#kingcenred

Lilé had known disaster was coming the moment she had heard the Valg - or rather, felt them. Her shadows hissed a warning, and her blades materialised as she stood ready on the ship. The captain had known it too, and urged her to stay below and stay safe. But she was a seasoned warrior, and was not about to leave them undefended.

It did not matter.

Something broke the ship so thoroughly that none of them had a chance. Lilé fought desperately to protect as many as possible, but the Valg swarmed the ship with ease. Never would she forget the screams of the crew as death enveloped them, or the sounds of wet flesh tearing, the scent of the iron-rich blood. Lilé had seen war before, but not like this. This was… animalistic.

The last thing she remembered before something hit her body was the captain shoving her off the ship to save her life.

She drifted through the night, unconscious, away from the smoking wreck of the ship that had been intended to seal an alliance. Awareness briefly surfaced, making her grasp weakly onto a broken board, before she fell into oblivion once more.

The morning would find her body on a warm sand beach. Pain lanced through her, forcing her dimly awake; ribs were broken, that much was obvious. Her muscles screamed. Somebody was nearby - possibly somebodies - but she did not have the strength to turn to look. Whatever had knocked her out had sapped her energy; even her shadows were listless, fading noiselessly back within her.

“Help me,” she whispered through salt-chapped lips to whoever stood close. “Please. Sanctuary.”

"Did you realise that your staff attempts to distract me while you have important international meetings by showing me different historical landmarks and teaching me all about them?" Ben asked as though he wasn't standing with a tablet ready for his 10th random presentation to Cenred on matters the king almost certainly knew more about. But prior to living here, Ben had had no interest in history, so everything was rather novel. "I made popcorn for you."

The sea always calmed her, so walking down the seemingly infinite stretch of beach didn't raise any red flags. Yes, her security team assigned to her vacation home mentioned something about approaching the property boundary, but she hadn't heard anything else from them in a while. Maybe that was a bad thing, but at the moment, she felt perfectly safe.

It's partially why she chose an island country for her vacation destination. Nobody knew who she was. She had no fear of backstabbing or kidnapping, blackmail or destruction. She could be Kaida in a place the Dragon didn't exist.

Regardless, vacation doesn't stop her mind from turning everything over. Some new drug smuggling activity had come to her radar before this trip, so she pondered, looking out over the horizon. She also thinks over some new tips on human trafficking stations set up, wondering if they aught to go in looking or not. So many things and she forces herself to look around, and finding no one immediately. Well, now that she looks twice, there is one soul out here. She smiles softly as they draw nearer, no immediate greeting coming to her lips of the rather handsome man. But she has to be careful.

"Beautiful day for a walk." She settles, small talk being the bane of her existence.

@kingcenred: “You will be the death of me, woman.”

" now, that is not my intention, your majesty. " the princess answered with a giggle as she rolled over in the bed, silken sheets wrapped around her fair body, until she laid on her stomach; hands propping her head up to stare at him. " i was only saying, surely you can stay a little longer. " she raised an eyebrow. " your betrothed can wait, can't she? " aurora's head tilted as she asked the question, unkempt golden curls falling to the wayside as she did so. " surely she doesn't expect a king to always have time for her first thing in the morning. "

oh, but aurora expected him to have time for her.

this game they were playing was dangerous, and aurora knew that well. they were both promised to another― well, cenred was promised to another. her father was still searching for a worthy suitor for herself. the search could take forever in aurora's opinion.

however, facts such as another woman on his arm did not stop the fair beauty from considering him to be hers. he was in her chambers after all. he had spent the night in her bed, not someone else's.

"When I'm not sidestepping the Romans, I'm trying to keep Artur from killing himself." The Sarmatian Knight said in Brythonic Gaelic as he led Cenred through the more Roman-populated parts of the fort.

She knew she would have to eventually see Colin again, but she had hoped she would have more time, perhaps that was why she panicked as soon as she saw him across the room. The minuet he started towards her she took hold of her green skirt and all but ran from the main ballroom and ducked into the closest empty room. Or rather what she thought was an empty room, she turned to lean against the door, catching her breath and when she looked up there was a man there not even a foot in front of her.

"I'm sorry-- I thought this room was empty, I'll just return to the pa. . " She didn't even get a chance to finish her sentence, much less turn around to leave before her mother was in the room, where the hell had she even come from? Penelope recalled her being on the other side of the ballroom when she ran away. But there she was, screeching about how improper it was to be alone in a room with a man and then throwing out the word marriage as a small group of people gathered.