Invasion <2>

They took a staircase that led to the armoury. No one uttered a single word on their way there. It was as if the silence grew with every step.

Rae looked like she was in her own thinking space. Perhaps she was silently grieving Heshraile. Rae didn't intend to show it, but she knew that Rae had troubles expressing her feelings but she cared for the two of them as if she was their own mother.

She glanced at Rae again, "We're almost there". Rae gave her a questioning look before continuing with a humourous tone, "I know, we

both work here silly". She blush bright pink. She only wanted to put an end to the akward silence. She was about to explain herself when Rae spoke, "The keys".

She threw a confused look and then as if remembering something, started to frantically search her pockets. They shouldn't have torn, she stitched them herself. Infact, she used a double stitch method. She slid her hand into the pocket again, going deeper this time. Her fingers met what seemed to be a hole. The stitches must've come lose somehow.

She checked her other pocket and the keys were still in there. Being Dame commander gave her access to certain things in the palace. She heaved a sigh of relief and handed the keys to Rae.

They entered immediately and started to gear up. She put down her old sword and grabbed a new one. Rae handed her a narrow dagger. She started to put her hair in a bun and use the dagger as a hair stick, effectively hiding it.

She put on her sallet and motioned towards the door. "I'm done", she told Rae. She turned around to see a fully armored Raeyelle.

"Done already?" she asked Rae. "What does it look like?" Rae asked, sarcastically. She ignored her tone and opened the door.

They tried their best to not make too much noise, despite the fact that they were now fully dressed, head to toe, in steel.

They weren't exactly designed for silence but regardless, they made their way to the throne room, all the same.

...

There was a hushed silence once again as the two cautiously made their way to where the usurper of the throne was.

Alexander Williams, Crown prince of Archenlandia, neighbouring kingdom to Avalonbya, their residing kingdom.

No one knew about him, or more specifically, his personality. He was wildly known by the people across Avalonbya and beyond. But there were no rumors about him.

No one could get anything good or bad to say about him. This was odd, obviously, considering the fact that people with a noble status would get a few rumors about them. True or not, they still existed. No one was scared of him, they hadn't even heard enough about him to take that initiative. The person the did have information about, was his father.

King Alvin Jeffrey, known for his strict laws and punishments that followed if one were to break one. He was known for his love for power and women. These weren't confirmed, of course, but no one could ignore a juicy rumor.

An underground organization, known for secretly calling out and exposing noble's treacherous behaviors revealed that the king allegedly had been seeing mistresses and blowing off the kingdom's money on them. This would have been somewhat fine, many kings have had or do have three or four concubines, the problem was his wife was suffering with a terminal illness that needed urgent treatment. She was taken to an outside kingdom for three months receiving treatment and he stayed back claiming that he had "Kingdom matters" to take care of. She was sent back on hospice before she would receive her final surgery and received the shock of her life when she saw her husband, in bed with the head maid.

Rumors say that she had caught him more than once. Everyone thought his son would be involved in even more scandalous activities but they couldn't find anything. Not good, and not bad.

"There's one at the door", Rae alerted her , abruptly stopping her thoughts.

 The was a guard at the door fully armored.

Our swords won't work. Rae raised a wooden stick with a rock with spikes hanging from a chain on it. A flail would be too loud. Not if we don't make it loud.

What do you mean? She was confused. You him him and I'll catch him and make sure his fall isn't too loud. She paused and thought out Rae's idea. Got any better ideas? She gave her a look that told her that her plan better work.

She picked the silver marble from a little pouch she kept hidden with her. She precautiously rolled the marble away from the door. The knight immediately noticed and looked at it as it began making it's way down the hallway.

He eventually followed it out of curiosity as it was just a few feet away and didn't notice when she snuck up behind him and hit him on the head with the flail. Rae stood behind him and help both his hands and slowly lowered him to the ground. She picked her marble and placed it back in it's place.

She gave Rae a meaningful glance and twisted the doorknob open.

Two stout men stood in the center of the throne room looking around. They were on full alert.

Rae signaled to her that she would take the one on the left and she nodded. They counted down and entered. They both killed them after a struggle but didn't notice when a third party snuck up behind Rae. He snatched her neck and she didn't have time to warn her.

Rae gasped for air as she was now being strangled. She attempted to help her when he warned her "Step forward -"

"Then what?" She stared into his eyes as if daring him to make a move. She held her sword in front of her, ready to attack when she heard someone from behind slowly approaching her. They were almost behind her. She side stepped and grabbed his hand and twisted it behind him. She had an upper hand now. She held her sword to his neck, threatening the one holding Rae. Her captive wasn't a knight obviously, but he looked important. 

"Jared!!! It's all useless, let's go!!", a voice bellowed from the other room. Following the voice, a well groomed man stepped out of the room.

The one who held Rae spoke "They snuck in your Highness. What does His Highness suggest we do with them?" He had already released his hold on Rae

She had a fair idea of who he was. She threw a worry look at Rae. She got a a reassuring look back from her. 

The prince walked up to Rae, scrutinized her, removed her helmet and placed it back. She watched painfully as he neared her. She hated him. She didn't trust him. He had blood on his hands and not even for a good reason.

He took of her visor first, then her helmet, just as he had done to Rae. She would've sliced him if she hadn't been held down by his men. He stared into her eyes. His warm honey brown eyes met her green ones. 

He smiled gently asked her, "What do they call you, if I may ask."

"Forgive me your Highness but it seems I am missing the glaring reason for this request. I am a mere dame. A prince like you has no concern worrying about such unimportant matters, no?" She had missed the looks of disgust she had from everyone in the room. Rae tried to signal to her to stop talking but it was too late.

The man Alexander had called Jared came up to her and delivered a stinging slap across the face. "Answer him. Unless you wish to find yourself in the palace dungeon." he said, threatening her.

"Leave her be" he got up and signaled to one of the men to bring them and they were knocked out.

(Before the Invasion )

Sounds of swords could be heard in the 

distance as the three were practicing.

"You've gotten slow", Raile said to her teasingly. She gave her a daring look and stepped to the side as Raile aimed her sword in front of her. She grabbed her arm, twisted it behind her back and kicked her sword out of her hands. "What were you saying?", she asked, teasingly.

She turned in a way that she would loose grip on her arm and she kicked the breastplate of Raile. She raced towards her sword. She blinked in shock. It was gone. She couldn't find it.

It was still quite dark but she could've sworn it was right on the ground. It was about five in the morning and the sun was slowly rising. She heard a voice that broke her line of thoughts "Looking for this?" It was Rae.

"Of course it was", she thought. She grabbed her dagger she always kept with her and fought with all she had.

She managed to kick her sword out of Rae's hands and fight back. The continued practicing until the sun had fully risen.

...

She and Raile sat in the stable and ate breakfast as Rae had been called into the council chamber to talk to the royal family.

"Goodness, I think I need a new set of lungs", said Raile as she heaved. "We only trained for two hours and you're panting like a donkey".

"Donkeys don't pant" , argued Raile. She just sighed with a smile, "Oh little Raile", she thought.

They both immediately shut up as soon as they heard something. " Oh no" They thought. It was the town bell. It was only rung for emergencies. One ring means a royal has died, two means there's a town meeting, three,

An invasion.

They waited patiently for the second ring, hoping that there wouldn't be a third ring but unfortunately, there was.

They both instinctively grabbed their weapon and then looked at her . Apart from being the oldest, she was pretty much the leader of the three. She was second in command in the army.

"Okay here's the plan", she said.

"We head to the Armoury and grab some weapons. I'm sure the knights would be able to hold off the enemy long enough. From there we head to the council chamber. I'm certain Rae will be able to defend them till we get there"

Raile only nodded.

..

The palace knights were in action quite quickly. They managed to hold them off long enough for them to get past the ballroom but as soon as they got to the doors she could easily tell that the enemy had used a secret entrance.

Only nobles and top knights new about it. "There was a mole!" this wasn't the time to think though. She needed to act fast. She nodded at Raile which meant she was going in. There were only twelve men in there. She could take them. They both entered and immediately started fighting with them.

Just then dozens of people entered and started to attack them. she knew this would be harder as they were only two of them but she wasn't backing out. They fought them off and gladly, reinforcement came.

She figured they would be able to take them when she spotted a tall man with blonde hair and surprisingly, he wasn't wearing any armour. "Did he have a death wish or was he just stupid?", she thought. "Not my problem" Just then their eyes locked and she saw him heading towards her. "No!" She needed to get to the Armoury. She couldn't afford to delay.

With no other choice she drew her sword and placed it in front of her.

Weird enough, he didn't have a sword.

"Stupid it is then", she thought to herself. This should be quick.

Saying that she lunged at him in an attempt to pierce his heart but he moved so quickly it was as if he glitched.

"What in the?" she was beyond puzzled.

Just then she felt a crushing pain on her back and she fell to the ground and blacked out.