“Falcon and I will check us into an inn,” Sheridan suggested. “You ladies can go on ahead and find something nice to wear.”
“Sounds good,” said Aya. She turned to Faith. “Are you coming?”
Faith looked genuinely surprised. She pointed to herself, as if she couldn’t believe she would be invited to go shopping. Coming from a farming village, Faith wasn’t used to navigating the wardrobe shops that large cities offered. “Me? Um… Yes. Of course I would like to go.”
She waved goodbye, looking absolutely giddy as she joined Aya and Hiromy and disappeared into the crowd of people.
~~~
Faith had ventured to Sandoria a few times with her dad. As mayor of a small village, her father had made frequent visits to attend yearly meetings to discuss farmlands, agriculture, sales prices, and a lot of other topics that she found boorish. On those trips, she had passed the many clothing shops, seeing from afar, but never actually stepped foot in one.
“There is no need for such things,” her father had once told her when in her five-year-old naivety she had asked for a pristine blue dress hanging in a window. She imagined herself as a princess playing with her hay dolls, ordering them around as they attended to her every need. “You have enough shirts and pants back at home.”
In many ways, the dreams of that small girl were still alive and well, though this time she knew better than to think she could ever be a princess. Ironically, she was now in the company of a real princess.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have left Sheridan,” said Hiromy shyly. She looked at the mass of people around her uncomfortably. “I need him around.”
“Don’t worry.” Faith patted her back, reassuring her that everything would be fine. The princess had grown fond of Sheridan, and, thanks to him, her mental health had improved drastically since the first time she treated her. However, Faith wanted Hiromy to also be able to fend for herself. She would never be the same, and she would probably need someone to watch over her the rest of her life, but she at least needed to get back some degree of independence.
“Y…yes, of course,” Hiromy stammered.
“This place seems like a good shop,” Aya walked into a small wooden hut. The sign that dangled on the outside read Katrina’s Imports. The inside of the shop was small and cozy. It smelled strongly of potpourri, which Faith enjoyed since it reminded her of flowers. There were different tables with paper labels dangling above them. The names of different capital cities were written over them. Faith assumed that the labels corresponded to the city the clothing had been imported from.
“May I help you ladies find some wares?” asked a stubby, older lady wearing a luxurious pink dress.
“I already know what I’m getting, thanks,” said Aya. Determined, she headed to table that had a paper that read Zhangshao. She picked up a blue blouse that resembled a kimono and a blue skirt. The skirt had white flowers dotted throughout.
Hiromy, apparently, had kept her same tastes, because she trudged to the Ladria section and chose a tight-fitting one-piece suit, though this one was black instead of her usual blue.
Seeing that two of her customers had already made up their mind, the shopkeeper turned her attention to Faith. “How about you, young lady? Is there anything that interests you?”
“I always wanted a dress…”
“Are you going to a dance?”
“No. I just never had a chance to wear one for too long.”
The woman looked at her curiously. She took out a measuring tape and circled Faith, mumbling numbers under her breath. “I have the perfect thing that will go with your skin tone.”
The woman disappeared behind a hung curtain that led her to a hidden room. She emerged a few seconds later with a white dress with a pink outline around it. At the bottom it was surrounded by two pink lines with butterflies above it.
Faith’s eyes grew wide. “It’s beautiful.”
“It just got it from Lastria this morning. I’m certain it would look stunning on you.”
“It’s so pretty,” said Hiromy. She circled the dress as if admiring a once-in-a-lifetime anomaly. “You have to get it.”
Faith pondered on it. She couldn’t really trust Hiromy. Lately the princess had found almost everything beautiful or stunning in some way or another.
“If that’s what you want, you should get it,” offered Aya.
That was the last little push she needed.
“I’ll take it.” Breathing hard, she took the dress in her hands. She would wear it while they were in the city and then go back to her usual jumpsuit once they resumed their travels. He owed her younger self that much. Silently, she wondered if Falcon would like it.
~~~
General Kaidoz’s insides smiled at the news, though he kept his outer appearance as stoic as usual. Draknorr was dead! The Blood Empress herself had just confirmed it. Now he would have command over the entire army, answering only to the Blood Empress.
It wasn’t power that he was after. That could be taken. But constantly having to communicate and plan with Draknorr had become tedious. Now he could lead the Suteckh in the battlefield to the glory they so richly deserved.
Kaidoz silent thoughts were interrupted by the woman’s low, almost hiss-like voice. His gaze shifted back up to the image of the Blood Empress. Through the cloud of dark mist, only her mask was visible. He much rather preferred to conduct these meetings in person, but speaking through dark wielding mist was far quicker than traveling all the way to Tenma. Not to mention far more convenient.
“Be wary, General!” she warned. “We are weaving a fine thread. Our original plan of capturing the emperors and empresses of Va’siel and forcing them to sign their lands to us may have been hampered, but we will still come out of this the victors.”
Kaidoz’ stomach hardened. He knew all too well about their original plan. It had been his idea, after all. Draknorr had wanted to simply take over the capital cities by force, but Kaidoz had recognized that that wasn’t a feasible task. He suggested capturing the leaders and coercing the signatures to take over their land. Then, their rule would be undisputed. Everything went wrong almost immediately back in the attack on Sandoria. Draknorr, in his stupidity, had assigned the capture of the Sandorian emperor to a simple captain who had recently joined their cause. Not surprisingly, the captain failed in securing the emperor. Mere weeks ago, Dokua had been unsuccessful in her quest to capture the emperor of Ladria when she had been killed by the princess. These inexcusable failures had forced them to change their strategy and become more aggressive.
Kaidoz knew that the key to victory was a mix of both strategies. Aggressiveness was needed with a combination of maneuvers in the dark.
“Keep an eye on the group of Rohads,” continued the Empress. “They could make our plans troublesome.”
“Indeed.” He bowed his head. “I won’t fail. I have already enlisted the Orian warriors to do our bidding.”
“Kill them, along with their leader as soon as they are of no use to us. There can only be one ruler in Va’siel. Me.”
The image dissolved, leaving him alone in the jungle with his thoughts. When the young girl had been kidnapped years ago with plans to be made into a vessel for the Suteckh, he had thought the idea to be folly. No one could be forced to be ruthless; either you were born with it or you weren’t. However, the young empress had quickly proved him wrong. She was tenacious, aggressive, and cunning. All the things he admired in a leader. She excelled in the program she was thrust into, beating out all the other powerful wielders she was pitted against. Not only had all her adversaries suffered mysterious and gruesome deaths, but she had managed to unite all the warring tribes of the Suteckh under one banner. Something never done before. Now, they were on the doorstep of eternal Suteckh glory, and he wasn’t about to let some mindless group of young mercenaries stand in his way.
He would soon get his audience with Empress Latiha, and put his plan into action. The gears had already been set. Nothing could stop it now.
~~~
Falcon’s line of sight skipped over Hiromy. He looked speechlessly at Faith and Aya as they walked into the room of the inn. Both girls looked stunning in their new wardrobes. As he had himself, they had stopped to bathe in the bath springs. Their clean skin, wet hair, and scented aroma made that clear.
He wanted to say something to them, but found himself speechless.
Sheridan had no problems telling Hiromy how he felt. He ran up to her and picked her up by the waist, spinning her around as she giggled and cheered her heart out.
“You look so beautiful!” He shouted so loud that Falcon was certain everyone in the inn had heard him. He slowly brought her down so that he was still holding her up, but they were now face to face. Then, quite suddenly, they began to kiss with a passion Falcon had never seen anyone display before. He ran his hands through her hair, and she wrapped her legs around his thighs. The audience before them did not seem to bother them one bit.
Falcon and the girls looked away, waiting for the loud kissing session to stop. It took a good minute, which seemed to last hours, before they finally broke apart from each other.
Sheridan was breathing heavily, but was all smiles.
Falcon felt a twinge of envy. He wouldn’t mind having someone feel for him the way Hiromy felt about Sheridan.
“Now that that’s over,” said Aya, “perhaps I could have a word with you, Falcon.
Alone
.”
“Sure,” he said, scarcely daring to breathe. The last time he had been alone with Aya, things hadn’t gone too well. He had no reason to believe that this time things would be any different. They both quietly walked out of the room, down the steps to the lobby, and into the outdoors. It was night out, but the city was still very much alive. Most of the shopkeepers had retired to their homes long ago, but food vendors in stalls, artists, and street performers were still scattered about.
It was strange to him how things had changed. There was a time, not too long ago, that being alone with Aya would have been welcome. Now, however, there were times she seemed so angry with him that even that had changed. He couldn’t blame her, though. Her world had changed, for the worse, in a very short span of time.
Rays of lights and snippets of private conversation filtered through the many homes they passed in silence. “Do you want to talk about your family?” asked Falcon.
“No, not really.” She ran her hand through her hair, spreading the scent of fresh strawberries.
Falcon dropped the subject of her sister and moved on. “So, what do you want to talk to me about?”
Aya looked down at the ground then back up at him, meeting his gaze. “It’s about the way I’ve been acting lately.” He stood frozen for a second, unsure if he heard what he thought he just heard. Her voice was pained, which was a far cry from what he had been expecting. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you when we were on the ship. You don’t owe me or anyone else an explanation of…” A lump travelled down her throat. “Who you have feelings for. That is your business, and I shouldn’t have meddled. I’m sorry. I don’t like how we’ve been around each other lately.”
For a moment, the wielders stood shoulder-to-shoulder.
“I’m sorry for questioning you, too,” said Falcon. “I would also like to stop fighting. I miss you.”
She smiled and took a step closer to him as they turned the corner, coming out at the long canal that seemed to run directly at the center of the city.
“Would you like a tour of the city through the beautiful canals?” asked a voice.
Falcon looked sideways and found himself facing a man with a long mustache that curled into a circle at both ends. He was sitting in a canoe holding onto two paddles. Falcon was about to say no when Aya jumped into the canoe and motioned for him to follow her. Left with little choice, he hopped on too.
The man paddled them down, following the soft current. Unexpectedly, Aya pressed closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder. Besides the splashing of the water and Aya’s soft breaths, they moved down the river in complete silence.
“It is tradition for the couples to kiss when we pass under a bridge,” said the man as they passed under an overpass that held the clattering of horse hooves above.
“Ohhh, we’re not a coup—” began Falcon, but before he could finish, Aya pressed her lips against his cheeks and planted a soft kiss. At that moment, as his heart pumped wildly, he wished he could have made the moment last forever. Her warm breath, the moon rippling in the water, even his shaky body, everything came together in a symphony of rushed emotions. Only in his dreams had he dared to hold Aya this close, and now that it was happening in real life, he didn’t want to let her go.
The ride ended, and Falcon reluctantly stepped out of the boat and paid the man.
As they walked down the moonlit road, a fresh breeze blew by, and Aya’s skin goose bumped. Falcon quickly took off his jacket and threw it over her shoulders. Again, she leaned close and slipped her hands into his as they moved wordlessly. At this moment, there was no war, no chaos wielders to find, no broken family ties, just the two of them.
Much sooner than he’d expected, they arrived at the inn’s entrance. Besides the song of hidden crickets, the city slept in a deep slumber. The night had been full of surprises, but as Aya turned to face him he was certain the biggest one was about to come. She looked into his eyes, and he gulped loudly, hoping that the sweat that had formed in his face wasn’t too visible.