Trinn



Empress Adeline and the Princess of Alstion, dated 1717  

OF MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS



“Ma colombe, I do believe we are almost there,” A  melodious voice says grimly to another as the vessel they were upon continued to sway against the turbulent ocean’s mighty waves. “I do hope your dear siblings are well within Alba’s walls, non? Mon Dieu, what if their nurses have poisoned them!” The two figures of finely dressed women sat beneath the deck of a ship; a golden haired Auvergnian of vibrant countenance, alongside her somber-faced child that draped herself in lavish purple garments. 

“They wouldn’t dare, Mother, as your temper is fiery enough to lay the Horosid Family to ash.” Adeline Margaret utters, distractedly, as she peers out the small windows gifted within their sect.  “But I look forward to being home.”

“Bah! To mess with a mother is akin to messing with a dragon,” She comments flippantly, jerking her palm about in a dismissive display as she lowers herself beside Adeline — skirts succumbing to the seat with a heavy thud. “I will worry for our fair Oren, but I refuse to satisfy the new imperator that hath brought such shame to Godfrey’s name.”

Adeline settled her attention permanently upon the brewing storm upon the horizon despite her mother’s words, the silence drawing further forth her mother’s concern.



“It is a girl, Duchess!” Stated the raspy voice of a nurse, beaming. Immediately, a frown would settle upon Vivienne’s sweat-laden face as she surveyed the infant; her blue eyes shifted over the babe’s crinkled, grey ones along with the wisps of chestnut locks upon her head. 

“Alexandre will not wish for a girl, Madame — he wishes for more boys. He will not be content with me!” Vivienne exclaimed, cooling to a seated stance as she hands the child off to the rotund crone beside her. 

“The Prince does not understand the worth of a girl, then,” The decrepit woman uttered, seating herself beside the flaxen-haired Princess. “Raise her well, fair songbird, and prove him wrong.” 

The then Duchess of Furnestock glanced over to her daughter, who whined with the vehemence of the dragon that she was, with a newfound admiration. “Bring her here, nurse.” Upon having the infant settled within her arms, she smiled a broad smile — caressing her cherubic cheeks.

“I think I will call her Adeline.”



As the journey to Aeldin continued, so did the storm that set itself upon the course of the vessel. A clap of thunder came as often as the hurling waves, thrashing the wooden boat in fury. The wails of passengers and the screaming orders from the ship’s commander did nothing to aid the turbulence of it all. 

“Adeline, I will go talk to the captain to ask how it all fares, yes?” The auvergne woman questions her child gently, as she held the child’s head in her hands, “Stay here, Ma colombe. Stay here.” 

Adeline nodded her head dutifully, eyes wide as she looked desperately, still, out the storming window. “It is like the siege of Helena, the thunder and wails, and the banging upon the wall” She thought, and no small comfort came with her recollection. 



When she first laid eyes upon the streets of Helena, afterwards it's siege, Adeline’s heart clenched in disgust and guilt. She expected the horns of triumph to blow through the street, as Renatian Legionnaires stood tall within their gleaming suits of armour; the banners of Joseph Marna ripped and cast in shame. Instead, there were no banners and sigils to behold upon the field of battle  — the symbols of the proud nobility and royalties of either side were nothing more than bloodied fabrics upon corpses. The streets of Helena had brought a chill upon the girl, and a dreadful touch of death. 

“First we will deal with the wounded in the former halls of Parliament, there’s more than enough space there--” She utters to William Jrent, as she walked beside her mother hastily through the ruined Rubrummagnus and towards it’s entrance, “I want the gates closed and manned until we’ve both our citizens and soldiers treated.”

“Adeline, you can’t go to the city -- please.” Her mother held her arm tightly before she could make it through, though William raised a brow. “Ma colombe, the streets still run red and the corpses are yet to be removed.” 

Adeline hesitated, the young girl’s troubled countenance prevalent. Nonetheless, she shakes her mother’s grip off -- “I will see them, mother. If I command them to fight for my nation, I will see the consequence that is death.” 



“ADELINE!” Vivienne screamed as she hurled herself through the sinking vessel, back towards the chambers that she had left her daughter within. She was frantic, a madwoman desperate in her search, even as the water continued to leak within the boat. “ADELINE!”

“Mother--” The desperate plea came to her as she neared the chambers, yet the door was shut tightly. “Mother, it’s stuck-- mother, I’m stuck, please--” 

There was only a small gap upon the door that allowed Vivienne to see within the room, and the sight that she received shattered her heart. Her daughter desperately banging on the door, as the water had risen dramatically to her shoulders. The Auvergnian woman threw herself harshly against the wooden door, yet her frail form did little against it. “Adeline, we’ll get you out of there, don’t you worry, Ma Colombe.” The woman reassured, continuing her fruitless effort to force open the doors. 

Adeline’s voice trembled, weak and desperate, as the water crept to her chin. She coughed as the water splashed to her lips, her fingers desperately clawing at the door for support to stay afloat.

“Non, non! not without you. Never without you.” Vivienne assured, weeping as she laid her head upon the wooden door -- fists weakly banging upon it. The water on her side of the door had begun to creep up just as steadily, yet the woman held no care for it. “Please, please, Dieu--” 

“I don’t want to die, Mama, I don’t want to die.” Her daughter’s young voice, pleading as she stood desperately upon her tip toes, “Mama, please-- I want to see Papa.”

“Focus on me, ma colombe, focus on me.”

Her sobbing quieted as she begged to hear her daughter’s response, yet only a trickle of water answered her. The Princess of Alstion wept once more, her chest heaving with despair as her nails dragged upon the wooden door,  the woman collapsing into the ever rising pool of water. 

“Leave me here to die.” The mother wailed to the empty halls, consuming herself in her grief. Vivienne pounded on the wooden door, even as the water rose to her cheeks. “But let her live, God, let her live, I beg of you.” 

 Even a dragon's fire cannot overturn god's will



“Mama, where’s papa?” Beckoned a distressed girl, cooped within her chambers. As Vivienne brushed into the room, her eyes settled upon Adeline, whose face was shrouded with tears.

“What is wrong, ma colombe?” Inquired the woman, tutting softly as she lowered beside the Empress. “Come, you can tell your mere. You can always depend on me, ma colombe.”



REQUIESCET IN PACE

Adelina Margarita Alstion, Imperatrix Orenii

4th of Horen’s Calling, 1709 - 1725

Despite being born from a lineage of Emperors and Kings, Adeline Margaret was never expected to be anything more than a Princess to be married off and away. Nonetheless, such expectations were defied upon her coronation as, initially, the Empress of the Imperium Renatum, followed through with her crowning as the Holy Orenian Empress in a later date. Certainly, the young girl was married off with little consultation to herself; yet such titles had wrought upon her a great responsibility that defined the remainder of her life. Diplomacy, trials, the pleas of  propaganda —  heavy duties that weighed upon the minds of a child, whose Crown had engulfed her head just as it would her mind.  Thus, she had lead her childhood life as an Empress besieged and in War. 

REQUIESCET IN PACE

Viviana Alstion, Princeps Johannes

13th of Owyn’s Flame, 1692 - 1725

The only trueborn child to Francis d’Amaury, Margrave of Ardennes, Vivienne grew with a passion for life and the people around her; such never dwindled as she began to reach the final years of her prime. In her early adolescence, after awaiting merry news in Banardia’s courts, she was wed and made Princess of Alstion — a duty she greatly revered as she sired four children, the eldest being Adeline Margaret. Throughout her daughter’s tenure as Empress, the Auvergnian would often placate the girl, serving as a confidant; it wasn’t until her later years in which she took a more public role in Orenian affairs. 

Those acquainted with a younger Vivienne attest to her fondness for the pianoforte, spending her days in Carolustadt’s tavern alongside its denizens.

((Axelu n i wrote this together bc we die together. ride or die shih.))