Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Attack

Aaron races into the ballroom. Covered in scratches, cuts, and glass. His body ached for being a body shield for Stiletto. Both decide to split up to try and get everyone to leave. Stiletto goes into the dragon ballroom to warn the dragons of a threat.

Everybody is staring at him. Some laughed as they thought it is an awful costume.

Everything is much worse than what the queen was thinking of her fate will be... It is much worse than everyone thought. She will not be the only one dying tonight... Like Lan-Se it will be a slaughter. THE BLACK EMPIRE IS HERE AND EVERYONE HAS TO ESCAPE!

Aaron races to the Queen with complete urgency. Guards chase him as he is a slave and is going against orders. But I am not a slave not anymore! He pursues forward.

The Queen and King stop arguing as Aaron stops in front of the Queen. She recognises him. Her looking shocked, as if he interrupted an intimate session. Avery's face then changed to subtle fear.

"May I please have a personal audience, my Queen?" He asks desperately, taking out the letter of the list of names. Hoping that she will take it to read. Gauthier looked down at the folded parchments and at Aaron. Whispering to his steward to check his royal chambers. Aaron overhears the king as he pushes the letter forward. "Take it," Aaron says without words coming out.

The Queen looks hesitant as she raised her right eyebrow. She doesn't say a word, waving the guards to return to their post, and walks away with her husband. Calming her husband who is now barely saying a word. Aaron grunts with annoyance as he sees Mali approaching. His costume bells ring nonstop as he looks into Aaron's golden eyes. Horror...

Aaron follows them trying again, with the King ordering guards to remove the slave. Guards come rushing into the crowd. The queen pulled Gauthier's puffed sleeve, telling him to stop.

Iolene and Duke Azar get interrupted by guards as they push Iolene over while dancing.

"My lady!" Azar says as he grabs Iolene by her waist before she fell to the ground. Iolene's heart fluttered with excitement. She smiles and playfully giggles as Lexi and Lei made sure the little gold empress is fine.

Iolene subtly waves at everyone showing that she is okay and not physically hurt. "Thank you, my lord Duke," she said softly. "I am alright! Maybe someone is being rowdy and ruining the party." She gently laughs as they return to their dance.

"Aaron? What is wrong? Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" The small man whispers frustratingly as they both flee from the guards. This time listening as last time Aaron tried to warn, he brushed him away. Never again Mali resolved himself, the amount of regret after the bombing in Lan-Se. He trusts Aaron with his life...

A small crowd surrounds them. Many women and men trying to grab Aaron by the arm to take a closer look. "Look at that chin and shadow of a black beard." One speaks. "He is so handsome! Where is your owner?" Another asks as Aaron ignores and pulls away to escape the dance floor trying to find a quieter place.

Mali barely making out of the crowd taps his boys' legs. "Aaron!" Mali says with anger restraint. What Aaron did there was incredibly dangerous and reckless. Good thing the queen knows who he is. But now the queen is getting strange looks from everyone else. She usually never treats her slaves so benevolently. A usual punishment for such insolence is a good whipping, maybe even worse… Being strung up and rotting to death. Mali however is sort of proud, Aaron is becoming bolder… But he could not forget the look in Aaron's eyes.

Aaron grabs Mali and sneaks him away into the entertainer waiting room. Mali despises being held like a child. His jester outfit did not help as people and dragons laugh.

The entertainment room is empty as they all have joined the party to do their jobs. To Aaron's relief, it is just him and his master alone.

"The Black Empire is planning an attack on Mille Voix Mali!" Aaron says, trying to remain calm. "Gauthier is in on it! It is not only Queen Avery who is planning to die tonight. It is everyone who has not vouched for his allegiance!"

Aaron brings out the list as Mali reads it. Aaron only just notices that he is dressed as a jester. "What are you wearing?" He asks momentarily distracted. The tiny man's eyes open as he looks at Aaron in shock. "He is mad... They all are... Why?!" Mali whispers. "What could they benefit from this? Madness utter madness..."

Aaron quickly explains to Mali of how Turquoise is completely in debt to the Black Empire.

"They are pretty much a black state without the title..." Mali said as he scrunches the list with his hands. The paper crinkles as Mali holds restraint. "The Shadow Emperor plays the long game... Fucking bastard. He has Gauthier on a tight leash, blasted fool! The lot of them. They completely sacrificed their independence for vanity..." Mali turns around as he throws his jester hat on the ground. The small bells ringing as they hit the floor. Mali rubbed his hair in frustration.

"We need to leave the country now!" Mali orders as he and Aaron walk into the grand ballroom once again. The atmosphere for Mali changed as the feeling of doom fell over his heart.

Finding Stein, Mali whispers into his heart. "They are coming..." However, behind Mali and Stein a young steward reaches the king. Notifying how his room has been ravaged. The king gives a signal as his wife looks on with suspicion.

It is at this moment the king taps his wine glass. He is preparing to say another speech.

Aaron pushes through the crowd as Iolene and the duke stop dancing. Iolene sees her so far away he can see her dress.

"To my beloved people..." The King said lovingly. "Unbeknownst to many people's knowledge today is an anniversary." People and dragons stomp and clap with excitement as he anniversary. The king laughs, "I'm going to have to make this speech quick." Raising his wine glass. "I am a King! And shall be forever king, no one can take this away from me!" The king started to sway as he is slightly drunk. Looking at his wife with disdain. He raises his glass to her. "To my bitch of a wife! This is the fifth anniversary of the time you tried to have me murdered!" He laughs maniacally as the crowd gasps. He then rushes to get close to her face, smelling the wine of his breath. "Oh, I always knew my darling... I am very well aware of the games we play." He whispers in her right ear. "But I am afraid we both lost..." He told her as he chokes Avery.

"Lost?" She coughs as she can feel his hard grip on her throat.

"I AM SICK OF PLAYING THIS GAME!" He shouts so the crowd can hear. "THIS GAME WILL STOP!" With his strength, he pulls Avery by the neck. But her dress is so heavy he could only drop her on the foot of her throne.

Lexi watches on as no one is rushing in to protect the queen. Not a single word is uttered, by her own people. Her handmaidens watched on as they barely moved.

"I WILL REMAIN KING!" Gauthier shouts.

Turquoise guards, Black Empire soldiers, and assassins begin rushing into the crowd. A massive fight begins as people and dragons defend themselves. Many using mag abilities as draconium colours light up the room. People and dragons getting pushed into the crowd. Everyone mass panics as they try to escape.

The duke runs to aid his prince. As Iolene reaches under her dress and takes out her mermaid dagger. She rushes to find Stein and Mali. As a guard grabs Iolene's sleeve. She turns and waves her dagger at him. Slicing through his arm ripping his sleeve and begins to bleed. Iolene feels guilty as she hates to cause harm to others. Iolene finally seeing Stein in the distance, pushes through the chaotic rabble to get to him. Prince Murray and Princess Marina are next to the old priest. Marina grabs Iolene and covers her like a shield.

Mali and Stein use their mag abilities to protect their Gold Empress. Lexi uses her magic to burn three enemy guards who step too close. Them collapsing on the floor as they burned to death screaming.

Nuria standing next to Lexi as she compliments Lexi's ability. "We need to protect our Prince!" Nuria tells Lexi as she grabs Lexi's arm to walk forward to him. Lexi however lets go of her and rips her slimline dress so she can move easier.

"I have my charge Nuria," Lexi announces. She glances at the Prince and Duke. They have more than plenty of their own soldiers and guards.

"What other possible charge do you have!?" Nuria shouts as Lexi runs in the other direction. Lexi tries her hardest to find Iolene in the mass of people. Lexi kills those who dare try and attack her.

Lei grabs a spear from a nearby decorative suit of armour. Using it to create distance saying for people to stay away. His citizens race to him to protect him as some can fight hand-to-hand combat. Easily beating others with weapons.

Fred trying his hardest to stay out of the battle moves to the window. Smashing it as he races out of the building.

Prince Murray uses basic mag abilities to push the enemies away. Princess Marina screams a war cry as she punches the nearest Black Empire noble. Knocking him out cold he collapses. But it was not enough as everyone swarmed over Iolene. She couldn't help but scream, but everyone is louder than she is. Aaron grunts and shouts, using his strength to drag everyone away. Iolene cuts another nobleman with the dagger. It is all a blur; she couldn't breathe as she screamed again. When she felt her body being lifted. Iolene realised that she is leaning over someone's shoulder.

Aaron uses his legs to kick everyone out of the way. Iolenes's body rests over his left shoulder. She kicks and waves her arms around. "Let me go!" She speaks. Aaron grunts as she notices it is him.

"Aaron!" She says with relief. "How did you? What?" She said happily while he kicks the people and dragon's out of the way. But there are hundreds to possibly thousands of humans and dragons crowding the room.

Aaron notices the second-floor balcony is not crowded. Only a few people watching the chaos from above. Glancing at the grand staircase it is too dangerous and crowded as the fights have moved to all possible exits. Looking up at the floor it is ten meters high. An easy feat for him on a normal day. But the fight against shadow booster made him exhausted. The weight and length of Iolenes's dress didn't help either.

"Iolene, HOLD ON!" Aaron shouts as he launches himself into the air. Just barely reaching the balcony edge. Using both of his hands he couldn't hold her. Iolene screams unladylike words as she tries to balance herself. However, she fails and slides backward. In reflex grab Aaron's neck and shoulders, dropping her dagger. Pulling herself up she hits her head on Aaron's forehead.

Her gloves become a nuisance she takes them off with her teeth. Letting them fall into the crowd below, revealing her cut hands from harp practice.

"Ow! Sorry!" She says. Aaron doesn't flinch as he is concentrating his strength on pulling them both up. He felt vulnerable as the crowd below continued to fight as their allies protect them down below.

"Iolene listen to me!" Aaron said.

Iolene nods and remains quiet as she wraps her legs around his waist.

"I am going to use my right arm to help you up. Use all your strength, you can do it! Once you are up RUN!" Without a moment of hesitation, he releases his right grip on the balcony. Iolene lets go of him as his hand guided her to the balcony edge.

Her hands grip the marble parapet, as she dangled in a similar position to Aaron. However, his left grip slips as he falls below. Iolene screams his name while using all her strength to pull herself up over the balcony. She looks over the parapet as she looks at Aaron with worry. He landed on an unsuspecting dragon, sliding off. Screaming at Iolene to run.

Iolene turns and faces the few spectators watching. Definitely highborn's from Mille Voix. They are just watching the chaos unfold as they eat little cakes.

"Thanks for the help!" Iolene shouts at them as she removes her expensive heels and rushes off.

But she did not know where she was running to...