Hanna Arryn is the only child of Byron Arryn and Ashley Martin, making her a member of House Arryn, through her father and a member of House Martin through her mother. Hanna has no full siblings but she has three half siblings in the form of Aria, Spencer, and Byron Arryn II. of which her sister Aria has become influencially silently following the death of both Allison and her mother Ella Arryn, her sister Spencer was once very powerful within House Arryn but her siding with her mother Ella during the days with the True Sons have left her isolated, and finally her brother Byron is believed dead by the Kingdom of Lucerne but in fact is living with Bill Lovie in Orleans.
Hanna Arryn was born the bastard daughter of Byron Arryn the Lord of House Arryn and Ashley Martin a member of House Martin. She was three when her mother first started getting sick but her mother kept this from her, and would live till Hanna was nearly six. So at the age of six her mother died of an illness, and this led her to be taken in by her father's married family, a fact which hasn't sat well with Ella Arryn of whom couldn't stand the site of the bastard child of her husband. After a lot of problems in Forks she was sent to stay at the Lucernian Academy by her father, and when she left she was accompanied by her sister Aria of whom became the closest person to her in the ranks of House Arryn. Hanna Arryn spent a few years in Lucerne, and during this time she grew very close to William and Alice Lovie, of whom became the best friends she had ever had outside of Aria Arryn. Hanna Arryn would be a part of the mind trick that wiped Alice Lovie from the memories of nearly everyone within the city, and following this Amber Heard was forced to leave the city by Bill, and seeing Hanna as a lesser version of the two Bill also forced the removal of the Arryn's from the city through getting Byron to recall them. Leaving Lucerne she was inside Forks for only a short time before her family was given control of Berne, and this led to her eventual involvement in the True Sons of Lucerne led by Sean Lovie. Her close relationship with William Lovie and her excelllent morals means she was a very unwilling member of theTrue Sons of Lucerne, but with her inept father having lost complete control of the city to the True Sons she was betrothed to Pippen Grugargen of whom was the third most powerful member of the True Sons of Lucerne. Hanna would be present during the Siege of Berne where she would hide alongside her sister and many in her family so that they were not murdered by the vengeful and erratic True Sons of Lucerne. Surviving the battle she and her sister would grow into a more influencial role in House Arryn following the death of Allison and their mother during the siege, and the growing disrespect towards Byron Arryn. Hanna would be betrothed to Harrold Krinner as a reward for the service of House Krinner during the siege, and she did her best to be a good person for the thirteen year old Harrold Krinner of whom was a sickly young man that had little respect amongst the people of Berne, and she wouldn't get a chance to know him better as he was sent to squire with Willas Tyrell the crippled heir of House Tyrell. By the time he returned at fifteen he had grown taller, but remained the same physically weak boy that he had left as, but while physically he remained handsome but weak his mind had been honed under the very intelligent Willas Tyrell of whom taught him all about overcoming obstacles physically with your mind. Hanna and Harrold would be married in a quiet ceremony attended by her long time friend William Lovie and much of the royal family as a sign of her influence in the royal court the wedding would take place in Nortburg the personal estate of House Lovie.
Hanna has a curvacious frame. She has a beautiful soft round shaped face with full lips, baby blue eyes and long golden blonde hair which she cut short before the start of Invasion of Wesbridge. Her skin is light with a milk and rose complexion which sums up her innocent and playful personality.
History
Early History
"I was very young so I only half understood what was being discussed. My mother always tried to put the best spin on it that she could of that I have nearly a perfect memory of. Despite her best attempt I would find her crying in her room many times throughout my early life, and looking back I wish I could have been there for her more then I was."
-Hanna Arryn
Hanna Arryn was born in Forks to her parents Ashley Martin, and Byron Arryn. Her birth was quite the controversay as her father was married with two young children with his wife Ella Arryn already. At first Hanna lived a peaceful life with his mother, of whom was the favored women of her father Byron even over his beloved
wife Ella, and because of this peaceful life she would be thrown into it when her father became discussing calling her an Arryn. Ella Arryn used all of her guile to attempt to make Byron Arryn name Hanna a Snow, instead of a Arryn which would be devestating to her position. After weeks of arguments eventually Byron refused completely and gave Hanna his last name of Arryn, in a move of bravery that shook the foundations of House Arryn to its core. This cemented Hanna's place in the House and caused a huge rift between Byron and his wife Ella, and this rift would only increase when Andrea would die when Hanna was six years old.
Death and Rebirth
"My mother was a wonderful person who just loved. She loved everything and everyone she met, and she deserved a longer life then the one she got. I'm just glad I got to spend the years with her that I did."
-Hanna Arryn
Hanna's peaceful life would quickly and utterly come to an end when her mother would suddenly die when she turned six years old. Her deaths was quite suspisious and later she would learn that many people believed she had been poisioned by Ella Arryn in order to retain her control of House Arryn. During this early time she spent most of her time with two people in her family in her sister Aria and her father Byron. Byron at first attempted to create a loving and kind relationship with his daughter, but each night he would return to his wife and realize that she was all he had left so he needed to make her happy. In this attempt to make Ella Arryn happy he begin to pull away from Hanna Arryn to the point that he hoped Ella would see this. Ella didn't notice as much as Hanna did, and it was this pull back that has done more to harm their present day relationship then any of the other things that have gone on.
"Aria was my salvation. Without Aria there is no question that I would have ended up hanging myself to get away from the outright hate of my family."
-Hanna Arryn
With Aria though she found her best friend for life. Aria was kind to her from the first day they met eachother, and Aria was the kind of person that never demanded anything of a friendship and was just seemingly always there for you. Aria would be the one that spent the time to actually show Hanna what kinds of things she would be expected to know as a noble daughter since that was usually the role of a mother, and Andrea was dead and Ella only tore her down. During these teachings they would sneak off to friends of Aria's where they would stay many nights to escape the darkness and lack of affection of the House Arryn house.
Abuses
"I talked to her once when me and her got caught together in the garden. One real conversation in all those years. One conversation that built the foundation of my understanding of the person that she was. To summarize it ended with her telling me to drown myself by wrapping my ugly hair around my fat neck."
-Hanna Arryn
This abuse came directly from her mother in the form of Ella Arryn of whome begin silently coodinating other members of House Arryn, and other noble children to ostricize and be cruel towards Hanna. At first Hanna and basically her only friend in Aria attempted to just rise above this hatred but this just appeared to egg on their oponents into becoming more aggresive in their attacks. Her sister, mother and cousins were relentless towards Hanna to such extents that she believed that serious danger was incoming for Hanna and she felt so strongly about this that she went to her father in order to attempt to stop the behavior. Her father though had become increasingly emotionally distant from the world, and thus he refused to even entertain the idea of intervening.
"It took the fact that I nearly died for him to help me. Where do I put that? Do I pretend its okay it took him that long and just be happy that he even cared enough to help? Or do I disregard this as the sad and pathetic act that it was? It all leads to an end that frightens me."
-Hanna Arryn
Hanna and Aria's father was forced to intervene when Hanna was taken by several of Allison's friends and beaten up to the point that she nearly died of her injuries. Hanna had just been walking home from the market that night when she felt arms pulling at her and pushing her to the ground. Before she could even defend herself these girls were beating her nearly to death. Her father contimplated many different options but in the end he decided that the only safe place for Hanna to go was to Lucerne. In Lucerne he wanted her to get everything that he in that moment realized she could never get in Forks. When Hanna left Aria knew she needed to go with her sister, so only two weeks after Hanna left, Aria followed her to Lucerne.
Living in Lucerne
"Arriving in the big city was a culture shock that I hadn't known was possible. After my father, sister, and brother moved me into the apartment and then left I felt more alone then I did back when my step mother was abusing me. It wasn't until Aria arrived that I felt like I was in a home."
-Hanna Arryn
Hanna arrived in Lucerne in a carriage that carried her sister Aria, her father Byron, and her brother Byron while the rest of her family refused to accompany her on her going away trip. When they arrived the place that Ella had set up for her to stay was a dump, and at first Byron refused to have her stay there but he was convinsed by Hanna that he had to let her stay there. The group would stay for a day before they all headed back to Forks, but before she left Aria made it very clear to Hanna that she wasn't going to be staying here alone and to prepare for her to come too. After going back to Forks she forced her mother to support her in Lucerne, and then left so that she could stay with her sister Hanna. When Aria arrived in Lucerne she quickly ignored the money that she had that would have allowed her to stay in a better place then her sister was forced to stay in, and instead stayed in the slummy apartment with her sister. She used her money to pay for men to come and replace the doors and locks so that they felt safer, and she paid for a gaurd to protect the apartment itself from whatever threat might arise.
The Academy
"Becoming friends with Alice and William was the first time that someone had really and truly wanted to be around me other then my sister. It was a new feeling for me and I just loved them both so much. Those two will always be my best friends and I hope one day they know how much their friendship means to me."
-Hanna Arryn
Shortly after she arrived their she and her sister were forced by her parents to take more intensive classes at the academy which cost a lot more money then the rest of the academy did, and through this she and Hanna met many of the more important and influencial members of the noble children in Lucerne. For Hanna this meant that she became extremely close with both Alice, and William Lovie of whome begin extensively becoming involved in her life and led to their living situation being improved dramatically after William had his father deploy soilders from House Lovie into the area around the apartment they were staying, and thus made the area much safer. Hanna's relationship with William, and Alice also changed things between her and Aria as many nights she would find herself falling asleep in the Sky Towers with William Lovie, and this caused a few distinct changed. The moment the rumors got out of her
sleeping with William she became the target of several of the girl's anger as they were jelous that she was supposedly sleeping with William. This continued silently as Hanna didn't want to tell anyone, but eventually one night she woke up crying after a bad dream and William held her while she cried. In that weak moment she told him what was happening to her, and he just whispered to her that it was going to get better. The next day none of the girls spoke to her harshly and when she looked at William in class he just smiled back at her. The second part was that she grew more distant from her beloved sister Aria, of whome was lonely since she had lost her main connection in Lucerne. For Aria this connection came when she grew close to one of the gaurds that had come to protect the region in Joshua Jackson.
The Nortburg Tournament of 5120 This tournament is for all of you. Its time you started building your own family now William.
“You are my son, and more then that you are the heir to this kingdom. That does not require me to keep you aware of everything that is going on at all times.”
— James Lovie II.
Its while sitting in the gardens outside the Skytower kissing Rosalie Hale when the two are interrupted by the arrival of Carlisle Cullen, and Kieth Schwartz. The two attempt to send Rosalie away but William resists this and she stays with him as they tell him about the coming Nortburg Tournament. It’s revealed that following the wedding it was William that was shuttled back to Lucerne and has been locked away inside the Tower of Clouds estate with only his friends able to visit him inside. William demands to know where Alice is and as the group is arguing about this its James that comes out of the front gate. William looks to his father and is shocked at his appearance. The last time he saw his father was only a few weeks ago but seeing him again he looks like he’s aged twenty years. The whole group is quiet as James is helped to get over to them with the assistance of two guards under each arm. Alongside the guards he is followed by Aelfwynn Turnidlon, Fabian Klauseburg, who all have an aura of nervousness as they reach William. Carlisle attempts to have James returned to the tower, but James ignores him and tells the guards to sit him down on the bench. After sitting down, he sends everyone away except for Kieth, and William. As Rosalie goes to leave, she gives him a kiss on the cheek, and it makes William feel a sense of safety. The discussion between the three of them does not go well as James reveals several hard truths for William. The first being the fact that Alice has indeed been betrothed to Paulus Yernese and nothing William does will change this fact. The next is that he would not be accompanying them to Nortburg and that Kieth would be his guardian while he was outside of Lucerne. Williams attempts to resist the words of his father lack any real aggression as he is thrown off by how sickly his father appears and having never seen his father looking so close to death, he is unable to quickly adjust. James discusses that at the tournament there will be many girls sent to the tournament as he has made it known that he wants to decide on William’s future bridge and will decide at the tournament based on Kieth’s negotiations. James begins coughing which again puts William in a state of panic as he watches his father break down. The coughing gets bad causing the return of Aelfwynn and Fabian who joined by several guards pick him up and bring him back to the Cloud Tower leaving a shaken William behind.
“Your father is a good person. I have spent my whole life near him. My life’s mission is to protect and serve him. There are moments when I think back to the boy he used to be, and I can barely recognize the man I see now. The truth is that’s how life goes. People change. People have flaws and as the days go by these flaws become more apparent. Listen to me when I say this, William. Once you love someone. Once you have given someone your word. Loyalty doesn’t have an exit door.”
— Kieth Schwartz
Following this its Kieth that stays behind and talks with William and the two show themselves to be close as despite everything happening William looks at him in a father like way. Kieth tells William to have the servants pack some things for the trip, and he does this following Kieth onto the lift of the Cloud Tower. Kieth commands two servants to accompany them up the lift to assist William and two girls quickly shuffle on to the lift in response. The two go up the lift but Kieth gets off on the fifth floor leaving William to travel further up with only two of his servants with him in the form of Adolfa and Helmgarda. Going up the next fifteen floors on the lift he looks on the two girls who keep their head bowed the entire time up the lift, and William begins to ponder who he is as a person. Thinking back to the peasants on the mountain he realizes that he has been detatched from the common man of Lucerne and decides to be better. William sparks a conversation with the two but only Adolfa pushes past her nerves to speak with William and the two share a laugh as the lift arrives at his floor. Going onto the floor they move past two guards towards his room where Adolfa follows him, while Helmgarda does the same but trails further behind. While discussing the trip to Nortburg its Adolfa that tells William that she overheard discussions to have his friends not accompany him on the trip to Nortburg and hearing this news he thanks her with a kiss and rushes to the lift. Leaving behind Helmgarda, and Adolfa to pack his things he goes back to the lift and prepares to find his friends to bring them back to the tower.
“You didn't think you could get rid of me that easily did you?”
— Leven Martell
Lying to the guards that he is just going to the garden he can escape the tower and get into the garden. Inside the garden he hops the wall and sneaks onto the walls where he uses a rope to climb himself down thinking how this gets easier the taller, he gets. As he reaches the bottom, he pulls the rope with him and then sees Leven sitting down across from him smiling at him. Revealing that she knew he would escape sooner or later she had come here to meet him. Pulling her into a hug he explains what has happened and attempts to take her hand and go and gather the Shadow Council, but she stops him. Telling him that she had been with Aria when guards had come and commanded that she begin packing for the trip. She had then tried to see Jasper and Rosalie but saw guards there as well revealing her attempts to find the Shadow Council had all ended in failure leaving just her not taken away. At Leven’s words he prepares to sneak her inside so that she is not sent away with the rest of his friends. Using the rope, he pulls himself back up and then helps Leven do the same. Going back to the tower he goes inside where he finds the servant clothing, he has hidden for events like this and brings them back outside. Taking them to Leven he gives them to her to change and while at first, he turns away to give her privacy he sees her reflection in a vase. Seeing her body exposed he feels the desire to turn around and touch her skin but controls himself and does not turn around. With Leven pretending to be a servant they go inside returning to the lift and go back to his floor. Arriving at the floor they find his things packed and by the entrance to the lift and no sight of Helmgarda and Adolfa. The guard on duty is Erik Fahnrich who recognized Leven but doesn’t say anything just smiles and lets the two go past him. William wakes up in the morning and finds himself and Leven cuddling in bed together and feeling her skin against him he begins touching her this time unable to control himself. Leven wakes up to this and embarrassed at first to be caught she silences him with a kiss. The kiss becomes heated with the two touching each other but as it risks going somewhere further, he stops them as he becomes ashamed of betraying Rosalie. Leven looks disappointed but smiles at him, and the two get dressed as by this point they were both naked. Leaving Lucerne with only Leven, and his servants they travel by carriage towards Nortburg with Leven and William sharing the carriage together. During the ride they talk as they always have but things have changed between them as there is a chemistry now there that William resists due to his feelings for Rosalie. Leven does tell William briefly about her time on the road back to Lucerne and hints that she believes Wuldrik Toyne may be her real father.
Blood of Old Atlantis
“You didn't think you could get rid of me that easily did you?”
— Leven Martell
As James and his council begin planning for different marriage options for the prince William Lovie III. it was James that became very interested in the idea of having a Numenorian brought. James understood that the blood of Atlantis was very rare in the valley and thus they would have to find this Numenorian girl from somewhere outside of the valley. As word was sent to loyalists throughout the surrounding kingdoms it was a trader in Lorderon that passed on the information that a princess in Arnor was not back on the market. It was thus James Lovie was sent information that the young Ar-Brentey Hemsworth was now free following the death of her proposed husband in battle. James sent letters to King Jonas Hemsworth asking him if her hand was open for his young son William Lovie III., and after a series of back and forth letters Jonas would take this option to his council, and their would little debate among them. It was decided that clearly this was a top tier marriage option, and thus was one of the two eventual Numenorian betrothal options that were brought in. The second Numenorian option was discovered much closer to home in the form of Seri-Relisia Terrick the daughter of the lord of House Terrick a prominent noble in Rhunian. Word was sent to the Terrick's who quickly accepted this option and would send Relisia to the tournament.
“Noone told me the distance between the two places, and for that reason it was shocking not only the distance but the complete changes that you go through in travelling from Arnor to Lucerne. The ice tipped mountains of Arnor pass through the lush Riverlands, and the hardy lands east of Stormwind, and then finally you reach the prestine valley of Lucerne.”
— Brentey Hemsworth
the second and Brentey was planned to be sent to Lucerne to get to know William so they could make sure it would work. Brentey was told about the plan, and having spent the better part of two decades in isolation at the Anchorite of Fornost she was overjoyed at the chance to leave the Anchorite. During the time before she left she was left a list of things that William liked that had been sent by James Lovie but unfortunately James did not know his son half as well as he thought so the vast majority of these things were inaccurate. As she was leaving she was forced to for the first time accept life without her family of whom had been her rock for most of her life, but she was sent with her handmaiden Ilana La-Phellion of House Phellion. So it would be nothing more then Ar-Brentey her handmaiden Ilana, and a small party of men at arms to protect them when they went for a trip to a completely foreign land. Also along with her learning she begin taking the name Britt the rough translation of what her Numenorian name became in common germanic. The Journey for Brentey was extremely long, but over the time she and her best friend Ilana La-Phellion would be reading up on the history of Lucerne through several books that they had been given by James Lovie during his time in Arnor. Through this they learned the history of the Kingdom of Lucerne, but more importantly they learned all there was to know about House Lovie in book learning. During this reading she came to greatly admire her betrothed's name sake in the form of William Lovie of whom she read all about, and the relationship that he had with the dragons. She tried her very best for the situation that awaited her, and for her part was desperate to have this work not wanting to return to the anchorite but also desperately wanting a partner.
“I did whatever I could to keep him interested. He was a maturing young man, but for all intesive purposes he was a child. I had to be the greatest of all the distractions he would be met by or else I would lose everything. ”
— Brentey Hemsworth
When Brentey arrived in Lucerne James made sure to use all of his skill to manipulate the young girl into keeping her purpose their a secret. With the element of surprise still with him, he set Brentey out on a mission to seduce William, which based on his adoration at the time of Rosalie Hale made this difficult but James told her that she was not going to have a problem with Rosalie who he planned on removing from the equation.
The Tournament Starts
Royal Betrothals
“Brentey Hemsworth came to the land of Lucerne with a purpose. At first I thought it was marriage, and it was for this reason that I dismissed her so quickly. It was only later that I realized she actually cared for me on a deep level.”
— William Lovie III.
The Joust
“I did whatever I could to keep him interested. He was a maturing young man, but for all intesive purposes he was a child. I had to be the greatest of all the distractions he would be met by or else I would lose everything. ”
— Brentey Hemsworth
The Yellow Dragons
Main Article : Meeting of Volker Yernese and the Yellow Dragons
Back to Forks
Moving to Berne
When Byron Arryn and the rest of his house arrived in Berne they all marvalled at the beauty of the town, and they understood quickly how much of a fortress the city was. House Arryn spent the first years of their reign in Berne continueing to increase the mining that went on in the town, as well as furthering the underway which was part of the command by Bill Lovie. It was while this was going on that the young prince William Lovie would begin the Journey which would dramatically change the fate of House Arryn and Berne. House Arryn did not send any troops to assist House Lovie, and the young prince as they were meant to appear as if they no longer existed. But when William Lovie returned to Lucerne victorious and proceeded to banish Sean, and Bill Lovie from the KIngdom House Arryn was about to be unable to hide themselves. While Bill Lovie fled westward to the fallen city of Orleans with what remained of his Circle of Magi, Sean Lovie retreated to Berne under orders from his father to use the city to launch a civil war against his brother. In this copasity the growing insanity of Sean entered Berne and while he was greeted by the people as the royalty he believed he was, Sean treated this with indignation and in fact through a gaurd off the walls of Berne in his march into the city.
Madness comes to Berne This is the beginning of what I will make the entire world look like. First I'm going to make all of you see the truth. Then I'm going to kill my brother. Then I'm going to watch the world burn. Oh the fun I shall have.
The City of Berne had originally been the idea of James Lovie and he had begun contracts with the Dwarves of the Kingdom of Karak Izor to assist in its construction, but following his death this project would become a source of obsession for Jame's son the new king James Lovie II. of whom saw Berne as another site for the people of Lucerne to retreat into after the Orcs had taken control of the Valley. As the Valley of Lucerne burned with the fires of James Lovie II's madness it was the city of Berne that continued to move along in its construction, and this only would become derailed when William Lovie III's Takeover of Lucerne led to Sean Lovie arriving in Berne with a group of Circle of Magi led by Kieth Schwartz.
“The True Sons were the anchor by which all of my violence, and malice shall be unleashed. I could give two shits about what the hell my brother does in Lucerne as long as I get to see the fear in peoples eyes before they fall.”
— Sean Lovie
As the leader of the True Sons of Lucerne Sean went about furthering the control of himself over the people of Berne. It didn't matter to him that they believed him King, and this alone would have made him untouchable, he just secretly wanted the violence. He cared nothing about the actual war, or winning it. He simply wanted to destory the world that he felt had ruined him.With Sean's arrival in the city, Berne was no longer under the control of House Arryn but was now under the control of the newly created goverment of Sean Lovie self-entitled the True Sons of Lucerne. The rule of the True Sons of Lucerne was pure madness, and the peaceful and growth oreanted nature of House Arryn was replaced by a madness enduced chaotic nature which led to violence in the streets. Murderers all around. Sean Lovie is said to have exectuted a person a day towards the later days of his reign in Berne, and if murder was all he did then that was one thing but he in fact made a sport of trying new things and his raping, and sexual deviancy became out of control while in Berne.
“They all thought I was after something. They thought I had some great plan to unite the Valley of Lucerne and spread peace like a Man God. In the end it was about the pain I could inflict on a women. It was about finding out how much damage I could do before finally the city just died. Before there was noone left to commit these crimes on. On one hand I wanted to escape the constant anger, and hate I felt, but a darker and a real powerful side of me just wanted more. More of it all, and it didn't care about the end game.”
— Sean Lovie
It was during this dark time where Byron's rule had been taken over by Sean Lovie that the social climbing member of House Arryn in Allison Arryn rose to prominence as she allowed Sean to act out many of his sexual desires on her. This gave her a growing amount of power, and for a time she came to believe that she was even controlling Sean. Allison Arryn during this period where she believed she was in control would put in place a system that would allow Sean Lovie to regain control of what was nearing collapse. Allison Arryn used her menipulative nature, and the influence of Ella Arryn to trick House Arryn, along with many other high ranking commanders to continue supporting Sean Lovie because she spread the rumor that he had promised her the throne of Lucerne once he was the King. Allison Arryn bided her time day after day as Sean Lovie butchered people in the streets, and raped women all
over the city to the point that the only thing that she could do to slow him down was to continue to surrender her body to him. As she surrendered herself to him she fell into a spell of her own making where she came to believe the lies that she was telling people. She forgot for a time that he was a monster, and she came to believe that this was all a game and he truly loved her. In this madness she would come to find that she was pregnant, and with Sean Lovie being her only sexual partner she was overjoyed to believe that she had given him a heir. When she learned she was pregnant with his child she came to understand how little she controlled when she told him the news. The best description of the events was by Ezio Ederiz who was in the room when it all went down.
Murder of Allison Arryn
“After he killed Allison there was simply no going back. It was time for me to finally do the right thing.”
— Ezio Ederiz
As the assembled nobles and Ezio watched as Sean Lovie stabbed Allison Arryn over and over again the silence of the room was broken by the sceams of Ella Arryn of whom walked into the room as Sean stood there defiling her body. Ella Arryn attempted to run to the girl that had become her daughter when she was stopped by several of the gaurds in the room, and upon hearing the commotion Sean got up from her body and walked over to the distraught Ella Arryn of whom was searching the room for anyone who might help. As Sean walked over to her Byron Arryn stood completely frozen, and when his vassal in Benjamin Krinner whispered to him that this was the time to intervene, Byron thought for a moment before seeing the body of Allison and becoming frightened. Instead of telling Benjamin Krinner that yes they should intervene he just allowed Sean Lovie to walk over to his wife with a dagger covered in the blood of his niece. By this point Ella Arryn was screaming uncontrollably, and Sean's loyalists led by Aiden Nighting II., and Eldon Estermont II. would begin to flood into the room from outside to assist. Sean walked up to her and pushed her to the ground before he stabbed her in the arm with the dagger. Standing over her body there was shock and screaming in the room as the Stormcrow gaurds that he had brought in would go about rounding these panicked nobles up and getting them out of the room.
“Letting his own niece, and wife die were the last of a series of troubling and pathetic acts by the Arch Lord of Berne. His people had long ago lost faith in him, but the troubling part for him was now they had lost respect for him.”
— Ezio Ederiz
Sean Lovie then stood back up, and still covered in blood walked himself over to his throne, and gestered at the girl before to continue what she was doing. He just remained staring at the dead body of Allison Arryn with a look that many in the room saw as some sort of regret. If he realized the extent of what he had done in that moment is unknown, but as Ezio was ushered out of the room he pushed the girl aside and walked into a backroom followed by several of his loyalists. Ezio walking into the next room found himself walking into the middle of a commotion as Byron Arryn was being held to the ground by Trailen Dorin while his son and nearly a half a dozen House Dorin and vassal men surrounded the panicked gaurdsmen of the Lord. Ezio watched on as Trailen Dorin accused him of treason, and made sure that Byron understood his rule was at an end, and Byron in this pathetic form would begin to weep causing Trailen to punch him in the face before walking away with his men,
Look at the world father. You were born into this land. You grew up here. These people swore their lives to you. How could you have done all of this? Look at everything you have done. You destroyed a city. Killed hundreds of good men out of fear. Is this how you want to be remembered father. Is this the world you want to leave behind? I know you were a good person once. Don't end it all here. Don't do this. For me father. For everything I supposedly mean to you. Don't do this.
I watched the doors open and close for more time then I would like to admit, but when faced with the choice of that or watching Sean being serviced by that poor girl I had little real options. He just sat there with little emotions on his face, but everyonce in a while I would see a flash of hate as he scanned the room and must have saw someone he hated.
Man after man entered the room as they brought their grievences to their "king". I had seen bad king before. I had seen evil kings before. I had seen more kings then most had, and seeing Sean Lovie listening to his people's desires while the poor girl serviced him sexually was the most disturbing moment of any of my experiences with kings.
A man entered the room with his young wife on his arm, and followed by who must have been their two children. The man and his family bowed before their king and prepared to get the kings justice on whatever matter pained them. "Your Grace I come to you pleading for food for my family. We have not eaten with any real substance for days and I fear my youngest is not long for this world without assistence." The man wept as he spoke, and his wife comforted the little boy clinging to her leg. I wanted to reach out to them. I wanted to give them some of the food that he wasted every night on his parties, but I knew this wasn't within my grasp.
Without showing any signs of noticing the family they remained bowed for nearly a minute in silence until one of the Stormcrow men beside Sean stepped forward and spoke. "Your grace wishes you nothing but the best of the food but there is nothing to spare. The false king of the east has blockaded us, and you shall have to find what food you can on..." Sean's interuption was shocking as this was one of the first times he had spoken during the hours we had been doing this.
"I have some advice for you. You smallfolk should travel outside the main gates and be killed."
"Your Gace?"
"Did I stutter?" The man remained with his mouth open clearly unable to speak from shock. "Perhaps you do not love your king and laugh at my stuttering. Do you laugh at me?"
"No your grace, but..."
"But what? You are a smallfolk, and barely capable of the coversation that you have shown today. Your problems are the problems of a leaf flying in the wind. Go now and die, for that is all you smallfolk are good for." A few Stormblown men moved in and grabbed the family tearing them apart from eachother and took them out of the room where it seemed obvious they were going to be executed outside the gates in Sean's horrible excesses.
In that moment I moved my hand to my side, and feeling under the cloak I felt the dagger I had safely hidden there. Looking around I saw the dishonorable Daesyn of Harad nearbye and I knew I could stab him and take his sword. With a sword I could butcher every Stormblown in this room until I finally reached the real false king and ended this madness. As I seriously considered ending all this I heard a commotion at the door and watched it slowly open revealing Allison Arryn.
I watched as Allison entered the room with a skip to her step. Her smile was always one that I knew she had manufactured in her mind, but today as she entered I noticed a genuine nature to her eyes. As she approached the mad prince he barely even moved his eyes from the poor women that was on her knees pleasing him, and I saw the sadness momentarily come to her eyes as some piece of her must have realized how wrong this was.
In that moment I came back to thinking about killing Sean. Looking around at the four men that had entered alongside Allison I have no doubt I would be able to still easily kill them all if I was able to still reach Daesyn's neck. The room had maybe four people beyond the Stormblown that would defend him and I could have killed them with ease. Perhaps it was cowerdess. Perhaps it was something elce entirely, but before I could further examine the situation she blurted out to Sean who was still being assisted by the poor women I might add.
"Your Grace I have finally honored you with a child." The moment she said it he looked up from the girl, who stopped immediately servicing him. As she waited with that extatic look on her face the entire room went silent. Everyone stopped what they were doing which seemingly most importantly to Sean was the women that had been at his knees. Perhaps it was that she had stopped that caused the rage. Maybe it was the fact that deep down he understood that he shouldn't father anything. Whatever it was he simply got up walked over to Allison who still had a look of pure happiness and pushed her to the ground before taking out his knife and stabbing her repeatadly in the stomach. He kept stabbing her and she screamed in a terrible blood curdling scream that seemed to shake the foundations of the room in its terrror.
Stabbing her over and over again the Stormblown would move quickly as commotion begin with Dailin Dorin storming towards the scene but being grabbed and taken out of the room by the Stormblown, his son followed closely behind and I watched how his hand moved closer and closer to his sword before they disapeared outside the doors.
As I went for my own dagger some Stormblown fool crashed into me from behind and I mentally slapped myself for being so foolish as to be caught unaware. Knocked to the ground the man kneeled on top of me for a moment and told me to remain calm. As I looked up I could see Sean still stabbing poor Allison and I wanted to pull myself free, but felt helpless in my sadness. The man grabbed me by my shoulders and as he picked me up I shook from a new screaming voice, and looking over I saw Ella Arryn who had barged her way into the room.
Screaming at the top of her lungs she ran towards the bloody mess that was once her beloved Allison Arryn and as she tried to reach her she was grabbed by Daesyn of whom held her watching as Sean defiled Allison's corpse. I wanted to throw up. I wanted it to stop. I had seen horror before. I have killed hundreds if not more in my lifetime, and yet this all just seemed to much.
I looked over and noticed for the first time that Lord Byron Arryn was still in the room. Being whispered to by a very irate Benjamin Krinner he stood pathetically still as his wife screamed at Sean. The fear all over Byron's face was a shocking thing to behold, as he was the most powerful man in this city outside of Sean, and yet he did nothing with that power. A disrespected figure in this city was Byron before, but after this display it was clear that if anyone survived they would not disrespect him, they would hate him.
Then to my right a door slammed open and stepped through were two stormblown men by the color of their armor. I recegnized the one man as Godfrey Toelis, but the other man was unknown to me. Seeing the scene in front of them the one man went to his sword, but before he could pull the sword from his scabbard without a word Godfrey knocked him in the back of the head causing him to fall to the ground. Godfrey roared for his men to put the other man in a cell, and without a word two Stormblown grabbed the man and rushed him out of the room. I continued to watch the man as the Stormblown holding my shoulders somewhat relented watching the show Godfrey was making.
"What have you done Sean!" I turned towards Sean seeing that he was still stabbing his knife into the belly of Allison of which by this point was more of a hole then it was an actually belly, but at the roar of Godfrey he stopped and begin walking towards Godfrey completely covered in blood, but followed closely behind by two of his lackeys in Eldon Estermont II., and Aiden Nighting II. of whom formed a protective guard on both his sides.
"I have done whatever the fuck I want to you bastard." Without warning Sean ran full sprint towards Godfrey crashing into him full speed and knocking the sword out of Godfrey's hand. Before Godfrey could pull out another weapon Sean stabbed him through the neck killing the man and then standing up and shaking himself off like he had something on him he wanted off.
"Does anyone else have anything to fucking say to me." Sean picked up Godfrey's sword and begin waving it around his head screaming. His screams in this moment were interrupted by Ella of whom broke free from Daesyn and went to Allison's body with cradling her broken niece in her arms screaming out in pain. Daesyn attempted to get her back but was restrained by the Stormblown men of whom knocked him to the ground holding him there. As if not noticing her screaming he begin slashing away at Godfrey with the sword, and it said something terrible about the situation that outside of Ella's sobbing the room was utterly silent. Finally Sean must have grown tired of this and stood up covered in the blood of Godfrey, and Allison and stepped towards Ella. Benjamin Krinner kept speaking to Lord Byron and by this point I had been moved close enough to hear what he was saying. He begged his Lord commander to do something. Told him of his men, and their ability to stop this madness. As he begged him there was nothing back. He stood waiting for his Lord to say something but instead of that Byron just stood there. Hating him in that moment I looked back over to Sean and Ella and saw Sean still staring at her as she screamed and yelled at him.
Staring at her for a moment longer he stabbed her in the arm without any warning. "That's the same dagger I just killed her with. You see I've given you a piece of her. Who else in this entire world would be so giving that they would be able to give you the gift that I just gave you." She started screaming again, and it only stopped when he slapped her across the face. "Now your going to get up, and leave this room. Your going to leave this room, and hang yourself. Your going to hang yourself outside the doors of your room, and your going to make sure that no one moves you. Your eyes question me why you would do something like this? Well Ella Arryn your going to do this because I'm going to give you one last gift. I'm going to stop ignoring the fact that my brother's heir is in the hands of that half noble niece of yours. I'm going to rip that baby from her arms and I'm going to bash it apart with a rock. When I'm done with that I'm going to kill Hanna. I'm going to kill Spencer. I'm going to kill them All. I will give them the peace that you want for them. I do it all for you. I'm a very generous King."
Death of Ella Arryn
“I saw her walk in with nothing more then a casual glance at first. I mean you see your mother, and you just assume she's here to get your clothes to clean or something. You never immediatly see your mother and think, hey she's going to take out a knife and try and kill my sister. That just isn't the first thing that pops into your mind.”
— Aria Arryn
Following all of this Ella Arryn was picked up Byron Arryn her husband who attempted to take her back to her room so he could fix her arm, but she ran away from him towards the location of Aria Arryn's room. Ella Arryn ran into her room to find her sitting on the bed with Hanna, and Amber Heard also in the room. The discust that Ella Arryn felt in that moment for Hanna Arryn was so much that even covered in blood and losing the ability to even move her arm she roared at her step-daughter. All the girls in the room had at first though the was there to see Aria, but now they looked at her and saw the blood stemming from her arm, and the crazed look in her eyes. As Aria, and Amber rushed to her to see what had happened to her arm she tried to charge through them so that she could get to Hanna, and in this moment she took out a
dagger and rushed at Hanna. Hanna dodged the knife by only a little before falling off the backside of the bed. After this attempt Amber, and Aria were able to get ahold of her just enough that they pushed her back away from Hanna, but she wasn't going to stop this time, and rushed once more at Hanna. This time the girls got in front of her, and just as she raised her dagger to charge again they watched as a sword punched itself through her chest. Before she fell forward and arm reached around her front and held her up, and the girls saw Trailen Dorin behind her holding her up with the saddest look on his face. In this moment she coughed out blood before saying her last words on the Earth.
“Aria, Amber you girls need to leave now. Hide yourself now. The Mad King...The Mad King comes for you...and he knows of...he knows of the child. Save yourselves. The family must not die out with the rest of this city.”
— Ella Arryn
With those last words Trailen gently rested her down on the ground, and she slowly bled out. Before she finally succumbed she asked to speak to Hanna Arryn of whom walked to her, and in this moment everyone assembled expected her to apologize or to atleast see some of the errors of her ways, but instead she looked up at Hanna and spit blood in her face before finally dying. With this Trailen quickly got up and made the girls perfectly aware that they needed to get the hell out of her. The girls told him that this was the Arryn estate in Berne and they had no where to go, and as the group panicked Benjamin Krinner walked in behind them and told the group that they would come stay with him in the Krinner Estate. The girls quickly followed behind him, but Amber stopped them and said she had to get Thomas. Benjamin went to her and told her that Sean had already sent someone to her room to get the child and that it was too late. Amber didn't accept this and ran off from the group towards her room where she prayed that she wasn't too late.
Amber Captured
“I ran to that room faster then I had ever run anywhere elce in my life. I knew in that moment that everything in my life had led me to this place. To this moment. I had to save our son.”
— Amber Heard II.
When she opened the door to the room she found a body laying face down on the ground coughing and bleeding out, and she stepped past the body to the room where Thomas should have been, and when she walked in his room she found the body of her maid lying dead beside his bed, and beside her another man's body, but no signs of little Thomas. She fell to her knees and cried, but before she could cry for long a man wrapped his hand around her and covered her mouth at the same time before pulling her into the closet. As he did this he whispered for her to be quiet, before she heard other men enter the room all armed from what she could see through the door. These men begin screaming out to try and lure her out, and in this moment she looked at the man and whispered to him whether he had saved Thomas. When the man nodded his head, she told him to keep him safe from harm and the put her hand to the door. Before she opened the door she asked the man what the name was of the man that had saved her son, and he quietly told her that it was Ezio Ederiz. And with that Amber Heard said one last thank you before she pulled the handle and opened the door and walked into the room thus allowing the men to take her. The men would harshly pull her through the hallways that made up the Heard Estate, and from here they took her to the throne room of Sean Lovie where he was at that moment stabbing his knife into the body of Allison Arryn. Seeing this she cried out, and this caused Sean to notice her, and he looked over at her with a look of pure enjoyment. He cleared out the room including his gaurds of whom he ordered to place her in a cage to the right of his throne, which he had brought in. With Amber now in a cage he sat himself beside the cage, and stared at her, before speaking to her for the first time in years.
“Do you remember me Amber? Does your mind remember the stories they told of me there back in Lucerne. Do you quiver in fear knowing that what I just did to your cousin is going to be the same thing that I do to you. My men tell me that your child, and my young nephew was not in your room. Did you kill those men who came to steal your child? I doubt this. I want to know who was helping you. I want to know a name. Speak now. Speak now or I shall do things to you so henious. So painful that you will wish for the cold embrace of death. You will beg me for the oppurtunity to sell your son away just so that your pain may cease. Speak now. Noone comes for you Amber. This isn't like Lucerne where you can hope that William is coming for you. He can't get inside. He's been sitting outside these walls for months trying to get in. But the trick is. The great lie is that he can never get in. No matter how much he tries to free this city he will never sucede. So I say again, speak now.”
— Sean Lovie
Amber looked into the horribly evil eyes of Sean Lovie and for the first time in her life since she had allowed herself to be intimidated by Bill Lovie she understood exactly what she had to do. She spit in Sean's face before retreating the opposite end of the cage away from him. Sean Lovie just laughed and told her that they had lots of
time left, and then he got up and walked over to the body of Allison and proceeded to violate her in front of Amber. Amber turned away and covered her ears as Sean continued to violate her, and it went this way for longer then she could count. After however long he stopped and ordered his guards to bring her out of the cage where he then proceeded to have her stripped and as she stood there naked, he walked around her and ran his hand across her body before finally brining in a suit that he forced her to put on before putting her back in the cage. Each day Sean would attempt to get her to tell him, and each day he would do something terrible to someone in an attempt to make her speak.
Saving Thomas Lovie
“The child was completely innocent. Whatever crimes the world may make up for the adults of the world these just shouldn't be true for this child. Everything he might be. Everything he should be was what they wanted to take away from him, and this was exactly what I refused to allow to happen.”
— Ezio Ederiz
With Amber Heard now taken in by Sean Lovie, Ezio made his way out of the closet and went to the window and proceeded to raise young Thomas Heard from the basket that he had him sitting in outside the window. Ezio picked up the young boy and told the young boy that he needed to be strong for his mother, as Thomas had heard everything that had happened to his mother but couldn't speak or help because Ezio had roped his mouth shut so that he wouldn't scream. Thomas blamed himself and Ezio took the moment to make sure that Thomas understood that nothing he could have done would have saved his mother from being taken. But that didn't meant that he couldn't help, because she wasn't dead and thus there was always hope. He gave the child one last pat on the shoulder before strapping the child to his back and then jumping out the window and climbing across the roof towards the only safe place he knew of in this hell hole. Ezio made his way to the home of Alistair, and it was here that he hid Thomas while he prepared to save the city. Thomas would remain hidden with Alistair's men inside his small enclave of the city, and through this Thomas would become a member of the rebellion as he sharpened swords, and did whatever else he could do to help the men of the rebellion in doing what he hoped would free his mother from Sean Lovie.
Fall of Hardyng Hold
“My father told me that it was not simply our duty to protect those who needed help. It was our purpose. He died showing me how important it is to fight for what is right.”
— Harrold Hardyng
As the rebellion within Berne begin to spread it was Jasper Hardyng that would be responsible for the hiding and protection of many who resisted Sean Lovie by bringing them into the strong point that was the Hardyng Estates, and he did this to the point that they were running low on food they were caring for so many people inside their Berne estate. Sean Lovie would following the capture of Amber Heard go on a hunt for traitors within Berne and had his spies and soldiers (mainly the Stormblown) begin mobilizing themselves to assault any strong point that may have formed, and it was during this search that they came to discover that a flow of people had been entering the House Hardyng estate. Gustov Hardyng III. would betray his family when he revealed what was happening within Hardyng Hold and with knowledge of what they were doing the Stormblown sent some two hundred men to attack the unprepared estate. The betrayal of Gustov Hardyng had begun when Jasper Hardyng had become disgusted with what the True Sons of Lucerne were becoming and in this disgust he was pushed into rebellion by his sister Ina of whom begin to take a leadership role over Gustov which begin to cause bitterness and eventually betrayal from Gustov. During the night the Stormblown swept inside Hardyng Hold breaking the defences without difficulty as they were not prepared and under the command of Baldwin Bisset would be kind to the people within taking all within the estate to the Berne prisons except for Lord Jasper Hardyng and his sister Ina Hardyng II. who were brought personally to the throne of Sean Lovie. Jasper would following the fall of the House Hardyng estate be taken alongside his sister to Sean Lovie and it was there where Jasper confronted Sean Lovie and in response would be forced to witness Sean rape Ina in front of him and then he would be tortured attempting to find out other rebels but he resisted and did not give any names which infuriated Sean causing Sean to beat him to death. Ina Hardyng would following the execution of her brother Lord Jasper Hardyng be placed into one of the cages that adorned the throne room of Sean Lovie and during her time imprisoned there she was brutally raped many times but eventually resisted Sean on the wrong day and in response he brutally killed her causing Amber Heard II. to break emotionally.
“There will be another time to get your revenge Harrold. I'm sorry that day is not today.”
— Benjamin Krinner
Harrold Hardyng had been at the outer gatehouse when he learned of the sacking of his family estate and the deaths of his father and aunt and learning this he would attempt to enter the throne of Sean but he survived after Benjamin Krinner knocked him on the head and brought himself the Krinner fortress where he would be when the Battle of Krinner took place.
Departure of Canius Opimius
With the madness and violence that was spreading within the city it was the James Lovie II. loyalist Canius Opimius that decided that the cause of Sean was lost.
Nortburg Tournament of 5125 Look out there Alice. Did you ever imagine we would be hosting men, Dwarves, and Elves for what is quickly becoming our honeymoon.
“A tournament signals that the reign of the new king will be one of great success. I know that there is much to do, and no one understands that as much as I do. But we must also look to consolidate our holdings. You have a lot of goodwill and this will only help us later your grace.”
— Jacob Vorn IV.
Following the crowning of William Lovie III. as the new King of Lucerne he met with his council within the Lucernian capital and they went bout devising there next steps of action. Following some of the more extensive plans he met with the Shadow Council, and Jacob Vorn IV. of whom now stood as the King's Archbishop and the group would decide they needed to know more about the regions around them and also repair damage and they would do this by planning a tournament at Nortburg and invite foreign dignitaries to the tournament alongside the most influential of nobles of Lucerne. Also invited to the Tournament would be the Trachtenberg family of whom were the blood cousins of William Lovie incluing his uncle Frank Trachtenberg, and two cousins Michelle Trachtenberg, and Kristen Trachtenberg all of whom William wanted to repair relationships with most specifically with Michelle who he came to understand had been treated quite terribly by his father. The Trachtenberg side of the family had become distant due to several instances, most notably the imprisonment of Bill Lovie's cousin Katia Lovie the Matriarch of House Trachtenberg in the city of Berne.
True Sons of Lucerne
“William you need to understand that Berne is hell itself. Your brother is losing control more and more every day. We are attempting to control the situation but its a tinder box waiting to explode.”
— Hanna Arryn
A large force under a white flag and led by Kieth Schwartz, and Alistair Bedregen arrives at the tournament ground carrying also the flag of the True Sons of Lucerne. The arrival of these True Sons would cause William himself accompanied by the Shadow Council and Charlie Swan to confront them and while at first wanting to bar them from the tournament as they were basically traitors the arrival of Hanna Arryn, and Aria Arryn would lead to William speaking privately with Hanna and Aria. Speaking to the two alongside Leven Martell, and Charlie Swan he would discover that the situation in Berne was growing completely out of control and that was why they had agreed to all the demands of Sean Lovie and had come here. Seeing that his friends were in grave danger he would agree to play along with the plans of the True Sons and allowed Danzal to take part in the tournament. Following this meeting with Hanna and Aria he would meet with Kieth Schwartz who was like an uncle to him during his childhood and the two would talk over everything that had happened with Kieth admitting to everything and for the first time giving William a true glimpse at what Bill had been going through and why he had chosen to do all the things that he had done. Another of the members of the group to come under the flag was Harrold Hardyng of whom as a dire hard member of the rebellion against Sean Lovie would sneak himself into the force with the help of Alistair and when he arrived he met with Teri-Jacob Vorn IV. and together in secret the two worked out steps for Harrold to take to help with the eventual retaking of Berne.
Look at the world father. You were born into this land. You grew up here. These people swore their lives to you. How could you have done all of this? Look at everything you have done. You destroyed a city. Killed hundreds of good men out of fear. Is this how you want to be remembered father. Is this the world you want to leave behind? I know you were a good person once. Don't end it all here. Don't do this. For me father. For everything I supposedly mean to you. Don't do this.
"Tell me about Amber."
"She is safe but misses you dearly."
"I know you may not feel the same way, but I want you to know how truly amazing it is to see you again Will." His face rose with a smile as he looked at me and it brought me back to thinking about the man who had helped teach me how to swim when I was a boy. He was a constant throughout my youth taking on my fathers role for those months when he could barely leave the tower.
"You know I cannot same the same. And you know why."
"I want you to know that I am sorry. I want you to know that he is sorry."
"Do not speak of him here or this conversation will end."
"That hatred that you feel. That's what drove him William."
"I know my friends would never let me do the things you let him do."
"Your friends love you. As your fathers love him."
"Love doesn't mean you let those you love go mad with no attempt to stop them."
"You look at it now and believe that if you started talking about killing your own daughter that what Jasper would stop you. Leven would stop you."
"They would. As you fucking should have!" I knew I was being too loud. The tournament was not even close to starting so the numbers here were low, but this was all so fresh. I could not be seen as being my father.
"They would do as we did. They would speak to you like I spoke to your father. I told him of the madness of what he was thinking. I told him that he had lost himself in that damn book. I did everything your friends would do. The only further step I could have taken was the one thing I could not do."
"They would."
"Look me in the eyes William and tell me that you truly believe that one of those people hovering outside this tent would ever raise a sword against you."
Following the conversation between Kieth, and William Kieth would leave the tournament as he was a soldier of Bill Lovie and not Sean Lovie and did not care if the plan of Sean succeded or not, and thus he would return to Orleans where he would report to Bill Lovie about the conversation that he and William had. With the departure of Sean Lovie the remaining elements of the True Sons of Lucerne were mainly William loyalists and in this way he would meet again with Hanna but this time she introduced them to House Krinner and House Dorin of whom led by Harrold Krinner, Trailen Dorin and accompanied by prominent heirs in Danzal Krinner, and Trailen Dorin II. they would be shown to be loyalists who were more then ready to assist when the time came to destroy the forces of Sean Lovie.
The Riverlands
Meeting the Elves
Following the Second Battle of Minus Ithil the Elves of High Forest would come to understand that the alliance between Gondor, Lucerne, and High Forest was something that they should work towards and as they followed the Lucernians into the relief of Tree Hill they would also send a large force to Nortburg to celebrate at the tournament. Alongside sending a force led by Taflarion Stormrage, and his wife Helian Stormrage, and their daughter Tonlia Stormrage, alongside her husband Cadwyr Winterdew the High Forest government back in the capital would also make several large movements for advancing the alliance itself when Malfurion Stormrage would contact the forces of the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas, and the Atmer Empire and told the two forces that they needed to send forces to the tournament as the new king of Lucerne was someone who truly was willing to try and change things for the better. The Sindar Elven Kingdom of Quel'Thalas sends representatives in the form of Alleria Windrunner, and Marinda Oakwhisper to the tournament as well with the purpose of arranging a stronger relationship with the Kingdom of Lucerne's new King. The Atmer Empire would send members of the Atmer Elven great house in the form of the House of Finwe to the tournament and these Elves used Magi portals to enter the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas and then travelled into Lucerne alongside the force led by Alleria. These Atmer Elves would be the first of the High Elves to enter the Kingdom of Lucerne in an almost uncountable time and led by Elendil Finwe III., his daughter Alais Finwe, and sons Talais Finwe, and Anar Finwe IV. of whom have come to discuss an alliance with William and Lucerne. The Elves appear very honorable about their intentions and the talks go well, with Hedrik Clegane III. leading the negotiations with the High Elves, and despite eventually leaving it would be so successful that William would make his intentions known to them by inviting the Elves to found a small settlement in Frosthelm. The Elves like the idea and Elendil sends his sons back to Ulthuan to make the arrangements while he will accompany William for the next while.
End of a Betrothal
“He's a monster.”
— Sansa Starke
The Starke's had come on mass to the Tournament of Nortburg and during this time it was believed that Sansa Starke, and Joffrey Lannister would get a lot of time together to get to know eachother, and while this was true with Joffrey, and Sansa going on a walk together and having a good time, this would alter dramatically later that night.
The Manderlys
As the tournament is only a few days from starting the final invitees arrive in the form of the Manderlys of whoom William meets with several representatives of the Manderlys who control the White Knife and during this conversation he and his father in law Charlie Swan are able to arrange a marriage between Winfred Manderly, and Miley Black. In this arrangement he and Charlie Swan decide that they will send Lucas Scott of whom is deemed by many to be the hero of the Siege of Tree Hill and thus someone they want to remain close too, but also William has become obsessed with Brooke Scott and thinks on her constantly believing that this will give him a chance to see her again.
Arrival of Brooke Scott
“Our being together was not a mistake William. Our being together has led us to this moment. No matter what way you look at this our child will be amazing. Our love guarantees that.”
— Brooke Scott
Following the end of the tournament William and the group prepare to return to the capital where they will plan out the reconquest of Berne, but this changes with the arrival of Brooke Scott of whom breaks down crying in front of him as he stands with Leven, and Jasper and William quickly takes her away from the two into a back room where before he is able to say anything she reveals her stomach showing she is nearly four months pregnant from the time they last saw each other. Realizing in that moment she appears more pregnant then Bella he ponders the consequences of this but she doesn't demand anything just wishes him to help her with her grandfathers funeral.
The Battle of Berne This is where this divide ends. After we take this city there is nothing stopping the Kingdom of Lucerne from becoming exactly what we always dreamed it would be.
“The fact that Sean was able to escape was a black eye on the Kingdom of Lucerne, and no matter what anyone said as long as he lived there would be no improvement for us. He had to die or else we would be nothing more then a joke to the rest of Europe.”
— William Lovie III.
With the valley clear of Bill, and Sean Lovie, William went about attempting to gain control by eliminating those that were loyal to his father, but most of all he declared war on his father's supporters and very soon after doing this he came to understand that Sean Lovie had taken control of the city of Berne which he didn't even know existed. Under Alistair Bedregen the loyalists loyal to William were sending word to William outside Berne for the first bit of the control by Sean and thus for this early time they knew many of those loyal to Sean or at least to afraid to resist Sean. With this knowledge William rallied the Order of the Red Dragon, alongside a large force of House Lovie and sent this large force to besiege Berne. When his forces arrived there he they saw that Berne was a death trap, and that while they could feasibly attack the city the casualties would be horrendous and on top of that they might not even succeed. Knowing this William ordered them to dig in, and make sure no assistance came from land, and they were forced to live off the small parcel of land within Berne, and to burn through their internal supplies. With the front door shut for the moment William went about his plan to take control of Berne which would revolve around building a tunnel from Lucerne into the rear of Berne and fighting inside from that direction, while also hoping to starve out the defenders so that they would surrender. As William devised his plan where they would complete the underway in its route to Berne and thus they would break in behind the defenses and take the city from within, the Order of the Red Dragon begin having difficulties holding the main entrance as the Orcs in the region were a constant problem. Knowing they needed to be somewhat quick with their siege they were in trouble as unfortunately the tunneling behind Berne would take some time, and so he needed to block the front of Berne without having his army sitting there for the four years the underway would take to complete.
“The Kingdom of Quel'Thalas could either close the gap that existed, or leave it open. It all depended on the whims of Elves, and they had never showed themselves to be willing to take chances in order to help others so I wasn't exactly betting on their assistance.”
— William Lovie III.
In order to do this William sent emissaries from the Order of the Green Dragon to meet with the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas whose forest extended close to the boundaries of Berne and thus would be able to assist in blocking them in if they so chose to do. The Order of the Green Dragon was sent and led by Demi Hill of whom was accompanied by Franklin Brent and his wife Karyl Reyne who led a force of some six hundred House Brent forces alongside three hundred men led by Dexter Hill to act as guards for the mission. When his emissaries arrived they were greeted by Legolas, and Alleria Windrunner of whom were accompanied by nearly three hundred Sindar Elves, and they would greet them with friendship and take them to Darnassus. Traveling through the woods of Quel'Thalas its Franklin, Karyl, and Demi that discuss the current situation in the area and discover that the Quel'Thalasian Elves are not the only major Elven power in the area as Alleria tells them about Lothlorian. While being there to make an alliance with Quel'Thalas its Demi Hill and Franklin that both make mental notes to discuss also furthering the Lucernian presence in the area by also forming a relationship with the Kingdom of Lothlorian. In Darnassus they would be treated to a beautiful feast and Alleria took Franklin and his wife around the capital before they would have the meeting later that night. Seeing the size and beauty of Darnassus, and the kindness of the Windrunner siblings Franklin would have a very high opinion of the Sindar Elves, and he took this opinion into the meeting that night. At the meeting they found that Quel'Thalas was willing to do this in return for an alliance with them which Demi Hill was quick to give them, as William was more then willing to make an alliance with the Elves. Not just happy with an alliance the it was Alleria Windrunner that would offer Franklin and the members of the Lucernian entourage a chance to visit the Dor'Danil Barrow Den where they would be able to enter the Emarald Dream if they so choose.
“Enter the Emerald Dream, and discover who you really are.”
— Tular Windswift
After discussing what would happen there its the groups decision that they will all accept this gift except for Demi Hill, and outside of Demi they are then taken by Clintar Dreamwalker of whom is the Arch Druid of Quel'Thalas, and Saelar Dewwalker of whom is the Guardian of the Claw and leader of the Dor'danil Barrow, to the Dor'Danil Barrow Dens which are located on the edge of Darnassus. While the group spends several days in the Barrow Dens a letter arrives from William stating that a revolt has broken out in Hillsbrad and since they are closer Franklin is tasked to travel there with all speed and end the revolt. The Quel'Thallasians reveal that they can portal Franklin and a small group to near Hillsbrad as there is a forest there with a way stone and Demi Hill agrees that once he wakes from the Emerald Dream he will go there through the portal and gives the letter to Alleria who will give it to Franklin. Following the agreement its Legalos that would lead a force of some two thousand fighters to a forward forest that they would fortify and from there they would be able to adequately block the Orcs from being able to interfere in any real way. So with the front door closed his forces returned to Lucerne while a small contingent remained along with a larger force of the Elves of Quel'Thalas. Franklin Brent and his group wake from the Emerald Dream and with Alavanna holding a visablly shaken Franklin of whom is in tears as he wakes from the Emerald Dream, and taking him by the arm she leads him to a meeting room where Clintar, and Nylindia wait inside. The group sits together and as Franklin slowly recovers from waking from the Emerald Dream they discuss that Tular, and Alavanna will be joining him as he travels not back to Berne, but instead travels through a portal formed for them in Darnassus taking them to a small forest east of Hillsbrad where Franklin is told William Lovie III. has sent him a letter which after reading Franklin nods and asks for them to take him to the portal. As Demi Hill was leaving to return to Berne it's Alleria Windrunner that said that she would be joining them with some two hundred heavily trained and equipped Sentinels at the main Lucerne camp, and this was once again quickly accepted by Demi Hill.
“There were two option when it came to Ezio Ederiz. Option one was that he was a trap. Sean had sent him to make us believe him and we would be caught in a trap of his making. Option two was that he was telling the truth. If this was correct then we couldn't just ignore him, but the real question was how would we ever know until it was too late to turn back.”
— William Lovie III.
As things were happening outside the city and making the siege move positively inside the city there was chaos as Sean Lovie lost his mind and was the source of madness and chaos for the citizens. Ezio after saving the life of Thomas Lovie and watching Allison Arryn die would decide to move aggressively to allow William into the city, and thus would make his way to the western tower and prepare to send a message to the Lucernians sieging the city. Ezio enclosed in the message the entirety that he knew about the defenses of Berne, and a message that the city was ready to be joined with William's forces. He had hoped that if he gave as much information that William would still attack even if he didn't believe Ezio, but he also understood the distinct possiblity that William wouldn't believe him and would just continue to siege the city. Ezio waited at the tower for some time alongside the rebels that he had gained control of, and waited patiently for a response. He got his anwser when a Lucernian messenger approached the tower, and sent a letter up to Ezio. In the letter William told Ezio that he needed to come down from the tower so that they could discuss this, and that no harm would come to him if he did this. For all Ezio knew William had become his fathers son since the last time he had seen him, and thus suffering from the same madness as his brother, but he knew he had to do something so he trusted the devil he didn't know over the mad man that he did. Ezio gave command of the tower over to his top man in the form of Martin Arryn of whom had snuck his way into the tower and convinsed the men to join the rebellion.
“I felt fear being pulled alongside those golden armored men. This whole thing just reminded me why I didn't get personally involved in these political matters. As I regretted my decision to put myself in this kind of danger I remembered the brave look in Amber's eyes as she surrendered herself to save her child. If she could have that kind of strength then I could, and would do everything in my power to save her.”
— Ezio Ederiz
When Ezio got to the bottom of the tower he was grabbed by some five men all clad in golden armor, and these men escorted him to the Lucernians camp. One of the men identified himself as James Junnsworth and told Ezio that if he planned to harm the king he would be doing it over all of their bodies. When he arrived at the camp he immediatly knew which one William was when he saw the golden haired boy walking up to him in his magnificant armor. Restrained by the men around him he saw how little he was trusted by the arranged forces, but he wasn't bitter as he could understand their fear. He spoke as best he could and told William of what was happening inside the fortress, and that every day they delayed the citizens inside were being killed in ever increasing numbers. As the conversation continued Ezio accompanied William inside his tent with Jasper, Leven, Marcel Lovie II., and Draco Highmore and then spoke openly of the murder of Allison, the rapes, and for Andrew the most horrifying news that Amber Heard was captured and now held in a cage beside Sean's throne. Ezio would at this point tell William about much of the things he had done for his father, and would make William understand that he had done all he could to help him after he had learned how brilliant and how much potential William had. Leven would suggest that during their initial attempts to clear the gatehouse that much of what Ezio suggested he did made sense as to why they found it so easy in certain places to get what they wanted.
Infiltrating the Tower
First Tower of Berne Peak
“For whatever it was worth I believed him. I looked in his eyes and it told me that he was being truthful. In this world you really have to trust your gut, and my gut was telling me to go all in on this.”
— William Lovie III.
With Ezio done telling him what was happening William told him he needed some time to think and that while he trusted him, he needed to plan on the best way forward. Ezio told him that he had control of the first tower, and thus he could get some of William's men inside that tower if that would make him feel better about the whole thing. William liked this plan, and it was then that he asked whether or not Hanna Arryn, and her sister Aria were safe inside the city, and Ezio told him that House Arryn was now in hiding in the city outside of Byron Arryn who was being forced to sit and watch Allison's body be violated by Sean Lovie. Andrew was thankful that Hanna was fine, and because of this he told Ezio that he would have his anwser in an hour. With that William called in his commanders and they discussed their options about how to move forward. After talking for some time it became clear that they needed to gather more troops, and especially Andrew wanted to have some of his up and coming leadership involved so that they would feel important to him. He planned to travel to Forks where he would meet with these leaders and make them aware of their involvement and then they would launch the attack. He got Ezio back in the tent, and he told him that he needed to allow his men to take control of the first tower, and that this would amount to his test of loyalty. Ezio agreed without hesitation and left with Jasper, and Leven to make the arrangements of which Franklin Brent would volunteer to command the first forces into the tower. Emmett was left in command of the siege while William was gone alongside the commanders, and this would be the situation that was left as William left for Forks. Franklin Brent would lead a force of men alongside his friend Dexter Hill, and several others of whom they would enter the first tower using massive ropes hung down by the loyalist Arryn rebels within the tower.
Meeting in Forks
“It took days to travel to Forks, and days to travel back to Berne, and thus it's hard for me not to wonder what might have been had we of just moved against the fortress with just House Lovie's forces. Atleast I got to see Bella, and it was in the comfort that she offered me that I knew exactly why she was the one for me.”
— William Lovie III.
After talking to Ezio and having silently infiltrated the first tower with his help William accepted that this was the only plan that had any quick hope of success, and he now felt incredibly rushed due to the threat to the people inside the city of which there were many that he cared for on a deep level. In order to do this he needed the most elite force he could get, so he begin calling his banner houses in, as well as commanding several houses travel to Forks to meet him. All the houses that had been called clearly had to send representatives but when they arrived this mission clearly could be seen as a silent attack that didn't require huge numbers. House Crane, House Swan, House Scarlet, and House Lovie were the houses that would be leading the attack along with leadership from many other houses in Lucerne. Alongside this House Skane, and House Starke were sending numbers led by Robb Starke, and Torgon Skane of whom would join the other forces in entering through the main courtyard once the towers had fallen, or in the worst case even if they didn't fall. As William waited for Bella to arrive so that he could see her, he spent many hours talking with the leadership of the houses that were
going to be involved of which included Orival Crane of whom he wanted to one day be a very important figure in the Kingdom of Lucerne, and he made this very clear to Orival as they talked. The Arrival of the reinforcements also brought news that House Jestife had started a revolt taking control of Brill, alongside a spreading rebellion elsewhere which were being handled by loyalists in House Clegane, and House Tyrell. In his talk with Orival Crane he and Hedrik discussed how William was trusting heavily in this traitor of the True Sons of Lucerne, and also discussed how his older lover Amber Heard had been captured likely as a last minute threat to William in order to make him turn back. It was late when Bella arrived in Forks, accompanied by Freddie Highmore, and Wilhem Martell - alongside a large force of House Martell, and House Shephard of whom were also sending forces to join the attack - and when they did he said his quick hellos to Freddie and Wilhem before he and Bella made their way to stay in room in the House Swan estate of which he was technically a member of House Swan. After being together romantically he talked openly about how scared he was of seeing Sean there, and also he feared that he was going to be made to make a choice in that final room between killing Sean and keeping his old friend Amber alive. Bella already knew of the old relationship between the two, as Alice had told her of this long ago, and because of this she understood that he didn't simply care for this girl, but he in fact loved her. Bella tried to make him feel better about it, but there really wasn't much you could say to that horrible of a situation so she just held him while he went through it all with her. That night he left Bella who was sleeping and went outside to speak with Leven of whom brought him a response letter from Brooke of whom had quickly sent a letter after William's had reached her. William would read the letter with Leven and Brooke sent her emotional support and told him how much she loved him, of which Leven at that moment didn't believe but didn't want to upset William.
Discovery of Betrayal
“I saw you once Your Grace. It was at the Battle of Minus Ithil. You were slashing and stabbing at the monsters and for a moment I stopped. Just stopped and watched you. All the fighting surrounding me and there I was watching you move like a god. I knew then that you were my king.”
— Edric Nighting
It was at this point that Edric Nighting would arrive in Forks where he had made the decision to turn against his family and reveal the plans of his family. Edric Nighting had several weeks before this begin hearing talk from his father and older brother that they planned to rise against House Scott and murder the Scotts in the city before taking control of Tree Hill itself. He would watch his brother in secret as his brother James Nighting II. followed Brooke Scott watching her movements, and watching her himself he discovered that she was the mistress of William Lovie III. through listening in on a conversation between Brooke and Haley Scott. Learning of this relationship between William and Brooke the loyal Edric Nighting would depart Tree Hill by horse with his friend Hanzal Grightling heading towards Forks where they had heard William Lovie III. was meeting with his wife and the leadership of Forks. Arriving at Forks the two would quickly gain an audience with the king of whom was surrounded at the time by Charlie Swan, Leven Martell, and Bella Swan, and seeing how influential the group was Edric would immediately tell the king what he knew which horrified the group of whom had already rallied their forces and was planning to move out the next day to Berne. Realizing the main forces still needed to go to Berne he would command Jasper Hale to lead a secondary force to Tree Hill in order to defend the Scott's once the Nighting's moved against them, and after discussing it was decided that Jasper would move south through the province of Rosten where he would summon a force from that province's lord in House Elric alongside Northern Tree Hill's lordn in House Guntbold and then lead them southward to Tree Hill.
“Tell me Jasper how it is fair that your love for him is more valuable then my own. He doesn't love you any more then he loves me. So tell me the truth why you must always stand by his side?”
— Leven Martell
Following the breaking up of the meeting Jasper, Leven, and Bella would follow William back to his tent where Jasper would convince William to take him with him to Berne and instead send Leven to Tree Hill. Making up excuses about why she needed to go instead of him Leven was left shocked by what Jasper did and thus limply accepted this change of plans, and with a kiss to her forward she and William would say goodnight and following this Jasper and Leven left the tent. Leaving the tent Leven would follow Jasper trying to get him to explain himself, but he refused until she became quite agitated leading to an argument between the long time friends. Fighting loudly forced Jasper to take the argument into his tent where he would reveal that he did not trust her abilities to protect William considering how in love with him she was, and following this she would punch him in the face before returning to her own tent. The next day William, Jasper and the larger force from Forks would leave the city leaving Leven and a few hundred men at arms and knights to move south towards Castle Elric where she would go to defend the mistress of her beloved.
Sneaking Inside
“This was the moment thousands had been waiting for. The moment my brother's madness would finally come to an end.”
— William Lovie III.
When William Lovie arrived back at Berne flanked by the forces of House Swan, Scarlet, Crane, Starke, Martell, Skane, and many of their vassals he entered the command tent and prepared alongside his commanders the method by which they would do this. Ezio told them that the only real way into the valley of Berne was to take control of the towers defending the passes, and this was possible since they controlled the first tower. From the first tower they would attack the second tower, and then the third, and fourth control towers which would allow them to bring the entire army into the Valley where the defenders would be unprepared for their entry. Once this was achieved they must take control of the fifth tower which was inside the City of Berne itself and was connected through a long tunnel which could be locked from the inside meaning if they failed to take it before they were noticed it would be shut and they would have to attack the main walls.
“I felt fear being pulled alongside those golden armored men. This whole thing just reminded me why I didn't get personally involved in these political matters. As I regretted my decision to put myself in this kind of danger I remembered the brave look in Amber's eyes as she surrendered herself to save her child. If she could have that kind of strength then I could, and would do everything in my power to save her.”
— Ezio Ederiz
With this plan in place William Lovie would send the forces of House Scarlet led by Darion, and Saiden Scarlet to enter the First Tower where they would push their full forces and they alone would be responsible for working alongside the rebels in order to take control of the towers. They would be assisted by the Order of the Golden Dragon of whom was forced to follow William Lovie of whom was going to assist here alongside Edward Cullen and several members of the Order of the Blue Dragon, as well Orival Crane would convince William to let him join the forces attacking the towers. Entering the tower and joining the Arryn loyalists, and Franklin Brent and his forces that had initially taken control of the tower from the rebels and had held it while the main forces gathered. At that final moment Robb, and Jon Starke joined the assault group and this would force William to also take Wilheim alongside with him as Wilheim now wouldn't take no for an answer.
The Battle
“The Towers all held so many moments where everything could have gone terribly wrong. It was by the shere luck of the dragon that we were able to sucede as easily as we did.”
— Saiden Scarlet
With the main force now preparing to enter the first pass into Berne they only needed to see the response from the second tower to know when to move in, and they would get that call the first night as they would be signaled by a flag hanging from the wall set out by the tower forces. The Tower forces would wait until night, and that night as they moved forward the few guards meant to make sure such infiltration of the towers were not possible were rebels and thus they allowed the tower forces to infiltrate the towers, and within they found the mercenary forces of Sean Lovie in the form of the Stormblown. The fight for the tower was swift as with most of their forces asleep the few on sentry duty found themselves being attacked by a huge number of troops flooding into the tower. As the Stormblown moved to raise the alarm they found the alarm room locked, and when they finally broke inside they found inside several rebels of whom killed the Stormblown that tried to enter the room. With the tower taken Orival Crane would raise the flag thus giving the main force the safe call to enter the first pass. Torgon Skane alongside the other commanders would move their forces alongside the Elves and reached the very edge of the first pass as the attack move forward, and during this they also moved forward with the siege machines that everyone hoped they would have no need of using. At the third tower they would basically be allowed in as the rebels had taken complete control over this tower, and the few members of the Stormblown that were present inside the tower were barely able to get out of their beds before they were killed by the vengeful rebels and the incoming Lucernians.
“I watched each flag go up and each time a piece of me felt better as I knew my king was safe for yet another moment. It was his bravery that made people love him, but in these moments his braveary was horrifying for those of us who were forced to watch from afar.”
— Joshua Jackson
The fourth tower was the true test of the attack as while it was held by the forces of House Krinner who was a member of the rebellion the tower held the largest contingent of the Stormblown outside of the city itself. Robb Starke, and Wilheim Martell alongside Robb Starke would lead a contingent of forces east of the tower to cut off any kind of relief once the main attack went forward, and with that the main assault could begin on the fourth tower. As the Lucernians made their way into the tunnels approaching the fourth tower they were spotted by a Stormblown soldier of whom alerted the rest of the force to a betrayal, and with this becoming clear the forces of House Krinner would assemble under the command of Danzal, and Benjamin Krinner of whom defended the tunnel route heading towards the fifth tower so that none of the Stormblown could warn their comrades, and inside the tower House Krinner under the command of Oskar Kinner the defenders would block the gate into the alarm room thus preventing for a time the forces of the Stormblown from gaining entry to the alarm. A fierce battle would commense between the defenders in House Krinner and the Stormblown. As the forces of Lucerne attempted to enter the fight they were forced to attack through defended barriers quickly set up by the forces of the Stormblown in order to resist the attackers. During the fighting here Darion Scarlet would become famous for defeating the Stormblown second in command in single combat after they entered the last room of the tower and it was held by the Stormblown second in command. With his death the rest of the Stormblown slowly surrendered, and with that the flag was raised and the main army understood that the way into the valley was clear.
The Final Tower
“The Sound of that horn going off could have meant the massacre of our entire force. It could have meant the deaths of thousands but the bravery of the three Arryn brothers. They could have stayed hidden and not risked death but instead they did what was right and resisted a tyrant and they saved thousands. History may say that I won that day but I know the truth of who was responsible for our victory.”
— William Lovie III.
As the main army moved into the valley silently in the darkness of the night the tower forces moved into the tunnels approaching the fifth and final tower. Ezio had told them that they had to get to the other end without being stopped or else the way would be blocked and there would be no way in except a truly viscous fight for the valley. As they entered the tunnel and were only two minutes away everyone including the main force heard a massive horn go off, and the rebels told William that someone had set off one of the alarms of the towers. With this all sense of stealth went out the window and the tower force charged into the tunnel in the hopes of reaching the gate controls before it was shut. As they ran down the tunnel they watched as the massive portcullis gate was slowly shutting, and then suddenly as they were getting closer it slowed and then stopped and they could hear the cries of battle at the other side, and as they reached it they entered a brutal battle between members of House Arryn and the Stormblown who were trying to shut the gate. With the entry of the Lucernians the battle went away from them, but the Stormblown survivors were able to retreat in good form and make their way towards the Berne Keep where they would blow the alarm horn again and the Stormblown throughout Berne would retreat to the keep alongside those still loyal to Sean Lovie although that number was very slight now that House Arryn was in full rebellion. With the stormblown in full retreat the defenders that were on the wall moved completely into the rebellion allowing the main force to enter through the front gate, as the rebels opened the gate letting them inside. The rebels, and the tower forces would move throughout the city, and kill or capture anyone still flying the colors of the Stormblown and as well as this making sure that everyone knew that the city was Lucernian again and they had nothing to fear.
“As the Stormblown mercenaries, and the other True Sons were pushed back more and more the call from Sean was not for them to pull completely back, but instead it was for them to attack the estate of House Krinner where much of the women and children alongside nearly all of the nobility of the city had fled too. Thousands fleeing into the estate were never under the belief that they would be under threat, but that was proven wrong the moment the forces appeared near the walls.”
— Paul Arryn
As the Lucerne forces took the final tower before the wall there were some who suspected something was wrong, but all orders were that everyone stayed inside so no one was allowed to leave the inner fortress to investigate, and in order to occupy the forces he had at alert (and in order to further make sure the defenses failed as was hinted at by Sean Lovie during the final duel with William) Sean would command that they attack the House Krinner estate of which was the site of the retreating nobles of Berne. While the commoners and the vast majority of the population had fled into the deeper sections of the city, and to the walls where the more Lucernian houses guarded it was the nobles that fled into the estate of House Krinner. Other then the nobles and politically far more important then that was the fact that Alistair Bedregen had retreated into the Keep alongside Thomas Lovie of whom was the true target of Sean Lovie this late in the fight. News reached them late that Alistair had gone there following the attempt on his life and Thomas and when it became clear this was where he was Sean would send basically everyone available including most of the defenses of the tunnel in order to try and kill Thomas. The estate itself was a sort of mini castle that was built into a large cave deep in the northern section of the city and was defensible from one large tower that covered the entire entrance, and from the ramparts built into the gatehouse.
“Massing on the walls I could make out the hundreds of attackers that swarmed all around the courtyard. I knew what they would have to do to take us, and I just prayed we were strong enough to resist.”
— Paul Arryn
It was this spot that the forces of the Stormblown, and the other True Sons loyalist houses would move towards in heavy numbers in order to try and complete the commands of Sean Lovie. Some three hundred Stormblown (including many of their most elite members, and two of their top three commander) alongside some four hundred more True Sons loyalist (of which only the fifty from House Ignirt would actually take part in the battle while the rest simply miled about faking interest in the siege. House Ingirt would be this only truly loyalist element due to the fact that Lord Beren Ingirt's daughter Lia Ingirt, and heir Harren Ingirt were captives of the prince and he was basically blackmailed into supporting Sean Lovie's forces out of fear for his two children. The forces of the True Sons would charge out from the shadows and attack without even a call for surrender, as they were commanded to destroy them and thus no surrender was neccessary or warrented. Charging the walls they suffered accurate and deadly archer fire from the large tower that surveyed the courtyard, and the archers on the ramparts. During this charge Lord Beren Ingirt would fall with an arrow to the neck and with his death the forces of House Ingirt fell under the command of Beren's brother Brandon Ingirt of whom would silently slip away with most of the relief forces moving them towards the prison where they would take part in the taking of the prison. With no cover the Stormblown and others got to the walls much diminished but still with high strength, and once at the gate they bashed at it with quickly made battering rams and climbed the sides of the wall to get to the ramparts, while hoisting a large ladder against the tower.
“I could see Trailen Dorin`s heir, and Danzal Krinner standing on the ramparts, and from their position they were able to shoot anyone that came up the ladder to the tower without any cause for fear from the ground. On the tower they were just massacring those on the ground with a nearly endless stream of arrows into their ranks. At the gate I stood with my shoulder against it alongside my men as we tried to buy more time for the archers to thin their numbers even more.”
— Paul Arryn
The men attempting to get up the ladders and climbing the walls suffered terribly as the tower was able to hit the men climbing with ease while the ramparts were hitting the men climbing for the tower, and thus it all came down to the gate. During this initial fighting the defenders on the walls were joined by Alistair of whom desperate to make sure that Thomas survived would take a bow and fight on the walls where despite his age he would fight bravely before being hit by an arrow from the ground, and fell dead at the age of nearly seventy three. It was near this point that Vaedin Stormblown`s next brother Sordin Stormblown was also shot through the chest by Danzal
Danzal Krinner would make a further name for himself during the battle as he led the tower in its attacks and coordinated the fire very well.
Krinner of which led to the final Stormblown son in Tolin Stormblown fleeing the field, and taking several other high level commanders with him as well. By this point the other houses of which had been milling about watching the siege, would retreat and pull back to their respective estates of which they decided was the only logical thing they could do as they would be most likely targeted by the Krinner estate for their believed betrayal. The battering at the gates was shattering it, and it was only a few more minutes before it finally came crashing down. Moments before it went down, Paul Arryn would gather with his most elite men, and forces of the loyalist houses, and prepare for a charge out of the gate. Warning the wall and tower that they were charging out, they opened the gate and smashed into the unsuspecting attackers outside the wall. Pushing them back the force fell back and was cut down from behind, killing nearly the entire force attacking but the loyalist forces returned into the keep to repair the gate and didn`t persue believing the larger force was incoming. At this point as the line melded together Hanna, Aria, and other noble ladies would move into the front and do their best to relieve the men by bringing water, and other supplies while helping to repair the gate.
Taking of the Prison
Hunting a Beast
Morrigan would serve for the final time Bill Lovie in his command of her to go to Berne and murder Forder Braxton and stop him from killing several of the prisoners. By this point she was till under the directive of Flemeth to assist Bill Lovie and using this directive she would be more then happy to serve Bill Lovie who was beginning to attempt to silently assist his son one last time before he lost himself to madness completely.
“I don't have much time before my mind is taken over again by the monster. Go to Berne and stop Forder Braxton. The monster in my mind has ordered him to kill as many people as he can in Berne, and I need you to stop this from happening.”
— James Lovie II.
It would be Forder Braxton, and his son Markus Braxton that would be sent to Berne by James Lovie II. to represent the dealings of the Circle of Magi and a believed loyalist faction, although Bill Lovie had no intention of ever assisting Sean as he wanted William to gain victory, but this was not known by Fordor of whom arrived in Berne to find the city in Chaos and surrounded by the Lucernians. Traveling into the city through Magi he would meet with Sean Lovie and at this point he would join the upper tier of the leadership of the True Sons of Lucerne executing several loyalists alongside his son, but it would be only a few weeks before the city came under assault by the Lucernians. During the battle Fordor and Markus would wander the city of Berne killing at random as was their command by James Lovie if/and when the city fell, and reaching the prisons hoping to kill as many valuable hostages as he could before leaving Forder would be shocked to find Morrigan his old Circle of Magi partner waiting in the gallows before the prison entrance surrounded by the dead bodies of the Stormblown mercenaries guarding the prison.
“You think you understand what Bill Lovie truly wants of you? Do you think you even have the slightest idea what that madman wants of you. This great king of yours killed hundreds for doing nothing more then asking why they should serve a madman. You stood by...I stood by as he murdered these men, women and children, and then we did it again...You come here because of reasons you could not even hope to understand. He commanded you to come here and murder innocent men, and women, and children, and at the same time he ordered me to come here and stop you. What kind of king do you follow? What kind of man do you worship at the feet of? What kind...I'll tell you now that you shouldn't follow a man who gets your son killed...”
— Morrigan
Confused why Morrigan was resisting him he told her he was only doing the work of James Lovie, and at this she would retort saying that so was she and then launched a killing spell at Markus, but it was deflected killing the two guards accompanying them, and then fighting Forder, and Markus who barely managed to resist her strength. As the three fought Forder, and Markus were no match for the more powerful Morrigan and Forder dropped his wand surrendering, but after surrendering he expected to be allowed to leave but Morrigan instead slew young Markus and then prepared to kill Forder but he unleashed a Magi blast at her and was able to escape through hidden tunnels.
Duel with Sean Lovie
William carrying Amber
“Forgiveness is never easy. Bitterness is easy. Hatred is easy. But forgiveness, that's a tough one. Sometimes, people say things they don't mean or do things they can't take back. Sometimes we do things we can't take back. So we feed ourselves to starve the pain. I have to believe that's what happened to Sean.”
— William Lovie III.
With the civil war all but over the moment had come for the final confrontation with his brother. There wasn't really a doubt in anyone's mind who would win in a fight the difficult part of the coming fight was the fact that Sean had the emotional advantage through his capture and hostage taking of Amber Heard the first love of Andrew. The room before the throne room was gaurded by James Nighting II. of whom laughed at them for not realizing that House Nighting was truly on the side of the True Sons of Lucerne. James and the three House Nighting men that were with him charged William and his group, and after a brief fight the four were killed by the far superior forces of William. Jasper held James down, and with a wave William commanded his death and Jasper ended his life. Surveying the rest of the room there were bodies stacked in the corner, of which not all were adults, and the the scope of the atrocities in this city were becoming clear. William before entering the throne room ordered Wilheim Martell to return to the camp at all speed and send word that House Nighting had betrayed them. They all knew that if House Nighting turned then who knew what sort of alliance might be present outside of Berne and with a large quantity of the loyalist forces besieging Lucerne they could be open for a betrayal.
Amber Heard never thought she was going to survive to see William again, and the sight of him caused her to leap up and great pain as the chain around her neck kept her stationary.
Before entering the final room William would also command Robb, and Jon Starke to lead forces to make sure that no holdouts would cause them any problems, while he briefly met with Alleria Windrunner of whom would wish him the best in the next room as she knew something about fighting siblings. She attempted to one last time make sure he understood that his brother had made his choice and that no amount of sympathy from his side would change what Sean had become. When Andrew entered the throne room of Berne flanked by Jasper, Edward, Emmett, Faye, and his elite guard they found Sean standing alone with nothing but the bound and strapped form of Amber Heard keeping him company. Looking around the room briefly he could see the ruined corpse of what he assumed from the words of Ezio was the poor Allison Arryn, and all along the wall he could see broken corpses of men and women that had obviously fallen victim to Sean's madness.
“He sat the way you would expect any psychopath to be sitting when they were idle. He just had nothing in his eyes, and I had to try to force my mind to even remember a moment that he didn't look that way. My brother was gone. He was lost into madness, and no matter what he said he couldn't leave this room alive. After all the years and the pain he was going to pay for everything he had ever done.”
— William Lovie III.
As he entered the room Sean remained silent but the look on his face told Andrew that Sean had a plan and whatever happened this plan was something he believed could work. Amber Heard never thought she was going to survive to see William again, and the sight of him caused her to leap up and this led to great pain as the chain around her neck kept her stationary. Laughing at what had happened to Amber through the fact that she was crying and holding her neck the situation turned as William charged forward only stopped by Sean holding his sword to Amber`s neck.
Look at the world father. You were born into this land. You grew up here. These people swore their lives to you. How could you have done all of this? Look at everything you have done. You destroyed a city. Killed hundreds of good men out of fear. Is this how you want to be remembered father. Is this the world you want to leave behind? I know you were a good person once. Don't end it all here. Don't do this. For me father. For everything I supposedly mean to you. Don't do this.
``Really brother. If I were you I would take a couple of steps backwards.`` Everyone stopped as he held the sword to Amber`s neck. I held my hands out to make sure he knew I was willing to atleast talk this out. As I did I noticed the windows in the corner of my eye which I noticed had archers in them. ``Thats right you listen to me now.`` Everyone just stood in place and I hated having him control even an ounce of anything in this world. ``Now that I have your attention tell everyone to leave. This is between me, you, and the bird.`` I looked behind me at Jasper and his eyes told me there was no way he was going to leave, but I knew he had to if I wanted to try and find a way into his mind and to somehow save Amber. Knowing about the windows I had to hope that there was some kind of back entrance into the throne room, and from there perhaps they could infiltrate the windows and gain the upper hand. Moving closer to the men I whispered to the group so lowly that poor Emmett with his poor hearing was forced to come nearly to kissing level.
"We need to do what he says.``Seeing the rejection in their eyes I stopped it immediatly. ``There are windows all along this room, and I need you to get in them so that we can get a handle on this. Emmett, and Edward I can`t tell you what to do. If you want to go with Jasper and the windows then so be it. I would prefer if you saved as many innocents as you could. The rest of you wait in the last room and give those poor souls a cleaner end....they deserve better then to be piled in the corner like garbage. If I should fall.``Edward stepped forward``If I should fall you all must make sure under no circumstances does he leave this room. He cannot be allowed to survive this no matter what happens. Now go. We have little time.``Relunctantly they begin filtering out of the room to the sound of laughter from Sean behind me. ``Yes Sean you have us exactly where you want us, now tell me what you want.`` His laughter was the first thing that happened before he grabbed a key from behind his back and undid the chain around Amber`s neck. Pulling her farther away it took everything in me to not move forward and attack him on the spot.
``I don`t want anything brother. You see that`s the trick. You had the same repository of books that I did, and let me tell you something about the villians in a story. Sometimes the villians want something. They want gold to build a mighty castle. Or maybe they want a women." He swayed as he spoke flayling his arms about like a mad man. " In the end brother It doesn`t matter what they want, it just matters that they want something. You see its important that they want something because for this reason these villians you see, they can be bargained with. They can lose.`` Knowing where he was going I interupted him.
``And let me guess. Your the kind that wants nothing.`` Standing up taller before he spoke he pulled Amber closer to him, and I could see the tears flowing from her eyes. I tried my best to comfort her with my eyes, and her eyes followed suit with mine, and I could tell I had calmed her down. He pushed her to the ground holding the sword so close to her neck I could see a bit of blood fall before raising his face to me again with a twisted look to his face.
``I don`t mean to interupt your longing towards the Arryn whore. " He stared at me clearly trying to make sure that I got the message. "Good. Now that I have your attention again I'll tell you the secret." He looked so excited to say it, as if its was some secret. "I'm not the villian brother. That honor is for you.``
``In what twisted world do you live where your not the villian. You are the same man who sits on a throne covered in the innocents that hes killed. Your the same evil that tried to molest his own sister, and now dares to threaten such a innocent as Amber Heard.``
"Its all a matter of perception." He pulled Amber back up to stand in front of him, and he begin to pet her hair causing a whelp from her. It took every piece of my control not to burst forward and kill him where he stood for touching a hair on her head.
Controlling my increasing rage I spoke to the monster standing before me. "And what perception is that?"
``The perseption that comes from knowing the anwser to this question." He stopped and stared at Amber before looking back at me. "What makes her innocent my brother. Is her innocene borne from the fact that she opened her legs for you whenever you pleased...``
``How dare you...``
"It is an honest question. I want you to tell me how this girl. This piece of meat. I want you to tell me right here, and right now what makes her innocent. "
"She hasn't harmed anyone. She hasn't done a thing in this world other then be a good person."
"And that makes her innocent, does it?"
"Yes it does."
"Your a fool."
"You wish to brandish words around like a bunch of fish wives then do it your way. Or do you want to finally become a man and face what you've done."
``I get this moment brother. You forgot through your youth, that unlike you the rest of us out here in the world have things happen to them. Your the villian along with this whore because of what you have allowed to happen. One does not blame the virus for infecting its victom. You blame the monster who created the virus, and you my brother are the reason I am the way that I am.``
``You want to find a way to escape the person that you are you need to find someone who cares for even a moment for whether or not you live or die.``
``There it is right there. Don`t you see. It was that uncaring neglect. Outright hatred at times that left me utterly alone.``
``You don`t get to blame becoming a monster on the fact that you and I weren`t best friends.``
``I have the sword. I have the damsel. Those mean I get to say, and do whatever the fuck I want to do. Do you understand what I`ve done. Do you have any idea the scope of the things I`ve caused.`
...Continued
Death is the End
“As the minutes went by my brother fell into a darker and darker place, and despite knowing I should be pulling him back, I hated him so much in that moment that I basically pushed him off.”
— William Lovie III.
Watching his brother implode in front of him, and basically throw him in front of the bus for everything that had ever gone wrong for him in his life, wasn`t something that William was able to accept. William would begin badgering Sean and insulting him to the point that his brother begin to reveal to him certain darker acts then anything anyone had ever thought he was possibly involved in. Sean told him how he had become obsessed with seeing the death of this particulary noble girl of whom he refused to name but said she unimportant in the grand scheme of things, and that this obsession had followed him for years. Finally one night he had been invited to dinner for the first time in months and was told by Bill to not criticize anything throughout the meal or else he was never eating with them again. Tasting something horrible in the meal he ignored it and kept eating, and following this he said that a dark entity would offer him assistance and when he accepted he begin hearing terrifying voices in his mind. After going through all the terrible things he had done throughout this time he finally got to Berne where he told William that he just wanted to die. He just wanted to
Amber watched as Sean appeared to fall apart in front of her, and all she could think was that she just wanted to live. She just wanted another chance with William. It didn`t matter that he had remarried. She just wanted to be with him again.
escape all the pain that he was constantly bombarded with, but that as time went by nothing he seemed to do incited anyone to kill him, and this annoyed him even more. Sean would tell him that he had broken and abused Hedrik Clegane's now wife in Rachel Wood, and that he was responsible for the rape of countless other noble girls, and that he was specifically attempting to escalate it so that he could die, but no matter what he did he continued to escape justice. Sean would reveal to him how that night he had attempted to kill Alice it was as if this voice in his head was literally screaming, and it was screaming to ravish Alice. He had honestly been incapable of stopping himself, and despite trying he found himself constantly moving towards her room, and he had been glad that William had assaulted him. He told William that he had been forgotten by their father when he made the spell removing Alice and that he had followed her to Forks where he had watched her for months but was stopped by men of Bills from revealing anything to her.
“I watched the first archer fall and in that moment I saw Jasper nod at me from the window followed by Emmett standing in the window with his own bow prepared to launch an arrow at Sean, but foolishly I believed I could talk him down. I also knew that any attempt to fire at Sean would most surely end with Amber`s death as Sean was too much of a coward to go down like that. I did know one thing though, with the one window down, it was only a matter of moments until the other three went down as well, and when that happened their would be an opening.”
— William Lovie III.
William watched as Sean devolved and saw Jasper kill one of the archers in the window thus revealing to him that they had found a way into the windows. Seeing there were only three other windows he waved away Emmett`s offer to kill Sean from the window as he knew it would end with Amber`s death. Sean seeing the look on William`s face
would demand to know what was so interesting that his brother was ignoring him, and when William could not appease him enough Sean slashed Amber across the shoulder with a blade narrowly missing her head, but still causing serious damage. Seeing this Sean would pull a lever behind him which the moment after he did all the windows slammed shut with Stone portcullis, and the gate they had entered from also was barred with portcullis. Rushing to Amber he knocked Sean to the ground, and picked up Amber. Picking her up he realized instantly how bad the wound to her shoulder was as it had cut far too deep for anyone there to heal her, and he panicked knowing she was going to die. She held him tight, but he could feel her grasp on him loosening as her life left her. Closing her eyes he let out a cry as he believed she had died, and he held her tight crying into her shoulder before kissing her hard on the lips and then gently laying her down before moving towards Sean who was slumped against a post nearby.
“As I walked to him, I knew this was the end. He would die in this moment. I didn`t expect him to be crying.”
— William Lovie III.
Grabbing Sean by the shoulders he found his brother crying, and Sean grasped onto Williams arms as if to try and hold onto him. There was no resistance, and as William held the sword to his chest he held a moment and looked into Sean`s eyes waiting for his last words. Sean in that moment would tell William that Bill still lived and had gone west to France, and would begin to start an apology when William stabbed him through the chest and covered his mouth with his hand. Looking behind him at the lifeless body of Amber he would proceed to be overcome with rage and strangle Sean as the last of his life left him. Getting up he walked back over to Amber, and ignored the sounds of crashing as his men attempted to break there way through the gate, and the windows. Kneeling beside Amber he ripped some cloth from his tunic and covered her wound not wanting her to be seen like this. As he wiped her wound her arm would move up and grasp onto his, and her final grasp for life would continue and it gave the two former lovers one last chance to talk to each other.
The Rise of Lucerne I saw the destruction of the world, and knew I had to stop it. There was nothing left to do but become bigger then everyone else. The Empire was never going to be the beacon the world needed it to be. Westros was on fire. The Bretonians had reached for the stars and been burned. And the old shadow of Numeron was fading far too quickly. It was left to us in Lucerne to change the fate of all those who wished to reject darkness. We were the last hope for a world who had long since given up on believing.
I could almost feel her leave me as there was a lifelessness to her eyes, and when I did I gently let her down to the ground. I left a kiss on her lips before closing her eyes and taking a moment to stare at the girl I had loved first in my life. She was the innocence of youth. The kind of person who is always the victim of monsters like my brother and that sad fact just left me more angry then any other death I had seen in my life. I had seen good men die in battle, but to look down at Amber and realize that she was just innocent, and had still died hurt me deeply.
Hearing a sound come from Sean I gave one last kiss to her lips before letting her go, and turning around to find my brother. He had moved himself into the corner and was shaking while holding onto a large flag. As I went towards him I couldn't make out what he was saying, but to be frank it was not going to matter what he said. Sometimes men are just guilty and words cannot escape that fact.
Reaching Sean I grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him to face me, while I took out a knife and held it to his throat. Turning him had revealed what the noise was as his face was covered in tears, and the sight of the sword made him pull himself towards it.
``Please William. Kill me now. I cannot live the things in my mind anymore.``
``You murder someone as innocent as Amber and you dare to look for pity now.``
``No pity brother. I want mercy.``
``You do not deserve mercy. The things you have done are beyond imagining.``
``Then punish me William.`` At these words I threw the dagger away and a look of sadness went to his face, before being quickly replaced by understanding when I pulled out my sword and aimed it towards his chest.
``No punishment in the world would ever be far enough to be justice. You deserve so much worse then I could ever give you.``
``You are right brother.`` Sean begin to shake, and I swear I saw somesort of cloud come from his body towards the roof above us, and as it did he looked up at the roof of the room and a look of peace went over his face that just horrified me. I didnt want him to feel peace while she lay dead. He didnt deserve to feel anything even close to that. The things he had done were too much. ``I think its gone.``
``No more talk.``
``Perhaps just one more thing brother.``
``Say your last words and be done with it.``
``Our father went west. He went into the ruins of France.``
``I will find him and give him the true death I will soon give you.``
``I hope that you do William. I hope that you avenge everyone who has been hurt by him.`` I felt such overpowering rage as I looked at him that my eyes must have been showing it as he looked at me with a realization that it was over and he closed his eyes. ``Goodbye Will...``
Before he got the words out I stabbed him through the chest piercing his armor between the plates and he let out a sigh before going limp in my arms. I let him down with a loud bang as his body hit the floor, and leaving behind his body I went towards Amber wanting to just hold her one last time. Kneeling at her body I pulled her closer and held her tight to me.
As I held her in my arms crying into her hair I felt her arms clasp themselves around mine and I looked into her face hoping beyond hope that she would live. I held her face with my hand and begged her to wake. My other hand held her wound with everything I could trying to somehow stop it. I pleaded with her, and I watched as her eyes flickered open. I hugged her tight knowing in my heart that I would want to always remember the feel of her life, as she was perfection, and it was a tradgedy that it had taken all of this for me to realize that. ``William...
``It`s alright my love. Just rest my sweet, Edward will come and...he will...he`ll find a way...``I hadn`t realized that I was crying until I couldn`t see from my eyes anymore, and I felt her hand wipe across my cheek clearing me of the physical signs of my sadness.
``William I love you...Thomas is your son.`` I didn`t understand. She had left, and no one had ever said a word. How many lies had been told to keep this from me. ``It was my doing. Don`t blame anyone but me for keeping it from you.``
"They all lied about where you had went...I loved you with everything in myself. I would have protected you from everything.`` Her eyes closed as the pain must have overwhelmed her. Looking at her shoulder the blood was smeared all across my hand as it was too large a wound for me to keep from gushing.
``I thought I could protect you. He told me he would kill you...he held a knife to your throat and bid me to leave. I`m so sorry William. I`m so sorry you never got to see him grow.``She stopped and coughed out blood, and I knew she was going quickly. The shoulder just kept bleeding through and I couldn't even bear to look at it knowing there was just nothing to fix this. ``You must promise me that you will protect Thomas from everything. Protect him the way I never could.``
``He lives Amber. You saved him. My brother would have killed everything to have killed any son of mine.`` I kissed her on the lips gently carressing her hair before looking into her eyes again.
``I tried my...`` Her eyes closed and her arm went slack for a moment before I shook her gently and she opened her eyes again. ``It doesn`t hurt anymore. You have to promise me William. Promise me.``
``I promise you Amber I shall protect him. I shall love him, and cherish him as the son that he is. He shall never know pain, or anguish, or sadness. I shall love him as I love you.`` Her eyes begin to once more close, and I selfishly shook her again.
``Stay with me Amber...just hold on please...``I shook her again, but this time her eyes didn't reopen and just staring at her I could see that I had failed to save her. She coughed one more time and her eyes opened somewhat and she looked at me again.
``I`m so sorry Will...I`m so sor...``Her eyes remained open, but she just never blinked. Holding her I couldn't feel anything as I knew she had died. I would never hear her voice again. I would never know her touch again, and I let out a scream which I could barely control.
Following her grasping of his arm the two would talk briefly as she bled out but she held on for long enough to make sure William knew that Thomas was his child, and the two would heart sadly say goodbye to each other before finally she bled out from the horrible wound on her shoulder. It was several minutes of banging on the door with William crying into the hair of Amber before the rest of his men were able to get into the throne room, and by this point the Battle of Berne was over with the remaining forces of the True Sons of Lucerne either dead or having surrendered, but for William it felt increasingly like a hollow victory. As Faye, Jasper and Emmett tried to console him and help him with Amber he would refuse without words picking her body up and carrying her out of the throne room before collapsing outside of the inner keep where he would be helped up by Faye. He whispers to Faye that he needs to take her out of the fortress so he can bury her, and Faye goes ahead clearing the gatehouse, and letting the front gate open where William carries her all the way out of Berne and reaches the Valley of Berne where the large Lucernian army awaits and it is at this point that Alice meet him and he finally surrenders Ambers body to Jasper and breaks down in Alice's arms.
Meeting a Son
“You are too young to understand my son, but know that I have loved you, and I will always love. The world will be tough on you because of how you were born, but understand this. You shall always have a place at my side. You will always be a member of my house. You are my son. You are our son.”
— William Lovie III.
With Thomas sleeping William gathers with the Lucernian army leadership and following a long discussion on their next steps he commands his friend Hanna Arryn be brought to him, and then the meeting breaks up and joined by Jasper, and Edward he returns to his tent where saying goodbye to them he goes into the tent and finds Alice sleeping on his bed holding a sleeping Thomas. Looking at the scene in front of him he starts crying as he thinks about the loss of Amber, and at the sound of his crying Alice wakes up and gets out of bed gently leaving Thomas in bed and the two siblings hug. Thomas eventually wakes up to the talking of Alice and William and Thomas at first only wants Alice, but William goes to him and talks to him about his love for Amber and when Thomas reveals that Amber had talked about William to him almost every night William tells him the story of how he met Amber of which was a story that Amber had told him a thousand times before.
Control of Berne
“I would name you the Arch Duchess of this place if you would let me.”
— William Lovie III.
Meeting with Hanna Arryn the two old friends discuss a more personal view of what happened in Berne, and Hanna reveals to him the depths of some of the things that happened, but also refuses during their conversation to come with him back to Lucerne telling him that Aria needs her more. Discussing Aria, and her father Byron it becomes clear that he needs to speak with Aria and asks Hanna to bring her to him something she agrees to if William agrees to be lenient on her father of which William agrees to out of love for Hanna. The conversation ends with Aria and William agreeing that in one month it will be the leadership of Berne that will travel to Lucerne to meet with William and the Kings Council who will decide the future of Berne. William Lovie III. leaves Berne with the majority of the army but leaves behind several thousand as a garrison of the city under the command of Dylan Steinmare, and this garrison is under orders to further the control of the crown over Berne who at this point there is still fear may be mixed in its loyalties.
Aftermath
Following the victory of William Lovie in the Lucernian Civil War, Hanna returned with William back to Lucerne, and has come to living in the Cloud Tower. Her relationship with William was originally something that Bella felt completely uncomfortable with, but she has come to see there is nothing sexual between the two.
Wedding of Hanna Arryn
Wedding of Hanna Arryn You truly look beautiful my friend. May the dragon always shine down on you as he does today.
“William needed to get away as he had stopped living after Brooke died. While anyone around him might have not noticed any difference for those that truly knew him they knew he was a shell of himself. ”
— Alice Lovie
With the death of Brooke Scott, William had been forced to deal with it in silence until his break down with Alice, but since then despite promising to talk to her he kept it inside, and he fell into a secretive depression. During this time the only person he discussed any of his emotional problems with was Leven Martell of whom at this point he begin to become somewhat more then just friends with again, but despite this emotional shift between the two of them it never changed physically. Alice wanted her brother back, and tried many things to get him back, but when they did not succeed she found the perfect opportunity when their old friend Hanna Arryn prepared for her marriage to Harrold Krinner, and in order to support one of his oldest friends she was able to convince him to travel westward. Returning to the scene of so much death would have been more painful but nearly every member of House Lovie traveled west alongside the whole Shadow Council outside of Edward Cullen of whom was in Lorderon dealing with the Arthas situation. Travelling westward wasn`t such a huge deal for many of them but for Thomas that was the last place he had been alive with his mother, and returning there with his family was a huge moment for the young man. When the group reached the outskirts of Berne the army he traveled with would camp outside the gates and inside the internal valley before they entered the city. Greeted by all the lords and ladies of Berne and the entire province William and the rest of the group would smile and share great love once more when Hanna Arryn, and her sister Aria exited the gate and made their way to them. Hanna, and Aria led them inside the city, and they all marveled over the rebuild that had went on inside the city under the leadership of Aria Arryn, and it was then that they would begin mingling leading to William being pulled away from Alice and taken to meet all the leaders of the city.
The Rise of Lucerne I saw the destruction of the world, and knew I had to stop it. There was nothing left to do but become bigger then everyone else. The Empire was never going to be the beacon the world needed it to be. Westros was on fire. The Bretonians had reached for the stars and been burned. And the old shadow of Numeron was fading far too quickly. It was left to us in Lucerne to change the fate of all those who wished to reject darkness. We were the last hope for a world who had long since given up on believing.
I watched from afar as he stood on the balcony, and watching as my brother the king walked with several of the lords of Berne. My brother was planning the expansion of Lucerne`s assets into the west, and Lord Byron Arryn was no where to be found. I had heard from Hanna that he was now called the scared bird by those that served him when he was not around, and in a truth so horrifying it was almost laughable Benjamin Krinner had called him Lord Veregnst Arryn which meant scared bird in old German.
``Is it true that they call him the scared bird.`` Aria was a loyal girl, and intelligent beyond nearly everyone I had met, but I thought she would speak the truth to me. We had known eachother back in Lucerne, and our relationship was such I could trust her.
``It is true Alice.`` There was shame as she said it, and that pained me.
``I heard he was absent, and perhaps even pathetic during the time of my brother here, but to see him this way is sad.`` It was now legend how he had abandoned his dying niece, and then not even lifted a finger as Sean had stabbed his own wife. What sort of man can stand and watch that, and do nothing.
``My father is not a brave man. Not the type that instills love or adortion from his lords, or anyone really. My mother was perhaps the last one that loved him. Loved him truly for who he is.``
``What do you think could be done in terms of fixing the situation here.``Her honesty was something I truly valued, and despite not knowing if she could actually affect change I would listen to her advice and pass it on to William if he didn`t already know.
``I have spoken to my father of stepping down. Of giving up his power.``I stood up from the chair as I no longer saw William through the window and wanted to find out where he was going. As I did she stood up as well and we walked to the door where hearing us move Draco opened the door and followed us as we walked. ``I told him to move on because his people didn`t respect him anymore.`` That was a brave thing for her to say to her father. I knew from my own relationship with my father that when I resisted him I was put into a spell and had my memory wiped, so there were consequences for resisting those above you.
``What did he say to that.`` We reached the end of the corridor and I followed Aria as she led me towards the cathedral sized building that William had entered.
``He doesn`t believe me. He believes that he loved. He thinks the people have forgiven him, and anyone who tried to tell him otherwise he either ignores, or tells himself they are joking. There is no getting through to him I fear.``
``My brother plans to speak to him, and let us hope that has the effect of making him see what the truth is.`` I know that William knew it would be nearly impossible to remove Byron as he was still loyal, and despite his incompetence it would set a horrible presedent and despite hating their lord it would bring anger amongst far too many vassals around the valley and beyond. Power my brother said was precarious, and if he brought down Byron Arryn every single lord, and Lady in the Kingdom would wonder if the tyrant king was coming for them next.
``If anyone can convinse him to do what is right, it is the King.`` We reached the door and were greeted by the handsome Paul Arryn of whom had his wife Lucie Krone on his arm. Both bowed as was expected, and led us into the cathedral with a greeting.
Walking into the giant room I saw William arrayed against a massive group of nobles, with Jasper and Emmett directly around him and Jasper looked absolutely cold hearted seeing William surrounded. Leven walked towards me with the young Sansa Starke, and her new husband Harrold Hardyng. The two would bow before, me along with Leven of whom gave me a quick smile before standing beside me. ``Princess Alice it is a true joy to have you in our remote city. Your family has brightened this land in more ways then I can ever truly appreciate.``
``Hanna was one of our most dear friends growing up, and we wouldn`t have dared miss a chance to see her wed. The city has certainly been turned into quite the jewel since I was last here.`` I had never imagined myself returning to this place, but William couldn`t stay in one place anymore. He was losing himself more and more each day, and unless I could change the path he was on he was going to kill himself trying to see her again. It seemed so long since he was carrying the lifeless body of Amber from the city, and I couldn`t believe he had the strength to return here where so much bad had happened.
``Terrible business Princess. I never met your late brother, but I know that despite what he became in the end he was still your brother, and I`m sorry for your loss.`` I felt bad that I had never met her before. When we had travelled to Stormwind she was in Winterfell, and while I had met nearly all the Starke`s she and her brother Rickon were one of the few I had not had the oppurtinity to meet.
``I appreciate that Lady Sansa you are too kind. My brother did more damage to your husbands people then we can ever repay, and I`m beyond happy to see things becoming positive here.`` She smiled at me, and as she did I noticed how young she was. I had thought she was of similar age to me, but it was clear she was somewhat younger, and from the way she held Harrold`s hand she was very nervous. ``How have you come to like Berne Sansa.``
``It is the same sort of climate as my home in Winterfell, and with Harrold at my side I have been very well taken care of. I will honestly be sad to say goodbye to Berne.`` As she shared a smile with Harrold, I felt out of the loop. Where was she to go that would force her to say goodbye to the city. As if sensing my confusion Leven spoke up.
``The Kingdom will be very proud to have Harrold as the Lord of the new western province. I know that Alice was one of the most strong supporters of your rise Sansa.`` The young Sansa Starke looked shocked, and again I realized how distinct I was from even her scale of nobility. It would never really matter how high up the power tree someone reached, me and my brother were always going to be somewhat seperate from them.
``We decided to name the new city Greengarden, and I promice your grace that we shall turn it into a fortress against our enemies.`` His armor and tone made him seem quite the brave young man, and I wondered if the ruins of the west would claim him, or whether he would prove himself correct.
Meeting with the elements of House Arryn it did not take long to notice the absence of Byron Arryn of whom in public excuses were made in regards to his sickness, but once the required entrance was done and William followed Hanna, and Aria Arryn into the Palace Grounds of Berne the truth would quickly come out. William would during this time convince the Lords of Berne to begin an expansion into the western lands, and would bring in several allied Elves of the west of whom promiced their support in this action. When determining of whom would be the new lord of the state being formed westward it was determined that Sansa Starke and her new husband would form the leadership under House Hardyng. As the final days before the wedding came about William travelled the city with his family and Hanna as the night came he would make love to Bella but once they were done he left her asleep in bed and went to find Alice. Finding Alice he told her that he didn`t feel the same way for Bella that he had, and he didn`t know how to get it back as he loved Brooke. Alice and William would speak for nearly the entire night, and she was able to convinse him to not do anything rash, but once again she knew that he was sitting on the edge of a knife without Brooke, and for the first time she worried he might not actually be able to move past her death.
Hanna Arryn and William would sit for a time together and he told her about what had happened to him, and she saw the depths of love that he had for Brooke.
The actual wedding went by without problem, and following this Alice would accompany William and Thomas as they walked the ramparts of the outer tier of Berne. Walking along the walls William, and Alice held Thomas's hand as William told his son about the bravery of his mother during the siege of Berne, and for the first time in his life Thomas learned the whole truth of what had happened to his mother. Continuing to talk William discussed with Thomas his place in the family, and while Thomas was young he was old enough to understand that his father was telling him that he was not a base born bastard as William had legitimized him. The talk would brighten William somewhat as after Thomas left Alice was able to convince him that if nothing else he needed to be strong for his children, and grudgingly she included the two he had with Brooke in that number as well.
“So much had changed since we were children, but the simple fact remained that one of my best friends was gaining a husband and that was a moment to stop and thank the world around us.”
— Alice Lovie
Following an argument with Jasper it is Alice that goes to find Marcel Lovie II. and together the two stand on the balconies of the Arryn estates and discuss their relationship and how close the two have gotten over the years. As Alice goes to leave for bed Marcel gives her a gift and taking it back to her room she opens the gift discovering a tiny stone and beside the stone a note that detailed that the small stone was a magi device that allowed the two to communicate no matter how far apart they were and as she touches the stone which is attached to a necklace she feels Marcel's thoughts as if they are her own. Before leaving Alice would watch as Hanna and William discussed his affair with Brooke, and how he loved her so much that it felt painful just getting up anymore. William would also mention for the first time to her that he wanted to find the Dragons, and that he thought with everything inside himself that if he did then Lucerne could survive.
Arrival of Hillsbrad
“I thought for a very long time that I would inherit House Brent. I see now that was foolish. You have your heir, and I'm not content to sit here quietly as his knight.”
— Franklin Brent
It would be following his taking part in the defense of Castle Stragnarax that a emotionally devastated Franklin Brent would return to Marburg where his wife Karyl Reyne is waiting for him alongside their son Davin Brent, and seeing her waiting for him he collapses into her arms utterly spent by the feeling that he got nothing from all his years of devoted work for his father. Sharing a moment together he tells her he is done running errands for his father and wants to rule something himself leading to him telling her that he was going to go and find his father and tell him that he needed to let him go and find his own lands. Meeting with his father his father would reluctantly send him to Berne where the wedding of Hanna Arryn was looking to be the beginning of what rumors were saying would be William's desire to expand into the lands west of Berne forming a new province there. Travelling to Berne with a small force and his wife he is met on the road by Dexter Hill of whom continues to be disliked by Karyl but their friendship leads Franklin to invite Dexter to join him on the road to Berne though in order to make his wife happy he travels at the front of the force while Franklin and his wife stay in the middle.
“I saw your coming in the water Franklin Brent. You and I were destined to meet here.”
— Franklin Anikka Salburg
Delayed by a collapsing portion of the path through the Dragon's Pass the forces of Hillsbrad under Franklin Brent would arrive following the wedding of Hanna, and Harrold, but did meet the forces of the royal family on the road.
Death of Byron Arryn
The Death of Byron Arryn I wasn't there in the end for him. I couldn't have been there at the end for him. As much as I loved him as my father, he was a monster who had failed his people. He deserved to be alone. He deserved to die the same way so many of his people were forced to die.
“I got the letter before my father did and the moment I did I knew everything was going to change. He was surviving simply off the lie he told himself about my brother, and if he learned the truth with his own eyes it would finish him.”
— Aria Arryn
The city of Berne was tense as Aria, and Hanna Arryn had become the most powerful leaders of House Arryn overpassing their father Byron of whom was hated by the nobles for his cowardess during the Battle of Berne. While this was happening Aria was somewhat rebuilding her relationship with her father and came to discover that her father still believed her brother Byron was going to come home, and it was for this reason that he was improving his image. It was weeks after discovering this that Aria Arryn would get a letter from William Lovie III. detailing to her that the Order of the Violet Dragon had narrowed down the location of Bill Lovie and that most her brother Byron had in fact been there, and he wished to know what Aria wished them to do with his body. Aria would for that moment remember the brother she knew so many years ago, and want to bury him in Forks where the family had grown up, and where she remembered him with fondness. First going to her sisters Hanna, and Spencer the group would speak kindly of their brother and the way in which they wanted to remember him, but at this point Aria would reveal what she knew about their father and his dependance on the memory of their brother, and they all realized he wouldn't survive the news.
“The three of us went to him and tried our best to say goodbye. It was a tragic moment as he knew nothing of what we were doing, and yet that conversation would be the last I would ever have with my father. I knew I didn't have the heart to tell him, and for that he died alone.”
— Aria Arryn
The girls would decide to spend time with their father one last time before they knew he would go off the deep end, and each of them had a different idea of what this would end with. The three would travel with a troop of Arryn troops north of Berne to a large waterfall where they spent the day together, and despite Byron becoming increasingly dillusional as he was kept away from Berne they had a good final time with their father. As they returned to Berne, Hanna would travel with only five men west to Greengarden, while Spencer would travel with a hundred men to Castle Scorpian where she planned to organize the living of the retreating refugees that the Violet Dragons had freed from both Orleans and the surrounding area. Left alone with her father Aria would be prepared to tell him when she grew weak and left it to Maester Coleman of whom she told to give the letter from William to once they had returned to Berne.
“I wasn't there in the end for him. I couldn't have been there at the end for him. As much as I loved him as my father, he was a monster who had failed his people. He deserved to be alone. He deserved to die the same way so many of his people were forced to die.”
— Aria Arryn
Aria would be in the keep of Berne when Maester Coleman, and Benjamin Krinner would enter followed by many other high nobles of the city. Maester Coleman would tell her what she already knew would be to pass, when he told Aria that Byron had thrown himself from walls of Berne and was dead. There was silence as though noone had loved Byron they cared deeply for Aria and thus gave her time to digest the news of her father's death of which she would sit with her head down for a moment before rising and addressing the assembled lords. Describing how good a situation they were in now she wished for them to support her as she took her claim to William Lovie III. in an attempt to make herself the Arch Dutchess of Berne. Benjaming Krinner would be the first to stand and support her, and following this many of the other lords quickly stood and joined the chorus of cheers and applause for her. Aria Arryn would call for the next oldest male of House Arryn in the form of Paul Arryn, and his brother Derek of which both arrived quickly as they were both in Berne. The three would meet and Paul would indicate that he believed she was the best choice, and Derek agreed, and thus Paul would travel with her to Forks where the funural for her brother and father would be held, and it would be there that they would support her claim to the control of Berne.
Funeral of an Arch Duke
“It was a strange thing to stand around and watch him go beneath the ground. I know he would have been happy knowing his body was so close to his heirs but I just wish it would have been different.”
— Hanna Arryn
Derek and Spencer Arryn remained in Berne in order to lead the city in the absence of Aria and nearly the entire nobility of the Grand State travelled to Forks in order to meet with the leadership of Lucerne and decide the new Lord of Berne, of which they overwhelmingly wanted to be Aria. Arriving at Forks Hanna and Aria were greated at the front of the caravans and at the entrance of Forks by William Lovie III., Leven Martell, Jasper Hale, Alice Lovie, Bella, and Charlie Swan and William would get off his Griffon and walk to the front where Aria and Hanna got off as well and he would hug Hanna and say his apologies for their loss. The funeral would go as expected with very few attending outside of the Shadow Council, and Bella Swan of whom wanted to support Hanna as she put her father to rest.
“Did you come here thinking for even a second that I might reject you? If you did then I suppose I should elect a few more females to my council.”
— William Lovie III.
Following the ceremony the Shadow Council, and the Arryn sisters would meet in Swan Keep alongside Charlie Swan of whom would meet with Aria over what she wanted to say. Aria would make an impassioned speach detailing why William should name her the Arch Dutchess of Berne, and the others stayed silent and stared at William once Aria was done. William stayed silent for a moment before breaking out laughing causing the rest to laugh until finally William revealed there was never any question as to if she would be named the new ruler. Hanna would travel with her husband back with William and the others to Lucerne where she would plan to stay for several months in better climate and try and help the sickly Harrold Krinner as they attempted to have a child. William having named Aria the Arch Dutchess of Berne would make her the first female leader of a Grand State in the history of Lucerne, and she returned to Berne at the head of the massive force of Berne and finally okay with her position in the political landscape.
House Arryn
