After The Revolution

Author's Note: I'm still working on Say a Prayer. Sorry for taking so long with it. However, an idea for a short story has been bugging me, and I must write it! It doesn't have much conflict. All graphically sexual descriptions in my stories involve characters that are at least 18 years old, often older than that. It will take a while for sex to start happening. I'm not even sure if this story will be very satisfying. Oh well. Thanks for reading! I appreciate it.

******

It was a very quiet and a very painful summer for her. In spite of the hot weather this evening, Taida Donatal was folded into a desperate ball underneath her bed's covers. Her father's favorite punishment was in effect, off to bed with absolutely no dinner. She could have crept into the pantry to swipe a hunk of cheese or bread away, but if she were caught, that would earn her the second favorite punishment, a beating.

She probably could have taken the beating while full, but not while she was hungry. It wasn't worth the risk.

What had she done to deserve a lack of food? She'd asked him about replacing her lost dowry, a few pieces of jewelry inherited from her late mother. They had been taken from her bedchamber without her consent. Since there were no servants in the house, the only person she could imagine taking the dowry was her father.

"Don't think of yourself, you wretched creature," Mariu Donatal had said to his daughter with a poisoned tone and a livid brow. "This filthy government has nearly ruined me! Now go on to your room. I don't want to see you poking your clumsy fingers in the food. A clear stomach will clear your head. You'll save me some coin while we're at it."

This filthy government ...

A great, stretching gurgle painfully forced itself out of her belly. She cringed and dug her palm there, trying to ease her aching.

Taida had never been overly political. Her father was different. He'd been extremely loyal to the previous king. That was sensible because the king had chosen Mariu Donatal to be his favorite artist. Paintings and sculptures were commissioned, and that led to even more high class customers. Life had been so wonderful with the previous king ... well ... life had been wonderful for Mariu Donatal.

But ... for many people ... it hadn't been so wonderful. Many people saw the king as giddy, cruel, and out of touch with even the upper middle classes, let alone with what the lower classes had to deal with.

Then came the famine, which was caused by an overlong lack of rain.

Did the king open the emergency supply of carefully stored food to the people?

No. He only threw a royal ball to celebrate his birthday.

Her stomach growled again, and she remembered the sight of several hungry beggars in the streets of the capital. Her mother, sweet thing that she was, made a habit of keeping small, wrapped vegetable pies in her pockets and casually placing them into the desperate, dirty hands of as many starving people as possible.

Civil War was inevitable. The men and women that gathered up to fight against the king were called The Givers by the common people because they were known for stealing literal food from the wealthiest pantries and dividing the food among the starving masses. Sometimes they even traveled to nearby countries and stole food from there. The higher classes simply called them The Insurgence.

It turned out that not all of the higher classes were loyal to the king, however. Some were happy to help fund an army against him. Despite that fact, the leader of The Givers wasn't a man with a noble title, at least as far as anyone knew. He was proud to announce to all who asked that he was the son of a blacksmith and a whore.

But that man ... he'd become the new king ... and it turned out that in some cases he didn't exactly need an army, because somehow, some way, he'd learned sorcery. Wild stories of fire and shadows being used as weapons against the body and mind soaked into the nation like water to a sponge.

He was every bit as vicious as the former king. Every single aristocrat that refused to kneel to him was beheaded, and not with a guillotine. Oh no, the new king used an usually large sword that glowed with an eerie green flame.

Well, the exact method of killing them was a rumor. All Taida knew was that they had been killed.

His Royal Majesty, Rutiago Severtana I, was in charge of the great nation of Boscira. Most of Mariu Donatal's customers were dead, and he was too stubborn to accept any customer who was loyal to the new king, which meant that there were almost no customers. He had to settle for teaching his crafts at a university, which meant they had to a move to different part of the capital. The pay wasn't much, but it was something.

The stupidest and possibly most insulting part was how there had been a few requests from the new king to have Mariu Donatal create works of art for him, as the old king had. Her father had too much pride for that. He'd rather suffer as a teacher.

Not only did they have no more servants, which wasn't particularly awful, but they had to slowly sell off all their treasures. Taida supposed that one must do what one must to survive ... but ... but ... she was going hungry as if they had no room in the budget! There wasn't even a famine anymore!! The image of Mariu Donatal's rather round belly poking out under his dark blue tunic made her want to chew her fingernails and suck on her thumb. At least the sweaty, salty taste might soothe her cravings.

And her dowry ...

Did he really need to sell that bit of treasure too?

Without an adequate dowry, a suitable marriage would be difficult. Not only that, but Taida was well aware of how her physical beauty was gradually evaporating. Lack of proper nutrition did that to people. No dowry, no beauty, all that meant was that a good marriage for her was out of the question. She was ruined.

Tears leaked between her closed eyelids as she began whining as a sad puppy would. Her face became wet and hot. Her pillow was soon damp.

Her brutal mind was teasing her, dropping memories of delicious, wonderful food into her thoughts. The sights ... the smells ... the tastes ...

Sliced of toasted bread, soaked in a jelly made of egg yolk, rosewater, and wine. Then fried. Then saffron and honey added on top.

Bacon flavored broth with thick vegetable chunks and plain dumplings.

Buttery rice gruel with scrambled eggs, salted to perfection.

Roasted beef served with a bowl of firm but easily chewed beans and a side of potato slices carefully fried so that the outside was crispy but the inside was fluffy.

A large potato with thick slices of meaty bacon wrapped and tied about it. Baked so that the juices of the bacon would seep into the potato, making every single bite taste like the best of pork.

Shiny, hard boiled eggs, salt lightly added.

Openly, without any shame, Taida wailed and sobbed. Her fingers slid up to her throat, where a plain necklace waited to be fidgeted with. It was made of a leather string and a common pebble serving as a pendant. As her nails tapped the little stone, she almost felt a shaving of hope. This was a good luck charm, wasn't it? She imagined so. She couldn't remember the exact reason for keeping the cheap thing, but she did believe it had something to do with luck.

BANG!! BANG!! BANG!!

"Hey, are you Miss Taida Donatal?"

"Hmmmmmmmmmmgggggggggnnnnn!!" Taida groaned as the unknown voice interrupted her crying.

"Miss Donatal?" More banging on the door. "We require your family's presence at the royal castle. I'm here with an official order from His Majesty himself."

What? Oh no.

Taida thought she knew why. King Rutiago was offended at all of the refusals. He wanted blood.

And there was no way out of it. When a king had his mind set on something, he could send an entire army to help him accomplish a goal.

She was defeated before she even had a chance to fight.

A bit of dizziness bothered her as she tried to come out of bed. It was an unfortunately well known occurrence. She clenched her thighs and screwed her eyes shut, waiting for the watery, bobbing feelings to go away. Then she called out to the voice outside her door, "I'm coming!"

"I suggest you pack a bag. You might stay there a good while." Was that a man's or a woman's voice?

Taida's pale blonde eyebrows lowered. A bag? If they were to be executed, why would they need to pack anything?

Well, maybe the king wanted to show some mercy? Maybe he wanted to give the artist a few days to reconsider before resorting to violence?

Taida tugged on her necklace. Then she nodded to herself and looked for a bag.

A few minutes later, she opened the exit door of her bedchamber. She learned that the voice from before had belonged to a woman. She didn't think it was a woman at first, because that person was wearing expensive looking armor, and she was so tall that her helmet nearly grazed the ceiling. The helmet's visor was positioned upwards, and Taida could see a face that seemed on the darker side. She probably had a soldier's tan.

The armored woman introduced herself as Land Captain Astrida Garver. Normally, she'd have more important things to do than collect a small family from their home and escort them off to the castle. However, the king was becoming more and more impatient. So, he sent his favorite soldier to see to it that the job was done. This is what she told Taida, at least.

Her grumbling and lightly cursing father was leaving the house by the time Taida had stepped into the common room. There were a few more armored soldiers there, and they were oddly quiet. It was as if they knew they didn't have to scream in order to be intimidating.

Taida went outside. First, she saw more armored soldiers, and they were ignoring the curious yet timid expressions of the passers-by. Then she saw a lavish carriage bearing a crest completely different from the generations old royal crest of the recent past. Before, the royal family had a crest the shape of an oval with two mighty bears fighting each other against a background of pine trees. This new crest, which had probably been invented by some contemporary artist, was in the shape of a trefoil knot. Inside each loop there were different symbols. One was a bundle of wheat. Another was an angry bit of flame. The last was a thick blade sunk into a hunk of earth.

Stumbling a little, caught by a soldier who helped her get back to an upright position, Taida feebly tried not to pass out. Once she was inside the carriage, sitting across from her red-faced father, there was some relief. Her eyes closed and she happily let the darkness consume her brain. It was better to sleep through hunger. At least her dreams could be full of food.

When her eyes opened, the only light she noticed were the lit lanterns hanging on the carriage outside. She saw the dangling fire through metal grate windows. The shadowed form before her gave her biting words. That was definitely her father.

The carriage's doors were opened for them. They exited. Another soldier had to catch Taida because she nearly collapsed again.

"Are you unwell?" the soldier asked, sounding like a concerned man.

Taida tried to reassure him, but her words came out in pieces. She heard her father's voice. "Best get on with it, then!" Then she felt her father's hand grip her thin wrist. She was yanked away from the soldier and dragged along in a fashion similar to what a small child would do with a fabric doll.

In the days of the previous king, Taida and her father had attended the Royal Court on occasion. This was because of her father's skills and exquisite artworks that the elites often desired. The king had wanted many, many sculptures and paintings of various things. Those had been fine days. The memories of the castle were still fresh in her mind.

Standing tall on a cliff overlooking a rushing river and a copious forest, it was a beautifully arranged building. There were three dense walls around the keep, each with their own gates, the tallest in the center and the shortest in the outermost position. It was nighttime, but Taida remembered that the during the day the stone walls glittered a bright white. The roofs of the keep and walls' towers were a color between blue and gray.

They were no longer participants at the Royal Court in such a glorious place. They were enemies.

But she couldn't wonder much about that. She was going to faint again. Through her chemise and skirt, she felt the stone pathway against her knees. The handle of her bag fell from her loosened fingers and made an unforgiving thump of a noise.

She heard Land Captain Astrida's voice ringing out. "What are you doing?!"

***

The next time she was aware of herself, her back and bottom were on a chair. The air was lightly scented by what she assumed was incense. Then heavenly aroma of fresh vegetable bread surged into her lungs. Her eyes fluttered open. Two gloved hands were holding a wooden plate loaded with slices of bread under her face.

The voice she heard was Captain Astrida's. "Go on, take it. You look like you need it."

That was all the invitation she needed. Her fingernails tore holes into the bread as she snatched the all the food up, putting as much of it into her mouth as possible.

It was the most beautiful, most scrumptious, most wonderful thing in the world. Her belly seemed to dance with joy.

"Woah, don't be so fast." One of the captain's hands went to her shoulder. "Your stomach might be withered for all I know. You might get cramps or become ill from shocking your body." She heard the wooden plate clacking onto a table nearby. Then she heard some other wooden thing scrape that table. "Have a bit of wine, Miss." Taida paused from her well appreciated meal and looked up at a wooden goblet. With fingers that still pinched at bread, she managed to hold onto the stem of the goblet and sip at some wine. Then she handed it back to the captain and continued to basically inhale bread.

A wrinkling, stabbing pain in her belly came. She cringed and forced herself to swallow the rest of her bread.

"I warned you, Miss. You need to be more careful with your body." Clothing rustled has the captain crouched down on one knee. She wasn't wearing armor anymore. Thanks to the lit sconces and rustic chandeliers, Taida could see quite a bit of her. She had shoulder length hair of a light brown color, or at least that's what Taida assumed. Firelight was inferior to daylight.

The captain was dressed like a man, wearing a bright yellow tunic with dark, embroidered outlines of large flowers and leaves. However, there was a rather feminine garland of flowers placed upon her head. Taida imagined one of the servants' children had placed it there.

"I can't believe it took us so long to notice you were hungry," Astrida Garver said with something breezy in her voice. She sounded much more feminine than before. "Have you eaten much today? Go on and tell me. I don't want to interrogate you as I would a criminal."

Closing her lips around her fingers, trying to catch the lingering traces of flavor with an idle tongue, Taida lazily murmured a wordless noise. Then, understanding that there was no point in hiding the truth from such a strong woman, she gave long, sleepy words.

"Hmmm ... I had breakfast and lunch, but I wasn't given dinner. I eat every day, but on some days I don't have very much."

"Some days, huh? I wonder if that means a few or most." The captain's shoulder quirked up and down as her nose flexed with derision. "But at least you've been eating. You haven't been eating enough, though." Miss Garver got back to her feet. Then she turned her head and said to a maid, "Look after her. Don't let her leave this room until she gets hungry again." Looking back down at Taida, the captain said, "I must go. Please remain here until you're asked to leave."

As the tall woman left, the door creaking as it opened and closed, Taida straightened her back. She soon understood that she was in a reception room. A few tapestries were hanging on some of the stone walls, but she couldn't make out the finer details of the beautiful imagery in the fabrics. Normally, tapestries would keep the cold out, but it was summer. So, there weren't as many on display. They were mostly there to look nice.

The maid the captain had spoken to was straightening up the least heavy furniture. She had a mildly stressed expression on her face. Then she approached Taida with her hands folded together near her belly. "Miss, that wasn't a full meal. When you grow hungry again, please let someone know. Don't let yourself faint again."

Taida nodded. Then she started fidgeting with her dry and cracking thumbs, wondering what in the world she was meant to do. The maid sunk onto a wooden stool at one point. She didn't try to start a conversation, probably because she didn't know what to say.

Taida heard the door whining. Her pale blue eyes looked towards the sound. A brightly dressed man holding a harp entered the room with a cheerful greeting. He stood before Taida and made a few jokes. They were moderately funny. Taida would have laughed if she wasn't so concerned. The king had sent an entertainer for her? Why? What was happening to her father?

His eyelids tightening, the entertainer tied his harp to his waist and put his hand inside a pouch that was also tied up there. He pulled out three palm-sized balls and began a juggling routine, continuing to tell jokes as if he wasn't juggling at all. Sensing that she might have been rude, Taida politely clapped her hands and nodded.

The entertainer continued to try his best to keep her from being bored for a long time. Eventually, he even put his balls away and freed his harp so he could pluck the strings and sing. It was pleasant enough. Taida reacted positively again.

After a short time, she was hungry again, although not tragically so. Taida turned to the nervous maid and put her hand to her belly as if she was pregnant. The maid's eyes lit up. She shot up from her seat and asked, "Are you hungry now, Miss?" Taida nodded. The maid curtsied and said, "Please follow me, then."

***

The place she was led to ...

The place she was led to was the throne room.

It was a long room with tall, arched windows on each long side. Each lovely window framed starlight, and climbing roses of various pale shades. Multiple, evenly spaced, chandeliers glowed from the ceiling. The long rug she walked on was vibrantly red with sparkling embroidery of gold colored thread bordering the edges. Armored guards stood in rows, swords at their hips.

Taida vaguely recalled a time when she'd appeared in this room with her father, a time when even the highest ranking men would give her curious looks, a time when her breasts were slightly large and her cheeks weren't hollow. It was also a time when she could afford fine creams to keep her hands soft, a time when there were a few servants to help with housework, not that Taida thought housework was demeaning or anything like that.

At the end of the beautiful room, there was a single empty throne. There was enough room for two thrones, but as of right now, only one was required. It was very grand, standing on a raised platform accessible by a set of stairs adorned by a geometric mosaic pattern of gold, white, red, and black. The throne itself was tall and sturdy, seeming to be made of black metal. The cushions were just as red as the rug leading to the stairs.

As Taida stood before the lovely mosaic staircase, hoping for more instructions, the maid left her, saying that her father would arrive soon. A few moments later, Mariu Donatal was escorted into the throne room by a different maid, and that maid left him too. The man stood to his daughter's left, scratching at his chin and mumbling something about a lack of good manners.