"Hmm, so this is the one," a whisper between two nobles standing next to the gallery's fifth pillar. The other responded, "Do you really believe hersuggestion," he felt an intense stare from across the hall, "umm, hmm, proposal to even be of value? The Emperor-"
The woman who acted as the speaker rose her gaze staring at the gallery to her right. At no one in particular but all understood it.
Answering the boy in the neon jacket's question, "You don't need to concern yourself with that. Present the situation you spoke of." Her gaze back on him.
"Ok then, give me a name to address to," Anaphol locked eyes with the woman in reverent garbs. 'Was she really the one who wished me?' Her tone and voice felt to be the same one to Naph.
"Address the throne," the woman's face held a tick for a moment.
Anaphol leaned on his ride. Grabbing the white tarp, he considered. A small whisper, inaudible, came from the right gallery. Turning to look back at the people who brought him here. 'You know what, Anaphol? Let's just skip everything, this is too tight.'
He pulled the white tarp off completely. The severed neck that had been slightly clear was now in full view. The punctured holes in Bulwark spoke of the challenge he was to her. Even they had filled with a mesh of blood and flesh she had caused in response during their battle. The holes weren't complete, it stood out right enough to tell there were some or had been there before.
He knew how he had created them. This was afterall his current best kill. And he presented it.
In the grand hall, a flurry of flaps and shushes went off. Some people were moved back, the others shoved forward. There were children in the audience, Naph hadn't known.
"This is Bulwark." He spoke as he snuffed his pounding heart. "I killed her this morning." He placed a hand right on her severed neck. Few angry whispers circulated in the galleries. "Because I am a bounty hunter. And when I reached Rentilaco this same morning through weird unbelievable consequences." He was still finding what to say and how to say it. "I heard something about her. No, not just one but many. That she was a tyrant, a terrorist, a murderer. That she is responsible for the sudden battle happening in the city of Sevenren." He took a breath.
"And that battle is what I want to end, right now." He moved his gaze from Bulwark to the galleries and then at the man sitting in the throne of the Keyriftrian Empire.
"Anything further you wish to add," enunciated the same woman with eyes of crimson chrome.
Without thinking, Naph concluded, "Currently, no."
His mind instinctively ran the memories of when Don Extea had taught him how to ask royalty. 'Crap,' he was about to say something when four guards close to the throne appeared next to him. Two grabbed him by his arms, the other two covered the ride completely with the same white tarp.
Before he knew, he was already half way back to Cryst and others. Naph screamed, "I HAVE MORE!"
"You stated that you have spoken all for now. Why should we let you, a killer, speak more?" The same woman beholding his image in her crimson and chrome eyes uttered. The guards had stopped with Naph at their place.
"Because you-you-you should."Panic rather than crawling under his skin had escaped as his speech. "A city is under attack! A nation has forsaken its own people! And all of them blame me and a corpse for all of that! No one's accounting the Confederation of Tarna!" He pointed with his forehead at the two guards, "And you said I have been given my rights!"
"That is something we have heard in the reports, so you haven't presented-" The woman stopped. She turned to her emperor, her king. His fore finger and middle finger were raised signaling her.
Not stopping for a breath, Anaphol clawed out the emotions he had deeply hidden under a façade left unbroken for years he had been in Confederation of Tarna. His eyes screamed, his words began to scrape him.
"I haven't paid back the one person who cared about me! The only one left alive possibly! I am here for him! Not for some city! But-but for the people in it." He caught himself. No tears came, 'No, no, bury it back, bury it back.'
The Emperor's fingers fell. The woman without turning spoke, her insouciant tone vanishing. "You don't present any relevant fact to move this empire to aid you. You only talk of what has been wronged." She took a step to turn back. A whistle-like sound carried with her breath, "we are no pawns to meddling in things that aren't relevant to us or our empire."
'Rule one, do not push your idea but let the royalty arrive at yours as if it was their own.' A simple rule, he recollected. 'Yeah, Extea. I think that will be hard…now.'
Only silence stayed for the next few moments. 'Relevant, huh,' Naph understood. To him it felt like a hint. Still something more stuck out to him. 'Her voice did not sound like it did earlier. So, was she not the one who welcomed me?'
Keeping his random thoughts aside, he proclaimed. "You talk of a nation requiring some relevance to-to go somewhere." He freed his right arm with ease from the knighted guard. Pointing back at Cryst, Nert and others, "Then why were they there? What relevant things were they put for in the Confederation of Tarna?"
'Time to shoot a random idea.' His face held an accusatory look. "Were they not in the Island of Monite to possibly plan for a war or conquering of the island for this empire?-!"
The emperor's right hand rose from his armrest. His elbow landed on a decorative detail of the Keyriftrian Throne, one specifically made for resting elbows if the emperor didn't want it on the armrest. His right hand however, cradled his face as it tilted to look at Anaphol.
Entire hall had silenced itself when the emperor did this. Naph only thought, 'what a jerk! Same as-!'
"That is an accusation. Even if you are this Empire's guest, it does not wish that you test the rights it has granted you." Her crimson and chrome eyes tinted with the angry flare.