A/N: Oh I am so sorry! With tests and social stuff I didn't really have time to write or anything. I'll try to speed this up. Thanks to anybody who's reading this!
Disclaimer: I don't own anybody in this story.
Lireal stood on the lowest battlement in the palace. It faced towards the capital city belisaire. The city sprawled out in front of her. The aqueducts barely visible from the distance. If she concentrated she could just see the movement of the water. Strange how a practical means of bringing water around the city was the only thing that saved them during the integram. I wonder how it was made she tought to herself. She knew that theiur was a reservoir of water at the highest point in the city, protected itself by the circling of water, which goes to a second reservoir which then is led back to the first reservoir(backflow is stopped by a clever valves method) and was purified while passing through the valves by charter marks. Then the whole process started again.
My new family have been welcoming she thought to herself. After she was given an extensive tour of the palace they had went to eat. The family usually eat in a small room in the palace but there was some sort of festival on so they had eaten in the banquet room. Lireal had been amazed by the grandness of the room. The floor was pure white and seemed to glow, the walls were a light golden colour and ice sculptures were at every corner. They were so amazingly beautiful that lireal forgot about the banquet itself. When she managed to tear her eyes from them she noticed mouth watering food on tables between the ice sculptures. They were seated at a long table. The rest of the meal passed in a blur. Everybody was so happy to see her!
It was vastly different to the glacier but equally uncomfterble. What had she done for everybody's warmth? Who would have guessed she would have been uncomfterble at belonging.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Sam said walking towards her.
Sam glanced back. What in the charter was a penny? Lireal thought to herself.
"Sorry keep forgetting you don't understand anclistiere sayings. So trying to get used to being noticed?
Lireal looked surprised that he knew how she felt. Sam chuckled.
"No offenses but you're not very good at hiding you're feelings" Sam said grinning "you should give mother a chance though"
"I love sabrial! It's just different to feel..........." Lireal stopped not sure how to describe it.
"Equal" Sam said gently. He continued when all lireal did was stare into space.
"You may feel awkward but sabrial is so happy to see you! I think she needs something we can't give her. When her father died that was pretty much the last collection to her family. She made one with us but i think she needs her won. You know?"
"I think i get it. While i was surrounded by cousins and one aunt i never had any real family. I understand the yearning for family."
Sam smiled as he saw she understood. Suddenly Lireal noticed a blue object from the palace come towards them. It had the soft insubstantial glow of a flame. It was gliding closer. It was small no bigger then a blackbird. A blackbird entirely made of blue flame but anyway. It skimmed over lireal who flinched as it passed. It landed on the battlements surface. It looked up innocently at sam.
"All royal blood should report to the conference room immediately and lireal the remembrancer " the bird said in a voice that more belonged to a seven year old girl then a magical bird. It nodded at Sam and took off into the sky. Sam and lireal glanced at each other.
"Seems we've been summoned" Sam said
OoO
Nick was watching the scenery flash by while he was on the train. The only other passengers on the train were the man in the trench coat and Mr. Goodman. Nick knew mr. Goodman by name more than anything else. He was some sort of politician at the moot. He was sitting staring out the window with a small smile as though at some private joke.
The man in the trench coat was reading from the evening news paper. His face was so blank it was almost masklike. Tall with piercing brown eyes and with the air of confidence he looked very formidable.
The train must be nearing corvere by now. Nick wondered how his arrival would be. His uncle knew he was coming but it was the other politicians' he was worried about. Everybody knew he was in the old kingdom and everybody wanted to do something about the old kingdom. Apparently people were getting angry about the incursions from the old kingdom. Just today a pamphlet stating concerns about the "foreign problems becoming ours" as the pamphlet said. It outlined the king and queens trouble controlling their land. Nick had been surprised and angry when he heard this. The government had usually never acknowledged the old kingdom. Now they were complaining about it. What was going on?
The nonstop country side changed to more regular houses. The houses were cream coulored and had a cosy feel to them. They must be nearing corvere. All nick had to do was get the permit off his uncle and he was ready to go back to the old kingdom.
OoO
"The message hawk came an hour ago" Touchstone was saying as sam and lireal walked into the conference room. They sat down beside Sabrial who smiled warmly at both of them. The smile was a harried one though. Sabrial looked remarkably like her sister lireal but had a tough expression in her eyes which hinted that she had seen more then she wanted sometime.
"Sorry if i interrupted anything but i thought it imperative that you see this" Touchstone said to sam and lireal "I received a letter from quire an hour ago. It contained a imagery charter mark. It was from the royal guard house in quire"
Quire was a town just at the edge of king touchstones realm. A fairly uninteresting town. No real trade existed between belisaire and quire. The villagers usually made their own clothes and farmed their own food. Touchstone paused before continuing.
"This is what it contained" Touchstone said quietly and opened the letter.
A stream of charter marks flowed out of the letter and hung in the air. A picture started to form in the square of charter marks. A room with two message hawks in them and the room was plain and undecorated.
"King! We are being attacked! They attacked us suddenly when the light failed. We urgently call assistance but i fear you will be too late." A voice said loudly from the picture. There were sounds of fighting from the picture, men screaming, the inhuman screeching of the dead, swords hitting flesh and a curious deep boom. Everybody was listening and watching intently.
"I sent the young and the unable to fight away. We will try to keep them back to give them time to escape. Please send somebody! My wife and kids are there! I doubt they will get away."
The sound of fighting got closer. The image spun to a door in the room. The sounds were so loud they seemed to come from just outside the door. A long human scream came from the outside the door followed by smoke curling under the door.
"Go!" the voice roared. It spun to reveal a large man drawing a sword facing a blasted in door with a figure with one hand raised and in the other a sword. The view raced towards the window and ended when the soldier died.
There was silence in the conference room as the scene ended. Touchstone looked grim, Sam looked shocked, lireal and sabrial looked saddened but with a professional determination on their face.
"It is possible we can reach quire in time to save any survivors" Touchstone said "but there's only one paperwing and no near guardhouses. It will take six hours riding nonstop to get to quire. Anybody who goes will have to know that if you run into trouble we may not be able to help you in time"
"Sorry dear but were used to dangerous situations by now" Sabrial said smiling slightly. Touchstone tried to smile back but it looked more like a grimace.
"I thought i lost you once. I don't want to go through that again" Touchstone murmured.
"You won't. I'll be back you can count on it. Besides like id hear the end of it in death if i did!" Sabrial replied. Touchstone actually smiled this time.
" Not to interrupt this lovely moment. But shouldn't we be planning? Hopefully not rushing blindly into danger of course," Moggot interrupted rudely.
"Much as it pains me to say this" Sabrial said "But moggets right. I think lireal and i should go in the paperwing to quire wile touchstone and sam ride. At best we will have it all sorted out before you get there................ at worst you'll be our second attack"
"So rushing blindly id the plan as usual? Well if we are going to do that we shouldn't put all our eggs into one basket. Personally i like the birds more but whatever." Moggot said.
"Catnip again moggot?"
"No. If you and lireal go together and more importantly die together we will have no defence against the dead. Well i personally don't count Miss etiquette and scarecrow to be of use if you die. Why don't lireal and Sam travel by paperwing and elismere and you travel by horse. I personally don't think it's wise to leave a steward in charge with the trouble over those ridiculous taxes."
"Oh no! I have to say it again! Moggots right, although honey if you cut your hair differently you wouldn't look like a scarecrow? Anyway moggot is right about the travelling." Sabrial said.
"He is right. If we want to have a chance saving anybody we better leave now!" Touchstone said striding out.
"Typical Touchstone all about speed" Moggot said smiling mischievously at sabrial.
OoO
Nick toyed with his roast veal salad. Supposedly his uncle had to attend a formal meal before he could give nick his permit and since nick was his nephew he had to attend. They were in a dining room that was almost suffocating. It was entirely circular and two windows were the only air source. There was a wooden floored dancing area and a stage surrounded by the tables for people to eat at. The low murmur of quite conversations stopped as a man stepped onto the stage.
"This should be interesting" a boy murmured to a man beside him. Nick wondered why a boy of sixteen or seventeen would be at this dinner. He turned to the speaker who he saw was the man he was on the train with.
"Ladies and gentleman! I am so sorry to interrupt you're dinner but we are at an important juncture in you're lives. The old kingdom nuisance is getting far out of line. Unfortunately all of you were about to make a wrong choice. Mind you i can't blame you. You are all politicians after all." Harvey Goodman said to a confused and outraged crowd. A flicker at the corner of nicks eye made him glance. Black robed men had entered the room and silently locked the doors.
"That's why my colleagues and i decided to intervene" Harvey said gesturing to the men" Your lives are about to take an exciting turn. You will be fundamental in the change in this country."
Nick glanced up and saw a shape glowing through the paint in the ceiling. It was slowly growing brighter. Is that a pentagram? He took out the charter blade that Sam gave him.
"Well you won't be alive during it but beggars can't be choosers" Harvey gave the crowd a friendly smile as he raised his arms towards the ceiling and at the same time the boy stood up and did the same. The pentagram shone piercingly bright and across the old kingdom everything free and charter felt a moment of dread they couldn't explain.
A/N: Again sorry for the wait. If you get sick of my slow updating you should read flawless evil by master of grey, Night child by ghogoti, and five charter by sanareylle. Actually anything by sanareylle. Sorry for misspellings.