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Knock Knock Knock.The knock on the door came just after seven thirty PM and I glanced up from the book I was reading in no small amount of surprise. There was one hell of a shindig going on across in the Royal Court right now and anyone who might have any interest in me was down there tonight while I brooded in my room, reading an unclassified intelligence briefing about the Arano Restoration the palace had arranged for me at my request.
Seriously, I could
really get used to having a hoard of people on hand ready to do your bidding on demand.
The report had finally
clicked with me that this region of the Inner Sphere had been the setting for the Battletech video game Kickstarter back home. Even if I could barely remember anything about it beyond the cool concept art and how
awesome the backer jacket was … that I would never get.
On the other hand I
was, you know, staying in Katrina Steiners palace on Tharkad … so I don’t think the people I had left behind who had jackets were really getting more than I was.
Still, it was a bit weird the more I thought about it. A video game still under development when I departed … was playing out in front of me in the Periphery. I mean ******, was one of these people I was reading about supposed to, from a meta ‘player character’ point,
me?!Mind. Blown. Hey,
new thought; I wonder if I could meet Jason Youngblood at some point...
Such mental conundrums were
excellent distraction for me, keeping me from thinking too much about what day it was. Christmas Eve celebrations were in full force across the capitol, having reached a peak in a massive carols by candlelight extravaganza in the Triad District. That would last for a few hours, with a ‘who's who’ of the Commonwealths singers lining up to sing songs, broadcast around the planet. The Archon had made a brief appearance at the start to set things off, but otherwise left it to the celebrities to carry this celebration from evening into night. All very touching ... and all hitting me where I really didn’t want to be hit.
It didn’t help that
everywhere I had looked outside my room it was Christmas Christmas
Christmas and so rather than explore the palace or anything I had, after Katrina and Hanse’s conference wound up, found as many things as possible to distract me. Distantly hoping perhaps that I could chain enough things together through the night to forget.
It had proven a little harder than I thought, as crazy as it sounded for me to distract myself being in the Battletech universe, a room (even a luxurious one like this) was still somewhat limited in what you could
do with it.
And after the Carrols finished and darkness started to fall, the commoners had moved onward to enjoy the final night of Christmas displays through the District before they were taken down for the New Year's Eve work to start. The nobility however, were otherwise occupied as Katrina was hosting the annual Christmas Eve soiree in the Royal Court; an event considered much more ‘casual’ and ‘informal’ than the massive New Years Eve ball scheduled for a week from now. It also held a focus on the local nobility and invited VIPs from Tharkad itself rather than the power-players from across the Commonwealth - at least in theory.
The presence of Hanse Davion as the Guest of Honor had, unsurprisingly, thrown
that ideal out the airlock with anyone who was anyone desperately gate crashing to rub shoulders with
two House Lords, something that didn’t exactly often since the Star League had crashed and burned.
And yet, it was
still all wrapped up in Christmas. Thus, I just didn’t want
anything to do with it. Locked up in this room, I could just pretend it
wasn’t Christmas Eve. And
pretend that somewhere in the multiverse, the ‘real’ me and all my family were
not gathering for the now traditional ‘watch the next generation go hyperactive as they leapt for the presents and ripped them open’ ceremonies...
But back to the here and now, with Ardan Sortek, Patrick Kell, Marshal Felnser, Dan Allard and his Father all down at the Archons shindig … it kinda begged the question of who the hell was knocking on my door?
Knock Knock Knock! Shrugging and deciding that the knocks implied they wouldn’t accept me ignoring them, I rolled off the bed and made my way to the door, having a very brief look in a mirror next to it to make sure I was at least presentable before opening the door.
And doing a double take as I found a teenager, dressed impeccably in what I had come to know as ‘Formal Event Court Dress’, standing outside my door with a quartet of suits who
screamed ‘bodyguards’ behind her-
“May I come in Mister Smith?” she asked and, without waiting for an answer, she swished past me into the room with a rustle of her long dress, followed by two of her bodyguards, leaving me standing there staring into the corridor beyond like an idiot.
Okay ... so now this
is happening.“Sure, come right in …” I muttered to the empty corridor before shaking it off and turning to follow my unexpected guest as she moved into the lounge room, making herself at home as her bodyguards did a perfunctory sweep before nodding to her and heading back out. Leaving me alone with her as I very slowly sat down on the chair next to her trying to get my bearings at this unexpected guest.
Melissa Arthur Steiner.
The only child of Katrina Steiner and Arthur Luvon. Archon Designate of the Lyran Commonwealth and, known only to a
very select group, the fiancé of Hanse Davion … was sitting in my room across from me.
Okay,
what the ******?“Shouldn’t you be across in the Royal Court, Lady Steiner?” I asked aloud, carefully, as the silence became deafening after five or six seconds.
“I did my work on the receiving line earlier” she shrugged easily, kicking off her heels and sighing -in full view of me- as she wiggled her stocking covered toes, making a content noise … and completely ignoring my incredulous stare at her
incredibly casual behavior.
I had never met her - never
seen her before in fact - and here she was, bounding into my room and acting like
this? … once again.
The ******?!“People are used to me dodging in and out of these events and, frankly, Hanse is drawing by far most of the attention this evening so it was surprisingly easy to slip out for a while” she continued as she put her feet back down, smoothing out her dress carefully, yet I got the impression her casual air was just that, a act she was putting on for my benefit.
Okay Princess, you want nonchalant snark? Lets do nonchalant snark I thought as I managed to regain some sense of balance and decided to lightly test the waters.
“So … you’re on a
first name basis with Prince Davion now?” I returned fire and was pleased to see it knock her back slightly, a flush passing across her face for a moment.
After all, I had no idea if she was ‘in’ on the-
“Jordan Weisman”
And boom, headshot! There is still
something fourth wall mind breaking about Melissa ******
Steiner saying that
name...“Well, that's direct enough” I muttered, abandoning my snark as I both relaxed
and tensed up, while Melissa's expression became almost impish.
That name was the current codeword for the compartment about
me, meaning perhaps unsurprisingly, she had been briefed by Hanse and Quintus and her use of it meant I was free to talk. “I hope both your mother and fiancé are aware you are here with
me, My Lady?”
“Call me Melissa” she insisted as she tilted her head slightly. “And of course, but why do you ask?”
“Call
me John” I returned the gesture before glancing down at the table we were sitting around and stuff all over it. “And it’s just a question of context. If, for example, either of them were to hear that you had walked into some mans room alone, unchaperoned with alcohol present
and left your bodyguards left behind, well...” I shrugged, extending my glance to the outer wall of the room with only slightly exaggerated suspicion. “Then the only question would be if the fist about to break through that wall is going to be attached to a
Battlemaster or a
Zeus”.
The younger (as in near
half my age) woman actually giggled lightly at that one as I continued to patiently watch the far wall … with some part of me not
entirely joking here...
“Relax John” she shook her head with a smile. “They know I came here
specifically to talk to you”.
“Okay…” I blinked, leaning back into the chair and
trying to relax as I asked the obvious. “Um, why?”
She seemed to consider that for a few moments before seeming to sigh and not
quite slump forward.
“You know, don’t you John, that until Hanse turned up here last week I had only ever met him once before?”
Well duh, it was kinda a huge plot point driving much of ‘Warrior: En-Garde’. Involving you indirectly putting a large number of people at risk and getting a chunk of others killed pulling your ass out of the fire I thought silently.
“Yes, on Terra, during the FedCom treaty signing” was all I said out loud, chiding myself after a moment for judging Melissa that harshly. Frankly, more blame needed to rest on her mother for not taking a
hell of a lot more care organizing the trip with appropriate precautions.
“When I was only twelve” she confirmed. “He was very nice to me, didn’t talk down to me and the whole thing was all sort of fairy tale and romantic” she said with a distant sort of smile on her face as she seemed to drift back to that momentous meeting. “I don’t think I really understood the sphere shattering consequences of that agreement then - not sure I even really understand it now. I was going to marry a man I had barely met and start an entire new dynasty that was going to change the history of the Inner Sphere. All these expectations on both of us and I had so little to go on about him, how we would make this actually
work…”I didn't offer any response as none seemed called for, simply waiting silently as she took a breath and continued, bringing her attention back.
“We sent messages back and forth and Ardan, bless him, told me so much about him when he was on Tharkad. All the private and secret things about a person you never find in the vids. And Mother did what she could … but this was still a man I was going to marry; a man I felt I barely even knew. Worse, only a handful of people actually knew it, meaning I had to deal with all the young men trying to court me and win my hand without giving the truth away”.
“For what it’s worth...” I said slowly as I tried to frame my thoughts in a way that wouldn’t sound insulting or condescending, “your marriage to Hanse Davion, from ‘my’ side of the fence’, noted those difficulties. The role you had to play, what was expected of you” I said causing Melissa to look up to me with an expression I couldn’t place, wordlessly encouraging me to continue. “I mean, Hanse Davion was the designated hero of the setting and
the only House Lord to
not talk about marriage with you as a prerequisite for any kind of peace ... yet he and your mother decided to try for it. Which left you, well …”
“Being sold off to a man two and a half times my age with
enormous peer pressure -for the best of intentions of course - to make it work regardless of my own wishes on the matter?” Melissa asked with a sort of sad smile that struck my heart.
“Essentially? Yes” I replied with a sympathetic smile back … and instantly found out that was the
wrong answer.
Oww!
What the… did … did she just
kick-
Ouch!Yes she did -
damnit! She just did it
again!
“So
you’re why Hanse was going out of his way to tell me that I
didn’t have to go through with the marriage” she accused me darkly as I rapidly slid down the lounge out of range, her glare tracking me and instantly making me regret said lounge wasn’t longer as I crashed into the armrest while she stood up, the goofy teenager nowhere to be seen and in her place nothing less than her mother's daughter.
Heimdall! Save me! Crazy Archon at twelve o’clock!“We spent quite a bit of time together over the last few days, the first two or three
hours of which I had to spend convincing he and my Mother that I really
did want to get married to him. Hanse seems to have gotten the impression from
someone” she grated with a
look that could have critted a
Dire Wolf, “that I might not
want to get married to him!”
Her glare seemed to double in intensity.
“
You seemed determined to ruin my wedding plans Mister Smith...” she said, her tone deepening ominously.
“For the record” I defended myself, words spilling out quickly as the clearly
pissed off young woman stepped around the table to glare down at me, fighting to keep
some composure as I found a way to return her gaze, “it all just came out of a conversation with Ardan Sortek noting that
hypothetically if you trusted Morgan Hasek-Davion’s loyalty, a match between the two formal heirs, you and he, would purely from a public sense make sense if …” and I let my rambling trail off as I saw her face was twitching.
Then the moment shattered
The cold Steiner winter promising death by frostbite vanished in an instant as she burst out laughing, covering her mouth with her hands as she was wracked with mirth. I stared dumbfounded as she flopped back down to the lounge next to me … and I realized she had just trolled the
hell out of me.
Melissa Steiner
had just trolled the hell out of me.Okay, I admit it, did
not see that one coming.
“You’re screwing with me” I deadpanned and her ear to ear grin answered
that question as I leaned back into the soft leather, closing my eyes and feeling my heart pounding in my chest. I gave thanks for the fact that my cardiovascular system was apparently in excellent shape according to the geeks at NAIS because honestly, I felt my stress levels were ramping blood pressure
right up every time a Steiner decided to talk to me here.
I opened my eyes again with some of my composure back, Melissa also having calmed down to be regarding me in a composed manner, if with a bit of a smile on her face.
“I was.
Mostly. But I … well …” she trailed off before taking a deep breath and meeting my gaze squarely. “I’m
here mostly because I wanted to
thank you, John. It meant a lot to me that you were willing to challenge Hanse on my agency in Federated Commonwealth accords” she explained as she gathered her impressive and no doubt incredibly expensive dress to sit down carefully next to me - and I’ll admit I felt
my face flush slightly at the sheer sincerity in her bearing before her expression shifted once again as she turned away to look off into the distance, her body language turning almost …vulnerable?
If nothing else it was the first time since she barged in that she actually looked to to be sixteen going on seventeen as she brought her hands together, clasping them tightly as if to steady herself. “Thanks to your little trip to Helm, Hanse and I had the opportunity to get together and talk. A
lot” she mused with a bit of a faint smile. “But only after he gave me the copies of your ‘Battletech’ books to read and a day to take it all in”.
“That must have been … something” I noted with sympathy and hidden shame - marveling that she was able to face me like this knowing full well that I had, after a fashion, invaded her most personal and private thoughts. “When Ardan Sortek, Quintus Allard and Prince Davion read just the first book I sent them as my, for lack of a better word, bonafides … well, Ardan told me later he went for the nearest bottle without even bothering to read the label”.
“Mother had a similar sort of reaction” she agreed, her smile turning somewhat wry as her gaze came back to me. “Hanse
insisted I read them -and some of your notes- before we talked. Saying that as they had let him see inside so much of my mind, I damn well deserved to see inside
his before we talked about the future. And after that, well, looking into the face of a person who had seen deeper into me than I would ever let alone … and looking into
his eyes and seeing behind ‘The Fox’ to the man I had read behind the legend? I don’t think I can
quite describe what that was like. But then, just like that, we started talking. And talking and
talking more and more about anything and everything. All of my masks, denials and excuses gone until suddenly it just hit me …” she trailed off, her gaze elevating to the roof for a moment … then back down to me … and I felt I would be lucky to get off with third degree burns from the fire blazing in her eyes now.
“It hit me right then, right there that
I wanted to take Hanse Davion’s hand, seize history by the throat and face down all the problems you warned us about and take up the challenge in front of me. To make things turn out better for everyone this time around” she said in a tone that left not even a Heisenberg Uncertainty worth of doubt that she meant what she said.
Then she paused and her expression took on more than a tinge of exasperation.
“And then, in that moment as everything was so c
lear, Hanse told me he would never force me into anything I didn’t want and he would absolutely and fully support me and Morgan-Hasek Davion if I wanted to look towards a union of the Realms in
that manner” she deadpanned before expelling air in a huff that said ‘
Men!’ without needing to actually say it.
“I take it you, uh, let him know how that proposal made you feel?” I felt very carefully, trying to avoid the glower being redirected at me.
Instead, at my question it faded away back to a smile. A happy, girly almost giddy smile as she shook her head, her eyes dancing.
“That’s the thing John … I didn’t
need to” she said in wonder. “I didn’t need to say a
thing. I just
stared into his eyes and he stared into mine. It must have been good, I don’t know, twenty seconds? Maybe a minute? We didn’t say a
word, not
one word - even my Mother kept absolutely silent, just watching us. But I
knew that I wanted this … and I knew that
he knew I did. And then” she said, her smile growing and the young woman seeming to almost want to burst, “he kept looking straight as me as he slid the chair back, came around the side of the table, got down on one knee in front of me and, well …” she trailed off as her hands untangled and she lifted her left hand up to show off -
“Jesus H
Christ, look at the size of that rock!” I spluttered in unabashed awe at the diamond sitting in pride of place on a golden band on her left ring finger.
I mean holy crap it was
huge, a diamond worthy of a Lyran Princess I suppose. Somehow capturing the rooms light, sucking it in and expelling it in a rainbow halo around her hand in an refraction effect I had never seen before ...
Clearly, the Neo-Feudal nobility of the Inner Sphere had
not let advanced jewelry fabrication technology fall into Lostech if they could make that!
“So, uh, did you say yes?”
Kick.I’m totally gonna have a bruise there tomorrow for sure. But even so, this time the kick was more playful, the sheer happiness on Melissa’s face … well, it just seemed to burn away my ‘Bah Humbug!’ attitude of the night with a terrifying ease, speaking casually to the adoration this woman had earned across the Federated Commonwealth over her life in the Battletech universe.
And very clearly, one who was more than capable of standing up for herself and determined enough to get what she wanted.
“Melissa, I’m happy for you - both of you. Congratulations” I said after I found my voice, knowing that sure the marriage was already long arranged,
but technically Hanse had only just proposed and she had only just accepted ... so it felt appropriate to say as much.
It was confirmed as the right choice second later as she beamed at me with a smile that I reckoned had a fifty-fifty chance of bringing a dead puppy back to life.
“Thank you John” she said simply before her smile turned slightly mischievous. “And thus, you join the conspiracy”.
“... Which one? I seem to have become entangled in several since I materialized in this universe” I pointed out with a confused blink and she rolled her eyes as if it was obvious.
“My Fiance and I are having a very exclusive engagement party tonight!” she explained. “And
you’re invited!”
“Uh, aren't you both at the whole Christmas shindig thing tonight?” I noted. “And isn’t the engagement an absolute state secret of the same order as me?
“Yupppp!” she agreed with a grin and hard ‘P’. “But what only I, Mother, Ardan, Patrick, Hanse and now
you know is that, in reality, this Christmas party is actually a celebration for our engagement c
unningly disguised as a Christmas party to avoid attention!”.
The claim was so absurdly crazy and delivered with such a straight face that I couldn’t help but laugh and reach up to facepalm, shaking my head.
“And besides” she added, her voice softening and lowering in volume, “
no-one should be alone on Christmas Eve if they have people who want them around, no matter how much they might
think they want to be alone” she said in a tone that caused me to sharply glance up in a reflexive defensiveness … that smashed straight into the full force of that ‘Melissa Steiner 8D6+10 charisma gaze’ and promptly put up the white flag.
“Didn’t take you that long to psychoanalyze me down to the core” I muttered in what tried to be a miffed tone but honestly, came out as more
embarrassed than anything, feeling like I was a child sulking in my room … being called out on it.
By a teenager. Half my age.
“Actually it was Ardan Sortek” she corrected me, as she carefully but with a distantly regretful expression carefully removed her incredible engagement ring and placed it into a velvet pouch. “He was, frankly, worried about you being alone this Christmas and, well, so was everyone else who knows you’re here”.
“I don’t think exposing me to the Royal Court is
exactly a subtle-”
“John” her exasperation cut me off like a switch had been thrown, her eyes rolling in a gloriously dramatic way, “there are
thousands of people packed into the court and about half of them are assorted -if you’ll please forgive me such a horrible word- ‘commoners’. You’ll be perfectly anonymous. Besides” she said, her smile turning into a smirk, “my Mother is
expecting you in” she checked a watch on her wrist that probably cost as much as a
Locust from all the bling I could see on it - “twenty minutes at my
extremely exclusive celebration of my engagement and if you
don’t show up...”
Melissa Steiner Rolls Intimidation Check; 6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6 + 10 = 58, against John; 1, 1, 1 + 2 = 5;
Melissa Steiner critical success!“Okay,
okay!” I held up my hands in surrender, finding myself on my feet without even realizing I had stood.
Man, was the thought of Katrina Steiner getting pissed at me that much of a intimidating threat?
…
Yes. Yes it was.
But at the same time, deep down where I would deny it, there was something that made me almost want to start crying for the fact that some of the most powerful people in the Inner Sphere … well; they
cared enough to want to drag me out of my sulking room to celebrate Christmas Eve with them under this silly pretense of an engagement party.
I had to turn for a second, hastily clearly my throat until I controlled my composure that had started to slip at that, Melissa in turn very tactfully busying herself in carefully putting her engagement ring away into a cunningly hidden pocket in her dress, charmingly right over her heart.
“Good” she said when I turned back and with that, the Archon designate carefully slipped her elegant heels back on and
swished back to her feet, striding confidently across the room to the walk in closet as I slowly gathered myself and followed.
She dove inside without hesitation, emerging scant seconds later with what seemed to be the 31st century equivalent of a tuxedo, placing it onto several convenient hooks before turning to give me a pointedly commanding look.
“
Nineteen minutes, ten seconds - don’t be late” she said with a charming yet commanding
superior smile before turning to vanish down the hall with a smile.
I heard the door open, close, then I was alone.
Brat I dared to think in my head as I took a breath, centered myself and started to get dressed.
