Long Live The Princess

Chapter 6: Control

"The country is going to wake up in a few hours and hear that their capital and its Castle were infiltrated by traitors seeking to kill their Crown Princess. We need to be out there, controlling the story, before it gets out of hand."

Halt had taken control of the conversation where Crowley couldn't. Pauline, in turn, sat beside him and asked just the right questions and made just the right remarks when her husband too needed a moment to gather himself. Arald and Rodney sat around the table too, still coming to grips with what had unfolded on the Castle grounds in the last 48 hours. Their troops - reinforcements come too late - had arrived a few hours ago and were assisting the remaining nobles in regaining order in the Castle. Horace had positioned himself behind Cassandra, the wound in his side and on his head finally properly cleaned and bandaged. She leans against him now, as comfortably as the baby inside her allows her to. Will and Alyss dote around them, moving pillows and ensuring an endless supply of cold and wet cloths.

"They didn't touch the Crown Princess. Didn't harm her," Halt continues. Cassandra, her head the clearest it has been in hours, is inclined to disagree.

"They killed my father."

Halt opens his mouth to say something, but someone else decides to jump in instead.

"Cassandra, listen to me."

It's the first time Alyss has addressed her, as far as Cassandra can remember anyway. The diplomat has spoken, of course, has passed her own share of orders, but never to her. Cassandra is reminded of that conversation in the mountains of Nihon-Ja, in the Kikori village, when she asked Alyss to be one of her advisors when the day came that she'd be Queen. The Courier seems to have adapted to her role quite quickly, and Cassandra cannot help but admire and thank her for it. The tall blonde continues.

"We need to control the narrative. Change it. Don't let the world know that the Red Fox Clan disrupted the natural course of succession. Don't let it know that they almost succeeded in harming the crown."

She's right, of course. Perfect, understanding, reasonable Alyss knows that Cassandra needs to tell the story of how she fought for her crown and kept it.

The crown.

Fight, Cassie. Fight.

The baby in her protests strongly when Cassandra stands up and faces the people in the room. Her father's closest friends and most trusted advisors. Her closest friends. And now her most trusted advisors, too. The strength in her voice is a lie and they know it, but it doesn't matter, because the world doesn't know. And it will never know, too. The world would never know exactly how much the Red Fox Clan had cost her.

"Send word to all the Barons and all the Rangers. Send word to whoever you can reach. Tell whoever will listen, tell the world, that the Red Fox Clan attacked the Castle in an attempt to take my birthright from me. Tell them that I am coming out unscathed. Tell them that the traitors achieved nothing. That they won nothing. That they have died and will die for nothing. Let the world know that by dusk, Araluen is putting a woman on her throne."

---

Fight, Cassie. Fight.