The next day, Azzard went to visit the capital of the Bradford Empire. He was supposed to go alone but Darshee was determined to go with him. Alas, the three of them embarked on a two day trip. Viashna didn't question Azzard's reason for going to the capital. She merely thought of it as Azzard satisfying his curiosity. As for Darshee, she just wanted to be with Azzard. The trio were in high spirits as they departed the village but they would not expect that a disaster was brewing.

Right on the mark, the trio arrived at the capital in two days time. When they entered, they were amazed at how busy and beautiful the capital was. The roads were filled with men and women going about their own business. The buildings were in good shape, much better compared to Viashna's house at the village. Overall, the capital was a great place to live in.

Azzard led the group as they made their way in the capital. Earlier when they arrived at the gate, he asked the guard for directions to the palace. They were currently making their way to the palace where the Bradford Emperor was residing in. Azzard was able to notice the heated stares of some of the people and it was all directed at Viashna and Darshee. The people could be heard murmuring among themselves. He was also able to notice the slight discomfort that was seen on the sisters' faces. "It seems that humans don't treat non-humans that well. This could be quite the problem for my plan."

They arrived at the palace. Azzard saw a beautifully created castle with four towers at each corner. There was a wide door at the front guarded by ten knights. As soon as Azzard saw the entrance to the palace, he walked towards it and the sisters followed. The knights saw this young man with two elves walking towards them. They quickly gathered at the center and stood guard. The unit was blocking the entrance as to stop the trio from entering the palace.

"What is your business here?", the leader of the knights asked.

"I am here to request an audience with the Emperor.", Azzard replied.

The knights looked at him weirdly as if he had said something absurd. Even the sisters could not contain their shock and were also looking at Azzard. Viashna and Darshee wondered what Azzard was thinking, that he was requesting to speak with the Emperor. "Azzard should know that the Emperor will not speak to commoners.", Viashna assumed that Azzard knew of this information.

"Who are you that you are able to speak with the Emperor?!", one of the knights was infuriated at Azzard's lack of respect for the Emperor. The knight's sudden outburst was quickly hushed by the leader.

"I am sorry to inform you but you do not have the qualifications to speak to the Emperor. Also, the Emperor is currently occupied at the moment. I request that you leave the palace grounds immediately or we will be forced to use other methods."

Azzard did not like what he had heard from the leader. He had felt that their thinking was wrong and that the Emperor was too arrogant to even talk to the citizens of the Empire. 

"I cannot do as you say as I have an important matter to discuss with the Emperor. This is a matter of grave importance to a village that is quickly losing its means to survive.", Azzard pleaded with the leader of the knights. 

Upon hearing the reason why Azzard was requesting to speak with the king, the sisters, especially Viashna, were touched by Azzard's words. Both of them knew what Azzard was talking about; it was their village that was needed to be saved and Azzard was trying to do so. Azzard planned to speak with the Emperor with the thought of asking for aid from the Empire. He wanted the Empire to help the village by improving the relationship of the village and the merchants. Azzard was not asking for a lot but it may seem to be too much of a request and that he did not know his place.

The leader of the knights simply chose to ignore his words and reminded the trio to leave immediately but Azzard was determined not to leave the palace grounds until he met with the Emperor. Seeing that Azzard's group had no plans of leaving, one of the knights took hold of his sword and struck Azzard's head with the hilt. Blood oozed out from his forehead and Azzard was in pain. Darshee quickly ran to Azzard's side and supported him. 

"Are you alright? Does it hurt a lot?", Darshee was worried that Azzard might have gotten severe injuries to his head. Viashna went to Azzard's tended to his wounds, casting a low healing spell. 

The blow from the knight came too fast just like the second one that was closing in on Darshee. She was thrown off from Azzard's side and she was knocked out cold. Seeing this, Viashna and Azzard madly ran towards Darshee. Viashna furiously shook her sister's body but there was no response. 

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"You're slaves are quite the annoying bunch. Don't worry too much about that one. If you were able to purchase two slaves, I'm sure you can buy another one to replace her. I'll even recommend you to a good place and you can have a discount." The knight who struck both Azzard and Darshee was laughing at his own words. He was quite amused by the whole situation. Azzard glanced at the leader and saw that he was not fazed at all by what happened. The leader noticed Azzard looking at him so he just quickly spoke, "Earlier, I advised you to leave immediately but you refused to do so. My subordinate here merely complied with regulations."

Viashna was enraged after hearing the words of the leader. He called them slaves and that he didn't care at all when Darshee was hit for no reason. She was about to cast a spell but Azzard grabbed hold of her shoulders and stopped her. Viashna didn't know how to react to this. Azzard was stopping her from exacting revenge.

"Viashna, we must leave now. Darshee needs medical attention. We must treat her right now or there could be grave consequences.", Azzard whispered to her.

Viashna looked at her sister and agreed to leave. She needed to have her revenge but her sister's life was more important than this. She took one more hateful glare at the unit of knights before she went her way. The knights, however; paid no heed to Viashna's glare. As they saw it, Azzard's group was being impudent on palace grounds and when they saw them leaving, they were quite happy to accomplish their job. Everything went back to normal for the knights as if nothing had happened a while ago.

Azzard carried Darshee on his back while Viashna was busy casting a low healing spell for Darshee. People glanced at them while they were running but had no concern whatsoever after they saw Darshee's and Viashna's ears.

"I can't believe the audacity of their acts.", Viashna spoke while gritting her teeth. "They are supposed to be knights who have honor and valor but to think they would stoop this low infuriates me all the more."

Azzard said nothing in response because his first concern was to give aid to Darshee. 

They found an inn and entered the place. It was quite dirty inside but it was the most decent one they could afford with their money. Since their main concern was Darshee's life, they didn't have time to complain about their accommodations. The owner was the same as the people in the streets. He did not show any concern for Darshee and merely cared about receiving the payment from Azzard. 

Azzard placed Darshee on the bed and Viashna continued on her spell.  She was now using an intermediate healing spell. Azzard just stood there behind Viashna and watched. The spell was working because the black bruise on Darshee was steadily disappearing but she had yet to awaken.

Although Azzard did not say anything to the knights, he decided to keep his feelings of anger at bay. He did not want to worsen the situation and he wanted Darshee to be immediately treated. It was a good thing that Viashna was quite versed in healing spells or Azzard would have the trouble of finding a human healer who was willing to help them. He was aware of Viashna's thoughts of wanting to exact revenge but he knew they could not do anything to them since he had no power. However, that didn't stop him from thinking of getting his revenge. 

His group was badly treated here in the capital just because his companions were non-humans. They were treated as worthless people. The actions of the knights disgusted him to the point where he wanted to kill them. The village was dying and the Empire was unwilling to pay any attention to it. "What scums they are to treat people like this.", Azzard thought.

Viashna was worn out after a whole 3 hours of casting the intermediate healing spell. Azzard sat beside Viashna and gave her a comforting hug to which made Viashna start to cry. Azzard told her that Darshee would be okay and that she would awaken soon. Viashna nodded her head to Azzard's words and her crying slowly stopped.

"Don't worry. I'm sure Darshee will be fine. You've already healed her completely. We just need to wait for her to wake up. As for the knights and this Empire, we will have our revenge."