Chapter 16: Landing
Aisling was rather happy. After all, she hadn’t been punished for nearly killing the prince. At least, that was what she was thinking of it as. It was a miracle in all honesty. How he hadn’t told her master or the man was a mystery to her.
It had been a couple of days since the incident with the first prince, and all seemed well. Aisling was walking down the hall of the ship with her bags in hand. Her master was in front of her, the first prince was walking in front of her master.
Her master was currently talking with the head maid that Aisling straight up forgot was on this vessel. Then there was that man that the young prince Augustus was talking to. He walked right next to him down the hall like the head maid with her own master.
She was currently lugging most of the luggage as well as her own. It was a rather burdensome task, lugging it all off of the ship, but it was fine with her. Ever since the incident with the prince, he had stayed next to her all the time.
It was as if he saw some connection that she didn’t. But it was perfectly fine in her mind. His staying next to her meant that she could make sure that he didn’t tell anyone about what happened.
She looked behind herself at the sea of case that she was tugging along. She had no trouble with them though. With her strength that had somehow come back to the forefront of her person, she could do this all day.
What was even weirder though, was the fact that she could feel a tugging, a pull that was drawing her too somewhere. Where she was being drawn to, she had no clue. It felt like it was in the same direction that the royal castle was in.
But she put that feeling in the back of her mind and kept trudging on. It was at this point and moment that the first prince decided to talk to her. He walked beside her as the group exited the hallway and made their way on the main deck.
“Aisling, I want to ask you something,” he stated.
She looked at him and gave him her full attention. At this he looked back in the direction they were walking. There was a small blush on the boy’s cheeks, but Aisling didn’t notice.
“You have my full attention, my lord,” she responded.
With her response, he started to fiddle with his fingers. It was as if he was a simple schoolboy, talking to a teacher about a problem. That line of thinking made Aisling smile. She hadn’t thought about those good days from her past life in a while.
“I was wondering, what was your family like? My Mom can’t get out of bed because of me; and my dad hates anything that isn’t the royal family. He hits me a lot as well. I was wondering if that was normal?” Augustus asked.
She thought about this for a minute. It was genuinely a hard question to answer. In her past life her and her sister had been hit plenty of times, but that wasn’t from her parents. In all honesty, her past parents weren’t ever there as cliché as that is.
In this life, if one could call what she currently had happening to her life, her parents were especially kind to her. Ever more so her mother. Her mother was probably the kindest, yet most clingy person she even knew. Her father in this life was rather kind as well. He never hit her, nor did her really need to talk down to her as an adult.
But that was mainly because she was rather mature in this life because of her past one. All of this combined made it rather clear to her, instilling hate in your children should not be normal. If all one talks about is their hate for something, especially if that person is in the presence of their child, then they aren’t a good parent.
“Do you wish for my honest opinion my lord?” she asked the young boy.
He simply nodded his head in recognition. It was rather obvious to Aisling what she was going to say. In fact, she was trying to make it obvious to him. All of it was managing to blow over the young boy’s head, however.
“I do not think that is normal for the common people, but I do think that might be normal for nobles and royalty,” she told him.
At this he quirked his head to the side, and she sighed in exasperation. How was she going to explain her answer? That was the thought running in her own mind now.
But as she looked forward, she noticed the sprawling city. The city was large, only smaller than the Rome of old. If she remembered correctly, the current capital held about seven hundred thousand people in it. A normal population of people in this time period was about ten thousand, maybe one hundred thousand.
Large and small building that looked like they had come out of the dark age, as well as the height of the roman republic stood around the dock and port. Said buildings were both made of stone, wood, brick, and clay.
It had taken a good number of days of sailing, but they made it there in one piece. The current capital of Francia was a city that did not exist, at least to her knowledge, back on her earth.
This city was in the middle of where the Loire and the Vienne split. This city was old, about as old as the first roman fortresses in this part of Europe. Their ship had sailed deep inland. The land and water around them had been shaped by the mages of both Francia, and the roman republic and empire of old.
One might think that was why they were able to sail such a large ship down the river Loire, and they would be right. The riverbanks had been pushed up reinforced by concrete by the romans. The corners were squared off and rails had been erected so no one could fall in.
Certain areas where it looked like fishing was permitted and flourished were set in place in intervals along the length of the riverbank, if you could call it one. They were docks made of brick, cement, and wood.
The places that were made of wood seemed like they could be swept and locked parallel to the riverbank. It was all rather well put together and for a minute, it seemed like the king of Francia was actually smart. But then she realized that this was probably the regent’s and the Rome of old’s doing.
The prince noticed Aisling looking at the city with wonder and amazement silently creeping onto her face and smiled with pride. It seemed like he was rather happy that she was impressed with his city. Or at least, that was what his dad called it whenever he talked about it.
“What do you think of the city Aisling?” he asked her, seemingly forgetting about the prior conversation.
“It’s amazing. It’s so well built, like everything was thought. Like the city streets have never been and never will get dirty. Like the boats that sail down the river are and will never stop. It’s just so developed,” she said while looking at the streets and buildings of the capital.
…
As the group made their way off of the ship and down onto dry land, a group of armed guards escorted them to a set of carriages. Said carriages differed in their looks, one looked like it was made for royalty the other looked to be only made for function.
The royal looking one was painted a deep purple. The rims of its wheels were trimmed in gold, and the spokes that ran from the axle to the rim were a polished platinum color. The windows of the carriage were also a crystal-clear glass that seemed to have been made from magic, as there was a slight luster to them.
It was also being pulled by two horses, both of which were huge in size, as if they were bred only for war and not whatever this amounted to.
The other carriage was much more functional in its design, with a dull white color on the outside of the wooden walls. Its own wheels were nothing but simple and well used. The windows were simple pieces of square glass.
At the appearance of these two carriages, her master made an announcement.
“Ok, Paddy; help the other slave bring all the luggage into the transport carriage and then get in, we will be going in separate carriages,” he instructed the head maid.
She nodded her head at this, and she came over to Aisling’s side. Together, they opened the back door to carriage and brought all of the luggage into the back of it. It took some time, and while they did this the rest of the group got into their own carriage and sped off to the castle in which the party would take place.
All the while she did as she asked, she couldn’t help but notice the strange pull to something at the back of her mind. It was as if her brain had become a compass, and the needle was pointing to where she was needed, where she craved to be.
But that will come into play later. Till then, you readers will have to wait.
End of arc two…
Honestly, I think that the ending of the book, while remaining open, should not end on a cliffhanger.
I mean, my energy for the book is running a bit low right now. I simply thought that I should try out a different series before continuing this one again.