[h3]Stark and Marco[/h3]

The light from the candles carefully placed around the young girl were giving her just the perfect amount of light to read through the rather lofty, and dusty, book before her. As she’d promised Damon Dubois, she was studying up on the Divines and scratching questions and notes into the blank pages next to her. So far she’d filled at least half a dozen pages with her blocky militant handwriting and with the mind set she had currently, she had more than enough questions and thoughts to fill at least a dozen more.

However, her concentration was broken by the panicked voices rushing past the library’s door. Stark’s body remained perfectly still, only her eyes looking up and through her lashed towards the door. She waited enough moment as her mood shifted entirely. It was far too late for people to be making such a ruckus what was going on?! She practically jumped to her feet when the fear filled screams made their way through to the doors and to her ears. 

The book and papers lay forgotten upon the table as the first thoughts came to the forefront of her mind. [i]’Someone is attacking.’[/i] Followed promptly but her next objective. [i]’Protect the Serios.’[/i] Without even a shadow of a doubt Stark sprang forth and carefully opened the doors. Her breath caught in her throat as something dark passed by the crack in the door. She waited for it to pass-making sure to listen hard for another one. 

When she was sure it had passed just enough to not see her leave the doorway she slowly opened the door before her magic came to life. Water engulfing her arms, up to the socket, before rushing forward and wrapping around the head of the person ahead of her. She’d expected thrashing about or some kind of drowning; this was clearly not the case as the person seemed to stop before turning and moving towards her. Her silver eyes widened before she panicked. With her fingers curved and the palms now facing outward of her extended arms, she pulled them apart.

And with it the man’s head. 

The scent of blood filled the air as the body splurted thick old blood from the wound; yet it kept coming! 

Stark swallowed back a scream as she forced more water around the body before doing the gesture again. The sound of the body tearing apart made her stomach flip but it finally killed the thing in a pile of blood and body parts on the floor. Her chest heaved in fearful breaths at it was registering to her. No wonder there was so much screaming- their attackers can’t be killed. 

This set off a whole other set of alarms in the woman’s head as her feet took her off and into a sprint towards the next closest Serio; if she remembered correctly it would be towards The Queen’s chambers. She was the most powerful person so she would have the most forces heading for her. Her footfall was light, despite the long strides, and only became noticeable when something slammed into her and set her off balance.

Her arms rose with blade like weapons formed in her hands as her slitted eyes narrowed in on the ‘enemy’ that ran...into...her… “Marco?”

He nearly screamed out as he ran headlong into someone's back. He saw the blade rise into the air and knew that he was doomed. He gave a silent prayer to the Divine, in hopes to speed along the process. He tensed, poised for the final blow that would never come. He opened his eyes and released a sigh of relief. "Thank the Divine, Stark!" He cried as he finally caught his breath. It felt like he had a knife in his ribs, despite it being in his offhand right now. He had to tell her about what was going, inform her about the assassins, but he just couldn't form the words. He was left standing there, huffing and sniffing back tears.

"I need your help, please. I don't want to die."

The water blades dissipated as Stark registered that it was not an enemy. She looked down at the younger mage with an odd look. She'd met the boy in passing but she was rather surprised he knew her name. Ah well, questions for another time. His second set of words caused a slight twinge in her chest as a frown made it's way clearly onto her features. "You won't die Marco. Not today, not while I'm here. The castle is under siege and we need to get to the Serio's as quickly as possible. If I remember correctly the Queen's quarters are the ones closest to this location. We are both going to be going there alright?"

She glanced over her shoulder just to double check before giving a soft smile, "It'll be alright, kid. We are both mages, we can do this." 


He found comfort in her words, even if they were a lie. He found reassurance in the fact that someone was in charge of everything. The boy quickly dried his face on the back of his hands, even managed to smile a bit. "We are mages and mages do not cry. We find solutions to the problems that everyone else is confused and mystified with." He recited what his master had taught him so long ago, in hopes to steel his resolve. He was still nervous about the creatures. He rolled the knife in his hands, and stole a glance over his shoulder towards where he came from. "From the looks of things, we are at a huge disadvantage," he quickly assessed, "we are caught by surprise and it seems as if the surprises keep coming with each moment."

He lightly tapped at his chin for a brief moment before sighing. He could really see no other way out of this situation besides running for his life, but he didn't want to be seen as a traitor to the Queen. He feel instep behind Stark and kept an eye out for any strange movement. The uproar of combat seem to dim a bit as they rounded the outer walls only to suddenly come wading back the closer the came to the main hallway. "I don't think we should head that way," his fear spoke in a small voice as they neared an intersection. "If we are to get to her majesty swiftly, perhaps the service ways would be best. They are small and cramped, yes, but it would make martial fighting harder and our magic more useful." He voiced his reason as his wits came back to him. He was regaining control with every breath, though it would be a long while before he was came again.

Stark couldn't help but at least smirk at the younger boy. He had heart, that much was clear. "Very well said little one, well said indeed." When he toyed with the knife and glanced over his shoulder to where he'd come from, Stark's eyes narrowed before allowing her smirk to turn into a from. "They surprised us. That's all. We just need to get to the Serio's and protect them, alright?" Stark's eyes still lingered behind Marco for a moment longer before turning and going on ward.

She could hear his steps behind her own, making note to slow down just a fraction so he could keep up. His noting of using the servants passages surprised her though. She hadn't thought of that idea yet, "Do you know how to get there? Do you think they'd even know about those passages at all? We just need to at least get to the Queen and get her to a safe location. If we can do that with those passages it'll give us the upper hand, even if only slightly."

He wasn’t able to answer as heavy foot fall came across echoing down the soon to be not so empty hallway. She acted on instinct  as her hand clamped down on Marco’s wrist and they took off towards Kori’s room without so much as a shadow of a doubt of the disaster that is bound to be ahead of them.