It was the appointed time, in the appointed room. Everyone was here, including the "hero" of Zeemark, who, while leaning into his seat, was being eyed suspiciously by Guntram, the treasurer. But one person was not present, which was Her Majesty! They had positioned a guard outside the room to make sure that no one was listening in. There was a strong storm blowing outside today, which was causing a lot of noise. The secret council had begun, and Gabriela took the chair. She began to speak in a low voice: "Gentlemen, I think I speak for all of us when I say, that we have a very big problem on our hands. Do you agree with me?" Many of the men nodded, including Gawein, who had already been informed of the Queen's decisions announced yesterday. But not all of them had given her confirmation. "I would like to ask you to signal your agreement by raising your thumbs or to let me know otherwise, if this is not the case! We need harmony and cohesion here today," she pointed out to those present. As a result, everyone gave her a thumbs up.

  She continued: "I have already discussed the matter with Field Marshal Etzel. Stopping the mobilisation now, as Her Majesty has instructed him to do, would be a fatal mistake." Etzel raised his hand to explain himself personally. The chairwoman gave him the floor. "Not only would cancelling the previous orders only cause confusion among the lords and their subjects - especially since they also feel the gravity of the situation - but omitting the levy would also give the enemy valuable time to prepare even more. We would be lagging behind and would only ever be able to react to their actions. That is a strategic negligence that I cannot possibly allow." Everyone looked at the commander very seriously. "I have, therefore, decided, out of necessity and out of the severity of our predicament, not to carry out Her Majesty's orders!" The assembled men all sat in silence. They had already expected something similar from this meeting.

  "I am of the opinion that our honourable field marshal is right," Gabriela then laid bare her position. "Who else agrees with him?" It took a little while, but eventually everyone raised their thumbs. A barely noticeable grin crossed the lips of the royal advisor. Now was her big moment! "As five of those present here already know, there is a connection between the new devil emperor, the Melgarists have chosen for themselves, and Her Majesty." Those who had not yet been initiated were now wide-eyed. "The Chosen One, as these heretics call him, is the first-born son of our queen, Wenzel von Sorenstein!" One of the ministers almost choked on a glass of water he was drinking and needed a moment to regain his composure. Then the woman continued: "I have no doubt that this is the real reason why Her Highness wants to negotiate with the heretics. She wants her son back. But such a development would be the end of everything we hold sacred! The boy would have the hereditary right according to primogeniture. And even if Her Highness were to agree that Maximilian would be the heir to the throne in his place, we would still have that demon at court!”

  At that moment, a huge gust of wind shook the windows of the room so much so, that everyone turned towards them, worried that they might shatter. But the woman continued straight away. "Furthermore, I would also like to put another question to your Highnesses. Do you really believe that the young Maximilian is able or even willing to take on the role of ruler of Ordania and the Ordanian Confederacy? Anyone who actually believes that this good-for-nothing is capable in any way, please indicate this with a show of hands." She waited briefly, but no one raised their hand. This had gone perfectly for her. Now came the pivotal moment. The lady cleared her throat and addressed the council:

  "How many of you here believe this house to still be legitimate now that you know a demon is part of its family tree?" Everyone knew what this question meant. Gabriela asked again with insistence: "Please make your true opinion known. Whoever does not speak now, may forever hold their peace!" Those present looked at each other. There was an oppressive silence in the room. Gabriela continued to stand there and looked around with a cool gaze. No one had raised a hand. It had been decided! The coming days would also be very stormy.

  Soon after, Queen Katharina and Maximilian Junior were history. She would never again undermine the fortunes of the Alethic Church and the power elites of the system, they made sure of that! Her Majesty's mistake had been to underestimate the power of indoctrination. For those who had grown up with the teachings of Alethism, compromise with the Old Believers was impossible and even unthinkable. Her pragmatic actions had therefore represented a breach of taboo that they strove to correct. There could be no tolerance and there could be no national reconciliation. In the eyes of fanaticism, this and every scenario became an all-or-nothing battle! There was no room for cunning political games, in which Her Majesty was well versed! And all this took place in the face of the fact that Wenzel might actually have been "malleable", meaning open to clever manipulation. In view of his early upbringing, it was anything but clear that he was actually on the side of the revolutionaries in terms of his convictions. Although the Martyrs’ Brigades were radically ideologised resistance fighters, they would still have trusted in Wenzel, their chosen one. Perhaps Katharina's approach could have worked. But all this was now over and done with. The old royal house lay buried under the ground!

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  However, the announcement of the new ruler would have a number of consequences. When the palace sent out the news that Lucius Cornel would be the next king, with his mother Gabriela Cornel as his regent until he came of age, shockwaves went through the country. The estates and many of the noble houses were outraged by such a coup d’etat. They might have been less outraged had they known the reasons for the coup. From the Crown Council's point of view, however, it would have made a bad impression, as it would have been seen as a sign of weakness, if they had included a long justification in their proclamation of the new ruler. So, events took their course. Lucius became the future puppet ruler of the Alethics. This was also reflected in the fact that soon after, the crown council decided to restrict the king's powers! It was the first step towards a constitutional monarchy and a further step into the abyss for Ordania!

  However, many noble houses and lords now began to express their doubts about the legitimacy of the new regime by stopping the conscription of troops. Although they did not actively oppose the lords in Greifenburg, they simply did nothing! Technically, this was also a form of insubordination or rebellion, although the lords had no intention of actually rebelling. Most of them at least.... Incidentally, the messenger that Katharina had sent to the Martyrs would never arrive. He was soon intercepted and eliminated by his own. Of course, this did not prevent news of the palace coup from soon reaching the Martyrs’ Brigades.

  "Hahaha! What great news!" rejoiced Theodor, who usually never showed his joy so openly. On the day this information reached them, the Martyrs were almost ecstatic with joy. They threw a party and held a mass together in thanksgiving to their Lord. For the revolution, this now meant: "Full speed ahead!", and the regime fuelled this even further. Naturally, Wenzel was also happy to join in the celebrations. The lads ate and drank together well into the night. When the young man went to bed late that night and disappeared into the world of dreams, he began to see things again.

  In his first dream, Wenzel flew through a dark sky with thick storm clouds. There was a loud rumble of thunder and lightning flashed here and there in the distance. Below him, he could see a chessboard. It had an unusual number of pieces on it. Only the black queen and five black knights were on one side, while a white king and a single white knight were on the other. Wenzel, who was fully conscious in this waking dream, could remember having had a very similar dream before. However, he didn't pay attention to where he was flying and entered directly into a thick cloud. This led him to the next vision.

  When the darkness cleared around him, he found himself in a very large room, so actually it was more of a hall. The floor and walls were all made of large, heavy stones, and everything was brightly lit through a number of large windows. A woman with long brunette hair was sitting against the wall far in front of him. She was chained there and had her back turned to him. "Hello, who are you?" the boy asked as he slowly walked towards her. Nothing came back from her at first, but when he tried to ask again, she whimpered in a low, tearful voice: "Help me, please! Get me out of here!" The boy immediately sprang into action and began to run in her direction. As he was getting closer and closer to her, he could see that she was a beautiful fairy. A fairy in chains. Although, he still couldn’t see her face. He ran and ran, but the room was huge and she was very far away. Suddenly, something fell on his head and he stopped abruptly. "Ding, ding, ding!" it tinkled behind him. The young man turned round and picked up a small coin from the ground. He looked at it in confusion. Cut! The dream was over and Wenzel was jolted out of his sleep.

  "What the ....," said Wenzel, talking to himself. He sat up in his bed. It was still pitch-black night. Now he had to think. What were these visions? He had already had visions that had shown him the future almost one-to-one, even if he didn't know when they would happen. But sometimes he also had cases like this one. Either it was some distorted image of the things that would happen, like a kind of parable, or it was a figment of his imagination with no meaning. The boy didn't know what to believe. "A black queen and five knights....... a fairy in chains....." He mulled over these things, but had no idea what they could mean. One day he’d know.