: Okay this one is late, yeah like 1 or 2 days...But it's because I have a job now and that cuts my time a bit. BUT IT'S FUN, so its all okay :D. Anyway, hope you enjoy this one!:
It amazes me on how the human body can be so weak at times, I mean really, it's such a hassle, isn't it? I sat there in the chair near the table, my legs crossed and twirling a red rose between my fingers. My eyes wondered to the girl wrapped up on the floor, her body moving up and down steadily and hair falling in her face. I let out a small chuckle.
She had been working so hard lately, and it had worn her to the bone. It didn't surprise me, this, but it made my heart hurt a little and cause me to be even more angry at our dear Nathaniel. It was his fault that she was working so hard anyway. (Okay, so it's a bit of my fault as well, and when you think about it, it was also a little bit of Kitty's fault as well, but I digress. It's always mostly Nathaniel's fault because, let's face it, he messes up everything.)
We had stayed up all night for a bit of work. I had done my part and she had done hers, although it would be well for me to tell you those parts. What occurred was that after she had given me my new charge (One which made my heart swell and conflicting emotions swirl through me, but it made me a bit happy in a possessive, animal like way. These feelings were going to kill me at some point in time.) was that she told me of a small plan that would attach itself to the old one.
It was simple really.
We would break into the palace and proceed to kidnap Natty boy, I was to then bind him to me (even if I had to force him, which I can't understand how I would be able to if he began to squirm or something, there were risks involved and that frightened me a tad bit.) and convince him to marry Amelia next, which in turn, would kill her. The only problem would be if he was willing, which he wasn't going to be obviously. I'll probably have to tie him down or something.
This thought made me stop the twirling of the rose and my cheeks turn an interesting shade of red, images sprung into my head and that wouldn't do. (I must have gone mad with the time I had spent around the kid. I still haven't come to term with these feelings, which I supposedly have, and now I have horrid pictures and scenarios playing in my head due to a little, completely innocent sentence...)
I tried to move my thoughts elsewhere.
During the night I was sent to investigate the layout of the palace, I had done exactly this, only problem was that I could not go inside. There had been nexus' on almost every plane (three through seven, if you were wondering.) and I had not the patience that night to disable them all. I had scoured the building and found plenty of entrances and gazed inside windows to estimate possible routes. I had even passed by the window that would lead into the princess' room. I didn't dare look in, I was scared of what I would do if I saw a certain someone.
When I returned to Kitty, I had found her bent over the table, studying the book with an intense glare. (Which I thought was fairly humorous. Why you ask? She couldn't read the damn thing.) I remembered I had walked over to her and translated it all to her again, before she forced a writing utensil and paper into my hands. I had to copy it onto paper and give it to her to look over, when in reality I should be the one who needed to study it. I was the one who was going to need to know it after all.
I told her this when I was a distance away from her.
She threw the book at me and hit me in the face.
Damn good aim too.
Moving on; I had asked for another sheet of paper and drew out a coarse map, she didn't enjoy that it wasn't perfect but she accepted it and we went to work on many ways to enter without getting caught. (To this map, I had noted all the places where I saw guardsmen stationed and patrolled, also windows and what rooms were what. I recall when I had first entered the palace, one guard had been chewed out for that and spilled the beans on almost every room in the facility. Funny how little things like that help out in the end.)
When we went over all possibly entryways, we both decided on the only way that would one; Not make Kitty have to strain herself too much to enter. And two; Cause us to hurt too many people. (I had requested that we take a route that only involved servants, she didn't seem too keen on it though, so we scratched it out.)Sadly, that left us one route that was, oddly enough, the safest and most abandoned route.
That, my friends, was the front door.
The front door was guarded by two guardsmen and from what I remembered and what I saw, most guards were stationed a good ways away from it, making a safe route to pretty much any other location without being spotted by too many people. The only trick would be maneuvering on the inside, which we would have to figure out when we got there, because, like I previously stated, I couldn't investigate the entire inside. (Some may be wondering why I didn't look everywhere on the last visit I had, which is a quite good question...I believe I just didn't care at that moment.)
After discussing that, we had to converse over the forcing-Nathaniel-to-marry-me business. We both agreed that he would not be willing to go through with it if we kidnapped him and forced him to immediately. So we had to speak of different possibilities and go through procedures I didn't believe I would ever go through. One was that if I grab Nathaniel and go into a side room, I had to either locate a previously made pentacle or create one myself. I had never crafted a pentacle in my entire existence. So I was taught how to make one in about 2 hours, which wasn't bad. (although we had about 73 small errors due to how fast we were working, luckily I have a decent memory and common sense in magic, so it worked well in the end.)
Next one was how we were gonna grab him. Honestly, we were too tired to actually come up with different ways it could play out, so we both agreed on me just grabbing the kid and taking him into another room and A; tying him up with some kind of rope or B; trying to calm him down and explain to him what I needed him to do. I preferred option A by far, mostly because it would make things go by quicker.
Another thing to go over, the ritual. It wasn't too complex, but the translated words made me want to vomit. Luckily I had to voice them in the language they were written, but the words in itself were sickly romantic in a way. (Oh, you don't actually want to know, do you? You do, don't you? Alright, the words go somewhere along the lines of; A bond I have created with thee, I wish to make true. These years I have spent, the days I have sacrificed, I wish to continue evermore. My feelings are pure, and care not for race. My words are true, my emotions are pure. Our blood is one, our body is combined. I say The Other Place is my home, I say The Earth is my home. Our worlds will be together in our hearts, as they will forever be. So with these words, our blood, and kiss we shall be united. Until the sun dries. Until the moon falls. Until death do us part. Yes, very romantic. Let us clap for the madman who actually had to come up with this filth, now if you excuse me I require a bucket. Wait, we only have one bucket. Okay, forget the bucket.)
There was one other thing that we needed to figure out before we actually went through with this plan and that was what we were going to do with Amelia before kidnapping Nathaniel. Many different ways to do this occurred to me, we could try to get him before they are ready to start, or interrupt the ceremony (At the end, where it's safe to intrude.) and take him while Kitty distracts her. If we went with the later option, that meant my work would have to be fast. I was fearful of how much time I would have if this were the case.
I stood up from my place, thinking it was high time that we get started, and wandered to the door to step outside for a moment. I opened it and placed a foot outside, I glanced up and narrowed my eyes to try to calculate how late in the day it was. (I had to do this many times in my past years, clocks and watches didn't exactly exist 5,000 years ago. We did have those odd little Sundials, however I would tamper with the idea and cause many other fellow spirits to be late for their charges and what not. It wasn't hard to do this, to be frank, all you had to do was find where the sun was generally located and place a giant rock or creature in its way, do that and ta da a broken clock.)
From what I could see, it was about three in the afternoon and that meant we had only an estimate of about 3-5 hours to do this. I stepped back indoors, closing the door and regarded the sleeping girl with affection. It was time to wake her up.
()()()()()()()()()
The room was more comfortable than Nathaniel expected. The room was of decent size, the walls a dark maroon and the stone below was smoothed out for appropriate summonings. Along the walls were bookshelves and other materials needed, it impressed him of how he had never found this place before.
It shouldn't have though, it had been hidden behind the princess' bed. Nathaniel had found this out when he was woken up the princess and told to rise. After a few moments of rearranging his clothes and freshening up, she had called for her father and some servants to move the bed. It surprised him at first, but the shock faded in due time.
He wandered around, watching as servants scurried like mice to get items together and place things in the right places. He turned his head down, noticing how the king began to draw out a large pentacle. He furrowed his eyebrows.
"Your highness," Nathaniel stepped forward, his hands behind his back and knelt beside the crouching royal.
The king gave him his attention, drawing it away from his work. "Yes, my boy?"
"You've made an error here." He pointed to a smudged corner.
The king let out a laugh. "That is done on purpose."
"Oh..." Nathaniel stood back up, letting out a cough. "My apologies..."
He paced back and forth, leaving the king to his work and tried to amuse himself with the sights around him. Nathaniel felt his arm become heavier and turned his head, his eyes meeting dark green.
"Is something the matter, Drake?" Amelia cooed, snuggling up to him.
Nathaniel let out a stiff chuckle. "No, not at all."
"Are you certain?" She pouted. "You're all stiff, and you look more serious than you usually do, which is a little scary."
"I'm just nervous, I suppose." He said.
"Don't be nervous." She lifted her face to his cheek, placing a gentle kiss on it. "I'm here with you."
Nathaniel's heart tightened, he gave a curt nod and a forced smile. "Yes, thank you." He thought for a moment. "I have a question, if you do not mind?"
"What is it?"
"Is there anywhere else where there is a pentacle?"
"Well, there's another room just over there." She pointed to another door to the side of the area. "I'm not sure if there's another one made though, would you like to look?"
"No, it's alright." Nathaniel replied. "I was just curious."
The two looked at each other, their eyes not leaving, however the girl's were filled with affection and happiness, while the magician's was filled with uncertainty and guilt. He regarded the door behind the princess, watching as a servant walked through with an assortment of clothes in her hand, and another trailed up behind her holding a long wedding dress, the white blinding Nathaniel as he looked at it.
"Your highness," The servants bowed. "We've brought your clothes for the ceremony tonight."
Amelia's eyes brightened. "Ah! Excellent!" She let go of Nathaniel, practically skipping over and taking hold of the dress. She placed it against herself, spinning around with a giggle, before she stopped and hid the dress from sight in front of her. "Drake! No looking at the wedding dress before the ceremony!"
Nathaniel blinked and nodded, turning away before the other servant stepped forward and gave him his bundle of clothes. He narrowed his eyes at it, he had told them that he would be able to find a suit, but no matter. He took it with a thank you and looked down at it. It was a basic black tuxedo, but just seeing it made fear rise up inside of him.
He touched the fabric, finding it to be made of fine material. He looked down with a held back expression. He made his decision, he can't go back. No matter how much he wanted to. He held the clothes tighter, willing his eyes to stay dry as he thought of his life. Forever was a long time...And he was about to spend it with... He bit his bottom lip as a certain Djinni popped into his head at that moment, accompanied by a certain girl.
"I'm sorry..." He whispered under his breath.
"Sir Drake." He turned around, the servant now back, holding something gently in her hands. She stepped forward to him. "We will be ready in a few hours, this is for your tuxedo." She held it out for him.
Nathaniel nodded, uttering a thank you as he took it with a trembling hand. He looked down at it, breathing in deeply and trying to calm himself once more. He stared down at it, hating the item with every fabric of his being.
But this is what he chose, he couldn't go back. After all, he couldn't keep running from his fate. He was supposed to die more times than he could count. He would count this as dying as well, for he knew this wouldn't be what he wanted. He knew the false girl decently well, but not enough for what this required. He had been saved many times before, no one would save him this time.
Nathaniel glared firmly ahead,
With the white rose twirling in his fingers.
()()()()()()()()()()
Kitty tightened the string around the bag tighter, the goblet inside knocking against the book. She hoped the knife inside didn't injure the book in any way, that wouldn't do them any good. She threw it over her shoulders, looking to the Djinni stationed at the door with its arms crossed, looking to the palace with a steady gaze.
"I saw more guards enter the palace." It spoke. "Seems like it might be more heavily guarded than we figured."
"Are there any more guards stationed up front?"
"No."
"Then we're fine." She looked to a far wall, noticing a small box and the sword Nathaniel had left. She walked to it quickly, grabbing at the two objects. She opened the box quickly, snatching up the pendant and placing it around her neck quickly.
"Oh, don't tell me you're actually going to wear that." Bartimaeus groaned. "Are you trying to kill me?"
"As long as it doesn't touch you, it'll be fine."
"Yes, but it's still going to hurt and – you're bringing the sword too?!"
"Yes, it'll be useful."
"Useful in making me want to abandon this idea maybe."
Kitty rolled her eyes, twirling the sword around in her hands. It was fairly heavy but she could use it. It wasn't like she hadn't had to use weapons before in her life, not exactly swords, but still.
"Any ideas on where the ceremony will be?" Kitty strolled up near Bartimaeus, making it flinch away and cause her to back away a bit. "Sorry."
"No you're not." It grumbled. "I don't recall any place where the guard mentioned there being a place to summon anything, like a study or library, so we'll just have to search for a possible room."
"Or find the one that's heavily guarded."
"That too."
Kitty's eyes traveled over Bartimaeus' profile, allowing a small smile to form on her person. The Djinni had clothed Ptolemy's form in a tight fitting suit with a large trench coat, in the breast pocket held a bright red rose.
"You look ready." She commented, taking note of how it's cheeks changed color.
"I always do." It replied, its voice soft. "I've been ready for a while."
"Ready for what exactly?"
"You know what-" It turned it's head, eyes widening as it met her eyes and finally taking note of what she actually meant behind her words. Bartimaeus refused to meet her eyes, casting them down to the floor as its cheek turned brighter. "Do be quiet, Kitty."
She let out a laugh. "I never thought I'd see the day I see a Djinni blush."
"Well, I never thought I'd see the day that Icare for a human this much."
"So, have you figured out what you feel for him?"
Silence overcame the room, a cool wind blew in from the door. It made Kitty shiver as she waited for a reply.
The Djinni simply looked up at the sky, saying nothing other than; "It's evening, it's time to go."
()()()()()()()()
Nathaniel stood outside the princess' room, his body leaning against the wall as he gazed outside the window that resided in the long hallway. His eyes traveled over the darkening sand and sky, now resting on the small home that laid behind the palace. He smiled sadly at it.
He knew he wouldn't be able to sleep there that often from now on, but he would keep his belongings there. He had memories and important objects in that house, and seeing as he had his silver and iron hidden there, it would be a good place to keep it. It would also be a good place to keep if he and Amelia had a fight, which no doubt he would most likely have at some point. He could sleep there then.
He shifted slightly, his tuxedo feeling a tad uncomfortable on him. He hadn't worn one in so long that it didn't feel completely right, yet it did make him think back to his previous days in London. He pushed down his feelings again, pity that the time he spent here brought those back up.
Nathaniel remembered when he used to be stone cold, he had no emotions really until the last day of his life. John Mandrake was his facade, it shrouded his true self and now that it had broken, he was back to being an emotion filled human. It was nice, but very annoying all at the same time. He had gone soft, which was unpleasant all in all.
"Congratulations." A voice sounded out. Nathaniel's eyes widened as they turned to a guard standing before him.
"James..." He whispered, staring at his friend. The man had positioned himself in front of him, when had he got there?
"That looks natural on you." James smiled thinly. "You were made to be in a tuxedo."
"Thank you." Nathaniel nodded and cleared his throat. "I would hope it looked good on me."
"It doesn't look good on you." James took a step closer, making Nathaniel press his back against the stone behind him in alarm. The guard touched the petals of the rose resting in his breast pocket. "It looks absolutely stunning on you."
Nathaniel blinked, his eyes darting away, unsure of what to say. He breathed in through his nose. "So, why are you here?"
"I've been selected to guard this room along with another guy." James moved his eyes away from the flower, now looking into Nathaniel's.
"I see..." He gulped, warning signs were popping up in his head. This didn't feel right...
"I have a question for you."
"What is it?"
"Do you want to marry her?"
Nathaniel knew the answer to that one, but he also knew the answer he was required to give. "Of course."
"No, you don't." James' fingers left the rose, his hand now moving to touch Nathaniel's cheek. It made the magician flinch. "You don't love her, do you?"
"James, what are you doing?" Nathaniel asked, his voice shaking. Should he kick him, punch him? He didn't have his needle any more, so he couldn't prick him.
"Just making sure is all." He breathed out.
"Of what?"
"Of how you feel and..." James trailed off, his hand now cupping Nathaniel's cheek. "I need to tell you something, before you get married."
"James, you need to-"
"Drake." He spoke firmly.
Nathaniel felt his heart rise in panic, for once in his life he actually wanted the princess to find him. He didn't like where this was going and James' face was strangely close, why was he doing that?
"I-"
"Sir Drake!" A servant called out, rushing out of the princess' room. She took a look from her position and let out a gasp, cheeks flaring as she stared from her point of view.
James looked back at her with a fierce glare, while Nathaniel simply looked up at the ceiling, breathing out and mouthing a thank you.
She gaped like a fish, before finally speaking; "I-It's time, a-and the other guard will be here soon so-"
"Yes. Thank you." James said through clenching teeth. "He'll be there in a minute."
She nodded quickly, dashing back into the room with an intense speed.
Nathaniel readied his fist to plunge into James' stomach.
Before James' face drew close and lips touched his cheek.
Nathaniel's eyes blinked in shock as his hand uncurled itself. The mouth moved to his ear. "I'll never give up." James stepped back, his eyes never leaving his friend's person. He took a breath, turning to the door.
"It's time, Drake."
:Haha cockblocked James. Anyway, next chapter will be fun. I hope you enjoyed this way, sorry for the delay. Look forward to the next one!: