Another thought growls back. It was, so what are you gonna do about it?
There’s an even longer silence.
Humiliated, Sophia just keeps quiet instead, muttering to herself malarkey without any further probing.
The damage control teams aboard the Argent Dawn work fast. Superficial damage on their port side engine quickly diagnosed as both a fuel-line rupture and propeller misalignment; easily remedied in less than ten minutes by splicing a brand new fuel line and applying kinetic force to the bent turbine with sledge hammers.
They were trained to do this mid flight. Hanging precariously over lethal falls by safety cables in the best of situations, free climbing the ropes in the worst. To repair their ship while under fire and sometimes on fire, the luxury of having half the assigned team to stand on a flat lawn as ground crew while fixing what was the mildest of “damages” spoiling them completely rotten.
The battlecruiser is ready for powered flight in record time, ground crew packing up tool kits and spare parts; marines returning from defensive positions back into their vessel.
Giving the two passengers the opportunity to quietly disembark.
They were, according to the haphazardly hashed out agreement by both nations, allowed barely anything out here for maximal secrecy.
No servants or attending staff of any kind, with a sudden increase of foreigners in the sparsely populated farming peripheries of Port Azuru possibly sending up signal flares of important habitation. No incredibly luxurious shipments of luggage dropped by aerostatic or motor carriage either; instead Sophia only had what little of hers that were brought aboard the Argent Dawn.
None of her selected readings, or her bedding, or any of the purchased clothing was to come with her; that cargo was currently stowed aboard the Foudre in logistics crates and would be brought to Landfall in accordance to their original flight plan.
All she had was all of her wedding gifts, the large suitcase of spare travel clothes that Beatrice and her Head Maid had helped her pack (they did it last minute when they found out she had done nothing, to Sophia’s chagrin), and one Impericutta bodyguard.
Still, all of it seemed like a luxury compared to her partner; who stood with nothing except a small leather travel bag, the clothes on his back, and a singular Tiancin Royal Guardswoman.
A sense of pity fills the young woman, an almost shameful display of her standing amongst her three crates being rolled out while her husband had basically nothing. The irony of how she, a foreigner, could somehow have more here thousands of miles from her mother nation than even he did in his own home is not lost on her slightly off-handed expression.
Well, he probably did have everything she had and more in his actual palatial home. Not here in a vacation house that he had, according to their prior conversation, only visited once before in some childhood barely remembered.
The voice calls to her as she’s in the midst of deep thought, the family member marching over with her arms behind her back in the precision of military action. “Sophia.”
Drop the formalities. The political sense within her observes, This is family.
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The middle aged woman continues to greet as she stops a few steps away from her, hesitation in her voice. “I just… I just wanted to send you off my dear.”
Typical of her, she could never leave you without a hug no matter what.
The young woman opens her arms, offering the warmth of family for just a moment before her aunt takes it. The rough wool uniform scratching her cheeks, muscled arms crushing her spine; Sophia letting out a small yelp before Auntie Clarisse whispers into her ear. “Be well Sophia. And if you need anything, you have little Alice’s gift to use.”
Something slipped into her pocket, a small leather bound booklet. “These radio codes are a few years out of date, so you shouldn’t be in too much trouble if you use them.”
“T-Thanks Auntie.” Sophia grunts as her ribs compress.
Dropping her back onto the rubberized steel she gives a sharp smile. “And of course be well and healthy… and try not to embarrass yourself too much. Take that as an order from your Auntie, not your General Primus.”
It’s the challenge of the most extreme import and perhaps the only one she needs to complete, the Fourth Princess’ entire thought cabinet snapping at attention for this task. “I will.”
“Good girl.”
The Argent Dawn’s burden is lessened, its arcanite soul no longer carrying a literal metric ton of extra supplies and four personnel beyond monetary or mass. A trifling weight for a monster such as it was, but yet it seemed like the battlecruiser had a more hurried pace in its take off procedure without its precious cargo.
Idling turbines spooling, legs already loosening their grip upon grass and crushed roses. They watch from below as the beast lifts from the gardens, as the cold hull of the battlecruiser takes to the skies once more to rejoin its circling family of demonic hawks. To continue onward south towards the holy city of Landfall, another half-day’s travel ahead of this flock to complete this international deception.
And they do watch in holy silence as the floatilla ascends towards the sky, becoming smaller and smaller as they pass back into the clouds from where they once came.
The Imperium shall leave this place undesecrated, for now.
For a while they remain in silence, simply taking in the now partially ruined garden before them. Sophia noted, with a slight pride of her own academic knowledge of decorum, that this architecture was very much based on the styles of Central Ensolia. Brick pathways cutting through manicured lawns and view concealing bushes, with large, old growth oak trees acting as keystones in the center of wide open spaces. Three gazebos stand as scattered points amongst the garden, two small black tiled ornaments flanking the mansion on the east and western wings while one large, almost bandstand sized structure sits square center of the preceding lawn.
It was so close to something that she’d see in Capital that she could almost imagine herself home.
Well, aside from the weather.
Port Azuru was both south of the equatorial belt and much closer to it than central Ensolia. A bite of humidity and heat hits her skin with an almost hostile touch, tempered by a fresh breeze from the ocean two miles away. A part of her body begins to sweat, immediately whisked away by the distant, almost salty taste of the Adranic yet still she feels discomfitingly hot.
The Tiancin Royal Guardswoman casually stretches, the short haired, thin woman cracking muscles and joints with an almost comical disregard for the manners demanded of her in the presence of her royal masters.
This is the same woman who was standing guard during your first ‘date’ with Prince Zai.
“Well.” The Guardswoman speaks with such a peculiar accent even Sophia can’t be helped but confused by it: a countryside twirl spit with a noble tongue. “That was a fun adventure coming down here. Suppose you two should be getting settled inside?”
“We should.” Prince Zai speaks to her and her only.
The single Impericutta, in half-ceramic plate armor with a covered facemask, growls at the statement. A monstrous tone, inhuman as it speaks. “No. Nobody enters the building until I’ve cleared it. Is that understood?”
“Alright Doll.” The Guardswoman scoffs at the statement, her mischievous smile cutting into the ceramic armor of the legionary. “Only if I can come along though. Don’t want you imperials planting any ‘explosive’ presents for my liege in his chambers.”
Sophia gulps, both sides armed and almost ready to dismember each other in some vicious melee before the Impericutta nods its helmet. “That is acceptable.”
“Perfect.” She twirls a set of keys in her hand, turning towards her guarded couple. “We’ll have you two wait in the hall then~”
... try not to embarrass yourself too much.