Palace of Pawns: Iron Throne

1|Aware

“I really do appreciate you coming out here with me, Flak.”

Leaves crunched under her feet. Her companion, Leah, caller Flak, smiled back at her. Leah was a short Lizos woman with a blazing temperament, just like her fiery hair. Her lizard-like tail trailed behind her over dirt and tree roots.

“Truly,” Leah assured, “it's no trouble, Ms. Wynters. It is my job, after all.” She adjusted her navy-blue collared uniform as if emphasizing her point.

“It's okay to call me Talia, you know,” she said. “There's no use in formality. I know we don't work in the same departments, but we've both worked under the Throne for years.”

Taila Wynters herself was a Ramsean woman with brown woolen hair and great horns atop her dark head. She stood much taller than Leah, with a thicker build and broader shoulders. Despite that, her disposition was more patient than Leah's. She had kind, deep black eyes.

“You call me by my title all the time, so I have every right to use formalities,” she reasoned kindly. “You call me Leah, and I'll call you Talia.”

In meeting Leah, it surprised Talia to learn that she wasn't completely how gossip portrayed her. Perhaps she did easily become irate, but in the brief interactions they had, and in their long trip now, Leah treated her respectfully. In a way, she reminded Talia of how an old friend would talk to her. They just had chemistry.

Speaking of chemistry, that's why Talia even needed to go to the Liminal. The forest in between the Iron Kingdom and the Republic of Shep had long been called the Liminal due to its odd nature. The ground itself had strange electromagnetic fields that didn't make sense to any scientists. That, and the rumors of strange beasts and countless disappearances, left the Liminal completely barren of any civilization.

To be the first, the Queen and the Divine Court of the Iron Throne invested time and resources into royally funded research. Of course, scientists couldn't just go into the Liminal alone, so the Queen always sent along Protectors. The Protectors worked on many things, from protecting the kingdom, to teaching the next generation of Protectors, keeping civil tensions at bay, busting crime organizations, and even things as mundane as walking a scientist through a mythical forest.

“What are you looking for again?” asked Leah. “Maybe I can help look.”

Reaching into her breast pocket, Taila presented her with a crude diagram of a certain mushroom. It was an ugly thing, twisted and dark.

“We call it ‘man's heart’ because of its odd shape. It's a peculiar type of fungus,” she explained.

“Well, it sure isn't pleasant to look at, so what do pretty scientists like you need to do with it?”

Talia laughed and smiled with her teeth. “It has odd behaviors compared to other species of mushrooms. A researcher proposed that it may have an important role in medicine, so I was sent to collect some samples so we can run more tests on the chemical composition of it.”

“Science was never my strong suit,” Leah mused.

The two continued to look. Honestly, Leah wasn't doing as much looking for fungi, rather admiring the odd purple bugs flying around. She wondered what kind of mosquitoes they were.

A twig snapped. Leah immediately shed her lax, sight-seeing demeanor, and took on a defensive position. She held out her long wooden spear and stepped in front of Talia, who had already stopped in her tracks.

“Hush, I hear something,” Leah whispered, green gaze darting amongst the trees. “We outta find it before it finds us.”

Talia nodded slowly. Leah listened from the next crunch of leaves, then slowly approached the direction of the sound, spear ready. It could've been anything; a bear, a serial killer, a monster– Whatever it was, Leah's duty was to protect Talia Wynters.