Castle Caelin

Cyrus walked along a rampart, frowning as he read a message Jace had sent. Marquess Santaruz was dead, it seemed as he had aligned himself with Laus and Marquess Darin. Lord Elbert had vanished with nearly all the Phearan knights, and they were headed in the direction of Darin's province. But what was the connection? There had to be some sort of connection between all of this.

He was brought out of his thoughts when Kent walked up to him. "Something seems to be troubling you."

Cyrus nodded. "This whole situation between Pheare and Laus. Lord Elbert's disappearance, and now Lord Helman is dead."

Kent's eyes widened in shock. "Marquess of Santaruz!?"

Cyrus nodded once more. "And all of his knights. I don't know what is going on, but Jace said that answers would be found in Laus."

"Do you believe that Lord Darin is behind this?" The red armored knight asked, his expression becoming hard once more now that there was someone to possibly blame for all of this.

"One would think that, yet we shouldn't jump to any conclusions until Jace has solid evidence." Cyrus replied, as he drummed the fingers of his left hand upon the hilt of his saber. "I can't help but think that something is about to happen."

A long moment of silence passed between the two, during which they saw something fly over the mountains several times. It couldn't have been Florina, she wasn't out on patrol at the moment. Cyrus brought out a small spyglass, and looked out past the mountains. That was no Pegasus Knight. The airborne steed was lizard-like, with large leathery wings, and dangerous tail spines. That was a Wyvern Knight. Cyrus then focused upon the Wyvern's rider, and he felt his stomach drop.

"...He's found us…"

Kent did not like the tone of Cyrus' voice, lesser still what he had said. "Captain Cyrus, what has happened? Who has found us?"

Cyrus' skin had gone pale, his hands had begun to shake, and his voice was barely above a whisper when he spoke again. "Father has found us…"

Over the past year, the members of the Legion that had stayed at the castle had heard the brother's story. Kent was no exception, and while he would never admit it, the knight felt a lance of fear shoot through his stomach at Cyrus' words. "Captain, we are going to fight correct?"

Kent's words brought Cyrus back to his senses. Fight, yes that is what they had to do. They needed to fight his father's agents off. "Ready everyone in the castle for battle."

As Kent ran off, Cyrus looked through his spyglass once more. The Wyvern was simply a scout, that he knew, and at any moment the force that Wyvern Rider was with would be rounding the mountain. His thought proved true, as a long line of pikemen came around the large mountain, after them came several line of archers. Knights in thick plate armor were behind the archers, and behind them came the cavillry. The eye behind the spyglass narrowed. The large host wore not just the crest of the Grimleal, but some wore the crest of Laus.

"Father is working with Marquess Laus?" Cyrus asked to himself. "No, no this is not right. There has to be…" His stomach dropped for the second time that day. He'd seen the one thing he had hoped never to see again. Marching slightly in front of the pikemen, was a tall figure with raven black hair, he could see his deep crimson eyes from where he was upon the castle rampart. The tall man had a long dark coat, with a thin set of bright silver colored shoulder pauldrons on top of the leather. Cyrus' spyglass then traveled to the man's waist, and his stomach dropped further when he saw the weapon sheathed at the man's right side. It was a rather long and thin single edged blade. "Zephyr… So father finally sent you after us brother."

Zephyr stopped the soldiers marching when Castle Caelin came into sight. So this is where his two younger brothers were. Father would be overjoyed when he brought Jace and Cyrus back to Plegia. Although as to why he wanted them back was beyond the eldest brother.

A horseman rode up to the Plegian, who seemed to be upset that the march had been called to stop. "What is going on here? Why did you call the march to stop Plegian?"

Zephyr rolled his eyes at the horseman. "Darin please do yourself a favor, and stay silent."

The Marquess of Laus growled at the younger man. "Don't you dare tell me-" The tip of Zephyr's long single edged blade was suddenly right between Darin's eyes. It was barely pressed against his skin, yet the blade was sharp enough to draw blood.

"Be silent, or I shall take your tongue." Zephyr warned, not taking his eyes off of the large castle. A thought then occurred to him. What if their mother was there? At that, a repressed part of him came to the surface, a part of him that he thought he had repressed long ago. It was angry at his mother for not bringing him when she left with Jace and Cyrus. Angry with her for leaving him with their father.

But I am so much stronger for it. I shall make you pay for abandoning me mother. Zephyr's angered thought ran through his mind, as he repressed that annoying part of him that hadn't troubled him for so long.

Close to castle Laus

It had been several days since Jace had sent his message to Cyrus, and they had given Marquess Santaruz along with his knights proper burials. Everyone was now determined to get answers from Darin, and bring him to justice for Lord Helman's death. The large and impressive structure that was Castle Laus had just come into sight, when someone very familiar to Jace and Sera rode up to them.

"Erk!" Sera squealed, causing both the young mage and the tactician to wince from the sound of her voice. "What are you doing here!?"

After shaking his head, in order to rid his ears of ringing, Erk spoke. "I'm in the employ of a young noble lady named Priscilla. My employer is actually why I am here before you now. She is being held in Castle Laus, as Lord Darin had forbade her to leave."

"But why do that?" The pink haired Cleric asked.

"I can think of a few things, and none of them are pleasant." Jace replied, shuddering in disgust. "Yet taking young maidens such as your employer, is only one such injustice I see in this province. All I have seen since we entered Laus are signs of preparing for war. The people seemed starved and neglected, there are no guards at any village we have passed." Jace took out his own spyglass and chanced a look at the large castle. "And from what I can see, there are troops readying for battle."

"Could this be why my father and his knights vanished?" Eliwood asked. "Because Lord Darin was preparing for some sort of war?"

"Well we might be getting some answers to that." Jace replied. "A rider has just left the castle."

Jace handed Eliwood his spyglass, and looking through it, the young noble recognised the rider. "That's Darin's son. Erik is heading our way."

Jace nodded. "Right then, Eliwood, Hector, we'll go to meet Darin's son. Everyone else is to wait here until it's safe, or I give the signal for battle. That includes you Erk. We'll rescue your employer one way or another, yet we cannot risk anything at this point in time." The two lords and the tactician rode forwards to meet Erik, Jace noticing several disheartening things the closer they rode to the son of Marquess Laus.

"Eliwood, Hector, what brings you two to Laus?" Erik asked, in a far too innocent voice for Jace's tastes. "And who is your friend?"

"This is Jace, a good friend and a knight of Caelin." Eliwood, lightly waved away Jace's attempt to rebuff the word the young noble had put in for him. "That aside Erik, we need to speak with your father."

Something flashed in Erik's eyes for a moment. "Of course, come I'll take you to see him."

There is no way that Eliwood can be this naive. Surely he must have seen- Jace was snapped out of his thoughts, when Hector voiced exactly what the tactician was thinking. "Hold a moment Erik. There's something about this whole situation I don't like. First of all, the people of Laus suffer and Darin does nothing to ease their pain. All the guards from all the villages we have passed to get here are missing their guards. Then there is Lord Elbert's disappearance one month ago, along with the majority of the Phearan knights. Then to top it all off … Why have I seen Laus soldiers waiting in ambush all around us?"

Erik's face was a momentary mask of shock, before it turned into a snarl of irritation. "Oh well played Hector. So you've found out eh? Well since the Pegasus is out of the stable, why not come clean about it? My father is preparing for war, a war against Ostia." Erik gave a disgusted cackle. "Lord Elbert would have joined us, yet he took all of his damn knights who knows where."

"You lie!" Eliwood spat at Erik.

"You know something Eliwood?" Erik continued. "I've always hated you. You and Hector were always better than me when we were being schooled, and now I can finally prove that I am the better of the three of us!"

With his words, Erik gave the signal for his men who were waiting in ambush, and Jace gave the four note signal for his company to take up arms. As the small band of warriors joined the two lords and the Tactician, obviously catching Erik off guard as he immediately turned his horse around, and raced back towards the castle.

"Spineless coward!" Hector roared.

It was an hour later when Eliwood's company had reached the large castle. Erik was cowering behind two of his knights with armor as thick as General Wallace's, yet they did not last long. Jace absolutely hated cowards, and he wanted nothing more than to teach this snivelling noble a lesson. Erik's last two guards slumped to the ground, as their heads rolled right up to the lord's feet. Erk had said that Jace's strength would return in full, when the elixer ran empty. And seeing how Jace had finished the last of it just before confronting the two knights, they did not have a chance against him now that his magical strength had returned to him.

"You have two options left now Erik." Jace snarled at the lord. "Fight now, or retreat into the castle where I'll throw you off one of those guard tower."

"You dare to threaten me!?" Erik spat as he drew his blade, although Jace noted that Erik's had shook. "I will kill you where you stand!"

While a coward, Erik was indeed no pushover when it came to combat. Yet Jace had extensive training with a very skilled, and very beautiful Sacean over the past year, so Erik was not much of a match for the tactician. However, Jace did not want to kill the man before him. No, he'd rather cause him humiliation in the worst possible way. And that was what caused the tactician to kick the cowardly lord between the fork of his legs… Several times.

"Tie him up." Jace spat, as Erik gave a piteous high-pitched groan. Jace growled, and punched the lord across the temple as hard as he could. "And gag him as well!"

"That wasn't very honorable Jace." Eliwood, said as they made their way into Castle Laus. Although Jace didn't take this chiding seriously, as Eliwood was attempting not to laugh as hard as he was several minutes ago.

"Blast it! Where has that snake Darin gone!" Hector roared in frustration. They had found neither hide nor hair of Marquess Laus, even though they had searched the castle in its entirety.

It was then that a small transparent animal bounded through the walls of the castle, and came to a stop right in front of Jace. They Lynx opened its mouth, and began to speak in Cyrus' voice. "Castle Caelin is under attack. Marquess of Laus is here. So is Zephyr."