hadriel_logs | Do they have a table for their crowns?

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Do they have a table for their crowns?

Who: Kelson and Alfred
What: Two english kings hang out and chat in their home
Where: Spire 3, 101
When: 10/12
Warnings: A bunch of very polite royals being very polite. Also religion, torture, murder and racism. Kelson stopped being polite.

Kelson was terribly bored. He wasn't used to being this bored. In Gwynedd there was always something that needed done, paperwork that needed to be looked at, changed or signed and sent back to Council, court to be held, nobility to talk to or appease. And then chances are someone would be in the midst of vacillating or attacking, and there went the rest of his 'free' time. In Hadriel, Kelson had none of that. His responsibilities are limited, his necessary duties confined to those he called friends.

So, he sat in the house he shared with Alfred, tapping the crown of Gwynedd across his forearm. Maybe he should make some tea? It wasn't wine, but, at least it wasn't water?

"I actually miss having countless numbers of documents to look over and sign."

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Alfred is not used to free time either. While he was new to his kingship, even as Prince there was dealing with the Viking horde, training and he'd spent some time traveling to visit where his father had come from. He'd never been very idle. It's not that he's idle here either but there's ... certainly no expectations of him. There's no Judith with her ambitions that had seeped into him even if tempered with his father's kindness and progressive curiosity and ideas.

"Of all the things you could miss, you miss documents?" Alfred asks with a small grin.

There was always something to do, usually horrible or boring. "I miss a lot of things. I miss my bed and my squires and being able to run off and leave my uncle in charge on some excuse or another when I'm really just getting out of boring duty. I miss court. And I miss people. "

Kelson look back at Alfred. "I suppose there are some things I miss more than documents. He swung his feet off the couch and stood up.

"Do you want some tea?" He had to do something. Keep his hands busy. There wasn't even anything read, really.

"What do you miss?"

Alfred nods. Things sounded so different in Kelson’s kingdom. He always found it curious and probably prodded for more information more often than not.

“Yes,” Alfred says at the mention of tea and shifts to keep facing Kelson as the other moved.

“I miss my mother... and my brother,” even if athelred almost certainly resented him even though it had been the elder’s choice in the end to abdicate. He exhales and smiles briefly.

“I miss being a thorn in the sides of monks and priests.”

"Oh, that we have in common. I can't say I miss my mother, and I'm an only child, but I do miss my champion and confessor. As for being a pain to monks and priests, I'd be happy for everything to go smoothly for once."

Having your church try to excommunicate you or drag you before a heresy tribunal was not fun Alfred. Kelson hoped you never had to find that out.

Kelson finished with the tea and brought the two mugs over, offering one to Alfred. He was ever so thankful for his page training.

"Why do they not go smoothly? I dislike the hypocrisy of the ones in my kingdom," Alfred says simply. He finds it irritating that they say they believe in modesty and yet horde treasures, books and the like from the people who could benefit from their service, from learning. Services done in Latin just to make the monks and priests feel as if they are more important than anyone else.

"Thank you," Alfred smiles at Kelson as he takes the tea.

"And I dislike when they torture and murder people in the name of God or redeeming their immortal soul." Did Kelson say that rather strongly? Sorry Alfred. He put the tea down before he spilled it, suddenly angry. There went that Haldane temper.

"Deryni. We're devilspawn did you know? The same men who anointed and crowned me committed treason weeks later. I suppose the only reason they anointed me in the first place was that by the time they realized I was half Deryni the coronation was already almost finished. They tried to excommunicate me and threatened to bring me before a heresy tribunal. Not to mention what they did to my confessor and other subjects. They actually openly rebelled. Civil War. "

Kelson was glad he put the tea down, his fists were clenched.

"Devil take toadying priests and bigoted Archbishops."

It’s not particularly hard to see where a tender spot was hit with Kelson and Alfred simply inclines his head and listens carefully. He knows his share of violent priests but it might be different, they were warriors for the pope, an army for god not necessarily belonging to any one country — but there were some like Bishop Heahmund who seemed less pious and more self-righteous, using God as an excuse to indulge in bloodlust whenever possible. Alfred had very little respect for a man of God who would break parlay and have two Vikings trying to make peace beaten before sent back to their encampment.

By the end of the small rant Alfred has plenty of questions but he holds onto the ones that are unnecessary. He can feel in some of the blanks enough and details could be added later.

“They started a civil war?” Alfred frowns and it’s all a lot of information that he hadn’t known about the other. “There is much that I do not know about you.”

Kelson hadn't known Archbishop Edmund Loris before he started to go bad. Chances are he'd always been filled with hatred, and felt his calling as a man of God justified it. But there had been others. Many others. Loris was just the face.

"Two, and encouraged a third at the same time. My coronation was rather...event filled and contained more magic than the Curia was comfortable with. They blamed one of my Duke's--he's never hide who he was and is an easy scapegoat for the 'evil's of magic'. Some took it upon themselves to kidnap and torture him, and then excommunicate him for the destruction that followed as he escaped his captors. They also put his entire Duchy under Interdict.

Kelson put fingers on the bridge of his nose, remembering.

"The Curia split over the Interdict though, some feeling that punishing an entire people for the actions of one man was not just. Civil War. Not counting the rebel leader my former Archbishop associated with, who had been encouraging civil war as well. For all the same reasons. Deryni. Magic. God.

So I had a choice. Follow the excommunication and lose my General on the eve of war, or keep my General and sentence myself to excommunication as well. They would have gotten around to me eventually anyway.

I'm afraid my reign as king has been tumultuous, Alfred. I do hope yours is less.....exciting."

Edited 2018-10-24 20:51 (UTC)

Alfred frowns, but it is more in concentration than anything else as he takes in as much of what Kelson is saying as he can. But it is true that he's not sure he completely understands it all. There is quite a lot of it to take in and he's sure that later he would have questions but for now it just percolates in his mind, too much to really even know what he had questions about first. What matters is that he understands the gist of what Kelson is speaking of at least.

"I mean to unite all the kingdoms of England into one and the Vikings are a constant threat. I do not think that my time as king will be uneventful."

It was a lot. Kelson's time as king was convoluted and complicated and full of strife and treason, twists and turns. He wouldn't expect anyone who hand't gone through it to understand everything the first time. And he hoped Alfred didn't have to go through such a thing. Every reign was different. Alfred would face problems. But they would be unique to him.

"I'm still trying to unite one kingdom. United all of England is quite a feat. I wish you well. And perhaps a certain amount of luck."

"it will likely take both," Alfred says, especially with a court that isn't particularly all that supportive of him on the whole.

"I am sure you will be able to unite your people. You are a good king and man."

Alfred could always try Kelson's way, but Kelson didn't reccomend it. Having to execute or imprison half your court, with many of the rest ending up murdered wasn't exactly fun or productive. Treason was a sticky business, and while it did end up changing the court's environment, it left it's toll. But at the very least, it had the added advantage of knowing who exactly you could trust.

"Most likely, it will, for both of us. And a bit of finesse. Political wrangling comes with the territory."

It is not really the solutions that Alfred would go to first. He was far more diplomatic than he should be at times, always willing to take the riskier roads that he felt more just than the ones that would be easier and safer. He had a vision he wasn’t very good at compromising on. Alfred takes a sip of his tea as he studied Kelson for a long moment before his gaze dropped to the tea.

“Do you ever imagine what it would have been like to be born with a different destiny?”

As similar as Alfred and Kelson were, they were very different kings, in different times, with different problems their lands were facing. Alfred had the benefit of diplomacy, with an attitude to match it. Kelson, at times, had to reign himself and his temper back. And he had learned the hard way that many times, diplomacy did not, would not work. Some things had to be met with violence, no matter how much one despised it.

"Sometimes, when I was younger. And particularly upset with my parents. But, I wouldn't have been me. If I wasn't king, or crown prince, I wouldn't have met Duncan or Morgan, and so many others who helped make me the king I am. Do you?"

Did Alfred not want to be king?

Edited 2018-11-27 22:56 (UTC)

Alfred isn’t naive enough to think that sometimes violence wasn’t necessary. He just never wished to go to it first. However, the Northmen were a problem even more pressing than the ones that were closer to home. He wasn’t war hungry like his father or his brother. He would always exhausts all his options before fighting.

Alfred’s answer begins with a long pause even though he is the one that had posed the question in the first place.

“Sometimes, but I think it is less about being King or not. I wish I had known my real father but I wouldn’t have been a prince had I known him as he was a monk,” more than a monk but the stories are vague and never with enough detail for Alfred. He knew that his progressive beliefs came from his father. “Or that I hadn’t had to step over my brother to become king.”

He sighs deeply. He knows the things he plans to do as king will be hard and he won’t make very many friends. “I wouldn’t shirk the duty given the chance, but sometimes I do envy those with simpler callings.”

"I wish I could say I understand completely. I've always known who my parents were, and he never had any other calling than being king. My coronation wasn't uneventful but those who challenged me were not family. I can't even say I wish it didn't happen. But, King Cinhil I was a cloistered monk before he became king. It's not exactly the same as yours, however."

Kelson sat down and took another sip of his tea. "This life is worth it when you are able to so do so many things. I think you will be a good king, Alfred. Especially since you envy those under you."

"How do you mean then?" Alfred asks when the other mentions that it's different. Of course, it would be being that he couldn't imagine a monk rising to kingship in Wessex... or anywhere else really. They were meant to be humble after all -- though, that was often a hypocritical thing.

"I do hope so, for the sake of the people."

It was rather hard to imagine wasn't it? A cloistered monk becoming a king, with his vows of poverty and obedience. And chastity.

"Some say that Cinhil realized the plight of his people and took back his kingdom from the usurpers. Others say he was outright kidnapped from the cloister and forced into his kingship. The grandson of King Ifor, the only surviving son of that massacre. I do hope your line is less...eventful.

And you will do fine. You care."

Alfred listens intently to Kelson's explanation. It's an interesting one, and he knows there is plenty in Kelson's history that would probably always be intriguing. He had gained healthy curiosity from many sides. "It sounds complicated." There's a rueful smile. "I am not related to either King of Wessex before me, and my brother is only my half-brother. Prince Aethelwulf... my father, he was very neglectful of my mother after she had my brother and when he went away she had an affair with a monk...who'd lived among Vikings and I am his -- but i've never met him, except I think I have spiritually."

That's a complicated thing to explain, though. Even though he'd never met Athelstan he'd heard so much about him from Ecbert, from Judith, from even Ragnar in passing.

"My mother only alive because my grandfather had such a fondness for Athelstan. I am not a legitimate heir to the throne even though it was my grandfather's wish."

"I hope so. I do not think I can admit to anyone else my doubts."

"History often is. I doubt I'll ever find the truth exactly. Unless someone from Gwynedd in 906 comes through that door and tells it. And even then, such things like treason and restoring the rightful king are usually limited to a few. I do hope he wasn't abducted from a monastery and forced into it but I can see why it might have been done, if it happened. The Festil's were not kind rulers and Gwynedd is still paying the price."

Kelson listened to Alfred's equally complicated history. Perhaps that was a necessity of kingship? "Your mother had an affair with a monk? Wasn't that....against his vows?" Maybe their christanity was....different than his? He cocked his head. Had he heard Alfred right? Had they not been married? How on earth did he get the throne when he was a bastard?

"How did you gain it then?"

Alfred thinks about it and then he nods. It is a mystery and he both likes and loathes such things.

"It was but he... he was complicated," Alfred finally said. "I never met him but I have heard many stories about him. He was very torn between two worlds."

"My grandfather raised me to be a statesman, to be the King that could unite all the kingdoms of England into one, while my brother was more raised by our father to be a warrior..." Alfred exhales slowly.

"My mother pressed Aethelred to abdicate the throne to me because of King Ecbert's wishes and vision for England. There's still a lot of... resistance."

"He sounds like what I've heard of Cinhil. I'm sure he tried to be a good king, but I don't think one ever stops being a monk, even if every bishop and archbishop in the kingdom gives dispensation. It was not the path he originally chose."

Kelson listened, wondering how to politely ask Alfred's birth status. Maybe an opportunity would open later. It wasn't something he was going to bring up now certainly.

"Your people are divided as a result of your inheritance and not Athelred?"

"It was similar I suppose but he was caught between the Christian and Pagan worlds. He was kidnapped by Vikings but...then he chose to stay with them," Alfred said quietly, before shaking his head. Sometimes he wonders what things might have been like had Athelstan stayed in Wessex after his affair with Judith but then again he would have likely been killed at Aethelwulf's hands. Ecbert's love of Athelstan and Ragnar had been all that had spared Judith.

"Something like that," Alfred said, sighing. "They think I am weak and that I do not belong on the throne."

"He chose to stay with his kidnappers?" Kelson couldn't imagine. "Even though they had forced him from the very life he had chosen?" It would definitely not have been the decision Kelson would have made, but Kelson, like Albert, had other people to consider. A kingdom.

"You have to prove them otherwise. You must show them that there is more to strength than strength in arms and combat."

“He didn’t exactly choose to be a monk,” Alfred said and he looks down for a moment. “He had been given to the monastery as a child because his family had too many children. I think, having met the man who had taken him that my father had found a family for the first time in his life. I can understand why he chose to stay once he was free to choose.”

Alfred inclines his head. “Strength in arms is still necessary. I have to prove I can do both while being the sort of king I intend to be.”

"He didn't have a religious calling then?"

Kelson supposed what Alfred was telling him was possible, a man getting a chance to live a life he might have chosen had he had the choice. He wished everyone would have that choice, that no one was given into the church unless they wished it but he knew that was not the way the world worked. Still, vows were serious.

"And you shall. You've been trained in weaponry, correct?" Kelson hoped Alfred at least had mastery with a sword, bow and lance.

"I don't think it was that simple," Alfred answers and he looks hesitant there, uncertain. There's so much that he didn't know about his father. "I think he felt God's calling for his life was different and he mostly kept to his vows but he made mistakes," clearly, Alfred is here after all.

"Yes, not as much as my brother was. I was always better at the tactics and strategy. But I have already been in battle."

"Perhaps it was all part of God's plan after all? Perhaps that was the only way to ensure events." Kelson knew being thought of as in Heavens favor wasn't something most people liked, and he wasn't sure if it was true, he wasn't a priest. But, he remembered Father Duncan saying it on more than one occassion.

"You'll be fine. You just need experience, and perhaps a little weapons practice. I'd be happy to work with you if you don't have anyone else."

"Maybe, I probably will never know," Alfred said and he wished that he did. There was a lot that he wanted to know about Athelstan.

"Really?" Alfred brightened. "I would like that."

"I'd be more than happy to. It would brighten the tedium that has become the days here. A little something closer to home." And it would help Alfred. Win, win.

"Then I would very much appreciate it."

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Do they have a table for their crowns?

is 2 a bunch tho?

Two is totally a bunch

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Athelstan, Aethelred, Aethelwulf, Alfred jesus christ

LOL

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