Blood Alone Remains

“Kings handed their crowns know little of hard work.” A chuckle escaped the man. “Chaos is never too far off; always someone waiting to take advantage of it.” He shook his head. Johannes had done his best to rid his out court of chaos; it did not make for a stable rule after all– but it was thoroughly amusing to watch others deal with it. “Yes, it would be rather easy.”

“They never will, and will never be worse off for it either,” bitterness crept into Isabel’s tone. She shouldn’t be, she knew the way the game was played, but it still grated on her. She fought tooth and nail for her country, and would continue to do so- but couldn’t deny the idea of seeing others crumble was appealing. “It could work in your favour. Minimal effort, and little chance of having the blame placed on your door."

“One of the maids just tried to scold me for something. I don’t think she realized I wasn’t some common peasant. Not that I can blame them. This place is far too…. much.”

“And yet you seen remarkably unperturbed,” Isabel drawled. How nice it must be to not care about that sort of carry on, to not have to prove your royal status to anybody you ever met. “It is excessive, but I find that to be the case with most of the other courts I’ve visited.”

“So let there be chaos. We have both proved ourselves capable in it; no doubt others would too.” He turned from her, paying more attention to one of the shelves that lined the wall of the room, running a finer along some of the books.. “With the world winding to a halt, I feel we might need something to make it interesting again.”

“It’s not a bad sentiment. Perhaps if more of us had to prove ourselves, we’d all be better off,” she added, thoughtfully. She hated that after all her predecessor did, her equals would never see her as such, and there was little she could do about it. “Trouble will come, if that’s what you seek. There are too many powerful men here for it not to. All it would take is to poke the flames rather than feed the fire,” she pointed out.