# Perth born and resident. # Linux # Sysadmin , SoT kayaker with a Hobie Outback, 3-wheel HPV user , # photographer , # boardgamer , # RPG player, and # SFF fan. I am a # mermaid (well mer-dude). Just an all-round geek. I am proud to live on Whadjuk # Noongar boodja. I play # GURPS , # DnD5e , and # TravellerRPG . I like to take photos of # birds (esp. # raptors ), and other merfolk. I also shoot # pinhole and # solargraph images. I play with in-camera # cyanotype imaging. I have accidentally become a writer, too.
# Perth born and resident. # Linux # Sysadmin , SoT kayaker with a Hobie Outback, 3-wheel HPV user , # photographer , # boardgamer , # RPG player, and # SFF fan. I am a # mermaid (well mer-dude). Just an all-round geek. I am proud to live on Whadjuk # Noongar boodja. I play # GURPS , # DnD5e , and # TravellerRPG . I like to take photos of # birds (esp. # raptors ), and other merfolk. I also shoot # pinhole and # solargraph images. I play with in-camera # cyanotype imaging. I have accidentally become a writer, too.
Under the bedclothes, Mahtab gripped the scimitar she'd bribed a guard to give her. She knew her late father's vizier would be making his move soon. She was going to make sure it was his last. No usurper was going to claim the throne that was her birthright.
Cyrus crept through the palace. He had never been here before, having been whisked away as a baby by a loyal servant when his step-sister had killed his family. She had raised him, and told him of his heritage, but a fever took her a year ago. Now he had made his way to the nearby city, and broken into the palace, set on revenge against the woman who had murdered his family.
He had successfully avoided the palace guards, guided by a magic map he had purchased from a witch. There had been one unfortunate matter of an old man with a poisoned dagger, but he had been swiftly silenced.
Mahtab heard the door to her rooms open, and prepared herself to strike, but when the curtain around her bed opened, it was not the shrunken vizier who stood there, but a young man, holding a short roman-styled sword.
He looked as shocked as she was.
Cyrus looked at the young woman in the bed, and the scimitar in her grip. She was around his age, not a score of years older than him.
"Wait, you're not vizier!" she spoke frowning, just as he said "You're not my evil sister!"
Together they asked "Who are you?"
"This is the regent's rooms, right?" Cyrus asked as she quickly veiled herself.
"Yes", Mahtab answered. "Are you his agent?"
"Agent? I was looking for the so-called Queen Cyrene."
"Cyrene? She rules in Susa, not here. I am Princess Mahtab."
"Susa? But I thought my parents ruled here?"
"And you are?"
"Prince Cyrus."
"I heard he died in a revolt in Susa twenty years ago."
"A servant loyal to the throne saved me. She said that my father had ruled the city, and my step-sister had had my family murdered so she could take the throne."
Mahtab looked puzzled "But this is Persipolis - my father had ruled here the last forty years, until he died just a week ago."
Cyrus had the good grace to look embarrassed. "So, I have the wrong palace?"
"I'm afraid so," and then her face took on a worried frown "But I am expecting my late father's vizier to try to assassinate me."
"Uh, would that have been an old man, slightly hunched, with a skullcap?"
"That sounds like him."
"We ran into each other, and I killed him to keep him quiet."
"You have my thanks. I guess I owe you a favour. Sit - and let's work out what we are going to do about your step-sister."
#IAmWriting #SF #SFF #Fantasy #microfic #tootfic #microfiction
An expansion of @rdm@aus.social
