Chapter 6: Madness
“Why? Why haven’t we received any news yet?”
Carmilla did not like waiting, especially when she was in a situation where everything was at stake like this. What was Lucia doing? She should have returned by now, or at least, sent a messenger.
“You should have given Lucia more soldiers,” said the hooded woman who was sitting casually on the couch.
“You know that I don’t have more soldiers, Laeticia.” Carmilla barked. “I have already given her half of the household guards. The rest must stay here with me, or someone will cut my throat.”
“Oh? I thought the City Guard was with you?” Laeticia asked.
“They were, before the coup.” Carmilla sighed. “I’m not so sure now.”
Things used to be very favorable to her. She had secured the loyalty of most of the captains of the City Guard, and the ones that she couldn’t had all been locked up. Then, with the garrison of the capital firmly under her control, Carmilla mounted the coup d’état. Everything had happened according to the plan so far, so there shouldn’t be any problem.
Then madness happened.
The incident at the palace was a disaster. After the massacre of the royal family, everyone was looking at her in disgust. Her allies now all believed that she had tricked them, that she had lied to them, and they were abandoning her.
Carmilla looked at the woman on the couch, who was acting as if she was in her own house. She was drinking a glass of wine, Carmilla’s best wine, which she poured for herself without bothering to ask anyone’s permission. Her face, which she had never revealed to anyone, was hidden by the hood pulled over her eyes. Her entire character was the exact opposite of ‘trustworthiness’, and Carmilla had been always treating her accordingly. But now, that woman was the only one staying by her side.
“Anyway,” Laeticia said. “Finding someone who is hiding is not an easy task, especially if you don’t have a dedicated tracker, who I do have by the way …”
“I told you before and I am telling you again now,” Carmilla interrupted. “I don’t need your help!”
“Oh come on, Carmilla!” The woman giggled under her hood. “Why do you have to be so stubborn? If you had accepted my offer, you would have never been in this mess in the first place.”
“That is not an option!” Carmilla yelled. “This is Maven’s matter. I do not want any foreign soldiers involved.”
“You don’t want to use my queen’s soldiers,” Laeticia sneered. “But using her gold to bribe the City Guard is perfectly fine?”
Blood rushed up to Carmilla’s face, and she was about to unleash her anger, but she stopped when she heard a soft knock on the door.
“Who is there?” Carmilla demanded.
“It’s me, Mother. I want to talk.” A gentle voice raised behind the door.
“Now is not the time. Go back to your room!”
However, against her wish, the door opened and a young girl entered the lounge.
“Priscilla, you …” Carmilla frowned.
“I want to talk, Mother.” The girl said, looking straight at Carmilla’s eyes.
“I know what you want to talk about. Why did you do it? How can you commit such atrocities? Those are your questions, aren’t they? I do not have time to explain to you. It doesn’t have anything to do with you anyway. Go back to your room!”
“How can it not have anything to do with me?” Priscilla protested. “I am your daughter!”
“She is not wrong, Carmilla.” Laeticia said. “Your house rises and falls with you, and do I need to remind you that you have just committed high treason? If your rebellion fails, you will not the only person whose head will roll.”
“I …” Carmilla couldn’t argue with that. She sighed, “… but I don’t know how to begin.”
“Let’s start by introducing me to your daughter,” the hooded woman grinned, turning to Priscilla. “Young lady, my name is Laeticia. I am, well, you can say that I am a spy. My queen, Valeria of Baern, sent me here to assist your mother in her, well, project.”
“Mother …” Priscilla was aghast. “You helped a queen of a different country to murder your own?”
“No no no, young lady,” Laeticia laughed. “You have got two things wrong. First, it is not ‘she helps us’. We help her. The plan is hers and hers alone. She is not a lackey who does everything we dictate. In fact, she ignored every advice I gave her, which is exactly the reason why we are in this mess now by the way.”
Carmilla frowned. She wanted to argue, but couldn’t.
“Second,” Laeticia continued. “It may be very hard for you to believe now, but your mother never intended to kill anyone.”
“What?”
“I only wanted to force the Queen to abdicate,” Carmilla said. “I didn’t want to kill her.”
“Then why?”
“Because your mother is an idiot.” Laeticia giggled, ignoring the glare Carmilla threw at her. “Intrigue is obviously not her strong suit, so she should have let professionals like me handle the matter. But no, she didn’t want foreign involvement, and she wanted to put the person she trusted the most in charge of the soldiers. Who? Your sister Lucia, of course. And then, Lucia, the greatest knight of Maven, marched triumphantly to the royal palace …”
“What happened next?” Priscilla asked, not bothered by the Laeticia’s mocking tone.
“Well, people tend to be not very happy when a group of armed women barged into her house, and the Queen and the First Princess were even more unhappy than any normal person. Katherine was not mentally stable recently, while Helena was always prideful and headstrong. On the other hand, we had Lucia. Well, let’s just say that she is not the best person to handle delicate matters.” Laeticia shrugged. “It’s hard to say who was the one who ignited it, but basically the situation was escalated to the point that everyone started hacking and stabbing at each other, and it only ended after one side was completely slaughtered.”
“Madness!” Carmilla uttered, holding her head.
“Why? Why do you want to make the queen abdicate in the first place, Mother?” Priscilla asked.
“The Gothorian War.” Laeticia answered instead. “You know about it, right?”
Priscilla nodded.
“Of course you do.” Laeticia giggled. “Even a sheltered young lady like you must have known about the most disastrous event in the history of Maven, especially if such event just happened two years ago.”
The Gothorian War. Carmilla was dreaded whenever she had to remember about it. Hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered or enslaved, a large portion of Maven’s northern territory was lost forever, and the person who was responsible for all of those was no one but the Queen.
Queen Katherine the Pious. She was not a bad queen actually. In fact, historians could have remembered her as one of the better monarchs of Maven if the war had never happened. But she had one deadly fault: She was zealous. Very zealous. Much more zealous than the maniacs who were running Velen right now.
The Queen hated the False Goddess in the north with a burning passion, and a crusade against the Gothorian Empire had always been in her mind. From time to time, she kept bringing up that idea to her fellow rulers in the Alliance. No one liked it though. Not the Queen of Baern. Not the Elidorian Council. Not even the Grand Inquisitor of Velen. When Queen Katherine realized that none of her allies was willing to join her crusade, she should have given up, but no, she decided to start the holy war all by herself.
Madness.
Thirty thousand women of Maven fought against the two-hundred-thousand strong army of the Empire. The result was predictable. The Army of Maven was completely overrun. If Baern had not intervened, Maven would have had ceased to exist.
“But if the war is the reason, why didn’t you rebel two years ago?” Priscilla asked. “Maven is peaceful now. So why?”
“Yes, it has been peaceful for the last two years.” Laeticia said. “After the war, the Queen became ill so she delegated everything to the First Princess. With Baern’s help, Maven was rebuilt. Everything seemed to be fine. But …”
“But?”
“The First Princess was, well, while she was not as zealous as her mother, she was very nationalistic. She considered the defeat against the Empire the greatest humiliation and vowed revenge. Many times she openly talked about why we must retake our lost territory, and it appeared that the military faction led by General Cornelia supported her decision.”
“I was against it, of course.” Carmilla said. “So I and Cornelia clashed many times at court. But she was winning. After all, the Princess was on her side. Recently they presented a proposal to reform the army …”
“They wanted to build a standing army, following Baern’s model.” Laeticia laughed. “I’m sorry but to be blunted, Maven’s economy is in no way comparable to my country’s.”
“There is no way we can’t afford it! The Princess had to borrow a large sum of money from the Elidorian to create her experimental regiment. So I protested, but my voice fell on deaf ears. And then, I heard that the Princess intended to dismiss me from my position …” Carmilla sighed, closing her eyes. “That was when I decided that I had to act.”
“Now, young lady, let me tell you our original plan, about what should have happened if Lucia hadn’t massacre everyone at the palace.” Laeticia said. “As I told you, the coup was supposed to be bloodless. Our plan was to seize the royal family, then exile the Queen and the First Princess to a remote castle. They would not be allowed to leave and they would always be watched, but they would live comfortably for the rest of their lives. Then we would install the docile Second Princess, Anastasia, to the throne. She would be a mere figurehead, just like the Queen of Velen, while your mother ran the government.”
“So the reason why you are finding Princess Anastasia now is …” Priscilla asked.
“No!” Laeticia shook her head. “That could work if her mother and sister were still alive, and held hostages, but it’s too late for that now. Your mother has started this mess, intentionally or not, now she must finish it.”
“There is … no other way?”
“What other way? Your mother tells the princess: Oops! I have murdered your family by mistake. Then she forgives her and everyone lives happily together. Sunshine and rainbow everywhere?” Laeticia laughed. “That’s not going to happen. Anastasia holds a grudge against your mother, rightfully so. She wants to kill your mother, she wants to kill your sister and she wants to kill you. She will rally people like General Cornelia and together they will march their army here. Another bloodbath is bound to happen.”
“I have nothing against the girl personally,” Carmilla said. “But she must die. Or this madness will never end.”
