It seemed like a lifetime had passed of them waiting in fear before Rime heard the sound of the Arch Mage’s voice in his head. The Arch Mage quickly gave him the all clear before his voice vanished and Rime let the flames go out as the light came back to the room. He faced the Empress who was now holding the sleeping Princess, during the commotion the Prince’s had become scared so the Empress asked him to put her to sleep.

He walked over and took her into his arms and left his sister to help the Empress to her feet so they could head out of the room. Within a few minutes they were standing in the Emperor’s office with the Arch Mage and the Emperor who made sure his wife and child were okay before he faced the other people in the room.

“Over the many years that I have lived in this palace, I have thought it to be the safest place for me and my family, today I was proven wrong. The palace may now be the most unsafe place for me and my family, because now that the beast men have infiltrated the Kingdom we will be their sole target. If I or any member of my family were to be killed the Kingdom would fall into panic and if that happens then it is the end of our kind.

Everything that the great first had done would be for nothing, we would go back to what we started as and that is not a faith I would wish on anyone. The main problem we have now is finding these people, from what the shape shifter told us, we know that they only sent those of her kind. And that leaves us hoping that there aren’t many of her kind but we could never be sure.

That’s why we’re calling all of our available Mages in, we’re going to purge this kingdom, but sadly we don’t have time to check it one at a time. So I’ve decided to make this as a form of training for our newly graduated students from the Royal Academy. Unfortunately we have to test and see if they are ready for war and this will be the perfect way to test it.

We will form ten groups of six; they will consist of one seasoned Mage and one seasoned Fighter, whether they’re from our Armored Vipers or Wolfs Bane. The other four will be our recently graduated pupils, one mage, one hunter, one soldier and one priestess. For the Arch Mage’s new apprentices we’ll make an exception and send them out with each other and two other students as per the Arch Mage’s request.

Now as for the Empress and Princess, I have been given the Grand Mother’s permission to keep them with her until this is all over. It is best that they are with her, so just in case something that we are all praying never happens does. As for our citizens the locations for the inner barriers have been set up, when the ten teams have purged the villages, we will move out citizens from the outer villages to the barriers.” He looked up at everyone who gave a bow before piling out of the room.

Rime and Cyra watched as the Emperor made his way over to the Empress and Princess who had just awoken, he pulled them into a tight hug and placed a kiss on each of their heads. The Princess held onto her father and started sniffling as he talked quietly to her. The Empress had a sad smile on her face as she listened to what he had to say, when they were finished talking they shared one last hug and kiss and then made their way over to the Arch Mage.

“I will take them to the Grand Mother, Rime and Cyra when I return you will tell me who you wish to partner with and then we will get you ready.” The Arch Mage didn’t wait for a reply as he vanished from the spot with the Empress and Princess.

Rime and Cyra looked to the Emperor who wore a frown as he stared at where his wife and child once stood.

“I’m sure you’ll see them again and when you do everything will be better and you’ll get to spend more time with them.” The Emperor looked at Cyra as she spoke and a small smile stole his features, he nodded to her in thanks and returned to his desk to continue his work.

Rime and Cyra decided to leave the office and head out of the palace; they already had in mind who they wanted to partner with. Although they had spent most of their school life avoiding making any friends, there were only two people they could trust not to stab them in the back at any given time. It did cross their minds that they were both of royal blood and sending them off to hunt for infiltrators is not something their parents would be happy with. But at this point they were considered adults and could make decisions for themselves and Rime was sure they would want to do it.

They appeared in front of large gold gates that were just a bit smaller than the ones for the palace, instead of dragons being carved on it there were Golden Pheasants. A female guard dressed in black from head to toe appeared in front of the gate and gave a light bow, she opened the gates and allowed them to come in. “The Duke has sent me to fetch you, follow me.”

Rime and Cyra looked at each other before following along, the woman lead them down a pathway and not too far off was a large villa. It was painted pearl white and seemed to have a shimmer of gold set around it, Rime looked at the guard and felt like she didn’t belong. A male guard dressed in gold from head to toe opened the door and bowed lightly.

They were lead into the villa and up a grand stairs that had golden banisters; they were lead into a large room just off the stairs where Burne and Idina were sitting next to each other. They looked up when Rime and Cyra entered the room and with a nod of Idina’s head the guard vanished and the door shut. Burne was dressed from head to toe in gold and seemed to blend in with the room, unlike Idina who contrasted it drastically because of her usual getup of all black.

“You are the last two persons I ever expected to have knocking at my door.” Burne smiled as he spoke and Idina gave a short nod of agreement. Rime and Cyra walked further into the room and took a seat in the couch that sat across from the young couple. “So what can we do for you or did you come around for a friendly chat?”

Rime shook his head and gave a small smile of his own. “There’s a bit of trouble in the kingdom and we were told to pick two people we would like to go along with us to purge it. Naturally you were the only two that came to mind.”

Idina had sat forward at the mention of the word trouble and her relaxed posture had changed to one of readiness. “I hope it’s not what I’m thinking but then that would be the only reason you two would show up at our door step.” Rime and Cyra gave her their full attention as they waited for her to continue. “We have intruders in the kingdom and the Emperor wants them gone before he moves forward with any plans for the Empire?”

Rime and Cyra didn’t have to ask how she knew, because she was happy to answer the unspoken question. “My uncle works under the King Cobra himself and my father has asked him to keep us updated, so in case of any trouble we can be ready. He said there were reports of trouble at the borders and they had only recently gotten a report that there were a few holes in the barrier.

My father called a family meeting and informed us of this, we’ve been preparing for news like this for close to a month now.” She shrugged with the last word and Rime narrowed his eyes at her, Burne immediately put his hand in front of her.

“Hey we thought that this was a known fact among the Emperor’s people, but they were just keeping it quiet as to not cause panic among the people.”

Rime sighed and shook his head. “No we didn’t find out today and…” He quickly looked around and Idina nodded. “What I’m about to tell you is between us and you two, anyone finds out the Whispers have been given orders to take care of them.” Idina and Burne nodded “Someone infiltrated the palace today; they got in one of the meetings where the Emperor, Empress and Princess were in attendance.

Cyra was the one to pick up on it and I don’t have to tell you the kind of commotion it caused, but because of that the newly graduated students from the Royal Academy are going to be sent to purge to kingdom of the intruders. We were given permission to go on our own but we need two other persons, so would you like to go with us, or not?”

Idina arched a brow and clasped her hands. “So we’re being offered the chance to go on a field trip with the two greatest apprentices of our continents history and you honestly expect us to say no?” Rime sighed and she smirked. “Just let us know what we need and when we have to go and we’ll be there.”

“Okay, but we need to go now, the Arch Mage wants to see the two of you and we need to get ready, from what I gather we’ll be heading out in a day or so.” Rime and Cyra stood up and watched as the couple vanished before returning with their cloaks on and each carrying a sack. Idina lead them out the room and down the stairs, as soon as the exited the door they were joined by five guards.

Four of them decked out in black from head to toe and clearly women and one man that was dressed in gold armor that glinted in the sunlight as they walked. Rime wondered if it was truly necessary for the guard in gold to be with them, as far as he was concerned, the guard’s only purpose was to draw attention to them and that was something he wasn’t very fond of.

Luckily when they reached the gate all he did was open it and let them out and locking it after them before he vanished from the spot. Rime took hold of Idina’s and Burne’s hands with Cyra holding onto Idina’s other hand, a few seconds later all four of them stood in front of the palace gates. The Armored Drtagon looked them over and came to the gate to quickly tell them that the Arch Mage had told them to meet him at the Mage’s society.

With a nod they flashed from the spot and appeared in front of tall black gothic gates, iron Raven’s sat perched on the gate and their heads were turned in different directions, with the largest one looking down at them. Burne gulped loudly and Idina rolled her eyes as the gates opened and soon they were walking through them.