Teslaimia Fursian Princess

Captain Alexander was doing his normal daily walk along on the city gate when a soldier called out, "Carriage with troops at the lower gate!" He sprinted over and took through his spyglass.

He called out, "Send to lower gate, allow them up." Another soldier carrying flags started to signal down to the lower gate.

Five hours later the carriage and a small escort group of six knights walked up the mountain and arrived at the massive city gate. Captain Alexander called out, "Honor guard, salute, and open the gates for a dignitary's arrival." A group of soldiers in bright red leather with shining steel armor plates lined both sides of the entryway as the massive gates opened. Each of the soldiers stood at attention once the carriage had fully entered, the men all drew their swords at once and made a salute with the sword before sheathing it. Captain Alexander walked up to the carriage door and bowed, "Princess Teslaimia, welcome to the City of Connaissance. I am Captain of the Connaissance Defense Force, Jon Alexander."

One of her knights walked up to the door and opened it. A woman dressed in a blue silk dress that was unable to hide her absolutely perfect figure carefully made her way out of the carriage. She wore a slightly see-through veil that covered the lower half of her face leaving her eyes visible and the lower half of her face just slightly obscured. Captain Alexander's breath caught in his throat as if he was looking at a goddess among mortals. She spoke in a voice that gentle to the ears, that somehow screamed "I am a woman'.

"I am here to hopefully meet with Princess Emily Windsor-Smith." Teslaimia then followed that by asking, "Do you know, is there a hotel or place of comfort for rent in the city for myself and my guards?"

Captain Alexander nodded, "Yes, the city has a wonderful hotel, and also the embassy for your fiancé's nation is also here. You may not be aware of this, but unfortunately, the Princess has renounced her Royal title and name. She is now only Lady Connaissance, city lord of the City of Connaissance."

Her eyes looked complicated as she asked, "May I please have directions for the hotel. I don't believe I would be welcomed at the other. Lady Connaissance? Does she hope to regain Royalty by marriage?"

He noticed the look and decided not to ask instead only asking, "Princess, may I ask for the purpose of your visit?"

"I am here to meet the woman who stole my fiancé and see for myself what makes her better than me. Hear from her own lips why I must have my own heart broken for her to live a good life." Teslaimia tried not to lose control of her emotions.

"Princess, I am not sure what you mean, but to my knowledge, Lady Connaissance has never accepted a proposal from any man, including Prince Pao'ko-olo. She refuses to marry a man she doesn't love."

Teslaimia's expression still looked complicated. She nodded and then said, "I just need to meet her myself. I just need to know. Also, Iopolo has said to me, that until I can do to his heart what she does, that he can not even consider me as a woman. I just need to see for myself what makes her better than me. I swear to you, I won't make trouble in the city. I am not meaning to cause any harm. I just have to meet her and speak with her for myself."

The knights guarding her all dropped to one knee and the leader amongst them said, "I swear on my honor, I will not allow any of our party to cause harm to the City Lord or any of her people. We will only defend her highness from danger, including the danger she might cause with an emotional outburst." The knight took a fist and pounded it against his chest.

Captain Alexander rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Sergeant Staughler, show them to the Graves Hotel on 3rd Ave. Princess, if you are willing, I will come by tomorrow morning after breakfast, and escort you to City Hall to meet Lady Connaissance, will that be acceptable?"

She nodded and said calmly, "Thank you, Jon, for allowing us entry."

Captain Alexander felt as if she had waved a magic wand at him. His skin was covered in goosebumps as he watched her board the carriage. He couldn't help wonder how there could even be such a beautiful woman in the world.

*****

Cardinal Piambo fumed with anger as the invitation was handed back, "I'm sorry Your Eminence, His Majesty King Alexander was forced to head to the north due to an incursion into the Kingdom's territory by the Holy Chadtom Empire. He has instructed us to notify you that your invitation will now be honored one month from today at three."

The Cardinal shook his finger in the soldier's face, "This mere King thinks he is above the Church? Does he think that we will be brushed aside like a commoner? I will excommunicate this Kingdom and have the Inquisition come and sort out Heretic from God-Fearing man!"

The Soldier looked at the Cardinal with eyes of rage, "You dare say his Majesty is a man who places himself above the Church? His Majesty who killed his own sister and her husband for the Church? His Majesty who exiled his beloved niece from the Kingdom for the Church? His Majesty who fought in the Crusades against the heretics for the Church? What the hell have you done for the Church, a newly appointed Cardinal who is being sent out of his priesthood to be a Cardinal without ever having been a Bishop? Do you think the men of our Kingdom can't tell just by looking at your robes? What are you, thirty now? I served His Eminence Cardinal Windsor for thirty years as his eyes and ears in the Windsor Kingdom military! I personally witnessed his grandson's rise up through the ranks through dedication and hard work, most of it for his grandfather and the Church, and yet you dare impune his great name because a foreign power attacked our armies in the north? Go back to your Church fake Cardinal and come back one month from now at three." He slammed the heavy door closed in the Cardinal's face.

The Cardinal's face was beet red as he turned and walked back to his home. When he was sent to this post he learned that the inquisition force had been completely exterminated here, their Cardinal and then Bishop quickly appointed as the New Cardinal both dead. He wanted to go see the King and demand a portion of the Kingdom's army be transferred under his direct control until a new Inquisition force could be dispatched here. He assumed that the King would take a knee and kiss his ring, begging him to take the Kingdom's forces. He had seen Cardinals from a distance as a countryside priest and thought that just by wearing the colors, he would instantly receive that same level of respect. The priests from the capital all warned him to not anger this King, but he didn't listen. As he walked back to his new residence it dawned on him that all of those same priests had turned down the rank of Cardinal. Once he made it home he drafted a letter explaining what had happened to him and asked for a major Inquisition force to be sent to the Windsor Kingdom to put down the current King and replace him with someone that will respect his authority.

*****

"Ah Thomas, James, I was just about to come to see you. Mr. Wentworth's crew has finished the first section of track for the Rhinoceros it runs from the coal mine to the main city gate. I would like to take a load of coal to our warehouse there by means of the Rhinoceros. Should we invite Lady Connaissance to ride along?" Professor Thatcher waved his tobacco pipe at them in greeting.

Thomas nodded and asked, "Have we determined how many cars it can pull? We need to make sure it is truly more efficient than using the wagons before we show it off."

James nodded in agreement with Thomas, "And if possible, pull the carriage as well so our VIPs aren't covered in soot."

The Professor pulled his chalkboard over and showed the numbers he came up with, "Using the formula Lady Connaissance wrote that includes friction and weight it appears we'll be able to bring three tons of coal per carload when pulling the passenger carriage. I estimate we can do the work of ten wagons right now without improving the power of the Rhinoceros. Ten wagons would need eight hours to move through town to reach the warehouse. If my numbers are correct, the Rhinoceros can do that within two hours. The only question I have is braking. From what I can see, a braking system limited to the Rhinoceros only would manage to stop only if it was moving at half that speed at that weight."

Thomas snapped his fingers, "We'll put a brakeman on each car. The engineer running the Rhinoceros can signal for braking and then the Brakemen on each car would activate the system."

James nodded in agreement, "The brake system is a simple hydraulic hand crank. That kind of system can be taught to anyone."

Professor Thatcher grinned and then asked, "Can we have this done by Friday?"

Thomas thought for a minute and said, "We'll need to retrofit the Rhinoceros's braking system to the cars, which shouldn't take more than a day if we throw enough metal workers at it, the question though is can we pull that many metalworkers off the construction projects for three days without Emily or the Dukes kicking down our door?"

James chuckled and said, "Calling her Emily now, are you? I read that piece in the Observer, did you really go on a date with Lady Connaissance?"

Thomas turned bright red and stammered out, "It wasn't really a date, she just asked me to escort her to the City Hall cafeteria for a late snack after a long day of work. We just got spotted together by one of the journalists." he shook his head, "After that piece printed, Captain Alexander grilled me for information like I was after her life."

James laughed, "You know it can't be helped. That guy is madly in love with her, it makes me wonder why he doesn't just ask her out?"

The professor was smoking his pipe blew out a smoke ring and said as if he was privy to inside information, "The good Captain will never do that. He is destined to be forever alone."

Thomas shook his head with a smile, "And why is that Professor?"

The Professor waved his pipe around as he explained, "Some men have the courage to press forward with a woman, stay on the attack until they are defeated completely or victorious. While other men only seek to maintain their almost there relationship until the woman makes the first move. Captain Alexander, you see, is the latter. He intends to stay as a friend until she sees his value."

James then asked, "But why do you believe that will never work with Lady Connaissance?"

The Professor smiled and walked over the chalkboard and flipped it around and started writing on the clean side, "Lady Connaissance you see is an aggressive woman, but she is also a woman who craves a man that will take the burden from her shoulders and treat her like the Princess that she is, look at the men in her life that she is close to..." He wrote a few names on the board, "You see, the ones she spends the most time being flirtatious with are these three, while she asks the Captain to essentially hold her bags while being intimate with these two... that's why... Wait, why are you all suddenly so quiet? She's standing right behind me again isn't she?"

Emily replied softly, "I am. You've put a lot of thought into this Professor. Where do you stand on this ledger?"

The Professor asked, "If I apologize, may I leave without answering?"

Emily giggled and then crossed off the names on the board and said happily, "If I decide I wish to have a romantic partner, I imagine you'll read about it in the Observer before I even know myself."