King's Conquest (The Crown of Estoir)

~~The Encounter (1)~~

Lady Arianna Harrowton looked about the garden. It was beautiful and full of blooms that stirred the soul. In her province, the terrain was arid rather than lush as it bordered with Pyria, a country that embraced the heat of the shifting sands. It was there she could see putting her skills at tending plants and flowers to good use. Just like her mother did.

Her arrival in Ishtar, the capital city of Estoir, had set off the whisperings. Many didn't bother to disguise the rabid fascination at her sun-kissed skin that reminded everyone of her half-Pyrian heritage—an aberration at the Royal Court. The peasants and the merchants were a bit more accepting.

As her father was the chief advisor to the King. It forced polite expressions on everyone's faces. Arianna had smiled through the entire ordeal of her presentation to the King, her father's cousin, and ignored the mutterings and verbal jabs of 'half-savage' or 'Pyrian Sin.'

Stifling a sigh at being confined in the castle walls, Arianna practiced the speech again in her head. She hoped to appeal to her father's good senses to allow her to return to their manor in the countryside.

She had been at the castle for a fortnight, and no one had attempted to befriend her. Most avoided her like the plague, while those who were amiable were cornered to a side by their friends or family. Boredom and loneliness had become her constant companion along with her maid, Lyra, a sweet girl. 

A robin flew by. It landed on one of the branches bearing the fragrant flowers. She smiled. Then, as abruptly it had appeared, it took flight and scaled the thick, grey walls of the fortress and disappeared beyond. 

The walls, which were mightier than many towers withered her smile. She needed to escape the castle. In Harrowton, she had no restrictions on her movements. There was freedom all around her. Her days had been full of mischief and frolic with Jay Pasha, her friend. Oh, how she missed him!

She needed to get out like the robin and explore the city. The castle of Ishtar was massive, housing an entire city of its own that pulsated in luxury and vanity. It was sufficed for many powdered faces, but it wasn't  for her. She needed the chaos of the living.

Making up her mind, Arianna hurried to her room through a network of corridors she had discovered a few days ago. They were less travelled by the courtiers, perhaps because they were  at the periphery of the castle.

This suited her fine as she felt the happiest when away from the nobility, who disproved everything she did. Once gaining her room, she changed into a simple maroon dress with no corset and stockings, required for all the noblewomen. Something she disagreed with.

Grabbing her shawl as an afterthought that once belonged to her deceased mother, Arianna made her way to the castle's main gates. There, she wrapped the fabric around her dark brown hair and pulled it lower to hide her face. With a pounding heart, she passed the guards disguised in her plain clothes and humble gait that were fitting for a peasant rather than nobility that she was. None blinked an eye at her.

Once outside, she hastened her footsteps with mounting excitement and headed in a random direction. Shortly, she stood, taking the frenzied spectacle before her. It didn't take her long to stumble on a market place that helped soothe her jagged nerves, frayed by the duplicity at the Royal Court.

The sunset was a few hours away; she would stay for a while. What could go wrong with a harmless innocuous visit outside the castle walls without guards? 

Ethan stepped inside a tavern that he frequented for a decent fare before getting to the menial task that lay ahead of him. He sat at his usual place, drinking a mug of mead to ease his aching muscles.