Arrival

[Mor'os]

Osmar surveyed the scene, counting them off one by one. It was not hard to pick out of course just who were the so called divine from those servants who'd come as attendents on the journey from Parzan's household. But first gut impressions, they seemed a good lot on the whole. Disciplined, certainly, something that Osmar and Mor'os as a whole admired in any man, woman or even child. True, they weren't bowing as per the proper protocal, but when Osmar considered it a bit more that was perfectly fine. They were after all servants from the entity from which he drew his divine mandate, and thus higher on the pecking order than he was.

This of course called for a certain action from him. He bowed, saying "It is my p'leasure and honor to g'reet an'd be host for gues't's like you." He rose again and faced them. Parzan's servants were still of course on the ground, heads pressed down as if attempting to burrow in respect and perhaps fear as well.

"Ū," said Osmar. The lot of them hastened to their feet. "An'd honored gues't's mus't be tired because of such a g'reat journey. P'lease, if you will follow I will show you the new garden's an'd will summon for a meal. Ozer's will direc't your servan't's to zeir p'lace."

[The Empire]

Colonel Gustavsson bowed his head in thanks towards Osmar then did an about face to the other royal guards.
"Ni hörde deras kejsare, dubbelkolonn efter mig, marsch!"
The colonel did another about face as the royal guards quickly and smoothly fell in in two perfect marching columns behind him without any hint of disorder, apparently, they could either read eachothers minds or they must have been drilled to the extreme. It was the latter that came closest to the truth even though it was a slight understatement.
"My people are ready emperor, and please don't be offended about them not bowing, our customs have other means of showing respect and our uniformed military or police personell don't bow even to royalty as that would compromise their ability to do their duty of serving and protecting the people and the royal family, unfortunately, not even that was good enough to save my parents from the explosion that killed them."

[Mor'os]

"No, it is no t'rouble. Being who you are you are under no obligation to bow to me. It is ze differen'ce zat is razer true." He paused a moment to think, watching the Imperials fall into marching order neatly. "Zat is not need'ed if you wish, ceremony is not necessary now." He sensed he missed something. His brain came to an ackward realization. He even went so far as to blush slightly

"I am sorry for your paren't's. I cannot rightly know zis, for my own mother lives zough my fazer is dead. Zough I worry his gone soul might not find ze favor I hope with me." He stopped there, not really sure where he ought to carry the conversation which he had just killed to. "P'lease, again, follow." Without waiting for a reply he set off across the grounds. From the vacuum he and the others left a cluster of ministers skittered out from some unseen hiding place to attend to the servants, horses and carriages.

"P'lease forgive any failings as a hos't. Ze ol'd palace has been los't to fire, an'd the new one is not comp'lete yet an'd wan't's for many sings. Change can be taxing if need'ed."

[The Empire]

Hanna choose to let the change of subject slip, too much was happening around them for her to dwell on such sad matters now.
"I assure you, I don't mind, after all, everything since we came here besides a slight mishap on our way here, has been constant improvement."

Still, until the royal guards were out of sight from the people outside the gates, they marched in perfect order. As the gates closed behind them though, colonel Gustavsson stood them down to at ease and they disbanded the formation while some of them started to talk to eachother.

"Öh, Jonsson, tror du de har något schysst käk på det här bygget?" (Hey, Jonsson, do you think they have any ok grub at this joint?)

"Ingen aning, men det borde vara bättre klass än den där wok-sörjan vi fick ute på vischan." (Not a clue, but it's bound to be classier that that wok-gunk we got in the outback.)

"Hoppas du har rätt för jag har då ingen lust att få rännskita igen"(Sure hope you're right cause I have no wish to shit a creek again,
a comment that resulted in a burst of laughter.)

Suddenly, Osmar felt something big and soft nudge him in the side, at first he thought it might be Sasha but she was trotting along further ahead...

OOC: Side note, translation is not on a word-by-word basis but is altered to get roughly the same meaning.

[Mor'os]

Osmar had listened to the soldiers converse. He hadn't understood a word of it, but still was fascinated by virtue of his inability to understand. Anyone could hear the languages spoken by other members of the mundane earthly realms. But to hear something that could have come from no other place but the Heavens themselves almost felt privileged. It was a bit odd he had to admit. He'd never heard any mention of  any such special language even existing. Then again, he'd heard nothing about there not being one.

Still, understanding aside, what had been said didn't sound composed and divine.

His linguistic observations were cut short when an unknown entity bumped up against him. Puzzled and perhaps a bit worried about what it might be this time, he looked down. And there stood another tiger. Not at the moment mauling him or doing some other such horrible thing, but a tiger all the same and still for all he could know a potential danger.

"Fū vang īn?" he asked no one in particular in a slightly stupified mutter.

[The Empire]

Nikolai looked up at Osmar and nudged him again, like a huge house-cat wanting to be scratched on the back...

The princess looked at the 13 year old tiger with a sigh and then gave osmar a faint smile, looking slightly embarrased.
Even though the two tigers had been adult for a long time, they still behaved themselves like cubs that owned the world around them most of it.

[Mor'os]

"You have two tiger's wis you?" said Osmar, now putting the question directly to Hanna. "Zat is... interesting." After considering it for a moment, he decided that he may as well put the other obvious and nagging question that the situation brought to mind for him, and would for most people.

"Are you entirely sure zat zey are bos safe?"

[The Empire]

"As safe as tigers can be, emperor, but one has to make sure that they don't get too excited when they want to play as they could injure someone even if they don't mean to. On another note, the fuel level in my own and the guards's armours are running very low and we would prefer to change into something less bulky before it runs out, if possible even before dinner."

[Mor'os]

"Ah, I cannot say I have had anysing like a tiger before. P'ractice here is usually to run or kill them..." An ackward cough from Osmar, and then he continued. "But ze armor, no power? I suppose ze enchan't'men't's will not las't on ear's. I am sure zat ex't'ra c'lozing can be foun'd for you an'd your f'rien'd's in ze palace. We have quite a few, perhap's too much. It would be better if you d'ress'ed p'revious to eating."

Osmar stopped. By now the group had made its way across the open grounds of the court, and had passed under an arch into the walled complex within. The paths here were made of crushed stone rather than cobblestones, and there was greenery, plant life and birds present. A keen eye could discern also lazy koi in a distant pond. Osmar's face lit up when he caught sight of a rather unimpressive looking woman slide open a door on the nearest building and walk out onto the patio that encircled the structure.

"A, vī!" The women looked up from the task of closing the door behind her, and gave a little gasp as she layed eyes on the party. Before she had a chance to properly address the emperor he cut her short.

"Kal al shem dī lī al donmon dī bos. Ad tabsun i da sūmmon ha par dī osh. Ras us!"

The female servant gave a reverent bow. "So se." She turned to the odd company that followed the emperor and smiled as was expected of her. "Tag-sam sū tēl sai." she said, attempting to indicate that they were to follow while maintaining a servant's composure worthy of the Imperial Household. All considered, she did quite well, a feat which  could be chalked up to year's experience.

[The Empire]

"Thank you emperor, but if you don't mind I'd like to use my own clothes, they are in one of the crates we brought, one of the ligher ones that's not of wood, the heavy ones hold equipment of another sort. When it comes to my guards, they could use the change."
She said before following the maid and gesturing to her guards to follow.

When they left, Sasha and Nikolai had dissapeared but their location could be discerned relatively easy due to the warning cries and rustle of the other inhabitants of the garden as the two tigers played...

[Mor'os]

"Oh," said Osmar, secretly a bit disappointed at having been denied a chance to treat his guests, particularly Hanna, with all due hospitality. "Zat will make sings easier I sink," he continued, lying with a cheery veneer. "Tai! Aut on donmon bos." he shouted out to the female servant as Hanna moved off with her and the other Imperials, back through the sliding door which had only so recently been opened and back into the depths of the conflict. Osmar watched them dissapear behind the wood framed door, feeling again that renewed interest surfacing from the deep depths of mental repression. This time around he didn't suppress it immediately

Allowing himself a faint little smile, he wondered off around the house to the main garden to see that everything would be properly readied.

[The Empire]

Once the servants had found the right crate with Hanna's clothes and the guards were starting to look somewhat more like wealthy if somewhat bulky locals. Under the interested and respectful eyes of the female servant, Hanna was removing piece by piece of her power armour's outer layer, revealing the exoskeleton and it's strong hydraulic actuators and the soft armour-coverall  beneath. 
Once she had taken off the exoskeleton and the coverall, she used the small IR-remote to unlock the crate and it's lid hizzed open, revealing her clothes and some other minor things within. Standing there in her underwear, she took out two dresses from the crate, one red and one black, indicating with a look at the female servant that she wanted advice on wich one to choose, both were made of perfectly even synthetic spider silk, though of a different quality than that used in the armours, this quality had been developed for luster, even rivalling that of natural silk.

[Mor'os]

The female servant watched this whole scene unfold passively, showing no signs of awe or embarrassment or any such emotions that one might expect to be associated with such an event. Secretly within the safe and secure confines of her own mind she could have been feeling such things for all that anyone will every know, but it was not her place and job to express these feelings. Her duty was to be a servant, nothing more, and she was quite good at it.


When Hanna was done changing and putting on the clothing she had stored away in the crates, the servant smiled warmly, not speaking, and in this silence began to lead the way back through the halls of the building, and out a different door than they had entered. Here there was a far bigger garden, complete with a koi pond over which a willow sagged, cherry trees, an artificial stream babbling along, even a small pagoda of sorts in the center of it all. Osmar was no where to be seen for his part.

[The Empire]

Hanna just watched, joyful memories of her childhood in the Imperial gardens surfacing, memories of her parents taking days off to play with her, picknics on sunny days, unexpected rain, laughter and also the day Nikolai and Sasha was born, blind, cute and cuddly-looking. She felt at peace until she accidentally remembered a morning run that took a turn for the worse and she put a hand up to her right shoulder as she remembered the searing pain of the assassin's bullet that grazed her, failing to kill her by not more than an inch. From that, her memories strayed to the peace initiative meeting in the Celtic Queendom where she had recived the word that her parents had been assassinated by resistance and that her life was in danger if she returned. Wich in turn led her to the liberation of Carona and  the sight of the charred, twisted remains of hundreds of cherry and apple trees that was the Imperial gardens and the huge heap of cracked and soot-stained marble, steel, concrete and melted glass that once had been the royal palace and the nuclear mushroom clouds rising through the higher clouds like popping corn.
Her knees buckled at the stream of painful memories, causing her to sob quietly. Almost everything she had ever truly loved had been taken from her and now she had noone to really turn to, sure, her guards were loyal and friendly but none of them were the kind of person she could vent to, sure they listened allright but that, she was pretty sure of, had more to do with them having to. She had never felt so lonely and helpless and now with only that servant around, her mask of self-control and security had shattered once the preassure to keep it up had fallen.
As so often when she was a young girl, there was someone who always came to her when she was sad, the great white tigress had climbed up on a large rock placed at the pond and now walked over to her, nudging Hanna with her big head and laying down in front of her, silent tears wetting the fur on Sasha's neck as Hanna hugged her feline friend and buried her face in the warm and smooth fur.

[Mor'os]

Elsewhere in the residence Osmar's good mood stood in an uncomfortable juxtaposition to Hanna's clearly miserable one. He of course was not aware of it yet, so it was not be chalked up to a sadistic attitude. As seen, he had entered the day and many recent ones previous in high spirits, thrilled at the success of his plans and efforts to bring about a new Mor'os. The modernization efforts were going ahead at a healthy place, and the final piece to top it all off was due to be declared the very next day. And as if to give credit and mandate to all of this, the divine (Hanna's explanations to the contrary had gone in one ear and out the other) had come down from Heaven. He was nearly to the point of giddiness inappropriate of an Emperor.

So it was quite the mood killer when he returned to the garden, now dressed in a far nicer shirt and pants, proper belt and sash, all topped off with one of his best jackets, to find Hanna sobbing on Sasha with the nameless female servant attempting to comfort her without any comprehension of the Inglish language and without getting in range of the potential danger posed by the tiger. Hearing the approaching clatter of Osmar's geta she turned about, her composure broken by by desperation and inability to act in any meaningful way.

"Pol, pol se! Bu..."

Osmar waved her away, shaking his head to tell her that it would do no good and that she was dismissed. The command was great-fully received, and she hastened to carry out this blessedly clear directive. Osmar was however not subject to this same mercy, and was left alone to resolve the issue. Unable to think of any better course of action, he cautioned talk.

"Are you well?" Even as he said it he knew it sounded stupid, but he could not think of anything better.