Random Question

[beth-shulman.livejournal.com]

It's in QoA, I think, when the scene in which Attolia poisons her bridegroom at the wedding feast is related. But how did everyone know she did it? Later in KoA, when she offered Gen a drink from her cup, everyone interpreted it as a threat because it was common knowledge that she'd killed her first husband. Isn't it a leap to assume that the weak Shadow Princess was the new king's murderer? And the act is described as such an individual sort of venture. How did the Attolians figure it out?

Comments

[puppeteergirl.livejournal.com]

I don't think the Attolian barons actually realized that it was her who poisoned the short-lived king until she had her captain shoot the baron who was trying to force her to marry him. After that it was kind of obvious that she had planned the whole thing...

[elle-winters.livejournal.com]

I agree. She was never tried for murder or anything. So they couldn't have known until the physicians did some sort of check up on her late husband and even back then they could easily identify the poisoning. Except I'm sure it didn't happen over night. And word got out eventually. By then everyone would have been too afraid to confront Attolia because she'd already made a name for herself

[agh-4.livejournal.com]

Yeah, exactly! And then probably someone would have mentioned how he was ALWAYS taking her food and drinking her wine. They couldn't put her on trial or anything, because she was queen...

Hm, and when she tells Gen "never drink from my wine cup as long as you want to live" (not that wording, but that quote), he seems to get what she means, so it must have been known about it Eddis, too.

[lylassandra.livejournal.com]

I don't really think she meant it to be a secret after she pulled off her (anti-?) coup. Ruling monarchs don't often get tried for petty little things like murder-- Sophos wasn't exactly worried about it, and his was in public.

[elle-winters.livejournal.com]

Oh, I meant from an average citizen POV. But of course she didn't mean to hide anything, once she killed her husband she was all in the open about her rule. I mean afterall they don't not call her the shadow Queen...wait..that's just confusing =)

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

I always sort of figured that they didn't assume it was her at first. While everyone at the feast turned on each other, "seeking the assassin," she just got up and walked away. It was only later (I figured), when she coldly ordered her new suitor shot in the heart for proclaiming himself the new king, that people would have paused for a moment and thought... "Hey, wait a minute."

And after that, she was already the self-made queen, and no one could do anything about it.

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

So yeah, what I mean is, I agree with what seems to be the consensus opinion above.

[stubefied-by-gd.livejournal.com]

I agree with the consensus above (that having Potential Hubby Number Two shot in front of everyone would have been a big hint).

I can also imagine her instructing whoever would be in charge of such things that they could stop wasting their time looking for Hubby Number One's murderer. And they would sort of weakly protest that they hadn't concluded their investigations, and she would say, "I did it. Case closed," or whatever cool contemporary lingo they used for 'case closed' in Attolia.

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

lol! :D

[diadactic.livejournal.com]

I thought everybody understood it right away. She didn't really inherit the throne; it was a military takeover. She offers him her drink, he puts the cup to his mouth and chokes, which was an obvious murder only the other barons assume it's one of them and they don't bother to find out who because they don't investigate themselves- I understand this is a society in which nobility is above the law, for the most part. And the barons are the last people to want that to change.
Then, once she's done a military takeover, she is the law. She can have anybody put to death on her say so. It's not murder, it's capital punishment.

[beth-shulman.livejournal.com]

Yup, that makes a lot of sense. But what a leap: imagine, the horrifically shy princess suddenly a rigid, fierce queen. It's like waking up in the morning and finding that the world rotated sideways.

[beth-shulman.livejournal.com]

That's really what I'm confused about. (Excuse the exhausted rambling.) When did she meet Teleus and plan all this? She wasn't exactly acting the queen then, was she?

[puppeteergirl.livejournal.com]

I think that it might have been Teleus's predecessor...though I might be mistaken about that. Anyhoo, she had lived at the palace her whole life, and I'm sure there was time to plan between the time her fiance' brought her back to the capitol for the wedding and the actual wedding.

She probably knew the guard captain to a certain degree and decided to take the chance to trust him, so she asked for his help before the wedding. And obviously, he followed through.

[puppeteergirl.livejournal.com]

Oh, and by the way, I bet she waited until after the wedding to take power because at that point she was officially the queen.

[creative-lefty2.livejournal.com]

It was Telleus' predecessor.