Minutes passed in heavy silence.
Inside the Inner Chamber of the sovereigns mansion, the air was thick with tension.
Gold light bathed the room in a steady glow, as it reflected off the engraved portraits of past sovereigns, including Eryndors portrait.
The table at the center of the chambers stretched long and wide, its polished surface gleaming like still water.
Lord Marric sat in front of the table wearing his crimson robes, as he sat with a regal posture. To his right, Marien of Veymont sat perfectly straight, her fingers interlocked on the table, her expression stern.
Veynar sat and leaned lazily against the arm of his chair, his legs crossed, while watching in cool silence.
On the other end of the table sat Erry O'Kael, his boots kicked up on the table, a large cigar clenched between his teeth, puffing smoke toward the ceiling with infuriating leisure.
The chamber was soundproof, sealed by guards outside, yet the silence inside was deafening.
Finally, Marric speaks breaking the silence.
"The last time we all met like this" he says with a steady voice. "Eryndor still drew breath, and he stood against our ideals. We got what we wanted. Eryndor is gone, out of the picture for good." Marric says.
"And yet…" Marric's sharp eyes glanced at each of them.
"I still sense tension. What troubles you, my lords and lady?"
Kael burst into laughter so quick, it startled everyone.
"Tension?" he snorted, pulling the cigar from his lips. As he turns to lady marien.
"The only tension I feel is down here!" His eyes tracing down to his groins. "and it's straining to bed half your Veymont soldiers marien!"
He says, while erupting in crude laughter that echoed through the golden chamber.
Marien's composure cracked, her lips bent in disdain.
"you drakovar filth!" She speaks "Do not objectify my soldiers, you drunken fool!" she snapped, her voice sharp.
Kael only grinned wider seeing as she reacted, and then blowing smoke her way.
"Soldiers?" He scoffed. "What kind of person makes soldiers out of women?"
Marien sat infuriated, her fingers unlocked from its initial pose.
"The kind of woman who will one day rule all of Asterra." Mariens reply came in, cold and ruthless.
The grin on kaels face wipes off instantaneously after hearing marien. Then he threw his head back and howled with laughter, until it broke into a hacking cough.
"Rule? You?" Kael jeered between coughs. "A woman on Asterra's throne? Not in a thousand winters!"
Marien's calm deepened, her words cutting sharp.
"No noble will vote for a drunk and a whoremonger like you" she said, trying to calm herself from lashing out. "You belittle yourself before those low and mid ranking nobles and you make a mockery of your House."
Kael slammed a fist to the table, the sound booming.
"Its Better they vote for strength than a woman who parades herself with whores!"
Marien leaned forward slightly, her voice low but calculated.
"You disgust me, barbarian. You cloak yourself in power, but you're the weakest of us all. Fear is your only weapon, and you use it to feed your swollen pride. You are no man… just a boy with the temper of one."
Kael immediately surged half-out of his seat, but Marric's voice cracked across the chamber.
"Enough!"
Lord marric slammed his palms flat against the table, his ringed fingers flashing in the golden light.
"I spoke highly of you both, before the low ranking and mid ranking nobles today. Do not disgrace yourselves in this chamber any further."
Kael's eyes still raged, as his gaze locked on marien without uttering a word. He sat back hard, as he took a long, angry drag from his cigar.
Then he finally spoke, his tone was quiet and deadly.
"Be wary of me, woman. I do not tolerate insolence, least of all from the likes of you."
Marien did not flinch, as she responds.
"Then prepare yourself," she said softly, every words pouring out her lips with power. "Because you'll find I am not easily shaken"
The chamber's silence returned, heavier than before.
The silence stretched until it became suffocating.
Then, at last, Sylven Veynar spoke, his voice low, smooth, and unsettling.
"Will this be how you push Asterra forward," he said, his pale green eyes half-lidded as they slid from Kael to Marien, "when either of you sits the Sovereign's throne?" Then he adjust slighlty.
"Threatening and arguing like children?" He gestures. Mariens gaze now returned to veynar, it stiffened as she said nothing. Kael took rapid drags from his cigar, as he leaned forward.
"When I become Sovereign," Kael growled, his grin spreading wide across his face, "I will order her House to send me women, and I will bed them however i please" kael mocked.
Marien did not blink nor respond, as she turned her head slightly, her gaze fixed on Sylven now, her tone smooth and composed.
"And what of you veynar?" she asked, her words deliberate and mocking. "How do you plan to rule Asterra?"
Sylven's smile did not waver. If anything, it deepened by a fraction, slow, controlled, and organized.
"We will discuss such matters when the elections are done," he replied softly. "Better still, when one of us becomes Sovereign, let us each reveal our vision for the realm. Until then, we all exercise patience."
Marien's lips parted as if to reply, but Marric's voice struck the chamber like a hammer.
"Enough!"
He yelled as he rose from his seat.
"This is not why I summoned you, i did not call for you high nobles to trade insults, and certainly not to measure egos."
He leaned forward, palms pressed flat to the shining table.
"We conspired against eryndor, we took him out, there is no eryndor left to challenge our ideals, and yet you all still carry this negative energy within you, i thought this was all in the past"
Marrics words seemed to freeze the air.
"This is why we are having this meeting " Marric pressed on, his gaze sharp. "We needs to remeber that We forged evidence against eryndor, We planted white lumin caches in his Valesse vaults. We falsified ledgers. We even breached the Wardens' vault to ensure their judgment would turn against him. All of this…" He gestured broadly "was to remove the man who would have given all we worked for to peasants! Who would have let those wretched commoners dine like kings while we starved our coffers, with no way to challenge him!"
Kael leaned back in his chair, Marien's expression did not change, though her fingers curled tighter around one another. Sylven's face was unreadable, as marric spoke.
"One of our challenges now is that, we must cover our tracks before the Wardens return and summon for an audit. If they discover what we've done, all of Asterra will burn!"
He sank back into his seat slowly, the gold light catching the sweat at his temple.
"And i know non of you have the fiancial capacity as of this moment to wage military wars"
"From hence forth" Marric turns to each of them.
"No more squabbling," Marric finished, his tone final. "From this day, we move as one. We protect the narrative we have built, the one we risked our legacies to create, and we prepare to control the future."
A slow exhale filled the chamber as the three nobles adjusted in their seats, their composure regained.
Kael grounds the edge of his cigar against the table, snuffing out the cigar with a hiss. Marien and Sylven said nothing at all while their eyes glinted, cold and calculating.
Location: Northen wasteland outside asterra.
Time: Still noon.
In the wasteland where liora and her conpanions threaded, frozen mountains and valleys stood erect at a distance, as Four gear wagons vehicles screeched to a halt, their engines hummed without shutting off, as crispy ice formed ontop the wagons body.
The Wagons stood alone within the vast cold lands covered in thick snow, no single life was found around.
Liora stepped down from one of the wagons, her boots sinking into the snow. Her breath spilled out steam because of the cold she battled.
Suddenly, Liora spots a narrow slope of land far ahead, where a stream surprisingly flowed slowly at its corner. She continued looking with curiosity, as she spotted vegetations as well near the sloppy land.
Liora's heart swelled with joy at the sight of the stream far ahead. She turned back toward her companions and shouted over the wind:
"I see some somethings ahead! There's a stream too!"
The men and women riding in the wagons immediately sat up, some shading their eyes over the howling wind and snow.
She marched back to the first wagon, pulling her thick hood closer to her face. Aaron, the driver, leaned out from the window, frost clinging to his beard and eyebrows.
"My lady," he called, his voice sore from hours of cold. "The temperature keeps dropping at a fast pace, and we have been on the road for more than fourteen hours. Are we certain this is the place?"
Liora placed her gloved hand on the frozen metal door, nodding once.
"when we get there, we rest. Destination or not, we will not travel another hour without stopping."
Aaron gave a tired but approving nod and sat back.
Then Liora froze for a moment, as an idea struck her. Her expression lightens with sudden realization. Immediately she walks to the side of the wagon, gloved fingers scraping along the ice-crusted metal, knocking loose shards of frost as she searched slowly.
At last, her hand found a small red lever as she yanked it down with a sharp pull.
A loud hiss split the air as steam burst from a side compartment. A drawer popped open, revealing rows of lumin bulbs, twenty-centimeter rods that pulsed faint blue.
She cracked one, twisting its edged as it began to glow brightly. The blue light radiating heat.
The hiss of heat against her frozen gloves made her squeal softly with relief.
"We have lumin bulbs!" she shouted with a smile. "Amon! Claire! Tom! Pull the lever on the right side of the wagons and share them with everyone. It should keep us warm until we find shelter!"
Cheers broke out among her weary companions. Amon, Claire, and Tom leaped from their wagons, stomping through the snow—openining the other drawers and passing the lumin bulbs out to the cold companions.
Shortly, Blue glows of light, scattered across the line of wagons as the heat began to flow, with peoples spirits lifted.
Suddenly, the wind howled, sharper and more wild as the sky darkened behind them. "My lady!" Tom's voice carried over the storm. "A blizzard!"
Liora spun around immediately, her pupils widening at the sight of the blizzard storm approaching them from behind. It raged violently and destructive, lightning flashing faintly within it.
"Move! Get inside the wagons, now!" Liora roared, dropping few of the lumin bulbs into the snow as she ordered Tom and the rest to return back to their wagons.
Immediately everyone boarded their gear wagons, the Engines roared to life, gears clanking, steam gushing from its vents.
The convoy tore across the snow with speed, heading towards the sloppy land liora saw, as the storm chased behind them.
Inside the wagons, the passengers cracked more Lumin bulbs, clutching them to their chests for warmth, some holding hands to keep theirselves warm, as the temperature dropped rapidly.
The sloppy land ahead shortens in distance as they approached, and soon they drove down into the land.
They began to see Coniferous trees half-buried in snow forming a rough path that guided them toward a sloppy passage.
"This should be it, this should be the place master yeru spoke of"
Liora, tom, claire amon and aaron all laid eyes on the miracle land, as gasps echoed inside their respective wagons.
"Who wouldve thought!" Aaron yelled in joy as he drove.
"That such a miraculous place could be found in a snowy wasteland beyond the north!"
Liora turned to aaron smiling with a heart full of joy as they drove steadily into the passage, the other gear wagons following behind them.
The land liora and her conpanions now saw beyond the passage was greener, speckled with moss plants and dotted with trees that still held leaves. For fourteen hours of their travels, this was the first vegetation they were seeing.
Liora leaned half out the window, her hood whipping in the wind, as they continued driving.
"This is wonderful!" she shouted, barely audible over the engine.
Aaron nods as he saw the view pan closer.
"Aye, my lady! By the gods, it is indeed beautiful!"
One after another, all wagons plunged deeper into the passage.
Behind them, the blizzard slammed at the entrance of the passage violently, snow funneling inside its entrance and behind liora and her companions, as their wagons drove deeper until the roar of the wind became a distant howl.
Finally, the convoy came to a stop.
One by one, the companions stepped down into the miracle land full of vegetations and forests, boots crunching on the thinner snow as they stood in awe, staring out at the sweeping view of mountains, valleys, and glistening streams.
"Look at this place…" someone whispered.
"I've never seen anything like it."
Ardyn was the last to step down.
He lingered near the wagons for sometime admiring the new view from a distance, then suddenly his heart begins to race. His pupils dilates as he stumbles gradually falling on one knee as if loosing consciousness Slowly.
Then he got up and began closing in on Tom.
He continued moving between the companions that stood face ahead in admiration of the open view.
Ardyns vision now blurred, his heart still pounding, and immediately, the ground tilted beneath him.
Tom turned to ardyns direction as the smile from his face disappears noticing ardyns countenance.
"Arydyn?" Tom called out, as he began walking slowly towards him.
Ardyns staggered, wiping at his eyes, his face pale. Few persons turn towards his direction even liora.
"I… I can't" ardyn stammers,And then his knees buckled falling face flat to the ground, immediately loosing consciousness.
"Ardyn!" Tom shouted, pushing past two companions to catch him before he hit the ground. Liora follows behind tom as she pushes through the companions.
Immediately, everyone crowds around, as Tom lifted ardyns head to examine his face.
"Get him into the wagon!" Liora ordered.
Tom lifts ardyn as he makes his way towards one of the wagons. But Ardyn's body was already limp, with his breath now shallow.