Legend of Albert

Albert has been wanting to sneak out of the castle for a good week now. Lavits' seventh birthday was tonight, and Albert had finally come up with the perfect plan to escape.

First he'd be contacting Lavits using a pair of white curtains which he was going to hang up. Hopefully the maids wouldn't mind to much. Then he'd go down through his father's room which had a sort of slide installed into it for emergency escaping. He's come down that, sneak out the window in the room bellow. And then sneak along the back of the castle, jump over the short barrier hide behind it. Then once he hit town he'd be home free. Half the people in Bale wouldn't even recognize him up close.

Albert looked at the setting sun, Lavits had said he'd be out on his roof about this time, didn't he? He watched from his own window as he saw Lavits come out onto the roof of his house. Smiling Albert took down the green curtains carefully and then he stuck up the white ones. Looking back out, he saw Lavits jump up and down and then go ducking back inside his house.

He headed over and blew out his candle and quickly undressed from his shirt. Leaving his pants on, he crawled under his covers and fanned sleep. Two of the maids walked into the room, one patted him on the head.

"He's so sweet." One said in a whisper, and the duo left the room.

Albert lay there for a few more minutes. Foot steps from the guards outside passed on by. They wouldn't go back by his room for another good minute. He quickly sat up and threw on his shirt, and then compiled his hair into a fairly nice mass at the nape of his neck. He picked up his shoes, and ducked out into the throne room. Scampering across the floor he thought he saw a dark shape on the other side of the room, for a moment he paused. But as he looked out from behind the chair he saw no one there. He hurried along further and quickly jammed a small key into the lock in his father's room. He ducked inside and relocked the door.

Slipping around the other side of the fireplace he pushed a little door open and slid down. Popping out the other end of the side he rushed over to the window, and then with a trick that he had seen one of the guards do he clicked a little trigger in the corner of the window. Sitting the glass neatly against the wall he jumped through the window. Luckily he managed to land on his feet, but the good fifteen foot drop left his legs stinging.

Slipping up against the wall he slid along it till he was close enough to the wall. He rushed over and jumped behind it.

It was a good thing that an, almost 8 year old, was small. For otherwise he wouldn't have been able to hide behind the tiny wall. Finally he slipped around the final corner, and hurried up to Lavits' door. He didn't even have to knock. The door opened and Lavits towed him into the room, "Common, upstairs before my mum comes down." He said quickly under his breath, while pulling him up the stairs.

They reached the first room at the top of the steps. There was two other boys inside, both pretending to be sleeping underneath large covers. Lavits dragged some more covers out of the corner for Albert and him to sit upon. One of the boys cracked his eyes open, and smiled.

"Nice to meetcha." He said quietly, shaking Albert's hand thoroughly. He had dark black hair which was almost completely shaved off. He looked to be a good two years older then Lavits. He didn't wear any shirt, however he had on a pair of black pants which were matched well with his black gloves. It was easy for Albert to guess who's son he was for, for his slightly pointy cheeks and ears gave him away for being Rinmal head of the Second Knighthood's son. "The name's Kaiser."

"Hello." Albert said letting his arm be shaken thoroughly.

The other boy with red blond hair peeked an eye open. He sat up quickly, he wore a light blue shirt with little white bands around the edges. Albert didn't have much of an idea who's son he was, but he had seen the boy briefly at Lavits' last party.. "I'm Nicolas." He said scooting over closer to the group.

"Mum's been asleep for about an hour now, but I don't know why my dad's not home. He said he was having a meeting up at the castle tonight." Lavits replied.

"That's strange, I saw Noish head off… There wasn't anyone around when I snuck out." Albert said back, arching his brow.

"Oh… Well maybe it was with someone else." Lavits said with a shrug.

"Yeah."

The four of them sat there for quite some time simply chatting. Many times Nicolas mentioned that he'd love to go and visit the castle some day. Albert decided to invite all three of them to his own birthday in a month. Kaiser and Lavits were both son's of accomplished Knights so they mainly wanted to speak to each other about the up and coming war. Albert who was more into the strategies and books mainly spoke to Nicolas who had been born in Mille Senseu. His father was a writer, and before they moved he had spent all his time in the library.

At some point Lavits had tip toed down the stairs to the kitchen and stolen away some of the pie which his mother had made for the birthday party. Finally the other two boys had snuggled into the beds on the floor and taken to sleeping. Albert watched them thoughtfully for a moment and then looked over at Lavits.

"Aren't they great?" He asked.

"Yeah." Albert replied nodding his head and stifling a yawn.

"I suppose you'd better be going back."

"More likely, I'll be missed if I do not return before dawn."

"Yeah, anyway common, I'll show ya out."

"Thanks." Albert murmured and followed Lavits out of the room. They crept down the stairs with as much grace as could be expected of people so young. And Lavits shoved a little bit of chocolate into Albert's hand. "I got a bunch for my birthday, thought you'd like some since you were here for it."

Albert grinned and tried a piece of it, nodding appreciatively like most adults would.

"It's most delicious."

Lavits just grinned back and pushed the door open, looking out into the night.

"You'll be okay right? Wont get caught?"

"Of course not."

"Good then." He grinned a final time at Albert, who nodded back to Lavits and quietly shut the door behind him. He breathed out a small sigh and then started moving back towards the castle. His feet slipped lazily across the ground. He wasn't watching closely where he walked at all. He saw no need as there wasn't more then the slight sound of birds chirping in the distance.

He walked up the steps to the castle and spotted a guard standing just within the doorway. The man was slumped against the wall, as if asleep. But it just didn't feel right…

There was a sound from high above. A body broke through the glass of one of the upper windows and something shroud in black crashed towards the stone floor outside the castle. Albert briefly noticed that it was his own window with the white curtains which had broken. The thing crashed upon the floor of the ground. It lay there motionless, and then rolled over. Blood was creeping around the side of the man's now visible face.

Dark black matted hair shook, the man started to rise. His eyes spotting Albert, he was hurrying off the ground reaching out. Albert found his feet backing up, they hit the solid and small wall behind him. He stopped. The man was stumbling and running towards him all at once.

Albert reached beside him trying to find something with which fight the man off. There was nothing there. The man was pulling out a knife, he was in the air leaping towards Albert. There was a moment when Albert was sure that the knife in the man's hand would be sinking home into his body. And then the man just stopped. He gripped his chest and screamed, shaking his head he tried to move about in convulsions, but failed and fell over.

A man with silver hair stood not far behind him and watched with slight interest. This new man lifted his hand and allowed fire to dance off of it to incinerate the fallen man body. Albert found himself paralyzed and only able to watch, just as it had been when his father died.

When he finally tore his eyes away from the burning corpse the silver hared man was gone.

The night however was no longer quite an peaceful, as the sounds of Knights with their clashing armor ran down from the castle to find Albert standing alone with the smoldering remains.

They spoke between themselves of how such a thing could happen.

Lavits' father took Albert by the hand and lead him back to one of the guest rooms, where he found himself being settled on the bed.

"I would have you sleep my lord." Requested the Knight. Albert could only nod dully as the images of death flashed about his mind.

His sleep till dawn which lay only an hour away became fitful, and filled with nightmares of his father lying burning before him.

And then just as horribly as the visions came they stopped, replaced only by a pair of eyes, neither gold nor brown, but brilliant none-the-less. In his mind Albert watched those eyes, and they calmed him till his found the nightmares gone and the hand of a sweet looking maid upon his shoulder. She smiled warmly and requested that he rise so that they Knights could explain the happenings of the night before.

Servi, Lavits' father, waited patiently for him in the main chamber. The man looked worried, but not horribly upset. As Albert entered his eyes flashed over towards him watching the boy with concern.

"My lord." He spoke plainly and bowed upon his knees.

Albert paused, and then finally remembered himself and replied. "You may rise."

"My lord, allow me to first make it known to you that I know of your stay at my home last night. I think it very fortunate that on this night of all nights you would choose to visit him, it has undoubtedly saved your life."

Albert nodded, feeling slightly ashamed that he had been discovered.

Servi paused for influence and then continued. "Last night an assassin crept into the castle killing a majority of the guards, we've lost eight men, and might yet loose two more. He happened to be fairly well skilled at stealth, had not a maid seen him enter your room no one would ever have been alerted to his presence. He came into your room and found you missing, and the maid managed to warn me. I fought the man with several other knights who the maid altered and we over came him. He, however feared capture and attempted a fatal maneuver while caused him to go falling from your window." Here again he paused. "However how his body came to be burned…"

"There was a man." Albert stated quickly remembering the silver hair a aristocratic looks of the man who'd sent fire leaping from his fingers. "He used magic, somehow, and created a fire which burned… the assassin." Albert looked away from Servi. He felt a sick sense of dread now for remembering the incident.

"What were this man's looks?" Inquired Servi.

"He had gray, silver hair… Sharp looks, black clothes…" Albert paused in thought. "I'm, afraid I remember little of him."

Servi looked upon the pained expression on his king's face and nodded. Noish from his side of the shook his head at Servi, intending that there would be no more questioning the boy on this matter till he was more recovered.

Servi left the room and headed down to where his closest friend lurked. "Greham?" The blond queried.

"What did you find out from our lord?" He asked moving out of the shadows to look at Servi.

"Only that a man with the post of magic is what set our assassin to flame. Apparently he had silver hair, and black clothes."

"An old man then?"

"Perhaps, I could not bring myself to ask anymore questions. Our poor lord has seen such death so young, and I fear to bring him back to how he was after his father's death."

Greham shook his head and looked away from Servi with a grim expression on his face.

The pair of them then started off as one to walk outside of the castle. The wondered down into town and about the city which they considered home. Nothing was spoken between them, but each shared a sense of understanding.

A young man with toned features and glaring red eyes looked at them as they passed by a small café. Beside him was a woman with similar red eyes and long silvery hair. She flicked a dagger back an forth between her fingers. And then turned back to her male companion.

"They most likely look for you." She stated.

"They would not recognize me, not even if they had seen me themselves."

"It is true. And considering they know nothing of magic there is no hope of their finding you here."

He stared after them and waited before slipping the hood off his head to reveal his longish silver hair. "Dole's assassin failed, Albert had snuck into the city to visit another younger boy, a son of a Knight."

"You're the one who burned him to a crisp right?"

"So why'd you decide to hunt down the assassin and ditch all though dragon hunting loons?"

"I found something a bit more worth my while, like you for example." He looked over at her, letting his eyes met her own. She fluttered her eyelashes and looked away somewhat seductively. " I feel sorry for the kid, he's only human."

She laughed at that statement and he joined in lightly. For a few moments more they sat in silence. She sipped down some of the expensive coffee from the Islands and he drank his water.

"Lloyd?" She asked after a second.

"Hmm?"

"Do you ever think of going home?"

"No." He answered directly, and they sat in silence again.

The two Knights wondered back by the café, neither of them noticed the silver hared woman stilling with a hooded man. But then again, neither of them happened to be the most attentive creatures on earth.


AN: Oh look at this! I updated, god what am I thinking.

Bet you went expecting this? Not really, but hey, I felt bored and wanted to write something, and this is always fun to play with.

Feel free to hit me for throwing in Lloyd, I love him so that I couldn't help it.

I think I will update more often on this now, after all, we all love Albert as well. And writing his teenage years look particularly promising.