Kate Fenin 

Her eyes were beautiful. Kate couldn’t bring herself to look away from the small creature’s eyes and found herself lost in her intoxicating pupils. Red to orange to blue to green, and every color in between, her eyes rapidly shifted color like a kaleidoscope. 

She tried to move towards the pokeGirl, but her body refused to listen. She was rooted in place, almost frozen in time, trapped in the pokeGirl’s eyes. A small voice screamed out in her head, warning her that something was very wrong. She was faintly aware that Jenna was being restrained by two women beside her, but couldn’t seem to hear their scuffle.

All she could do was stare blankly into her dazzling eyes. 

——-

William Winthrope

His companions were utterly useless. Neither Kate nor Eli had not returned to the inn during the night. While he was confident that Kate was at least looking for her mom, it did nothing to ease his worries as that most likely meant something terrible had occurred while he was away. As for Eli, he had less faith that he was up to anything useful. He probably just wandered the streets aimlessly and got lost, the fucking idiot. 

The one person, or two people he supposed with Perilla always glued to his hip, who had managed to return to the inn, miraculously did come across some useful information. Jameson had spent his time drinking at the bar after doing a short lap around the outskirts of the city. Somehow he managed to befriend some local merchant, a man who had spent his life crossing through Nollemburg to trade between Kingdoms. From him, they had learned that the strange group called themselves the Order of the White Rose. Apparently the small group had shown up around ten years ago, wishing an audience with the Queen. Ever since then they ingrained themselves into the city and no one quite knew what they did. Certainly they acted as a second policing force when needed and helped clear the surrounding area of dangerous pokeGirls, but their dealings with Queen al’Mira was never revealed.

‘What are they doing here? Maybe they were some sort of slave traders and made a base here in Nollemburg?’ William sighed. He had been exploring the city alone, trying to find any sign of where Kate had disappeared to. Jameson had decided to spend his morning with Perilla, tangled in bed. PokeGirls needed to be consistently tethered to their Holder to maintain their bond, and the easiest way to do so was through the bedroom.

In the end he decided to follow a purple member, who, like his comrades, seemed to spend his day wandering uselessly. As the sun hung high in the sky of midday, the man received some sort of signal and rushed off towards the Royal Chambers. Unable to follow, William was now posted up on a rooftop, observing two nervous guards standing outside a grand gate.

For several hours William sat vigilant on his spot, roasting in the heat on top of the black roofed building watching both guards and members of the White Rose scurry in and out of the Royal grounds. He had decided it was a hopeless venture to attempt to sneak in to see what the cause of such a disturbance was, and instead chose to maintain his reconnaissance from his hidden spot.

Finally, once the sky was painted in oranges and reds of dusk, a large procession of men came through the gates. It was a mass exodus of White Rose members, headed by a man in a color he hadn’t seen before: Red. He scanned the surroundings, as if feeling William’s eyes on him, and paused, gazing in his direction.

He quickly ducked his head behind a stout brick chimney that matched the color of the dark roof. His heart jumped to his throat, drumming loudly in his ears. He waited a long minute before he heard the gate squeak close before daring to peek over the edge of the roof again. 

Thankfully the man had turned to the rest of his group, directing them down a side alleyway out the view of the busy streets. Most of them were black or purple members, with a few gold members trailing in the back, one of which was the man he fought with the night before. Directly in the center of their pack was a handful of members colored in a range of blues who, strangely, did not seem to have any Rings of Binding that he could see. Instead they carried large black bags, what was inside he could not tell.There were a few Queen’s guards scattered throughout the group, but not nearly as many as the members of the White Rose.

The group slowly trickled out the sight, leaving no trace of their presence besides the now confused looking guards that had stayed behind to watch the gate.

William didn’t move from his hiding spot until the sun had finally sunk behind the wall, and the long shadows of night came out. Throwing the Shadow Cloak around his shoulders, he stood and surveyed the landscape.

The black walls were much too high and much too smooth, making it virtually impossible to climb over. That left the gate as his only viable option inside. The shiny bars of the gate didn’t quite reach the top of the awkwardly shaped arch carved out of the wall, leaving a small gap he may be able to slip through.

He nodded to himself grimly, and hopped down from his perch as silently as he could. ‘The others better have found Layla’ he grumbled. He didn’t particularly want to go into the Royal Grounds, but he needed to find out what the commotion was. He doubted it had anything to do with Layla herself, but the organization that took her was certainly up to something with the Queen.

William snuck towards the gate, passing from shadow to shadow to keep himself shrouded in the dark. His cloak should give him enough of an advantage to slip past the guards, as long as they weren’t too perceptive. Nearing the gate, he could tell that the sentries posted outside were still slightly dazed, caught up in the chaos of whatever had happened today. All it took was a slight distraction, the loud clanging of metal hitting the pavement as he threw a dagger into the dark alleyway opposite of him, to distract them.

Both of the guards whipped their heads in that direction and glanced at each other nervously. Neither one of them wanted to check it out and leave their post to enter the unknown of what may lay out of sight.

“Who’s there?” One called, putting on a false bravado to mask his nerves. In that brief window in which they were both distracted with their backs to him, William silently dashed forward, and struck the two guards in the back of their heads. He had to move quickly in order to catch one in each hand to prevent the loud bashing sound that would’ve rung out as their armored bodies hit the ground. 

He slowly dragged them to the line of bushes and trees that ran alongside the wall of the Royal Grounds, and dumped their unconscious bodies into a grove of bushes where they wouldn't be found. Hopefully. 

He rushed back to the gate and began to shimmy his way up. It was a relatively easy climb up with plenty of hand and footholds in the criss-crossing design of the bars that made up the gate. If a guard, or some passing civilian for that matter, were to look up at the gate they would have spotted his dark outline, obscuring the glimmering bars from view. It was a long climb to the top, and he managed to slip through the irregular gap at the top, and made his way back down. He hopped off to clear the last few feet, landing softly and swept his head around.

He now stood in a scenic garden, with two small ponds directly in front of him. Fortunately for him, it was deserted, not a soul in sight. ‘Odd. How did they plan to open the gate if they didn’t have anyone to man the pulley?’

William proceeded carefully, sticking to the sprawling shadows the trees cast over small clearing. He crossed over the ponds, giving him a view of the Royal Chambers themselves. A single guard manned the door. After a minute of observing the man, William realized he had not moved an inch, not even a twitch. He crept closer, trying to see what was wrong with the man. As far as William could tell, he was alive, spotting the slight movement of his chest when he breathed. 

Before he could move any closer to examine him, the ground shook, and a deep rumbling emitted from below his feet. He glanced around in confusion: A trap? An earthquake? What was going on?

Neither the shaking nor the rumbling stopped, in fact it only seemed to grow louder. An ear-splitting crash exploded out, and trees began to fall, their roots not strong enough to fight off the shaking. William glanced around frantically, and finally noticed it.

A wall made of brown earth began to rise out of the ground, encompassing the entirety of the Royal Chambers, stopping just short of the existing wall surrounding the perimeter. It rose and rose into the sky, blotting out the moon until it connected with the other rising sides of the earthen walls, closing in on itself with a loud thud creating a domed structure.