RP.)

 

[ChocolateStrawberry]

Gavin motioned for Tansen and Deston to follow him to the stables, intent on showing them a measure of trust by allowing them to pick from the royal horses for a nice afternoon out, when a guard came running up to them. The man was wide-eyed and covered in blood.

"What is it? What is going on," Gavin demanded, his fears going to his father, his sister and Honore. Did something happen to them?

"Your father," the guard gasped. "A demon! Oh, gods, the king!"

Gavin pushed past the guard and ran to his father's room. By the time he got there, he had to push past the Ritter Hex. For his own safety, they held him back, but he could see the blood splattered room. He sagged in the arms of the Ritter holding him, unable to stay up in the face of his loss.

The old king was dead. Long live the king.

 

[Temara]

A lot of things can happen in a few moments. A life can end, a monarchy can begin. While Honoré's plights was less dire, it too had happened in a manner of moments. A wrong turn, taken too quickly, with not enough attention paid to her surroundings and her horse had gone down, and her with it. The horse had recovered quickly, as it was trained to do but Honoré had taken a quick tumble, hitting her head against a tree. And when she tried to stand and walk over to the horse, she'd slipped in the same hole that had taken her horse down and twisted her own ankle.

"Gods be damned...", she muttered, lying back against the ground. She'd either be here till morning when the hunt came or at least until someone noticed her gone. If anything further had gone wrong, it was likely that the hunt would be canceled, and her disappearance not even noticed. With the way things were gone, that seemed almost a certainty and she and the horse stared at each other for a moment before the horse turned to graze. "Traitor..." she muttered, although she was happy she wouldn't have to put the horse down, she was slightly disappointed that she wouldn't get a wedding night. It was true that she'd done plenty of other things beyond mere sex, but she had enough of a girlish heart to want that as well.

"Come here, you..." she snatched at the reins, and Gavin would either be shocked or pleasantly surprised at the more rumbled countess as she fought to grab her horses reins while nursing an injured ankle. Finally, it was gone, and she looked the horse in the eye. "Go back to the castle. Find your brother." Their horses, like they, had been twins, which is why they were given to the girls, despite their value. It had been seen as a sign. An extremely fortuitous sign. Rising up on one foot, she slapped the rump of the horse and sent it off. If nothing else, it would seek out its brother, not because of orders, but because food was there. Hopefully someone would think something odd of a riderless, but decked out gelding coming back to the keep.