Herrand was making his rounds throughout the palace of Valua, taking particular note of where the foreigners had walked, looked, and even breathed. He kept a close eye on each of these places and swept them with scanners, searching for anything that they may have rigged to listen, sabotage… or destroy.
After the terrorists struck, after they had killed Dyne's predecessor, Enrique, it had sent a message out. The people were no longer safe. People were told that they could die in the streets if the ruler of Valua could be killed. People knew of the danger. They knew that it surrounded them, and so they prayed that they would never be targets, and they weren't. Or, at least, not yet.
Each one of the areas checked, he glanced at the magnificent clock suspended between two pillars. Two miniature ships made up the hands, with a skull backed by swords in the center, masking the points where the hands met the middle. It had been a symbol of a pirate leading the people now, and read in the language of each continent in Arcadia "Beware- the King can fight as well". The clock displayed that it was currently 1300, and time for his replacement to arrive on the simple pacing duties while he got his meal break.
Turning around, he lifted the plastic facemask, which had begun to fog with breath. He started, noticing that he mask only fogged if he began to breath heavily, something that seemed to plague him alone, else the face masks would have been decommissioned long ago.
It was a sign of bad luck with Herrand, though. It had happened at Enrique's attack. It had happened when he had fallen and snapped his leg in an awkward hole… And it was happening now.
Herrand shook his head forcefully. It wasn't an omen. The mask had fogged before, and nothing had happened. Nothing at all…
He was still wrestling with the idea when, Kormiic, his replacement, arrived. Herrand didn't feel hungry, and his stomach was churning enough that he didn't think he would have kept anything down if he had tried. Instead, he simply headed to his thinking spot, atop the wall of Valua. The wall had held back armies of ships, had helped keep countless smugglers and pirates out, and had been the first test sight of the moonstone cannon on the Delphanous. The wall had a historical significance, and sometimes when he went to think there, Herrand thought that he could hear the voices of countless others from times long past giving him council in his hectic struggles, being experienced in the matter.
And so, Herrand still wrestled with the feeling in his gut when the first shot was fired, and something else entered his gut, that was decidedly not an emotion.
A/n: And you all thought that was just going to be one of those boring chapters where I get to a huge climactic scene and then don't do anything! See, I took us to another huge climactic scene- one which I can choose to continue, or simply leave there until I get a certain number of reviews! BWAHAHAHA! So yeah, R and R.