Noblesse oblige

Part 33

Epilogue

7 months later

Astrid looked out of the large bay windows that one of the corridors in the palace offered. Below her, she could see the front courtyard and the gilded carriage and procession that awaited her. So many things had changed in the last five months.

For one, Lars' armada never made its assault on Berk. Valka and Gobber along with the Berkian fleet had been able to intercept them in the Inner ocean, much to their surprise. The casualties were kept at a minimum as well and as the citizens of Berk returned from their evacuation they got to see their Queen drag Lars by the scruff all the way to the palace. The surviving soldiers and sailors from Lars' fleet were kept in the brigs of the Berkian armada or near the harbor in warehouses turned prisons until it was decided on what to do with them.

Duke Jorgenson was also apprehended after his rather prickly fall in the rose bushes and placed in the dungeon along with his co-conspirators that Marchioness Stormheart and Captain Heather had arrested. Spitelout and Lars' cells were directly opposite to each other and the guards reported that they had been yelling and insulting each other for several days in the beginning. The insults varied but seemed to be very creative.

Dagur, as expected, had a near coronary at seeing his flattened rose bushes. The shrill shriek of "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY MINIATURE ROSES YOU DEVIL WOMAN!" caused even Stoick to wince. The gardener certainly didn't appreciate Spitelout landing on his prized roses. Dagur was still salty about his maze hedge as well so the glares Astrid received that week alone could have melted armor.

Furthermore, the Southern Isles had been effectively without a ruler as Queen Mariabelle had been granted asylum in Berk and Lars had disposed of his siblings quite successfully. Astrid had heard that the 8th Prince had been the longest to survive but he too eventually succumbed to the poison he had been fed. To say that Mariabelle had been depressed the last few months was an understatement. She had wept for both her children and her step-children. The large Royal family had been wiped out by the ambitions of just one and the Kingdom had been in disarray. A civil war threatened to break out as distant family members sprang out of the woodwork to try and claim the title of King. Stoick had stepped in then, producing the charges the previous King had incurred in his court along with those of the late Princess to effectively annex the territory under Berkian rule.

The many nobles had protested but in the end the charges stayed and they had to abide by the treaties set within the Archipelago centuries ago. The King also made an effort to placate the people of the Southern Isles by returning their sons to them that had been held as prisoners of war. The really surprising part in all of this was the former Queen herself. Mariabelle petitioned Stoick for the position of governor of the annexed territory, stating that it would be better for the people of the Southern Isles to have one of their own to advocate for their rights as the integration process continued. She returned shortly after, which was three months ago, along with Sir Throk to their home.

With the capture and sentencing of several prominent members of Nobility that co-conspired with Duke Jorgenson a power imbalance was created within the Kingdom. It took another month of investigating the heirs to those titles to see if they had any ties to the failed coup before they could claim their family's mantle. Only two territories were fully seized when it came to light that the heirs also had been in on the plot.

The trials for Spitelout and Lars were held separately within the same week and were last on the docket. Lars was convicted on several counts of murder, regicide, treason and several other crimes the court officers later uncovered. He was stripped of his title as prince and given a life sentence that would be carried out in the coal mines of the Southern Isles.