Beyond

By Lady Star

Chapter 1 The castle in Chinelree

A small castle surrounded by glorious shades of gray. Mountains of cobalt gray cover the area for miles around. The castle of Sweet Water Cove, nestled in midst the great southern border, Chinelree. Stokes of trees settle in the closest mountains to one side of the castle. Two giants with few foliage adorn the back of Sweet Water Fief's secondary castle. The crudely built castle would never stand a change to even the smallest group of attacker. That was never a problem considering the treacherous mountains, and wilderness surroundings.

"Lady Star! Lady Star! "

A young girl of nine years slowly walks down a set of red stairs into a wide echoing hall. The rough walls, made of large native stones, pile like bricks. The sheets of gray on either side seem to go on very far up and across. Near the top of the outer wall, windows niched into the wall shine a drab stormy light into the hall. Other than the windows, the hallway is barren.

The girl looks tall for her age. Her long hair radiates as black as the black gods robe. Her eyes are empty emotionless pools of darkness. They look like the K'miri. Almond, rounded at the ends. She wears a dress designed for a child much younger. A drab teal short sleeved dress with an empire waist. The plain skirt comes down to her scabby knees. Her old scuffed boots silently tread on the cool stone floor.

"I'm here Methlaude." she says dully. "I'm not a Lady yet and I never intend to be one." She stops; knowing it would do no good to argue.

A woman looking in her late fourties grabs the girl crossly. She wears a traditional servant's outfit. Grey kimono with aquamarine trim, and black buttons. Her thin tight lips, wrinkled gray skin, and streaked black hair make her look like a menacing ogre.

"Don't be so frank with me. You know you can't use that tone with any other servant." She leads the girl down the right side of the hallway.

"No of course not. I save it for my favorite nanny.", the girl replies curtly, giving a fake grin. "Who would care anyways? It's not like my father would care for anything but sunrises and sunsets."

"Lady Star! You know your father can't have too many things to worry about. Especially with his weakness, his heart condition."

The girl shrugs indifferently and continues walking on her own. " That’s just the point. Father is weak. Mother is strong, she is the Shang Unicorn." She slows, dreaming delicious thoughts. "Was. She was. Before she left anyways", she adds sensibly.

The two fell silent. Methlaude felt a twang of sympathy for the young girl. She could be considered an orphan. Her mother had left when she was very young. Apparently the Shang Unicorn never really wanted to be a mother or to be a noble, but it was the will of the gods for her to be both. Kylaia al Jmaa, The Unicorn of the order of Shang, was desperately restless. As much as she loved her husband and child, she needed to escape the tyrannies of noble life. The gods granted her wish when Shakith, the Seeker came to her in a dream.

Chapter 2

Young and free. Kylaia al Jmaa steps onto her hard bed. Her white hair is piled atop her head in a braid. The smooth linen rubs against her skin, and her soft nightgown. Two whole years have passed by. She, the Shang Unicorn, had stayed put in one spot for two years. Her child of three years sighs in an attached room. She wanted to go somewhere, and she could, but something was wrong. She did not long for the warm sands of the Bazhir lands, the Pine Mountains of the Roof of the World, the sweet, Tortallan coast. Nor did she want the spicy hot of Carthak, the hill lands, the ignorant air of young Tyra, Tusaine, Maren, Scanra, Isles and all other places. What called her was far.

She snuggled into a ball, and gathered her blankets around her. "I'm going weak" she told herself with disguste as she fell asleep.

Dressed as a common boy, Kylaia stands outside a great barrack complex. Mountains, and pine trees seclude the barracks. The Shang insignia is shone everywhere. No one seems to see her there. Novices rush everywhere, completing tasks. She walks as if her steps are guided by invisible hands rushing her to the geography barrack. She stops outside a room with dim lights from the setting sun. The warm wood walls and floor smell of pine. At the back center of the room is a young girl of six writing on a slate. The girl has large dark eyes, thin fierce eyebrows, pale skin, and white hair. Kylaia walks to her younger self and seems to enter her mind.

"The capital of Tyra is Tyra city. Tyra's prosperity began when the dominion jewel was used. . .Maren. . . Tortall. . . The Yamani Isles. . . no further has man's exploration gone. what is beyond the Yamani Isles is only mythesized and dreamed. It is believed to be the homeland of the old ones." Kylaia pauses in reciting her geography facts.

"Someday I will go adventuring in faraway places."

The scenery melts and conforms to a practice court. The air smells more humid than the Grimhold mountains. The Palace of Tortall. Standing beside ten year old Kylaia is the Shang Wildcat. The Wildcat is watching the moves of an older boy. Liam Armstrong shows some intricate kicks he learned lately. Kylaia has always respected to to be Dragon, but has always felt envy green for him. He always knew and could do more than her.

"I wish I were far away where I wouldn't be humiliated by that boy"

Now, eighteen year old Kylaia faces ten giant Bazhir raiders. They completely surround her, with drawn weapons.

"Any corner of the world but here"

The cold blasted through the layers of clothes on her. Struggling, she makes a fire. Looking around, she saw mountains, pines, and glistening white snow. Twenty year old Kylaia walks into a considerably warmer tavern. After conferring with the owner, she takes off the layers of her clothes in her room. Walking downstairs, she spots the owner with a young man. He is about her age, skinny, not muscular, but apparently paints very well. He painted so many places Kylaia had seen, and had not.

"He's a traveler too" She tells herself. They would meet again.

Twenty four, with a twenty seven year old painter for a husband. Lady Kylaia al Jmaa of Sweet Water Cove awakens to the dawn sun. She thanks Shakith, guardian of the rootless, for guidance as well as more questions. She walks onto the open balcony. The veils of fine silk framing the arched door wave in the breeze. Her nightgown flows back towards the bed as her hair catches the early sunlight. She curls up onto the sofa in the lap of her husband. He wraps his arms around her, cradleing her like a fragile baby. The Sun peeks in between the mountain tops, shining directly trough Taliea Pass, casting a narrow stip of light across the balcony. In a few moments, the sun would have risen, the servants cooking, and the baby woken. But now, she was watching the sun rise, being embraced by her one love. She knew the sun might rise every morning, but being with him would not.

Chapter 3 Explorations of the Castle

Star and Methlaude reach the end of the long, wide hall. Not another soul is in sight; although, that was usuall for the empty castle. They are in a three sided square room. Slightly wider than the dimentions of the hallway. The roof is much lower than the halls. One wall opens directly to the hall. On the right, is the base of a set of read stairs meeting the corners of the room perfectly. The wall across from the stairs holds a small rounded door. The third wall hangs an intracate tapastry of crimsons, golds, and, greens.

"Go take a bath. Wash off that layer of dirt. I’ll have Glaetta come up to help you ready."

"Yes Methlaude" The girls sighs and starts up the long stairs.

The entire castle was designed by her father, Volney Rain. He was the court artist for the palace of Tortall. His secondary castle served as a retreat for him when duties were overwelming. His main castle is conveniently planted in the center of, Samette, the capitol town. He decorated it with an artists tastes in furniture, and design.

Star named her castle Birds Eye. Eventually, the villiage children she played with adopted the castles name, and the entire villiage soon did. The villige of Chinelree centers around a town fire. Everynight the large fire was lit for families to cook there food, and eat tgether with neigbors.

At a certain point the packed dirt road became stones. This was the castle district. Villigers rarly came to complain, but when they did, they spoke to ambassador Villert. Villert of Kalin, ambassador from Kalin, volunteered to take care of the castle and town. He was a slightly round man of his fifties. His brown steaked hair showed signs of his age for he was bald on top. He wore common clothes and was fond of the villige people, the castle servants, and Star.

Star looks up at the dim lamps overhead. These stairs were wide at the bottom floor, where the hall was. they graduatly got less wide untill they could barely fit two people across. The roof of the stairs at the the bottom was so low, lamps could not be hung there. The roof gradually got higher untill, on the second floor, it was as high as the dining room ceiling, three floors high. The stairs open to a small hallway. Its walls are red fabric, ornamented with wall hangings in greens and grays. The gold light fixtures radiate light onto the equally tall, but considerably thinner hall. Four thin cherry tables protrude from the walls at intervals. Mirrors framed in gold are place on the wall above them. The deep crimson carpet ends at a set of menecing wooden doors. Star touches one of the richly carved gold handles, and pushes. The door opens silently, admitting her into the dining room.

Entering the dining room always gave Star the chills. It was the emptiest, coldest room in the castle. The room's ceiling was as high as the ceilings of the third floor. On the side walls, large rectangluar windows, indentical to those in the downstairs hall, gave light to the dreary room. Like most of the rest of the castle, the stone walls were bare. An dark cherry table sits center in the room, surrounded by chairs with gold upholstery. Niether the table nor chairs have any intricate designs on them. On the ceiling, a gold chandelier hangs. It is very large, but has few candles on it. Most rest of the light comes from the windows, or light fixtures lining the walls. A small, in comparison to the room, stone fireplace burns at the end of the table. At the opposite of the fireplace is a small room decorated like the red hall. The main set of straight scarlett stairs go down to an underground social room, that extends into the rock garden, as Star called it. Two other smaller stairs curve around and up, like a tower, to the third floor. Star takes the one on the right.