DrowsyPangolin

When the Flames Die

Sophia's eyes ran down the length of the hall as the doors slammed, immediately recognizing the man hurrying towards them as Sir Tyler, the knight who had been placed in charge of her defense. She rose from her seat, a look of shock and concern coming to her face as she realized the man was injured, apparently rather severely. The man seemed happy to see her alive. Her thoughts raced for a moment. Had the situation in the Tower escalated this much? Or were Tyler's wounds the result of something else? "Sir Tyler, what happened to you?" She looked over the man's broken breastplate. She shook her head. "Yes, I'm alive, but we were attacked... Jezin... I... What happened?" Too much was happening at once, she couldn't piece everything together.

When the Flames Die

Sophia glanced up at the guard, her eyes wide and more than a bit fearful. A description of the man. That much she could do, but she didn't want to think about him. She began to stutter out the words. "He... he was..." She took a deep breath and clenched her fists. She had to manage a description, at least. "Short blonde hair. He wore mostly black, all ripped and tattered. He had a black bandana around his face, but it got taken off. His mouth... his mouth was sewn shut, but he was talking, and the rest of his face looked like it'd been... burned or something." The grisly image of the man held in her mind. She could see him staring into her soul. She shivered. "He first approached us in Gareth's quarters, but we fled through the window. My bodyguard stayed behind... Then... Then we ran for a while, and stopped in the garden. He showed up again there. Gareth and Eva fought to hold him off, and whatever they did worked, because he apparently fled. I was running away, so I didn't see exactly what happened." She had felt a hand clutch her shoulder rather tightly when Eva's name was mentioned. That was right, she wasn't supposed to talk about that. She glanced towards the ground. "That's all I really saw..."

Eva kept quiet during the Princess' recounting of their night, reaching out to touch her when her own name was mentioned. A lady-in-waiting fighting an attacker would raise questions, questions she didn't feel particularly comfortable answering. She looked towards Gareth, hoping the boy would fill in the blanks the Princess had left out. She hoped the guards would be able to help them, but she had a hunch the man was long gone by now, injury or no.

When the Flames Die

Sophia frowned. It seemed for the most part, everyone was just as much in the dark as they themselves were. All that was certain was that the Order had arrested Wallace Canti, the action regent of Keilaudrin, allegedly because he had some plot against the king. Sophia sighed softly. Everything had become such a large mess. It seemed they, like everyone else, would have to wait for definitive answers, if they could be called that, to come from the Tower of the Thistle. Regardless, whatever had transpired in the tower likely didn't bode well for anyone. Quietly, she was glad they had decided to go to the Palace Guard now. Going for the Tower would've placed them in the middle of whatever debacle was going on. "Maybe some answers will come soon." She glanced toward Gareth for a moment, wondering how his position in the Order would effect him now.

She had set to carefully removing the thorns that had been embedded in her arm earlier. She couldn't shake the image of the man from her head, if he was a man at all. Who was he? Why had he wanted her? He had obviously been desperate to accomplish his goal, going through the trouble of killing two people and risking life and limb. Her small hand curled into a fist, and she felt her teeth dig into her bottom lip. She'd find out why this happened. She wouldn't let Jezin die in vain. She cursed her fragile body. She wanted vengeance, a vengeance she couldn't achieve. A single tear of frustration ran down her face.

Eva listened intently to the guard's words, though she made no indication of this to the man himself, instead keeping her eyes on the Princess. The power struggle between Canti and the Order seemed to be the driving force behind the night's turmoil. She wondered if the attempt to kidnap the princess had been tied to it. It didn't seem likely. After all, what good would capturing a foreign princess do in a domestic dispute? Still, she couldn't just pass it off as being completely unrelated. It was unlikely that the man had been working on his own. She watched as the Princess set to work on removing the thorns from her arm. She still felt guilty for what she'd had to do. Striking royalty would've gotten her tossed into the viper pits if she'd done it in Lyok. But at least they were alive.

When the Flames Die

Sophia threw a glance back towards Gareth. Her hair concealed her eyes, and a rather forced smile held on her lips for no longer than a second. The Princess nodded when the guard told them to come to the front of the room. At least they'd found help. "Yes, thank you, sir. We'll be no trouble." She followed the man back up to the front of the room, listening as he spoke. The Order had arrested Canti, it seemed the feud between the two had escalated. She was a bit distraught that even the guards were unsure of exactly what would happen as a result, but now wasn't the time for such worries. When they reached the front of the room, Sophia slumped into a chair. Her legs ached, and she was sure a massive bruise was spreading across her side from being kicked. With Wallace imprisoned, she was curious what had happened to the provisional government. "You said the Order arrested Mister Canti, so who is regent, then?" The Princess looked up towards the guardsmen with tired eyes. Eva took her place behind Sophia, thankful they had made it out of the nightmare, at least for the moment.

When the Flames Die

Sophia strode across the floor of the now deserted Great Hall. It seemed grimly appropriate that a place that had been so lively now felt more like a crypt than a hall for celebration. She looked up towards the guard as he approached, pushing her hair out of her face. "We were attacked, sir." She shook slightly, trying to recount the events of the night without breaking down. "A man attacked us shortly after the commotion earlier. He... he killed two men. Sir Walden, of the Order of the Thistle... and my bodyguard, Jezin Tremora." Sophia's strain to compose herself was apparent, her voice shaking ever so slightly. She looked up towards what she could see of the man's face. "We were lucky to escape with our lives." Eva remained a few steps behind the Princess, allowing the girl to explain the situation.

When the Flames Die

Sophia nodded. Perhaps the Palace Guard could at least grant them some kind of protection. Wallace had said he would send a detachment of guards to add to her defense, after all. Still, with everything that had happened, she wasn't hasty to trust anyone. "Right, then. I suppose the best place to start would be the Great Hall." The civilians in the hall had probably been evacuated, just as she had, in the panic earlier. The guard, however, might still be inside. She hoped desperately that someone inside could at least tell them what was going on. So much had been lost in a single night. It wasn't fair... She started walking toward the nearest door of the Great Hall, which wasn't too far at this point. Eva followed the Princess in silence, her two daggers vanishing beneath her dress as they prepared to head out.

When the Flames Die

Sophia smiled at Gareth's statement, the first smile she'd managed in a while. Even in the darkest of times there was a small light. "Gareth... thank you, thank you so much." She looked towards Eva, awaiting the answer to Gareth's question, which was shortly answered. The Tauran woman looked around them, making sure no one had approached. "They'll have to find a legitimate reason to be here first. I imagine they won't all show up at the doorstep. A group of Lyoki Blackcloaks at the gates would probably seem a bit off to the guard, for all we know they could take that as an act of war. No, my guess is that they'll be careful about this." She had been briefed on the general scheme of things, but not on how exactly the plan would be executed. "In the mean time, we should probably try to find out exactly what happened last night... A great deal has probably changed." There was an ulterior motive in her words. Though finding out what had occurred was important, getting themselves close to other people would probably prevent another attempt on the Princess, and they needed safety more than anything else.

Sophia nodded. "But where do we go? The Order of the Thistle? The Palace guard?..." From what they had gathered earlier, neither of their options were particularly trustworthy, but they couldn't stay out by themselves, they'd be in danger. Their pursuer had fallen back, but for how long? She looked towards Gareth, her lips twisting into a frown. "I... I imagine we should let someone else from the Order know about Walden..." She still was having difficulty accepting everything that had happened. It seemed like some terrible dream that she would wake up from at any moment. Alas, she knew it was all too real. Jezin was gone. Walden was gone. She looked between Gareth and Eva. They had saved her life by risking their own. It was a debt she could never repay. The Princess looked down at her arm, which had small streams of blood running down it from the thorns. For a moment she thought how lucky she was that it was the only injury she'd escaped with.

When the Flames Die

Based Gareth coming through with the most clutch archery the world has ever seen. Also, the something else has come up.

When the Flames Die

Eva nodded, and followed Gareth in his pursuit of the girl. Despite the force with which she was running, her short legs could only carry her so fast, and they caught up with the Princess a short distance out of the garden. The Princess had slowed down, it seemed, and eventually came to a stop as her companions rejoined her. Eva looked up, to see the silhouette of the Great Hall nearby. She wondered what had happened in the rest of the palace during their encounters with the mystery man, but such things would be learned in due time. "We're safe, for now." She looked at the Princess with a tinge of guilt. "I'm sorry for what I had to do back there Princess, but it was the only option I had." Sophia shook her head. "No, thank you, thank you both... so much." The girl's tone was full of gratitude, if not for the two of them she'd have been doomed. Eva looked to the ground before speaking. "That being the case... there's the matter of what I was trying to tell the two of you..." She glanced towards Gareth. Telling him to keep quiet at this point was pointless, she trusted the boy, and he'd just risked his life to save the Princess. Sophia looked up at Eva, her eyes full of questions.

The Tauran took a deep breath and spoke, her eyes meeting Sophia's. "Sophia.. when we were sent to Keilaudrin, plans were made in secret in case things went downhill. Your mother knew the country's history. However, she didn't want to incite any conflict with the Keilauds, hence the secrecy. You were sent with a single bodyguard and three servants to show that Lyok had peaceful intentions in this land. However... for your protection, our group was followed, shortly after we left. The second group had strict orders to stay as far as was possible from you, and to not join your party in any way unless your life came into danger. I suspect they've been in Mullen, albeit probably outside of the palace, for the entirety of your stay here."

Sophia looked quite confused with the information she was given. No one had told her anything about a second Lyoki envoy. She also was curious as to why her handmaiden was privy to such information, for that matter, why was Eva armed? She looked up, her yellow eyes locking with the orange eyes of her friend. "Eva, how exactly do you know all of this?" The Tauran sighed. "I thought you'd ask that... You see, Your Grace, I'm a bit more than just your servant." She reached up to her neck, opening the row of buttons that closed the top of her dress. As the garment opened, a shirt of black scale mail became clearly visible on the woman's chest. Sophia gasped. Eva nodded and spoke again. "Eva Stonewater, Faceless Legion." Sophia's eyes widened. The Faceless Legion, more commonly referred to as the Blackcloaks, were a very secret order within the Lyoki military. They usually handled extremely sensitive matters that the standard legions could not, assassinations, espionage, and endeavors in foreign lands.

The Tauran re-buttoned her dress. "I suspect the group that followed us, or at least a particular member of it, will be arriving shortly, given what's transpired tonight." She glanced toward Gareth again. "I must ask, Mister Harker, that you don't share what I've told you with anyone. It'd likely end badly." Sophia looked around them, completely blown away by what had just been revealed. She looked up toward Eva. "Who exactly did my mother send, Eva?" A faint smile formed on the woman's face. "She sent the Sword, Your Grace." Sophia stopped and stared at Eva for a moment. The Sword of the Queen, one of the two highest ranks in the Lyoki military. The Sword was the Empress' personal enforcer, and was generally considered the most skilled soldier in the whole of the Empire. Sophia's hands dropped to her side. "She... she sent Celeste?" Eva looked towards the girl and nodded.

When the Flames Die

Eva felt a silent triumph when the longsword slipped from the man's hand. Her heart stopped for a moment when she saw him preparing to leap into the air, but the twang of a loosed bowstring alleviated her worries. Gareth had struck true. The man rolled out of her way, and began retreating into the garden, away from Sophia surprisingly enough. She watched the man, both daggers gripped tightly in her hands. It seemed he genuinely meant to fall back, perhaps the fight with Jezin had caused him more trouble than she originally thought. That, added with the arrow in the knee, would definitely slow him down, if not cause him to abandon his mission, at least for the moment. Killing the man now might solve their problem, but Sophia blindly running out on her own was a larger concern. If they were safe for the time being, they needed to catch up with her. She backed away from the man, placing herself by Gareth. "That was a hell of a shot Mister Harker." Their opponent began fading into the darkness. "I think you slowed him down, at least. We should catch up with Sophia." She turned towards the quickly vanishing silhouette of the girl running in the opposite direction.