Elody Decides to Stay With Her

"In that case," Elody said, "I will stay with you as you question the slaves if that is permissible. I doubt that I will cause any trouble and I might be able to spot something that you don't."

"That is true, " Vrasha said. "And also something I was hoping to hear you say. Give me one moment and then we can go and speak to them together."

She turned away from the other woman and moved to the other side of the room where much of her luggage had already been brought in for her. As a soldier, Vrasha had learned long ago to pack lightly. She never knew when she would need to move, or how suddenly she would need to abandon a position. She had brought only the most important things with her. Two of those things lay upon a table beside the bed and Elody could not help but look towards them.

They were the things which had earned Vrasha her name and title. The Windblade was a sword of fine steel which glinted under the light of the candles. Its hilt was bronze worked in a scale-like pattern and an emerald was set into the very centre of the crossgrip. Runes traced the base of the blade, rising towards the tip. It was a magic weapon, as if that was not obvious enough given its appearance. Sitting beside the blade was its partner, the Storm Shield. It was a small metal shield, a kind of buckler which was meant to be strapped to the arm in order to keep your hand free. Another matching gem had been set in its centre and a circle of runes formed a halo around it.

Those two weapons, Elody knew, were the reasons why Vrasha had not been crushed in the early years of the war. Low on manpower, low on trust, low on anything but her own determination and grit, Vrasha had taken those weapons from an ancient temple dedicated to a forgotten storm god. Ever since then, they had formed some kind of connection with her. They worked for her and only for her. No one else could wield them, even Elody herself.

Vrasha never went anywhere without them, but now was clearly not the time to don such weapons. Instead, she went to the case beside them and began to pull out clothes. Gratefully, the princess began to strip down, pulling aside the blue dress she was wearing with no hint of modesty. Her back was toned and muscular, her sides were shapely. Elody enjoyed the view as Vrasha stripped naked, until the princess was standing only in her skin.

"I hate the dresses," Vrasha admitted, turning to look at Elody, "They're annoying to move in, they get in the way. I used to love them so much as a girl but now they're just a distraction."

"Going to question the slaves naked would probably be unwise," Elody said.

"But you would enjoy it," A slight smirk touched Vrasha's lips.

"I can't deny that, but your image as the princess might be tarnished if your people learned that you ran around naked, no?"

"Maybe just a little," Vrasha laughed. "I'm not going to question them naked. I just wanted to be dressed as a warrior rather than a princess."

She pulled on a pair of leather leggings, doing them up with a belt and then donned a cloth tunic which covered her upper body. She sighed, turning to look at herself in the mirror. Without the dress, her image had changed completely. She looked less like a lady of the court and more as she saw herself; someone who went out and did things.

"All right." She said. "Let's go and talk to these slaves."