This was a non-sanctioned, quasi-legal overthrow of Lady Erenyae's government of the freehold of Elahat by Lady Vaeol Yaranevae of Son, resulting from an attempt by Erenyae to blackmail Vaeol into spreading her influence in Son. In response, Lady Vaeol created a scandal in Son to distract Erenyae's agents in that city and marshal her forces. On the night of 2. Shenelae 24,542 ZS, Lady Vaeol led an amphibious infiltration of Elahat across the Yaro River. Then they invaded Lady Erenyae's strong house at the freehold's center, captured her and her housemates, and turned over control to friendly allies within Elahat's citizenry.
The raid presaged House Yaranevaea's voluntary exile from Son for the next six years, including Lady Taiase, under the guise of an honorary ambassadorship to the northern cities.
The Conflict
Prelude
Lady Vaeol Yaranevae of Son had come unannounced on 2. Evelae to Elahat, a freehold on the northern bank of the Yaro River, three days north of Son. She was seeking her banished flagmate and manlove Oshis-Teiaviras Ravaeolmas. After finding him, she was approached by Lady Erenyae, the freehold's ruler, who realizing Oshis's vulnerability as a houseless outlaw Korasha in her freehold, sought to blackmail Vaeol for political advantage back in Son. The holdwife also tried to psychically influence Lady Vaeol and sift her thoughts, although she proved to tought. Lady Vaeol then played for time by proposing to become Erenyae's partisan in Son, and even accepting her help to get elected to the Matronhood.
Lady Vaeol and her escort then left Oshis (under watch by Lady Erenyae's agents) and crossed the Yaro on 4. Evelae to Hivaea on the south bank, a farmhold belonging to Son's authority and where Oshis's kindred dwelled. After confirming Erenyae's untrustiness, they hastened over the treepaths to Son. Vaeol then enlisted the help of her sisters Risodess and Raiale, both city matrons, both to help intercede with Erenyae in ending a shipping dispute and to petition their mother Lady Zhasael Zolaemaue, high matron of Son, to lift the banishment from Oshis. In the course, Vaeol agreed to become her sister Risodess's client.
Although the trade dispute was resolved satisfactorily and so reported to Mistress Ane (Erenyae's agent in Son) that the freight bound for Elehat was scheduled to leave, when Vaeol pressed Risodess on Oshis's pardon (which apparently she was unsuccessful in convincing their mother or had never tried), the deal between sisters fell apart, which came to a climax when on 13. Evelae Lady Vaeol and Lady Istae threatened to resign their outrider commissions. Furthermore, it threatened to grow bigger when Lady Taiase, the elder sage-queen they had rescued from the Stormshields, declared her intent to leave Son in protest of the affair. The scandal got patched up when High Matron Zhasael negotiated the matronhood to reinstate Vaeol's and Istae's outriderhoods and grant Taiase a special ambassadorship as Son's goodwill representative to the Northern Cities. They then agreed to join the freight shipment to Elahat, whence they would treat with Erenyae and then head eastward to the Retaea Moors.
Unknown to everyone else, Lady Vaeol, who had foreknown her mother would not lift Oshis's banishment and had determined Erenyae would not forsake her leverage, had already mustered her flag and begun sending them piecemeal ahead back to Hivaea, so as not to be noticed. She then convinced the harbormistress to let the freight barge leave Son late on the night of the 14th, and with affirmation that Lady Vaeol and her flagmates were aboard to escort Taiase. Vaeol then took ferry to the Yaro's west bank, where they cut overland northward to Hivaea, which they reached in less than three days, while Istae and Taiase prevailed a delay on the barge.
Lady Vaeol arrived in Hivaea on 18. Evelae, where eleven flagmates, including ten warriors, plus their children waited. She proposed a raid on Elahat to free Oshis, to which she convinced the farmhold, since they were kin to Oshis, and who could muster eight Damaya cavalry and eighteen irregular Korasha infrantry. Additionally, Lady Sael the Hivaea headwife had made contact with Mistress Anovaeul of Elahat, an opponent of Lady Erenyae's, who agreed to provide support and access to the freehold's river wharf. Thus on 4. Shenelae Treesong four Hivaea fishermen were dispatched by boat over the day's course to establish a presence on the wharf, the last boat of which went at dusk, trailing a 1/6-sem (~3/4 mile) rope over the Yaro's width.
Elahat's effective militia was estimated at about two hundred. However, the active number of Streetwatch and Lady Erenyae's personal retinue unikely exceeded fifty, with most patrolling they dykeway and surrounding marshes against travellers who might try to use it unlawfully, and balance assigned to watching the wharves, streets, and wineyards. However, their discipline within the freehold was fairly lax.
Elahat, sitting on the Yaro's north bank, occupied a raised marshy plain surrounded by marshy jungle running east-west on the Yaro's north bank. Although subject to frequent floods, it was marginally higher than the countryside and adjoined the western end of the Great Marshland Dykeway built in the time of the Sage-Queens, whose access was controlled by a gate within the freehold. It was defended on three sides by a wooden stockade wall built on an upraised dyke, but was open on the riverside.
Within the freehold's midst, Lady Erenyae's four-story strong house rose atop a raised motte surrounded by a small collection of wealthier townhouses. The strong house was fortified and barred, although lightly defended. Lady Vaeol had studied its defenses as Erenyae's guest on her previous visit and had judged it vulnerable to having its walls scaled, since its top floor was an open roof deck.
The night of 2. Shenelae was mild, with little to no rain and Yaro at moderate flood levels, consistent with Stormtide.
On the night of 2. Shenelae, Lady Vaeol led her flag and Hivaea's militia, totalling 32 (15 Shotalashu-riders and 17 infrantry), across the Yaro by swimming along the lead rope previously stretched by the fishermen. Their force took control of a fishing dock and shed on the freehold's eastern end. Thence she led the strike force to the town's midst, where their Shotalashu climbed the outer walls, and then threw ropes down to the infantry. Once inside, they took control of the lower floors, and the inhabitants, including Lady Erenyae prisoner. While alarms were raised within the freehold at the commotion heard within the strong house, without word from within, and since the doors remained locked, the Streetwatch's response remained confused and tentative.
On the morning of 3. Shenelae, Mistress Anovaeul, supported by a strong company of adherents, summoned the holdfolk. She informed them Lady Erenyae was deposed and invited the senior trademistresses and housewives to form a new government with her. On agreement, they marched to the strong house, where Lady Vaeol's force opened the gates and yielded control. The coup was completely with no loss of life and a few wounds.
An interim council of elders was formed to govern Elahat. Their first act was to strip Lady Erenyae of her authority and wealth and to banish her from Elahat. They then welcomed Lady Taiase as honored guest and Son's ambassador, to whom they gave petition for recognition from Son.
News of the raid and coup in Elahat raised the level of scandal in Son to feverishness, especially due to the legally questionable nature of the attack. Although Son and Elahat had dealt with each other for centuries, cities did not officially recognize freeholds as sovereign authorities. Furthermore, Son had once claimed Elahat as part of its territory. However, the additional chaos disrupted calls for a no-confidence vote against Lady Zhasael brought by the Yaranevaea's protest and departure, providing her and her daughters Risodess and Raiale with opportunity to form new alliances.
Son temporized recognizing Elahat's new government, and instead sent a delegation of matrons to observe affairs in the freehold. When Mistress Avonaeul failed to muster a consensus and the freehold's government splintered, Lady Risodess began offering favors to sympathetic trade-mistresses, who petitioned to place the freehold under Son's protection. Son took control of Elahat, and later in 24,543, voted to assimilate the freehold into its territory.
News of Elahat's assimilation, although it caused comment, became perceived as a positive development when Son announced that tolls to use the Marshland Dykeway would be cut by half. Traders all along the Yaro rejoiced at lower prices to take wares coming from Lea and the Retaea.
Son's control of the Marshland Dykeway, however, eventually became a point of confrontation with Lea during and after Byreath's War, when a faction of Lea's matrons accused Son of meddling in Retaea politics for their own gain.
Historical Significance
Lady Vaeol gave birth to Aeosiss, her son by Oshis, roughly fifteen months after the raid. Later in life, however, she openly expressed regret at the raid's outcome, saying she had never wished Elahat to be subsumed into Son's territory.
Lady Vaeol reconunted her conflict with Lady Erenyae, including her political maneuvers in Son and preparations leading up to the raid, in her daylog, which formed the basis for _A Castrovel Adventure: Part 2.
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