Camp of the True Queen, Outside of Yllestad, Tuesday Morning (Fandom Time)

[glacial_queen]

It had taken the army longer than expected to set out to Yllestad; Karla had been surprised (and touched) to hear that the camp had wanted to spend an extra day properly mourning the dead. Not just their own dead, but the landens that had fought and died, their will stripped away and replaced by something much darker. And once the impromptu service was over, every single individual there had lined up to repeat their vows of fealty to her.

No matter what else they had seen in their lives, this incident had been so much worse. It united them together, shored up any faltering hearts, and made them truly understand the kind of ruler Hobart was. Warren had watched the display with a thoughtful expression on his face, but had not shared his thoughts with her.

The march towards Yllestad was somber, but not grim. The losses lay heavy over them and the horrors that they'd seen lurked close, but there was a lightness, too. As if the ceremony to say goodbye had lifted their spirits some. Or, maybe it was the extra rations of good red wine that they were given at every stop on the way.

Upon seeing Yllestad, Karla and her First Circle agreed that it was better to make camp outside the walls than quarter her army within them. They'd all be able to fit, but they'd be spread out over the city in various hotels, lodges, and boardinghouses. Better to keep them all together--and made for better discipline--than imposing on the civilians.

Her tent was set up first, as it always was (she'd stopped arguing about that once the weather turned cold) and she was happy to slide off her horse and enter her tent, the brazier already glowing and a light snack set out. Rather than partake, Karla decided to take some time off from being 'the Queen' and enjoy being 'Karla' for a little bit.

Pulling out her phone, she sent a mass text to her contact list, borrowing from Momoko's weird texts from the night before.



Apparently, this is what my subjects get up to in their spare time. Why did I think this Queening thing was a good idea again?

[NFB. Open! If you think you'd get it (or even want to assume it's a wrong number!) you did! Posted early for other timezones, will pick up pings when I wake up.]

Comments

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

There had been some wrestling over the phone. Well. More like "hot potato" between Dinah and Momoko, low-key but grim. Then Ulrich had volunteered. Samantha finally stepped in and grabbed it away from both of them.

Fortunately the first random button she pushed was the one for Karla's Speed-Dial. (Since it was at #1 at the moment.)

It chirped suddenly at that, and Samantha tossed it in the air, wanting to get rid of it.

Dinah caught it, and sighed. This was ... going to be hard.

[glacial_queen]

"Dinah." No overjoyed excitement at hearing from her friend--Karla was feeling better, not joyous--but there was at least the sound of a smile on her face. "Calling to tell me that you've come up with a better name finally?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"No," Dinah tried to return the smile she heard in Karla's voice, but couldn't quite manage it. She gave up, and said, "This is an official report to the Queen of Glacia from two of the Lady's emissaries to the southern provinces."

[glacial_queen]

"I see."

Oh. Oh shit. If Dinah was pulling Protocol, this was important.

She found herself sitting up straighter, throwing her shoulders back as the mantle of the Queen fell over again. An irrational bout of nerves made her want to giggle and respond with something silly like, 'Go for Queen.' Something to make Dinah's voice stop sounding so ominous.

"Should we switch to video, Canary?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I think that would be best, Queen Karla." Dinah flipped the phone over to that, and held it so all of the Commandos could be seen, Momoko nearest after Dinah. "We've just completed assisting a local posse in tracking down four young women who were abducted over the last two days, at the request of their families."

[heromaniac]

"Lady." Momoko gave a slight nod and picked up the narrative, her voice very disconnected and formal. "Initial investigations allowed us to determine that the abductions were not involved in the northern massacre, but were instead were being conducted by local Blood males. The males, ten in total, were members of a club that have been abducting females in the area for a number of months.

She took a shaky breath, then continued. "The women were of varying ages, both Blood and Landen. From what we have uncovered, after the men finished their 'games' with them, the women were killed and placed in various locations. Usually in places that disrespected the person."

"After further investigation, we narrowed the search area and contacted Raven for back-up and assistance. We found and rescued four young women... One of whom was already dead when we arrived on the scene."

[glacial_queen]

There was a moment when the scene of their video had changed, showing them the roof of her tent. Just hearing about the abductions had been enough to make Karla drop her phone in shock. By the time she picked it up again, her face was pale, save for two bright red spots in her cheeks.

"Was it possible to liaise with local authorities?" she asked. "Or were they...compromised?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Their families were unsure," Dinah said, her voice flat. "Because no previous action had been noticed, when the parties in question were verbally abusive, and given to harassment in public." She took a breath, looking around their group, and reaching for Samantha's hand to squeeze. Sam was pale and still as marble. "So. After a house-to-house search, Denys, Mark, and Kirt, found the perpetrators in one of the manor houses on the north side of town. Denys contacted us immediately." She swallowed. "Then proceeded to the second story of the building to attempt to rescue them without back-up."

"In the course of apprehending the kidnappers..." Dinah grit her teeth. "Denys was hit by friendly-fire from one of the victims, and killed." Her hand tightened on the phone. "He became demon-dead for slightly under half an hour. Enough time to see..." Her voice cracked.

It didn't help that Kirt had his head in his hands, shoulders shaking with tears now.

"...that the surviving girls were safe."

[glacial_queen]

Karla closed her eyes and swallowed hard. Several times. "I am sorry for his loss," she said softly. "And I will require information about his family so we can...contact them and let them know of his passing."

She inhaled a long shaky breath, and then dropped her Queenly reserve for a minute. "Tell me you got those gutter sons of bitches," she hissed. "You got those girls safe, now tell me those bastards are somewhere where they can't hurt anyone else!"

[heromaniac]

It was just her training and the formality the situation required that kept Momoko from breaking down.

"Of the ten club members, nine survived the fight to rescue the girls. All fought against our removal of the girls, with craft, and those subdued and handed over to the district queen this morning along with a full report."

And now Momoko looked a little chagrined. "Of note. The village queen wasn't very happy that we didn't make a court appearance to announce our presence before acting in her domain, Lady; she seems a little pre-occupied with Protocol and status, which may explain the lack of previous official investigations into the abductions. Our information seems to indicate that the 'club' started with Landen girls."

"She has made a protest to the district queen."

[glacial_queen]

"Let her fucking protest," Karla snarled. "Let them even try to hide behind Protocol. If the District Queen has any balls at all, that bitch will end up with more than just her Court broken--" She cut herself off, seeing some of the wide eyes on the other end of the phone. Now was not the time to lose her temper.

"You all did right." She told them, stressing it as hard as she could. "Do you hear me? You did the right thing. You defended and protected and if the palsy bitch--" Twitch. "--if the reigning Queen can't understand that, then that's her problem, not yours. I am so very, very proud of all of you and so sorry that you had to see this, to deal with this." Tears welled up and she blinked them back. "There isn't a group I would have trusted more. I know Momoko and Dinah had been training you as well as they're able and they wouldn't have taken you along if they didn't believe you were worth it. And you--you've lived up to their expectations and I'm just so proud."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah gave her a watery smile, and then swallowed hard when Ulrich growled agreement, and slapped Kirt's arm. "Thank you, Lady." She had to drop out of formality herself there. "I think the District Queen is going to follow up on this with everything she's got. You didn't see the look on her face when we delivered those guys to her. And the families-- well. A couple representatives went with us. They were pretty clear about what had been happening."

She looked around her group, and said a little more quietly, "Everyone here performed admirably. Mark and Kirt were in immediate danger of their lives against Blood men for a while there. Samantha held off the perpetrators. Raven-- well. We couldn't have snuck up on them without her." She tilted her chin at Momoko. "Of course. There was a little property damage."

"Or a lot," Mark muttered under a cough.

"We were very clear, though, about who sent us. And left medical supplies for Arundal on our way out." Dinah gave the phone a bleak smile. "Just in case other victims are found." She took a breath. "They're going to put up a marker. For Denys."

[glacial_queen]

Karla waved that away. "Don't worry about that," she said. "I mean, I'm glad you did, but as important as it is to get my name out there..." She shook her head. "You did this in my name, but you're the real heroes. You did this on behalf of victims everywhere. It feels funny to bring politics in on something this big."

She appreciated it, of course! No doubt there! But if they'd only been able to do this under the cover of blackest night without even a hint of their passing, she hoped they knew that she would have been happy with that, too. The girls were safe and the males unable to hurt anyone again. That was the important bit here.

"If you can, let the families of the victims know that, should they wish to relocate, we can make that happen," she added. Sure, technically, landens usually required permission from their Village Queen, but Karla wasn't in the mood to play nice. "I wouldn't blame them if they wished to find another place to live, far from the memories of what had happened and a Queen that would not listen."

[heromaniac]

Thank you, Karla.

"We'll let them know," Momoko nodded. "There will probably be some problems coming from this area for a while. I also advised the District Queen that there may be more violence, and that if possible she should have someone ready to help keep the peace, in case of revenge attacks."

"My apologies for overstepping my place." She didn't mean that, Karla. It was just formality.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah did not roll her eyes, but she gave her a very fond look. "Someone else who did a great job here. Being a terrific official emissary." She let out a huff of breath. "The nine guys left are facing the death penalty. Within the week."

She had some very, very mixed feelings about that. Their crew didn't.

[glacial_queen]

"Good."

Karla also didn't share those mixed feelings. Call it a cultural thing. Rape was punishable by death. They had earned that many times over.

"Why will it take so long?"

[heromaniac]

Momoko had feelings about this. Not about the death sentence, so much as the fact that there had been no trial. So when she replied, she was back to a more formal tone, simply to keep from saying anything wrong.

"There is the matter of the complaint from the village queen and apparently 'questioning' to determine any others involved and the location of at least one other Blood girl." Presumed dead, since they had found no sign of her at the house.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"It won't be long. The families of two of the guys are protesting, but the rest haven't said boo." Dinah bit her lower lip, then said carefully, "We didn't want to muddy the issue with accusations of outsiders, once they had all the evidence and our testimony. It's a District matter now. We registered a complaint on behalf of Denys's family." She swallowed. "Maybe something will come of that too."

She looked around the circle, and said, "I think that concludes our report, Lady."

That emissary ring felt pretty tight on her finger right now.

[glacial_queen]

This was why Karla had checked and double-checked that they knew what they were getting into. She hadn't foreseen something like this happening, but she'd known they would have to do things they didn't like in her name and feared it. Feared what it would do to them and what it would do to their friendship.

"Thank you for your report and your help with this matter," Karla said. "You have all done good work. Blossom, Canary, may I speak to you both for a moment?"

The alone was implied. On your way, team.

[heromaniac]

Great, now Momoko was worried. She gave the others various orders to get the camp ready for the night then turned back to the phone, stepping closer to Dinah.

"What's wrong?"

[glacial_queen]

"Besides everything else we've talked about today?" Karla deadpanned. "I don't think anything else needs to be wrong. In fact..."

She sighed, tucking her hair behind her ear. "I want to send you both home."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"What." Not really a question. "Why. Because of this?" Dinah waved her hand to indicate their latest situation. "Karla, no. We knew what we were getting into."

Well. She had, anyway.

[glacial_queen]

"Did you?" Karla asked softly. "Did you really imagine it was going to be like this?"

[heromaniac]

"Of course I didn't imagine this," Momoko was furious and almost stomping. "I imagined sword fights and magic duels and people dying as we tried to march across a field just to get to the next safe place!"

She stopped; she had to take a few breaths here. She'd fought so hard to get to come here and now this.

"This wasn't war, Karla. This was crime. Glacia isn't the only place things like this happen."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah gave Momoko a sad look. Then looked back at the phone, her jaw setting. "I knew. Of course I knew. Agio. Jaenelle. Your nightmares." That covered her first impressions of Kaeleer, Karla. Think about that. "And Momoko's right. If I wasn't doing this here? I'd be doing it for some girl in New Gotham. Like we did with Raven, and that creep before Spring Break." She sighed. "And the justice system wouldn't have any more guarantees to it. You can't protect us from this, Karla. We're the protectors."