Lleidr was beginning to hate her false identity. With a couple of weeks in Bugail, three days on the open seas, and nearly a month now in the small coastal kingdom of Afon, she had been developing the Lady Alysien into the perfect lover and co conspirator for Glacien. Such a woman was dutiful before she was intelligent, was led by her heart and not her head, was capable of great things but needed someone else to do them for. None of these resonated with Lleidr as a person. Worse yet was having to keep a set of beliefs in her head that were entirely contrary to her own, simply so her own reactions did not betray her.

She returned to the room she had been given in the Palace of Afon one night, at least satisfied that she had begun to make progress after Glacien had started to discuss Tir Cyfoethog. She did not yet have enough heart proof that King Herotus would feel compelled to expel Glacien rather than face the armies of the empire, and while there was no real way that Afon's military might could defeat the Empire, a war with this kingdom could still prove to be a costly one.

Her duties with the House of Jade called to her, but unfortunately she knew enough now to consider Glacien her priority. She could not turn back to what she had done. Yet she ached to put her old training and her skills to use…

Hm.

Could that be her solution? Could that be how she pushed him to the reveal she needed?

She drew her travelling valise out from the chest in which she had stored it. Opening the hidden compartment was a complex operation; it required dextrous hands capable of spanning great distances thumb to little finger, it required the ability to apply strong pressure with a single digit, and she had to impart a little of the mystic energy that was the birthright of the House of Jade to get the lock to open correctly.

This done, she drew out the few items she had brought from her favourite kits. A thin pair of gloves, enchanted both to grip more firmly and to allow the wearer to feel what they touched as clearly as if there was nothing between finger tip and surface.

A long roll of black cloth, which could be wrapped around her body and pinned in such a way as to appear less suspicious in shadows than a block of black darkness alone would, the taut muscles and tan skin of her body providing natural looking fluctuations in the quality of light.

A belt, artfully constructed of blackened metals by the artisans of her House which contained a set of picks, a hook, some fine antique elven rope and a small piece of well shaped diamond, sharpened at one point.

She stripped down, discarding the elegant purple fripperies that had been all she had associated with the Lady Alysien, And began to wrap herself in the black cloth. She had her eyes closed throughout the process partly because she did not need to see what she was doing due to long habit, and partly because her attention was on revising Lady Alysien in her head, in order to be able to justify this once it was presented to Glacien.

With that done, she donned the gloves and fastened the belt around her waist, then she walked directly to her second floor window stepped onto the window sill, and sprang outwards, twisting and planting her hands against the wall to begin her climb.

From long habit, she had memorised all of the layout of the palace that her status as a guest had allowed her to learn. It was second nature to her to move about the walls according to the plan in her head, slithering around the windows. This being near dusk, she was not expecting many people to look out of their window and see her, but she would hope that the shadowy effect of her clothing would hide her from a casual glance in any case.

That serving girl of his, the one with the familiar face, gave a start on seeing her appear. No surprises there - in Lleidr’s experience, It was far more worrying if someone wasn't surprised to see someone enter their room through the window.

“Is your man present?”

“Uh - not yet, my Lady. Can I... offer any assistance?”

She feared for him If this was as good a confidante as he had. “Offering assistance,” she said, “ is exactly what I am here to do. And I am sure that my assistance will be of more value than yours.” She had decided that the Lady Alysien, with her talents revealed, would also adopt a little of her own pride, if only to reduce her own frustration at being trapped in the role.

There was a shocked look on the other woman's face, and for a second Lleidr thought perhaps that she finally recognised her, but it was impossible. There was no way that Ceidwad would have asked her to Snoop on Glacien and continued her own surveillance. She wouldn't commit to the House of Sapphires owing the House of Jade a favour if she were doing the task herself as well. “As… As you say, my Lady.”

Lleidr threw herself dramatically into the room's chair And affected a careless pose, just as she felt the Lady Alysien would do in these circumstances. She settled in to wait for Glacien, who she could not imagine would be long. The serving girl continued to bustle about the room, but while Lleidr would have kept careful note of where the one was, Alysien could not. She had already established the woman was beneath her notice.

A few moments later there was the clink of a glass stopper being removed from a decanter. A drink being prepared for her lord, no doubt; she almost demanded a glass for herself, but decided that was a little too far for who the Lady Alysien was.

She crossed her legs and leaned back in the chair, trying to find the most immediately arresting pose her seating would allow her before Glacien arrived.

She felt a patter on her head, sudden sprinkled light impacts as if she were outside and it had begun to rain.

Except, of course, she was inside, which occurred to her only after she had reflexively frowned, her nose wrinkling, and she had reached up to touch her scalp and see what the fact of the matter was.

Before her hand rose level with her jawline her vision was swimming. Her scalp tingled and the tingle seemed to extend down below the scalp into her head, into the very brain itself. She sucked in a deep breath, realising suddenly that magic must be in the air, wishing that her magic was not the illusory magic of the House of Jade nor the emotionally charged magic of the House of Sapphires but rather the defensive magic of the House of Onyx.

Lleidr opened her mouth to curse, but it was the Lady Alysian who found herself lost for words, then, when the door opened and glassing entered, quelled the outrage in her face and set her features determinedly in a cooing, adoring smile instead.

“Glacien, my love,” she almost purred. “I realised after our last conversation that I needed to be more forthright about how I can help. Perhaps we could discuss your plans and find what place there is in them for a new betrothed?”

*

Captain Tundryl had spent the last few months getting used to The presence of a woman in his courses. It was amazing to him now soft and welcoming Captain Paffiwr had become, and on the few occasions she still donned her armour for patrols, it was baffling to him that nobody seemed to see that she no longer held herself as a warrior. She had now grown out her hair, over the past year and a half, sufficiently long that she could no longer fit her helmet over it.

For all intents and purposes, her regiment was now his, added into the strength of his force. There were still a few older troops in hers who did not recognise his authority , and he would from time to time send Paffiwr to speak to them directly. He thought privately that these might be the only ones who did recognise the real change in Captain Paffiwr, other than himself.

The former pride of the House of Rubies still carried the muscle that she always had, still had scars in the same places, but her hair was growing longer and was better cared for and kept cleaner than ever before and as time went on, her body softened to the touch, her curves swelling in pampered luxury.

He delighted in any time they had in private where he might swoop down upon her, running his hands over her body, glorying in the transformation before him. And if the physical transformation was worthy of note, the personal transformation seemed vastly more so.

You did not achieve the kind of stature and respect in the Guard that Paffiwr had without a strength of will and a willingness to make decisions.

Decisions could be a challenge, as someone would always be upset with any choice you made, but Paffiwr had also understood that somebody would be pleased by the same decisions - and had recognised that the one thing you could not get away with was not to make a choice at all.

Hers had all been driven by either the stability of the empire or the glory of her House, but now any decision she took was made in view of what it would do for her beloved Tundryl who she seemed to regard less as a lover and more of the full bodied devotion of a hound for her owner.

A year and a half after he first received a letter from Princess Ceidwad, Captain Tundryl wrote to let her know that if Glacien were to arrive in the capital, the guard would be at his side.

He set it aside for delivery and sat back, wondering how long it would take to reach them. From what little he'd been able to learn, for they were no longer in Bugail, and his letter would need to be forwarded through whatever regions they had travelled.

“Can I help you with that, my Captain?” Paffiwr asked. Her hand came gently from behind to rest on his shoulder, and her other hand slid from his upper shoulder down to his chest, fingertips curling against him, the nails that had never been allowed to grow long because they interfered with her gauntlets now long enough to scrape deliciously against his skin.

“It will need to be on its way today,” he said.

“I will see that done for you.” He turned his head to look at her, smiling, and met her eyes alight with desire affection and devotion. She lowered her head to his, their lips meeting and opening in a passionate kiss.

“I know you will,” he answered. “As ever, you are a perfect helpmeet for a busy man.”

“I try to be, my Captain,” she said, and it was as close as Paffiwr ever got to accepting a compliment now. Deference had become her way; she wielded it as a tool of arousal in his presence, and almost as a weapon in other situations. Nobody could penetrate her new humility.

“I should tell you,” he said. “The letter is ultimately for Glacien. On his return, I will lead the Guard in his service, and the House of Onyx will return to the throne.” He studied her eyes. “I should like your opinion on this.”

“Of course, my Captain,” she said guilelessly. “What should you like my opinion to be?”

Tundryl smiled again, and pulled her close for another kiss.

*

Alysien woke beaded in sweat and shivering. She had had the dream again.

In the dream, she was a spy. In the dream , her skill at climbing had not been built up as part of her noble training, in case it should ever be needed, but rather in the service of crime. In the dream, she despised Glacien. She was somebody else.

The dream came less and less often. It had been some weeks since the last recurrence. There had been a time, shortly after she and Glacien first were truly honest with each other, where she had the dream each night. She was so glad that it had begun to fade, and more grateful still that she had not woken her love Glacien crying out as she often had before.

She slipped out of bed and made her way into the larger room of their suite, where her distracted movements would not disturb her lover.

Instead, she woke their servant Ceidwad. The short-haired serving girl was often to be found sleeping just outside their room, on days when Glacien did not take her into their bed; Alysien knew this was something she should have kept to, but Glacien enjoyed his serving wench so much and Alysien loved him so deeply that she could deny him nothing.

He had spoken to her, the previous week, about the plans he had for an imperial wedding once he had returned to power. She was excited for the changes he would bring, and for the marriage of her noble house to his. The House of Onyx would absorb her house, in her person. It was only right.

“Are you unwell, my Lady?”

Ceidwad, who Alysien now understood as another fled noble, serving Glacien as the heir to the House of Onyx, was always soft spoken at these times, but seemed genuinely solicitous. They had clashed, at one point, when Elysian had seen the other woman as a threat because glossy and relied upon her, but she had come to realise that if it were not for the serving girl Glacien might never have realised that his destiny was to retake the throne of Tir Cyfoethog. Her support, it seemed, had kindled in him an understanding of what he might achieve and how much he would enjoy owning in truth what was his by right.

“Thank you, no.”

“Pardon my insolence, but is it the dream again?”

She nodded. You could hide nothing from Ceidwad. The wench rose and crossed to a low table on which she kept her master's shaving things, her mistress’ perfumes, and some few other bottles containing valuable alchemy. Elysian listened in relief to the clink of a heavy glass stopper coming out of a glass decanter, and watched Ceidwad pour five drops from the decanter into a small goblet she kept nearby at all times.

Alysien drank down the draught, feeling the magic within it seep from her tongue and throat into the rest of her body. Already, the dream was fading away, and Alysien felt more herself.

“Don't worry, my Lady,” the servant said. “I'm sure the nightmares will go away for good before too long.”

*

Months after all the pieces have been put into place, Captain Tundryl instructed his obedient lover to dress herself in courtly garb, which she had in any case come to prefer to her armour, especially as she had noticed how much Tundryl appreciated the way low cuts or tight tucks revealed her form, and pay a call upon her old friend princess Awydd Of the House of Gold, the second in line to the throne of the Empire as all currently stood.

Awydd and Paffiwr had always been an unusual combination, but while Paffiwr had been brought up in the great traditions of the House of rubies, Awydd did not seem much like many of the House of Gold. She had apprenticed herself early on as a battle mage, and had even spent some time travelling anonymously with a small group of adventuring heroes, and as such she and Paffiwr had always got on quite well.

Paffiwr obeyed her Captain, of course, and from visiting with Awydd she brought the conversation around, seemingly quite naturally, to the Baths of Maldod.

Awydd looked at her cynically for a long moment, and asked “ is this why so many strange stories about you have reached my ears in this past year?”

“Forgive me, Princess, but it surely cannot be a year since we have last spoken.”

“It has.”

“Then I must beg your pardon; but equally, I must beg you to see what it is that has kept me so interested and so occupied, even though far from your side.”

Awydd studied her in silence for almost a minute before nodding. “As it happens I have held membership of my own at the Baths of Maldod for some years. Unlike you, I did not have to be persuaded into it,” a lip curled in a smirk, “by some and jumped-up peasant lover.”

Needless to say, Captain Paffiwr blushed a fetching crimson. Awydd laughed, but clapped her old friend on the shoulder. “By all means, since now you have seen sense, let us enjoy ourselves at the Baths, and you can tell me there all of the things that I should have been hearing for the past year and more.”

*

Awydd and Paffiwr therefore were both in the baths and occupied throughout the commotion which naturally arose once someone recognised, returning to the city, Glacien accompanied by a member of the House of Jade. Even then, with her locks shorn close, Ceidwad was not recognised by onlookers.

Nor did the most magical and promising scion of the House of Gold have easy access to those items she had enchanted with her magics, those being stored carefully away by the attendants.

The Guard, led by Captain Tundryl, marched immediately upon the homes and offices of multiple functionaries in the Empire, and at each stop the inhabitants were challenged to pledge their allegiance either for the Empress or for Emperor-in-Exile Glacien.

He was very efficient in detaining or restraining those who got the answer wrong. Swiftness, he considered, was of the utmost importance. Swiftness might allow them to bring this off of an absolute minimum of bloodshed and to Captain Tundryl that was the most desirable way this could go.

Glacien, Alysien, and Ceidwad by contrast made directly for the Imperial Palace. As they went through the streets, more and more of the citizenry realised what was happening. Not all of them, by any stretch of the imagination, but a significant number paused what they were doing to follow along.

Soon there was a significant body of men and women moving towards the palace in the wake of the returned emperor in exile. From time to time, Ceidwad would reach out with her magics, bathing those following in an enchantment they had no reason to suspect. Dedicate yourselves to Him.

Singing broke out. In years to come, many songs would be written in noble language, following beautiful melodies, and each of them would have the claim made that this had been the song song by those who bore Emperor Glacien into office. In truth, the story was much less beautiful. These songs began as crude chants which, when sung by enough people at once, began to take on some level of melody simply by the number of voices raised in harmony.

Glacien came face to face with the Empress, his small horde following along behind him. The two stared at each other for a long time before Glacien spoke.

“You occupied my place for years,” he said. “We both know that you fought and bargained for the right to do so, and we both understand what my presence here means. Beside me, you see representation from the House of Sapphires and from the House of Jade.

“Behind me, you see the will of the people, and the will of the people is mine. I see no reason to kill you or your family, as you did mine, so long as we can have an understanding about this. Do you accept that I am here not to negotiate but to present you with the simple truth of the matter?”

It is sad that the Empress simply bowed her head and walked out of the throw room, out of the palace, and on down to the docks where she in her turn took ship to another realm where she would live out the rest of her life, and which she contrived by a expedient marriage to rule within three years. The truth, though more complicated, ends in much the same way.

*

Deep in the caverns of the Baths of Maldod, Captain Tundryl led a handpicked group of his men to the rendezvous he had arranged. They were prepared for resistance, though the captain did not expect any to actually materialise. They eventually found the Gold Princess securely trussed, bound and gagged against her own magic, having been firmly betrayed by Captain Paffiwr on Tundryl's orders.

Paffiwr, for her part, did not look even remotely guilty, being as she was massaged by her favourite attendant. Her expression betrayed the bliss of a pampered toy without any qualm of conscience.

The guards extracted Awydd without Captain Paffiwr even noticing, so deeply focused was she on the way the attendant’s touch made her feel.

Awydd was taken through the streets up to the palace, where she was eventually brought into the throne room. There were, now, many fewer people in the throne room than there had been when Glacien made his way in. Present was Glacien, Ceidwad, Tundryl, and Alysien, who was now referring to herself, a confused expression on her face, as a representative of the House of Jade. It was obvious to her that as a foreigner to these lands she had no right to represent them, but she was beginning to find people in the palace who treated her as if she was a long standing member of the House.

“She will try to fight back of course,” Alysien said, glancing awkwardly to Ceidwad. “Can you overcome her resistance?” It was the last point in Glacien's plan where she hadn't been entirely certain that it would work.

“Let me worry about that,” Glacien instructed. Alysien immediately subsided. “Captain Tundryl,” he continued, “Your presence is not required for this next part.”

Tundryl looked cautiously at them all, but left the room without protest.

Ceidwad and Glacien manhandled the restrained woman onto a low bench intended for servants to sit quietly during important sessions, such that they might be given instructions quickly and easily. Glacien then took up position at the lower end of the captive, and took hold of the restraint that bound her ankles together.

He lifted up her legs while Ceidwad moved into position near her head. With the woman having been abducted from within the Baths of Maldod, there was no clothing to get in the way. He gently parted her thighs just enough that he could ease his cock inside.

That was a squeal of protest from Awydd but almost as it started, Ceidwad was casting, her hands either side of the captive's head, with no need to hide what she was doing. She was simply pouring all of her power into the woman's will, while Glacien braced himself against her legs and began to fuck.

From Awydd’s perspective, It was as if there was a two-pronged assault on her mind, and on her free choice of allegiance. Pouring into her through the crown of the head was a nonstop barrage of magical impulses pushing her to support the House of Onyx and the returned Emperor over and above the woman she thought was still Empress, her mother. Flooding her from her pussy, her sensitive inner thighs, and as Glacien and an emboldened Alysien brought their hands to bear, her breasts and the soft, welcoming skin of her sides. Alysien leaned forward, stooping her head and planted a row of kisses just above their captive’s collarbone.

Awydd rapidly found herself a quivering, shuddering, blessed-out heap who likely could not have brought herself to move her limbs even if they had not been restrained, simply because of the overwhelming combination of pleasure and enchantment.

I need to resist, she thought, but the more the trio went to work on her the harder it was for her to remember why she needed to resist. And without a good motivation, it was hard to stay stubborn. She stopped fighting before she realised she had stopped fighting, and by the time Glacien came inside her, she had been flooded enough and overwhelmed enough by the three of them that she was enjoying what was happening to her, could think of no good reason not to simply let go and enjoy, and, in consequence, she came mere moments after he had.

*

There were multiple proclamations issued from the Emperors Palace on the night the Interregnum ended. Glacien took care to be flanked by Ceidwad, Alysien, Paffiwr and Awydd for each public appearance, with everybody but Ceidwad clad in noble garb, Alysien and Paffiwr’s long locks cascading in ways poets and artists would refer back to for a century. It was made clear, nonetheless, that these were not pronouncements purely from the Imperial throne, nor were they made solely by the House of Onyx.

There were representatives here from all five major noble houses, and with word that the Empress had left the nation without a fight, there were two potential imperial claimants at the time. One was Glacien and one was Awydd.

The first announcement made was that the returned emperor was expanding the imperial prerogative. In consequence, a reigning emperor could now take multiple wives and an order of seniority might be determined within the family, but was not relevant to the question of inheritance. The emperor’s earliest born child would take the throne unless another was formerly named heir beforehand.

This pronouncement provoked a great deal of conversation and speculation, some of which was immediately answered when Glacien announced his upcoming wedding to Alysien, representing the House of Jade and also to Awydd, representing the House of Gold and the other claim to the throne.

There would be political struggles for years to come with a House of Jade who knew Alysien's real identity, but could not publicly speak up to accuse the emperor of erasing the memory of a woman he had gone on to marry.

Instead they simply looked for every other opportunity to upset the status quo at least until Alysien frustrated by this behaviour from a house with a connection to her she did not understand, took up her own tools in order to find ways to silence them in return.

The House of Rubies retained its primacy in the military, chiefly due to General Tundryl marrying into the House, and the House of Sapphires quietly thrived through the diligent efforts of the emperor's maidservant.

Both greatly reduced, the House of Onyx and the House of Gold were formally merged by marriage, and those nobles of Gold who had not chosen exile along with the former Empress found themselves artfully placed in a position where the emperor's success was their own, and so they could not work against him.

One edict that was the source of much speculation for almost a decade afterwards was the annexation of the baths of Maldod into Imperial ownership. Staff were vetted and overseen by Awydd and by the wife of General Tundryl, And memberships were something given out by the Imperial family as a reward for great achievement or for signs of great promise within individual citizenry. The former owners and operators of the Baths were never seen again.

The Emperor's firstborn, a young woman called Koufa, Was sent to Bugail in her late adolescence. She spent several years there, finally marrying the son of Duke Mortin.

Their accession to the throne 30 years afterwards would precipitate a time of great social upheaval in the Empire - an empire which had greatly grown following strategies developed by Ceidwad, Alysien, Paffiwr and Awydd, who became known while acting in this role as the Veiled Alliance - But, of course, here I am telling you nothing you do not already know.