Chapter Two: Those Unforgotten
Open to black. There are sounds of activity in the
background. People are speaking and
birds are chirping. There are footsteps
and animals.
Elsea, off-screen: “Princess! Princess, slow down.”
Open on Zara marching
through a crowd of people. It is light
out. Elsea is immediately behind her.
Cut to Elsea forcing
her way through the people and chasing after Zara.
Elsea: “M’lady, Glenn and Mary have fallen behind.”
Zara: “Then they will just have to catch up.”
Zara and Elsea walk
off screen.
Settle on the crowd
for a panel.
Glenn and Mary step
out of the crowd and on screen.
Mary: “Hasn’t she just gotten more lovely the longer we stay
in Anthem?”
Mary looks down at her
dress, which has a stain on the stomach of it.
Mary: “Now, what is this then?”
She rubs at the stain.
Glenn: “Come on, the ship will arrive soon.”
Mary: “Oh, hush, there is hardly need for hurry.”
Glenn cocks his brow.
Glenn: “You aren’t excited to see Zelos?”
Mary: “My excitement won’t change the winds, Sir Knight, and
it will hardly make time pass more quickly.”
Glenn: “They should be arriving soon.”
Mary: “Mayhap they should, but the question is whether they
will. These things have a way of going
awry. You understand, I am sure.”
She scowls.
Mary: “Drat!”
She looks at Glenn.
Mary: “And I loved this dress, too.”
Glenn: “Come on, I can hardly see them now.”
Mary: “Yes, yes, in quite the hurry to wait and all.”
Cut to Anthem
exterior, looking in at the bazaar. A
large wall separates the bazaar from the port.
Zara is marching through the gateway with Elsea following shortly
behind. They are walking down a massive
stairway toward the port.
Show the rolling,
clear water and the sea birds flying about.
The sky is clear. Boats are
docking in various piers.
Zara stops and stares
out at the long piers.
Show the poort again,
showing the workers pulling a ship in.
Show birds picking at
fish.
Show boats approaching
from a distance.
Show Zara standing
with her arms crossed and surveying the area.
Elsea is at her side. In the
background, Mary and Glenn are descending the stairs.
Zara: “Shouldn’t we see the ship by now?”
Elsea: “It may be just over the horizon, m’lady.”
Zara: “Should have been here by midday.”
Zara squints up at the
sky.
Zara: “They’re late.”
Elsea looks up as
well.
She nods.
Elsea: “Yes, m’lady.”
Mary, off-screen: “I told you as much. The sea is a lady as fickle as you, princess,
and any attempts at crossing are oft met with one form of disaster or
nothing. Need I remind you of our own
harrowing journey?”
Zara blushes.
Zara: “I had never ridden a ship before. Besides, seasickness is not so uncommon.”
Mary: “Anyhow, mayhap we should rest our legs. Standing will leave you stiff of posture, and
you shouldn’t want that when your suitor comes sailing into port.”
Zara: “My suitor? Ha!”
Mary settles on the
stairs and stares out at the sea.
She hoods her eyes
with her hand.
Mary: “All of this sunlight.
I fear winter may have spoilt me with its shade.”
Zara crosses her arms
and taps her foot impatiently.
Glenn: “Don’t worry, the wait should be brief.”
Mary: “Unless they’ve met unforeseen trouble, mind you.”
Zara: “They didn’t.
I’m sure of it.”
Mary: “Oh?”
Zara: “I can feel it in my gut.”
Mary looks at Zara.
Show Zara tapping her
foot and staring out at the sea.
Mary closes her mouth
and looks back out at the sea.
Mary: “Yes, m’lady, I am certain that you are quite correct,
and they should make port at any moment.”
Cut to Dawn and Niva
eating in the resistance hideout. It is
still raining outside. Water drips from
the ceiling. Dawn has her bowl
clean. Niva picks at her gruel. The royal guard is assembled around the
table, watching irritably. Diando is
among them.
Diando: “Hey, Dawn, can I speak with you?”
Dawn: “No, I have a guest.
Don’t be rude.”
She turns back to
Niva.
Dawn: “So, tell me about yourself.”
Niva: “Um…Like what?”
Niva laughs
nervous. She tucks her hair back.
Niva: “There’s not much to tell…”
Dawn: “Well…What did you do before the occupation?”
Niva: “Before? I
didn’t do much. Tended house, mostly.”
Dawn: “Tended house? So, you were a wife, then?”
Niva laughs.
Niva: “No, no, nothing like that. I was…My sister was in the military and
didn’t have much time to care for herself.
Our parents died while we were young, so…Anyway, I took care of things
around home for her.”
Dawn: “I see, and what about now?”
Niva: “Now? Well, now…I…My sister is a soldier.”
Dawn: “So you’ve said.”
Niva: “I’m…I don’t know if it’s appropriate.”
Dawn: “You’re among friends.
I promise.”
Niva looks around.
Show the disapproving
faces of the Royal Guard and Diando.
Cut back to Niva, who
looks anxious.
Dawn looks around.
Dawn: “Oh, don’t worry about them. They’re just…”
Dawn glares at them.
Dawn: “…rude.”
The guards look away
quickly. They busy themselves.
Diando continues to
stare.
Dawn returns her
attention to Niva.
Niva: “Well…I’m looking for the resistance, actually.”
Dawn: “The Resistance? Like the Silvaran Resistance?”
Niva nods.
Dawn: “You mean to join?”
Niva: “Something like that.”
Dawn: “Well, you’re in luck, then, because you’ve already
found them.”
Niva: “What? You mean, you are…”
She looks around the
shack.
She grimaces.
Niva: “…THIS is the resistance?”
Dawn: “Well, yeah, but not all of it. We can’t stay in one place. That’d just tell the Fionans where to look.”
Niva: “Oh. That makes
sense, I guess.”
Dawn: “And, to properly introduce myself: I am Dawn Summer
Estein, the second princess of Silverthrone.”
Diando: “DAWN!”
Dawn: “Oh, like she wouldn’t find out eventually. Calm down, will you?”
Diando groans.
Diando: “I…need fresh air.”
Diando storms outside.
Niva: “So…You’re the princess? Oh! I should be bowing or…”
Dawn: “I’m a princess of a fallen kingdom, so don’t worry
about it.”
Niva: “Oh. Are you sure?”
Dawn nods.
Niva sits quietly.
Niva: “Can I ask you a question?”
Dawn: “Of course you can.”
Niva: “Do you know anyone named Umber?”
Dawn: “Umber?”
Niva nods.
Niva: “She’s my sister, and she–Well, about two weeks ago,
she was sent off for a scouting mission and–She never returned. I don’t even get letters.”
Dawn: “Oh. Honestly, I don’t know all of our ongoing
operations of the top of my head, but I promise, I’ll see what I can find. Okay?”
Niva smiles.
Niva: “Thank you, thank you so much.”
Cut to the Anthem
docks by evening. Zara is still on the
steps. She is hugging her legs and
resting her head on her knees, sulking.
Elsea yawns behind her. Glenn is
in the rear with his hands on his hips.
He has his cloak removed and is holding it under his arm.
Glenn: “Maybe Mary was right, and we should retire. We’ve been here all day.”
Zara: “I am not going.
Surely, they’ll be here soon, and I don’t want them thinking that they
were forgotten.”
Glenn: “This was our plan.
That’s proof enough.”
Zara: “Regardless, I am not leaving. I’ll wait all night if I have to.”
Glenn: “Elsea, will you two be alright by yourselves?”
Zara glares.
Zara: “We’ll be fine! We survived long before you came to
our rescue, and will continue to do so even in your absence.”
Elsea looks back at
him.
Elsea: “Don’t worry, Sir Glenn, we will be well.”
Glenn: “Right. Well,
I’ll send some food.”
Glenn turns and
leaves.
Elsea returns to
staring at the water.
Elsea yawns again.
Zara’s stomach
grumbles.
They both look at
Zara’s belly.
Zara: “…I hope that he hurries.”
Cut to Silverthrone,
just outside of the resistance shack.
Dawn and Niva are sitting on a stone bench. It is rather beaten up, with deep cracks in
it. The rain has ceased, but the clouds
hang in the air. Water drips from the
roofs.
Dawn: “This day looks about how I feel.”
Show the low-hanging
clouds.
Niva: “It is rather gloomy.”
Dawn looks at the
city.
Dawn: “Yeah, it is.”
Show a bird fly into
view, a small parcel attached to one of its legs.
It lands on the shack and
flutters inside.
Dawn smiles at it.
She takes Niva’s hand.
She stands and pulls
Niva up with her.
Niva: “What!”
Dawn: “Come on! We’ve got news!’
Dawn drags Niva
inside.
Inside of the shack
the Royal Guard has gathered around the table.
Remi is standing nearby with the bird.
Show Remi removing
parchment from the bird’s leg.
Remi feeds the bird a
seed and sets it off.
The bird goes to its
perch to drink some water.
Remi unfolds the
parchment and reads it over.
He hands it off to a
member of the Royal Guard.
Diando touches Remi’s
shoulder.
Diando: “What’s wrong?”
Remi: “Another one’s burned out.”
Niva leans over to
Dawn and whispers.
Niva: “What’s going on?”
Dawn: “We’re on the run from Fiona, and they’re hunting us
down. If another’s burned out, that
means they’ve smoked some more resistance out.”
Niva: “And that means?”
Dawn: “You don’t want to know.”
Dawn leaves Niva at
the door.
Dawn takes the
parchment and reads it personally.
Niva watches from the
back, separated from them.
Thomas: “They’re getting more aggressive, m’lady.”
Dawn: “Or at least smarter.
The border’s not safe.”
Remi: “I’m beginning to fear that nowhere is safe.”
Dawn: “Well, we have to hide somewhere, so that attitude
isn’t helping.”
Diando: “It’s not an attitude. It’s fact.”
Dawn: “And it’s not helpful.
That’s also fact.”
Diando: “You can sit here and pretend everything will be
okay, but this isn’t a war anymore, Dawn.
It’s an extermination!”
Dawn: “And what should I do? Crawl under a rock? Hide? Let
them burn my nation to the ground while they look for me?”
Diando: “Look around you! They’ve already burned it!”
Sir Thomas steps
between them.
Thomas: “Enough!”
Diando glares at Sir
Thomas.
Diando: “Don’t you dare go around talking to me like I’m
some dirt on your shoe.”
Thomas: “You’re not showing the lady proper respect.”
Diando: “And she’s doing so much better about that.”
Sir Thomas grabs
Diando’s shoulder.
Thomas: “Just calm—”
Diando shoves Sir
Thomas.
Diando: “Don’t touch me!”
Remi steps between
Diando and Thomas with a single hand on Diando’s chest. He looks Diando in the eyes.
Remi: “We should wait outside.”
Diando looks at Remi.
He looks at Sir
Thomas.
Remi: “Now, Diando.”
Diando: “Yeah, we should.”
Remi and Diando leave
through the front.
On the way out Diando
grunts at Niva, who stares wide-eyed.
Dawn hunches over the
table.
Sir Thomas puts his
hand on her shoulder.
Thomas: “Princess, he doesn’t…”
Dawn: “He’s right.
They’re both right. Nowhere is
safe from Fiona.”
Thomas: “Yes, but, nowhere isn’t exactly a place I want to
go.”
Dawn: “I know, I know.”
She looks at the map
on the table.
Dawn: “Sir Thomas, I want you to send a message out to
everyone. Wherever we are, we’re
compromised. We need to relocate the
entirety of our resistance to one defensible position.”
Thomas: “To where, m’lady?”
Dawn: “We’ll think on that.
For now, just spread word to be ready.”
Thomas: “Yes, m’lady.
Anything else?”
Dawn: “Yeah. We need
to find a way out of the city.”
Thomas: “Yes, of course, I’ll look into it.”
Dawn: “Thank you.”
Cut to Zara at the
Anthem docks. It is sundown. Birds are drifting through the sky, and the
sea is calm. In the distance storm clouds
gather. Zara is still sitting with her
head on her knees, Elsea at her
side. A basket sits between them. It is piled with wooden plates that have been
picked clean. Flies buzz around.
Show a fly hovering
about Zara’s head. She is watching it
with disgust.
She smacks her hands
together in front of her face.
She opens her palms
and looks.
She grimaces.
Zara: “Well, I got it at least.”
Zara wipes her hand on
the ground beside her.
She stretches.
She falls back.
She sighs.
Zara: “How much longer will they make us wait?”
Elsea: “Are you getting tired, m’lady?”
Zara: “I’m not tired, and I’m not leaving.”
Elsea: “Of course, m’lady.”
Beat.
Elsea: “It’s just that they will be serving supper soon.”
Zara: “Yes, they will.
Do you know what’s on the menu?”
Elsea: “Brisket, I think.”
Zara: “Brisket. That does sound good. But still, I should
wait for their arrival.”
Elsea: “As it is now, m’lady, they may anchor their ship and
wait out whatever trouble they’ve met.”
Zara: “And they may not.”
Elsea: “But you’ve been here all day.”
Zara: “And I’ll stay all night if necessary, but I won’t
leave them.”
Elsea: “I understand your dedication, but…”
Zara: “You clearly don’t understand!”
Zara sits up.
Zara: “I won’t have them arrive to empty shores. They are not forgotten, nor will they ever
be. And when Dawn sees the port, I will
be here so she knows her sister, the last of her family, has not abandoned
her. So, go if you must, but I will not
be joining you!”
They go quiet.
Zara lies back on the
ground and stares up at the darkening sky.
Zara: “Sorry for yelling.
That was—uncalled for.”
Elsea: “Apology accepted, m’lady.”
Zara: “You can return. If you want to.”
Elsea: “I’m fine, m’lady, but thank you for your
consideration.”
Zara looks at Elsea.
She looks back up at
the sky.
Zara: “Thank you, Elsea.”
Elsea: “You’re very welcome.”
Beat.
Zara: “If you wanted to return for a portion of brisket, I
wouldn’t have any complaint about that.”
Elsea smiles.
Elsea: “Of course, m’lady.”
Elsea stands.
Zara: “Oh, and if you could, be a dear and take the dishes
with you. They’re drawing flies.”
