BLOOD AND ROSES

Announcements!

"Silence”, he snapped his voice reverberating to the end of the hall, calm but still firm.

“Tomorrow before night fall we strike Chaldreon”, he proceeded with an intense voice as he notice the crowd pledge their loyalty with uttermost silence in the hall.

“It’s been three years since our last battle, we march tomorrow with a different target”, he vocalized, swinging his sword once again this time replacing it to its origin.

He must really love this sword, she thought.

Still rummaging her thoughts her mind trailed back to the details of Saturn’s announcements. It wasn’t the first time she’s encountered such proclamations. It has literally been a part of her since she was a kid. She understood perfectly well what most kingdoms longed for.

She knew why battles between kingdoms were fought- most of them took a dual nature of either battling for supplies, slaves, armours which a large number of insignificant kingdom partook of. Or the nasty circumstance of bloodletting ascribable to questing for dominion and revenge for stained reputation.

Unarguably House Caspian held a firm honour for the latter. Since the last visit of the marauders they’ve acquired a stunning record of over forty two battles won.

They had the most equipped armoury, thousands of trained soldiers armed to teeth plus enormous supplies.

“We march we the intent of taking the kingdom”, Saturn continued shaking her off from her thoughts.

On hearing his final words ‘taking the kingdom’ Aria heart raced a little because she perfectly knew what that meant.

Blood shed was not far away.

She tilted her head towards the right making the view between her and Harp her half-brother switch places in other to get a better view of her father’s facial expression. Hoping to read the efficacy of the situation through his eyes.

Her hope was shattered when she looked at him. His face seemed fixed and cold, his eyes were frozen and unmovable like it was castrated just before the announcements.

I mean she was a royal herself. A princess, she could easily ask her father what they were about to ride up against, but she recalled how every time that conversation emerged it led to copious argument. In the most recent argument he had attached little importance to how much she understood politics, kingdoms, provinces and the reputation of her fore fathers. But she was stubborn struggling to comprehend how her father used the alleged reputation as a decoy that caused great slaughters toward kingdoms for insignificant reasons.

She had zero doubts on the balance politics held in the survival of kingdoms but never made peace with how a whole kingdom flooded with children, wives and mothers had to suffer retributive bloodshed owing to miniscule clashes their king had with her father.

It was like understanding why they were killed with a sympathy to spare but at the same time not been able to do anything.

However as she drifted in her thoughts she concluded this to be the reason her father had displayed so much facial pretense avoiding eye contact with her all evening.

Clearly he had no room for any emotional interceptions.

“That would be all for now, “Saturn concluded, squeezing his dramatic voice into her thoughts yet again.

He had always been swift with announcement. Everyone knew. He was a very busy fella that knew the ill fare of how making lengthy announcements would affect his productivity.

The hall began to rattle with boots as citizens prepare to sail there ship. Just before conversation began to break among the humans, Saturn turned with a flick with his eyes boring thick holes initially on the skin of the knights before dragging them down to the crowd

Aria watched as the intensity in his eyes birth tension on the knights.

“One last thing, ” he said with his eyes still burning but calm. It was a kind of calm that would still trigger you to jump off a cliff.

“The laws of the land remains the same, you steal you lose a hand, speak ill of the king you lose two hands - for as long as this additional statement lasted only the cooing of babies was heard the hall was dead silent like grave yard allowing his voice hit the four corners of the building - you give vital information out to foes I would be happy to have your head”, he ended straining his last words.

Even the dumbest person in the hall could tell he was revisiting the earlier scenes of today.

Just as quickly the final words from his mouth dropped. The king stood up from his throne the action causing a large number of knights to pledge their allegiance by bowing their heads as he made his way towards a large wooden door that led to the Royal Chambers. Saturn following behind.

Aria continued to sit still at her chair- it looked like a non-adjustable threadlike wood having strong texture at first glance. She figured it was fine for her to dissolve the debate whether Saturn enjoyed imputing these punishments or not, because after today she concluded he did. It wasn’t just his job. He loved it.

And irrefutably she worried he was quite good at it.

The moment the king and his accomplice were out of sight, conversation stroked between commoners. Like an assemblage of peacocks at the opera the hall was filled with dissatisfaction. Couple number of people review the episode of the guard featuring Saturn. While a vast number converse about the final words of Saturn “we march to take the city” they perceived quite well what he meant but just couldn’t settle their hearts on it.