Chapter 36- Four Sea-Kings

  Savage Lands, Coral City- Inside the Singing Pace, Royal Guest Quarters- Late Autumn, Namor 1 (Morning)

  Princess Namorita

  Namorita is trying to rex in the tub of the bathroom attached to her quarters. She tried, but being so far from home and being inside the pace of another possible hostile faction. She took a deep breath while fully submerged under the water, her gills taking in fresh air to fill her chest.

  The water rumbled as someone entered the room.

  The princess opened her eyes to see that Lythese had entered. Her father had assigned the handmaiden to her, and the woman had been more than just helpful down at the docks. She not only located the magic construct that was capturing their image, but also caught the danger in the king’s offer of food.

  ‘Who knew that the mages would be so cruel as to poison an entire nd?’ Namorita wondered, as she rose from the rge four-person tub.

  When her head broke the surface of the water she heard the handmaiden ask. “How did you sleep?”

  Instead of answering, she reminded the other woman. "You know you don't have to cover yourself when it's just the two of us. We already sweep the rooms for devices and spells that record and these quarters are clear of them.” Then Namorita jokingly added. “After all it’s not like I haven’t seen you naked before.”

  “Please do not remind me of that shameful moment. Had I known you were in the adjacent room, I would never have gone as far as I did.” Lythese said as she lowered the veil covering her face. Revealing the smooth green-skinned face underneath.

  The princess drew undersea animals in the water, as she said. “I doubt that, just like I doubt you don’t think back to that time you spent with my father when you’re all alone at night. And I don’t bme you. You were doing what you must to protect your cn. Nor do I expect my father to be completely dedicated to my mother. After all, our st king wasn’t to his first wife and my mother isn’t even that.”

  For a moment she heard the woman’s hair hiss at her, before the handmaiden recovered her face and repeated her first question. “How did you sleep, your highness?”

  “Terribly, that bed thing is so uncomfortable. I eventually came to this tub to get a couple hours of real sleep before the meeting. I assume it will happen soon.” As the princess climbed out of the tub, she wondered if she inherited any of the strange powers that her father got from his own surface dad.

  Lythese grabbed and handed her a rge towel as she confirmed the princess's guess. "Yes, King Altmorin is on his way to the Hall of Viewing, and an escort is already here to lead us to it.”

  "I suppose asking for a warning so that I could change was too much for them to give us," Namorita compined as she toweled herself, not fully dry, like her father and mother, the princess felt safer when at least part of her body was still damp.

  The handmaiden walked to the bed, and id out a decorative toga and a golden brassiere, as the toga was made in the cut for a man. The princesses sighed at the sight of them. "They are formal, something that will assuage the kings that they are meeting with a female envoy," Lythese told her, after she stopped at the entrance of the bedroom.

  “Why can’t I live a free life like my father?” Namorita asked as she started taking off her top and trunks.

  "At your age, your father was fighting in a war, and was risking his life every day so that he could prove to the court that he was a strong heir to your grandfather." The handmaiden reminded the girl.

  “At least in war, I could wear what I want.” The princess compined, as she piled up her damp and soiled clothes on a stone bench, before walking to a suitcase that had some clothes in it.

  "Your father got away with wearing next to nothing because he was trying to prove to the world that he was bulletproof. Thus again demonstrating that he is both strong and fearless." Lythese countered.

  As Namorita dug through the case, for a pair of underwear that wouldn't be uncomfortable, she wasted a moment to remind herself to send a message to Aunt Susan, thanking her for the case and the clothes. Not that she got a lot of opportunities to wear them. What with the surface world and the Antean one being so much different.

  As the princess donned the silk underwear, metal top, and the surprisingly heavy robe, the handmaiden picked out a small collection of bracelets and earrings for her to wear. The golden bracer was the same one she wore at the docks. It was actually a magic tool that she could use as a sort of focus for her hydromantic spells.

  The handmaiden looked over Namorita twice, before nodding and then bowing to her. Then she asked. “Shall we be off your highness?”

  The princess in question had to tug on her left earlobe, before nodding and heading for the rge quarter’s exit. Out of her rooms, three of her guards stood at the ready, one of them being her captain, who would be tailing her and Lythese to the Hall but would not be allowed to enter.

  In addition to her guards, a pair of two-toned-skinned swordsmen stood waiting. The younger of the two started to ogle and gaze quite openly at her, but his superior spped him in the chest, before they bowed to her. Then the man gestured for her to follow them, before two men turned and started to walk away.

  As it turned out, the king's warning about the local food was no exaggeration, her men had attempted to talk to so many of their equals among the soldiery of the pace, but they got little out of them, as all of them sounded like addle-minded children to them. Only the rare officer or magic-trained noble could hold a conversation, and they were too cautious to reveal anything of worth.

  The walk was short and uneventful. They eventually came to a pair of double doors, where they saw King Altmorin and his brother waiting for them. The man she met at the docks, who she now knows is the King's younger brother and chief advisor, and a pair of guards stood nearby.

  "Your Highness." The king lowered his head a touch in greeting.

  “Your majesty.” Namorita bowed a bit, as she greeted this region’s ruler.

  Altmorin pointed at the doors to her right and told her. "On the other side of these doors, is the Seeing Hall. Along the far side of the wall, you will see five waterfall versions of the Singing Waters, as well as a rge well version in the center of the room. As soon as we enter, they will see and hear us, so if you have to do anything to prepare, do it now… I will go in now and give you a moment."

  Then the king moved to the doors, and stepped into the room, while the king's guards took up a pce beside said doors. The king's brother then motioned to the two soldiers that escorted her here, and the three of them were left alone with the door guards. The princess, her assigned handmaiden, and the captain of her guard all shared a look, before she took a deep breath.

  "You can do this," Lythese whispered to her.

  The princess nervously tugged on her left earlobe, before moving towards the doors to the meeting. One of the standing guards opened it for her. As she entered Namorita heard King Altmorin say. "During our dinner, she was polite and courteous, it is very possible that she is honest about her father's desires."

  “Or she knows nothing and is just a pawn in all of this.” She heard someone else say.

  As the princess moved to stand near the sea-king, Namorita gazed at the faces of the other kings. Like King Altmorin and the other surface ‘Atnteans,' their skin was an odd wash of two-tone colors. The right-most one was a mix of soft blue and the brightest white skin she had ever seen, while the one in the middle was an off-yellow and mocha, and the left-most one would garner all kinds of attention back home with his autumn red and Caucasian skin tone.

  "Fellow Sea-Kings, may I formally introduce you to Her Highness, Princess Namorita of Atntis.” The King of the Coral Signers stated once she was closer. Then he turned to her and introduced the other rulers, starting from her left and going right he named. “Princess, may I introduce you to my fellow kings here in the Savage Land. This is King Ruth’in of the Fall People. Then King Tallis of the Golden People, and st but not least, King Ichor of the Ice Carvers.”

  Namorita saw that Kings Ruth’in and Ichor both nodded to her in greeting, while Tallis, just smirked as he looked her up and down. It looked to the princess that the first two kings were in their own versions of this room, meanwhile, she couldn't really tell anything about where the 'Golden' king was because all she could see was him and a carpet hanging in the background.

  “So what would be required of us for this Alliance of yours?” King Ruth’in asked first.

  However, before Namorita could answer him the Ice Carver's king asked. "Never mind that, I want to know what I and my people would get out of joining? Would you be willing to send troops to aid me, with a little rough patch my kingdom is currently undergoing?"

  Again before she could answer, Ruth’in got back at the man for interrupting his question by snapping. “It’s not our fault that you started four separate wars.”

  The white and blue king punched his own rge well before he shouted. “I didn’t start them! Things just started to not go our way at all this year… First ripe targets would suddenly be empty of sves, and then the raids against us started.”

  "And that was before the bunnies and centaurs started helping the mountain tribes," Tallis added as he sat back in his own seat. The yellow man’s smirk had changed, so Namorita no longer felt like she needed a bath, but she decided that she would still have one after how the middle-aged king had looked at her.

  Namorita cleared her throat before looking towards King Ichor and admitted. “I have no command over the armies of Atntis. However, I can send your request for military aid to my father, for he commands the regur Navy and the Royal Forces.”

  “What a useless, wo-, ahem envoy," Ichor compined, coughing midsentence and changing what he was going to say. Then he added. “Hopefully you can speed that message along, so that we the Ice Carvers will still be here to join your alliance.” Then the white and blue king nodded towards someone else in the room he was in, and then his image froze for a moment before becoming clear water again.

  The princess looked at the king she was most familiar with and asked. “He started wars with four separate peoples?”

  "He probably doesn't see it that way," Altmorin stated.

  It was King Ruth’in who expined to her. "Other than my kingdom, the many peoples of the Savage Lands extensively use sves for their building, farming, and mining. That includes the lesser tribes of humans and beast-men.'

  "And unfortunately for the Ice Carvers, his usual prey have gone and managed to work together to punish King Ichor and his men for treating them so poorly. Despite them having their elite Yeti Warriors, they have lost several warehouses of stockpiled food and an easy third of their sves."

  “Try half of their sves.” King Tallis corrected.

  “Can we get back to my question, of what will be expected of us if do decide to join?” The red and pink man asked.

  The princess took a deep breath before answering. “My father, King Namor, realized both as a prince and in the first days of his rule, that a split Atntis, is a doomed Atntis. That the real threat to us is the Surfacers. Especially with what has happened since the end of their st Great War.'

  “As such, he wishes to create a forum, an alliance if you will, where all the various factions of our kind can get together, settle their grievances, and aid one another so that we can be stronger than the Surfacers.”

  "What do you mean, when you say 'especially with what has happened since' some war ended?" Altmorin asked standing beside her.

  When he had agreed to arrange this meeting, Namorita decided to keep some of the details of the outside world from him. Now was when she would reveal it all. ‘Too bad the one king already left.’ "As you all probably know, there is a fraction among their members who are gifted with abilities. Whether they have the shape or talents of an animal, or they may have power with their minds or voice, in the end, they are gifted with powers. The Surfacers call them ‘mutants’.”

  "We call them the Awakened," Tallis mutters.

  “Regardless of their name or title, you know about whom I speak of.” The princess asked. When the three kings nodded, she continued. ”It was about sixty years ago, the Surfacers started to learn how to make their regur people like these ‘awakened’. They have also started to experiment and arm their already active members with powers. Giving their people who can heal faster, metal bones so they can kill with a punch, or make metal limbs with weapons built into them to arm others.”

  “Not just their guns and armored nd vessels, they are also making hidden soldiers?” Ruth’in asked. Namorita just nodded, as she hadn’t personally seen some of the altered people her father had faced in battle, she only heard of them.

  She then saw the red-skinned man start to pace while in thought, as he did Tallis asked. "Well she is in your pace, Altmorin, are you going to agree and join them?”

  The dark blue and pink man sighed before admitting. “No, no we will not.”

  Hearing that stunned the princess, Namorita was certain that she had made a compelling argument at dinner st night. Then again, she was not her mother, having a natural gift for politics. The blue-skinned woman policed her face before asking. "May I ask why you reached that conclusion?"

  “You may, but I will not answer in front of them.” King Altmorin replied.

  King Ruth’in stopped his pacing and said. “Well I for one would like to hear more, but Altmorin is correct, this should be done in a more personal setting. How much depth does your ship need?"

  "Her ship is too big for your harbor." Altmorin answered for her. When she gave him a look, he added. “Fall People Harbor is the smallest and shallowest of our cities.”

  “Alright, then I will dispatch my son and a detachment of my soldiers this afternoon to the mouth of the Nezin River, which is east of our harbor. From there they will escort you and any you bring to my city and pace. I will have them wait for up to a fortnight for your arrival." The red and pink king stated.

  "It will not take us that long to reach there, your majesty," Namorita stated.

  “I too am interested in speaking with you privately, princess, but I can wait. Have Ruth’in contact me when he is finished talking with you.” King Tallis stated, before his waters froze and cleared.

  “Swift winds, and safe travels Princess Namorita.” King Ruth’in stated before he too froze and cut off contact with them.

  That left Namorita with her handmaiden with the king who officially refused them.

  DLRhanna