Tempest & Temptation

ℜ𝔢𝔞𝔠𝔥𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔱𝔥𝔢 ℭ𝔞𝔭𝔦𝔱𝔞𝔩

Lady and Lord Sutherton were finally back to their schedule. They had finally gotten back on the main road, and soon enough they found themselves entering the Tri-capital's gates.

"My, that felt like such a long ride." Lady Sutherton sighed, pulling her head back in from the carriage window.

"It wouldn't have been so long if you hadn't caused our detour," Lord Sutherton coldly spat, reading through a thin book pamphlet.

No matter how times she apologized, he forever held grudges over her every minor mistakes.

With a frown, she resigned herself to silence, only finding comfort at the thought of getting out of their suffocating shared space.

And in just a few more minutes, she would have that. Or that was what she hoped for.

Whip!

"Neigh!"

To her surprise, she heard the horse whip and felt the carriage come to a gradual stall much sooner than she expected.

Yet they just entered the palace gates. The palace was still a short distance away. There was no way they could have arrived so soon.

Buzzing in confusion, Lady Sutherton popped her head out the carriage window again. "Langston? Have we arrived already?" She raised her voice to be heard.

"...."

For some reason Langston didn't respond.

"Hm?" She leaned a little further out of the window, making a futile attempt to see him. The angle her window was positioned at, made it impossible to see anything besides the back of the horses and side of the carriage rain cover.

"Langston? Did you hear me?"

After enough silence, she sat back down into her seat. "Daviyd, Langston is not answering me."

He stopped reading his pamphlet and look at her.

The very second, they shared eyes, the carriage doors opened abruptly, demanding their attention to the group of fully armored royal soldiers huddling outside.

"Lord and Lady Sutherton?" One of the men asked them.

"Yes?" Lord Sutherton sat his pamphlet on his lap and slide off his reading glasses. He viewed the royal soldiers with impassive face, clearly not as concerned his palling wife.

"The Glorious first Prince Kaelixson-Nier has requested us to escort you directly to the capital. For that you, we must ask that you leave your carriage and come with us."

Lord Sutherton furrowed his brows. "May I inquire why?"

"Those were our orders, Lord Sutherton. Now please get out of the carriage and come with us," they harshly demanded.

Lady Sutherton swallowed and fiddled with her hands. The men outside were far in number and were all holding weapons. Who they were ordered to use those swords on, she anxiously wondered the answer.

In a short moment of tense stares and firmly pressed lips, Lord Sutherton conceded to the men's demand. "Alright."

"D-Daviyd!" Anya sputtered as he got up. "Are we really just going to---."

He didn't wait for her to finish. He stepped out of the carriage, and expected her to do the same.

The idea seemed terrifying incredulous. Something had to be terribly wrong for the royal soldiers to appear like this. If they were even royal soldiers at all.

She examined the men's uniform, each of them bore the Kaelix royal family crest and the magenta purple and crimson red colors of the crown. Yet, just because they appeared to be men of the Tri-capital, did not mean they were.

Before leaving Lady Katrine's estate, she remembered they had one last chat before she left. The woman blabbered on about roadside carriage attacks becoming more common. There seemed to be some type of 'unrest' between the public so they began forming elaborate ways to steal food and money.

She couldn't help but to wonder if this was another ploy made by a few starving men.

"Anya, what are you dawdling for?" Daviyd stood outside, smoking his newly lit cigar, expectantly waiting for her.

She almost scoffed at the question. There as a group of armored and weaponed men circling their carriage, she had many reasons to be hesitant and paranoid.

She saw the gleam of their swords, and then again, she recognized, she had only one reason to do exactly as she was told. That reason alone was motivating enough.

Gulping, she cautiously inched out, one of the men helping her out while her husband, puffed a stream of smoke with narrowed eyes.

Tap.

She landed to her feet, a familiar landscape around her. The Tri-captial was bright and colorful. Huge buildings soared above them, most engineered so well they looked like invincible towers in the sky. In the far distance, more glorious than any of the expertly crafted buildings was the palace.

As many times as she saw it, she could never get over how the outer layer of palace's white marble exterior would shine like a diamond on the horizon.

But although there was so much beauty around her, there was little life. Normally at these times the capital's streets would be filled merchants and passersby. There was no one around except the long line of carriages blocking the road for miles down.

If there were people inside those carriages, she couldn't tell. She didn't have enough time to consider that as the royal guards ushered them away and towards the palace.