The escort guided Alianora and Sir Ingram to the door of the receiving room.

He knocked twice, then gripped the handle.

Alianora gave a silent, yet commanding expression, and her captain responded with an acknowledging nod.

"I will remain outside my lady," he said, then after a short pause and a thoughtful stroke of his beard, he muttered, "actually, I think I might reward myself with a meal at the royal dining hall."

He cheerily turned to the escort.

"And you, have you eaten today?"

"My commitments are here."

"Nonsense." Sir Ingram chuckled and slapped a heavy palm against the smaller man's shoulder, sending him stumbling. "The King is in good hands with his capable neice at his side."

"I cannot."

"Oh yes you can." He leaned in close and spoke in a slightly hushed tone. "I don't think you understand how important it is that men like us must distance ourselves from royal concerns. A misheard word, an unintended eavesdropping of a private meeting between nobles. . . .well, you're a smart man. Surely you would know the consequences."

The man hesitated. "Though you have a point I-"

"Good man!" Sir Ingram slapped him once again on the shoulder, and before he could protest, pressed him along down the hall. "A good welcome home feast just wouldn't be proper without good company."

After the two disappeared, Alianora turned to the door, opened it, then stepped through.

The receiving room was perfectly square with dome-like glass walls on three sides with white curtains pulled away to afford a majestic view of the desolate kingdom amongst the dusty plains below and make more apparent the castle's sole commanding presence atop the only known mountain for over a thousand leagues. A collection of tapestries hung in the center from the high ceiling, decorated with intricately woven portraits of past noble families and lush, garden-like vistas, long since withered to the poisons of the land.

All were relics from an age forever lost.

Littered in ordered rows across the marble floor and displayed like trophies on gray pillars, were gadgets and trinkets of varied shapes and complexities.

She approached one of them with neutral candor and touched it with a brush of her fingers.

"So these are the best you've found?" The King's voice reverberated across the enormous room as the obscured shape of his figure strolled from behind one tapestry to another.

"There are more of course," she responded as she swiftly retreated her hand. "But upon a stern sifting through the debris, I suspected that these would interest you the most."

From some distance, his upper body still hidden, he picked up a brass contraption shaped ominously like a bird.

"We refurbished that one," Alianora explained. "Tanya assures it's been returned to working order. According to her, the ancients used it as some sort of scouting device."

A knob was turned, which resounded a click, releasing the pressure from a tiny canister mounted on its back and powering the clockwork mechanisms deep within its bowels. The metal bird sprung to life, blinking its tiny green eyes as it scanned its surroundings, then spread its wings and hopped from his hand into the air, spouting a trail of vapor as it circled near the ceiling.

Discerning the two individuals below, the bird banked into a hard turn and swooped towards Alianora. The young Baroness gave hardly a flinch and watched as the wirey feathers of its extended wings brushed the air inches from her forehead and fluttered the strands of her hair.

It climbed, then swung about again, letting loose a metallic screech before unlocking some unseen latch in its belly. Springs snapped open long, hinged panels along the length of its body, letting loose a flurry of celebratory pops and bangs from various charged compartments. Confetti bristled like fireworks, littering the air and peppering Alianora's perfectly styled hair.

Expending the last bit of pressure from its canister, the bird fluttered back to its pillar, then died with an expectant hiss.

"Tanya," Alianora grumbled, pulling the confetti from her hair. "I'll have her head for this."

"For scouting indeed," the King said, hardly amused.

He brushed the tapestry aside revealing a cold face so frozen, it seemed sculpted and firmed just for such a meeting. His foot pressed into a nearby pillar, sending it and the prize it displayed crashing the floor. Keeping the sting of his eyes on the girl, he kicked at another pillar, then another, until what remained was a mess of broken stone and gadgetry.

"My brother, the Count, fights for this Kingdom and all you bring is toys," he growled.

For a brief moment, she blinked and afforded a stuttered breath before regaining her composure.

"Your highness, they are not toys. They are keys to pressing our advantage over those that would oppose us."

"Excuses." He gestured to the rubble at his feet. "All of this. You've lost sight of the very reason I allow you to keep your title and a portion of the land I so graciously stripped from my brother and gave to you."

His chest heaved as he waited, allowing her a chance to speak.

Nothing was said.

So he turned his back, picked up the broken bird from the floor and heaved it across the room.

Still breathing heavily he said, "you are no Queen of Knights."

Alianora's eyes widened as she spoke in a rare, undignified manner of protest.

"I am the Queen of Knights."

"You are the Queen of nothing," he blurted over his shoulder. "An ungrateful niece. And the daughter of a coward."

The noble girl paused, then calmly lifted her head.

"Uncle. We've played this game before."

"Do not call me uncle."

"You and I may not share the same blood, but I would dare to say that we are still family. Accuse me of my failures all you like, but please, do not assume that I have been distracted from my original purpose. Underestimating me is what I seek of my enemies, not of those I care for."

The King closed his eyes, allowed a long breath to enter and leave his lungs, then faced his niece once again.

"Then speak. Tell me there's more to your efforts than the trash I see here."

"I found her uncle. I found the one who will give me a second chance."

"And a chance to keep me amongst the living?"

"Yes. A chance to keep both of our fates and fortunes in our own keeping."

He kept his distance, but allowed an expectant glow to creep along his face.

"So Ella Marshall, the person your father spoke of. She has it?"

"I am sure of it."

"And it is being retrieved?"

"The Twins are procuring it as we speak."

His face dimmed.

"You press your trust upon very strange company."

"They have nothing left to lose uncle. They are quite skilled, and their loyalty belongs to me. As a matter of fact, they know that under my direction, what remains of their lives shall be granted whatever dark and violent pleasures they so crave, and their experience of such things will be to the fullest until the day death finally claims them."

"Well then, as much as you test me, it seems I can't fault you for your confidence."

"No less than your brother."

He frowned. "Yes. My brother."

"He's become more . . .bold. Especially with his assassins."

"And yet you still live."

"He's an amateur at best. Please uncle, keep his leash tight for me, before I add his button to my collection. Now, if I may take my leave so that I may receive your intended prize?"

He nodded.

As she reached for the door, the King added, "oh, and before you carry on with your little crusade, be sure to take this mess with you. I have no need for garbage."

The Grand Arch.

An enormous tunnel at the base of the mountain, it was as tall and wide as the very castle nestled in the peaks above, that afforded its only entrance.

The flow of traffic that traveled through the tunnel was unending, as ordered processions of people, wagons and even gargantuan walkers filtered unimpeded through its cavernous interior. Amongst the masses exiting the castle through the Grand Arch and into the sprawling town of the Kingsland Capital, was a somewhat flustered young Baroness and her towering captain.

"I spy pink on your cheeks my lady," Sir Ingram said to the noble marching at his side.

Alianora's hand fluttered at the hilt of her sword, but resisted the urge and instead, gripped it reassuringly.

"First both my uncles, and now my knight. It seems respect is in short supply today."

He crossed his arms, admiring the scenery as he watched the crowds of merchants and commoners shuffle by.

"Unlike those that doubt you my lady, I have only the wisdom of truth. Besides, judging by the nature of your candor, I have but only to conclude that the King once again, has claimed the last words. And it seems those words were of the mocking sort."

"The King shuns my priceless relics and instead favors a few piles of the Count's stinking dirt."

Sir Ingram chuckled so loudly and so vibrantly, that it dared to tease the young lady from her sour mood.

"It certainly was the Count's 'stinking dirt' that grew the food that so recently filled my belly." He patted the bulge that extended proudly from his waist then looked down at his precious Baroness who remained unconvinced. A long moment passed and she still gave no response. He sighed, shaking his head, then said, "the poison in the land continues to push the borders of the wastes. Sooner or later, there will be no more fertile land. Sometimes I wonder if it would be best to put our endeavors to rest and enjoy what remains of our lives as best as we can before the world ends."

She slowly lowered her head and unbuttoned the collar of her uniform, then pulled out the necklace that dangled from her neck. Attached to the thin gold chain was a small chess piece. . .a black knight.

"Before the world ends. . ." she whispered to herself as she turned the object obsessively between her fingers.

Her eyes narrowed.

She pulled her sword and swiped at one of the wheels of a nearby merchant's cart, sending it toppling over. The merchant approached the noble girl and gave protest, but was swiftly silenced as she pointed towards him, the gleaming point of her blade.

Surprised and confused, the crowd dispersed, forming an empty circle around her and the damaged cart.

"My Lady, what are you. . ."

Sir Ingram was equally taken aback by her unannounced brashness, but the only answer he received, was a hard glance in his direction as she stepped to the top of the pile of goods that had spilled from the cart.

"All of you; you are, but common faces before me," she announced, pivoting her sword before the compelled gazes of her startled audience. "Know mine. For in, but a short time from now, I will ascend the honors of this noble kingdom and elevate you, the citizens of this kingdom, as among the greatest in the world."

She bounded from the cart, parting the crowd before her as she took hold of the sweeping leg of a passing walker.

Sir Ingram followed the spider-like machine as it hobbled along, but remained cautiously at ground-level as his eyes followed the girl's effortless climb towards the metal creature's back.

"You there, driver," the guard captain called out. "Stop the machine."

Amidst grinding gears and steam-hissed boilers, the man at the controls heard nothing.

But it did not matter.

Alianora swiped the unnatural edge of her sword at vulnerable joints and pistons, severing them in one clean blow. With a piercing screech, the walker seized up and fell to its belly. Its bulbous legs spread outwards under its own weight, blocking the entrance to the Grand Arch and leaving a trafficked mass of people murmuring in earnest before the proud girl that hovered ever higher above them from the edge of its back.

"Know my face," she repeated. "For I am the Queen of Knights, and you are all my subjects."

From his perch at the castle far above, the King watched his niece with mild foreboding.

Count Adalair approached from behind and grunted with unrestrained disgust.

"Unruly and undisciplined," the Count said. "And she doesn't even bother to hide her intended treachery."

The King smiled.

"She's more disciplined than you think," he replied. "And what you see may be the potential for treachery, but what you fail to notice, is that there is true ambition there. She may yet make me proud."