Guiding the Powerful Yet Incompetent, Tuesday, Second Period

[tellmehowstuffworks]

This week, instead of meeting with the king, the students would find themselves in a lavish bedchamber, where a woman in an ornate dressing gown sat in the bed, reclining against pillows and cradling an infant.

"Last week," Yennefer reminded her students, "you decided to stage a coup, removing the king from power and installing his eldest daughter on the throne, with the queen or, if she is unwilling to rule, an alternate to be determined as regent until the princess comes of age." Yennefer paused, then told them, "I'm so very proud of you all.

"You have an uphill climb ahead of you. This kingdom does not currently allow women to rule at all, so some of the nobility may resist and put themselves forward as alternate monarchs. You of course have to remove the king, but a simple hunting accident can take care of that. You have to prepare the princess to rule, and protect her during turbulent times. You have to not end up chased through the forest by an assassin with knives and a krallach." You know. Purely hypothetically. "But before all of that, you have to convince...the queen."

Yennefer turned to the woman on the bed, who declared, "I would never betray my husband so!"

Comments

Re: Convince the Queen

[gospel_of_oblivion]

"He's already got an eye on one of your ladies, and he's most likely already hired the assassin," Illyana said bluntly. "Lana had to try and talk him out of having you killed at a banquet and pinning it on Nilfgaard."

Re: Convince the Queen

[tellmehowstuffworks]

"Why would you say such things? He would never!"

A pause.

"...which lady?"

Re: Convince the Queen

[gospel_of_oblivion]

"I think you already know which one, you just don't want to admit it to yourself," Illyana replied. The queen was naïve, not stupid.

Then inspiration struck, and Illyana leaned in. "If...Melitele," that was right, wasn't it? She was pretty sure that's what Yennefer had said. "--wanted him to have a son, he would have a son already. You have been given daughters for a reason. Protect them. Because after you fall, they will be next on the assassin's list to make way for his children with the newest queen."