Snippet #1278018

"There was a wizard as well," Oliver said, looking up. His eyes held enough steel to outfit an entire army, but his voice remained calm. That was the infuriating thing about Oliver - even when he was angry, he didn't show it. He stood to his full height once more, still barely coming up to his younger brothers pecs, but carrying all the gravity of a large planet in that movement.

"Would you rather that none of us came back? That I had perished upon that field, my message unspoken, leaving the Queen to those filthy curs?" Oliver continued to incline his gaze to meet eyes with Ekken. "Is that what you would want for me? For the King? For C'elladore?" He planted a hand on his younger brother's shoulder, his face carrying a tiny bit of a scowl. "Would you rather that our lord drove himself mad with grief, searching for his lost wife over hill and dale, leaving the kingdom to lay fallow? Or would you rather that I had chased those Yonadoran dogs all the way back to their den and died there?" He removed the hand from Ekken's shoulder and pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing.

"I apologise for my outburst, brother," Oliver intoned. "But there was no other logical outcome. I gave my best effort to chase them down and rescue our queen, but there came a point when I could go no farther. Those brave knights - they gave their lives to distract the greater portion of the Yonadorans as I gave pursuit, attempting to rescue our queen, but in the end they proved too strong." He sighed again, and looked towards the king. "But our lord has a plan, however flawed it may be, and that plan has a strong chance of bringing our queen back to us." He smiled - allowing a tiny bit of pride in his family name to shine through. "As long as you are in our Order, we cannot fail in our duties to the throne."