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Emperor Peony Malkuth the First, current ruler of the grand City-State of Alexandria was quite excited about this little sojourn out of his home land to meet this... Peony gazed at the invitation written out, by a rather steady and loopy hand on a crisp parchment, the man noted once more, before his curious gaze slipped over the name that signed the invitation... “High King Cruxis Spirlea,” Peony’s tenor escaped into the air, making his carriage mate look towards the man, before looking back out the window as the blond Emperor placed the invitation back in an inner pocket of his finely crafted and brightly coloured royal garments. The name sound quite foreign on his tongue, as he supposed it would, since he was used to titles that didn’t have x’s in them. He had known a few odd names such as ‘Gailardia Galan Gardios’, a fine young Duke before the war that had reduced Peony’s own kingdom to little more than a peninsula of land.

The Emperor was slowly rebuilding his kingdom, starting with his capital city of Alexandria. It was slow work, but it was coming along... This first diplomatic invitation was a fantastic opportunity to rebuild alliances that had fallen apart under his father’s multiple wars, not to mention a little time to take him away from the pressures his council and his people were putting on him. The man was intending on politely declining the invitation since he had so much to do, but his personal advisor had demanded otherwise. Jade Curtiss, his childhood friend and a man he would trust with his life, had told him that even an Emperor needed a little time away. Not to mention that Alexandria needed all the diplomatic friends it could find. Very few of them were around these days, he was sad to say.

Leaning back in the carriage that was forever driving foreword, the man looked out the window as he placed a tanned hand on the little ‘gift’ on his lap. Back home, he had a love for a certain animal, and he had a grand total of fifteen of the little beasts that had free reign of his office and most of his quarters in the royal palace. Peony loved their soft little bodies and their cute faces, not to mention their gigantic ears and the way they sounded; a most unhealthy obsession, Jade had commented once, especially after he had named his favourite and most affectionate creature after his trusted advisor. And imagine that, his new little Jade had been a little girl! The creature, something between the look of a pig and a rabbit (and aptly named ‘Rapigs’, by some brilliant zoologist or another), had given birth to two healthy little ones, and now that they were old enough to be away from their mother, Peony had thought to bring them along.

What better to start off two peoples everlasting friendship, then with a couple of tiny pig-rabbit creatures? Peony could think of nothing better!

The Emperor only wished that one of his two normal companions were around... that would make things perfect. Not that he was upset with his current traveling partner; it was just that she was a little... Quiet. Poor little Siren... He hoped to break the earth-bound Spirit of that habit as soon as possible. Jade had told him that this was a ‘baby’ Spirit, a woman who had died and had just recently been selected to become Siren. She had little to no powers, but she was strong enough to turn into a weapon and defend him if he needed her to do as such, which was just fine with him. And he would be safer with her then with the hoard of soldiers. Peony was just fine with this, of course.

In fact, ‘poor little quiet Siren’ was silently freaking out, even while she held the peacefully sleeping Rapig on her lap, as she gazed out at the passing landscape, trying not to look at the Emperor she sat across from. Normally, when the Emperor of Malkuth ever left home, he would have a host of protectors, which included an earth-bound holy spirit aptly named Angeal, and the man’s advisor, Jade... but not so today. Nope, today a certain ‘Great Will’, or perhaps an author as some might look at these creatures of immeasurable literature-power over worlds, had been knocked down off the high podium she had set herself up on in the land that Peony came from, and placed her in a protective power over a certain Emperor... What for? Well, somehow the great Jade Curtiss, the man who had single-handedly beaten death in a high stakes chess match, and won an extension of life for his Emperor, had found out that this particular ‘Great Will’ was planning on allowing the kindly Peony finally meet his end. Jade was not too happy about this turn of events, of course, so he had struck first.

He had summoned her forth from her own comfortable, stable life back on Earth, forced the mantle of one of the worldly Spirits that had yet to be filled upon her, making her the one and only female spirit... and tossed her to look after Peony, with a not-too-kind threat thrust upon her. ‘If he dies under your care, the same will befall you, Sam... now, don’t disappoint, hm?’ Uhg. Jade. She swore once she got back on her high horse with her other Great Will, she would do mean and awful things to him. Maybe turn him into a Rapig for Peony to take care of. Or throw him to the mercy of Leviathan for a time, let him be forced to swim away from the gigantic sea-monster for all eternity.

Sam was quite sure she was going to have her hands full as she learned her responsibilities, as well as having to deal with Peony of all men. Peony! Sure, she thought the man was a fun enough character, but he always found himself in situations that were rather dangerous, and she was no fighter. Thankfully Peony was, but that didn’t help that she was suppose to be looking after him.

Her only hope was that her fellow Great Will saw what was going on and helped her out, cut this tie to this world so she could carry on with mundane things like work and playing through that stack of games she was slowly getting through. It was the only shred of hope she had left in this situation... Right then, the little creature in her lap rolled over, exposing its warm belly to be scratched in its sleep. Sam shook her head and complied, quite liking these hairless little creatures; it was great how an animal’s affection could be when you weren’t allergic to them.

“Look out here, Siren!” Peony piped up, pointing out his window, and Sam did the only thing that she could and gazed in the direction he was pointing. The Plura-Orbis Colosseum was in view... Sam swallowed slightly, adjusting her glasses and then the Alexandria military outfit she had been provided with, since her normal jeans and a sweater would not do in a fantasy-ish setting such as this, hugging the little creature close, and prayed that everything was going to be alright...