A Battle Unseen

[Doc]

Wood House, Her Imperial Majesty's summer Lodge, September 19

"Come in Your Highness," said the Lady Companion Victoria. "Mary is expecting you, but she was napping until you got here."

"How are you Victoria?" asked Margaret.

"I am doing well, Madame," said Victoria. "We've had such a nice week, but I think Mary has something on her mind, and it sort of put a damper on things."

"Yes, that's my sister for you," said Margaret. "I think she's obviously concerned about Rildanor. It's been all she's talked to me about for the last few months..."

"I think she's upset about Egelion in Rildanor specifically, Madame. It feels they are aggressively expanding while Kalistan is left in the dust."

"Well, that's a standard concern of hers," said Margaret. "What she doesn't understand is that Egelion has a certain privilege that we don't share. It is what it is, but people tend to roll over for Egelion. It's no fault of Kalistan's, of course. She should just be grateful that people aren't paying much attention to Kalistan. Whenever we do anything outside our own borders, we become a lightning rod. So... It's better that nobody is paying any attention to Kalistan, especially right now."

"Do you mean..." asked Victoria

"Athosia..." said Margaret with a smile.

"She's not actually gonna..."

Margaret nodded and then smiled. "Ha, of course not. What kind of rapacious imperialists do you think we are? We're not Egelion after all!"

Victoria, who wasn't quite sure if Margaret knew something she didn't about the land her partner routinely called "the jewel in my crown" nonetheless breathed a sign of relief. "My Lady, I knew you were putting me on!"

"Or was I?" asked Margaret mischievously as she ominously shook her head, but then smiled.... but then her face grew serious and she shook her head 'no' again. But then she smiled. "Haha... I'm only playing. Who knows what that woman will do when she gets it in her mind to do something. But the real truth, the one nobody except Mary Ananto seems to take seriously is, Athosia already belongs to Mary in her mind. Those of us who were born to this family know its kind of a mental illness of sorts, an unnatural obsession that captures us all more or less, but it is one that affects the monarchs most seriously. To Mary, a legal title recognized by others isn't really necessary: Athosia already belongs to the Empire, whether a Baltusian flag is flying there or not. So if she makes any announcements, they are already after the fact. We never lost Athosia and we Anantos, at least, know it. Even if Mary was the only one in the whole world who believed it, her claim would be 1000x times more legitimate than the Egelian seizure of that naval base in Rildanor. And that's all that matters to her."

Lady Victoria smiled. As Margaret finished speaking, Mary stepped into the room. She sat on the couch next to Victoria. "Give it to me, Meg."

Margaret mimed taking off her "sister" hat and putting on her "IBSI Director" hat. "We can't determine that there is any racist component to Rildanor's Government. I mean to say, they seem like your run of the mill stateist authoritarian governments. They don't even feel all that personalist to our analysts. Just a pretty solid centralized regime. Do they care about civil liberties? Probably not. Do they have a pretty strong police apparatus? I would say no stronger than all these so called 'liberal democracies' whose cops drive around in black cars, flash guns everywhere, summarily execute people for minor traffic offenses because they are 'scared' and get away with no charges because of qualified immunity, whatever that means. Will they put people in concentration camps or gas chambers? That is highly unlikely. I'd say you can deal with them. They certainly are not fascists, and anything that says they are is probably propaganda to mask much more cynical motivations."

Mary listened closely and nodded. "And what about Meriath?"

Margaret kind of shrugged a little. "It's doubtful that they are as committed to democracy as they claim they are. It feels like they really just wanted to protest an election they lost, not on ideological grounds, but because they didn't like the results. The Government may have gone a little overboard in repressing them, Meriath may have jumped the gun in announcing independence. It really feels to me that they wouldn't have done that if they hadn't lined up support for the move with a self-interested Egelion beforehand, and got the green light. Text book imperialism and destabilization. We've seen it a hundred times before: It's so nakedly transparent, and we'd say its pretty amateur if so many people weren't in complete awe of Egelion. They leverage the fandom to their advantage, I have to give them that."

Margaret paused here, inhaled, and then began again... "It does however certainly have some of the markings of Beiteynu, the way they used to do things, and Amudim's rush to immediately declare support is one of those telltale signs of a resurgent Beiteynese meddling. Without some external mover, it is doubtful that Egelion would have been as insanely eager to grab the base on the other side of the planet like it did and then openly brag about it. We don't think Egelion is as weirdly expansionistic as that. It really feels like something we have seen before, something you, Mary, have seen before. And you know the author of that-- the true author. And it isn't our cousin in Altea.

"But is Meriath communistical? Nope, not in a million years. There are real communists in this world, and the folks who run Mariath for their new imperial masters are not that. Their first public statements were about economic development. So unless Communists talk like liberals now, which they don't, we can't say with any degree of certainty that they are communist. That too is just straight up propaganda."

Mary smiled and nodded her head. "So maybe I will reach out to them too."

"Well," said Margaret. "Here's the rub. You work with one, you don't get the other. And at this moment, the Mainland Government is far closer to where we are ideologically than the Island Government. Plus, we gain nothing from working with Meriath. Egelion has already set up shop there; they were quick, they were diligent, and they were surgical. There's literally nothing for anyone else there, because Egelion had planned this all along, which leads me to believe they played a role in greenlighting the entire 'conflict' to begin with.

"But Rildanor itself may be a different story. They want to meet with you. Perhaps this may be an opportunity to at least come out even in the region. The 3rd Fleet, stationed at Bentasur in Gaduridos, patrols the Schismatic Sea. What if you proposed, say, the 3rd Fleet extending its patrols further south to Northern Rildanor? Mordusia is in no place to object right now, and you could make the case that Kalistan could provide Rildanor additional protection from an 'aggressive' Egelion who has already demonstrated its willingness to simply take whatever it wants. You don't even need to address Egelion if you don't want--You currently outgun them everywhere in the Anantonese: you could just ignore them and talk to the Government of Rildanor. Egelion has their military base in Meriath. But the Mainland is at least as important, and by the way, its connected to the Trans Seleyan Railroad, if I am not mistaken. This might be an opportunity."

Mary thought for a moment. "It is true. We will be meeting with the Rildanorean Government in a couple months. We could offer them an Embassy to start with. We'll have to be careful to not inflame the situation with Egelion though."

Margaret shook her head slightly. "Egelion is not the issue here, Mary. This really feels to me like Beiteynu. Egelion is not the prime mover of this situation."

Mary looked quizzically, "Do you think? Beiteynu?"

Margaret turned to Lady Victoria. "Do you still have your contact with that fellow from AYIC? Mr. Romero?"

It became clear to Victoria that this was why she was asked to be present at this meeting, though she was usually excluded from affairs of state. And she, at that moment, knew it was Margaret who wanted her there--Mary would have been satisfied to not invite her at all. She thought to herself, this is how these Ananto women work when they work together. She knew now, more than ever that Mary was the Empress, but Margaret was by far the more intelligent and calculating, and therefore more terrifying of the two women. Mary always said she and her sister were a team, and Victoria had long accepted that fact, but Mary was a kind of gun loving hippy and naturalist, while Margaret, while maintaining the perfect physique of a professional surfer, has probably murdered more than one person in her career, and definitely knew where hundreds of skeletons were dropped into the Morass, never to be seen again. She did the things Mary needed done, but couldn't do herself, a real enforcer, a true operator. Victoria gulped slightly as a drop of sweat formed on her brow. She nodded. "Mr. Romero and I had lunch last month in Kaliburg," said the Lady Companion.

"I know," said Margaret. "Do you think you could find some excuse for him to meet me in Kaliburg this month? I think we need to bring some more guns to bear. I need to talk to him about visiting Valruzia."

Victoria nodded. "I can set up a meeting." She said they could meet at Sympatico, an extremely high end restaurant in Port Davon overlooking the Bay. Its all glass exterior belied the fact that many a high level and often secret handshake agreement was set there over the years. "Do you need a room there?" asked Victoria.

"No just a seat near the window. I like the view," said the IBSI director.

Victoria looked at Mary who simply nodded once, and the meeting was as good as set. And with that Victoria's part in this little play was unceremoniously over.

"I'll have you in when I meet with the Rildanorean rep," said Mary to Margaret. "And I trust you will brief Lady Alvarez on your findings, Meg?"

"I'll return to Kaliburg tomorrow," said Margaret. "Meanwhile, what's for supper?"

Mary smiled and looked at Victoria. "For you ladies, pizza and beer. I have tofu schnitzel and spaghetti. And I believe dinner is served. I'll get Nicky and be right there."