Cold Curtain Series

Glyndŵr Rises: Prologue

"Be to her, Persephone,
All the things I might not be:
Take her head upon your knee.
She that was so proud and wild,
Flippant, arrogant, and free,
She that had no need of me,
Is a little lonely child
Lost in Hell,—Persephone,
Take her head upon your knee:
Say to her, 'My dear, my dear,
It is not so dreadful here.'"

—Edna St. Vincent Millay, Prayer to Persephone

"What royal families are very good at doing is surviving and reinventing themselves."—Robert Lacey

Back when monarchies were common, nobody thought anything of members of different royal families marrying—it was normal and suggested for political safety. By the 22nd century, the remaining monarchs mostly existed because they Always Have and, generally, parliaments ran the countries. The monarchs could marry whoever they wanted for whatever reason.

A French aristocrat, Louis, reverted France to a monarchy and also fell in love with the heir to the British throne, Victoria, who also fell in love with him. Marrying would mean France and the United Kingdom became one kingdom. Neither citizens particularly wanted that, they said so loudly, and Victoria gave up her right to the throne. Some members of the Estates-General convinced her and Louis that he had a right to the throne, and for years, France tried to conquer the entire United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Neither side knew exactly how to deal with it because it was such an out-of-date quibble, common to the Middle Ages and not heard of since the 1800s. It made for awesome history, but not so awesome life.

Some members of the Estates-General and aristocracy convinced Louis some dubious ideas were great and the people would love it: gather up all the children from ages 5-16 and let them grow up free-range in massive orphanages, keep track of who is French and who is Norman or a Colonist with armbands, execute rebels without a trial, raise taxes, draft sixteen-year-old boys and girls, claim the old colonies and territories back for France, et cetera. If the French Revolutionaries or U.S.S.R. used it, likely somebody suggested it to Louis. The United Kingdom of France and Normandy also had very high taxes to fund the war.

The war was mostly cold with occasional hot spells. Things got more complicated when most of the English royal family died or stopped calling themselves royals and, at least in one branch, retired to Italy to make wine instead of war. Other people, sometimes just annoyed with the situation or descended from Medieval royalty, tried to stop the French, but normally whoever in the military found them first executed them. Nobody in their right minds would try to rebel.

Lieutenant Charles Morgan, nineteen years old, definitely knew that and he stuck to it. He and everybody born from c. 2125-2133 grew up in the awkward generation, where they vaguely remembered the British Isles before it became Normandy, but spent most of their lives growing up in the Asylum, a few years serving the country, and then the rest of their lives doing what the country decided they could, until the real-live-dead-glowing people stepped in.