One of the nice things about having Severina along for the trip was how good she was at handling local bureaucracy.
Jadis kept an eye on the Seraphim as she politely talked with the mayor of Brightstone. A rather handsome half orc, half human man named Fisk, the town’s mayor was the sort of person who, while no doubt competent at his job, asked an excessively large number of somewhat repetitive questions. Jadis knew she would have had trouble being patient if she had been forced to talk with the man for more than a few minutes. Severina, however, navigated the conversation with aplomb. The paladin easily answered the mayor’s questions while also answering the questions of the rest of the prominent townsfolk who had gathered by the airship, all while keeping a calm and reserved demeanor that put the excited people at ease.
In a way, Severina was a sort of PR agent, Jadis supposed. A really sexy one, too.
“Do you know any of those people?” Jay asked Bridget as the two of them helped secure the wagon to the ground.
“Of course,” Bridget nodded. “I grew up here, so I know just about all of those faces. I still can’t believe Fisk is the mayor now, though. He’s a bloody wax pillar. He must have paid a lot of coin to get that position.”
“Wax pillar?” Jay tilted her head in confusion.
“Looks good, but melts under pressure,” Bridget half-whispered. “He’s not exactly a fighter.”
“Ah. Well, you haven’t been home in a while, right? Maybe he’s changed?”
“It hasn’t been that long,” the orc shook her head. “Two years now, maybe a little more? I don’t think he could have changed much in that amount of time.”
Jay hummed, not looking towards the man but keeping an eye on him and Sev through the gazes of her other two selves.
“You don’t think he’d have something to do with whatever is going on with your family, do you?”
Bridget frowned, shooting a glance towards the man, but slowly shook her head.
“I don’t know. Maybe? We still don’t know what that countess bitch is trying to pull. I don’t think anyone in the town would side with her on anything; no one likes her since she’s always feuding with Count Holtz.”
Brightstone, while certainly a larger place than Cold Brook, was still a relatively small community in the grand scheme of things. While disputes had to happen between the different people and families that lived in the town, Jadis was sure that the attitude would be the same here as it was just about anywhere else; namely, that the locals stuck together against outsiders. So unless someone had a major grievance against Clan Warsong, it was unlikely that anyone in Brightstone would be working with a known and reviled rival like Countess Voclain.
Jadis was still suspicious, though. Having spent a winter in Eldingholt, she had gotten a taste of just how convoluted the courtly intrigues could get. Brightstone wasn’t the capital, but that didn’t mean that people like Fisk or other social climbers couldn’t try to take advantage of a situation. It didn’t even have to necessarily be the mayor’s idea. He just had to be willing to go along with a plan someone else had approached him with. And if Fisk was, as Bridget had put it, a wax pillar, that moved him up on the list of people Jadis planned on taking a hard hand with.
Of course, that all depended on what the actual issue was. Bridget was right, after all. They still didn’t know what the countess was doing to harass Clan Warsong, just that it was some kind of legal dispute. It was entirely possible that Jadis was jumping the gun with her suspicion of the mayor. She really needed to sheath the edge to her attitude until it made sense to pull it out again.
Jadis let out three soft breaths from her varied selves. She was still wound up from her failure to protect Alex the previous night, she recognized. She’d been too casual, too carefree with her guard duty. Just because they were far from any of the frontlines of battle didn’t mean she could be so cavalier with her duties. If she was looking for an excuse, she could blame it on the fact that it had been months since she’d actually needed to stay on guard overnight, but that was a useless waste of energy. She’d made a mistake and that was the sum of it. Now she just needed to make sure she never fucked up like that again.
Jadis and her companions wrapped up securing the Behemoth after a few more minutes, then waited another five for Severina to finish her conversation with the mayor and townsfolk. When the Seraphim walked back over to join them, she rolled her cross-shaped eyes to show her frustration without being noticed by the people who were still standing around and gawking at the airship.
“I have negotiated a discounted fee for parking the Behemoth.”
Dys jolted, her face screwing up in surprised disbelief.
“He’s charging us for parking in the middle of an empty field? Really?”
“It’s town property,” Sev nodded. “That it is a field that has been left fallow for the year hardly changes the fact that it is still someone’s land.”
“That’s not unusual,” Aila added calmly. “Caravans always have to pay to shelter their wagons inside town walls. Even outside like we are, they usually charge a fee since the wagons take up space and the draft animals still eat the grass. We are outside the walls and we don’t have any animals, so the fee should be minor.”
“He is charging two oaks.”
“What!?” Aila yelped, her expression aghast. “That’s outrageous!”
“He was going to charge us four oaks,” Severina explained dryly, “for the disruption our unusual vehicle has caused as well as the burden of ‘standing special watch’ over said vehicle with the town guard. I talked him down.”
Once more, Jadis reversed her estimations. She really did need to take a hard hand with this mayor.
“Fuck that,” Bridget said. “We’ll just move the wagon to my clan’s land. We’ll have the space for it somewhere. I doubt we have any unused fields unless things have changed a lot, but we’ll figure it out.”
“That is also what I pointed out to the mayor,” Severina said. “To which he said that ‘we would be better served not parking our vehicle on disputed lands’ and further indicated that noble individuals such as ourselves should avoid entanglement with such troubles.”
“What did he say?” Bridget stared at Severina, her face turning a darker shade of green as she flushed with growing anger. “Disputed lands? What the bloody fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“From what I gathered,” the paladin started, “Countess Voclain is making a claim on territorial rights that involves the lands of your clan. He told me that—”
“Bridget! Bridget, is that you?”
Severina’s explanation was cut off as an unfamiliar woman’s voice interrupted them. While the townsfolk who had come out beyond the walls to stare at the airship were giving their group plenty of space, a young orc woman in a dress was crossing the field, waving at them. Or rather, waving at Bridget specifically.
“Bree?” Bridget said as her expression abruptly shifted from anger to recognition. “Bree! Gods, it’s you!”
With a happy shout, Bridget broke away from the group and rushed over to meet the apparently familiar woman. The two laughed and smiled in shared excitement as they hugged each other, though Jadis noticed that the woman was careful to turn her round belly away from Bridget’s armored torso.
Bree was a young orc, probably the same age as Bridget, if not younger. She was shorter than Bridget by about half a head and was definitely less muscular, a fact easy to see by her simple peasant-style wool dress. She had the same black hair and orange-speckled eye color as Bridget though, and when the two women turned to face the group, Jadis could see just how similar they looked when standing side by side. Bree had to be a family member, Jadis was sure, just as Jadis was sure that the woman was five or six months pregnant.
“Jadis!” Bridget said as she pulled the other orc closer to the group. “This is my cousin, Bree.”
“Nice to meet you, Bree,” Jay said as she grinned down at the wide-eyed woman.
“Yes! Ah, very nice to meet you as well!” Bree said, her voice higher pitched than Bridget’s but her words spoken in the same accent. “I’ve heard stories about you from Bridget and Addy’s letters! I, uh, didn’t expect them to be so literal!”
“Literal?”
“Well, when they said you were giants, I thought that was just an expression,” Bree blushed as she shrugged her shoulders. “Or an exaggeration?”
“I doubt anything Bridget might write in her letters would be able to exaggerate the truth,” Aila said as she stepped forward and offered her hand to the woman. “Hello. I’m Aila. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Jadis had to smile at the smooth way that Aila was able to take control of the encounter, smoothing over any bumps as she introduced Bridget’s cousin to the group. The redhead’s calm formality made it easy for Bree to meet the wide variety of personalities in Jadis’ group, making the whole event a lot less chaotic than it could have been otherwise. When it came to Alex, Bree was obviously apprehensive, far more so than Thea’s mother had been. However, Bridget had been writing to her family regularly since they had arrived in the capital, so the concept of a friendly Demon wasn’t wholly alien to the young orc. Weird and hard to believe, but at least not a surprise.
With introductions made and the airship secured, the group of women set out for the main road that ran through the center of Brightstone. Going through the town was the quickest way for them to get to Bridget’s family farm. Bridget and Bree led the way, with Severina, Aila, and Jay right behind them as everyone else followed closely behind.
As soon as they were on the road and out of earshot of the crowd that was still in the field, Bridget turned her head to look at her cousin.
“Alright, so what’s the bloody deal, Bree? Severina was just telling us that Countess Voclain is claiming territory rights on our land? What the fuck is that about?”
The pregnant orc frowned deeply, one hand resting on her belly while the other clutched a basket filled with bread against her side. Her dark eyes darted between Bridget and Severina, then up at Jay before turning back towards the road.
“Is that why you came back? To help us with this horse shite?”
“Yeah, it is,” Bridget nodded. “Of course I’m here to help! We all are. So what happened? Tell us what’s going on.”
Bree sighed and shook her head, her expression twisted up in a mix of anger and worry.
“It’s all about the border between Count Holtz and Countess Voclain’s lands,” Bree explained. “She’s made a claim that the border is wrong and that about half of our farmlands are actually in her territory, not Count Holtz’ lands.”
“Alright, that’s nothing new,” Bridget frowned and bit her lip with a short fang. “At least the border shit, anyway. She and Holtz are always going back and forth over border disputes. What makes this time any different?”
“This time, she has documents to back it up,” the orc woman replied. “Some old map that was dug up from some musty old archives or something like that. Apparently, the original treaty from generations ago says that the border between Count Holtz’ territory and Countess Voclain’s territory is drawn along the Smatterling Stream, at least at this part of the border.”
“Smatterling Stream?” Jay asked.
“That’s the stream on the far side of our farm,” Bridget quickly filled in. “Countess Voclain’s lands are on the other side of it. It’s mostly all forests on that side, a preserve for hunting, I think.”
“Right,” Bree nodded. “So, the stream is the border according to the treaty. But the map that was found is supposed to be from back when the treaty was written and it shows the stream in a completely different location!”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Aila frowned. “Unless the stream was diverted at some point in the past?”
“That’s exactly what the countess is arguing,” Bree nodded while wrinkling up her nose. “According to her, hundreds of years ago the stream was diverted by the Duke Messer of that time when he expanded the highway leading through Brightstone. Something to do with the bridge. When they changed the maps, they changed the border by mistake and it wasn’t caught by anyone at that time. But now that she has the original map, the countess is saying that it proves that all that land should be in her territory and under her control.”
Bree paused in her explanation as their group entered the town gates and they passed by the guards on duty. While under most any other circumstances Jadis would have been interested in sightseeing in Bridget’s hometown, the story that Bree was telling had her full attention.
“Count Holtz isn’t going along with this bullshit, is he?” Bridget asked as soon as they had walked a few yards away from the guards. “There’s no way he’d hand over that much land to Voclain’s control.”
“I’m not sure if he has a choice,” Bree said as she continued the explanation. “The dispute has been taken up to Duke Messer and Duke Poirot, and from what I understand the complaint is valid. I think both of the dukes have agreed that the line never should have been redrawn.”
“Perhaps,” Severina spoke up. “I will need to review the treaty. The validity of Countess Voclain’s claim will depend upon the wording of the treaty. However, if both dukes are in agreement, then that likely means that the countess’ interpretation is correct.”
“You know a lot about laws like that?” Jay asked Sev with a raised eyebrow.
“Of course,” the paladin nodded with her chin held high. “I will be a margrave one day. I have spent many hours studying imperial law so that I will be able to properly administer my lands when the time comes.”
“So, assuming she actually has a leg to stand on, does that mean the countess is going to take half of Clan Warsong’s farmland?” Jay asked. “It’s their land, isn’t it? She can’t just kick them off their property, can she?”
“That depends on whether or not Clan Warsong rents or is a freeholding household,” Severina looked at Bridget and Bree with a question in her eyes.
“Rent,” Bridget replied first. “We’ve been making payments for the land rights, though. I think we should be freeholders in another ten years.”
“Eight years,” Bree corrected. “It’s taken generations, ever since Grand Da Morley first brought Clan Warsong to Brightstone. He made a deal with the old Count Holtz back then.”
“Hm. That means that Countess Voclain could evict them if she so chose,” Severina murmured. “At least from the land that is within her newly reclaimed territory.”
“That’s not fair,” Jay exclaimed, her sensibilities outraged at what the Seraphim was suggesting. “How does she have the right to just take the land from them?”
“It would be her land,” Severina said with a frown. “No contract was ever made between her and Clan Warsong. From a legal standpoint, they would be trespassing. Yes, it’s a clerical mistake and no fault of the farmers, but the land would still belong to the countess and she would have the right to do with it as she wishes.”
“That’s garbage,” Jay shook her head. “Absolute garbage.”
“That’s not even the real problem,” Bree spoke up.
“How’s that?”
“The countess isn’t actually trying to kick us off the land,” Bree told them as her shoulders sagged. “She’s demanding payment for back taxes as well as for the payments made towards our ownership of the land. She’s arguing that since the land was technically hers, she should have been receiving payments for that land instead of Count Holtz. He’s refusing to give her anything, of course. So now she’s demanding that Clan Warsong has to pay if Holtz won’t. She’s taking us to court over it!”
“How much is she asking for?” Jay asked as her anger at the situation continued to grow.
“Taxes and payments from all the way back to when Grand Da first took over the farm.”
“That… would be a sizeable sum,” Aila murmured.
“It would fucking bankrupt us,” Bridget cursed. “I don’t think we’d have enough coin even if we sold all our weapons and armor. That’s sixty years of taxes!”
“Does she even have the legal right to make a demand like that?” Jay pointed her question at Severina.
“I don’t think so,” the paladin said slowly as she thought the situation over. “Well, perhaps. It depends on certain interpretations of the law regarding taxation. Requesting compensation for the use of land that rightfully belongs to her is perfectly legal. The responsibility should truly be falling on Count Holtz and Duke Messer, but I could see why both would rather push that responsibility off onto another party. The cost of covering sixty years of taxes would be a blow to anyone’s budget, especially now during a demonic invasion when most duchies are going to already be spending their treasury reserves on outfitting and arming soldiers.”
Jadis let out a groan of frustration. This was starting to sound like a real headache of a situation, and not the kind that she could put to rest by using her fists. Not that she wasn’t willing to try, but she doubted that she could just threaten violence to get her way. That was a childish way of thinking, in any case. Just because she was the strongest person in the room at any given moment didn’t mean that she should use that strength to bully others. Even if some of those people were fucking assholes.
No, she needed to handle this situation diplomatically. She didn’t want to make unnecessary enemies if she could help it. That was where Severina would be crucial, Jadis was sure. Eir was the daughter of a margrave and so had training in noble matters, but Severina had been enmeshed in nobility and law far more deeply and for much longer. She was a direct aid to the Second Prince, after all. Surely, she knew how to navigate sticky situations such as this.
Honestly, Jadis was tempted to try and bring the issue up before the emperor directly, but her previous experiences told her that for a non-emergency like this dispute was, it would probably be months before the emperor saw the case, if he even agreed to see it in the first place. That was what the magistrates were for, after all. Thinking about it, Jadis had an in with the new magistrate of the capital, Vraekae. The aloof elf didn’t have jurisdiction over this land, Jadis was pretty sure, but she could probably help pull some strings with whomever the local magistrate was. But that would likely still involve a lengthy and no doubt costly legal battle. Jadis wanted to avoid going to court at all, if possible.
“Well, it sounds like we’ve got our work cut out for us,” Jay sighed. “Hopefully we can get this crap resolved fast and without making any concessions to Voclain and her piece of shit cousin, Egilhard.”
“Egilhard?” Bree looked up at Jay curiously.
“Eh, we’ll explain later,” Jay told the orc. “When we talk over all this with the rest of your family.”
“He’s a bellend,” Bridget growled, her gaze heated as she stared at nothing. “And this is all his fault.”
“One question about that, actually.” Aila perked up. “Do you know the provenance of the map that points out the difference in the stream? Was it something that Voclain came up with on her own, or was it perhaps something she was sent? It could have been Egilhard who provided the map.”
“I don’t know about that,” Bree shrugged her shoulders. “I’ve never heard of this Egilhard before. What I heard is that a court mage from Hamarrholt found the map and sold it to Countess Voclain. Some woman named Leonore Gielgud.”
“I’m not familiar with that name,” Severina said after a few seconds of thought. “Though I admit I don’t often socialize with all of the many court mages in the various dukedoms.”
“Well, we should double check on where she got that map from,” Aila said firmly. “If this is all some ploy by Egilhard, it’s possible that the map is a forgery.”
“And if it is, I’ll be shoving that map right up that bitch Voclain’s ass,” Bridget said with absolute conviction.
“Bridget!” Bree exclaimed as she turned to look at her cousin. “You can’t say that!”
“Why not?” Bridget shot back. “I promise, I’m not joking.”
“I know, I believe you,” Bree nodded. “But she’s still a noble. Say you’ll shove the map up Countess Voclain’s ass. It’s only proper.”
“The definition of proper seems to have drifted in this part of the empire,” Severina mumbled under her breath.
287