A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1729 - 1729: The Pieces - Part 7

"For a worthy cause," Asabel firmly. "I do not regret that. I say it again. My father and I had different opinions on the current governance by the High King. He was content to keep the peace. That is why we went to war – to prove our ideals. Is it not my side that won this fight, merchant? Do the Gods not raise their arms in support of justice."

The young merchant was unmoved. "I would say that your Lords raise up their arms, rather. I would say, rather, that it was strategy that befell your father, not divine intervention. It was superior Generals, and superior armies. If the Gods were so at play, it would be the supposedly wretched – as you do insist – High King that they attacked, and not your Lord father."

"Have they not attacked him, in giving him defeats?" Queen Asabel said. "What can you call the victory of Oliver Patrick over the likes of the Emerson army if not divine intervention?"

"…The prowess of a highly capable young General," the merchant said.

Asabel finally smiled. "At least, that we can agree on. If not the Gods, then, would you trust in the men that I have under me?"

"This is not a matter of trust," the merchant said.

"Ah, but it is," she said, sweeping round to look at them all as she delivered that fact. "Let us not pretend, merchants. You know what you are. You levy your supposed justice only in the pursuit of further coin. Where there is profit, you find motivation. Then we will talk of profit."

"That is a rather harsh condemnation of us," the young merchant said.

The older man spoke up in agreement with him. "We are not such men, Queen Asabel. Perhaps you might have been able to move others with these petty promises, whilst you have been going around raising kingdoms. But this is the very sort of corruption that you accuse the High King of."

"Lie to me not, gentlemen," Queen Asabel said in a fury. "I can tell how you have spoken to my Pillar of Coin here in my absence. What has the conversation been? A string of offers that you have continually shot down, in order to secure further position for myself?"

Lord Idris filled her in. "We were discussing how we might mend our relationships. What might be offered in compensation. How taxes might be lowered, and command of certain trade routes given to certain parties."

Queen Asabel rounded on them, her fury not a feigned thing. She slammed her hands down on the table in front of the older man, and she glared at him from above. "Your hypocrisy, Ser, sickens me. This might not be a matter of importance for you. You gentlemen do have it written on your faces that you shall flee toward whatever cause that you deem to have the highest chance of success. You have no risks that you are willing to take. Indeed, I am willing to engage you, in the mud pit that you men call your careers, but I will not love you for it. I will not respect you for it. And I will not dance around you, as my Pillar of Coin has. If you lie to me, you shall win no love."

The old merchant was caught off guard for a little while. He stammered in his fluster. To have the fury of the young Queen directed entirely his way was not something that he could easily fend off. He could not treat her as if she was an ordinary human being, after all.

Two men stood up together in their rage, shouting over each other.

"THAT'S SLANDER!"

"WHY WOULD WE DEAL WITH A MONARCH THAT LOOKS DOWN ON US?"

"For the same reason that you have dealt with monarchs before!" Queen Asabel said back. "For the likes of coin."

"We have no reason to stay and listen to this," the young merchant said.

"Then you will be declared enemies of the crown," Queen Asabel said firmly. "You have called me a tyrant. Perhaps I shall be just that. We are fighting a war, do you understand? If the men in this room are present only to undermine our efforts, then why would we allow you freely to consort with the enemy?"

"For the sake of the very justice that you report to be fighting for," the young merchant responded coolly. "Or are you committing the same sin of hypocrisy that you so claim to be against?"

"I have taken the crown from the hands of my family, and I have left the kingdom in ruin," Queen Asabel said back. "It needs its time to heal. It is the peasantry that I have wronged, more than you gentlemen. It is they, in the middle of this winter, that I would see assisted. And if twenty men stand to get in the way of the lives of tens of thousands of women, children and the impoverished, then I shall not treat you well. I will not imprison you. I do not claim that I shall kill you. But you will be exiled. You will not be given time to get your property together. If you are to act like citizens of a foreign nation, then you shall be treated as such."

"…And so you threaten us," the young merchant said. "If we do not obey you, you shall take our property from us."

"Is that not the very same threat that you delivered to my Pillar of Coin?" Queen Asabel said. "If we do not obey you – you would take our country from us. I would rather see the crown fall into the gutter, than see this country run by the likes of merchants. You come in here, at this table, and you attempt a coup. My father would not stand for it."

"Your father would not stand for you either," the young merchant said.

"Do you think we Pendragons to be so shallow?" Queen Asabel said. "My father and I may be at war. But we are Pendragons to the very end. We shall not allow outsiders to sully the legacy of our family. We might disagree on our cause – but we do not disagree on the lengths that you ought to go. Stand against me, and know, indeed, that you stand against the entire Pendragon family. The tyrant you claim to fight against does not exist. My father lost, and he ceded his position to me."