Herald of Steel

“I am sure even that mad maester never expected Alozmer was even madder than him, insane enough to accuse Matbar (Marquiss) Swehel of treason out of nowhere and then send him to the dungeons. Heh, he really underestimated Alozmer’s love for immortality.”

The Queen Mother spoke of both the men in a very dismissive manner, but her tone seemed to hold much more scorn for the former, smirking a cruel curve of her red lips at the recalling of his fate,

“I still remember the look on everyone’s face that day in court when Alozmer declared Matbar (Marquiss) Swehel a traitor. It was of utter shock. But what most missed was the look of horror, not shock, on that mad creep’s face. It was probably only then he understood he had messed up. The fool must have been kicking himself for not asking for a Pasha, heh.”

Of course, there was no way the mad maester could have asked for a Pasha even if he could see the future. Alozmer probably would have had him executed the moment he made those demands as he would think the man was simply taking him for a ride.

“The rest of the events unfolded just as one predicted. Matbar (Marquiss) was found dead when his family along with a few of the Pashas pressed for Alozmer to let them see the man. And then, when it all got out, faced with the horror and outcry, the mad king threw his ‘lover’ under the cart like a discarded apple core. There was no elixir of immortality…. so there was no saving the man.”

The Queen Mother by this point sounded quite pleased, for she was describing the point where the nets she had cast were being pulled back up, thus revealing its haul.

“Alozmer distanced himself entirely from all of the man’s activities, pretending as if he was unaware of it all. And then when the nobles cried out for justice for these transgressions, he gave it to them… letting them lynch and burn the bastard.”

“Hmm…and I am sure Alozmer thought that was the end of that… that he had gotten away with it scot free. Nobody in the court said anything so everyone must have bought his sad excuse of an explanation just like that.”

“Heh, the fool! The ones who think everyone else is an idiot are always the true idiots.” Seelima lifted her beautiful chin arrogantly into the air as she scoffed, her tone being full of derision and scorn.

“….” And hearing this, Alexander did not quite know why, but suddenly felt she was taking a dig at him.

It was an open fact that the Queen Mother did not quite like Alexander’s sometimes santimonous way of talking. She felt he was looking down at her… which to be honest was indeed sometimes the case. Alexander was in some ways just as arrogant, if not even more than the Queen Mother herself.

For example in things like economics and policy making, he heard others’ suggestions but rarely paid any heed to them. Because Alexander believed he knew better.

Hence as a royal who saw herself as better than everyone else, Seelima hated that part of Alexander down to her very guts.

But the man naturally did not respond to the Queen Mother’s hidden taunt that she had made, and simply let her resume after the pause, where she finished by adding with a gleeful chuckle to her voice,

“Little did Alozmer know…. I had all the letters and other correspondence between the two mad men leaked to the nobles. So soon everyone knew everything. The tortures, the medicine, the plots… “

“Hahaha, Kekfa had to literally work night and day to clean this up without letting Alozmer become aware. The poor idiot even came to me to ask for help with the cover up…. To help him hide all this from the mad king. He feared Alozmer would feel humiliated learning this and try and punish even more of the nobles. Heh…like I said… idiots, the both of them. Apples really do not fall far from the tree.”

Queen Mother let out a powerful grin as she frankly derided both the uncle and nephew, revealing all her beautifully placed pearly whites and letting her eyes sparkle in recognition of her success.

Such jubilation was something Alexander had rarely seen her display, as the regal lady always made an effort to appear composed and full of solemn dignity.

However this time it was different, because although Seelima did not say it out aloud, she thought this scheme to be her magnum opus.

More than everything else, more than becoming Alozmer’s favorite concubine, more than manipulating him to burn his main wife and her sons to death, more than even killing him with poison, the Queen Mother thought the way she manuevered her man to kill that mad maester while also making him chop his own foot was her most prided achievement.

She thought like this because that was her first true plotting, before it was all low level players, with Alozmer being the ultimate arbiter of it all.

For example, the Queen Mother had little say in how the former queen would be punished other than praying Alozmer would be heavy handed with her.

However this time, she had truly entered the big league, and played with a great many powerful pieces simultaneously- the mad king, the royal court, the mad doctor and even Kefka.

Miraculously, none of them were left any the wiser.

Even someone as smart as the intelligence chief failed to detect it was the Queen Mother who was behind all these machinations and even came to her for help.

If Kekfa knew the truth, surely he would be rolling in his grave.

All the pieces thought they were moving in their accord, while it was her all along, putting barricades and obstacles in such a way that they were forced to yield to her expected result even if they did not want to.

This was very different from before, where the Queen Mother had to basically hope for Alozmer to favor her.

For instance this time, if Alozmer had wanted to save his maester, with all his secret leaked, he would have had a full fledged rebellion long before Pasha Farzah if he even tried. He had to execute the rouge man if he wanted to keep his seat.

Perhaps that was another reason why he caved.

That Matbar was his last roll of the dice and when that failed, the mad king was smart enough to realize if he kept going like this, he was not going to live long enough to enjoy his immortality.

Few people remembered Alozmer was actually quite smart. He generally understood the consequences of his actions.

It was just that he was not smart enough to understand it fully all the time, or the man would not have played like this by his most ‘trusted’ mistress.

A fact that Alexander also came to realize hearing the Queen Mother’s recount, and he spookily added to his heart how a treacherous woman could really damage a man, destroying him. For example, he could not fathom the kind of damage Cambyses could do to him if she suddenly turned. That was also a complete blind spot for him.

In the same way, although Seelima did not say it explicitly, it was pretty easy to extrapolate the consequences of those leaked correspondences between the two men.

Surely this too had contributed to the eventual downfall of the mad king. Otherwise the rest of the provinces would not have let Pasha Farzah off this easily, and his nobles would not be so silent despite Mirzah’s tight control.

Of course all this was Alexander’s conjecture, as the man really did not have much knowledge about those events even though they were monumentally important to the current political landscape. As already stated before, he was simply not interested.

But he did acknowledge the Queen Mother’s shrewd mind, getting another example of how she got where she was today.

While Lady Inayah appeared more incredulous at the story itself, chiming with a shocked gasp, “Ahhh… how come you never told me this Seelima? I would have loved to drink while thinking about how that monster died.”

The lady appeared quite regretful that the perfect sweet time for gloating had passed.

“Hahaha, I thought you knew. You must have missed it because you were in Matrak at the time.” The Queen Mother gave a reasonable explanation for skipping this, before nodding with a slightly rueful sigh, “Ahhh… but yes, we really should get together more often. Time seems to fly so fast these days.”

Alexander on the other hand, still had not had the answer to his original question and so even though the two ladies were sharing a moment, he decided somewhat rudely interjected with a bit of impatience in his voice,

“So my lady is saying that that masester was an expert in autopsy, so there was no he could have missed any poison or hidden wound right?”

The ask seemed to snap the beautiful pair out of their realm, as a look of recallment dawned on both. It seemed like they had forgotten the original topic they were discussing and were only now remembering.

“Yes, my lord is correct.” The black noble lady then swiftly nodded her head in firm confirmation, adding,

“Alozmer kept that mad measter also because he was a poison expert. He was more afraid of assassination than any other man I know, and always had him nearby ready with an array of antidotes.”

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