"No it's because I'm full of spite and I'm an asshole, that's the only reason you noticed me," She replied, rolling her eyes, "If I had any less anger in me you wouldn't have noticed me for much longer."
Atria could feel all too well how the walls seemed to close in. It sent panic into her body, as they walked deeper. As cruel as the queen was, she could say her dungeons were effective, even if she knew she wasn't going to be left here. She glanced over at Farah, noting with surprise that the solider also seemed uneasy in the hallway. But she didn't bring it up.
"I'll take some supplies out with me, then I'll make my stop while you're in here. I'll meet you back wherever you drop me off." Atria agreed, nodding, "As long as we're out of the city by nightfall we should be fine. Any longer than that and they'll notice our disappearance."
Farah smirked and chuckled softly. "Exactly," she retorted but left the conversation alone after that. She was sure that it might come up later, but even if it didn't, she wouldn't mind.
"Stop," she commanded suddenly, tugging Atria's arm so neither of them continued any deeper down the stairs. Farah glanced back up the stairs to make sure no one was coming after them before she began to trace her finger along the wall, searching for something. "There," she whispered to herself. Her fingers curled around an indistinguishable edge in the stone, and she pulled to reveal a secret passageway. "Pull it shut behind us, would you?" she threw the words over her shoulder as she ducked inside.
She was pulled to a stop and Atria barely bit back a comment as she watched why Farah had stopped them. "Clever," Atria muttered, the tiniest of grins crossing her face as she followed the soldier. It wasn't everyday she was allowed into secret corridors, especially ones in the palace. She had no plans of ever returning to this place, but at least it would be good to know.
Pulling the hidden door shut behind them, she looked once back into the staircase, thankful that they hadn't gone down any further. "And where does this happen to lead?" She questioned, squinting into the darkness of the tunnel to try to make out her companion.
“To the training arena,” Farah replied. “Makes it easier for as many soldiers to get to the dungeons as possible in case of… emergencies.” Her stomach twisted as she said it, knowing deep down what the words meant. Rotating guard shifts for interrogations, torture, or executions. She'd witnessed each too many times, it was a wonder she kept her sanity. A wonder named…
Only a quick shake of her head was spared to clear her thoughts before she pressed on. "The arena is connected to the armory, which is good for us, but it’s also connected to the lower-tier soldiers’ dormitory. So, we have to be very quick getting to the armory before we’re spotted.”
Learning the interworkings of the palace wasn't something Atria had planned to learn, but she was happy to do so. Especially as it kept her mind from wandering as they headed down the tunnel. "Farah, we're dressed in soldier's uniforms. If we're caught we're already in disguise to play it off," She replied, though she knew there was a fair chance they could still be caught or would look too out of place.
Atria stayed right behind Farah, keeping only a small gap for them to walk comfortably in the passage. She wasn't sure how long the passage was, or how much longer they had to go, but it seemed to stretch on forever. Much further than any normal passage would seem, though there was a fair chance she was just seeing things.
Farah noted Atria's use of her actual name instead of simply referring to her as "soldier," and with the darkness concealing her emotions, she felt it safe to express some with a gentle smile before she spoke. "Yes, but would you be able to do exactly what a soldier here is prepared to do if someone were to spot and question us?" she asked, arching an eyebrow even though Atria couldn't see it.
"There's a very set code, especially in the palace. So just follow me, do what I do, and for the love of Eshia, try and stay out of sight as much as possible. There shouldn't be anyone training right now – the last spars should've ended fifteen minutes ago – but we'll still need to move quickly. We're nearly there."
"I'm starting to think you don't trust my abilities to act and stay out of sight," She teased, though she nodded a moment later, adding if only to stop Farah from worrying, "I'll stay out of sight, don't worry."
Atria continued along with Farah, feeling relief when the end of the passage finally came into view. It was bittersweet, to no longer have a place to hide safely in exchange for being able to get out of the palace. "How far away is the armory from the soldier's barrack?"
"It's far enough," Farah answered, pressing her palm to the door at the end of the passage. "Just focus on what we came here to do. Gather as many weapons and armor as you can. Select only what you require, nothing more. We don't have the time to get anything extra nor the energy to carry something we end up not needing." With that, she pushed the door open, flooding the dark tunnel with light.
After blinking off the drastic lighting change, Farah observed the room. As she had said, there was no sparring. The room was empty. She stepped out and motioned for Atria to follow. Surrounding her were rows of swords, daggers, armor, and many other assortments of weapons, all of which Farah had learned how to wield at some point or another. "Only what we need," she repeated over her shoulder.
Atria shielded her eyes as the tunnel was pushed open, glancing around the room. They were clearly somewhere that the soldiers used to train, and though there was no one but the two of them in the room, she felt on edge. "Only what we need, I got it," She said with a nod. Stepping out of the tunnel, she surveyed the sheer number of choices she had. There were enough weapons in here to arm a fair portion of the rebellion, and she felt a surge of excitement before she realized she wasn't going to see anyone from the rebellion for a while. Still, it didn't stop her from imagining what it would be like to have this many choices all of the time.
Walking towards the nearest rack, she brushed a hand over a row of spears, then a selection of daggers. She picked a few of the daggers up, tucking two into the sheaths on the sides of her guard's uniform. With new determination, her next stop was the armor. Most of it looked heavy and cumbersome, too much to be running around in, but she looked over it anyway, eventually finding things more her style. There was a small selection of lighter armor, things made of leather and clearly made just for training, not for actual combat.
Farah was mostly armed already from her patrol, but she traded out the daggers she had for new, sharper ones. She checked her sword and nodded in approval at the blade before sticking it back in its sheath. One last thing… With swift steps, she placed herself in front of the archer's section. Her fingers plucked a specific, beautiful bow from the rank and smiled at the familiar weight in her fingers. The precise carvings in the wood were made by careful, practiced hands. She took two slings of arrows and emptied one into the other.
Once she finished, she stepped back and watched Atria make her selections. "I'm sure you've never seen an armory of this magnitude before," Farah remarked, twirling a dagger in around her fingers. "Does the rebellion have anything like this?" The tone in her and expression on her face was genuine and curious.
Atria picked quickly, taking a simple leather chest plate and some well-worn greaves, forgoing anything that would majorly impede her movements. To be quick, she strapped them on over her guard's uniform, tightening them so they fit before making a beeline towards one last section; the swords. She couldn't hide the excitement in her eyes as she skimmed over the selection before her. All of the swords seemed perfect, worn but sharpened by many years of soldiers learning how to hone their weapons. She picked one at random, lifting it and checking the comforting weight in her hands before nodding at her choice. Atria swiped an accompanying sheath, and after fastening it at her side, she slid the sword in.
Her head whipped to the side as she heard Farah talk, frankly forgetting that she had been there. "I think it would be a little naive, to share the rebellion's secrets with a soldier like you," Atria said, recovering from her shock quickly, though she still had a slight smile on her face, "But…no, I've never seen an armory this big. Or this stocked. It's impressive. I'm…a little jealous, that these are at the disposal of any soldier that trains here."
Double-checking her choices, she doubled back for one more set of daggers, which she nestled into the belt on her hips, filling up some of the loosenesses. Then she turned to Farah, washing away her smile with a determined look. "Anyway, I'm ready to continue on. Where else do we need to stop before you drop me off outside the castle walls?"
Farah chuckled at Atria's awe. "It is a bit much, but I've never been without it. I know how to use just about everything in here." Her fingers casually brushed over sword hilts and spear grips as she made her way back through the rows and rows of weaponry until she was at the end of the last row. Across the rest of the room, there were large training mats were spread across the floor. There was a new patch of blood on one of them, Farah noticed, and she cringed at the thought of a new recruit getting pummeled. At one time, that had been her. Well, until her parents decided their daughter was born of too noble blood to be good at anything but fighting.
Farah shook her head to clear her thoughts, but Atria's question made her freeze. "I… We…" She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. As she exhaled her eyes opened. She was prepared for this. "The princess's chambers." She set off across the floor without looking back.
"Lucky," Atria muttered under her breath, wishing she could have gotten formal training with even half of the weapons in the room. But she masked her jealousy, making her way to Farah. Before she got close though, she froze in her steps at her words. For a second, she blinked, then shook her head and followed after the woman. "Did you just say the princess's chambers?" She questioned, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion, "Why in the world would we go there? We're looking for the princess if you've forgotten?"
It was unlikely that her new partner had gone insane, but Atria couldn't believe what she had heard. Farah wanted to go to the princess's chambers. Why she didn't know. And frankly, they didn't have time to talk it over. But it still didn't make sense in her head.
"I did," Farah replied, maintaining her current strides toward the door. She didn't look, but then again she didn't need to see Atria's expression to help identify the tone in her voice. With a sigh, she spoke again, "No, I'm not stupid; yes, I know what I said; and yes, it is for a reason. If you'd like, you can try to find your own way back out of here without me."
Farah stopped in the doorway and glanced up and down the hallway. "Alright let's go. Hurry," she ordered. She didn't check to see whether Atria was following her. The only thing she could focus on was getting to the end of the hallway, mounting the stairs, and entering the first room on the left. She could make her way to the princess' room from anywhere in the castle, even if it was pitch black.
“What reason do you have that requires the princess’s room?” She questioned, curious and slightly concerned for whatever could be waiting for them inside, “Moreover, why?”
Atria didn’t have time for any more questions as she followed after Farah, though her general confusion showed well on her face. The soldier seemed to be set on a track, moving through the hallways and stairs quickly. Faintly, she wondered if this was what it was like chasing herself through the streets of the city, moving fast and not knowing where she would next go. Soon enough though Farah stopped infront of a door, and Atria almost slammed into her, stopping herself moments before it happened.
“I’m serious Farah, I want to know why we’re waltzing into the princess’s room when the queen could be prowling around anywhere?”
"She's not," Farah replied. Her fingers reached out and touched the wooden door gently as if it might break under the lightest touch. The golden embellishments on the door were faded, but Farah's fingers found them anyway and traced one in a looping pattern. "I know she's not." With that, she pushed the door open and stepped into the room.
The princess' chambers were quite the opposite of the queen's throne room. While the queen's silver-gold-green color schematic was intimidating and beautiful at the same time, the princess' room looked like the sky at dusk. Soft pinks, pale oranges, and desaturated yellows made up the majority of the room. The closet was big, the bed bigger, and the balcony overlooked the castle's courtyard, blooming with a large assortment of flowers.
Farah looked around the room wistfully before shaking off her "daze" and heading to the princess' bedside table. On top, there was a leather-bound book, and on the cover, someone had stitched an intricate cursive letter "L" with golden thread. Farah took the book in her hands and briefly ran her fingertips over the "L" before slipping it into her satchel and turning back to Atria. "Alright," she said, heading for the door and trying to keep her voice even. "Let's go."
Atria followed Farah in, though she only stepped to right inside the door. Even then, her jaw almost dropped at the sheer size of the princess's room. It was as big as the house she had grown up in, and it only held a bed, a closet, and some other miscellaneous items. Slight jealousy ran through her, but she ignored it, shaking her head and shooting Farah a look as the soldier picked up something from the table next to the bed. "We came here for a book? Really?" She huffed but followed her back through the door, oblivious to the emotion in her tone. If they ever found the princess, the first thing Atria was going to do was ask for a room that size when the princess was on the throne.
"Yes, we really came here for a book," Farah snapped with a tone that dared Atria to challenge her. She'd learned it from her mother. "And if you have any other questions, you can keep them to yourself. Now we have to hurry. Let's go." Without another word, Farah headed at a heightened pace down the corridor, away from the stairs that had brought them up to the princess' suite. The book thumped against Farah's thigh from inside her bag, and it was almost as if she could read the lines written on the first page. She saw them before her, clear as day. She could recite the first stanze flawlessly at this point.
Anyone can tell you they love you.
Anyone can flatter you and tell you you're beautiful.
Anyone can make you smile and happy.
Anyone can promise you the world
And the stars and the finest things of life.
Atria had many more questions to ask, but Farah walked off before she could ask them, setting a pace at which she had to focus more on walking than she could on asking her question. Why did Farah take the book from the princess' room? How did she know the princess in the first place? Did she have another goal for finding the princess than just finding her for the queen? She held the questions in her head, turning a corner behind Farah. At the very least, the soldier seemed ready to leave, which benefitted Atria greatly. As soon as they were out of the palace she could finish her preparations, and then there would be plenty of time to ask questions on the road.
"This way," Farah murmured. She followed the halls through the quickest way to the exit. For a moment, Farah considered stopping by her bunk in the soldier's barracks, but it would be pointless. There was nothing there. She never kept anything in the castle but her weapons as mandated by the queen. So for everything else she needed, she had to go home. "We're almost at the exit," she addressed Atria over her shoulder briefly. "Where do you need to go?"
"Just get me back into the city. I'll get the rest of the way back," Atria replied, keeping a step behind Farah. She had no clue how the palace was laid out, and the last thing she needed was to get lost. So she followed the soldier, continuing to talk even as she turned back to leading the way. "Where should I meet you when I'm done?" Her question was both truly a question, and a hint to tell Farah that she wasn't going with Atria when she got into the city. There were things she needed to deal with that couldn't happen with a soldier looming over her back.
Farah stopped at the end of a hallway. Checking no one else was coming, she turned and directed Atria to a door at the end. "Out this way," she instructed, pushing open the door, and sunlight flooded her eyes. "Damn," she muttered before turning to Atria to finally react to what she'd said. "If you think I'm leaving you to do your own business of sending some rebel detachment after me, you're sadly mistaken," she stated. "I've given you reasons to trust me. What have you done to make me trust you?"
Atria followed without question, squinting in the bright sunlight. She blinked and as her eyes adjusted she gave Farah a sour look, "I have no plan on sending anyone after you or me. I would be shot on sight just as much as you would be. Working with you should mean I gave you plenty of my trust, and to add on, I didn't object to your plan that could've gotten me locked in a cell without question." She adjusted the daggers at her side, pausing to look around. "I have something I need to grab, and unfortunately it's with people I care about enough to not put in the line of danger. Or rat out to you." While she had enough trust in the soldier to think that she wouldn't rat Atria out, she didn't trust her enough to put her friends' lives in danger.
"Well I'm glad you think so highly of me," Farah remarked sarcastically. She closed her eyes and exhaled swiftly. "Fine. Do what you need to do and so will I. We'll meet the the city gates, got it? And while I understand you not wanting to put your friends in danger, I hope you understand that after what just happened, my connections to the crown and Her Majesty are completely severed. It won't take long for them to find out what I've done, and once they do, either the queen or my parents or both will put a price on my head so big I won't be able to go near a civilization in this entire country."
"We'll deal with your bounty when we get to that," Atria said with a nod, "I'll meet you at the city gate before the bell tolls next." With that, she was off, walking away at a quick but leisurely pace, settling into her image as a cocky soldier all too well. The bell tolls were one of the main ways city citizens told the time, as they chimed on the hour every hour. Her guess told her she had about half an hour before the bell would toll again, which left her with plenty of time to get what she needed. Besides her few meager possessions, she needed to get food and money. Preferably, they would leave town riding, but leaving on foot and purchasing a ride later on would work just as well.
