Arrival

[The Empire]

"I asked because it almost sounded as if you were abolishing yourself there for a while Osmar." Hanna laughed heartily
Kiss him! you know you want to...
But I can't, I don't know how...
Stop beeing a chicken now Hanna! You was raised to become emperess of the largest nation in the Lexicon and here you are wavering like a silly little girl, what's different between taking what you want in battle and taking it in love?
No!, not now, not when there is people around!
Hanna, he is an emperor, you are a princess, noone would dare protest or even stay in sight!
Stop it, be quiet, I'm not going to do that! I hardly know him!
Byt you have to admit he is handsome even with his silly wooden slippers and funny little hat.
Mmmm.... NO! I can't think like that.
As Osmar opened his mouth to reply, he noticed that Hanna was blushing.

[Mor'os]

"No, no, I s'till do not have to consen't to all petition's, but now zey will be p'roperly...heard..." Osmar trailed off when he saw Hanna in her current state. Deep down, he actually felt something similar, that ackwardness and and embarrassment. But he didn't say that. Instead, he said "Is zere somesing wrong?"

[The Empire]

Oh god, am I that obvious!
Hanna's face assumed an even more crimson colour with Osmar's question...
"Umm, no, nothing's wrong, nothing at all."
Hanna tried to hide her blushing by looking into the ground but somehow that didn't work too well and she tried to force it back instead wich earned a partial success.

[Mor'os]

"Oh..." Osmar was not sure what to make of the current situation. The increase in Hanna's embarrassment was only serving to bring his to the surface of his thoughts and emotions.

"Are you sure? We have medicine if you are feeling unwell..."

[The Empire]

"No, no, I assure you Osmar, there is nothing wrong with my health." Finally, her face had regained it's normal colour and the air around her didn't feel quite as hot.
It's kind'a cute that he worries about me like that but all I need right now is a really cold shower

[Mor'os]

"Ah...zat...zat is good to hear." Osmar gulped. Now was time for a fast and rapid transition to another subject, before he himself gave into his own emotions boiling up from below. As if by Heaven's mercy, one presented itself.

"Ah, here we are." Before them stood a building near complete, bamboo scaffolding ensconcing those parts that remained unfinished. It's architecture stylistically seemed to be just about the same as everything else in the government complex, but if someone had been told previously that it served a legislative function the legislative appearance could be drawn out from it. One of course could have just as easily concluded it to be the residence of the Imperial Censor and offices of the Bureaucracy if they'd been told so.

"Zis will be ze home of the Yhessos."

[The Empire]

"Interesting, I saw wires hanging from poles and between houses when I traveled through the city and assumed they were for electricity or for communication, is any such wires beeing drawn into the palace grounds?"

[Mor'os]

"Ah, so you have seen ze new sing's? Yes, zose are for new telephones, power an'd ze like. But not here. Here zough, ze wires are all under'g'roun'd. Zey would not fit ze look of sings if zere were wires everywhere."

Having answered, Osmar took a moment's consideration. "Perhap's zis was not ze bes't p'lace to visit, I apologize. We cannot see more of it, an'd zere would be nosing of interes't inside."

[The Empire]

Laying her free hand over the one Osmar used to hold her arm Hanna said with a smile: "I assure you I don't mind"

In the west, the sun dissapeared below the horizon and servants started to scurry around lighting and hanging up paper lanterns, giving the whole palace a dangerously romantic atmosphere...

[Mor'os]

"Zat late already? Zere is not much life lef't in ze day." Osmar frowned in thought as he considered what would be the best possible fashion to make use of what remained of the day. A stroke of inspiration met him, and his face lit up with that enlightened moment.

"Ah, I know a p'lace zat would be perfec't for zis time of ze day. Do you min'd climbing?"


Osmar could not remember when this particular pagoda had been first constructed. No doubt he could look it up fairly easily or ask one of the monks that staffed it, but he had never had any reason to know this on the occasions he had visited it. Nor did he have one now, so he didn't. So he didn't. What little he knew of it though was that it was tall, and the elegant structure afforded an excellent view of the river.

"Do not worry, we are nearly at ze top," said Osmar, fighting back breathlessness as they continued to tread up on seemingly endless steps. "It will be wor's it I p'romise." Finally, the endless steps somehow managed to end, possibly tired of being infinite in number. The final room atop the structure was small, lest the structure beneath be unable to support it. Golden light from the dying day streamed from the west in through the windows that encircled the room.

"P'lease, take a look at ze view."

[The Empire]

The view of the city that spread out beneath her as Hanna walked up to the windows was amazing. Half way to the horizon there was the golden-red band of the river snaking it's way towards the sea. From it, the narrow streets and alleys criss-crossed among the red, black and green roofs of the city's houses, here and there pierced by pagodas, though none as tall as the one they were in. From the countless chimneys, narrow trails of white smoke rose towards the scarlet skies in the last light of the day.

"It's amazing Osmar" Hanna said, almost breathlessly while trying to take it all in.

[Mor'os]

"It was wor's ze effor't was it not? Zis was anozer favorite s'pot of mine. Up here, I fel't as if I were in ze c'loud's zemsel'ves, looking down on all c'reation. I fel't zat zere was nosing zat could possibly be taller zan zis wisout going s't'raight to Heaven...well, excep't for ze pagoda in Daang. S'till, even now I fin'd it har'd to believe zat everywhere zere are many building's as an'd taller zan zis one, as if it were nosing amazing at all. An'd soon we will have many of our own. If you look, you can already see ze new cons't'ruction of some such buildings, wiz much more to come."

[The Empire]

"Yes, I can see them, but Osmar, don't let all theese new things go to your head, remember the old ways too and try to make it work together, it would be a sad mistake indeed to let all of theese older buildings that has stood here for thousands of years to be wiped away in an instant and replaced with steel and concrete. It takes away some of the warmth in people's hearts eventually. I have seen it happen in my homeland, I wouldn't want it to happen here too.

Turning towards Osmar, she let her brown-green eyes catch his while she took his hands in hers.
"Thank you for taking me here Osmar"

As the silence surrounded them, the sun set and the night embraced them in the warm darkness of late summer.

[Mor'os]

Osmar had for a moment wanted to put her fears to rest, assure her that much of what was in the old city walls would be maintaine. But after she gave him that look, thanked him, as the night began to set in and cloak the city in a deep darkness, he felt there was no need to say it. He felt that there was no need to say anything at the moment; it was perfect, or as close to it as one could hope to attain on earth, and he did not want to risk spoiling it.

Instead, he decided to stand there and just allow himself to be absorbed by the darkness, the silence, thoughts of what he should and had done in the past and thoughts of what he would need to do in the future banished from his mind.

[The Empire]

I will never be able to look myself in the mirror if this goes wrong

Slowly, without a sound, Hanna leaned in closer until she could almost feel his beard light as a feather against her lips and then she did something she had never done before.
In spite of her nerves, she cautiously kissed him.
Right then, she was so concentrated that it felt as time stood still when her lips met his and then just as cautiously parted again and she tried to sense if she had done the right thing.