What's time but a thing to kill or keep or buy or lose or live in
I gotta go faster
Keep up the pace
Just to stay in the human race
REM. Pace
Albert sat into his thrown, just like he had every day before, but today it felt different. There was that silence in the air that came from anticipation. Even the fighting duo of Noish and Kaiser had put off their chastising for a little while. Alulan was standing near by, his casual self seeming slightly more preoccupied then usual.
Albert found himself cracking his knuckles in something mixed with anxiety. His vision wondered upon the sky which he could slightly see from the pair of doors to the balcony. A knight moved up across the room, and then bowed.
"Breakfast will take place soon my lord," the man spoke rising from his bow.
"Splended." Albert nodded, noticing that Dart was standing near by the door way. His arms crossed and waiting. "Let us go then." Albert spoke waving to the other people in the room.
As he walked over Dart joined in right next to him in the precession. "We have conformation from Meru, Wink is here." Dark spoke in one fluent sentence.
"I see, nothing we can do till tomorrow." Albert said giving his friend a smile.
Dart just waved his hand, "Yeah, we all could use a nice break. I'm gonna try and skip out till after the wedding, so I hope you don't have some speech planed for me."
"I know what you think, that I'm quite stupid Dart; however I've noticed your terrible presentation habits..." Albert waved his hand back and forth. "Really couldn't let some hick from the prairie give a lecture now could I?"
Dart rolled his eyes uncharacteristically and then looked behind them, noticing Alulan giving the duo an odd look. "Heh, anyway..."
Albert recovering him self from a slight laugh looked back over. "Yes?"
"Don't screw up." Dart replied and walked off down another corridor, leaving Albert to scratch the back of his head in mystery to the comment.
Alulan who managed to remain completely forgotten during breakfast soon found himself running errands like a house maid. If Albert wasn't asking him to look after something, or dash off and find someone; then Kaiser was talking to him about the cultural advantages to having the wedding. Even Noish who normally kept a fair amount of distance from Alulan was suddenly bouncing back an forth like a father telling Alulan that he had raised a wonderful King.
"Bla bla blaaa blaa baaa blaa blaa blablaaa!" Noish exclaimed, not that Alulan really heard a single word from the man's mouth.
Albert who had been carefully sorting through his massive pile of writings and so forth on his desk suddenly jumped. "Noish! We got to go check down in the Library for my speech!" Grabbing the older man's arm, Albert practically dragged the man away. Leaving Alulan conveniently alone in the room.
"Wonderful." Alulan stated clasping his hands together. Thinking how this somehow felt familiar to be ravishing through Albert's desk. "Hm... He wouldn't leave anything important laying about... Hidden draws reveal thy self!" he shouted quietly as he felt around the base of the shelves. Then with a little pop a door flew open not to far from his knee. Eyeing the small white parchment inside he pulled the top piece forth. "Got you." He smirked and leaned back in Albert's chair, propping his feet up upon the desk. Folding the paper apart his stared at the foreign writing, and then jumped up when he recognized it.
"Al-... Albert! Ha! Albert," The strange curly writing was easier to read now. "I hear that the trio has been becoming more aware, unfortunately we can not risk the second memory wipe to soon..." Alulan stopped his reading, stunned. The sound of clattering feet approached, and Alulan slammed the door close and stuffed the letter into his back pocket. And in his mind all he thought about the smiling Albert was; You were a part of this too.
Shana looked over at Raizel, who was being hurried about by the ever hyper Meru. She sighed wondering how it was that Meru even wanted to spend time with a person she had once thought icky. "Hello," She said wondering over to the pair.
"Heya Shana!" Meru burst out while giving her a wink.
"Hello." Raizel said with a smile. "Would you like to come to the library with me, Meru still trying to force me out into the crowds."
"Um... Sure." Shana said, giving a little shrug.
"Thanks." Raizel responded, walking off towards the library.
Meru pulled on Shana's arm for a moment. "Don't let her get into anything, we know Wink's been around and if anything slips..."
"Yeah, don't worry." Shana said with a shrug. "I'll watch her." And with that, she hurried after Raizel.
The library had grown over the years, it was now having a large attachment build onto it. With the new outburst in the economy Albert's hobby with books could easily afford to expand. For now however the small circular room was all there was for the massive amount of books and paper work which Albert had collected. Rose stretched her arms, "I was going to look through some of these things... I'm trying to find out a bit about the dragoons," She paused, "and maybe a nice gift for Albert."
"Most of us got him books already." Shana stated.
"Oh, well no harm looking." Raizel said with a shrug, shoveling through the papers on the desk. It was just about then that Albert and a very scared Noish came bursting though the door.
"Shana! Raizel! Have either of you seen my speech?!' He asked ruffling through the papers with Raizel.
"Um... What does it look like?" The brunet asked looking worriedly at the slightly dazed Noish.
"Three pieces of paper kept together by a green folder. Erg! I know it must be here!" Albert stressed out far more then anyone had ever seen him do before. Raizel began to poke around in draws beneath the large table; it seemed that the multiple layers of paper work scattered about these oak draws was quite uncharacteristic of the soon-to-be-married King.
"Hey!" Shana shouted from the cabinet which Alulan's reference had been towards, "There's a green folder in here Albert!"
"There is!?" Albert leaped up from his place near the table and dashed towards the cabinet, quickly pulling out a key he unlocked the large piece of furniture and placed the key haphazardly on top. Pulling out the green folder the man let out a happy sigh. "Thank you Shana." He closed the cabinet behind him and turned about to give Shana a smile and pat on the head.
"No problem." She responded, "Just don't freak me out like that again."
"Of course." The King waved at Noish who was looking greatly relieved as well, and headed out of the Library.
"Strange." Raizel remarked, sitting back down only slightly looking at key on top of the cabinet.
"Yeah," Shana replied walking over to the window seat in the room, she curled up on it and looked across at Raizel. "I'm kinda tired, and I wanna stay up for the party so do you mind if I take a nap?"
"No, it's fine." Raizel replied, as she walked over to the shelf and pulled off a book. "I might take one too."
"Okies..." Shana said as she started to drift off into a nap.
Raizel sat there for quite some time listening to Shana's breathing, counting the breaths and keeping track of each hundred by flipping a page. When the page number finally fell upon twenty she moved from her place. Slipping quietly over to the bookshelf she reached up and pulled down the key. Placing it into it's home she turned it slowly, smiling when it went the full distance round without squeaking. The cabinet gave off a little pop as the lock was released, and quickly Raizel reached inside. The first thing she grabbed was a letter, it's shambling handwriting rather matched the name which scrolled across it's front.
Dart Field, Addressed to Albert.
Shrugging she flipped the letter open and strolled back into the main seat in the room.
Dear Albert,
Under Charle's instruction I've been keeping Raizel and Balder separate... So stressful however Shana is managing this a lot better than I am. She did however suggest that Raizel might be better of in another place, however I'm not willing to risk anyone recognizing her. I must admit that this is quite amazing to see how well you've faired with Alulan, I still think he'd be better off back in Deningrad as Miranda suggested.
In more concerning news Miranda check into Faust as Charle asked, he's no longer present in his dungeon at . My only guess is that Melbu has caught up with the man and taken him back as his old General. Meru says she'll be keeping an eye on things around the area until the wedding comes.
Do you mind if I don't bring them to the wedding, I realize how everyone must want to see them.. However I'd rather not risk the idea that they might remember something.
Dart.
Raizel blinked, and then sighed as she turned back over to the cabinet and pulled forth a few more pieces of paper. Two of them were decorated in a language she'd never seen before, but she pocketed them all the same. Looking at the final shelf on the cabinet she reached in and pulled forth a book. On the cover there was a large golden insignia of a moon. Shaking her head she slipped the book into the drawer near the desk, and moved towards the sleeping Shana.
"Hey." She said with a slight shake. "I think I know what to get Albert now."
"Umph.. Alright." The brown haired girl replied in response.
A/N: Thank you to all who reviewed! I really appreciate it! The next chapter shall be the wonderful wedding chapter, expect it near the end of the month... Also expect it to be quite long (the joy of longer chapters!) After that everything shall pick up, and thanks to summer I should be able to keep up with the pace.
Review (cause I know you already read!) XP