The Ashes of Time

Chapter 5

            As Lady Monnette Jason leads him away from the Princess Darkstar's quarters, Chess thinks sorrowfully of how little hope is left in this kingdom. In his travels, he has seen a lot of despair, but there is something different here. He can hear the screams rising over the pattering rain, and it creates a deep pain in his chest. He can hear their despair climaxing in uncontrollable anger. Most people he knows think the future will be better than the past, but living in it, he knows that it is not, at least not this part of it. He does not know what happened to lead to this time. His detector normally brings him immediately before a disturbed time so that he can help prevent it, so surely if that were true, he should have been positioned to stop the apocalypse. It terrifies him that this situation may require more of his attention. Perhaps, he does not really understand his technology, because of the complicated nature of the future. He is determined that he is here for a reason, however, and that gives him hope that he can make a difference here.

Lady Monnette leads him by a window, outside of which fires blaze above piles of corpses and ash, but they are slowly burning out under the force of the rain. Zombies run by in the distance moaning loudly, causing Monnette to gasp. Chess can see the compassion in her eyes for her city and the pain it causes her to see it in this state. Now that she is away from the gaze of her princess, she seems less tense, but more outraged and more depressed. He thought Princess Darkstar had likely just lost hope in any solution and that her repulsion by the circumstances had led her to react angrily to her ladies and to him, yet she had seemed more nervous about him than the screams. Perhaps, it was just because the situation had been going on for so long that it was just a common occurrence, and yet Lady Monnette does not show any of the same signs of desensitization.

"Monnette," another lady speaks stepping out of the shadows. Her skin is pure white beneath her red fishtail gown. Chess supposes she must be the vampire, Lady Kelvex. If anything, she looks more horrified than Lady Monnette. Her eyes seem to avoid the window as she stares deliberately at the floor. "Princess Evylenne thinks we should compose some ideas together, and then present them to Princess Darkstar." He notes the difference in addressing the two princesses, since she used the visiting princess's first name and her own princess's last name even though she would be more familiar with her own princess.

Outside, a crowd of people creep out of the shadows between the bodies with torches in their hands. They have masks over their faces, presumably to reduce the chance of radiation poisoning, catching the disease, and inhaling smoke. They are covered in ash and blood and their clothes are tattered, yet they look alive and still remotely protected from the disease. Some of them have black spots on their skin, but they look like they have confidence. An angry fire burns in their eyes.

"Are you okay, Daffodil?" Lady Monnette questions, noticing the way Lady Kelvex avoids the window. 

The mob marches to a corner where a small dilapidated shop sits half destroyed. A few of the members run in with wild, desperate looks on their faces.

"How could I be?" Lady Daffodil demands. She lowers her tone, "With all this death." 

A few of the mob members start kicking the walls of the dilapidated shop, and when the other members step out of the shop, they light the place on fire. It always horrified Chess how people lost their sense of morality and order in situations like this where it was arguably the most important. Survival was important, and certainly Qélla's quarantines were not fair to the struggling citizenry, but ransacking stores and especially vandalizing them should not be an outlet of anger.

Daffodil leads Lady Monnette away from the window and down a dimly lit hallway. Chess follows with some hesitancy. At the end of the hallway, Daffodil turns around and notices him at last. Surprise fills her face. "My apologies," she says, shaking his hand, "I am Daffodil Kelvex, first lady of Raylinette."