mindsmade ( Prince Aphanarû ) —
Aphanarû shakes his head slowly. ❛ It is not a burden. I will use the opportunity to assess the circumstances there; see if those … degenerates may be hiding in that wing. ❜ He wipes each side of his scimitar on his trousers. They are no longer presentable as is — and may never truly be again. It’s not just blood that taints the light, off-white fabric. It’s food sent flying by the tipped banquet tables, and undoubtedly guts torn from adversaries’ abdomens. A well-timed strike at the right angle is known to have that undesirable effect. Undesirable, for as exciting as it often is to warriors to see innards flying, they are a menace to pick out of the fibres.
No excitement has found him tonight, however; not after the start of the assault. ❛ Come. Keep behind me, all of you, ❜ he urges, eyes shooting between the handmaid and her Lady. With that said, he sets off through the grand double doors. They were left open since the start of the banquet, to grant an open view into the long hallway beyond its doors ( and to ease the domestic staff’s to and fro between the hall and the kitchens ).
Towards the western end of the castle they head. The hallways are fairly straightforward, not winding much or introducing many unexpected turns. Occasionally, an alley-like offshoot connects one wing with another, each of which Aphanarû diligently verifies as being empty prior to moving forwards. The first several prove empty, heightening his concern that the intruders have spread throughout the building already, rather than remaining close to the apparent focus of their attack: the grand hall. And his suspicion proves true: the second he pokes his nose around one corner, a throwing knife zips past his cheekbone. Instinctively, he reels, pulling back, but the assailant and two companions jump out after him — swords unsheathed, and a nasty smirk lining their features.
Their sneer in Black Adûnaic sounds uncomfortable even to his ears. ‘Bârun kallaba,’ they proclaim — and so the lord fell; and so Aphanarû fell, allegedly. He intends to prove them wrong. ❛ Stay back, ❜ he commands his guests, the welcomed ones, before drawing his ceremonial sword and charging like an angered bull.
Bearings in the Umbarean castle is far from honed. Hallways and turns aside, the scope of the ancient structure is beyond what can be traversed in one day. Any paths recalled by Brianne and her younger handmaiden from not two days of a stay in the harbor city are set aside by heightened awareness that attackers might be lurking. The warning so given hasten footsteps and race heartbeats that have not found rest since the attack in the banquet hall. Stay close they do, the handmaiden linked by arm to the ambassador, at a soft-shoed pace until he charges forward.
Stay back. The order coupled with the snarls of armed men have the lady yank her company’s arm, pulling her away and down the hallway from where they tread, her sight wide in a fright that clenches at her throat. “Hurry!” She barely breathes, small hands not knowing whether to shake or grip or cover her sight. But at the prince a timid gaze lingers, watching his sword make swift haste of two assailants, but the third engages and appears the stronger.
Come, my lady... The handmaiden tugs at her wrist with hopes to hide, but fear holds her and she bears witness to the attacker knocking the prince to his back, his curved sword raised from behind. A will to intervene arises, it pulls her back down the hall and in equal haste, a vase perched on a pedestal marks her grip. She thinks not the consequences, of what could go wrong with such a tactic when she cracks it down on the man’s head, shattering it to pieces that scatter on the floor at her feet. A gasp escapes, her steps tumbling back that she near falls to the ground herself. What a horrid thing to have done!