3rd Sigmarzeit 2512
Early Morning
"Yes, I… Mostly try to keep busy so that I don't think about them."
But he's not talking about my family back on Earth.
My eyes light up as I look around, staring through the walls and looking for-.
Ah.
"My sister had just gotten married. My father was approaching retirement… He taught biology in college, and-" I smile faintly "-you can get some pretty odd fixations growing up with a biology teacher for a father."
"I thought that the air smelled a little less pungent around you. I take it you were lectured extensively on the danger of bad airs?"
It's been a
while since I read Genevieve Undead, but I seem to remember Karl-Franz's heir being his son. I don't specifically remember whether it was mentioned that Karl-Franz was married or not. Turns out that he
isn't, but he's in a long term relationship with a woman with whom he's had two illegitimate children. I don't really know what's going on there. I mean, she lives in the palace, no one's going to take the idea that he's still on the marriage market seriously. His actual
heir is his sister Isabella's son, Wolfgang Holswig-Abenauer.
Of course, he's hardly her only child.
"Really, the smell is more of a side-effect of the actual source of danger than a threat to health itself. I've hired a team of dwarf engineers to try and build a sewage system in my village, but it's actually quite hard that close to the sea."
Karl-Franz nods. "Townsmen here pay night soil collectors." He chuckles. "When they don't just chuck their chamber pots into the streets."
I
wince.
"You have something better in your homeland?"
"After the late Queen Victoria's husband died of typhoid fever, she sponsored some major efforts in improving sanitation across the country. The dwarfs know far more about building underground tunnels than me, but they actually hadn't considered the U-bend or the flush. Please; once my village is finished, come and have a look at it. I'm trying to turn it into a model that other places can replicate, and… If you like it, I'd be happy to re-plumb this whole palace for you."
"Hah! That's the strangest bribe anyone's ever offered me. I see what you mean about your father. But… Your parents. Did they have a marriage arranged for you? I assume that your sister is your senior."
"No, two years younger. And
no, we don't really do it like that. I mean, we
used to, but these days even amongst the peerage, young people are mostly left to organise things themselves."
"And had you?"
The distraction didn't work. Not surprising given that his niece is in the next room. No idea why he's trying to match her with.. me.
"No. Which turns out to have been a sound judgement, given that I'm here. I hate to think that I could have been forced to abandon a wife or children."
One of the things that I keep missing is the low speed of information transfer on this planet. I see newspapers and I assume that I'm on a world that has the telegraph at least. But it's not. He doesn't know that I have a lover, or that I'm… I've got some sort of understanding with Queen Khalida. Why would he? I haven't told anyone in Altdorf, or spent significant time with either anywhere where someone reporting to him could spy on them. He only knows about the beastwomen because I had to get him to sign off on the Amber College assisting me.
There has
just about been enough time for a ship to sail from Cathay with news about the diggings on the east coast of Nehekhara, so he might have confirmation about that. He had the report from High King Thorgrim Grudgebearer and multiple reports about the various daemons I've hunted down. So he knows that I'm
capable from people whose word he trusts. But I have no significant connections. Raw power is all I bring to the table, and I've made it clear that I'll bring that
anyway. The Old World road network is my second highest priority.
So.. he.. wants a threat? Bound to him by marriage? Does he not understand how little I want to rule places? If
that was what I wanted I'd have gone to the Border Princes, not stayed in a small Bretonnian village.
"Sir Paolo? Are you well?"
"Ah, sorry." I shake my head. "I was just trying to work out why your niece is in the next room." A
slight reaction from him, more curiosity than concern. "I'm not very good at this sort of thing."
He turns his head and nods at a servant, who bows and leaves the room in her direction.
"I wanted to introduce you over breakfast."
"With a view to..?"
"I have ambassadors in the courts of each of the Elector Counts. It is seldom possible to gather more than a few of us in any one place, so virtually all of our communications happen indirectly. You may be able to fly to any of our capitals when you like, but we cannot similarly contact
you. Usually my ambassadors are distant cousins, but given your significance and the lack of existing ties, I felt that someone a little closer would be more appropriate."
"So she would be your ambassador to my little village?"
"The village is incidental; I want to be certain that I can reach the man who can face Greater Daemons in the field and vanquish them."
"Alright. Actually, I was thinking that a big get-together of rulers might be a good idea. Considering that the roads will be going through the territories of multiple countries."
"I think that you make for an excellent envoy. What could be accomplished by meeting directly that could not be achieved with a sealed letter?"
"That's fine for King Thorgrim and King Louen, but… I was thinking of spreading things a little more widely. You know that I am on good terms with Queen Khalida."
"An Undead."
"That's the point. Nehekharan rulers think of the Empire as it was in Sigmar's time. They don't really understand the improvements in magic, in artifice or in industry that your people have made. Entertaining her in person could change that as well as establishing a personal rapport."
"And who else?"
"Ah…
King Erik Redaxe."
The Emperor sits up slightly. "He still lives? I heard the tale of how he traded the Duke of Marienburg to my great grandfather when I was a boy."
"He's not a young man any longer, but he still rules the land north of Kislev. Still favours the aesir over the Chaos Gods."
"He raided Ulthuan. The elves don't like you enough to forget
that."
"I'm not asking them to
like him. Just… Understand that it's in their interests to negotiate for him to unleash his reavers against the Dark Elves instead of them, or to hire them to fight orcs rather than fight them
and the orcs." I shrug. "Heck, he may not even
want to come. I didn't want to bother asking him if even
you weren't prepared to talk to him."
"If he and Boris Bokha are in the same room, one of them will not leave it alive."
"It would need to be handled delicately."
"
Delicately." He exhales. "I though you were against piracy."
"I am. But if he agrees to limit his peoples' actions in exchange for mercenary contracts, they won't be pirates any longer. If he doesn't, then he's had his chance. I could even explain the concept of shipping insurance to him."
"I think-."
The door opens, and a well-but-not-ostentatiously dressed young woman walks in, followed close behind by servants bearing trays of breakfast foods. Fruit, fresh rolls, bacon and sausages. Karl Franz stands, and I do as well.
"Sir Paolo, my niece, the lady Richilde Holswig-Abenauer."
I bow my head. "A pleasure to meet you, I'm sure."
She smiles-. I don't know. Maybe I've been spoiled between a elf and a woman with a custom-crafted face blessed by a goddess, but honestly? She looks kind of plain. Slightly short, shoulder length hair brown and straight… The only things that draws my attention is her
genuine curiosity about me.
She curtsies. "Good morning, Sir Paolo." A servant pulls out her seat and she sits, prompting the Emperor and I to do so as well. "Uncle Karl has been telling me about your plans for a road network. Tell me, how do you intend to maintain it once it is built?"
I
take a draft plan out of subspace and put it down next to my plate.
"A combination of road tolls and magic drawn from the network. In Tilea, it was the responsibility of the military to build and maintain roads, and I think…"
...Never mind, I forgot about the Ulthuan angle. Still, it's not like they have any less 'Stay off mah lawn!' energy than their arboreal cousins.
