Razmatazz

Doing something a little different. I want to be more consistent with uploads this year, but I just can't manage these giant chapters at once all the time. So I'll be uploading 'half' or 'third' chapters now and then, like today. =)

“You can’t keep an anqa here!” argues one of the city guardsmen, pulling out a book from his waist and pointing at its cover. Acacia turns her head toward him. “City bylaws state that all idle animals need to be kept in a stall, minding proper fire safety conditions,” he explains, tapping the front of the manual containing all of the laws that govern the city. “And why is its plumage that color?” asks the guardsman.

“Funny looking anqa,” mutters his partner guardsman, nodding, and then staring around the destitute back corner of the city they find themselves in.

Acacia, a hand resting on the animal’s elongated neck, stares for a moment. “It’s an imported breed,” she explains. “From the south,” she says, not technically lying. “Very expensive,” says the back alley princess with a smile on her face as she scratches the animal. “Very strong.” Acacia looks away from them for a moment, quietly muttering something beneath her breath. The large, feathered beast of burden is tethered outside in the dead end alley where the entrance to her room is. Leather straps tie it to an old metal fence.

The guardsmen look at one another and then back at her. “Be that as it may,” starts the older one. “It needs to go, now,” he says. “And we’ll need its paperwork to verify that it isn’t stol-”

— A heavy clanking comes from back behind them, coming from the inner city entrance to the alley. The two soldiers turn their heads in unison, a shadow falling over their bodies and then their faces as it draws closer and closer by the second.

“Is there a problem?” asks a heavy voice, carrying over their surprised faces, which quickly shift in expression.

“Sir Knight!” says one of the guardsmen, recognizing him immediately — not that this is uncommon. He’s essentially become a celebrity in this city amongst the guards and adventurers of the guild, and so, amongst the common people as well. There are even some toy makers who have begun making little Sir Knight figures for children to play with. “- Wait a minute,” he says, looking at the giant’s black armor and then toward the anqa of the same feather. “Is this yours?” he asks.

“Friederich. Gulzman,” greets the giant, nodding to the two men who stand up a little taller after he calls them by name — perhaps surprised that he knows them at all. “You could say that,” he replies. “I’ll have it handled,” he explains.

“Oh! Well,” starts the older guard, Gulzman, waving his hands. “There’s no rush, now,” he explains, his tone far more relaxed than it was before.

“Yeah, it’s not like there’s anyone bothered back here,” mutters the other one, Friederich, looking around at the rancid corner of the city. “And it seems like a quiet animal.”

The three of them come to an agreement and part ways.

“I’m meeting with your captain tomorrow,” remarks Sir Knight. “I’ll be sure to put in a good word for you two,” he promises as the two city guardsmen return to their patrol. He stands there, watching them go, before turning back to Acacia, who has returned to grooming the anqa, which clicks with its beak, hissing slightly through the snaps, to indicate satisfaction.

“I didn’t know you were on a first name basis with the guards, Sir Knight,” remarks Acacia as she works.

“I didn’t know you were a stable hand,” he replies.

Acacia smirks, patting the animal. “Every woman of nobility knows how to ride an anqa, Sir Knight,” she answers. “It wouldn’t be proper to walk everywhere myself, now would it?” asks the girl, lifting her nose, but then quickly pulling her head away as the anqa snaps toward it, having perceived the movement as a challenge.

Sir Knight reaches in to his pouch, pulling out a small, pink vial that he hands her. It’s her medicine — the potion that keeps the symptoms of her fatal illness at bay. “I know every guard’s name,” he explains. “Spent a few nights following them, learning their habits and hobbies.”

Acacia lifts an eyebrow, looking at him quizzically. “Should I be worried that you’re stalking me too, Sir Knight?” she asks.

“Yes,” replies the giant dryly, causing her to laugh — but then it becomes a little toomuch, and she starts wheezing for air, clutching onto his armor as she braces herself from falling over, reprimanding him for making her do so. “But this is exactly why I do this work,” he explains. “We need to leave this city. It’s time to get you out there. But since you don’t want to —”

Acacia, after catching her breath, looks up at him. “- I’ve made this point clear already, Sir Knight,” she explains, jumping in before he finishes. “This city, as dismal and rotten as it is, has become the heartland of my reign to come,” she says, her head turning away from him and toward the little underground room that has become hers in the truest sense of the word. At first, it was just a little hole where she hid from the world, surviving inside like a starving rabbit during a hard winter. But now, it’s filled with comforts and furnishings. The little bed has been replaced with one just as little, but much more comfortable — with a fat, thick mattress and heavy blankets that take up a little more vertical space than before, but not horizontal. The tiny section of floor that is open to stand on has a little rug covered in ducks, and the two tiny ground level windows are curtained with short, hand-made fabric curtains. The walls have been replastered and cleaned, and the ceiling has been dusted and varnished — even if this last one happened without her consent. The little room is still just that — a little, dinky underground room.

But now, it’s hers. The little closet is her treasure, her home in a sense that no place has ever really been before — not the palace and not any summer residence she has ever stayed at. This is hers. The tiny little room is full of her, and maybe a little bit of Sir Knight.

Sir Knight nods to her, understanding her sentiment — as troublesome as it is for their scheme to bring her to the throne.

“And that’s why I’ve studied this place,” he explains. “The guards, the churches, the guilds — I’ve established a network that moves through every single door in this place,” says Sir Knight. “But at the end of the day, we need to make a decision.”

“On what?” she asks, their gazes meeting.

“Who are you?” asks Sir Knight, looking at Acacia. “And what do you want from life?” he asks. The girl tilts her head, staring at him. “If we could play a game, if you could be anyone you wanted to be?” he asks. “Who would you be?”

Acacia closes her eyes, the question running through her mind — it being the same question the spirit that is Sir Knight had asked her when they first met during the enemy attack on the city. “I will be the queen,” she explains, opening her eyes again, the little bottle of medicine held firmly in her grasp. “I want to change the world by the force of my command,” says Acacia, narrowing her eyes. “So that it won’t ever be so wretched and cold ever again,” she affirms, as she had done back then. Acacia opens her eyes again, glaring defiantly. “But I will not sacrifice the creature comforts I have earned to do so,” Sir Knight,” she explains. Her free hand points to herself, her other palm still resting on his armor. “I will have both. I will become queen of this nation, and I will do so without even having to leave the comfort of my home,” she says.

“Seems selfish and unrealistic,” he replies. They need to travel the world;, they need to spread her influence, which is possible through the use of his shortcuts from city to city. But at the same time, it would be easier if they were traveling the old fashioned way, making connections and such on the road.

“Correct, Sir Knight,” replies Acacia. “I am selfish and unrealistic. But I will have everything that I want because I, Lady Acacia Odofredus Krone, am entitled to it by the right of my birth,” she proclaims with a strong voice. “And you, as my loyal knight, will see to it,” she commands. “Or else the next time you are in my lungs, I will hold my breath until both of us suffocate and die,” warns Acacia, glaring at him.

“As expected of her Majesty,” replies Sir Knight, wanting to stoke exactly this reaction from her. Acacia is greedy, yes. She’s arrogant, yes. She’s rude and bossy and entitled because of a status she was born into, rather one that she’s earned — and this is exactly what she should be. This is the role of the character she’s playing in this little game of theirs. She is the dark queen, and he is the knight who stands in her shadow. “The next move is already in play,” he explains. “We’ve found your crown, and now we need to find your people.”

“I’ve already found them,” replies Acacia.

— The anqa shrieks, lunging at something that scurries in the trash.

He nods, turning to watch it move a few steps until the tethers pull tight. “I know, but they don’t know it yet,” he explains. “Which is why the two of us are meeting the captain of the city guard tomorrow,” says Sir Knight, looking at her puzzled expression. “We have a sizable donation to make for him,” explains Sir Knight. “The world as a whole knows about the ambitions of Lady Acacia Odofredus Krone now,” he explains. “But nobody knows who that name belongs to,” he explains. “We need to present you to the public. We’ll need the guard on board for that. It will be a big uproar for the city to know that they have a princess here,” he says, looking around the filthy alleyway that they have been living in.

“Sir Knight,” says Acacia. “I will remind you that our coffers are currently… yearning,” explains the uncrowned princess, who is living a very luxurious and expensively extravagant lifestyle for someone who is standing next to a large, half-feral animal with a dripping rat’s tail hanging out from its beak. She looks back at him, realizing that her hand is still on his armor from when she had caught herself. Acacia pulls her palm away, wiping its sweat on her dress. “Or…?” she asks, her eyes lighting up.

Sir Knight nods. “Your scheme with the merchant, Kaeufer, has born its first fruit,” says Sir Knight, pulling out a slip of paper and handing it to her. “The store branches we funded for him to open in the other cities have found some success, thanks to a little legwork,” he says, not getting into the exact details, as such things would be improper for the ears of a royal. “We’ve received our first payment of dividends,” he says, as her eyes run over the ledger entry she’s been given.

Mr. Kaeufer was the first merchant she sold anything to in this city. He had scammed her during that initial meeting, but over time, the two of them have come to a rather comfortable business arrangement in regards to the items looted by Sir Knight’s soldiers in the local dungeon. As a part of her grand, overarching strategy, she had invited him into a business offer. If he opened new branches in other cities using his own funds, she and ‘her people’ would supply his new stores with goods and raw materials at exceptionally low prices. Thanks to Sir Knight’s shadowy soldiers, who need no food or wages, she has dozens of such people gathering raw materials for free in nearly every city of note in the nation. Being subsidized by hunters who never need to sleep or eat, Kauefer’s new stores can sell products at a market-dominating low price, and his new branches have gained a foothold nearly everywhere, much to the ire of many rivals.

And, of course, for her efforts, she earns a nice chunk of that money with no further effort than her priorly employed negotiating skills, which had proven their worth in gold. Literally.

Acacia smiles perhaps even brighter now than ever before as she reads about the money and then looks at him. “Sir Knight, I’ll have you know that I take offense to calling my plan a ‘scheme’,” she remarks, neatly folding the letter and tucking it away into her dress. “But I think I can forgive you. This time.”

“Your graceful mercy knows no bounds, Your Majesty,” replies Sir Knight as she pets the large animal behind her and walks off, waving with a finger for him to follow her.

“This is really great news,” says Acacia, her shoulders dropping in relief. She turns around. “Come on. Let’s go get some tea to celebrate,” she beams, walking off toward the direction of her own personal favorite tea house, setting down the wooden brush on a barrel as she goes.

“Wait. Don’t I get to be brushed and pampered too?” he asks jokingly, walking after her as the anqa behind them arcs its head back, its long neck wobbling as it swallows the rat whole like a snake, making an ugly throaty noise — it’s hard to say if this sound comes from the giant bird or from the giant rat, which may or may not still be alive as it’s being eaten. Acacia grabs hold of his arm as he catches up to her, holding onto it with both of her hands as they walk together out into the city.

“I think that I can make some time for you later,” she replies, leaning her head onto him as they walk out toward Tatze’s Teahouse, which also seems to become very expensive when they’re around. “- Depending how lavishly you treat me now.”

“Wait,” he says. “I thought I was the one being invited out?” asks Sir Knight, looking down at her as they go.

“Correct,” affirms Acacia. “You, Sir Knight, have been invited to take me out to tea and everything else that my delicate heart desires,” she says with a content smile on her face as she rests her head on his arm, closing her eyes for a moment as she makes the situation clear. “Don’t disappoint me,” warns Acacia in a stern tone without opening her eyes, which suggests that she means it.

“Have I ever?” he replies. Sir Knight looks back ahead of himself as they enter the city square, fumbling around inside his cloak with his free hand for some money.

“We’ll see about that later,” remarks Acacia, her fingers tapping against his armor that they hold onto one after the other.

It would seem that he, through his efforts to embolden her weak personality, has created a monster.

It’s a good thing that he doesn’t need to eat to survive, or he’d be in for some very difficult days in the future to come.