Princess

Her name is Princess Yavaba Iku MusZixinarkava. An aunt Princess of upala Kingdom of Nine-Falls, the Pearl Throne, on the south coast of the Continent. Every upala on Planet Kallos knows her by the nickname of Princess ****, due to her predilection. Not to organize floral arrangements, let’s say and leave like that. Save to say she is not the first name you would think about sending as your ambassador when your primary goal is not let transpire the false impression that you are digging for excuses to start a war.

That was the person the Pearl Throne send as representative, to “visit” the Cinnabar court in this particular moment. With plans of tourism including the South Region of the nation. Usually ignored for its lack of important and interesting places to visit.

Princess **** had three nieces in the Cinnabar Court, as Royal Wives. Like King Lauberg Roebar has one sister and two nieces in the kingdom of Nine-Falls. Common arrangement in upala politics. The Pearl Throne could for all accounts pressure the Cinnabar for another one or two Princesses to marry their king. Since Nine-Falls is a large kingdom, has in the present the advantage in upala population, and an economy that at very least matches the prosperity of Cinnabar.

Up to 98 years ago, the Cinnabar Throne had clear military advantage. Even since they conquered more territory, but at heavy cost in lives. While the Pearl preserved their strength and kept increasing their economy slowly.

With the first snow of winter, Princess **** entered the Cinnabar Capital accompanied by two grand nephews, sons of her nephew, the Pearl King.

She was their mentor in the arts of arcane combat, favouring offensive spells and mind-****, since they where too young to shapeshift. And, as those things usually are among pure-blooded upalas, both of them openly shared her bed. She was very much inclined to take other sexual partners, and so where they. With the difference that they would keep those adventures in secret, while she would by public about then.

Upala way, in its most typical expression.

Of course, the boys knew they would need to kill each other, when their father died. Because only one Prince can survive to inherit the Throne. Until that day, they cultivated an alliance against the other Princes in the court, their brothers and half-brothers.

Along with them, arrived 60 upala warriors of bastard heritage, and 800 Winged-Elves mounting Thunder-Eagles. This convoy scratched the limits of what is tolerable for a diplomatic delegation. Despite the significant destructive power they carried, it was not yet enough to suggest an invading army.

Few options could provide faster movement through the continent, and the fact that those birds are among the most destructive living weapons on Kallos was, plausibly, just a meaningless coincidence.

As if this was not enough to complicate things, Princess V also carried by her side her favourite bedwarmer and pet, who works double time as assassin and bodyguard, Gadriel.

The idea of someone acting as bodyguard for an upala Princess, and specially for that specific one, is, somewhat, peculiar. This Gadriel is member of a very rare race of Kallos, one of the most difficult for upalas to learn how to shapeshift in, despite being about the same size and shape of their natural form. The Thuna.

Centuries in the future, the descendants of Pelican crew will recognize the Thuna as some sort of what they would call “banshee”, and that will be the name of the specie in their language.

Thunas are as white as the upala, but have hair, usually kept long, and facial features that remember those of elves. Smaller ears. A cold mist tends to follow them. And they look somewhat transparent, when not paying attention in your direction. The specie can naturally pass trough solid objects, and leave a cold, painful, discomfort in living things when they move though them.

When they want, they can be as solid as any elf or orc is. However, when they are insubstantial they see though solid objects, and people. What makes them such exceptional thieves, assassins and spies. Also, their minds are extremely hard to detect, and almost impossible to read by telepathy. Filter magic also has very little effect on them.

And, their signature move, of course. The scream.

They have hard time trying to repress it sometimes, is like a yawn. Just much louder, and more dangerous.

About any living thing that hears it, dies. Not necessarily immediately, **** may happen any moment between the instant they hear the sound and 7 days later. Is impossible to predict, but the affected feel terribly disturbed, and can barely function at all until they die. Even things without hearing, like trees, are affected, albeit in lesser degree. They are weakened, but usually recover.

Is possible to save a person affected by the scream. However, the procedure demands to filter spirit through the person’s entire body. It demands so much spirit, that is probably a far better option to let the person die. From the perspective of economic rationality. Unless the person happens to be a upala, or some high noble of an inferior race.

The imminent arrival of Princess Yavaba Iku MusZixinarkava led to a difficult choice, debated between Princess Niarra Rish Zaebar and her brother, King Lauberg Roebar.

In the morning of that first day of winter Princess Niarra was informed by telepathy that spies in the middle of the continent had informed the king about the movement in the sky.

_Do you want me to go back? As long as I am here, she has the option.

Any upala who enters a upala nation has the obligation to go directly to the king and present himself. Any delay is punishable by ****. And the king can change that punishment to prison, or whatever pleases him. That obligation becomes more urgent and more serious the higher a upala is in status. So, even Princess **** would not ignore it.

However, a Zae, a trusted, is the representative of her king in his absence. Is acceptable to present yourself to her, is as if you where presenting yourself to the king. What, in this circumstances, would give Princess V a chance to have access to the South Province. Where the Space Fruit was, surrounded by Cinnabar forces.

_No. I cannot afford to have visitants here. Moments ago, I lost contact with Central-West Province. Their capital city just, silent. Something is happening down there. I cannot find the Governess. Whatever is happening, I will only know for sure when the troops I send reach the place. No point in send anyone who may not be able to deal with the problem, I am sending significant forces. However, that leaves us in a delicate situation here. I would ratter not show weakness to the Pearl.

_You will not whish them here, either.

_In that you are right, sister! We go to the East Province. Both of us. Things are comparatively less fragile up there right now. Not secure enough to make our presence up there look necessarily like a trick to distract our visitant from our weaknesses.

_I doubt it will look like anything else. Still, that is not such a rare situation, and you are not violating any tradition. They would have no right to complain. Are you sure you can leave Cinnabar Mountain right now? What if this thing in the West Coast is so serious that it demands your direct attention? Shadow Maze in in the opposite direction, and the Mushroom Mountains are in the middle.

_Not the best solution, but the only one possible right now. Once protocol is honoured, we can decide which one of us stays in the East Province and which one goes to the Centre-West tie up any loose ends that require attention. If our guest chooses to remain in the country she will be bond to stay in Shadow Maze as long as one of us remain there.

_She will pressure for permission to visit this region. She probably knows about the concentration of troops here in the South.

_Of course. And she sees me as a youngling who can be pushed away from her path and intimidated. I am not overly concerned. Worse thing that could happen would be she forcing our hand. We would need to kill her escort, imprison or kill her. I will see that we have enough forces in position to do just that. We would have a war in our hands. In a decade or two, depending on the circumstances. A war with the Nine-Falls would be a bad thing, but we can afford that, if necessary.

_What about give her what she want? Satisfy her curiosity. Let her king know what we have in our hands.

_Not until I have reasonable notion about what exactly that. And up to that moment, I still do not know “what we have in our hands”.

_But, you told me this thing would fall years ago.

_I knew it would happen, and when. Had some vague notion about where, and know the magnitude of the consequences are significant enough to justify the investment of time and energy. In this moment, you know what it is better than me, sister. You saw it with your own eyes. I have not done so, yet. Can your agents keep things stabilized in your absence?

_It is a gamble. But my bet is yes.

_I need nothing else. Until Shadow Maze, sister. I wait for you up there.

_I travel lighter than you can hope to, your majesty. I will be the one doing the waiting, more likely than not. Despite the fact that you are closer to our destine.

_I ratter think you are sitting next to our destine, sister. I am only closer to our momentary destination. In any case. We can talk about that better when we are face to face.