The door's shell peeled open, revealing the young female named Anabel. She had her hood down, her long, soft brown hair laid still on top of her shoulders. The black robed woman walked into to the room, her black irises gazing at the back of Fionnlagh. "Sir Fionnlagh," she named, closing the door into the room behind her. She held up the letter that was in her left hand. "I killed a messenger that was carrying this letter."
Fionnlagh turned his attention onto the young female. "You killed a messenger?" he questioned, his voice almost sounded displeased. "You didn't leave the body, right?"
Anabel shook her head. "I ordered the others to retrieve it, sir," Anabel stated.
Fionnlagh shook his head. "All right," he confirmed to himself, he then extended his right hand out towards the young ex-assassin. "May I can a look at this message?"
"O-of course, sir," she answered, walking over to the man. She extended her left hand out in front of him, the letter touched the tips of Fionnlagh's fingers. He then pinched the paper with his fingers, pulling it from her grip. He held the letter with both of his hands in front of him, his light blue glowing irises gazed upon the seal placed upon the letter that reflected off of his eyes.
He does notice that the seal is green and had the head of a wolf etched into it. He lightly shook his head at the discovery. "Yes," Fionnlagh mumbled. "This is the seal of Ormemel but to be more specific, this is the seal that only the Earl of Asgarnia uses. This is indeed something important."
Fionnlagh then began to peel off the seal from the paper, revealing the contents of the message. His vision scrolled across the words written in black ink. "It's strange," thought Fionnlagh to himself. "These words...they are not encrypted. Why?"
The message spoke to him about a proposal, a plan to invade Lumbridge. It involved the Ormemelian Army and the Imperial Army gathering together to launch an attack upon the Lumbridge Resistance. The white warrior's eyebrows rose, his interest taken with relief that Anabel intercepted this message before it could fall into the lap of the king.
A half of a minute passed quickly, Fionnlagh closed his eyes. He then began folding the paper back into it's original place before he opened it. "Well, Anabel," called Fionnlagh, turning his head towards her. His eyes opened up and peered upon the black robed woman. "It was good that you took this letter from that messenger."
A soft smile lit up like a candle flame on her face, it glowed with luminescence. "Thank goodness," she thanked quietly with relief pouring out of her voice like a torrential rainfall. But a more serious question came to her mind. "But why, sir? Why was it such a good thing?"
"This is a proposal by the Earl of Asgarnia," he calmly explained. "His proposal was that his army and the Imperial Army join forces for one single attack upon Lumbridge."
"An attack on Lumbridge?" she muttered, such a thought almost too much for her mind to bear on it's own. "If they together have an army with the ability to actually attack Lumbridge then this could mean trouble for the resistance..."
Fionnlagh stood up from his chair. "I concur," he corresponded. "We need to get this information out to Master Raphael as quickly as we possibly can. Anabel, can I trust you in the successful delivery of this message?"
Anabel leaned her upper body forward, bowing to her superior. "Absolutely, sir," she humbly accepted. "I will get to him as quickly as I can."
Fionnlagh shook his head. "No," he said. "Take this letter that I have written to Elena Ortrun. However, bring the message that you've recovered to Raphael. He must know of Ormemel's plans."
The young ex-assassin's upper body fell forward, bowing to Fionnlagh as a show of respect. "With haste, sir," she responded, acknowledging her orders. Once she gripped the understanding of her orders, her body is pulled back up straight. It then began to glow purple, flashing with whites and dark blues. A giant purple orb of energy then surrounded the young woman and swallowed her whole.
The orb quickly struck, growing smaller and smaller with each passing second. With the course of five seconds, the orb had completely disappeared from sight. Anabel as well. She had dissipated and made a reappearance at Lumbridge. At the first glance, she appeared as small as a baseball and floated in mid air but her body quickly expanded.
Her body returned to it's regular size just three seconds later. She was in front of the visage of the castle, in front of towering frozen waves of stone and wood. The knights that saw the young woman appear suddenly became startled as if their heartbeat skipped thousands of beats. But then their eyes peered down upon the sheets of folded paper she carried in her left hand, they knew she was a messenger of some kind.
Inside the castle and into the entrance room, almost all of the Lumbridge Resistance celebrated the recruitment of Shinon and Maria Isaiah with food and drink. Many of the knights were lighthearted upon this fine as wine night, a cheerful and gleeful chatter buzzed around the air like an annoying fly. Maria and Raphael stood at the western side of the room, they were in front of each other two feet apart.
Maria didn't seem too happy, a serious and saddened look controlled the expression of her face. "So, that is what has happened..." she learned. "I had heard terrible things but nothing like this. This must have really affected you, Raphael."
Raphael closed his eyes. "Master Malik was more than just a teacher to me," he mumbled. "He was like my father. More so than my actual father. When my father wasn't off battling for them, he was too busy hoping that my mother would come back."
"Well," Maria responded. "I'm sure your father was thinking of you the whole time."
Raphael shook his head. "I doubt it," the young leader replied. "Why would he? If he never spent any time with me when he was home, why would he think of me while he's gone?"
The young woman closed her eyes. "I'm sorry, Raphael," she apologized.
Raphael chuckled lightly. "Haha," Raphael laughed. "No, don't apologize. I'm just ranting about petty things. So, don't mind me."
She opened her eyes and turned to the young leader. A question hung for dear life on the tip of her tongue. "Did you ever know your mother, sir," she quickly questioned. "I mean, if you don't mind me asking."
Raphael raised his eyebrow. "Why do you need to know?" he asked.
Maria turned her head away from him, her face now pointed to the floor and to the left. "It's sort of something I need to know," she mumbled. "Forget it if you don't wish to ans-..."
Raphael closed his eyes. "I never knew my mother," he answered. "Apparently after I was born, she freaked out and ran off somewhere. That's all my father ever told me."
Maria's eyes shot open and she quickly turned her head over to the young man. "Oh..." she softly spoke. "I'm sorry for asking, Master Raphael."
Raphael pulled his left hand up, it was just a foot from his chest. He held it up as if he were telling someone to stop. "Please, just call me Raphael," the young leader stated. "And you needn't apologize, Maria. You were only curious."
"The thing is, sir," she continued. "I never knew my mother as well. She was killed before I was old enough to understand what exactly all of this anarchy was for. I never really knew my father either, he was usually too busy at a tavern getting drunk to even care about us."
Raphael's gaze spun to his right, his purple stare took a stab upon the violet red haired archer named Shinon. He was at the eastern side of the room, speaking with Elena. "So, that's why you two oppose the Imperial Kingdom," he muttered. Maria shook her head, confirming what Raphael had spoken. He then turned back to the young woman with a smile on his face. "Come on, enough of this kind of talk. We're celebrating, right? We shouldn't be frowning, we should be full of glee that we got a pair of the best around. And with the addition of you two at our side, we'll win this war, right?"
Maria looked up at Raphael, a smile shattered the glass that reflected a facial expression of sadness onto her face. Her eyes and face glowed like a candle stick lit with a radiant flame. To the southern part of the room and by the door into the castle, Uriel and Telvern were beside each other. Uriel stood up on his feet, his arms were crossed and his eyes were a piercing glare. They angrily shuffled between Shinon and Maria.
Telvern was sitting down on the ground, his legs were criss-crossed like a knot. Laying on his lap was an opened book that was full of all kinds of symbols and ancient texts. His gentle brown irises gazed upon each symbol and scaled across each mountain of words as he ventured on through the book. Uriel couldn't enjoy anything at this time, his heart was too flooded with distrust.
Without even looking, Telvern could sense the skepticism and anger in the young boy. "You do not like them, Uriel?" curiously asked the young genius.
The young boy's stern face does not even turn to Telvern, he keeps his eyes on the focus. "I don't trust them," Uriel stated.
Telvern smiled lightly. "You say that about everyone," Telvern stated. "You did not like or trust Raphael when he first came here and look at him now."
"I still don't trust him," he replied. "But these ones are different. I don't know but something's telling me that something's wrong about them."
"I can understand," he replied, relating to the boy's feelings. His eyes continued to flip from symbol to symbol. "I feel that I cannot trust them as well."
The door leading to the outside began to slowly crack open, revealing a black cloak and a young woman in it. Her eyes shuffled from the left and right, looking for her leader. Her vision then captured the image of him standing there with a smile on his face. She then pushed the door open quickly, a cool breeze flowed into the building as she entered.
Most people just ignored the noise and just carried on with their night of happiness and good times. Uriel turned his angry turquoise irises over to the back of the black cloak. He then realizes that it's Anabel that just entered the castle. "What's she doing here?" he wondered to himself.
She was walking closer and closer to him, she gazed upon her leader's back. His ears then catch the faint footsteps coming towards him, he twirled his body around to face the woman. His purple irises gazed upon Anabel, he seemed happy to see her. "Good evening, Anabel," he said, naming the young ex-assassin. "How have you been?"
Anabel shook her head, she took into account the events that had been laid out behind her. She realized that all things have actually turned out for the better. "I've been good, my lord," she replied, answering him. "And you?"
"I've been quite good myself, thank you for asking," Raphael answered back and then thanked. "What can I do for you?"
She held up the message that she had recovered from the man, revealing this to her leader. "I had been tracking a messenger for the past two days," she explained. "And he was carrying this message that I took from him. And it's content is certainly startling."
Raphael's eyebrow rose up like rockets, he seemed both interested and curious. "Is that so?" he replied, extending his right hand out in front of him. "May I?"
Anabel shook her head, reaching the paper out to Raphael. She gently placed the folded paper in the palm of Raphael's hand. The young leader's eyes gazed upon the face of the letter, gazing upon it's seal. Once he began examining the letter, Anabel began walking over to Elena. Over his shoulder, Maria gazed at the paper as well. The seal was incredibly familiar to her. "That's the earl's seal," she stated without the chains of doubt. "Earl Maurine Lino must have sent this message."
Raphael shook his head. "Indeed," he concurred. Raphael peeled the seal off of the paper so that the message may be laid out in front of him. The seal popped off, the hidden message is revealed before the eager eyes of Raphael. His purple irises scrolled across the paper carefully, reading each word and making sure he's reading it correctly.
As he read on, his eyebrows rose up. But then his face seemed to become troubled, he acknowledged the possibilities that can happen with the reveal of the plans of the earl. "Ormemel, huh," he mumbled, thinking himself through. "It looks like we'll have to take action against them."
"A surprise attack would certainly be efficient," believed the familiar voice that came from behind the young leader.
Raphael quickly flipped his body around to face the voice. He then realized that it was the young genius, Telvern that was behind him. He seemed startled by his sudden appearance as he once thought that only Maria was behind him. "W-when did you get back there!?" he shockingly questioned.
Telvern had his book in his left hand, he read as he spoke to the young leader. "What are you talking about? I was here the whole time," he growled. His glasses were slightly down so his vision was partly blurry. He quickly pulled his right hand up to his face. He then used his right middle finger to put his glass back in their place. "Since their army clearly outnumbers ours, they will need to play a sneaking game. We need to kill the earl before the start of the attack. With it, we will crush the enemy's morale and thus reclaim the city as Falador."
Raphael shook his head. "Yes, I agree," corresponded Raphael, shaking off his confusion and shock from the sudden appearance of the young genius. "Perhaps the use of an archer?"
"If I recall the structure of the castle correctly," said Telvern, thinking quickly of the mental pictures of the castle that his eyes captured. "The castle has archer towers on each side. We'll need to claim at least one of them without detection if we are to get a shot at killing Maurine."
"Yes," he once again agreed. "Which means we'll need Elena and Shinon to take him out."
"I am sure that won't be a problem," the young genius thought. "Afterall, we do have the greatest archer of the modern day era by our side."
"Getting to the castle isn't a problem, considering that the courtyard is viewable to the public," said Raphael. "Getting IN might be."
Telvern shook his head, disagreeing with his leader. "No," he differed. "Not when you're dealing with arrogance."
"Or when some of your enemies are actually your allies," Maria also stated.
"Then it's settled," said Raphael, raising his right hand up to about the height of his chest. He then clenched his hand into a tightly knitted fist. "Tomorrow, we leave for Ormemel." The night was left just like that, the celebration of the recruiting of Shinon and Maria was a fantastic one. But the men and women of the Lumbridge Resistance sleep and get ready for what tomorrow has in store for them.
It was deep within the late night hour, around 2am in the morning. With everyone sleeping the night away in preparation for tomorrow, only one was still awake. Inside his room who he shared with his sister, Maria was long gone on her odyssey to the land of Nod. But her brother was not the same. He was sitting beside a desk, a quill that was tipped with black ink gripped in his hand.
He was not wearing his emerald green jacket, revealing his white long sleeved shirt. His cape was also removed, revealing the steel arrow head that was tied around his neck with a small silver chain necklace. In front of him was a paper that had words written on it. He seemed reluctant to write down anymore. Just beside him was a messenger waiting for him to finish his words.
He then built up the boat of courage to sail through the ocean of his troubles. He then began to write more down upon the paper, erasing the scars of his worries and troubles and replacing them with a fearless and unapologetic nature. After a minute, he then carelessly tossed his quill back into the ink bottle.
He then folded the paper in half and then folded it into a small square. He then handed the paper to the messenger who quickly took it from the young archer. Once the paper was all his, the youthful messenger's body began to glow purple. He quickly disappeared in a giant purple flash, he teleported away from the presence of the young skillful archer.
He was left restless after this event, his mind set was not too happy. Something had taken over him that had left him somewhat morose. He couldn't even think about sleeping at this time, a taste of regret was patted down onto his tongue. It was bitter and distasteful, giving him a horrible state of mind. He sat there on his own, alone and possibly afraid.
The sun rises from the tenebrous grasp upon this Autumn morning, the sky bursts into a flare of purples and oranges. But to the west, the clouds gathered. The day after this shall be a day of hurricane-like rain, a tsunami of water just pouring down on the heads of each individual outside upon that day.
But for today, the sunlight shined gorgeous down upon the faces of each living creature. The sun's kind and tender smile surrounded each person with a warm embrace as if the sun was a human being in front of them actually hugging them. The city once hailed as the City of the White Knights, Falador, was the place that an inevitable battle was going to be waged.
The city is surrounded by adamas walls, beautiful majorelle blue crystal walls that are as strong as multiple diamonds put into one. The city was buzzing with nobility who were living out their daily lives or paying their respects to the Hero King, Dias Barn. All around the castle were knights ready to die for the race that loathes them.
On the third floor of the castle, there was a room where two men of power stood. In this long room, the walls were an army of white stone-brinks. There hung many forest green banners with the head of a wolf on them that was inked in black. Ranging from the size of average airplane and the width of half of a school bus, the double door into this room were tall and wooden and trimmed with gold.
The floor was made of the very same stone brinks as the walls. From the door all the end to the end of the room was a long, majorelle blue silk carpet that repeatedly had the symbol of the lion on it. The edges of the carpet were trimmed with gold. There was a large window at the wall that was at the end of the carpet.
