Sinking deeper into debt

After a restless night full of nightmares, all that Adela wanted to do with the first rays of a newborn day was to pay a visit to the infirmary where Arkin and her patient were still recovering. But along the way, she was met with the dreadful misfortune of overhearing a heated argument the Archduke and his Commander were having, she found herself hiding behind a maple tree like a child instead of carrying on with her way.

With her eyes shut, she held her breath to the best of her ability and prayed not to be found.

"What about the dukedoms?"

"The rain was mostly bountiful, and their subjects are not suffering from food shortages. The dukes raised revenues this season by placing taxes on imports and some exports. While we cannot possibly command higher taxes from Lanarkians after the drought we lived through, Your Excellency,"

The Archduke grunted, "Gustav, it is not the commoners but our vessels that have to carry that load, how many times do I have to explain the same thing in one lifetime?!"

"You and I both know that it is not the case,"

Adela's fingers dug nervously inside the hollows of the old tree log. She knew all about the vessel's endless greed and how they went in roundabout ways to maintain their abundant fortunes and take advantage of every last drop of commoners' blood and sweat.

The Emorians were double taxed for everything, and the legislation itself was flawed.

While the tax paid on income was easy to count and monitor, the tax paid on net profit people made was more ambiguous and easier to manipulate since a final declaration by the lords was an obligatory verification. It left the aristocrats to their own conscience — an absent existence in most if not all the cases.

Dukes, Barons, and Counts with a correct moral compass carried the weight of the second tax and invested in the wellbeing of their people, while the corrupt aristocrats placed the load over the necks of commoners who dared not complain fearing evictions or unfair treatment when it came to dividing seeds to grow crops or protection that the scarce mana stones in possession of the lords provided their territories with.

"Endless and blunt exploitation, the audacity they have to call themselves nobles when they act no better than bandits!"

Kaiser's chest heaved, he felt sick to his stomach with the paradox of belonging to a system that insists on preaching what it does not practice.

"Why wouldn't the rebellion against the monarchy appeal to Emorians if the lords are trying to share the very bite commoners eat when they hardly have enough to satiate their hunger? Their children's hunger!"

"Your Excellency..."

"We want them to fill the kingdom's granaries when their own storage houses are empty! How can we ask them to obey such an impossible demand?"

Gustave sighed heavily, "Kaiser..."

"If additional tax causes grievance to my subjects instead of enhancing the infrastructure of these lands and increasing the quality of their lives, then what good am I for, Gustav? Why am I even here?"

A grief-stricken Adela winced when Gustav thumped his left shoulder with his fist and kept it there.

"Your Excellency, it pains me to hear you speak ill of yourself when you have honored these lands with your care your entire life, every grain and rock in Lanark owes you, you are all the goodness we need, my liege,"

Irritated, Kaiser ran a hand through his grey hair, his knight's earnest words of praise going in one ear and out the other, his eyes glued to the maple tree that his daughter hid behind.

"Grace, Larissa…Adelaide…My family needs to be prepared for the worst…"

The commander too had seen his goddaughter mistakenly stumbling across the two of them, he decided to help the proud Archduke with the difficult task ahead.

"Do you intend to sell more land, Your Excellency?" He paved the way with a grim tone.

Adela's hands snapped up to close her ears, she never meant to eavesdrop, and it was not like her father and Baron Gustav to speak of such important matters in the open air. No matter how much pressure she applied, she still heard that which caused her much despair, it was not long before her hands slowly sank, dragged down by her sinking heart.

Gustav and Kaiser stared at each other for a long moment, they had looked death in the eye too many a time during wars, yet life itself had always been more difficult to face.

"… I am afraid that selling bits and pieces here and there is equivalent to the attempt of mending that which had already been shredded beyond repair,"

"An auction it is then," Gustav declared, sparing the Archduke of the heavy-duty and crushing their eavesdropper's spirits on her father's behalf.

Adela's hands closed her mouth this time.

She had always thought that submitting to the King's demands to sell parts of the Archduchy was inescapable, but initiating an auction? How was that different from declaring insolvency?

She swallowed back a sob imagining what her silent father's face looked like now, but a small whine escaped her imagining how he will look like when he becomes indebted to his own vessels, a dream of theirs and a nightmare of hers, each of the greedy bunch becoming the true owners of the Archduke's lands.

No…He does not deserve to serve such a sentence…

Withdrawn inside the horror, it took her some time to register that the Archduke and his Commander were no longer close to her. She dashed out of her hiding place and walked in a daze only snapping out of it when her eye caught what looked like an ignited flame next to the infirmary.

Larissa's loose red hair swayed beautifully under the sun, she turned around hearing someone drawing closer from behind her hoping that it was her younger sister. It was Adela indeed, but she looked unnaturally white with eyes that lacked their usual light.

An alarmed Larissa hurried to hold her sister's cold hand, "What is the matter?"

Adela wished she could shelter her sister from the inevitable storm coming their way, she pulled Larissa by their joint hands and locked her arms around her thin waist.

"You were gone yesterday, and your room was empty in the early morning… I went to the infirmary thinking I might find you there…"

"I am sorry about the banquet; mother must have been upset…"

Larissa rubbed her sister's arms rhythmically and sighed, "The Archduchess was as understanding as ever…" sarcasm mingled with excitement in her voice at the end, "The man who rescued you…He followed you out a while after, did he catch up with you?"

Adela shook her head, he did not catch up with her, he was right at her heels. The last thing she needed right now was to add more questions to the mystery that was Egon von Conradie.

Larissa swallowed loudly and frowned, "…What about the other one... Andreas?"

Adela narrowed her eyes, "What about him?"

"Do you think… Might he be interested in me?"

Adela could not forgive the doubtful tone in Larissa's words nor the uncertainty in her sparkling eyes when she adjusted their posture so she could look directly at her.

"Just look at you...There are ballads in Lanark that speak of your elegance. You are smart and courageous, one of the most responsible individuals I know…" Her voice became strained, she could not continue lifting Larissa up while carrying a mountain on her shoulders, her eyes squeezed shut as old useless thoughts came over her uninvited.

If only...

As Larissa's opposite, Adela wished numerous times had she been born a male heir to her father knowing she would have been able to do something about his debt had that been the case.

"I knew it…something is wrong, isn't it?"

Her eyes opened slowly revealing her renewed determination to find a solution instead of wishing for that which can never be. She had no intentions of keeping the truth from her older sister, so she nodded once and eyed the infirmary behind the two of them.

"The walls have ears... Care to go on a ride with me?"