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Leaving Chandaar
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| Amneris_Kuriyoshi | Date: Friday, 03 Feb 2012, 6:02 AM | Message # 1 |
 Lieutenant colonel
Group: Users
Messages: 115
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| After the meeting with Gilbert was abruptly concluded, Amneris met her maid Domnhail outside of the party headquarters and climbed into a slick black speeder. Finn was sitting pretty on a pillow across from them, happily chewing away on some stuffed toy or another. Unfortunately, she had gotten the same news (from a different source) about the possibility of the Cronese Mandate going to war. It worried her that something could happen on Chandaar, not just for her safety and those of her few friends but her family. Her father, in particular, who was elderly and already very ill. "Domnhail, is everything arranged? " she asked as she reached over and scratched Finn between the ears.
"Yes, my lady. The ambulance has taken your father to the hanger in which the shuttle is waiting." The woman nodded and checked her datapad to make sure that everything on the list was completed before she looked back to Amneris. "Are you sure that you want to do this? " It was unlike Domnhail to question, but she was afraid too.
"I am. If something happens here, I do not want my father to suffer for it. He needs the best medical attention I can find." Amneris said firmly before she leaned back in the seat. The speeder zipped easily through the streets of the capital as the two women talked.
"Where will we go? Imperial Center?" Domnhail asked as she tried to relax. Amneris had thought of that of course, bt her first trip there was so disastrous that she was unsure she would even be welcome. The Moff was likely not pleased and she always felt that the actions of those around her reflected on her as well.
"The only place that I know I have a friend." She said calmly before she picked Finn up and cuddled the puppy to her. As she thought about it, she realized that she still needed to call.
As the speeder pulled to the hangar bay, Amneris reached for a comm and dialed a number and waited for an answer as the maid watched curiously. "Vjun, Domnhail...Im calling Senator Oriel right now." They would pile out of the speeder ans onto the shuttle as she waited for a response to her message.
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| Bernard_Oriel | Date: Sunday, 19 Feb 2012, 3:46 PM | Message # 2 |
 Colonel general
Group: Users
Messages: 803
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| Oriel was at this time simply in his office on Imperial Center having a rather dull afternoon. While he was all for "I have the Defense Committee now I mean to enjoy it", there was a rather large amount of thankless bureaucracy innate in the position, although he supposed that was what the money was for.
The call to himself on his personal number was quickly put through, especially after the caller mentioned her name, the Senator would turn to his holocamera and open a simple video link "Amneris.. how may I be of service to you today?" he said with a friendly smile. In the background she would be able to see out of his window on Imperial Center, the speeders gently cruising across the blue skies and the hubbub of the city planet silently playing itself out.
Bernard Oriel
Senator for the Planet of Vjun
1st Earl Malreaux (Second Creation)
Vjun Delegation to the Imperial Senate
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| Amneris_Kuriyoshi | Date: Sunday, 19 Feb 2012, 4:30 PM | Message # 3 |
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Lieutenant colonel
Group: Users
Messages: 115
Status: Offline
| Amneris paused as she was finally patched through to the Senator. "Senator Oriel, I am so sorry to have called you like this. I know you said that if there was anything that I ever needed that I could call you." She started before she glanced over her shoulder at the medical capsule that was being gingerly loaded onto the ship behind her. Her father was in it, resting comfortably much to her relief. The young woman was feeling very stressed about the entire situation.
"I am sure you are acutely aware that there is a possibility of war in the Cronese Mandate. I am going to be honest and say that it terrifies me to think of that happening. But moreover, I am afraid for my fathers health. If something happens on Chandaar, I want to make sure that he is taken care of." Amneris paused again and trailed her fingertips through her honey brown hair. The ship behind her would be immediately recognizable to him as the one he had left there for her use, as she had no other means to go off planet. It might have been a bit cliche, but she really wouldn't have known any different.
With a sigh, she spoke again. "I want to bring him to Vjun, Senator, may I?" She finally asked, her embarrassment at the situation obvious. "I promise that we will not be any trouble...I was just....I was not sure where else to go." Amneris said, and as she did, she took the time to board the ship herself. If he said no, she was sure there would be other options, but Bernard was the only person she could think of to go to first. Not only that, she wanted to.
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| Bernard_Oriel | Date: Thursday, 22 Mar 2012, 6:00 AM | Message # 4 |
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Colonel general
Group: Users
Messages: 803
Status: Offline
| As the 1 hour limit before the Blockade was announced took effect matters continued, Oriel having lost the connection for some time. There was a note of stress in his voice from the delay.
"Apologies, I was cut off by a plasma storm in the vicinity of Vjun. War is a very real possibility and a blockade of Chandaar is iminent (I am told there are less than 60 minutes until it's imposition). I have secured for you a Vjunite noble diplomatic pass to leave on the ship stored in your name at the Port of Chandaar, this will be programmed into it's transponder. You may bring up to eight persons or non-sentients including yourself in order to be protected by the pass. The pilot droid aboard will be briefed with flight paths and will follow your orders, food and medical supplies are also aboard."
"Vjun is a long journey, may I suggest that you surrender yourself to the Imperial Coalition Forces, I am sure they will fit you with suitable fuel to journey there at my request, equally it may be easier for you to head straight along the Greater Cronese Arc and down to Imperial Center where I am heading presently."
He spoke with a kinder tone after relaying the essentials.
"I must urge you, feel no embarassment in asking for help, it is freely given with a kind heart."
Bernard Oriel
Senator for the Planet of Vjun
1st Earl Malreaux (Second Creation)
Vjun Delegation to the Imperial Senate
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| Amneris_Kuriyoshi | Date: Friday, 23 Mar 2012, 12:23 PM | Message # 5 |
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Lieutenant colonel
Group: Users
Messages: 115
Status: Offline
| Having listened carefully to the Senator, and of course already being on board the ship that he had indicated to her, she ended the connection after she expressed her sincerest thanks. They settled onto the ship and took off. It wasn't long before their pilot surrendered the vessel to the Imperial Coalition forces and were fueled and supplied with no questions asked, she assumed due to a call from the Senator from Vjun. Once in hyperspace, Amneris was finally able to relax some, and she spent the entire journey there with her father, reading to him, despite the fact that he was in a medically induced coma. It was for the best, really, and it would make the trip easier on them all.
Some time later when they arrived at Vjun, the pilot informed them of such and then was granted permission to land in a hangar bay near to the consulate, which he did.
Amneris had a rather odd feeling about it all, like she was doing what was best, but she wasn't really sure. She wasn't particularly happy nor did she feel safe on Chandaar, not at the fault of anyone there, but because of everything that was going on with the rebellion. It scared her and she just wanted to make sure her family was safe. She got up and moved to leave the ship as the medical droid on board tended to the capsule that her father was in, her mother staying with him to supervise, of course.
(Autoed a bit with Bernie's approval, of course.)
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| Bernard_Oriel | Date: Monday, 26 Mar 2012, 12:50 PM | Message # 6 |
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Colonel general
Group: Users
Messages: 803
Status: Offline
| It was a gloomy day on Vjun (it was always a gloomy day on Vjun). Lightning cracked above but no rain fell. Breathing the slightly humid atmosphere would have Amneris slightly irritated in her sinuses after a few minutes unless she was pre-medicated. Once inside the buildings the air would be slightly musty but acid free, the re-cycled air of the noble houses being intentionally kept so to enhance the "patina" of smell given off by their ancient furniture and assorted antiquities. They would all be given the most comfy if rather dusty suites imaginable in the forboding old castle. Rogi, Oriel's hunchbacked, bowlegged and scarred manservant was always at the beck and call of their guethts, speaking with a dithtinctive lithp.
Doctors would naturally be made available for the lady's father, and indeed he would be offered the most up to date medical care possible in the medical suite of Chateaux Malreaux by Bernard's personal doctor. On returning several hours after her, he would meet her at the end of a long dark and imposing portrait gallery as the rain began for the evening, down in bitter end there were forcefield flashes in the town from the anti-acid shields erected on the rooves of some of the cheaper houses (the more expensive simply being built from acid-resistant material) and bathing Oriel in an occasional blue Glow as well as the yellow/white glow of the lightning which crackled with the rain.
He turned to her, dressed in his casual attire, smoking jacket et al. "Amneris, I'm so glad you escaped that ghastly place. I trust you and your people were treated well?"
Bernard Oriel
Senator for the Planet of Vjun
1st Earl Malreaux (Second Creation)
Vjun Delegation to the Imperial Senate
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| Amneris_Kuriyoshi | Date: Monday, 26 Mar 2012, 3:07 PM | Message # 7 |
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Lieutenant colonel
Group: Users
Messages: 115
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| The Wynlan family had, indeed, been well taken care of. While the bow legged, scarred manservant with a lisp had set Amneris in a state of unease at first, he quickly proved that he was not the stereotype and quickly attended to the needs of the family. She was actually taken aback at how kind everyone was being and how attentive they were to her parents, though she should not have been as they were the reason she had brought them here.
That evening, Amneris found herself in front of a large floor to ceiling window at the end of a portrait gallery, after a slow roam through to look at the paintings and read the postings next to each one to learn about the individuals. It was all very formal, she thought, as her family had nothing like that. Then again, compared to Bernard and his title, she was nothing more than a commoner. When Bernard came up beside her, she gave him a sidelong glance.
"We have been, thank you..." She started as she unfolded the arms she had crossed at her midsection and dropped them to her sides. "I am not sure how I am going to begin to repay your kindness and consideration. You could have just as easily refused after what happened when you tried to visit on Chandaar." Amneris said before she turned her gaze back out the window. Vjun had been so dreary since they arrived, silently she wondered if it was like that all of the time. And she wondered what the blue flashes were from, some sort of force field she assumed, but for what she was unsure. "All of that aside, your home is beautiful...."
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| Bernard_Oriel | Date: Wednesday, 28 Mar 2012, 2:20 PM | Message # 8 |
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Colonel general
Group: Users
Messages: 803
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| "Beautiful.. yes.." Oriel said, enchanted with her beauty as the electric lighting flickered off momentarily, bathing him only in the uncanny glow from the forcefields in town. "I trust you have not found the atmosphere too distasteful? Perhaps I could invite you to a little supper, just the two of us?" he said, taking a pinch of snuff from his snuff box and insufflating rapidly before giving a small sneeze.
He gestured through the door to his left, which swung open silently, cobwebs indicating the door had not been used for hundreds of years broke as it did so, a smell... similar.. to pork wafted out. "Rogi?" came Oriel's aristocratic tone.
"Yethhhhh thuuuuur?" spoke Rogi, somehow being directly behind Oriel, having apparently slipped there in an unexpected fashion.
"Rogi, I thought I had told you not to do that! And I've told you about these cobwebs.. and the flickering lights" he said firmly.
"The old mithtwethhh inthithted thurrrr" the servant said slightly resentfully, "The cobwebthhhh add tone thurr, anthient mithtery and the implicathun of dark fortheth unknown.."
"And whats for supper?" Oriel said perceptively, clearly this was a argument he had many times to little effect, Rogi was notable for keeping several dozen pet spiders he had trained to spin cobwebs in all the rooms.
"Thwinefleth and thauthageth," said Rogi, still clearly upset about the lights. "I'll thop tomorrow, if her ladythip giveth me inthtructionth."
"Is swineflesh the same as pork?" said Oriel. People in drought-stricken areas would have paid good money to have Rogi pronounce 'sausages'.
"Yethhh thurrr," said Rogi, contriving with his words and eyebrows to imply there was some mysterious alternative available if the Oriel so wished.
"And what's in the sausages?"
"Er . . . meat?" said Rogi, looking as though he was ready to run. "Good. We'll give them a try." The walls of the dining room were carved panels of wood engraved with scenes of madness, horror and various other themes normally associated with the works of Hieronymous Bosch. Flicking a remote from his pocket Oriel pressed a button at each, it rotated to show more desirable (if gloomy) inscriptions from some ancient arcane text.
"Previous owners and their staff I'm afraid" he said apologetically. "Got rather too 'into' the whole decaying grandeur business."
Bernard Oriel
Senator for the Planet of Vjun
1st Earl Malreaux (Second Creation)
Vjun Delegation to the Imperial Senate
Message edited by Bernard_Oriel - Wednesday, 28 Mar 2012, 2:25 PM |
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| Amneris_Kuriyoshi | Date: Wednesday, 28 Mar 2012, 2:46 PM | Message # 9 |
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Lieutenant colonel
Group: Users
Messages: 115
Status: Offline
| Amneris shook her head delicately. "No, hardly. Though I wonder why the roofs glow blue when it rains here?" She finally asked before she looked up when the lights flickered off. "Does that happen often?" she asked before she offered him a delicate (and clean) fine linen handkerchief when he sneezed.
When he offered supper, she nodded, suddenly realizing that she was quite hungry. In thinking about it, she hadn't eaten all day with everything that had been going on. It had been the stress, she was sure. "I would love to have supper with you, Senator. I feel horrible for impo...." When Rogi appeared, seemingly out of thin air, Amneris nearly jumped out of her skin. The hunchback had startled her when they first arrived, but his stealth managed to make her jump again.
He was hard for her to understand, and it took her a few moment to decipher his rather damp words. "Uhm, yes...that would be lovely. Thank you." she said to the man before she turned her gaze back to Senator Oriel, and then followed him into the dining area, taking care to avoid the spider webs in case their creators were nearby.
Amneris took her time and looked at carved panels idly before he turned them, and she reached out and rested her hand on his forearm lightly. "It's alright. I like it. It's not.....I'm not...." she paused. She didn't feel like the walls were closing in, despite the stifling darkness and dim candlelight. "Nevermind. So....supper?"
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| Bernard_Oriel | Date: Thursday, 29 Mar 2012, 5:23 PM | Message # 10 |
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Colonel general
Group: Users
Messages: 803
Status: Offline
| "Only on some of the poorer houses, they glow because the rain here is acidic, sometimes it can be quite deadly. The cheaper more modern housing is not built from the ancient Obsidian which lies beneath our earth and so erodes in the acid rain - so they depend on cheap forcefields to keep it off. Hence the blue glow." he pulled out the chair for her at one end of a twenty foot long table, set for two.
He helped her into the chair as she seemed a little faint "I apologize, the taste in interior design of my predecessors was quite ridiculous. You should see the library, all handwritten arcane tomes crackling with ancient wisdom and age. Oh, and the dribbly candles on skulls, they've got a few of those I think too. There was an ancient bird they had tethered over the doorway which they had trained to say "Nevermore", it's a truly strange if rather enchantingly fascinating place really.. so.. different.. from elsewhere.."
Oriel's hand caressed hers momentarily, his skin warm against her pale and wan hand. There was a clattering as Rogi began to bring the foot into the room onto a small trolley, it's casters rumbling ominously across the hard wood flooring. "Can I get you a glass of something?" he said with a friendly smile, trying to make light of the situation.
Bernard Oriel
Senator for the Planet of Vjun
1st Earl Malreaux (Second Creation)
Vjun Delegation to the Imperial Senate
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| Amneris_Kuriyoshi | Date: Thursday, 29 Mar 2012, 6:40 PM | Message # 11 |
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Lieutenant colonel
Group: Users
Messages: 115
Status: Offline
| Faint would have been a good word to describe how the young woman felt at the shock of the graphic panels that stretched across the room. She had never seen anything like them, had never been exposed to such graphic violence. It was a bit of a culture shock, though she did try to hide it the best she could. "Elsewhere...yes." She murmured. It occurred to her that he was referring to Chandaar, that being the only place, aside from the all too brief visit to Imperial Center (that was disastrous, so she thought), she had ever been.
At his coaxing, she settled into the large, backed velvet chair and turned her gaze to him. Her eyes dropped to the hand that he caressed and a moment later, she turned her own hand over and squeezed his lightly. "You're too kind, Senator, really." The woman thought about it for a moment. "Whatever you are having is fine with me, thank you." Amneris said as she withdrew her hand, almost in a shy manner, and placed it onto her lap before she straightened up in the seat.
"I think that I would enjoy seeing the library some time. I feel though that I am being terribly imposing. I know that you must be horribly busy and have many more important things to do than entertain a silly girl." It was true, she felt, as he was a Senator and she so young and sheltered. His house alone was proving to be a unique experience, however. "I promise that we will not be in your way at all, on inconvenient in any way." It wasn't that she was uncomfortable, not at all, just that she was absolutely so embarrassed by the entire situation.
Amneris diverted her attention from the Vjunite to the vase of crimson hued flowers on the table. She would reach out and remove one from the vase, tearing the delicate ivory flesh of the pad of her index finger on one of its harsh thorns as she did so. "Oh." She gasped, immediately releasing the bloom back into the vase before she withdrew her hand and a few drops of blood dripped onto the pale tablecloth.
Message edited by Amneris_Kuriyoshi - Sunday, 01 Apr 2012, 6:21 PM |
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| Bernard_Oriel | Date: Tuesday, 03 Apr 2012, 3:01 AM | Message # 12 |
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Colonel general
Group: Users
Messages: 803
Status: Offline
| Rogi left the foot cooling in the centre of the table, under the flickering lights which emulated candles placed there. Oriel licked his lips slightly as he moved to the ther end of the table, a good twenty feet long he had to raise his voice over the rumble of the thunder, "No my dear.. You are no trouble at all.. I can assure you..". He blinked momentarily, snapping out of a momentary trance. "A pleasure indeed to have company, with only the staff it can be a little lonely in the dark watches of the afternoon..."
In the corner was a spinning wheel, a cork placed over the needle.. Oh yes.. The former inhabitants had been a bit fan of spinning their own wool (or straw into gold), but the danger was always in the fact they had the needles on them poisoned with a sedative. They had been strange people.
As the blood dropped to the table Rogi quickly shambled towards her... "Can I help you Mithtwethh" he said.. Knowing the former owners predelictions he was keen to avoid having to bleach the whole white table cloth. "May I lend you a hand Ladythip?" he spoke as a man who had several on ice as they spoke.
Oriel, knowing exactly the enthusiasm for "improvementh" that Rogi had, he would not want to see Amneris' hand on something which would mean he had to put up the lightning rod. He took her hand gently in his and took a napkin.. Holding it around the wound.
He looked up, kneeling next to her as he dabbed at her finger. "Have you given thought to your future? If you did wish to study we have many ancient tomes here.. In some cases thousands of years old, I am sure we could find you suitable.. Diversion.. Within their pages.
Bernard Oriel
Senator for the Planet of Vjun
1st Earl Malreaux (Second Creation)
Vjun Delegation to the Imperial Senate
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| Amneris_Kuriyoshi | Date: Tuesday, 03 Apr 2012, 4:38 AM | Message # 13 |
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Lieutenant colonel
Group: Users
Messages: 115
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| "Thank you, Rogi, but I think the Senator and I are quite alright. I am sure we will call if we require anything else." She smiled warmly at the hunchback to set his little pitter pattering heart at ease, and hopefully send him on his merry way for the moment. After a few seconds, Amneris turned her gaze to Bernard, who was now kneeling on the floor next to her.
She hadn't thought about anything for the past few days aside from leaving. Soon she knew she would not have any family left as her parents weren't long for the world. She had no friends, aside from her ladies maid, Domnhail. No education aside from the preppy finishing school she had attended, and no discernible skills. "No, I have not thought about it, Senator." She said quietly assurance watched him dab at her finger with the napkin. "I suppose I shall have to return to Chandaar eventually." She forced a small smile before her gaze was caught by the spinning wheel. What an odd place for it, she thought idly.
She looked back to him for a moment, her hazel eyes sad at the thought. Chandaar felt like a cage, and she hated being locked in it. "I think the bleeding has stopped. " Amneris said, noting that his hand was still wrapped around hers. It hardly bothered her though, as she was quite taken with the Senator. Idly, she reached up with her free hand and brushed one of his golden locks with her fingertips to tuck it behind his ear. Just at that moment, lightening crackled across the sky and thunder rumbled deeply, echoing through the seeming 'house of horrors' that Bernard resided in. "I think that...the future is too uncertain and we should think in the present....."
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| Bernard_Oriel | Date: Monday, 16 Apr 2012, 4:26 AM | Message # 14 |
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Colonel general
Group: Users
Messages: 803
Status: Offline
| Rogi gave a rather displeased look before shambling off "Yethhhh mithtwethhh" he said prior to his shamble away.
"Well, I think you're essentially a free agent. Do you want to return to your marriage with that man? I'd be more than happy to have you on my staff or as my guest indefinitely, the locals as you've seen are a little... eccentric.. and it would be nice to have the company of such a lovely and elegant lady.." as the bleeding stopped he clasped her hands tightly for a moment, giving one a gentle kiss before sitting next to her instead of at the end of the dining table.
"I suppose the question is also whether your father would be comfortable remaining on Vjun, or if he would miss his homeland dreadfully?" outside the window an owl perched on the window sill, it's little umbrella frame tied around it protecting it from the rain, it gave a coo. "There are plenty of ladies clothes in the house from the last Lady Malreaux, they're several decades old but they've been kept in stasis so they're in excellent condition."
He fetched one of the trays of food "Notice how they've provided us with about twenty peoples food" he said opening it. "The rest goes down to the servants, so they dine on what I do! A little cheeky I feel but I've no problem with it, offworld food is pretty scarce on Vjun, mostly it's just beets, roots and legumes here."
Bernard Oriel
Senator for the Planet of Vjun
1st Earl Malreaux (Second Creation)
Vjun Delegation to the Imperial Senate
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| Amneris_Kuriyoshi | Date: Monday, 16 Apr 2012, 5:44 AM | Message # 15 |
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Lieutenant colonel
Group: Users
Messages: 115
Status: Offline
| Amneris watched the hunchback leave and sighed before she snapped her attention back to Bernard. A flush crossed her cheeks when he kissed her hand and then took a seat next to her. "I am not sure that I want to return there. It was like a cage sometimes. My father is not long for this world, Bernard..." she said, testing the waters by using his first name. "I am not sure that he even realizes where ye is. Your physician said that he has days, but maybe not even that." There was no sign of pain or grief that crossed her face, oddly, as most people would have been in mourning during such a time. No, not Amneris. She had loved her father, truly White she had also been taught to keep her emotions to herself.
It was hard to do around Bernard, however, as evident by her flustered blush just moments before. The cooing at the window distracted her for a moment, and the tiny owl set her heart aflutter.
"You know what I would really like? I mean, truly...something I have always wanted to do is see Imperial Center. Zarc took me there once, but I really only saw the inside of his apartment. He was afraid someone was going to hurt me to get to him." She admitted. It was hard for her to believe, but she had taken his word for it.
"I do like it here though. " The place had enough of an air of mystery to keep her interested.
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