A Tale of Saffron and Strife

'''Author's Note: This is an original story by TurquoiseEmber, set in India in the early 1800s. India, at this time, was facing conquest by Britain. It fell prey and was colonized by the English from 1824–1948, until Mahatma Gandhi helped free it. This story is in the early stages of colonization, circa 1824, when the British are still working on overtaking the whole of India. It depicts a love story between an Indian princess who is trying to protect her kingdom from the British, who have newly arrived, and a British general's son, who has been sent as a diplomat to her kingdom. Without further ado, welcome to a whirlwind romance. A story of conflicted affairs, of deceiving emotion. A Tale of Saffron and Strife...'''

Prologue
They were on horseback. Always on horseback, riding through the kingdoms of India and razing them all. But never had the man looking out the palace windows by candlelight seen them riding so swiftly, so surely. He bolted upright from his chair, grabbed his candlestick, and ran down to the royal chambers.

The young man skidded down the marble floors, to the queen and king’s grand bedroom. He knocked twice, each knock hurried but still intense. He was answered by a drowsy elder man with a pillow crease branded on his cheek, in purple robes embellished with precious stones, marking him as a figure of nobility. The younger man bowed to the elder one. “Your Majesty. You..you must see something.”

The pillow-creased man’s sleepy eyes widened. “Could..is..is it them?” He immediately straightened up and squared his shoulders, making him look dignified, as a king should be.

“I am afraid, sire, it is them,” the other man replied in a gravelly voice that was too old for his young body. He watched as the king scurried to the large oval-shaped windows that showed a picture-perfect starry Indian night.

Picture-perfect, except for the British arriving.

He frowned. “Send a messenger to all the bordering kingdoms. Mahishmati, Varandhuna, and..and Rudrakan. Together we must stand, however divided we may fall. Combined, we will have an army of four thousand. This must be enough. Go!” the king commanded.

The young man quickly etched the king’s words onto a scroll, then rolled it up and scampered down another hall to the servants’ quarters.

This has to be enough., he thought dazedly.

Because if it isn’t, I don’t know what is.