North America / Kingdom of Yorkania (Crownlands of Manhattan): December 22nd, 1517.
(Morgan's POV)
*Tak* *Tak* *Tak*
The courtyard was silent.
Only the sound of my heels and charles's boots touching the stone path could be heard as he escorted me away from the painting, the smell, the failed royal children and the two men I had dismissed like furniture that had learned how to breathe.
Charles's hand was warm.
Steady.
"Your grip is calm." I said calmly without looking at him.
Charles glanced at me for a moment and said nonchalantly "So is yours."
The courtyard was silent.
"Interesting" I thought as we walked past rows of white marble statues, golden hedges, black roses and a fountain shaped like a crowned lion vomiting water into a round pool.
"Most men try to squeeze harder when they realize they are walking beside me." I said calmly.
"Most men require proof they are holding something." Said charles nonchalantly.
I glanced at him.
His face did not change.
No smile.
No fear.
No offense.
Just that same unreadable look that made him appear as if the entire world could scream and he would simply ask it to lower its voice.
"Your reputation precedes you, your majesty." Said charles calmly.
I stopped walking.
Charles stopped with me.
The wind moved slightly through the courtyard and tugged at the lower edge of my luxurious black and gold baroque royal gown with jeweled embroidery, pearl chains, lace cuffs, puffed sleeves with a dramatic cloak like skirt and my true sister lock hair braided into a big braid that rested on my left shoulder.
I slowly looked up at him and said calmly "Then your spies are either competent or late. Either way, sit down, charles of habsburg. I dislike speaking upward to men who have not yet earned the height."
The courtyard was silent.
For a moment.
Only one moment.
Charles looked toward the marble bench beneath a black rose tree and walked toward it as if I had not just insulted him at all. He sat down first, adjusted his sleeves and looked back at me.
"Better." I said calmly while sitting across from him.
Charles leaned back slightly and said nonchalantly "A fair preference. I have always found comfort in rulers who arrange the room before the conversation begins."
The wind blew.
"Ah. So he heard the insult and chose not to bleed" I thought while crossing my right leg over the other.
Charles's ice blue eyes stayed on mine.
"Do not look at me like that." I said calmly.
"Like what." Asked charles nonchalantly.
"Like I am a kingdom that you have already measured. I am not amused at all and this not going to make me spread the legs of my army for you." I said calmly.
Charles was silent for a moment and said nonchalantly "I have measured many kingdoms. Yours is simply the first one that looked back."
The courtyard became quiet again.
The fountain continued vomiting water.
I tapped my gloved finger once against the arm of the bench.
*Tak*
"You came here for something." I said calmly.
"Yes." Said charles nonchalantly.
"Then speak. I do not entertain foreign men in gardens for the sake of wine and fresh air." I said calmly.
Charles interlocked both of his hands atop his knees and said nonchalantly "Yorkania is changing. Your nobles are frightened. Your commoners are beginning to love you. Your enemies are circling. Jersey wants your food routes. England wants your ports. France wants influence. The catholic church wants your throat."
The courtyard was silent.
I stared at him.
"And you want." I asked calmly.
"A marriage." Said charles nonchalantly.
The wind moved.
The fountain splashed.
I was completely silent.
I laughed.
Not loudly.
Not kindly.
My face didn't move a inch.
Just enough for the sound to feel like a knife being drawn slowly from a sheath.
"Hah..." I said calmly.
Charles did not react.
I leaned forward slightly and said with a cold look in my hazel green eyes "You crossed the sea to ask me for my hand. How brave. How stupid. How very european of you charles. I must say that I am not flattered at all."
Charles's face did not change.
"I crossed the sea because yorkania is no longer a provincial throne with a dead king and noisy nobles. It is becoming a crown worth binding before someone else does." Said charles nonchalantly.
I smiled.
My face did not move.
But my eyes did.
"Binding." I said calmly.
Charles met my eyes and said nonchalantly "Alliance. Marriage alliance. Spain, Burgundy, the netherlands and habsburg influence recognize morgan I as sovereign queen mother of yorkania. Yorkania gains european recognition, trade protection, naval partnership, and a shield against jersey and france. I gain legal access to yorkanian ports, trade agreements, and a crown ally across the ocean."
I was silent.
"No invasion. No annexation. No forced conversion. No crown surrender." Said charles nonchalantly.
I leaned back slowly.
"Those are pretty words charles." I said calmly.
"They are useful words." Said charles nonchalantly while looking at the beautiful gardens.
"Useful words are still words, and men love writing contracts they intend to reinterpret once the ink dries." I said calmly.
Charles's eyes narrowed very slightly and said nonchalantly "Then write your own ink."
The courtyard was silent.
I stared at him.
He stared back.
"Do you think yourself clever." I asked calmly.
"No. I think myself prepared." Said charles nonchalantly.
"Prepared men usually die later than arrogant men. I witnessed it myself." I said calmly.
"Then I shall enjoy the delay." Said charles nonchalantly.
I slowly rubbed my thumb against one of my rings and said calmly "Yorkania will not become a kingdom under spain. Nor under burgundy. Nor under your little Habsburg Incest house. Nor under whatever grand empire your unborn ambition is already licking its lips toward."
Charles was silent.
"That was never my offer." Said charles nonchalantly.
"Good. Then hear what is not negotiable." I said calmly while standing up from the bench.
Charles looked up at me.
I raised one finger and said calmly with both of my eyes squinting "Yorkania's army answers to me. Yorkania's treasury answers to me. Yorkania's ports answer to me. Yorkania's courts answer to me. Yorkania's laws answer to me. Yorkania's daughters inherit by my decree, not by European discomfort. Yorkania will not kneel to a foreign husband because europe has grown accustomed to women ruling through curtains, bedsheets and dead men's names."
The courtyard went absolutely silent.
Charles slowly stood up.
He was still nonchalant.
Still unreadable.
"I did not ask you to rule behind me." Said charles nonchalantly.
"Many men do not ask at first. It is simply arranged to lower the chair each year until a woman discovers she has been sitting on the floor." I said calmly as my right hand lowers more and more towards the ground.
Charles's jaw moved once.
Only once.
"You believe I intend to use you as a symbol." Said charles nonchalantly.
"I have nothing at all against men in general charles but I do believe that men do not all sail oceans for romance when trade maps exist." I said calmly.
"Especially with my personality. I have been ditched during dates and never once dated in my previous" I thought as I started charles in the eyes unmoved.
Charles stared at me for a moment and said "Correct."
The answer was too honest.
My eyes narrowed.
Charles stepped closer, not enough to threaten, but enough to make the air between us sharpen.
"I want yorkania because it matters. I want you because you are the reason it matters." Said charles nonchalantly with both of his eyes slanting downward coldly .
The courtyard became silent.
I stared at him.
"What a dangerous sentence. I can just feel the overwhelming greed and ambition in the tone" I thought flatly.
"A symbolic woman would be useless to me. A womb with a crown would be replaceable. A frightened widow would be bought. You are none of those things." Said charkes nonchalantly while looking at the garden and insects crawling.
I was silent.
Charles looked straight into my eyes and said nonchalantly "That is why I am here."
I tilted my head slightly.
"I see, you flatter like a man who has never needed to beg." I said calmly.
"And you insult like a woman who has never needed to be believed." Said charles nonchalantly.
The courtyard froze.
My eyes sharpened.
"Careful." I said calmly.
Charles's face did not change.
"That was care." Said charles nonchalantly.
The wind moved again.
Black rose petals shifted across the stone path like small funeral flags.
I slowly stepped closer to him and said calmly "I am not one of your european princesses to be traded, bred, displayed and folded into a dynasty. I did not drown yorkania's old order in blood merely to place its leash in a foreign man's hand."
Charles looked down at me.
Not with contempt.
Not with softness.
With attention.
"Then do not give me the leash. Give me a treaty." Said charles.
I was silent.
"Marriage is the seal. Not the surrender. You remain morgan I of yorkania. I remain charles of habsburg. Our crowns meet. They do not swallow."Said charles nonchalantly.
I stared at him for a long moment and said calmly "Until one does."
Charles nodded once.
"Until one tries." Said charles nonchalantly.
The courtyard became heavy.
"You are honest enough. I enjoyed this little debate." I said calmly.
"Indeed." Said charles nonchalantly.
I turned away and started walking toward the fountain with both of my hands behind my back.
Charles followed at my side.
"Children." I said calmly.
Charles glanced at me.
"You did not come without thinking of heirs. Speak." I said calmly.
"Should any child come of this marriage. It would be recognized by both crowns, but yorkanian inheritance remains under yorkanian law. If a daughter proves strongest under your decree, then she inherits here. Europe may choke on it at dinner." Said charles nonchalantly
I glanced at him.
"How generous. You allow my laws to exist in my own kingdom." I said calmly.
"I acknowledged them before I ask to enter it." Said charles nonchalantly with a wave of his left right.
The fountain splashed louder.
I stopped walking again and asked calmly as I glanced down ar it "Religion."
Charles's eyes did not move.
"I am catholic." Said charles nonchalantly.
"I noticed. The church tried to kill me." I said calmly.
"I am not the church." Said charles nonchalantly.
"You are useful to it." I said calmly with my left finger pointing straight at his face.
"So are kings. Until they are not." Said charles nonchalantly.
I was silent.
"You will not turn yorkania christian, this is not some faith worshipping kingdom. It is built on blood and culture and will remain so until it is gone." I said calmly.
Charles nodded and said calmly "I will not force yorkania into rome."
"Nor will your priests." I said calmly .
"Nor will my priests." Said charles nonchalantly.
"Nor will your advisers." I said calmly with my eyes squinting.
"Nor will my advisers." Said charles nonchalantly.
"Nor will you look at my alchemists like devils because europe is too fragile to understand science without prayer." I said calmly with my eyes turning cold.
Charles was silent for a moment and he said nonchalantly "I will look at your alchemists as long as they are useful."
"Good. Merlin would hate you less." I said calmly.
Charles's eyes moved briefly to the trees.
Only briefly.
"I see" I thought while feigning ignorance.
I looked back at him and said calmly "Military."
"Mutual defense pact. If jersey attacks yorkania openly, spain recognizes yorkania's right to respond. If france threatens yorkanian trade, I lean my name against the door. If england plays at sea, I remind them there are other waters." Said charles nonchalantly as he waved a bug away form from his face.
"And if spain requires my ships." I asked calmly.
"You decide the price." Said charles nonchalantly .
"Not permission." I asked calmly.
"Price, you are not a stupid woman morgan le fay" Said charles nonchalantly.
The courtyard was silent.
"Trade." I asked calmly while adjusting my ring.
"Yorkanian goods enter my ports at reduced duties. Habsburg merchants gain limited access to your docks under crown inspection. No foreign merchant may buy land without yorkanian approval. No foreign soldier may remain in yorkania without written consent from your hand." Said charles nonchalantly while looking at me.
I looked at him.
"You came prepared." I said calmly.
"I told you." Said charles nonchalantly.
"Prepared men can still be fools. Unprepared ones prove it faster instead of beating around the bush charles." I said calmly.
The air was cold.
The garden smelled of wet stone, black roses and distant ocean salt.
Neither of us spoke for a moment.
For the first time in a long time, silence did not feel empty.
It felt armed.
"You understand something, charles of habsburg. If I agree to this, I will not be your queen consort. I will not be a decorative wife. I will not be a belly in silk. I will not smile while men decide which part of my kingdom should be praised, purchased, or borrowed." I said calmly.
Charles said nothing.
I stepped closer.
"If you want a woman to bear sons quietly, return to europe. If you want a pliable bride, look beneath any throne and you will find one dressed in gold. If you want yorkania, then understand that yorkania is not dowry. It is not a gift. It is not a jewel for your future empire. It is mine and mine alone. Do you understand or not charles." I asked calmly.
The courtyard was silent.
Charles stared at me for a moment and asked nonchalantly "And if I want you."
My eyes narrowed.
"What an unfortunate ambition." I said calmly.
"Most are." Said charles nonchalantly with a shrug.
I was silent.
I slowly raised my right hand between us.
Charles looked at it.
"A discussion. Not agreement." I said calmly.
Charles took my hand.
His grip was steady again.
"A discussion." Said charles nonchalantly.
We shook hands.
One shake.
Firm.
Equal.
No bow.
No surrender.
No victory.
Charles pulled my hand slightly closer.
Before I could decide whether to be offended, he leaned down and kissed it.
Not long.
Not desperate.
Not soft.
A brief, calm, maddeningly confident kiss that ended before it could become anything more than it needed to be.
The courtyard went silent.
My face did not move.
My eyes did.
Charles straightened and said nonchalantly while releasing my hand and adjusting his sleeve "Think about it, morgan le fay."
He released my hand, adjusted his sleeve and turned around.
"Good day, your majesty." Said charles nonchalantly as he started walking away with with both his hands behind his back like he had not just endangered his future bloodline in my courtyard.
I watched him leave. His footsteps faded.
The garden returned to silence.
I slowly rubbed my thumb against the hand he had held.
"I need to wash my hands." I thought while looking down at it.
Suddenly my eyes moved toward a large tree near the edge of the courtyard.
A white bird flew from one branch to another.
The leaves shifted.
I stared at the tree and said calmly "Merlin."
The courtyard was silent.
A sigh came from behind the tree.
Merlin stepped out slowly with his arms behind his back, his long white hair falling over his shoulders and his chartreuse eyes filled with an unreadable look.
"I was not hiding your majesty." Said merlin calmly.
I stared at him.
Merlin adjusted his throat and said with a smile "I was observing from a medically responsible distance."
The courtyard was silent.
I looked at him for a moment and said calmly "If incompetence was a disease, you would be the only doctor in this kingdom still employed."
Merlin smiled faintly.
"I shall take that as praise." Said merlin with a smile.
"Do not grow comfortable." I said calmly while turning toward the direction charles had left.
Merlin walked to my side and looked in the same direction.
"He is dangerous." Said merlin calmly.
"I noticed." I said calmly.
"He did not fear you." Said merlin with both of his eyes squinting.
I was silent for a moment and said calmly "I noticed that too."
The courtyard went silent.
Merlin glanced at me and asked calmly "Will you accept."
I stared down at my gloved hand for a moment and said calmly "I will think about it."
Merlin's eyes narrowed slightly.
I looked back at him and said calmly "And then I will decide whether the habsburg boy is a shield, a sword, or a problem that has learned how to speak beautifully."
The wind passed through the black roses again.
Somewhere far away, Gareth shouted for a servant.
I closed my eyes for a moment and sighed.
"Also." I said calmly.
Merlin looked at me.
"Find out if kissing the hand of a queen mother without permission is a declaration of war in yorkanian law." I said calmly while wiping my hlobed hand on his sleeve.
Merlin stared at me. His mouth twitched.
"I shall consult the old legal codes at once your majesty." Said merlin calmly with a smile.
"Good. Be useful." I said while walking back toward the castle.
Merlin followed behind me with his arms behind his back.
The courtyard remained behind us.
Quiet.
Cold.
Changed.
…
THE END…