I Have No Name

The first time I saw her she was snippy and unfriendly, she was independent and kept to herself, but I knew she could blossom. I knew that if she so chose to do so she could do anything in the world. -Leda Eleusis, Journal of a Thousand Journeys.

-=+=-

It was early in the morning and the fog was lifting up. I dragged my hands across the cold stone, the cold smooth feel was refreshing to the touch. The sounds of the city began to reach my ears, I tried to imagine myself somewhere in there, living my new life.

The city walls were rugged, many hundreds of years of history carved into it, from invasions and wars alike, switching nations in the almost thousand years since its foundation. The walkways on the walls were newly paved, the soldiers up there were carefree and laughing away. They talked about life, their jobs, their wives and children, and overall how things were going.

I approached Gupta's West entrance which is smaller than the two main entrances North and South. I checked my clothes before walking further, I was wearing a simple dress with plain colors. My right sleeve where the general infused his power into was scorched off, looking at it gave me bad memories of that day.

As crossed the bridge to the other side the two guards posted finally came up to me.

"Good day, young one," the guard said politely. "Did you lose your parents out in the woods?" The guard showed concern.

It had come to my attention at that moment, I didn't know how I was going to explain my situation. It was true what the guard said though, I did lose my parents, maybe just not at that moment. "My parents are dead, sir guard." I cried to make myself look believable, though most of those tears were tears that were held in after a few weeks. I looked the part as well, torn clothes and slightly underweight.

"Oh, my dear girl!" The two guards quickly came to escort me inside, "We will take you to our captain, he will help you." For the first time I felt in that moment warmth, from a stranger I didn't know and didn't know me.

The guards took me through the gate, my first impressions of the city were not what I expected. Near the gate, I expected to see the slums of poor impoverished people. Instead, I was greeted by clean stone buildings, not suave or rich, but very clean with people going about their day.

The guards took me down the side street and I was surprised to find that even the side streets were paved with stone, not any dirt insight. We approached a building not attached to anything else, it stood out from the rest. It read 'West Guard Post' it was older than the rest of the area with four stories and decorated roofing.

As we walked through the double doors I heard arguing upstairs, "The Warlock Biznur will cause chaos if the public finds out he is staying at the Academy!" An older man's voice rang.

"I agree with the Captain, why has he left Gorgonia so early? And why has the emperor given him the order to stay here?" A younger male voice said.

"While I am also concerned by the public reaction, we must also realize that the Warlocks are also human. They are no monsters, in order to break the stigma, we must set the precedent!" An old lady's voice sounded.

As we walked up the spiral stairs in the center of the building we were greeted by a wide-open area, a lounge of sorts, and those three voices I heard were all sitting on couches by a fireplace.

"Excuse me Captain Falknur, we discovered a lost girl at the west gate, no guardians." The soldier accompanying me said.

"Thank you Franz," The Captain eyed me up and down, "You two may go back to your post, I will make sure she is registered."

The old lady walked up to me, "Hello there darling, come and sit with me, we will listen to your story." The old lady was quite elegant, she wore a plain purple dress and her hair was very simple. Yet she was beautiful in every way.

I followed her to the couch, and even though there were couches softer back in my castle, this couch felt like heaven. I curled up and wanted to fall asleep. "Excuse us little girl but please tell us what happened to your family and why you ended up here." The young man sitting across from me asked.

My eyes shot open, I still needed a story after a bit of thought I had one. "My family was refugees from Gorgonia, crossing the border our caravan was attacked by soldiers of Gorgonia. My mother died but my father was still alive. We wanted to get as far away as we could, most of your town by the border were evacuated so we had nowhere to seek shelter." I stopped as I played the part as the sad broken girl.

"Darling it is okay to cry," the old lady comforted me.

I sniffled and wiped my tears, "In order to make sure I had enough to eat my father gave me the majority of the food, he was a lousy hunter," I chuckled imagining this father I never had. "He died of starvation along the way. Before he died he told me to not stick around for the wild will take him away." I put my head in my legs to hide my face from their thinking faces.

"Chances are his body is long gone," said the young man.

"Quite unfortunate, this poor girl." Said the old man.

"My darling, what is your name?" The old lady asked in a soft voice.

I froze for a second, "I- I have no name," I stuttered out.

All three of them were confused, so I elaborated, "A terrible family member named him, he... he...." I took a deep breath, "he was a soldier for Gorgonia and led his men to kill us. I never want to be associated with him again."

"By the gods!" The old man said, "We understand little girl, but what will we call you?"

"I don't know," I truly didn't know what to be called. "Pick one for me," this would be the beginning of my new life to be lived.

"I think Cleo is better at names than us two," said the young man gesturing to the old man next to him.

*Cough* "I am still your Captain," said the old man.

Cleo, the old woman, was silent in thought. "Hmmmmm, what about Andromeda?" She smiled at me. "The second lady, who was also a refugee of Gorgonia, had a sister named this before they were split up when her sister was born."

The other two were in shock, "You don't mean the Empres-"

"Oh, she won't care! It was her dream to help orphans like her in her sister's memory."

"The Empress?" I asked with curiosity.

"Yes," the old lady said with a smile. "She was the second lady at my church, she overcame trouble after trouble to rise to where she is now." The old lady got closer to me, "Would you like to be the new second lady?"