(no subject)
Just a little Dalemark fic thing I started working on tonight. No clue where I'm going with this, so I don't know if it's going to be a oneshot or multi-chapter or what. I just want Hildy to meet with Mitt. And I want to write something with Mitt and Biffa.
Obviously has spoilers for The Crown of Dalemark.
When news reaches Gardale that a claimant has seized the crown, it is two months past Harvest. The school erupts in a wildfire of gossip, students swapping stories with faculty swapping stories with lackeys swapping stories with students, about the rising King's history, his real identity, his exploits, which earls are with him, which lords are against him, and, amongst the girls, how terribly handsome they hear he is. Hildy sniffs and scoffs at the silly girls so very like her cousins, who dream up fantasies about the King meeting one of them and falling desperately in love. Biffa listens to everything and weighs it for the most likely truth, but comes up with very little she can trust as fact, though she does notice how Brid Clennensdaughter looks rather more stiff and worried than her normal buoyant self.
Three weeks later, a trickle of people make their way through Gardale, fleeing from the earl's manor. The sky behind them is slightly orangey and hazy, and if the residents of Gardale would have quieted their outburst of panicked frenzy enough to notice, they would have heard the pops spurts of musket-fire more uncommon but no less distinct in the North.
At the Lawschool, business proceeds as usual. Nothing can shake that bastion of tradition, not even the Head and Deputy Head getting summons to the earl's manor for some kind of proceedings. They return, lips tightly mum in spite of all prying.
Tension and excitement run high in Gardale for the next few days as the townspeople and the schoolspeople await news from the earl's manor. It comes six days later in the form of a Southern man on a grand horse, who brings with him a small squad--fifteen or so men--in a motley assortment of liveries and Southern and Northern armor. They make a very strange sight.
The company stops first in market square, then makes its way to the Lawschool. At both stops, the Southern man reads a Royal Proclamation aloud to the assembled crowds. By the time he reaches the Lawschool, word has already reached ahead of his arrival, and the students, teachers, and miscellaneous persons are crowded in the forecourt, waiting to hear him. When he rides through the gate, the usual giggly girls whisper to themselves how very handsome he is, and giggle quite typically a great deal. They wonder if he might be the King. Biffa thinks not. The only thing keeping Hildy from exclaiming is the grown-up maturity she has cultivated.
The man clears his throat and, in a voice expertly pitched to carry without sounding loud, unfolds a document of some sort and begins to recite its contents rather than read them:
"Amil, descendent of the Undying, has claimed right to the crown and by doing so has sworn himself to the land of Dalemark. By right of blood and throne, and by the will of the One, it is his authority by which all people must now abide. In return, it is the King's honor and duty to serve those same people with mutual loyalty by providing the justice to which they are bound..
The Earl of Gardale does heretofore refuse to submit to the authority of the Crown, and is to be stripped of his Dalemark citizenship and leave the Kingdom by boat. A regent will be appointed by the Crown to steward the mark of Gardale until a new earl can be appointed.
Witnessed on this Day the Fourteenth of September by the Undersigned,
General Navis Haddsson
Alk Alkensson, Earl Consort of Aberath
Dastgandlen Handagner Clennensson, Earl of the South Dales
Keril Kennensson, Earl of Hannart
Kadsri Fennersson, Master Lawman
Blithen Andacksson, Master Lawman
Mavith Korithsdaughter, Master Lawwoman"
........Aaaaaand then I sort of just couldn't feel how to pick up the thread after that. Thanks for helping me with the royal proclamation, Haku!
Obviously has spoilers for The Crown of Dalemark.
When news reaches Gardale that a claimant has seized the crown, it is two months past Harvest. The school erupts in a wildfire of gossip, students swapping stories with faculty swapping stories with lackeys swapping stories with students, about the rising King's history, his real identity, his exploits, which earls are with him, which lords are against him, and, amongst the girls, how terribly handsome they hear he is. Hildy sniffs and scoffs at the silly girls so very like her cousins, who dream up fantasies about the King meeting one of them and falling desperately in love. Biffa listens to everything and weighs it for the most likely truth, but comes up with very little she can trust as fact, though she does notice how Brid Clennensdaughter looks rather more stiff and worried than her normal buoyant self.
Three weeks later, a trickle of people make their way through Gardale, fleeing from the earl's manor. The sky behind them is slightly orangey and hazy, and if the residents of Gardale would have quieted their outburst of panicked frenzy enough to notice, they would have heard the pops spurts of musket-fire more uncommon but no less distinct in the North.
At the Lawschool, business proceeds as usual. Nothing can shake that bastion of tradition, not even the Head and Deputy Head getting summons to the earl's manor for some kind of proceedings. They return, lips tightly mum in spite of all prying.
Tension and excitement run high in Gardale for the next few days as the townspeople and the schoolspeople await news from the earl's manor. It comes six days later in the form of a Southern man on a grand horse, who brings with him a small squad--fifteen or so men--in a motley assortment of liveries and Southern and Northern armor. They make a very strange sight.
The company stops first in market square, then makes its way to the Lawschool. At both stops, the Southern man reads a Royal Proclamation aloud to the assembled crowds. By the time he reaches the Lawschool, word has already reached ahead of his arrival, and the students, teachers, and miscellaneous persons are crowded in the forecourt, waiting to hear him. When he rides through the gate, the usual giggly girls whisper to themselves how very handsome he is, and giggle quite typically a great deal. They wonder if he might be the King. Biffa thinks not. The only thing keeping Hildy from exclaiming is the grown-up maturity she has cultivated.
The man clears his throat and, in a voice expertly pitched to carry without sounding loud, unfolds a document of some sort and begins to recite its contents rather than read them:
"Amil, descendent of the Undying, has claimed right to the crown and by doing so has sworn himself to the land of Dalemark. By right of blood and throne, and by the will of the One, it is his authority by which all people must now abide. In return, it is the King's honor and duty to serve those same people with mutual loyalty by providing the justice to which they are bound..
The Earl of Gardale does heretofore refuse to submit to the authority of the Crown, and is to be stripped of his Dalemark citizenship and leave the Kingdom by boat. A regent will be appointed by the Crown to steward the mark of Gardale until a new earl can be appointed.
Witnessed on this Day the Fourteenth of September by the Undersigned,
General Navis Haddsson
Alk Alkensson, Earl Consort of Aberath
Dastgandlen Handagner Clennensson, Earl of the South Dales
Keril Kennensson, Earl of Hannart
Kadsri Fennersson, Master Lawman
Blithen Andacksson, Master Lawman
Mavith Korithsdaughter, Master Lawwoman"
........Aaaaaand then I sort of just couldn't feel how to pick up the thread after that. Thanks for helping me with the royal proclamation, Haku!