NationStates Jolt Archive

9 July 13 R.A.

Duchess Gwendolyn sighed in disappointment as her limousine came to a jerky stop. She didn't curse. Even in private, Gwendolyn was every bit the lady. Her two friends, the Ladies Grace and Baudicca, did let out a few muttered murmurs. The three were all spending their first summer home from boarding school with Gwendolyn's widowed mother in her Shieldcrest estate and were just on their way back from a ball being thrown by no lesser personage than Her Royal Highness, the Grand Duchess Corrina.

Grace finally opened the door on her own and the three disembarked. Moving to the front of the car, they found the driver staring despondently at a smoking engine. He bowed as they approached. "Your Highness, my ladies, I'm afraid it's blown a gasket. I've called someone but we're stuck here until they arrive."

"Very well..." Gwendolyn said. "Would you ladies care to take a walk in the meantime?"

The three women spent a good half hour walking through the largely empty Shieldcrest countryside. Strictly speaking, they were aware that their court dressed were hardly made for travel outdoors but there had hardly been an opportunity to change.

After some distance, they could hear what sounded like loud voices and singing and shouting. Gwendolyn brushed elegant blond curls from her face and turned towards the sound, cresting one of the rare Shieldcrest hills to get a view.

Below her, Gwendolyn saw several thousand people crowded together before a stage. They mostly seemed human though here and there could be seen a little patch of other races. Huge speakers carried the sounds from the stage out over the crowd. It looked almost like a concert, though the man on the stage wasn't singing, he was speaking, loudly and passionately. "For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but shall have eternal life."