[h3][color=gold]Acamen Hopsfield[/color][/h3]
Acamen sighed out of relief as the Dark Prince entered the castle.  But before he could devote any further thought to the matter, the white mage heard some commotion occurring behind him. Hopsfield heard the panic of his guards, followed by a sudden calm.  [color=gold][i]Well that's not usual.  But either way, I trust my Paladins can handle it.  Besides, if she was flying around my daughter probably noticed.  She's normally hovering around this time of day.[/i][/color]

After turning around, he waved at a group heading over the bridge.  Two people quickly greeted him and sought shelter in his castle with little discussion.  [color=gold][i]They are probably right to get out of this miserable weather.  I swear I should recognize them though...[/i][/color]

While normally the white mage would have been perfectly content to wait for the elves and the dwarves to finish their discussion, it was freezing on the drawbridge.  [color=gold][i]They'll have plenty of time to talk during our journey north.  The dark elf was right about that at least.[/i][/color]  Wanting to head in soon, the white mage headed towards the party outside of his fortress.

After the short walk, the Brilliant Gold gave a short bow to both the dwarf and elf, hopefully not interrupting their conversation.  [color=gold]"Greetings, and..."[/color] Suddenly, the ground shook lightly.  Hopsfield looked around for a moment, and unable to find a source of the small earthquake, countinued with his greeting.  [color=gold]"...welcome to my tower.  I'm Acamen Hopsfield, and I'm..."[/color] The shaking occurred again, but the source was still too far off for Hopsfield to be able to spot it.  [color=gold]"...I'm assuming you are the Mighty Steelforge and Lady Briarheart."[/color] The ground shook one more time.  [color=gold]"I don't mean to be rude, but do either of you know where is that coming from?[/color]  Perhaps one of the two had an enchantment that had a strange effect on the ground, maybe meant to destabilize an opponent?  Normally he would have examined their equipment and the rest of their company in further detail, but this shaking was bothersome.

[h3][color=yellow]Ezekala Hopsfield[/color][/h3]
The endless white countryside was boring.  While it excited the angel for the first few days every year, it eventually became old and monotone.  However, Ezekala had continued to fly everyday both to stretch her wings and get away from the castle for a few hours each day.

Normally, aside from birds, she would be alone up here, looking down on those forced to walk the earth.  The creature of heaven could hardly imagine the inconvenience of walking everywhere, a simple boulder forcing one to alternate their route.  She sighed, rolling her eyes at such silliness.

Suddenly a fireball flew past her with incredible speed.  It knocked the angel off balance, her wings taking a moment to reestablish stability.  Hopsfield looked to see what had gotten her, but the fireball was gone, entering the castle.  [color=yellow][i]What WAS that?[/i][/color]  The angel flew quickly, curious as to what was going on.  Dad had told her people would be showing up but he apparently had no idea who they were going to be.

A short while later, Hopsfield landed on the ground, in front of a small gathering of guards and a young woman.  She folded her wings while walking into the group, and after looking at the black haired woman realized that the shorter girl's soul was fire ... but not in a way Ezekala had experienced before.  It's shape was unusual, but the angel was sure that this was no mere elemental.  Either way, she had obviously been the rude fireball.

Judging by the fact that the guards hadn't tried to kill her, she guessed she the other woman was friendly.  Additionally, with her sword of light and the fact that she stood at six foot two made her feel at ease in the presence of this short lady.  So rather than smiting her the angel chose to let her off with a warning.  [color=yellow]"Hey, you know you should watch where your flying.  You practically ran into me."[/color]  The angel smiled as she said this, but internally she was a little upset.