The Princess of Wrath

Chapter 1 - Part IV: A Brief Journey

Nearly half an hour after leaving the Hall of the Throne, Princess Asura was ready to depart to the Astronomical Tower. She had finished having breakfast with Jul and had promised him that they would both enjoy the tournament together that night: four hours straight and without interruption of duels between some of the best warriors in the entire Empire —or at least the ones that filled the legal requirements to participate—, in the Coliseum located between the Military Barracks and the Residential Area of the city.

When she left the Keep through the main entrance, she received the full blow of the cold, howling wind against her face. A carriage was ready for transport, pulled by two majestic horses.

"Good day to you, lady Asura!" The driver, Chalrus, greeted her from the front side of the carriage. He took off his black hat and lowered his head with a bright smile. "To the Astronomical Tower and back?"

"That's right, Chal. How's your grandson?"

"In good health and spirit, my lady! And excited for the tournament, of course!"

"Glad to hear that," Asura said with a friendly grin. Inside the carriage, she met with her bodyguard: short auburn hair, green eyes and formally dressed with a black set of top hat, a coat over an armored vest, tight pants and boots. His cane with iron handle rested on the side between the seats of leather, while his heavy pistol was holstered in his belt. "Hello, Sir Royce."

"Hello to you too, my lady."

Royce Baldur, an imperial knight and debonair gentleman, took her right hand with upmost delicacy and adoration to leave a soft kiss over the knuckle of her middle finger. Asura felt the pain in the wound that Royce could not notice more intensely than the shame of being treated that way.

"Forgive my audacity in telling you that you look lovely this morning, my lady," Royce told her after releasing her hand, with that chivalrous smile typical of him that made most women's heart tremble, but not Asura's. Already seated, she raised an elbow and looked down at her unladylike uniform, being sure that there was nothing at all in her image to define as lovely.

"Well, you too," she replied. Ignoring the proud smirk of her bodyguard, she knocked the wall of the carriage twice. "Let's go, Chal!"

"Right away!"

With the neighing of the horses, the carriage began to move.

"Do you know who escorted the Nemasian Ambassador up here?" Asura asked her bodyguard as she looked out the window at the cascade that originated the Twin Rivers almost two kilometers away.

"I wasn't aware of such thing, my lady," the knight answered, surprised. "Did he want to commit suicide?"

"No, he honestly believed that we could negotiate peace. But I tried to convince him otherwise. Now we just need to wait for the outcome."

"Such recklessness from his part will only bring adverse consequences."

"Perhaps..."

In a couple of minutes, they crossed over the Bridge of Sighs above the rivers that, three kilometers on the opposite side, reached the wall patrolled by infantry that bordered the edge of the mountain and it drained out of a big lattice hole. The rain had raised the level of the rivers, but not enough to represent a problem for the short journey towards the elevator: at the edge of the mountain that was directly above the upper sector of the city, there was a mobile platform whose sole purpose was vertical transportation from the upper side of the city to the Keep, and vice versa.