Royal Lies

Chapter 1

    Her dull grey eyes lit a golden hue as flames slowly began to spread across the table, her gaze daring him to push her more. He leaned closer to her, their faces mere inches apart.

    "What. Happened. In. Rezia." he articulated each word, his face so close to hers that she could feel his breath rake against her cheek. The fire spread from her hands, its tendrils reaching across the table to caress cpt.Stone's hands and flaring to reach his forearms.

    "Do I really need to tell you?" she asked him condescendingly.

    "Yes."

    "Fine," both the glow of her eyes and dislike of him grew as she spoke, "I was held captive by my own uncle and tortured for almost a year because they wanted information I DON'T HAVE!"

    "If that's the truth then where's your sister?!"

    "I barely escaped myself," she spat, "it's not like I could break her free too."

    Cpt.Stone pushed himself off the table as the light slowly came back into the room and his eyes returned to a stagnant blue. His arms and hands were unburnt despite sitting in the fire for over half a minute. He crossed his arms and smirked at Venus as she still braced herself on the table that had slowly been engulfed by the flames.

    As she removed her hands from the table the flames dissipated and it crumbled into a pile of ash. Her eyes gradually lost all of the golden hue as she let go of the fire and held her hands in fists by her side.

    "Are you satisfied now?" she angrily questioned.

    "Of course," he turned to leave, "that's all I needed to know."

    As the door clicked shut behind him Venus sank back onto the chair.

~

    "Prepare a carriage," he called out as he walked into the main room, "we're leaving in an hour."

"Yes sir" one of the cadets responded loudly as cpt.Stone walked past.

"Captain," a shorter man started as he fell into step with the younger one, "did the girl prove to be the lost heir his majesty has been searching for?"

"Yes," cpt.Stone responded looking down on the older man, "she appears to be who she claims but..." his thought trailed off as he remembered the table burning beneath her hands, he sighed. "She's reckless with her power, that's something we need to stress to the court and keep an eye on in the future."

As the two reached the door leading to the porch cpt.Stone could see the older man's brows furrow as he contemplated the captain's words. "Sir, if I may, what hap-"

"You may not, lieutenant" cpt.Stone interrupted the older underling.

The man stood in stunned silence as cpt.Stone continued down the stairs into the dusty road. The street was relatively busy for that of a village made of maybe five hundred residents with rare visitors, people coming and going from the many shops and restaurants lining the main road.

As he stopped at the base of the town posts steps he scanned the many business names around him in search for a specific one to spend the next half an hour in. He decided to set off for a small tavern with a hanging wood sign with "Misty's Miracles" carved neatly into it across the way.

"Welcome back captain Stone," the tavern maiden greeted as he walked into the deserted bar, "what can I get you on this fine morning?"

"Whiskey on the rocks Misty." cpt.Stone responded as he slid onto one of the stools in front of the bar. "Slow morning?"