Border Crossing

First topic message reminder :

"You're late." Baralai Fairchild despised the rain, almost as much as he despised mages. He was waiting at one of the bridges that crossed the river that in turn divided the two largest kingdoms in their land. It was the same bridge where he had waited countless times. Templar or no, gold was gold, and this gold also got rid of troublesome mages.
"You want the gold or not?" A black clad man snarled as he jumped down gracefully from his equally black steed.
Baralai muttered something rather unbecoming of a Templar, then held a gloved hand out. "Gold first, then the cargo. Try anything..." He words were cut off as the mage he was transporting broke free of his restraints. It all happened so quickly that he didn't see the flash of lightning and the proud Templar was crashing into the raging river below.
Six months. It had been six months and the fallen Templar still woke in a cold sweat after dreaming of that night. The mage had rendered him immobile, though wide awake when he had plunged into the river, his heavy armour weighing him down until a pig farmer had dragged him from the river several miles away. It had taken months to get back to health and pay back the farmer for his kindness. In that time word had gotten out that Fairchild the Templar was a deserter.

Alice Gormanghast was scowling into the mirror. She hated this world she had been born into, even now as her maid pulled tightly on the laces of her dress she thought of nothing but a way to escape. Her brother's were all war heroes, famous to everyone in the kingdom for their brave deeds and triumph in defeating several of the dragons. But Alice... All she was known for was to be the prize her father handed over to the man he deemed brave enough to end the war altogether. She was the proverbial Princess in the tower, useful only for luring in prospective suitors. The young brunette didn't even realise her rose coloured lips were quirked into a slight smile 'if only they knew'. Indeed, her father would have a literal heart attack if he knew his prized daughter had secretly been learning how to shoot a bow and handle a sword. She lost herself for hours at an end in books that told of the thieves guild, and their mysterious leader who was sometimes known to have a higher moral code than the knights of their kingdom.

"Your brother sits on a throne that lay empty for a millennia. He is not dead, far from it." Marisol replied as she forced herself off Richard's bed and to her feet. "Not every creature in this world is as sure of their position in life as you are. Dragons can be many things until they find themselves."

"I'm sorry, miss. I didn't mean to offend you." The young woman replied rather meekly. "I just meant it can't be comfortable in there, even the pigs don't like it."

"Such as?" Richard asked, catching Marisol as she began to wobble unsteadily. "You mean, healers. Teachers. The like?" 

"Oh yes. I know. They've been telling me for an hour at least." Yena muttered. All at once she was taking a hard look at her stomach and scowling. "Do I look strange to you?" She asked, poking at the tiny bulge. 

Sometimes Marisol couldn't help but laugh at Richard's innocence when it came to the world. "Sure... Why not." she snorted. "And I can be queen of all mages one day."

"Well... uhm..." The young woman clearly didn't know how to answer that. "You... You are rather dirty, right now."

"I would not doubt it for a second." Richard said, his tone husky as he held her close to him. His rough thumbs brushed her upper arms as he stared ito her eyes. "Maybe the dragons are the key to finding my sister and ending this. Locate them. It can't be that hard if they are moving the sky with their emotions." 

"I'm sorry. I'll leave now." Yena said, yanking down her shirt and turning to head toward the road. "I didn't take anything. Not even their food. I just...slept...I'm sorry..."

Marisol's violet eyes crinkled slightly as she frowned up at Richard. "Dragon's are not there to do our bidding." She informed him rather curtly, hating that in that moment he almost reminded her of the master he had saved her from.

"I didn't mean it like that!" The other woman replied in a rather panicked whisper. "Just... Wont you let me give you some food, clean clothes maybe?"

"I'm not trying to trap them, Mar. I want to ask for their help. Are you ever going to see me as anything but a monster?" Richard asked her. 

Yena shook her head. "I have to go." She brushed herself off in a useless manner. "I'm sorry I bothered your livestock."

"Will you ever see when I'm trying to help?" Was Marisol's sad reply. "The only help you ever ask for is locating things you cannot find... I can offer you so much more than that!"

""You didn't bother them, I promise." the young woman breathed, pausing to check no one else was nearby. "Just... I hear talk of a wolf in the area. I... I don't think it's safe for you to be out there all alone."

"That is why I ask you for the help, Marisol. Because I know you can get it for me." Richard said evenly. "You are an amazing woman. Even I can see that . But...I am grasping at straws here. I can't find my sister. My father is dead. My little brother has set the kingdom into chaos. I am lost."

Yena's eyes went wide and she began shaking her head. "I have to go. I'll be fine." She muttered, running for the trees. She'd slept too long. Aron was going to catch up with her and she didn't want that. She couldn't face him.

"What if your sister didn't want to be found?" Marisol asked softly. "She isn't the child you left behind to go to war, Richard." She added, for once addressing him informally.

The young woman had stalled Yena just long enough for her wolf to find her scent. The cries from the village would be heard, the people there attacking the wolf even though all he had done was dare to walk through their mud covered streets.

Richard nodded. "I am aware that she is no longer a child but I made a promise to her mother that I would take care of her. You know me. I never break a promise. Not to mention I care for Alice like she is my own. I can't give up on her." 

Yena sighed when she saw what the people were doing. She didn't want to help Auron. It would tip him off to where she was but at the same time she didn't want him hurt. 
All at once the entire village froze. The rock that was about to hit the wolf in the side hanging in mid air.

"What happened to her mother that you needed to make that promise?" Marisol asked curiously. "Would your father not have cared for her?"

Auron had braced himself for the feel of the rock, and was rather confused when it didn't hit. Everything was silent in an instant.

Richard didn't answer this. He rarely answered questions about his father. Or about Alice's mother. "Shall we talk about the tea you chose to give me? Or are we going to ignore that?" He asked he softly. 

Yena sat in a nearby branch, watching the wolf. She wanted to see exactly why he was looking for her.

Marisol took a careful step back, pulling herself away from where Richard had been holding her steady. "I was keeping you safe."

Auron kept his wolf appearance as he sniffed around the frozen villagers, then apparently seemed to laugh. "I know you're here, kitten." He breathed, though it was more to himself than anything else.

"Alice's mother used to say the same." Richard said softly. "Did I ever tell you I helped bring Alice into this world? Did I ever tell you I was madly in love with my father's mistress?" The prince got up and moved to the window, staring into the darkness. "I was thirteen when he brought her to the palace. I was fourteen when Alice was born. My father learned the truth when she was seven. He...hurt the one I loved the most. He tricked a mage into trapping her into a mirror." He couldn't look at Marisol. He didn't want to see the look of disappointment there. He was supposed to be the strong brave prince. He was never supposed to let anyone down. But he had. More than once. "Now doc you understand why I'm so desperate to find Alice? I swore I would watch over her. I am failing her. Just like I failed..." he could speak his former lover's name. It ate him alive. She was the reason he would never let anyone close. Noone else would get hurt because of him. 

Yena had learned her lesson. She stayed put. She stared down at the wolf, not daring to breathe. He had betrayed her. She could not forgive him for it.

Marisol was staring at Richard's back as he stood by the window. Many things made sense now, and she simply wished he had trusted her with the truth. "She's your daughter?" She breathed softly. "That's why you fight so hard for her?" The small mage followed her prince to the window now and slid her arms around him, simply resting her head against his back. "I'll get them both back to you... I promise." She damn near choked on those words, having to crush her own heart to give Richard what he wanted most in the world. "I heard rumours of how beautiful the Queen was, even if she was no more than a girl when she was given to your father."

Auron was sat at the foot of the tree now, seemingly exhausted. He still suffered from the wound the other creature had inflicted upon him the previous day, and the infection was spreading. None of that mattered however, as he was still willing to give his heart to Kane if it meant Yena went free. He just needed to see her one last time.

Richard rested his hands over Marisol's. He was steady and sure of himself once again. "The queen is gone. At the request of my father, Kane crossed the mirror's barrier and killed her. That is the reason he is so fascinated with the Fade. He was there. He got to see himself as countless others do. And he...I think he liked it." 

"Why is everyone so ready to leave me?" Yena appeared before him. A moment later he was lying in a bed at a nearby inn. 
Over the next several days she tended to his wounds, helping a healer to draw out his infection. She asked her question of him several times more though doubted he would remember it. The morning his fever broke he would find himself in bed with the innkeeper's wife and Yena was gone.

"Was he always so fascinated with Alice?" Marisol asked curiously. "He must have known who she really was..." She added, closing her eyes for a moment as Richard placed his hands over her own. "This isn't a burden you should have carried alone for long."

Auron had been screaming his reply, or so he had thought. "No man was ready to leave Yena; they were simply so in love they were willing to die for her. As he woke he thought it was his kitten lay beside him and smiled as he pulled her closer.

"Kane doesn't know. He has never known the truth." Richard whispered. "I will die before I allow him to know it. He has done enough to her in the name of being her brother. I am the monster for what I have allowed to happen."

"You are well again, my giant." The woman purred, her hands on his chest as she kissed his neck.

"For everything that has happened to her, has it not made her stronger?" Marisol asked. "She is Queen of the thieves guild, even if she doesn't acknowledge it, Pirate Queen, and still a princess of your kingdom. Quite a feat, I would say."

A sudden chill ran down Auron's spine and he was quick to pull away from the woman and tumble off the bed. "Where is Yena?!" He demanded, having no memory of this woman, or why he was naked in her bed.

"Indeed. But there are other ways to come about accomplishments. These are not things I would have picked for her." Richard sighed. He rested his head against the window and his chest heaving hard enough to shake his entire body. "Father sent me away the night the dragon attacked. I had no idea. I couldn't help her."

"Your elven slave is gone, sire. You sent her away so that we could...have some fun." The inn keepers wife giggled wickedly.

"What would you have chosen for her? A lifetime trapped in a marriage to someone she doesn't even know?" Marisol asked sadly. "That's all any female royal is subjected to."

Auron was shaking his head, that sounded very unlike him. "I have no slave." He snarled, now hunting for his clothing. "Tell me where she went!"

"I can't imagine forcing her into marriage." Richard said softly. "I ignored the summons to a marriage bed myself. I would have expected no less from her. The marriage I set up with Anaris was a good match. She had love the elf since meeting him as a small  child. I thought...he could save her."

"She disappeared when you began removing my clothing. Who was I to stop you?" The woman asked. "One minute she was there the next...poof...like she was never there at all..."

"And yet... You seem to have issue with the man she chose for herself, Garrik." Marisol pointed out gently, her slender arms holding Richard for as long as he would allow.

"Shit..." Auron had managed to find his pants, but little else. He remembered none of this, and didn't exactly trust the word of a woman he didn't even know the name of. "She was no slave... She was my wife!" He insisted.

"Garrick is a pirate. You know how I feel about them." Richard said through his teeth. "Alice is above them. Imagine me chagrin when I return to find her in their midst, treating them like they are cohorts and friends." 

"That's not what you told her. Or my husband." The woman laughed soflty, pulling the sheet to her chest as she sat up.

"She treats them as exactly what they are." Marisol pointed out. "They were her family when she thought she had none."

Auron's powerful jaw was tight as he glared at the woman now. "And your husband knows you are here, with me?"

Richard winced at this. He didn't need more reminders of how bad he was at keeping a promise. He drove Alice to the very people he couldn't stand. Not to mention what had happened with his brother. If he had never left to fight for his father Anaris would still be alive.

"Of course he does. You paid him good coin to ignore anything he might hear up here." The busty blonde innkeeper was grinning from ear to ear. "Your little slave even filled you full of ale and told me not to worry. She said you were as good a lover drunk as you were sober and...the little girl was so very right...shall we try it now that you're sober?"

Marisol felt Richard tense, and she knew she had put her foot in it once again. "Forgive me... Sire." She breathed, finally letting her arms slide away from him.

In his haste to keep a distance from the blonde woman Auron knocked several things over, then also cursed rather loudly. "Stay away from me, whore!" He roared, feeling the scales beginning to poke out the skin down his back as he lost control.

"How far do you think Garrik will make it?" Richard asked, removing his sword belt and setting it on the table. "Souls I activate the mirror and ask the queen? I know you didn't break it like I asked." He added, removing his shirt and folding it carefully. 

"Why?" The woman asked, not yet seeing how foolish her actions and lies were becoming. They were about to get her killed. "Don't you want me?"

"You know the Queen will always talk to you, your highness." Marisol whispered, though she stared down at her feet, unable to shake the feeling every breath she took simply disappointed Richard even more.

"Of course I don't, you pathetic whore!" Auron snarled, his eyes all too golden and reptile in appearance now. The large man glanced down at his hands and saw that his nails were thickening and slowling growing into sharp claws. It was even more excruciating for him than usual, as he never usually tried to stop the transformation from happening.

"I don't understand why you didn't break it. It was elven. Magical. I told you their bad luck is not the same as superstitious humans." Richard went on, placing his shirt on the dresser. He was hunting for pants that weren't so formal. He was tired of being so uptight. "Marisol, I'm not angry about the tea. Please, do not think that I am." 

The woman was tumbling over the bed now searching for her dress. "You were the one who requested me! How dare you call me a whore!" She shouted, grabbing for the thin material.