Princess Sophia the Eighth, Fourth Princess to the Silver Throne, treads with care on the bare ceramic floor; hands held in front of her as she calls upon every single female ancestor embedded in her bloodline to give her some sense of regality. Cold blue eyes calmy staring forward, trying not to dart around in this temporarily abandoned wing and floor of her home.
This was, in supposed intent, a replication of a chance encounter. To pass by a stranger, and by some strange circumstances exchange words; to let something more blossom from what would’ve been another day, another fleeting moment in their ever-so-busy lives. Romance from natural, fertile soil; to, once the mind was drawing down from the common activities, move towards something more. For a small seed of desire planted within hearts to grow roots and thirst, to eventually reach that source of water and drink in the living presence of that other in which they so wanted for.
Sophia knew that this supposed ‘chance encounter with the Prince’ was in actuality a total facade: the Prince’s attached staff was served with a formal imperial invitation with strict timeframes and schedules four days prior. Prince Zai would, by words that could never be misinterpreted by any culture in the Ensolian Continent, meet Princess Sophia Elise in on the 5th Floor of the Eastern Wing of the Palace in the “Chariase Sunroom” at precisely 1300 hours military time.
And it wasn’t like she could get lost in her own home… well she was, in fact, getting a bit turned around on a floor she had hardly been on. A small bite of panic growing before rounding the correct corner, a sigh of ease exhaled silently at the sight.
She assumed that the two posted guards at the far door: one Tianci Royal Guardswoman and one Imperacutta Legionnaire were in fact markers of the correct location for this ‘chance’ meeting.
Sophia, in fact, had never encountered a Tianci Royal Guard this up close before. She'd of course read descriptions from cheap smut, viewed garnished paintings in galleries, and from a distance possibly seen a regiment or two during formal parades outside the windows of her room; but never close enough to fully grasp the completeness of the uniform and those within it.
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It was such a simple thing; the long robe of black silk and cotton dropping to the ankles tied with just five gold buttons. One satin black shirt atop the woman’s chest seemed to replicate some sort of armoring vest, protecting her vitals from harm but its material was so thin and nearly transparent it looked unable to even stop a small butter knife. And now that she was close enough, the Tiancin Guardswoman seemed, at least from Sophia’s quick facial analysis, extremely plain. No cosmetic alterations like in the northern kingdoms or any real decor for that manner, those brown eyes thin without any shadowing while her dark hair was cut into a manageable shortness by a single, uneven, blade.
Unlike the Imperacutta Legions; whose ranks were filled by adopted orphans — children honed into ascetic warrior monks, masters of ceramic blades and rifleship; this woman, this guardian of royalty seemed so…
Human.
She had heard from one of her siblings’ brought Tiancin guests that members of the Royal Guard were allowed to take husbands and wives; have families of their own when not on official duties. Even centuries prior, in the midst of their Apostasy Wars; it wasn’t unheard for some young princes and princesses to even take their own personal guards as lovers and eventually spouses.
Desperate times breeds desperate love, she supposed.
But Sophia couldn’t imagine an Imperacutta legionnaire doing the same; even breaking their chastity was punishable by an error of blood and subsequent blade of error plunged into the stomach in ritual suicide.
And next to this heavily armed, armored ceramic monster of a legionnaire, that single Tianci Royal Guardswoman seemed so small, so… incapable of doing anything to protect her liege.
Yeah, don’t forget you’re here for something.
Sophia, in her quiet grace, lets that legionnaire step aside and open the gigantic oak door for her; letting the warmth of the sunroom fall across her face as she struts inside.