The journey to Yuni’s home- Asha still didn’t know the name- seemed simultaneously short and agonizingly long. Compared to her meandering path across the Kuhwan plains, this was a relatively short excursion, but without the comforting company of Yuni’s chatter, the two days of travel stretched longer and longer, like a race whose finish line was moved ahead every time it was in sight. Still, the trip was only two days, so it wasn’t long before she finally saw the capital.
It was unlike anything she had ever seen. The feeling was similar to when she had first arrived in Merdon, but this was so much more. The path they took to the city lead the party directly through a sprawling marketplace. Colorful tents of red and yellow jostled each other for space as vendors shouted their wares. Short tables like the ones Asha had seen at the garrison before were piled with strange fruits and vegetables. Buyers bargained for wares in that familiar but foreign language Asha had begun to recognize. Their voices floated above the marketplace in the open air, mixing into a nauseating cacophony of sound.
While most of the vendors and buyers didn’t notice the small party weaving their way around the stalls, Asha could still feel the eyes of a few curious people burning into her back. She knew it was because she looked so different from the rest of them, but it put her on edge nonetheless. After being on the run, feeling watched turned into something much more important than just discomfort.
Weaving through the chaotic market was the longest part of their trip through the city. After the market, it transitioned into what looked like a middle-class residential section of the city. Coming down the road, Asha spotted something that she had never seen in her life. A carriage, not unlike what was common in Malland, pulled by a shaggy yet slender horned animal. It was a mottled, muddy brown with antlers that forked and branched off into tapered points that looked as deadly as daggers.
Kazuko held up a hand and the carriage rolled to a gentle stop, the animal pulling it so close now to Asha that she could very nearly feel its breath huff from its nose. For a moment, she gazed into its eyes, glassy and brown and so deep and old. She could scarcely imagine why such a noble and wise creature would allow itself to be harnessed to a carriage. A calloused hand hit her back and began to guide her to the step up into the carriage. She allowed Kazuko to lead her into the carriage, settling herself on the seat next to Yuni and opposite him. It was silent in the carriage except for the cadence of the deer-like animal’s hooves on the stone paved road.
Asha decided not to look out onto the street. Instead, she studied the faces of Kazuko and Yuni. As always, the nuances of Kazuko’s face were unfamiliar to Asha, so his stoic facade was uninterpretable to her. Yuni’s face, while unexpressive and therefore difficult to read, was well known to Asha, and even the tiniest twitch of her lips could speak sentences. An almost imperceptible wrinkle in her brow told Asha everything. Yuni was deep in her head. As much as she tried to hide it, those eyes always told the truth, and at that moment, they were trained toward the window, painted with worry. Even though she wanted to, Asha knew she couldn’t say anything. She was already asking too much of Yuni.
The halt of the carriage jostled Asha. Curious, she peered outside for the first time. Stone walls as high as two or three people standing atop one another loomed in the small window. Though she couldn’t see the gates, she could hear the creak of the doors swinging open and the click of hooves starting to pull the carriage again.
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Asha found herself alone in a cavernous hallway. Kazuko and Yuni had taken some impossible to remember turns and had left her. This was possibly the most awkward situation she had ever been in. And, at school, there had been a lot. There were several that were hard to top, but this took the cake. She was in the palace of a foreign country, no one around to tell her what to do or where to go. She’d probably be thrown in a dungeon for a conspiracy to assassinate the king or some such nonsense. Not that she could blame anyone who thought that. She didn’t exactly look like she belonged, and no one except Yuni and Kazuko knew that she was even in the palace to begin with. Hopefully, having the princess’s word would be enough.
Footsteps echoed down the hallway, and Asha’s heart began to race. A young man about her own age emerges from the darkness of the hall. His clothes, though simple, exuded elegance and wealth. Just from several feet away, Asha spied gold glinting at his throat and peeking out from silky, black hair at his temples.
When the man spotted her, he paused in his assured stride, eyeing her puzzledly. Her eyes found a book gripped in his right hand. Rich clothes and books? Her best hope was to explain herself in Mallandish and hope that he knew the language.
She opened her mouth to speak, but he beat her to it. “Who are you?” he asked, striding up. His voice was dripping with the same accent that Yuni’s voice was lightly sprinkled with.
Asha paused for a moment. Saying too much could ruin Yuni’s attempt at getting help from Yamuko, but saying nothing at all would definitely get her thrown in a cell. “I’m a mage. I came here with Princess Yuni.”
The man’s eyes widened, and Asha realized that while they weren’t black, they were quite close to that color. “Yuni is here?” he exclaimed, his voice echoing through the hallways. Though he and Asha were the only ones present, he looked chastised following his outburst. After a beat of silence, he narrowed his eyes. “How is one to know you are telling the truth?”
“She is in the building,” Asha replied, just holding back a snort. This man looked important though she didn’t know his exact rank. She’d do well not to offend him.
“Where?” he countered.
Asha sighed. This was definitely going to get her thrown in a dungeon. “She left me here. I don’t know the palace, so I’ve been waiting around for her to come get me again. I don’t know where she went other than down that hallway,” Asha said, pointing to the hallway opposite the one he came from.
The man mumbled something to himself in his own language and brushed past Asha with a familiar sort of intensity. Stunned for a second, Asha watched him enter the hallway she had indicated. Not about to be left behind again, Asha dusted herself off and took off after him.
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