The Poisoned Throne

Chapter 48

Aurora

Aurora had been to Hi'taab several times as a child, and she attended to ballet, but she had never seen the city the way its people saw it. Always guided and guarded by first her father's, then Raynor's army, she had never had the opportunity to walk so freely.

Yet, as she had come to realize ever since her husband's murder, with freedom came responsibility and a great deal of confusion. She had a bit of money and jewelry that she had found in her room and packed together, but she did not know how to go about finding an honorable establishment. It was so warm, she felt faint, and her back was burning. The streets were crowded and loud; men were shouting, women were pushing, children were running. She could not see any further than a couple of feet ahead.

"Excuse me," she said to an old lady, but she pushed past and Aurora stood, at the brink of tears, wondering what she had done wrong. 

She picked up the courage and stopped a younger woman. "Excuse me, do you know where I can find the ballet?" 

The woman smiled and pointed back the way she had come. Aurora smiled and went along in that direction, beaming with relief. She was certain that now everything would work out, until she stopped to ask a man if she were on the right way, and he pointed in an entirely different direction.

That was how she went about it; every time she asked someone, she walk for a while before trying to find another person how to find the way. She learned that street vendors were more reliable, and that sometimes the more detailed direction were the least helpful. By the time she found her way into the richer part of town, where she remembered some of the landmarks, the sky had darkened and the air cooled. She hadn't had any food since the night before and only very little to drink from the fountains that she happened upon.

She quickly found the Theatre of Ithay; a large building, a half moon of marble and of emerald, rising with its deep green dome and golden statuettes as colonnades for the niches. The main entrance was in a rectangular building that emerged from the middle of the circle. Already, some carriages had pulled up outside of it. She heard the laughter of women and the mutters of men, saw their jewels dancing in the light, tightened her grip on her suitcase and felt all of a sudden so utterly alone in the world. 

She wished she could go up to them; one of the ladies wore a dress to match the emeralds on the building and her face was kind. It was clear that she was part of the new society of Ithaya; they were agnostic, modern people, much like the Etheronese Borghese. 

For a long moment, she watched that glamorous, kind woman. She was laughing at something a man had told her, and Aurora wondered what their story were. At first, she imagined him to be courting her, but she looked too old and too beautiful to be unmarried. 

They're lovers, she thought to herself as she watched them move together. They couldn't be married. Married people don't love like that.

Once the woman had entered into the lobby, Aurora continued to the back of the building. Here, she knocked on a small, barely noticeable door. The air grew colder. She saw some dark figures lurking about in the shadows just a little further down the street. She knocked again, and the door opened. 

A young man with the body of a ballet dancer met her. His skin was dark, but he might as well have been Tiberan as Hi'taabnese. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, I... I wished to speak to the director." Her breathing got shallower and she felt herself panic when he did not respond. "I would like to audition."

The man frowned. "We're not casting."

"Please!" she exclaimed when he turned around. "I must... You must get me an appointment."