Salomeid/1

Praefectica, Shirekeep

Mira signalled for her aide, a teenaged member of Octavius-Adelaidini, to come closer. Mira turned to face her. "Bess, contact the head of the City Guard and have him deploy additional patrols along this path immediately."

As she spoke, Mira marked out the path and circled the blocks outward from there to be targeted. Mira and Soraya's niece nodded and, map in hand, quickly stepped out. Mira drew another item from the stack on her desk and began to skim it quickly. Official Correspondence from some local management board, regarding the logistical difficulties being placed on their quarter to satisfy the reconstruction initiative.

"How's the Kaiser, anyway?" Mira asked, not looking up as she scribbled a note in the bottom margin of the letter before her.

"Cute as a button." Soraya said with a laugh. "I'm worried about his health, though. The Court Physician says that he has a weak constitution. Abdominal pains, poor dental health. He's not even six years old; he doesn't need health problems so early. Let him wait until he's turned our age!"

Mira nodded. As Prefect of Shirekeep, her role demanded some interaction with the Imperial Court. From the grapevine, she had heard all about the Kaiser's previous caretakers, and their indulgences. The boy had a sweet tooth -- what child didn't? -- and there had been no attempt at giving him a proper education. No consistent tutor, just servants keeping him occupied from day to day with play. At best was the brief few months when a cleric of the Bovic Church would visit him weekly to read passages from their scripture.

"Maybe the city isn't the right place for him just yet."

"Maybe..." Soraya said, wondering at what possible alternatives there could be. "Anyway, I had better get back to him. He's quite a handful. I wonder how long until he's become bored of me."

Mira escorted her cousin through the winding passages of the Praefectica, down to the basement levels, down to a private subterranean rail station, where a single car train awaited her. The tunnel, independent of the mass transit currently under restoration, linked the Prefectural Complex to the Silver Gate of Raynor's Keep. Soraya stopped in the doorway and turned back to her.

"Mira, how many nieces do we have in Shirekeep at the moment?"

Mira ran through it in her head. "Bess as my aide, Jamie as your aide, Aina is tutoring a young Bethany and Robin with me in the Prefect's Residence. Until your assignment here, you had Nasrin and a couple younglings with you as well, didn't you?"

"Sadie and Isidora." Soraya said, nodding.

Mira thought for a moment, then realized where her cousin's train of thought was leading. "You want to give the Kaiser a playmate?"

Raynor's Keep, Shirekeep

The layout of the Inner Keep had remained virtually unchanged since the time Aiomide. Most changes to Raynor's Keep typically took place in the Outer Keep, where there was room for experimentation and new construction. In the Inner Keep, changes were relatively minor and decorative in nature. The Laqi horse sculptures that decorated the corbels of the Great Hall's hammer-beam roof, installed by Mira Raynora Major. The windowpanes that subtly traced the starburst design of the current national flag, installed by Mo'll. The refurbishment of the Governing Chamber, which these days had been used as a sitting room, by Redquill.

The relative lack of change in the Inner Keep benefited Soraya, who had never stepped into Raynor's Keep all her life until arriving here to become the Imperial Chamberlain. Her almost-muscle memory of the Keep came from years of service as the Voice of Aiomide for House Octavius. When she did encounter a change, it had been disorienting. The remodelling and repair following the conclusion of the River War had shifted some of the access corridors that ran through the walls of the Inner Curtain Wall.

Soraya made her way through the Stronghold to Ayreon IV's bedchamber. It was technically a bedchamber for a child of the Kaiser, but the furniture suited the boy ruler better than the full-sized furniture of the official Imperial Bedchamber, which Dominus had attempted to rename the Magnificent Bedchamber. Somehow, that name hadn't stuck beyond his reign.

One of the Sentinels saluted Soraya as she approached the door, then quietly opened it for her. Inside, the child-sized four-poster bed loomed large in the center. Its sheets were disturbed, but the bed was empty.

"The Kaiser has gone missing." Soraya said to one of the Sentinels, and suddenly the Keep sprang to life with activity. Gates were locked down. Off-duty personnel were recalled.

For about five minutes.

The Kaiser was found asleep in one of the other bedchambers. This one was assigned to Nasrin Octavius-Parini, who was tutoring Ayreon IV alongside her younger sisters, Sadie Octavius-Adelaidini and Isidora Octavius-Teleni. The two junior members of House Octavius shared the room with Nasrin, sleeping in a bunk bed on the far wall. Soraya had put them up in the Inner Keep rather than in one of the apartments at the base of the hill.

Ayreon IV was snuggled up against Nasrin's arm, wrapped in the blankets. As soon as Soraya entered the room, Nasrin awoke and placed her index finger vertically over her lips. She fished out a picture book about Old Babkha from among the folds of the blankets and placed it on her nightstand.

Soraya silently placed a chair beside Nasrin's side of the bed and sat in it. They leaned together and whispered in Babkhi.

"He came in at two bells after midnight and asked me to read him another book."

"Asked? That's an improvement."

Nasrin nodded in half-agreement. "He didn't ask if he could join me... fell asleep quickly."

Soraya signaled to the Sentinel in the doorway. The door swung shut without more than a light click. The commotion outside quieted down. The morning watch had just begun and the Kaiser wasn't due to wake until six bells.

"...Go!"

Sadie and Isidora ran, leaning into their running in a child's approximation of athletic form. Their path took them all the way around the parapet atop the Inner Curtain Wall. Pairs of Sentinels, casually patrolling the wall, cleared the way for the two girls. Through one doorway into the Library Tower and out the other end, between the crenelations on the left and the Banquet Hall on the right, then through the Dowager's Tower, and on.

Ayreon IV, dressed in a child's version of the Sentinels' PT uniform, was sitting below them, a frown on his face, while Nasrin watched him write out the Praeta, Elw, and Babki alphabets. He had to rewrite it after mixing some of the letters up. The Praeta and Elw letters looked too much alike in his opinion, and all of the Babki letters looked too much like each-other! Why didn't the girls have to learn how to write Babki?!

He had had a tantrum when he was told to wait behind and redo it. Nasrin had to hold him in place until he got the rage out of himself. The whole affair had made the Sentinels nervous.

But he calmed down and he sat back in his chair and he started again. His penmanship was better this time around.

"Your letters are neater than Sadie's."

"Sadie's younger than me."

"She started earlier than you."

"She's still younger than me."

Ayreon IV finished up the last letter and then, smiling, flipped his board over for Nasrin to read. All the letters, in the correct order and written... legibly. Nasrin nodded and the Kaiser jumped out of his seat. He made his way to the Old Steward's Tower and up stairwell that would bring him to the top of the wall.

He needs to get his energy out, Nasrin noted, tidying up. He'll be needing to behave today.

"It's so small in here!" Ayreon IV said, bouncing in his seat before leaning back into it.

Soraya smiled to herself. Small, he says. The craft has space for 14 passengers, a bathroom with a standing shower, and a kitchenette. From what Soraya had been told, it had a smooth, quiet ride within the passenger cabin. It was also small enough to land and take off within Raynor's Keep itself.

Ayreon IV jumped out of his seat and started wandering around the passenger cabin. He pressed his face against the window to watch luggage being loaded into the cargo hold. The hum of the engines began to grow as the flight crew prepared for departure. Two Sentinels entered, followed by Soraya's kin: Nasrin of the Parini, Aina of the Aryani, Bethany of the Leilani, Isidora and Ruth of the Teleni, and Sadie of the Adelaidini. Two more Sentinels entered behind them, one of them turning to shut and secure the hatch.

"Alright, little ones," Aina began, "everyone settle into your seats."

Ayreon ran up to Nasrin and hugged her. She smiled and said, "you get to your seat too, Your Magnificence."

Ayreon shook his head. "I want to go see them fly it!" He pointed in the direction of the cockpit, where the pilots had gone.

Nasrin shook her head back. "You need to get into your seat." She started nudging him towards the empty seat, next to Soraya. Soraya was watching intently.

"No!"

"Vidar... howseleh nabash" Soraya muttered. Ayreon IV went quiet and stomped his way to the seat next to her. The steward, his mother, would dismissively refer to him as Vidar instead of by his regnal name. Ayreon IV had grown a distaste for his personal name being used to scold him.

He had a grim look on his face, but he did as instructed, sat, and buckled his harness.

"Thank you, Your Magnificence."

Everyone else got to their seats. Soraya reached around Ayreon IV's shoulders and gave her kaiser a sideways hug, which he initially resisted. After a few seconds, he started to lean into it. Soraya used her free hand to lift the intercom microphone out of its holster and lift it to her mouth.

"We are ready to go back here." She said. She turned to look at Ayreon IV, still leaning into her hug. "Do you have room in the cockpit for the Kaiser to watch?"

Ayreon IV looked up at her. His eyes were wet and bloodshot from struggling to hold back his tears, but his over-performed frown had been replaced with a smile.

Montreano Estate, Monty Crisco

The kaiser's pinnace came to a rest in the tall grass in front of the estate's manor house. The two decoy pinnaces, themselves loaded with personnel and supplies, circled the estate before locating their own landing sites. Two lances of Sentinels were already on site, ensuring its safety and preparing their own monitoring stations and barracks.

The main hatch of the kaiser's pinnace opened and two more Sentinels stepped out into the tall grass. They turned back to the hatch and saluted as Kaiser Ayreon IV stepped out, followed by Soraya, followed in turn by the rest of the Octaviæ. To their left, downhill and away from the manor house, the earth bacame increasingly moist and water logged.

"Your Magnificence, welcome to your new estate."

Kaiser Ayreon IV's eyes were as large as hen's eggs. He scanned the horizon in every direction. No other buildings. No battlements. No towers. Only trees and grass. Green hills. Wooden enclosures to keep the livestock separated from crops. Beyond the manor house and its associated cluster of buildings, there didn't seem to be anyone else.

Ayreon IV picked a direction and began running.

After a few days of acclimating, the young kaiser had fully embraced his new home. The usual routine that had been built up at Raynor's Keep was more or less maintained: morning studies, midday exercise and play, afternoon studies, evening leisure. The group lived together in the Great Hall of the manor house, sleeping on soft mats laid out next to the fireplace. Their morning rituals consisted of folding up their beds and preparing the Great Hall for the day's activities while each took turns in the one functioning shower. An outdoor kitchen was set up with an awning to protect it from the rain. The rest of the house was plagued with leaking roofs, unsteady floors, broken windows.

The manor house had been abandoned long ago and the surrounding estate had been left to go wild. Papers found in the estate management office, on the house's ground level, suggested that the household and estate workers had left in a hurry to some unspecified location during the Cabbage Crisis, in fear that the brassicosis would spread there soon. It never did, and deed records from Cercé showed that the estate had changed hands without occupation since then. A minor noble from Overdolor that looked to establish himself in Monty Crisco's local politics. A real estate developer that overextended themselves and abandoned their plans for this corner of the county.

On some days, either morning or afternoon studies were foregone in favor of tending to the estate. Fences were repaired, grass mowed, drainage pipes cleared or replaced, herb and vegetable gardens replanted. Simple tasks that doubled as opportunities to teach about rural life, ecology, biology, and so on. Nasrin and Aina would lead the children on weekly day trips into the woods or to the fields on the far end of the estate.

Being that this unassuming rural estate was now home for both His Imperial Magnificence the Kaiser as well as Her Grace the Imperial Chamberlain, there were at least thirty members of the Sentinels assigned to the location at all times. By Soraya's orders the majority of them remained discrete, maintaining perimeter security and acting as agents to obtain supplies from beyond the estate boundaries. Despite the very different environment, it was still only a short flight away from Shirekeep if need be. It was, in the end, quite safe and private.