Tyranny of Steel

Lambert was in his room while reading a letter from the Bishop of Innsbruck about his request for the inquisition's interference, which the Vatican accepted. Within two weeks, the Inquisition would arrive and help him deal a devastating blow to his accursed elder brother. A wicked smile appeared across the boy's face as he read the letter. He had finally obtained the victory he desired, or so he thought. Just as he was about to light the evidence in his hands aflame with a candle, the door to his bedroom burst open, and the castle's guards pointed their muskets in the direction of in which he sat with their bayonet's affixed.

Immediately Lambert reacted by trying to finish the job of destroying the evidence, he had no idea why they had barged into his room, but clearly, he was in deep trouble and could not afford for such damning information to existing. When the guards saw his action of potentially destroying evidence, they quickly apprehended the boy before he could succeed. Thus obtaining the letter as further evidence of his crimes and the depth of the conspiracy against the von Kufstein family.

Lambert struggled out of the grasp of the burly soldiers, but it was no use; there were too many of them pinning him down and placing chains around his limbs. As such, he cursed them as his face grew red with fury.

"What are you bastards doing? Have you forgotten the family in which you serve? I will have your heads for this!"

Instead, he was roughly dragged up to his feet and was placed before the captain of the guard, who backhanded Lambert violently for his vile tongue.

"The Baron has ordered us to carry out your arrest under the suspicion of assassination, attempted fratricide, and treason against the realm!"

Lambert's heart sank into an endless abyss as he heard those words. He realized at that moment Berengar had been one step ahead of him; for his father to order the boy's arrest, Berengar must have presented substantial evidence, though he had no idea how that scoundrel had managed to acquire it.

Lambert merely lashed out verbally at the guards when he was viciously escorted to the Great Hall, where Sieghard, Berengar, and the others were waiting for his arrival.

"You fucking bastards! When I come to power, I will have you and your families brutally tortured to death for such treasonous activity!"

The boy could not accept such an outcome had occurred to him while he was merely two weeks away from the arrival of the Inquisition and their investigation into Berengar's heresy. He was so close to winning this war, but instead, he was brought down on the edge of victory. Lambert nearly had a heart attack when he witnessed not only Ser Ingbert but Arnulf and his fiancee Linde standing by Berengar's side acting as his witnesses. He could not believe that so many of his allies had turned against him, especially that bitch Linde. She truly was having carnal relations with his brother behind his back! However, he put on a facade and acted as if he was ignorant of the charges he was facing.

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After the guards forced him to kneel in front of his father, the Baron, who stared at him with a look of disgust, the boy desperately attempted to explain his way out of the precarious situation he found himself in.

"Father, what is the meaning of this?"

Sieghard glared at his second son; the boy was still putting on an act even after all of the evidence that had been accumulated. The captain of the guard approached Sieghard and handed him the letter they had confiscated from Lambert.

"My Lord, your son Lambert was in the middle of attempting to destroy evidence of his crimes. If you read the letter, it very clearly states yet another attempt on Berengar's life by falsifying crimes of Heresy and Blasphemy and requesting the inquisition's interference."

Lambert was immediately frightened when he realized that the guards had caught him red-handed and began to swell up in tears as his father screamed at him with a degree of rage the boy had never witnessed before.

"You would bring the might of the inquisition down upon my house? My son? Your brother!?! For what? Because you desire my position, which is your brother's by birthright!?! Do you have any remorse for your deeds whatsoever!?!"

By now Lambert was putting on a convincing display of crocodile tears which he choked back as he tried to plead with his father about his innocence.

"I am being framed! It is Berengar who is the wicked one! He stole my fiancee and now plots to have me removed so he can keep her to himself."

Sieghard nearly snorted at the boy's response. Could the boy seriously not come up with a better excuse than that? On the other hand, Adela was present to witness the scene and was shocked by the whole development. She had no idea the two brothers' schemes were this ruthless, and the accusation of Berengar stealing Linde was particularly worrisome for her. Linde who noticed the young girl's presence denied this accusation.

Though she desperately wanted to shove her affair with Berengar in Lambert's face, the family had already decided to conceal the truth, and thus she could not reveal it in public. Either way, Lambert would be removed from this day forth, and she would no longer have to marry the little blaggard. Instead, she denied the accusations with a convincing display as she too conjured tears to make it appear as if she was heartbroken by her fiance's words.

"You bastard! I gave you my chastity, and you accuse me of having an affair with your brother! What kind of woman do you think I am!"

When Adela heard those words, she sighed in relief; surely Berengar would not do such a horrible thing. Lambert, on the other hand, was on th edge of having an aneurysm from the degree of fury in which had built up inside of him. He struggled desperately in his chains to break free of the guard's grasp and attack the woman. However, the moment he lunged at her he was brought down by the guardsman and pinned to the ground in front of the woman he once thought he loved. Staring at her with a murderous gaze he spat out a curse upon her.

"You fucking whore! You not only have an affair with my brother, but you also turn me into my family, and you still have the gall to deny it? I hope there is a special place in hell for you and your bastard child!"

Suddenly a loud noise echoed throughout the hall; it was the sound of Sieghard furiously pounding his fist on the armrest of his seat of power before declaring his verdict.

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"Enough! Lambert, after seeing the evidence for myself, I Baron Sieghard von Kufstein find you guilty of all charges and convict you of assassination, attempted fratricide, and treason. I hereby disown you from my family and order you to take the vows of the Teutonic Order. Perhaps you can redeem yourself in the eyes of God by spending the rest of your life in a righteous crusade! Guards, have this wicked child taken away to the Teutonic State!"

With that decree, the guards grabbed ahold of Lambert and dragged him away, kicking and screaming. The last words spoken by the boy before he was forced out of the great hall were a plea for mercy.

"Father! Please don't do this!"

Unfortunately for the boy Sieghard was too disgusted with his actions and replied mercilessly to this request.

"You are no son of mine!"