Further Beyond: Ascension

Sabatsday, 1st of Septimus, 470th Year of the Fifth Era

Serena looked one final time in the mirror to check her dress. Claire had been helping her and the rest of the ladies the entire day getting ready. The ship had fully docked an hour prior, but she and the rest of the women insisted their husbands not immediately disembark. She stressed to Josias how much importance the westerners put on clothing and was adamant on looking her best.

She had fitted herself and the rest of her companions with western undergarments called 'chemises'. Over that, she wore an entirely black gown fitted with lace collars and cuffs. It was a good dress, but it was quite simplistic.

Serena highly doubted the foreign merchants would bring the best of clothes to the Halaklands. But still, she had to make do. At the very least, Claire thought the dress was well enough out of her own means to acquire, so it was at least something that rich commoners would wear if not the nobility.

The thought had crossed her mind for a bit to just wear an elaborate 'kebaya' dress but she decided against it. It was to be her first time meeting her uncle, and she didn't want to leave a bad impression. She had to show her sincerity of adapting to the Feldonian court culture. But she also didn't completely forget her roots.

Over her dress, Serena chose to wear her most ornamented ulos cloth. Embroidered with actual gold and other such gemstones, it was heavy, but it should be enough to show some form of status.

She gave a quick glance to Safira and Ruth but immediately regretted that decision. As expected of Hutabaru women, they were dressed in so gaudy a fashion. The blue velvet dresses they wore weren't too bad. But the pounds upon pounds of gold bracelets, necklaces, and other such accessories on them? They looked like walking jewelry boxes.

Serena could only hope they won't attract the worst of criminals to try and rob them. But then again, she had her husband for those sorts of encounters. That and the tigers.

Immediately she was reminded of the beasts they had brought with them from their homeland. Just how would she explain all that to the dock authorities? Including a few of the tigers' mates, there were ten of them on all three ships.

She sighed and shook her head as she deigned those thoughts to be the men's problems. Focusing back to herself, she looked at her hair which was currently being combed by Claire. Claire had told her that the noblewomen and merchants' daughters would style their hairstyles in a certain way. However, after getting the descriptions about them, Serena and the others remained skeptical. Perhaps after seeing it for themselves, they'll think about it more.

Serena completed her appearance with a black feathered felt hat adorned with pearls. It was a quaint thing and Serena considered it adorable. With her own self done, Serena now focused on dressing the smaller children.

Tigor was being as rambunctious as usual and Maria was trying her best to get her little brother to sit still. It was exasperating to see, but Serena had to admit the little boy looked so cute in his little black doublet and shorts.

Tiur was far more manageable and in fact, she had quietly accepted being dressed the entire time. She sat still in front of the mirror with her hands crossed on her legs. The little girl seemed to be quite fond of her own appearance in western clothing.

Serena had given her a quaint black gown and a similarly feathered hat. She also fastened onto Tiur a beautiful string of pearls over her neck. The girl stood up, lifted the relatively large skirt of her gown and gave a twirl in front of the mirror.

"Kak, do I look pretty like you?" The girl innocently asked.

"Absolutely adorable, my little ball of sunshine. Mwah! Mwah! Mwah!" Serena couldn't help herself as she started smooching those puffy little cheeks, even nibbling them a bit.

"Ahhh! Kakak, stop it! That tickles hahahahah…" Even her little giggles were so cute.

After all of that was done, Serena and the others had in turn helped Claire to wear a good dress. Throughout the whole thing, Claire had oft repeated how much she didn't feel suited to wearing pretty dresses. She kept saying how it wasn't proper for a commoner like her to be wearing dresses and donning precious jewels.

Serena was having none of that self-deprecating modesty.

"How many times do we have to tell you, Claire? You are no commoner. All sons and daughters of the Halak are nobility, descended from Si Raja Halak." Serena said as she combed her fellow Malaok's blonde hair.

"If not that, your grandfather is a loyal retainer of mine." Safira also chimed in as she was fastening a ton of gold necklaces on Claire "I don't know what they'd call Elder Parbulan here in the west, but he owns vast tracks of farmland and has dozens of warriors under him. He's one of the Hutabaru's wealthiest vassals. How come your father never told you any of that?"

"He did try, but neither I or my siblings really believed him." Claire gave a wry smile "We always thought he was just making up stories to not make us feel bad for being half foreign. Well, my brother did believe it for a bit, but he went around and told it to the other kids. They all just made fun of us, asking us where these so-called lands were that we hailed from. They probably thought we were lying too. They said we were just as much a peasant as they were and that we could be arrested for trying to impersonate nobility. Ever since then, we just kept our heads down."

It was an unfortunate story. Serena still hadn't fully grasped just how much stock the westerners put on bloodlines and lineages. It was almost as if the nobles considered themselves gods with how high and mighty they acted towards the so-called 'commoners'. Of course hierarchy and social order existed everywhere in the world, but Serena never considered these concepts that important.

Sure, if one were the child of a king, perhaps there's some distinction to be had there. But all these titles of, 'count', 'earl', 'duke', 'knight', and other such nonsense was just too much. Back in the Halaklands, if you could prove you were a trueblooded Halak or recognised as such, that was enough.

Of course she wouldn't go so far as to say that all people were equal in the Halaklands. If her experience in Matanitao and with the other Halak realms were anything to go by, everyone had their own set of prejudices. Don't even get her started on how the other Halak kings still kept slaves of those children born illegitimately or from the Banuan foreigners.

It was a difficult topic and Serena could only sigh as she was tired of thinking about it. Maybe a little bit of her husband had rubbed off on her in regards to her pride as a Halak.

With the help of all the other ladies, it didn't take long to dress Claire properly. After that was done, the ladies finally deemed themselves ready to exit the cabin and into the port.

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Outside on the deck of the ship, Serena could see her husband and his companions helping around the ship's crew to unload their belongings. She frowned a little as they were also helping to move about the crates and other such cargo, all while wearing formal dresses. She was going to give her husband a piece of her mind.

"Josi! What are you doing?! You're going to get dust and grime on those perfectly clean clothes. Put that down, now!" Serena berated her husband who was carrying a large crate while in his red-satin, gold-embroidered cloak with silver-gilt threads. Not to mention the pristine silver-white doublet that would absolutely be dirtied by the slightest bit of dirt. Honestly, did her husband have no sense of etiquette or style?

Seeing her face, her husband immediately put the crate down and gave her an apologetic smile.

"Honestly, Josi, you're not a child anymore." Serena did her best to try and dust her husband's clothes off. All the while she shook her head. This man always had something going on. After dusting him off, Serena grabbed Josias' collar before saying in a sharp tone, "You better be on your best behaviour, Josi. We can't make fools of ourselves here, I'm serious."

"I understand, hasian, but also…" There was no warning before Josias planted a kiss on her lips in front of everyone. It was so out of the blue that Serena didn't even get time to properly process it. "You look absolutely beautiful today, dear. You're even cuter when you're angry, hahahaha."

This actual idiot. Serena looked left and right and saw some of the crew laughing and smiling. This big oaf was just doing whatever he pleases. Serena instinctively bit on Josias' arm before glaring at him.

"Behave!" She said in her most stern tone but her husband laughed her off, giving an unserious response. Serena sighed before she grabbed onto his arms. "From here on out, you're going to walk me like a proper gentleman."

"With pleasure, milady." Josias bowed in a manner copying what they saw the westerners would do while kissing the back of Serena's hand. Serena rolled her eyes as she grabbed onto her husband's arm. "Pailailahon ho. (Don't be embarrassing)"

"I do na goarni 'gentleman' (It's called being a gentleman)."

The two made their way off the ship as Josias helped her to unboard. The dress she was wearing indeed wasn't the best for mobility, but still. They soon got off the ship, carefully walking upon the gangplank to not fall down by accident. It wouldn't do to drop down to the ocean, especially not with the clothes she was wearing.

They were soon followed by their other companions who were walking in toe with their partners. After they got off, the crew continued to lower down their cargo. There were dozens of crates and chests being brought off the ship, all filled with their belongings.

Serena only really noticed it now, but they did indeed bring quite a lot of items. Just how in the world were they supposed to bring those items with them. Maybe they could pay Captain Farnaby's crew a little extra to help with delivering the items. But then again, she didn't even have a proper clue to where her uncle lived within this gargantuan city.

While she was pondering about all that, her husband just had to remind her of something. He and his companions had to get their tigers off the ship. How wonderful.

"Just please don't let him lick your clothes! Stay clean, Josi, I'm serious." Serena warned her husband.

"Relax, hasian. I assure you, we've already made our beasts as presentable as possible." Josias said with a smirk on his face "We'll be the envy of everyone here, just you wait and see."

Serena clicked her tongue as she felt so exasperated. But even so, in the deepest part of her heart, she was happy. Her husband's state of mind was getting better by the day, and slowly but surely, she's getting her old lovable, joking, and unserious Josi back. Just thinking about that caused her to smile.

Despite all her complaints, she would rather have this Josias than the understandably brooding, listless wreck he was in the aftermath of her father-in-law's passing. She prayed his spirits would remain high.

After a while of waiting, Josias had appeared once more onto the gangplank with his large tiger in tow. The beast was clad in the distinctive steel and blackened barding used by Goria. Its saddle lay above the barding.

Small pieces of caparison were also attached to the barding, donning the emblems and symbols of Goria and clan Sigumogo. The red 'chi-rho' between the white 'alfa' and 'omega' symbols upon a black field. It was the late King Parhal's personal standard and was practically considered synonymous with Goria, especially within the Halaklands.

She hated to admit it, but her husband did indeed look dashing as he rode upon his tiger. Amazingly, the usually rowdy tiger was also acting with a higher degree of restraint than usual. Perhaps even beasts could feel the weight of the city's grandeur.

Serena sighed as she gave up and approached the tiger. The beast – despite its menacing size, deadly fangs, and killer gaze – did indeed have its own adorable spots. Like those adorable twitching ears.

"Biar, I need you to be on your best behaviour today, understand?" Serena said as she held the tiger's armored yet still fuzzy face. The monster only looked at her with a face that looked so innocent, for a second it looked like a house-cat. The tiger was about to lick her but Serena turned its head. "Nuh uh uh, Biar. No. You will act with all the trappings of a noble steed today, boy."

As if the beast could understand her, its ears had flickered and its eyes sharpened. It now looked the figure of a stoic beast. A predator ready for the hunt. Serena was half convinced that these tiger beasts were far smarter than she gave them credit for

Soon, the other men had gotten off the ships, all while riding upon their tigers. Same with Biar, their tigers too were barded and dressed with all the trappings of their clan symbols and the like. Unsurprisingly, this attracted the attention of many onlookers within the harbor. Once more, they were at the center of attention.

Before they could do anything, from afar, Serena could see several armed guards making their way towards them. Josias had exchanged glances with Captain Farnaby as he got off the tiger.

"Don't worry about this lad, I'll have it settled."

Serena definitely wasn't looking forward to having to deal with this. Did she have to use her uncle's name again? But would the guards even believe her if she did? They were in the capital, after all. All she could do was hope she and the rest of her companions were dressed well enough that the guards would treat them with a small modicum of respect.

Judging by the amount of guards, they were taking this quite seriously. There were about twenty soldiers, all armed from head to toe in steel armour. Unlike the soldiers at Chestersey, these guards were far more properly equipped.

Their armour was more elaborate, they wore red velvet cloaks and plumed helmets. They looked strong. Upon their silver cuirasses were emblazoned the golden head of a wolf.

Captain Farnaby was about to say something but he stopped himself when he saw the soldiers that were approaching.

"...These soldiers ain't the usual harbour patrols…" the old captain said.

In fact, when he said that, Serena could see other soldiers in less intricate armour following behind the cloaked ones. As they approached just short of their position, the soldiers stopped.

The two columns of soldiers turned to face each other as they thumped the pier with their halberds. They then took a step back, revealing a tall, middle-aged looking gentleman with greyed hair. He wore a similar red cloak to the soldiers but over a fancy embroidered doublet. He carried himself with an air of dignity and grace. He must be a noble.

He walked towards Serena and the rest followed by two soldiers, each holding banners that flew in the wind. One holding a red and blue flag with the emblem of a gryphon on it. The other holding a red flag with a golden wolf's head, the same one on their cloaks.

As the man approached them, he stopped just short of Josias and Serena before he asked.

"If I may ask, is this the entourage of Lady Serena von Rappmeister and her husband Lord Josias?" the man asked with a gentle smile plastered on his face.

Serena exchanged glances with her husband as he nodded for her to answer. She straightened her back and stood in the most regal position she could muster.

"I am Serena Uli boru Rappmeister-Rapmasari, daughter of the Most Reverend Ludwig Johann von Rappmeister-Rapmasari, Archbishop of the Halaklands." Serena tried her best to use a commanding voice, but deep inside her heart was beating.

The man's expression didn't change as instead he bowed deeply towards her.

"On behalf of His Excellency, the Right Honourable Lord Count Lorenz Josef von Rappmeister, we humbly welcome your ladyship and His Highness the Prince of the Halaklands into our humble capital."