Chrysalis

The revered Queen Verita of Liria, second of her name, defender of the frontier and upholder of the Lion tenants of her ancestors was pissed.

Long had she puzzled over how the enemy had been able to gather so many more troops than she had been able to anticipate. Her closest advisors had worked with her on their strategy. The careful plotting, endless information gathering, debates and planning had been overthrown when her soldiers had been soundly defeated and outnumbered when the trap had finally been sprung and her enemies dashed out of the shadows into the light.

Where had all these fighters come from?

Seeing those organised warriors at the castle door was one thing and now looking at these disciplined soldiers dressed in mercenary gear arrayed against them before the dais of her own throne it all became clear.

These were not mercenaries or hirelings brought in to bolster the numbers for the fight. These were trained soldiers from a nearby kingdom! There must be a hundred of them there! This isn't a small number by any means. Someone must have wanted to interfere in the political situation in Liria desperately to commit so many of their people to a coup in another country!

Seeing the Andron ambassador standing beside Corrin as the filthy Mercenary Union lounged on Verita's throne she could easily guess who it had been.

"Great Queen Verita, how nice of you to join us" drawled Corrin, one leg dangling over the side of the throne, "we were just wondering when my coronation should be held. You wouldn't have any input on the matter would you?"

Verita disregarded the mercenary as beneath her notice and turned instead towards the ambassador Regix.

"Regix, so interesting to see you here. Incredible how quickly the kingdom of Andron has been able to adjust to the changing landscape here in Liria. One could be forgiven for thinking that you had known about all of this in advance" she said.

The ambassador smiled tightly and turned to Corrin, deferring to the Union leader.

Enjoying the display of her authority Corrin beamed at her former Queen.

"Don't be upset Verita. It turns out people other than me can notice how incompetent your reign has been. Our friends from across the border wanted to assist the people of Liria to have good governance, for once".

her eyes

about was money and power, let's

gestured towards the townsfolk nervously clutching their weapons behind their Queen, "I can't very well say to the public that I'll be rewarded with mountains of gold by Andron for destroying your rule and handing over the governance of our

campaign to liberate these lands

realised exactly why Andron would be prepared to go so far. They were afraid. Liria had risen so far and so quickly that their neighbour to the north feared they would be overshadowed and eventually absorbed. After all, it was Liria that was able to expand their territory by pushing south, Andron had nowhere to go. Rather than die a slow death, why

Queen of Andron she might have been tempted to secure the future of her people in

of the Leocor's. Liria was her kingdom and she'd be damned before she gave it over to these

herself to her full height and imperiously proclaimed, "Corrin, you will need to surrender yourself to me for judgement.

but Corrin was more unrestrained,

sitting on this throne right now! I've no idea how you got back inside the city but the only that did is

by the sadistic look in the others' eyes Queen Verita sincerely

the soldiers arrayed before her tensed and even Corrin's eyes widened in surprise. Without even turning Verita knew exactly

the monster. As soon as the weave was

these worms?] the

rudeness

me and

disinterest rolling off the creature in waves,

allied with a monster in order to regain your throne Verita? What would your precious Legion say if they were to find out of this? Or the church of the path for the matter? If word of this were to get out you'd be

you'll talking much when I separate your head from your

toward the

can win here the rebellion will fall apart and our pact will be finished monster. Those people all have to die and you will have your reward, are you able

was nervous as she asked. As far as monsters go this ant wasn't that large of powerful, but for some reason it managed to overcome impossible odds over and over again. The baffling magic that it was able to use continually surprised her, even filled her with trepidation. The blast that destroyed the gates was seared into her memory. No City wall, no matter how enchanted, would be able to withstand that