Seeds of War (1)

Denson pointed at her earlobe, "I wasn't too sure about it at first which is why I asked. Your earring is dulled but it still resembles the earrings of direct royalty. It was taught to us during military training."

Scarlet was surprised. She did forget to take off her earring and it would have been easily identified. It made sense that she would be identified. However, she had no idea it had dulled and lost its luster as she never taken off after she left it.

Des' voice whispered next to her ear and told Scarlet that he needed to ask her something. Scarlet asked Denson, "Could you leave me here to study the new map for a while?"

Denson grunted in affirmation and stood up to leave. The room was quiet with only Scarlet and Des. Scarlet reached across the table and brought the map over to face her and she was stunned. Originally, Girid and Zoria were about evenly divided. Judging from this new map, however, it was a sea of orange, the color of Zoria. There were only a few other blots of color that all seemed minuscule.

Des was staring at the map as well and asked, "Why had the war happened in the first place?"

Scarlet did not respond and Des called her name again, with a tinge of concern. Scarlet still hadn't responded and was staring blankly at the map.

When Des was about to give up looking for an answer, Scarlet sighed, "My father cares deeply about me, perhaps more than the country itself. A dangerous trait to have. Still, it shows how much he loves me and I don't mind. After all, he is a capable ruler and it should not have gotten to the point where he would have to choose between me or the empire."

Des counseled, "Family before everything is reasonable."

Scarlet took a deep breath and continued, "By the time I was old enough for court and other things, about 13, Zoria had already begun to act unreasonably. Before that time, it was still a small kingdom but it was rapidly gobbling up surrounding areas. When I was 13, that was when it was basically equal to my Girid Empire."

Des asked, "Is there a reason for how it conquered so many areas so quickly?"

Scarlet replied, "I feel that everything changed when Zoria got a new ruler. It's the current one, King Jushur Cala. He was relatively unknown before I entered the court and politics and he was not royalty. That is until he usurped it when the previous king died suspiciously and it was stated in that king's will to have Cala be the new ruler."

Des then asked like a curious child, "Then? What happened next?"

Scarlet murmured, "My marriage."