Hello! I'm writing another chapter! Long time no write eh?
Disclaimer: same as usual
At the transportation station, Kyoshi waits in line at the pod. Her suitcases were dropped off at a luggage spot, and left five minutes ago. Kyoshi comes up to the front of the line and hands the collector her ticket. She steps into the pod, and leaves.
After the flight, Kyoshi stares around in wonder and awe. The transport pod landed in a landing circle on the roof of a tall building. The huge city surrounding it housed the Royal Family of Uranus, and a large number of citizens in the New City alone (the capital used to be a few miles east of the new one. It had grown old, rat infested, and there was an inn there where every thief on Sycorax apparently went to once a year, but the Royal Guard had never found it. Having a thief center in the Capital of all Uranus simply would not do. Kyoshi picks up her luggage and glances at her schedule, then at the huge clock tower a few blocks away from her. She has half an hour to get to the first screenings. She dashes off to put her luggage in a reserved room at a large inn.
After a long walk and a short bus ride, Kyoshi makes it to the palace. Following directions from a guard (who has verified her identification), she heads up to the third floor training room, which has a polished wood floor, a bit too slippery for swordplay. Now, according to the clock tower (which is now chiming), it is one o'clock, the time for the screenings. Then an authoritative voice calls, "Will everyone here for the fencing masters' tournament please get in a line, and step forward when we call your name. Adli, Moeshe…" Eventually everyone's name is called, and everyone steps forward. Some are eliminated instantly, because their form said that they were too young. Soon, around 200 people are standing in the third floor training room. Most are tall, muscular, and the older ones are almost all scarred. "Everyone whose last names begin with the letters A through L, please see our physicians today. They will also give you the uniforms you will fence in, in one week's time. They are on the fourth floor, rooms 1, 4, 9, and 13. Everyone whose last names begin with M through Z, please come tomorrow between the hours of 9:00 am, and 9:00 pm. Thank you, that is all."
Kyoshi's mind instantly whirls in worried thought. 'What if the physicians make me take off my shirt? Or anything? Or maybe they'll ask me questions that only a man would know the answer to… They'll know I'm a woman for sure… Or, as Malina would say, "Nothing is for sure, unless it has already happened." Maybe it will all be alright. Maybe I'll just lose in a bout, and I won't go away in too much shame. Or maybe I'll get the job, and just be secretive. Maybe I'll say that Malina's my sweetheart, and teach the princess, and go home in many years, and only go back for tournaments… Too many maybes and what ifs, and ors. "Nothing is for sure, unless it has already happened." Nothing is for sure…'
Kyoshi walks back to the inn thinking these thoughts. She falls asleep, convincing herself that she will do fine, and that she will make her father proud…
That chapter wasn't much longer than my others. Oh well. At least I got her to Sycorax. Please tell me what I'm doing wrong, because I know there's got to be something.
Yours truly,
kuyaga