Ferdinand

She did not really know why, but her brother’s giddy attempt alarmed her. Normally, Ferdinand was the reckless and the fun one, doing things his own way and finding joy everywhere. But, there was something in his tone that rang a little differently, but knowing her brother, she was certain that her worry would have a counter effect on him. So, she simply arched her eyebrow and offered him a soft shake of her head. “I doubt we will really feel any better. This is a complete and utter disaster. No amount of joy or anger will rectify it in the near future.” What they needed now, was to keep their heads.

Do not worry about me, Little Dot - he might as well ordered her to stop breathing, while he was at it. “Ferdi, you should really know by now that uttering such words will have absolutely no effect on me. So, you might as well never say them again. It is in my nature to worry - about you and the rest of our siblings.” And about their father as well ( though king Maximillian hardly needed her to worry about him ); and her mother.

“Do you really believe that? That you, and Matthias, and Friederike and Eleonora, are of no consequence to man who is so deranged to abduct his newborn granddaughter, lie to his daughter and make her believe she was insane with the loss of her firstborn child, then proceeded to raise the aforementioned granddaughter away from him, turning her into a weapon so fierce and unfeeling, and filled her with resentment and rage. Really, Ferdi? You think a person like that will leave you and Matt alone just because you lack legitimacy?” Dorothea scoffed, then nodded. “Of course, he will have the extra guards stationed in the corridor and around him.”

The temper that sparked up was swiftly soothed when he reassured her he will be careful. Her smile widened, and she squeezed his arm a little tighter. “What do you mean in your stead? Why can we not have fun together?” Dot asked, expression softening. “We can do something mischievous together! What would you like to do? Raid a pantry? Put a lizard in Leopold’s underwear drawer?”

Ferdinand found that the more Dot fretted the more at ease she put him. It was as if, without knowing it, she aired out his misgivings by voicing hers. He knew she worried about everyone, including him, nonetheless hearing her say it somehow gave him meaning. He couldn’t help but smirk to see her so energetic even about subjects that did not make her joyful and bubbly. Of course, he hoped she was her usual self but then again neither was he and therefore he could not bring himself to act the silly thing he had once been and in so doing attempt to drag her back to a version of her pre-Switzerland self. 

“Hmm, I cannot say you do not make a fine point my Little Dot. Even someone as ignorant of politics as I can fathom that Konrad is a little exceptional in the dark arts of villainy,” he said teasingly. He couldn’t help it, dramatics and humor were a hard habit to break and perhaps ones he shouldn’t attempt to in full extent. “I would argue, however, that us illegitimates are inconsequential while he holds a legitimate piece in his hand. One he carved and shaped by his own design. Our poor sister, perhaps it is she we should worry most about?”

Ferdinand caught himself thinking about Claudia’s life, her past in the hands of Konrad and her present still within his reach. An adult with clear individualistic strength, he thought, but her history hid a leash. He liked to think of her, and these days he often did, but perhaps not for decent reasons. Her existence made him think perhaps his life had not been nor was so difficult after all. 

Fun together. Dot’s soft words pulled a mischievous smile from his lips the likes of which had been missing for a while. “You tease me sister. Are you really the one tempting me into mischief?” He laughed. The old him escaping with every breath intake. “Ugh you know bothering Leopold is my weakness but no! I think I’d like to raid a pantry and carry as much as we can to the gardens and eat in the open air!” 

@ferdinandlorraine​

since the last meeting of the two, maximillian had not seen his son. with the state of germany’s affairs unraveling by the seems with the newest familial addition, he could barely be bothered. yet here he was, standing before his son once again, wary of what he had to say or what he had done. perhaps both would strike yet another headache, perhaps he’d have to figure out more effective ways in managing the boy. 

absentminded pupils stared at the matching hazels of his son. the redness obvious around the sockets of where his eyeballs rested. 

“what have you done now?” the sentence brief and curt. whatever the issue was, maximillian was far gone from listening - his priorities had amassed from friederike’s engagement to claudia’s arrival to the italian letters he demanded to be burned from matthias’s desk. the prospects of his own wife’s feelings drifted into his mind accompanied by eleonora’s recovery and dorothea’s prospective future. maximillian was fucking weary. 

Before he knew it he was on his way to his father. Ferdinand found it absolutely laughable. Of all people whose company he could have sought - his sisters, his brother, his friend, his lovers - why him? Am I such a masochist that I know seek to be kicked while I’m down, he spitefully told himself but it was too late. He had arrived. 

It took the King’s first words to reveal it all: the open wound that minutes before had been Ferdinand was now a burning anger. ‘What have you done now?’ he asked. Such few words said so much. And when did they not! They spoke of Ferdinand’s insignificance, of his constant disappointment, of his being a nuisance, of his feelings meaning so little to the man who saw the world only in terms of power! Ferdinand clenched his jaw and in that moment, like so many others, he loved and hated Maximilian with such a passion he had not felt before. He welcomed the anger with wide open arms so much so that he could have screamed that everything and everyone could go to hell including himself! 

“What have I done now?” he repeated derisively, “I have completely tired myself out. Have comfort, Father, in my now knowing your pain when putting up with me.” Ferdinand thought about the chapel, as he had done countless times since he’d left it, and his own sobbing cries as they told cardinal Giulio about  how he’d refused to deny himself in order to fit into the mold others had wanted him to fit in. “All this time I thought I was free every time I escaped the oppressiveness of being your family. Turns out it only made me a different type of prisoner. I’d like to change that,” he declared as if he’d been thinking and planning to say this all along. In truth, he’d just wanted to feel something other than himself breaking and he could always count on his father to make him feel anger instead. 

“I want choice. I don’t want to be ordered around, just talk to me first.”

As to be expected, she found her older sibling at the stables. She found it to be too early to waste time away drinking and as the alcohol had been flowing richly at their sister’s wedding, she was almost certain most had had more than enough to last themselves a headache for at least a week. And better way to bid good riddance to the ache that made the head feel heavy than an early afternoon ride? She was eager herself to get back on her horse as well, after her injury had proven to be completely healed to a point where the physician deemed her fit enough to get back up on horseback. An activity she had sorely missed, as well as her favorite horse which she had brought along on the journey. 

“I hope you did not have your mind set on riding out alone, liebster Bruder, for I had truly hoped to join you on this spring day.” she called out to her brother, being in his presence alone enough to make her smile. The duchess was almost certain he would not deny her the pleasure, only if there was something to hide perhaps. But there was little the German children hid from one another, or at least so she still believed. Fractures seemed mended, and though there was still the matter of the long lost daughter that had joined in their midst, she refused to let it ruin her day. At least for now. 

He turned at the sound of a voice that automatically made him smile, “while I do tend to ride out alone, I will always welcome such lovely company! You ought to join me more often actually, it’s a nice escape.” He explained no further. There were a lot of circumstances developing that one could try escaping from, though Lorrie was certainly escaping from many things that were all together different than expected by most. 

He appeared, in behavior, much like his usual self, particularly given the setting and the company. However, his hair was in disarray, his collar unbuttoned, and overall it was clear his usual vanity in attention to detail had been abandoned. “With all that has been happening, I feel as if it has been years since we last had some time to ourselves... I’m sorry, I feel I am mostly at fault. Keeping myself away somehow. I did not meant to.”

It was a rare occurrence when all the children of King Maximillion stood as one but what better occasion than the wedding of a beloved sister? Matthias even suspected that Leopold would enjoy himself to some extent. Friedi was radiant and her husband was handsome but the union of the two was something to make the world worry. They were strong and any children they had would have the might of Germany and the Ottoman empire at their side. It was truly momentous.  With a smile and wine in hand, Matthias walked over to his younger brother and extended a glass to him. “Just think you’ll be next,” He teased, the wine had truly made him merrier than before or perhaps it was something else, something he dared not utter. “I wonder if your wedding will be as grand as this.” Ferdinand was the favoured son, at least he was before Leopold came into the world so it was safe to assume that no expense would be spared for his wedding day, at least his future wife could see to that. 

And then his brother had to come and ruin even that. “Please brother,” he said with a forced smile and failed to keep the pleading away, “I love your company, but do not come to give it and then torment me!” Lorrie laughed a mask of a laugh whose purpose was really more akin to a sigh. Even so, he hooked an arm around Matthias’s as if Lorrie were a Lady in his company, and tugged teasingly. He could tell Matthias was in good spirits, and this in turn raised his own. “Mattie you daydream about my supposed wedding more than I’ve ever daydreamed about the German Crown! I have about as much interest in either! Come brother, if I could switch places with you I... wouldn’t, because you’re already married. Never mind. Besides... who is to say I’ll marry? I think the Lady is now as much against it as I’ve always been.”

His reply made her brows furrow further in worry, as she regarded her elder brother with the sentiment reflecting clearly in her eyes. She did not think anyone was actually alright at this point. “Do you want to talk about it? I think we should talk about it. This situation will require… well, it will require rather difficult things, if I am honest.” Dorothea spoke with a heavy sigh, her very soul heavy with concern and her mind burdened with all the plots - and counter plots. To keep her family safe, all of her family, she would do anything. Everything. No matter how hard a task, no matter how odious it may be - if it guaranteed her family’s safety, she would do it without blinking.

Dot’s hold on her brother’s arm tightened as he laced her arm through his elbow, and she squeezed herself closer to Ferdinand - it was more to provide comfort, than to seek it for herself; she was always so concerned about her family member, but with Claudia’s arrival, it was the male members of her family that made her worry the most ( she did not doubt Konrad had his plans for them - and she did not doubt those plans were sinister ). His question made her softly sigh in reply, and she found herself slightly shaking her head. “No, I am alright. As alright I can be right now, with all of this happening. First the murders, now this.” Dottie exhaled another heavy breath, shaking her head to clear the jumbled mess of her thoughts. “I am fine, but right now it is you that I worry about. You and the rest of our brothers. With this… sister suddenly coming into play, I fear there might by a price upon your head. If Konrad was evil enough to do such atrocity, I would not put going after you, and Mattie and Pol, past him either.” She spoke. “In the coming weeks, I just want you to be extra careful. Extra safe. Can you promise me that, Ferdi?”

Ferdinand did not want to talk about it, however he could not give Little Dot’s question a straight answer. Instead, he attempted to laugh and say, “We should talk about it my Little Dot, and laugh at it and get angry! I’ll likely be doing the former and you the later but I’m sure we’ll both feel better after.” It lacked his usual vitality, not in the manner with which he said it but in the way his body moved less energetically. It was his usual approach to take nothing seriously and yet he found he couldn’t help but take everything seriously now. He annoyed himself. 

With a sigh of self-frustration but thinking that concerned his little sister more, he let her take his arm and welcomed her tight squeeze. He found it so comforting, in ways perhaps Dot did not even know. His thoughts suddenly flew to her and he realized how little they had seen of each other. What had she been going through? It occurred to him that the appearance of a sister would definitely alarm Dot more than he. 

“Do not worry about me Little Dot,” Ferdinand smiled tenderly. It warmed his heart to see her worry for him though he didn’t deserve it. “Mattie and me are of no consequence to Konrad, or anyone really... as much as it would pain Mattie to hear it. Worry about Little Legitimate Leopold, but not that much,” he smiled and leaned in to kiss his sister’s head. “He’s the King’s only male heir, I’m sure there will be extra precaution and protection when it comes to Leopold.”

At length and upon some thinking he added, “alright, I’ll try my best to change my ways and pretend that I’m politically important,” it was here he finally grinned in his usual playful manner, for once feeling a bit like his old self. “I promise, but you have to promise me that you will have some fun in my stead!”

u p o n her arrival in the swiss court and her family’s apartments within castelgrande, wilhemina had only broken her fast before venturing beyond, claiming the need to stretch her legs. the local spring festival, she thought to herself, was quite quaint— perhaps a leftover of some pagan idolatry before the church had raised its mighty hand over these swiss mountains. 

she was twirling a bough of apple blossoms in one hand, admiring the faintly pink petals and ignoring the voice in her head that told her the flowers would now only wither and the branch become brittle, having been snapped from its tree. a brief voice registered, but it was the name that summoned her full attention.

“ ah, ” she mused. “ anne, ma chère anne. ” wilhemina gave the german king’s bastard a smile that was as pretty and practiced as a waxen flower, though her blue eyes burned with curiosity. “ yes, most certainly— the resemblance speaks for itself, i see. ”

Ferdinand made a rare effort to behave most respectfully. His fine education was - finally - put to use even down to his properly returned smile tainted as it was the tender fondness for his mother. It made him very proud to hear the Archduchess of the Holy Roman Empire still remembered her, even down to her features as she claimed to see them in him. 

“Forgive my intrusion Your Highness, but I could not resist approaching you given how fondly my mother spoke of you. I shall be forever grateful for your kindness towards her, and though I may be of little importance in high society I am in your debt as I was unable to often keep her company.” 

He stopped his rambling with a soft clearing of his throat and an apologetic bow. He felt so awkward behaving with the manners he’d been taught but often purposefully avoided. Where he would have behaved with undue confidence faced with anyone else, he suddenly found he could not with her. Strange was the hold anything to do with his mother had on him. In a way, so did his father but his hold was of an entirely different kind. Lady Lorraine to him had been needed when he did not have her, and as a child he had so longed for her. Now as an adult, it as all he could do but try to fill the void she had been in his earlier life though it could not now be done. 

♚

Any hunter knows this to be true, that the most rewarding part isn’t in the killing, but the chasing: to ride like a tendril of wind through bottomless woodlands, hands steady and eyes watchful; and to level your crossbow at a creature, in anticipation for the perfect moment to squeeze—release. In the moments it takes for an arrow to land its mark, everything goes quiet. She forgets to breathe.

The fact that the animal has to die—that’s a side effect.

While Claudia rides, the sun begins to crest lazily over a yawning horizon, still pink and groggy. By the time she’s finished and making her way home, weak beams of light have illuminated the grandiose drawbridges and spires of Sasso Carbaro Castle—and the much smaller figure standing before it, at the foot a dewy hill. 

“Brother,” she greets, once he is within earshot. The word is meaningless and void of any affection, but fulfills some unspoken courtly necessity for exercising good manners. She is, after all, a guest—one who will be visiting the Schleswig-Holstein family for the rest of all their lives, but a guest nonetheless. She wouldn’t pretend to fit in.

Claudia dismounts from her steed and collects the body of her game from its back—a beautiful deer, still warm to the touch.

“You needn’t worry,” she says, with a bit of rare humor, and motions in the direction of the woods from which she had emerged. “Plenty more left for you.”

The princess is in a good mood today. 

With recent events sending a ripple through those gathered it seemed to Ferdinand that life just kept happening around him. It reminded him, even as the sun would later rise as it did every day, that the gripes he was struggling with were only minor ripples on a massive moving river. This, strangely, gave him comfort. It meant whatever actions he took from now on would be just as inconsequential as those he’d already done. It meant he would be the only one to face the consequences, or so he told himself, and hadn’t he already been living in this manner all along?

He sighed, throwing cold water on his face before he undressed just so that he would dress again, choosing attire fit for a morning ride. In a daze, he walked through dark empty corridors, reached the stables, and readied his horse, all the while thinking how pitiful those whose actions did in fact cause changes to the massive moving river. People like Kings. People like his Father? Ferdinand scoffed. He wasn’t sure he could pity that man even if he had reason to. 

He heard the voice then that called him brother and slowly the earlier daze released him. The cold wind brushed past his cheeks and he felt his unsteady feet press against the earth as the powerful animal pulled at the reigns in his hands with the eagerness to ride. 

“Sister,” he greeted back as he was awkwardly brought back to the present by the flood of information her presence recalled. He watched her, immediately seeing the relation in her features and for the first time that day he smiled. Perhaps in another week he’d meet another long lost brother, or sister, or both! 

“I don’t know about that,” he chuckled, very much glad for the distraction, “might be me who returns slumped on the back of someone’s horse. Of your new found siblings, I may be the weakest of the lot.” He joked of course, yet his own words stung given his recent emotional struggles. “I’ll be really impressed if you are planning to clean the animal and cut it apart, but only because in that, at least,I can show off,” he said with a glint of the eye that spoke of acted cockiness.