While Ragnar was engaging in Operation: Full Steam, and his locomotive was thundering toward Winchester, the political landscape of Southern England was in a state of chaotic restructuring.
**
Winchester, Capital of Wessex
King Aethelred sat in his private solar, staring at a bowl of cold pottage. He hadn't eaten a warm meal since the "Thames Incident," mostly out of shame.
He was surrounded by his traditional advisors.. men who believed that war was won by prayer and heavy swords, not by soup kitchens and steam engines.
However, today the room held a guest of significant importance. Count Odo of Paris, an envoy from the Frankish Empire, lounged in a chair carved from imported oak. He was dressed in the finest silks, sipping wine with a bored expression.
The Franks were the superpowers of the continent; to them, England was a muddy backwater filled with squabbling tribes.
Odo was reading a stolen report about Ragnar's recent activities.
