#dowr

It is the winter of 599 A.L.

Almost 600 hundred years have passed since the Belthean people landed upon these shores.

600 years After Landfall.

600 years of blood and conquest.

Today, just weeks before the turning of a new century, the continent of Nareth is unified by way of the spear.

And her father is to blame.

"Princess?" A familiar voice whispers worriedly.

Adelina, youngest princess of the Belthean Empire turns to her lady-in-waiting, Lady Valerie. She waits for her to continue.

Lady Valerie fidgets, her eyes looking everywhere within the carriage except the princess, who offers the nervous girl a hand on her knee. "Speak Valerie, there's no one else in here but us two."

The words and gesture seems to calm her down, though she still gulps before asking, "Was the empress able to…?"

Princess Adelina rolls her eyes as she crumbles back into her seat, a heavy and long sigh escaping her lips. She slumps further and further into her seat before Lady Valerie giggles and helps her sit straight again. But the worried look remains on her face.

Hesitantly, she places her hand upon that of the princess's. Gripping softly, she whispers, "Wrinkling the dress would only serve to anger your father, my lady," she says this sadly, her expression that of defeat.

And defeat it may have well been.

Her mother had tried protesting her daughter's marriage to the Butcher's son, both in public and in private. But her father wanted this alliance badly enough that her mother was ignored and overruled.

Thus, she was betrothed to the prince of a kingdom who had betrayed their allies and sided with her father in his invasion of the western territories.

If that wasn't bad enough, the father of the prince she was to marry had become infamous for massacring entire noble families in a single bloody night. He was known as a cold and emotionless man, ruthless in his decision making. And she was to marry that man's son.

Princess Adelina grips her dress in anger, causing Lady Valerie who notices to bring her close for an embrace.

Again, the princess stifles a sob, refusing to let tears come out. She made a promise to herself that she wouldn't cry.

She had been alone for too long. Abandoned by even her dear brothers who'd always protected her in the imperial palace.

Her eldest brother, Gareth, had fought alongside her betrothed in the war against Lymark, and she had waited for any letter of his to reassure her. Or perhaps express his support in canceling this arranged marriage.

Anything.

But none had arrived.

She didn't know what to make of it, even Daerin her second eldest brother hadn't been able to communicate with her. No one had.

Alone in the capital she had waited.

Her brothers off to wage the war started by her father, later followed by her mother once rumors of a marriage were being whispered at court.

Those shrews for sisters had already married before the invasion to stabilize the empire.

It wasn't long after that she was ordered to ready herself for marriage, but not with a high lord from the empire, or someone she at least liked or knew how to handle.

But with a foreign prince from a kingdom that had betrayed its ally.

She was to be an offering of peace sent by her father, like something that could be given.

Like an object.

The iron inside her heats again.

She straightens herself, gently pushing Lady Valerie off her. She nods thanks to her lady-in-waiting.

'That's right…' she thinks to herself. 'That man pretends I don't exist until he needs a daughter to marry off.'

Her eyes narrow as she focuses on controlling the growing storm within her.

Her mind is set.

The emperor of the greatest nation ever forged, calling for the forgotten and unwanted princess to arrange her marriage without an honor guard. Without scores of retainers. With only one lady-in-waiting, who volunteered.

Only a temporary escort was given.

A single carriage, with a single cart loaded with whatever she could fit inside it.

Lady Valerie had tried defending her father when the journey started.

"Who would dare?" She said.

The princess knew deep within that it made sense. That the lands were now pacified, now moreso than in any other time period.

Who would dare face against the emperor of all Nareth? The king of kings, the Goddess' representative on the mortal plane, and most important of all… the wielder of one of two most powerful weapons in all creation, A'luthean Armor. Handed down throughout the generations by her family, it has impacted the world in numerous ways.

Depending on who is asked, it is either a curse or blessing that only a single member of the imperial bloodline could possess that artifact at a time, as it bonds with that person for life. No other, even with the Ravenea bloodline running through their veins, can use the holy relic crafted by the Goddess Herself for Her Champions during the A'lethic Era.

Her ancestor, Garland the Conqueror, founded the Belthean Empire with it.

Her great-great-grandfather, Emperor Saldwin, used it to bring a nation to its knees, and forced another to become "Imperial Friend and Ally".

These and other such acts forced the Archpriestess to ban the use of such relics in wars, or to proclaim excommunication upon those who broke the decree.

'But how could the Archpriestess force an imperial dynasty to not use its most powerful weapon?' was a question she had asked her tutors when learning of this proclamation.

Excommunication meant losing the accounts, support, legitimacy, and administration provided by the church, but was it enough to stop her family from imposing its will?

She knew it wasn't.

Princess Adelina feels her mind racing once more as she pictures executing her plan, and a small smile sneaks its way across her face.

"Valerie," she rests her left elbow the side of the carriage as she gets her lady-in-waiting's attention, "what can you tell me about the kingdom, or more specifically, my husband-to-be?"

Lady Valerie smiles at the informal use of her name, though she quickly regains her professional demeanor, "Why, you should kno-"

The princess cuts her off, "I'm only refreshing what I know, don't worry," she responds quickly waving a hand dismissively, "Please, think of it as an exercise or an escape from the daily boredom."

Her counterpart rubs her thighs as she knew all too well how uncomfortable it was to travel via carriage for so long a distance.

"Okay…" she replies, a bit absentmindedly as she begins to recount all that she'd learned over the journey to aid the princess.

With smile still in place, the princess innocently presses on, "What's so special about my betrothed?"

Lady Valerie, either ignoring or not catching the tone, answers immediately, "Why, that'd be either his eyes and hair, his status as the future king of Argent, or the fact he belongs to the only other A'luthean bloodline in Nareth."

Princess Adelina excitedly claps her hands, only to lean forward towards her friend, "And what exactly does that mean?"

A knot of worry forms on Lady Valerie's eyebrows as she carefully answers, "… it means he will be given his family's complete set of Blessed Armor, given to their line by the Goddess Herself, the A'luthean Armor of Argent?"

The princess laughs at her friend's textbook answer, "Oh Val! How long did you practice memorizing all that?"

Lady Valerie however saw the change in the princess' face when she gave her answer. "Lina… what exactly are you planning?"

Princess Adelina slowly sits back into her seat, making herself comfortable. "Nothing… just happy to hear my match is of such a Blessed bloodline!"

The smile on her face however, doesn't reach her eyes.

'The Archpriestess could only stop the imperial family from using their A'luthean Armor with the threat of another,' she thinks to herself as she leans back on her seat, her head on the puffed headrest. 'The other belonging to a royal family on the other side of the continent, in the Kingdom of Argent.'

She was to be the wife and queen of the one who would inherit such power, power enough to equal her father.

Princess Adelina was to become Queen Adelina. Here in this foreign kingdom she would be treated with respect. She would ensure it. Never again will she have to be under her father's control, never again will she be discarded and used in the negotiations of men.

And all she had to do was seduce her soon-to-be husband.

The plan going forward is this. For the sfw thread, at the end of the month ill be posting the Patreon version of the revised demo.

The NSFW KaE Thread will receive the Silverhill Martial Route four weeks after the Patreons receive it.

No deadlines will be publicly given.

Lady and the Wolf is the domestic name for the event/song/dance given by the people of Argent. Kingdom folk dont really wanna bring up the queen's familial history with the imperial line, AND Adelina herself doesnt want to promote that. She isnt a fan of the family and court that treated her as an outsider.

Speaking of, Adelina is the one who sponsors the theater(s) in the capital, so her wants and desires would be taken seriously; hence the Lady and the Wolf title.

Dance of Wolf and Raven is the actual title name of the novel, and I love it since not only did my patreons vote for the name, but I love the whole real world relationship of ravens and wolves being chill asf with each other.

The title can also obviously stand in for Uriel and Adelina as characters and not people we know personally, especially since theyre both strangers to each other in the beginning. They only know each other as being of the Ravenea or Argent bloodlines whose family animals are the Raven and Wolf respectively.

As I around the corner I spot two siting in plain sight. Instant relief, joy, gratification. An irrational moment of thought that somehow, in this moment especially, I have earned these lemons. Science and growing up in western society have taught me that this no link between our actions and random acts of nature, say a lemon falling from a tree. But this mantra escapes me momentarily as I feel in some small way I am being rewarded for the intentions I have put into the universe this morning.

The lads and I from the Department of Water Resources were out this morning cleaning and delivering Portaloos to an evacuation centre in Luganville. More than two hundred people of Ambae have turned the Apostolic Church downtown into a mini urban-village and have had the use of only two toilets for a couple of weeks now. I have been working with the WASH cluster, and after much number crunching and meetings, we finally got organized to actually (hopefully) deliver some relief items this week. Toilets for the church being the top priority.

I think the penny dropped more on the plane itself, with the hospitable hostesses and the first glimpses of coconut palm clad islands. Or more probably it is still dropping after two and a half weeks in. Regardless, I made it to Port Villa and then was met by something I didn’t expect... traffic jams, vans as far as the eye can see, taxis and noise. This is no sleepy island paradise. It has its charm, once you tune out the hum. To make up for this, people seem very relaxed and you are most often greeted with a smile when you catch someones eye.

To help with the adjustment of deployment into a foreign place, we were put up in a pretty plush motel, complete with swimming pool and continental breakfast each morning; not bad for volunteering! It was nice to have this for a week but motel life gets old quite and I was looking forward to being able to set up my new home in Luganville by the end.

The first two days involved orientation briefings with the VSA in-country team and having a look around the place and getting to know the other volunteers. We also had a meet and greet with the NZ High Commision to caht about goals and strategy in the Pacific, which felt casually official and gave a good sense of purpose. It was great to meet people working on some great project, as well as hearing the common pitfalls which were eagerly shared. I’m cautious to try and not let others experiences influence my expectations too much tho. 

I then had a weekend to myself as the others went their own ways before I worked two days in the DoWR Vila offices. This was World Cup Fever weekend with France making it to the final, and somewhat surprisingly, old colonial ties holding strong and providing a solid reason to get behind team. I also had my first dabble in the Kava bars, which was surprisingly pleasant, but not too mind bending at this stage. Give it time.

I then had two days meeting my new colleagues at the DoWR and a good time hearing about some of the projects going on. Plenty of work on it seems and lots of raiding of peoples hard drives for important documents and data. This was a good taste of what is awaiting me in Santo and I finally felt like I could start to get an understanding of where things are at in terms of systems and what is happening on the ground. It seems I’ll be thrown into a busy time with lots of work to do, but hoping I can still manage this in a way to ensure I’m sharing the experience, and not just doing the work.