The morning sun shined through the thin red colored Outer Islands curtains that hung over the windows in the carriage that carried the Emissary, and the son of the king of Vuzar. And the later, Duncan Talsworth ran a hand through his coffee colored hair, then rubbed at his eyes, and wished to God ...again...that their one port of call was closer to the castle and they didn’t have to travel in this regal yet, now, uncomfortable box on wheels! Yes, the Royal carriages were made with comfort in mind...for short distances… and they did stop at some of the finer Inns along the way, but traveling was getting old, and after a while, even the best imported padding, pillows, blankets, and somewhat bigger space that Royal carriages where known for, got cramped after almost two weeks, and Duncan was ready to really stretch his legs. He banged on the roof of the carriage, to signal they needed to stop, and the thudding woke up the other man in the small space.

“Are we there?” Emissary Phelham mumbled as he groggily sat up from an extremely uncomfortable slouch, flinging a blanket off his lap, then rubbing his neck. Duncan shook his head, “piss break”, he said as the carriage came to a stop, and the young man jumped out. The carriage driver, and a few of the following guards, gave a knowing smile as Duncan hurried off to the side of the road. When he came back, Phelham was also coming back from the other side of the road, “ I am so sorry we didn’t stay at the Inn last night my Lord ,but we should be at Oceanshear sometime today, I know your tired of traveling.” Duncan walked over to Phelham and thumped him on the chest with the back of his hand, making the other man cough, “Reading my mind again their old man?” Phelham grimaced and shook his head, “Never my Lord!” “Oh, lighten up Augustus, all in jest!” Duncan replied before reaching into the carriage, and bringing out a small woven basket filled with good quality ‘travel food’ they did pick up the night before at a lovely little Inn before traveling through the night, “Lets grab a bite to eat out in the air before we cram back into that! Let’s all take a break!” He said as he walked past the older man and headed to a fallen log that was just off the road. The carriage driver took that as permission to jump down off the carriage perch to also take care of some ‘pressing matters,’ and some of the guards also dismounted to stretch, and grab some food that was also purchased from the Inn, from their saddle bags.

Two riders started coming up the road, and when they got close, Duncan waved the blonde, curly haired man over, “Any sighting of the town?” The rider jumped off his horse and causally walked over to Duncan, green eyes twinkling in mischief, and took an apple out of his hand, “found a farmer already out in the fields a few miles up, says we should be there about noon.” “And it’s early morning…thank goodness this trip is almost over aye Dean?” Duncan asked his best friend from the Military academy as he snatched the apple back and gave him instead a hunk of bread and cheese. Both in their mid-twenties- Duncan 24, and Dean Drenual 23,who was the son of a major farm owner in the kingdom- had bonded after a sword match against each other, where they had beaten each other with the blunted swords till they were both black and blue, with a few broken bones tossed in, and had to spend a few days in the infirmary. “Definitely! If I had known it would have taken this long, I would have stayed home! But I knew you would need help on getting a read on this Princess you may get stuck married to.”

Duncan groaned, “Don’t remind me Dean! Maybe I’ll get lucky and she’ll like Marcus from Kheria...remember him from graduation Phelham?” “vaguely my Lord,” the emissary replied as he wiped his mouth and stood, “we must get back on the road if we want to get there by noon. Dean, could you, and maybe your man there go ahead and let them know we are not too far behind?” Dean wiped his hands off on his pants stood and headed towards the horse he had left beside the guard he rode up with, “Ah, being a captain of the away- guard’s work is never done!” Duncan and Dean gave each other a sloppy salute, chuckling the entire time, and Dean mounted his horse and sped off.

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Marcus was ashamed to admit it, but he was glad to be away from home and the court. The tension between King, Queen, and Consort was just about unbearable since King Silas announced four weeks ago that Bethany was going to be betrothed (what an outdated word!) to the Son of King Adrian. The Consort, Jasmin, was ecstatic that her daughter was going to finally have a proper place in the royal scheme of things, but his mom, Queen Meraele was having ‘NONE OF IT!!’ Saying ‘a bastard child, especially a girl whose mother is from ‘Out There in the Wilds’ should know her place, and be glad she was even recognized as a daughter of the King!’ But mom, after a hunting accident where she had her fallen of her horse when it was startled by a snake when he was just three, had lost her mind for a bit, , any chance of having more children and any say in any matters. Dad took a consort a few months later, and mom cut her hair in grief of ‘being replaced’, and pretty much locked herself in her rooms for years. After his mom locked herself away, and pretty much did not want anything to do with him, Jasmin had become the only real mother Duncan could remember fondly back then. Only now, in the past few years, coming out for public occasions and semi-private parties, his real mother was making a spiteful spectacle out of herself with every attendance.

Yea, there was no love lost between the two woman, and dad tried his best to keep the peace when his Queen was sometimes now in the same room with Jasmin, but with mom’s last outburst, at a meeting to discuss the treaty they were trying to write up for the trip, dad had suggested that maybe the Queen should retire to one of the manors ‘for a good long rest.’ Wrong...thing...to...say! It had been hell for them all for about four weeks, and Marcus was more than ready to leave when it was time to go to the eastern Kingdom!

But he loved his ‘little sister’ and smiled down at the lovely woman she had become, dressed in a pale green dress that showed off the inky blackness of her hair, and the color of her eyes, like warm honey in the sunlight, in the best way, from the balcony he was standing on, as he watched her look around the lower level of their tower in the morning light. After they had arrived in the late night/ exceedingly early morning hours that day and given a quick tour of their wing of subtilty ornate apartments they were staying in, they had gotten a couple of hours sleep. The whole castle itself was done in this subtilty, for being such a well to do small kingdom, it didn’t try to show off its richness, but it was a RICH kingdom, and with Bethany insured to be in the Gasies family, he wasn’t even sure why he had to try to also be involved, the treaty should be pretty much in the bag, but here he was, not even knowing what the Princess looked like. “Did we ever meet the Prince and Princess Jorar?” Marcus asked the slim, balding man that stood to his right, “It was an awfully long time ago Your Highness, when they had their sixth birthday. You were ten and was more impressed with the stables! There is to be a dinner this evening to re- introduce you all to Princess Tabitha and Prince Simon. A rider just came in and said the prince from Vuzar should be here by noon.”

Marcus smiled at that last bit of news! He hadn’t seen Duncan in a long time, a few years at the least, not since he was invited to Duncan’s graduation from Military school. “I remember that party I think, took forever to get here then, as it did now, but the horses in that stable…I swore we could fly back home on one of those majestic creatures! And it will be good to see Duncan again, he is a good man.” ‘And in all honestly welcome to the princess!’ He thought to himself.

“Hey sis! Come up here and let’s get some rest, maybe even a nap, before the dinner tonight. I am still worn out from the trip!” He called down to the young woman who was now petting a large black and gray striped cat “Yes brother.” Bethany called back as she stood, taking a lock of her knee length jet black hair, and tickling the cat on the nose before leaving it sitting there and walking away. She then stopped when she saw her brother walk away from the railing and came back a little closer to the cat “I know ‘What’ you are little ‘tom’, I can smell it on you...but I don’t know ‘who’. I will find out, you’re a handsome one like this, I must see if you are just as handsome as the Other…” The cat slowly blinked and lifted a paw to start cleaning behind his left ear, but his heart was thudding in his chest! Bethany gave him a small smirk, then quickly turned, her hair flying around a hitting the cat full in the face. The cat let out a low growl, the girl let out a throaty purr, and she then went quickly up the stairs