The reign of Shanjahen

“ Wel..come… to Asterian.”  Yuuro said, translating the large sign that stood next to the road. It was richly decorated with a golden border and red letters, and was in pristine shape.
As Hikary stared out over the road beyond, she realized this sign was an example of the rest of the country. She could see the first village up ahead, and it too had red roofs and the gardens shone with purple prana like she had never seen before.

“Wow, we actually made it.” Taira commented, looking rather surprised.
Even Hikary could not recall how long they had been traveling. Two moths? Three? All she knew was that when they had left, spring had barely arrived, and now they were melting from the summer sun. The hat Stelline had been wearing ever since they had left did not look as stupid as it had in early spring.

“Seems like we did.” Taira agreed. There were no guards, and there was no border, pony-made or natural, to distinguish Asterian from the rest of the west, as far as Hikary could tell. Only a silly sign on a road.
“Guess we should walk on to the village then… See if we can get directions to ZoroAster.” Hikary proposed, and they all agreed.

Ever since their encounter with Ken at the Canyon village, they had studied the western language. Especially Yuuro seemed to pick it up quickly and he had already practiced talking in several villages they had come across on their journey, and Hikary had to admit he was doing pretty well. She herself had not seemed so adept in the language, but she didn’t really mind, as long as she could say the basic things. It was more important that Yuuro, due to his status as a male, and Taira were able to make their points clear.

Taira was also learning pretty well, and she admitted that the language was not very different from what she knew from the language Fjaril had taught her, which of course made the learning easier on her. As they crossed what appeared to be the border, the nature of the road seemed to change. Before, the roads were usually made of sand, not of stones, at least not outside the villages and towns, but here the road instantly changed into a stone road, which seemed to be in very good condition.

The road was cut off from the meadows by a row of low bushes whose original color Hikary did not dare to guess. All she could see was the prana floating over them. The meadows maintained some of their original green-yellow color, because simple grass and vegetables were unable to show off the prana that flowed through them as well as larger plants and trees could, or so she had been told. Still, even in these fields purple was the dominating color.

“It’s beautiful…” Stelline whispered.
“And everything looks so neat and in such nice shape.” Taira added.
 Hikary saw a few farms in the distance, but even from this distance she could see they were gorgeous little farms in good condition. Even the newly build farms in the Friendship Lands did not look like this, she thought.

Because they were so absorbed in their surroundings, time flew by and before they realized it they had reached the borders of the little village. Here, too, everything looked so beautiful and in good shape. Not one nail seemed to be out of order. Ponies walked on the streets, laughing, and every little house had a small garden in front of it, glowing purple with prana, contrasting sharply with the red that seemed to dominate the tops of the houses.

The yellow stone used for the houses seemed to shine like gold in the sunlight, and the road which was made of a stone of the same color fit the scenery perfectly. Yuuro took the lead, not because he liked it that much but because they had early on noticed that they did not draw much attention to themselves that way.

Observing the ponies walking on the streets, Hikary noticed there was not one woman or girl walking without a male escort. Some were obviously walking with their husband or father, but some also seemed to follow a man without looking all too happy about it. The trend that they had observed in the west seemed to be only stronger here, in Asterian. Was it because this country was very much the centre of the west?

They quickly found out the little town in fact had a lot of inns, and they decided they would spend the night here while they figured out the directions to ZoroAster. They picked a nice looking inn that did not appear to be too expensive, and went in to book a room. When they entered the inn’s hallway, they were greeted by the High King of the West, Shanjahen. Or rather a life-size painting of him.

High King Shanjahen was wearing a dark purple cape with a light purple brim, and on his proud head stood a large purple crown that seemed to glow with Prana. His stern face stared at them like it had never done before. Of course, every inn they had visited had at least one picture of the High King and sometimes his family, but they had never seen something as big as this.

“Well, he’s not only the High King, he’s also the king of Asterian.” Taira commented, trying to find an explanation for Shanjahen’s increased presence.
“He looks handsome enough… Do you think he’ll still look like this in real life?” Stelline asked.
“Probably not.” Yuuro said dryly, and they all had to laugh.

Yuuro quickly arranged a room for them, which came with the usual stares at his accent, and only an hour later they were out on the street again, to explore the town and see what they could learn of the way to ZoroAster and of the High King himself, even if it was already rather late in the evening. Seeing as they were here to arrange a meeting with him, it might be wise to at least learn something about his character and the way he rules his country. Agreeing it might be the fastest, they split up in two groups, Hikary going with Taira and Yuuro going with Stelline.

As they walked through the little town, it seemed to Hikary that there were more ponies walking around in the town than that there were houses for them to live in. The streets were crowded with men who were pulling carts with wares like food, cloth and other stuff Hikary could not identify, with men and women walking around enjoying the weather and with children playing. Where did they all live?

They did not walk around long yet when someone wearing a large purple cloak yelled something at them. Hikary, of course, had no clue what he was saying, but the blue haired yellow pony looked anything but friendly when he ran towards them. She glanced at Taira, who looked alarmed. Within a few moments, the purple-cloaked pony was joined by two others who were wearing the same cloak. They were all male, and they all looked alarmingly angry.

“What’s going on?” Hikary whispered to Taira.
 “They’re the guards.” Her sister whispered back. They started talking to them, but Hikary only understood the words “rule” and “evening”.
Taira stammered something, obviously shocked, but Hikary did not understand her sister’s words. It was rather obvious to her, however, that her sister’s plea was not received well, for the guards started shouting even louder.

Several ponies had gathered around them now, glancing at then with disproval, and Hikary was pretty sure now that Taira and she had done something illegal or forbidden, but she could not fathom what it could be. They were only walking around, after all. Taira seemed to get upset and panic slightly, and Hikary wished she could help her sister. Wasn’t that her part in this world? Yet she couldn’t do anything while the guards kept getting angrier.
They don’t even know who they are talking to.

Right when Hikary wanted to ask Taira to explain the situation to her, she heard a familiar voice in between the yelling of the guards. Yuuro. He, of course, immediately began to talk in Aster, and the guards instantly calmed down, talking on a normal level to him while completely ignoring Hikary and Taira now. While they were talking Hikary whispered
“What happened?” to her older sister.

“I… Apparently it’s illegal for us to walk on the street after sunset.” Taira explained, looking very much confused.
Hikary joined her sister in the confused state after hearing that news. Illegal to walk on the street?
“Why? Because we’re foreigners?” she asked, wondering if the High King distrusted others that much.
“No… if only that was true. It is because we are women.” Taira answered.

“Eh?” Hikary exclaimed, unsure of what she had just heard. Taira however, was distracted by the conversation between the guards and Yuuro, which seemed to have taken a positive turn. Hikary realized Yuuro was apologizing, one of the few words she recognized in Aster, and after a few more moments the guards left, but not after eying them angrily one more time.

The crowd that had gathered around them seemed to have shrunk as well, and Hikary was able to turn to Yuuro, who looked relieved.
“What was that all about?” Stelline asked.
“It seems recently, a new rule has gone into effect here in Asterian. No woman is allowed to go outside after nightfall without guidance of a male. This was first a rule that counted only in ZoroAster, but apparently it has recently been enforced upon the entire country. What’s more, every woman should get a check to see if she is able to wield prana. The guards wanted to take you into custody for breaking this rule, but I managed to explain that I was not aware of this new rule yet and that I would keep you all with me from now on.” Yuuro explained.

“Hmmm… and this is a new rule?” Taira asked Yuuro while they walked on, heading back in the general direction of the inn.
“That’s what the guard said, but he didn’t go into any details.”
“Sounds strange… why would Shanjahen enforce a rule like this out of the blue? For what I gathered women always have been less then men in the west, but this situation seemed stable enough. I didn’t see any women rebel against this. I can’t see any reason why he would suddenly limit women’s rights.” Taira thought out loud.

“Me neither, but we don’t know anything about Asterian. Nor the High King. Only two of us can even speak the language, and you’re not exactly fluent at it either. We must make our way to ZoroAster, and we must keep our eyes and ears open. This entire situation seems to have made our mission a lot harder, it seems; If Shanjahen has a good reason to limit the rights of women in his country I do not see why he would be open for a rather strange request from someone who is to be a queen in the east.” Hikary said.

“Very true… but the situation is too important to let whatever silly thing Shanjahen has on his mind stop us. We’ll go ask the way at the inn, and if they can’t help us I’m sure they know someone who can. Tomorrow… we travel to ZoroAster. This journey has taken long enough; it is time for us to meet this Shanjahen and make him understand.” Taira replied. Everyone agreed with her.

As agreed, they went back to the inn and had a small dinner there; consisting of vegetables Hikary had never eaten before. Staring out of the royally big window over the meadows which bathed in the moonlight that contrasted sharply with the dark and starless night sky, Hikary realized Asterian was truly a strange country. Beautiful, yes, and powerful too, probably, but strange.

She could not really point out what it was, but something was not quite right. Even in this little town on the border of the country, she sensed something was not the way it should be. It was probably none of her business, but she could not help but be bothered by this feeling. The course of Shanjahen’s reign… would it interfere with their mission? Because if it did, everything might be lost… forever.