The Empire

The empire. Nir and Rain are inside their room in the castle.

They are both quiet. They just stand there.

“I’m going out for a walk”. - Rain says. She then leaves the room.

She steps outside. Nir remains inside the room, standing still.

He moves to a separate part of the room, hidden behind a curtain. He hopes on the one double-bed present there and lies down for a while. The curtain blocks most of the light from the lamps and he isn’t sure how to turn those off as they aren’t electricity based.

After a few hours of just being in bed, he reaches for the window to open it. As he does - light from outside gets in, defeating the weird illusion the castle’s lamps create of it constantly being night outside, since it feels like the rooms are overlit as if to compensate for the darkness. In reality, it’s still around noon.

Right after Rain walked out, outside their room in the hall of residency.

Rain walks down the lobby, trying to get outside. She reaches the end of it, seeing a possible path available when turning to the left - leading to the main hall. She takes the turn and then paths right to the exit of the castle. As she does, she sees the empress in the opposite direction - sitting on her throne, who also looks at her, but only for a moment. The empress then looks forward, as if not caring about Rain at all. Rain keeps walking as the empress’s guard soldiers stare at her. She exits the castle, now much more comprehending of its size as a functioning palace. It originally seemed to her as if it was quite large from the outside, which it was, but it’s actually the inside that compliments it more.

Rain decides to go and check out the town. She heads towards the market thinking: “Hmm… We used all our money… Besides that one last coin, But… As we were snatched away - none of the things we bought were brought here… So we neither have our things nor the funds to buy their replacements. I guess I’ll just check the place out for now”.

She gets to the market. She is impressed with its beauty, along with the visuals of the town in general. The image of happy people living a normal, simple life is an inspiring scenery, indescribable by words to her.

-”Are you the female warrior sent by the two gods??” - A random voice asks her.

-”Is it her?” - “She is dressed weird…” - “She is so pretty…” - “It must be her!” - The many voices of different people in the market seem to acknowledge Rain.

-”You mean… Me?” - She asks, surprised.

-”It’s you! Who was sent with your partner to our empress by the two gods! Please, take my offerings!” - A man tells her.

-”Offerings?” - Rain asks, not sure what that is all about.

-”Yes! Take mine too!” - Another man gives her a basket of fruits.

-”Wait! I asked first!” - The one from before gets closer and gives her a piece of meat covered in cloth from his stand.

-”Wow! Are you sure? These look great!” - She says happily.

-”Yea don’t worry about it!” - Says the one who just interacted with her. - “Make sure to enjoy the fruits too!” - The other one says.

-”Take these too!” - “From me as well!” - More voices are offering her goods.

-“Here are some flowers!” - An old lady offers her.

-”Wow!” - Rain is especially mesmerized by the flowers. She is holding too many things to be able to grab them without struggle. “Those are such beautiful flowers! Did you grow these yourself?”

-”Yes. I have a flower shop”. - She answers.

-”Can I smell them?” - Rain asks.

-”Please do! They smell great!” - The old lady says, as she gets the flowers closer to Rain.

Rain smells the flowers. She is surprised by the good smell since it doesn’t seem familiar. The flowers look normal enough, but she doesn’t have enough experience with vegetation to know if those exist in their original world. She starts feeling her passion for nature again. Rain is overwhelmed by all the sensations, and is overjoyed by the taste she got of the town.

-”Can I have these flowers?” - Rain asks.

-”Of course! That’s why I presented them to you. If you ever want to see more, come to my shop!”

-”Thank you! Thank all of you!” - Rain tells them. They then give her some space to walk around the market to see the shops for herself.

After a few hours, she decides to leave and head back to the castle.

At the same time. Inside their room in the castle.

Nir decides to get out of bed and check out the castle itself.

He walks past the curtains to the lit side of the room. He then exits the room and walks down the lobby. He turns to the main hall, only to see an empty throne and a bunch of soldiers from the empress’s guard having a conversation. He walks straight to them. As he gets closer - they notice him and seize their talking. Ranmei, the soldier who was nice to them and seemed quite close to the empress - is also present. He smiles at Nir.

From up close, Nir notices he recognizes some of the faces. He stares at them one by one until he realizes: “Those are the soldiers we faced”. He is hoping they don’t harbor any hatred towards Rain and himself because of the incident with the soldier in the forest.

“Are you guys…” - He tries asking in order to break the ice, or at the very least - the silence.

He delays continuing the sentence.

-”Yes, we are.” - Ranmei replies. “We are the soldiers you didn’t kill, and went to great effort to make sure we stay that way”.

Nir then looks at the soldiers again, some of them look at him, while others look to another direction as if to avoid eye contact, or even look down.

-”Are they… Ashamed?” - Nir wonders to himself. He is surprised they don’t feel resentment towards them.

-”The soldiers who died… Were not from our unit. When we heard you talking to us while we were stunned, we realized we had the wrong idea about you two. After that, word got to the people that you came by the empress’s summons. Most of them probably adore you, but… I have to warn you. Some soldiers got word of you being killers prior to that. It’s not impossible that there are soldiers who still feel resentment towards you. I would be especially careful of the front liners unit that soldier, ‘Raul’, belonged to. From your perspective you defended yourself and your woman from assault.” - Nir blushes after hearing that. “But from their perspective… You killed in cold blood two of their unit’s soldiers. Those are the men who raise a sword for the same goals as each other. Who eat, sleep, live, fight and die alongside each other. I doubt they will accept you that easily”. - Ranmei says.

Nir gets anxious thinking he may have to handle more than just the politics of the village and the empire, adding the politics within the empress’s guard to the list.

“Well, for all our worth - we will protect you two. Not to mention… I’m sure the empress will say something about you or at least intervene if something goes wrong”. - Ranmei reassures him.

“By the way, did you think about the empress’s proposal?”

Rain is walking back to the castle, carrying gifts.

-”Maybe we can get a chance at a normal life here after all…” - She thinks to herself.

She gets to the entrance of the castle, seeing the two gods’ statues. She stares at them for a bit. She then enters the castle, meeting the empress at the door.

-”There you are”. - Says the empress. “You should probably talk to your partner”.

Rain blushes, as everyone keeps treating them like a couple.

The empress leaves and Rain goes inside. She walks through the main hall and sees Nir swinging his sword next to the soldiers, speaking with them about something. They seem to be laughing from what he said. The soldiers notice Rain and stare at her. Nir looks in the same direction to see what they are being distracted by. He then sees her standing there while carrying a bunch of items.

-”Oh, Rain! I decided to join the empress’s guard”. - He tells her.