Episode 11: Bloody Tapestry

"You must realize we all have skeletons in our closets. I acquired my first when I was eleven. He was a handsome boy, but he attempted to take unacceptable liberties, and Daddy got a little carried away and bricked him up. We had to plaster over the wall, of course. It's that one, in fact, behind the painting of great-aunt Solicitude. If you listen, you can still hear him trying to scratch his way out."

From The Memoirs of Chastity Touraine, Third Contessa of Althea

When Chastity Touraine posthumously published her memoirs during Valentin Komaru's reign, the resulting scandal rocked the Touraine. Her tales of sex, murder, and witchcraft were baldly delivered with a Sone's aplomb, and before the furor died a dozen nobles, including several members of the Royal Council, lost their titles to her revenge. One apocryphal story states that Valentin Komaru himself was so taken with her as to request that she be exhumed and brought to meet him. When asked about it, Valentin reportedly smiled broadly, and stated, "I've learned so much from Her Excellency. Do you think I could have passed up an opportunity to get to know her better?"

Not since then has the Touraine family's fury burned so fiercely.

The earliest stirrings of trouble began when the yearly convocation at the Castle of the Sea ended. As the castle's eclectic collection of guests dispersed, they spread rumors of another monster's presence within the castle. But whereas the past monsters were said to be defeated, this one was merely trapped, sealed behind plaster and stonework. The story rekindled old memories, and within a month one of the few unburned copies of Chastity's Memoirs had again made its rounds within the Royal Court. The court found it far more interesting than the stories from the east, with their interminable reports of battle after battle with the Aten. Mineko Minamet and Athel Bellatrix's reports of victories gathered barely more than a pleased yawn, so jaded had the Royal Capital become on matters of the east. Not even the rumors of Yuasa among the enemy ranks stirs the court's interest, and while many in the Royal Council wonder at it, none knew what it meant.

Although embarrassed by the resurgence of Chastity's undead spite, the Touraine quickly recovered their mood. In the south, the negotiations between the Sone and the Touraine armies seemed to promise a peaceful conclusion to the confrontation. The Sone had pulled their army back to the south, and the Touraine met no opposition in their own advance. All seemed well until the Touraine reached the banks of Miller's Creek and found an army of Sone and Bellatrix waiting.

There are those who know why the Bellatrix chose to intervene on the side of the Sone, but they keep the secrets. The move was unexpected, particularly in light of the strong ties between the Church and the Touraine family, but the Bellatrix family quickly united to support it. As the sun fell, Amber Touraine's representatives met with Crescentino Sone's envoys. Few words were exchanged, and as the sun rose, the battle began.

Records of the Battle of Miller's Creek are disjointed at best. At first, it seemed that the Touraine held a decisive advantage over their opponents as they advanced relentlessly across the field. With their superior Twilight Crux cannons, the Sone and Bellatrix were forced to retreat time and again. But as their casualties mounted, the southern army's own artillery shelled the positions of the pike defending the Touraine emplacements. As the Touraine pikemen fell, the southern army saw its opportunity and counterattacked.

The southern counterattack completely reversed the battle's momentum. What had been a measured Touraine advance collapsed in the space of five minutes. Desperately, the Touraine fought to protect their artillery, but their lines had been breached. When it seemed like their lines might finally close, the final humiliation struck: the cannons of the Touraine turned upon themselves. The Touraine army broke, and by nightfall the southern army held both the field and the mining operation it guarded.

In the days that follow their defeat, the Touraine counterattack in the political and economic arena. For days, the halls of the Royal Council echo with the shouted arguments between the Touraine and the Bellatrix, while the Sone watch, smug in their silence. The Touraine do not solely direct their vituperation at other families; by the end of summer, Onyx Touraine's hold on both his title and Royal Council seat are tenuous at best. The Church blasts the Sone leaders in general, and Crescentino Sone in particular, for dragging the nation into what draws perilously near civil war, and even relations between the Church and the Bellatrix family are strained by the confrontation. Meanwhile, through the Twilight Crux, the Touraine levy crushing economic blockades on both the Sone and the Bellatrix families. Just as both sides seem ready to escalate the confrontation into a full-scale war, Faust Yuasa's report on the Yuasa attack on the Aten army in their lands reaches the capital. For a single day, stunned silence reigns in Komaru City.

Faust's report tells of the Yuasa army's advance on the Aten positions, and their initial success in engaging their enemies. Then, in terse sentences, Faust describes the appearance of the Aten upon the battlefield and the terrible effect it had upon his forces. Battalion by battalion, Faust's letter lists the Yuasa forces that fell under the sway of Aten dominance. Briefly, he describes his attempt at a holding action and its failure. Finally, he states his decision to retreat, leaving much of the Yuasa's southeastern frontier in easterner hands.

In the season that follows, the Aten make a measured advance across the Yuasa countryside. As the easterners spread, they pause frequently to raise their temples and stoneworks. Desert spreads from these monuments, and before summer's end many once-fertile baronies become sandy wastelands. To the Yuasa peasantry, the Aten invasion is the End Times, and thousands of panicked commoners flee their lands. The Yuasa nobility are paralyzed with fear after Faust's defeat, but Faust's stubborn determination to maintain control of his family does eventually force the other leaders of the house to deal with the problem. As the Aten spread, the Yuasa manage what passes as an orderly evacuation of the threatened lands, minimizing the damage.

As the Yuasa withdraw, the whole of their bloodline reels from the blow. Dozens of Yuasa nobles seek explanations for the incomprehensible discovery. Benign historical research and occult fanaticism surge like tides through Yuasa lands. Before the summer ends, rumors of cults devoted to all manner of supernatural agencies spill out of the northern lands.

Months after the first Yuasa defeat, Alessandro Komaru raises his own army to aid the Yuasa. However, his efforts are hampered by his family's disapproval of his personal involvement and the continuing economic war between the Touraine and the southern families. When he does take the field, he succeeds in containing the Aten advance. Two months into the campaign, Alessandro recaptures two Yuasa viscounties and receives the Komaru family's formal demand that he return to the capital or lose their support. Reluctantly, he complies. In his place, Count Tohru Komaru manages to stalemate the Aten, but his efforts to continue Alessandro's counteroffensive are repeatedly balked.

Back in the Royal Capital, political turmoil dominates. Refugees from conquered Yuasa lands have flooded into Minamet, Komaru, and Touraine lands, and many nobles have been forced home to deal with the dispossessed. Appearing before the Royal Council to settle the conflict between the Sone and the Touraine, Alessandro declares his total indifference to their squabble. "Whatever your private dispute may be," he commands the two families, "you will not allow it to interfere with the war in the east. You will give the Crown its share of what you fight over, or I will take it from you and your children will regret your insubordination."

Faced with the Crown Prince's anger, the Touraine refuse to back down. In the Crown Prince's presence, the duchess Patience Touraine rises and addresses Alessandro directly, "Your Royal Majesty, you ask too much. Our children lie dead because of the Sone family's greed. We cannot simply forget that. If they will make reparations for their interference, we will assist you with the whole of our hearts."

As if acting to a cue, Kosaku Sone rises, smiles, and interrupts the venerable duchess. "Your Royal Majesty, the Sone are prepared to provide you with as much gunpowder as you desire. May I take the moment to inquire after the health of your lovely young daughter? My cousin Toyokuni has a son just about her age whom she might enjoy meeting." As if only then noticing Patience's sulfurous look, Kosaku bows to her. "Oh, did I interrupt, Your Grace? My sincerest apologies. What were you saying?"

Royal Council breakdowns occur roughly every decade, and Kosaku's interruption triggers the first in many years. He wins the first duel, killing Temperance Touraine with a thrust to the heart, but falls in the second to her cousin Ruby. Honor demands true death, and no physician nor theurgist is allowed to save either of the fallen.

When winter comes, it brings the specter of famine with it. In the south, Sone and Bellatrix grain rots in warehouses as the Touraine deny the southerners the means to export it. Meanwhile, in the north, the refugees from Yuasa lands strip bare storehouses across the breadth of the kingdom. Peasant and noble alike gird themselves for the worst winter in years.

And yet, it does not come. Throughout the land, shipments of wheat, corn, and rice appear as if by magic. The Twilight Crux report their bafflement; none claim any knowledge of the movement of such vast quantities of food. As southern food moves north, the Touraine can do little but watch their economic sanctions crumble, and much of Komaru rejoices in its wake.

At the spring equinox, the Church of Inner Light announces to the entirety of the kingdom that it has examined the rituals of the Twilight Crux for their spiritual purity, and found them to be free of taint. As such, the Church declares they will be taught to all members of the Church who desire them, bringing a new age of wisdom and empowerment to humanity.

Three days later, the Touraine formally dissolve the Twilight Crux, stating that its duties to the kingdom are now firmly in the Church's hands. While few nobles can argue with the statement, even fewer fail to notice the rapid conversion of all of the Crux's remaining holdings into Touraine possessions. Within a month, the Twilight Crux is well and truly no more.

As the Twilight Crux fades, so too does winter loosen its grip upon the land. As spring begins, armies once again gather to vie for control of the kingdom. In the west, the Touraine mobilize vast numbers of soldiers. In the east, the Minamet brace themselves again for a serpent assault. In the heart of Komaru, the Crown Prince's arguments with his own family over his participation in the Aten war threaten to turn Komaru City itself into a battleground. Finally, though, Alessandro relents, telling the Komaru that he will not personally oversee the Komaru offensive against the Aten in Yuasa lands. In return, though, he makes certain demands of his own upon his family.

And thus, as the invitees to Glorianna Touraine's castle make their way west, Alessandro Komaru himself rides with them. While he passes through Touraine lands, he too sees the signs the rest of Glorianna's guests view: the scouts in blue and green, the denuded fields, the distant gleam of artillery. The events have but one possible meaning: the Touraine armies are preparing to march upon the Castle of the Sea.

In her Memoirs, Chastity Touraine spoke of Komaru as a tangled skein of a thousand threads, and prided herself on her ability to weave it into what she desired. For three hundred pages, she gloated over the tapestry she wove, and how its threads controlled the land. With absolute confidence, she wrote that there is always one like her within the kingdom, one whose secret hand guides the world to what she wishes it to be.

In the spring of the 215th year after Paraceln's Dream, Komaru's weaver is missing, and the only trace of his passage is his blood upon the tapestry.

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