Plans within Plans within Plans

Croix Keep, three towns and six hamlets had been taken by the Dragon's men within the first two days. It took order, organization, speed, and training. The Dragon, with his adjutants, loyalmen, and acolytes had seen to all the arrangements. Indeed, Lucien Caldecott, the favored advisor to the Lord of the Keep had been bought many years earlier. He had been a spy, an infiltrator with no one suspecting a thing. The Dragon did not care that his plan would take years to accomplish, even the plans of mere men took that long. The Dragon didn't care because he had time, all the time in the world. But when he had captured Astra, well, a new opportunity had arisen; and when he had lost her to Lord Fred and then regained her, he knew not to look a gift horse in the mouth twice!

He would damn her, curse her, indeed have her choose the magic that would then afflict her. It was she who chose to walk through the door of the wolf's paw. But when she chose the Dragon knew how he would use her, how he would abuse her... and her people. He would send her to Croix, have his men attack and take charge, just in time for the full moon and the blood lust. She would change and kill and maim and make others to be just like her: damned. The people would realize that the Dragon had taken the land, and the Dragon's pretenders would make sure that the Allarians would learn also that an Aquilarian was part of the attack. A great rift would be sown into the fabric of the two kingdoms and division would only aid the Dragon. Astra was to have been killed in that place at that time, but life (and death) don't always go according to plan.

The Dragon needed Lord Croix as part of all this, and so came the triumvirate. They would use their skills and their power to make the world see and hear them as the Lord. Though an actual transformation was unheard of (the blood-curse was one thing, but changing the face and body of a man to look like another man was quite different), the three would use their combined powers to form a mask about Lucien, to form the appearance of the Lord. And as Lucien knew the man's mannersims, knew his way, he would then use that knowledge to make the world believe that he was the Lord and that the Lord had escaped and that the Aquilarians were behind this foul deed.

But Lucien was dead. The triumvirate cut by a third. The plan was slashed with the well-aimed throw of an Aquilarian claymore. Since that night many changes had been made to the plan for not only had Lucien been killed, not only had the Aquilarian not remained within Croix for her change, but the Lord's daughter had escaped their grasp as well. Soldiers were sent out but to no avail, a price was put on the girl's head but with no success. Victor and Jasper were not happy campers to say the least. They sent messengers back to the Shreken, and messengers to the independent fiefdoms to the east (those that were known to be in allegiance with the Dragon). These messengers were both men on steeds and trained crows that flew upon the skies. But Jasper and Victor knew that it would take time to hear from their Master. They knew that his magic was strong and that at times he could reach out from his cave and speak as if a god in the heavens, but they also knew that when he expended a great deal of magic, it took some time for him to rest. They knew that he was resting right then and there. No all- seeing eye could help them, no invisible voice come to their aid. They were on their own for the next number of days or weeks.

They decided to follow the plan as much as possible. They took the noble family from Croix and hid them away to the northwestern town of Coachela. Of course, the people of this town had no idea that the men who came proclaiming to be the Lord and his men were in actuality the Dragon's men in disguise. A defensive force was left in the Keep and the other towns and villages. Their orders were to defend themselves to the death, and they would. Coachela was then cut off by the Dragon's gains and so continued their plan. If, in the future, the King and his men would ask, 'why did you not send us word of this attack? why did you not send for reinforcements?' they would be able to say: 'I was cut off by the enemy and caged within my own lands.' Of course, it was to be the Pretender Lucien who was to say this in the visage of Lord Croix. For the now, Victor and Jasper were awaiting a new mage from the Dragon, the one who was to make up what they lacked. As long as he came before the arrival of the Kingsmen, the plan could still well survive. And once the Kingsmen retook the lands of Croix (as was part of the plan), the Pretender would infiltrate the Royal Circle of Caemlyn. That was the goal, that was the whole reason for this attack upon the lands of Croix. And with well-aimed words and hints and allegations and 'proofs' not only would Allaria become embroiled in a war with Aquilaria, but the whole world would become embroiled, a whole world at war! And the Dragon smiling within his cave, smiling while men killed men. And when it came to an end, it would be the Dragon who would rebuild the world in his image!

Of course, with the resurfacing of the Four Winds, the reemergance of the Finder, the curing of Astra and the damning of Andrea... the plan was still in a flux of utter change. But as for Jasper and Victor and their loyal men within Coachela, they only knew their part within this greater plan, and they were doing everything in their power to make it come to pass. They were doing everything to make the people in Coachela feel imbued with the power of 'Lord Croix' and yet surrounded by the forces of the enemy. When any of the Elders asked to see the Lord they were denied, but Jasper had the knack of mimicking voices and so the Elders were appeased by hearing the Lord's voice from behind a door or beyond a window. The real Lord was kept safely within the lower chambers of the strongest building of the town. No one in Coachela even suspected what the truth of the matter really was.

1. Back to Collins...
2. Back to Suffex...
3. Back to the Royal Province...

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