Chapter 4: To kiss a cold flame ~ Its been way too long since I wrote the last one, and I'm still very interested in continuing this, I just didn't have interenet for a while, and some stuff came up. Anyway, the 5th will be around shortly, and I'm sorry for the wait! Hope you enjoy...

Twisting orange, red, blue and a hint of gold, the flames danced furiously as the wind howled against the steady walls of the Silverpine Inn. Nova sat next to the elemental party, or the fireplace, as normal people would call it, neglecting her tea as she bathed her cold body in the heat, her eyes lingering unconsciously over the flames as they twirled; her mind and willpower examining the life of the flame in its creation. The physical difference of this flame from the ones that surrounded the town walls was obvious, as one was the natural shade of red, and the other was the nocturnal colour of magic; a blue, artificial flame. Yet what plagued her curious mind was the effects of one from the other, for the artificial flame warded away the beasts that stalked outside the village walls, and the other was merely a source of heat.

"But how?" she mumbled to herself, one finger poised on her chin whilst the other held tight the warm purple cloak she was paid to wear. Her brow furrowed and lips tightened as her mind wondered over the curiosity with questions that usually brought madness down upon the minds of even the most sane and intellectual beings. "What differentiates could such a material that mimics the nature of the other have against it?"

A few customers sitting on neighbouring tables gazed up at the break in silence, with looks only secluded simple villagers could give.

"Could the other even be considered 'more alive' due to its magical efficiency? What is its biological nature? Was it brought forth by beings with a potential such as mine? If so, how is it being sustained?" she muttered.

It was quite the sight, with pale skin brought to shadow by the dancing flames, quietly talking to herself, a lone woman with dark hair and clear eyes sat draped by a dark purple cloak on a large, red lined chair. Very attractive, even if she seemed slightly insane. Some customers, whom had lived in the small outlet all their lives, did not think it as strange of her to act the way she did, as they had seen stranger yet, whilst another thought it extremely off that a knight would be sitting alone, by herself, talking nonsense that could've put a normal person in a home. After a few moments, the silence thickened, being disrupted only by the howl of wind (or was it beast?). Customers quietly went back to what brought them to the inn, be it sorrow or celebration, and the mumblings of before were forgiven. Yet they still continued, more violently, within the mind of that strange newcomer. Nova seemed to be getting lost between thoughts, algorithms streamed endlessly throughout her mind and suddenly, she came to a fantastic realisation, or what she had considered to be.

Upon gazing at the inner flame, that small blue that seemed to hold the other more violent colours together, that it could, indeed, have an obvious relation towards the nocturnal one: the origin of its artificial partner could well be a more concentrated version of the core natural flame; and, in addition to that, would mean that a natural flame could possibly possess a natural magical capability within its core. But that was nonsense, she thought. Her brow furrowed deeper, her lips popping out in what looked like a smooching gesture. It's not possible, she thought, considering the blue of a natural flame is considered the hottest, whilst the flame outside froze whatever was thrown into it. Perhaps….oohhh, what could possibly make i-

She stopped as a large shadow overlapped her figure, sucking all the warmth from the sweltering fire. Her face seemed to be frozen with her previous thoughts, whilst in reality, they were fleeting.

"Given that look on your face, I'm thinking you either attempting to mentally bond with the fire, or you're trying to kiss it. I don't recommend either."

"who-"

The once shadowed silhouette stepped closer into the light, revealing a rather large, brawny character, with true red hair and a fluffy beard, bearing scars that were illuminated by his tanned complexion, holding a mammoth sized jug of what smelled like cheap ail, and fashioning the same dark purple cloak that Nova wore. They looked like they spawned from completely separate planets: a young lady sat, fresh and petite, yet elegantly tall, with creamy pale skin, neatly presented, bright eyes and all round beautiful; whilst this brute, with a dirty looking complexion, travel worn clothes, a scarred thug like face and as thick as a tree trunk, stood meanly in front of her.

"Oh, hohohoho, you looked rather menacing in the shadows." Nova smiled at her companion, whom returned it with a grimace. "That's the point, isn't it? So no one asks nothing. Or did you forget the reason we're here?"

"Wha- no, of course not. I was just thinking whilst I waited for you."

"We'll, you ain't done thinking, I bet. Considering you was thinking more about kissing those flames than you were about our situation." He chuckled, grabbing a chair from a nearby table and placing it to the side of Nova. He took a long swing of his ail, before wiping the leftover alcohol that hung about his lips and beard with his sleeve. "I was just contemplating the blue flame that wards this village from the balverines." Nova stated.

"I thought you were done with that blue thingy when you started throwing rocks at it. Like you were angry or something."

"What? No no, that was only an examination." She said, and after a moment, added "By the way, how is it possible for you to be here?"

"I'm super special" He said matter of fact-ly. "Besides, someone had to keep the likes of you out of trouble" He grinned. "you and all your magic's" he said, pointing up and down Nova's body.

"But I can control my magic, so you have nothing to worry about" Nova said confidently, whilst the brute just rolled his eyes. "For someone so smart, you sure are dumb." He mumbled, gazing into the flames, just as she had once before. She continued to look at him, confused, before changing the subject.

"Anyway, I had rather hoped you might help me shed light on this 'blue flame' subject, but it seems you're just as enlightened as I am about it."

"And I'd rather hoped you might've been thinking more about our mission. You know, the one about the new breed of balvoes, and where they're coming from."

He said this, only glancing slightly in her direction before returning to the flames. She too, continued to look into the flames, thinking back on the subject of the blue ward that hung around the little hamlet. The man, however, was thinking back to when the eviction papers had somehow found its way to his door, a month earlier, and how it ordered him, in the name of the great queen, to return for a 'meeting' to the great castles war room. At first he though they were going to arrest him on charges of past war crimes, but it hadn't made sense to him, because despite being a part of the previous purple coats, he had gone into hiding after his 23rd day on the job. Well, not before killing his 43 fellow purple coats. But they had just tried to chop down a child, so his murdering them was no big deal really.

And they kept making fun of his first name. He hated it, "Prosper go kill this" and "Prosper go beat up that", it was just plain mean. He was obviously no "Prosper", he was more "Hunter" or something. Which is what he changed his name to. Avo only knows what his mother was thinking when she gave him the name.

He remembers dragging himself to the castle, after much debate, he decided to go, on the promise that he'd kill anyone who tried to arrest him, or anyone who called him Prosper. And he had, to his great luck, hung a rather lanky fellow by the breaches whom had announced his arrival to the queen. Obviously, the fellow hadn't known about the name change, but that was ok, considering it gave him an on the spot job as a special agent (Prosper, I mean Hunter, the job as a special agent). He remembered how angry the queen had been, and how impatient. She had told him that a trial would be held to test his ability in strength, but that he'd already shown it to her. So he was lucky. But as soon as that happened, he was sent on a mission to Silverpines, along with the young lady, to 'waste some time whilst everything else was being sorted out', as the queen had put it, or to 'investigate the mutating balverines around the area and put a stop to it', as the formal letter had stated.

Either way, he was here in the warmth of a fire, with ail in his hands and not a care in the world. He didn't have to think, that was Nova's job, and after all that time spent in hiding, he was happy he didn't have to worry about the regents hunting him down anymore. He was a part of something again. Not only that, but he was glad to check out the balverine mutation. He hoped it would help him figure out a tiny piece of dog that lived inside of him, that he would finally understand and perhaps cure the reason he had to leave his mother all those years ago. He hoped that he could understand the curse. His little bubble burst when Nova suddenly made a very odd noise.

And all at once, Nova sat up straight, her face full of serious contempt.

"What's wrong?" He asked her. When she didn't answer, he said again, impatience and worry moving with his tone: "Nova! What's wrong with you woman?!"

Her face suddenly lit up, her eyes, brighter than before, she looked at him, smiled a great big smile, before saying rather loudly:

"The posts are magical!"

And that's when the balverines attacked.

(back at the castle)

The queen sat at her desk, a clean, lavishly decorated room of blue and gold, irritated to the bone. Her eyes, as almost every night whilst looking over important paperwork, were filled with a deep rage. She preserved herself, however, and continued to sign, read, sign, ignore, stamp, sign, ignore, flip, read, sign every page until all was done. Her head fell to the primly polished desk with a loud thud, and she breathed out a heavy sigh of relief at having signed all those papers by midnight.

Before moving onto the next pile of paperwork.

Realising this, she let out a loud hiss, and a little sob, before going on to read the next set of papers. These ones, however, contained something of a much more interesting subject: recruits. She went down the list, about fifty names.

Alexis jones, Chloe james, Bruce Binge, Peter Petty...the list went on, so she skimmed to the bottom. Now, she had two options: To personally seek out every name on this list, put them through a background checking process, before having them stripped and trained. Or she could sign more paper work regarding their previous crimes, have those whom are the worst executed, and have the rest of them make up the purple coats. But I wanted a tournament...she thought. Either way, it meant more paper work. She sighed, which was another routine she seemed to acquire since she became the queen, and started signing for the first option, but stopped when she saw whom had offered these two possibilities: the paper was stamped with Reavers signature. Flipping quickly through the pile of paperwork she had beneath the first, she realised that every one of them all had his signature, and concerning the same matter, with fancy words, and irrelevant places to sign. She stared at it blankly, before grinning.

"What a little...I'll just scrap that. And that...that one too " she finished, having cut the paperwork by more than half, adding: "Third option: Have Reaver build a new stadium, charge all whom enter 10 coins, and hold a tournament inviting those listed above to enter and prove their loyalty. Reaver will hold this tournament in my honour, pay for and arrange everything. Those whom win ranked matches will keep their lives regardless of crimes, and gain entry into my private army." She smiled at her work. "Also all money earned will be given to the orphanage"

'Like killing two birds with one stone' she thought. "Now who's going to be signing paper work" She sneered, moving on to the next lot of work.

"A head quarter for the purple coats...in mistpeak...interesting..." She read aloud. "I rather like that idea." She signed.

(Bowerstone industrial, sewers)

Page paced back and forth throughout the tiny space of her very own war room, the map of Albion laid out before her. It was daunting, waiting like this. After the last time she sent her men to Reavers, she found it hard to stop herself from becoming even more anxious with every passing minute she waited. But Reaver was gone, and completely irrelevant in this situation. It was Nova she was spying on, and to her great luck, had been sent to Silverpines to investigate 'mutated balverines'. Page smirked at herself for creating such an ingenious lie, admiring the memory of sneaking the letter into the queens paperwork. She was wearing the same as always, the worn clothes, the low cut top revealing just enough to distract a male enemy, or female, and hair tied the same way, with her trusty pistol at her side, and her bombs in her pocket, though both were unnecessary. Nothing was safer than her sewers: no person would dare go into them for fear of the alligators (another one of her ingenious tricks). The queen thought she knew where the underground base was since her last rebel meeting with page, little did she know that they had been moved since that fateful meeting. Page couldn't have the ruler know where her base was. It would ruin her, in case the queen decided to do something Page disagreed with, she would have to act, which wouldn't exactly impress the queen...

As these thoughts drifted through her mind, and Page paced back and forth, what she had been waiting for had finally arrived. Her newest emplyee, Shale, a small girl of 13, with cropped blond hair and a smile that was pure mischief, strode in with the copied letters that where only supposed to be for Novas eyes. Handing them to Page, the girl said with a little curtsy which irritated Page):

"Hope these are to your liking" before scampering out of the room, seeming to forget about her shilling she was promised. Page looked down at the notes in her hand: One was for rent payments, another for a book pick up, and the last was a letter from Reaver. It was hand written, and unlike the rest, did not seemed forged. It also look liked it had been crumpled, and judging from the stains upon it, had also been thrown in the garbage. It also smelled strongly of roses, and off pie. "What...?" Was all Page could say before reading the next few lines. She read to the middle, all the while a look of pure disgust and amusement plastered on her face, before re-crunching the letter up, walking to the edge of her base, and throwing it into a pool of shit.

I'm sorry this took so long to update, and this chapter is shorter...and it got kind of crappy at the end, but its extremely late right now, and I have a massive head thingy and stuff. So, with that said, please do leave feedback, and I'll update as soon as I can and edit. I'll definitely add more to this, and yeah. I already have the next chapter in mind, just need to write it up when I have the time. Sleep time, keep creation and stuff. Hope you enjoyed this chapter :)

And remember: The posts are magic.

Oh, wait, before I finish, I'm thinking of drawing up some concepts and posting them on my deviantart account. So if you're interested in seeing the main character, or any others, just leave a comment below and I'll post it next chapter ~ depending on how many are interested.