Are You Shaken? There is so Much Worse in Store.

[Sophie]

Huh, that almost sounded like the canned responses I usually give. Kanaka thought to herself before deciding it was probably just because everyone was speaking in a second language. As the truck lurched with its engine failing, Kanaka fell slightly forward, having to brace herself against the truck's cab. Once she was back upright, she looked around the area. It certainly wasn't the palace or any sort of official building. Her heart began to pound once more. Are they going to ambush me here?! The Kumoe kept her legs bent, ready to launch herself at the first sign of trouble. She kept her eyes high on the roofs of the buildings but didn't make a move as she was still close enough to the Franerri political officers that they surely wouldn't just fire on her here.

"Is everything alright?" She asked with a new, ice-cold tone. "Why'd we stop?"

[callmedelta]

Ludwig popped his head out of the truck cabin, answering, "Engine died," curtly, before sticking his head back in. "Are you sure we don't need to open the engine up, or something?"

"Do you really think we have time for that?" Ophelia shot back. "Come on you damn machine, work!" She kicked it again, turning the key in the ignition. Chuuuugchugchugchugchug. Dead. Chuuuuugchugchugchug. Dead. Chuuuuuugchugchugchugchug. The engine started the third time, screeching back to life. Just in time for a tomato to come sailing in from somewhere deep in the crowd, landing on the windshield. Ophelia slammed her foot down on the gas as a reflex, lurching the truck forward just enough that the beer bottle that had been aimed at Kanaka smashed against the road, harmlessly. The volume of the crowd started to pick up.

Ludwig popped his head out of the driver's window, scanning the crowd and placing a hand on the revolver in his suit jacket. "Drive, Ophelia." His voice was calm despite the situation, the two in the back of the bed lurching forward along with the truck. The car ahead of them pressed on the gas as well, but Captain Segal didn't follow behind them.

[Sophie]

"Spirits be damned!" Kanaka shouted in her native tongue as the bottle smashed into the ground. Though in an ironic way, this calmed her panic. If civilians were throwing bottles and other objects at her, it meant the military hadn't cleared this area out for an ambush. Though as the truck rapidly accelerated, she almost fell backward out of the bed. "Mother of the Empress!" She again cursed as she barely caught herself steady in the truck. Switching back to Koian, she asked. "Can't you drive a bit more carefully?!" Her voice peaked as she kept her eyes up, trying to prepare for any other projectiles headed her way.

[callmedelta]

Neither of the Franerri party responded. Ludwig was too concerned with scanning the road for anymore potential hostiles, and Ophelia was too concentrated on driving, which was going smoother now. The trio sat in that relative silence for a good three minutes before Ludwig let out his breath, and withdrew his cigarettes from his suit. "You want another smoke?" Ludwig glanced down at the watch on his wrist. "We'll need to finish them quick, we're close to the palace now."

~

The crowd was loud now, antsy. Captain Segal could hardly hear himself think as he watched the truck carrying the Kumo speed away. His fellow policemen, Quentin and Seyrès, stepped out of the car. "Who threw that?" Guy shouted, his words lost among the crowd. "That Kumo is an ho-" Guy ducked as another tomato was sent his way, barely avoiding it.

"Sir, I-" Quentin started, before his voice was lost to the shouts of the crowd. This time it was another beer bottle, sailing into the air and smashing against the windshield of their car, the glass spiderweb cracking. Ironic.

"Just stay calm men!" Captain Segal shouted, his own voice betraying his rising panic. They were surrounded by an increasingly hostile crowd, just waiting for the dam to break. "Just-" Segal was cut off as a brick sailed towards him. He lifted his right arm to block, the limb taking the full force of the thrown brick. Segal grunted, leaning back against the car for support as he clutched his wounded arm. He could feel blood welling up in his suit. He'd be lucky if the arm was just bruised. "Damnit," he swore, the crowd cautiously beginning to advance on them. Captain Segal spared a glance to Quentin and Seyrès. They were as close to breaking as the crowd was. If he didn't do anything now, this wasn't going to end well. Guy reached his left arm down to his revolver, fumbling for a few seconds before grabbing ahold of it.

Bang. Bang bang.

Captain Segal fired three quick shots into the air, and the crowd turned to run. He let the weapon clatter to the ground and clutched his wounded arm again. "Get me...back to the station..." he grunted out.

[Sophie]

Kanaka took the cigarette happily. She had to lean down below the cab for the human to be able to light it without the flame immediately going out. With a single long drag, Kanaka let out a breath of smoke, watching it trail behind them as they continued to drive. They hadn't gone far enough yet not to hear the gunshots as they rang out, and as they did, Kanaka's reflexes kicked in. She reached inside her coat, where she always kept her pistol, but almost slapped herself as she remembered she had to leave it in Diria. "What was that?! Who's shooting?!" She ducked trying to make herself a smaller target, and prayed those shots weren't intended for her.

[callmedelta]

Ludwig took a long, long drag from his cigarette before answering. "If I had to guess, probably the police," Ludwig answered. 'Considering the circumstances,' he thought, 'this could have definitely gone worse. Could have gone a whole lot better, though.'

"I think we're getting close to the palace," Ophelia said, "I don't know whether the King himself will show up, but if he does, it's proper etiquette to kneel until he bids you to rise and then speak. Thankfully, most everything else will be on Ludwig to handle thanks to the language barrier."

~

King Dante Emil Soleil Della Rosa II, Sovereign of Franerre, Shield of Her People, Defender of the Foa Restoration and Mordred’s Revolution stood in the palace, overlooking the entrance to the palace grounds, the area abuzz with activity. Half of his 1,000 man strong Royal Guard had formed a perimeter around the gate, armed with the finest weapons that could be imported from Lusatia and dressed in their traditional red uniforms. Lucien de Mahieu, the Kings-General of the Royal Guard, stood on one side. He wished Lehran were here, but he hadn't been at the Administration's headquarters and couldn't be found in time. Couldn't be changed now.

"Your Highness," Lucien said, "We've spotted a motorcade carrying the Kumo ambassador, two minutes from the palace."

"Thank you, Lucien," the King said, continuing to stare out over the gardens. He stroked his chin, enjoying the feeling of the facial hair he kept trimmed short under his hands. It helped him to relax, to think clearer.

"Dante?" Lucien asked, and Dante sighed. Lucien was one of the few people who called him by his first name. He was a good man, one of the few that Dante could earnestly call his friend. Dante raised a handkerchief to his brow, wiping at the sweat.

"This isn't good, Lucien," Dante said, finally turning to face the man. "This isn't just going to be some letter asking to normalize relations. Our worst case scenario means this is a declaration of war, and I don't see many cases better than it. Our soldiers are tired and on the opposite side of the country." He ran a hand through his black hair, lines of worry on his face etched in from years of rulership he was ill-prepared for becoming ever more pronounced. "It's the death of us. Even if we take Lusatia's offer, it's the death of everything we've stood for, everything we've tried to make."

Lucien placed a calming hand on Dante's shoulder. "If this is everything we fear it to be, it is the mark of a great king to face it head on, and lead us through it nobly." Dante looked at the man, old enough that his hairs were beginning to gray. Lucien had been with Dante since the day of his birth, assigned the personal guard to the then young prince.

The King smiled softly. "Let us go, then."

~

As the Royal Palace came into sight, the two cars were stopped by a group of soldiers wearing blue and red uniforms, wearing caps with a long feather trailing behind it. While stopped, Kanaka got a good chance to look at the palace itself. There were three distinct sections of the palace, the Old Palace, the Lusatian Expansion, and the New Palace Expansion. The Old Palace was barely visible from this angle, the most prominent part, a large spire of gray stone blocks, rising into the sky as still the tallest part of the castle. The Lusatian Expansion, meanwhile, took up most of the view from this angle, with it's high arches and large windows on a face of a white and gold exterior, the roof corners bearing small bronze statues while the tiles were a deep forest green. The last part, the New Palace Expansion, was more visible than the Old Palace from this angle though less so than the Lusatian Expansion. It looked very similar to the Lusatian Expansion from this angle, though the white of the exterior had been traded for a light brown, the windows smaller but more numerous, many of them stained glass.

"You," one of the soldiers said to Kanaka, which Ludwig translated, "We were told you had some documents for the King. We will take them now."

[Sophie]

An ounce of bile crawled into Kanaka's throat as the idea of bowing or kneeling before any besides the Empress or Princess was foisted upon her mind. With a quick swallow, she nodded. "I understand. What words will he say that means I can rise?" She asked, figuring the king would likely not ask her to rise in Shusugiris and wouldn't know to ask in Koian. Once given the answer, she ran the foreign phrase through her head on a loop. "Thank you." She felt she should ask how to address him but feared the ask would come off as unprofessional. In the moment, someone would surely address him before her, should the situation arise.

The palace was very impressive to Kanaka. It was the first palace or castle she had ever seen after never earning the pleasure of gazing upon the Empress's palace. "It is rather impressive." She awed while climbing out of the rickety truck. "And quite pretty." Her compliment continued until the soldier started barking at her. The moment Ludwig translated for her, she took a long deep sigh. With fingers pressed into her temple, she shook her head. "No. I must insist that I personally deliver this letter to the king himself. At the very least, I require to see the letter enter his hands unobserved by others." Her insistence was firm and hopefully would carry through despite having to be translated by a third party. She stood tall, towering at her full height of nearly eight feet with her arms crossed. Not just in defiance but to protect the letter.

[callmedelta]

King Dante exited the palace onto the gardens, walking towards the gate closest to where Kanaka's convoy had been stopped. The King was a man of average height, taller than Ophelia, but shorter than Ludwig, putting him at the lower part of Kanaka's stomach. He wore an outfit reminiscent of the uniforms the Royal Guard wore, though it was a dark blue, and obviously of much finer craft. The red was only present at the trim of the uniform, and instead of a hat the King wore nothing on his head. At his hip was the King's dueling rapier, a simple but finely crafted steel sword. Behind him stood Lucien, in the same outfit at the rest of the Royal Guard, the large medal marking him as the Kings-General displayed prominently on his breast.

~

"I do not care who you think you back in your country are or what kind of pride you may have," the guard said, "Nobody is allowed on the grounds of the palace without explicit permission from His Royal Highness or another member of the Royal Family. Unless you can provide such permission, you will hand over your documents, and I will take them to the King. I can do you the courtesy of escorting you to the front gate, but you may go no further."

"I believe he just came out now," Ludwig said.

The guard turned around. "That he did." He waved his hand for the trio to follow, marching the roughly twenty meters to the front gate, before placing his hand out for the documents. By this point, the King and Lucien were most of the way to the gate, stopping a few meters short of it. Ophelia and Ludwig kneeled.

[Sophie]

Kanaka suppressed a smirk at seeing the guard have their own words fed to them so immediately. Even more, so that she was afforded a meeting with the king so instantly. It was hard to hide the smug sense of superiority she felt that a random Kumo could show up with words from the Empress, and the king would make time for it the very same day that Kumo washed up on the shore. The best way to hide it, Kanaka figured, would be to hide her face. The Kumo awkwardly climbed down to her knees. Placing her four forelegs down on her knees while the back four kept her propped up so her torso could angle downwards far enough to not fall over, but also be well shorter than the king's standing height.

[callmedelta]

Dante stared at the Kumo, his face cold and impassive, like a stone. He'd grown accustomed to making that face, hiding the turmoil going on inside of him behind a stern look. So many things flooding through his mind. 'Would it be best to make the Kumo wait, bow for as long as possible, or would that be insulting? Technically, not being a citizen of Franerre she wasn't forced to bow, but I would be lying if seeing a Kumo kneel like that wasn't making me more confident. Just how big did these things get, anyway?' This was his first time seeing one in person, and he thought Franerri propaganda had gone overboard in selling the size and terror of these things. Seeing one in person made him realize they maybe hadn't gone far enough. 'Is it any use trying to draw out the inevitable? Or is giving the people of Franerre even a second more of peace worth it?' He spared a glance to the vehicle stopped near the gates. He was glad the tomato on the windshield appeared to be the extent of the damages, unless his own subjects had managed to rust and dent the truck that badly in the short drive. 'Did I just think I was proud of my subjects for not terrorizing a woman who is just carrying a message? I suppose they are what my country made them, in a way.'

The King realized that the trio had been kneeling for some time now, maybe thirty seconds, maybe a minute. It was easy for him to get lost in his own head. Still, this had gone on long enough, especially when he normally only made people kneel for a few seconds at most. "Rise," he said, his tone neutral. Ophelia and Ludwig stood.

[Sophie]

Kneeling was not the custom in Kumosenkan, nor was it something she had ever performed in any of the nations she had visited. Her knees did start to ache as they pushed against the pavement. Despite this, when told to rise, she did so with a smile. One more standing at her full height, she bowed slightly, a Kumosenkan custom and Kanaka's habit, before speaking. "Good afternoon, King Dante Emil Soleil Della Rosa, the Second. It is my honor to meet with you, and I thank you for your time." The Kumo spoke in fluent Koian, counting on either Ludwig to translate or the king to understand. "I am Fumika Kanaka, a diplomatic representative from the Empire of Kumosenkan. I bring a letter addressed to you, penned by the Empress Shiraori Tetsu Kumo of Kumosenkan. I must quickly apologize for my indecency, as the letter has been taped to my stomach."

Kanaka reached deep into her coat and her Yukata. With a bit of force, she began peeling away at her webbing that latched the letter to her stomach. Handfuls of webbing came out of her clothing; in her other hand was a stamped and sealed manilla folder. The folder itself was utterly unmarked, aside from some remnants of webbing that Kanaka quickly brushed off. She held the letter out for the king to take, "Will you accept it?"

[callmedelta]

With a bit of hesitancy, Ludwig translated Kanaka's words accurately. It was a faux-pas to use that title for the King, and most definitely presumptuous, but ultimately expected of Kumosenkan. He nodded to one of the guards standing by Kanaka, who took the letter and walked over to the King with it. He took the letter from the soldier, tightly gripping onto it with both hands to keep them from shaking. Dante took a deep breath, looked down, and began to read.

[Sophie]

Kanaka panicked. She hadn't expected the king to read the letter immediately, right in front of her. Her heart sank to the deepest pits as she looked upon all the armed guards around her. If the King didn't like what he read he could so easily have her imprisoned, executed, or tortured. Kanaka knew not of the exact contents of the letter, but she had a few assumptions, and not a single one of them was good.

As Dante read, he would see words intended only for him, sent by the Empress:

King Dante Emil Soleil Della Rosa II

Your flagrant and illegal occupation of all areas north of the Eika river, known to you as the Taln river, must be discussed with absolute urgency. It was hoped that this situation would resolve itself peacefully, but your continued troop presence along further territories owned by Kumosenkan's prefecture of Elenria shows your hand splendidly. You have no intention of ceding this territory back to its rightful owner. This area, heretofore referred to as “The Notch,” has always been, and continues to be, undeniably Elenrian. Both in culture, race, and right. This is our benevolent Empress’s last attempt to allow this crisis of occupation to end peacefully and without needless bloodshed. We demand you cease this flagrantly illegal occupation of Kumosenkan territory as is our right by the treaty of “The Silk Bind.” Signed in the year of our Empress 1860. We will discuss the terms of the end of your occupation immediately, and the meeting has been scheduled between diplomats of your choice as well as the Kumosenkan Ministers of the Hunt and Foreign affairs on Mynti 10th in Fuyonouso. Should you fail to signal your intent to attend this meeting within seven days of receipt of this letter, we will take that as intent to continue your illegal occupation without further discussion. Should you choose to occupy “The Notch” with an excess of more soldiers than already illegally present, we will take that intent the same as previously stated.

Let cooler heads prevail.

Signed,
Minister of the Hunt: Ayano Okabe
Minister of Foreign Affairs: Kazumi Yamanaka
Princess Reitō Doku Kumo
Empress Shiraori Tetsu Kumo

[callmedelta]

War.

War.

War. 

It was all Dante could think. The word wasn't written on the page, but it was plastered all over it. Dante thought he'd prepared himself for the worst but - no, no, nothing could have ever prepared him for this. The spike of adrenaline in his heart, the bead of sweat on his forehead, formed and running down his face and into his eye. He cleared his eye, but the message didn't change. There was a tension in his muscles, threatening to do something, threatening to act, but what could he do? He...he could march up to the Kumo. Backhand her. Slicer her throat with his blade. He could order his men to fire on them, he...he...no, that wouldn't change anything, wouldn't solve anything. How could he even have done any of that, when his hands were shaking so badly that he could hardly read the letter now? When, when had his hands started doing that?

Dante swallowed, doing little to get rid of the lump in his throat. His façade had cracked. "Your Empress, or representatives of her, will be in Noscovo to act as moderators for the peace talks of the end of the war, yes?" Dante asked, "Would the Empress be amenable to meeting there rather than in Kumosenkan?" Dante was already chiding himself. He should have demanded it, rather than asked. It was of no matter now.

Everyone around the King saw the changes. They knew what it meant. The guards began to eye Kanaka.

[Sophie]

Kanaka saw the change in the king's presentation of himself and, too, began to feel fear. She was right. The letter's news was bad, and by the looks of the king who could meet a Kumo with such steely resolve collapsing, she could tell it was not just bad; it was apocalyptic. "I... I know not the contents of what you have just read." Her voice shook in anxiety as many of the guards also read the King's expression. "However, I know that the Empress is not currently amenable to a change in plans. The briefing I read was very firm on that. I understand peace talks are to take place very soon in Noscovo, and I believe the convoy carrying our representatives has already left Kumosenkan."

Kanaka stood tall, and with stoicism, she matched the King's gaze head-on. Only occasionally stealing glances at the armed guard, eyeing her like an armed explosive. "If you need, I can stay in Franerre until you can pen a response. I will be sure to hand deliver it to the Empress, and I can further answer any of your questions should you have them. The ship I came in on doesn't leave for another four days."