Starsky & Hutch Advent Calendar 2018

The companion story is The Iron Throne – King Haajensen which can be found here.

My name is Stavish. I am an ambassador of peace and a diplomat. I am also a warrior. Fluent in a dozen languages, I am able to converse in several others. I am attached to no specific land and no leader has ever been able to convince me to stay, once I feel my mission has been accomplished.

I learned everything I know at my father’s right hand and now, with his passing, I wander. Where I find strife, I attempt to mediate a settlement. When I find war, I study the politics of both sides, choose one, and lend my considerable talents to winning.

I had no inkling that my life was about to change when I mounted the steps and entered the hall for my first audience with King Haajensen. This is a small country surrounded and beset on all sides by imperial threats and martial forces. My investigation into the circumstances had determined that the royal I was about to meet is the most upstanding and trustworthy of the squabbling lot, and his goals admirable. As such, I decided I would do my best to help him prevail against his enemies, before moving on.

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Author’s Note: This story was inspired by the image Hutch on the Iron Throne, which was one of Day 17’s gifts on the 2017 Advent Calendar.

I’m indebted to Wightfaerie for coming up with the image, the suggestion for the second-story (The Iron Throne – Ambassador Stavish), and then for the betas. Many thanks to Flamingo, as well, for her editing.

My name is Haajensen, and in this summer of what my gods-worshiping advisors tell me is the last decade of the eighth century — how they know that is beyond me — I am a king. However, the territory over which I rule is small and menaced on all sides. I am alone and very tired after months of fighting off repeated incursions across our borders. With the efforts of my excellent knights and soldiers, I have been able to maintain a tenuous hold on my throne. There is a solid merchant class and loyal peasants under my protection; I have no reason to feel this hopelessness that threatens to overwhelm me.

Despair is an emotion I must conquer, especially today, since I have granted an audience with a new ambassador.

I dress without conscious thought or assistance. My squire, Axel, is as weary as I am and I won’t have him fussing over what I should wear. The meeting will undoubtedly be of no consequence and a waste of time, as all others have been. I dismissed the boy earlier so that he could take a bath, have his wounds tended properly, and eat a decent meal, possibly the first one he’s had since our return from the battlefield.

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