Viviane
Viviane
Viviane couldn’t take her gaze away from Kallias, from where he was, even when it wasn’t possible to see Prythian anymore, she stayed in the deck for a couple of minutes before going to her cabin with her sister and son.
She was a High Lady, but she was pregnant, with the curse in Prythian, her newborn baby would certain die right after being out her womb.
“He is already getting better.” Salena said to her sister, dragging Viviane back to the reality.
“That is good.” She said looking at her son, on his aunt arms.
oOo
The days passed, as she got out her room, Viviane noticed that the ships were slower than the normal.
“What is wrong?” she asked to the ship's captain.
“I am not sure, the Summer Court's main ship slowed down, we are following.” Said the pale male, his skin was red by the sun intensity.
Viviane walked to the main deck, where a Peregryn soldier waited, he was one of the soldiers who would transport Faes between the ships to share information, while the others would take turns between flying and resting in a ship. She asked him to bring her to the Summer Court's main ship, as she arrived, the pale female walked close to Cresseida, who was at the Main Explorer's side.
The blue eyed female touched the Princess of Summer's shoulder, as the meetings happened, they had become friends with the time.
“The lands were supposed to be here.” The Princess said waving a hand to the empty sea.
The Explorer was looking at the spyglass, glanced at the map, and then at the spyglass again, “They are building a wall.” He signalized something with the hand to the ship's captain, a Lesser Fae blue velvet skinned, who speed up the ship. “But it is not finished.” The explorer showed the map to the Captain, pointing to a specific spot.
Viviane and Cresseida shared stares, the ship got closer to the signaled place, which made them being able to see part of the lands, and the dark steam exhaled.
As they passed by the wall of camouflage, the Princess and Lady finally saw, the Steam City, as Tarquin had called it. A place full of extremely long buildings, some seemed to reach the heaven, no trees or any kind of nature at view, every single place from the city exhaled steam.
At the sea, there were several ships several times bigger than theirs around, they had chimneys and long black and copper colored canons detailed in gold pointing to the place they came from.
The Prythian ships hoisted white flags, symbol of truce, peace, at least those were the meanings in Prythian. A bright light came from one of the Steams ship, it stayed for a couple seconds before vanishing, then a small but fast copper colored boat came to the front of them, stopping in the middle of the two squadrons.
One of the sailors in the boat signalized something with hands, then the Peregryn's Captain flied there, alone. Cai and the male High Fae sailor dressed in a blue long navy coat shared a few words, the winged male was the one who talked most.
At the end, the sailor nodded, turning the boat around, back to where it came. Cai stayed where he was, a couple of minutes later, the Steam Ships moved, giving space to the Prythian's pass.
The Peregryns who were flying, landed in the ships, as they passed between the Steam ones, Viviane and Cresseida could see the sailors, High Faes, Faes, Humans, and mixed breeds from all kinds.
Cai was the first to search the ground, where a female human in pants leaded him to somewhere else.
Viviane and Cresseida couldn’t stop looking to the place, dark gray ground; buildings, houses and stores had chimneys, most had brown roofs, and were painted in white and dark brown details; at the streets there were what seemed to be box carriages with no horses, that spilled smoke as the things moved.
The Summer Court main ship was the first one to dock, the Main Explorer leaded the High Lady and Princess, they walked out the ship, as they putted a foot in the ground, a human man was waiting for them.
“That is William Harrison.” Said the Explorer.
“We met in the first time I came here.”
“Cresseida, Princess of the Summer Court.” She said looking directly at the man.
“Viviane, Lady of the Winter Court.” The female omitted that she was a High Lady, didn’t knew what kind of threat it would cause to her family, or to the people in the ships.
The man lightly nodded, his right hand was made by metal, he had a fair skin, brown hair and beard – a common feature in male humans but nonexistent in male Faes or High Faes – “I am one of the diplomats.” He used a dark blue hat, with metal details in the black band and two black circles made by glass “I heard that you came here running from a curse?” he buttoned the formal long dark blue jacket.
“Yes.” Cresseida agreed, the Peregryn's captain must have told it to them a few minutes ago, as the term ‘disease' would mean something contagious, which isn’t if outside Prythian, since all their younglings in the ship became healthy during the days in sea, “It was killing our children.”
“Well, I can see the reason for so many fae ships here.” William said as he waved up his metal hand that moved perfectly as the one made by flesh, leading them to a cream colored building close to the port. “A couple weeks ago we received ships from the human parts of Prythian, they told us that they arrived in the Continent, but the continentals were so afraid with the possibility of any of them be fae blooded, since there were villages in there, close to where the Wall was and it didn’t got restored. That their ships were sent here.” A minute of silence, the Prythian humans must have used the term ‘disease’, but as they probably also became healthy, the Steam City's leaders must have figured out it was a curse.
“Why there is a wall being constructed in the sea?” Cresseida asked.
“We heard about the curse in Prythian before your arrival, and we know how much Hybern can be dangerous, also we got a warning from our North Continent allies that something might happen.” William answered looking ahead of him.
“What if they tear down your wall?” Viviane asked holding her own hands, asking herself if Hybern knew about the Steam City existence, if that place was ‘new' only in Prythian or not.
“They won’t.” William said confident “The wall is made by tech, not magic, or spell, if that is what you are referring about. Also, it was made to contain the magic from the outside in the outside, and keep the inside here.”
“How it works?” Cresseida looked around the place, then at the sea, where Prythian’s ships made a queue in the port, a few Faes with butterfly wings and clothes similar to William's, flied to each ship, talking with their captains.
“Our tech was made by extremely smart scientists and has especial properties, as the time pass, more knowledge will come to them, and the wall will be upgraded, it will keep us save.” He buttoned the sleeve, they knew he wouldn’t tell them exactly what it was.
“So it is like the wall in–” Viviane got cut,
“No. Think about our wall as a gate.” By the look on his face, it was visible that he wouldn’t answer about it anymore.
The High Faes stayed in silence, they walked through the entrance of the building, the place was lightly decorated, cream shades walls and dark furniture. A female mixed breed, human, Fae and High Fae, walked close to them, saying something about the number of ships and a few informations about people in there to William, the female had different colors in her eyes, some spots of those colors were typically from High Faes, as she talked, they could see her green teeth, she used a blue dark dress under the black corset, her shoulder length curls moved as she tilted her head.
Viviane have saw Briar's children – the human who went to live in the Winter Court after the war against Hybern, she had married a sentry from the Winter Palace – none of their offspring had eyes similar to the ones from this female.
The man walked close to a door that opened by itself as he pressed a button “This is an elevator.” William walked inside to the small room. “Come in.” he lightly smiled, the two female and the explorer looked hesitant “It is faster than the stairs. And it is totally safe.” He said calm.
The High Faes entered in the elevator, William pressed a button and the elevator went up, when it stopped, the door opened by itself again.
The man walked out, being followed by the High Faes, they entered in a room, where the Peregryn Captain was sat in a armchair close to the human woman who had talk to him when he landed.
The place had tones of brown and cream colors, a few objects made by metal, copper and gold laid in a few the desks, suede colored carpet, armchairs around a short table, most of the furniture in there had right angles, which was opposed to the curved style in Prythian.
A Fae female who came from a door in the back of the room, walked close to William, her clothes were similar to his, prussian blue pants and the formal long dark blue jacket, and dark shoes. She said to the High Faes: “Welcome to Uwhar City. I am here to guide on your immigration, instructions about how our place works will be give to you and your people. Please, sit. We have a lot of information to share.”