Arrival

[The Empire]

Frustrated by the long walk through the palace, the princess had started her armour as to not wear herself out completely before they even arrived at the audicence with the ruler of this somewhat pathetic governor.
As they were waved in, the bows offered by Hanna was slightly different than Parzan's with her only dropping to one knee as she bowed but not as low as Parzan, the armour's soft hum in the background.
She was studying the features of the boy in front of them as Parzan spoke in his odd native tounge and was caught a bit by surprise as the boy turned to look right at her, indicating for her to speak.
"Your highness?" she began in inglish, giving it a pot-shot that she might find a better way to comunicate with the apparent ruler of this alien empire than a lowly governor or magistrate or whatever.

[Mor'os]

Osmar's lack of apparent emotion in fact revealed that he was intrigued. Intrigued to the point that his entire brain could not help but kick into full gear to analyze the situation. So much energy in fact that it left little to be spent on expressing a great ranger of emotion.

Or maybe it was because he was not a wildly emotional person. Bother are good enough reasons.

Osmar was slightly surprised when she spoke in a foreign tongue which he recognized as the Inglish he'd been studying. Secretly he had to admit to himself that he had been shamelessly hoping for an opportunity to try it out and perhaps show off a bit.

"Ah, you s'peak Ing'lish?", his voiced carrying a clear accent. Particularly telling was the manner in which he still chopped his syllables into neat and tidy segements as the formal Standard Mor'osi called for. He continued anyway, still quite proud of his accomplishment.

"Let me in't'roduce sel'f. I am Osmar Anson Dalen if you do not know, an'd am Emperor of Mor'os. Zough I am being rude. P'lease, what is your name?"

[The Empire]

Hanna's reply was flawless but with a slight accent revealing, that even though she must have practiced since she was very young, inglish was not her native language.
"I am Hanna Elisabet Artéus and am a princess without empire. Our vessel crashed near Parzan's mansion and by his aid, though i doubt his motives, I am now here with the last fifteen survivors of my people, my royual guards, waiting outside your gates."
As she finished speaking, Sasha, the white tigress snuck around the corner and sat down on the princess's right side.

[Mor'os]

Again, Osmar wasted no energy expressing any obvious emotion while he internalized this information. At least until the tiger walked in. Even Parzan was a bit surprised to see it there. He'd thought that the thing had remained behind at the carriage.

Osmar watched the beast intently, wondering if this was again another attempt on his life, the lot of which seemed to grow increasingly elaborate with each try it seemed. A hand rested firmly on his sword, though he was not sure it would do any good if it came to such a thing.

"Ze tiger..." he chanced. "Is it your's?" It was a stupid question when all was considered, but he was not sure what more there was to say.

[The Empire]

"She and her mate is my companions and has accompained me since I was little. They are able bodyguards as well as close friends. However I have a more important matter to adress. Emperor Osmar, neither I, nor the few people whom I have responsibility for has any home to return to, thus I ask if we can stay here in your empire as permanent guests or even as your subjects?"

[Mor'os]

Osmar for a moment was taken off guard by the direct nature of the Hanna's answer, about the tigers. Certainly, it didn't confirm that he was somehow safe, that those terrible teeth and claws were not meant for him. He relaxed a bit, but his hand still hovered over the hilt of the sword.

Still, the petition being presented was an interesting one.

"Zese subjec't's zat you s'peak about. How many of them are zere and jus't where are zey now?"

[The Empire]

"They are fifteen your highness, and they are waiting outside your palace gates with the rest of Parzan's household. And please, your highness, have no fear for Sasha, she doesn't attack unless she feels I am threatened though she may be a bit too playful sometimes."

[Mor'os]

Osmar gave a slow nod to confirm that he understood what he'd been told. So far it seemed, he wasn't dead or in danger of dying. He allowed himself to relax further, hand drifting from its position of readiness. Not completely relaxed though; he'd learned a valuable lesson on that matter the hardest way possible.

"15  is far from many. Zey'd har'd'ly s'tir ze vas't seas of the Empire's peop'le."

He now turned back to Parzan, and gave him an intent stare in the hope that he might better divine the true nature of the situation. He seemed amiable enough, not at all carrying any hints of conspiracy, at least of any that immediately threatened his life.

"If what Prefect Parzan tell's me is t'rue zough, I should be calling you Highness instead. Meof'e sai" He spoke to Parzan now, who rose eagerly, nodding as he began to walk out the door and lead the way back to the carriage and to the others as requested.

[The Empire]

As Parzan led the way, Hanna fell in beside Osmar, Sasha following her protegé closely and Hanna continued to tell her story, a hint of sorrow and frustration showing in her eyes and tone of voice.
"The truth is, emperor, that even though my parents were assassinated almost two years before I and three hundred of my people were forced to abandon that world I was never crowned as I was on a diplomatic assignment in foreign lands when they died and was forced to stay in exile as parts of the once glorious empire fell in upon itself in a bloody civil war. Once the warlords's resources were allmost depleted I could return to re-unite the people and throw down the warlords. Reconstruction of the empire had just begun and gave promise of an empire greater and more civilized than the ones of my parent's could ever have been when the storm of world war once more rose at the horizon, this time around it showed itself to be all the more terrible too. Weapons of unimaginable power was used recklessly without even hints of mercy as billions died in the flames rising towards the sky in great fireballs behind us as we left. I have a hard time beliving anything besides us here survived as even those surviving that initial firestorm would surely have succumbed in the ice-age that must have followed. Sadly enough, most of those three hundred didn't survive the crash in Parzan's fields."

[Mor'os]

Osmar listened mutedly as the Princess unfurled her tale, and found that the farther she pressed onwards the greater was his interest. To be perfectly honest, he did not understand all  of it, and there were parts which did not quite seem to add together or to fit perfectly. But it was fascinating all the same, not to mention that it was being related by someone who was, or so he had been led to believe, of the Divine. Even that was still sinking in, not because he did not believe in it but rather because the monumental proportions of such a situation were far too much for anyone to absorb at once without any second thoughts.

Behind all this something else was also beginning to stir, something which had for sometime been dormant. The constant bombardment and pressures of the imperial ministry, assailing him with one dull and unspectacular woman after the other had quickly killed any interest in an area which should have been the undying attention of any normal young man. But the threat of being placed in thrall to some higher power for any such thing was a pretty powerful negative incentive.

The imperial ministry and its corrupt parts had been dealt with and cut away now, but even then interest had not returned immediately. It had simply been suppressed too long, and again all those available were far to dull to provide the necessary jolt. Hanna though was quite obviously a difference, and Osmar found that that long dead interest was resurfacing.

Realizing this, he felt a sudden flush of embarrassment and mentally scolded himself before he replied.

"Is zis really all so? It soun'd's as if ze Heaven's have been des't'royed. Is it possib'le?

[The Empire]

"I wouldn't know emperor, though it might seem as if I came from the heavens in your eyes I assure you that there was not much heavenly about the world we left behind and though there are some I mourn more than others there were also those that deserved a worse fate than what came to them."

[Mor'os]

"Not heavenly?" There was now a note of genuine puzzlement in the Emperor's voice. He turned to Parzan, gave him a searching look. Parzan grinned desperately while at the same time cringing under Osmar's gaze.

"Tle su dis in se?" He asked nervously. Osmar didn't bother to enter, and still puzzling returned to Hanna.

"Parzan was very c'lear zat you fell f'rom the s'ky on a g'reat chariot of fire, zat zere was a g'reat b'las't zat b'roke ze s'ky."

[The Empire]

"Well, in part that story is true, in others it's completely insane. WHat happened was that when our vessel entered this world's skies, the speed was so great that the air surrounding it started to glow, it's the same sort of thing that happens when someone uses sticks to make fire but on a larger scale. Sometime during that part, something in our vessel went wrong, we almost lost all control and barely managed to pull up enough to crash in a green field instead of hitting a mountain some days walk from where we landed. I don't know how much of our vessel Parzan or his crazy priest actually saw when he was taken to our temporary camp close to the partially destroyed vessel. I can draw a sketch of it later if you want."

[Mor'os]

Osmar listened with intent, happy at any chance to hear a more in depth account of the story. When Hanna had finished talking, he nodded with a note of understanding, with the impression that he had been enlightened and felt the better for it.

"Ah, yes yes." he said still nodding a bit. "Zat does soun'd better zan what Parzan described." He allowed himself to laugh a bit. "T'raveling ac'ross the Heaven's in a carriage would sim'p'ly be silly." He nodded a bit more to show off his great and deep understanding further. "Now a vessel, zat is far better. A g'reat boat wis which to sail ze sea of s'tar's and celestial bodies, g'lowing wis ze power used."

He looked upwards, allowing himself to loosen up a bit, to relax. "Amazing. I have never been on a ship of ze Earsly water's. To sail Heaven." He looked again to Parzan, but with a patronizing look rather than an angry one this time. Parzan returned it with forced good will.

"I do not b'lame Parzan for the mistake. He is a nob'le as you may well no, and were you fin'd him tell's zat he is a very dull one, an'd zat is somesing." He looked again. As suspected, Parzan did not understand a word of it. "Zey zough will be removed soon enough, and sings will be put right as is Heaven's will."

[The Empire]

"I belive you emperor"

As they approached the palace's outer gates, the Mor'osi guards on the inside snapped to attention and bowed low before they hurriedly opened the gates to let them out. As the Princess and Osmar appeared, the princess's royal guards snapped to attention while most of Parzan's household dropped to their knees and faces in the direction of their divine emperor.