The Dukes of Fernau, for now.

[traminer]

Next-day thoughts:
My delay in getting this chapter out was less about the awkwardness of juggling the second-person perspective with actual plot points, and more about a busy couple of weeks in the personal life (nothing bad, don’t worry!).

After quite spontaneously choosing second person for the previous Kristina chapter, I simply had to return to it when returning to her. I knew for a while I wanted to throw her into the famous siege, so her preceding chapter landed her in the right place, waiting for history to catch up. Why? This timeline enjoys amplifying certain religious moments. The increased tolerance in Courland before occupation isn’t a template for all Europe in this timeline. Jasna Gora was a critical moment in bolstering Poland’s Catholic identity. It remains so here, with Kristina added as a wildcard and mascot. Probably emphasis on “wild”, as she's not the most controllable symbol . But symbols are never perfectly convenient.

In general, the war is following mostly the same template as it had OTL, with Courland & Semigallia and Lithuania & Ruthenia as the key differences. Mostly because inventing less of the European history allows me to keep the focus on the main story, while still playing with key moments along the way that fit thematically.

- - -

I can't anticipate my rhythms for the next couple weeks, but when next I write, coming chapters probably should show Libau, acknowledge Hungary, go wherever that Swedish army going to Brandenburg ends up, and then head back to the colonies with some things settled and some things left messy.

 

[Talus I of Dixie]

And they came up the hill. The first time, it looked like practice. The second time, it looked like they'd learned from that practice. The third time, it looked like commitment. Oh, cousin, is this the way you dream of taking me now, as you did when I was queen?

They climbed the hill, they attacked the walls. They did not retreat back down. The first day, you waved your Vasa banner and told them God knew what houses were and were not worthy of ruling Poland. The fifth day, you lost your voice entirely, screaming about Swedish inadequacies great and small. (Maria, preparing tea with what herbs she could find, mused that God had taken your voice to ask you to choose your words more carefully.)

When your voice returned, you climbed the walls again. This time, not with a Vasa banner, nor any Polish one. This time, you berated the Swedish army with the monastery's holiest of relics in hand.

"God does not choose Lutherans to rule Poland, my countrymen. The Virgin Mary was conceived immaculate, and as a fellow Virgin I stand with her to tell you now: you shall no more take the walls of Jasna Gora than any man ever took the Virgin Mary. And no man will take these walls unless he is worthy of taking me, Kristina Vasa of Sweden."

It had sounded cool in your days of silence while your voice recovered, in imagined conversations with Mary.

It sounded abhorrent to the monastery folk.

It sounded exactly right to the other defenders holed up in Jasna Gora.

Two weeks later, the Swedish army had decamped entirely, heading northwest toward Brandenburg. Two weeks after that came a message to the pope, praising those who had defended Jasna Gora, keeping their faith with the Black and White Madonnas.

No words.

 

[traminer]

No words.

Heh. When I told my girlfriend I had two other possible timelines in my mind that I might have an interest in writing, the notion of a "Kristina Vasa's choices always play out in her favour" timeline, completely indifferent to implausibility, was the one she thought I should tackle next. Instead, I'm allowing Kristina a chance at having half her fantasies play out in her favour on the margins of this timeline, though while still serving her proportionate disappointments. I've written myself into a corner where I pretty much have to bring her back now.