Morning all and Happy Friday. I hope your week has been fabulous. For now, let’s jump into the last prompt of the week. Are you ready? Great, let’s go.
Okay, not where I was thinking this would initially go, but I can’t say I am mad at it. Could be an interesting tale at some point. Just need to figure out who killed everyone first.
Friday, September 20th: The rocks were sharp.
The rocks were sharp. They were also slick with water from the falls. ‘I thought that water was supposed to round out the stones,’ she thought as she navigated her way through the maze. The spray of water from the falls kept them slick, but they were like jagged teeth erupting from the floor of the cave.
She could see them her and in the pool of water formed by the falls before the water flowed out of the pool and made a small stream. She knew further down the small stream merged with other streams to form what would become a minor branch of the River Gare. ‘Like geography matters now,’ she told herself even as her mind began to unfurl the mental map she created over years of lessons. Somehow as she struggled to place her feet on the small sections of flat ground between the jagged teeth of stones, she could even here, her old tutor explaining the river system and how it formed a huge section of the vast trade network.
Knowing that the Gare would take linen from the outer provinces into the more densely populated cities in the center of the kingdom where the Gare merged with the Thaglin, was at the moment less than helpful information.
‘I’m not sure it was helpful when I learned it,’ she thought as she picked her way slowly across the cavern. She knew her father had plans to marry her into one of the houses controlling such trade. The noble house had grown rich and powerful enough to seem like a good prospect. While no one was certain the marriage would be the one chosen or if a noble or royal from another kingdom was chosen, she was given training in the trade details ass well as lessons in foreign diplomacy for the lands most likely to send a potential tutor for her hand.
‘Even if the marriage to the trading families had gone through the information might not have been helpful,’ she thought. No one expected her to be involved. They expected her to simply serve as a connection. She would be wed and the connection would be made. It would be reinforced by children but she would have no real involvement in the running of anything. One of her brothers would run the kingdom and her husband would run the family affairs.
‘And that’s if he didn’t have any olde brothers to take control.’ She shrugged it off. It hadn’t been a terribly exciting future to look forward to. She protested, but her protests went unheeded.
‘Not that it matters much now.’
That future, or any future that might have been planned was gone now. All of the future plans anyone made were nothing more than ash now. Those that made them were dead. She shivered and tried not to think about the others. She didn’t know if anyone else got out. She just knew the family was split and each sent with a contingency of guards. Her guards were dead now but she knew where she was supposed to go and was making her way there. Her path was long, but it was somewhat safer, or so she hoped. She doubted anyone would expect her to travel through the caverns. She only hoped that there was still some safety waiting on the other end of her journey.
Ten til Midnight 