[RPG] [FEI] Part 3: The Trial (con't)

[Samuel Knowlton]

Fredrick motions behind them as they walk down the road. Indeed two caravans 
follow them at a distance, trying not to be seen until they are pointed out.

"I have only two caravans, my Lord, but they are there none the less. They 
are fully loaded and I'm looking for somehwere to offload them, perhaps 
Nighthelm, but my cousin and I do no always get along... I carry what 
weapons I need to defend myself, two identical blades, they're not just for 
show.... During my travels I've learned much in the way of swordplay. Do 
feel free to investigate, My Lord, but you can see my caravans are fully 
loaded.

So what has this priestess of the CR done? I've heard many interesting 
things about that guild and religion.."

---
"I noticce," Galiard observes, "that you did not exactly answer the 
question, so I shall be blunt: are you what some men call an infiltrator, or 
are you a trader? The truth will likely not affect my judgment, for Lasanar 
employs both, and indeed it not even need be a matter of record. I simply 
wish to determine if you are being honest. And, of course, if you intend to 
stab me." Galiard scratches his chin. "I always like to know that a little 
in advance."

"As for the Chaos Requiem." Galiard snorts. "Their priestess, Setuska, has 
been banned from Soliferum, from Arcea, from Ethiala, and from Svunnetland. 
She stumbled upon Lasanar, pretty much as the last place that wasn't already 
a home to a religion that would kill her on sight. We discussed her with 
Ethiala, and it was determined that their religion is founded on the worship 
of three demons -- the lords of Terror, Destruction, and Hatred. One of 
their principle tenets is to bring down all those in authority, and I quote 
Setuska here, 'with an iron fist.' Lasanar has no official policy on 
religion, but any belief system that requires sedition is a grave threat to 
our Republic. Some in Lasanar wanted me to put her on trial -- even though 
Ethiala had just done so -- and hear in full detail about the Chaos Requiem. 
But it would have been a show, a farce. My peers on the council know me to 
be a spirited debater and would have enjoyed, no doubt, watching the legal 
skewering I'd have given Setuska. So we gave her a choice: remain in Lasanar 
and renounce the Chaos Requiem, or depart. She chose neither, and I ordered 
her exiled."

Galiard paused.

"That reminds me," he observes. "I recently heard from your cousin, as I was 
writing to him to get to Sarig. He is looking for you, and more than a 
little concerned that you had 'fallen in with the wrong crowd,' if I 
remember his words exactly. He wanted me to tell him where you were. I have 
as yet not done so. I wonder, my lord, what would happen if I did? Have you, 
in fact, fallen in with the wrong crowd?"
---

Fredrick's eyes narrow as Galiard finishes. His expression drops most 
emotion except a hardness that could only have been learned through 
hardship, not practice. He looks at Galiard a long while before turning away 
to look at something in the distance, for what reason Galiard is not sure.

"If I wanted to stab you, dear Lord, you would not have known I was here and 
your guards would probably be carrying you to a funeral pyre..." He turns 
back, his eyes searching for something in Galiards before he speaks again. 
"I do what I must for my people. Do you want to hear that I carry wagons and 
trade food to support my long excurions to scout? Do you wish to know that I 
stalk people's steps without their knowing, waiting for the word to remove 
them or that I eliminate entire units of guards while they think they are 
safe in their keeps? I do the job that few have the courage to do and it is 
a lonely path. If you need a direct answer, then yes, that is what I do."

The next words almsot seem as though their forced, a topic the man obviously 
does not want to discuss. "As for my cousin, his concern matters little to 
me. He wishes to force upon me what he thinks is right and what he believes 
I should do with my life. A few too many years as High Marshal and then as 
King I think. He and I do not see eye-to-eye and he doesn't approve of my 
career choice, as a matter of speaking. If the "wrong crowd" you mean those 
who would enter your chamber in the middle of the night to relieve a realm 
of a plague, then yes, otherwise I do not know of what you speak. Should he 
find out where I was, that would become your problem, not mine. I can 
disappear more quickly than he can come running from his high horse. Or is 
there something else you're after?"
---

The sudden pallor in the air has a much greater effect on Galiard's 
bodyguards than it does on Galiard, who laughs.

"Good my lord," smiled the Duke, arresting his chief lieutenant's stride 
into the mdst of the two man with one hand while clasping Fredrick's 
shoulder with the other. "What is it you think I would do with this 
information? Condemn you for your lack of chivalry? Call you dishonest, 
because you pretend to be a trader while every trader that enters Lasanar is 
carefully documented, while we barely knew you were here until you were 
scant miles away from my own column? Listen."

Galiard turned to the lieutenant, who was glowering something fierce at 
Fredrick. "Ser," interrupted Galiard: "Fredrick Stormreaver, this is my 
chief lieutenant, my second-in-command, my comrade-in-arms, Ser Ulwitt Dodd. 
He performs many services for me: he leads some of my men into battle when I 
require it, he sits at home in the Castle while I am away, and he even makes 
a pretty mean corned beef sandwich. But for his many talents, he is a simple 
man, lowborn. He is as grateful to serve as I am to have his service, but he 
can never rise above his station -- nor would he even want to. As such his 
honesty is impassable. He is purely and utterly incapable of sycophancy. So 
tell me, Ser Dodd," asked Galiard, turning an inquisitive, sparkling eye on 
the burly lieutenant.

"If you could sneak into mine enemies tents at night unseen and cut their 
throats, would you do it, good Ser?"

Dodd did not even have to think. "Aye, m'lud," he grunted.

"If you could have dispatched Colasan's militia while it was under the 
influence of the traitor Duchess Menelmereth, but not in honorable combat --  
simply through guile and murder. Would you have done so, for the greater 
good?"

"Aye, m'lud," just as quickly.

"And if you could, speaking purely hypothetically, venture south to our own 
land of Lemanaziel and steal from the Commonwealth the income that doth 
legally belong to Lasanar, would you, if I asked it of you?"

"Aye, m'lud," agreed Dodd, who now had a strange sort of smile, like a boy 
on his birthday, wondering if perhaps the Duke is going to give him some 
present that will enable him to do all of these things he might otherwise 
only have imagined after being deep in his cups.

"And so you see, Ser Fredrick," explaiend Galiard, "We have in Ser Dodd the 
perfect instrument of governance. Of course, to actually have him do any of 
these things would be near-unspeakable here in Lasanar; we of course cannot 
condone asassination, looting, robbery, et cetera, but I am sure it happens. 
It is men such as you who know the price of ruling a State, and men such as 
me that go to our beds every night thanking the Gods that men such as you 
exist -- and praying, while we have their attention, that we have more of 
them than our enemies. The only question that now remains is whether or not 
one can be engaged in deceit and duplicity on a professional scale but still 
remain an honest man."

Galiard paused in his gait, unbuckled his sword, and handed it to Ser Dodd, 
whom he dismissed with his other bodyguards with a curt a wave.

"Fredrick Stormreaver," intoned the Grand Justiciar, "I am Galiard Scarlett, 
heir to the noble House of Scarlett; fifth Duke of Ossaet by the grace of 
His Excellency, Minister Aethius Kain, and Grand Justiciar of Lasanar, the 
chosen of its Sovereign people. I stand before you a defenseless man."

Galiard tore the top of his lapel, exposing his neck.

"Swear in my presence, before the High Court of Lasanar as duly represented 
by myself, that you shall never, for so long as you live, harm Lasanar as 
you understand it and love it; that you shall never betray its people, its 
founding ideals, nor the honorable men whoseover carry out its offices. 
Swear to me you shall never be an enemy of this great Republic."

"Do this," said the Duke, quietly, "or else run me through, and claim 
victory for whatever petty faction would have me for a fool and go to such 
great lengths to have you pardoned. Do this now and no vengeance shall be 
exacted on you by my house. Do this now, but do not betray Lasanar later. 
Let me never hear of you practicing your art within our borders or against 
our people; if you would slay a Lasanarian, slay me, but if ever I catch you 
spitting on my mercy, on my pardon, then so help me, by all the Gods I shall 
rend you two Fredricks down the middle, and keep both of them alive long 
enough to know they have paid the price for crossing Galiard Scarlett!"