//------------------------------// // Gouverneur de Rici // Story: Voyage // by Comrade Bagel Muffin //------------------------------// "Escutcheon! Escutcheon please get up!" Escutcheon groaned slowly opening his eyes. "He's opening his eyes. He's okay. He's okay." Dusk wrapped her hooves around him. "What happened? Where." He put a hoof around Dusk. Turkeylegs softly nuzzled his cheek. He looked around he was back in his room the snow storm outside was completely gone. Red Wine and Atlas were both next to the door talking to each other, and Dusk was next to his bed. He was under several extra sets of comforters and the fire in the room's fireplace was blazing hotter than it was last night. "What happened?" "That's something that we want to know too." Red Wine turned around and walked over to him. "You were found this morning on the first floor with the door wide open. He glared down at Escutcheon, though admittedly every time he looked at anypony it looked like he was glaring at them. "There were scorch marks on the floor around you and right in front of the entryway. "Why?" "I-I don't know." His hoof moved slowly under the coves to his chest. He nearly sighed in relief when he felt his necklace with the sapphire. "What matters is that Escutcheon is safe and the storm is over." Atlas walked between Escutcheon and Red Wine. "Honestly what does it matter. What he was doing down there. So long as we can move out in the hour we'll make it to Rici before the end of today." "Then help him get packed," Red Wine grumbled before walking back to his room. "What's his problem?" Dusk glared at the red stallion as he left the room. "Well he is a little stressed we should have been at Rici already." Atlas sighed. "Things are pressing as well, he thinks Escutcheon was trying to sabotage our mission," Atlas said quietly. "That's insane, Escutcheon is one of the reasons we're on this peace mission." "Somepony is trying to sabotage us though," Escutcheon said. "That wasn't a natural blizzard." He sat up and looked out the window to the calm skies outside. "Why do you think that?" Atlas asked with a raised eyebrow. "Just a hunch." Escutcheon looked back to Dusk as he lowered his hoof from the sapphire. She was about to say something but when she saw the look he gave her she gave a small nod and stayed quiet. "Well let's not tell him that unless we actually have evidence. Red is wound up enough as it is." Atlas looked over at the two. "This entire thing is a bit stressful and thinking that somepony is actually trying to undermine us is not going to help us in any event." Dusk and Escutcheon nodded. "Why don't you go ahead and pack your saddle bags professor." Escutcheon sat up a little. "Dusk can help me pack mine. If you want?" She nodded. "Alright then." He nodded leaving the room after a few seconds Escutcheon's horn lit up and the door slowly closed. He gave Dusk a look and nodded. "Let me guess something happened with your sapphire last night." He slowly rolled out of bed and gave her a soft nod. "And so you fought some kind of giant snow monster with some kind of gem stone and blew it up and then passed out again?" "No nothing like that." Escutcheon rolled out of his bed and opened one the dresser drawers with his horn floating out his clothes. "It kind of talked to me last night. It told me that the storm outside was a spell." "A stormspell?" Escutcheon nodded. "I've never seen you use that kind of magic." "It's not something that unicorns do. In Equestria all of the weather is controlled and regulated by the pegasi." He paused a moment. "You know I haven't seen any pegasi here." "What is a pegasi?" Dusk asked as she helped him pack his bags. "They're like me but the have wings instead of a horn." He finished packing his saddle bags with her help. "Also I think we should keep what the gem between ourselves." Dusk nodded. "For the time being anyways." He closed his saddle bags and waited for Dusk to leave to pack her own bags before he changed from his night gown into his traveling clothes. He looked around at the inn room one last time. He looked to Turkeylegs who gave him back his own curious look. *** The roads were anything but abandoned as dozens of ponies were taking their chance to move down the mountain after the snow storm had delayed them for a day. The closer they got to Rici the more crowded the roads were. Unlike most of the other cities of Tivi, Rici did not have fields around it's edges instead on the outskirts of Rici were dozens of mines. which mined ores, as well as large quarries, which is where Tivi got most of its dressed stones. Rici was built as a defensive stronghold was built on and in the mountain that it was located at. The only way to get to it from any direction was across large cobblestone bridges. As the group approached the city gate at the end of one of the bridges coming from the north. They were stopped by several heavily armored earth ponies and a single armored unicorn. "Halt," the unicorn said. "His excellency lord governor Maelstrom. Has requested that you be escorted to his palace." "We don't have time for this," Red Wine said through gritted teeth. "That was not a request." Red Wine ground his teeth in frustration but none the less nodded. "Come with us." The guard lead them through the city. The buildings were nearly as nice as the ones that had been in the capital. "What is this all about." The guards completely ignored Dusk's question. As they lead them to a large palace structure on the very top of the mountain. Escutcheon thought he saw a flash of light from one of the windows. The group was lead into the palace which had been built using dressed and polished stones. While it didn't have the awe inspiring atmosphere of the royal palace it still inspired a since of regality, and just a bit of dread. They were lead with absolute haste into the audience chamber, which could easily have been mistaken for a throne room. A cobalt stallion looked down from his chair on a raised platform over looking his audience chamber. "Greetings Red Wine." He smiled and got up. "It's so nice to see you again." "Why are you detaining us on our mission." Red Wind managed to get the words out through his gritted teeth. Escutcheon and the others remained behind the older red stallion and let him do the talking to the governor. "Prestige and image." Maelstrom answered. Coming down to meet them, his unkempt silver and copper mane bouncing with each step. "You've visited every other minor lord on your way here. If you didn't visit me for at least as long then I could lose quite a bit of face. And I don't want that. Which means that you don't want that." He stood in front of Red Wine either not knowing or just not caring that the red unicorn was glaring daggers at him. "So you shall be my guest tonight, and tomorrow shall continue on to Slo. Come now. There are things I'd like to show you." he walked out of the audience clearly expecting them to follow.