Sun-King Avad's Selection

Chapter 2 - City of the Sun

As promised at dawn, the Darav family left Brightmarket. Emily put on her best Carja silks with a long pink skirt and sleeveless top with little parts of machines sewn to them. It also came with a short white veil she wore from behind and adding it all with her Thunderjaw tiara, she looked like a princess, as her mom always told her when she saw her daughter in silks.

In her basket made from Stalker remains, Emily only packed her Blazon armour neatly folded, her spear, and some other small trinkets, for there was nothing else valuable she kept nor were there any specific people she wanted to say goodbye to. She left with her family, escorted by guards. It was not a long trip to Meridian, for the great city was Southeast and could be seen from the cliffs whenever the sun rose on the horizon from Brightmarket. It was within walking distance that took less than a day, and it made Emily think sometimes that moving still wasn't necessary if Father wanted her to marry.

She took one last look at Brightmarket before turning her head to sigh, and her sister Mehla approached her.

"It's a new adventure, big sis! Are you ready?"

Emily managed to smile and took her sister by the hand as they were escorted down the road.

"I'll have to be, I just don't know what there is for me to do in Meridian,"

Mehla shrugged and then got giddy with excitement again, "Oh, I know! You like to sing, right?"

It was true that aside from fighting machines, another talent Emily possessed was her voice. She could have sang at taverns but the bard life did not fancy her, it was a private thing she only did to put her siblings to sleep when they were younger and Mother grew tired of the ordeal. Sometimes Emily sang alone when times were tough, and given the current circumstances, she felt like singing more than anything right now.

It took the whole morning for the family to trek through the Jewel to Meridian with their escort. Emily remained silent for most of the walk, gazing into the wilderness and saw multiple machines in groups either resting or grazing. As they passed a nearby lake, two Snapmaws dozed in the water, barely paying attention to each passerby. A group of Watchers were escorting two Shell-Walkers down another road, but they were far away enough to not be alerted.

Soon, they cleared the Jewel and came to a clearing down a gentle slope into desert where the majestic rocky precipices came into view creating massive canyons and jutting mountains. It was the heart of the Sundom and Meridian could be seen in the very center. A great city with many structures that must have taken years to build, sat atop a large precipice with connecting bridges leading to one entrance and some very advanced-looking elevators with connecting chains making them appear to dangle like bats in a cave as the village below came into view

Another bridge was connected to a beautiful and ornate palace which Emily knew was home to Sun-King Avad himself and the other kings before him. She had never met Avad, but had heard many stories that he was the youngest king to sit on the throne, he had outlawed slavery, implemented new laws allowing more rights for Carja women, and opened Meridian's gates for other tribes as well. If I could get an audience with him, maybe he could get my father to back down, she thought, staring at the city while also pondering where she could easily exit without being seen as they walked down the hill.

"Magnificent isn't it?" Father said to his children,

Ehren shrugged uncertainly and Mehla bounced on her toes eager to see more of it.

"What do you think, Emily?"

Emily snapped out of her daydream, she had abruptly turned her head to a large speck she saw Northwest of Meridian that looked like a hulking two-legged machine. I could take that thing if I can sneak out, she had thought until her father interrupted, forcing her to face Meridian again.