The Secret Daughter

A few days later, I received a letter from one of the neighboring lords. I did not wish to open the letter since it did not come from my lover, but I suspected that there was vital information in this letter.

“To Lord Baron Rytus Paraxus, the Baron of Lythan,

I write back to correspond with your request for the increase of Thraliga to Lythan.

I am to inform you that there will be no increase in trade. Your friendly behavior with the commonfolk is obscene and unbefitting of true nobility. I have supported your father as much as I could due to his title as the Marshal Commander during the war. However, I am not obligated to help you. You are worthless compared to your father. It is a shame that he has passed the Barony to you, and not any other lord worth his salt. There are rumors that you murdered your wife and your unborn. Was it not enough that your loving father and mother died under your care? Perhaps you can join the peasantry once the usurper takes your land away from you. The great Paraxus lineage has ended with you.

Do not send a letter back to me ever again. Doing so will be an act of war with my county and its allies.

On behalf of Count Lucius Luvas.”

That fucking bastard. I saw the Royal Crest on the envelope, but I did not expect this. Had I not been a level-headed ruler, this insult and threat would have resulted in Lucius’ head on a pike in the center of town. This weak-willed scoundrel was someone that I never enjoyed the company of when he frequently visited the keep to meet with my father.

His son, Britis, was forced upon me to “play as boys”, which resulted in several injuries to both of us through the years. I never understood why my father would continue his communication with him as a child, but I finally saw that his lands held among the densest forests of the land, yielding the highest concentration of Thraliga. The embarrassment of having to bow and plead to him to help my people was all too painful, but it was all in vain.

Sevrus Aeralus, my steward, was the son of the famed Veralus Aeralus, the Black Knight of Boremi. Towards the end of the Perseus War, Veralus lost against my father after a duel on the western border of Regalius, and died from internal injuries. Sevrus was just a child when my father adopted him after learning that he had no one to care for him. He was a bit older than I was, but much more mature and much more intelligent in many ways. Sevrus served my father as his page, and then as his steward shortly after he had turned 20 years old. We grew up like brothers, but we had become closer after my parents had passed. We shared the same political opinions, but he was much more devious than I was when it came to intrigue and secrets, where he would jest about my “saint-like” behavior and “princess-like” demeanor.

Instead of obliging to this putrid example of a human being that is Lucius, Sevrus had another suggestion for me. I formed a small hunting and gathering party and marched them to the edge of his forest. My party, comprised of a few talented commonfolk hunters and a few from General Phylx’s guard, and Sevrus himself, entered the forest and eviscerated the dire wolves, the ogres, the giant snake, and the rabid minotaurs with ease. We took the bodies into the town for processing, and with another party tasked to locate and secure the plants, we plundered Lucius’ forest right under his nose. This moron did not command any patrols around his border by the forests, relying on monsters and bandits to secure his land for him. I carefully calculated the amount of Thraliga I was able to harvest in one week, and it seemed like I would be able to collect a year’s worth if I did not use it to trade, but to supply the commonfolk and the soldiers free of charge. I had hoped the walnut-brained gremlin of a son Britis found out soon enough and attempted an invasion so I could have a chance to kill these morons myself. However, my people were much higher in priority than petty squabbles like these imbeciles.

After securing the last of the Thraliga to the town center, I received a letter from my unknown beloved. I was able to express my adolescent joy privately in my chambers.

“My Most Noble Knight to the Kingdom of my Heart,

Your involvement for the betterment of your neighbors and other commonfolk has caused my heart to beat faster than a horse’s gallop. If you were nobility, you would be just as respected as your lord, despite the high-birth.

In response to the rumor of a civil war, I am surprised you are aware of such information. It must have slipped in one of your tavern nights. In my current situation, it is not just my mother that suffers from this illness, but many of my friends and other family members across the land are suffering through these times as well. Aside from hunting and gathering, I have prepared a solution that I cannot share the details with you, in case our letters fall into the wrong hands. I truly believe that the commonfolk will be free again, and I will make sure that life will finally bring smiles to everyone in this kingdom.

I have a story to share:

During the turning point of the Perseus War, when a kingdom fell by the hands of a ruthless alliance, the king and queen of the kingdom stowed their daughter through an escaping caravan to an allied kingdom. The daughter, only 10 years old, was given an ancient royal crest, and a sealed letter. She was told to give the sealed letter to the king and to show him the royal crest. She was to not open the letter until the king received it. By the time the king was able to guide the caravan to his keep, she had disappeared, with just the opened letter in a wagon. The daughter was nowhere to be found, despite the entirety of the king’s royal guard searching every building of the kingdom.

Many years after the end of the war, the king passed on, leaving his kingdom to his unmarried son. The new king suddenly received a letter, claiming that the secret daughter of the fallen kingdom had asked him for his hand in marriage. He agreed to the arrangement, as he was curious about the legitimacy of the claim. However, he fell in love with her after meeting with her. Before they were married, some nobles learned of the seemingly illegal betrothal. They sent many assassins to kill both the King and the daughter, but of no avail.

After a year, the secret daughter delivered a daughter of her own, but died from the Great Scourge. The king was distraught, and soon died from madness. By the time the new King Theatus III had taken the throne, all records of the secret betrothal were mysteriously lost. Some claim that the secret daughter was the only person to know the contents of the letter, and the royal crest was lost and forgotten. The royal crest was rumored to be the Imperial Crest, the last claim of the Five Kingdoms, which would restore the Imperium and usher the Tenth Era Imperium.

I had thought of this story when I read yours. It was obvious that the old king was trying to capture and kill the daughter for the Imperial Crest. She fought for so long in secret against a government that attempted to deny her right to live. A girl that was so young, and was thrown into the political schemes of someone her parents trusted… the cruelty of the nobility knows no bounds. I am sure that your fellow tavern keeper saw the schemes and walked away from them. I respect him.

I want you to know that your anger and frustrations are welcome to my ears. I want to take as much weight off of your shoulders for you. I want to carry the weight you carry, because the weight of the world is for everyone to carry. I love you too much to let you suffer from your responsibilities alone. Let me be your comfort when the world cannot offer the same.

Please write back as soon as you can. My heart cannot wait any longer for your love…

Your Beloved”

This story that she shared was eerily familiar to a story I have heard myself. It was the Kingdom of Yurga that fell during the Perseus War. The old King and his son, Maxus I and Maxus II, were the former kings of Regalius. The alliance was the Independence Alliance, comprised of the Kingdoms of Arkan, Courdland, and Bornari, which invaded Yurga to pursue and destroy the Rite of the Imperium, belonging to former Emperor Perseus. When Regalius lost the war while defending Yurga from the invasion, our nobles lost the Rite of the Imperium. With the loss of the Rite, the story of the Secret Daughter and the Imperial Crest was lost to the public and only for the nobility to hear. How did she know about the Secret Daughter, then? Who was she? Did she have any connection to the conspiracy itself?

As much as I wanted to know who she was, I wanted so much for her to know who I was. I wanted her to know that I would give my life for her, and that she would be protected by me at all times. I wanted her in my arms as soon as I could. I felt like I could die without her presence here.

I spent a few days in my chambers writing and rewriting a response letter to her. Each iteration swung back and forth like a moral pendulum: whether I should reveal myself, or whether I should continue my lie. I decided to pick a letter randomly. I was afraid of the consequences, but I would regret my decision to continue to lie to her. There was too much at stake in my heart to hesitate.

I finished sealing my letter with my family crest, which was part of my truth to her. It was not until I was in the process of delivering the letter, when I noticed that her messenger bird was gone. My heart dropped to Underearth. How was I to reply to her? I could not simply pass it to my own bird, since it had never been to her location before. In fact, this entire love affair had been only due to The Great Oddity and its effects on all messenger birds. My mind was spinning like a water wheel on a raging river.

What should I do?

After waiting another week, I received a letter, but from the king’s deputy. I had never felt as much disappointment in my life as this moment.

“To Lord Baron Rytus Paraxus, Baron of Lythan,

The royal court has determined that the realm is under attack from within. A usurping lord has declared war on the kingdom to dethrone our great King Theatus III. The royal court will supply our own army to fight these dissidents, along with several counts nearby. For now, the enemy will not reach your lands with our might. However, if they proved themselves a powerful foe, we will ask to levy your army to aid us in combat. We will send a messenger rider for the official request.

Mori pro corona, mori pro terra, mori pro honore!

Deputy Chrysum Matus, on behalf of King Theatus III, the rightful King.”

It seemed like the rumors of a looming usurper war were true. Thankfully, my land was fully prepared for this potential disaster. It seemed that the usurpers were targeting messenger birds, since the deputy would send for messenger riders instead. This made sense with the lack of a messenger bird to return the letter to my love. Even though I did not notice before, the bird might have been injured before reaching my chambers, and it flew away quickly to avoid more human trouble.

Though I was mourning the death of the only communication method to my beloved, I had even more pressing matters to attend to. My realm needed my attention, and if I were to be called into battle, I would not be able to defend it myself.

There were no letters from the sky to save me from this turbulent time.