Willow Reed's Story

“It appears she’s safe and undisturbed.. luckily. I couldn’t bare her dealing with any more of this mess..” "Well that is good. She has had a very trying day already." A moment passed and then a sudden pulse of anger emanated from the young king. “Where is that fool of a man Bryden?!” Nikolai guessed he felt very betrayed with by the man's actions. It was not tough to understand why. "Your highness, I left him under the care of five palace guards in the guard outpost on the west side of the palace." The king confirmed his anger, saying, “Good man, please watch over my sister for the time being then afterwards.. I want that fool ready for me in the coronation room when all of this blows over.. I shall go sound the horns.” It spoke volumes about the man that he placed his sister before his desire for revenge against the man responsible for a great deal of his grief that day. It would serve Nikolai well to remember that. "Of course your majesty, and you may call me Nikolai if you wish. I assure you I will guard this door with my life and shall only depart after the horn has sounded and a significant number of guards have arrived to take my place. No harm shall come to her majesty while I am here to defend her." On that note, Nikolai turned and stabbed a mercenary who had just come running around the corner. The tanto plunged up underneath his sternum, forcing its way into his heart. Pulling the blade from the dead man's chest Nikolai turned to the king, saying, "Take care good king, not sure how many more rescues I have in me today." Giving his best approximation of a friendly laugh, still sounding strange through his mask, he watched Vincent depart. He then turned back to the corridor, ready for any bandit that might come. Sure he may not actually care about their well-being, but being in the good graces of the leaders of the Belauricen Kingdom would certainly have its benefits. And so to that end he would act with the respect friendliness expected of him in a roll as friend to the King and Princess.

A brief time and a few mercenaries later, the horns sounded throughout the castle. That should about wrap things up, Nikolai thought to himself. Over the clamor of the small fights that still seemed to be going on, he heard Ivy calling someone's name...Willow? Ah yes, the girl with the VERY interesting darkness manipulations. He would have loved to go see her during this battle, but Michaelis had been his mission and their just hadn't been time for anything extra. Oh well, she was a Belauricen knight, so he could always ask the good King Vincent about her whereabouts later. Still, it sounded as though Ivy was making her way closer, to both him and the late Sir Warm-Handed as Michaelis had taken to calling himself. And where there was Ivy, Cane inevitably followed, no doubt with lots of bothersome questions. It wouldn't surprise him at all if Cane had actually started letting Ivy in on things she had no business knowing about, things that would lead to some tough questions from her as well. Best to have answers ready to deal with any uncomfortable situations should they arise. He was saved from having to deal with that sort of encounter then by an arriving contingent of twenty guards. Using his status as a skilled combatant and his directive from the king, he ordered ten of the guards to remain and safeguard the princess. Six of the guards would stay in the hallway, the remaining four would barricade themselves in the room with the princess until the all-clear was given. This seemed somewhat excessive, but Nikolai wanted to take no chances of harm coming to the princess. Looking down the hallway, he saw a window that looked out towards the palace grounds. It gave a clear line of sight to the guard outpost where Bryden was being...detained. The drop to the ground was only ten feet, easy enough. He received a few skeptical looks from the guards as he sprung out the window, hit the ground with a roll, and continued on towards the guard outpost as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

Upon reaching the outpost he walked in and managed to alarm the guards, already on edge from the sound of the horn but unable to leave their dangerous prisoner unguarded, with his bloodstained clothing. He assured them that firstly, the crisis in the castle was under control, and secondly that none of the blood on his clothes was actually his. With that cleared up, he relayed the orders to transport Bryden to the coronation room. With little concern, Nikolai removed the knives and rope from Bryden's body, thought still left him chained up. The man still seemed to be unconscious. Getting him on a horse, Nikolai walked with the five guards back towards the castle, Bryden fairly swaddled in heavy chains. It turned out the guards recognized him from his occasional visits to the kingdom, he made a point of being cordial to the guards in the places he visited as their favor could be beneficial indeed. As it were, the guards seemed to admire his combat prowess, and the respect he gave them, so it seemed he was on good terms with this bunch. The guards, it turned out were rather observant, swapping news and details of what combatants had done what, who went where, bought what from what stores, frequented what bars, and a number of other innocuous bits of trivia and gossip. He even heard a rumor about Miss Willow's wild side, that was a surprise. Nikolai listened, chiming in here and there, getting familiar with the guards as they walked. When the group reached the palace, they made their way to the coronation room, two of the guards dragging the prisoner between them. In the coronation room, the guards secured Bryden's chain to a large, exceedingly heavy, sturdy oak table. Nikolai continued to make small talk with the group, passing the time and idly wondering what he would say in the hard conversations he saw coming in the future. However, once Bryden was secured, he realized he really felt quite tired. Seeing one of the guards sitting on a bench against a wall, Renault was his name, Nikolai went over and sat next to him. He leaned back and said, "My good man Renault, I am afraid I won't make it through the night if I don't catch a quick bit of shut-eye. Would you be so kind as to nudge me when the King Vincent or some other combatants drop by?" Renault was happy to oblige, clapping him on the shoulder and saying "Of course buddy! You've really earned it today, no doubt about it!" "Thank you, thank you so very much Renault." With that, Nikolai rested his head against the wall, closed his eyes, and was asleep in moments. It was a light sleep, he knew the others would be coming soon and that the guard would wake him on their arrival.

Bryden entered the area where the combatants were at an interesting time, to say the least.

It all started when he was leaning against the far wall nearest the entrance and noticed Nickolai when Bryden entered the area. Instantly, Bryden's neck hair stood on end and stared at the guy. He wasn't sure whether it was his cocky, cowardly attitude or just how he seemed to be in league with shady people, but it made Bryden cautious now, like a mild form of paranoia. While his ears were better than a humans, it didn't mean that he could hear what he was saying when - shock of the day - Willow Reed showed up. They started out talking at a normal tone, and it was merely pleasantries and such, but then Nickolai peered around and got too quiet for his ears. Midnight would be able to hear, but Bryden had no idea how to speak the tongue of the felines, so that was useless to him. His eyes narrowed as the masked one talked to the opponent that he defeated in the last round. Bryden was starting to get highly suspicious of Nickolai's actions, they seemed to be extremely goal oriented, but he couldn't figure out what. The guy was always around other combatants, whispering things and seemingly spreading gossip or information. It didn't help that both Cane - who Bryden didn't like anyway - and Nickolai were under his suspect list for yesterday's attack, but neither of them seemed to give off enough information, with Cane being all love stricken and Nickolai continuing to be secretive. With that in mind, Nickolai went up a little on Bryden's probability of being shady scale.

When the parted, Bryden felt it to be in his best interest to speak to Willow. From what he could gather, she didn't seem to be entirely up to date with recent events, as Nickolai seemed to only tell her the vague information and nothing more. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to be on other people's nice sides. Since when did I ever care about that...? This tournament was starting to make Bryden doubt his normal composure and even his own personality. He was starting to forget who he really was, turning into something that he couldn't understand. Shaking that thought away, he approached Willow and cleared his throat a little.

"Glad you weren't dead, Miss Reed." He isntantly adopted the formal tone, as he did when speaking to everyone. It was how he was brought up: talk to others with formality, and kill them with strategy. "Judging by the fact that you were missing for quite some time, I can only guess that you hadn't been informed of the details of the kidnapping and attack on the castle?" He looked over to where Nickolai had went, and his eyes narrowed. He probably told her everything was fine and dandy. What a liar...

Bryden noticed that when she was about to answer, her own brows furrowed, and Bryden raised an eyebrow to that. Perhaps they were forming a bound of friendship or alliance, and he would have to tread carefully with his words to not provoke her. He didn't feel the need for an alliance, but if Nickolai teamed up with another combatant, his chances of winning became even more slim: fighting off 2 pairs of teams wouldn't be very good. "I've been hearing that a lot lately but thanks, I'm pretty happy myself. Can't say much for the other guy, wherever he is. He gave her a little smirk at her comment, for he had heard she was dragged off during the kidnapping of the princess. He pitied her in that way, for she missed out on quite a ride, if he could say as much. "I couldn't believe it only had been a day. Felt like I was gone for months. I could only assume... He thought to himself, smiling inwardly to himself. Kidnapping was one of the few 'pleasures' in life that Bryden had yet to really experience, so he could only imagine how odd it would be.

"but I was informed of the attack and kidnappings while I was gone, I even saw the bodies. My heart goes out to their families. Bryden's eyes narrowed a little. If she had seen the bodies, that probably meant that she had strolled around the castle a little before coming outside. Which also meant she really had no clue who the kidnapper of the princess was. I seemed to be up to date thanks to Nikolai. Im glad to see some familiar faces unharmed. She offered him a tiny smile, and he responded in kind. He sighed to himself however, knowing that he should probably clue her in to the various little details that she seemed to be missing.

"I wish I could say the same, for the familair faces I have been seeing aren't the ones I was hoping for." He said dryly, and pushed forward. "Judging by your vague answers, Nickolai seems to have missed out on some key pieces of information, such as how the kidnapping of the princess was orchestrated by Bryden the First of Belauricen." He didn't even call him by 'father' for that would mean he cared for the man. He was just hoping that Willow would put the key pieces together. "And before you ask, no, I had no part in it. Nickolai may have also forgotten that he was the man who brought him down, but also in a very... I guess cruel and arrogant would be appropriate, way." He paused, giving a little chortle before continueing. "Oh, and that isn't even the best part. That man Cane seems to know Nickolai quite well, enough to talk to him frequently enough anyway. To what they discuss, I do not know, but only a fool would realize that they didn't have some form of history between them."

He looked away from Willow into the horizon, a thoughtful look on his face. "The attackers on the castle were a mercanary group, yet one I haven't seen before. Employed by a group that I haven't hear of, even the name escapes me. One word, like Cragrocks or something obscure like that. I heard that my government was investigating a merconary group with a weird name, so I can only guess." He suppressed a sigh. "Then again, they are not my government any longer, for I am no longer truly Nimoan." He cursed under his breath <Half blood... damn man.>

Bryden watched her reaction as he had spoke, taking note of her facial expression in response to his words. Judging by how her eyes were getting quite wide, Nickolai had left a lot of the important details out. She seemed to murmur something, but he ignored it. He noticed that after he had finished his speech, she looked at him funny and said No longer truly Nimoan? He nodded his head, a little sadness actually seeping through his normally lifeless face, and looked away from Willow. "Too right. With my father being of Belauricen decent, that makes me more Belauricen by birth than Nimoan through my mother. You should know that bloodlines travel through the father, no?" He didn't really expect her to answer his question, for it was common knowledge. Or maybe that was just how his family ran things: The father was the head of the family, and therefore his offspring carried his name, meaning that Bryden II's actual name was of Belauricen heritage. It made him want to throw up in his mouth a little at the disgusting irony of it all - Bryden the First, who hated the Belauricens and taught his 'only' son that same ideal was actually of the thing he hated.

After she repeated his question, he looked back to her and noticed she was shaking the leaves out of her hair and attempting to make herself a little more presentable. An actual laugh rang through his throat, he couldn't help it, it was absurd that Miss Willow would actually care what he thought of her. "You do not need to make yourself more presentable for me. You forget that I'm used to such wildness." He smiled in a weird sort of way. It looked like a genuinely happy smile, but it was a little too toothy to look normal. A little sinister and wild, if you may.

Bryden watched as she looked back from Nickolai, which is where he trained his eyes to look when she looked back at him. "I do not know if this is some conspiracy or plot by either, as it is too early into the game to know that. But know this." He turned his head back, his long white hair flowing in front of his face until he brushed it aside. "I share what I know simply so that you don't go chasing after another person's ambitions. Take what I have told you as you like, even if that means ignoring me completely. I have done what I set out to do, which was inform you of the circumstances Miss." He gave a little bow, but did not turn away, for Midnight came out of his little carrying case and sat on his shoulder. Bryden couldn't contain the soothing happiness that overwhelmed him as he scratched his little furball under the chin. Bryden would rather not have people seeing him like this, for it was a major weakness, but as stated before, he couldn't help himself. The little thing always made him smile.