Within the city of Graz, deep inside the belly of its Castle, was a young woman in the middle of her adolescent years. This girl was Adela von Graz the fiancée of the infamous Duke Berengar von Kufstein. While Berengar was beginning to introduce a series of legal reforms that would shock the European world, his fiancée was reading a letter written to her by her rival in love.
This rival was none other than Linde von Habsburg. With the arrival of Princess Honoria, Linde felt a significant threat to her position and thought it was necessary to inform Adela about the situation since Berengar had purposely neglected to ntion the appearance of a new potential rival.
This letter did not openly entail the secret that Linde suspected this young woman from the east to be the lost Princess of the East. Instead, it rely introduced her as a young maiden lying about her identity and trying to get close to Berengar.
However, as Adela read the contents, her expression began to sink. She was well aware of the relationship between Berengar and Linde at this point; after all, it was common knowledge. She had even co to terms with the idea of Berengar taking a lover on the side and had convinced herself that great n were capable of doing such a thing.
However, news of a foreign beauty from the east who was potentially lying about her identity while trying to capture Berengar's attention was sothing Adela did not take lightly. Judging by the contents of the letter, Adela figured there was more to the story.
If Linde was worried about this new arrival to the point where she would write a letter to Adela, it was a fairly serious situation. Adela lay down upon her bed as she read the contents of the letter with a pouting face. She instantly voiced her discontent with the situation.
"Berengar, you dummy!"
Adela had a quick wit, and she instantly looked closer at the letter; perhaps sothing that she missed would explain Linde's worry more adequately. After studying the letter, Adela found it was written in code; if she could write down the first letter of every third word, it ford an expression of its own.
She quickly began to decipher the content, and after writing it down on a separate piece of paper, two words stuck out like a sore thumb.
"Princess Honoria"
Adela was not too familiar with the royal court of the Byzantine Empire, and as such, was utterly unaware of who Princess Honoria was. Still, the fact that this young maiden from the east had the title of Princess could only an one thing. Adela's position as the primary wife was being threatened.
After all, if Berengar were to add a Princess to his collection of beautiful young won, then indeed it made sense for him to marry her instead, especially if she ca from a powerful kingdom. With this news, the young girl was beginning to nibble on her thumbs in anxiety.
After careful consideration, she realized that her fourteenth birthday was around the corner, and she would have to have a conversation with Berengar about this when he finally arrived. As such, she wrote a letter to Linde thanking her for informing her of these matters and requesting her presence at her birthday so the two of them could confront Berengar about this issue together.
After writing the letter, Adela heard a knock on her door. As such, she quickly walked over to the door and opened it, revealing the voluptuous figure of her eldest sister Ava, who by now had a worriso expression on her face.
Since Berengar's reconquest of Austria, Ava's husband Wolfgang had been deposed as count of Salzburg and replaced by his younger brother at Berengar's behest. Despite her and her husband's apologies for their actions while Berengar stayed in Graz, the man had gone through with his threat. He thoroughly removed Wolfgang from any position of authority, he did so while Conrad was still alive, and he was the Regent of Austria.
Since then, Wolfgang and Ava had permanently moved to Graz at the behest of the new Count of Salzburg; after all, the man could never forgive his older brother for forsaking their holand and fleeing Steiermark while Salzburg was embroiled in warfare.
Since then, Ava and her husband had beco humbled, and with Adela being the fiancée of the new Duke of Austria, Ava no longer found her for the daily conflict. Instead, she had begun to grovel at Adela's feet so that the young girl might convince her future husband to restore Wolfgang's position.
Thus after Adela saw Ava in her doorway, she began to sigh and shake her head as she asked Ava the question on her mind.
"What now, Ava? I am a little bit busy!"
Ava could tell that Adela was distressed, which was unusual for the little girl who was usually so full of life; as such, she instantly saw it as a way to curry favor with her younger sister. Thus Ava put on a worried fa?ade and returned Adela's question with one of her own.
"Little Adela, is everything alright? You look quite upset…."
Though Adela knew what gas Ava was playing, she honestly didn't care, as it would be nice to vent her frustrations to soone. As such, she opened the door all the way and allowed Ava into the room before she sat down on her bed and hugged her pillow.
"A Princess is visiting Berengar, and I am afraid he will try to marry her instead…."
Ava was quite shocked by this; when she had tried to seduce Berengar, he paid no attention to her natural charms. Thus she was also quite upset when she heard so other woman had begun to attempt to latch onto her little sister's beloved fiancé.
However, she hid her inner fury and tried to console Adela instead
"A princess, huh? What Princess? Do you know her na and what Kingdom she is from?"
Hearing this, Adela rely shook her head before responding to her sister as she stared at the floor.
"I have never heard of her before. Do you know who Princess Honoria is?"
Ava had to think about it for a few monts before a light sparkled in her eyes, and she rembered where she had heard the na.
"Where did you hear that Princess Honoria had visited Berengar? That should not be possible; as far as I know, there is only one Princess by that na, the Imperial Princess of the Byzantine Empire, supposedly she is quite the beauty.
However, she has been locked up in the palace her entire life and is restricted from interacting with outsiders. There is no possible way she has visited Kufstein to see Berengar, her father the Emperor wouldn't allow it!"
Hearing this, Adela's eyes lit up, and the dread she felt began to fade away; she might have been reading too much into the letter. Still, the odds of a hidden ssage like what she had found by pure coincidence were entirely non-existent.
As such, she decided to show Ava the letter, and after explaining to her how she found out about the Princess's na, a scowl ford on Ava's face as she tried to think through what this ant. Eventually, Ava ca to a conclusion and began to suggest what she thought the ssage conveyed to her little sister.
"In the actual letter, it appears as if this girl is going by the na Valeria Zonara, and she claims she is from Antioch. However, Linde suspects she is lying about her identity. The hidden ssage might be the guess she has about her identity.
I highly doubt that it is princess Honoria, unless, of course, she ran away from ho to visit Berengar, but that's impossible, right? I an, how would she even know who Berengar is? Let alone how could she get to Kufstein by herself? This has to be so form of mistake."
Adela nodded at Ava's comnt; it made sense. However, she also knew Linde's character well enough to know that she would never panic like this and send Adela an encrypted ssage with a suspected identity unless she was positive about her conclusion. Thus her sister's comnts did little to calm Adela's nerves, despite the sound logic.
After a few monts of thinking things through, Adela realized there was no point worrying about such a thing. She would have to confront Berengar when he arrived for her birthday. It was not far away, and she could wait patiently for an answer until then.
Seeing Adela cheer up, Ava began to ask her the question that was actually on her mind.
"Now that you are in a better mood, can you ask your fiancé to restore Wolfgang's position for !"
Hearing this, Adela rely rolled her eyes and began to push Ava out of her room.
"Get out of my room Ava!"
Despite Ava's protests, she eventually found herself on the other side of the door pouting. This was the thirteenth ti she had asked Adela today, and as per usual, she was rejected. She would have to find so other way to convince the girl to talk to her fiance about the issue at hand.
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