William Winthrope
All Hell broke loose immediately. The man’s hand had been cut clean off, leaving a bloody stump of an arm left over.
With a wet plop, his limp hand hit the stone, streaks of blood quickly covered the hand, coloring it red despite the man’s best efforts to stem the blood pouring out.
William knew that the pokeGirls would still be bound to the rings, but now that they had been physically separated from the man he could no longer directly command them.
The Lava Hawk circling in the night sky let out a pained screech, feeling their bond fray. It quickly dove downwards, trying to reach her master to help defend himself in his wounded state.
The demon, Marie as the man had called her, on the other hand seemed to have a slightly different approach. Forced to fully materialize, she rushed forward intending to end William quickly for the grave sin of injuring her master.
William didn’t wait around to see what she had in store for him, giving the man one last look, who was now clutching his cleaved hand, trying to rip the rings off the cold fingers and regain some control of the chaos that was unfolding. William turned and ran, praying his hunch would pay off.
Passing through the yellow glow of the light once more on his way to the opening of the alleyway, he could hear his pursuer closing the distance between them fast.
Leaving the circle of light, William heard a scream of pain echo through the corridor, confirming William’s hunch. Throwing a quick glance over his shoulder, he could see the demon standing on the other side of the pool of light, not daring to enter it again. Steam rose from her body. The light had burned the demon's body, not allowing her to pass through. She had been able to return to her master’s side during the fight through the use of her Binding Ring, quickly transporting into the ring and forcing her body back out in time to deflect his attack.
Now though, with her master injured and unable to chase after him himself, the demon was trapped by the barrier of light. Luckily the bird hadn’t chased him, or he might have had a more difficult escape.
Summoning his Shadow Cloak once more, William dashed in and out of streets, weaving his way back towards the inn to meet the rest of the group. Hopefully they had more concrete leads than he did. At least less deadly ones.
Finally reaching the Proud Pony Inn, out of breath but luckily uninjured, he pushed open the door to a ruckus scene.
Tables were scattered randomly around the small room, all filled with people in varying states of drunkenness. A rowdy group of men in one of the corners were tossing daggers at a bored looking man with his back to the wall, dodging at the last second as they embedded into the wall where he once stood.
A different group, five or six of them in total, sat hunched around a small circular table, gambling on some sort of card game, sipping a fancy ale. They were doing their best to ignore the hooligans surrounding them, putting up a posh front.
And of course, Jameson had planted himself at the bar, several empty glasses scattered around him, indicating his already wasted state. Scanning the bar once more, Jameson was all William could see of his party.
Sighing to himself, William made his way through the crowd of bodies to try and get whatever information he could out of his drunken companion.
Kate Fenin
Kate had no idea where she was. Luckily Jenna, the young woman she had managed to save, did. Trusting that she knew the streets better than her, Kate followed Jenna as she guided her through the many offshoots that existed in the city.
They hadn’t walked for long before they reached a big archway carved into the inner wall of the city that they had been following. A shiny steel gate barred the entrance, standing out brilliantly in contrast to the black stone the walls were made of. Two Guards stood on the outside of the gate, eyeing the quiet streets with suspicion, and Kate thought she could spot two more just inside the gate.
“Uh Jenna,” Kate began hesitantly. “Why exactly are we here? This is the gate to the Royal Chambers…”
“Oh, uh... you didn’t recognize me?” Jenna replied quietly, now over her nervous stutter but still timid.
“No, should I have?” Kate inquired, taking another look at her. She had a cute face, definitely some East Asian lineage mixed with some sort of European ancestor, and the glasses sat nicely on her button nose really completing her shy look. Her bangs outlined her face nicely, and now that she was up close, she could see her brown eyes watching her in anticipation, wanting Kate to guess who she was.
After an uncomfortably long time of Kate staring at her, her gaze finally broke Jenna.
“My name is Jacqueline al’Mira, but I like to go by Jenna. Sounds much less pretentious.” She said as if that cleared everything up.
“And that means…?” Kate said not quite connecting the dots. “Oh wait! al’Mira… where have I heard that name?”
Jenna sighed, “Probably from my mom, Queen al’Mira,” connecting the dots for Kate. “Which makes me the First Princess of Nollemburg.”
Despite her declaration, Jenna seemed chagrined as she spoke, not nearly as proud of such a title as she should be.
“You saved me without knowing who I am? Why would you do that?” Jenna said, now the one confused. Most of the common folk bent over backwards trying to offer her some form of help, trying to take advantage of her in the hopes that the Queen might grant them some sort of boon. But the fact that Kate had done so with no expectation was a foreign concept to her.
Kate shrugged, “Looked like you needed help. Now, Princess,” Kate said with a sprinkle of sarcasm upon realizing her real identity, “You can get us in there then?”
Jenna rolled her eyes at Kate’s obvious question, and stepped from the darkness they were residing in into view of the guards. As for Kate herself, she was doing all she could to contain her shock. What good luck! Running into a royal on the streets, not to mention saving her from a dire situation. Surely she could offer some sort of assistance in finding her Mother.
Kate hurried to follow Jenna, who only needed to show her face to the guards before they hurried to signal to those inside the gate to start opening it. The two young women entered the inner walls without a problem, stepping into a picturesque garden.
There was a small boardwalk directly in front of them, bisecting two small ponds. Each had lily pads scattered across the top of the water, adding to the greenery in the nighttime landscape. Tall trees lined the edge of each pond, masking what lay beyond them and left the boardwalk as the only option forward.
They quickly passed through the garden, and reached the building that must have been the royal castle. It wasn’t impressive by any means. It was a circular building with a small tower extending from the center of it, reaching perhaps 10 feet up into the air. Three long, straight shoot-offs were connected to the building, extending North, East, and Westward directions.
Entering the building, they encountered what was a short woman, pacing back and forth, just barely taller than Jenna, wearing a black dress that held her curves nicely. Her face was the spitting image of Jenna’s, with similar long black hair, styled differently with a middle part that separated her long locks as they flowed down. It was Jenna’s mother, the Queen of Nollemburg.
As soon as the two stepped inside, the woman rushed over to them, anger stitched across her face.
“Where have you been, young lady! It’s been dark for hours now, the guards have been scouring the city all night!” She paused, just realizing that Kate was there, standing with her daughter.
“And who might you be?” She asked, anger turning to suspicion.
“I’m Kate Fenin madam. It is an honor to meet you,” Kate said as politely as she could muster, giving the queen a slight bow.
“She helped me out of uh… out of a slight problem,” Jenna jumped in to her defense, trying to ease her mother’s mind.
“Uh huh, I’m sure just a slight problem,” The Queen responded, not fooled at all with her daughter's lie. “And where is Johnathan. Shouldn’t your guard be around to help you with your ‘slight problems’?”
“He slipped away while I was in the library. I’m not quite sure where he disappeared to but he never came back,” Jenna said, no qualms about selling out her MIA bodyguard.
The Queen sighed, “It’s late, I’ll hear the rest of the story in the morning. The important thing is that you are okay.” She pointed her daughter towards the Northern wing of the building where her bedroom must have been, shooing her off.
Looking sullen, Jenna walked off with a slight wave to Kate and disappeared into the dark.
The Queen crossed her arms, putting her large assets on display as the rest on her arms, her face contorting into a look of exasperation. “I suppose you want some reward for your efforts.”
“If-” Kate began to speak, but the Queen cut her off, raising one of her hands.
“I will hear out your demands in the morning, I can promise you that. It is much too late to be granting wishes, as it is also long past the time when I should be sleeping. Dorin!” She called out, and a tall man fitted with an astounding black suit, and a small mustache resting on his upper lip appeared behind her.
“Yes, my Queen?” Dorin said, offering a quick bow.
“Show Kate her to one of the guest bedrooms. Preferably one of the nicer ones, it seems she earned it today,” She commanded.
“It will be done,” he bowed once more as the Queen saw herself out. Dorin turned to Kate, “If you’ll follow me."
