Taijitu
Forum Meta => Role Play => Archived Role Play Boards => Archive => General Roleplay => Topic started by: The Empire on January 05, 2007, 09:26:43 AM
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Tailing the Myrorian ships until they arrived at this new world was a smaller but more advanced-looking spacecraft, The Imperial Ark.
Settling into high orbit, the crew commenced visual observations to find a suitable landing site and spectrometers to determine the state of the atmosphere.
On the third pass they had located a suitable location and determined the atmosphere was fit to breathe and Princess Hanna initiated the landing cycle.
First of all, the three small sattelites in the hold were released into orbit and allowed to stabilize themselves before the secondary cycle was initated and the spacecraft fiered retro-rockets, allowing gravity to grab it and the decent started. The bottom of the spacecraft started to glow as the friction ignited the air around them and they passed the point of no return. As the spacecraft had slowed enough to remain cool, breaking thrusters were fiered and the breaking chutes were deployed. The ground was approaching fast but the plain below looked smooth enough to handle. Landing skis were deployed and the spacecraft touched down, small trees and shrubs were swept aside or snapped like straws as they were hit and small rocks tore the landing gear to shreds. As the spacecraft came to a halt on it's bottom, it just lay there like some large dead beast, the ceramic panels scattered in it's path still smoking from the heat of entering the atmosphere.
The night came and all was still calm. Inside the cockpit, The crew was slowly regaining consciousness.
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As the crew regained conciousness the only light came from the windows, they tried to restart the craft's computers but it was impossible, two of the royal guard staggered back into the airlock and tried to open the outer door, it was stuck. Grabbing the door by the edges, the two guards locked their gloves and pulled with all the strength their armour gave them to one side, slowly but certainly the groan of the opening mechanism grew more and more strained until the hinges snapped, causing the two guards to fall out of the opening together with the heavy door and down onto something they hadn't seen in months, green grasses and plants. as they recovered form their fall, they scanned the horizon for any sign of civilization, using both optical and IR augmentation.
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Apparently they had crashed at the edge of a field of crops where strands of beans ready for harvest was flowing in long lines.
"Errm, I think we better get the princess and the others out here"
"Yeah, I think you are right"
The two guards moved quickly back to the open door and went in. As they removed their helmets a sweet smell reached their noses.
"Crap, the cryo tubes..."
"Well, the power is fucked so there is nothing we can do for the frozen. Let's get the princess and our buddies out of here before the coolant gasses knock 'em out permanently."
They climbed back into the cockpit and started to cut the harnesses that was holding the princess and the other crew members strapped to their seats in the uppside-down celing.
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They worked as quick as they could with cutting the crew free and dragging those who were still passed out outside to safety but the work was hard and time was short as the coolant gas leaking slowly from the broken cryo-tubes filled the rear compartments of the spacecraft.
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As night came the Princess had started to regain some consciousness but her head felt like it was being processed in a steel mill, throbbing and pounding where she was lying on a mylar blanket staring at the stars while the deep rumble of Sasha's breath, the great white tigress sleeping behind her. Nikolai, her yellow male tiger was as could be expected resting his head in the lap on one of the guards sitting by the fire, getting his chin and the back of his ears rubbed.
Some distance away, Lieutenant Tanja Ljung, one of the better off guards was sitting behind a make-shift cover she had made of a felled tree, keeping a lookout using the night vision mode of her visor. most of the guards was sleeping or tending to nicks and bruises they had taken. The fire pit was lined with ceramic shards from the heat shield that had scattered all over the place in the crash but due to the explosion-hazard of the coolant vapour near the spacecraft the makeshift camp had been made at a safe distance.
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The sun slowly faded to the west behind the panorama of rolling mountains, ushering in a lazy and gentle summer dusk in rural Sēkad. The cicadas incensent chirping permeated the air, but were joined by no other sound. A satisfied Manzhī Tadom surveyed this scenery from his doorway, and was at peace for it.
It had been a good year; plentiful rain born by the typhoons which, while spelling destruction for the coastal provinces were a boon to those of the western foothills. Manzhī had quietly and discretely tucked away that nasty concern about profiting from the misery of others deep within his brain so that he might enjoy his success untroubled. The beans in particular had done well, and it was this particular distant plot which he now admired, as though the thing were visible. At this rate there would be plenty of the bean jam which his son loved so much for the boy's birthday. Manzhī loved the boy deeply, little Shau'as, and spoiled him at any given chance.
"Lhun ti rī īn?"
It was his wife, Halmu, who had stepped out to join him in his revery. Firmly seated in her arms was Shau'as, babbling and gurgling away happily as he always did.
"So so..."
Shau'as at that point let out a delighted squeal, with no apparent provocation, and began to wildly wave his arms about and pointing to the sky eagerly. He smiled and gurgled some more. Both parents looked up to where the boy pointed only to be stunned, and with good reason.
"Manzhī, tle īn?" Halmu asked with concern as the fiery streak that raced across the sky seemed to grow brighter, larger and above all more immediately deadly and dangerous.
"Nolne..." Manzhī replied to no one in particular, in a stupor of sorts. The air began to rumble ominously. The fire grew brigher and bigger, which only made Shau'as all the more happier and terrified his parents further. Manzhī took a step back, and then another, retreating into what little safety his thatch and plaster home would provide against Heaven's apparent wrath. With no instruction his wife followed and the door was shut firmly. Shau'as let out a petulent whine, angry at having been denied this marvelous sight.
The house shook. Pottery and utensils rattled, loose plaster fell as dust to the floor. The shaking was taken all in stride; earthquakes were a fact of life in Mor'os. But the roar, and the terrible balls of fire were completely and certainly not. Huddled in the corner the family waited as the roar grew stronger, like some fearsome beast drawing closer and closer to consume them all. And then...
The shockwave and blast that followed were simply so tremendous that Manzhī's brain didn't register it, for fear of overloading itself. Time and space seemed to simply skip a beat, and then level off into a silence made all the more profound by the cacophany that had preceeded it, spiced with the intermitant sound of plaster crumbling. Manzhī was the first to cast a cautious glance upward; Shau'as only failed to do so because his mother had kept him firmly pinned to her bosom. The house seemed intact, if a complete housekeeping disaster. Standing, he walked through the ominous gloom and silence to see what there was to see.
Anything not firmly planted in the ground had been thrown it seemed. Further away, closer to the center of the epic blast, Manzhī could see that anything that wasn't the ground itself had been thrown. A great, ominous hulk loomed...right on top of the bean harvest.
Manzhī's weakened heart broke. All that money, bean jam...gone...
Halmu's head peaked out of the door. Her eyes widened at what she saw. Shau'as giggled happily. Manzhī groaned and put his head in his hands. And for the moment, that's what the lot did.
Elsewhere, concerned folk were filing to the scene to investigate the Ark's less than subtle approach. Not particularly numerous, but particularly concerned and curious, if not outright terrified...
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Spotting the small but growing crowd coming down the hillside beyond, Lieutenant Tanja reported to the others through her com-link.
**We have company, a small crowd coming this way**
**Got it, I'm gathering those who are fit enough to move and coming to you**
crouching down further, Tanja held her rifle tight against the shoulder guard of her armour but didn't raise it to aim yet she activated the forest night pattern for her armour and melted away into the shadows.
The sudden comotion got Nikolai's attention and he went over to his mate, pushing Sasha gently in the side with his nose and with a soft growl the tigress stirred awake. Four of the royal guards were moving carefully towards Lieutenant tanja's position, the powerplants and actuators of their armours humming softly in the cool night air.
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Vethash-sam was first to arrive on the scene. The Tadom family was already there of course, but already being there it would have been impossible for them to arrive in any way. His plot was just across the dirt road which wound its way from the village and to the east, and it was to be expected. He was greeted by the sight of Manzhī sulking against the wall of his home, still lamenting the loss of his bean crop. Halmu was sitting nearby, cradling Sauas in her arms. Sauas had exhausted himself through excitement and was now soundly asleep.
"Are ya'll okay here?" he asked in the nasally dialect of the Sēkad region. "I heard a terrible roar. Done woke up father and upset my little ones." Manzhī stuck to sulking, but Halmu looked up.
"Ah, Vethash-sam! It's a real blessin' seein' ya here. It was terrible, just as ya said. A great bright steak of fire cut 'cross the sky and landed right in Manzhī's beans. Frightened poor little Shauas here so..."
"Landed in your crops?" Until now Vethash's mind had not processed the presence of that large other worldly thing sitting in Tadom's bean crop; it had just been unable to accept that such a thing could exist until someone else had confirmed its existance for him.
"Heaven, that's certainly something ya've got there..."
"I just know this is all yar fault someways Raugeb!" A yet unseen third party was now approaching, but all present immediately recognized that terrible cry. It was even enough to get Manzhī to look up for a couple of seconds.
"Please, there ain't no reason that you gotta..."
"Don't try and talk ya way out of this one Raugeb! I know that you ain't been visiting yar parent's tomb like ya's supposed to! Now you've done gone and called Heaven's angry hand down on all of us! Our children too!"
Kirmu Forbazh was known for the manner in which she constantly chastised her husband for not meeting the high moral standards she seemed to expect of anyone. Raugeb for his part never seemed to improve, at least in her opinion. In some ways it was now what people expected, and it was when the two were at peace that worry was stirred.
Raugeb firmly chose to ignore this last comment and speak to the presumably less hostile Vethash.
"What's all this about? I was just hopin' for some sleep when the whole sky seems to open above me."
"That." Vethash merely said and pointed. Raugeb blinked. Kirmu ceased her verbal assault and stared.
"Well, that is something. What do we do about this all now then?"
Vethash shrugged. "Wait until that prefect shows up- well I reckon he might be here with us now."
Sure enough, fate had with that ever potent attention to convenient coincidence had orchestrated at this moment the arrival of prefect Parzan, everyone else in the thorpe in tow. The man was generally held in low regard: an Ar, stupid and appointed to the backwater no doubt to get him out of the way. There was nervous babbling. Parzan took one good look at the craft, and then conferred in hurried whispers with his left hand man. An expectant hush fell. Momentarily, he came back and coughed slightly, readying himself for the aggrandized speach which was a must in moments like this.
"I am told that this-" he motioned to the appropriate thing "is a vehicle of Divinity sent from Heaven itself! We must proceed in the proper manner! Make haste, make haste! There must be gifts and welcome for them unless we wish to risk Heaven's wrath. Go to it now! Food and drink would make a good start." He waved his hands in such a way that he appeared to be shooing the peasants away from him, which was partly true. Murmering, the crowd dispersed to do as they'd been told. Halmu stood to her feet.
"Well, I'm gonna go and put little Shauas in bed and cook up the spare rice. Ya'll might want to do the same. To think, divine messengers here in our little village. Ain't something ya see often..."
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**There seems to be some commotion in the crowd, they don't seem to be hostile but several of them have been gesturing towards the ark, what do you suggest we do colonel?**
**We wait, it doesn't seem as they have seen anything but the ship just yet and the campfire is concealed from them by that mound**
The five guards took up low positions along the row of trees on thier side of the causeway and the hum of their armours softened as they settled and the need for actuator power lessened.
Nicolai and Sasha was curious and now climbed the mound, the shilluettes of the two fully grown tigers contrasted against the darkening evening sky and they roared, letting the new world's air vibrate with their annouced presence.
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"Yes yes, put the rice over there..."
Despite the late time of day, probably more accurately denoted as night in fact by this point, the village had been rather fast in accumalating a sizable tribute, or at least for the size of the community. In absolute terms it was utterly pathetic, but people were banking on the Gods being a merciful and understanding lot. No one there had ever met them in person; who was to say what they'd be like in person? Parzan was now going over and micromanaging every aspect of the process, and was smugly satisfied with himself.
"Wonderful, wonderful. Priest!" A wisened old man answered the call.
"Wuh?" he croaked.
"You are versed in the proper ceremony?"
"Wuh?"
"I said, are you versed in the proper ceremony?!"
"I s'pose... march 'long and mumble and the hurdy and the gurdy..."
"Then get us started already." Parzan was becoming impatient. "You all! Ready with those gifts?" A vague mumble of yes came from those who'd been selected as bearers.
"Good, good. Then let us-"
The tiger's roars split the dusk, and sent a collective shiver up the spines of all those in earshot.
"I told you Raugeb!" shrieked Kirmu automatically. "That's the sound of divine justice I tell you, and you've done gone and brought it on us all!" Her righteous fury was fast consumed though by the larger collective clamor.
"Tiger!"
"Tigers!"
By the same impulse that will cause a deer to steer into oncoming headlights, the group froze and waited, staring in terrified awe at the creeping silhouettes. Only a glum Manzhī remained unmoved.
"Priest!" cried Parzan desperately as he shook the old man. "What does this all mean?"
"Wuh?"
"I said, what does this all mean?!"
"That we're all going to die I s'pose...done my time for sure..."
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Neither Sasha or Nicolai were very interested in the new toys but some of the tributes smelled much more interesting, however, she had not said they could have it so they lay down , waiting.
The colonel signed to his four soldiers and spoke through the com-link as he stepped up on the causeway.
**Forward.**
Half a step behind, the lieutenant and the others followed, the five royal guards in Mk 1 power armour with dark green m90 forest camouflage separated from the shadows, their eyepices reflecting the sed glow of the setting sun.
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Parzan and the assorted peasantry gathered behind him stared in a stupidified and silent awe at the terrible figures now advancing on them. Parzan made a series of unpleasant, squirming motions to the elderly priest who, lost in his own blissful senility, had not quite grasped the full gravitas of the present situation.
"Priest! Do something! You are the holy man here are you not? Go and welcome... them."
The old man squinted at him. "Yes, I've been a priest my whole life... now what was that last part?"
"I said go welcome them!" he was hissing, as fear forced his whispers into unpleasant formations.
"Okey dokey..." he mumbled, and shuffled down the causeway, still oblivious to just who or what he was about to make contact with. When he deemed himself close enough, he cleared his throat and after having allowed the proper dramatic pause began.
"O, da da ten on sar-samsam. sēv-cham sū vī-samsam jī i hal." Though many in years, practice ensured a relatively impressive delivery. A few impressed murmurs in the crowd even managed to briefly surface through the maelstrom of fear and shock.
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WTF are they saying... CPU, decompress helmet. CPU, open helmet
The colonel turned slowly towards the crowd and his helmet hissed as it decompressed and the visor flipped backwards and up to reveal his face, the face of a man in his late thirties with a three-day beard and moustache.
Lowering their weapons slightly, the other guards also opened their helmets and adopted a more relaxed stance.
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The crowd leaned back and held their breath as one in collective, nerve wracking anticipation as the terrifying arrivals began to remove their helmets. All except of course for the priest, who passed the seconds by humming some indistinguishable tune to himself.
The colonel's revealed, the old priest's brain moved slightly, as it still did against on all reason on certain occasions. He peered upwards through squinted eyes, in keen examination. The crowd, breath still held, mirrored his intent and leaned forward slightly. Though, he did not say it, he was slighly dissapointed to see that this was what had caused all those panicked people to wake him from his evening nap. Tall, yes, but he'd found most people were taller than he, the onset of age having gradually reduced his own height. All in all, he looked like yet another shabby individual, wandering from here to nowhere.
"E...gen īn-cham?" the elderly man, finally concerned by the confusion of the new visitors.
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In ozian, the colonel replied:
"What place is this old man?"
When looking closer, the priest saw the sword that hung at the colonel's side, a blade at least four feet from hilt to tip with hundreds of small teeth on some sort of chain along one side. The flat side of the blade had an etching of a winged lizard and symbols of a strange language underneath it.
When the colonel swept his hand across the land to punctuate his question, the old priest barely noticed a quiet whinnying sound from the elbow and shoulder of the stranger's armour, rising and falling in strength with the speed of the stranger's movements. similiar whinnying and buzzing sounds were emanating from the other strangers aswell.
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"Eh?"
The old man started in a most puzzled fashion as the strange man spoke. Evidently, there was a seperate tongue from man which the Gods spoke, or so he concluded. It made sense he supposed. Problem was, he did not understand it.
The sword was nice. It looked very impressive and godlike, as it should.
But still, the language barrier wasn't doing any good. He desperately pondered the situation. At last he gave up.
"Pal, pal, pal! Henne."
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Ok, so Ozian didn't work, now what...
The colonel was a bit puzzled as he had never expected to be the one making first contacts with aliens, let alone on their own planet... He had always expected that if he was ever going to meet aliens they would be the ones coming to his planet and that the Emperess or some other head of state would do the actual talking... not him being shipwrecked on theirs and not with the only one outranking him being half unconcious a couple of hundred yards away...
He turned to the other guards.
"Anyone else has any bright ideas?"
"None at the moment I'm afraid sir.." replied Lieutenant Tanya
"Ok, back to basics then eh?"
The colonel sank to one knee and started to draw in the dirt on the causeway. What he drew was a series of circles: the system of planets and moons that Taijitu was part of, with one small difference, a small shape on a dotted line heading for Taijitu, the Imperial Ark's trajectory...
As he was done, he rose again, motioning to the priest to take a look.
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As commanded to do by motion, the priest peered down. His wrinkled face lit up, and he nodded with a surprising vigor. He, like any proper practitioner of the mystical professions, was well trained in all things astrological and astronomical, and he recognized them all. There was the world of man, with the sun, star of fire, star of earth, star of air, star of water and moonall circling around it. And yes, that dotted line! Most certainly them.
But then, he frowned. If that dotted line was indeed them, then they must have missed their mark! They were headed, on that sketch in the dirt, for the star of fire! That must be it! Struck by some force, they had lost their way and crashed to earth instead.
His frown went back to a smile. It was not every day that one got to help the gods and Heaven. He smiled and nodded some more.
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The colonel continued to draw 16 human straw-figures and two four-legged figures with tails and then drew a line around all of them. After that, he erased the taijitu system and drew a new system of planets, the Lexicon... Also there was a dotted line, but this time, he started drawing it from one of the planets that was encircled by two moons and then drew it in a curve (slingshot trajectory) around the star and then out of the system. He then erased the planet the dotted line started from and left it all at that.
His face had changed to a more sorrowful expression as he drew the dotted line of their course this time and erased the Lexicon from the drawing, leaving it's two moons hanging in space.
He thought of all the ones he cared about that wouldn't have made it to the vaults in time as the nuclear fire ravaged the surface and of the ones that did make it to the spacecraft but now wasn't going to wake up from cryo-stasis with the power gone and cryo-fluids leaking, allowing ice crystals to form in their cells and destroy them from the inside.
Then he seemed to remember something and drew a crown above the head of the human figure closest to the two four-legged figures, that figure was also slightly shorter than the other.
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The priest continued to observe, continued to solemnly nod, both to express that he understand and to give the false impression that he understood when it happened that he really did not. In honesty, he was a bit puzzled, even a tad frightened when the whole of existance was suddenly wiped away, but he kept it hidden and continued to watch.
All those new circles, those he did not recognize. They were not what he'd been taught, they were strange and alien things. Could there possibley be a world farther beyond all that knowledge he'd been taught? He decided not to ponder the matter further, or rather his brain just cut out and rebooted as it was prone to do in his old age.
The stick figures were far easier to understand. It was them, and there were more than those that stood before him. He felt a thrill run through his old body, one that for a moment made him feel young again. And those terrible four legged beasts too! He was living legend!
Then, that final figure with a crown. That we the important part no doubt, the divine ruler of the lot. With questioning imprinted in his motions and with earnesty he jabbed at the figure.
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"Ahh..."
The colonel then drew two more figures with crowns above the first one and outside the circle, then he drew one line from each to the first crowned figure and then crossed over the two new figures. He also added female features to the first drawn figure.
By then, Sasha felt she had waited enough on the hill and yawned as she rose and the great white tigress made her way down toward her people. Nicolai was content for now and watched as his mate gracefully strolled down the slope like the queen of great cats she was. (The tigers considder the Royal guards as their playmates, food gatherers, back-scratchers and more or less versatile tools for their personal comfort)
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The priest nodded in recognition. Again he pointed, drew his finger around in a circle about the royalty apparent, and looked about in a questionign manner, wondering just where it was that they were off too.
Meanwhile behind him the great cat approached, and he took no notice. He was far to busy with other things, and wasn't about to let any small interruption do away with this temporary reprieve from the long and dull days that were his usual sentence. The gathered crowd of course noticed, and in an instinctive herd mentality huddled together and backed away slightly, but did not make a break for it. Terrified limbo held them in place. Parzan chanced a worry whisper to the priest, obviously the only man fit to deal with such a supernatural creature.
"Ed'e..."
But to no avail. He dared not speak any louder than that, and gave up on it.
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Sniffing the new man-thing's robes, Sasha decided to try something different and nudged it on the arm with her head to see if it understood the cue to scratch her neck...
The colonel flipped up a small lid on his left bracer, revealing a small keyboard and a small display that lit up as he started to type a message to the fire-post that had been left at the camp.
**Lieutenant, transmit medical satus report ASAP. End.**
As the stranger pressed the small buttons on his bracer, the old priest couls barely see fuzzy alien symbols appearing in the small glowing rectangle above the buttons until the stranger pressed a last button and the text and light dissapeared from the bracer with a short beep and he closed the lid.
A couple of hundred yards away, on the other side of the low hill, Lieutenant Daniel Nyström recived the message and got to work checking the medical status of each of the others by talking to them and checking the meedical report-logs of the life support systems in each armour.
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The priest silently mouthed a sincere "Ooh!" as the glowing displays danced before his eyes in the twilight. The colors...so beautiful. All concerns of the presence of the royalty were gone for the moment, and all those concerns which before had not existed regarding the tiger were removed farther still from existance, as if it were possible.
Parzan squealed weakly and shook with fear meanwhile. But with the tiger so close, he certainly could not move. The others though, seeing that the cat was interested in another than them took the opportunity to abandon a former member of the heard and to back to safety, or as far as they could to without losing a chance to witness the certain to ensue and inevitably entertaining bloodbath. In places like this, such entertainment was a serious rarity.
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Noticing how the stupid man-thing failed to show her the proper appreciation she snorted and instead walked over to Lieutenant Tanya and rolled over, trying to charm the Liutenant into rubbing her tummy.
A few seconds later, the report showed up on the small display and the colonel motioned to the priest and Parzan to follow him.
"Captain, Take command here and make sure noone follows me and our two guests back to the camp, do not use force if it can be avoided."
"Yes sir!"
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Silently, the crowd sighed in dissapointment. They had been eager to see Parzan damaged. Meanwhile, the priest nodded in understanding, practically dancing on his toes for excitement. He hobbled over to Parzan, and tugged the prefect's robes.
"Dav-samsam, ben! Rud dī rek, so so!"
Parzan gulped. He was not in the mood for anymore adventures, after escaping a terrible and painful demise by mauling. Still, perhaps it would put him away from the tiger to safety. Perhaps if he went, the Gods wouldn't vaporize him on the spot.
He glumly nodded, and the priest clapped his hands, leaping from toe to toe in delight.
Man man he! The priest hobbled back to the armored figures, and beamed upwards with a grin that stretched across his wrinkled face.
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"I'll take that as a yes"
The Colonel started walking back around the hill, and the four remaining guards formed a quiet picket-line behind the three, Sasha, now having been thourougly scratched trotted along beside them and was soon joined by her mate, Nicolai. Much to Parzan's dismay...
As they rounded the hill, the scene revealed to them was that of a small camp-fire with several people standing or sitting around it dressed in clothes of strange material (synthetic fibre coveralls) or wrapped in silvery blankets that looked like metal but still not (mylar) while two that seemed a bit healthier were tending the fire and those looking the worst off. About a quarter mile off in the distance lay a huge white craft of some kind, turned on it's side and looking badly damaged. From openings in the craft poured some sort of smoke that settled in holes around it. Plants around the pockets of smoke looked sickly, pale and dead.
Propped up against a suit of the strangers's armour sat a dark haired young woman with a glazed look over her eyes and although she currently look a bit bruised she was still beautiful. Her skin was slightly bronzed by the sun but still paler than any working one but her hands was not as smooth as could be expected from a princess, and in her lap lay another one of that jagged blade the colonel wore at his side. This one was different though, this one looked to be of even higher quality and the etchings were more elaborate and detailed. In her hands she held a cup of some steaming warm brown liquid that had a soft, sweet but unknown smell. (Hot chocolate made from powder and water) She didn't seem to notice the but the man tending the ill rose and approached them.
"Yes lieutenant?"
"All of them could be moved without risk, but many have serious concussions and will need to rest for a week or two before they could do any sort of work, including her highness."
"Right. Anyway, Theese two are what could be considdered local authorities, I belive the elder man is some sort of cleric or priest while the other seems to be a paper shuffler of some kind..."
-
Eagerly the priest shuffled forward and bowed as deeply as his stiff back would allow him. Parzan meanwhile hesitated, out of his element. As an Ar, any situation in which he was not on top of the pile in power went against everything he'd been conditioned to know and accept from the earliest of ages. And the tigers, those horrid things, they were back.
An angry sidewise glare from the priest changed his mind otherwise. Gulping, he too shuffled forward and proceeded to give a series of rather stiff bows.
-
Hmm, I might have underestimated this fellow, he seems as uncomfortable as a myrorian nobleman would in a commoner's bar the colonel thought.
Noticing the bowing strangers, the princess nodded in reply and slowly got on her feet and strapping the chainsword to her hips. As she rose, her long dark hair flowed down her back and revealed her slender and fairly tall figure for a female, almost half a head taller than Parzan himself.
"Ers nåd, vi träffade på dessa och ett antal andra lokalinnevånare en bit uppåt vägen, den äldre av dem är troligtvis någon sorts präst medans den andre kan vara en lägre adelsman och lokal ståthållare eller något. Kapten Jansson har upprättat infartspost på andra sidan kullen med order om att inte släppa förbi någon."
"Bra, så vad heter dehär två då?"
"Jag är inte riktigt säker ers nåd, det är vissa problem med språket."
"Då får vi väl ta reda på det då överste, Du kan utgå men håll dig i närheten."
"Ja ers nåd."
The colonel snapped to attention and saluted the young woman who answered the salute in a dismissing manner before the colonel made a smart left face and walked away, checking up on how his personell was doing.
As he had left, the young woman gestured to Parzan and the priest to sit on one of the strange silvery blankets that had been spread out on the ground.
Once they had sat down she started to study them, their clothes, their faces, their apperance and anything on them that could give a clue of how to maybe succed in communicating with them.
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The priest compliantly sat down on the myler blankets, prodding with delight the magnificently irredescent material. He figures that the Gods must have woven from pure quicksilver itself. He faced the young women, an eager and almost childish smile on his face.
Parzan was less eager. The strange material, rather than a source of wonder for him, was terrifying in its novelty. He sat down with far greater caution. When, he found to his relief that it did not do something horrid like peel his flesh from the bone or such, he allowed himself to relax a bit more and settled down. The strange figures all around him though kept him tense, divine or not. All alone, with no protection...internally he shuddered and wept slightly.
The priest continued in his beaming eagerness, not giving attention to Parzan, and instead spoke, not caring just whether it would be comprehended.
"Vi sam sam davsun on ral in se?"
-
The young woman looked as puzzled as her guard-officer had done, also, she didn't look all too well, the display of standing up and then sitting down again had evidently taken a toll on her current physical strength.
Guessing the priest was asking something about the blankets she held up a corner of her own and spoke
"Mylar, a blanket of mylar"
About then, Parzan, in his uncomfortable state saw that the "stones" that made up the fireplace was actually ceramic tiles, however, they looked far more worn than any ceramic plate he had ever seen and they also looked painted!
-
The priest inspected the corner of the blanket, nodded curtly.
"So so, Ten on jut. Sel ye" He paused, and then cautiously pointed directly at the princess hereself. "Dem vi su, ral, so in?"
-
Fortunately, the princess didn't take offence by his gesture.
"Princess Hanna, I am princess Hanna"
One of the resting guards grunted in her sleep and as the princess turned her head slightly to inspect the sound, both the priest and Parzan noticed a small circular pice of several metals and some strange unknown material on the back-side of her neck, looking as some sort of strange lock as if a part of her. (Neural/digital inteface socket)
-
The priest nodded. He was glad that he now knew this traveler's name, though he had never read of any "Purinses" in the cosmologies. Nor had he ever heard of the title "hana", but nor had he ever been taught any divine tongue. He simple figured that there were things beyond man's knowing.
He pointed to himself, and spoke.
"Oszhī Naszhī Aksor Cham."
He then pointed to a still unsettled Parzan, eyeing all the bizarre things about them.
"Parzan Sam"
He then returned to beaming and waiting for a response.
-
"Oszhī Naszhī Aksor Cham, Parzan Sam, I am pleased to meet you."
Her pronounciation left some room for improvement and there was an unmistakeable foreign accent to it but was other than that very close to the priest's.
She then swept her arm across the land, asking.
"Where is this?"
-
"Ah" The priest nodded sagely again as was his evident proclivity. Parzan just stared at the ground, in hopes that it might be familiar, only to find that it was covered with that silvery material.
"Mor'osdarik on Sēkad-zhoh. Mor'os on sēnan et." He nodded again to remake the point. "Mor'osdarik on Sēkad-zhoh..."
-
She flipped away the strange material and drew the outline of the continent they had crashed on as seen from space in the sand below, writing Mor'os in latin letters near where she suspected they were and pointed to it.
"Mor'os?"
I have a vague feeling I have heard that name before...
-
The priest took a moment to state at the odd letters, and then scribbled beside them in Mor'osi script. Then he, of course nodded eagerly.
"So, Mor'os.[/i]"
-
"Yes" she replied and then continued.
"Where are we?" she then asked, indicating towards the rough map at 'where' and towards them and those around them at 'we'.
-
The Priest looked puzzled for a moment, unsure if he was being asked the same question that he'd been asked earlier. Too lazy to think of another question with yet another answer, he decided to assume that yes, he was being asked the same question, odd as it seemed for a God to be so forgetful.
"Mor'os on Sēkad-zhoh" and pointed to the appropriate part of the map scribbled into the the dirt.
-
"Ok" Princess Hanna continued by drawing a sketch of the camp before proceding to draw a house and finishing by drawing a circle around the camp and an arrow to the house. Pointing to the sketch's various parts as she asked her next question.
"Is there any house we can stay in?"
To Parzan and the priest, they recognized the drawing of a house even though it had an odd shape to it (North-european style house, IRL commonly built with prefabricated concrete elements in two floors but that wouldn't show on the sketch.)
-
The priest nodded.
"So. Isken Mūr sū uch." He pointed to the direction from where they had come.
Parzan began to feel that, despite the oddity of the situation, that he was a noble and ought to be the one in charge here, not some old hick of a priest. Taking a breath, he unleashed the best gaze he could muster on the priest.
"Tle dī kair īn?"
"Uch dī rek."
"A..."
He paused. Parzan was not quite sure what to do next. He supposed it may be appropriate to welcome them, invite them into their homes, but he was far from as comfortable as the old man was in speaking with the visitors. He was young, sane, and with plenty left to live for. Blocking out all worries with intense effort, he faced the Princess and spoke.
"Sēvsēv cham on uch su vīvī sam on uch."
-
Unsure of what The younger man meant, she repeated the word used most frequenrtly in the last sentences.
"Uch?"
-
The priest pointed to the drawing of the small house in the dirt.
"Uch" he repeated with meaning. Parzan corresponded his statement with a nod.
-
"Ahh, so uch means house, thank you"
The princess nodded to the priest and turned to Parzan.
"What of housing then?" She gestured more to the arrow than to the house or camp sketch, as to indicate the transession.
-
Parzan stood up, the priest followed suit. The Priest motioned to the visitors in earnest, and made to move in the direction of the promised housing, back the way towards the village. Parzan, though he did not say it, was glad for an excuse to return to the village, even if it would be in the company of the visitors. But it would be on his ground, not theirs. He began to regain a bit of his pompt, not stopping to consider that the the Gods technically owned just about everything. The priest once again was bouncing on his toes with unaturally youthful agility.
-
"Ok, we will follow."
She turned to the one that had commanded the soldiers at the causeway.
"Överste, våra värdar har erbjudit oss bättre logi, hämta understödsvapnen från lastrum 3, förbered förstöring av skeppet och transport för samtliga inklusive utrustning till nya kvarter. Jag återkommer med marschorder och skickar tre av posterna du lämnade vid vägen att assistera. Slut, frågor?"
"Nej ers höghet."
"Utgå!"
The man saluted her, turned and started to get things moving. As Parzan, the priest, the princess and her tigers (who now followed at the princess's heel) was about to round the hill and turn towards the village, Parzan looked back over his shoulder and saw three of the strangers wearing armour marching at triple! pace towards the huge strange white machine at the far end of the field while white whisps of smoke flowed from the large packs on their backs.
-
Back at the village, the initial, but impressively well ordered, excitement had died down. Still, no one could sleep, or were in the mood to for that matter. Instead, the peasantry of the village as a whole now milled about with no general purpose or direction where they'd been left behind. The set of Imperial guards who been left to block passage on the causeway ultimately found the task dull; the Mor'osi were a an obedient, almost frighteningly so, people for the most part.
Manzhī had finally begun to recover from the initial loss of his bean harvest, and now just sat eyeing the imperial guards for lack of anything better to do.
"Darlin'?" It was Halmu, no longer carrying Shauas. The young child had been put into bed.
Manzhī allowed himself a slight smile. "Halmu," he said to correspond her greeting. She sat down beside him. The conversation died there. What was there to say? The most important matter of the evening was plainly obvious to anyone who wasn't blind and deaf.
"Well, lookie there!" The exclamation came from Vethash. He pointed down the causeway. past the guards. All around immediately took interest as one.
"They've done come and returned, and with more!" More murmuring, the indication of collective thought. Indeed, Vethash's claims were confirmed as the unmistakable form of a hurried Parzan and a priest, delightedly babbling away to no in particular, were approaching.
-
Following the two locals, Hanna gestured to the five guards, the captain and Lieutenant Tanja fell in behind her without a word while the other three hurried back towards the camp the way they had come.
The Princess was wearing a tight-fitting suit of black synthetic spider silk reinforced with other materials forming a light and flexible armour, normally used beneath the powered exoskeleton of her armour. As they walked, she took care to study the villagers. The architecture reminded her of something she had seen in one of the ancient history-books her parents had provided her with from those few homeworld archives that had survived planetfall on the Lexicon.
Back at the spacecraft, five of the guards were now working hard in cargo-bay 3 using the HASMAT system intergrated in their armour to unload three crates from the bay that was filled with the toxic and voilatile gas from the ruptured cryo-tubes. two more were moving about to locations within the ship, placing small chunks of a yellowish clay-like substance at critical places and connecting the chunks with thin yellow hoses going out of the craft and off to the camp.
The three crates were carried off to the village-side of the hill along with all the equipment in the camp.
-
The villagers finally broke from their placidity, and swelled forward to the newly returned Parzan and Priest, and to the new arrivals, in particular the young woman. She had about her that air of leadership that Mor'osi had a particular knack for picking up on.
Back amongst the people he actually was in officially in command of, Parzan found a brief new strain of confidence. He took it and used it to spread his arms wide in an attempt to silence the crowd. Instinctively, they took notice and a hush prevailed, except for the babbling priest. Shortly though he too caught on, and with clear dissapointment quieted down as well.
"People!" he announced (in Mor'osi of course) with as much strength and gravitas as he could muster. "We have spoke with our Divine guests, and we shall house them. I expect that they shall be treated as they deserve, and that you all will open your homes to them."
The crowd stood silent, waiting to confirm that there was nothing else to be said lest they interrupt. Briefly, this was confirmed, and a general cheer of sorts went up. On the whole, the lot of them felt special for such a privilege.
-
The priness was slightly awed but the heartily wellcome but her gut-feeling told her theese people had fundamentally misunderstood the situation somehow though she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
By now, the sun had passed below the horizon and she was pleased to notice that her guards were working as fast as they could be expected to under the circumstances.
At the moment, two of the injured ones were being carried around the hill on collapsible field-stretchers. To save what little fuel they had for their armours, all guards that didn't need the extra strength or other special functions it provided were working in the inner silk-armour.
-
Several minutes elapsed as the crowd and Parzan waited to be assured that everyone was present. When they were finally satisfied, Parzan made an announcement, which seemed to be welcomed by the crowd, and off they went down the causeway
The path wound its way through a patchwork of patties and fields, past the homes of the various peasantry. But none of these were the intended destination. Instead, they arrived at a small home, not particularly grand but a manor by comparison to everything that surrounded it. With a small swelling of pride, Parzan presented the abode to his visitors.
"Sēv cham on uch se. Dom et sūmmon, mīz al mad. Im'e sai sai."
He beckoned for the visitors to follow him in as he began to walk through the gate in the small wall which surrounded the home.
-
Last of all the Imperials walked lieutenant Patrik Härngren carrying a roll of two-part wire on his back, letting it roll out behind him. At the other end, it's two thin conductors were connected to a small metal capsule embedded in the end of the thin yellow hose leading from the spacecraft.
In front of him walked six of the guards well enough to walk and wear their full suits of armour. The six were carrying three extra stretchers, one loaded with three crates that each looked heavy enough to require four normal men to carry. The other two extra stretchers were loaded with the outer armours of those who were carried or were walking further up the column, closer to Parzan and the princess. Most others carried two to three packs of equipment from the former camp.
As they arrived at the small manor, the princess nodded to the lieutenant at the back before she followed Parzan in through the gates to the very well-kept garden and the house beyond.
Outside the gates, the lieutenant kneeled and wrung the harness to the roll off his back. Placing it in front of himself, he found the end of the wires and connected them to two screws on a box he unfastened from his belt. He plugged in the small 9v battery and flipped open the red cover on top of the box to reveal a small metal switch, looking back towards the spacecraft he yelled a warning.
"SKOTT KOMMER!!!"
The princess and the other guards not wearing armour covered their ears with their hands as they heard the shout and then waited for the detonation.
He waited half a second before flipping the switch, sending the electrical impulse off along the wires.
*BOOOOOM!!*
The sound of the explosion came rolling like the thunder of a dozen lightning bolts and the vibrations could be felt in the ground several seconds before sound reached them. Though the blast-wave was much too weakened by the distance to be more than a breeze, the early night was turned to day for a few seconds as a massive, green-purple fireball rose and fell from where the spacecraft once were. The odd colours mainly caused by the chemicals used in the cryo-tubes.
As the sound had passed, the unsurprised but solemn princess motioned to Parzan to continue.
May you rest in peace from now on my loyal subjects
-
Another panic ensued the whole village, just as it had when the Imperial Ark had just arrived. Parzan himself once again grasped the Priest and began to shake him all about, demanding to know just what it all meant and how to save his immortal soul or better yet his earthly flesh. Unfortunately for him, the priest by this point had once again drifted out of everything, and did not promise to return for quite some while. Indeed, he showed no signs of recognizing the explosion's existence.
As time passed, and it became clear that no one was in any way dead or dying as a result of what had just happened, with fatigue and a stong desire to return to the beds from which many of them had been so rudely awaken or kept from, calm prevaded once more. Some even were able to allow themselves a moment to enjoy the lightshow.
The remainder of the night would pass uneventfully, a dissapointing anticlimax for many of those involved. The peasants, partly of their own free will, partly at the orders of Parzan, dispersed. The priest took a while longer to get rid of, but in time he too went back to his abode, leaving Parzan and his small staff of servants alone to prepare his home for the stay of his unusual guests. With quick and practiced efficiency the servants raided the various stores of domestic goods about the manor, and soon every empty and available space on floor had been covered with the extra tam mats and the several mattresses that they'd been able to uncover. Blessedly, the summer heat negated a need for locating blankets. Parzan awaited nervously for the opinion of his guests, rather nervous that he might be smote or some such thing for being unable to provide more.
-
As it showed, Parzan had worried without reason as the Princess and her guards were more than pleased with not having to spend their first night on an unknown new world under the open skies, especially with almost a third of them out of action.
As it were, his unexpected guests made little trouble and made as good use of the space offered as they could, stacking mattresses for some that were worse off and others using their issued bed-rolls and sleeping bags directly on the floor. whith their weapons and armours next to themselves.
Soon the house was asleep and from the outside, noting looked out of the ordinary.
-
Beatings to all!
-
OOC:...
IC: Nature took little to no notice of the strange events that had transpired the night previous, and the moon continued its travel across the sky, as did the sun. The moon with time set, and the sun began to break over the mountains. The day was pleasant enough, if a bit humid.
Long before anyone else had awaken, the servants as always scurried about the home, preparing for the coming day. There were floors to be swept, livestock to be fed, gardens to be tended, food to be prepared. They were surprised today to find that Parzan had also come to greet the done with them. Nervous and excited, he had failed to sleep well. Now he was up to ensure that the first meal his guests were treated to was of the finest quality, heckling the cooks at every turn. It had been some time since they had ever had to prepare so much at once.
As the sun rose higher, a young maid cautiously entered teh room in which the Princess, clear leader of the group, was resting. She spoke softly, even then frightened at how she had raised her voice so.
"Kang sam sam? Az. Lif'e sai sai. Azgo sū par se." From the kitchens, the scent of the cooks efforts drifted in.
-
At the sound of the soft voice, the princess sat up and stretched a bit before bowing slightly in thanks to the maid for the wake-up call as her nostrils picked up the scents of food, making her stomache rumble a bit in anticipation.
She rose naked from her bed and opened one of the crates that had been brought to her room. From it, she took a set of comfortable underwear. When she had taken them on, she opened the next crate and took out her long black, dress of natural spider silk and the long siver belt that accompanied it along with her mother's platinum tiara, adorned with some of the most spectacular gems that had been found in the Lexicon. Only the Myrorian crown jewels had surpassed them in briliance and size.
Having fastened it properly in her dark hair that flowed down her back, she turned and faced the maid, motioning to the girl not much younger than herself to show the way. Just as she passed it, she took her chainsword and fastened it to her left side, she was so used to carrying it that she felt naked without it.
Over in the guards's quarters, most of the bed rolls and mattresses had already been neatly folded away and piled in one of the room's corners. Several of the guards had been up for a good two hours and doing morning exercises, including both armed and unarmed martial arts in various combinations out in the garden as to not disturb those recouperating from the crash.
-
The maid bowed low when the Princess gave the signal that she was prepared, and proceeded to as anticipated lead the way through the close and winding wooden halls of the home. As they proceeded farther into the home, the smells of culinary efforts grew progressively stronger, until she at last slid back the final door. Within was a room, sparsely furnished save for a table, and Parzan, kneeling expectantly.
The table itself had been piled with all manners of food items, from red beans and rice to fresh dumplings, noodles, even sizable portions of meat. Parzan smiled nervously.
Elsewhere in the house, other servants had begun to ditribute a less spectacular but all the same nourishing morning meal to the others.
-
Taking the custom as it apparently was, Hanna kneeled opposite her host at the low table but now she was lost, there was no fork, knife or even spoon to eat with... Though there were two sticks lying beside what she thought to be her bowl...
She returned Parzan's nervous smile with an equally nervous of her own, she had left her set of field-cutlery in her room.
Out in the garden, the guards were not in the same predicament, digging into the unfamiliar but nourishing and delicious food compared to the spartan range of meals availiable during their exodus.
-
What ensued as a ackward silence of epic proportions. The language barrier firmly in place, the two could really do nothing but idly prod their food with their chopsticks, and wonder just what the other was thinking.
Parzan at least knew what he was thinking. His considerations the night previous had lead him to the conclusion that the Princess must be taken to the capital to meet the Emperor. It was clearly appropriate, him being the liason between Heaven and man and all. More importantly, it might earn him some favor, and get him out this Heaven forsaken backwater. But how to communicate this to her.
He picked up clump of noodles between his chopsticks, and chewed the matter over.
-
Sitting on her heels were not the most comfortable eating position she had experienced but she kept her face, also, she had started to figure out how Parzan was manipulating the chopsticks and started to try eating with them, failing miiserably a few times before loosing patience and using one them to spear the hapless dumplings floating in their bullion...
-
Parzan watched slightly stunned as the Princess stabbed the dumpling in frustration. Things were not going well, and certainly were not approaching any kind of successful conclusion.
He ultimately concluded that if words would accomplish nothing, then he would have to resort to what they'd done previously, with crude little drawings. Though, this time he actually had a proper map at hand.
He called over a servant, and instructed them to retrieve the map. This was done promptly, and Parzan took it from him.Clearing an empty space amidst the food that occupied the table, he unfurled it. It was in no way accurate from a modern cartographer's point of view, but it would accomplish what needed to be done.
-
Hanna stopped in her attempt to get a noodle to stay on the chopstick long enough to get it to her mouth when she saw the map come forth.
As she waited for parzan to begin showing whatever his plans were she tried using a piece of bread and a chopstick in concert to get some of the fried beef strips and some strips of something else in the same bowl on top of the bread to get at least something out of the meal.
Outside, the guards had finished their breakfast and the colonel had taken place in an open space in the garden.
"TVÅ LED LINJE! UPPSTÄLLNING!"
Soon, the healthy guards had formed two lines in front of the colonel.
"Lämna av!"
"Överste, tolv närvarande, frånvarande tre, Johansson, Karlgren och Ström, samtliga icke återställda"
"Bra kapten, Jag tar befälet!"
"God morgon soldater!"
"GOD MORGON ÖVERSTE!"
"För exercis, Avdelning Höger om! MARSCH!"
As one, the twelve guards turned on the spot to their right and started to march in perfect unison.
"AAAVDELNIIING SPRÅÅÅNG! MARSCH!"
Once again in perfect unison the guards turned from a walking march into a run. Following the colonel they ran lap after lap around the garden seemingly without effort.
-
Parzan inhaled, and began to as best he could lay out his intentions.
It began simply enough. He pointed to the Princess and then himself, and finished the motion by pointing at the south western corner of the map in which the two of them now roughly lay. A motion easily interpretted as "we are here", confirming what their first meeting the night of the crash had revealed.
The following part was where it became trickier. He took his finger from the map and placed it back down on top of the Capital Districts, or for all the Princess knew the north east. Parzan then stopped, and frowned, an unanticipated obstacle rearing its ugly head. A brief conference with the servants again secured him a brush and adequate supply of ink. Lest the Princess forget where they had left off, he pointed again and then scrawled on the map a crude charicature of the Imperial crown complete with the distinctive golden spokes that radiated from it. He allowed what he thought a considerable amount of time for this to sink in, and then continued. The very first motion was repeated, the Princess was pointed to and then Parzan. Then back to the south west. But rather than lift his finger from the map, he dragged it with intent from the south west to the capital districts, repeating the motion several times for emphasis.
-
So he intends to present me before his ruler, this could be interesting
The princess nodded to show she had understood.
"How long?" Hanna asked while trying to figure out how to convey the meaning of time passing...
-
A bit of weight lifted from Parzan as the Princess acknowledged that she understood his intents. It seemed that it was possible for them to make some progress.
This weight resettled when the Princess spoke. The intonation clearly carried the intent of inquisition, but the language was sitll as foreign as ever and an ostacle to understanding and more importantly giving a satisfactory answer.
At a loss, he settled on a shrug, not the kind of motion that he had ever expectd to use in the presence of a divine figure. For the moment, he thought it best not to go on and consider the specifics of how he would inform her of the specific arrangements of the journey. He suspected that he would simply have to make the plans and execute them, and hope that the Princesess caught one.
-
Maybe I could try drawing it...
Seeing as she was not understood, she tried to show that she wanted to borrow the ink, paper and brush.
"May I?"
Once she had it, shedipped the tip of the brush in ink and drew a finely curved hour glass, a pretty accurate sketch of the manor, drew a circle around it all and then asked again.
"How long?"
By comparrison, theese drawings showed much more skill than those the night before and revealed that this young woman was more skuilled in the use of a brush and ink than most women her age, including many noble Ar daughters.
-
Parzan nodded slowly, as he began to more or less comprehend the nature of the question. Now that he understood though, he had to answer, and he was not sure what the proper answer was. He tried to recall, searching the banks of his memory, just how long it had taken him to travel from the Capital Districts to Sēkad. It had been at least a month, perhaps more.
He did his best to hold up one or two fingers.
-
Ok, two what? if it's how long we will remain here it could be two hours, days or weeks, if it is the jorney it should probably be months considderign the distance and apparent lack of vehicles...
To bring more clarity to the matter, she decided to try a different approach...
Using the brush, she drew piles of boxes and carts, then indicating towards the boxes and the hour glass as she asked a new but similiar question.
"How long to pack?"
-
Parzan took a moment to consider and interpret the new drawings, and having come to a conclusion (thankfully, the correct one) answered with more pantomime. With quick gestures of his hands he attempted to communicate that packing would not take long at all, that it was a mere formality and not to be taken as a point of major concern.
-
"I understand" she said while nodding slightly.
The moment after, she bowed her head and rose, backing away a step from the table before turning up to the window and opening it.
"ÖVERSTE! MARCHFÄRDIGA OM TVÅ TIMMAR!"
"UPPFATTAT ERS HÖGHET!"
Upon being answered she closes the window and returns to sit opposite Parzan at the table.
-
The break in the previous ackward but none the less peaceful meal created by the Princesss' shouts slightly unnerved Parzan, but he settled back down soon enough. The fact that he would now be able to present to the Emperor himself a divine being...the possibilities were just endless. Already, his mind was beginning to drift off into day dreams about the riches, the fame and the influene that were soon to be his.
Business concluded, and the barrier of language still firmly in place, he saw no need to pursue further discuss only to create more uncomfortable silences. He had the map and the ink removed, and had soon resumed his meal, finishing in a slightly hurried fashion so eager was he. He'd have to get the servants packing as soon as possible. Why, they might even be able to leave the following morning if things went well.
-
Following Parzan's example, Hanna finished her meal as best she could and made a mental note to keep her set of field cutlery with her at all times for now on until she could get a proper tutor to show her how to use those sticks properly. She left the noodles alone as she couldn't see any way to get them up with the sticks but ate the dumplings, now spearing them slower and with less frustration. She also did her best to eat of the meat but just as the noodles it offered some resistance and she reverted to using her right thumb and index finger, amazingly without getting any other fingers involved the least and it ended up looking moderately sophisticated even if not up to what could be expected from a divine creature...
Just short of two hours later, the princess's guards had packed all of their gear but what they were wearing and were ready to march within 10minutes notice. Two of the heavy crates that had been last through the gates was now open, one contained five long black metal things that looked like they were of similar function to the metal things carried by them the night before but still different. The other apparently contained one layer of ten metal boxes and below that, there were many more made of thick, brown paper that was painted dark green, as hard as wood and with orange symbols. All of the large green boxes also had text in what was probably the divine ones' language.
With all things packed, the guards spread a few of their own bedrolls out on the ground and started to pick apart the long black things, wiping them clean from grease and then covering the inner parts in a thin sheet of some sort of yellowish oil before putting them back together.
OOC: The long black things are FN MAG machineguns and the metal boxes looks like this:
(http://www.flecktarn.co.uk/graphics/specials/spoab1ux500a.jpg)
-
At the meal's conclusion, Parzan bid his guest as hasty a farewell he could, bowing and all, and then practically rushed off, only decorum and tradition limiting him to a rapid walk. The remnents of the meal were left behind to be cleaned up by the servants, unbidden and operating on some inate instinct.
So much to organize, but all so worth it! First, to gather a team of servants to in turn gather his thing together. He trusted them to make the proper choices, to pack it all well. They simply needed to know that he would be needing whatever it was that one needed to visit the Emperor. He was far to busy to pack personally.
Then it was off to the stables. Horses, horses, horses, to ride, to draw the carriage, to carry the luggage. He'd have his stablemaster take care of that, pick out the finest, the best for the task.
And the provisions, those were important too.
For the following hours he rushed about his home with an excited energy, delegating task upon task to his servants, multiple ones to a single servant in many instances, giving them all the orders that it was to be done by tomorrow, that they were to depart at dawn. A short order, but they were used to such things. Still, Parzan found himself slightly embarrassed when it seemed his guests were prepared in the span of a mere two hours. He hoped that they were not expecting to leave immediately, that they would again catch on and follow his lead.
-
Much to Parzans relief, the guards were soon ordered to step down to a 30 minute notice (though he didn't know that part he noticed them relaxing a bit). As Parzan's staff commenced preparations, their guests mainly tried to stay out of the way and taking care of their equipment and the few that still wasn't fit to rise from their stretchers.
A few hours into the preparations, Parzan noticed that the guards had dissapeared from the garden, and brought their odd metal boxes and the black things he assumed to be weapons of some sort when the princess approached Parzan with a new sketch.
This time she had used one of her own ball-point pens to draw a fiering range. For simplicity, she had re-calculated the measurements from meters to paces, showing a range with fiering positions marked with poles at 50, 100, 150, 300 and 800 paces from the targets.
She pointed in a general direction towards an area (that couldn't be seen from inside the garden) a bit outside the village that had recently before the divine ones' arrival been cleared of trees and bamboo and was originally intended to be planted after the next harvest.
"We are building this over there."
Out in the clearing, the guards had cleared the ground further and was currently erecting an earth wall behind the target line to stop the bullets from overshooting while two of them was measuring and marking out the fiering positions with bamboo poles and string. All of them had their weapon slung across their back or lying within arms reach as they worked.
-
Parzan looked at what was occuring, listened to the alien sounds of the Princess's speech, and nodded. What was being constructed was recognizable enough, a firing range. He'd seen archers practicing on things of the like when he was younger and still lived in the Capital Districts. The memory sparked a moment of nostalgia, of yearning. Soon enough, he told himself, soon enough. I'll be gone from this hopeless boon dock and back where I ought to be! Granted, the measurements were odd, written with odder numerals, and with some wand that seemed to produce ink on the users whim. Parzan reflected that such a thing would be useful in many situations, for its novelty.
Granted, that had been some rather nice land, promisingly fertile. But if the Gods wanted it for their purposes, it was theirs. The rewards for cooperation anyway would definitely exceed another crop of red beans.
-
After about 5 hours of hard work, the earth wall was high enough and the guards were allowed to rest, eating some of the last food that had never been a part of this planet's eco system.
An hour later, target dummies made of bamboo, straw, some old sacks and some sheets of paper. The sacks had once held grain but was too worn for that even before they were taken for this new application and the guards were lining up at the 50 pace line with their assault rifles and com-tacks in normal, Imperial BDU(=Swedish M90)
"Anläggning!"
"5 skott i egen takt, ELD!
*Bang! Ba-bang! Bang! Bang! Ba-ba-bang! Bang! etc...*
The shots rang out loud over the village as the 12 guards and the princess fiered away single, aimed rounds one after another for about half a minute.
The colonel was currently holding the exercise and once all 13 had fiered their five rounds, he resumed giving orders.
"Avbryt ELD UPPHÖR!"
"AVBRYT ELD UPPHÖR!" (OOC: According to imperial regulations, a cease-fire order must be repeated by all)
All of them swiched their rifles to safe as the next order came and they started to move towards the targets.
"Markera."
Most of the targets had a nice hit-zone about the size of a RL half-dollar coin though three of the targets, of wich one belonged to the princess had a hit-zone the size of a dime...
The targets was patched up and the guards marched off to the 300 pace line and repeated the process after adjusting the sights for that range.
After this markup, they went to the 800 line where they laied down their assault rifles beside them and deployed the MGs...
By that time, most of the local boys that weren't helping out at home and some of the adults and girls too had gathered to watch and one of them was asked to fetch Parzan for this last event.
-
Parzan, who had retreated back inside to continue his over sigh of the preparations for tomorrow's journey, had heard like nearly everyone in the village the noise and commotion that the imperial soldiers had created as they began their target practice. This was fortunate, as the Princess had found it difficult to get the young boy to understand and execute what she wanted. Curious, slightly panicked that more things were falling from the sky and crashing into the earth, he hurried outside to where he had left the Imperials. By the time he got there, things seemed to have quieted down, and nothing seemed to his relief to have fallen out of the sky again. Just the Imperials waiting there, and the Princess, apparently pleased to see he'd shown.
-
however, neither the princess or the other Imperials were looking particularily divine as most of them was lying in pairs, prone on the ground, one of each pair holding one of the green metal boxes in one hand and some sort of black and brass chain that was entering the weapon held by the other in the pair.
As parzan had found a comfortable position for watching the spectacle, the princess nodded to the colonel, she herself was lying down with one of the other, smaller weapons (an AK5 B, a scoped special variant of the FN FAL)
The colonel then spoke.
"Ett halvt band i egen takt, ELD!"
The five machineguns roared in short 3 to 10 rouind bursts, the red lights of tracer rounds speeding towards the targets and before the last one had finished the roughly 25 rounds, seven of the straw targets had caught fire from tracers while three had been felled completely, their bamboo skeleton shot to slivers.
-
The assembled crowd gave an impressed "Ooh!" of the sort that they had been conditioned to give whenever any higher up demonstrated something. By this point it may have even been ingrained in genetics. Peasants who were appreciative of their rulers lived longer, with a better shot at passing on their genes to offspring.
Parzan meanwhile, being the noble that he was, was in no way obliged to make vague sounds to the effect that he was impressed, even if he had to marvel at what was happening. It was loud though, terribly so, and he found himself expending a great deal of energy towards maintaining a cool and collected image, appropriate for one of his caste. He nearly had passed out from the effort when the firing ceased.
-
"Avbryt ELD UPPHÖR!"
"Avbryt eld upphör!"
"Gustavsson, Stålhjelm, Släck målen!" (G, S, extinguish the targets)
"MED SPRÅNG!" (At the double)
As two of the soldiers ran off towards the burning targets with steel shovels in their hands, the others put their weapons to safe and rose to their knees, commencing after-fiering maintenance on all the used weapons.
Hanna brushed the dust off her knees and elbows while she rose and approached Parzan.
"Well?" she asked wile making a sweeping gesture towards the range.
Behind her, back by the earth wall, the colonel prepared a last little demonstration with the aid of a melon he unseen had liberated from the kitchen earlier.
-
Parzan slowly nodded, as he allowed himself to unwind. That noise was gone, and he could untense. Still, it had been quite a display. He'd never pondered what sort of power the Gods would have at their disposal were they to ever come to earth. Though he had not asked to know, he now knew anyway. Predisposed himself by conditioning and genetics, he found himself now hatching scheme in his subconscious as how to harness that power for his own gains.
He noticed the colonel manhandling the melon. How long had it been since he had had melon? Parzan couldn't recall, but the season was right for that sort of thing.
-
As the Colonel returned, he saluted the princess and spoke.
"Ers höghet, rekvisitan är på plats enligt order."
"Bra överste, se till att vår värd inte känner sig ensam."
"Ja ers höghet"
The princess hefted her weapon and walked off to the now clear 800 pace fiering line, she then calmly removed the scope, adopted a standing fiering position and focused on breathing. The colonel gestured to Parzan to focus on the melon.
Hanna calmly raised her rifle, breathed in a last time and let the iron sights climb along the bamboo pole while gently feeling the trigger's critical point on her right index finger. The melon centered in the sights and her finger gently squeezed the trigger beyond the critical point, releasing the fiering pin to send the bullet on it's way with a silngle loud bang. Half a second later, the 5,56mm bullet struck home, the entrance hole barely larger than a dime while the exit hole being as large as a grapefruit...
-
Parzan could not feel but a little dissapointed as he saw what the intent for the melon was. It really had looked quite delicious. At least it was a good spectacle. That shot was an accurate one, the damage impressive. The gathered mirrored his sentiments with the standard "ooh"s and "ah"s, and this time some applause as well. They felt that it had been lacking a bit too long.
A pause ensued as the whole of them, peasants and Parzan and by now some servants who had spotted an opportunity to shirk their duties, waited in appreciative silence to see if there was more to come.
-
Unfortunately, it seemed unlikely as the Imperials started to field-strip their weapons and greasing them up in preparation of the daily maintenance they intended to perform back at the manor.
The now sand-covered targets weren't even smoking anymore and the Imperails shouldered their weapons and lined up in a marching column, marching off towards the manor in perfect order.
-
Their was a collective sigh of sorts. The peasantry and the servants had been hoping for more of a show, and more importantly a chance to slack from work a bit more. Watching the Gods doing something, that was an acceptable excuse wasn't it? But there really wasn't much of an excuse remaining. The sun was far past its zenith by this point, and it would be time for the evening meal soon enough. Parzan for his part was hungry after seeing the destruction of the melon, and wanted to eat before it was too late. With no wasted time, he hurried back into the manor himself after the Imperials, hoping that the servants would have something prepared for his return.
-
The evening was as spectacular as only an unpolluted sunset can be and the guards quicly finished their daily maintenance of weapons, armours and other equipment while the supper was being prepared. Even the princess participated in this, cleaning her own gear carefully and making sure everything was working properly.
-
It was with a certain contentment in his heart that Parzan slumped off to bed that night. Everything it seemed was prepared for the following day. The meal that evening had been nourishing. He almost burst out with excitement, his whole body tingling in anticipation. The Capital Districts...how long he had waited for an opportunity to move up the ranks! He reflected all those hours he had spent calculating and scheming, and all for not. But now his salvation had finally come, and dropped straight from Heaven no less in the most literal sense of the phrase. So excited was he that he worried he'd be unable to sleep, unprepared to leave the following day. This worry made him all the more twitchy, spawning more worry in an autocatalytic cycle that ultimately exhausted him and sent him into a sound sleep.
"Mas sam? Az se."
-
The princess had a good night's sleep knowing that all she could do had been done and that all the equipment, weapons and gear had been double checked and assured to be in perfect working order, the fuel supply for the armours had been looked over and distributed so that in a pinch they would have at least 10 hours each at full activity, the ammunition had been counted and divided into equad loads and somehow, it looked like the guards that had come out the worst after the crash had been recovering faster than expected. Somehow, she suspected their hosts for knowing a lot about herbal medicine, the food for the hurt Imperials had had a different aroma than the food and drink she or the other guards had eaten during yesterday.
As dawn came, she had climbed up on the roof, sitting there in her tight inner armour, watching as the sun slowly coated the fields and hills in gold and the darkness of night faded and the manor below her slowly stirred to life.
-
Parzan mumbled and groaned, as he forced himself up and out of bed. It had been a very pleasant dream that he had been in the midst of, and he was swept with disappointment and contempt at the innocent bystander of a servant who'd been set to rouse him early at his own orders. As sleep began to retreat, memory of what was to happen that day flooded back to him, and a new life sprung into him.
With glory and fame in mind, he jumped to his feet, dressing hurriedly. His fears that something might go wrong, that they would be unable to leave as soon as he had hoped for, that he would be stuck here for another day, proved to be wasted. The servants had done their work, and as he stepped out into the sunlight, just breaking the mist, the carriage and a set of pack animals ready to carry their luggage were already present. Servants zipped back and forth across the grounds, a mad dash to finalize and add on those final few details that had been missed earlier. All in all, it was an impressive effort and accomplishment on their part.
Relieved that this was ready, Parzan now only had to find his guests and alert them that it was time to leave. True, no meal had been served yet. But so eager was he that he concluded it would be acceptable for them to eat on the road as their journey began.
A passing servant was asked about the Princess, and no satisfactory answer was produced. Another one revealed that she had left her bed before she could be woken. Trusting better in his own abilities to locate lost persons, Parzan began to traverse the manor himself in search of her.
-
Sure enough, he found her, or rather, she found him as she dropped from the roof, landing gracefully in a crouch a few steps in front of him.
She was dressed in the black garments she had worn the night they came from the stars but this time she wore no weapons.
She rose and nodded, indicating that she had understood his intentions at the same time as he opened his mouth to speak and entered the guards' quarters.
Within, the guards had dressed in their armours and packed up their gear ready to leave. One thing that parzan noticed was that the humming that had come from their backpacks the last time they wore that armour was absent and they had their helmets hanging from their shoulder guards in thin chains.
"Överste, det är dags för avfärd, genomför lastning, därefter uppsittning efter senare anvisningar. Värkställ."
"Ja ers höghet."
The colonel saluted Hanna then turned to his troops.
"Ni hörde hennes höghet, utgå!"
The guards started their armours and moved out, quicly and effortlessly loading the equipment they had. as they were already wearing most of their heavy gear, the strain on the pack animals weren't too big though the extra ammunition and the AT4's had to be split over several animals as one animal couldn't carry the combined weight of both those crates and if loaded with only one of them it would tip it over...
After twenty minutes they were done with theirs and aided with anything still not loaded.
Once everything was done, they waited to see how they would travel.
In the meantime, the princess had suited up in her own armour and strapped on her chainsword. in a final whim, she had decided to wear her mother's tiara too as she weren't going to have the helmet on anyway as long as the armour's hydraulics was shut off in free-flow mode. Dressed as such, she joined Parzan and waited to be led or shown to wherever she would be expected to travel. As she waited, her two tigers also appeared, purring and stroking themselves against her hands while making the pack animals nervous by their presence alone...
-
Parzan took a moment to compose himself after the shock of being ambushed so suddenly by the Princess. He recovered with surprising grace, and with the Princess located decided that the time to set out had finally come.
The Princess was led out of the gate and onto the road, where the very last things were being packed and prepared. He was also glad to see that the rest of the Imperials were there, and had taken the time to pack their own things. It would simplify the process greatly. As they walked, Parzan's heart sunk at the return of the tigers. He hated the beasts so, though they seemed to have not mauled him yet. Ignoring them, he led the way to the carriage where, if things went as he planned, he would ride with the Princess for most of the journey. A smiling servant complied to their approach, offering the two their seats.
-
The other imperials and Nikolai mounted pack-carriages further back in the line.
The great white tigress Sasha had another idea though, and jumped up and sat down beside the driver in Parzan's and Hanna's personal carriage to keep an eye on her mistress as the whole mass of people, animals and carriages that made up Parzan's household got moving towards the capital districts.
-
The driver's eyes went wide as he saw the feline crawl up beside him. Like Parzan, and like most people in the entire country, he was not comfortable with being so near to several hundred pounds of muscle, teeth and claws. Shaking, he slowly turned his head around to face Parzan, cringing as he waited for a sudden movement of his provoked an attack. No attack came, and he succeeded in doing this. But it was for naught. All Parzan could give was the same vacant and fearfully bewildered expression, combined with motions of the hands and arms to the effect that he should just ignore it and get on with it. The driver's face was now running with tension induced sweat, and his breath was coming in short and worrying little gasps. But he soldiered on impressively enough, giving a curt little nod and doing as he was told. He gave a crack of the reigns, again cringing in anticipation of various sharp bits of tiger being put in parts of him that they shouldn't be, and was again dissapointed on the matter.
Down the road, without a single mauling, they clattered as the procession began to make its way out of town and into the awaiting north east. As per ceremony the townsfolk had gathered to see them off, and lined the road with the expression of one listening for the sake of being polite. When they were finally lost down the road, someone chanced the comment
"If all us a' lucky, he might neve' retu'n."
A murmur of consent, and they returned to their mundane but secure activities that they had been doing for years.
-
OCC: Just a thought, can anyone play in this Role-play or is it just Moro's and The Empire?
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OOC: Just us I'm afraid as it stands, though thank you for asking first. Don't worry, there'll be a chance for everyone to RP with Mor'os soon enough ;D
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OCC: Yay Fun!
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OOC: could we get all the irrelevant OOC-posts out of here please?
After some time, Sasha decided to relax a bit and so, she layed down on the bench, laying her large head in the driver's lap, purring, meowling and doing general cat-talk now and then in her sleep...
from a small bag attatched to her left thigh-plate, Hanna produced an ancient book that had been a gift from her mother, it's pages had long since grown yellow of age and the blueish cover was worn in spite of it's plastic wrapping though the printed title page was still recognizable, the painted picture in faded colours below the strange text depicted several dolphins waiving to the reader as they jumped out of the water. The title above read: So long! And thanks for all the fish!
-
Parzan allowed his eyes to drift over to what the Princess had produced, even if it might be considered a lapse in proper manners. He did not recognize the text or the language it was written in. Nor did he recognize the odd creatures that were shown in the illustrations. But curiousity didn't care for such technicalities.
Once it had been satisfied, he settled back in his chair and prepared him self for the long journey ahead, whiling away the time with day dreams of the fame and riches that awaited him in the Capital Disticts...
The forest had eyes.
They waited and watched, something which they had long since become accustomed too. So much so that they almost seemed to have glazed and grown dead from many an hour spent staring at a single point in space.
This is what the eyes saw.
After many hours and days seeing nothing, monotony causing them to grow dull, they finally saw movement. And quite a bit, almost overwhelming. Down the dirt road that they had watched for so long was coming a procession of horses and carriages, of people. The dull eyes suddenly glistened with new life and light. This is what they had waited for so long. There was bound to be goods and treasures in plentiful numbers on so many horses. That was what had held them their, allowed them to endure such monotony or so long.
The eyes took foot and fled back into the forest, were they related to their fellow eyes in the forest the good news, that their days of waiting were gone. All about, more dull eyes shiend with a new light, and began to move...
-
The long hours on the trail soon boored the Imperial guardsmen who did their best to stave it off but tuning up in a song fitting to the scene. The song itself was ancient even before the first Imperials had arrived in the lexicon and by now it's orgins were long forgotten.
"Nu grönskar det i dalens famn
Nu doftar äng och lid
Kom med, kom med på vandringsfärd
I vårens glada tid
Var dag är som en gyllne skål
Till bredden fylld med vin
Så drick min vän, drick sol och doft
Ty dagen den är din
Så drick min vän, drick sol och doft
Ty dagen den är din
Långt bort från stadens gråa hus
Vi glatt vår kosa styr
Och följer vägens vita band
Mot ljusa äventyr
Med öppna ögon låt oss se
På livets rikedom
Som gror och sjuder överallt
Där våren går i blom
Som gror och sjuder överallt
Där våren går i blom
Nu grönskar det i dalens famn
Nu doftar äng och lid
Kom med, kom med på vandringsfärd
I vårens glada tid
Var dag är som en gyllne skål
Till bredden fylld med vin
Så drick min vän, drick sol och doft
Ty dagen den är din
Så drick min vän, drick sol och doft
Ty dagen den är din
Så drick min vän, drick sol och doft
Ty dagen den är din"
As the song ended, the caravan were coming up towards a part of the trail that by it's layout alone sent shivers up the spine of the colonel and the more experienced guardsmen. From both sides, two steep ridges were coming ever closer to the trail that started to go down into a ravine, half way up the slopes, the ridges was covered in tall, dense undergrowth and closer to the trail, the growth seemed to have been cut down by hand, leaving no cover for almost 50 yards on either side. It reeked of ambush and the Imperials quickly made sure their armours would start in a moment's notice and that all weapons would work as intended, no ammo belts twisted, no rounds out of place, sights at default, back-flow valves for the flamer ok, pilot light and ignition working.
-
"A' ya sure 'bout this?" asked the leader of the eyes in the forest, keen not to have his new hope suddenly and cruely deflated.
"Yes yes yes!" replied the eyes in the forest in a rapid and almost hissing stream of syllables. " I saw 'em, saw plenty of 'em. All comin' down the road in a g'eat big ca'avan." They used their hands to illustrate this "g'eat big ca'avan" as it made its way down the road. The brush crashed and rustled as the eyes and its fellow eyes made their way through their dwelling in the forest, headed for the promised prize.
"Ya bette' be right o' it's ya head."
"I am right, I am!" insisted the eyes with a mixture of indignity and fright. Slightly miffed, they pushed the brush aside with a renewed vigor.
"Slow down the'! Won't do to chase 'em all 'way now."
"Sh!" the eyes in the forest spun around and hissed. "That's 'em ove' the'" they whispered. They extended a cautious finger and pointed across the very last barrier of brush to the road below them. As promised, there it was, trundling along in the early light of the morning. The eyes surged forward to sneak a better look at the prize.
"Well, I thinks it's 'bout time fo' a little fun..."
-
Lieutenant Tanya was sitting in the carriage, watching one of the more handsome men in Parzan's household. The young man seemed to be in his late twenties and was looking absent-mindedly at the foliage further up the ravine's side when they both heard a rustle in the leaves above, she didn't manage to see what made it but apparently, the man she was watching had and shouted something that sounded like a warning even though she didn't understand the words. He never finished though, a loud twang disrupted the sound and a split second later, his shirt was quickly turning from white to red around the crossbow bolt that stuck out of his chest...
Her combat reflexes took a few milliseconds to adjust to the slightly different situation and several more arrows and bolts were fiered at the caravan. Her training kicked in about the same time as screams of pain and panic started to rise from the forward half of the caravan.
She turned her armour on by reflex and shouted as she jumped out of the carriage on the opposite side from where the arrows had came.
"ÖVERFALL FRÅN HÖGER!!!" (Ambush from right side)
Further up the front of the caravan, the princess abruptly handed Parzan her mother's tiara as she started her armour and pulled the helmet on, a soft hizz announcing that the hermetic seal worked.
"Håll den här." She said as she took her assault rifle and jumped off the carriage, her soft voice now transformed by the helmet's speakers, sounding as if she was speaking in a metal barrel.
All along the caravan's length, the other Imperail guards started their armours, grabbed their weapons and jumped off to the left.
Sasha and Nikolai had already dissapeared into the jungle on the left side, scared by the wooden missiles flying around.
-
For his part, Parzan was lost in the confusion of the moment. As the tiara was shoved into his hands, they clutched around and held it tight. He wasn't quite sure why he'd done it. It just seemed the proper thing to do. That, and it was generally comforting to have something to hold onto has the sounds of chaos and madness and flying arrows and metal landing in flesh.
He pressed back into his seat in an earnest but ipso facto doomed attempt to make himself small and out of the way, specifically out of the way of any errant crossbow bolt.
It occurred to him that having a tiger about might be useful at a time like this.
For his part, the driver was attempting to control the horses, who'd already been on edge as a result of the presence of the tigers.
Up the hill meanwhile the brigands from the forest, satisfied with their initial barrage and the impact and chaos it seemed to have spawned rose up from behind the bushes, all sorts of sharp and pointy and doubtlessly painful implements. With a yelp and a holler, they rushed down the hill, ready to stick anyone who resisted with a certain morbid pleasure.
-
Seeing how the attackers broke cover, the Imperial guards opened up, the five machineguns roared, cutting bloody swathes through the brigands at the more or less point-blank range while the guardsmen not manning the machineguns, including the princess pushed their armours to the limit as they launched themselves through the caravan and counter-charged with an ear-shattering guttural roar, The princess's chainsword litterally starting to scream as the chain revved up.
The first brigand she faced looked quite surprised and failed to hit her completely as she slashed his chest and the screaming teeth ripped it open all the way to the spine, spraying her armour and the ground with blood and gore. Her next one was greated with a rifle-burst in the face, the princess using her shorter assult rifle with folded stock in one hand as a sidearm.
fifty feet back, a guardsman swatted aside a spear and thrust his bayonet into the guts of another brigand and fiering a short burst through him before striking the next one to come at him in the face with his rifle-but, dropping the mortally wounded bandit on the ground in the same fluid motion.
As combat closed, the machineguns fell silent and the gunners moved forward, slinging their MG's on their backs and drawing their sharpened entrenching tools as they started to make their way towards the fight.
-
It didn't take long. Armored with nothing more than a few strips of leather and rusting metal, the brigands were in no condition to face of against any kind of gunfire, much less so machine gun fire. It was bloody needless to say, very much so. The hill which had once been a practically picture of green summertime serenity was now all red and oozy, much more at home in a cheap horror film than fond memories of summers past.
As the sounds of combat and general disarray faded, he rocked back and forth a bit, tiara still firmly clutched in his hands. When it became apparent that the lull was indeed permanent, and that no one was still coming to slit his throat and leave his body to be scavenged by whatever nature felt fit to provide, he slowly came out from his seat with a faint note of suction as the impression reformed itself. He peered cautiously around the corner.
There were arrows about, a few unfortunate dead men who'd been dealt a bad set of quantum fate. But for the most part everyone incredibly enough seemed to be in fairly good condition. It had all happened so fast that most of them had forgotten to panic. Looking to the hill from which the attack he had come., he could see several survivors of the battle, desperately attemptng to flee back into the embrace of the forest. Further down the hill, he caught sight of the carnage layed out on the ground. Parzan promptly vomited.
-
As Parzan looked up after releasing what was his latest meal that day, he saw how the machinegunners that were walking up the side of the left ridge stopped at each injured brigand and used their razor-sharp entrenching tools as axes to put them out of their misory...
One of them was spared though, the one that Jr. Lieutenant Stettman had knocked out cold with the but of his rifle. The fortunate or unfortunate one, depending on how you look at it, was promptly dragged back down to the caravan.
As the princess came back to the carriage, she looked as if she had bathed in blood and small slivers of undetermined pieces of human flesh and clothing formed grotesque textured patterns on her otherwise smooth armour. She opened her visor and let out a loud whistle before reaching in and taking back the tiara from the somewhat pale Parzan. Her own features looked determined and unusually grim for such a young woman.
Lieutenant Tanya and Jr Lieutenant Stettman dropped the unconcious capitve on the ground outside Parzan's carriage and splashed some water from a cantine in his face to wake him up...
-
Parzan said nothing, just sitting there and passively observing as he gave the shock time to work its way through his system. He watched as the brigand was dragged up and awoked with a vacant stare, vaguely comprehending the bare basics of what was occurring. The finer details though consistantly slipped like water through the grip of his cognition.
The brigand spluttered on the ground, opened his eyes as he surfaced from the deep and dark pools of unconsciousness. He could feel splitting pain throughout his whole body, but could not immediately recollect why. Then his vision cleared, and he comprehended where he was.
He screamed a mad and terror crazed scream, thrashing about madly as he attempted to free himself and make a mad run for the hills.
"Nai nai nai! Vi ne ne! Nai nai, vi su sang. Sang sang sang, ses sang! Om su sang, jas sang ha me di ab. Sang..."
And onward. The would be robber's mind was quite clearly and completely shattered.
-
His run ended promptly as Lieutenant tanya grabbed his wrist with the vice grip of hydraulic gauntlets, pulling him back so hard his shoulder popped out of it's socket, causing him to howl with pain before the new direction of his momentum carried him hard into the side of the carriage.
Lieutenant held him firmly, looking at him intently and closely from withi the armour's insect-like visor before turning him towards Parzan, still maintaining a hydraulically powered vice grip on the prisoner, completely immobilizing both his healthy and his injured and unusable arm.
-
The prisoner of a brigand howled and wailed louder than before as the crushing grip was tightened around his wrist. His thrashing became even more violent as he fought to escape, foaming and biting and clawing as best he could like some kind of wild animal. His eyes were wide with terror.
Parzan for his part backed away from the terrifying scene, his own eyes widening with reflected terror. He was beginning to consider that perhaps all of this was not worth it, regardless of just how much fame and glory he stood to stand. Others were following his suit, distancing themselves as far as possible from the apparent madness.
-
A gob of the prizoner's saliva spattered the face of the princess as he was thrashing about and she nodded to the second guard beside her and without hesitation, the armoured giant pulled out something that looked like a yellow and white tube from a utility slot in the belt and pulled a red ring of a to parzan unknown material. As the ring was pulled away from the tube, a 1.5" needle emerged from it and the divine one stabbed it in the prizoners healthy shoulder. Soon, the outlaw's movements became sluggish and he faded into an uneasy unconciousness, making him easy enough to handle but haunting him with warped hallucinations of the moments before, induced by the powerful synthetic coctail now running in his blood. The last thing he picked up before he passed out was a warped female metallic voice speaking rough alien words...
"Se till att han går att förhöra senare"
Picking up her cantine, the princess poured most of it's contents over her armour, washing away much of the blood that covered it before wiping the rest of it away along with the gob of saliva that was running down her cheek on a piece of reasonably clean cloth taken from a dead outlaw's clothing.
-
An akward silence, something which had been an all too common event since the Imperials had first crash landed into the planet. Parzan stared at the slumped bandit. The blood didn't affect him as much as it initially had. He had in short gotten use to it. That, or his brain was simply so overwhelmed at this point that he had gotten used to just about everything.
The coach driver was first to speak, with the intonation of a question. Those who knew Mor'osi in earshot heard "Is it all over then?" He cringed slightly as he looked around to see for himself if it were so. Parzan nodded weakly, and wordless drifted back into the carriage and sat back down into his seat with all the intent of someone who is quite thoroughly convinced that the past few minutes in no way shape or form ever happened. The other servants caught the hint, and began to file their way back into their appropriate little niches in the caravan.
-
Following Parzan's cue, the princess nodded to the colonel before jumping up beside Parzan, turning her armour off and blew a loud whistle as the other Imperails also settled in their carriages and started weapon maintenance after they also had turned off their armours. A few hundred yards away in the jungle on their left side, Sasha and Nikolai heard the whistle and doubled back and, to Parzan's dismay, returned to their choosen spots in the caravan as it had started moving, the horses now less spooked by their presence and most of them temporarily deaf from the recent gunfight...
The princess estimated that they had little more than 5 houirs worth of fuel left for each armour. The ammunition situation was far better.
-
The journey from that point continued devoid of any events worth noting. The sights along the way were spectacular at points, but monotony conspired even to detract from that. Slowly and surely the caravan and its passengers crawled along the dirt roads, across rivers, up and down mountains, heading farther and north east.
The weeks passed, and the weather began to shift with the scenery. It was not just the inevitable change in climate that such a drastic journey was bound to bring. It was also the approach of the autumn season, rolling across the land, that brought the new weather. The worst of the heat had retreated slightly, leaving a pleasant cool to the air.
It was in the morning of a day in this new atmosphere that the caravan made it's final approach to the Capital. The gates were open, and people hustled about with energy. Harvest and the Festival of the Red Dragonflies would be approaching soon, and there was a terrible amount of preparation to be made.
Parzan noted with interest the seemingly unusual amount of carpenters scurrying about, and scaffolds going up. The air held something different other than the weather, but he could not put his finger on it. For the moment though he disregarded the fact. He was finally at his destination! Now it would all just be a matter of gaining an audience with the Emperor and those close to him. Something that shouldn't be difficult for a noble.
-
Compared to the cities she was used to, the capital mostly reminded Hanna of the large tees of the forest ants in the northern provinces of her parent's long lost lexiconian empire.
Despite the chaotic atmosphere and at times curious or even pungent smells of the capital she found it somewhat homely as the caravan slowly made it's way through the milling crowds on the narrow streets and once again she was wearing her mother's tiara together with her armor instead of the insect-like helmet.
-
As they made their way farther and farther into the Capital, things became stranger and stranger still for Parzan. Many of the sights had remained unchanged since he had last visited the city. But there were new sights that shouldn't have been there.
The most obvious of these was the strange two wheeled contraptions that everyone now seemed to be zipping about the city in great roaming herds on. They whirred faintly as they passed, their riders staying upright in defiance of gravity and poor balance. A few of them roared past in a spluttering cacophony.
Strange new structures were going up everywhere as well it seemed. Buildings going up and up in a cocoon of bamboo higher than anything other than pagoda ought to go. Metal posts staked into the ground with righting plastered on them. Wires strung between odd poles and buildings, wires which hung the occasional box over the street.
The street...
Parzan forced himself to look down. Something was wrong with the street as well. No stones. Only some sort of single massive stone of black that stretched on and on. How in all creation did they manage to cut and lay the thing? It just didn't make sense.
Parzan gulped and sat back into his seat. He pondered whether he might be dreaming, that this was all some terrible dream. He dismissed the idea. This was all real, he could smell, see, hear and feel it all too well. But if it was real, why and how?
Terrifying as the situation was becoming, he refused to allow himself to turn back. The carriage pressed onward into the strange world. Parzan worried that in all the oddities, the palace might have transformed itself into something strange, perhaps a gigantic fruit or undulating mass. His wild imaginings bore no fruit however. Instead, there was a distinct lack of anything like the old palace where the palace ought to be. The entire building, in all its massive splendor, was gone. Again, in its place was more scaffolding, endless construction, and amidst it something even grander than what had preceded it taking shape. Some of the buildings on the ground's periphery were even complete, or had never been removed in the first place for all Parzan knew.
The sturdy wall and gates that barred the place from the outside world were still there, and there were still guards as there had been for centuries. But again, something wasn't quite right. There were no spears in their hands, only a device that Parzan didn't recognize. More terror for Parzan, but he continued onward, determined that having come this far he would not be defeated.
-
As they came closer to the centre of the city, the princess felt as if she was travelling through ancient history progressing rapidly all around her as the cobbled streets turned to bitumen and concrete and bicycles started to appear everywhere while telephone and electrical cables started to appear running along and across the street.
She was quite amused by the horrified look on Parzan's face while at the same time amazed at the things happening around her. She had always been interested in how things came to be, an interest she had inherrited from her long gone father, and now she was immersed in it happening all around her. As they came up to the huge construction site that seemed to be the goal of the caravan, a series of questions had formed in her mind, how come all of this is happening now, so fast, why is Parzan so bewildered about it, but above all, who initiated it and drives this rampant development?
She decided it was best to wait and see.
-
Mustering up strength and confidence enough to face this strange new world, Parzan stepped down and boldly walked straight up to the guards at the gate. Instinctively an arm and hand was raised in a motion for him to halt and stand his ground. Parzan complied.
"What business do you have at the Imperial Palace?" asked the one on the left with authority.
"I am Prefect Parzan of Akfuh Village of Sekad Province. I have travelled a great distance to the Capital to speak with his Divinity on a matter of great importance.
The two guards exchanged glances before the one on the left spoke again. "What is this matter of great importance?"
"I have with me a troupe of the divine, who came down from Heaven at the Summer's zenith in a great carriage of fire that split the night sky!" Parzan found himself getting into the act as he spouted the grandiose description of the Ark's crash to earth. The guard's looked past him at the caravan behind him, a sight less and less common these days. It was of little surprise that this man hailed from the backwater of Sekad. They looked back down at him. His expression was completely innocent, offering no hint that what he had just said sounded at all like a whole lot of rubbish to him.
"We'll tell his Divinity of your arrival, and then it will be his choice whether or not he wishes to see you..." the guard let his voice trailed off, slightly shocked that he was even considering this for a second.
The days of late found Osmar in a good mood. With the revolt put down, the restoration had been put back on track and was now continuing at an ever more dizzying pace everyday. He'd spent the last few weeks working endlessly to revamp the entire civil service, purging the numerous corrupt ministers and inspectors as best he could. He'd also spent many a night up late with Chasmor, tirelessly working on what would be the keystone of the entire effort...
Thankfully for Parzan, he was as such in a rather receptive mood when the bureaucrat sidled in, bowed four times, and told him that one Prefect Parzan of Akfuh Village in Sekad province was here to seek and audience and to present divine emissaries. It was not that Osmar did not believe in the Divine; he considered himself a demi-god. But it the sort of ruse that many a conman had tried over the ages...
"His divinity...has granted you an audience..." the guard informed Parzan, struggling not to trip over the odd arrangement of words. Parzan's face lit up with joy, as he rushed back and ushered the Princess down from the carriage and to the gate. Again though they were halted, and the guards pointed meaningfully down to their shoes. Parzan nodded and slipped them off hastily, and grasped the set of geta which the guard had produced from some unknown store. After having put them on, he grasped another pair and offered it to the Princess, inviting her to follow his example. His feet clattered as he turned about now.
-
The princess gave Parzan and the guard a look that unmistakeably questioned their level of sanity while half-heartedly trying to figure out how theese wooden slippers could be used without going through the ten-minute procedure of just taking the armour off and then put on a dress...
In the meanwhile, her Royal guards had started to climb off the carriages and stretch their legs while keeping their weapons slung across their backs. Sasha and Nikolai had also gotten tiered of traveling and had left their choosen spots, the latter having sneaked up on Parzan and sitting down just behind him, close enough for Parzan to start feeling the tiger's breath against his back.
-
Parzan noticed a sudden widening of the eyes of the two guards as he waited for the Princess to don the geta she'd been offered. He was puzzled for a moment, but then finally came to conclusion that perhaps he would simply do better to turn around for himself and see what the comotion was all about. As it turned out, it was one of the great white tigers that had been with them through the entire journey. Over the time his fears and anxieties had grown tired and bored of this one distraction, and had moved onto better and newer things liked the transformed Capital. Mentally he shrugged at this; there were more important things at hand now other than the worries of a pair of guards who might not be here the following day.
A hither to unseen bureaucrat waddled up now, clacking a great deal on his own set of geta. He seemed ready to burst into introduction when he too was privilege to the strange sight before him and lost his voice. His mouth continued to move regardless, giving the impression of some bizarre fish decked in black and red.
The Princess walked up, the geta abandoned. Parzan was used to this by now, and as always what the Gods wanted the Gods got, even if it went against ceremony. He gave the fish of a bureaucrat a "go on" look, and with one final fretful gasp he pulled himself together and motioned for Parzan and Hanna to follow. The small troupe set off across the grounds, gathering looks as they made their way over the plaza. Up they came to a building of evident authority, clattering and clunking up the flight of stone steps and passed the pillared entrance. There were a few twists and turns as the wound themselves down a hallway or two, and then they came to their arrival, or at least Parzan assumed they had by the way their guide knelt, bowing four full times and with all ceremony and pomp announcing his arrival, full title and all. It was rather nice found Parzan; it had been some time since he'd heard that full title stated.
A young voice replied, calling for his guests to enter. The guide backed away, bobbing up and down and gave the all clear for Parzan and Hanna to enter. Parzan drew up all the solemnity his training as a noble had taught him, and walked around the corner and before even bothering to look at who it was knelt and bowed four times as was proper.
"Ūe sai." was the response. Parzan followed the order without hesitation and lifted his head. He almost shouted out at what he saw. The boy who stood before him, emperor or not, was...was just dressed far to casually for such an occasion! Where was the Sun Spoke Crown? The robes and sashes and the sort? There was nothing more than the most basic of clothing on the boy, even if it was of a high quality. But he withheld his judgement, and instead proceeded to give a lengthy introduction of the Princess. The boy raised an eyebrow, but did nothing to eject him. When he'd finished his rambling, the boy turned to Hanna for her part of the tale, apparently unmoved by her odd appearance significantly.
-
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.
-
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?"
-
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.
-
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.
-
"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?"
-
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?"
-
"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."
-
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.
-
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."
-
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?
-
"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."
-
"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."
-
"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."
-
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."
-
"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.
-
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."
-
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."
-
"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."
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
"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?"
-
"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."
-
"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.
-
"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...
-
"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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Slightly startled, Hanna looked up, her eyes red but tears no longer running. Swallowing to clear her throat, she answered.
"It's just so much that has happened the most recent years and I couldn't keep up acting strong and sure any longer. And when I came out here, the garden reminded me of gardens I played in as a child, when my parents were still alive. Those gardens are dead now, cherry and apple trees burnt to cinders, dead and poisoned like the rest of that world I once knew." The tiger sat up, stroking Hanna's face with her own, purring softly.
Hanna continued.
"I am so sorry to have caused you trouble like this emperor, but could you keep me company here until I feel strong enough to follow you to the dining hall?"
-
"No no no!" Osmar said hastily. "Do not b'lame yoursel'f. I should have been more considerate." He paused, not sure how to continue from there. His senses locked onto the last words that Hanna had spoken, something which he could give an honest answer to without worry.
"Do not worry about leaving here. I inten'ded for us to eat here. Zough... Maybe zat is not bes't now if zis p'lace causes you such pain."
-
"No, please, I would love to eat out here! It was just a lot of memories coming all at once making it too much, but I feel better now, somehow, tears does clean one's soul from pain."
Now, as she had calmed down a bit, he noticed how her apperance had changed when she had taken that armour off. She wore a long red dress with short sleeves of some kind of silk. Around her waist she had wrapped a long silvery belt hanging down at the front, forming a two-stemmed y from her hips. Around her neck, there hung a thin silver chain with a slightly large pendant, two scorpions, one old, one silver, toghether forming a heart and inside it, a small locket had been attatched. The tiara she had worn when they arrived had been replaced by a much simpler one though still extravagant enough for a princess or even a queen with many intricate patterns etched into it or sculpted on it. He also noticed something else, there was no trace of running make-up, apparently, she didn't use any. Letting his eyes follow the dress he noticed her features for the first time, she was thin, almost too thin and her black hair ran down her back to her hips where it ended. He also noticed something with her eyes he hadn't seen before, even though they were clear and brown, ther was also a hint of blue in them. On the back of her neck, almost hidden by her hair, he saw something that felt odd though, it seemed as if she had some sort of tiny golden badge that was sitting directly in the skin. (The socket of her neural interface implant.)
-
"Ah, if zat is what you wan't" Osmar attempted to determine whether Hanna truly meant what she said, or was simply attempting to suppress whatever it was that had disturbed her though and to be a polite guest. His thoughts were soon sidetracked by the outfit she was wearing. Certainly, it was outlandish by Mor'osi standards, even by what he had already seen imported from afar. Still, strange as it was, he found it to be... well, though he felt odd telling himself it, the dress was for lack of any other word beautiful.
Red was also always a nice color.
"P'lease zen, to ze pagoda. We will have good shade zere."
-
"Thank you emperor" Hanna replied as she rose to her feet. She was shorter now that when she had worn her armour, but she was still much taller than Mor'osi women and the slim dress made her length and figure all the more obvious while instilling a sense of gracefullness and nobility.
-
Osmar smiled, partly hoping that it would lift Hanna's mood up further from danger, partly just glad by stint of empathy to see that she was doing better. He gestured for her to follow him the short distance to the pagoda.
As the two made their short journey across the gravel path and onto the stone floor of the structure, Osmar finally noted the conspicuous silence on the part of Hanna's feet. He looked down to confirm his suspicions.
"Ah, you have no mar'ash? I was certain zat she would p'rovide zem."
-
"Those wooden things that would be likely to break my ankles?" she asked with a slightly amused smile
"What are they for anyway?"
-
"Yes!. So you noticed?" He smiled again, glad to have found a point of idle conversation, so sorely needed to make up for what had so shortly transpired before. "Yes, zese. Zey are wor'n at all times almos't on ze palace g'roun'd's. I am unsure if it is law s'till, but it certainly is s'till a t'radition. It would not be difficul't o obtain you a pair if needed, an'd zey will not b'reak your ank'les I am sure."
-
"Yes, it's hard not to notice them, but why use something so uncomfortable and unpractical?" Somehow, Osmar's company had helped her feel less lonely, for the first time in almost one and a half year, she almost felt content and secure enough to just be herself. She started to notice that she had changed in her personality too, something she hadn't thought about for an even longer time, but now when she did, she was satisfied with what she found.
-
Osmar laughed, and in earnest humor rather than just an attempt to play the good host. "We have alway's been in many way's an im'p'ractical peop'le. Zough wis p'ractice zey are comfortab'le an'd easy enough. But p'lease," again, he gestured, but this time to the low but expertly carved and laquered table and mats that lay ready in the shade of the pagoda. "If we will talk, we should be comfortab'le."
-
"That sounds like a good suggestion emperor."
Hanna followed Osmar to the table and mats, sitting down with her legs to one side and her bare feet off the edge of the sitting mat, allowing her to brush off some strains of grass before continuing to study Osmar, wondering if his life had been as turbulent as hers, somehow it didn't seem that way.
-
"As a chil'd, I sink zat ze garden was my favorite p'lace," said Osmar as he sat downs as well, perhaps not thinking about whether this was the best way to continue the conversation. "I alway's foun'd it very peaceful. It was also away f'rom the pestering Minister's. Zough" he said with a note of caveat in his voice "Zis is not ze same. The fir's't was los't when the palace was bur'n'd with everysing else."
-
"It is still a very peaceful and beautyful place, it reminded me of the happier parts of my own childhood."
Sasha and Nikolai was slowly walking up to them, lying down beside them as to just relax and maybe sleep a bit in the early evening light.
-
Osmar took a moment to consider this new arrival. The tigers seemed well behaved enough, and he was still alive. If they wanted to kill him as part of some elaborate assassination plot, they would have done so by now, or at least certainly not while they were so deep inside the palace grounds. It would be suicide; the place was practically a small city. With just the slightest miss giving, he reached out and pet the great feline. When his hand was not immediately and violently torn from its limb of residence, he relaxed a bit more.
'
"How did you come to have tiger' as pet's?" he asked, continuing his adventure into the unexplored realm of casual talk with a member of the opposite sex. "It is somesing indeed."
-
"It was my father's idea from the beginning I think, He loved felines of all shapes and sizes and my mother didn't mind so they decided to take care of two cubs that had been ignored by their mothers, Sasha and Nikolai. I think I was about five when they came to us as two playful balls of fur and muscles. I think you have gotten a new friend there emperor."
Sasha purred and pressed slightly back on Osmar's hand.
-
"I guess I do. Very affectionate. I did not have anysing you could call a pet. Well, maybe ze car'p in ze garden pon'd's. I would feed zose." A newly discovered concern struck Osmar as he he discussed the carp and pet the tiger. "Zey won't eat all ze fish will zey? I am fon'd of zem, not to note zat zey can be cos't'ly too."
-
"Oh, well, they do eat fish, but they usually don't hunt so I think your carps are reasonably safe. If it turns out they aren't, I suppose we could find somwhere else for Sasha and Nikolai to live where there are no carps?"
-
Osmar nodded. "Probably. When it is done, this com'p'lex will be quite large. A small city of sor't's, all housing ze organ's of ze new gover'n'men't." Osmar's face suddenly lit up with a spark of realization. Distracted earlier by Hanna's tears, arranging a meal, changing into a better set of clothing and quietly moving Parzan out of the way (he had no interest in him despite good humor to the contrary) and now by the calm which sucked him into a relaxed lethargy, he'd forgotten that point which he had only briefly raised earlier. Still, there was something to be said about this more relaxed atmosphere; it had done away with one other barrier, self imposed modesty for the sake of being polite and not spending the entire time rambling about himself. But Hanna did not seem the sort who took insult over such trivial matters as some in the palace did in his youth.
"I said earlier zat Parzan an'd ze ozer nob'les would soon be gone. It would be rude of me not to tell you why zis is so. You have come wis g'reat timing, for tomorrow will I hope chan'ge zis coun't'ry forever."
-
"Yes, you mentioned something like that earlier, please, tell me what you mean." Whatever it was that had caused the changes that was surrounding her, she wanted to know, she was good at hiding it, but inside, she felt giddy as a school-girl.
-
"Well, I am not fully aware of how much you know of our history. You may already know zat zough my ancestor Andel unified the coun't'ry after many years of war, it has been ze nob'les who ran sings." His tone darkened slightly as he went into his description of the Ar. "Zey are a vile lot. Zey sink only of zemsel'ves, s'cheming an'd pulling s't'ring's. Because of zem an'd zeir g'reed Mor'os is s'tagnan't for so long, because of zem many good peop'le suffered.
"I," he continued with a hint of pride replacing his dark tone "Would not have it, so I began to take back con't'rol, b'ring ze coun't'ry forwar'd. But zey would not have zis, an'd t'ried for my life. So low are zey zat it was my own g'ran'd'fazer who led ze attem'p't." He paused here, considering the unpleasant point before continuing. "But zey were defeated, all are now dead."
"As you can see ze movemen't forwar'd continues unstopped now, but zat is not ze en'd of sings. Tomorrow I make a set of dec'rees which will comp'lete ze transition. C'lass will be abolished, as will ser'f'dom. Ze peop'le's voice will be hear'd, no longer s'tif'led by corruption. I believe it is called 'democracy'. Now peop'le will have official's right here in zis city at all times to petition for zem, razer zan hoping it makes it across lan'd an'd s'rough corruption."
-
"That's a very gracious decision emperor, I had not heard any of your history before as Parzan wasn't quite as interested in trying to talk to me as to what benefits he could gain through me. Though your words tell me he rightly won't get any such pleasure. Although there were no nobles in my parents's empire, there was an elected council of advisors. But some of them were corrupted and lusted for more than they could ever need so they struck an alliance with a still unknown foreign power, that foreign power enlisted the corrupt leader of a second who sent an assassing after me, I was 16 then. Fortunately, the assassin's bullet only grazed me and two ordinary citizens managed to subdue him until the royal guards got there, unfortunately, one of the citizens were hurt badly in the initial struggle and died on his way to a hospital. That led to my parents founding the Imperial Security Agency. The I.S.A. interrogated the captured assassin and even though he himself knew very little, suspicions were fast directed towards the advisors due to the law of succession saying that if the Empire is left without heirs once the heads of state can't rule anymore, the advisors were to elect the next Emperor or Emperess. The I.S.A. covertly interned the lot of them and as the I.S.A. was forced in exile in the collapse, the advisors were excecuted for high treason along with the assassin who was executed for espionage. The resistance movement who murdered my parents and started the collapse most likely were tipped off by uncaptured conspirators unaware of the advisors's internment."
-
"Hm," said Osmar, now stroking his goatee in thought, and nodding a bit. "It would seem zat we come f'rom similar backroun'd's, too similiar perhap's. What you have des'c'ribed, it all jus't soun'd's...." he gave what might be described as an ironic and perhaps frustrated laugh. "It is jus't what has been ze s'tate of sing's for all time zat I an'd ozer's can remember here. Zey were not elected, but our Minister's certainly were corrup't an'd s'cheming. When zey were supposed to be caring for ze lan'd an'd it's peop'le, zey only worked for zeir own gain an'd squandered ze Imperial t'reasury on lavish parties. I am afraid," he coughed with embarrasment "zat I was compelled to atten'd many of zem. Ze wor's't were ze P'rime Minister, my G'randfazer, an'd the Imperial Censor's an'd In's'pector." Another laugh of irony and frustration. "Zough now, if zis sor't of behavior is so common everywhere, can I really hope to change anysing for long? Andel's effor't's collapsed wis his deas, an'd I worry it will be ze case for me as well."
-
"I think you can, amongst the people, you will always be remembered as a hero and they will probably love you more than they fear or respect you now."
-
"Ah, sank you..." said Osmar, slightly caught off guard by what he considered to be such a direct and stunning compliment. "I am g'lad to see one I have barely known has fais in me an'd what I hope for. Zough Andel is s'till remembered as a hero, god in fac't, an'd it didn't do much good for him an'd his d'ream's. But...ah, zere we are!"
The thing which had earned this sudden exclamation from the young emperor was the arrival of the food which had hither to existed only in potentia. Two servants, as dull and nondescript as the others who had preceded them, shuffled up (a manner of locomotion which seemed inherent for them), a tray held by each of them. Wordless they kneeled down and set the trays down on the table and then rose up, bowed, and disappeared back into the maze of halls and rooms from which they had emerged. Whether Hanna or Osmar would every see them again was a matter of speculation.
But the important thing of course was the food itself, at least as far as hunger cared, not those who delivered it, and it was plentiful. Among some of the food items that Hanna had observed earlier during her time with Parzan were new items. "Ze chef's, zey have been c'reative wis new ideas f'rom ze outside wor'l'd. Even our food is t'rying to catch up."
-
"Interesting, so what are theese dishes? and how do one eat properly with theese sticks? I never got time to learn while being Parzan's guest."
-
"Oh, you don't know how to use zem?" Osmar seemed genuinely puzzled; this probably could be accounted for by the fact that he had grown up in a world where everyone was a master of the chopstick in some form or other by the age of 6. But then again, he reminded himself, she didn't know how to properly wear mar'ash either.
"It is sim'p'le. See, you jus't put zem between your finger's like zis..." he said as he demonstrated with his own pair. "An'd zen..." in one swift motion he grasped a morsel of food from his plate between the pincer grip of the two chopsticks. He frowned when he noted that quite a bit of puzzlement still seemed to remain in Hanna's face. "Um, should I demons't'rate again?"
-
"Yes please" hanna replied while struggling to get the sticks to stay in the same grip long enough to grab something, this time around however, she got gradually closer to success.
-
This, keeping with the adage of practice making perfect, continued for some time. Hanna would attempt and fail, Osmar would redemonstrate the proper method. With each attempt, Hanna would improve gradually. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of painful attempts to control the chopsticks Hanna at last managed to grasp something from the plate, only to have it slip out after several seconds.
"Oh, well zat was c'lose," said Osmar, the second thoughts in the back of his head wondering if they would ever get to eating before the food went cold and was eaten up by the birds. "I am afraid zat if you are to s'tay here you may have to get used to it. I sin'k you can, you have done well so far."
-
"I think so too emperor, It is a bit easier when you get control of the technique." His eyes are kind'a cute when he looks at me like that, I wonder what he's thinking
-
"Good. It would be a shame for someone who has come s'rough as much as you have to die of s'tarvation because you could not pick up your food," he said with a chuckle. "An'd p'lease, you do not have to call me "emperor". You are above zat. Feel f'ree to address me sim'p'ly as Osmar if you wish. In fac't, I would prefer it. Ceremony can be so s'tifling sometimes.
"Now," he said as he pointed at the food before with his own chopsticks, "p'lease eat. I would sugges't ze nood'les maybe. Zey are usually easier to pick up, an'd of cour'se do tas'te good as well."
-
"I think I will do that Osmar, though I have been raised with the values that all are equal, to call you emperor was just a gesture of respect on my part" Hanna said as she picked up a few strands of noodles, letting the bullion run off before putting them in her mouth, savouring the taste.
-
"I am appreciative of your courtesy," replied Osmar, who rather than going for the noodles as his first choice instead chose a dumpling of some sort. He popped it into his mouth, chewed and swallowed before continuing. "But considering where you have come f'rom you an'd I are certainly equals'. You do not give yoursel'f ze c'redit you are due, zough..." another pause as he this time consumed another odd bit of food "modesty is an admirab'le t'rait."
-
"I don't? I guess I changed a lot too during the half year I spent in exile and the other year and a half before we fled and got here, I'm not quite sure how we got here anyway, I havn't seen the least bit of trace of the solar system we left as I have searched the sky, and we shouldn't have been able to trave that far that fast.but now we are here, and I have a feeling there is some greater power that is watching me, guiding my steps so to speak."
This time, she tried a dumpling and some rice but she pinched the rice a bit too hard and it fell apart back in the bowl.
-
"Indeed, as do I. Heaven I believe in the en'd if not immediately, will see to it that all en'd's as it should. Perhap's it is by it's will an'd destiny zat we have met."
-
Hanna just laughed at that. "Indeed it may be" She said, giving Osmar a warm smile. How can someone I just barely met make me feel like this?, and what is it I'm really feeling?
-
Osmar allowed a silence to pass while the two continued to eat, soaking up the sounds ands of the pleasant day unfolding around him. The winds in the trees, the birds, the gurgling of the brook and occasional carp flashing to the surface. It was all very relaxing.
And all so very much like those romances you've read blabbed his first thoughts.
Shut up! That's not the proper way to think! retorted his second thoughts.
The dumplings seem off today commented his third thoughts for no good reason.
The internal conversation going nowhere, he returned to the external one. "What would you like to do after lun'ch? It is good to have p'lan's, an'd zere is alot to see. You seem unfamiliary wis ze city."
-
"I guess I am, would you like to show it to me Osmar?" Hanna replied, catching his eyes as she did, trying to discern what he was thinking.
-
"Yes, it would be an honor."
Yes, yes, this is the way things are supposed to go aren't they?
Stop saying things like that... and I don't know
You think she'll think it is weird that we talk to ourself?
"Zough, zere is a lot to see. I am unsure where to s'tar't."
-
"Well, why not start right here with the palace and then go outwards?" He is definitely up to something, on the other hand, why does it feel as if I am too?
-
"Yes, zat would be a good idea. I am afraid zat it won't be as good as it might have been, wis the ol'd palace des't'royed, but I can s'till show you what ne building's are being buil't an'd zose zat have been com'p'leted."
-
"Yes, and I will in all events be here to see those now being constructed be completed."
-
"But for now," concluded the emperor with a genuinely warm smile, "We should finish eating. To go out an'd fin'd we lack ze energy to com'p'lete ze journey would be foolish indeed."
-
"Indeed" she replied, in a clearly amused voice as she started eating again, finishing what was left.
-
Plans concluded, the latter part of the meal consisted of more eating relative to talking than the earlier part of the meal had. It did not all together cease, but the day was one of those that seemed to suck all energy from any spoken words, as the gentle breeze and rustling of trees overpowered them through some force other than mere volume. One felt compelled in the face of it to merely relax and become a part of that fleeting and earthly calm.
As the last morsels of food were consumed or left to be disposed of, servants emerged from some unseen hiding place and whisked away the scraps and used utensils, and then as quickly as they had appeared vanished into whatever dimension it was that had spawned them. Osmar gave them no more attention than anyone would given anything so ethereal and flighty in nature, standing to his feet in preparation for the tour that he had promised after the meal.
"Shall we go now?"
-
"Yes please" Hanna replied and before her mind had caught up, she had offered him to take her arm, resulting in her blushing once her thoughts did catch up...
-
Osmar hesitated for a moment, not certain at how he ought to react to the gesture. Things were moving at an awfully fast pace it seemed.
Yes, yes, this really is working! cried the first thoughts.
No, no, it would not be proper would it? rebuked the second thoughts.
Wouldn't it be rude not to? retaliated the first thoughts.
Um...
We are wasting time observed the third thoughts.
With exaggerated care, as if the limb were some explosive which would burst at the slightest shock accepted the arm. He couldn't afford to be rude by denying her something she wanted, as first thoughts had pointed out. When an explosion failed to materialize, the tension eased.
"Yes, um... zis way p'lease. I sink... sink we will see ze Yhessostat fir's't."
-
"What is the Yhessostat then?" hanna asked as she tried to follow Osmar's lead
-
"Ah, zat would be," he answered as they began to walk, the word's a welcome distraction from any akward implications of the situation, "is where the Yhessos will be housed. It is near finished, which is good, as I p'lan ze electing to begin tomorrow. It will be ready in time." Osmar failed to realize, needless to say, the utterly unhelpful nature of his answer.
-
"Errmm.. and the 'Yhessos' beeing who?"
-
Osmar for a moment actually looked genuinely puzzled. Realization then dawned on him.
"Oh, I am sorry. I sink zey tran's'late it as "Petition Assem'b'ly". It is on ze ozer side of here, so it is a walk. I am sorry, I was forgetting it seem's zat you do not s'peak Mor'osvur. If I might be direc't, you would do good to lear'n if you inten'd to s'tay."
-
"I belive we already has come to that conclusion Osmar" She said, smiling. "As we walk, could you tell me about what we would be passing?"
-
"Well, I am not certain of ze details. Much of zis is or will be ze offices of ze Minis't'ries. I believe zat," he said, pointing to a building to their left, "Is ze Noshim, Minis't'ry of Agriculture. An'd zat..." his free hand switched sides to point to their right now "Is...I believe eizer ze Gunshim, Minis't'ry of Defense, or Minis't'ry of Education."
-
"So all government functions are concentrated to the palace? May I ask if the ministers are supposed to live in the palace too or are they expected to have their own homes in the city?"
-
"Yes, zis is where all gover'n'men't offices are, but zose who wor'k here live elsewhere in ze city."
-
"I think that is wise, otherwise, they might be too detatched from the public and that makes for the same problems as with nobility"
-
"Well, I do not sink it is odd to keep gover'n'men't offices in one cen't'ral p'lace. Certainly, we could not fit all of ze Minister's in someone's home. Zey p'robably would not like it."
-
"No, you misunderstand me, as far as I have seen, it is imperative for ministers to have as much contact with the public as possible as to make sure they know the everyday life of those their desicions are affecting"
-
"Ah, zat would be the tas'k of ze examination B'ran'ch. You cannot see it f'rom here, but zeir headquarter's are over zere," pointing to a building which as promised was not visible. "Zey were har'd to refor'm, as zey have been ze wor's't usually. Now zough ze Imperial In's'pector is apppointed by ze P'rime Minis'ter, elec'ted by ze Yhessos."
-
"Ah, so what is your role in this new order you are creating Osmar?"
-
"In ze gover'n'men't you mean? Well, as Emperor, I am head of s'tate of cour'se. Working wis ze P'rime Minister, I run an'd establish ze gover'n'men't, as will my whoever succeeds me as nex't emperor."
-
"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.
-
"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?"
-
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.
-
"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..."
-
"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
-
"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."
-
"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?"
-
"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."
-
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...
-
"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 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.
-
"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."
-
"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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Osmar blinked. His mind was having trouble processing what had just happened, largely because it was not something he had in any way expected or something which ought to have happened. Puzzled, he didn't even bother to step back. He gave Hanna a look which conveyed that puzzlement and silent shock.
Ah, so the feeling is mutual cried a gleeful First Thoughts.
Yes yes, but this is too fast, it's improper! snapped back the second thoughts. Oh, what to do now, what to do?
Words were stubborn in coming forth, and Osmar found himself trapped in an ackward silence.
-
Hanna waited, happy that the darkness around them hid her nervously blushing face, unfortunately it also hid most of Osmar's so she couldn't see his reaction.
The awkward silence continued for a minute or so before Hanna could no longer stand the tension and spoke, softly and cautiously.
"I'm sorry Osmar, I shouldn't have done that"
-
"Um..." Osmar stumbled over his own tongue as he looked for appropriate words, glad that the event had transpired far away from prying eyes. "No, no, zere is no need to be sorry. It is late, and... you are no doubt very tired. It is a good time for few. We should retire soon, zere is much zat is to be done tomorrow an'd I certainly will need ze res't."
-
Why the fuck did I have to go spoil everything! Probably the last chance of happyness I get and I run along too fast and ruin it.
"Yes Osmar" Hanna said, before swallowing hard to force down the tears until she was alone again.
-
Osmar was not an absolute dullard, and could easily sense that the situation had not entirely been resolved. Unfortunately, he could not figure out anyway that the situation, as painful and unpleasant as it might be, could be resolved. It was not something that his life and raising had afforded him ample opportunity to practice on. What little he knew was that the good commander never ought a battle unless fully assured of victory, and if faced with a certain defeat retreated to fight another day. He'd found that the writings of the Gundau could be applied to many things, and he for lack of any other option decided to continue to apply them at the moment.
He didn't bother to talk any further, lest he just make things worse. They climbed down and walked back to the Imperial Household in the growing dark without exchanging words, other than an obligatory good night from Osmar as they split ways and proceeded to separate rooms to sleep, he to the one in which he had slept since the building was completed, she in a room which the servants had prepared. Sleep was slow in arriving, as he tossed back and forth attempting to sort out his thoughts, a hopelessly confused muddle that seemed beyond rescue. Sheer boredom eventually forced the matter, and he slipped from consciousness.
-
As Osmar told her good night and left, Hanna slid the door closed. As she reached the foot of the matress the servants had rolled out for her she just let herself fall to her knees before falling forward and pulling her legs up into some sort of half-fetal position and let her tears run freely.
Within minutes, her pillow was soaked and still she cried quietly until there was no more tears and she lay there hulking and sobbing until weariness overtook her and she fell into an uneasy sleep, haunted by ghostly memories of her past and something else.
She was suddenly standing in the middle of a desert of some sort, she was barefoot and wearing a dirty black dress with it's skirt ripped to ribbons. All around her was mile after mile of grey ground in all directions, illuminated by a dirty grey light sifting through thick clouds above. She started to walk, hearing a crunching sound as when she had crushed the ice on tiny puddles when she was little and searing pain rushed up her leg as she put down her foot. She looked down, seeing her blood seep out onto the grund from beneath her foot when she realized that the dessert around her consisted of small rounded flakes of glass, grey, sooty flakes with lots of trapped air-bubbles. She looked to her side, seeing something beneath the flakes she bent down, pushing the glass flakes aside, revealing a human face, contorted in pain with unseeing lidless eyes, starring accusingly up at her.
She was suddenly jerked wide awake by a loud scream of fear only to realize a split second later that it was she who was screaming and she stopped. A few seconds passed as her senses probed the darkness around her, the dessert was gone and so was the dim grey light and the glass. She felt the matress beneath her feet and rear, remembering where she was, sitting in her bed, in a room in an alien palace. Some distance away she could hear hurred steps coming closer to her door as she hugged her knees, wagging to and fro, trying to calm down while fresh tears started to run down her cheeks.
-
"Tle sū sī sī īn?" babbled Nameless Servant #1 as he rushed down the hall to address that screaming, something which he was fairly certain was not something to be ignored.
"Bemīm īn he? Yai sū fek et" retorted Nameless Servant #2, in a poor mood at having been awakened from what he'd found to be a very satisfying and sound sleep.
"So so," said Servant #1, getting exasperated and frustrated himself now as if the feeling were some contagion. "Dem tle dē?"
"Tle us nol īn- A! Vī-dav!"
Evidently nameless servants weren't the only ones who had been woken by the screaming, which considering its volume wasn't really that surprising anyway. A session of panicked and almost comical bowing ensued as the servants rushed to react to the sudden appearance of the emperor.
"Tle sū sī sī īn?" said Osmar, quoting Servant #1 verbatim. Unlike Servant #1 though he was treated to an answer from Servant #2 that was civil and for what it was worth informative in a matter of fact way, for reasons that should be plainly obvious.
"Yai sū fek et", said Servant #2, time apparently lacking creativity at the moment. He pointed to the door to which they had all been rushing, the source of the cacophony.
"Hanna on zim" Osmar muttered to no one in particular, and with a slightly worry hurried step pulled open the door, his mind already summoning up images of a return to an era of bloody murder and assassination.
-
The scene on the other side of the door was less chaotic than he had expected. The windows was still closed and not much looked out of place. However, the young princess was sitting on her mattress, hugging her knees while slowly rocking to and fro, tears slowly running down her face that was frozen into a mask of pure terror, her eyes just staring blankly ahead. Osmar noticed she was still wearing the dress she had worn when he had bid her goodnight several hours earlier though it now bore the traces of an uneasy sleep and stains of dried tears on the sleeves. The blanket was unused and the pillow was lying discarded beside the head of the mattress.
-
"Ah, Hanna! What has happened?"
-
Slowly, Hanna turned her face towards the sound of the voice, drawing her back to reality and with a shaky voice she answered.
"I... I don't know..."
-
Servant 1 and 2 peered around the door to see what had happened. They were mildly disappointed and annoyed to find that they had been woken for what was apparently nothing, judging by the lack of blood and guts. Osmar though was just confused.
"Nosing? Are you well, not hur't?"
-
"I don't think so, not physically anyway, but I don't know what's happening to my mind. It's scaring me Osmar."
-
"Ah," said Osmar, the stress and tension of the moment visibly leaving him. "It is good zat you are not hur't. But your min'd... has turned again's't you?"
-
"That or it's trying to tell me something. It all started the week before we came to Mor'os and it has gotten worse."
-
"Oh..."
Osmar didn't say anything, but it did not take much for him to feel instinctively that something was...well, not just right. That something going on here was a bit odd. It sounded...almost as if Hanna was, how shall we say, not entirely with it?
Insane or not, she's still pleasant to the eyes remarked First Thoughts crudely.
And that too. Now that the fear and immediate danger of possible death and doom was passed, all the muddled confusion that Hanna had provoked in him was free to rise again. He was wondering where he'd put that copy of Gul Do on Yūm. That had been about romance, right? It had been about how to properly go about these sorts of things, right? Because as things stood, he was pretty lost, perhaps even more so then when he had started.
Argh! cried Second Thoughts. Stop it stop it stop it!
Speaking of insanity, is this particularly sane, us talking with one another? Third Thoughts, of course.
Who cares? Hanna Hanna Hanna. That's all that should matter right now! said First Thoughts, bringing the conversation into a full loop. Beautiful Hanna...
Shut up shut up shut up! Poor Second Thoughts was losing it.
Back in the physical reality of things, through this storm Osmar managed a "What is it t'rying to tell you?"
-
"I don't know, I must have slipped off to sleep and the next thing I remember is standing in a dessert under a sky of thick grey clouds and a soft but dim light. As I started walking, something broke under my foot and I looked down seeing that the dessert wasn't sand but rounded flakes of impure glass and my blood was starting to cover some of it, the light causing it to look almost black. then I saw a shape under the glass and when I dug some of it away I saw a human face staring up directly at me but the face had no skin or eyelids, they looked as if burnt-off. The next thing I know is I heard someone screaming in the dark and realising it was me once I had realised I was still here."
-
Yes, this was officially insane and beyond the fragile realm of reason. The dream, weird and uninterpretable. The situation was all and all, especially when combined with the wonders of youthful and pathetically confused love, to use the polite term, was putting Osmar in a rather uncomfortable bind. He wasn't any sort of psychotherapist, or dream reading mystic. What was he supposed to make out of it all?
Well, if you don't make her feel well we'll loose her!
Technically true I suppose, and I suppose it wouldn't be polite either to just abandon her...
It didn't help that the dream was weird in the most disturbing possible fashion that the subconscious could develop. What to do, what to do... say something, something that sounded kind and displayed an effort even if he was completely lost. That would do, yes?
"Zat's terrible Hanna. I am sorry, even if I am not sure what to do. I am not t'rained for such sing's."
-
With her tension loosening, she turned so that she sat with her feet on the floor beside the bed, signing with her hand for Osmar to sit down beside her.
"I wouldn't expect you to be, but I think just not being alone does a lot to help. Did you see Sasha or Nikolai on your way here? I just remembered I havn't seen them since our dinner in the garden."
-
"No, I have not seen zem." Osmar for his own part found the statement odd. How could one possibly lose two tigers? And worse, what were they up to unattended in the palace complex?
"Zey did not retur'n to you on zeir own?"
-
"Apparently not, but I think I have an idea where they are and if I'm right it's nothing to worry about but I'm sorry for waking you up like this Osmar."
-
"P'lease, do not sin'k of it. Can you get bac to s'leep? It would be good to get res't, as zere is much to do tomorrow."
Giving up already? No!
No, this is the right thing to do. Be quiet!
Perhaps it would be best to find those tigers...
-
"I think I can, would you mind keeping me company until I am sleeping? I think it would help."
-
"Ah..."
What to do, what to do. It doesn't seem proper, but it doesn't seem proper to refuse a request of a guest either...
Why are you complaining? It is win win this time! I get to spend more time with Hanna, and you get to treat your guest as any proper host should.
I suppose...
Good, end of discussion!
"...yes, of cour'se. If zat is necessary, zen I will be g'lad to hel'p you."
-
"Thank you"
*awkward silence*
"Umm... Osmar, it would be easier for me to go to bed if I could actually get under my covers, please?"
-
Osmar found himself puzzled for a moment, but then he came to a gradual realization. He had without even realizing taken Hanna by the hand somewhere in their discussion. He did his best to maintain his composure and to subdue the the blush that was rushing to his face. He also released the hand, but not without a minute moment's hesitation and reluctance.
"I am sorry. P'lease, s'leep now."
-
"I will try"
As Osmar rose, Hanna slipped between the sheets and undressed out of sight. After the dress had been pushed out, she stuck her hand out from under the covers and let her bra fall to the floor before her head resurfaced on the pillow.
She turned on her side and looked up at him, her green-brown eyes fixed on his, taking his hand again.
"Thank you for staying with me Osmar."
-
Osmar nodded curtly, smiling.
"Sin'k nosing of it. I am alway's g'lad to do what I can to hel'p"
And as he sat down, making himself comfortable for that indefinite period of time that lay ahead, he found that it was no longer a matter of simply being a good host. He actually, even if it was for now only in a very small way, cared for Hanna, and he guessed that in all likely hood this infatuation with her would only grow with time.
I suppose it isn't all so bad...we certainly are overdue for this sort of thing. Second Thought's revised stance was evidence of this.
Glad we see eye to eye replied First Thoughts.
Mind you, it will all be done properly and politely!
-
Hanna lay on her side with her eylids almost closed as she watched the young emperor sitting on her bedside.
I wish I could wake up in his arms too, not just falling asleep with him sitting there watching me... I wonder...
Opening her eyes a little bit and watching his reactions she started to slowly stroke the one of his hands she was holding with hers. Softly exploring the back of his hand with her finger tips.
-
Osmar didn't react instantly, as he had begun to find himself dozing off. But as those fingers continued to explore the back of his hand he realized what was happening.
Ooh! This is going far better than I expected! First Thoughts was undoubtedly happy.
...
The silence from Second Thoughts for a moment was frightening for Second Thoughts.
What's wrong? You aren't going to fight me on this?
I've given up. Not to mention... well, marriage is a long overdue duty we've supposed to been at...and she isn't a noble who comes with political strings attached...
First Thoughts laughed. No need to make excuses, there's nothing wrong with this! How do you think we were born? Not out of thin air!
Second Thoughts blushed and gave a nervous reciprocal laugh of his own. I guess you're right...
Anyway, if we are all in agreement that this is all okay then, how are we to proceed? Third Thoughts was still his practical self, and had raised an important point. Sure, they'd worked out their muddled feelings, concluded that romantic affections for Hanna were acceptable. But that didn't mean they had any idea how to put it all into motion.
Um... First Thoughts was stumped.
Delay until we figure something out!.
"Not asleep yet? Is somesing s'till wrong?" said Osmar.
Oh, that was a beautiful delay. That's really romantic... said First Thoughts, dripping with sarcasm.
I'd like to see you do better! retorted Second Thoughts.
-
"Quite the contrary", Hanna whispered, "I was just amazed how the moonlight plays with your features"
Looking up from Hanna's face for a moment, Osmar could see the nearly full moon bathing him in one of it's silvery rays finding the way through the window's ornamentation.
With Osmar distracted, Hanna discretely pulled his hand beneath the hem of her covers and up to her lips, softly kissing his fingers.
-
Resolved romantic feelings not withstanding, Osmar had not expected the last gesture of affection from Hanna, but decided that it when all was considered seemed to fit...he guessed. Regardless, he sensed that he would make the most headway if he rolled with things organically.
"San'k you, but I believe zat if anyone deserves a complimen't for beauty it is you Hanna."
Is that right?
Yes...yes I think it is...
-
Osmar noticed a shift in the way she looked at him.
Gotcha!
Without saying a word, she gently pulled him down so she could give him a kiss so light it was like being caressed with a rose petal.
-
Osmar didn't attempt to fight, or pull back. Drowsiness had a stupor like affect on his conscious, and in some ways it seemed like a dream. But he knew that this wasn't a dream, that this was real. And realizing this, he was only thrilled, not awkward and uncomfortable as he had been before.
But again, another point of contention. Even if he was beginning to fall into the flow of romantic, it was still no easy going. Having been birthed in a culture that had done quite well with arranged marriages for thousands of years didn't help to say the least. Taking a chance, he decided to, cautiously, return the kiss, and then to hold his breath while he waited to see if that was indeed the proper action to take.
-
Hanna allowed the kiss to deepen slightly before breaking off, her lips remaining less than an inch from his as she whispered to him.
"Osmar, I assume you are as tiered as I am but I don't want you to leave, please stay here and let me sleep in your arms 'till the morning"
-
Osmar's heart leapt a bit hearing this. For a moment he thought that it might be going to fast. No! He was tired of running from this. It was time to damn the torpedoes and take a risk for once. He'd reformed an entire empire, surely he could deal with this? Not to mention the offer was tempting at the basic level...
Osmar smiled and said simple "Of cour'se". He was not in any state to string together long and complex series of words. Terse was best, lest he only make a fool of himself.
-
Hanna kissed him again as she pulled away her covers while Osmar slipped out of his robes before they rearranged the covers over them both and Hanna laid her head down on Osmar's arm, placing her free arm around his waist.
Before long, they were both sleeping calmly in a close embrace.
-
Lelpak Chasmor clattered down yet another hall of the palace. He was normally a composed and calm man, but he was beginning to get unnerved. Osmar himself had been pressing him about this for weeks, months, working with him and insisting that it all be ready on time. And now Osmar, Emperor or Mor'os and the person on whose vision much of this had been done, was no where to be found.
He stopped and inhaled, and then exhaled, in an attempt to steady himself. If he missed this, it would not be the end of the word he told himself. It could always be rescheduled he told himself. It only helped slightly. He stopped a passing servant.
'
"Where is his Divinity? It is almost time for his appearance and I cannot find him."
"Have you checked the Imperial Bed Chambers Honored Prime Minister?" she asked.
"Yes, and he isn't there."
"Then I am afraid that I do not know the answer. My apologies. Would you like me and the others to aid you in your search?"
"Please, do so." Chasmor barely finished the sentence before clattering of again, looking from room to room. The servant watched him go, slightly curious, before resuming her duties. She knew nothing of the Emperor, but she knew that their newest guest, the female one who the rumors said had fell from Heaven itself, was sleeping in the chamber down the hall and to the right. It was her duty to wake her, and as she walked she enlisted more passing servants to search for Osmar along side Chasmor. This done, she went to the room in which Hanna was sleeping and slid open the door. Rumors also said that the new arrival did not speak Mor'osi, the only language she was familiar with, but the servant concluded that the noise she would make while speaking would be sufficient.
"Honored guest," she said in Mor'osi as she slid the door open. "It is morning-oh! Your Divinity!" She was not sure why the Emperor had shown up in the room of their newest guest, but that was not her place to question, for the moment at least while she was on duty. She gave a hasty series of bows.
"Your Divinity, the Prime Minister has been seeking for you." Osmar, a bit bleary, was sitting up and blinking the sleep from his eyes. "He says that it will soon be time for your Divinities appearance, and I believe that he wishes for your Divinity to prepare." This seemed touch something in Osmar, as sleeps grip suddenly lifted and dashed out of bed.
"What time is it?" he asked urgently.
"I am unsure your Divinity, my apologies."
"Do not think of it." And without a further word Osmar rushed out of the room and down the halls in a mad dash to prepare himself. The servant watched him go, a bit stunned by such unusual behavior from the usually stoic Emperor. But then he was lost from view, and she turned back to the girl who had been sleeping beside him, her mind already inventing and concluding what was happening between the two.
-
As the sun light started to sift through the windows, Hanna stirred slightly in that state that's not awake but not sleeping either.
Thank you lord for this mercy you have granted me despite of my sins, Amen.
She opened her eyes and looked at her emperor who was lying beside her. She was about to whisper her feelings for him when the door slid open.
Oups... Va i HELVETE! Han bara stack! (What the hell! He just left!)
As Osmar disappeared out the door, Hanna was both hurt and pissed. As a result, she tried to dismiss the poor servant with a clearly irritated gesture as she rose from the bed and started to dress. In her current mood though, she didn't choose any of her dresses but instead she was soon wearing a jagged camouflage field uniform and black field boots. She decided to take the webbing vest too, putting full clips in it's magazine pockets and grabbing her assault rifle on her way out, hanging it in a short sling over her shoulder. She had seen the palace guard's fiering range from the pagoda the evening before and was making a beeline for it as that was her favourite way to let off steam. Relatively to the geta of the other palace inhabitants, her footfalls were much softer and she noticed that she startled people she passed on her way.
-
Being the organized person that he was, Osmar had little trouble once he returned to his own room locating all of the items of clothing and accessories that a public appearance called for, and he dressed efficiently and rapidly. During the process he took time to mentally admonish himself for have allowing himself to sleep in so late, especially when the event that he risked being late or was his own. Still, checking the clock, it seemed that things would still be on time, if at a far less relaxed pace than he would have hoped for. It was as he was making the final adjustments that Chasmor, out of breath at this point from running back and forth across the palace, found him, having been guided by the servant who had found him earlier.
"You Divinity! I have been looking for some time. I was worried that the announcement would be missed and rescheduled."
"I am sorry, but I am ready now. Is everything else prepared?"
"Yes your Divinity," said Chasmor, nodding. "The people have known of the proclamation for some time now. Word is they're rather eager to hear what it is."
"Good good..." Osmar gave himself one finally look over in the mirror. "Then I believe it is almost time. Oh, where is are guest, Hanna? I think she should be witness to this event as well."
"I do not know your Divinity."
"If I may be so bold your Divinity," said the servant, cautiously raising her voice. "But our honored guest woke shortly after yourself and proceeded to leave in a temper."
"A temper? Whatever for?"
"I do not know your Divinity?"
"Well, can we find her?"
"I am afraid," said Chasmor "That there isn't time if your Divinity wishes for the proclamation to be made as scheduled." Osmar groaned in frustration.
"Very well. Have someone look for her, and direct her if she can be found. But if we cannot wait for her we shall not."
-
When Hanna arrived on the fiering range it was empty apart from a series of targets at their end. She choose a spot far to the right and got down into a prone position, pulling up her right knee into a steady fiering postition before slamming a clip in the reciver and pulling the cocking handle. She took a couple of deep breaths, flipped the fire-selector with her thumb and pulled the trigger, keeping it depressed for the whole 30 round clip.
A palace guard officer appeared in the range's other entrance as the last spent case hit the dirt in front of her.
-
The officer stopped. The officer stared, a bit mystified. Finally, he risked a few uncertain words.
"Pol, vī sam sū tler īn?"
Elsewhere, Osmar looked anxiously about. No sign of Hanna to be seen. He would have to begin without her. Composing himself, he walked forward out of the palace and into the bright morning sun, below which a multitude, just as Chasmor had assembled. A few seconds passed, and then a thunderous cheer slowly rose from them as they one by one realized that that which they had been waiting for had finally arrived. Osmar knew that he had earned himself a great degree of popularity, but the size of the turnout stunned even him. He'd never imagined it would be possible to completely fill the plaza in question, but they had done it. He searched the crowd absent mindedly for no one in particular as he waited for the noise to die down. When it finally had, he began to recite the words which he had rehearsed and committed to memory well in advance.
"Mor'os on min...
-
Seeing the Mor'osi officer, Hanna froze for an instant before re-composing herself and rising to her feet.
"Yes?"
Has his 'divinity' sent someone to find his new toy now when he noticed it has a will of it's own and has gone amiss? Or is this something else? Damned that I can't understand what theese people are saying, I should have stayed in my suite. But on the other hand, that would have been to easy on him for what he did, no one deserves to be dissed like that.
-
The officer blinked, more confused than he had previously been.
"Pol, dem vī sam dī bu hen."
-
Ok, so he apparently aren't here to fetch me, I suppose he is wondering who I am then
Hanna placed her hand on her chest and spoke.
"Hanna"
-
The officer found himself worried, and suspecting that he was dealing with a troubled individual. Not only had what she said sounded weird, it didn't even reflect proper grammar.
"Han na? A... vī sam sū jas na on han dī pos īn?"
-
Hmm, doesn't seem as if he understood...
Hanna tried to think of some other way to make herself understood but was far from successful. However, she did have enough composure to let her rifle remain at the fiering station when she stood up before, effectively eliminating the risk of beeing shot, or at least she hoped so as she didn't even have her soft armour beneath the uniform.
While studying the unnaturally tall young woman with the milky white skin, the officer noticed something strange on the side of her neck, something glinted like gold when her long dark hair was briefly swept out of the way by the wind but she wore no jewlery. Still, she bore herself as if she was used to beeing obeyed but at the same time as if she was on unfamiliar ground.
-
"A..."
The officer returned Hanna's staring with more awkward staring of his own. Finally, he concluded that the situation was getting absolutely no where. He fumbled about in his pockets and produced a walky talky.
"Hēlhai?" he said, still keeping a suspicious eye directed at Hanna. "Shadlok et. Ong on fedsun sū." A delay as another voice crackled something back in an unintelligible garble. "A, so. Kur gang, shar had. Tle dē?" More unintelligible garbling. "A, hen hen ye. Mī tai." And with that his conversation on the walky talky ended, and things returned to the silent staring.
-
"Ok, enough of this. Where is Osmar?"
-
The officer gasped audibly, and then once the shock had worn off reverted to a anger and annoyance.
"Bu kam dī bos īn he? Kar dav on fas dana dī Damas dav īh dal loi he!"
-
Ok, bad idea to say his first name, what the fuck to do now.
Seeing as how all safe options were exhausted, Hanna decided to do the only sensible thing left, she sat down, tapping her fingers annoyingly on one of her knees.
-
The officer didn't seemed satisfied this, and was on the brink of launching into an extended and rambling diatribe with no end in sight when the approach of another silenced him. It was not another military officer, but one of the bureaucrats that milled about the place. The two exchanged a smart set of bows. The bureaucrat then looked Hanna over.
"Kal īn?"
"Tha, tha..." was the answers.
"Tler īn?"
"Damath-dav on me dag."
"Tle he? Kal-" He was silenced before he could go any further.
"Tensī dī bu kair thai." The officer seemed reluctant for a moment, but then relinquished with another bow.
"So, pol se." The conflict resolved, the again faced Hanna, and spoke.
"P'lease, I am Delmar Shausil-cham, an'd it is honor to meet you. His Divinity 'as been worried of you missing, an'd is saddened that you are missing 'is p'roclamation. I am here to escor't you back.
-
Some of her old temper had returned with the earlier brush-off and as she rose and picked upp her assault rifle. Sending the officer a gaze absolutely dripping with malice from a bruised ego. It was nothing personal, he had just provided the last straw.
"He better be, and have a damned good excuse to boot."
Hanna handled the rifle with savage casuality, not unlike a seasoned mercenary cheated of a bounty, when she made sure the clip was empty and slammed the cocking handle forward and made a dry-fiering towards the targets before slinging it over her shoulder.
"So, we can go now mr. Shausil-cham."
-
Shausil blinked a bit, with an expression of curiousity.
"I can see why Omsat-vetgunsar was so insul'ted by you." he said, speaking in a voice that carried noticably more twang thatn Osmar's. I though sal give to your doubt., but if you inten'd to s'tay I sugges't you lear'n better of it. Mis'ter Shausil or Shausil-sam good. Now we go, though if I may as'k, his Divinity was curious as well as to your poor temper."
-
"I am upset because, half an hour ago, he just rushed away without even the common decency to say what the hurry was. Especially as he knows how handicapped I am as I don't know your language yet. And as there's apparently nothing threatening our immediate safety then I fail to see any buisness that would be hurt beyond recovery by remaining on hold half a minute longer. I am not some pet or toy to be dismissed or discarded at will. I am working with my temper but you would understand it better if you knew my history."
-
"Really?" said a puzzled Shausil as they began to walk through the maze of buildings and walls. "That does not soun'd like his Divinity at all. The way he tell's it, he woke with importan't business to do, an'd decided to let you finis your s'leep while he did so."
-
"He thought I was SLEEPING!?"
*sigh*
"I guess I have a lot to teach him about awareness... Lesson one, someone that's moving and looking at you aren't sleeping..."
-
"Teach his Divinity" corrected Shausil. "Unless his Divinity has of course given you permission to s'peak of him otherwise."
-
"Actually, he did give me that permission during the dinner he shared with me yesterday evening. Before that I simply called him emperor."
-
"Is that so?" asked Shausil, genuinely surprised and a bit suspicious about this new revelation. "Well, well, that certainly is something. That is not something to be taken light. It is g'reat com'p'limen't that his Divinity thin'k's so highly of you."
-
"I guess he just haven't met many independent women who hasn't tried to control him in some way. But I do not take his friendship lightly. He is the first one who has truly listened to me and showed any hint of caring about me for myself as opposed to some role they envisioned me to have or to become."
-
"Welll, I do not thin'k any women have personally t'ried to con't'rol his Divinity themsel'ves direct, but it would be right to say that their father or their gran'd'father would t'ry to do so th'rough them. But if I may as'k, who expec't's what role of you?"
-
"Right now, no one, but on my homeworld I was the only heir to that world's largest empire geographically. But when my parents were killed by a resistance fighter's bomb in a newly conquered territory, the empire they had forged collapsed into civil war. I was forced to stay several years in exile before I, with help had amassed enough resources to reunite the empire proper, a few weeks later, a second world war erupted, forcing me and some selected few to leave the surface and somehow we ended up here in a bean-crop in one of your westernmost provinces."
-
"So you were here in your gone home of orgin? Well, if thought of being ruler s'cares you then there is no worry here. The line mus't remain solid f'rom the Supreme Ancestor."
-
"I don't think you understand, I was raised to rule so no prospect of ruling scares me but I have no wish to rule anything but my own fate and that is mine to rule and mine alone."
-
Shausil seemed a bit confused by this last statement, but quickly moved to hide any traces of it from his expression.
"Perhap's" he said to fill the empty silence. "Perhap's not. But I thin'k...yes, we are almos't there. This building I have alway's thought to large. We will come aroun'd f'rom the back, unless you would wan't to join the c'row'd that is sure to be there for the p'resentation of the remaining decrees."
-
"Thank you for offering, but I feel a bit uneasy with crowds, especially when I can't understand a word they are saying so I would prefer the back entrance mind you."
-
"It was not offer. It was showing what would be if we did not go by the back." In the distance, a cheer and round of applause rose up and then faded again, confirming that there was indeed some sort of crowd present further ahead as promised. Once it had died down, it was replaced by an indistinct voice. Then more applause, and then the voice again in a steady cycle. The sound was lost from hearing as Shausil turned away and towards the back of the palace.
-
If it wasn't an offer then why the hell did he bother to tell it to me?
-
Shausil noted an odd subtley of expression on Hanna's part, the barest hints of some kind of annoyance. Shausil was unsure as to why she should be annoyed, and so returned it with the slightest hints of annoyed puzzlement before continuing on. Away from the sound and towards the back, through a set of doors where they were recognized and allowed to pass without question. Down halls and up flight of stairs. At this point the same sounds of speech and of applause, back in forth in steady rhythm, returned and grew in strength and progressed farther.
"Hek et." said Shausil as a nervous looking Chasmor came into sight.
"A, Ten pesh!"
"Tle ban on or?"
"Istomis."
"A..." said Shausil turning back to Hanna. "It seem's we are in time for the en'd of thing's."
-
"Ah, are we staying back here behind the curtains until it is done or are we expected to show ourselves? Because I feel my current garb isn't completely up to the occation."
Hanna's reply reminded Shausil that she in fact was still wearing some sort of male military uniform and carrying her rifle in a short sling from her shoulder.
-
"No, you do not have to appear. That would be too much to as'k"
"Zhat sū buvab on al om on loi sū lhek dē ī." said a voice from the other side of the curtains, now clearly identifiable as Osmar thanks to proximity. This was met with a particularly loud uproar of cheering.
"Caste is des't'royed and all subjec't's are equal for the law." Shausil translated haphazardly.
-
Hanna nodded
"I think he is going to be one of the most popular Mor'osi emperors in history. But he will also get a lot of enemies among those who belonged to the more privilieged until he said that."
The first sentence had a happy note while the second sentence's note turned slightly sad.
-
"Well, there were enemies, his own g'ran'dfather and former Prime Minister among them. Haryhīn Rassen. They have been deal't with before this. They t'ried an'd failed to seize com'p'lete power in fear of losing it. They should have taken a lesson f'rom history.
-
"I think he mentioned something about that yesterday, but still, I doubt all of those who oppose this change has revealed themselves yet."
-
Shausil shrugged. "Perhap's, but what hope would they have? Heaven itsel'f is against them. Ten sū shi."
-
"Somehow, I think they would have more trouble with the people."
-
"The people? They love his Divnity, an'd are loyal. In this fight his Divinity and the people share the same side."
-
"That is what I meant, there is no way the people would return to the old ways without one hell of a fight. A fight any number of nobles couldn't even hope to meet anything but a total and crushing defeat."
-
Shausil blinked, a bit stupified and lost, by which narration mean completely stupified and lost.
"I am unsure what you are saying now. Are the Ol fighting the Ar or his Divinity?"
-
"If I have understood the Mor'osi terminology correctly, the Ol would be fighting the Ar if the Ar tried again to ursurp his divinity, and they would keep fighting the Ar even if the Ar suceeded in their goal. The Ar, have as I understood it, never counted on the people as a factor of power and that would be their undooing. The way I have been taught, all power stems from the people, without the support of one's subordinates, no leader will last long.
-
Shausil delayed for a few seconds to take all of this in before answering.
"Yes, that is correc't. Though, you seemed to be saying his Divinity should be worried of the people."
-
"Had he been despotic, then yes, due to what he has done now, he has absolutely nothing to fear from them. His memory will be loved by the Mor'osi people for centuries to come."
-
"That is very kin'd of you to say. But do not say that to his Divinity himsel'f He does not take well to f'lattery. Ah, I thin'k... Chasmor-sam, lūs īn?"
The round of cheering that rose now from the other side of the curtains this time seemed to grow in strength and volume with time rather than begin to fade away. Chasmor meanwhile replied to Shausil's apparent inquiry.
"So, tam on." Shausil nodded and spoke to Hanna. "That is en'd. His Divinity should soon-" Before Shausil had the proper time to conclude his statement, the curtains parted, and through stepped Osmar. He was now decked out in all sorts of ceremonial attire far more intricate and complex than what Hanna had seen him wearing when they first met. He did not notice Hanna immediately, and instead with a hint of exhaustion said:
"For man man, Chasmor."
"So, vī-dav. A, Hanna-sam sū hek et."
"Tle?" Osmar looked about, blinking a bit, and now promptly sighted Hanna.
"Ah, zere you are. Where have you been?"
-
In an unnaturally sweet voice, Hanna replied:
"Just letting out some frustration over beeing discarded... nothing serious..."
-
Osmar stopped, confused. So certain only a few seconds ago of what had been happening, he was now entirely confused.
"I am confused. What has happened to begin zis?"
-
"Maybe it would be better left for when in private. But as you can see, I am straight from the fiering range. I assume your speech went well?"
-
Sighting an opportunity to no longer have to pursue a line of conversation which he found entirely confusing and to be going nowhere particularly fast, Osmar jumped on it and seized it without a moment's hesitation.
"It wen't very well, san'k you. Zis is what I have been working for so very long, and I am g'lad to finally see it com'p'lete. These decrees will lay down the foundation for the new governmen't of the Empire, one which with any luck will restore it to it's p'roper s'tate. Ah, but what time is it now? Do you know?"
-
Looking at her wrist watch, Hanna ot a slightly confused look on her face since the time and date it showed wasn't coherent with how long they had been on the planet, according to her watch, they had been here for ten weeks but in days, it had only passed eight, and since she had kept a diary over them... Something just wasn't right.
"Errm.. I'm not sure, according to the sun's position I should say it's about two hours to mid day, according to my watch, it's supposed to be in the middle of the night. How long is a day here Osmar?"
-
"Hm? Well, by t'raditional s'tandar'd's of Mor'osi time there was 8 times, but zat I have already abolished by dec'ree. I atten'd'ed to those matter's before I gave my power to alter the laws. Now we use ze s'tandar'd 24 hour's of ze ozer nation's." Osmar chuckled slightly. "I am p'roud of our t'radition's, but not zat much." He peered over to look at Hanna's wrist watch for himself, a device that he was now thoroughly used to himself. "Is it b'roken? We can fix or replace it if zat is ze case."
-
"Well, I know it works perfectly as it should, but it's set to the time of my homeworld. Apparently, the days here are slightly longer so it's not synchronized and runs ahead a few hours every day. I think replacing it is the only way, but I will keep it as a memory. plus it has some special functions I don't want to loose."
-
"Ah," said Osmar, more to acknowledge what had been said than as sign of actual understanding as he was now lost again. "Zat soun'd's like a good idea. I can obtain a new one easily enough wis ze palace's budget."
-
Hanna laughed
"I hope you will let me have an opportunity to return your graciousness in the future Osmar. I have talked a bit to Shausil here, but I havn't yet been introduced to this other gentleman."
-
"You have not?" said Osmar with puzzlement. He had made the foolish assumption that Hanna would have met the Prime Minister by now. After all, he was the Prime Minister, the second most powerful figure in the entire government of the Empire.
Ah, but she is not from the Empire...and for that matter I think there is still quite a few people who have lost track of who anyone is in the government at this point...
"P'lease, zis is Lelpak Sillen Chasmor-Hēshimsar, or as I believe it is t'ran's'lated 'prime minister'."
The apparent Prime Minister bowed. "Satlau." he said, ignoring the language barrier for his own immediate convenience.
"I should hope he remain's pas't ze election. He has perfor'med very well."
-
"Pleased to meet you mr. Prime minister" Hanna replied with a bow of her own.
-
"I can say same." replied Chasmor. "Talk t'ravel's fas't'ly in palace, an'd I have hear'd already much of you. Seem you are exceptional person."
-
"I don't know if i'm so exceptional, though I guess the way i got here might make me"
-
"Yes, talk is you are divine an'd f'rom Heaven. I am not sure if I believe mysel'f, respec't'fully. Zough it would g'reat even't to mar'k ocassion an'd a surely a good omen, I am tol'd omen are old fashion an'd to look to future because looking to pas't was Ar business."
-
"Though I and my people did come from another world, that doesn't make me any more divine than anyone else."
-
Chasmor gave Hanna the peculiar look that the Mor'osi seemed to use to indicate that they did not understand, would not understand, and would not attempt to understand any of what had just been said.
"Well, yes. But if I am not being rude p'lease allow me to go. I should speak toMinister of Internal Affairs an'd Election Bureau." Without waiting for answer, as he feared it would only serve to needlessly confuse him further he bowed stiffly and walked off.
-
Looking briefly after the prime minister, Hanna turned to Osmar with an inquisitive look.
"I am curious Osmar, how come I have gotten quite a number of those puzzled looks since I arrived here?"
-
"Hm?" he replied, giving her a lesser version of the very same look to which she was referring. "What is zis now? You are not a normal person, to say ze leas't. Zere is much reason for people to puzzle at you."
-
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven...
"If you say so... What are we supposed to do next?"
-
"Well, of zat I am unsure. I had focused so much on p'lanning zis single momen't zat I never gave any sought as to what I would do after."
-
"Well, I want to change into something lighter and above all, cooler before I do anything else. A shower or a short bath before changing clothes wouldn't hurt either."
-
"If zat is what you wan't, I have no objection's. Lucky for you, we now have indoor p'lumbing. Had you arrived some time earlier sing's would have been a differen't matter."
-
"I can imagine, shall we go? Unless you have other duties of course. I have a few things I would like to ask you on the way."
-
"We?" asked Osmar, puzzled again. "I am not sure why I would be necessary..." He hesitated before gong farther. "Or if it would be proper for that matter if you are suggesting what I sin'k you are. Or perhap's I am jus't misunder's'tanding."
-
"I was just wondering if you would keep me company on the way to my suite, nothing more, besides, that would allow us to talk about some things concering my situation here that I have been thinking of."
-
"Oh, I misunder's'tood. Zere should be nosing wrong wiz zat."
-
"Shall we go then?"
-
"Yes yes, let us go zen. Ah," said Osmar, for a brief moment slightly disorientated and lost, "I believe zat zis way is ze fastes't."
-
Hanna offered him her arm with a courtly smile and waited with voicing her thoughts until they were out of earshot from the two people she knew would understand her Inglish.
"Osmar, why didn't you even say something before you left this morning? With what I now know you have accomplished today I can understand that you were hurried, but when you left without a word. That hurt."
-
Osmar did not immediately reply, instead biting his lower lip for a moment before speaking.
"I did not know zat was ze case of sing's. I am deeply sorry if I hur't you, zough I am s'till not entirely sure of ze reason's. When I woke, I foun'd you to s'till be a's'leep, an'd to do right decided to allow you to finish your res't while I p'repared an'd fulfilled my obligation's."
-
"Hmpf... I was awake enough to see you get out of bed..." Hanna said while lowering her voice.
-
"Well, I was not aware," a sense of indignity creeping up on him. "You could have easily sad somesing, I would not have been insul'ted."
-
"You were so quick to leave I barely had time to open my mouth to speak before you swooshed out... and there is no point in arguing about the past. But you still has plenty of chances to make up for it. How is up to you dear" That last part was whispered and ended in a wink...
-
"Ah..." replied Osmar, not quite sure again at what the proper response ought to be. So much new and uncharted territory, so many very potential pitfalls to fall into, and painfully doubtless.
Ooh! I believe that's what they call "sexual innuendo" commented gleeful first thoughts.
Hm, I'm not sure I like this now...
We resolved this last night I thought...
Third thoughts meanwhile was actually for a rare moment absent, despite the multitude of irrelevant observations simply begging to be made to be made. First and Second Thoughts almost took it upon themselves to fill the void.
"Well," said Osmar when the internal debate finally produced words, blushing with a slight sheepish grin, "I believe zat will have to wait for now, as now is not a p'roper time."
-
"Time will tell I think. That concluded, I wish to adress the other thing I was wondering about. What will become of me and those who came with me? Although I don't feel it, I think most of my bodyguards has started to feel as if they were prisoners in themselves, free to go and do almost what ever they want, but unable to understand what anyone around them are saying and unable to make themselves understood."
-
Osmar scratched his chin, replying "Ze language barrier is easily solved enough. Yoursel'f an'd zem could be tought to s'peak, jus't as I have learned Ing'lish."
-
"True, but I don't know if they would have the patience. Or the will to stay for that matter... You see, my position now is non-existant. This is a new world, litterally, and thus new rules. As I told you yesterday, our homeworld is probably only a lifeless ball of lethal soil and dead, boiled, oceans. And that is partially my fault... Not to mention they didn't even have a choice in following me here. On top of that, those who died in the crash was not just people that were choosen to rebuild a new civilization but also families, and relatives of some of the guards. They would hardly be human if some of them didn't at least partially blame me for the deaths of their loved ones."
-
"Well," said Osmar, not sure quite how to respond to a statement of such a dire nature, "I can do nosing to give zem anymore patience, or undo what has happened."
-
"No, but I intend to tell them that all their obligations and duties towards me has ceased and I want you to make sure anyone who choose to leave doesn't come to harm for as long as they remain in Mor'os. Would you do that for me?"
-
"Why would I har'm zem? Zey are our gues't's."
-
"I don't say you would, but I doubt you or your ministers can control everyone in Mor'os who doesn't abide by laws. I even recall my caravan to your capital beeing attacked by raiders of some kind. Though they were hardly prepared for our fire power, still, those who might want to leave won't be able to wear their power armours, and then an arrow is just as deadly to them as to anyone else."
-
"Certainly zose sor't's did roam ze coun't'ry under Ar rule. Ze neglec't of ze border p'rovinces is to b'lame for zat. But zat should be changing. Zese refor'm's are com'p'lete, an'd in'c'lude not neglecting zem. An'd ze capital an'd ze cen't'ral p'rovinces are quite safe."
-
"I know, dear Osmar, but no matter how mush anyone wishes it, such things don't change over night. Still, there might be another way to set them free of their imagined prison, give them new duties, something to live for. Since we landed in what used to be Parzan's province, they have become more like walking dead than the soldiers I once knew. If it goes on much longer, I fear what might happen even if they probably won't harm anyone except maybe me."
-
"Not really Parzan's p'rovince anymore, he was p'refec't, not a governor," said Osmar with the tone of an aside, before continuing with "What do zey wan't to do? If zey wan't to leave ze coun't'ry zey can."
-
"I don't know, they hardly speak to me anymore. And their eyes looks like their mind is absent, I think they are even worse off mentally than I am. i mean, I at least have you, they have nothing. Anyway, I will notify them that they are released from service and free to go or stay at their own will."
-
"If zat is what you wan't I cannot s'top you. An'd, I believe we have arrived," said Osmar, g'lad for an excuse to change the subjec't.
-
"Yes, here we are."
Just as she had opened the door and Osmar made a move as to leave, Hanna took a quick look around and saw noone else was in sight. She quickly decided to take advantage of the opportunity and in a split second, she had grabbed Osmar by his collar, pulled him into her suite with her, closed the door and clasped it.
"Time to make right dear." She whispered in his ear as she kissed Osmar's neck while holding him pinned against a wooden beam in the wall and letting go of his collar.
-
Osmar eyes went wide, his pulse quickened and he broke out into a sweat as Hanna's sudden action caught him of guard. A flurry of panicked and excited thoughts ran through his head, trying to figure out just what to do.
No no no said Second Thoughts as rapidly as ever This isn't right, this isn't acceptable
Oh, to the ten-thousand Hells with you! exclaimed First Thoughts! This... this just could not get any better! It is about time that we finally got to something like this...
But, this cannot possibly be the proper way to behave, there will be implications...
We've got nothing to do otherwise noted Third Thoughts.
See? said First Thoughts triumphantly. Even Third agrees. And speaking of proper, it wouldn't be polite to deny such a courteous request from a guest of ours would it?
Well, no, but...
Good! Then it is settled!
It's not settled at all...
IT IS SETTLED!, and with that Second Thoughts went off moping as best a thought could possibly mope.
Two months later, following the eventful celebration of the new year, Osmar was confronted within the halls of the palace by his mother.
"Good morning Mother" Osmar greeted her. He was troubled when she, rather than respond, stood there as if dumbfounded, stupefied. It was creepy to the say the very least.
"Um, is there something wrong Mother? Perhaps you should rest if you are not feeling well." Her face then broke into a great frightening grin, and before Osmar had time to respond she had lunged forward and embraced him in a vicious hold. Her eyes were slightly watery with apparent joy, or perhaps insanity as Osmar was being led to believe.
"Oh, I am so happy Osmar!" she shrieked with delight into his ear, nearly choking on her own words in her glee.
"Mother, your love is...appreciated, but why is this necessary?" Osmar struggled to say.
"Oh, don't kid me!" she replied, releasing him. Osmar inhaled to recapture his breath as she continued to speak. "Everyone in the palace knows already, even if you haven't issued the formal announcement."
"Wha..." realization came to Osmar. "You are talking about..."
"You've finally found a wife!" cried his Mother, cutting him short in her euphoria at the prospective marriage of her son. "I have been so worried with each day that has dragged on that this day might never come, but it finally has. Oh..." she took a moment to admire her son with parental affection through teary eyes. "Oh, you don't know how happy this makes me. And with know political strings attached..."
"Well, I am glad to see that you are so happy..." said Osmar, fearful that someone might be watching the spectacle. Even the Mor'osi, for all their love of the family, would find such a scene awkward. "Are you going to be okay?"
"Oh, I'm going to be better than okay Shauos," she replied, apparently going all out for the sake of making Osmar uncomfortable by using his childhood pet name. "Hanna seems like such a wonderful girl. I'm sure you two will be very happy. When will the formal announcement be made?"
"Today Mother. In fact I was just..."
"Then what are you waiting for! Get to it!" she said, shooing him along. "Would not do to keep the good people waiting!"
-
Standing behind the curtains on the top of the stairs, waiting for Osmar to announce their desicion to marry, Hanna thought back to the first days when she had come to know Osmar. It had been good days, but they felt very long ago even though it had only been two months. Much had happened. She felt the reassuring precence of Lieutenant Tanya, the only one of the Royal guards that had coosen to remain in Mor'os with her after she had released them from service.
There was also Sasha and Nikolai, her tow tiger companions, who to honour the occation had been dressed up with amazing necklaces. Sasha's was made of silver with diamonds and sapphires while Nikolai's was of gold with emeralds and rubys. Hanna herself had dressed in the clothes she had worn at that first dinner she had shared with Osmar only sixty days ago. But more spectacular than the exquisite red dress or the precious metals and gems she wore was her radiant smile and eyes shining with happiness. Long gone was the dark dream that haunted her sleep that first week, gone were the sorrow and sadness. Her memories of the Lexicon and most of what had happened there had started to fade, it was just too unreal when compared to everything that had happened around her since.
She also thought back to the first time she seduced him. It had been the first time she had been with anyone. It had hurt a little at first, but not as much as she had feared from what her mother, Sabina, had told her of her first time. Now she enjoyed it. Maybe even a bit too much for decency... fortunately, no one seemed to notice, and if they did, they didn't care, or at least didn't judge. She was happy, truly happy, and deeper in love than she could have ever imagined herself to be.