Tyranny of Steel

After absconding into the night, Honoria quickly proceeded towards the harbor with the intent to charter a ship through the Bosphorus and into the black sea. However, as she walked through the streets, it became increasingly apparent that all kinds of eyes were drawn to her figure. She failed to remain inconspicuous despite her best efforts to cover up her identity by wearing a mint green face veil that had golden embroidery.

There were four reasons for this, for starters she was an exceptional beauty, and the mystique of the veil only added to that. Secondly, she wore extraordinarily lavish mint green clothing that was embroidered in gold. Such attire was uncommon even among the aristocracy. Thirdly she had an eastern imperial eagle perched on her shoulder, and lastly, she gazed upon every sight with a sense of wonder, as if she had been locked up her entire life, never being able to see the city herself.

Because of these factors, she attracted a great deal of attention, so much so that it would be easy to discover her whereabouts when her family noticed her absence. However, Honoria seemed blissfully unaware of the attention she was gathering and thus continued to prance about throughout the city of Constantinople.

As Honoria was walking through the city, the girl quickly got lost and found herself in a dark alley, where a group of street rats approached her. These men were impoverished and wore lustful gazes as they saw the beautiful noblewoman approach them. Seeing a group of strangers in front of her, with hostile glances, Honoria tried to evade them, but as she passed by, one of them grabbed ahold of her arm and forced her to stop.

"Hey, pretty lady, how about you stay here with us? I promise that we will show you a good time..."

Honoria's first instinct was to call the guards, but as she was about to do so, she realized that such an action would only reveal her identity. Surely once the guards realized she was the princess they would force her to return to the palace, which was a result she could not allow. As such, she began to pull her arm away, in doing so alerting Heraclius to the danger.

Before she could make a sound, Heraclius jumped off of her shoulder and dug his talons into the eyes of the man who held onto her wrist. The majestic eagle could quickly tell these men meant to do his master harm and thus lept to her defense.

Talons instantly sunk into the thug's eyes, blinding him in the act. The man screamed in pain as he tried to wrestle the eagle off of his head, but that only made it worse. Eventually, the man's eyeballs were ripped entirely out of his head. His comrades immediately took off in fear; after all, the eagle had given them a glance that stated its intentions. If they stayed around, they too would be maimed.

After pecking the man's skull a few times with his mighty beak, Heraclius left the man to wallow in pain on the ground, forever blinded due to his actions. Seeing Heraclius leap to her defense in such a heroic manner, Honoria praised her pet.

"Good boy Heraclius!'

Upon hearing this, the eagle merely screeched and cleaned off his talons with his tongue before hopping back onto her shoulder. Afterward, Honoria and Heraclius quickly fled the scene, eventually finding their way down the streets. She was truly lost within the confines of the city of Constantinople. Her escape was not going as brilliantly as she had planned.

After walking around in circles for a while Honoria noticed a rundown building in front of her that had a lot of people surrounding it. Realizing she needed to ask for directions the princess quickly approach the building, and when Honoria entered the building she quickly found it filled with women and men dressed in skimpy attire. One of the nearly half-naked women approached Honoria and quickly greeted her. She was rather average-looking, but due to her excessive makeup, she could pass as attractive.

"Welcome to the Jewel of Constantinople, where all your fantasies can come true for a price! Tell me, do you prefer men or women?"

Honoria had no idea that she had just walked into a brothel and was greatly confused by the question; as such, she attempted to figure out where she was.

"I am sorry, I don't quite understand. I'm looking for the harbor. Can you help point me in the right direction?"

The prostitute gazed at Honoria up and down for a few moments while examining the strange girl before her. The woman had a sharp sense of intuition and could almost immediately tell that Honoria was an aristocratic girl who had run away from home. Thus the prostitute took pity and gave her some advice.

"Girl, you should return home. The City of Constantinople can be a dangerous place at night. I suggest running back to your villa before your parents send a search party for you."

Honoria was shocked, she could not fathom how this woman had known she ran away from home, but she instantly began to plead with her to keep it a secret.

"Please don't tell anyone! If father finds out I ran away from home; I will never be able to escape from the palace again!"

The prostitute was greatly shocked when she heard this. She had assumed that Honoria was just a regular noblewoman, but using the word Palace meant there was only one identity of the young woman before her; as such, she blurted out in great surprise.

"Princess Honoria!?!"

The moment she did so, the attention of everyone within earshot quickly gathered towards Honoria's direction. Honoria, of course, acted out of instinct and covered the prostitutes' mouth with her hands.

"Shhh! Quiet!"

After a few moments, Honoria released her hands, and the woman made an awkward laugh.

"Oh, of course, you aren't Princess Honoria! How could the princess leave the palace? Everyone knows the Emperor keeps her locked up for protection."

After making such a laughable excuse, the nearby gazes lost interest and drifted away, leaving the woman to sigh in relief. She made sure nobody was paying attention to the two of them before she grabbed ahold of Honoria's wrist and led her to a secluded area.

"Come with me!"

After arriving in a room reserved for illicit activities, the prostitute shut the door and began to question Honoria instantly.

"Are you really princess Honoria?"

Though Honoria's expression could not be seen beneath her veil, it was apparent she was in a rather depressed state. Eventually, she nodded her head in agreement. As such, the prostitute sighed before asking another question that was on her mind

"What on God's green earth possessed you into running away from home?"

Honoria shuffled around for a few moments with an embarrassed expression before explaining her situation. After nearly half an hour of telling her story, the prostitute sighed once more before scolding her.

"So let me get this straight... You are engaged to the French crown prince. Still, because he is queer, you want to run away from home, and flee to Austria so that you can hide in the region hoping that this Count Berengar, who you have never met before, and who has two women by his side already, is enough of a playboy that he would not mind insulting the Byzantine and French royal families by taking you into his little harem? Do you have any idea how insane that is!?!"

Honoria merely pouted when the prostitute chastised her; she did not expect the woman to question her sanity. Thus Honoria began to pout like a small child who had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar before muttering under her breath.

"It is the best option I could think of..."

The prostitute began to sigh once more as she tried to understand Honoria's thoughts, apparently being locked up in your home with no contact with the outside world was enough to rid one of their common sense. After thinking about it for a few moments, she felt sympathy for the foolish girl and decided to give her a helping hand.

"Are you sure you would rather kill yourself than marry that Prince?"

Honoria had not left out the lengths she would go to to avoid marrying Aubry when she spun her tale; as such, she nodded her head with firm determination in her eyes, which caused the prostitute to further feel pity for the girl. It was as if she were a caged bird finally figuring out she could fly, and as such, something compelled the woman to help Honoria.

"I am probably going to regret this, but my brother owns a merchant's vessel; he has been bringing goods through the black sea and into the Danube for some time now. Though he has never gone as far as Austria, he will take you to your destination for the right price.

We haven't talked in a while; you could say he disapproves of my line of work. However, I can lead you to him and help you secure passage. Come with me; I will make sure you make it to the harbor safely."

After saying that, Honoria felt tears stream down her eyes, this was the first time someone had helped her without wanting anything in return, and as such, she thanked the woman from the bottom of her heart.

"Thank you! You have no idea how much this means to me!"

The prostitute merely shook her head and patted Honoria on her shoulder.

"Just pray that this Count Berengar is foolish enough to take you in. If he has even the slightest amount of common sense, he will ship you back to Constantinople the moment you arrive in his court."

Hearing this, Honoria's heart nearly faltered; however, she quickly got ahold of her resolve; she had already come this far; she might as well see this through. She prayed in her heart that Berengar was the man she believed him to be.

Thus the prostitute and the princess left the brothel and headed towards the harbor where they would meet up with a merchant's vessel and the Captain of it in the hopes that the princess could escape the cage her family had built for her.