Gaia. (9)

The two men arrived at a shop that stocked clothing and accessories for larger clientele. Relovan rolled his eyes as the prospect of shopping with this giant was not his idea of fun. He would rather spend the time in preparation for his appearance at the Hearing that was scheduled for the next day. That said, it didn't appear like he had much of a choice at first, and the majority of the morning was spent going from shop to shop, looking at certain items of clothing, looking at shoes, and everything else. Relovan was clearly becoming more and more jaded as time went on, and he eventually looked at Nura.

"Chief, we've been at this for hours, we haven't bought anything… and we even stopped going to shops with clothes for people your size. I'm famished – can we just go and eat now?"

"Hmm, alright, let's. I could certainly go for a bite to eat as well."

Relovan sighed and nodded, and as they left the shop they were in and walked in the direction of the restaurant, they saw Princess Nkanyezi's group in an open clearing. Relovan was willing Chief Nura to ignore them and head for the restaurant, but the Princess turned her head and looked directly at him, and not Nura.

"Ah! Carolina, the Chief and the Enforcer are over there!"

Chief Nura, having heard the Princess speak, grinned and practically ran over to where the group of women was. Relovan followed after him, only with less excitement and urgency. The Princess smiled as she and her handmaidens had to perform a coordinated turn for her to change direction and face the incoming Chief.

"Good morning, Chief Nurari Hyonto." The Princess greeted with a slight bow.

"Princess Nkanyezi."

"What brings you and the Enforcer out here again?"

"I thought that the best way for him to prepare for tomorrow would be to get dragged around as I window shop, is all."

Nura laughed boisterously, while Relovan, who had just joined the group, looked far less enthused by the blunt admission. The Princess, who had been giggling along with Nura, quickly stopped when she saw that Relovan had arrived.

"Enforcer." She greeted.

"Princess." He reciprocated, before looking at Carolina and the rest of the women.

He simply nodded his head at them, before looking at the Princess again. He looked not only her outfit over, but her face as well, recalling everything the Chief told him about her as he did. Chief Nura was trying to get her attention to tell her some more funny stories, but she appeared to be enamored by the Enforcer, who in turn was also staring at her. The staring was done in silence, which was particularly suffocating and awkward as all hell – at least for everybody but Relovan. He was trying to see if he could make out any details about the Princess' build, or even if he could sense anything behind the eye mask. He then closed his eyes, taking a second to focus on his breathing and see if actively using his sense would make any sort of difference. It took a second or two to activate, but when it did, Relovan opened his eyes to see that everything was a lot brighter. Colours were more vivid, and he was feeling everything on skin – as if all of his senses were now based on touch. He started looking around at his surroundings; having seemingly forgotten that he was curious about looking behind the Princess' mask. People and things were represented by different colours, however seeing as this was the first time Relovan was ever seeing things in this manner, he wasn't quite sure what the colours meant. There were quite a few people in the clearing with the group, and they were mostly represented by green and blue hues. The Council Security that was present was yellow, as were the handmaidens that surrounded the Princess. Carolina was a rather dark yellow which looked like it would turn orange at any given moment, and the Princess was a bright combination of light blue and purple. The only one who did not have a colour was the Chief, and Relovan's curiosity was mostly behind that. He was picking up sounds with his entire body, but considering how there was no filter to what he was hearing at the time, he couldn't make any sense of it all. To those around him, Relovan looked like he had swallowed some kind of recreational drug, mostly because of how his eyes looked, but Nura looked on with thinly veiled curiosity and excitement. The Princess, who was still staring at him, looked flustered as Relovan's eyes now landed directly on her again. He said nothing as he looked to be staring right through her, causing the Princess to fidget under his gaze.

"…you're so bright, Enforcer." She said without thinking, causing both Carolina and Nura to react.

"Excuse me?"

The Princess' words had snapped Relovan out of the active sense. He hadn't actually been able to make out what she had said, but he heard her voice and immediately afterwards snapped out of it.

"Did you say something, Princess?"

"Huh? Oh, I just—"

"Princess, we really must get going. We are scheduled to leave this evening, and if we are to find a gift for the Prince, we must hurry."

"Ah. Yes. That's right, the Prince." Nkanyezi said as she calmed herself down. "Carolina is right, we have things we must attend to. It was nice seeing you both again."

"Take care, Princess! I hope that the next time we meet, we'll be able to sit down and catch up properly." Nura said with a smile.

"Take care, Princess." Relovan said with a nod.

Carolina looked at the handmaidens with an expression that made them panic a bit and move. Relovan and Nura stood in the clearing, just watching as the Princess and her minders walked off.

"Well, that was abrupt." Relovan said to himself.

"So?! How was it?!" Nura asked excitedly.

"Huh? How was what?"

"I saw you do that breathing thing you did back in the Training Room. Did it work?"

"It did, but I still don't know what it all means… usually I feel things, but this time, there were strange visual cues that I couldn't quite understand."

"Visual cues? Explain."

Relovan and Nura started to walk in the opposite direction to the one the Princess and her group went in, with Relovan explaining things as they did.

"…so if we apply just basic reasoning to this, wouldn't you say the colours represent level of threat, Lawman?" Nura said as they both stood still.

"That actually does make sense on some level Chief, but I think the criteria or the system itself is somewhat complex. There are different shades as well, so it's not just yellow or blue or green, but darker and lighter shades."

"Well let's say if red is a high level of danger, the darker the red, the closer it is to death, perhaps?"

"And the lighter, the less severe the threat?"

"Exactly." Nura nodded.

"That could work… but then…" The look on Relovan's face slowly became more serious as something dawned on him.

"But then?"

"Well, considering the current situation, I think I'll need to explain this quickly. The buildings that surround that square we were in all had red hues that all converged to one point – the square itself."

"Okay, and?"

"And the hues all moved when the Princess and her people moved."

"…so what you're saying is—"

"The Princess is likely being targeted, and is in danger."

"Shit!" Nura boomed before looking in the direction the Princess had walked in.

"Fuck!" Relovan boomed as he turned around and set off after the Princess and her people.

Nura did the same, and matched Relovan's speed.

"I could feel something tingling on my skin, but because I wasn't sure how all this shit worked, I didn't think it was danger. I knew coming up with an outfit so convoluted that it required that many handmaidens was done to beef up her security."

"We need to find them, Lawman. Can you follow the hues?"

"Give me a second, Chief."

Relovan was just about to close his eyes and activate his sense again when a large explosion rocked the Gateway District. The two policemen looked at one another and Relovan shrugged.

"I guess we need to follow the smoke instead."

"I'm not sure if that is fortuitous or ominous." Nura replied with a grin.