Mythico Carnival

T'was the Mythico Carnival; a great celebration in all four seas for it was when the tribes unified and became one. Although the once sole kingdom had know split off into four the celebration is still seen to each year in order to celebrate the mark of a new era.

Horns blared; music and cheering was heard throughout the emerald city's streets. Bright sea flowers and pretty cloths lined the stone laid paths between buildings. The main stretch had crowds gathered on either side of the path. Cheering; laughing, young and old all; all leaning out to see a grand procession coming through the town. The procession was filled with costumed individuals, performing tricks here and there. Dancing in well choreographed numbers; it truly was a sight to behold. In the middle of the procession a golden cart pulled by adorned calicoed Kelpies. In the cart Mythicos queen sat, a serine smile on her delicate face. Lavender eyes shimmered with joy from long eye lashes; her lilac colored hair braided and tied up in a not on her head with a veil of pearls woven through out. Upon the top of her head a golden crown sat on her head; its metal work delicately intricate. Pearls wrapped around her neck and shoulders, a bright sapphire jewel hung from the shroud of pearls resting just above her plump bosoms. Light pink seashells provided her modesty; a light lavender wrap that went over one shoulder and then around her small waist flowed gently behind her as her cart was pulled forward. Only a glimpse of her magnificent pearl pink tail could be seen from the cart, that to was sure to be adorned as lavishly as the rest. This was Queen Serenity; thrilled to be out and about with her subjects. She delicately waved to the crowds while her eyes slid toward the back of her cart where she knew her daughters should be fallowing.

Outside of the cart and fallowing diligently swam a young mermaid amongst many; she did not hold the light hearted joy that her mother had which ensnared the people so. Her expression was more sullen, as sharp amber eyes scanned the crowds. Long silver hair was tied in a long braid, long wisps escaping from there prison. The only adornment was a small gold ringlet with dotted with small amethysts. Tall pointed ears left for the most part un pierced besides a gold cuff on the upper right ear, and an amethyst drop on the right lobe. A simple gold chain rested along her neck also adorned with the dark purple jewel, while several gold bangles adorned her wrist. The princesses skin was pale like her mother's only dark purple stripes adorned her face, shoulders, wrists, and hips. White sea shells provided her modesty and a white transparent cloth wrapped around her much like her mothers. Her tail was a deep purple with l flowing pectoral fins on her hips and another fin on her back end. Her tail remained un adorned unlike her sisters and mother; and her fins weren't as long and ornate. However they did hold a simple elegance to them, shimmering with every slight movement. Another difference that separated herself from her sisters was the large glaive that was carried proudly in her right hand. This was the crowned Princess Azrael.

Azrael watched not only the crowds but her mother as well; her tail fin ached from this 'dignified' way of swimming. A lady had to swim up right only using the slightest of movements to move; this pose was unnatural at best and it took years of prepping to do so correctly. It was part of the reason why young nobles were bred to have longer rounder more ornate fins...it made this task so much easier and elegantly done. Sometimes she was envious of her sisters for this reason; but then she remembered the thrill of swimming as fast as one go and her jealousy was forgotten. Her mother was keeping a well trained eye on them..well mainly her. Rightfully so she had been twitching to get out of this parade the moment it started; social events made her feel awkward making her freeze up. A turn was coming up, going onto a different street; this would be her chance to slip away. Three....two....one, she slipped into the crowd nodding politely to those she passed. Once free from the main crowed she straightened herself out and swam freely through the almost barren streets. A sigh of relief escaping her soft pink lips.

Felcity decided to stay in Mythicos a few extra days just to see the carnival. She found a nice place to stable Ea, allowing her to roam around. So far the extravagantly displays and colors reminded her of the streets of Erythraeus. A crowd gathers, and that piques Felcity’s curiosity. Starting from the back, she works her way to the front. It’s odd how people never stop you if you look like you have someplace to be.

However, she is somewhat letdown to see it’s just the royal family coming down the street. Here she was hoping for some great performance, but she was greeted only by a display of affluence and power. Relative absolute power concentrated inside the Highborn family never sat right with her, and the change of ideas in Cotrovatre was about the only thing she liked in that kingdom.

She’s just about to leave when she watches the princess slip away. Maybe the princess tired of all this as well. Felicity makes her way back through the crowds to hopefully enjoy the other parts of the Carnival.

Catching sight of the princess, she asks, “Was that parade boring for you as well? I certainly don’t understand why anyone would want to sit around and watch it. And I can’t imagine it’s all that entertaining to walk around in it. Unless of course, you enjoy lording yourself over other people.”

Azrael let out a small sigh and closed her eyes for a moment, enjoying the feeling of the water rushing around her. Her moment of respite was interrupted as someone addressed her; she slow to a stop and reverted back to the rigid virtual stance. Her tail fine curled at the bottom, moving ever so slightly to keep her in place. Her amber eyes came to rest upon a Caecilian; did she really ask her if she found the parade boring? She blinked a few times; her delicate pointed features in a small frown. This woman did not seem to be a citizen of Mythicos, especially due to the casual way she just addressed her. Azrael did not respond to the woman right away, in fact there was a long silence in which she was content just to stare the woman down. Finally she broke the silence with a response to her last comment. When she did speak her words came out slow and well pronounced, as if she was talking to a small child. Her tone was monotonous, and although barely above a whisper held a tone of authority that made one listen.

"If one did not enjoy to lord over others when placed among the upper class, then they would find themselves in very poor company indeed. But it is in the nature of all but the most submissive to enjoy a sense of control. "

She would let the girl take what she willed from that; Azrael waited to see what the girl would do next. The cold gaze that was in her amber eyes told her that she was on thin ice; she had been disrespectful to a member of the royal family.

Felicity almost wants to laugh at the reply that she is given. Authority never really meant too much to her. Looking at Azrael with good humor in her eyes still, she can’t help but see a sheltered little girl who chose to run away. That was a mistake. Felicity mimics the princess’ own stance, standing up rigidly straight, but she crosses her arms in front of her.

Her words come out just the same: Slow, monotone, and well pronounced. Azrael was far more of a child than her. She couldn’t even take an insult that well. “Indeed, I would be poor company. And you’re likely on this adventure to meet poorer company than even me. There is a reason why princesses are supposed to stay in the carriage. And that is not a threat, but simply a statement that seeing the impoverished of your country, of which there are many, won’t be as fun as you think it is.”

She drops the act, gaining a more normal posture, placing her hand on her hip. A smile crosses her face. “I can understand if you’re a little bored over there, but leaving would be a regrettable mistake for you. However, if you really don’t believe me, then I suggest you wear something a bit less royal on your tour through your own city. They will start looking for you soon, and people will certainly betray you to your mother if they catch sight of you.”

The last part wasn’t exactly the full reason. However, saying she might get robbed in the streets might be a bit too unbelievable for the princess.

Azrael watched with slight exasperation as the girl was not mentally able to keep up with her speech and took what was a statement about herself and an answer to her previous statement as an insult to her. That and the woman continue to push her luck as her behavior increasingly became ruder. Azraels amber eyes narrowed into a soul chilling glare; the rest of her features remained as neutral as ever.

"I see I must speak with less wit on my tongue; my apologies I spoke assuming you were a master of our common language."

Now that was an insult, before Azrael and simply been simply pointing out that most of the upper class did indeed enjoy lording themselves over others, and since she was placed among those people in society then if she did not enjoy it she herself would find herself in poor company. Then she simply admitted she did enjoy it on a smaller level then the rest. None of that was directed at the sensitive eight legged simpleton before her.

Azraels tone never changed, even when the girl had mocked her way of speech. Then had the audacity to speak as if she were some sheltered brat that had never left the side over mother's bosoms before. If she had been traveling with a guard the girl would have been thrown into the stocks right at that moment. Azrael considered a moment of doing that herself; but simply she did not want to waste much of her precious time with this one. Plus stocks did not cure idiocy... waste of time and effort.

She didn't even dignify the girls speech about the impoverished and hints of danger with an answer; she just tightened her grip on her glaive as she turned around and simply began to swim away. Her goal wasn't to explore her city after all.

Her grin takes on a dopier look to it. “Well, the princess can throw a few verbal punches. Good to know. You still don’t stand a chance in the rest of the world, but it’s good to have a sharp tongue.”

For Felicity, it was clear to her that she had won the exchange. Azrael had gotten far more upset by her words than she did at hers. There  is sense of triumph in her eyes at getting away with pissing off the mer from a far better family than her own.

However, as Azrael begins to leave, Felicity shakes her head. “Well, I suppose you can do what you will princess. Be careful, girl.” With that, she readjusts her hat on her head and leaves in a different direction. She had better things than follow royalty around the city. If the girl got hurt, well, that wasn’t anything for her to worry about.

As Felicity rounds the corner she would suddenly find her eight limbs wrapped around with ropes and a knife to her throat as he was dragged into a darker alley. A male voice would shout out 'tie her legs tight boys!' There were five in total; large in bulk, dark in color and a mix between Mer Folk and Adaro. Each of them had a fair amount of scars showing they had been in a tussle or two. 'Quick someone knock her out, boss says this one's a fighter' Felicity would find a thick cloth suddenly shoved across her nose, smeared with an substance if breathed in would cause her to fall asleep.

Felicity doesn’t know whether to be fearful or flattered. There was a knife against her neck, but someone thought she was worthy of hiring thugs to beat her up. And not everyone could say the latter. She isn’t sure exactly what she did to warrant the bounty though.

As it was said, she was a fighter, and maybe it did take about five people to bring her down successfully. She definitely lands a few solid punches before they manage to bind her arms. When the cloth gets to her face, she does her best to hold her breath.

She had controlled the currents before. She could try to do it again. Maybe it wouldn’t be a complete disaster this time. And if it was, maybe the chaos would give her enough time to get the heck out of dodge. Summoning as much Caeruleus as she could, she creates whirlpool with her mind. However, the strain of holding her breath makes this far more difficult to control that it normally was.

As Azrael was leaving she heard a shout 'tie her legs tight boys' this made her pause as she looked back in the direction where she left. That didn't sound very good, her cool eyes glanced up at her glaive before she sighed. Azrael turned around and swam in the direction of the ruckus. She stopped before she rounded the corner, her back up against the wall as she took hold of the amethyst pendent on her neck. The back was shiny enough it coupled as a mirror; she held it up to get a view from around the corner. Slave drivers....The one that had the cloth held to the girls mouth had his back turned to her; he was an Adaros, two merfolk were tying the girls legs up with a length of rope, while another two were on the lookout. Their attention was directed towards the streets; the noise of the parade a good cover for the scuffle. Slavers were probably having a hay day on the pickings throughout the city, considering most of the guards were near the crowds.

Azrael was confident in her ability with hand to hand combat, after all she had been trained more rigorously then her sisters. She had enjoyed the art physical combat and had pursued improving herself in its act. She was as trained as any one of her guards if not more; she had mastery over the weapon she held in her hand and very well knew how to use it. With her wandering ways this certainly was not her first time coming across thugs and slavers of the sort.

She flipped her glaive around in her hand, the blunt end pointing up. Azrael darted around the corner and her glaive darted out like a snake. Hitting the man holding the octo girl, right in the middle of the spot where the head connected with the neck. She swam forward and hit one of the men holding to ropes with a powerful blow from her tail fin; spinning the staff around again while letting her hand slide closer to the bladed end. She brought the blade up in an upward slash as she sliced the ropes binding the girl, but not so deep enough to cut her. There was a sharp pain in her shoulder.

Suddenly there was a 'whooosh as a current around them picked up, slamming into the coral building near them. Causing a large pillar to come toppling down as it crumbled under the impact. Azrael's face showed the slightest look of shock as she grabbed the girl by the collar of her shirt and yanked her away from the toppling coral. Both of them nearly getting crushed; she blinked and looked over at the girl with a raised eyebrow. A silent question of 'did you mean for that to happen?'

"GUARDS TO ME"

Azraels voice boomed; within seconds the clanking of armor could be heard. Her cold amber eyes turning to the five...well three now who were scrambling away.

"You're under arrest for disturbing the peace and picking up free born citizens from royal grounds. You are hear by sentenced by Royal decree to serve the same fate as those you seek to bind, you will be branded and forced into hard labor for life or until your master finds pity on your wretchless hides."

The first man holding the cloth to the girls face and the knife to her neck suddenly went limp, the knife dropping from his hand as he drifted to the sea floor. The others snapped to attention, while another was taken out by a powerful blow from the new comers tail, sending them slamming into the alleys wall, they to slumped to the ground after having whacked his head.

"QUICK SECURE THE BLUE ONE, we can't lose that one"

The two look out darted forward to secure the one they had originally been after. The other who had been helping hold the ropes dropped it and lunged forward pulling out a knife and whipping it at the would be rescuer. Watching as the knife sunk into its targets shoulder. Suddenly before they could overwhelm the two they were thrown backwards by a strong current. The column above them came crumpling down, crushing the two unconscious under its rubble; along with the one who had thrown the knife. His hand the only thing visible from the rubble, twitching until it fell still and limp.

"Frick boss said she didn't have the use Caeru, run for it!"

The two who were left turned to get out of there when they ran face to face with armed guards. They were quickly apprehended.

The mer guards were four in total, two of them restraining their perpetrators. At least the ones that were conscious...or alive. The ones who didn't have their hands busy stood straight and saluted the princess.

"Princess Azrael, your orders?"

Felicity rubbed the back of her head as her nose bleeds slightly after creating the whirlpool. That was a bit too strong, and now the whole world knew about that little trick. She wasn’t even that good at it, and she normally ended up with a pounding headache or nosebleed afterwards.

She sighs, looking down at the limp hand. “Alright, Az. Sorry about earlier and thanks for slapping one in the face. Now, if you don’t mind me, I’m going to high tail it…” She should probably leave Mythicos, lie low, and try to figure out why someone wanted to capture her.

That’s when she noticed the guards. Wasn’t she particularly lucky today? There was a dead man in the streets, and now there were royal guards. She’s a little dizzy, but she’s ready to push herself to use the currents to outrun these men if she needed to. She looks at the princess with a raised eyebrow as if to ask: So what’s it going to be?

Azrael watches at the guards arrive; they knew her tendency to swim off. Since she trained with a lot of them growing up she commanded a lot of their respect. They knew what she was capable of and her skill, so when she did wonder off many of them remained silent not bothering to alert the queen. She knew this incident would also remain on the down low, thus was the routine with this sort of situation.

"Normal procedures; chain them up and throw them in the cells. They will be read the full extent of their punishment at a later date."

She noticed ones gaze travel to her shoulder, she fallowed the gaze and noticed a knife sticking out of her shoulder. Adrenalin was pumping threw her veins, she barely noticed it go in... She frowned as she reached up and yanked the blade from her shoulder. Her features only wincing slightly as she let the knife drop to the ground; the area around her wound starting to cloud the water red.


"Unbury the ones under the rubble, if they are alive arrest them, if there dead make examples of them at the borders of our city. We will not tolerate slavers taking people off our streets."

The octo girl would soon come to realize Azrael talked to everyone in that slow monotonous voice. Pronouncing each word so that it may not be misunderstood. When the girl spoke too her so casually she would find one of the guards lowered a weapon at her, Azrael held up a hand pausing his actions as she looked coldly at the girl.

"You will address me properly unless given instruction that you may do so otherwise. I am making the assumption you are not a born citizen here but are visiting, and while you're doing so I expect you to adhere to the customs of the culture in which you are present in. As for this situation you are absolved of any ramifications coming from the harm to these men seeing as the motives for such actions was self defense. As the victim you have the right to add additional accounts to which these men are accused of"

This was probably as most talking Azrael would have to do in a long time, but such winded speeches were necessary to fallowing the law that had been set in place. What she did was use her position of crowned heir to the throne to absolve any crime that this girl could be accused of, as well give her the hint to add on charges to the men who captured her. Obviously they had other motives other then slave trafficking for the girl, but as a third party Azrael was unable to accuse them of such a crime...or authorize an investigation on said matter without them being accused of it first. Basically under the cold exterior Azrael was offering her help to the girl...although her method of doing so looked less then friendly. When the girl gave her the look that meant fight or flight, Azrael returned the girls look with one that matched her own.

"You will accompany me for the afternoon."

Felicity watches her blood cloud the water around her, listening to what Azrael is saying it. For the moment, it appears that she wasn’t going to be arrested, but she did want a few moments to question these guys, not to have them carted off by the guards.

She can’t hold back a groan when Azrael tells her to address her properly. Being outnumbered yet again, she couldn’t really ignore that order. However, she feels like Azrael lost a few brain cells in that fight, considering she wants her to accompany her this afternoon. It sends her already dizzy head into more spinning. Staying around here was about the last thing Felicity wanted to do, and she couldn’t fathom for what reason Azrael would want to keep her around.

Looking back at the guards and back at the princess, she answers in a defeated tone, “Of course, Princess Azrael.” Well, maybe she could get some answers, and see to the slavers getting what they deserved. “Additional charges? What will slavery get them in the country? Ummm… your highness. Or is it your majesty? Or your grace? Or your excellency? Or my lady? Never quite sure which ones apply when.”

Azrael noticed the distraction the blood in the water was causing both her guards and the octo woman; she held back an urge to roll her eyes as she raised her free hand to the spot on her shoulder that was wounded. There was a soft glow as the wound knitted itself back together; she pulled her hand away and all that was left was raw pink skin. She rolled her shoulder in response to her healing. It always bothered her to use her powers, and she hated feeling the healing from it...it made her itchy. Another urge was resisted; to scratch oneself in public was rude so her now itchy shoulder would have to be ignored.

She inwardly sighed when the girl went on to address her in several different titles, this was going to be a long day. However she did ask a reasonable question.

"The title you address me with depends on your social standing; however your grace will suffice in most day to day social scenarios."

She didn't expect a foreigner to know the ins and outs of their society, the fact she did not know was evidence enough to know the woman did not hail from Mythicos. All young ones were educated in social graces unless they wanted to be an embarrassment to themselves and their families.

"As for what slavery will get them it unfortunately depends on the person who buys them. However if the market tends to favor younger women such as yourself for the domestic jobs...folks like this tend to get bought by labor camps. They are the ones who build new homes, dig trenches, and clean out stalls, clear rubble spills such as this. If there is a time of war they are sometimes given to offer to fight for their freedom and are often placed on the front lines...where they have some chance of survival... however most don't opt to take that chance. As the victim however as compensation you will receive a portion of the money that goes to buy these men"

She paused thinking about what she had learnt about the system...that what she could remember at the moment. The next question however was a bit more complicated

"The other charges could be made if you had reason to believe that there were other motives other then enslavement against you. In which case we would be able to detain the men for questioning and launch an investigation. This would delay the sale of these men along with your compensation; so in order to launch an investigation we would need you to press charges...you may have time for questioning said offenders before making your decision. However that will have to take place at a safer location."

Felicity notices the Princess heal herself. Lucky girl, she didn’t get nosebleeds every time she did magic. However, the princess probably also had the benefit of some kind of formal training.

Felicity is somewhat amused by Azrael’s exasperation when she names all the title she can think of. Royal titles were strange. Felicity is fairly sure that there were more that she didn’t even mention. However, Azrael does give her the appropriate one. “Fine. Your grace it is then.”

Felicity is a little confused by the customs here in Mythicos.   While she felt a little happy to know slavery was illegal in this kingdom, their punishment struck her as odd.  “So you sell slavers into slavery here… Ugh… Can’t you just hang them... your grace?”   Slavery always made her uncomfortable. The auction blocks of Erythraeus made her skin crawl. Nobody was supposed to live in servitude like that. Death was a far more agreeable solution to her.

She is curious about the other parts of the legal system.   A formal investigation would be helpful to her.  “I would like to know their motives, your grace. They seemed to be looking for me specifically, and I don’t know why. So maybe an extra charge of conspiracy?” She scratches the back of her head, “After all, the only person I have pissed off today is you, your grace.”