kay_brooke (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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rainbowfic2012-04-05 12:32 pm
kay_brooke) wrote in rainbowfic2012-04-05 12:32 pm
Tea Rose #4, Tyrian Purple #26
Name: kay_brooke
Story: The Myrrosta
Colors: Tea Rose #4 (an artist cannot do anything slovenly), Tyrian Purple #26 (black sails)
Styles/Supplies: None
Word Count: 1,305
Rating/Warnings: PG-13; no standard warnings apply
Summary: Jay, falsely accused, makes her way to the Emperor.
Note: Sigh. I was going to flesh this out, but then I was like, "No, I'm going to do this other thing instead." So I'm posting this as-is because it's my last Snow White prompt and I really want to move on to another color.
When Jay fled from the Empress's palace because she was being hunted down for a crime she didn't commit, she found herself in Ceenta Vowei with a vague plan already forming in her head to go to the Emperor for help. When Jay needed to get something done, she went straight to the top, to the person who would be able to do something. Anyone else wasn't worth the time spent.
She'd had a mentor once who talked a lot about time. Old Jen and her sayings. One month, the woman had once said. One month is time enough to experience what you're doing, and if you like doing it then stay longer. If not, move on. It was a principle that much of their training had been based on in the later years, and Jay was conditioned to see everything in terms of months, their beginnings and ends solid lines of demarcation separating the now from the past from the future.
She had already traveled for a month and a half, and it itched, deep in her mind where there was no way to scratch it, that she was still in the Ceenta Voweiian forest days away from Jaharta and the Emperor. Her mind, seeing months stretching out before her, had thought one month for the length of her journey. Just automatically, one month.
But it was too far a journey, and her need to be hidden during the day and her unfamiliarity with the terrain had slowed her down. She'd had to backtrack too many times, and though now she had a better idea of where she was going and not such a great need to keep to the shadows, she had still lost too much time.
She hated being without restrictions, without schedules. Without months.
As Jay journeyed into the low river plains of central Ceenta Vowei she saw more and more boat people. She had learned early on, when she had first crossed over into Ceenta Vowei, that the boat people were hostile and suspicious. They would steal anything they could. Jay had already lost the daggers she had fled the palace with, though she had since rescued another pair from a fat nobleman she had come across sleeping against a tree. The man had probably thought himself a hunter, but he was completely unguarded. Jay was quick and silent, and she had walked off with his daggers--they would get more use with her, anyway--without waking him.
So as she moved farther east, deeper into Ceenta Vowei, she avoided the boat people. But that was becoming impossible the closer she got to Jaharta. It was late spring, maybe even summer now (Jay's talent for keeping track of time had faltered and slipped after days of stumbling through dark forests), and the boat people were everywhere, sitting on their floating houses, selling their wares. The legendary Market Day Fairs were happening in Jaharta, Jay knew, and the boat people were taking advantage of the increased number of travelers on the road.
Jay, though, was unable to blend in with the travelers. She was visibly exhausted, her clothes too worn for someone making the journey to Jaharta to peruse the goods offered there. She kept to the forests during the day, even though she was far from Kandel. Someone could always be watching.
She eventually found herself only a day's walk from Jaharta and the palace of the Emperor, and as she stopped at the banks of a creek to take a drink she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the water. She stopped, her hands still cupped for the water, and gaped. She looked terrible. She had long broken the ties holding her long hair back, so now it was straggly and tangled. Her clothes were ripped from stumbling through thick underbrush. Her face was clean because she washed it whenever she had the chance, but her fingernails were filthy. She made a face at the terrible reflection and rocked back on her heels, thinking.
She couldn't appear in front of the Emperor looking like she did. She would have to bathe properly. The cold stream would do, but she needed soap. She also needed clean clothes. They didn't have to be grand, but they needed to be ones that didn't have dirt ingrained into every thread. She definitely needed new boots.
She didn't have the money to buy the things she needed. Jay had a list of things she could do to win money, which mostly consisted of fighting, drinking, or gambling for it, and those were contests she preferred not to engage in until she had a better idea of what the people in the area were like. Her other option was to steal it.
Despite what some people might think of her, despite that her superiors had insultingly quickly jumped to the conclusion she had murdered someone, Jay had a very strict moral code. All members of the Sun Guard did, and she had taken it seriously, followed it to the letter. Outside of a penchant for a hasty temper, no one would be able to point to a single instance of misconduct.
So why had they assumed so readily that she was not only capable, but willing to turn treason against the woman she had sworn to protect, to betray everything she had ever believed for an assassination plot? An assassination plot that wouldn't even achieve anything. The succession wasn't under question. The Empress had a daughter and heir. None of it made sense. The only explanation Jay could think of as to why then she was so quickly blamed was that someone was trying to get rid of her. That thought left her as shaken as she had been when she first realized it, that terrible night she had fled the palace. What had she done wrong? She had trained her whole life, completed all the rituals properly, observed the hierarchy of the Sun Guard, and taken her vows seriously. Who hated her so much that they had to resort to this?
But she couldn't think of that right now; right now she had to find a way to get money for new clothes and boots. She had to find soap to clean herself with. She couldn't visit the Emperor stinking like she did.
As she thought, her reflection in the water rippled violently, and Jay looked up to see a houseboat drifting around a bend in the stream. She stood up to melt back into the trees before anyone saw her, but thought better of it. Perhaps they had food. Perhaps they had soap. Perhaps she would have to fight them to get away, but she was up to that task. Anything to get her mind off what her life had become.
As a member of the Nikolean elite warrior class, she was entitled to one revenge kill. This entitlement did not extend to the Empress nor anyone else the Sun Guard had sworn to protect, because that was an unbreakable covenant, but Jay was certain that whoever it was had framed her did not fall into that category. She had never taken anyone's life, not even in a fight. But she knew with certainty that she soon would. She would find the bastard who had framed her and end his life, and no one would be able to stop her.
But first she had to get the Emperor on her side. And that required other preparations. It was one thing to burn with revenge, but not at the expense of more immediate needs. Jay patted one of the daggers hanging at her belt, making sure it was in the optimal position for a quick draw if she had to, and approached the boat.
kay_brookeStory: The Myrrosta
Colors: Tea Rose #4 (an artist cannot do anything slovenly), Tyrian Purple #26 (black sails)
Styles/Supplies: None
Word Count: 1,305
Rating/Warnings: PG-13; no standard warnings apply
Summary: Jay, falsely accused, makes her way to the Emperor.
Note: Sigh. I was going to flesh this out, but then I was like, "No, I'm going to do this other thing instead." So I'm posting this as-is because it's my last Snow White prompt and I really want to move on to another color.
When Jay fled from the Empress's palace because she was being hunted down for a crime she didn't commit, she found herself in Ceenta Vowei with a vague plan already forming in her head to go to the Emperor for help. When Jay needed to get something done, she went straight to the top, to the person who would be able to do something. Anyone else wasn't worth the time spent.
She'd had a mentor once who talked a lot about time. Old Jen and her sayings. One month, the woman had once said. One month is time enough to experience what you're doing, and if you like doing it then stay longer. If not, move on. It was a principle that much of their training had been based on in the later years, and Jay was conditioned to see everything in terms of months, their beginnings and ends solid lines of demarcation separating the now from the past from the future.
She had already traveled for a month and a half, and it itched, deep in her mind where there was no way to scratch it, that she was still in the Ceenta Voweiian forest days away from Jaharta and the Emperor. Her mind, seeing months stretching out before her, had thought one month for the length of her journey. Just automatically, one month.
But it was too far a journey, and her need to be hidden during the day and her unfamiliarity with the terrain had slowed her down. She'd had to backtrack too many times, and though now she had a better idea of where she was going and not such a great need to keep to the shadows, she had still lost too much time.
She hated being without restrictions, without schedules. Without months.
As Jay journeyed into the low river plains of central Ceenta Vowei she saw more and more boat people. She had learned early on, when she had first crossed over into Ceenta Vowei, that the boat people were hostile and suspicious. They would steal anything they could. Jay had already lost the daggers she had fled the palace with, though she had since rescued another pair from a fat nobleman she had come across sleeping against a tree. The man had probably thought himself a hunter, but he was completely unguarded. Jay was quick and silent, and she had walked off with his daggers--they would get more use with her, anyway--without waking him.
So as she moved farther east, deeper into Ceenta Vowei, she avoided the boat people. But that was becoming impossible the closer she got to Jaharta. It was late spring, maybe even summer now (Jay's talent for keeping track of time had faltered and slipped after days of stumbling through dark forests), and the boat people were everywhere, sitting on their floating houses, selling their wares. The legendary Market Day Fairs were happening in Jaharta, Jay knew, and the boat people were taking advantage of the increased number of travelers on the road.
Jay, though, was unable to blend in with the travelers. She was visibly exhausted, her clothes too worn for someone making the journey to Jaharta to peruse the goods offered there. She kept to the forests during the day, even though she was far from Kandel. Someone could always be watching.
She eventually found herself only a day's walk from Jaharta and the palace of the Emperor, and as she stopped at the banks of a creek to take a drink she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the water. She stopped, her hands still cupped for the water, and gaped. She looked terrible. She had long broken the ties holding her long hair back, so now it was straggly and tangled. Her clothes were ripped from stumbling through thick underbrush. Her face was clean because she washed it whenever she had the chance, but her fingernails were filthy. She made a face at the terrible reflection and rocked back on her heels, thinking.
She couldn't appear in front of the Emperor looking like she did. She would have to bathe properly. The cold stream would do, but she needed soap. She also needed clean clothes. They didn't have to be grand, but they needed to be ones that didn't have dirt ingrained into every thread. She definitely needed new boots.
She didn't have the money to buy the things she needed. Jay had a list of things she could do to win money, which mostly consisted of fighting, drinking, or gambling for it, and those were contests she preferred not to engage in until she had a better idea of what the people in the area were like. Her other option was to steal it.
Despite what some people might think of her, despite that her superiors had insultingly quickly jumped to the conclusion she had murdered someone, Jay had a very strict moral code. All members of the Sun Guard did, and she had taken it seriously, followed it to the letter. Outside of a penchant for a hasty temper, no one would be able to point to a single instance of misconduct.
So why had they assumed so readily that she was not only capable, but willing to turn treason against the woman she had sworn to protect, to betray everything she had ever believed for an assassination plot? An assassination plot that wouldn't even achieve anything. The succession wasn't under question. The Empress had a daughter and heir. None of it made sense. The only explanation Jay could think of as to why then she was so quickly blamed was that someone was trying to get rid of her. That thought left her as shaken as she had been when she first realized it, that terrible night she had fled the palace. What had she done wrong? She had trained her whole life, completed all the rituals properly, observed the hierarchy of the Sun Guard, and taken her vows seriously. Who hated her so much that they had to resort to this?
But she couldn't think of that right now; right now she had to find a way to get money for new clothes and boots. She had to find soap to clean herself with. She couldn't visit the Emperor stinking like she did.
As she thought, her reflection in the water rippled violently, and Jay looked up to see a houseboat drifting around a bend in the stream. She stood up to melt back into the trees before anyone saw her, but thought better of it. Perhaps they had food. Perhaps they had soap. Perhaps she would have to fight them to get away, but she was up to that task. Anything to get her mind off what her life had become.
As a member of the Nikolean elite warrior class, she was entitled to one revenge kill. This entitlement did not extend to the Empress nor anyone else the Sun Guard had sworn to protect, because that was an unbreakable covenant, but Jay was certain that whoever it was had framed her did not fall into that category. She had never taken anyone's life, not even in a fight. But she knew with certainty that she soon would. She would find the bastard who had framed her and end his life, and no one would be able to stop her.
But first she had to get the Emperor on her side. And that required other preparations. It was one thing to burn with revenge, but not at the expense of more immediate needs. Jay patted one of the daggers hanging at her belt, making sure it was in the optimal position for a quick draw if she had to, and approached the boat.
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On the other hand, you can feel how tired she is in this piece, and how she just wants to rest. Love it.
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Thank you for reading!
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Thanks for reading!