"I'm gonna swing from the chandelier" ~ Sia

REECE'S heart started to beat faster with each step they took closer to the royal palace. The two guards in front of the doors were rooted to their position like statues. They didn't even seem to be breathing as they walked past them. Just as they reached the large brown palace door, the guards tapped their lances simultaneously and the door clicked twice, opening slowly to reveal a large hollow and gloomy corridor, with three chandeliers hanging from its marbled ceiling.

They walked through the corridor, their footsteps echoing loudly against the walls. The chandeliers swung eerily, making little resonating noises. The door they'd walked through slammed behind them gently, but it was enough to make Patelon jump. The two grownups in front of them didn't even turn back, they walked hastily as if they were scared of something. Reece and Patelon also picked up their pace. The swinging chandeliers, the echoing of their feet, the swishing of their clothes were the only sound that haunted the corridor. It was easily the scariest place Reece has ever been, he matched on his toes and walked very close to Erous. At last they reached the golden door in front of them and two guards whom he could have swore weren't there at first swung open the door.

"Erous White and Dariad Hailstone." they announced and the two strolled in with Reece and Patelon entering the light.

Reece's first thought was *Gods of Egrimorth.* the palace; the actual throne room was the most beautiful place he has ever seen. The walls were painted with a lovely mixture of purple and gold. The floors were made of something that looked like glass and stone at the same time, a crystal of sort emitting a blackish kind of reflection . A purple carpet with golden designs ran from the entrance to the large table in front of the throne itself. The table was a round one with ten chairs surrounding it. The walls were littered with series of golden banners, and paintings of kings and queens of the past. The ceiling was covered with series of little orb-like objects that surrounded a large silver chandelier; the biggest Reece has ever seen. The room itself was a big circle and so were the arrangements, it almost made his head spin.

He opened his mouth in awe as his gaze fell back on the round table that had two figures seating close to each other examine some object with a magnifying glass while the third was bending over. They were all elegantly dressed women who giggled at each other. Erous and Dariad walked forward and they bowed.

"Your Majesty!" they said in unison.

The three women glanced up at the same time, as Reece and Patelon quickly followed with a bow.

"You may rise." a voice ordered. It was soft, but it carried a wave of authority.

Reece glanced up as he straightened himself, trying to keep calm. He was in front of the Queen, Gods of Egrimorth, Queen Minerva. She was as graceful as they said. He has never been this close to her, and had only seen her a few times, and all of those times, she was peeping her head out of her carriage and waving at the masses. Looking at her now, he thought she was the most beautiful person in the world. With red flowing hair and catlike grey eyes, lips so red he wondered if they were painted. She had a round but sharp face. She stood up and smiled.

"Forgive my disrespect," she began and Reece died. She really is humble. Reece felt the hair rushing against his face. "You met me at my break time..." she smiled. "Sort of."

Erous scoffed.

Reece wanted to slam his face into the table. That's utter disrespect, you don't scoff in front of the Queen. Oh gods, her red long sleeved dress with a golden design of fire at its chest.

"We understand!" Dariad said. "These are the new Neophytes, Alaina must have spoken to you about them." then they did something that made Reece feel naked. They parted ways to let the Queen access them.

Gods

Gods

Holy Gods

Reece started to tap his thighs, he could feel a lump in his throat. For the first time in his life, he wanted to disappear. He instinctively bowed and Patelon followed, the boy was visibly shaking.

"They seem tense." one of the other women pointed out and the three women giggled.

"I have their letters and their temporary badges here." the queen extended her hand backwards and the third woman whom was standing placed two folded papers and two badges in her hand. "I suppose we can skip theatrics since they are personally recommended by you both." she continued. "Step forward, Reece White and Patelon Peruvia."

The Queen knows my name

The Queen knows...

I am going to die.

The queen then stepped out, circled around and danced graceful towards them, the tips of her clothes covering her clicking shoes. She smiled at them, accessing them. She then handed them a folded letter and a badge each. "Good luck on your first errand." she said, bending down; to Reece greatest surprise gave them a gentle pat on their heads. "You can step back now. I need to speak with them." she gestured to Erous and Dariad.

They obeyed automatically as Erous and Dariad stepped forward, both of them had their head slightly bowed.

"I am under the impression that we have already gained total control of Hafen port and all strange activities have been put to a stop." she lifted her cloth as she started walking back to her seat.

Erous raised his head. "Yes, but we seem to have few rumors that some of the soldiers are actually letting in intruders so human trades can continue..."

"... they claimed that their targets are mostly orphans that work at the port."

The queen sunk her face into her open palms and exhaled before raising her head to speak. "Can you get someone to confirm this claims and cross check to make sure no workers are missing," she said, her face getting a little serious. "What do we do about the orphans. I do believe there are more urgent matters and our forces are spread a little thing but how do we ensure we reduce the child labour? We can't just let them suffer, it's been seven years and we haven't done anything in that aspect," she demanded with a rather sharp voice that made the two ladies jolt.

Erous spoke this time, surprisingly with a matching tone. "We seem to want to rush things. The only way to face the problem is to handle all other problems effectively. We need to focus on getting other industries back to their feet first. If we reduce our dependence on other kingdoms for supplies, we will easily reduce intruders and invaders thereby eliminating slavery and child labour at once. We could build more orphanages and better equip the ones we have. You can't rebuild a kingdom that was gradually degraded for decades in seven years. We face one problem at a time." he said, though it sounded like he was instructing.

The queen exhaled. "I just hate seeing it," she began. "Have you been to Alkhamas lately," her voice hinted a tone of sadness. "It appeared bright but it wasn't, the kids... on the streets, wild... I just feel like we can do a better job." she said.

Reece held his mean countenance, even though he was totally surprised to see this. He didn't expect the queen to be this... actively involved in the governing of the kingdom, he always thought she just sat there enjoying the best of all things. Erous didn't talk about his official job, nor does he speak about politics at all, if anything he acted like he hated it. The kingdom was also not in a good shape, it has actively been in a cold war for two decades before openly going to war against the demigod kingdom of Eleinberg for a second time  in history about seventeen years ago. The king then; Harvard Alaroc was a mean tyrant, and the war lasted a total of three years before his firstborn daughter Miranda usurped the throne, pushing her own father from the very throne room they were standing in. They were seven blocks from the ground, the king had no chance. With Miranda on the throne, a decisive cunning queen, they pushed back the demigods effectively utilizing every resources they had. They forced Eleinberg into a siege.

Reece read that it was during the siege that the new king of Eleinberg; Brutalis Fang, rose up devising a plan that put Egrimorth in a precarious situation. He sent an hidden message to the people of Carlyps; another human kingdom, that Egrimorth's forces were spread thin and it was high time they took them out. The king of Carlyps didn't think twice before plunging into the war with full force. Egrimorth was placed in the middle of a battle against two sides as the cunning Fang opened their gates and attacked the moment Miranda made the mistake of diverting their forces. Egrimorth was fighting on two fronts and were losing until the seven sages stepped on stage. Seven masked individuals that single handedly wreaked havoc on Carlyps.

Reece didn't believe this part of the story. It was said that the seven of them were masked, and that they could change day into night. They could murder hundreds with a wave of their hands. The story claimed the tide of battle turned as the forces of Egrimorth focused their attention on Eleinberg again, but the latter raised a white flag. Since the war wasn't going too well on either side they arranged a peace talk. Eleinberg and Egrimorth didn't sign a peace treaty, but decided not to interfere in each other's business. Since then Eleinberg and Egrimorth have been fighting a cold war again. Miranda, the Queen that led them to victory was sent to prison after seven years of a tyrannic rule for series of crimes, ranging from unjust executions to using children as forlorn hope. The current queen, Minerva Alaroc ascended the throne in her stead. Since then the kingdom has been rebuilding and not once as he seen the Queen give a speech or do anything else other than pop her head out of her  carriage and wave at the people.

"I will cut down the thaumaturges at the new Hallow's Cathedral here in the capital and they will join the workers to increase the speed of the central school." Dariad answered. "If we can complete that school by the end of the month we can start pulling children from streets into the schools. Their hostels can serve as a temporary house for them till the orphanages are completed."

Erous turned to him. "And risk Jero's wrath?" he said, and mimicked someone.  "You cannot halt the process of the house of our gods, do you want to invoke the mighty anger of Tempest?" he said and the Queen giggled.

"He can be reasoned with." Dariad replied blankly.

"Reasoned? Have you met this man?" Erous argued.

"Enough!" the Queen commanded, the two other women still giggling.

She was about to say something when an announcement was made. "Marius Telemachus and Cronak Alaroc." Reece wondered if those guards had to memorize the name of everyone.

The two men entered into the palace forcing Reece an Patelon to step aside while they took stage in front of the Queen. The man, Cronak Alaroc didn't bow as he rounded the table and stood beside the queen. He was a broad man, very muscular, and his hair was as red as the Queen's. The other man, Marius Telemachus, an elderly man with greying hair, bowed in front of the Queen. 

"You sent for me!" he said.

"Yes," she said, extending her hand to the back to get another piece of folded parchment from the woman standing behind her. "Step forward Reece and Patelon. Let me introduce you to your team leader." she smiled and handed Marius the paper. "Brief them."

Reece and Patelon bowed to Marius slightly as the elderly man smiled, he scratched his bearded chin. "Interesting," he smiled. "If I may my lady, I will like to introduce them to the rest of the boys."

"You may leave." she commanded.

Marius bowed slightly and turned around putting both his arms around Reece and Patelon. As they strolled out with him.

...
Once they passed the hollow corridor that still frightened the hell out of Reece, they exited the palace without making a sound, and headed towards the residential areas.

Marius moved with an incredible grace that seemed impossible for a man of his age, his steps were calculated, purposeful, he didn't do anything he didn't plan on doing. Patelon and Reece were barely able to keep up. After a while, they reached a secluded house. The elderly man with greying hair moved forward and knocked twice.  The door swung open, and they walked in.

The room was dark and gloomy, a candle was placed on the center table, a map spread carelessly beside it. Four people were in the room, three of them were sitting around the table, the fourth locked the door behind them.

"Boys! This is the team," Marius smiled, placing his hand on both Reece's and Patelon's shoulders. "The team, these are the boys." he said. "Now, if you don't mind, I have a date. Sinclair, bring them up to speed." Marius ordered, before flying out of the room.

Reece and Patelon just stood there as four strangers stared at them for what seemed like years. It was the most uneasy ten seconds (decade) of Reece's life. Reece was about to faint when one of them stood up. "I am Sinclair," he smiled. "Let's talk outside, this place is way too dark." he said, and Reece wondered why they were inside in the first place.

Once they were outside, a brief introduction was made. Sinclair was a soldier, a captain, under General Marius. The other two; Green and Husha were soldiers like him and were lieutenants, meaning they could substitute as captains in his place. The last of them was a combat thaumaturge; a chalice as he called himself. Reece made a mental note that it was probably the thaumaturge rank after Acolyte. His name was Vols.

After the introduction, Sinclair began to brief both him and Patelon. The mission wasn't a hard one, at all and it was mostly a rounding up mission for the retiring General Marius after thirty five years of service. They were supposed to investigate a secluded area in the woods that hunters have claimed to be mysterious and weird. Animals were acting erratic, and sometimes with higher intelligence than they should possess. The hunters reported cases of madness while coming in contact with some of the animals. The main source of distress were sounds that were coming from a certain cave in the area.

Sinclair declared half of the reports exaggerated and that there was probably a rogue thaumaturge or a lost relic in the woods. Their mission were to investigate the source, and whatever it was once they had confirmed it a retrieval team will retrieve it, if necessary. The mission starts tomorrow evening at seventeen hours, and they were supposed to meet at the entrance to Helmare forest located in front of the Garrison.

After the briefing, Sinclair dismissed the two and they bade them goodbye.

"Oh, Gods!" Patelon said as soon as they were out of hearing range. "This is so gonna be my life now. Going on Royal Errands and..."

"Don't jinx it!" Reece stopped him.

"Sheesh. It's going to be fun. Come on. Imagine the relic there is another page of the Helix log!" he said.

Reece's eyes bulged. "We will be promoted to Sages immediately!" he laughed. With what they've learned about the Helix log, it was the most invaluable treasure of the kingdom.

Patelon's face turned serious. "I am hoping it all goes great though. So I can proof to that idiot at home that I am way better than he is."

Reece raised his eyebrows. "Your father knows that, he just likes pushing you is all."

Patelon rolled his eyes. "I hope Isabelle is okay though. If I can get to an higher rank in two years, I can make sure she doesn't fight in battles or anything."

His cousin, whom he treated like his blood sister joined the army about three months ago, and since then Patelon and his father had been at loggerheads. Patelon didn't want Isabelle joining the army, but the father claimed she was strong enough to do whatever she wants unlike him. "You can't fight all her battles for her," was all Reece said, and they both fell silent till they bade themselves goodbye.