Night in Hyperion

While her false husband Acinonyx lay in his bedchamber with his cheetah Paris by his side, Rowena walked through Hyperion, wondering how she could have possibly escaped to rejoin her rightful husband Falco. Surely, it could not have been as easy as just walking out through the city's gate!

Occasionally looking up to gaze upon some horns of consecration, Rowena could not help but be reminded of home and at the same time remember that this was not her home. This was her prison. She was not Rowena of Hyperion she was Rowena of Aether. This city may have resembled the palace on Aether, but she would never think it her home as Eithne and Pasiphae did. Her home, the island of Aether, was destroyed when the Earth Bull escaped from his prison beneath it... The Earth Bull, that monster who was worshipped as a god, patron of bandits, rebels and crown princes, he who was appeased through putting vestal immolations of adolescents and damsels into a bull pit to be gored to death.

Looking away from the horns of consecration, Rowena turned her gaze to a series of red columns... Just like the palace on Aether. Closing her eyes, she remembered her childhood in the palace. She may have been a member of the nobility, but she learned to cook and spin wool just as any other girl had and how to manage a household. She had learned how to read and write, learned to run, wrestle and throw javelins. Truly, her education had been a great one.

Then, Rowena thought of her old doll. What had she named it? She could not remember, Livia or something like that. A brightly painted thing with fancy clothes, always being stolen by the boys, but never by Falco or Frumentius.

So many toys from the wooden horses, the dolls, the yo-yos, the tops, the balls, the marbles, everyone had their favourites, but there were games as well. Chaturanga, checkers, snakes and ladders, senet, knucklebones, everyone had a favourite. Rowena had always loved chaturanga, just as Falco had and so it was a game they had always played together.

Hearing someone playing a lute, Rowena thought back to those carefree past times. Music, hunting sports... Hunting she had never cared for, nor had Falco. Through farming and fishing, the people of Aether had enough to eat, why then should they have slain the inhabitants of the fields, the forests and the mountains? For sport? Such things were barbaric.

Then a sound came to Rowena's ears, it was a growling that she knew all too well. Opening her eyes, she saw her false father-in-law Leo with his maneless white lion Priam by his side. Both were approaching her, the former with a look of contempt upon his face, the latter with hatred in his eyes. The first lion Rowena had ever seen had been a toy lion, wooden and painted, looking more like a monster, a demon than anything of the natural world. Looking at Priam, Rowena could not help but think the same thing. This creature looked more a monster, more a demon than anything natural. She remembered Aedan, the golden tiger of Tigris, her true father-in-law, and remembered a beast that was good and noble, something that looked like he belonged upon the earth and not in some horrid nightmare.

Looking at Leo, Rowena took a small step back from the King of Hyperion. He was four and fifty twelvemonths of age and stood at a height of five feet and nine inches. He was a large, swarthy man with a handsome face, brown eyes, greying-brown hair and a voice as pleasant as Acinonyx's. His attire consisted of a white tunic, a purple kilt with orange tassels that went down to the ankles, a purple cloak with orange tassels that went down to his elbows, a bronze dome-shaped crown, a pair of gold earrings and a pair of yellow, pointed shoes. He had that same lustful look in his eyes whenever he set them upon Rowena, Scholastica, Xe-tian or Eithne. He had gotten Taurus' sister Pasiphae as a bride, but Leo loved exotic women to the point of unseemliness, of that Rowena could attest, always touching her and the others.

Sure, enough as Leo spoke, his voice a rich baritone, saying "Going somewhere, daughter-in-law?", the first thing the King of Hyperion did was feel Rowena's right breast. Whenever he touched her, Rowena could feel her skin crawl.

"If my rightful husband Falco still lives, I should go to him." Rowena answered, looking at snarling Priam rather than Leo Rex. "But, alas, I doubt it would be as simple as leaving through the gates." Looking at Hyperion's King, she wondered how a countenance could be so full of contempt while the eyes were so full of lust. It was most strange.

Removing his hand from Rowena's breast, Leo uttered: "Your rightful husband Falco... I can hardly believe it. I would think Acinonyx a fool, yet Taurus and Pardus both confirm it was him, looking a twelvemonth older and with that same old armour of his." Turning away from Leo, Rowena continued on her way only to hear Leo inquired: "Where are you going?"

Immediately Rowena replied: "I think I shall go to the fane of the Donkey God and pray."

Would she? Rowena was not sure. There was a piece of her that actually wanted to try and sneak out through the gates and yet, she had told Leo the truth, including her doubts as to whether it was that simple, but what if she actually could? Perhaps she should have gone to the Donkey God, her patron, and prayed for luck first.

She just wasn't sure. Go to the fane and pray for luck or go and try her luck without praying, what was she to do? Falco was alive. He was outside the city in the camp and yet... And yet she would not abandon Scholastica and Xe-tian... If she could escape, then they would escape with her. They would be free!