In Love & War

The imperial palace loomed upwards towards the night sky. It’s tower of white rising to the heavens themselves.
Inside, away from the tormenting rain & stalking rodents, guards stood two by two, leaning against doorways being passed through by a young woman. Her black hair draped her back in a silky blanked of wispy streaks & her heeled boots, unpopular & expensive, clattered like a stallions gallop across the marbled flooring.
She raised a velvet gloved hand into one of the guard’s vision, revealing a large ring with a shining pearl embedded in it.
The guard took no notice of her face, which was obscured in the dim light of the wall candles, flickering & echoing in the desolate halls.
He pushed the door open & she proceeded on her way, her long black dress following in suite like a witches familiar.
She heard the door clash firmly closed behind her & continued walking. She was alone again, progressing up a gently sloping corridor, winding around the central tower in lighthouse fashion. Stained glass windows depicting shields & stories passed her by as she continued to climb. Her long legs flicked out from the slit in the front of her dress as she took each step.
Another door came into vision. It was large, wooden & had a noticeable crest adorned on its face. A griffin reared & roared at a two headed snake in front of it. She knocked twice, quietly, then loudly a third, after realizing the thickness of the wood.
She stared at the door for a moment, listened to rustling from inside & a faint cursing sound.
A man, about two years younger than her at the most opened it abruptly. He looked at her in confusion & she looked at him, however, with much more certainty. She removed the hair & the netting that hid her face & revealed & pale & beautiful countenance. Her eyes framed with dark makeup & her lips covered with deep red satin. Her eyelashes flourished like rapiers when she blinked at him, awaiting response as she stood looking him square back into his eyes, her head tilted upward slightly. She could see his bare chest on the peripherals of her vision, smooth & muscular; she deduced he’d been active only hours before now.
He began to open his mouth to speak to her, but as he did, her gloved finger hung lightly over his lips & pushed them closed gently. With her finger in the same position, she took a single step forwards & through the door. Inside, an assortment of expensive clothes where hung & armor collapsed in a chair was stored next to an extravagantly large bed. At around age seventeen, the man was clearly spoiled & so he should be, she thought to herself.
The lighting was even dimmer in here & the sheets on the bed pulled over slightly. The man had been sleeping minutes ago. Dreaming sweet dreams of glory & grandeur she fantasized, creating a small life story for the man, currently detained under her index finger.
She continued forward & he backward until he could go no further & found himself against his wall, where a small, but uncomfortable, decorative scabbard poked at his ribs from atop a slim & dark polished table.
A candle above his head made his features visible. His jaw was strong & his eyes nature green & full of life as they looked deep into her own unfathomable pupils.
He lifted his left hand & ran it through his blonde & short hair before noticing his current indignity. He scurried to the other end of the room & stood, facing away from her, dressing himself in a padded burgundy gown. The room stayed silent & as he turned around, she was still standing there in the centre of the room, staring at his eyes as she had been before.
She began walking again. Very slowly she moved her feet, sliding her boots off like liquid where they fell from her calf. She moved her hips fashionably as she came towards him, draping her fingers along furniture & around the corset of her dress. Flowing towards him, he eased back even more & a puzzled look on his face showed her that he was contemplating calling the guards that had let her enter minutes ago.
The area was deadly silent, no rustling of fabrics or deepened breaths. Any scurrying made by small rodents or bugs in the woodwork was absent for a moment. She stood in front of him, only a couple of centimeters away from him as he arched his back into the wall even further. She undid two clasps at the back of her shoulders & the black lace slipped down her until it fluttered to the floor & gathered in a small heap around her ankles. Her red under-dress shone through now. Her hair was tossed from the centre of her head to the right as she moved it slightly. The black coating on the right of her body seemed to cover a scar on the top of her arm, never known by anyone, but never forgotten by herself.
She slipped a finger from her left hand into the loose knot in the man’s tied belt & placed the other, again on his lips. He was almost paralyzed & could do nothing against her will.
She pulled her left finger through the belt & it flourished open, whipping around as it dangled by his hips.
She pushed her palm on his chest & toppled him with the least effort. He swooped upon the bed after the push. The thick blankets ripples as a deep ocean around where he fell. She allowed her leg to exit her dress & placed her small left foot upon the edge of the bed, forcing it downwards to make a dent in the cushioned & expensive mattress.

The guards down the lighthouse corridor still lent against the doorframe, blissfully unaware that the woman had never returned from her visit.