As they walked, nobody spoke, other than Marquis Burton, extolling the virtues of his city.
"The new elevated tramways are a marvel of engineering. They have cut the time to traverse the city by two thirds, and now even the commoners can live in any part of the city and still easily and quickly make it to their chosen employer.
It has done wonders for property values, and quelled all the dissent about renovating the slums into properly high density housing." The Marquis insisted.
"They certainly have done wonders. This might be the most completely renovated city in the entirety of Cygnia." Princess Alexis commended.
The Marquis beamed with pride, and gestured toward a large open area on the south side of the keep.
"We even introduced a landing area for airships. We get a twice-weekly service from here to Skippington and Hertbury. Mostly tourism, you understand. But the new airships do a wonderful job of carrying the mail as well." He explained.
That would be a useful resource for the defenders, if they could get a military airship or two here for the effort. Not many cities had a proper landing area so close to the centre of everything.
Even the airship yards in the Capital were on the edge of the city, built on platforms over the docks in the bay.
The logic at the time had been that while they were flying ships, they were still ships. So, they should naturally belong with the other ships. Princess Alexis wasn’t sold on that idea, but now that they were built, it didn’t make sense to move them.
"Where are the barracks, Marquis?" Princess Alexis asked, her blue eyes sharp as she scanned the cityscape from their elevated position.
"In the Keep. With the tramways, it was deemed most efficient to put them in the centre of the city, where they could get to any trouble spot in an equal amount of time."
That made sense from a law enforcement standpoint, but it put all the guards well away from the city walls if there was an attack. That meant longer response times to the greatest of threats, in exchange for faster response to the more common domestic issues.
Normally, that would be the optimal choice, but today, it meant that the Princess, or the Garrison Commander, would have to work out a whole new deployment strategy for the forces in the city, so that they were ready to defend the moment that enemy soldiers were spotted.
They entered the Keep itself, and Dominic saw that the staff was preparing to lead them to multiple different locations.
It was a ready stance and organized formation that he had seen every day since he entered the palace, staff waiting to escort different people stood apart so that it was clear who you should follow. But today, that could become an issue, as the Princess would not want to be separated from her Royal Guard.
A young woman with blonde hair almost as short as Dominic’s stepped beside him.
"Sir, if you would please follow me to your quarters." She spoke softly.
Dominic looked to the Princess, who nodded for him to follow.
The maid led Dominic up multiple flights of stairs, down an excessively long corridor and up a spiral staircase in a tower.
"We are no longer in the main Keep, are we?" He asked, not recalling there being a round tower in the design.
"No, Sir. The Marquis has asked that you be housed in the North Tower, as it overlooks the walls of the city."
Dominic nodded. "Are the others nearby?"
The maid shook her head. "The Princess is in the Royal Visitor’s suites in the residential wing of the main keep, and her Royal Guard is in the suites surrounding hers, as per Royal Protocol."
It didn’t take a genius to realize that they were getting rid of him, putting him in a tower a hundred metres from the keep itself.
Even if someone needed to get in contact with him, it would take time for a messenger to get to him, and he would have the long walk back and forth for every event during their stay.
The little things designed to let him know that he wasn’t welcome, Dominic assumed.
"Your journey has been long. If you would like to bathe and rest now, we will have the midday meal brought to your room." The maid informed him, looking vaguely uncomfortable.
It might have been because the windows were open, but the temperature in the room was pleasant enough, so Dominic assumed it had to be something else.
And that couldn’t be good.
"A shower and a nap would both be wonderful, thank you."
As Dominic finished speaking, the maid rushed into the attached room with a slightly relieved sigh and got to work. He could hear the crackling of a freshly lit fire, and the burble of a mechanical pump starting. Then the hum of the machinery as the pump primed and the water pressure rose.
"The tower is so far from anything that it’s not connected to the Keep’s water supply, is it?" Dominic asked from the bedroom.
"No, Sir. The Tower has piping to the aquifer under the city, but it mostly relies on its own storage tanks from rain runoff." She replied.
That made sense, assuming that the Tower was part of the Keep’s original fortifications, built before there was a fully walled city around it.
After a few minutes, the maid came out and helped Dominic out of his coat, blushing nervously, then began unbuttoning his shirt.
It was at that point that Dominic realized his concerns about spies, traitors and Nobles who took joy in subtly snubbing nonhumans were not part of the reason that the maid was acting strangely.
No, the entire reason that she was so nervous was because it was her job to assist him in bathing.
But now he was in a bit of a situation.
Lady Camilla, his tutor in courtly manners, had covered this during their lessons, but Dominic had never thought about it applying to himself personally.
Now that it did, he wasn’t sure which of them was more embarrassed.