Asher

“Sir the troops are back from the mission, would you like me to escort you down to the council hall for the debriefing tomorrow?” asked one of the maids, 

“No, that's fine. I will walk to the council hall myself. But do help me find a decent transcriber” 

 “Yes, sire.” 

As I flip the textbook’s page I hear a tapping sound from my window. Getting up, I walk over to see who dared to throw rocks at the prince's window

“Yo Juliet! I’m back!” yelled Josh.

“How was your trip? Well, mission.”

“To be honest, pretty boring. But that girl you sent over was very interesting! I can’t believe you sent her on a mission on her first day!”

Girl I sent over?

“Josh, what are you talking about!?” My throat began to hurt from all the shouting.

“Ahara! The new soldier!”

I stared at him with confusion, my expression blank as paper. 

“Shiny black hair? Emerald eyes?!” His voice began to sound worn. “You know what? Never mind, you’ll remember when you see her tomorrow!”

“Alright have a good night then” I shut the window and walked back over to my desk to do more studying and research. As I flip through the pages I slowly start to feel my eyes getting heavier and heavier. Finally, I decided to take a quick nap so I could shake this feeling then get right back to studying.

My eyes flutter open as I feel a warm beam of light wander down my face. Wasn’t it dark outside when I closed my eyes? Rubbing my eyes, I stop dead in my tracks and immediately stumble over to the clock on my nightstand, “6:24 A.M.!?” dropping the clock I sprint over to my closet to find something to wear.

“Crap I’m going to be late for the debriefing and this time, mother will surely throw me in the dungeon,” I mumble under my breath while stuffing my left leg into a pair of trousers. One of the maids buzz in on the intercoms, 

“Sire, the summit starts at 6:40 and it is already 6:29,”

“Yes yes, I will be there as fast as I can” I responded while dashing out of my room. 

I can’t believe that I’m almost late again, why does this keep happening? Lucky this briefing room is closer than the last so I won’t be late but I will be cutting it close. Arriving at the doors with two minutes to spare, I adjust my tunic and take a breath. 

I opened the doors and immediately noticed that everyone had already arrived and taken their seats. Josh gestured over at me to take a seat next to him, so I walked over and pulled out the chair. I couldn’t help but notice the girl he described last night sitting by his left. As they were chatting, her eyes stirred in my direction. She didn’t look away, not until I did.

“So now that everyone has arrived, let us start the debriefing,” sighed mother.

“Alright, when we got to Alexander Wei’s house, he sat on the front porch like he had been expecting people. We also asked around and the neighbours all said that he had been out there every day for the past week, so I assume that he had known that we were after him and the Zartari boy,” stated Josh as we rose to speak.

“Well, what of the Zartari soldier?”

“Gone, he wasn’t there when we got there and the old man refused to tell us where he was, but we have men looking for him at this moment. What I’m afraid of is Prince Asher’s safety.”

“Go on,” mother replied curiously 

“It was no secret that these were Prince Asher's orders and it seemed like Alexander and the refuge were close. He may want some sort of revenge on the prince for killing his mentor.”

Whispers emerged around the room, while I caught a few eyeing me in pity. 

“Yes, that is a possibility. So I will assign a bodyguard of my choice to you Asher. But as of right now Josh can be your bodyguard until I find someone else.”

“Alright so let’s end the briefing here if there's nothing else,” I say 

“Wait! There's one more thing,” Josh says as he gestures to the girl beside him “this girl with just her sword, took down more than a dozen skilled outer rim protesters all by herself within a minute and a half .”

The girl seemed surprised that Josh called her out. You could tell she felt uncomfortable with all the attention.

“State your name and soldier number,” said mother.

“My name is Ahara. Due to the fact I started right away on a mission, I haven’t received my soldier number yet.” The girl announced confidently.

Ahara is such a strange name for a soldier. Why would her parents give her the Royal letter at the beginning of her name? 

“What do you mean you don’t have a soldier number? All newcomers get their badge numbers as soon as they arrive. Who assigned you to help with the mission?” glared mother.

“He assigned me the case as soon as I got here” she pointed at me, “so I didn’t have time to get my soldier number, but I do have my letter that says I was admitted to become a soldier. It carries the royal seal.”

Mother took the letter from her and studied it carefully before handing it back to her. 

“Is that true Asher?” asked my mother suspiciously. I looked back at Ahara knowing that she was lying, and I was going to tell her off. But the way she looked at me gave me an uneasy feeling. Her deep green eyes were so full of courage and she showed no sign of guilt for lying to the queen of her kingdom. “Yes, I gave her that order” the smallest smirk of satisfaction emerged on Ahara’s face.

“Tomorrow morning she will go with me to get her soldier number and I.D., then she will continue training with the others as normal” The queen looked at us back and forth, unsure of what was going on. “Alright then, but what of her name? It is illegal for a citizen to have a name that starts with an A in Aantari” claimed mother.

“When I was born, my parents weren’t very good people. The main reason why they named me Ahara was basically because it was against the law.  During my childhood's early years, they were doing a whole bunch of illegal things.” she explained. “If my name bothers you, I’ll change it.” 

She leaned back in her seat with her arms crossed. You could hear the sassiness in her tone, but she still kept a sweet smile on her face.

“It doesn’t matter. You are now an imperial guard, so you can keep that name. Meeting adjourned” shrugged mother.

Everyone got up and started heading out except for Josh. “Oh and Asher, don’t forget to take Ahara to get her number and I.D. at five in the morning. After that, take her to the training grounds where she will be sparing with Josh”

“Wait, she's going to spar with Josh? What if she gets hurt? Josh is one of our best fighters” I reasoned.

“It's okay man, I’ve seen that chick fight. I should be the one afraid, but you know me. I always win duels” said Josh as he stretched his feet up on the table with a cocky smile. I rolled my eyes and proceeded to exit the room. As I walked down the halls, I noticed Ahara a couple of meters in front of me.

“Hey, Ahara! Wait up!” I shouted as I jogged up to her. 

“Prince Asher.” She looked me up and down as if examining me.

In that quick moment, I analyzed her. She had warm ivory skin with a very sweet thin face, almost innocent-like. A small button nose and eyebrows sharper than my sword. She had her hair in a ponytail with several strands hanging out framing her face. It was long and black,  appearing darker than the night. Everything about her seemed so angelic and pure. But her eyes told a different story. They held a rich hue of dark emerald green. But unlike her friendly smile, they were wild, maybe even bloodthirsty.

“I’m heading down to my room. I'm guessing you're headed to the soldier’s chambers?”

“Yep, one of the maids just gave me some directions. But I’ve never been in a place this big before, so I’ll probably get lost a couple of times before I get there.” She chuckled. Her smile was so flaunting, that it could fool any man.

“If you don’t mind, I would gladly accompany you back to your chambers,” I suggested. 

“Why not?” She shrugged. We started walking in silence. I noticed her eyes exploring the dim vast halls, mesmerized by its beauty. I decided to ask her about the situation in the meeting room.

“Why did you lie?”

“Hmm?” Ahara looked up at me confused.

“The debriefing, why did you lie about me assigning you to this mission?”

She stopped walking and stared at me with a menacing look on her face. But her expression quickly changed.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, you did assign me that mission when I arrived. How come you don’t remember?”

Even though I knew Ahara was lying, I aspired to believe her. She turned back to the direction we were headed and began walking again. I caught up to her quickly and brought up the subject again.

“We’ve never crossed paths before, and you know it.” 

“I know a lot more than you think.” Her gaze remained forward.

“I don’t understand what your problem is but I’ll make a deal with you.” 

Her eyebrows raised as if interested in my proposition. 

“I won’t snitch on you to the Queen, but only if you’re able to beat Josh in the sword-to-sword combat tomorrow.”

Ahara seemed to like my offer, based on her amused look.

“It’s a deal. But if I were to lose, which is impossible, you still won’t tell the Queen a thing.”

“And why is that Ahara? You’re in no position to tell me what to do.”

“Perhaps not, but I don’t think your mother would be very happy if you lied to her for a complete stranger like me.” An evil grin was smeared across her face.

I can’t stand this girl.

“You know, you’re very unlikable.”  I looked over to see her fixing her hair.

“I could say the same about you.”

We finally came to a stop in front of the soldier’s chambers.

“We’ll get your number and I.D. in the morning at five. As of right now, you are free to go anywhere throughout the palace since you are still a soldier, but tomorrow meet me by the east greenhouse at four fifty-five. For the time being, I’ll keep hold of your I.D., until I figure out your true intentions for being here.” I say as I turn to walk away. I can feel her deathly glare on my back as a walk away. Something about her was off, I’m not sure why I would lie to my mother for a girl I’ve never met. But something tells me that she’s going to be around a lot in the future.

I’ve known Josh all of our lives and I’ve never heard him praise another person like this before, he hasn’t even talked about me like this before. I’m not sure what to expect from her. Even though Ahara is different from the rest of the soldiers, she can’t be as good as I’ve heard. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.

I turned the corner then opened the door to enter my chambers and take the rest of the night off.