Of Shadows and Swords (Chiarra)

((Let's just say my muse hit me and hit me hard lol. I wish it would do that all the time lol. And your posts won't be inferior.))


She smiled back at Archer and hoped he could find a way out of this mess. Every second counted and even now they were ticking away. She sat there and ignored her mother and fiance as best she could, especially since they were talking about the wedding. "Oh Melody," her mother said, smiling happily. "Did you see your wedding dress, It was mine you know, though it may need a bit tucking in here and there."


Melody didn't hear a word she said, she was too wrapped up in her thoughts and picking at her food.


"Melody," her mother said again. After no response, she cleared her throat and said a little louder, "Melody did you hear me?"


That time she was woken from her daze. "What mother?" she asked looking up, a bored expression on her face.


"I asked, did you like the dress that used to be my wedding dress?"


"Yes mother, it's beautiful." She didn't lie about that, she did think it was beautiful, she just hated what it was for. "Mother, I fear I am not feeling very well. I think I'm coming down with something. Maybe a bit of fresh air will do me good."


"Should we get the physician?" she asked her, worried.


"No no, I'm sure I'm fine. It's probably just nerves after all, but all the same, I would like to go out to the garden, may I be excused?"


"Of course my dear," her mother said. Her fiance wasn't too happy about it though.


"I think I shall excuse myself too and accompany my bride, make sure she is safe," said Edward, her fiance.


"Very well," her mother said. "Go on then."


Melody frowned at that, but soon she was up and heading towards the garden, her fiance taking her arm and "leading" the way. Her guards were also flanking her. Lucius had been relieved of his post earlier that morning, allowing him to do as he pleased and that meant he could go home to Aaric and even sleep. He would just have to report sometime that evening, which to her was cutting it very close to the next day. When they got out to the garden, her fiance glared at her and asked the guards to give them some space and wait at the entrance. They obeyed and left, not really having much choice.


Edward turned on her and glared. "You think I don't know what you are doing?" he asked. At first, she was afraid he had seen through their ploy and thought he knew she had run away. But then his next words calmed her fears.


"I don't care how ill you pretend to be, and I don't care how ill you really are. If every single bone in your body is broken, you will still attend that wedding tomorrow no matter what. Understand?" his voice was deathly low.


She nodded. "I understand," she said meekly, frightened.


~~~~~~~~~~~~


Margaret, Melody's mother, looked at Archer and smiled. "So Archibald. Are you enjoying your stay here? Is there anything you would like?"


After he answered, the king finally decided to grace them with his parents. "Finally, you came. Your daughter has already finished and went to the garden."


"Who's with her?" Gerald asked, afraid for his daughter.


"Guards and Edward."


He nodded and looked over at Archer. "I see our guest is still here," he said, a bit annoyed but not much.


"He's coming to the wedding," she said and they were now talking about him as if he weren't here.


"Then after that, I suspect he will be gone?" he asked.


"How long will you be staying?" She asked.
 
((Sorry, working on a bio for something))


Archer didn't like that Melody went away with her fiancé, virtually alone, but there wasn't anything he could do about it in his role that wouldn't seem suspicious. He would just have to bear it and hope her guards were complete idiots enough to stop it if the man tried to hit her.


When the King and Queen's attention turned to him, Archer gave his best sheepish, gracious smile. "O-Oh, I -" He shook his head a little. "I don't want to impose a-anymore than I have already. As soon as the wedding is over and I can gather my things, I will be out of your hair. I must thank you again for your hospitality. It is most kind of you to let me stay and attend."


**************************


Lucius was weary to his bones when he was finally relieved in the morning, and after taking off his armor and storing it where it was supposed to be, he made the trek to Aaric's home - Lucius' home - and all but collapsed through the door. But he couldn't sleep. He had to be on his feet, stay there and seek a way out of this mess. Aaric didn't seem to be home, so as soon as Lucius got inside, he started packing to leave. Again. He thought.


"I knew you wouldn't stay."


The voice was quiet but sudden and Lucius jumped in surprise, spinning around defensively but stopping when he saw Aaric standing in the doorway, leaning against it like he'd been watching for some time now and had only just spoken up. Lucius wouldn't doubt it was true. He'd learned everything he knew from this man, after all - except shadow manipulation, of course. ". . . I can't." He admitted, even though it hurt to say it out loud and he almost felt as if his eyes might start to water just thinking about it. Of losing his only family again. "I can't just leave her here to be trapped in her own hell, just so I can live the life I want, watching it happen."


Aaric was quiet. Lucius wanted to explain, to beg for forgiveness and promise everything he could though he had nothing to give, anything to stop the silence and make something happen that would end this, that would give him peace or finally tear him to pieces. But Aaric did not speak, not at first. He stepped forward, the faint limp in his step just as Lucius remembered, and reached out a hand that didn't quite make the boy flinch, tilting his head down and pressing a kiss to his hair. Lucius felt as if he couldn't breathe.


". . . I'm proud of you." Aaric whispered, and pulled him close, until Lucius really couldn't breathe but also couldn't find it in himself to care. He didn't want to let go. He didn't want to leave. But he had to. It was right.
 
((It's fine ^_^ and maybe we should figure out how they are going to get out of there before we continue lol.
 
((Well, I was just gonna have Lucius use his shadows at night to make it look like all the guards were attacked by some sort of monster, then once he pulled them through shadows and dumped them somewhere, he could take Melody and Archer away that way))
 
((That works ^_^ ))


"There, is that better dear?" she asked him once they had Archer's answer. He sighed but nodded and then it was silent. Archer would be allowed to stroll the palace grounds as long as there were a few guards with him, to make sure he didn't do anything suspicious or steal.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"Good," he said, still glaring at her. "And if I were you, I would regret postponing the wedding, because you know very well how miserable I can make your life once it belongs to me." He grabbed her by the shoulders roughly, so roughly they would leave a bruise.


She winced and whimpered at him, "I'm sorry. I promise I will try nothing more to postpone the wedding." She knew he could very well kill her once they were married and blame someone else and they would take the fault for killing her. He wouldn't though, at least not until they had an heir.


"Good," he said. "And I would remember that if I were you." With that, he left, hearing him order the guards to leave her be, that she was very upset and needed some space and he talked about it as if she was upset about being kidnapped instead of what he talked to her about. She sat near the tiger lilies and tried to hold back the tears, but they just came and she buried her face in her hands. The worst part was, her parents had no idea the monster he was because he put on a show for everyone.
 
Lucius got to spend an hour or so with Aaric, but then it was time to finish packing and be ready. He didn't have time to sleep, just made sure everything was in place just outside the city to snag before they left, and hurried off back to the castle. Sneaking in was easy, even in daylight. All he had to do was claim he'd forgotten something inside and he was given free reign. He did have to find something that he could potentially have needed, of course, so no one would be suspicious, but as soon as no one was looking he went off in search of Melody.


He found her in the gardens, secluded and crying, but he didn't have the time to spare to comfort her. He ran quickly to her and slipped into a kneel at her side, putting a hand on her shoulder both to reassure her and so he wouldn't just crash right into her. "Be ready for me tonight. I'll come for you two hours after last check." It would be enough time for everyone's guard to lower, and then he could put on his charade. He couldn't wait for her response beyond a startled nod, though, had to leave her again and sneak back inside, find the book he'd 'forgotten' and get a message to Archer about what he planned to do. Archer would know to be ready, and would play his part when he had to.
 
She winced and jumped when someone touched her shoulder. It was Lucius and she wrapped her arms around him tightly, wincing a bit at the soreness of her shoulders from Edward's grip. She nodded and wiped her eyes and said, "I'll be ready." She sniffed and tried to stop her tears, she would have to make an appearance soon before people started to worry over her. As soon as she answered though, he was leaving and she sighed, wiping her eyes, she made her way inside, and looked at one of the servants that were about. "Bring Archibald here to the gardens please," she said. She went back in and waited for them to do as she said.
 
Archer ran into Lucius in the library, where he'd decided to hole up for most of his stay, and only got the briefest versions of the plan before guards showed up. Lucius hid and Archer distracted them with bumbling 'peasant' ways so that Lucius could get out once they were gone. He walked with them to the gardens, chatting one-sidedly about a time when he'd had to help a lamb give birth - he thought it fitted his persona rather well - until they arrived.


"Oh- Princess!" He smiled and bowed a bit in greeting. "Did you want to ask me something?"
 
When he came to her, she waited until the others left, they not really thinking anything of this. She was probably just wanting to thank him again for bringing her home after all. When they were gone, she looked at him and he would be able to tell she had been crying. She pulled down her sleeve a bit and showed him the bruises, trying to tell him what happened without saying anything. "Stay here with me," she begged him, about to burst into tears once more. She didn't want to cry in front of anyone else though, knowing she would have to explain herself and then they would just think she was silly and it would get back to Edward and no doubt he would do worse. She knew she couldn't have any "close" contact with Archer while someone could walk in and see him, but he could look like he was giving her comfort from being kidnapped.
 
Archer fought past the sick feeling in his stomach to hold up a finger and signal her for quiet, then checked quickly that they were actually alone and hurried back to her. He knew he couldn't risk more than a few seconds, so he went back and sat down next to her, pulled her into one quick, desperate kiss, and then just pulled back and put a hand over one of hers in her lap. "I'm sorry." He whispered, keeping his voice low. "It'll be over soon. We'll be out of here before morning, and you'll never have to worry about him again."
 
She was silenced quickly and watched as he checked around before he came over and kissed her briefly, but desperately. She kissed him back, needing this comfort, and when it broke, she slowly opened her eyes and looked at him, a scared look on her face. "We'll be hunted down," she whispered back, her hand grabbing onto his softly. "No doubt there will be even more guards." She quieted about it though, not wanting to risk being overheard about it, though she doubted for now they would. She so wanted to lean against him a bit, embrace him, but she couldn't. She sighed sadly, "I suppose we should part ways soon, in case they get too suspicious." But she really didn't want to.
 
Archer shook his head and sighed, patting her hand. "A few more moments. . . I'll hear them coming in their clunky armor." He was a thief, he had good ears by necessity. "There might be more guards, and they might search harder, but we'll just go farther. Run faster. Lucius will use his shadows." The Raven was coming out of his shell, using his powers a little more riskily to help them. He had his hero suit on in full force and there was nothing that would stop it. "We'll get away." Archer shrugged, giving no hint to if he was serious or jesting when he added, "Worse comes to worse, we bring about the untimely end of your fiancé."
 
She nodded and was glad he wasn't going to leave her right now. "We could really use the reward my parents were going to give you," she said. "But they won't do it until the day after the wedding, when you were supposed to leave," she said. "My dowry would really help, but...they would know something was up if they saw that gone." She was relieved they were going to be using Lucius's shadows, thinking they could get much farther with that than by walking or running. When he finished up with that bit about killing her fiance, she looked at him. "Archer, no. You would be hunted down like a dog for that and so would Lucius and be instantly killed, no trial or nothing. Please don't try to. Even if I don't get away and..." she took a deep breath, frightened tears in her eyes. "promise me you and Lucius will get away and you won't try anything, no matter what he does to me." She looked at him sternly, "Promise me." She couldn't bare to see them get hurt.
 
Archer looked at her for a long, silent moment, and thought a great deal of things in just those minutes. He was not a selfless person, and even if he cared for her he knew himself well enough to know he would run if he had to. Aaric and Lucius would hate him for it, but he would live with that, because he was a coward. Lucius, though - Lucius wouldn't leave her behind, no matter what. Archer thought of a great deal of ways he could kill her fiancé and get away with it.


". . . I can't promise that." He said quietly, then gave her a smile and patted her hand like an old maid. "Don't you worry. Pre-wedding jitters are the most common thing in the world. Here," He got to his feet and started backing away, "I'll go and get someone to make you some tea, and you'll feel right as rain again, Highness." He backed into the soldier he'd heard approaching, deliberately, then gave a 'startled' jump away and spun to face the man. "O-Oh, goodness! I'm terribly sorry! I should learn to tell where I'm going - apologies, Sir Knight, I - I'll just be on my way."
 
She frowned as he said he couldn't promise that and was about to argue, when he started talking about pre-wedding jitters. She was confused, but then she realized a guard must be coming. He really did have good hearing didn't he? "You're right," she said. "Tea should help me calm down," she finished just as he bumped into a guard. He grabbed hold of his shoulder and looked down at him menacingly. "And what are you doing here?"


"It's okay," she said. "I called him here. I was just so nervous about the wedding I needed someone to talk to about it and since he is neither my parents or my fiance he seemed to be the best choice," she said. "He was just getting ready to bring me some tea." After eying him a moment, the guard let him go. "Very well then, get on with it."
 
Archer gave the appropriate amount of shake to his hands and voice as he gave a quick, clumsy bow and edged around the guard. "Y-Yes, sir," He said, quickly and timidly. "R-Right away, s-sir." He got a good distance away and then broke into a jog like a properly paranoid person, and had to struggle to get anyone to listen to him and send tea out to Melody once he was back inside. It was as difficult as it should have been for someone in his position, but he had to do it anyway because his character demanded it. All he had to do was bide his time until nightfall. Then they would be free.
 
((Yes, please. You just skip to her going to bed or something and I'll do the rest tomorrow because it's past midnight and I am tired -_- Night!))
 
((Okay then lol and night ^_^ ))


It was Night time and it was getting late and she bid everyone goodnight as she went up to her room, two hours before the Final Check and laid down in her bed, looking up at the canopy above her bed and sighed, fearing tomorrow if this didn't get pulled off. She tossed and turned, a bit embarrassed that if they did pull this off, she would have to go in her nightgown. But she had to, what would they think if they came to check on her and she was still in her dress, "asleep."
 
Lucius had given Archer a very precise time schedule to follow. He went to bed but watched the clock, waited for when the final check through Melody's room. Precisely two hours later, he was out of bed, dressed and moving through the halls like the shadow he was used to being. Most everyone was sleeping, and the few guards that remained didn't see him. Finally, just a minute or so's run from the princess' bedroom, he stopped, took a few deep breaths, and let out the most blood-curdling scream he could manage.


And he ran.


Archer, through his acting expertise and own experience, knew what the run of a panicked man was. He bumped into things and knocked over pictures and end tables as he rounded corners, skidding and even falling a few times in case anyone was watching. It was more an uncontrolled sprint than a run, and that was what it needed to be. When he reached the last turn to the princess' room, he tumbled hard to the ground, and as soon as he came to a stop, every torch in the hall went out.


The guards startled and called out to him, the usual 'who goes there?', and he only screamed again, staying still as Lucius covered him with shadow and hid him from view as if he'd disappeared. The guards were beginning to grow nervous, looking for the source of the cut-off sound, and Lucius gave a short, panicked cry of his own as he disappeared through a shadow. There was a moment of floating feeling, while he hung between one and the next, and when he appeared again his armor was gone, spit back out into the hall where he had been. He voted his skin in shadow so that all of him appeared black and he would look more monster than human as he reappeared behind the next guard. He hissed deliberately as he wrapped his arm around the man and drug him down and back into the darkness, sending his armor back into the hall like his own, then popping back out again for the last guard and doing the same. He dropped them a mile past the castle walls, then went back to the castle himself and looked quickly about.


The armor was set in piles on the floor, as it should be, and Lucius ran over to Archer to drag him to his feet. They went together to Melody's room and pushed open the doors, hurrying inside to her. "Time to go, time to go," Lucius said quickly, looking around. "Let's get out of here before anyone's brave enough to follow."


Archer shook his head and pulled out a knife. "Hold on." When Melody was off the bed, he cut a line into his own arm, got the blood on his hand and then left a bloody handprint on her blankets, as if she'd been attacked and drug from the bed. He messed up the sheets a bit more and tossed the pillow to the ground to make it more believable, then nodded. "All right. Lts go." If they thought there was a possibility of her being dead, they wouldn't look for her quite as long.
 
Melody heard the screaming and sat up, startled, before she realized what was happening. It was time to go and she stood up, waiting anxiously for Lucius and Archer to come into her room. When she heard the second scream, a few moments later, they were in her bedroom. She nodded and was about to go with them before Archer said to hang on and cut open his arm. Then he got her bed all bloody and messed up the sheets. "Should I scream?" she asked. And if they said yes, she would wait until Lucius had the shadows open to go in, before screaming the most bloodcurdling and terrified scream that she could as they went through. If not, she would leave silently, through the shadows,
 
Lucius and Archer shared a quick look before Lucius just nodded, pulling Archer over to him and covering the wound in black so it might stop bleeding. "If you can be convincing about it, feel free. You have ten seconds, at best." They had to leave. Now. Archer was listening, Lucius knew, and he hadn't spoken up about anyone being too close yet, so they had at least that much time.
 
She watched as Lucius covered up Archer's wounds and they both agreed to her screaming. She screamed the most terrified and bloodcurdling scream she could, the word HELP mixed in with it. After the ten seconds was up, she was ready to go and nodded. They would need to leave now as fast as possible.
 
Lucius grabbed each of them by an arm and pull them close, fingers curled tight around the back of Archer's neck and around Melody's shoulders. "Take a deep breath," He said, looking at her as Archer put his arms around them both to keep them together, "And close your eyes." He pulled her head against his shoulder just to be sure she would close them, and a second later they all dropped through shadow. Archer seized up immediately, not moving a muscle through the strangeness of it, and a short pause later they reemerged, an hour's ride from where he had stashed their bags before. They could find another mode of travel in a different town, but for now they would just keep jumping like that until they were safe. It was going to be tiring, taking two people with him at once, but he had to do it.
 
Melody did as he said and took a deep breath and shut her eyes, even as he put her head on his shoulder. She held onto him tight as she suddenly felt...she couldn't describe it. She knew she was no longer in her room, but this didn't feel like anything familiar. It was just so strange and she understood what Archer said about it being creepy. Suddenly, they were in the real world again and she breathed out, opening her eyes and looking around. "That was creepy," she said. "But not as bad as Archer made it out to be," she stuck her tongue out at him playfully before smiling. "Thank you both so much for doing this again."
 
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