Hidden Lilly

Shadows of the wind

Upon arriving at the conference room she was greeted by both the head mason and her father, the king. Keeping to court courtesy, Zafiria dipped and swept into a well-practised curtsey.

"Good Afternoon, Zafiria." The deep voice of the mountain king rumbled, pausing his conversation with the head mason and allowing her to rise from her bent position.

"Good afternoon, Sire, Mason." she responded in turn. No-one but Zafiria's mother called the king by his first name, Ozias.

"Where are your guards?" king Ozias asked. He was a kindly man, but firm. With wisdom beyond his years, he managed to rule the kingdom with compassion and fairness that gained him much respect and just as many enemies.

"I left them, I was to meet my tutor in the private study but he never showed up. I taught myself a new spell but I was in need of masonry dust to practice it. I thought in the short walk here that it would be safe enough to come on my own." Zafiria breathed. She held herself up hoping that the confident presence she had would be enough to sway her father a bit but she knew full well that such court tactics didn't often work well on her father.

"Hm." king Ozias grumbled, before turning to one of the nearest guard captains. "Captain Ammiras, please take a guard with you and go to look for Zafiria's tutor. It's not like him to neglect his duties." It was an order borne of concern, both for the tutor and for the safety of those in the palace.

"As you command, Sire." the captain said before signaling one of his own and walking off to look for the tutor.

"Now, dust you say?" king Ozias quirked an eyebrow at Zafiria. "I don't think it would hurt to give some to her, is that correct head mason?" he asked. The mason could hardly say no but he laid down the plans he was holding and retrieved a small sack full of masonry dust. It was large enough that Zafiria should be able to fit her fist into it to pull the dust from it, perfect. She smiled as the mason handed the bag to her.

"Thank you, head mason." she bobbed.

"Now, the head mason and I still have some plans to discuss. Take a set of guards with you when you leave, Zafiria." king Ozias turned his attention back to the head mason, watching her from the corner of his eye to make sure that she did take guards with her.

Zafiria curtsied before leaving the room, two guards flanked on her sides before walking the main halls to get to the training area.

Shadows of the wind

Really? I had no idea it was from a video game :P

I agree, I'm always trying something new with my writing. I always find it helpful to get feedback from people I RP with so I kinda assume that it's the same for others. I'm glad you found my comments encouraging :)

You too! Merry Christmas!!!

Shadows of the wind

"Pulvis, vento, nubes, celare." Zafiria repeated to herself. The words were Latin, an old language that was considered dead to all except the magi that practised the older spells, other than the basics. Not all of the words were known and so some spells might have a word within it that no-one knew. Those tended to be the more dangerous spells as they hadn't been passed down for a reason. Of course, Zafiria knew one or two thanks to her ranking as a princess, the ability to protect herself against Frost and the wind's guidance. This spell looked like she would throw the dust into the air after the last word.

Zafiria looked to the closest clock. If the tutor didn't show up by then she figured that they weren't going to. She thought she might head to the outdoor training grounds within the mountain castle and try her new spell. She would have to stop by the masonry first, but after the long walk to it, she should have no trouble gathering the dust. Zafiria had felt that her situation was always a little bit strange. The magi from her area were often gifted with wind abilities, and yet their most abundant resource was stone. It created a rather interesting relationship between the elements of the landscape and the people closely associated with either element.

She walked the halls of the palace alone, taking the least used hallways for it to stay that way. She found comfort in the solace of the halls today, many other times she would find them cold and oppressive. Today the cold felt liberating, giving Zafiria a heightened sense of freedom despite the fact that she was confined within the castle walls. While walking she began to think back to her encounter with Mr. Falcon. He seemed like a man on mysteries, but harmless to the kingdom as a whole. She had to admit, he was an attractive person despite looking a little feminine. She would like to learn more about him if she could, but that wasn't often an opportunity that came to Zafiria often. She continued on her way down a winding set of stone stairs, headed towards the masons currently working in a conference room.

"Pulvis, vento, nubes, celare." she muttered to herself, practicing different inflections as she walked.

Shadows of the wind

Oh my goodness! I had no idea, I'm sorry. If that happens again, let me know and I'd be more than happy to explain :)
Good for you for writing in another language! Seriously, it takes a lot to be so fluent in a language that's not one's mother tongue.

I'm going to go read your edits and we can work in as much of your idea as we can while still making spacial sense.

~~~

What you wrote was wonderful! You really took the mirroring a step further, I loved it.
I had no idea that he looked like that :P I was picturing something more like this

Shadows of the wind

It's alright, I wanted to make sure I was on the same page before responding :)
let me know when you are done your edits

Shadows of the wind

I thought they were still mirroring one another? Since I wrote about how she could see the library from where she was in the mountainside castle?
I can have her come down there though, if that works better for where you are going?

Shadows of the wind

Zafiria read for a while, her book slowly lowering closer to her lap and her nose following closely behind. She smiled as the wind tugged at the pages playfully. It wasn't long until the chapter bored her and the posture she had sunk into became uncomfortable. Zafiria closed the book and looked down on the town. It was good to see that the people were able to move freely despite the uproar Frost caused.

There was a somewhat large copper-roofed building close to the western gates of the town which was Zafiria's favourite building. It was a library that in their prosperity she had initiated the building of. It used to be a brothel mansion that was converted and a new roof put on the older, broken one. Though the building retained most of the same materials it was originally built with, Zafiria had gotten permission from her father to use the royal masons to craft gorgeous, smooth, stone pillars to decorate the place. It meant a lot to her to be able to provide a place of learning for all education levels. It meant that their community could better themselves as long as they could read and produce better items which would eventually filter into the kingdom's economy. Being the capital, this had a somewhat significant impact. She was proud of it, and she could always find it from her aloof perch.

The town was not without a house of pleasures, but they had long since moved to a smaller location. This had made Zafiria happy since she found the whole notion of mistresses to be immoral but she couldn't deny the economic asset that having such an establishment in the town was. On top of that, though she may have been a mage gifted with the ability to connect with the wind and supposedly the key to opening the gate of Nemesis, one day she would simply be a king's daughter in need of a spouse. Mistresses were rampant in high society since many married for political gain and not attraction, not love. Chances are, her future husband wouldn't be entirely faithful to her and it was a potential reality that hurt.

A particularly playful gust rushed past Zafiria, swirling around the desk where spellbooks lay open before dissipating. The good thing about being so close with the wind is that it almost felt like a friend, distracting her from some more of the harsher realities of her pedigree. She got up and walked to the desk, abandoning her current book on the edge of the mess of spell books. The largest one always rested in the middle and often it was that book the wind used to teach her. As much as she had a tutor, who was late, she found the wind to be much better at teaching spells. This one was fairly simple, using an incantation and some masonry dust to cause a local dust storm. The book suggested it as a tool to get away, similar to that of the smoke bombs Ninjas used. Zafiria loomed over the book after pulling it closer to the edge and began to practice the incantation, knowing that without the dust nothing would happen.

Shadows of the wind

No worries, I thought it would be cute if they were mirroring one another. I can work with what's there :) I hope to have a post up by tomorrow evening

Shadows of the wind

Just want to double check.
He's in the village/capital in a library and she is up in the castle study. We are mirroring here, he didn't just like teleport into the castle with her right?

Shadows of the wind

"Then I suggest the public gardens just outside the main gates." Zafiria suggested as a closing to their interaction. Even a warrior needs a place to find peace and beauty, though her homeland was a strange place to find either these days. "Goodbye, Mr. Falcon." She and her guard left him to continue along the path and headed back towards the overbearing mountainside castle.

"Hurry up!" she heard the captain of her guard chide one of the others. Zafiria cared for those who made up her wall of protection, but she also understood her place. It was important to not let on that she did care, otherwise a weakness would be exposed and for her, that could be havoc. Especially with Frost on the loose. He hadn't explicitly said he was after her, but the implication of what he was after putting Zafiria directly in his way. One could never be too careful about what in the environment had ears.

Over the course of the next half hour, the troupe arrived back at the castle. Zafiria was directed to her studies and tutor. It wasn't her favourite thing to do however she prided herself in the intellect she had and it was her most favourite room of the castle. If the window was open, the wind often came in to play with stray papers. The study had a beautiful view and was filled to the brim with both academic and leisure literature. Zafiria knocked, entered, and settled down by the window upon selecting a book on agriculture she had been working to.