Countess Geraldine, advisor of the King

Geraldine d'Alindard, Countess of Blackthorne, was one of the most powerful women in the Kingdom of Karth. She was born of extremely high descent: on her father's side Geraldine was Goldblood, a fourth cousin of King Elard. On the mother's side, she could brag descent from the Alindard family, one of the most ancient, rich and powerful family of the neighbouring Argellian Empire. Besides her bloodline, she was born into a family of rather poor (for such a highborn ancestry, of course) courtiers who were very proud of themselves but lacked huge estates and other material assets. She spent her early years in constant fear of descending into poverty. In the end her parents decided to marry her to Count Blackthorne, a very rich old lord risen from a low nobility. That was a win-win situation for both families but for young Geraldine it was a kind of ordeal as she'd always thought to deserve a more prestigious family alliance and a more pleasant husband.

Lucky for her, the count was old and sick, dying without issue in just a couple of years after the wedding. She inherited most of his land and other riches which at once made her one of the wealthiest magnates in the whole realm. Besides that, she has a decent, if not outstanding, talent for magic and sorcery, which she developed further through studies, as well as her knowledge of fluent Argellian. This is how she landed a position of King's advisor on the affairs of magic and relations with mighty though decadent neighbour country.

Women of Alindard stock were always beautiful, some of them stunningly, and Geraldine was no exception. A tall, raven black hair brunette with pleasant forms, milky white skin and dark blue eyes she easily made an impression at the court. By now, she was in her mid-thirties, but masked the growing shortcomings of her appearance with exquisite clothes of the Argellian fashion. She might not be the most beautiful woman in the realm, but she was by far the best dressed and best groomed.

That said Geraldine was not very popular at the court due to her cold, stern looks and a snooty, prim-and-proper attitude. To put it simple, she was considered a stuck up bitch even for royalty, let alone less highborn folks. Some respected her, others were jealous of her, there were people who hated her, but nobody loved her. And she repaid them all with interest. Countess scorned the whole Kingdom of Karth, which she thought was nothing more than a collection of backward villages and small towns filled with smelly country bumpkins. Of course not comparable to her beloved Empire of Argellia, which she considered a truly civilized country. Karth's customs seemed to her stupid and laughable and laws were just plain horrid. She refused to understand how on earth Karth's low nobility, city dwellers and even village smallfolk had a say in the country's affairs. In Argellia the power lied in the hands of the Emperor and high aristocracy and most peasants were serfs. She especially hated excessive taxes on the rich, because it was her own money.

Geraldine didn't really like Goldblood royal family either. In her view, King Elard was a typical fat red-faced barbarian ruler knowing no limits in anything, queen was a clueless hag looking 10 years older her age, and their daughters were no better. She thought of Katherine as a strongly worsened copy of herself, good in looks but lacking real sophistication and courteousness, Abigail was a spoiled brat with slutty manners and worst of them was Glenda, an unruly tomboy who shouldn't be born into a royal family at all. Geraldine forever remembered the moment of her highest embarrassment when then 13-year old brat poured over 'this missy prissy' a bucket of cold water right before the visit of Argellian delegation when Geraldine tried to look her best. Countess had been very glad when Glenda decided to run away from the palace.

These were exactly her thoughts and reminiscences this morning when Geraldine stood before the large mirror in her aparments, carefully assessing her look before going out. If someone watched her at the moment, they would say that the countess looked nothing short of immaculate. She wore a figure hugging brocade gown of black and silver colour. The ensemble consisted of bolero jacket with high collar and long, slightly flared sleeves and a matching full length dress. Her raven black hair was combed in a stylish updo with a small diadem, she covered nice cleavage of the gown with platinum and diamond necklace. She wore a soft kid leather cream gloves of elbow length and a black and silver high heeled boots made of dragonling hide.

Geraldine decided she was quite satisfied with how she looked today and then her maid knocked on the door of her bedroom.

“Sorry, my lady, you have a visitor”, she said in a tone of apology.

“Who can it be so early today? I didn't arrange audiences”, Geraldine answered coldly.

“I-I know but he says that the matter is very urgent”.

“It's strange. All right, I'll be in my parlor in five minutes, let him in”