The trip through the capital was relatively short. Despite the winding streets and crowds of pedestrians moving here and there, they made good time. Most people were quick to get out of the way, and given the anxious glances she saw people give the carriage as they passed she had a feeling it wasn’t only because they wanted to avoid getting crushed by their horses.
The neat and pristine townhomes, small gated manors, and posh storefronts of the noble quarters gave way to worn, yet quaint homes and apartments of the larger commoner quarters as they traveled towards the outer areas of the cities. The markets there were larger and more vibrant, full of a greater variety of goods that drew all sorts of shoppers. Even the occasional nobleman could be seen milling about with their own personal entourage of guards and close confidants, and it was easy enough to pick them out of the crowd given the wide berth the common folk gave them to avoid getting caught up in any incidents.
Adelaide marveled at it all as they passed them by. Part of her wished she cold stay a little longer, as it would have been exciting to do some sightseeing in a world that she’d wished she could visit from the first time she’d ever read the book. But it could wait. She couldn’t shop if she was dead.
Soon enough the makeup of the crowds changed from merchants and shoppers to citizens who were dressed more so for travel than for shopping or regular inner city business. There were other carriages and small carts laden with crates and chests, or filled with travelers carrying bags and satchels full of supplies for whatever journeys they were setting out on. Some were moving by foot, though they seemed to be individuals geared for long expeditions through the wilderness or for combat. Most of those people carried weapons or wore different types of leather or metal armor, and she couldn’t help but stare at them in wonder through the windows.
It was one thing to think ‘I’m in a fantasy world’ and another to actually see an armored adventurer carrying a longsword or what appeared to be a mage in velvet robes with a thick, worn leather book strapped to his hip. It felt more like virtual reality than real life.
Soon enough, Adelaide could see their destination ahead of them in the distance: the teleportation gate.
It was a massive structure comprised of a pair of tall obsidian columns, roughly five stories high and a hundred feet apart, atop a stacked marble platform lined with iron torches. The space between the two columns seemed to wobble and shudder and glimmered with iridescent light, like oil on the surface of a lake or pond. Occasionally there was a flicker of light that caused a ripple to move outwards, accompanied by a high-pitched hum which faded after several seconds. It reminded her of one of the stock ringtones from a cell phone.
Two flights of stairs flanked either side of a gently sloping cobblestone ramp, allowing those on foot to easily make their way up to the obelisks without hindering the progression of the carts and carriages on the road. There was a line of them, all the way to the top of the platform. However, their carriages did not join it. Instead, they continued past them and up the slope unhindered and came to a stop at the top where a group of city guards and gate attendants were greeting the travelers that approached. She watched as one guard and one attendant began to move toward her carriage, but halted and turned their attention away when Witten approached them. She could not hear them as they spoke but at some point the pair glanced to the carriage, stiffened when they noticed her peeking at them out of the window, and quickly turned to bow. She barely managed to avoid grimacing and offered them a small wave which earned an anxious blush from the guard and a flattered look from the attendant before Witten politely pulled their attention back to him again.
The remainder of their conversation was brief. The attendant pulled a pair of strange, metallic tablets, roughly 10 centimeters by 15 centimeters in size with a dimly glowing rune inscribed into one side, from the bag at his hip and handed them to Witten. The butler then bowed his head to them, walked over to her carriage, and handed one of the tablets to the coachman before heading back to the rear carriage again. Meanwhile, the attendant pulled out a number of other tablets and began passing them out to the mounted knights surrounding them.
“Your Highness.”
Adelaide jumped. She’d been so invested in everything that was going on outside that she’d completely forgotten there were two other people there with her. She looked up, her eyes wide, and saw the young knight frowning at her. He lowered his head.
“Apologies, Your Highness. I did not mean to startle you, “ he said apologetically.
She let out a breath and shook her head. “No, it’s fine. Please, speak.”
Nodding, he lifted his head again. “I only meant to advise you that you may wish to brace yourself, as we’ll likely be passing through the gate in a minute or two.”
Studying his face for a few seconds, Adelaide arched a brow. She remembered the flash of memory from the previous evening, of her vomiting on the side of the street. “Were you there during the trip from Absenwilde to Surivan?” she asked.
He cleared his throat. His lips pursed, a hint of pity in his gaze. “I…was, Your Highness.”
She grimaced and glanced out the window again. No wonder, Adelaide thought. She could feel him staring at her, looking even more worried than before. She supposed he wasn’t as stony as she originally thought.
“Yeah, well, I’ll be alright. Not like I ate much for breakfast anyway. If I puke I puke.” Adelaide muttered, without looking at him. He continued to stare, surprised, and slowly spoke up again.
“I-If you don’t mind me saying so, you are…much more informal than I expected you would be, Your Highness.”
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Adelaide stiffened and her eyes widened as she quickly looked to him. She felt her cheeks warm. “A-am I?” She stammered, trying to laugh away her agitation.
Geez, I have to be careful about that, she thought to herself, I guess princesses don’t say ‘puke’, do they?
The knight mustered a smile and gave a single nod as the carriage slowly began to move forward again. Adelaide looked to Ava, wondering what the maid thought, and found her snoozing away with her head resting against the upholstered wall of the carriage. The maid needed the rest, so she left her be and brought her attention back to the young knight.
“What is your name?” Adelaide asked.
He was taken aback, his face turning red. “Y-your Highness?”
“I believe that’s me, actually.”
He laughed nervously. “Oh, r-right. Ah, I’m Sir Landry Kennig.”
Definitely not a name she recognized from the books, and it didn’t ring any bells like other things that had triggered memories for her so far.
“I see,” she replied with a warm smile. “Well, thank you for your concern, Sir Kennig. It isn’t often that—“
A pulse of energy surged through Adelaide, moving like a wave across her body. Goosebumps rose on her flesh and she felt her temperature rising, sweat beading on her brow. Her breath caught in her throat. Swiftly, she pulled the curtain away from the carriage window and looked outside.
They were close to the gate now. She almost hadn’t noticed the hum of magical energy had grown louder, but the power that radiated off of the surface of the barrier was impossible to ignore now that they were so close to the damn thing. In fact, she could see it now, rippling outwards as another traveler ahead of them stepped through and their form scattered like dust blown off of the cover of a book.
Vweeeem. The sound echoed in her ears, quick and sharp, and there was another pulse of energy that swept outwards and passed through everyone within twenty feet of the barrier before dissipating. She shuddered as it passed through her. A wave of dizziness forced her to close her eyes and she clutched her stomach as it churned in protest. Holy shit, what the hell is happening, Adelaide thought frantically.
“Your Highness!” She could hear Sir Kennig’s voice dimly. It sounded as if it were being passed through a filter despite how close he was. She felt his hands on her shoulders and realized only then that she had almost toppled forward.
Ava had woken as well and sounded panicked. She could just make out her worried voice, quickly announcing,“We should stop the carriage!“
“N-no!” Adelaide spat the words out instantly. She heard the sound of someone else passing through the gate and tried to brace herself as the wave of energy came. It made her feel as if the world had turned upside down. She started dry heaving and was immensely grateful that her stomach was empty at the moment. She really didn’t want Sir Kennig to become known as ‘That Knight The Princess Threw Up On’.
“B-but Princess—“ Ava started
Adelaide halted her once again. Her words escaped her in a hiss. “Do not…s-stop the carriage!”
Whether the pair wanted to go against her wishes or not, they didn’t have the time to take any action. A moment later the carriage passed through the gate.
Adelaide felt a wave of cold surround her and her stomach lurched again, her vision going white. It only took a few seconds for them to pass through to the other side of the gate, but those few seconds felt like an eternity to Adelaide. Everything around her melted into a haze and when she finally came to she found herself hunched over inside the carriage, dry-heaving while Sir Kennig, Ava, and Witten hovered around her anxiously. Seeing Witten there made her wonder how long she had been like this.
“Your Highness, can you hear me?” Witten asked. Sir Kennig was supporting her, one arm around her middle while the other grasped her shoulder, and Witten was carefully holding her hair back just in case she ended up vomiting something up after all.
She felt the nausea and dizziness beginning to fade almost as swiftly as it arrived, though the exhaustion of the entire ordeal still lingered inside of her. All of her muscles felt sore and her lungs burned as if she had been running a marathon. It was awful. Still, slowly, Adelaide nodded her head.
“I…think I am all right now.” Her voice sounded hoarse and she trembled as she forced herself to sit upright on her knees.
“Perhaps we should stop and rest for a while,” said Witten.
“No!” Adelaide spoke up quickly. She took a few slow breaths and then forced herself to straighten her posture and level her gaze steadily with his. “I’d rather we continue. I’ll be fine.” She saw his brows furrow, his mouth opening with an argument on his tongue, and quickly interrupted him before he could even start, “I’ll be seated in the carriage the entire time, so that’s more than restful enough. Besides, Sir Kennig can signal for us to stop if I get any worse. But really, I should be fine now.”
Witten looked at her with concern then glanced to Sir Kennig, who gave him a nod of agreement. With a sigh, his shoulders relaxed and he bowed his head to her. “As you wish, Your Highness. But really, if there is any hint that you are feeling ill again I insist that Sir Kennig immediately let us know.”
“Of course,” Sir Kennig replied quickly.
He and Ava helped Adelaide back onto her seat and as they all settled in to continue the trip Witten returned to the rear carriage. Though Adelaide felt she could breathe a sigh of relief at this point, she couldn’t help but wonder what exactly all of that was about. None of the books had ever really delved into anything of the sort, but then again the transportation gates had never been written about much. She remembered that they appeared briefly at the beginning of the first book when Cordelia first came to the capital, and there was the occasional mention here and there when someone had to travel long distances very quickly. But otherwise, there wasn’t much for her to go on.
And Adelaide’s reaction to traveling through them certainly wasn’t mentioned either. She only really showed up when she was harassing Cordelia. So there was much about her life that was unknown to her.
She closed her eyes and slowed her breathing, trying to search through her memories for anything that could give her any sort of indication as to whether this was normal or not. She saw flashes here and there of Adelaide traveling through the gates, though not many. It seems that after the first couple experiences she’d chosen to avoid them altogether and deal with the longer travel time, and was under the assumption that it was some sort of severe motion sickness. She never talked to anyone about it, despite Witten encouraging her more than a few times, because she saw it as a weakness she didn’t want to expose to others. But, it absolutely couldn’t just be motion sickness. She’d had motion sickness before, but it seemed old Adelaide had very little travel experience to realize that.
Adelaide leaned back in her seat and let herself relax, opening her eyes every now and then to look across at Ava and Sir Kennig. They both were clearly trying not to make it obvious that they were keeping an eye on her, but they weren’t doing a very good job of it. Still, she hadn’t the energy to fuss at them for it—especially since she was actually quite grateful to have them there. But, no matter how much she tried to think of other things, her mind continued to return and linger around the experience at the gate, wondering.
I’ll have to look into this more, she thought to herself, a cold and heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach. There has to be more to this.