King of Anything
Act 2, Chapter 2
In which Escaflowne complains.
Spotted: The king of Fanelia and Princess Millerna leaving the country on an unplanned trip.
What are they up to? Where are they going? Does this have anything to do with the recent pictures which circulated?
Read more on page 3- A Quicksilver and Goldilocks Article
'I need your ability to read those files!' The king's words echoed in Hitomi's head for hours on still. It'd drawn mirroring looks of concern and irritation from both Yukai and Amano. She knew, in a situation like this, Yukari would always take her side, no matter who she was up against.
Hitomi felt uneasy aboard the private levi jet. It wasn't just her and Van, but also Millerna and Allen. Celena had been left behind with the rest of the security detail so as not to draw attention as a large, departing party but the watchful eyes of the local paparazzi was not easily fooled.
Hitomi wondered, what another story about the royal couple was going to do to political relations between Asturia and Fanelia. Would this make it more likely that the engagement was going to be broken by Millerna's father? Did it even matter? After all, it was all a sham anyway. At least where Van and Millerna were concerned.
"Where are we going anyway?" Hitomi finally broke the silence. She was seated across from Millerna in one of the leather recliner chairs on board the royal levi jet, while Van was seated next to the princess. His head was supported by one hand as he stared out the window next to them.
"Godashim," Millerna told her. "Dryden is with Duke Chid. He is infatuated with that ancient, dusty library. It's always a safe bet to say he can be found there."
Hitomi was somewhat stunned. She'd never been to Freid. The country was a popular vacation destination but more expensive than she or most of her friends could afford. Just south of Fanelia, Freid was home to a vast desert landscape. It was the manmade oasis with their resorts and exotic restaurants and bars which drew crowds of people from all over Gaea to vacation and spend their hard-earned money there.
When the jet submerged into the layer of clouds beneath them, Hitomi stared at the wisps of white that swooshed by the window. The pulsing anti-collision lights along the airframe illuminated everything close enough as they passed through. It only took a minute until they emerged below and a stunning view of Godashim presented itself. Dipped in the orange hue of a rising sun, the city was nothing short of stunning.
The palace was the proud centerpiece of the city. It was also the tallest building by far. To preserve the charm of an ancient, southern city for many millennia, it had been written into law that buildings could not surpass a certain height. No sovereign had yet messed with this rule. And good thing too because the decision to keep it traditional had made people creative.
It looked like most private residences on the outskirts were still simple box shapes and a flat roof, with walls either left the natural color of stone they were made from, or pained various hues of beige or white. But they were clearly well renovated and taken care of, with beautiful gardens maintained with pride. As they neared the palace with its private levi dock, houses got slightly more extravagant. No doubt, the high society of Godashim resided here.
The hotels and tourist resorts were outside Godashim proper, to separate the partying vacationers from the daily grind of the natives. As far as Hitomi knew, most Freidians worked in these resorts.
The approach and landing to the palace happened far too quickly. Hitomi had enjoyed the view. They had all dozed off at various points during the trip and slept for a few hours. Nobody seemed overly tired. It really did make a difference when one had a comfortable seat and plenty of leg room.
While everybody was already exiting the jet, Hitomi needed a moment to take a few deep breaths and looked out the window where she saw a small delegation awaiting them.
"You don't have to be nervous."
He'd waited for her near the exit. She hadn't expected that.
"I'm not… I think." Hitomi stated, without looking at the king. She hadn't decided how she was going to feel about everything just yet.
Neither of them said anything else. He still waited patiently for her to get up and walk down the aisle in front of him.
Escaflowne was too big to fit into the main cabin. He was being unloaded from the cargo door at this moment, complaining audibly about the discomfort of travelling down below.
His displeasure was muffled by the excited chatter greeting them at the bottom of the stairs.
Up front, a young boy who looked about ten years old was being hugged by Millerna. "It's been too long, Chid! Look how much you've grown!"
The blonde boy took her emotional outburst with as much dignity as he could muster. The older men behind him, possibly his handlers, looked uncomfortable.
"Thank you Aunt Millerna." We certainly have to arrange to see each other more in the future. Especially now that you'll be closer, living in Fanelia."
That got her to release him, as if she had remembered who she was, or rather who she was supposed to be soon.
The young boy turned out to be Chid, Duke of Freid. He was, after the unfortunate passing of his parents, the rightful ruler of this country. His mother had been Millerna's sister, Marlene Aston.
It hit Hitomi then. The reason why Van and Millerna, who were as different as night and day, probably got along way better than they normally would, was that they had both lost a beloved sibling.
They were made for each other after all, even if they didn't think so.
But she didn't have time to dwell on that thought, because they were here for a reason. And Van didn't let them forget it.
Millerna nodded cheerfully when he cleared his throat.
All business, no party. Just like usual.
Good thing she was there to act as a social lubricant. Also, she was the only one who knew Dryden personally. He was the main reason they were here and Chid knew this, so there was no reason to beat around the bush.
Chid nodded. "Follow me. I'll be glad to bring you to him."
Hitomi was mesmerized by the palace interior. The elevator they all boarded was plated in mirrors and gold. A beautiful carpet with an intricate pattern covered the bottom. It muffled the clicks of Millerna's heels.
"He's in the archive. It's located on the lowest level of the palace." Chid explained.
'Archive' sounded like a stuffy, dark room with rows upon rows of filing cabinets and dust caked on to them.
Dark it was, but stuffy and dusty was not the case. The so called 'archive' spanned across the whole basement of the palace, so it seemed. Rows upon rows of books, stacked up to the ceiling and so far down, Hitomi couldn't see the end of it.
Luckily, they didn't have to walk far at all. There was a workstation near the heavy metal door they entered through.
Dryden was a tall man, who had a cultured air about him. That cultured air was disturbed only for a very brief moment as he laid eyes on Princess Millerna.
Now, if there wasn't something going on worth knowing about. Yukari would be all over it.
Duke Chid made the introductions between Van and him after Millerna had already boldly walked up to Dryden and kissed both his cheeks from the tips of her high-heeled toes.
The man shook Van's hand confidently. "Well met, King Van," he said and nodded in greeting.
His taste in clothing was a bit uncommon even for Freid, from what Hitomi could tell. One thing was for sure. The man wasn't afraid of bold colors. A simple enough pair of slacks was combined with a green button-down shirt and a yellow and purple striped silk shawl. It suited him, Hitomi had to give him that.
He wore his long, wavy hair in a ponytail and some half-moon spectacles were balanced on his long nose. Keeping a clean-shaven face also didn't seem to be his top priority. The guy had a bold but unique style.
Odd.
It didn't keep Millerna from gazing at him cheerfully.
"To what do I owe the honor of this visit? Is it what I think it is?" Dryden inquired.
Van answered his question. "Probably so. I heard you might be able to help me." He said this, but not more. A side glance at the Freidian Duke hinted at why he was hesitant to offer more information.
Millerna nodded, either unaware or blindly trusting everyone present. "You know it. Only, it's probably more interesting than you thought. We need your language prowess. But not to worry. We brought help. Well, you'll be helping each other."
With that, Millerna took Hitomi by the hand and pulled her closer. She'd stayed in the back and not expected to be the center of attention just now.
"This is Hitomi. Hitomi can read ancient Atlantean," Millerna announced.
Dryden reached up to adjust his spectacles. "My my! Is that so? That's quite something!"
Hitomi clasped her hands together and shrugged. "Somewhat. I'm not great with different translations but I can piece together a text's meaning without too much trouble."
That's more than anybody else on Gaea could. With the exception of me of course. Well, I can't say that I'm not intrigued by what we're about to look at.
Everyone turned their heads towards Escaflowne, who had been standing motionless behind them.
"What? Why is everyone suddenly looking at me like I am an ancient piece of armor up for auction?"
"Because, my mechanical friend, you just became the star of the party," Dryden clapped his hands together enthusiastically. "Shall we?" He motioned towards the center of the workstation area and then lead the way.
A massive desk was covered in ancient-looking books. Books nobody had probably looked at in centuries. They were surrounded by candles, placed at a cautious distance.
"What's with all the candles?" Van asked as he eyed the setup.
Hitomi now realized that the center front of the massive archive was solely illuminated by candles.
Chid supplied an explanation for that. He scratched the back of his head uncomfortably. "I'm afraid my late father never had much planned for the archive here. He neglected to renovate this place in favor of pouring money into the tourist industry. It is, after all, Freid's main source of income."
Everyone nodded.
But Chid immediately added, "I plan on fixing that soon. Dryden's been kind enough to inform me what a treasure this collection really is. I hadn't even been down here in years until recently."
"Yes it's a shame. So much knowledge is hidden away here," Dryden motioned at the towering bookshelves in the gigantic hall.
Van was eyeing the collection with no small amount of awe. "If it's something you could consider, I would be interested in combining our archives when this one's digitized. I had no idea…"
Chid smiled brightly. "It would be an honor to combine our wisdom with that of Fanelia. Only good things can come from it. But as far as your meeting with Dryden is concerned, please do not worry. I have no interest in sharing your secrets with anyone. Freid's days of waging war or grudges with anyone are over. We are in a secure economical position and I would see no pleasure in sharing anything with the press that could harm you or your country."
Van sighed and shrugged. Let's get to it.
It took a while for him to pull up all the stuff Amano had found and decrypted but everything was still there.
Allen hovered close by Hitomi while she studied the files together with Dryden. He'd pulled up a portable tablet that was capable of displaying a graphic representation of Escaflowne's storage, just like Amano had done it.
This gave her some confidence of at least a basic knowledge as to what they were looking at. Currently, they were poring over the 2000 plus pages in the instruction manual.
Dryden asked Van who was pacing behind them slowly. "Majesty, have you had a way to read this at all?"
Van looked up. "The instruction manual?" He asked as if it was the most absurd thing. After all, Escaflowne had been in the family forever. If there was anything important to know, he'd be aware of it. "There is a condensed translation. I may have….looked at it a few times, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary," he admitted.
Men. Typical.
Whoever translated it could have easily overlooked something major.
"Iron-clad warrior mode. To command the mightiest army from the safest place." Dryden translated the introductory paragraph verbatim.
The possibility of what this could mean was maddeningly elastic. The difficult thing about ancient Atlantean was that one word could mean several things. To be certain of a particular translation, one would have to be familiar with the subtle, grammatical hints throughout the whole text. Which they were not.
"Oh dear. It's full of technical terms," Hitomi exclaimed.
And there were no pictures.
Dryden placed a hand on her shoulder, "Not to worry. That's going to be tough for me too. But together we'll figure it out."
For the next hour, Hitomi and Dryden were tossing back and forth ideas. Van continued to pace behind them, staying within earshot and answering questions or supplying ideas every now and then. He hated feeling useless.
Millerna was a bit more relaxed about it. She'd pulled up a chair and found a text about old, Basrami medical practices to read.
Meanwhile, Allen walked around the large hall and inspected the walls, paintings, and bookshelves. Maybe for surveillance equipment, just to be sure, or out of boredom. He didn't seem to be a huge bookworm.
Chid, on the other hand, was a few rows of bookshelves away from them. Whatever he was working on, he'd started at some point before their arrival but it looked like it had been a while he'd been down here. It was obvious that as the head of his country, he didn't have much spare time to spend here. And if he did, it was probably late at night like now.
"Fanelia, the land protected by dragons," Hitomi finally announced, proud of having pieced together a translation with the correct selection of words!
This prompted everyone else to stop what they were doing, and for Chid and Allen to make their way back to the center.
"But I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean," she sighed. Fanelian history was not in her knowledge base and she looked at Dryden for help.
A heavy, ponderous silence followed by everyone but Dryden. Her words, although incomplete and not explained yet, had an unsettling effect on them.
He winked at her as if to say "I got you, girl."
"It's obvious," Dryden adjusted his spectacles, which was starting to be a sign of habitual concentration. "Don't forget Escaflowne is powered by a drag energist."
Dryden stared at everyone, expectantly. Shouldn't they all know what this meant?
He was met with a ponderous silence.
"Tough crowd," he commented with imperturbable optimism.
Dryden focused most of his attention on Van now, because he was obviously at the center of all this. "By using the drag energist in Escaflowne, it's as if the King of Fanelia has a dragon with him. A dragon who is calling others to follow his command the command of the King who entered a blood pact with a dragon. An Alpha!"
"Here's the thing. Everyone tried to gain an advantage when it comes to using dragons. Zaibach was conducting research but it doesn't seem like they ever got anywhere with it. The Draconians were wiped out by a catastrophic natural disaster so all their research was destroyed, as far as we know. And they were still using ancient atlantean glyphs anyway. That's why nobody can read their dang language anymore.
"Well," Dryden gestured towards Hitomi, "nearly nobody. And the Ispano seem to have been the only ones who were semi-successful. Which means they didn't hesitate in selling their tech. Too bad the price tag for it was so high nobody but Fanelian royalty was ever able to afford it."
Millerna shook her head slowly. "Why did nobody before ever juxtapose the approaches of all three countries like this? Why doesn't anybody know this happened?"
Dryden shrugged. "First off, most of this knowledge is only available on paper, as you can see. And people don't go to the library anymore." He pinched the bridge of his nose as if this particular thought really pained him.
"And second, because it didn't matter until you just asked about it. I'm sure there are other people who know but there's no gain from it by now. Also, nobody cares about dragons anymore. We don't wage wars like we used to. It's all politics now and the most valuable things we gain from dragons these days are their energists."
Hitomi had something to add to this. "For what it's worth. If any research paper or even notes were still available from Atlantis or Zaibach, it would be subject to destruction as. Research of this kind is considered highly unethical and wouldn't be allowed to exist."
Dryden nodded, "Right."
"That's disgusting. I had no idea Draconians were as crazy as we know Zaibach is," Allen shook his head. "Experimenting on humans. At least the Ispano found a way around it by only sacrificing a wild beast."
Allen had said what was on his mind out loud. The demonized idea of experimentations on humans versus the seemingly benign practice of sacrificing an animal to gain power. Surely, everybody had to be feeling the same way.
Nobody spoke, until Escaflowne did. "Well, seems like I am even more valuable than we already knew. Which makes me wonder why I haven't been plated in gold yet."
Tbc...
To say that it's been a while would be an understatement. I've been very busy with real life, as you can imagine. That's why this chapter is not complete. But I didn't want to wait any longer to post something. Many of you have sent me messages or commented and asked me to continue. Know that I never had intentions to go on such a long hiatus but the creative juices just weren't there. I will try to finish this chapter soon, but no promises!