Alexandria: The Rebel Princess

Chapter 12

Flicking my card up, I glanced at it boredly before laying it down with a heavy sigh. Another card is flung down with a soft flicking. A dainty finger lingering against the smooth card for a moment longer. Trailing her pointed finger up her arm, she guided my eye towards her bare chest. A sheer robe draped down over her shoulders, slightly covering her exposed breasts.

"If this game bores you so, we could try anything," she purrs. Nodding her head suggestively towards the giggles coming from the couch.

Glancing towards Thaddeus with his arm draped over a woman cuddled into him as he took a gulp of ale from his goblet. He chuckles dryly between coughs, "Come now, Rowan, don't give the woman such a hard time." He waves me over, inviting me to join.

Placing another card down with a snap, I shrug. "I prefer to know my woman's intelligence before hand."

"A little bit of gold can turn a woman into anything you please," Thaddeus twirls a coin between his fingers.

A woman who absentmindedly played with her hair, from the chair nearby perked up. She crawled across the floor like a predatorial house cat hunting a mouse. He waved the shiny metal before her with a taunt, and she honed in on it. Greed dripping lustfully in her eyes as her head swayed with each swish of his hand. Her claws digging into his knees as she pulled herself up between his legs. "What about me, Your Majesty," she purrs, "What do I become?"

Ignoring the disgraced woman, my hand sweeps thoughtfully over my cards.

A playful growl has my peripherals focusing on her again. Taking the coin into her mouth with a nibble she shook her head like a dog playing fetch with it's kill.

He swished the ale around in the goblet as he pondered a thought towards it, utterly ignoring the woman. His lazy drooping eyes stare at her lustfully and he leans forward once more. "You will be my flower, Claire," he coos, brushing back a blonde strand that had fallen in front of her face during her absurd display.

Wasn't the woman's name Mary? Shaking my head with a displeased smirk at his forgetfulness. Racking my hand across my chin, I stare distractedly at the cards. Interesting enough, I think she has stumped me.

The door swings open and the women screech, wrapping their arms over their chests to conceal what modesty they believed to have left. Hasty feet rush towards the couch. A soldier held the door wide open and an attendant bowed with an offering out to his King. A red wax sealed letter lay upon the open palms of the young man. Thaddeus groans at the unwanted letter, but places his goblet down on the table with a stretch. Ripping the letter open he scans it. With a drunken roar of laughter, Thaddeus stares at me. "Looks like the war will be over soon, Erwin," Thaddeus refers to me as my father.

Placing a useless card down into play, I nod dismissive of his drunk ramblings. "After all this time, and a mere letter gives way to the end of a civil war?" I glance at him suspiciously, "Pray tell old friend, what is this great finding?" Thaddeus has been at war with his people for almost two decades. Peace isn't easily stumbled upon with such a stubborn and spiteful ruler.

"It seems a loyal noble has found me the perfect opportunity," he hums. Tossing the attendant the letter, he shoos him away with an irritated wave of his hand. "Read for yourself."

The attendant offers me the letter. Unfolding it I scan the contents and my body goes rigid. Daringly switching the paper for the one behind it, I find a small map with a circle around a location that drew me in. 

Thaddeus snatches his goblet tipping it back and gulping down its contents. With a gasp of satisfaction, he returns the goblet to the side table with a slam. "I always knew, Lord Albert would side with me again," he chortles cunningly.