Brecken had stepped out to the center palace courtyard where the trunk of the tree was. He remained clam as he stepped into the trunk and up to the flame. Suddenly a red cloaked figure jumped down in front of them holding a staff. Quickly he was soon pinned up against the base of the tree with a staff holding him back. He growled at the figure, "What do you think your doing?"
There was no response and Brecken went to yell for the guards. Soon more gala comers were watching as the figure continued to hold the prince of Heilig to the tree. Guards rushed in to try and get her away from him, but only ended to further anger the small figure and cause a louder commotion.
Javier looked over to the ruckus and narrowed his eyes, What was going on? He pushed through the crowd towards them, eventually seeing a red-cloaked figure pinning a man to the tree. He meant to yell something but the words caught in his throat. He stood on his tiptoes to watch in between the heads of the other crowd members.
With a ridiculous amount of "excuse me"s and "pardon"s and a rather unfortunate amount of gentle shoving, Aureole made her way to the front of the crowd to see what was going on. "What the…" she trailed off in confusion.
Armed with a lucky event, curt bow, and expertise in conversation, Nathan quickly excused himself from the girl's presence. He towered over the chaotic crowd, which was exponentially expanding, brown eyes seeking the heart of the commotion. A flash of red and the Prince of Heilig… oh gods.
One of the guards finally pried Cicada away from Brecken. She pulled against them trying to get between the prince and the Everflame, not caring that her hood fell down in the process. She shouted, "Let me go!" only for the guards to pull her away further. The only thing she could do was watch in silent horror as the prince's eyes flashed black before he reached out to the flame and enter his body.
Brecken had only one thought in his mind, success. He hadn't come for the princess, he had come for the opportunity to take the flame for Heilig. Back to where it belonged. He glanced back at Cicada and grinned wildly as the human let out a blood curling scream and passed out in the guards arms. The guards then began to approach towards him with wary eyes and swords drawn. He had no time for them and simply slipped away into the darkness now there from the lack of what once was the Everflame.
One of the guards began shouting at the others, "Check on the King and Princess! The rest of you don't let anyone leave!"
Aureole felt light headed. She knew she was breathing too fast, but she couldn't slow herself down. Her vision was becoming spotty, then streaked with black lines, then completely back as she crumpled to the ground.
Javier clutched onto his coat’s sleeve, unsure what to do. He struggled to push through the crowd, worried about the girl who had just fallen, but of course he was at a loss, “Can, can I help?” He stammered, sinking down beside her.
Aureole blinked quickly, trying to clear the black spots from her eyes. "I think - I think I locked my knees. It's probably nothing. I'm just really prone to falling today," she groaned, trying to sit up and immediately falling back down.
Javier leaned down offered his hand to her, “Here, let me help you. Maybe there’s someplace quiet you can rest..?” He suggested with a bit of worry still clinging to his tone.
Aureole took his hand and stood up, blinking rapidly. She couldn't really see all that well, but she wasnt going to be the damsel in distress for the third time that day. "No, this is… this is more important. They might need someone to help with all that," she gestured to the courtyard, "and that's a lot more important, so I'll just - " she almost fell again, but caught herself on a pillar. "I'm good, I'm fine."
One of the guards approached Aureole and Javier. She looked at the women considering she had almost collapsed and the man next to her. Assuming they were together the guard told them, "Both of you follow me to the infirmary."
Red cloak, red cloak, why was the vision bringing back deja vu? But when the realization clicked, it was already too late. Guards had her- he still owed the girl eight gold- why was she here? Thoughts scrambled in Nathaniel’s already jumbled mind, confusion resurfacing every other second. Subconsciously, his body was already elbowing ungracefully through the crowd. He ran straight into a couple. Oh, the girl from earlier. She had a partner? She didn’t mention anything regarding that. “Sorry,” he mumbled.
Javier was about to answer the guard when someone ran into them. He stumbled sideways into his acquaintance who he didn’t even know the name of yet, “Oh! Sorry—“ He stammered to Nathaniel, silently chastising himself for apologizing when he wasn’t the one to blame, but he reasoned he could have been apologizing to Aureole, “Are you okay?”
Aureole gasped, almost falling again. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. "I'm fine. You already asked that. I'm not as completely stupid as I look, you know," she said weakly.
“I was asking because I bumped into again.” He flustered as he retreated further into himself. He didn’t know any of these peoples, “I didn’t—I didn’t think you were stupid.”
"No, it's alright, I just - it's fine. Sorry. I can't seem to stop falling or running into people today, and it's unusual for me, and to be quite honest, I'm just really confused and a bit scared, and I'm having trouble breathing correctly - oh, gods. I'm - it's fine," she shook her head. Why did you just say that?
The guard next to Cicada lifted her roughly and began carrying her to the dungeon like a sack of potatoes. Her once deep red hair had now turned a dark brown at least for top two-thirds. The red remained the rest of the way down.
The guard near the others watched as a third began to approach. She was still more focused on the couple, but called another guard towards her. In a firm voice she told the woman, "If your having trouble breathing I can escort you to a less crowded place. The guards have everything under control here."
Aureole took a deep breath and held it in, nodding. "I, um, yes, yes, thank you," she told the guard quietly, still leaning against a pillar. "I suppose that's a good idea," she looked back uncertainly.
A chuckle escaped Nathaniel as curiosity gripped him, and he checked his wrist for the time. He really needed to get that watch back. "You fall a lot-" the fae started, thinking better of it. "But you never mentioned trouble breathing."
"Shut up," she snapped before seeing who had spoken. Oh. "This doesn't usually happen. I'm just… overwhelmed."
The guard looked at all three as a secondary one approached. The first guard whispered what had happened to the second guard and then proceeded to ask all three, "Do you mind if we ask you some questions?"
Javier dipped his head to the guards, "I don't mind, but I might not know very much that's actually helpful. I on;y saw glimpses between people's heads until she collapsed."
Aureole nodded. "I suppose that's fine," she consented, "it'd make more sense to ask someone else, but go ahead."
"We'll be asking everyone here," the second guard said in a gruff voice, "You just happen to be the first. Did any of you see what happened?"
"I only noticed the commotion after the crowd began gathering," Nathaniel answered, shaking his head apologetically. He looked at Aureole, eyes conveying that their argument concerning her lack of coordination was not over.
Aureole crossed her arms and pointedly looked away from Nathaniel. "I don't know. There was a… figure, I guess, and she took the… what's it called? That fire thing. I think. My vision was a bit… blurry," she explained, gesturing to her face.
"You mean the Everflame. Did any of you recognize her?" The guard asked writing down what Aureole told him.
Nathan clenched his jaw and shook his head. "I saw her in the plaza earlier. She's not a thief," he vouched, not understanding why he cared so much. With all the authority he could muster - which was an impressive amount - the elf clarified. "Had a small shop, displaying a pocket watch I plan to return to. I assume it was an heirloom."
The guard nodded carefully and wrote it down, "So you've encountered her before? I hate to tell you, but I doubt she'll be out of the dungeon anytime soon. You're probably not getting that watch."
"Really? She's going straight in the dungeons…" A thoughtful expression crossed his face as he mused, features shifting to mild discomfort. "How long do you predict she'll be there?"
