Tyranny of Steel

While Berengar was off in the New World overseeing a diplomatic mission with the Mohawk Tribe, and while Honoria was at sea, journeying back to the fatherland so that she could bring more men and supplies back to the outpost to ensure its long-term stability. There was a group of men gathered in the city of Antioch.

Decentius, Dalmatius, and a group of other conspirators who had engaged in a botched covert operation to assassinate the Byzantine Princess were standing around a table in a secluded room. Several heads that belonged to the freelance assassins who had made an attempt on Honoria's life were on this table. 

These severed heads were cleaned out, and on their foreheads was the mark of the Austrian Crown. The delivery of these heads to the conspirators was a blatant act of aggression by Austrian Royal Intelligence. More importantly, it served as a reminder that Austria had its claws embedded in every Nation around the Mediterranean.

There was nowhere that these men could flee for safety now that the Austrian Crown was aware of their involvement in the conspiracy to claim Honoria's life. Dalmatius was, of course, the most nervous out of all the men present, as this was his residence where these severed heads had been delivered. He was anxiously biting his fingernails as he desperately sought a solution from his co-conspirators; chief among them was the second prince of the Empire. 

"Your majesty! What should I do? Now that the Agents of the Austrian Crown know of my involvement, they will stop at nothing to hunt me down and eliminate me!"

As the man violently shook the prince, Decentius remained unresponsive; the truth was he was greatly concerned for his safety. Though he was fairly certain that Austria and its Agents would not directly retaliate against him, his family was an entirely different matter.

After all, his wife was currently with his child, and he knew how devious Austria's intelligence agents could be. Though it was unknown to those outside of the Austrian Court who acted as Berengar's spymaster, what was a certainty was that whoever this mysterious individual was, they were vindictive beyond belief. 

There were more than a few rumors that Austria's agents would harm their targets' families if thoroughly provoked. It was unknown whether these orders were given by the King of Austria or his mysterious spymaster. However, one thing was sure; he had attempted to assassinate the Tyrant's wife and, in doing so, ensured the most vicious reprisal for his actions.

Since the Austrians had found out that Dalmatius was responsible for hiring the assassins, it was highly likely that they knew of the man's connection to the Second Prince. Decentius was beginning to regret his actions, as now it was all but guaranteed that his family would be targeted after Austria made an example out of Dalmatius. 

While he was reflecting on this, the man named Dalmatius was having a mental breakdown and began inspecting the heads for whatever reason. Initially, Decentius ignored this detail until his subordinate said something that caused a chill to go down his spine.

"What the hell is this? The head has been hollowed out! Wait, there's something in here!"

Immediately, Decentius panicked as he cried out to Dalmatius,

"Wait! St-"

However, it was too late; the Strategos had pulled on the drawstring, which ignited an explosive compound packed within the skull of the severed heads; immediately, an explosion took place in the room, which tore the nearest conspirators, including Dalmatius, to bits.

When the explosive within that skull went off, it ignited those embedded within the other severed heads, causing a chain reaction to take place, which blasted apart the conspirators as if they were nothing more than chunks of meat. 

Decentius felt a searing pain across multiple aspects of his body while his ears were ringing as he struggled to regain control over his blurry vision. When he finally became aware of his surroundings, he began to scream in agony. 

Not only were several of the more prominent figureheads who supported his claim to the throne turned into mincemeat, but he was missing both his right hand and the lower half of his left leg as they began to bleed profusely onto the floor. He would be truly and utterly dead if he did not stop the bleeding soon.

Luckily for the Second Prince of Byzantium, the guards outside the door heard the explosion and came into the room, where they immediately began to take action. A leather belt was placed in the mouth of the Second Prince, as one of the guards stuck his sword into the open hearth; after it was glowing red, he pressed the steel blade against the prince's wounds, searing his flesh, and causing the man to howl in his suffering. 

If not for the leather belt in his mouth, he may very well have bitten off his tongue and caused his death to be ensured. Yet, such a scenario did not occur. Instead, his wounds were rapidly treated by the Royal Guards, where they swiftly carried the prince back to the local Palace's physician. The Second Prince of the Byzantine Empire would be under intensive medical care; whether or not he would survive was up to the Lord God Almighty. 

As for this attack on the Byzantine Royal Family, it was carefully observed by the Austrian Agent who had conducted the raid. Not only had they delivered the heads packed with the highly explosive compound known as TNT, but they also stuck around to see just how many of the conspirators had been killed. They never expected the Second Prince to arrive at this meeting personally; in fact, it was a bonus that he was so grievously wounded in the attack.

However, it added a layer of risk; if it were to become discovered that Austria was responsible for the attack, it could harm relations between the two nations. As such, the veteran field agent immediately got to task cleaning up any evidence of his Kingdom's involvement.

Of course, it did not take a rocket scientist to understand just who was responsible for such an explosive attack. Yet, as long as they could maintain plausible deniability, Austria would never admit to it. Thus, a new and thorny era of Austro-Byzantine relations was about to take place, and during this crisis, the King of Austria was inexplicably missing.

After all, he was on the other side of the world, in a continent that was utterly unknown to the entirety of the old world. When Berengar finally returned to the fatherland months later, he would have to construct a much more delicate cover for his absence than he had initially planned. 

...

It did not take long for word of this attack to reach Palladius' spy network and, by extension, Austrian Royal Intelligence. Back in Austria, Linde was within the headquarters of the department, where she was dressed in her service uniform. She could not believe the report in her hands; as such, she was pretty vocal as she scolded her deputy director.

"Did I not explicitly state to abort the operation if Decentius was involved? How the hell did this happen? I warned you, that if this operation was not conducted properly, it would set back our diplomacy with the Byzantine Empire by decades! How did your operative botch this mission so badly?"

Hemma was silent as she stared down at the floor, unwilling to meet Linde's gaze. Though she had informed the agents of the proper measures that were to be taken to conduct this operation, the responsibility for this massive failure still fell on her shoulders. She struggled to come up with an excuse that would not further outrage her boss.

"Your highness... We did not know that the Second Prince would be at the meeting. Somehow, he had arrived without being identified by our field agent. However, we eliminated the conspirators. With their deaths, we could easily leak the evidence for their wrongdoing to the Byzantine Crown."

Linde was far from pleased despite this reasoning, and she continued to berate her subordinate. 

"So let me understand this, somehow, someway, the Second Prince of the Byzantine Empire slipped past our detection and entered the kill zone without our knowledge. I want to know how our agents failed to identify his presence. The moment Decentius arrived in the area, this operation should have been aborted!

I want the names of everyone involved in this plot, especially that of whoever was the agent in command of this operation. Our King is absent on a critical diplomatic mission. While he is away, you idiots have single-handedly set back the diplomacy between our Kingdom and our greatest ally by decades! Do you have any idea how hard our monarch has had to work to build the relationship he currently has with the Byzantine Empire?

Somebody needs to be held responsible for this; you have grievously wounded the Second Prince of the Empire; if you assholes can not pin this attack on somebody else, then I will make sure that heads roll, do I make myself clear!"

Hemma immediately saluted her superior before responding in the affirmative.

"Yes, ma'am!"

After hearing this, Linde looked disgusted at the woman she had appointed to help her lead the Department of Intelligence. She left one last comment before departing back to the Palace.

"Clean up your fucking mess and do it quickly!"

Having said this, Linde departed from the headquarters of Royal Intelligence; as for her Deputy Director, the woman quickly got to work creating a scapegoat for this attack, and she knew just who to blame.. Whether she could convince the Byzantine Emperor that Austria had no involvement with this attack would not only determine her future, but that of the Austro-Byzantine Alliance.