The Unknown Card, With So Few Left to Play (Franerre-Eleria)

[callmedelta]

Marshal Zelgius couldn’t sleep. He chose to pace around the headquarters of his war room, running off of nothing more than grit and anxiety, wearing a uniform that he hadn’t had the chance to change out of for two weeks now. The reports coming out of the Marse just had the Marshal too worried. The six month timeframe he gave the CoN was far too generous -- the two month timeframe he gave them at the earliest might be right on the money. But what more could Zelgius do? Who else could he reach out to? Everyone already fighting the Galrans and in any sort of position to assist was already in the CoN and had ignored him…

or was that quite true?...

Zelgius paused his pacing…

He was struck by an idea. The Marshal ran as fast as he could over to the central table of his war room. He upended the current map on the table, its intricate detailing of both side’s units and advances, revealing the much larger map of Touli beneath. There were two nations where Franerre’s hopes may lie -- the Union of South Touli, and the Greater Imperium of Eleria. They were both gambles, but gambles were all Franerre had left to her now. He sent a hurried midnight telegram to Pareau with his idea, and they agreed with his assessment. It was out of Zelgius’ hands now, and he found himself peacefully drifting off to sleep at the thought that it was out of his hands now.

~

Phillipe Mesny stared at the telegram, trying to think of exactly how to pen the letter. Reaching out to Eleria and the UST weren’t bad ideas per say, but they were gambles. At least with the UST, Franerre knew the beast they were dealing with. Eleria, though? One failed boat trip was all Mesny had to go on for the entirety of the time he’d been in office, and Lehran’s records didn’t have anything on them, either. He’d heard some chatter from Gaelia that apparently Gulliver had been defeated and there was a tenuous truce with the Samurai, but that was about the extent of Mesny’s knowledge of the situation. He couldn’t even say how outdated it was, either, but it was all Mesny had. But he still circled around to the question: how to write the letter? As much as he disliked it, Mesny had to be general.

“To His Royal Highness Imperator Laurence MacDonald and Her Royal Highness Imperatrix Marina MacDonald,

I hope this letter finds you well, or as well as we can be in these troubling times. Given the extent of Galra’s crimes against both our countries, it could prove valuable in both our efforts to combat them if we can share information, technology, and resources regarding the Galran threat. To that end, the Kingdom of Franerre wishes to formally establish diplomatic ties with the Greater Imperium of Eleria, and I humbly request an in-person meeting to discuss such matters with you in Eleria.

-Phillipe K. Mesny, Director of the Franerri Foreign Affairs Administration.”

~

Phillipe Mesny was nervous as he crossed the border. He’d never stepped foot in Eleria, but practically no one in Franerre had. The real worry was that he hadn’t been on a field assignment in years -- Mesny had been doing office work and playing office politics games for years before being appointed the head of the Foreign Affairs Administration. This was also a rather important mission to be on, but that was precisely why it had to be Mesny out here. The fact that his group consisted of two armed guards (lone Captain Rudemer and a Private whose name Mesny could never remember) and a translator/aide (though Jacques Galois’ knowledge of the Samurai and Elerian languages was more academic than practically useful) left Mesny with no one on his skill level he could truly bounce ideas off of or share worries with. He would have liked to bring someone like his aide Samuel, but the group needed to travel light for speed, even with their horses.

Mesny’s party had been given directions by the return Elerian letter to a border Samurai village of Tsuru, where there would be Elerian officials with a car ready to take them to Iomairt. Breaking through a treeline to get sight of Tsuru, the car was thankfully parked in sight of Mesny and his party. Riding their horses up to them, Mesny dismounted and greeted the man. He was definitely the military sort, with the uniform and salute. Mesny gave him a nod, and the man returned to at-ease. “McAlister, I presume?” Mesny asked, extending a hand.

“Yes, sir,” McAlister responded, pausing a moment before shaking the offered hand, as if he hadn’t expected it. “The Imperatrix is awaiting you in Iomairt.” With that, the man opened the door for Mesny.

Looking at the car, it only seemed to have three seats sans-driver. Mesny looked to the Private. “Take care of the horses and go back to Franerre. I think we can take it from here, Private.” With that, Mesny stepped into the car, followed soon by Rudemer and Galois. And with that, the engine came to life, and the party was off. The engine sounded different to Mesny’s ears, but he couldn’t pin why.

~

Mesny stepped off the plane followed shortly by the rest of his party, the Imperatrix and a large cadre of guards ready to meet them. It had taken a car, followed by a train, then a plane to get to Iomairt, but he was finally here. Now the real work could begin. The Imperatrix came up to meet them halfway. Mesny extended a hand to the Imperatrix as he approached her. “Director Phillipe Mesny, Franerri Foreign Affairs Administration. It’s an honor to meet you, Your Imperial Majesty.” He cringed a bit, remembering how he had been corrected in the Imperatrix’s letter, but thankfully ignorance was no sin in her eyes. “Last you had said, the Imperator had been injured from his duel with Guilliver. Has his condition improved at all?”

[DrMedic]

    The Imperatrix extended her hand to him, grasping his in a surprisingly firm handshake for a woman. “Quite a bit, thankfully. He’s back home now, and has been for quite some time, but the doctors have been desperately pleading with him to take it easy, and I’ve had to step up and accept the role of their enforcer.” She said with a warm smile, “Assuming things stay on course as they’ve been, he should be well by the time our child is born. Of course, he had asked that you be brought to the palace so that he could join in our meeting. I do hope the change of plan isn’t too much a bother.”

[callmedelta]

Mesny raised his eyebrow, somewhere halfway between impressed and incredulous. Diplomat, enforcer, and pregnant at the same time? The Imperatrix was certainly one tough woman. "That's no issue at all. I'm happy the Imperator's recovered enough to make a meeting. Let's not keep him waiting, so he can get back to that recovery and your doctors won't have any more trouble on our account." Mesny let the Imperatrix lead the way to the car, a model similar to the one that had picked up Mesny near the border. Again, it had a different sound to the engine as it started up. Figuring some small talk could both fill the space and give him a better sense of the Imperatrix, Mesny asked, "Is this car manufactured domestically? I don't think I've seen or heard another like it, but I'm also not particularly knowledgeable about cars. We have mostly imported Gaelic Callahands in Franerre."

[DrMedic]

    Marina was pleasantly surprised by the gentleman’s comment. She’d expected some idle chatter, of course, but given the state of the world, she’d imagined that he’d be asking about how things had been in Eleria, or what her thoughts were on the rest of the world. It was a nice breath of fresh air, being able to actually discuss something normal, or at least as close to normal as one could get given the extraordinary circumstances.



    “Aye, they’re made here in Iomairt by Whitlock Motor Corporation. They’ve been around a long time, I think something like a hundred fifty years almost? They started out as a carriage company, making carts and such to be pulled by horses and oxen, but once they saw the industry was changing, they opted to throw their hat into the ring of luxury automobiles and have focused heavily on that ever since. They’re a bit expensive, but they’ve been providing the carriages and now cars for the imperial family since… I think since the reign of Imperator Ewan, so… five or six generations now?” As she spoke, her commons slowly shifted from regal and proper, to much more heavily accented and low-born. Once she was done talking, however, she realized her slip-up and gave a light chuckle. “I hope you can forgive my improper commons. I tend to get a bit caught up discussing history. If memory serves, Callahan uses staol to run an internal combustion engine, right? Whitlock is a bit different. The cars run on compressed coal gas, and they have a water-tube boiler in them, so they actually run on steam, that's what the other 'steering wheel' is. It's too much pressure for a butterfly valve like you'd find for a throttle in a Callahan, so they have to use a screw valve so that the throttle can't get stuck open. It's nice though, because there are only two gears, direct drive and overdrive. The engine produces so much torque that you don't need any lower speeds. That's also what makes them so quiet, all you get is the sound of the gearing, and the whisper quiet exhaust of steam. Pretty neat, aren't they?"

[callmedelta]

Phillipe listened to the Imperatrix's ramblings. He was far from an engineer -- he couldn't tell you the difference between an internal combustion and a steam engine, beyond the fact that one ran cars and the other ran trains. Mesny smiled and nodded along His mind did catch on the fact that they were domestically manufactured, though. How large was Whitlock Motor Corporation? If they were capable and amenable to opening a branch plant in Franerre, it could provide cars to compete with the Studebaker imports that was the vast majority of Franerri car imports, thereby providing a potential bridge to economic integration and increased Franerri self-sufficiency. Of course, that all assumed everyone here survived the war. A better assumption to work from than the opposite. "That would explain why the engine was so quiet. I hadn't even noticed the second wheel, though. How expensive are these cars? I might have to try and get one of these imported to Franerre -- though if they're that different than a Callahad, I might have to bring a driver as well." Mesny chuckled at the joke, before turning his gaze out the window of the car. Iomairt was surprisingly intact, given how the nation had just gone through civil war. Eleria continued to impress. A part of Mesny wanted to ask questions about the war now, but it was best to wait until Laurence was available for the conversation. "You said you were pregnant, Imperatrix. Would that be your first child, or are there any other members of the royal family I don't know about?"

[DrMedic]

    Marina sighed, “Regrettably, Whitlocks are prohibitively expensive for most, though not for lack of trying to bring the prices down. Of course, luxury is always going to be expensive, but they have a smaller brand, Ballachulish. Their goal is to make more affordable cars for the middle class, but we just don’t have the kind of industry that we need to be able to bring the standard of living up. We’re working on it, Laurence and I. The war certainly won’t be doing us any favors though. I can’t imagine they’re all that different from a… Callahad, was it? They have the same controls for the most part, just a wheel for a throttle instead of a pedal and butterfly valve. If you’d like to take it for a spin once we’re back on palace grounds, I’m sure my husband wouldn’t mind, provided you don’t crash into anything of course.” She said with a chuckle and warm smile, trying to cut the tension. “Yes, this is mine and Laurence’s first. Of course we have other family members, but as far as the immediate royal family, it’s just the two of us and our soon-to-be.”

[callmedelta]

"As much as I would love to take you up on that offer, Imperatrix, I think my driving could best be described as 'adequate.' I doubt crashing your car would leave you with a good first impression of Franerre. Perhaps in a better time I can buy one myself and crash my own car instead." Mesny gave the Imperatrix a warm smile, looking to her stomach. "I do pray for the safe delivery of your child. I can't imagine the stress of trying to run a nation while at war whilst also being pregnant, and I've heard how stress can impact a birth. Our own Queen had problems delivering her second during some stressful politics in Franerre, and that was during peacetime. Of course, the importance of a line of succession can't be understated either, especially with the dangers of being at war."