[M] A Queen's Gambit

1 AD, August 8th

An ashen haired woman stood upon the walls of her keep. She looked outwards at thick dark marshes, the namesake of her kingdom. Schwarzmarch, it was considered one of the military centers of the world. Her soldiers were well trained and below in the courtyard were more sparring with one another and going over drills. On the walls guards patrolled but they kept their distance from her. Queen Isilde valued her privacy. She was dressed for battle in her famed fluted armor. It was famed as one of the most meticulously crafted suits of armor in the world. She'd survived many battles donned in it.

Her gauntlet clad hands rested on the edge of the waist hide stones of the edge of the walls. She had left her helm on a barrel beside her. Isilde's eyes were drawn towards the East and to the North. From here she could see the mountain ranges separating them from the Dominion. The queen had received a strange message and was awaiting the arrival of someone. Some sort of shadowy figure was to arrive to speak of important matters. A possible oracle. Standing where she did she waited, armed at the hip with a sword in a gold lined scabbard.

In the corridors of Castle Schwarzmarsh, a young, sweet-faced girl in a pretty dress flirted with a smiling paige. With a coy smile she moved past him, tracing her warm fingers across his arm as she did so, before rounding a corner. Her form rippled, and now she was a grim-faced knight in steel armour, who looked ahead sternly as a pair of guards moved out of their way to avoid him. He briskly climbed a set of stairs up onto the keep's battlements, giving a nod to an archer on patrol as he did, and stepping out onto the wall. Dark hair, beginning to grey, fell nearly to Sir Heinrich Wolf's shoulders, and his armour was enameled the colour of smoke. A longsword hung at his hip, and as he glanced up at the Queen of Schwarzmarsh, aloof on her battlements, the knight cleared his throat and stepped toward her.

"Your majesty. Forgive me for keeping you waiting." He gave a bow, as low as he could manage in the glamoured armour. "I trust you received my letter?" He maintained a comfortable distance, not wishing to give off any impression of threat.

Her head did not turn to meet him. Instead she continued to look outwards. Down in the streets of the city gallows had been set up. From them were hanged bodies with legs that swayed back and forth. Around them people did business in the square and acted as if all was alright. It was a reminder of the mercilessness of Isilde. As a queen she had always ruled harshly and efficiently. She raised a hand and waved half of her hand using mainly her fingers to call him over. "Yes. Speak your business. Then I will decide your fate."

Sir Heinrich moved to approach the queen. She did not fear an attack. That was unsurprising, considering her reputation. If the tales were to be believed, she was more deadly than any assassin could ever be. "You may call me Sir Heinrich Wolf, your majesty." He said loudly, as he looked to the gallows in the streets below.

"But the truth is, I am no knight." He said more calmly. "I am, in fact, a leader of the Deathborne armies. The undead legions who are preparing to conquer this land." He smiled quaintly. "You could try to kill me now, but I'm afraid that would just result in neither of us making any progress. As it happens, I've come to negotiate. Word has reached my ear that you are quite the cunning schemer."

When he brought up being Deathborne there was no surprised on her face, in her eyes. "I know. it was easy to deduce. Mortals don't approach me as you do. Only one who doesn't fear death would." She motioned towards the gallows below. "I apologize for the display. You may recognize the messenger. He delivered me the letter, he broke under torture quite well. Though we learned little from him, other than that he desired death. What did you, Deathborne, tell him to convince him of that?" She paused to let him speak then went on. "I suppose it doesn't matter, I granted him his precious death. As for being a cunning schemer, I must not be a good one if it has reached your ears no?" The queen looked straight down. "I could throw you right from these walls. Are you trained in armored grappling? I have been since birth. Don't take my musings as threats, I am interested in what you have to say. All the same, you are an alien entity to me. And I like to think aloud."

Arael's eyes glinted in the sunlight, but his expression remained completely dispassionate as he watched the man swinging from the gallows. "I could show you, your Majesty. But I fear your subjects would not take kindly to the dead rising in the streets." He shrugged, and his hungry gaze scanned the civilians, going about their business like so many vermin. "And I would not worry about that. My hours, for the last several dozen years, have been divided between the study of magic, and the study of foreign lands. Unlike most, I have certain... unique ways of gleaning information. There is little that has not reached my ears."

The lich seemed completely unmoved by the queen's vocalised thoughts. It was a pleasure to hear something of her thought pattern. "I have an offer for you, Queen Isilde. I know of your prowess, of your ruthless intellect. I know of the way you fight. Hardly honourable, to kill a mounted knight with bullets, but effective all the same. And I know of the enmity between yourself an Richgarde, disgarded for a common goal... but times change, no? And with them, so too do the loyalties of men and women."

The armoured man's fingers drummed against the pommel of his longsword. "I came because I thought you might see the advantage in becoming an ally of the Deathborne. To betray the King Richgarde of Tidren, and rally your people against him for a single purpose. To become the High Queen of the Southern Kingdoms, forever and always."

Finally Isilde turned to face him. "So you have a deeply embedded spy network. And you say lands, plural. Meaning not just mine but more, all of ours more than likely. I've noticed a cult like fanaticism in the one I've met. It is early to draw conclusions but you have a cult of undeath spread about the lands don't you?"

In the blink of an eye she burst into action. She grabbed Arael by the upper part of his breast plate and placed her leg behind the crook of his knee. Without much warning other than the early threat he was partially dangling over the side of the walls. Below him was a long drop his bones would be shattered by. "You are a weaver of lies and a planner, I see that now. You don't know how to physically fight do you? A weakness I detest. Your magic will it save you here? I've heard of many having flight, but do you? I suppose it doesn't matter in the end. You don't care if you die."

She didn't release him and kept him in this precarious position. "You want me to ally with the Deathborne. What do I have to gain. Soldiers, resources, land? Your offer seems ill thought out. To be High Queen I need the support of others not their ire. And to be queen under the Deathborne? Just trading one tyrant for another. Tell me then, what possibility I have to rule your little island? That intrigues me far more." Her cold eyes stared into Arael's. "I do not serve, I dominate, and I am the ruler here. Never forget that."

He was playing a dangerous game. Walking the line between control and rebuke. As she seized him, his body made no respone, instead his mind flashed the processes of spellcasting, prepared to cast Ethereal Stride on himself should he be dropped. From his place, loftily hanging from the battlements, Arael only smiled at the queen. No fear displayed on his face. "Quick, aren't you? Both on the uptake, and on the draw. But come now, do you really think I would have met with you in person if I thought you could kill me?" He stared at her intently. "Break them into submission, Isilde. With our support, the High King will fall easily before you. The Southern Kingdoms are doomed either way, but I am giving you a chance to fight for the correct side." He chuckled coldly. "Domination interests you? That is good. I have no interest in ruling. But in return for your services, I could make you immortal. I could make you a vampire, or a standard Deathborne, if you'd prefer. Why live for a few short decades, at the hand of High King Richgarde, when you could become eternal queen of the world? I don't offer you the Southern Kingdoms. I offer you Mersus. I offer you the Empire. I offer you the lands of the barbarians. I offer you all. If... you're willing to take one little step. It does not matter to me who rules the Deathborne. I simply wish to watch the world burn."

"An offer that interests me more. I shall rule the Deathborne and this world then. Your deal is accepted. You may now leave." Rather than let go she followed through on her move and flipped Arael over the side of the wall and down towards the streets below. She didn't watch him fall and instead returned to looking at the black marshes. Arael was left to use his spell and escape. Her intentions were left an unclear gamble.

**