Hohenfels – Chapter 44

The garden pavilion next to Schwarzwald Hall was a surprisingly cozy and secluded place, though perhaps Arne should have expected as much. If there was one thing House Tannburg was known for, it was hosting high profile meetings and negotiations that required a veneer of neutrality and a delicate touch.

Wooden lattice walls adorned with ornate carvings and blooming vines granted a sound-absorbing barrier for sensitive conversations, while still allowing bodyguards to keep watch from outside. The two House Guards Arne had brought along were doing exactly that, while he waited for the Schwarzwald princess to arrive. She was taking her time, but it was not yet at the point of being considered a rude power play.

Right when that was about to change, a well-dressed young woman rounded the corner of a neatly tended hedgerow. She was leaning on another, less impressively dressed lady on her right and an elegant walking stick on her left as she took careful, but determined steps towards the raised pavilion. About a dozen paces from her destination, she waved away the attendant, and kept approaching on her own.

Arne rose from his chair and stepped out of the pavilion and down the short flight of stairs.

“Good afternoon, Princess Charlotte. I am delighted to finally make your acquaintance,” he greeted with a measured bow.

“Good afternoon, Lord Arnold. The pleasure is mine,” she replied, curtsying with more elegance than he had expected from her bony frame. And bony she was indeed – Arne guessed she could not weigh much more than a peasant girl twelve years of age.

And yet, what shocked him most was her aura.

If Professor Nowak’s magic was pathetically weak, hers was barely extant. With every heartbeat, it seemed to lose more vigor, edging closer to nothingness right before his eyes. It was a distressing sight, reminding him of exhausted Knights dying in the field hospital after taking one too many injuries.

Blinking away the unpleasant memories, he offered Charlotte his arm to aid her in climbing the stairs, which she gratefully accepted. Even so, each step seemed to require significant effort on her part.

As he carefully led her to the table, he could not help but wonder why she had chosen this particular location instead of a more accessible one. Most aristocrats would go to great lengths to avoid being seen in a moment of weakness, but the Princess seemed to actively advertise it. Was it a strategy to make him lower his guard? Or perhaps, she wanted to subtly establish her trustworthiness.

Arne’s aura senses were not particularly useful here. He did pick up on a faint amount of curiosity, but the feebleness of her magic made it–

No. He would have never caught it had he not witnessed it before with Katharina, but Charlotte’s aura was surrounded by a familiar shell. A Tannburg family technique, perhaps? Possibly passed down to Katharina through her mother. Regardless, it spoke of significant magical expertise, and impeded his senses further. It would be best to start the conversation with topics requiring little conversational finesse, and delving deeper once he got a feel for the minuscule variations behind the shell.

“Thank you,” she offered with a smile as she gingerly sat down on the exquisite padded chair. Arne returned to his own, just in time for a servant girl to subtly move in and place various refreshments as well as delicate cups in between them. After filling them with expensive-smelling tea, she set down a large, steaming mug in front of Charlotte, and withdrew discreetly. As the vapor wafted over, he had to stifle his surprise. ‘Butter…?’

“My medicine,” the Princess explained, having noticed his inquisitive look despite his best efforts. She took the mug with an emaciated, shaky hand and drank from the thick concoction.

The effect was almost immediate. Her aura flared to life underneath the shell, and her hand did not tremble anymore as she set the heavy mug back down on the table. Whatever was contained within had to be worth a fortune in alchemical ingredients alone. A power play, perhaps? A blunt display of wealth?

“Much better,” she sighed contentedly. Amusement. Calculation.

His earlier guess had been entirely correct. She was performatively drawing attention to what ailed her, either to gauge Arne’s reaction or to shape his perception of her.

He decided to ignore the matter entirely. While that action – or rather, inaction – might tell her something about his character, being considered nosey or meddlesome seemed like the worst option here.

With a noncommittal smile, he took a sip of his tea. It tasted as… expensive as it smelled. It was flowery and smooth, with hints of various fruits lingering in his mouth. But for all its extravagance, there was no character to it, nothing to set it apart from the various luxury teas hailing from the far eastern Francian colonies. It was even less interesting than the commercialized Logrian products.

Content to observe Charlotte’s aura, he leaned back in his chair and let the uncomfortable silence stretch out while pretending to savor the uninspired brew. A wise approach, as it let him notice the gradual weakening of her magic. It drained away like sand from an hourglass; slowly, steadily. Meanwhile, her sharp gray eyes were taking his measure, until she spoke up.

“You have left quite the impression in a very short time, Lord Arnold. Your recent exploits are everything the residents of my dorm seem to be talking about.”

“I’m happy to hear that my name is making the rounds,” he chuckled, noting her repeated usage of ‘Lord’ instead of ‘Prince’. “Since my hand was forced in such an… unrefined manner, I had to make sure the occasion would be remembered. It seems I have succeeded.”

“You have indeed,” Charlotte giggled. “Few would dare to enrage Prince Ludwig. Even fewer would make such a spectacle of it.” Malicious glee?

“Oh, that was not my aim,” he half-lied. “Rather, I refused to ignore a repeated violation of my House’s honor, and responded appropriately. His rage is merely a result of his own unfortunate decisions.”

“Truly? Given my very recent arrival here, I find myself severely underinformed. Would you be willing to indulge a few questions of mine?”

Her waning aura did not give away much, but Arne had to assume that she was lying, at least to some degree. He would be deeply surprised if she hadn’t enjoyed multiple in-depth briefings regarding the situation. Still, it would not hurt to give her his own perspective on the matter.

“It would be my pleasure,” he agreed. “Ask away.”

“Thank you,” she smiled brightly, the expression turning her emaciated face almost attractive. “I can’t help but wonder how the entire mess began in the first place. I have only heard vague rumors of an eventful soirée?”

So she wanted to hear everything. He would have to be careful not to accidentally begin ranting.

“Ludwig and I had an encounter at said soirée, yes,” he confirmed, intentionally dropping the Sonnenfeld prince’s title in a breach of protocol. “I was engaged in conversation, and he decided to rudely interrupt for reasons I am not privy to.”

“Ah, that does sound like him,” she sighed. “Once Ludwig decides that his presence is required, he will spare no effort in making it known to all.” Derision.

“That certainly is one way to put it. I might have phrased it a little less laudatory.”

“Even less? I can scarcely imagine how low your opinion of him must be, then.”

“How could it be anything but, given his insistence on being irritating?”

Charlotte’s soft laughter suddenly turned into a pained cough, and she took another sip of her ‘medicine’. Again, Arne got to witness the nigh-miraculous effect it had on her magic, almost rivaling the prohibitively expensive stimulant the physicians had fed Friedrich after the disastrous fight in the arena.

“I imagine Princess Klara did not take well to the interruption, either?” she continued after collecting herself for a moment.

“I don’t believe so,” he said in a pointedly neutral manner. “I did not stick around for long, though.”

He felt a minuscule pulse of triumph emanate from her reinvigorated aura, but did not quite understand why. Was she interested in driving a wedge between Sonnenfeld and Eisengrund?

“And this encounter laid the foundation for the duel a few days later?”

“Quite so,” he confirmed. “Ludwig decided to interpret my parting words as an insult to his honor, and we resolved the matter with the sword.”

“I see. And what about Lord Leonhardt? I heard he was quick to challenge you as well.”

“That was an unfortunate misunderstanding, born from Ludwig’s ill-considered machinations. I’d like to believe there is no further bad blood between House Wessen and House Hohenfels.”

From what little he felt through Charlotte’s shell, she did not believe a word of it. Still, she nodded in faux understanding. “That is good to hear. I take it your much-discussed visit to Sonnenfeld Hall was merely an attempt at clearing the air, then?”

“Not quite,” he ‘admitted’. “That was certainly a part of it, but I mostly wished to return some of the irritation Ludwig caused me. With interest, for good measure.”

“You succeeded quite splendidly,” she giggled lightly. “From what I hear, he has barely left his chambers since that day.”

“Good. May he remain there until his temperament improves.”

Charlotte leaned in a little and lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “That might take quite a while.” Amusement. Scorn.

“I’m sure he will be dearly missed,” he grinned. The Princess was playing it up to gain his trust, but her distaste for the Sonnenfeld prince was delightfully real.

She smiled mysteriously and took another swig from her mug, emptying it. Moments later, the dutiful servant was at her side to carry it away.

“Speaking of temperaments, I heard some rather worrying rumors this morning. Did Princess Klara truly maim the poor Lady Katharina? I can barely believe she would commit such savagery.”

The sudden pivot to recent events caught him off-guard and he had to take a few heartbeats to collect his thoughts, masking his uncertainty by sipping on his tea.

“From what little I heard myself, it was merely a sparring accident,” he claimed, falling back on the evasive statement Katharina had offered him earlier. He had his own theories, but sharing them with the inquisitive Princess was out of the question.

“That is a relief,” said Princess chirped merrily. “I cannot imagine a man of your stature would take kindly to someone intentionally disfiguring your lover’s face.”

Arne nearly spat out his tea.

“...Pardon?”

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Dramatis Personae

Arnold “Arne” von Hohenfels:
Son of the Margrave of Hohenfels.
Utterly unprepared for this conversation.

Charlotte von Tannburg:
Daughter of the Duke of Schwarzwald.
Enjoys playing with her food.