Ceremony and Ball- The Attack

It took a few hours, but Tim and I wound up in line heading up to the royal family. There were only a few people in front of us, but still, the suspense was getting to me. I needed the line to move faster, but the people were taking their time trying to curry any favor with the royal family that they could. They brought gifts for the young princes and princesses and made big shows of their loyalty to the crown with long drawn out speeches; only after they were done with the big show did they ask the favor that they wanted.

I looked out the nearby window and saw the moon rising steadily into the sky. We were running out of time, and I was kicking myself. I had gotten distracted by a high ranking military member coming and talking to Tim about joining the healers' corps. It was clear that she was flirting with him, and for some reason, I let it distract me for a minute. Just long enough for a few people to get into the line ahead of us. Valuable time was slipping by, but we were only one person away now.

The minutes slipped by, and with every passing second, I could feel myself getting more and more anxious. The last person finally finished up speaking with the royal family, and it was our turn. I handed my invitation to the guard, and Tim did the same, then we entered passed the row of soldiers. I greeted the royal family like I was supposed to for fear of getting thrown out for not showing the proper courtesy.

"Good evening, young alchemist." The Queen greeted me. "Dear, this is the man I was telling you about the friend to the spirits that got my dear Florin to come and speak with him." The kind was a man in his middle ages but with eyes that seemed weary beyond his years. Never the less he smiled at us and greeted us warmly.

"So you are the young man that has my dear wife so excited it's a pleasure to meet you." I thanked him for his courtesy and hospitality, but I was running out of time, so it was now or never.

"Your Majesties, if I may be so bold as to ask one favor from you?" The King and Queen were shocked; usually, there were gifts or fanfare before one would ask a favor from the royal couple. But the queen was taken with me, so I was in luck. The king motioned for me to continue. "If I may approach your Majesties." The king was a little wary of such things because, as royalty, he had survived many assassination attempts in the past.

The Queen, however, laid a hand on his arm and nodded at him. The man sighed and granted my request; this was my chance. I walked up to the royal couple, close enough that I could talk quietly to them without having to whisper.

"Your Majesties, earlier today we heard plans from an unknown source to attack the royal family tonight, and possibly take the youngest princess as a hostage." There was a look of shock written across the couple's faces, but they both quickly recovered.

"And why have you waited until just now to let someone know about it? You used your one favor from the crown to warn us. Why not tell a guard?" I explained as quickly as I could that we didn't know who all were involved in this and thought it best to warn them directly. The king nodded gravely, understanding the situation, and the queen was already motioning for a handmaiden to come over and ready the children for an escape.

"When is this attack to happen, do you know?" The King asked me, and I nodded my head.

"Yes, it's supposed to be tonight when the moon is highest in the sky." Reflexively the King and Queen looked through the nearby window to check the lunar position.

"It's too close. We must move, dear." The Queen seemed well put together, but you could tell that there was fear in her eyes. The handmaiden appeared by the Queen's side, and she gave the order to have the children taken to safety. Just as the maiden began moving, however, the lights in the room went out.

"It's too late!" Tim cried out. We had both decided to carry a knife in our boots, but that was all we had for protection aside from Tims prayers and the few alchemic tattoos I had plus my ring. There was no dirt inside so any seeds that I had were basically useless. There were some murmurs coming from the crowd wondering why the lights had been put out. Tim and I moved ever closer to the royal couple to try and protect them.

I don't know why we were so adamant about protecting these people; perhaps it was because they had ruled over the kingdom that we considered our home, maybe it was because trying to suck up to a new regime after the work we had put into building a good relationship with this one would be a pain in the butt, it didn't matter now though we were there and we were going to do everything that we could in order to protect them. That's when we saw it. Through the very dim light, we watched as half of the royal guards turned on the other killing them swiftly.

There were about six of them in total close to the family behind us. The King drew a sword from behind his throne, and the Queen pulled out a wand from her sleeve.

"You didn't think you'd have to protect us on your own, did you?" The King gave us a sideways smile. I could hear the queen telling the children to hide behind their own ornate chairs. Far across the ballroom, I could hear screams and the clang of steel against steel. There were more enemies than we had thought. 'Please let my friends be ok.' I didn't have the time to worry about them too much, though, because the traitorous soldier had already turned towards us.

Tim looked at me and told me to cover my eyes. I knew exactly what he was about to do and warned the couple behind me to do as I did. I heard Tim's prayer even though I couldn't see what he was doing. I only knew when the prayer was finished by the fact that I could see the red behind my eyelids. As soon as the flash ended, I sprang forward. One soldier was swiping his sword back and forth, blindly trying to hit something. I rolled under the blade, though, and came up hard, driving my dagger underneath the man's chin before moving on.

I was lucky that I trained with Derek and Grace from time to time otherwise, these kinds of movements would be far beyond my capabilities. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Tim engaging his target as well. But Tim was a soldier even before he came to this world; he was muscular and tall. I didn't think that he would have much trouble with this enemy, and I was correct. Tim threw the man over his shoulder and dug his own blade directly through the soldiers' heart.

I would have cheered him on, but the next enemy was already coming at me; they had regained their sight at this point, so our advantage was gone. Still, I was ready to fight. The man in front of me was far more skilled with a blade, but that wasn't the only weapon that I had. The man thrust in with his sword, and I managed to sidestep him; I brought my dagger up to my ring and struck it, causing a small flame to reach out towards my enemy.

It wouldn't do him any physical harm. However, it still surprised the man enough that I was able to get into his defenses. I grabbed at his sword hand and activated my electric alchemy shocking the daylights out of him before giving him a swift cut across his throat. That's when it happened; one of the soldiers had gotten behind me somehow. His sword was sticking out through my stomach before I knew what was happening.

My adrenaline was pumping so much though that I could barely feel it. I was just staring at it, wondering how that got there. Before the man could deliver the finishing blow to me, however, a streak of lightning came from the Queen's wand and struck the enemy dead, all of the sounds in the room were fading in and out as I dropped to my knees. I could see Tim racing to me with all his might, and the King fighting off two enemies at once.

Tim dropped to his knees next to me and began saying something.

"I'm going to have to pull this out to start healing you, ok? It's going to hurt a lot." I didn't know what he was saying; I could just hear the blood pounding in my ears. The Queen handed Tim a handkerchief.

"Something for him to bite onto." Tim shoved it in my mouth and went around to my back, where he began his prayer while also grabbing the hilt of the sword. The next thing I knew was blinding pain.