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Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“I really am sorry I did*’t tell you about Lucas. I just did*’* want to ruin a nice evening. I did*’t know you had such expectations…I should have realized.”
“It was my fault. It was foolish to expect so much. I guess I just got my hopes up…you are the first girl I’ve talked to, of those that I’ve considered marrying, I guess, who I could really see a future with. You know, my father does all the work; my mother does nothing but spend money and order her servants around. I’ve always had this dream that whomever I marry could maybe be a partner for me, not just a wife. But that’s putting too much pressure on you, to think about marriage when you just agreed to go to a gala with me, and that’s stupid. I apologize.”
“I hope that you’d still be willing to be my friend – it’s pathetic, but I don’t have many of those right now. I never meant to push you away. I thought if I mentioned Lucas, you wouldn’* want to be around me anymore. Which was clearly the right thought,” she added, remembering how he had run away from her in the garden yesterday, and tried to today.
“That’s not why I’ve been avoiding you.” James stopped, his head bowed, and let go her to run his fingers through his hair. Reluctantly, he continued, “Look, I can’t be mad at you for lying to me if I’m not completely honest with you myself.”
“What are you talking about?” Justine was wide awake now.
“It wasn’t completely chance that I’ve been seeing you around so much lately. I’ve been seeking you out. Gray – your father – he asked me to find you, to befriend you, to…well, he was hoping we would end up together.” As she opened her mouth to yell at him, he held up a hand to stop her.

07-Aug-2009 16:43:22

Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“He said nothing to me about Lucas. I gave him hell for that. I’m done with him. If I had known, I wouldn’t have agreed to do it. I wouldn’t dishonor someone promised to someone else, I swear to you. He said that you were lonely and that we would perfect together, and that you were very smart, and I would enjoy spending time with you. I did*’t know, I swear.”
“I can’t believe this!” she exclaimed. She never thought her hatred for her father could get any greater, but he kept surprising her on all accounts.
James grabbed her hands. “Look, I swear to you, I never meant to betray you like this. I did*’t know about Lucas.”
“This isn’t your fault. He played you – he played us both. This is the last time he gets away with it!” She wrenched away from him, intent on chasing down her father, wherever he was in the castle, pretending he was more important than everyone else, but James stopped her, holding onto her arm, pulling her back toward her house. “Let go of me!” she cried.
“Stop it,” he soothed. “You’re in no condition to go yell at him. What good will come of it? He’ll only mock you; he won’t take you seriously, we both know that. Just go home, Justine. Get some sleep. Eat something. He’ll still be around when you wake up, unfortunately. You can yell at him then, if it will make you feel better.”
She nodded. He was right, of course. *Ok. I’ll go,” she sighed, and shuffled away toward the gate to her house.
James waited until she was out of sight, then turned and walked briskly toward the castle. Gray was in a meeting with his father, but they would be done soon. Nobody said he couldn’t give Gray a piece of HIS mind. The man would learn to respect his daughter, by the Gods. If she wanted Lucas, she’d get Lucas. James would make sure Gray did*’t interfere again.

07-Aug-2009 16:45:24

Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
James strode angrily through the halls of the palace, trying to guess where Gray would be. He had a meeting with his father sometime in the midafternoon, but that had to be over now. Maybe he wasn’t even in the castle – he could be in his house, working, or down at one of his warehouses, organizing merchandise to be shipped out. James wasn’t sure exactly what he was going to say to Gray, anyway, only that when he remembered Justine’s face, red and puffy, streaked with tears, reading over and over Lucas’ notes in that book, he felt absurdly protective. He wanted to make her pain go away. It was obvious she was head over heels in love with Lucas, no one could change that, and she needed support right now. He had to make Gray understand that.
The castle itself seemed to be in an uproar, he realized suddenly. Servants rushed back and forth in the halls, and there was a stream of nobles and advisors past him down the hall. He ran the schedule of the day through his mind. Was there a meeting he had forgotten about? He grabbed a maid by the arm, and said, “Where’s Lord Val’Myren?”
“In the grand conference room, with his Majesty. You should hurry, my Lord.”
Hurry? Why? What was going on? James jogged down the hall and around the corner to the larger conference room, which his father used when he was addressing a large group of advisors; it was used usually for very important gatherings. He slipped through the door, seeking out Gray’s aquiline nose and striking eyes in the sea of faces.
“Where have you been?” his father’s voice boomed, from the end of the long table, where he presided over the meetings. He liked to sit at a table and put everyone on equal footing; he thought it made his nobles more open to speaking up, if they weren’t being reminded of his position by being forced to sit at the foot of a dais. James slid into his appointed seat next to his father. Gray was a few seats down, anxiously studying a pile of papers in front of him.

13-Aug-2009 22:53:14 - Last edited on 13-Aug-2009 22:53:55 by Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“I was out – in the gardens. What’s going on?” He finally noticed the man standing behind his father against the wall, dressed in a blue and brown uniform and drenched with sweat. He was perhaps in his twenties, with a days-old beard sparsely dotting his cheeks, mixed with dirt and blood.
“Who’s this?”
“A messenger, from Falador.”
“What’s happened?” James asked, his heart pounding in his ears.
“Give your report.” The King gestured to the messenger, who bowed deeply.
“Of course, my Lord. The Kandarins have broken the siege. The walls broke down. I was sent right after they broke through. There’s a gap in the north wall, and the invaders are pouring through it. We are vastly outnumbered and cannot hold them back on our own. We sent for help to the south, where the rest of the force was at the beach, when the walls started to crack, but it won’t be enough, even if they’ve reached the city by now.*
*What are the numbers?”
“We estimate them to be around fifteen thousand. We had four thousand helping stop the siege, in addition to Falador’s five thousand, which is the extent of their whole army. There were four thousand more at the beach, although they fought a bloody battle only a few days ago, and we don’t know what their casualties were.”
James nodded. “We have about three thousand reserves. I want them sent out in two hours. With luck, they’ll reach Falador by midday tomorrow, if they march fast. Outfit as many as possible with horses and send them ahead.”
“You can’t do that!” Gray shouted.
“Why not, Lord Val’Myren?” James asked coolly.
“You can*t send out the reserves – they’re for protecting the city!”
“And if the Kandarin force conquers Falador and marches on toward us, do you really think that little three thousand troops can stop their force?”
“You’re crazy, James!”

13-Aug-2009 22:54:51 - Last edited on 11-Oct-2009 18:43:00 by Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
James surged to his feet and slammed his hands down on the table, the anger he had suppressed in order to deal with the situation at hand now flooding back into him in a rush. “You will speak to me with respect, Lord Val’Myren! I am your Prince and I expect to be treated as such! Now, we joined this war to defend Asgarnia, not just ourselves. Falador is going to fall unless we do something about it. They are too small of a country to defend themselves and they need our help. Now, I want the reserve troops sent out. Your job, as one of our major suppliers, is to make sure that those troops are outfitted. Now, go down to the barracks, and do your job.”
“You’ll ruin us, boy, with your hotheadedness! You need to think about Varrock as well!”
“I’m thinking about everything, Gray, a skill you seem to lack.” He met the enraged man’s gaze head on, no longer intimidated by those eyes that seemed like ice. “Lucas is in that city somewhere. Now I know you don’t give a damn about him, but think about your daughter, and what will happen to her if he dies! Like it or not, she loves him, and you need to respect that choice. You have an obligation to protect him. Secondly, if they destroy Falador, they will come for us, and we won’t be able to defend ourselves. That’ll happen if we have the reserves, or if we don’t. So we need to put all strength into doing everything in our power to save Falador, because that’s the best chance we have of stopping the Kandarin onslaught, not to mention being the reason we are even in this war! You are dismissed, Lord Val’Myren, to go outfit the troops.”
Gray rose stiffly and exited the room. James sank back into his seat, suddenly exhausted. What else needed to be done to protect Falador? He needed to think fast.

13-Aug-2009 22:55:18

Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“I want a messenger sent immediately,” he announced, “to tell the generals there that help is on the way, and they just need to hold out a little longer. I want the royal family evacuated and brought here, where we can protect them. And I want engineers sent with the reserves. We need to patch up the hole as best we can, and close it off, so no more get through. Then we bring the fight to them. Everything we’ve got – catapults, trebuchet*, we get into the city, and start firing on their camp. I want the Kandarin siege engines burning by the time the troops get there.”
“Good work, son,” his father said, and he met his father’s eyes, which were brimming with pride. He smiled triumphantly, and settled himself down to plan the next move from here. He was successful thus far leading the army, and his father finally believed he could do it well. He would save Falador, and in doing so, save Lucas, and he’d be Justine’s hero. He’d be a hero to everyone.
The stars were falling down. At least, that’s how it looked to Lucas. Debris rained down from the sky, bathing the defenders rallied around the castle in a shower of sparks. It looked like the stars were cascading out of the sky, a beautiful waterfall of fire, and if Lucas held out a hand, he could catch one. If he wasn’t afraid of being burned, that was. The most beautiful things always seemed to hurt you.
Lucas slogged through this warped reality, fighting through his exhaustion, beyond the aching muscles and bleeding cuts on his skin. He’d reached a higher level; he was beyond weariness, he felt like he was flying, he was invincible. He was high on blood, on killing, on survival. If he’d lived this long, in the state he was in, how could anyone possibly kill him? He couldn’t be beat. The sword was no longer heavy, he was immune to pain, and he danced through the fiery rain, a hero defending the castle, slaying anyone in his path.

13-Aug-2009 22:55:57

Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Was this what power felt like – a drug pumping through his veins, better than the adrenaline rush he’d felt before, because it lasted forever? He hoped it would last; this was almost as good as being with Justine.
Jonah’* men had formed a line of defense around the castle. They stood on the grass before the moat, lined up on the drawbridge, to turn away the Kandarin defenders. They’d been there for hours, with replacements constantly reappearing with Travis as Jonah sent for them. Jonah himself stood at the head of the army, which was a motley of the Misthalin army, white knights, Falador mages, and foot soldiers from the Asgarnian army. They’d turned back the Kandarin army time and time again, thanks to Jonah’s leadership.
He directed them, he led them headfirst into battle, plunging ahead of all the rest to soak his sword with their blood. He seemed taller than everyone else, because no matter where Lucas looked, he could spot the man’s grey hair above the fray, shouting orders. He wondered once if the great soldier stood on a pile of the dead, the perfect vantage point. He seemed to rise and fall, as if he leapt in the air to meet a blow, then fell back to the ground, crashing into another Kandarin as he came down.
The entire place was chaos and confusion, but for the first time, it made sense to Lucas. He saw order in the mess, could look at a soldier running past and plot his path, see how all the tiny battles fit together like pieces in a puzzle. He moved among them as though they all fought in slow-motion, so that he could stop and watch and predict each blow before it came. He could see the gaps in the fighting and slip between them unnoticed, and know that he wouldn’t be touched. He could pick a target and reach him in seconds, and kill him without a second thought. It was like being drunk; for the entire scene wavered and swayed before his eyes, but somehow he felt steadier than every before.

13-Aug-2009 22:56:31

Crystal Smee

Crystal Smee

Posts: 7,994 Rune Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Now every detail seemed highlighted in bright light. He was acutely aware of each spiraling wisp of smoke rising off the ground where the grass caught fire and burning pitch smoldered, like meteors fallen from the sky. He could see the pattern of blood across a dead man’s face and spot the source in seconds, and would watch in fascination as it dripped, drop by drop, to run between the gaps in the cobblestones, corrupting the leaves of the weeds that grew there. In the dark of the night, the blood ran black, not the bright red he was used to.
He knew the rasp of sword against armor, the way it whispered quietly before it stole life away. He saw a dandelion in the grass where they fought get crushed underfoot, watched each petal curl and then become flat beneath the heel of the boot.
He watched, too, the people fleeing through the streets, the citizens of Falador that were tired of battle and wanted to escape; if only they knew how lucky they were to have the choice to run, Lucas thought sadly. They were massacred in the streets by Kandarins who grinned toothy, animal grins, and Lucas saw in detail the grimace on a man’s face, before the sword went through his stomach. His heart clenched for a little girl alone in the center of the street, clutching a blanket, her face scrunched up as she screamed for her mother. He noticed an eyelash on a girl’s face as she ran past and he squinted to follow it as it fluttered away from her face, drifting down to the earth beside her head.
Then he spotted a flash of dark brown hair, disappearing down a street away from him, and the way the curls lifted and bounced off her back as she ran disturbed Lucas. Startled, he broke free of the battle, dodging between the small engagements and out into the street, and followed her, running at full speed.

13-Aug-2009 22:57:14

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