[colour=gold][u][h1][centre]Empire of Violette[/centre][/h1][/u][/colour]
[centre][img]https://i.imgur.com/fRiTWvK.png[/img][/centre]
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[colour=gold][centre][h2][i]Le Patriote[/i][/h2][/centre][/colour]
[centre][h3][u]Gendarmerie Lends Expertise to Dominion of Meung[/u][/h3][/centre]

144 officers of the Veletian Gendarmerie have arrived in Meung, disembarking from the [i]VX Maulleau[/i] for the second round of a foreign training mission to the Settumese state. The officers are tasked with providing instruction to their Meungese counterparts assembled in Yijun, to help increase the fighting capability of the beleaguered Meungese Army. The successful first phase of the mission has already proven instrumental in restoring Meung to battle readiness, and recent provocations from the belligerent Imperium of Hiron have since heightened the need to advance the Dominion's ability to defend itself from aggressive states in the region. The government of the Dominion has gratefully accepted Veletian expertise, even inviting several of the officers involved in the programme to tour Yijun's famous Palace of a Thousand Mirrors. 

High-ranking officials within the Gendarmerie have highlighted the need for a strong Veletian ally in Settumu, to balance the militant expansionism and violent espionage activities of Hiron. Speaking on the subject, General Hugo Dutoit of the National Garrison in Veletian Settumu commented, "The underhanded acts of sabotage and deceit on the part of the Hironese menace must be counter-balanced. Every act of aggression taken by Hiron against Violette, and there have already been many, will be matched—and then some—in assistance given by Violette to the Imperium's enemies. Even the smallest slight against the Veletian Empire will be another lump of clay added to the terracotta colossus of Settumu."

[hr][centre][h3][u]Palais Violette, Confluence, Empire of Violette,[/u][/h3][/centre]
[centre][img]http://palaceversailles.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Hall-of-Mirrors.jpg[/img][/centre]

The Empress Tsirine could not maintain her public smile even a second after she had left the range of her subject's eyes. Each rare moment of silent, honest clarity was only just long enough for her to gather her lament before the mask of joyous radiance was affixed again, a feast to be devoured by the gazes of those Veletians who caught a glimpse of their monarch. Every day was a sprint through a marathon, the still inexperienced young woman travelling from event to event and meeting dignitary after dignitary. The names, faces and personas all melted together in her mind, flooding into a sea of troubles and anxieties that continued to plague her even when she retired for the day. Lying awake at night, the pompous frame of her fancy bed raising her mattress a foot higher off the ground than was needed, she would raise her lithe fingers to her bare neck and remember to breath.

All day the Empress' collar was choked by a necklace of gold and gemstones: the badge of her office, Violette's famous 'gilded bouquet'. Decorated with various gemstones inlaid to represent different flowers, it was as heavy and uncomfortable as it was expensive and gaudy. Tsirine could swear that the central-most and largest of the gemstone flowers, a violet made of amethysts, had weighed an impression into her neck. She could still feel it there, even after she'd removed it before settling into her bed, even after she had ceased to be the Empress of Violette and once again became herself. She could feel the pressure of the violet quartz around her neck as acutely as she could feel the pressures of her nation, of her responsibilities as the captain of the ship of Violette. The night may have yielded her body to her, but the throne would never yield her mind.

She pitied her predecessors, for a moment. Empathized with the pains they endured to lead with awareness of mind, with a conscious understanding of the gravity of the decisions they made each day. Her thoughts lingered for too long a moment on her mother, before drifting to the ancient rulers of old, and the equally weighty but largely dissimilar obstacles they faced in their time. She wished she could understand her own place in her nation's history as she did the kings and queens of the past. It was always easier to make the right decision in hindsight. Yet soon, as her thoughts continued to amble about her mind, they would turn unconscious. Fate would allow her a few hours rest, before she would start again tomorrow. Her first task of the day: affixing the gilded bouquet around her neck.