Elemental Thief Part I : Child of Calamity

The Princess

Mireya paused where she had landed on the outer wall of the small keep that really was just a military guard house in what used to be the neutral territory between Vayana and Rulin. The Wild was thick around them here, and she knew enough of her father's battle maps to know that this place was a quiet outpost that rarely had more than a platoon of guard moving in and out of it on patrols. This was part of Rulin and it was close to the port city of Reysana, close enough to fly to in half a day, perhaps less.

Now it teemed with Guard.

Both the soldiers that were normally stationed in this area, as well as extras, a section that must be here with her brother, and the section that was assigned to her father. They were all Royals, other than the lone City Guard, her other brother, who was in the middle of a sparring match with his twin. She watched them for a moment as she tried to piece together what she was here for. The messenger that had found her in Vayana hadn't been very sure of themselves.

Diplomatic mission; don't tell your mother.

Her father never wasted words, though she wished he had prepared her a little bit more for the mystery she was walking into.

Eikos and Davanos were relatively evenly matched, though both of their fighting styles had shifted away from one another, based on their time and experience in their respective postings, much like had happened with her and her sister. She had wondered if encouraging and fostering the competition between the brothers had been wise. They couldn't seem to be in the same room with one another without sparring, fighting, or arguing as it was.

And now, with two uniforms between them, she was afraid that they never would be as close as they should be, as close as she was with any of her siblings.

"They still haven't grown out of that, I see." The Vayan beside her said with amusement, his hazel eyes dancing with laughter as he glanced towards her curiously.

"No, uncle... apparently they have not." She smiled, though, seeing the mischief that age had not tamed in the General's countenance.

Anzael smirked and offered a shrug. "I'm going to try to get them working together for once, hmm? Go talk to your father. He'll probably enjoy having someone with two bits of sense to talk to."

And with a small bow that was more of an inclined head than anything else, he spread his wings and leapt off the wall, gliding over to the group of sparring soldiers. The only Vayan in a training yard full of Rulin, something that Mireya knew had been unheard of not long before she was born.

She still dealt with the old wounds and stubbornness on both sides of the border, but she couldn't be certain that her uncle wouldn't have been just as flippant about doing it back then as he was now.

Mireya smiled as she watched Anzael goad her younger brothers, drawing his own two swords and managing to pull them into a sparring match against him, as opposed to between each other. Then she turned and made her way along the wall and down into the main keep, pausing as she absorbed the variety of scents that were within, or had been not long ago.

Frowning, she walked through the hallways to the room she had been told her father was in, knocking once and entering the moment he called her forward. She paused, taking in the scents that swirled around her and the image of her father sitting at his desk in front of a pile of paperwork.

He watched her with those golden eyes that only Draisia had inherited from him, one brow quirking curiously. "Tell me what you sense."

"I should probably stop you and say that mother probably already knows. I received a letter from her, same time as yours, saying she'd be on her way to see you." She moved into the room, sifting through the scents and emotions that had mingled for several hours.