Preparing Your Leave

It took about five times as long to get from the Castle to your Chambers in the Mountain due to all the water, rain and little bit of wind. You also feel you got a little lucky because no more than twenty feet away from you a lightning strike hit the rooftop of the house causing a high pitched ringing sensation in your ear drum. The hardest part itself was actually going down the thousand or so steps into the mountain as water was flooding down the steps causing it to be almost like one giant water slide. You held onto the railing with as much **** as you could and slowly made your trek down the mountain.

Once inside the mountain though it was a whole different world as much of the water that streams down from above just goes through the cracks or lower sections of the mountain and runs off. If you were just down here the entire time you probably wouldn't even notice anything going on. You make your way to your chambers, grabbing your armor and throwing it into a bag that you strap over your shoulder as well as your weapons which you hold at your side. You fiddle around in your chambers just briefly grabbing a handful of other things you believe you may need.

With that, the journey back up the mountain was even tougher as trying to climb up those wet stony steps with thousands if not millions of gallons of water flowing down made your legs really burn from the ascent. Then, back through the storms, dodging the lightning, not freezing to **** from the wind and eventually getting back to the castle you barge into the door and quickly slam it shut behind you, resting your back on the large doors of the castle.

"Ohh Syndicate..." you grumble and pant deep breaths.

In the mean time Zoe was just as drenched but carrying some crates of food to the front gates. She only had to get to her Villa to grab her armor and weapons but she still was completely soaked. Many other Sunriders and Warriors helped the two of you out by bringing crates, food, blankets and other amenities to the front gates.

"Horses and carriage should be here soon." Zoe smiles "Pretty nasty out though, hope the horses will be okay." she hesitates.

"They've been in battle, attacked, and are constantly around loud noises, I hope they'll be okay as well." you give a half hearted grin.

It's at that point four Syndicate Warriors come walking out from the hallways with Karisi leading the charge. The four warriors each have a corner of a type of stretcher that is used to carry Lexie's sleeping body. Karisi also has a bag strapped over her shoulder "More sedative if needed, also will help with the pain." Karisi hands the bag over "They'll put her carefully in the carriage, do you want them to go with you?"

"We can travel faster with less people." you reply instantly "I've got Zoe with me, we'll be good."

A knock on the front gates and a guard steps in noting the horse and carriage are good to go and with that, the four warriors carrying Lexie move outside to get her situated inside the buggy.

"Get to Rathkin, speak with Edmin and request Lady Bree's help. She will help you, I know it." Karisi's eye stay glued to your own "I'll get through this storm and we will rebuild as needed. Take care of yourself and please, give all my best wishes to Lexie." you see sadness flood her eyes.

You step forward into Karisi and bring your head down to your ear "This wasn't you, was it?" you question.

Her body retracts away half a foot while he mouth drops open "What?"

"You didn't do this, did you?" you question.

"Are you fucking serious?!" she's taken aback by your question.

"S-Sorry...I know, I know you wouldn't do this to Lexie." you bring your hands up to your head and give it a squeeze "Just...never mind, I'm sorry."

"I'll ignore that accusation..." she glares at you "Just get her to Rathkin safely, leave the Syndicate to me, I've got this." her hand goes up to your shoulder giving you that slight bit of comfort.

"Speaking of that, there will be no High Commander's here for the Sunriders, which means...the leadership will fall on you. All of us will be south in Rathkin so if something goes wrong here, they'll listen to you. Don't do anything stupid, okay?" you grin causing a soft chuckle to exit Karisi's lips.

"After this storm and after we clean everything up..." she brings her index finger to her chin as if she's trying to think "Maybe I'll go to war with someone. Ya know, that sounds like something I'd do just for fun, right?"

"Hah!" you smirk "Don't change, Karisi. We'll be back as soon as we can." you nod before turning around to Zoe "You ready?"

"Ready as I"ll ever be!"

"You sit in the back in the carriage and out of the rain with Lexie, I'll be up front, guiding and helping the horses." you order "If anything changes or happens to Lexie, you let me know immediately, okay?!"

"I got the ****! I got my eyes! I know what to do!" she gives you a salute.

With a roll of your eyes you turn back to the Queen ready to say goodbye. You connect with her gaze, looking deep within and for the time being, everything seems normal, at least from what you can tell. You step forward and throw your arms around Karisi giving her a hug "Good luck my Queen." you whisper into her head "Looks like I"m leaving you with the power for the time being..." you tease which causes Karisi to push herself away from your embrace and give you a friendly sneer.

"Hey Darien," Karisi asks "Please don't do anything to piss Lord Edmin off. He'll **** Lady Bree not to help if you make him mad, plus I want to stay on good terms with Rathkin for the time being, okay?" she nods.

"Yeah, sure." you pass off her words as you and Zoe turn towards the front gate, cracking it open and slinking out through the doors, entering the storm once again and ready to run south to Rathkin as fast as you can. Maybe you'll be lucky and Lexie will wake up in twelve hours and feel great, maybe her body is just reacting to some type of slight food poisoning, or she's just getting cramps as Karisi said. Either way, the amount of pain it seemed your Fiance was going through you had to do this, even if there is a chance everything will be okay. If this truly was some type of stronger poison or worse, something wrong with your child, there was no way you were going to wait around in the Syndicate for Lady Bree to casually stroll up there.

Zoe lunges into the back of the carriage as you leap up front and start to cheer and guide the horses through the Syndicate. With the rain pouring, the lightning striking and the wind gusting, you couldn't help but remember some of the words Zoe said when this storm was originally rolling in...

"My mother always told us when bad storms show up unexpectedly it's most likely a bad omen! I hope this doesn't mean something terrible is going to happen!"

If that was true, why is it targeting the people you love? Why does everything always seem to come down hard on you? You keep fighting through over and over no matter what comes in your path. This appears to be another one of those times, as tough as this situation is, as terrible as you ache for Lexie and as strenuous as this journey may be, you, as you always do, will give it your all.