Faustus:

I fretted as I waited with Sia and our teacher.

Half a day passed by and the night was again falling when we heard the sounds of feet moving stealthily.

Motioning us to remain silent, the Teacher crept in front of us before falling quiet and waiting like a snake.

Soon, two figures came into view.

Sir Patrick Raul, covered in wounds followed by an unfamiliar green-haired man, who looked around warily as he approached.

The teacher kept waiting, making not the slightest sound, and with a tensed body, I watched with bated breath.

Then Sir Raul spoke. “I don’t think anyone reached here before us. What do you think, Galen?”

The green-haired man, Galen, turned around and walked closer to the walls and, sniffing - said, “I don’t even know why all of you are being chased by the Royal Family. How on earth do you expect me t-”

And then, like a viper, he pounced toward Teacher and thrust his spear at him, at which teacher sprang back and pulled out his sword before clashing it with the spear.

Springing apart, the two looked at each other, and the tension mounted.

“Galen,” said Sir Leonidas wryly.

“Leonidas,” replied Galen icily.

“Good to see you?” Sir Leonidas ventured.

“Definitely not good to see you,” Galen snorted.

Interrupting the conversation, Sir Patrick Raul strode forward and tried to hug Leonidas, who sprang back like a scalded cat.

“What are you doing?” asked the Teacher vigilantly.

“I didn’t expect that you would stand against the Royal Family for us,” Said Sir Patrick, emotionally.

“What? I’m not standing against the Royal Family, I’m with it!”

Zing.

Sir Patrick drew his sword and pointed it at Sir Leonidas angrily.

He looked ready to stab him but just then, I stepped out and said, “Sir Patrick, he speaks the truth. I don’t think you know the whole situation, so perhaps you might want to sheathe the sword and tell me if my brother is safe?”

Stunned, Sir Patrick Raul looked at me before a smile broke his weathered face.

“Faustus! It is good to see you! Good to see you indeed.” and then turning, he hurried to the entrance of the cave before letting out a soft coded call that served as a signal to the seedlings and the escorts who walked in and sat down gratefully.

My sight was not on them, though.

It was on the tired-looking mountain of a man who was walking toward me with a grin on his face.

I ran forward and hugged him, but then got hugged back and the breath in my body disappeared with a whoosh.

I didn’t mind, though. My parent’s fate was unknown, but my brother was standing here in front of me, hale and hearty - if a little bloody.

Laughing, I let go of him before he lifted me off the ground and examined me for injuries, his eyebrows furrowing as he saw the various tears on the clothes and the blood on them, courtesy of that gold rank and the enemies we had to fight our way through to get here.

One lesson I learned from that was that next time? Next time, I was going to save some clothes within my finite stone. After all, it was more than big enough. Alas, I was too stupid not to have done that before and thus was baring more of my skin than I was comfortable with, a fact that Sia had to pointedly ignore all this time.

Frowning, my brother was about to speak when Sir Leonidas said, “Gather around and I’ll tell everyone the situation we’re in right now.”

Nodding at my brother, he let me down and proceeded to gather along with the rest of the Knights, section leaders, and Damon.

I sat at the edge of the circle while giving a friendly look to Damon, who I recognized as Sir Falmer’s son.

After everyone gathered together, Sir Patrick stepped forward and introduced the green-haired man, Galen.

“This here is the famed Doctor Galen of the golden blades mercenary group. He is the reason that we know the Hagarians were mobilizing against us and the reason we mobilized in return. He is a trusted friend of the Draykes and has agreed to escort us to Sir Jacob Drayke’s viscounty where we will be safe.”

“As for why we have to flee... I think Leonidas will be a better person to answer that than I am.”

Saying so, he stepped aside and our teacher stood and began narrating the events right from when I was ambushed till now.

Gasps and calls kept sounding out as people looked at me in astonishment and then they turned to anger as the fight in the King’s chambers was narrated, before outright rage as they learned that their Count and Countess fates were unknown.

Some wanted to march right back and rescue them.

Others looked down, blaming themselves for being too weak.

Still, others were the voice of reason, calming everyone down.

Finally, as everyone settled down, we began deliberating on our plan of action to seek safety at my uncle’s viscounty.

The murmurs at first were low, but soon the figures were animatedly discussing the plan of action with each other until Sir Leonidas stood up and silenced everyone by raising his hands.

Speaking slowly, he said, “The distance from here to the viscounty of Sir Jacob is a distance of six days. Alastor will most likely have sent a detachment of soldiers or an envoy to Sir Jacob to keep him out of Draconis City, so there are two possibilities -.”

“One - We have to fight our way through.”

“Two - they declare us rebels and Sir Jacob will apprehend us.”

“There’s also a third possibility, and that is that Sir Jacob is already under siege.” He said with heaviness in his voice.

Sir Patrick stood and paced as he said with frustration, “The problem is that we have no information and hence we have to go in blind. The ideal solution would be to send a scouting party, but the scouting party probably cannot find us should our paths diverge.”

Frowning, Galen said, “Is there anyone with sensory or communication powers amongst you?”

Shaking his head, Sir Patrick said with a downcast expression, “We’re all part of the Draykes. Our powers are to do with fighting and only fighting. Unless Leonidas?”

“No, my power is not applicable in this situation,” Said Teacher, awkwardly.

“Mhm,” Sir Patrick nodded glumly.

Galen then measuredly spoke, listing out our conditions at present.

“We have roughly 70 soldiers remaining of the company.”

Pointing to himself, Sir Patrick, and one of the other gold ranks, he continued, “3 of our 7 gold ranks are wounded. Chase is almost out of arrows and hence his combat ability is lowered. We’re also left with only 5 silver ranks, including Aaron and Egon. Also, the silver ranks are all wounded or tired.”

“Those seedlings of yours will also slow the pace down, so those 6 days will remain 6 days for us while the enemy doesn’t have that handicap. So the chances of us being declared rebels and the chances of us having to fight are quite high.”

Summarizing things up, he rose and dusted himself off and said, “We’re screwed if we have to fight through a siege the way we are now. So lets all rest up for an hour, eat some food, and then move out in formation - double time.”

“Any disagreements?”

Everybody kept silent.

“Good.”

“Now get to sleep, people. We have more battles to fight.”