Epsilon Twilight
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86. Asina
🕑 Added 2024-02-13 11:28:32 +0000 UTC“...up... Wake up...” A melodious voice broke through the nothingness. A soft caress on a frigid winter night, a candlelight on a moonless night. Night was the common denominator. “Wake up... otherwise... I may have to...”
Aloe’s eyes shot wide open, not daring the voice to finish that sentence. Like a spring, the scribe’s back bounced off the bed, her torso and legs forming a perfect ninety-degree angle.
“I am awake!” Aloe shouted before realizing her surroundings as Rani looked at her, half-naked. “Eep!” The scribe squeaked and hid in the blankets.
“Why are you hiding? I am the naked one.” The princess asked amusedly.
After quickly checking that her clothes were in place, Aloe calmed down. Nothing happened last night, right? As much as she wanted, she couldn’t ask that question to the only person who knew the answer.
“I-I s-should not look at your naked b-body, Rani.” The hiding woman responded with the first thing that came to her mind.
“So you can caress my breasts but not watch my naked splendor? You are truly a curious person, Aloe Ayad.” Rani giggled. “Anyhow, get up and get dressed. We are already late because someone overslept, and the soldiers still have to disassemble the tent.”
It took a few seconds for Aloe to compute that Rani was talking about her.
“I... ehm... my apologies!” Aloe jumped out of bed as ordered and started undressing.
Only after she was in her undergarments, she did notice how hostile was the environment as the princess gawked at her, except she had not even worn a single item of clothing by now. Her bronze body contrasted perfectly with her purple makeup, even if the tones had dulled a bit after two days of travel without proper care.
“Why are you stopping?” Rani inquired. “I told you we are pressed for time.”
As much as Aloe wanted to retort with “You are the first one who stopped” she knew there was no victory in that argument. Right now, she could only swallow her pride and shame and dress herself. What bothered her more was that Rani showed no pinch of shame as they were both naked in the same room. She felt stupid being the only one feeling that.
After an hour, the only two women on the entourage got dressed and had their breakfast as the soldiers disassembled the needlessly large tent. As the soldiers fastened the luggage on the camel’s saddles, Rani directed to one with maps.
“How long until we arrive at Asina?” Rani asked the question in everyone’s mind.
“Hard to say, but we have been lucky that there’s been no sandstorm. So I’d say about today in the afternoon, My Emir.” The soldier bowed as he rolled his map.
“Hmm, not as fast as I would like it, but I have yet to grow accustomed to traveling in a convoy.” Even if the princess didn’t sigh, Aloe got the impression that she was internally doing so. “Let us make haste then, I would not like to lose more time.”
The looming arrival brightened everyone’s mood. Conversation was still hard to come by, but the underlying mood was joyful.
“I have been inquiring about something,” Rani asked out of nowhere, which had been a commonplace occurrence on these days. “I told you to pack light as every commodity would be provided by the country, but how is it that your bag is this long?”
Aloe only carried two bags for their three-day long journey – plus all those extra days that they spent on Asina – unlike the princess who was burdened with material possessions.
“Ehm...” Aloe’s voice trembled, and her cheeks reddened. A calculated movement for once. “You already know why.... Rani.”
“I see, I see.” The sultanzade’s smug exuberated triumph. “I cannot wait to see those in action.”
“A-all at its due time.” It was a bit pathetic that acting normally implied being weak, but she preferred for the contents of her bag to remain obfuscated.
The travel resulted far simpler than Aloe had expected, no bandits, monsters, or sandstorms had swept over them. It would have been a more positive experience if she had decided to sleep, but she didn’t regret her decision. If anything, things would get harder from now on. The middle of nowhere felt safer than the heart of the Ydazi Sultanate.
To entertain herself, Aloe practiced with her vitality. Instead of being her target, her focus was on the camel. She didn’t infuse the animal, that would have been weird and difficult to explain why out of nowhere her mount performed far better than the other ones, but rather she just read the animal’s vitality.
Vitality and stamina weren’t the same thing, but they were closely related. As the day progressed, Aloe could feel as her camel’s vitality slowly dwindling. But it wasn’t because it used its vitality as she would do with Infusion or Evolution, but rather because the exhaustion cut down its maximum deposit. This was not a new revelation to her, around a month ago she had felt the same lacking in her output after her cycle came in.
The body’s state is correlated with the vitality’s output, not a new idea, but it’s good I have been able to confirm it with another living being. Worrying about menstruation was pushed to the back of her head as she had more important issues to worry about, even if the day was uncomfortably close. Thank the heavens for ‘toughness’. That was the main reason why she wasn’t concerned. Her vitality had increased since her last cycle, and considering how well she took that one, she almost expected to not feel the approaching one.
Her concentration ceased as her camel came to a halt. As Aloe opened her eyes, she was met by the side of an impossible tall blue and white wall. Not only taller than most buildings in Sadina but the sheer decoration – as simple as they may be – screamed riches. There was only one city in the whole country that could afford to be vain with its very defenses.
They had made it.
They were finally on Asina.
Air left Aloe’s mouth in a mix of surprise and awe. Sadina had walls, of course, but they were nowhere near as monumental as the ones before her. It was a statement, it told everyone who saw them that these walls would never fall.
A snap reached her ears.
“As much as I understand your stupefaction, we cannot remain in the desert,” Rani said. “Lead the way, soldiers!”
Almost automatically, Aloe guided her camel to follow Rani’s. The closer they got to the walls, the more colossal they seemed. Their shadow loomed over them like the very night.
The doors didn’t fall behind in size, slates of wood and iron bigger than houses. How do they even close those doors? Aloe inquired as they passed them undisturbed. They are as tall or even more than the palm trees at the oasis!
And yet, her awe didn’t end there.
The thick darkness cast by the wall’s shadow cleared out at the end of the tunnel, only to reveal a golden city.
The main venue was far bigger than the main bazaar of Sadina. She would have asked why they would even need streets that wide if it wasn’t because the people already answered that. Even though it was afternoon, thousands of people walked down the venue, a number that only Sadina would get once in a while or during celebrations.
Everything felt bigger in Asina. The streets were wider, the walls were taller, the houses were greater, and the inhabitants walked with more confidence. Aloe had always felt small her whole life, and whilst right now that was truer than ever, instead of intimidated, she felt elated. A sense of wonder awoke inside of her as the entourage walked uninterrupted through the capital.
But all sights paled in comparison to the jewel in the middle of the city.
A colossal dome covered in gold that put the shiny heavens to shame signaled its supremacy, being able to be seen from every corner of the city.
The palace of Asina shone with power unmatched.
“Aloe,” Upon hearing her name, the scribe turned to face the princess who was grinning. “Your mouth is hanging open.”
Aloe led her hand to her face, and sure enough, her jaw was dropped. But she didn’t blush. For what may be the first and only time, she had no reason to be ashamed. She stood before greatness.
