The King and the Will-o'-wisps

Chapter 2

There was a knocking at the door. Obviously someone had gotten impatient and decided to try to rouse him. Perhaps, eventually, they'd notice that he simply didn't care, but, for now, however, he'd just have to ignore the knockings. 

Unconcernedly dipping his limp and tired quill into the last of the chalky ink, he drew a perfectly curved squiggle on to the paper and then two more. Glancing down for the first time that night at his work, he saw that the paper had been nearly soaked in hundreds of dark blue lines and curves, each more perfect than the last. He'd have to throw it away soon and start a new one. 

At that moment, there was a very loud, sharp rap on the door- the last of a rather annoyingly unceasing line of raps and taps- and the door was thrown open with a thud. "Come in!" he called rather merrily to the offender, who had evidently tired of waiting for that particular convention.  

The offender, a tall, rather imposing woman who just might have had some giant blood in her, quickly bowed her head- it appeared she didn't have much respect for that custom either- and said in one breath, "The Cruleians have taken Aldoak and are marching across the marshes right now. We must do something or they'll march across our lands unopposed".