The #Broken_Dagger Forum

A letter arrives at the meetinghouse for Glenn Burnie; carried by one of the black-coated riders recently seen in the company of Agnieszka Kaczmarek, it is expertly folded into a beautiful envelope with the golden seal of Chedwry, the king of Trae Kelsa. It says:

To Messire Glenn Burnie, vice-governor of Myrken Wood,

My lord your King has, of late, been concerned with events in your lovely territory, and some things must change.

We do not wish to alter our longstanding arrangements of old, which ensure self-government for the Myrken Wood territory in exchange for the proper renumeration to the Crown and reports from the lord Governor. While my lord Chedwry has not always been exceedingly happy with events in Myrken Wood, he has always respected the independent spirit of the populace.

However:

Thessilane yet beats its war-drums; if the traitor Burel moves, it will likely be into the Myrken area. While you are still building your new Army, you may need help to safeguard the lives of those who remain Trae Kelsan citizens. Thusly, I have dispatched a company of soldiers to take up residence in Myrken Wood, patrol its borders and repel any attack from Thessilane that may occur. You will not need to fund nor house this company; they are of the King's Own and will be on the King's payroll. I trust you will take this gift with the proper humility it is due.

Secondly, my lord the King cannot tolerate the current situation; an absentee Governor is no Governor at all. While we appreciate everything you have done to keep our lord the King's lands stable and prosperous, you must hold a proper Gubernatorial election by the fifteenth day of the second month of the year if Cinnabar Calomel does not meet with me at Kelsaen House immediately to explain why he has not filed the proper reports, held proper Council sessions, not properly run his government, and has not responded to any of the overtures from the Crown.

I trust that you will not encourage my lord the King to think that your independent government does not function as it is intended to; the consequences, I think, would be not to your liking.

I will be arriving within a week to take up residence at Kelsaen House; I plan to oversee the elections, if needed, and the establishment of a proper border patrol.

Until then, you may address any matters with my subordinate currently in Myrken, Captain Agnieszka Kaczmarek. I believe you are already acquainted.

Sincerely,
Lord Constantine Kostroma, commander of the King's Own and marquis of Alais, servant to the Bright

"This is, I imagine, what you'd call a .. pickle, no?" Giuseppe had long been frustrated by the lack of windows in Glenn Burnie's office. He had his suspicions why Glenn didn't need them, and there was even a hallway directly behind it. Who made their office close to the center of a building? The man in black looked to his employer, glass of wine in hand. "The vice-governor bit is nice, though. You've come a long way in the world. I'll drink to that."

Burnie, for what it was worth, sat at his desk, no smile on his face. "Myrken, when it rains. I don't have time for this nonsense. There's too much going on. That's exactly why it's happening now, of course. The land itself is rising up to try to oust me... or try to force me to be Governor, which is almost as bad. That way lies ruin. I tried to buck the system and it worked for a good long while. Now there's no helping it, I suppose."

"Yes, that's an excellent reading of the situation, Glenn," Giuseppe took another sip of the wine. "Raving like a fatalistic lunatic and blaming a living, breathing Myrken Wood for conspiring against you. Why you're fit for the job already! Long live the Governor."

Sleep-deprived and Rhaena Olwak-deprived, the once-mapmaker, still terribly young and not nearly as aged by the job as one would think, looked directly up at his bodyguard. "I've half a mind to throw my lot in with Burel, you know. It'd give us enough force to deal with all the problems of the province, stick a knife in the king's eye. He's a good enough man and cares about this place well enough, which is more than I can say for Chedwry, but it'd be no good in the end. It'd just turn Myrken into a war ground and the people would ultimately suffer. On the other hand, the bastard must know that if his men make any actual show of force here, Burel will take that as an invitation to intervene and once again, our people suffer."

"You know me, Glenn." The tall southerner was much subdued from half a year hence, before his soul had been stretched and devoured and restored and torn apart by Pantha and the drinking of Catch's blood. He still had his verve but it was far more of a wane thing now. "My desire for politics extends as far as a dagger's length in someone's back, no further."

"Oh, good." Burnie rolled his eyes at that. "Take a look at this situation and figure out who to assassinate to make it all go away and get back to me."

A bitter laugh from the man in black. "Past you?" He seemed quite amused with his joke, not enough to spill the wine, but yes, quite amused.

His employer was less so. "We'll see how desperate I get. I would think that would come BELOW working with Burel on the list. No, in the end, this is a bullying and a bluff. Some change in the wind down in Razasan which prompted a show of bluster and force SOMEWHERE in the kingdom. We just drew the short straw. We can't ignore it though. Perception matters as much as anything in Myrken." And Glenn Burnie had been terribly hard to target by the general populace once things finally started to turn sour specifically because he wasn't the Governor. "Roschen, others, are going to use this against me, of course." The vice-governor... for if the king said it so, who he was he to deny it, rubbed at his eyes. Feeling, emotion, sensation had been returning to him ever since the last encounter with Catch. All of them were the very last things he needed right now. Doubt wasn't creeping in yet, not yet, but the threat of it, the threat of it coming, THAT was worrying. "I'm off to meet with Vanidor. Then Treadwell. Then Kerrak, then with one or two other people. In the meantime, I need you to send message to Aleksei and Genny. Agnieskza, as well. Yes, I know, you get all the enjoyable jobs." There was a tapping of his foot since, of course, his cane was destroyed. And if you see Catch, and only if you see him, don't go looking, well, that's all of your brand of 'politics' I want you playing right now." Loose ends and failed projects. It was the time to sweep them under the table. Too soon. This was all happening too soon.

And for the first time in over two years, Glenn Burnie looked out at the wall of his windowless room and for just the briefest of moments.. he wished Ariane was there. He could count on her to know what had to be done. She would even have made it quick and painless.