The Serpent's Enigma

1 | A Lonesome Bride

GIANITA

March 1933 CE

Most women say that they enjoy some mystery in a man.

Like a book, where the more you look, the more things you discover about them. The more mysterious the man, the more desirable he becomes.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for Gianita. Her husband-to-be was a mystery, but all it did for her was fill her with anxiety and trepidation.

With a tempestuous heart, she stepped out of her carriage onto the docks of the royal port. There she went, being sent miles across the ocean to a man she'd never known, merely a month after her nineteenth birthday.

Born a princess of Prajanagara, she had long become accustomed to the idea that one day she would enter a political union. So it was no surprise that her father, the King, had arranged her to marry the Emperor of Angletonia, a formidable nation in the western hemisphere. Being the first time they ever sought a consort from the east, it was an honour for them to be selected for the position; a prospect that should be triumphantly rejoiced.

The Emperor was twenty-seven years old, widowed, with a son whom he had appointed as heir. There were louder whispers about his looks, and how lucky she was to marry him. As she had heard many times; met only with a roll of her eyes.

But one thing she had failed to understand; the man who had asked for her hand in marriage made no efforts to get to know her. Unlike her sisters who enjoyed a period of courtship, there were no letters, warm greetings or even words from him; outside the formal exchanges he made with her father.

Wouldn't a man, let alone a master of the world, be interested in his own bride?

Her jaw went slack as she set eyes upon the steamship that was docked at the royal port. This was the ship that was supposed to take her abroad? This humongous thing looked like it could carry an entire village! It eclipsed even the grandest ship belonging to her family.

"There must be a mistake. I don't think this is it, we should go back," she skittishly told the member of staff that had come with her.

"This is it, Your Highness," said a government official, dispatched by the embassy to send her away. "It bears the Angletonian flag on the bulkhead, see."

Turning to the ship, Gigi saw the name 'Angletonia' plastered on its body, and a banner of the Great Serpent; their imperial coat of arms. It was indeed the one.

Her fiance could summon the most ridiculously magnificent steamer in the world to pick her up at a whim, yet he couldn't buy a spare minute to see her once before the wedding? Why couldn't he collect her at the docks himself?

Holding her head high, she climbed aboard, her entourage followed behind her.

The journey there had been emotionally exhausting to her. She had to watch her youngest brother being held back by the servants as her ship set sail. She had never thought he would chase after her, which made everything harder.

Angletonia, a powerful empire that laid across the west, greatly known for their advanced military strength. Ruled by the Leroys, an old noble house bearing the crest of a Serpent. Even the weather differed a lot from home; if Prajanagara had the dry and rainy seasons, Angletonia had freezing winters and windy falls.

Before reaching the mainland, they sailed past the Southern Isles; a large mountainous island with two smaller ones flanking its sides. Magnificent but deserted, void of human contact. The Leroy kings had ruled Angletonia for centuries before conquering them two or three generations ago, making them emperors.