LOCATION: THE CRUCIBLE, 100TH FLOOR
PLANET: LAPIS DIVINUS, ORION LUMINARY INSTITUTE
YEAR: ? | DAY: ?? | TIME: ??
The sun had barely cleared the distant horizon, shaking Kaela from her exhausted rest, and clearing her senses. She glanced around her and saw the aftermath of the violence she had unleashed on the bandits who thought they had found an easy score.
As she was about to begin clearing up the scene, her attention was drawn by an open carriage cresting the hill. Her enhanced Perception immediately recognized the royal seal of Caerwyn.
“Damn,” she muttered.
Before she could do anything else, the carriage arrived. Two men were in the seat, and two straddled the carriage, riding horses of their own. They were dressed in metal armor, draped in cloaks with the seal of the Caerwyn Royal Guard.
“Gods! It’s Princess Kaela!” one of them shouted.
The four guards leapt down and rushed to her side.
First, they noticed the blood. It was everywhere. In her hair, on her cheeks, dried and caked on her arms nearly to the elbows, and all over her dress.
Then they took in the rest of scene, and the guard’s eyes landed on Kaela’s corset. The laces were torn and it had been thrown to the side of the carriage.
“Your Highness! Are you harmed? Has your virtue been compromised?”
A puzzled look crossed Kaela’s face, but when he followed the guard’s line of sight, she saw the corset.
“Oh! That. No, I have not been compromised. These bandits,” she said, waving her arms all around the grisly scene, “tried to stop us last night.”
She looked around, then clucked her tongue.
“It… didn’t go well for them.”
Then she turned toward the coachman, lying in the grass, his lifeless body facing the sky.
“They shot my coachman before he could do anything so I had to take all of them on by myself.”
While one of the guards was talking to her, the others dragged the bandits’ bodies off the road and lined them up.
“Please tell us exactly what happened, Your Highness. We should take you back to the castle to make a report and clean you up before—”
“No,” she said forcefully. “I will not return.”
“But, Milady—”
The guards had finished pulling the bandits’ bodies to the grass at the side of the road, and were now searching them.
Through her peripheral vision, Kaela spotted one of the guards reaching into the front breast pocket of one of the bandits. He found something and stowed it away in his own jacket, before moving on to continue his search.
Kaela thought it looked like a coin, but from this distance she could discern no specific markings. Everything else they found, they laid out on the grass next to the body, but this object he had quietly pocketed.
That was strange…
She turned back to the guard talking to her.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“What is your name?” Kaela asked, a renewed tone of authority in her voice.
“I… I am Ellister Rowan. We were on our regular patrol of these roads when we saw you. But you cannot travel to Seraph’s Hold like this. They would think us barbarians for—"
Kaela laughed.
“For sending their betrothed Princess across thousands of miles without a proper escort?”
Rowan took a step back, shocked at her harsh words, but Kaela was not letting up.
“Or is it my appearance?” she asked, raising her voice now. “Do you not find my bloody visage fetching, or a representation of Caerwyn’s goodwill and peaceful intentions toward our new ally?”
Rowan stuttered over his words, but had no answer for her.
“Exactly,” Kaela said. “I will not return to the castle. There must be an inn or a home somewhere nearby where I can clean up. Take me there, and make arrangements for a proper escort.”
The three other guards had finished with their task and were now standing near Rowan. Kaela met each of their gazes.
“Can you do that for me?”
“Of… Of course, Your Highness,” Rowan said.
He directed one of his men to ride ahead. There was a farmhouse a few miles further down the road. The guard was told to prepare the place for the Princess’s arrival.
Rowan’s man nodded, mounted his horse and rode off, quickly disappearing beyond a hill.
Kaela turned to the others.
“Now, I need one of you to load the coachman onto this carriage and return it to the castle.”
Ellister Rowan shifted uneasily.
“But it’s covered in blood, Your Highness. They will know that—”
“What?” Kaela asked. “They will know that I was attacked? You can tell them that I survived unscathed, but I would prefer if you told them you never found my body.”
She took a few steps and bent down to pick up her corset. She tore it a bit more and then tossed it inside the carriage, helping to set the scene further.
“But I’ll leave it up to your discretion. I realize you will more likely follow the King’s orders over my own and tell him the truth.”
Then she looked out across the landscape.
“The truth being that they sent me away without an appropriate escort and didn’t bother to clear the highway of bandits before my trip? Sending the patrol behind us rather than ahead of us tells me everything I need to know about their priorities.”
She waved a dismissive hand at the guard already mounting the carriage and preparing to turn the horses around and head back.
“So you decide which story you’d rather tell. Either way, be sure to let my good brother know I am not pleased.”
The guard nodded.
“It shall be done, Your Highness. For my part, I apologize for what you have had to endure. None of us—”
“That’s enough,” Rowan said, cutting him off. “She doesn’t need excuses. She needs action. Now, go. Safe travels and all that.”
He turned to Princess Kaela.
“Your Highness, I am sorry this transport is not as comfortable as the first, but if you will allow us, we will escort you the rest of the way to Seraph’s Hold.”
Kaela accepted his hand as he helped her climb into the open carriage. She could have just jumped, but the dress did make that sort of thing a challenge.
They rode for around an hour until a farmhouse came into view. It was late morning at that point, and Kaela could smell freshly baked bread as they pulled in front of the small house.
The horse from the guard who had rode ahead was tied to a tree in front of a feeding trough and plenty of water. Rowan did the same with their two horses.
Kaela approached the front door, and it swung open. A young couple greeted her. They were clearly nervous, and were reciting the short speech the guard had prepared for them.
“Your Highness, please be welcome in our home. We apologize for the clutter and the humble environs.”
Kaela smiled and rested one hand on each of their shoulders.
“Nonsense. You have a beautiful home. Rowan here will be sure you are well-compensated for us putting you out like this.”
She turned toward him.
“Straight from the royal coffers. Right, Rowan?”
Once again caught off guard by her directness, Rowan bowed his head.
“It shall be as you say, Your Highness.”
“Of course it will. Now, I smell bread and vegetable soup.”
They spent two days at the farmhouse while they waited for Rowan to arrange for a carriage more suitable for a princess.
Kaela tried helping the couple with the various duties required to operate a farm, but neither the guard nor the couple themselves would allow her “royal hands” to be sullied like that.
She laughed at the notion, given the state in which she had been when she arrived, blood spattered all over her and her dress, like a goddess of war.
As she lay at night ready to sleep, she thought about that. It had been well over two decades to her since she started The Crucible.
How much of that time had she spent covered in blood?
“It certainly hasn’t been boring,” she whispered.
She wondered what awaited her in Seraph’s Hold as she drifted off to sleep. She would find out in six days. There was no use in speculation.