Before the Invasion

Duvainion, the young Elven prince, who looks to be somewhere around the age of 6 or 7, just plays by himself, within the palace gardens. And though it wasn't entirely clear why, he was rarely ever allowed to actually meet any other children around his age, the main exception being at formal events, being the only royal heir and all. Duvainions long golden hair tied back, so that it doesn't bother him, he just seems to be trying to play with his magic. Though he's not very skilled at controlling it yet, he does seem to possess some real raw talent, and does manage to create a few sparks of pure magic, looking delighted as he does so, though the sparks soon disappear almost as soon as they had appeared. Duvainion tries again, but this time, to no avail, and he just seems mildly disappointed, before just perking up again, and trying once more. A woman, who seems to be some sort of attendant, watching after him. She wears her long dark hair in a tight and neat braid, and a simple dress; though she seems fairly vigilant about their surroundings, despite being within the palace walls, as if it were basically second nature for her to do so.

Soon enough, though, a soldier comes up to the assumed attendant. "Ma'am, the walls of the city have been breached."

"What? That's impossible. By whom?"

"It's a large army of Orcs. Larger then any that they've sent in the past." The soldier replies, as he appears rather distressed.

"I need to go help."

"No, lady Caleldes, you have been ordered to take the prince, and leave the city."

"What? But they haven't even gotten into the palace yet, have they? I can help, I'm the head royal bodyguard for a reason." Caleldes just seems annoyed now, wanting to get into the fray of the fighting.

"I understand how you feel, but just as you're to protect the king and queen, the prince also needs you. And the queen has ordered me to tell you that your orders are to get the young prince out of here, now, before they inevitably get to the palace. We're trying our best against them, but there's just too many of them..."

Caleldes just sighs a bit. "I knew it was suspicious that there hasn't been any activity from those bastards for a few years. But everyone just called me paranoid. They were gathering reinforcements."

"It seems so. But please, hurry and gather what you two will need, then leave as soon as possible. If nothing else, then the young prince must survive. He is the only hope for the future of our kingdom."

"Of course." She then turns to look back at Duvainion as the soldier now leaves. "Duvainion, come please, your highness, we need to leave."

He looks up at Caleldes as he heads over, and asks curiously. "Where are we going?"

"We need to leave the city for a while, but we'll return, sometime."

"Okay." He doesn't even bother to question it, as he seems to put more trust into Caleldes then even his actual parents. The king had always been rather cold and distant towards Duvainion, though no one really knew why. No one except for the queen, of course, but she never told a soul, she only ever redirected the conversation if the topic ever came up. His mother would rather try to please her husband, and ease his occasional anger towards Duvainion, then pay any real attention towards her actual son. So in turn, young Duvainion was practically raised by his bodyguards and maids, Caleldes most often, and had come to trust her the most out of anyone.

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After having packed a couple bags, a small one for Duvainion and a larger one for herself, she just heads down a seemingly empty hallway, holding Duvainions hand all the while. They soon stop at what seem to be a dead end, though Caleldes now starts to feel about on the wall, soon finding a button disguised as a part of the wall itself, she pushes it and a large door sized portion of the wall slides away to reveal a secret passage, one that not many actually know of. She enters the passageway, still holding onto Duvainions hand, and pushes a button on the wall beside her, the wall looking door soon shutting, and sending them into darkness.

Duvainion seems a bit apprehensive at first, though Caleldes soon creates a ball made out of pure light magic in her free hand. "There's no need to worry, your highness, no creatures of the dark will get to you, with me around." Duvainion does look a lot more relieved as her light magic comes to life in her hand, and he seems fascinated with it, reaching out to it, wanting to touch it.

Caleldes then quickly holds her hand with the light magic in it up and away from his grasp. "Be careful, your highness, light magic will burn you." He just looks to her, a bit confused. She then quickly adds in "That is, I suppose to say, if you don't have an affinity to it." He still doesn't seem to understand. She then tries to simplify it for him. "It will hurt, if it's not yours, okay?"

He then just nods. "Okay. Sorry."

"It's alright." They then start on along the long stairway that leads downwards, her ball of light magic illuminating the darkness around them as they walk down the eerily silent corridor. Although, it's not silent for too long, because as the corridor eventually straightens out some, faint explosions can be heard from up above. "They're that loud? We're far down, yet we can still hear them..."

"What's going on? Is that from the city up there?"

"Sometimes, young prince, you can be too smart for your age. Yes, that's the city, approximately the nobles quarter, if I'm getting the distance correct. But you don't want to know what's going on up there, trust me."

"...Okay." Though he does look upwards every once in a while, curious at the sounds that can be heard, every now and then.

Caleldes just seems worried, though tries her best not to show it, for Duvainions sake, as they just continue along, for now.