Seraph's Spear

Prince Raphael hurriedly left the court room

He still wasn't thinking straight and his face was still very pale. He swallowed hard. Honourable Lemieux, he was going to find him and it was not going to be funny. He dipped his hands in his pockets and let out a deep sigh. It was best not to think about it for some time. He found his way back to the training room. The guard was no longer there but there was Princess Sapphire, her hair loose on her shoulder as always and she sat cross-legged on a swivel chair, her chin propped up with her left hand and her free hand lazily fiddling with a set of daggers of which three of them had already been pinned to the target board overhead.

She glanced up when he appeared at the doorway then casually threw a dagger in his direction. The prince tilted slightly to the left as the razor sharp weapon whizzed past where his shoulder had been a moment ago and a clanking sound was heard as it hit the amour that was up ahead before calling to the ground.

"You really should quit substituting a dagger for a dart. One of these days you'll cause more harm than intended." Raphael said weakly.

Sapphire studied him for a while. "Where'd ya run off to?"

"Is it okay if I tell you when we get home?"

"Sure, and maybe after resting. You look like you had the pleasure of meeting with a ghost." She grinned wickedly standing up. She brushed past him and retrieved her dagger from the marble floor. "But your instincts are still topnotch."

"Don't." He warned.

"Fine..." She strapped the dagger to her waist belt.

They left the main palace and made their was to the stables. Sir Lionel looked up from his phone and put down his head phones.

"We're going." They announced.

"Won't you rather get a ride? It's a bit late already."

"Nah, we're cool." Princess Sapphire replied hopping on the white stallion.

"What about an escort?"

"If it's not you then forget it." The prince said. "And I can see you're quite busy." He peered into his phone. "Playing.... Dungeons." He finished with a shudder.

He took the ginger colored horse and led it out. Then he turned to the princess.

"How is it that you get to ride my horse to and fro?"

she shrugged, "A lot of things we can't explain."

The prince sighed exasperatedly. How on earth did he earn himself a sister!

The guard at the side gate nodded at them as they rode through. This time, Sapphire was the one dictating the pace leaving him behind in a cloud of dust. The prince didn't care though. After all, he was still ultimately the best rider. He would catch up when he wanted to. At the moment, he had a lot of questions in respect to his unplanned tour underground. Unfortunately for him, he would have to analyze it with this idle, mystery hungry, annoying and possibly obsessive compulsive disordered sister of his.

Few hours ago, In Morgantown Havens bar.

At the counter leaned a red haired man in high collared flannel jackets which was open, showing off a lot of conspicuous looking gold chains. In his left hand was a glass of ale. He appeared to exempt himself from all the music and craziness going on. His right hand lazily fished out his phone from his trouser pocket and Fox clicked on receive.

"You need to move now!" The anxious voice of a man sounded over the phone.

"What's the code." Fox breathed indifferently and somewhat drunk.

There was a pause on the other side then man whispered something and continued, "So is this the stop in the city you were talking about?"

"If I keep myself sober all the time I won't have the tolerance to stand folks like you. It'll just be a matter of who kills who first." He replied with a chuckle.

"Start moving already! Stop chilling around. Everything is sorted out, now we just need you to move in."

"And if I decide to take my time?" Fox asked taking a deliberate sip of his ale.

"Then I have only one message for you," The other man said annoyed.

"He's alive."

The prince and princess arrived at the villa a little past tea. They left the horses to one of the servants and entered the six storey building that towered domineering in the middle of the villa far high above the rest. They met the family rounding up dinner and managed to sneak in unnoticed...well not quite.

Dr Robertson looked up from his dessert and muttered, "Ruddy cheeks, untucked shirt, wind swept hair... Must have gone riding across the plains."

The prince glared marching upstairs. Such unnecessary deductions! Even a kid would know would know...scratch that, even a blind man would know! His sister's riding breeches defined their whole outing! He ordered a random servant bring his dessert and entered his room after telling the princess that he would find her after his training sections. He changed clothes, drew out a chair and made some notes concerning the dungeons. Now that he was far away from that nasty place, the experience no longer spooked him. He even entertained the idea of going back to figure some things for himself. How was it that that person was still alive and where the hell did he learn such a messed up tune from? He spun his pen continuously in his right hand and drummed on the table with his left. The next time he was going, he would bring his sister along. She really needed the experience.

A knock came on the door.

My dessert, Raphael thought happily. "Come in." He said. The door opened and a guard entered. Raphael frowned upon seeing him. This was the guard from the morning and he was not with his dessert.

"Oh, it's you who brings bad news." He said turning back to his book.

"Forgive me Young Master," The guard said with a deep bow.

"Speak," The prince said uninterested, resuming his pen spinning. "I can take it in."

"Training is about to begin. I heard you would be joining the knights."

"Indeed."

The guard bowed again and left.

"Next time," The prince called after him. "Send such a basic message through a phone call at the most." He stood up and took his spear, then went downstairs to get his food himself.

Training was over and most of the people had cleared out. Raphael stayed back waiting for his sister. Once again, he would have called her if she didn't put her phone on silent during dance lessons.

"Aren't you going? Or should I hand you the keys?" Frenzel asked walking over sheathing his sword.

"Yeah, you can. By the way, I was serious about getting myself a new spear." Raphael replied with a smile. "I was hoping you would help me pick."

"No, you were not." Frenzel said dropping the keys on the weapon rack. "As I said before, the weapons are for the...."

"Top secret mission, that was put on a stand still." The prince finished walking towards him. "Awaiting orders huh? All the generals packed in the castle, including your dad..."

"I have no idea...."

"Sure, sure. The king suddenly wants me in the army. No one wants to say anything. It's all connected isn't it?" He asked then shook his head at Frenzel's shocked expression. He showed the key in his pockets. "Hope this opens the weapons shelf too?"

"Look man," Frenzel placed a hand on his shoulder. "You know that if I knew something I'ld tell you immediately right?"

"I guess so...."

"So don't attack me like that again. Honestly! I'll try to figure things out and I'll tell you what I find out. I might be a knight, but I'm not high in rank. Don't expect me to know everything."

"Seems like I was a little ahead."

"Nevermind. It happens. No need to apologize. You just gave me a new reason to go extra hard on you tomorrow." He said a malicious twinkle in his eyes. "I think I should call my father and ask him what's up. See you in the morn." He said walking away.

"Pray I don't find that new spear that would change the story." Raphael said taking out the keys. The commander's son replied with a highly amused laughter as his footsteps receded down the hallway.

Raphael went to work immediately. He unlocked the shelf and his eyes went immediately to deadliest weapons section. There, placed on top as though waiting for him was a silk black spear. The pointy edges glinted maliciously with killing intent. It was laced with diamonds all the way up to the point and the body had a green serpent design. Where the eyes would have been held two glass pendants and in the mouth was a red stone. How could he not be interested! Such a fancy weapon. Suits me completely. He thought. Well that was, of course, if it was not just only fancy on its looks. He picked it up and turned it over. Then he executed the basic moves with it.

"Hmm, it seems pretty superior too... But as they say, credit goes to the welder and not the weapon. As always, I'm being a superstar." He thought smugly as he finished the series of rapid fluent movements, hitting the spear on the ground with a resounding thud. Suddenly, the lights went out. His mouth twitched. How was it that bad things always happened when he was having his moment??? He sighed and turned on his flashlight. Really, and they say that there was never power outage. Wait a sec... He thought. There was never power outage in the city talk less of the palace. His eyes zeroed in on the spear.

"Now now Raphael, no need to point fingers...." His mind chided. He would simply have to ask his father about it. But first, his sister.

He kept the spear back and went to search for his sister. Clearly, she wasn't coming to him. He met her as she was going out and drew her back in.

"Any power outage here?" He asked looking around.

"Excuse me?"

"Confound it." He muttered. "Well didn't you want to know where I ran off to in the palace?" He continued leaning against the wall.