Fantasy Starborn

[SilverFlight]

Starborn

Chapter one: Felony at a festival and fortune's favour

Things always seem much grander in the telling. Brala was sure, that when drinks were poured some months after this night, the story would be one nobody would ever forget. As it stood, the cluttered warehouse where she had sent her new hires was cold, damp and smelled faintly of cheese. Hardly the stuff made for stories. Brala herself was not there. Not yet. She had decided to see what the players in this rather dangerous game would make of each other before stepping in for her own memorable appearance.

The building was only a few tiers down from the palace gates, and any moment now they would be opening those gates and permitting the masses into the astoundingly spacious stone courtyard for the opening ceremonies. Dusk was fast setting itself upon St Celeste. Already the streets were littered with brightly-coloured lanterns, fire cracker strings, laughing children pulling kites, scolding parents, happy drunks and masses and masses of carts filled with the most delectable treats from all across Imperial space. The entire atmosphere was as festive as it could get, and even through the thick walls of the warehouse, made to hide everything, music filtered through, jovial and infectious.

The empress had requested the thaumaturgy academy to provide the spectators with a special performance. Soon the academy’s best and brightest would be up on stage wowing the crowds with their wonderworking, and soon, it would be the best time to sneak into the palace.

Brala was still antsy. This was the biggest job she had ever done. It was probably the biggest job anyone had ever done, because as far as she knew, kidnapping an Imperial heir had never, in recorded history, ever been done. But she had been given a plan, and insider’s info that seriously made her question exactly who had ordered the task, but the money reward was enough that even Brala was happy not to ask too many questions. The intel seemed legit, anyway, she had cross-checked it with her own sources. This was going to work.

And so, Brala waited. She waited for her team to begin appearing, and waited for them to find one another. She would step in soon.

~*~*~

The intergalactic unity festival. What a beautiful time to be out in the city! Of course, Anna couldn’t see much of it from where she was at the moment. She had crashed her jetpack (again) in a dark alley and it lay in a smoking heap, completely devoid of function. She got up out of the wreckage and stared down at it with chagrin. She certainly wasn’t getting back the way she had come. Anna supposed she should count herself lucky, her skull could have been just as easily broken, and yet, it was still intact under her leather flight cap. She dusted herself off and folded the battered remnants of her latest jetpack model back into the sculpted leather backpack.

Out of the alley the lights, sounds and smells of the festival were all around her. She couldn’t help but look around in absolute wonder, which did nothing for the deal she had made with herself this time: “don’t look like a tourist”, but she couldn't help it.
As she made her way down one of the crowded main streets away from the palace, even as most people were walking towards it, she did not notice a strange figure tailing her…

~*~*~

Up in the palace there were shouts and cries of urgency. Galatea, empress of half the known universe, was having the final adjustments made on her gown. The fabric was a cool mint green, which shimmered and faded to darker green close to the bottom. Every centimeter of fabric had been embroidered with glittering Atarrian crystal thread and studded with Crozoxen cloud diamonds. It was likely the most expensive gown every to have been made in the history of all time, and there was another just like it in light blue, sitting on a mannequin, waiting for its wearer.
There was a nervous tap on the door. Galatea’s attendants flinched, looking up with nervous eyes as the empress turned her regal head. Her hair had just been finished too, cascades of gold braided and tied in a complex arrangement which was also diamond-studded, and left room for the elegant twin gold wings that was her crown and the symbol of Imperial power.

“Enter.” She commanded, her voice carrying to every inch of the room.
It was the captain of the guard, and she looked near-terrified.
“Your immaculate Imperial majesty…”
“Just, get on with it. My speech is in less than half an hour.”
“Yes, well that is…the princess…she’s not in her chambers.”
Galatea’s thin-lipped line of a mouth nearly vanished completely.
“But you have located her in another part of the palace?” The empress of the universe ventured slowly. The captain looked ready to faint.
“It seems she’s…not in the palace...”

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