Tyranny of Steel

Gisela immediately felt her heart shatter as she heard Berengar's dire words. She immediately knew what the young man intended to do and was beside herself with the information. Berengar intended to endure Lambert's attempts on his life until he came to power so that he may spare his father the guilt of sentencing his own son to death for the crimes he had committed. She knew Lambert was guilty of heinous crimes, but she could not bear to see him executed as a common criminal. As such, she pleaded with Berengar to spare his brother's life.

"Berengar... please... He's your brother!"

Berengar shook his head as he rejected his wounded mother's pleas of mercy.

"If I allow him to live, he will only make more attempts on my life. He has powerful allies, and they will continue in their efforts to put him on the seat of power in Kufstein. As long as he lives, I am not safe in this world."

Luckily for Lambert, his mother was quite insistent and had quickly grabbed ahold of her senses and came up with an alternative option that would allow Lambert to continue living while giving up his claims to the land and thus preventing his allies from conspiring against Berengar. She stared at Berengar with a level of determination that Berengar had never seen from the woman before.

"We will show this information your father, and he will force Lambert to take up the vows of the Teutonic Order. He will spend the rest of his life in a righteous crusade redeeming himself!"

Berengar wanted to reject this notion, as he knew this could potentially allow Lambert to return to Kufstein with an army of hardened warriors at his back. However, when he saw the desperate look in his mother's eyes, he could not help but give in. Afterall he still had a great degree of guilt he held from dying in his previous life without gifting his parents with any grandchildren, he could not imagine the grief they had suffered from their only child's death. He did not want his parents in this life to suffer the same way. Eventually, he sighed heavily and hugged his mother tightly.

"Fine, we will do it your way..."

The light of hope returned to Gisela's eyes as she accepted her son's loving squeeze. After a few moments, Berengar let go of his doting mother and picked up the evidence. He would not wait any longer, now that he had changed his plans, the quicker Lambert was expelled from the family, the safer he was. As such, he gathered his witnesses, including Linde. Though It took a few hours for Arnulf and Ingbert to arrive at the Castle in Kufstein; as such, Berengar spent the time with his mother, trying to ease her anxiety.

After the men had arrived, he marched into his father's study with his witnesses and evidence in hand and slammed them down upon the Baron's table, who was busy going over various reports. The old Baron looked up at his son with a confused expression and asked.

"What is this?"

Berengar did not beat around the bush; he quickly and efficiently explained his case against Lambert while his father looked over the materials.

"Over the past few months, I have been compiling evidence against Lambert and his treasonous activities. On three separate occasions, he had made attempts on my life, two of which nearly succeeded. He has been aided by the Count of Tyrol and other nobles within this domain. Ingbert was once one of his allies and can bear witness to such deeds. Linde, the eldest daughter of Count Lothar, can also bear witness to her father's schemes with Lambert to eliminate me, establish Lambert as the future Baron, and concede our family's vast resources to the Count of Tyrol! As for the death of the late Marshal, Arnulf here has suspicions that his father found out about Lambert's misdeeds and was permanently silenced by him and his allies!"

Sieghard was in shock when he saw such information, but the evidence did not lie; eventually after processing this information for several minutes Sieghard came to the conclusion that Lambert was guilty, even his own fiancee had turned against him and her father. The only problem is that he could not understand why. As such, he had to clarify with the young woman why she would betray her own family for Berengar's sake. The old Baron glared at Linde furiously as he suspected her of scheming against him and his family; there was a large possibility that this was all the plan of Lothar, or so he thought until he asked her for the reasons behind her actions and heard her reply.

"What do you stand to gain from betraying your father and fiancee?"

The young woman instantly blushed as Berengar's father cornered her; she gazed at Berengar for confirmation that she was allowed to speak before exhaling deeply and revealing the contents of her heart.

"I gain the security of my lover and the father of my child. Your son and heir Berengar..."

Sieghard seemed to be the only one shocked by this news, as everyone else within the room was already aware of her relationship with Berengar and the true nature of her child's parentage. This instantly made the old Baron furious as he began to yell at Linde with all his fury.

"You slept with both of my sons!?!"

Linde quickly defended herself as she shook her head and explained her situation.

"No! I have only ever been with Berengar; the night of his engagement ceremony, he instructed me to frame Lambert as the father to avoid suspicions; I was already pregnant at that point! I merely doused some goat blood on Lambert's bedding and laid down next to him. When he awoke from his drunken stupor I told him that we had slept together, but nothing occurred between the two of us. I swear on my life!"

Sieghard felt himself getting a headache as he heard all of this information; his two sons were scheming against one another behind his back all of this time. One had attempted to murder his older brother and usurp the inheritance, and the other had cuckolded his younger brother and impregnated his fiancee. At least, as far as Sieghard was concerned, Berengar's actions were far more forgivable considering what the boy had suffered at the hands of Lambert. Eventually, he looked at his loving wife for an explanation on how to deal with this awkward situation that had been forced upon him.

"What do I do with all of this information?"

Gisela spoke to her husband with a grave tone as she commanded him on how to deal with their errant children.

"Order Lambert to relinquish his claims to this land and to take up the vows of the Teutonic Order where he may redeem himself in the eyes of men and God through righteous crusade! As for Berengar's actions... conceal it!"

After much deliberation, Sieghard sighed deeply as he gave his decree

"Bring the boy to me..."