13 October 2022
8:06 pm
On a Thursday
Tagtaryeva, Yamantau
"And here it is!" Tobias said as he pulled one hand away from the other with his thumb tucked behind some fingers, making it look like he'd separate his thumb from his hand.
Alycia chuckled and rolled her eyes but Hael and Baldr both laughed happily at the sight.
"How pabbi?" Baldr asked as Hael looked on curiously.
"Magic! That's how!" Tobias laughed softly as he ruffled the hair of both his sons. It was a trick he remembered his own father doing, and he knew damn well he'd do it too if he ever had kids. God had blessed him with three.
"They'll be old enough soon that it won't impress them," Alycia teased but Tobias just chuckled.
"Then I need to make the most of the time I have. And by the time they're too old for it Hanna will be old enough to find it impressive!"
"What mamma?" Hael asked his mother as Aly held Hanna in her arms.
"Pabbi's magic trick," she said with a grin.
Tobias, content with impressing two two year olds, leaned back in his chair as the limousine made its way to the palace.
He adjusted the collar on his uniform. These things were always so tight, so formal.
It was, however, something he'd grown accustomed to. Especially after he'd spent the last year all over the world commemorating people who had served with distinction during the Civil War.
That was in and of itself relevant. He had met the previous leader of Yamantau, Volodymyr Svrtan. At his and Alycia's wedding actually. Tobias had known who he was. He didn't like him, reminding him of the Syndicalists who had nearly destroyed his own country. But he smiled and tried to be polite with the man, and not cause an incident at his own wedding.
Svrtan, however, spent the whole time looking scared of his own shadow and like he was a moment away from pissing himself. It wasn't until later that Tobias found out Svrtan was scared of
him.
Now he was here for the coronation of Sophija Anastasija Szubrov as Tzarina. Was that a sign that Yamantau, like Prydania, had put its troubles behind it? Maybe.
Some people said that his own coronation was a symbolic rebirth for Prydania. Others had disparaged the notion. He'd done all he could to make that idea a reality. And for that reason, he was excited to trust that Sophija could be what Yamantau needed.
Tobias glanced up at Stig, sitting at the far end of the limo and pulled Baldr over, bending over to whisper.
"Go say 'hi' to Uncle Stig, ok?"
The excitable two year old ran towards Stig hugging his leg as the Field Marshal shot him a look that was somewhere between "annoyed" and "a smile."
"Do you know know your pabbi's only doing this as payback because I made him cry putting him through his paces?" Stig asked with a chuckle.
"When?" Baldr asked looking back at his father confused, causing Alycia to laugh.
"A while ago," Tobias replied.
"Oh I'm sure you won't cry when it's time for your national service," Stig added, turning his attention back to Baldr.
"The Army can have him in sixteen years," Tobias said, before glancing out the window at the Yamantau countryside.
"I might have to keep on until then. Just for the pleasure of seeing it myself," Stig mused before ruffling Baldr's hair.
"Go on. Back to Pabbi. We're almost there."
Stig straightened out his own Royal Prydanian Army uniform as Baldr returned to his father, mother, brother, and sister.
"What is a cor...corn..." Hael began to ask before Alycia finished it for him."
"Coronation, sweetie. It's when someone is made King or Queen."
"Like you?" Hael asked his mother.
"Like me and Pabbi that's right."
"Did you have a corn...cornin..."
"We both did," Tobias answered.
"Before you were born."
"And now, you'll see Tzarina Sophija's!" Alycia said to her sons.
"Best behaviour, you two understand."
Baldr and Hael both nodded, knowing full well their mamma wasn't to be trifled with.
The limousine slowed down, and the sites of the palace in Tagtaryeva came into view. It was a routine everyone knew... a security-friendly procession.
"Interesting people, at these things," Alycia mused.
"There's always interesting people," Tobias replied.
"I'm mostly interested in the good people. My aunt Mélisende's going to be here."
Queen Mélisende of Saintonge wasn't relayed to Tobias by blood, but she was married to King Thibault II of Saintonge, Tobias' distant uncle.
And she was someone who, just a few years earlier, had given him some very helpful advice.
"And an Ephyran..." Alycia added. Tobias looked up. The Ephyrans were sending a delegation of course. But that wasn't who Alycia was referring to. She was referring to Carolus Ironhorse, Sophija's Lord Protector.
Ephyran were a common sight in Prydania's Austurland, where Tobias grew up. And they weren't unusual in eastern Norsia either, down the Auburn coast. Yamantau, however, was a different story.
"How much do you know about him?" Tobias asked.
"I know enough that he's not someone to mess with."
"And that means something coming from you," Tobias said to his wife, smiling as she chuckled softly. Soon though, the car came to a stop.
"Alright," Stig said, just before the door opened.
"This will be the only time I get to tell you this for this trip," he added looking at Tobias.
"Stay sharp, and proper."
Tobias laughed and nodded, saluting his uncle.
"Of course sir."
Stig sighed, but opted to let the misuse of the salute go. Knights of the Storm left the car ahead of them and came up to open their limousine. Stig left first, straightening his uniform out some before helping Baldr and Hael out, and corralling them off to the side.
Tobias emerged next, and reached in to help Alycia out as she held Hanna. Tobias gave his daughter a gentle pat on the cheek before he turned to face Lord Protector Ironhorse.
"Greetings," Tobias called out in Prydanian. He knew it was a language Ephyrans would be familiar with.
"Greetings Lord Protector, from the northern Crownlands."
He usually wasn't so boastful with his greetings, but this was an occasion that called for it.
"I'm honoured to be here, and hopefully share in the Tzarina's coronation. And a new beginning for Yamantau!"
