[Open Post: A Flower That Blooms but Once]

[mobled_queen]

There's a woman walking slowly through the gardens of the Mansion: red-haired and beautiful, even in her fifties; the sun strikes fire from the emerald necklace at her throat and the flyaway strands of her hair. There's a warmth in her eyes that invites you in, that says she could be a confidante and a friend--and, too, a shrewdness that seems to see through you as though you were a clear lake. She touches each late bloom and spray of tawny grass with careful hands.

A part of her knows that this is only a temporary visitation, more than a dream and less than a miracle. She wears a queer little pocketwatch on a chain around her neck, and it ticks down the hours until she must depart again.

Comments

[mobled_queen]

"How much time do you have?" she says wryly. "Under my late husband, Denmark suppressed Norway's rebellion; it held all of its territories and gained even more. Our coffers filled up with plunder and tribute--which is, as I'm sure you know, just plunder by another name. Now ... now, we'll have to see whether Denmark can win the peace as handily as the war. It's not guaranteed. Old Norway's son has been posturing for a second revolt for months, and my best diplomat is here, so I make do with what I've got."

[temnota]

Aleksander made a face. "I imagine there are factions who would prefer to keep fighting, never mind the costs or lack of manpower or supplies... I do not envy you your task especially without Claudius and his silver tongue to smooth things along."

[mobled_queen]

"Well, my envoys can't measure up to Claudius, but I'm sure they'll do well enough," she says. Cornelius and Voltimand are not particularly inventive or adaptable, but they're solid public servants who've done perfectly good work for decades, and she trusts them (mostly because she doesn't have much other choice). "Do you have any advice on quelling a belligerent faction? Or were you mostly throwing fuel on the fire, since the war machine keeps a general in business?"

[temnota]

That was a difficult question to answer. His own cause was best served by the others arguing with each other and thus too busy to scrutinize what he was doing with the Second Army or to think about why.

"The Tsar is not interested in my advice unless it involves positioning the Second Army to support the First. And I fear the presence of the Second Army at all is a factor against diplomacy. We share borders with Shu Han and Fjerda and both countries treat Grisha poorly. Shu Han experiments on us and Fjerda burns us for witches. Neither are willing to negotiate with a country that, for the most part, treats us like people."