Skyhaven never looked so beautiful then this time of year. It was a lush haven, full of life, beauty, and glamour. It was a place full of promise and hope. It made a person feel safe, regardless of what was happening to the powers in charge. It was a place that would shock many foreigners. Some races have never set foot inside the majestic city, save a few diplomats or traders. It certainly is not the place where you expect a Taurician. Tauricians have never been near Skyhaven, always choosing the relaxing comfort of the sea and the beaches rather then lofty cities on dry-land. A common Taurician saying goes; "If you cant get a boat out from it, then it is not home." It certainly did not feel like home, especially to young Lartha Karacid.

Lartha, who is no older then 14 years old, looked at the city through the hood of her red cloak. It was a beautiful place, a place that was mysterious to her as it was to the rest of her kin. At home, the sea salt provided the only true smell, and many Tauricians feel safer when that smell permeates the air. Here, the smell of the sea was as distant as the Black Continent. The first impressions on the young girl however were not left by the smells, but by the sights. In Civola, the buildings were made of wood, stone, and brick. Here, elegant marble made up ever structure, from the lowest shops to the tallest statues. The marble was a glistening white, and the roads were paved with white stone. The buildings of the rich were trimmed with gold. The city itself gave a fairy-tale impression on Lartha, remembering the many tales of the Olden days her wet-nurse told her when she was very little.

Those fairy-tale days were long gone though, crashing down to the floor as soon as her father hit the hard ground dead in the arena. She has been on the run ever since, fleeing from city to city, hopping that one day she could return home and kill her uncle for what he had done, as well as kill her cousin, the infant prince of the Islands. Her biggest curse however, was not this, but having to be in exile with her older brother. Jo-Gal Karacid, true heir to the islands, yet any Taurician would beat him in a duel if given the chance. He had no backbone, and was a coward compared to the rest of the family. Lartha remembers her aunt Jejin, and how she managed to twist the reigns of power to become a great diplomat for the Islands. 

"I hope you realize we did not come here to sight see sweet sister?" said her brother in a tunic, echoing from her side. "We came here to do important business, and business must be done if we are to return."

"I do not want to marry him." said Lartha in a very shy tone. She was to marry a member of a high-lordship, whom her brother calls "the closest thing to a Taurician we can get in this world." 

"Sister sister sister....... I have explained this to you many times. We are to simply vote for their family to be regent, you marry into the family, and we go home and put uncle Temir's head on a spike with an army of warriors at our back." replied Jo-Gal

"A true Taurician would stand and fight, not cower behind some army." said Lartha, in a shriveling and weak tone. They walked through the city to a tavern on an empty street near the main palace. There, Jo-Gal entered a room with some other men, and preceded to speak to them. "I give you my vote and my sister, and you promise to lend your army to retake my land?"

"Yes yes yes of course, we are better sails-men then those bastard Taurician savages. I hope you are a bit more civilized once we put you on the throne as warchief." replied the booming man. "Now about this sister?"

"LARTHA!!! GET IN HERE!!" Yelled Jo-Gal into the other room. Lartha entered the room, her head covered by the red velvet hood of her cloak. She did not want her future husband to catch any glimpse of her face. "Remove your hood sister, let the man see what he is bargaining for." Lartha slowly clasped the velvet and pulled back on the hood. Her face was slowly revealed. 

Lartha was a ginger, and a beautiful one for sure. Gingers were not rare in Tauricia. Red hair was extremely common among the Tauricians back on the islands. Lartha was no different. He hair was flowing freely and cleanly, like a red fire burning gracefully on her head. Her face was dotted with freckles, but in the way that made her beauty greater. He teeth were perfectly white and her smile was always warm and welcoming, unlike her soul which is constantly tormented by the demands of her brother. Yes underneath all this beauty was a frail girl, taught in the ways of multiple cultures, and always forced to listen to her "warchief" brother. He would be mad and mentally abuse her if she did not obey, and this pulled a physiological effect on her. She was wearing a red dress that flowed down to her feet. She had a shell necklace of rare shells on her neck, and her velvet red cloak only brought out her features. While she may be stunningly beautiful, she was young, and she only recently has started to bleed. 

"Amazing! Truly beautiful! If only my master knew that Tauricians would actually be good looking!" said the astonished man.

"Now, lets see the man himself." replied Jo-Gal.

A man stepped up from the back of the room, and moved forward to greet the siblings. "Greetings young warchief, my lady, allow me to introduce myself as James Conrad..........."