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The Butterfly Device - A Grand Campagin

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AH-HA, I knew it! Well, I actually said it was too obvious, but hey, at least I mentioned it. :cool: Apparently the Byzantine and Guines-ian courts aren't that different, after all. :D And now, for a series of melodramatic questions:

Will Osbern's guards finally realize that a ten-year-old girl with several knives has slipped past their watch? Will Matilda brutally murder the young Count? WILL SHE KILL THEM ALL?

~Waits for next update to answer aforesaid questions.~

EDIT: ~Looks at post below.~ I am either hallucinating (a possibility, given the time) or you have edited Matilda's uber-stats away. :D
 
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Hehe...yep, had to mislead just a little, because it was becoming too obvious. In my head, it was going to be too obvious that it was Annelies...but most seemed to assume it was going to be Matilda, so I had to mislead that it might be the "reportedly short" stranger mentioned twice so far (without actually being seen.) In my defense, as a ten year old girl, Matilda is (reportedly or otherwise) quite short. :D

But I'm not sure whether all of these questions will be answered in the next update. I'm planning a flashback to show how Matilda got this way...trying to decide whether now's the time to post it.
 
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Okay...decided to wait on the flashback until the final climax of this whole storyline. (Nope! Not there yet!)

And so we continue with the next episode of...


The Butterfly Device​
 
Interesting, highly interesting. People are getting murdered... by a 10-year-old girl. Mostly odd, now that I think about it. :p

In short, we need another update. ;)
 
...When Things Have Gotten About As Bad As They Can Possibly Get​

Summer, 1082 - Northern France

The rain fell onto Osbern's face as he looked up at his killer. Matilda le Blount...his ten-year-old cousin.

"Matilda! What are you..."

The knife pressed deeper into his throat, piercing the skin. He felt the trickle of blood mixing with water. Matilda's face was wet...from the rain, certainly...but were there also tears?

"Matilda, I don't..."

Lightning flashed above them...one bolt, then a second...but it was nothing compared to the lightning in Matilda's eyes. This was it then. She was truly going to kill him. This wasn't like the games Matilda used to insist they played when they were just children...Matilda was still a little girl, but she wasn't playing a game.

Osbern struggled to free himself from her pin, but the knife just dug deeper. It was officially life or death.

Osbern wanted life.

Like a horse throwing his rider, Osbern bucked his body with all of his force, thrusting from the hips to knock Matilda off balance, then with his legs...inadvertantly launching Matilda all the way over the balcony.

Now bleeding from both the throat and his ear, he leapt over the side of the balcony after her. If she was intent on killing him, then there was only one thing to be done.

He had to kill her first.

Lightning struck a tree in the courtyard, splitting it in half and illuminating the night as Osbern landed in a crouch, looking for where Matilda had landed...but she was gone. Had she crawled back in through a window? Fallen all the way to the courtyard? Maybe she had...

...she was behind him. She made her presence known by slipping a metallic garrotte around his bleeding neck.

"Abdicate the throne," she whispered.

He dared not reply, rather than risk accidental strangulation.

"Abdicate the throne, you murderer!" she repeated.

Murderer? He had never killed anyone in his...

Osbern threw himself backwards, loosening the garrotte as he landed on Matilda. But Osbern realized his plan had back-fired when they both began to slide on the slick, tilted roof. Matilda managed to dig her fingernails into the gap between stones, stopping her descent and eventually regaining her footing...but Osbern slid right off the edge.

He landed, hard, on his side. He had only fallen six feet...but there was nowhere left to go. The next drop down would kill him...there were no windows on this edge. The only way to safety was to go back up...but Matilda stood there with another dagger, ready to throw it at his other ear. The lightning continued to flash above her head, which wasn't exactly making her less menacing.

"Matilda! I've never killed anyone in my life! I swear it!"

"LIAR! YOU KILLED THEM! YOU KILLED THEM ALL!"

"Killed..."

Osbern ducked as the knife flew by his head...so close, he could hear it out of his one good ear.

"Killed who? Who did I kill?"

"MY FATHER!"

"Matilda...I swear it...I didn't kill your father! You were there! He choked to death. You saw it with your own eyes, Matilda!"

Another dagger whizzed by. Where was she getting all of these knives?

"Lie to me again, Osbern! Tell me again that you didn't personally poison my father! You were scared he would take the throne from you! But you didn't know someone saw you in the kitchen! Someone SAW you poison him, Osbern. You killed them all, didn't you? You killed them so you could be Count!"

Lightning again...but this time it wasn't just atmosphere. The bolt struck a wooden palisade, which crumbled, causing the burning timber to land all around Osbern's small platform. This was it, then. Even if Matilda did run out of knives, he would burn to death.

There was only one way out.

Osbern jumped onto one burning log, then another, trying to outrun the flames, until he was as high as he was able to get...and then launched himself at Matilda's ledge.

But he wasn't high enough.

His body swung from the ledge, as his fingers desperately tried to gain a hold. Below him, the fire was burning out of control. Above, Matilda had lowered herself to her stomach and now was just inches from his head, holding her last dagger. She reached above her head, prepared to strike.

"Matilda, please! Look...I understand. I know what it's like to lose someone you love. I lost my father too. I've lost three uncles. I lost my baby brother, Matilda! I know you need someone to blame. Someone to punish. I have this nightmare all the time that there's some woman out there, making everyone I love die. But there isn't anyone, Matilda. That's...that's just life. Bad things happen. I know. But you can't let it destroy you!"

"I..."

It suddenly struck Osbern that Matilda was so alone in the world...orphaned at the age of six, her only childhood friend abandoned her to become count. She looked so lonely...so wet...so...

With the last of his strength, Count Osbern de Guines pulled himself up by the ledge...and softly kissed Matilda's lips.






And then he fell.





At that precise moment, another bolt struck the base of the watch tower...toppling it over...

And crushing the Castle of Guines beneath it.
 
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Oh my. Is there anyone in that bloody county that still have their wits about? If they are not crazy to start with, they go crazy, or psychopathic, or to Jerusalem, and in the end they all just die.

...although it sure will be interesting to see who will be the count now. Can't be many heirs left.
 
Hehe...I actually created a "family tree" to this effect, showing that really every single character that's even been mentioned so far is either dead, missing, or presumed dead given that the castle just collapsed on their sleeping heads.

Unfortunately, photobucket is blocked on government computers.

But fear not, dear reader, for the story shall continue!

As a side note when it comes to the family tree, I've taken some liberties between the game's family tree and the story's. For example, Baldwin actually had two sisters (in addition to his two brothers), in fact, one lived into her 70's...but they were both boring, so I never mention them.

I also completely transposed the characters of William and Reinel de Guines. In the game, it was Reinel who was the banished marshal, and William who was the second Count of Guines, married to Ellijnore, who died in the Crusade. I accidently mixed them up in the very first mention of Reinel, and decided to just embrace it. ;c)

Matilda's side of the family is even more "faked." In the story, Reinel is married to Ellijnore le Blount, Ellijnore has a brother Robert, Robert is Matilda's father.

In the game, it is William who is married to Ellijnore...but she's not a le Blount, and has no brothers.

However...Baldwin, Reinel, and William have two uncles: Robert and William. For reasons I don't understand, despite being part of the same dynasty (and having the little "blood" marker), Uncle Robert and William have the last name "le Blount."

Further, it is Uncle William who is Matilda's father. But I figured two Williams would be too confusing, so I merged the characters of Uncle William and Uncle Robert into just "Robert."

But...in the game...Matilda is actually the cousin of Baldwin, Reinel, and William. When I began writing Matilda in the Royal Funeral scene, it was difficult for be to portray her wide-eyed admiration of Annelies if they were cousins...so I made the merged-Uncle Robert into a made-up Brother-in-law Robert, thereby making all of the adults Matilda's aunts and uncles instead.

Of course, this had the effect of changing Matilda's relationship with Osbern from being cousins, once removed...to becoming first cousins.


Ewwwww.


Osbern kissed his first cousin!


:D
 
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the best chapter so far. Everyone dead or missing! At this pace, you can say your AAR goodbye before it has even started in earnest! ;) I think it's time for some missing family members to return somehow.
 
Wow...quite the first kiss! :p

Glad to see you used the balcony motif! :cool: I also enjoyed the descriptions of the 'battle' outside...very cinematic. One small issue, what exactly do you mean by the watch-tower crushing the whole castle? I don't quite see the physics behind it. Perhaps it is just a figure of speech?

Anyway,
Eagerly looking forward to how the story will continue...what with all the characters so afraid of the authaar that they keep killing themselves off.

"SHE"LL KILL THEM ALL!"

Or maybe perhaps 'she' is the authAAR? :eek:

TheExecuter
 
Ha, interesting theory, but I am a "he." ;c)

Glad you liked the kiss and the battle...almost since the beginning, I've been heading full speed to where I would finally get to write out the scene (although the details...including the destruction of the castle...were last minute.)

I'll explain the crushing of the castle in the very next update...but before I do, I ask that everyone understand that my expertise is not physics, nor architecture, nor history itself.



I was a theater major. As long as I could act like a tree, I got an A.

:D
 
That's one good chapter! Although you already told me, at least, that Matilda survives (so THAT'S why you edited her stats away! :D) , so there's at least a Countess of Guines. Anyway, poor Osbern. Loses an ear and a life in the same night! ;)
 
Don't You Discriminate At All?​


Summer, 1082 - Northern France


Royal Funerals were dreadful affairs.


This was clear even to Matilda le Blount, who had sobbed through the entire affair from her seat near the front with the remaining few survivors of the Royal Family after the terrible collapse of Castle Guines. Aunt Annie sat to her right, and placed her hand over the young girl's as a show of strength and support. Annie had a gash running from one eyebrow, where a falling stone had struck her. To Matilda's left was her brother, Geoffrey, who now favored his left arm...and to his left, their sister Geva, who had to be carried, as her legs had not yet healed. Robert, Osbern's young brother, sat directly in front of her, slowly clenching and unclenching a fist, for rage was the only emotion he felt comfortable expressing.


Bishop Humphrey's eulogy had nearly ended. The sermon was especially bleak, even for a funeral. He spoke of the terrible storm that had destroyed not just the castle, but also the town and many farms. The storm, he said, was like one that had never been seen here before. He spoke of the political strife that was causing both France and Germany to splinter to the point that the most powerful Kingdoms in the world were near collapse. In short, he spoke of the end of the world.

And then he introduced the next eulogizer...a eulogizer who needed no introduction.

A rise from the chair, a drying of eyes, and then the speaker began.

"We didn't always get along...but I always knew your love. And you, mine...I hope. From even the earliest tragedy in what seems an endless row, you always chose support over panic, strength over fear...right, over wrong. You knew much tragedy in your short life, tragedy I pray no one in this room today should ever have to know...but through it all, you were my guiding light."

"That your light was extinguished in the same terrible storm that nearly extinguished the entire county...it is a sign. A sign to return to God's will. A sign to return to Jerusalem, and see His will be done. For only then...only then will he allow light again to dawn in this county that you loved so much. Only then will he allow your light to shine again over those of us who need it most."


The speaker tried to continue, but his voice cracked with emotion. He placed his hand over the casket.



"I loved you, Mom. Rest in peace."




And with that, Count Osbern de Guines...missing an ear, but otherwise very much alive...returned to his seat.
 
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Hehe.

Okay...here's the breakdown, of characters seen in the story so far, and the best guess as to their current status.

De Guines​

Baldwin - Locked away in a cell nearly ten years ago. Probably dead.

Annelies (wife of Baldwin) - Alive

William (brother of Baldwin) - Banished nearly twenty years ago, never heard from again. Probably dead.

Reinel (brother of Baldwin)- Killed in the First Crusade. Definitely dead.

Osbern (son of Reinel) - Alive, but missing an ear.

Robert (son of Reinel) - Alive

Ambroos (son of Reinel) - Died in infancy, cause not yet revealed

Le Blount​

Ellijnore (wife of Reinel) - Died when castle collapsed

Robert (brother of Ellijnore) - Choked to death, allegedly poisoned

Unknown (wife of Robert) - Definently dead, though circumstances not yet revealed

Matilda (daughter of Robert) - Alive

Geoffrey (son of Robert) - Alive

Geva (daughter of Robert) - Alive

Other​

Bishop Humphrey - Alive

Juvenal Quentis - Disappeared on boat at sea, probably fell overboard, presumed dead

Reportedly Quite Tall Man - Mentioned in both France and Jerusalem...but actual existance is in question.

Reportedly Quite Short Man (at least, in comparison to reportedly Quite Tall Man) - Mentioned in both France and Jerusalem...but actual existance is in question.

Time-Travelling Butterfly - Missing in action.


Think that about sums it up!

Incidentally, the collapse of the castle did have a much higher death count, but the only character you'd been introduced to so far was Ellijnore.
 
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Great story. I love it. :)
 
Oh. Osbern is alive? It will sure be awkward when the court sits down to have dinner the next time. :p
 
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